Chapter 1 Sabina's Information

"Sabina's side says that Lingdun was attacked, and it looks like that 'Evil Archmage Constantine Reynolds' from the Celestial Plane did it. Also, the million-mage legion from the Mafa Plane channel has set out..."

"That's strange. Last time, we used the two-dimensional worm to destroy the plane channel's camp. Logically speaking, it would take at least a few months before they could launch a large-scale operation. How could they move so quickly?"

"There must have been some new changes on the Celestial Plane's side, forcing these guys to speed up their attack. After all, the Celestial Plane isn't a monolithic entity."

"Let's go over there. If it's an archmage, the Empire will have a hard time dealing with him. If we're late, a lot of people might die."

"Mm."

Land of Buried Gods, in front of the sealing stone tablet.

Suren and Mr. Mirror had just received the news and disappeared.

...

At the same time, the imperial capital, Lingdun.

The moment the enemy alarm sounded, the entire city mobilized.

Although Lingdun was far behind the front lines, the United Empire's officials hadn't been idle in recent years. Everything was being prepared for the final battle.

The officials had considered the possibility of the enemy attacking the imperial capital, Lingdun, and had put a lot of effort into the city's defenses.

Due to the influx of Mafa people in recent years, Lingdun's population had exploded tenfold, and the city's area had also expanded several times. Moreover, the population migration had brought a large number of mechanical engineers and advanced technology to the Empire. The construction of the new city wasn't just about building a bunch of new buildings, but also about mechanizing the entire city.

"Woo..."

"Woo..."

"Woo..."

The deep, piercing alarm sounded throughout the city. People on the streets quickly took shelter in various buildings.

In just a few moments, the vast city streets became deserted. Various steam boilers hidden in the dark started up, sputtering white smoke. The sound of gears meshing filled the air, and the streets trembled.

Then, a magical scene unfolded.

The streets of Lingdun split open, and heavy armor plates emerged from beneath, quickly enveloping the buildings. The towers and clock towers mechanically transformed into turrets, extending huge, thick black cannons.

The operators turned the muzzles, aiming at the sky.

In the blink of an eye, a prosperous super-city had transformed into a mechanical war fortress, with countless guns arming the city into an iron hedgehog.

Even more magical, the alchemy academies, big and small, upon hearing the enemy alarm, had students quickly retreat to underground bunkers, and the entire academy was not only covered in steel armor, but also lit up with magical energy.

Not just one, but all the alchemy academies.

Looking down from the sky, one could see that the thousands of alchemy academies in Lingdun were distributed in an orderly manner, vaguely forming a super-large nine-pointed star alchemy formation.

This was the super defense formation that the Empire's officials had been planning for years.

Soon after the alchemy array's light lit up, a huge honeycomb-shaped energy shield appeared in the sky, protecting most of Lingdun's urban area.

"First round of artillery, fire!"

Because of the drills over the past two years, the military and civilians were well prepared, maintaining order amidst the chaos.

The city defense headquarters issued the order to fire. Instantly, the city's artillery spewed out tongues of colored flames, firing at the white-robed mage in the sky who was casting a large-scale spell.

"Boom." "Boom." "Boom."

Alchemy shells exploded in the sky, bursting into a dazzling array of flames. Various chaotic elements created chaos in the skies above Lingdun.

Although there was only one enemy, it was necessary to sound the highest level of alert.

Because the intelligence department had identified the person as a demigod from the Celestial Plane!

The simultaneous firing of tens of thousands of cannons shook the entire city.

Artillery fire obviously couldn't kill a master of this level. Firing was just to interfere with the gathering of nearby elements, to prevent the archmage from easily using large-scale destructive magic.

The main attacking force was the tens of thousands of mages from the legions stationed in the city! In recent years, the United Empire's officials had also trained various ten-thousand-mage groups, and they were now taking shape, coming in handy.

The dozen or so ten-thousand-mage groups in the city unleashed their power, and ninth-tier alchemy spells rushed towards the [Evil Archmage] Constantine Reynolds in the sky.

Originally, this was enough strength to destroy a country, but at this moment, their opponent was a demigod. Even with all-out firepower, the enemy showed no signs of falling behind.

On the contrary, a large area of the sky was burned red. Constantine had already released a super-destructive ninth-tier forbidden spell—[Inferno City].

Flames fell from the sky like raindrops. The scorching fire rain condensed from the high-level fire laws could melt steel. Even with multiple layers of protection, the fire rain destroyed many buildings when it fell into the city.

After the magic was released, the alchemy shells dispersed the fire elements in the magic array again.

However, the demigod mage wasn't idle, and was once again condensing new magic.

At this moment, in the Frederick Palace, on a tower, a beautiful woman with silvery hair and a cold expression was intently staring at the battle in the sky.

Yekaterina's eyes reflected the figure of the white-robed mage, filled with solemnity.

If the enemies had come in large numbers, they might have launched a full-scale attack, fighting to a draw. But with only one enemy, and a demigod at that, it was very difficult. The battle couldn't be ended in a short time, and the casualties in the city continued to increase.

In the shadows of the tower, even though no one was visible, someone could be heard reporting, "Your Majesty, Grandmaster Merlin has already taken action, but even with the assistance of the alchemy array, he has no chance of defeating the enemy. If we don't use our secret weapon, we can't kill that enemy."

The one speaking was March Cotton, the Shadow Commander of Military Intelligence, [Black Joker].

He was one of the few high-ranking officials in the Empire who knew about the United Empire's hidden strength.

Yekaterina shook her head upon hearing this, "The enemy is just trying to test our trump cards. It's not worth exposing our final means for just one demigod. The final battle is the key."

March continued, "But Your Majesty... in that case, Lingdun will be fine, but many people in other cities of the Empire may die."

Hearing this, a hint of something flickered in Yekaterina's eyes. After a moment of silence, she said lightly, "In war, sacrifices are inevitable. If we expose our trump cards too early, we'll have no chance to turn the tables, and even more people will die later. Moreover, this demigod's attack on Lingdun isn't to fight to the death, but just to restrain Mr. Mirror of Dawn, to prevent her from interfering with the Celestial Plane's main force on the Mafa side."

March's tone clearly relaxed, "You mean, the experts from Dawn will come?"

Yekaterina said lightly, "They're already here."

Because Lingdun was the main base, they were well-prepared with ultra-long-distance teleportation arrays. Suren and Mr. Mirror's instantaneous return didn't take much time.

In a manor on the north bank of the Rocco Valen River, space rippled, and the two appeared in the open space of the garden.

As soon as they came out of the spatial rift, they saw the white-robed old man wreaking havoc in the sky.

Large swaths of fire rain fell from the sky, landing everywhere in the city, exploding with terrifying shockwaves.

On the Empire's side, besides the artillery and ten-thousand-mage groups, the only one who could confront him head-on was Grandmaster Merlin, the palace's top enshrinement.

But after all, he was still more than half a tier lower, so he could only hide in Lingdun's super barrier and defend passively, unable to do anything to the archmage.

Seeing this, it seemed the battle wouldn't be resolved anytime soon.

However, battles of this level were a disaster for low-level professionals.

Forbidden-level magic wasn't simple. After several area-of-effect attacks, there had already been a lot of casualties in the city. After watching for a moment, the two naturally wouldn't let the enemy run rampant in Lingdun, so they didn't delay any longer.

A flash of mirror light, and Mr. Mirror's figure disappeared from the spot.

Looking again, she had already appeared in the sky thousands of meters away, fiercely fighting the archmage Constantine Reynolds.

Suren didn't join the fight, because he had already guessed the outcome.

After the trip to the Land of Buried Gods, Mr. Mirror's current strength had skyrocketed compared to a month ago. Even in a one-on-one battle, she would never lose.

If they really had to fight to the end, she even had a chance to kill Constantine.

But obviously, the enemy never intended to fight to the death from the start.

Not long after Mr. Mirror showed up, after a few exchanges, Constantine cautiously distanced himself, and then moved further and further away, eventually disappearing.

It was even harder to kill a demigod who was determined to escape.

Seeing the enemy retreat, cheers erupted throughout the city.

Successfully repelling the attack of a demigod was already a commendable victory for ordinary people.

But Mr. Mirror, the main force in the battle, silently returned to the manor.

Only she knew that the enemy had no intention of fighting.

On the contrary, they were the ones who really suffered in this battle.

As soon as she landed, she frowned and said, "Constantine Reynolds came alone just to lure me out. Sigh, it looks like I'll be very busy for a while. That guy will definitely appear frequently in various cities in Luying, forcing us to rush around and deal with him..."

Hearing this, a hint of helplessness appeared on Suren's face.

He couldn't help but see that the old enemy was using the same rogue tactics they had used in Mafa before.

Using top-tier combat power to restrain the other side's main force.

If they couldn't get rid of the archmage, they could only defend passively.

One passive move led to passivity everywhere. After so many years of invasion, the Celestial Plane guys had thoroughly figured out the Alchemy Plane's strength. They also knew that other than Mr. Mirror, there was no other top expert who posed a threat to the archmage.

As long as Mr. Mirror was restrained, the million-mage legion on the Mafa southern plane channel side could march and cross the sea without any worries, pushing the front lines closer to Luying.

No one could interfere with them anymore.

When the million-strong army swept across, even if the United Empire's defenses were strong, it would eventually be destroyed.

And although Suren's combat power wasn't weak, even with the golem legion buff, he had no chance of winning against a demigod at his current eighth tier.

What's more, another known demigod among the enemies was Grand Princess Octavia J. Fielding.

That was a three-eyed person protected by the will of the gods.

He had already witnessed her methods before, and she was currently an almost unsolvable problem.

The situation seemed to have reached a dead end.

Constantine Reynolds would definitely cause trouble in various parts of Luying in the near future. And Mr. Mirror would have no choice but to resist him.

Knowing that this was the enemy's strategy of exhaustion, they were helpless.

The two discussed a few words in the manor, but the solemnity between their brows didn't disappear.

After thinking about it, Suren muttered, "We have to find a way to kill that guy."

Mr. Mirror sighed softly, "Yes, but a demigod... is not easy to kill."

To break the situation, the "Evil Archmage" Constantine Reynolds had to be killed.

But the current situation was that unless they used hidden trump cards like [Ragnarok], it would be difficult to kill a demigod.

But now was obviously not the time to reveal their trump cards.

Either they needed more time, for Mr. Mirror to comprehend the rules and enter the demigod realm, or for Suren to advance to the ninth tier.

But from the current situation, the enemy wouldn't give them this opportunity.

...

After chatting for a while, Mr. Mirror went to the palace.

She was going to discuss future countermeasures with the Empire's high-ranking officials, and also to give the batch of [Cosmic Source Matter] to the royal family.

The Empire had quite a few eighth-tier professionals in total, but what they lacked was source matter.

If they could add a few more ninth tiers, it would be a great thing for the future war.

Suren walked alone on the streets of Lingdun.

After that brief battle, although some of the city's buildings were damaged and there were some casualties, he could see excited residents celebrating everywhere on the streets.

For most ordinary people, the news of a demigod from the Celestial Plane was still top secret. Now that they had witnessed such a powerful enemy being repelled, it was naturally worth celebrating.

Suren walked on the street, watching the mechanical armor of those houses retract into the walls, watching the turrets hidden underground... and was very amazed.

Lingdun had really changed a lot, it could be said to be changing with each passing day.

Under the blessing of the national frenzy, mechanics and alchemy had collided with too many sparks of wisdom, and had created many great inventions. Like the whimsical idea of using the entire city as a war fortress.

It made Suren seem to see a rising sun, with a bright future.

As he walked, he sighed in his heart, "I'm really looking forward to what it will be like when the alchemy civilization becomes glorious again..."

Given the Empire's current rate of development, he couldn't imagine how prosperous the alchemy civilization would be in another hundred years.

Suren's thoughts flew, and he strolled along the Rocco Valen River.

As he walked, a bright steam car suddenly stopped by the street.

The car door opened, and Sabina, wearing a black, sexy long dress, leaned against the window. She blinked her eyes and greeted him playfully, "Sir, what a coincidence, you're here too?"

Suren glanced at her and smiled slightly.

He wasn't surprised at all that his maid could find him.

This was no coincidence. Sabina had clearly come to meet him on purpose.

The succubus contract had a special effect, which was that the master and servant could sense each other when they were within a certain range.

With Sabina's current strength, her perception wasn't weak. She had sensed him from several blocks away.

Looking at Suren, Sabina didn't have the slightest bit of the restraint of a noblewoman. She got out of the car and affectionately hugged Suren's arm, her beautiful eyes full of charming smiles, "Sir, your slave misses you so much."

Suren was used to this gentleness, and asked with a smile, "When did you advance to the seventh tier?"

Sabina leaned against Suren as if she had no bones in her body, and responded in a soft, sticky voice, "It's been more than half a year since I advanced~ I originally wanted to give Master a surprise, but I didn't expect to run into you so coincidentally."

"Oh? It's been half a year since you advanced..."

Hearing this, Suren's expression changed slightly, and he praised, "Not bad, not bad."

Although the laws of heaven and earth were much more complete now, the seventh tier was still a big threshold for alchemists. Those who could cross it were all exceptionally talented.

Moreover, according to his perception, Sabina wasn't at the beginning of her advancement, but had even touched the edge of the eighth-tier Overlord Body.

This advancement speed wasn't just not bad, it could simply be described as miraculous.

Hearing the praise, Sabina's eyebrows curved, and she smiled very happily, "Isn't it all thanks to Master's grace~"

Suren's arm was already deep in a sea of gentleness, and his expression was slightly helpless.

Every time he met his succubus maid, he would always lose some energy.

Sabina suggested, "Sir, why don't we get in the car and talk? Your slave has so many things to report to you."

Suren also felt that it wasn't good to be in public, and nodded, "Mm."

The two got into the car, closed the door, and the compartment was completely isolated from the outside world.

A hot, delicate body immediately wrapped around him, and a bone-corroding, charming fragrance filled the air. Sabina's clothes loosened, and her long dress had slipped to her waist, exposing a large area of fair skin to the air.

Her waist was delicate and soft, and while she was busy, she said, "When I saw the leader take action just now, I guessed that Master should have returned too. I guessed that you might be walking by the river, so I thought of coming over to stroll around, but I didn't expect to really meet you~"

Suren smiled without speaking, gently stroking a touch of tenderness.

From top to bottom, his fingers were delicate and smooth.

After so many years, this succubus maid still understood his temperament the most.

In the midst of her swaying charm, Sabina seemed to have discovered something, and exclaimed, "Wow... your slave has discovered that Master seems to have become a lot stronger again~"

"Yes."

Hearing this, Suren casually responded.

As soon as these words came out, a strange thought suddenly flashed through his mind again.

His current understanding of the laws had already touched the realm of rules, which was a super-level comprehension that was impossible for others to digest, even if it was fed to them.

But the succubus's special talent could absorb a portion of the master's comprehension for her own use.

This shortcut was too big.

What's more, Sabina herself was also very hardworking.

Suren had a faint premonition that her cultivation might be very high in the future.

Sabina seemed to have also figured out her master's thoughts, and smiled even more brilliantly. She didn't avoid anything, "Master, the car is about to accelerate~"

The car drove through the streets of Lingdun. In the midst of the steam boiler's roar, the car body trembled gently.

Inside the car, there was a panoramic view of spring.

In the following days, the United Empire almost didn't get a moment of peace.

As expected, the "Evil Archmage" Constantine Reynolds from the Celestial Plane was active in various cities in Luying, frequently launching sneak attacks.

Sneak attacks by archmage-level masters were not to be underestimated, not only would they cause huge casualties, but they would also have a devastating impact on some strategic facilities.

He caused trouble everywhere, and even exposed many of the United Empire's secret weapons prepared for the final battle.

And Suren and Mr. Mirror had no choice but to frequently support various cities, making them very passive.

They tried to kill that guy several times, but they all failed because he didn't intend to fight at all, and directly escaped.

Although Suren and the others also wanted to set traps and ambush him in advance, there were too many large cities in Luying, and the probability of ambushing the enemy was very small.

Constantine was also very careful along the way, not giving anyone a chance.

On the other hand, the situation in Mafa was also very bad.

The intelligence department had confirmed that Grand Princess Octavia J. Fielding had led a million-mage army on an expedition, and had arrived at the Mafa coastline with an attitude of sweeping everything away.

The million-strong army was riding countless magic airships, and was crossing the Imperial Strait.

No one dared to directly touch this terrifying combat power. Even Suren and Mr. Mirror couldn't do anything about it, and could only watch helplessly as the million-strong army marched.

Everyone realized that the day the enemy's airship fleet arrived in Luying would be the day of the most tragic final battle.

The United Empire was also actively preparing for war, and everyone had originally prepared to fight to the death.

But until this day, an unexpected turning point happened.

Suren suddenly received a communication.

"Hey, Suren, if you're free, come pick me up. Oh, this ghost train is really something, it just dumped me in the sea and then ignored me..."