Translator: CinderTL
"Demon Capital. Gilles?"
Roland instinctively tightened his grip on the hilt of his sword as he gazed at the tower piercing the clouds, its base surrounded by churning, dense magic.
His companions reacted differently.
Mason's face turned pale, his legs trembling uncontrollably.
Orc Freddy panted heavily, his chest heaving like a wild beast sensing mortal danger.
Galvis and Theresa wore equally solemn expressions.
Only Avril and Vanessa stood apart.
The elf girl drew the dagger from her waist, flicked its blade with her fingertip, and raised an eyebrow, her eyes gleaming with curiosity.
As for Vanessa, with her purple hair...
Her lips pressed into a thin line, the excitement in her eyes almost overflowing.
"Everyone—"
Reggie's reaction was swift.
Seeing the anomaly in the distance, he instinctively moved to order the troops to assemble, fearing panic would spread.
But before he could finish speaking, a thunderous roar erupted behind them, like a mountain collapsing.
Everyone whirled around to see the colossal mountain range behind them groaning with deafening intensity.
The thick rock layers and snow covering its slopes cracked and peeled away in massive chunks, like decaying scales.
Countless giant stones crashed down, raising a dust cloud that blotted out the sky.
In this terrifying disintegration, the mountain's true nature was forcibly revealed.
Beneath the peeling rock layers, not bedrock but a city wall was revealed.
A wall of unimaginable scale.
It was constructed from a dark gray, unknown material that was neither stone nor metal, its surface scarred and furrowed as if torn by colossal claws or eroded by some terrifying force.
Its lines were rigid and steep, with an icy, unnatural geometric quality, soaring straight into the clouds, mirroring the Demon Capital's core structures that had erupted from the earth in the distance.
Then, an even more horrifying spectacle unfolded.
As if losing its support, the midsection of the mountain range split open as if cleaved by an invisible giant axe, triggering a cataclysmic collapse.
"Rumble!"
The continuous mountain ridges fractured and crumbled with a deafening roar.
Vast quantities of rock cascaded downward, sending plumes of dust and smoke soaring into the sky.
As the dust settled, the continuous mountain range that had once separated the Mistland from the outside world had been violently torn open, revealing an impossibly wide passage.
This chasm, like a gash in the earth, stretched directly toward the distant River Domain's Royal Capitals.
It was no longer a barrier, but had transformed into...
a straight, unobstructed path leading straight to the heart of the River Domain Nations.
Amidst this chaotic upheaval of heaven and earth, the lift platform that had been suspended on the towering mountain's outer wall was experiencing a terrifying moment.
It had already descended to a position near the rocky ledge at the mountain's base.
The violent landslide triggered a chain reaction, sending a Giant Stone crashing into the massive steel cables securing the platform.
The rock shelf supporting the base also fractured and collapsed under the tremors.
Deprived of its primary support, the platform tilted sharply and plummeted like a puppet with its strings cut.
Clang!
Amidst the ear-splitting screech of twisting metal and the explosive crack of shattering stone, the heavy metal platform slammed into the pile of rubble below, instantly deforming.
The magic core emitted a piercing shriek, and sparks flew in all directions.
Fortunately, the fall was short.
The platform landed on a relatively soft slope of debris.
The impact completely wrecked it, metal groaning and twisting, but it didn't break apart or flip over.
Smoke and dust filled the air, and from the platform came the shaken coughs, moans, and cries for help.
Soldiers struggled to climb out of the mangled guardrails and doors, their bodies covered in bruises, scrapes, and bleeding wounds.
"Quick! Rescue them!"
Reggie's roar cut through the chaos, immediately ordering the soldiers in the barracks who were unaffected by the disaster to rush to the wreckage.
The smoke had yet to clear, mingling with the groans, pleas for help, and the hissing of twisted metal.
Rescue efforts were underway, but Roland stood frozen in place, a cold dread far greater than any he had felt before seizing him.
Through the perception granted by Material Empathy, the surrounding abnormalities stood out starkly.
The elements that had been flowing naturally through the air seemed to be greedily siphoned away by some colossal entity, leaving behind only hollow trails of violently dragged space.
"What the..."
Roland instinctively tried to track down the source.
Just then—
Clank! Clatter! Squeak!
A jarring, grating noise, like massive, rusted gears being forced into motion, instantly ripped through the cacophony.
Roland whipped his head around, his heart tightening.
Amidst the smoke and dust at the edge of the collapsing passage, the piled rubble trembled violently, thrust upward by some immense force from below.
In the blink of an eye, several colossal figures rose from the stone and dust.
They moved like mobile siege towers, their shadows engulfing vast areas as their footsteps made the ground tremble.
These giants had vaguely humanoid silhouettes, but they were composed of some unknown material, dark gray bordering on black, and shimmering with metallic coldness, as if they originated from the city walls themselves.
Massive, angular plates of armor were pieced together like crude plating, with thick rivets faintly visible at the seams.
Spherical or hinged joints were covered by heavy plates, emitting ear-splitting friction as they moved.
At the end of their thick arms were either massive fists of solid metal or terrifying structures like battering rams, claws, and pincers.
The most chilling sight were the gaps in their bodies and the deck.
A dim glow, a mixture of deep blue and dark red, pulsed from within, like sealed lightning or magma.
As the light flickered, elemental torrents, forcibly gathered in the air, continuously poured into the colossal figures.
Smoke swirled around them, but the metallic chill and the eerie pulse of magic emanating from their silhouettes had frozen the air.
Hum!
A sharp yet cold hum rang out, and two blinding red lights erupted from the giants' heads through the dust.
Like precise probes, the red lights pierced the dust and instantly locked onto the tiny figures of Roland and the others below.
In that instant, the atmosphere fell into dead silence.
The wounded soldiers, witnessing this, suddenly saw their pupils contract, and they involuntarily stifled their groans of pain.
"Oh? Mr. Roland..."
Her clear voice, tinged with surprise, sounded jarringly out of place in the face of this crisis.
"It seems your earlier ramblings about the Demon Capital Gilles were not mere delirium."
Her gaze swept across the colossal figures, her eyes gleaming with pure curiosity.
"A source matter golem of this scale, or rather a magitech construct, is truly a masterpiece of the mages from before the Final Epoch..."
"Magitech construct?"
Avril narrowed her eyes, her sharp gaze fixed on the pulsating azure and crimson light at the joints of the colossal statues.
"But their size... it seems to differ greatly from the records in the ancient texts..."
Just then, the previously silent magitech constructs suddenly emitted a faint yet piercing sound.
The sound was like some broken, distorted language, its syllables and rhythm completely incomprehensible to the present group, bringing only a sense of inexplicable irritation.
Only Roland was different.
The instant he sensed that these behemoths might possess some form of intelligence, he instinctively activated his Animal Companion trait.
As the trait took effect, the chaotic, dissonant noise that sounded like gibberish to others instantly reordered itself in his mind.
It transformed into a cold, logical, and emotionless language.
[Life signs confirmed.]
[Threat level: Low-grade biological cluster.]
[Detection: Unauthorized. Awaiting orders. Purge and eliminate.]
(End of the Chapter)
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