Chapter 136: The Northern Empire Officially Joins the War
Translator: RaidenTL
Chapter 136: The Northern Empire Officially Joins the War
Furthermore, Virgilis had yet to show his face.
That old fox couldn't possibly have been incinerated by a single blast from the Sword of Expedition.
Yet, even with such a massive spectacle unfolding, he remained hidden behind the scenes. He was either biding his time, waiting for the right moment to strike, or...
Atoris pushed aside her flickering anxiety and turned toward Cecilia, who was still in a state of shock.
"By the way, Cecilia, those two blue-haired girls..."
Cecilia jolted, instantly dragged back to reality.
"Sword Princess! I know this was a grave dereliction of duty on my part! I am truly, deeply sorry for failing to protect those... those adorable children! After that bombardment just now, they must be... they're probably already..."
"Cecilia."
Atoris interrupted her, her tone surprisingly calm.
"I'm saying, look over there."
Cecilia choked on her words and followed Atoris's gaze.
There, less than two hundred meters away, she saw the cockpit hatches of two alchemy machines suddenly fly off.
Two petite, blue-haired figures poked their heads out of the cockpits, whispering to each other in excitement.
Then, one of them reached out a small hand and began poking haphazardly at the rune-covered control panel.
A second later, the sixty-ton steel colossus switched from auto-pilot to manual mode. It charged eagerly toward the nearest group of aberrant angels.
The other machine followed close behind, its movements just as jubilant.
It was as if they were treating this entire war like a "musou" hack-and-slash game.
But what shocked Cecilia even more was what came next.
One.
Two.
Three...
Nearly five hundred pillars of teleportation light flared up across the war-torn plateau.
The Unfated.
"Wooo-hooo!!! Finally! Do you have any idea what it's like to camp at that shitty Lightless Outpost for two days straight?!"
"Holy crap, are these the bosses? Why do they look so... uh, abstract?"
"Who cares if they're abstract! Look at these Iron Daddies in front of us! It’s not a crime to follow behind and steal some kills, right?"
"This is called combined arms! Do you even understand the value of the art of war?!"
"Aaaah! Don't steal my mob! That one over there is tagged!"
With the arrival of the players, a kaleidoscope of skill effects instantly erupted across the battlefield.
Though it was a mere drop in the bucket compared to the scale of the entire war, it was a highly conspicuous sight in this grand conflict.
As for how they managed to teleport onto a plateau thousands of meters in the air... that came down to a specific player mechanic.
Dungeon Teleportation.
To the players, the entire Heavenly Mountain battlefield had been transformed into an open raid dungeon.
[Disaster of Angels]
[Difficulty: Disaster]
Five hundred players flooded the battlefield like a tide, harvesting the weakened aberrant angels at the edges of the alchemy machine army's steel torrent.
The golden light of experience points flashed one after another, and system prompts for level-ups blurred into a noisy, glowing screen.
This was the most satisfying "bonus round" since the start of the closed beta.
It’s still going too smoothly.
Atoris stood on a jagged rock at the edge of the battlefield, her azure eyes fixed on the Imperial front line as it steadily advanced.
Her brow remained furrowed.
Virgilis still hadn't appeared.
Atoris gripped her sword hilt, forcing herself to suppress her ominous premonition.
The most important thing right now was to maintain the stability of the front line and ensure the Expedition Fleet—
BOOM—!!!
The sky was suddenly torn asunder.
Atoris snapped her head up.
Above the battlefield, a rift was widening.
A domain that did not belong to this world—one filled with endless radiance and overwhelming pressure—was unfolding.
"That is..."
Cecilia’s voice was dry.
"The Gate of Heaven?"
"No."
Atoris’s voice dropped, taking on a gravity she rarely showed.
"That is the Gate of the Heavenly Domain."
It wasn't a ritual channel used to summon angels into the mortal realm.
It was a rift that briefly overlapped reality with the Heavenly Domain itself.
Virgilis never intended to rely on that high-ranking angel summoning ritual that the Sword of Expedition had interrupted.
Or rather, Virgilis had long since anticipated the worst-case scenario.
That ritual had been a feint from start to finish.
The death of every aberrant angel meant the capture of a complete, original angel essence.
The moment their physical vessels in the mortal world were destroyed, they didn't return to the Heavenly Domain. Instead, they remained in reality, tearing open interconnected rifts and using the mortal world to materialize the Heavenly Domain.
[Warning: The difficulty of the dungeon "Disaster of Angels" has changed]
[Current Difficulty: Disaster → Despair]
Blinding pillars of golden light fell one after another from the Gate of the Heavenly Domain.
As each pillar hit the ground, a holy figure over five meters tall with six wings condensed from the light.
They were no longer aberrant, no longer twisted; there was no trace of ugliness left.
These were true, complete angels who had served before the Supreme Throne since the Age of Gods.
The hundredth... the hundred and tenth... the hundred and twentieth.
One hundred and twenty Level 120 high-ranking angels formed a chilling aerial battle formation above the Imperial Expeditionary Force and the alchemy machine army.
In an instant, the tide of battle reversed.
Cecilia trembled.
"One hundred and twenty... high-ranking angels...?"
Atoris didn't answer.
Her gaze was locked onto the Gate of the Heavenly Domain, which was still widening.
Because that gate had not yet closed.
A second later, four massive pillars of light descended.
These pillars were three times thicker than the previous ones, their light ten times more intense, and the pressure they radiated was...
A hundred times greater.
[Seraph Gabriel - Lv.150]
[Virtue Angel Raphael - Lv.150]
[Throne Angel Samael - Lv.150]
[Cherub Uriel - Lv.150]
Four sources of divine pressure weighed down on the Heavenly Mountain battlefield like four invisible mountains.
The voices of the players, who had been excitedly harvesting kills just moments ago, gradually died out.
The charging pace of the alchemy machine army slowed visibly.
Within the Expedition Fleet's formation, even the smaller ships began to slowly retreat.
This wasn't cowardice.
They were being physically pushed back by the sheer weight of the enemy's presence.
Then, a sharp sonic boom erupted from the direction of the Sword of Expedition's bow.
The Void Dragon.
And not just one.
It was a fleet.
Behind the flagship, which had been deeply modified by the power of the void, dozens of Northern warships of the same class but with varying insignias pierced through the clouds in battle formation.
The decks were crowded with silent figures.
One hundred and seven Northern Lords looked down from above.
Atoris stared at the Void Dragon as it tore through the air, her grip on her sword loosening by half an inch.
In addition to the Northern Lords, several prominent figures stood at the front of the group.
Taro Ball.
Yu Yunsheng.
Maomao.
And a petite blue-haired figure preparing to leap from the deck.
Aisarakus.
"Hmph! How could such a grand occasion be complete without—"
"Ahem..."
Maomao cleared her throat softly.
"Um, you should probably tuck that dragon tail away..."
Hearing this, Aisarakus hurriedly retracted her tail.
Though her identity as the Emperor of the North and the Ice Dragon had not yet been exposed, the one hundred and seven Northern Lords behind her were enough to say everything.
The Northern Empire had officially joined the war.