"Impossible,"
The walls of the city were bombarded with missiles. Artillery stationed from afar fired continuously at the city, decimating the buildings inside. People ran across the cities, frightened mothers carrying their children, storekeepers, men, even knights of honour were thrown into a panic.
"Councilwoman! You must get out of this city at once!" Jinn pleaded. The councilwoman was still motionless, still staring at the event that was unfolding. The enemy was now besieging their city, it was no longer them that was on the attack but the enemy.
Amid the chaos, the Red Scripture could not be found. The army they were supposed to lead back was also absent, one thing could be assumed and it was not a happy one. The army must have been completely defeated and the Red Scripture has been killed off.
"We must aid the city's garrison!" Fery whipped out her fiery rod of flames and jumped from the balcony before landing onto the roof of a house below.
"Fery!" Jinn screamed at her sister but was ignored. Her sister dashed through the roofs of the houses as she presented her aura of flames that slowly engulfed her body.
"Tsk!" Jinn gritted her teeth and looked at the councilwoman. The councilwoman still did not say a word, her face was blank and her stare was the stare of someone who has accepted her death. But who was she kidding? The councilwoman held so much magic power, she could even defeat this entire army on her own if she wanted.
Jinn pleaded for the councilwoman to follow her and evacuate from the city but she was not budging, she even resorted to forcefully bring her in but she still was not moving, as if she was embedded into the floor itself.
The Red Scripture mage suddenly sensed something deadly was near, she frantically looked around to see what was the threat but she did not know that the threat was coming at them faster than she could react. A missile, move fast in Mach 30 launched from a missile truck, it pierced the wall just below their balcony while leaving behind a trail of white smoke in its path.
The AA Missile Launcher Truck is one of the most powerful infantry vehicles that the Machine Empire had in its arsenals. This rocket artillery platform can fire two types of missiles: Cluster missiles (A missile that when fires separating into 20 missiles and spread into vast area and explode with the main missile causing widespread destruction) and Hypersonic Missiles boasting the speed of Mach 30.
A Hyper Artillery Tank, a very powerful self-propelled artillery armed with a 155mm barrel that fire Ramjet Hypervelocity Projectiles that can reach 1000km in just a very small amount of time and the artillery shells act like pseudo-missiles in which it can guide itself toward designed targets by drones. It boast the speed of 60km/h and a rate of fire 8 shells per minute. One Shell could easily destroy a huge city block.
"What the-"
In a mere two seconds after the missile hit, an explosion completely destroys the foundations of the palace and sends pieces of the structure flying, the balcony collapses with the palace. With no other choice left, Jinn had to protect herself with her magic.
"Shield!"
A green transparent shield surrounded her in an instant. She fell along with the balcony but she did not see the councilwoman anywhere when she fell, she just hoped that she saved herself.
Thousands of on-lookers below watched as the palace at the centre of the city that towered high above the rest collapsed into nothing more than rubble and a flurry of grey smoke. Hundreds of mages, knights and religious members were inside the palace at the time, some survived using their magic but others were unlucky and were crushed by the collapsing building.
The ones who died when the missile exploded, however, were spared from a more painful and gruesome death for they were merely incinerated in an instant. As per the others, well, a few vomited their intestines after their stomachs were squeezed, a few had their heads crushed while another few simple got crushed under the falling building.
All-day long, the metal demons bombarded the city with shells and missiles. Gunship Drones flew around its airspace, deliberately targeting the remaining Airships and mages that were exposed standing in the middle of the streets. If a mage was to be seen going inside a specific house, that house would be destroyed right after regardless if there was anyone else inside. The shelling would go on for 30 minutes followed by a 30-minute temporary break, when this was first applied, the citizens nor the Theocracy itself knew of it so instead they ordered their cities to gather in the streets for an evacuation.
It was a shame. When the next bombardment took place, there were more casualties compared to the first bombardment. The city was then surrounded from all sides, from north, east, south and west walls, tens of thousands of metal demons along with their metal beasts surrounded the city preventing any hope of escape. The city was official, under siege.
Zeticon City was surrounded by flat plains and farmlands, there was no moat nor were there any geographicdefencess, the only advantage the city had against a siege was that it had huge stores of food to last for years if rationed right and almost impenetrable walls.
Problem was, there impenetrable walls have been decimated. Several large holes on each wall were created after the metal demon's continuous shelling severely damaged the weakest segments.
The construction of structures, particularly walls, were not perfect especially at this technological level of construction. There was always a weak point in one part or segment in a structure that was weaker than the rest, if this weak point is found and exploited upon, not even the mightiest of walls could stand against the attack.
This weakness was well-known among the military leadership of the Theocracy and so they tried their best to hide it by building more fortifications, upgrading the weak parts as best as they could or they would literally just make it seem strong by having a huge garrison over it.
All of this measures were laid to waste, however, when the metal demons just fired shell after shell at the city walls. The shells were 10x stronger than their strongest catapults, it only took 3 shell strikes for the walls to give in.
The city of over three million was sent into a panic with what remains of the garrison scrambling to defend the walls and fortify their positions as best as they could but the continuous shelling made such efforts ever the more impossible to proceed with.
When the palace was finally down, Jinn emerged from the rubble unscathed. Her shield, although took a lot of her mana, held strong against the weight of falling debris. She blasted the debris around her with her wind magic and quickly went over the pile of rubble.
"Councilwoman!" She shouted as loud as she could, searching for any trace of her master. She scurried through the rubble, using her enhanced senses, she tried in vain. But she only came across cold corpses of those who were unlucky. She even came across the corpses of several knights that were bundled together in a dusty and bloody pool.
Suddenly, a wild whirlwind manifested at the site. The whirlwind was powerful and blew the dust cloud away with its fast wind. It was the councilwoman's magic.
Jinn looked up with joy as she saw the councilwoman floating mid-air shining white as snow. Her eyes glowed white and it projected her true magical power. The power to manipulate the air and wind.
For 300 years of being in the first level of Demigod, Councilwoman finally ascended to Sainthood level.
"Rahhh!" The councilwoman shouted, releasing a flurry of wind powerful enough to send a person flying. Jinn watched in awe but had trouble maintaining her balance as the winds nearly pushed her over.
"The power of the councilwoman!"
"Her grace!"
Many were in awe at the sight of the councilwoman's display of power, so much so that their morale bounced back. Knights have finally regained their composure and have begun rejuvenating their ranks with whoever could lift a sword and fight. Archers began to position themselves over the walls as sharpshooters and crossbowmen readied themselves on top of the towers that still stood.
Mages, with the rest of their magical capabilities, summoned their weapons and spells. Civilians were asked to seek shelter immediately for they know that the enemy will shell the city once more. All hope was not lost, the council was still standing and the councilwoman is finally ascended to Sainthood level and was going to fight by their side!
----------
"Commander, they're scrambling over the walls, what should we do?" Michael asked. He was observing the situation unfold from a safe distance of a kilometer. Standing beside him was Artemis and his partner, Johnathan.
"I feel rather jolly today, order one of the missile tanks to destroy that tower east of the main gate," Artemis ordered.
"Aye," Michael relayed the order. As soon as the nearest missile tank received the order, it fired one of its homing missiles at the tower. The missile left a thick white smokey trail in its wake, it flew fast and reached the tower in just five seconds, well, it was positioned relatively close.
"Commander, the tower has been destroyed, no survivors," Michael confirmed.
"Good, nobody at their level could survive a missile directly at their faces anyway," Artemis lifted his hand towards his face and twisted it back, activating a small holographic monitor.
"The army has been positioned, we need to shell them five more times before we move in,"
"But, commander, there is a human suspended in mid-air as we speak, she seems to be a Demigod who can manipulate the wind," Johnathan pointed out.
"True, If we start shelling the city again, that mage may be able to deflect and quite possibly return our arsenal back at us," Artemis realized. At this moment, Artemis got an idea. He also needed to test his own skills in combat, though he has so far defeated every opponent he has come across, those were merely push-overs.
"We need to test their abilities, send in one of our new projects, Project: Colossal"
----------
The ground began to quake near the eastern wall, the garrison over the walls trembled in fear as to what was causing the shaking. Then they noticed something in the distance, a silhouette of something ginormous! It was walking slowly towards the wall, the body shape was humanoid but the thing was bulkier.
Each step it took would send a small but frightening quake. The garrison scrambled themselves, they've all heard of giants that would trample entire cities but never have they fought a single beast of a specimen before. Let alone, fighting a giant under the control of the enemy.
Then, the garrison below look above the shadow and what they see shook their very souls.
Contrary to what they know, the giant they were seeing was not a giant of this world but a titan of the Machine Empire. The titan was a 500-feet tall behemoth armed to the teeth, it had two red eyes, a red reactor on its chest, and a massive arsenal of missiles that could be launched from its body by the thousands.
The titan had only just finished construction a day before and Artemis was interested in seeing it in the field. The titan was merely an experimental drone that if proven to be cost-effective, would be employed by the hundreds as long as they had the necessary materials and robotpower to build and maintain it.
The titan came out of the shadows and into the battlefield, its one eye on the head glowed a menacing red like all the other drones. It stopped for awhile, sounding a terrifying horn that shook the hearts of those who heard it. The garrison over the walls stared at it in terror.
"We're gonna die!"
"Goddess! Save us!"
A kilometer to the south, Artemis and his two Elite Androids eagerly watched on.
"The mage is making a move, Commander, the target is approaching the eastern wall, possibly to face the titan," Johnathan stepped beside Artemis.
"Have the entire army on stand-by, the moment the two engage each other, I want the missile tanks to fire HEs at designated points, but don't fire near the south-western district, our informant is there,"
----------
"Shit!"
Finn staggered across the alleyway. Stepping on some pools of foul liquid and human waste. He was being chased by a group of local guardsmen who noticed him stealing bread from a bakery amid the last shelling.
He then came across a dead end, he turned his back and saw the guardsmen standing behind him with their swords drawn ready to kill him.
"Looky here, Captain Finn of the Shamed Chivalric Order of Holy Knights, how low have you stooped?"
Finn frowned.
"Not as low as you damn fools!" He answered back,
"Woah woah, hey now, you are no longer in any position to even talk to us, don't tell me you abandoned your men once again when the enemy attacked last night?"
Finn gritted his teeth and stared daggers upon the smirking guardsmen.
"Alright boys, kill him and take his belongings, most of his stuff could still be sold at a reasonable price," The guardsmen slowly approached him.
Finn leaned back.
"No! I can't die!" The words escaped his mouth.
"Blah blah, quit your yappin, slice him up,"
Finn was defenseless, even though he could defeat them easily, he has no will to fight against the very people he once fought with, he still loved his country but his country did not love him back.
If he was to die, his daughter would die also.
"I'm sorry, daughter," He said under his breath. The guardsmen swung their swords towards the kneeling knight.
Suddenly, their swords were shattered as a transparent bubble made itself known.
"W-what!? Magic?!" One of them exclaimed.
"When did you learn magic? You were inept!"
Finn looked up and saw their confused faces, they held onto their shattered blades and then looked at Finn in horror.
T-thank you, Lord Artemis, forgive me for my foolishness and cowardice, I will make sure to pay your kindness back!
At once, he dashed towards the guardsmen. The guardsmen tried to run but Finn caught up. In a bout of rage, he smashed all their heads to the ground or onto a fence, the fence's metal tip impales their eyes, before tearing the jaw and the head of their leader from his body. This was the state of a man who has accepted his fealty and betrayal.
He was now, just Finn.