The sun rose over a quiet landscape that surrounded a devastated city. Its citizens were either lying on the ground motionless or were trapped inside the barrier. The smoke that rose up to the sky formed a silhouette against the rising ray of the sun and reminded the survivors of their dread. But through this calmness and the apparent peace that has befallen them, it was only a matter of time before everything they knew and once had will be erased from existence and in its place, a grand empire unlike anything their world has ever seen.
The day of the operation had arrived. The sole remaining scout of the survivors was standing at the very top of the biggest tower that stood over the entire city including the walls itself, you could see the fields outside the city walls when you were on the peak of the tower. With him was a makeshift telescope of laughable magnification but was a telescope nonetheless. Using the telescope, he stood watchful of the enemy's movements. It's been three days since the enemy bombarded them and the uneasy peace showed no signs of actually ceasing.
Until he peaked through the telescope and looked to the north. The Metal Mammoths and metal giant golems of the enemy have begun to move, leaving behind a cloud of dust. The Metal Demons themselves have also begun to move and most of which had disappeared from sight. A day ago he had estimated that there were at least 10-15 thousand Metal Demons to the north but the numbers had fallen.
He then turned his telescope to the west and saw the same situation unfolding. Clouds of dust left behind by the speeding behemoths of the enemy. He lowered his telescope and then through his naked eye what seemed to be an eruption. Wherever he laid his eyes, clouds of dusts appeared as though there was an eruption occurring around the city. He signaled an alarm to the ground and quickly the defenders scrambled for their weapons and got into position.
Owen was in the middle of the chaos and was trying his best to coordinate their defense. He sent the remaining mages to the tower where the scout was to provide additional support and analyses.
Their worst fear seemed justified at first. The dust clouds cleared and the entirety of the enemy had vanished. Replacing them were mounds of dirt and ground of which the enemy had seemingly dug.
"They must be digging under us! They're going to appear below us!" One of the mages screamed in terror after the realization. His words were heard down below and the defensive formation they had come up with fell apart. Chaos broke loose as the survivors descended into anarchy with almost everybody losing their will to fight on and have resorted to their desires.
The chaos was uncontrollable and the barrier was now seen as an imprisonment. Many wanted to escape the barrier itself and would rather die at the hands of the metal demons rather than become the playthings of their own fellow humans. It was a bloody hour.
Owen tried to reassert whatever control he could before he himself was finally consumed by the dread and hopelessness of everything around him. And as the women were dragged off and murdered, the men losing their minds and their wills to their corrupted psyches. An ominous horn echoed.
The sound silenced the chaos. Everybody became frozen in place as the horn echoed through the land.
The scout who was at the highest tower pointed his telescope to the west from which the horn sound came from and thanks to his enhanced eyesight being at the mid stages of C-rank made himself, he saw the shadows of their demise.
Flying Metal Dragons by the hundreds were flying towards them and they were unlike anything they have seen before. It was like a swarm of hornets from a hive that they disturbed. In the middle of the swarm was a larger shadow, bigger than the rest of the smaller shadows that made up the swarm.
The behemoth in the middle was larger than what was seen through the telescope as its shadow covered an entire field as it flew over it. The smaller shadows came closer and they revealed their appearances to the scout. Bulky in size and shape, they were unlike anything the Metal Demons have sent against them so far.
This is Project: Marauder
Their questions would soon be answered when the smaller crafts increased speed and came crashing down at the barrier. It was then and there did they realize that the small flying metal abominations were actually meant to explode into a fiery ball of flames as soon as they crashed against the barrier. From total anarchy, the survivors' survival instincts kicked in alongside their fears. They felt no sorrow, no despair, but only fear itself. Fear became the dominant emotion of everyone and nobody inside could even bear to see a single metal object without going mad. Madness spread and it was not long till the survivors had no more will left.
In a last ditch effort to defend themselves, the remaining mages between B to D-rank numbering thirty in total concentration all of their magical power into one single spell.
{Sphere Of Hades}
Having a very low rank and the spell was a Super Tier, they have no choice but to sacrifice their material bodies for more magical power, they allowed themselves to get sucked in into an expanding raven black ball of flames. The raven black ball of flames then began to absorb the rotting corpses in and around the city, completely ignoring the barrier. And as the smaller crafts were expended, the only thing that remained was the giant warship that has the power rivaling to Dragon Lords.
The raven black ball had absorbed everything dead around it and so, it charged at the flying warship. Launching itself at a speed 10 times faster than sound, it looked like a hurling ball of death from hell. It tore through the clouds and met the flying warship.
The ball hit the broadside of the flying elongated hull. The side of which exploded ferociously and sent shock waves that moved the clouds, flattened the fields, snapped branches off of trees and flattened plants. The power could easily killed more than 10 A-rank individuals and one Transcension-level Demigod unless having an artifact, a powerful spell, or a very strong powerful armor with maximum protection enchantments that could defend against it.
Inside the barrier, the people witnessed what had happened and many began to rejoice, thinking that they had delayed their deaths. But the hulking beast was still alive, from the smoke it tore through and revealed its bow.
Despite taking damage to its left, the beast was still flying towards the barrier with a good chunk of it still intact and operational. Panic once again spread.
The scout who was now alone at the top of the tallest tower cowered inside the tower and prayed.
He covered his ears and closed his eyes. His feet folded and his sanity gone, laughter began to escape him. Slowly, everything around him went silent as his ears began to fail and only the sounds of high pitched scream was left for him to hear. His eyes bulged and he laughed like a maniac.
The smoking beast came closer and closer, its shadow now visible to everyone.
An orange light emited in the front of the Warship, ready to shoot the same Rail gun that killed Joan.
Few moments has passed, Project Marauder finally open fired as the beam tore through the air in a speed of Mach 320.
Owen was standing in the middle of the inner city when he saw his death looming.
His final words were:
"That's their battering ram"
The projectile hit the barrier and exploded. Everything within one kilometer from the barrier was flattened and the barrier itself collapsed under such tremendous pressure. The remains of houses and buildings in the city as a whole were toppled. The people inside the barrier were killed in an instant. The shock wave from the blast was more powerful than expected. Clouds were shoved off, the ground shook violently, waves rocked the metal warships and few kilometers of fields were flattened.
The barrier would survived from it but for 3 weeks of the Machine Army's bombardment and Artilleries, it makes the magical barrier weakened, couldn't handle more assaults if it continues.
Michael's plan was concluded. Michael then ordered all division to advance into the city to check. If there were survivors, they were not to interfere with any of them, preferably, they were to be left alone to rot. The divisions emerged from their trenches that of which they built to protect from the blast and they marched. The grand cathedral from where the barrier's power source came from was destabilizing.
Michael, noticing this, told the divisions to halt just outside of the ruined inner city as the grand cathedral collapsed into itself.
"No," Artemis whispered as he watched from afar.
The grand cathedral collapsed into a black hole, a small black hole near microscopic levels, the size of mere 1/4 of a penny.
The black hole then died in a fraction of a second, releasing the energy of a bomb stronger than even the strongest nukes on Earth ever recorded.