"I am the Northern Duke! I am now issuing a military order — all citizens of Transancia must return to their homes and not step outside. Anyone found outside will be executed without exception!"
Just as the Presidential Residence was strengthening its defenses, a booming voice echoed throughout the entire city.
"I am Gil, Commander of the Southern Theater! I am now declaring martial law! No one is to set foot outside!"
"I am the Commander of the Eastern Theater! I order…"
"The Western Duke commands…"
The thunderous voices rang out one after another across Transancia, and a flicker of joy surfaced on Shike's face.
"It's Uncle Northern Duke, and Turin and the others…" These theater commanders and dukes were all vital pillars of the Federation — every single one of them a Morning Star-level powerhouse.
With reinforcements arriving out of the blue, Shike grew excited at once.
Accompanied by the voices of several Morning Star powerhouses, orderly torrents of steel surged forth to seal off the entire city, and a fiery red barrier enveloped all of Transancia within it.
"So
"A fire-attribute isolation Wizard Array, combined with an elite army attacking without regard for their own lives — that could temporarily pin us down. And adding a few more powerhouses of the same level to the siege… Crimson Eye certainly has a big appetite!"
"Relax! Our Emperor will be here to get us any moment now!"
Sack, the fire elemental standing beside him, seemed utterly confident.
"Let's hope so!" The Wizard leader chuckled, watching as the numerous armies entered the city to methodically suppress the chaos and take over the defenses. A trace of mockery crept across the corners of his lips.
Boom!
The Northern Duke and his companions erupted with tremendous fire energy, clashing furiously with several Morning Star opponents.
In an instant, the sky above the capital was engulfed in writhing flames. Massive swaths of spatial fabric collapsed, and silver torrents and storms raged on without respite.
"The President anticipated your moves long ago and laid traps in advance. Today, you are all destined to fall here!"
The Northern Duke's expression was one of unwavering resolve.
As more legions poured into the battlefield, especially with the arrival of several Fire Feather Clan Star-rank powerhouses, the previously crumbling situation was quickly stabilized. The scales of victory, it seemed, were beginning to tilt toward the Fire Feather Clan.
"You think you can stop us? How naive!"
The lead Dawnstar Wizard released a torrent of steel mechanical arms from his body, enveloping himself in a protective shell as he watched the Northern Duke and his forces charge forward. Pity even flickered in his eyes.
"This is war, and the only thing that can decide our fate is the realm above Dawnstar!"
"Above Dawnstar? Could it be..." The Northern Duke and several others looked toward the cataclysmic battle outside the city in disbelief.
A titanic Flame Giant, tall enough to touch the sky, was locked in combat with another horrifyingly massive Phoenix. Every blow from either side seemed to cleave heaven and earth asunder, annihilating vast swaths of the surrounding landscape as if the world itself was ending.
That was Red Pupil's battlefield against the opposing Fire Elemental Emperor. In a clash of fifth-level powerhouses, even a Dawnstar Wizard, without sufficient numbers, couldn't possibly intervene.
"Oh!"
Just then, the battle between the fifth-level powerhouses seemed to reach its conclusion.
The colossal Fire Phoenix let out a piercing cry as its razor-sharp talons tore through the Flame Giant's chest plate. Great swaths of molten lava and fire rained down.
"Archibald, you've lost!" Red Pupil's voice echoed from the Fire Phoenix's maw. Upon hearing this, joy instantly bloomed on the Northern Duke and his companions' faces. The Supreme Leader they had always trusted had not let them down this time either!
"Indeed! I've lost!" The Fire Elemental Emperor clutched his chest. Boulders continued to cascade from the massive wound, causing widespread earthquakes upon hitting the ground.
"Red Pupil, you truly are a genius! To have already reached the peak of the fifth level! My decision today was correct. Otherwise, the balance of power between our Burning Sun Empire and the Atlantic Federation might have been reversed by you!"
The Fire Elemental Emperor's voice boomed across the sky like a clap of thunder.
"My decision?" Red Pupil seemed momentarily confused, but then, the colossal Fire Phoenix abruptly retreated!
However, it was already too late.
Massive thunderheads coalesced as terrifying black lightning crackled into existence in midair. An impenetrable shroud of dark clouds blotted out the sun's radiance.
The myriad bolts of black lightning converged, taking the shape of a spear held in the hands of a Wizard who had suddenly appeared.
"Red Pupil! Die!" The Wizard bore a moon-shaped rune on his forehead. With a low growl, he hurled the spear in his hand.
Whoosh!
As if the gods of the divine realm had flown into a rage, casting down world-ending thunder from the heavens.
The terrifying black spear seemed to transcend the boundaries of time and space—even the endless void had to bow before its tip, carrying the horrifying power to annihilate the world as it arrived directly before the Fire Phoenix.
"Screech!" The Fire Phoenix's cry rang out, but this time it carried notes of anguish and pain.
Crack! After the blinding flash of white light faded, the other Star-level powerhouses saw that the wings of the phoenix Red Pupil had transformed into bore enormous gashes. Flame feathers drifted down one by one, igniting raging fires the moment they touched the ground—yet the feathers amid the flames seemed to shine all the more brilliantly.
Seeing this, Lei Lin's pupils contracted. A transformation merely akin to a polymorph, yet it could maintain the separated parts in their original form—that meant Red Pupil's mastery of the Fire Phoenix transformation had reached a truly terrifying level!
"Chancellor!" The Northern Duke and the others immediately fell into chaos.
Meanwhile, Lei Lin and his companions, hidden within the Chancellor's residence, watched the ambush with grim expressions.
"That Wizard—Jesseria of Jupiter! How did he get here?"
Lei Lin certainly recognized the dark-robed Wizard. When Lei Lin had first crossed over, Jesseria had specifically come to stop him, but Lei Lin had managed to delay him with a stratagem.
Yet the fluctuation of a Fifth-Level Wizard, along with that deeply etched face, was something Lei Lin could never forget.
"This Jesseria is different from the one we encountered before. He should just be some kind of clone, but how does he possess the fluctuation of a Fifth-Level Wizard? Even though it's much weaker than before, he's still a Fifth-Level Brilliant Moon Wizard!"
"It must be some kind of ancient secret technique! A Fifth-Level clone is absolutely an incredibly powerful trump card! What I'm even more curious about is the technique he used to conceal himself from the entire Lava World and slip in undetected!"
Lei Lin stroked his chin.
"Jesseria! Even you have betrayed me!"
Red Pupil's voice emanated from the massive phoenix, the injuries on its wings already healing at a remarkable speed.
"Honored Chancellor!" Jesseria, hovering in midair, gave a slight bow. "Our relationship was merely that of business partners—or rather, purely transactional. What is there to speak of betrayal?"
"Enough! Red Pupil—that was the first round. Now it's time for the second!"
The colossal Fire Elemental Giant, towering between heaven and earth, roared as it and Jesseria together enveloped Red Pupil entirely in massive bolts of black lightning laced with molten lava...
"Chancellor?!"
The faces of the Northern Duke and the other reinforcements he had arranged suddenly changed drastically. Though Red Pupil was at the peak of the Brilliant Moon stage, the opposition was no pushover either! An old nemesis of the Atlantean Federation—the Fire Elemental Emperor of the Fire Worship Empire—plus a terrifying Fifth Level Wizard from another world; even the most dull-witted of their kind knew that their leader had been caught in a siege, and the outcome was not looking good.
"Everyone! The day to serve our nation has come!"
The Northern Duke let out a sigh, and a rare expression of solemn resolve appeared upon his face, clearly showing that he had already come to terms with his own life and death.
"Haha… Whipp, Sulu, I'll be going on ahead!" Several Star-level elders laughed wildly, their expressions making it plain they had cast life and death to the wind.
And watching their grim, resolute faces, the leading Morning Star Wizard hesitated.
Though the Star-level powerhouses of this world did not possess as many arcane methods as wizards, if they truly fought to the death, they would likely exact heavy casualties on his side.
Very few of these Morning Star Wizards had been cultivated by Jupiter's Thunder from the start. Instead, most were of various foreign races who had joined over time, and only Jesseria could keep them in check. Now, facing the prospect of massive casualties, he immediately appeared to grow indecisive.
And upon seeing his expression, the veteran dukes and commanders exchanged a glance, each catching a glint of something unusual in the other's eyes.
"Now that the Morning Star Wizards' fear of casualties has been exposed, things are about to get interesting. Either way, Jesseria is probably going to be spitting blood…"
And once the enemy made full use of this, adopting a stance of fearless sacrifice and dragging down as many opponents as they could, it would likely devolve into a meaningless, grinding stalemate.
"Jesseria probably anticipated this long ago and won't be too angry about it." Lei Lin, however, shook his head and voiced his own view: "Killing as many of the enemy's Star-level powerhouses as possible to weaken the Atlantean Federation's strength—that should be the Fire Elemental Emperor's plan. But for Jesseria, killing those people brings him no benefit whatsoever; it would even weaken his own forces. So he won't be furious. Jesseria's true objective is likely still the Fire Source Stone! What we need to focus on right now is to immediately monitor the entire estate—I estimate Jesseria's backup move is about to be set in motion!"
"You're right!" Gilbert fell silent for a moment, then finally nodded in agreement with Lei Lin's assessment.
Sure enough, the subsequent development of the battle unfolded exactly as Lei Lin had predicted. The Morning Star Wizards, facing the desperate Fire Feather Clan, all began to back away, starting to do the bare minimum and leaving Sas so furious his seven orifices were smoking—yet utterly powerless to do anything about it.