Dragon Raja: Lu Mingfei Returns from the Elden Ring

To achieve a real-time communication system covering the entire Arctic, multiple countries collaborated to build a large number of ground base stations in the Arctic circumpolar region, based on low- and medium-Earth orbit satellites in the sky, and also moored many shipborne communication relay stations on the sea.

According to the intelligence released by the Secret Party, once the Dragon King's hatching site is sealed off by an "altar," its secrecy will be a problem, but on the other hand, the large number of dragon variants and Dead Servants released after breaking through it will also pose a great threat, especially to the Arctic region.

Therefore, apart from the fleets that took the initiative to attack, a large part of the human forces involved in the joint operations were deployed to the extremely cold and barren lands to fight against possible monster tides.

Only then will everything be ready.

All the mixed-race individuals who accepted the assignment were incorporated into various combat teams. Among them, the members of the Secret Service were of the highest quality and could quickly integrate into the army after receiving training.

Approximately 90% of the Secret Party's mixed-bloods joined the combat force. Among them, the high-blooded mixed-bloods from Kassel College and the Snake Clan were organized into special task forces and served in three fleets respectively. This was one of the very few mixed-blood forces that existed in the form of a full-scale operation. Most of the remaining mixed-bloods were scattered and deployed to grassroots combat units in various places.

The dragons' dominance over humans is far too severe. In an emergency, the existence of hybrids could be the key to saving lives.

Chapter 307 Black King VS Lu Mingfei

The Nibelungs, capable of deceiving human senses, intuition, and even the soul, are undoubtedly the pinnacle of alchemy. Yet, they cannot fool cold, hard sensors and algorithms. In the dragons' technological philosophy, the core of any automated alchemical creation is a soul; they cannot conceive of circuits made of sand and steel possessing intelligence. This is a divergence in the technology tree.

EVA monitors the entire Arctic Circle! With precise coordinates, the fleet simply needs to follow the navigation route. This is an advantage that the dragon slayers could not possess before, and it is also the prerequisite for humanity to play the offensive role in the dragon resurgence event.

To the fleet's officers and men, the navigation route sometimes led them head-on into massive icebergs, and sometimes into dense areas of floating ice. These illusions always turned into water droplets and ice fog upon contact, which was terrifying.

But when they actually entered the border region of the Nibelungen, the illusion disappeared, and only fog surged from the front. Just like in a movie, the dim fog rapidly engulfed everything in the distance at a speed visible to the naked eye. The front of the fog extended sharp tentacles due to its high-speed spread, looking like a row of white knights launching a charge.

When the fog came into contact with the fleet, everything in the distance was obscured, and the visible range quickly decreased to less than fifty meters!

"Communications are being disrupted!"

"Satellite signals have disappeared! Ground-based communication strength is weakening. Only the ships at the rear of the fleet are still in contact with the outside world. It's only a matter of time before they lose contact."

Everyone awaited the fleet commander's decision.

“Keep moving forward,” he said. “Report our location and situation to the outside world.”

The icebreaker at the head of the fleet had traveled nearly 100 nautical miles when it spotted land, while the frigate at the rear of the fleet had just entered the signal jamming zone.

"Stay vigilant." The commander's expression was grave.

"Look, there are figures on the ice!" exclaimed a soldier near the porthole.

Enveloped in mist, countless dark figures climbed onto the floating ice, and the ice surface was soon filled with people, creating a lively scene. They looked towards the direction of the fleet, and their low laughter pierced through the mist.

Deadpool!

The laughter carried a chilling power, but was immediately drowned out by the sound of naval gunfire.

Shells and bullets rained down on the group of dark figures, the firelight illuminating the thick fog. Thousands upon thousands of figures were annihilated by the firepower, and even the floating ice platforms were blasted to pieces.

In the first round of firefight, most of the Deadpools were sunk to the bottom of the sea, and only a few Deadpools who managed to avoid the main attack range by taking advantage of the terrain were able to stand up.

This operation utilized a large number of weapons and ammunition stored up after the end of the Cold War, which was more than enough to deal with the Deadpool horde. The storage of these weapons and ammunition was itself a headache-inducing expense, and if they hadn't fallen on the heads of dragons today, they would have appeared sooner or later in local conflicts between humans as military aid.

In short, firepower is not a problem.

Considering the potential communication difficulties in the Nibelungen, none of the aircraft carriers were assigned to combat formations, but instead remained on standby at the second front.

This gave the dragons an opportunity. The shadows in the sky fell quickly, and two icebreakers were overrun in a short time. Fire support was completely useless, and the dead servants entered the cabins to kill in close combat.

Rapid-fire cannons roared as they unleashed a barrage of bullets. All the fleet's radars had been upgraded with algorithms to simultaneously lock onto a large number of small targets. Although ammunition might be wasted due to clutter interference at low altitudes, it was still better than the ships being overrun.

At the same time, amphibious landing ships converted into drone carriers also began to launch a large number of combat drones. With the independent EVA subsystem carried by the fleet and manual operation, they regained air superiority within ten minutes.

Passing through the smoke and murky sea, the fleet finally approached the "land" in the heart of the Nibelungen.

It was less like land and more like a mountain rising abruptly from the sea. A dark dragon-like shadow hovered atop the mountain, and thunderstorms covered an area of ​​dozens of nautical miles around the mountain, further reducing visibility.

On the foremost ship, one can vaguely see half of a dragon's body in the clouds—Nidhogg, who dwells on the mountain peak, his enormous body blending seamlessly with the thunderstorm clouds.

According to the pre-established strategic plan, the Far East Fleet, which first discovered Nidhogg's main body, immediately launched almost all of its naval guns, rockets, cruise missiles, and laser-guided bombs.

Nidhogg, high up, is a perfect target.

Dense flashes of fire streaked across the sky, the smoke lingering long after the storm, and a deafening roar, like thunder exploding in the clouds, engulfed Nidhogg's body in a continuous cloud of explosions. Layers of snow crumbled from the mountain peak until the avalanche became unstoppable.

Everyone eagerly awaited it.

The fireworks suddenly dimmed, enormous wings unfurled amidst the flames, a gale dispersed the fire, and the wreckage of the warhead exploded outwards. In an instant, the clouds tore open a giant hole, and sunlight streamed in.

A colossal dragon head descended from the clouds, bathed in the sunlight, but its golden eyes, shining like gas lamps in the shadows, swept across the fleet with their icy gaze, causing everyone to lower their heads. Though they avoided direct eye contact, the oppressive aura still felt like a weight pressing against their necks, making it hard to breathe.

Fortunately, the naval guns are still firing.

Radar detected a dense array of large flying objects taking off from the mountain peaks and hurtling towards the fleet at subsonic speeds.

The Deadpools are not the Black King's army at all; His army should be composed of the Second Generation and the First Generation.

Anti-aircraft missiles are largely ineffective against these agile individual dragons, but saturation attacks are a different story against dense swarms of dragons. Combined with laser weapons and close-in weapon systems, about one-fifth of the next generation of dragons perished in the sea before they could even unleash their incantations.

Immediately afterwards, the dragons unleashed their incantation.

First came a large number of Bronze and Fire King-type Words of Power, bright fire elements dotting the thunderclouds like stars. This was followed by thunder in the sky and waves on the sea, a violent interplay of natural phenomena. While Sky and Wind King-type Words of Power appeared to primarily amplify the fire and water, they were actually the most troublesome. Many dragon shadows within the horde broke through hypersonic speeds on radar, drastically increasing the pressure on the fleet's air defenses.

The fleet also has its last trump card – ballistic missiles carrying nuclear warheads in its vertical launch cells.

The Council has revised the general nuclear counterattack procedures commonly used in modern military systems, allowing authority to be delegated to fleet commanders in exceptional circumstances.

Dragon-type incantations do not possess the high-speed breakthrough capabilities of cannonballs. Before those devastating natural forces destroy the entire fleet, close-in weapon systems and anti-aircraft systems can still buy the fleet commander a final chance to make a decision.

"I suggest you observe the situation before making a judgment," the EVA subsystem's voice sounded in the commander's headset. "Our dragon-slaying weapons have entered the fray."

In the sky, clouds descended like tentacles, forming swirling vortexes. A figure descended from the clouds, and a vast domain expanded from him. All the incantations within the domain were extinguished. When the massive incantation attack group made contact with the fleet, only a few ripples remained, utterly unable to shake the giant ships of thousands or tens of thousands of tons.

Nidhogg spread its wings and took to the sky, blotting out the sun.

After extinguishing the dragons' incantations, Lu Mingfei immediately confronted the Black King. The two, whose sizes were vastly different, engaged in a duel on the mountain range in the sea, and for a moment it seemed that Lu Mingfei had the upper hand.

His speed made it seem as if he appeared in various places at the same time, and his attacks were layered together like a tidal wave. All elements were exploding, and the mountains in the sea were already unrecognizable. All kinds of ripples were moving around and sweeping into the distance in concentric circles.

Nibelungen could not withstand such devastation and shattered almost as soon as the two royal domains reached their peak. The battle between the two ultimate beings destroyed the surrounding glaciers almost instantly.

The power of Earth's primordial furnace clashed with the power of the laws of the stars. Their superhuman regenerative abilities and their positions of control over destiny meant that they could not determine a victor in a short time. They entangled and fell into the sea, where the seawater instantly boiled. They rose to the top of the troposphere, where a dark storm swirled around the battlefield.

Black King creates conceptual weapons as easily as drinking water or breathing, while Lu Mingfei constantly extracts legendary weapons from the laws of the borderlands. When they fight, it is less a duel of cold weapons and more like the weapons releasing the elemental or conceptual power contained within them in an instant.

No one expected the war to begin in this way. The encirclement of the second front was completely ineffective because the enemy only had one dragon. They could only barely observe the area through reconnaissance satellites and high-altitude reconnaissance aircraft, and evacuate the population from the settlements along the Arctic Ocean coast.

From a satellite perspective, a spectacular jet stream appeared over the Arctic, consisting of material ejected from the ultra-high pressure battlefield environment to altitudes of over 100 kilometers.

Chapter 308 A Soul from the Other Shore

In the hellish battlefield environment, the fleets retreated while firing. The Eastern European Fleet and the Atlantic Fleet still had ample ammunition supplies. The dragons, who were forced to flee along with them by the aftershocks of the battle, suffered heavy losses. On average, each of the first wave of retreating dragons was targeted by more than four firing points.

Meanwhile, the communication problem disappeared with the dissipation of the Nibelungen, and human aerial power began to enter the fray.

From 21 aircraft carriers deployed to the front lines from 10 countries, over 100 carrier-based aircraft took off on the very first sortie to participate in the combat. A continuous stream of combat formations intercepted the dragon swarms from the air; the Air Force Command's order was to shoot down over 90% of the dragons over the Arctic Ocean.

Meanwhile, a large number of dragons, unable to fly, swam across the sea towards land alongside Deadpool. This group was intercepted by submarines and armed helicopters, while resupplyed warships joined the second line of defense to assist in the interception.

Even so, a large number of those who escaped the net still landed along the long Arctic coastline, where they were met with a global military expansion led by the Council, with a large number of armored forces transported to the front lines by rail and strategic transport aircraft, as well as air force formations far larger than those of carrier-based aircraft taking off from rear airfields.

Major cities around the world have opened shelters, but everyone knows that shelters cannot protect the entire population. Most ordinary people are still hiding in their homes. In cities, people can squeeze into parking lots or air-raid shelters, while residents of towns and villages in plains may only be able to hide in farmland and forests during the day.

After the war began, varying degrees of power supply problems emerged around the world. Although water and food could be sustained for a period of time, and major grain-producing regions around the world, except for India which was limited by technology and domestic demand, opened railway lines to support other regions, people still began to starve.

From the very first day of the war, even those separated by half the globe, everyone has been deeply involved. The operation of vast human societies depends entirely on the value continuously created by human productive activities. When it is temporarily halted due to war, people discover just how scarce resources truly are.

Council members and secretariat staff are in the meeting room almost 24 hours a day. They have delegated most of the work to EVA, but there is still not enough time. Even if they stretch every minute into two, it is not enough.

Every second, people are dying in this war, and their responsibility is to keep that number to a minimum.

Everyone hoped for an end to the turmoil, but the situation at the heart of the battlefield was no longer something they could observe.

Electronic devices near the Arctic were burned out. That was no longer the radiation environment a planet should have. The radiation intensity was even enough to cause direct damage. A report from a destroyer mentioned that the Deadpool they captured had a coin-sized burn channel on its body, which looked like it had fallen into a high-energy particle collider.

Reconnaissance satellites continued to provide battlefield reports, one of which, a rise in sea temperature, alerted EVA, who reported it to the council as a high-priority crisis.

The Council attaches great importance to this report and has prepared contingency plans for the worst-case scenario—sea level rise, global climate catastrophe, and mass extinction.

The actual situation is even worse.

Lu Mingfei felt this most directly; every advantage he gained in the battle against Nidhogg would manifest as anomalies projected onto the hatchery.

The aftershocks of the battle were enough to destroy all the dragon subspecies that had not yet fully evolved in the hatchery, and indeed a large number of creatures died in the hatchery, but some of the dragon subspecies miraculously survived.

It must be described as a miracle. They have endured the repeated baptisms of high temperature, extreme cold, high voltage current, and shock waves. The chromosomes in each cell have been pierced and shattered, yet they are able to struggle to shed their remains and gradually evolve.

Such a process may have occurred in the Earth's primordial oceans billions of years ago, but the probability is roughly equivalent to a monkey typing out a Shakespearean poem on a typewriter.

There is only one thing that can explain this phenomenon—the will of the Earth.

Dozens of complete spiritual flames at the level of the Four Great Sovereigns have already appeared in the incubation field. These are "guardians" created by Earth's destiny to balance the laws of the stars, serving as Earth's defense mechanism. In the "eyes" of Earth's will, the current chosen race is still the dragon, and humanity is merely a temporarily rising appendage of the dragons. Lu Mingfei is the outsider who challenges this truth.

From Earth's perspective, Lu Mingfei doesn't represent humanity at all; he represents extraterrestrials.

"My brother represents an external force, while I represent a branch of a dream within the power of Earth. It's quite poignant." Lu Mingze had somehow arrived at the coast of Siberia, with Zero by his side.

In the area centered on him, almost no dragons land; they fear the supreme being's aura and choose to go around him.

Lu Mingze didn't intend to participate in the battle as a Supreme Being; he simply didn't like being disturbed.

Seeing the terrifying fluctuations emanating from the battlefield and the dragons stirring beneath the sea, he leisurely pulled out a stone tablet out of thin air—the ashes of "the fate of the masses".

The ashes, imbued with the power of destiny, can summon the "souls of the masses" drawn by the fate of the Golden Law King. In the past, the Moon Witch once glimpsed the destiny of the Golden Law King, then collected the souls of heroes, traversing the endless night to deliver them to the other side.

In his other hand, Lu Mingze conjured a soul-summoning bell. He shook the bell, but no soul appeared amidst the ethereal sound.

"Sure enough, even in its most desperate times, Earth's fate is on high alert against this kind of thing." Lu Mingze shrugged. "Brother, what do you think? Should I help you or not?"

He looked in the distance.

"Do you even know what this is...? If it attracts the attention of the stars, do you, who have refused the divine position, really have the ability to deal with it?" Lu Mingze said quietly. "You may have had your fun fighting desperately, but what about us?"

Ling stared at Lu Mingze's retreating figure, hesitant to speak.

"Just kidding, I'm not that compassionate." Lu Mingze turned around and made a face at Zero.

"Let's have a good fight!" He turned around, raised his hands, and shouted like a war maniac, then shook the bell again.

This time, as the dream realm unfolded, the gap in destiny could no longer be closed. A destiny equal to that of the first generation of kings came from the other side, and the power of souls sprang up on the battlefield like bamboo shoots after a spring rain, with figures rising one by one.

Chapter 309 Great Battle

Thus, in a world where war has escalated from platform confrontation to systemic competition, in an era where beyond-visual-range attacks have transformed death and smoke into numbers on electronic screens, and due to battlefield environments so extreme that they can destroy all electronic devices and kill all native species in the biosphere, the scene of large-scale cold weapon legions charging head-on is being staged again.