Chapter 288 - 282: Show Hand! The Last Line of Defense
Chapter 288: Chapter 282: Show Hand! The Last Line of Defense
On the light screen, Victor’s breathing grew heavier. Eighty tons of Crystal Bombs sounded incredible, but no matter how he looked at it, the plan was like walking a tightrope.
But the two trump cards Allen had revealed—the promise of advancement to Second-level Wizard and the "Little Boy" capable of annihilating a Second-level Wizard—made him hesitate.
"Fifteen days."
Victor repeated the number in a low voice, hesitation and resolve warring furiously in his ice-blue eyes.
"Pulling the defensive line back to the volcanic cluster is like laying our necks on the chopping block. If he launches an all-out assault ahead of schedule, or if your ’Little Boy’ fails to be delivered, we won’t have any buffer at all."
Allen replied calmly, "The next time he makes a move, it will be a decisive, thunderous strike. Spreading our forces out will only allow him to pick us off one by one."
"Alternatively, you could activate that ’quasi-Level 4’ Golem of yours right now, charge out, and try to fight a senior Second-level Wizard to the death. I’d bet you wouldn’t even catch a glimpse of him."
Allen sensed Victor’s unease. He lightly tapped the tactical sand table, and a virtual energy supply line lit up. "My Magma Lake Workshop’s volcanic Magic Furnaces, plus the ones you have in the craters on the mountain—as long as we hold these two points, energy won’t be an issue. As for materials... we’ve stockpiled enough for one decisive battle."
He paused, then added, "I have a few other half-formed ideas, but they depend on how the situation on the battlefield develops. Telling you now would only cloud your judgment."
Victor fell silent.
He knew Allen was right. If worst came to worst, it wouldn’t be hard for the two of them to use their spatial-jump equipment to escape back to Forged Fire Fortress and save their own lives.
But for an Alchemy Wizard, their workshop was their lifeblood. It was everything.
If their workshop was destroyed, it would be no different from having their path of progress severed. That was a fate more difficult to accept than death.
If there was even a sliver of hope of defending the workshop and defeating the enemy lurking in the shadows, he absolutely could not give up.
"Alright."
Victor finally gritted his teeth, the resolute look befitting the heir of the Tieyan Clan returning to his eyes. "I trust you. I’ll make this bet! I’m pushing all my chips in. See you at the foot of the mountain."
This was undoubtedly a massive gamble. The stakes were everything across two entire zones.
The communication was cut.
"Jarvis, execute the defensive line consolidation protocol."
[Command confirmed. All legions commencing orderly withdrawal from their positions.]
An unprecedented strategic withdrawal began simultaneously across Zone 18 and Zone 19.
All frontline Golem Legions began to pull back.
The outer positions on the western and northern fronts were the first to be abandoned.
Next, Mining Golems across the zones ceased operations, loaded the last batches of ore, and detonated any equipment that couldn’t be moved.
Thousands of Golems abandoned the defensive lines they had long maintained and the mines that had ceaselessly churned out ore, converging on the central defensive line in the volcanic cluster.
The remnants of Allen’s Seventh Defense Legion merged with the Third, Fourth, and Fifth Legions, splitting into two torrents of steel as they fell back toward the line formed by the Magma Lake Workshop and the main workshop in Zone 18.
「One day later.」
Victor’s forces arrived at Magma Lake at the foot of the volcanic cluster.
Allen’s Peacekeepers and Victor’s impressive Heavy Armored Golems established an interwoven defensive line.
The Golem Legions of both sides jointly guarded the most important assets of the two zones.
At the foot of the mountain were Allen’s clustered volcanic Magic Furnaces, while Victor’s power facilities were distributed among a dozen craters on the mountain.
At the very front of the formation stood a colossal bipedal Golem with two absurdly large heavy cannons mounted on its back.
This had to be the advanced, self-developed Level 3 Golem that Victor was so proud of.
In addition, there were two hundred dark-red Heavy Armored Golems whose armor was outrageously thick. They also appeared to be incredibly powerful.
A circular defensive line, anchored by the two core workshops and leveraging the natural volcanic terrain, quickly took shape.
All cannon barrels faced outward.
All reconnaissance Mechanical Bodies were at full power.
Then, there was dead silence.
Both sides were waiting.
...
The next ten days became the strangest and most silent period since the war began.
The Black Wizard seemed to have fallen into a long period of hesitation, likely because he had lost his "eyes" and because of Allen and Victor’s near-suicidal strategic contraction.
On the border, large numbers of Magical Beasts, following their instincts, rushed into the zone.
The air was thick with a suffocating tension, like the calm before a storm.
Inside the Meditation Room, Allen was still in a frantic sprint toward his goal.
The effects of the Astral Spring Potion still surged within him. The thirty-third, thirty-fourth, and thirty-fifth Will Runes of his fifth Core Matrix were inscribed and illuminated one after another at an unprecedented speed.
He was only one final threshold away from becoming a Second-level Wizard.
「On the morning of the eleventh day after they had contracted the defensive line.」
The earth suddenly began to tremble slightly.
It wasn’t the rumbling of stampeding Magical Beasts, but a dull, rhythmic pulse from deep within the earth’s crust, like a heartbeat.
"Warning!"
Jarvis’s alarm blared instantly.
"Detecting large-scale, high-intensity crustal tremors! Epicenter... spread across the subterranean region 100 to 200 kilometers in front of the western lines of Zone 18 and 19!"
On the tactical sand table, a huge area instantly turned deep red, indicating the highest level of alert.
Allen’s eyes snapped open, his Spiritual Power instantly taking control of the overall situation.
BOOM—!!!
The next second, the earth shook and the mountains swayed!
This wasn’t an earthquake.
The entire land was being torn apart from below by sheer, brutal force!
The hard, rocky ground swelled like the surface of boiling porridge, and terrifying chasms, each several kilometers long, ripped open out of thin air.
Immediately after, countless twisted limbs—a grotesque mix of metal and flesh—shot out from the chasms, clawed at the ground, and began to scramble frantically upward!
Sand lizards had been grafted with sharp alloy scythe-claws; Crystal Shell Giant Scorpions now had metal cannons that spewed corrosive liquid growing from their backs... These were biological weapons, fused with twisted metal, wires, and armaments!
Like a swarm of locusts crawling out from the depths of Hell, they were dense and endless, covering the entire horizon in an instant.
[Warning! Detected over seven thousand enemy units! Energy reaction intensity is more than 20 times that of a conventional Beast Tide!]
Jarvis’s warning tone was cold and despairing.
Victor Iron Flame, who was still in communication with Allen, watched the frenzied tide of monsters pour from the earth like a black tsunami, his face paling in horror.
Only then did he understand: the harassment over the past month had all been a feint!
Just as Victor had built his own underground network, the Black Wizard had secretly and silently excavated a massive nest beneath the outskirts of both zones. He had intercepted the most powerful individuals from the Beast Tides and subjected them to enormous-scale modifications!
Using the Beast Tides as cover, he had moved his most elite modified Magical Beasts through the tunnels he’d dug, silently transporting them right up to their defensive line!
ROAR—!!!
A roar loud enough to tear the sky asunder erupted from the center of the Beast Tide.
The earth cracked open once more, and a behemoth burst forth.
It stood about thirty meters tall. Its main body vaguely resembled some kind of giant draconic beast, but over seventy percent of it had been replaced with grotesque mechanical components.
Thick cables pulsed with abyssal energy, coiling around its skeleton like blood vessels. In its chest cavity, a massive heart—a horrifying amalgamation of countless gears and flesh—beat with a dull, heavy thrum.
[Target locked! Peak Magic Power reading... 5991!]
The number Jarvis reported plunged the entire command center into a deathly silence.
A monster infinitely close to the theoretical limit of a Second-level Wizard!
"The Mechanical Tyrannosaurus Beast... my greatest masterpiece."
A cold spiritual wave crossed a vast distance and echoed simultaneously in the minds of Allen and Victor.
The Black Wizard had torn off all pretense and was finally showing his hand!
Before the two could recover from the hellish scene, another change occurred!
Fifteen giant Snail Monsters, identical to the one from before, rose from the shadows behind the Mechanical Tyrannosaurus Beast. The crimson main eyes on their backs all aimed at the vast, cloudless sky at the exact same moment.
SHUUUU—!
Fifteen beams of blackish-purple Magic Power, powerful enough to pierce the heavens, shot through the sky with pinpoint accuracy, like the gaze of death itself.
On Allen’s tactical sand table, the green dots representing the high-altitude Demon Eye nodes began to extinguish one by one at an astonishing speed.
Node 03, signal lost.
Node 05, signal lost.
Node 11, signal lost...
In just over ten seconds, twelve high-altitude reconnaissance nodes were instantly eliminated.
In the face of the enemy’s overwhelming numbers, Allen’s reconnaissance network—which covered a vast area and enabled over-the-horizon strikes—was effortlessly stripped away, layer by layer.
"Commander, should we continue to deploy replacement Demon Eyes?"
"Stop." Allen’s voice was completely unwavering. "It’s pointless. Their strike efficiency far exceeds our replacement rate."
His world was rapidly being plunged into darkness.
On the light screen, Victor’s face was ashen. He stared, transfixed, at the tide of modified beasts surging forward like a black ocean and at the mountain-like "Mechanical Tyrannosaurus Beast." His lips moved, but he couldn’t utter a single word.
"Allen..." Victor’s voice was incredibly hoarse. "Is this... the true power of a Second-level Wizard?"
The command room was dead silent.
Allen quietly watched the unstoppable red tide on the sand table. His Mechanical Mind stripped away all feelings of fear and horror, leaving only pure calculation and analysis.
"He’s finally pushed all his chips onto the table."
Allen’s eyes were terrifyingly calm, as if everything unfolding before him was merely the final move on a chessboard.