Chapter 1 Warfare Meeting

Frostwind City, lord's castle, war room.

Constance stood before a massive war sandbox, with Grand Duke Owen, freshly briefed by Leah, beside her. Around the sandbox stood Hao Ren and his group of four, as well as Charlemagne and his sister. No one else was present in the hall.

The officers commanding the front lines were still in the south; they couldn't possibly return for this informal meeting. Constance, through consciousness transfer, was simultaneously present in both locations, undertaking the task of relaying information between them.

"The main battle zone is currently in this area," Constance said, leaning forward and pointing to the sandbox with her rapier. It was the edge of the northern ice and snow region, the border between the six northern provinces and the central regions of the empire. There were no towering mountains, and the terrain consisted mostly of hills and small plains, offering no advantage to either side. "The Northern Legion has already constructed fortifications in these areas, but further advance has met with great resistance—our lines have even retreated recently. Initially, we gained the upper hand with surprise attacks, but after penetrating the central regions, we encountered the Black Sword Knights and the Empire Legion's frenzied counterattacks. Now, ever-increasing mutated monster armies are appearing. Frankly, the situation is not optimistic."

"The good news is that the Black Sword Knights cannot focus all their efforts on us," Grand Duke Owen said, pointing to the southern part of the sandbox. "Count Nehem of Greymountain has officially raised his banner in response to us, using Greymountain City as his base. The empire has had to divert a significant portion of the knights to the south to deal with the Greymountain forces."

"A pincer attack from north and south sounds like a great situation, but the reality is not at all easy," Constance said sternly. "The Black Sword Knights, after mutation, are far more powerful than imagined. Ordinary soldiers can only hold them back with human-wave tactics, and only the Broken Sword Knights can directly confront them. But the number of Broken Sword Knights is far less than that of the Black Sword Knights. Faced with a double disparity in quality and quantity, it's already extremely difficult for us to maintain our ground, let alone attack the imperial capital."

"And there have been recent reports that mutated monsters are also appearing among the ordinary soldiers of the Empire Legion," Grand Duke Owen added.

"The mutation phenomenon is no longer limited to the Black Sword Knights…" Vivian frowned. "It's spreading to ordinary people…"

"In every cycle of the Epoch, 'Annihilation' always erodes the most powerful leader, turning his kingdom into its own claws…" Leah said, arms crossed. "So His Majesty Berrentin is the carrier of Annihilation this time. As long as we defeat him, the problem will be solved, right?"

Constance raised her eyelids, her tone indifferent. "Didn't you hear? Our current situation is that we can't move forward at all. It's true that we can win if we take the imperial capital, but we can't even get into the central regions now."

"The White City Federation can provide support," Charlemagne suddenly said. "Although there is the barrier of the World Rift, the White City Federation has the largest civilian airship fleet, which can be used as temporary troop carriers. We can send some manpower—we have already contacted Father, and he is willing to help."

It seemed that after a night of contemplating life, Charlemagne and Avenna had made some kind of decision.

Hao Ren waited for Charlemagne to finish speaking, and when he saw Constance beginning to consider, he broke the silence. "Don't be in such a hurry to formulate a battle plan—after you see the forces from the World Tree Temple, I think you'll have a new idea."

"The World Tree Temple's forces?" Constance looked at Hao Ren with obvious doubt. "You mentioned them before, and confirmed that the reinforcements would arrive soon—but where are they? And when will they appear before me?"

Hao Ren picked up the data terminal and glanced at it, then looked up and smiled. "The timing is perfect—they've arrived, but they need an open space to land."

"Is it an airship fleet?" Constance looked enlightened. "The upper platform of Frostwind City..."

"No, it's much bigger than airships, even bigger than your upper platform," Hao Ren waved his hand. "... Forget it, after thinking about it, I don't think there's anywhere in this city that's big enough for them to land. I'll have them land on the plains outside the city. How about you come with me to meet them?"

Constance and Grand Duke Owen exchanged glances, but they didn't dwell on the question. They nodded simultaneously.

"There's one more thing…" Hao Ren added. "The people of Frostwind City… how's their mental fortitude?"

Constance didn't understand what this inexplicable question meant, but she guessed that the army brought by the mystical World Tree Temple probably had a shocking appearance, which was understandable: the inheritors always inherited ancient, long-lost knowledge from a certain Epoch, and things with several generations of technological difference often seemed terrifying to ordinary people, just like the Gorgon fighters from the Old Epoch were regarded as "demons" by the people of the present day.

"Don't worry, the nerves of northerners are thicker than you think," Grand Duke Owen laughed heartily. After Leah's second treatment, he was clearly in much better spirits than before. "And we've been dealing with all kinds of 'ultra-ancient relics.' What do you think could still shock us?"

Hao Ren didn't explain further, but just nodded with a smile. "That's for the best."

Soon, they arrived at the west wall of Frostwind City, along with several garrison officers and scribes whom Grand Duke Owen had urgently summoned.

There was a cantilevered platform extending out from the city wall, facing the boundless snowfields outside the city.

Hao Ren said that the troops from the World Tree Temple were going to land on the snowfields, and Constance considered this platform to be the best place to meet them: from here, they could directly see the situation on the plains, and there was also an independent elevator nearby that could quickly transport people on the platform to the west gate of the fortress city.

On the other hand, Grand Duke Owen conveyed orders to the Northern Legion soldiers stationed in Frostwind City, informing them that a special reinforcement was arriving in the city, and that they should prepare in advance to prevent unnecessary disturbances in the city.

Undoubtedly, the reinforcements Hao Ren brought were quite sudden for Frostwind City. Under normal circumstances, no country would allow military forces from outside their country to suddenly airdrop directly into their base camp like this, but Constance didn't show the slightest resistance to this matter.

Because in the face of the Epoch's transition, none of this mattered.

Inheritors were naturally allies, and all worldly rules had to give way to this principle—at least at this moment, Constance still firmly believed in the "inheritor" identity of Hao Ren and his group, and this belief undoubtedly reduced a lot of trouble.

The sky above the snowfields was clear and cloudless. The sky under the divine power barrier presented a clear and bright, wondrous texture. The clouds were thin today, and even the Gorgon space rift directly above Frostwind City seemed to have shrunk a little compared to usual—for northerners, this was truly a rare good day.

And it was in this clear sky, which was rare to see all year round, that a huge shadow suddenly appeared.

The shadow appeared abruptly in the sky, as if some behemoth was casting a rectangular shadow as it approached a translucent curtain. Then the vague shadow quickly enlarged, solidified, and gradually presented hard lines and more details. Constance and Grand Duke Owen looked up at the sky in astonishment, and they soon realized that it was definitely not some so-called "airship."

Airships couldn't fly that high at all, nor could they have that kind of scale.

It was simply a mountain descending from the sky!

Three massive black starships pierced through the divine barrier that enveloped Raakhreyn. Their armor was thick and sturdy, their surfaces covered with black crystal wings that resembled sails, and their rear sections spewed out turbulent streams of energy particles. Around the starships, countless fighter planes, like swarms of bees, could be seen circling and dancing, drawing dazzling streams of light in the air.

A strange rumble echoed throughout the entire plains region.

The Northern officers and soldiers on the platform watched in stunned silence as these flying machines, even larger than the Gorgon lords, slowly descended from the sky. The small escort fighters continued to circle in the sky, while the three giant ships hovered only a few meters above the ground.

Then, one after another, the giant ships opened their hatches, and humanoid beings, like giants in mythology, walked out.

It was the fully armed Guardian Giant Legion.

"In the central regions, although the power of corruption has begun to spread, there are still quite a few uncorrupted civilians who haven't had time to escape. We can't directly bomb those areas from the air, so the best solution is a ground force with overwhelming power," Hao Ren said, as if talking to himself, but also as if saying it to Constance. "Letting these giants deal with the original Black Sword Knights might be overkill, but when those Black Sword Knights mutate into insane monsters… for the Guardian Giants, the war is back on track."

Constance and the other Northern officers were shocked by the giant army on the plains. However, Leah frowned after seeing the three spaceships and the number of escort fighters that had come with them. She gently tugged on Hao Ren's sleeve. "Didn't you mobilize an entire main fleet squadron? Why are there only three ships? And where are the armed drones you summoned?"

Hao Ren said softly, "They're for another war… I'll tell you about the information Nolan discovered later."

"These are the World Tree Temple's…" Constance's voice interrupted Hao Ren and Leah's quiet conversation. The usually calm princess couldn't control the change in her expression at this moment. She gazed at the three starships on the plains (in fact, the three starships were so huge that they almost filled the open space west of Frostwind City. From this distance, it was almost impossible to see where the end of the farthest ship was). "Those giants… are they your soldiers?"

"Strictly speaking, it's her private legion," Hao Ren pointed at Leah. "You see, I told you a long time ago, don't be in such a hurry to formulate a battle plan…"