Deadly Fireworks

Twelve hundred years ago, steam machinery technology was discovered by explorers in ancient civilization ruins, and human civilization entered the age of steam machinery.

With the protection of steel fortresses, humanity was no longer ruled by darkness and fear, and the population entered an era of explosive growth.

From that point on, humanity transformed from a weak race barely surviving on this mist-shrouded continent into a powerful people at the top of the food chain.

The great scientist who built the first steam-powered steel city was named Dorena Spuglin. He was also the first emperor of the Oma Empire.

It was also from that time that the ancient slave nation split into the two great empires of today: the Xid Empire, which continued the ancient traditions, and the Oma Empire, which followed the path of steam technology.

"Steam technology" was the foundation upon which the Oma Empire stood.

And the steel monstrosity slowly rising from Storm Lake before them was the crystallization of generations of scientists from the Oma Royal Academy of Sciences. It was a Mechanical City representing the pinnacle of steam technology—the City of Destruction!

This was a Behemoth Lord-class ultimate war fortress, a weapon of war in its purest form.

It had no ordinary residential buildings, so it was smaller than some lord-class steel fortresses. Yet its firepower and mobility held overwhelming advantages over Mechanical Cities of the same class.

Every design on the entire Mechanical City existed for war.

Enormous, exaggerated composite tracks supported the conch-shaped steel metropolis, making it as impregnable as an iron can.

The first thing that caught the eye was its defensive armored wall, over two hundred meters high and as sturdy as a reservoir dam. Higher up, among the spiraling layers of floors, densely packed super cannons with terrifyingly large calibers aimed in every direction with no blind spots.

The most advanced large-scale Steam Boilers, Steel Melting Furnaces, City Breaker Cutters, War Arm Hammers, pursuit machines, Whale Harpoons—

This was a steel beast armed to the teeth.

The moment it emerged from the water, its steam chambers, having accumulated immense pressure, explosively vented. White vapor billowed forth, and it looked like a monstrous beast crawling out of hell, its ferocity soaring to the heavens.

The White Wolf Bandit Group's three War Elephant-class main Mechanical Cities looked like shivering hyenas beneath a lion's paw before the City of Destruction.

"This thing is way too outrageous!"

From afar, Rein watched the Mechanical City suddenly rise from the lake and could not help swallowing hard.

The steam machinery before him, representing the pinnacle of this world's technology, was a hundred times more shocking than the aircraft carriers he had seen in his previous life. This technology tree had gone off in a terrifyingly crooked direction.

This Black Market Trade Fair had gathered the vast majority of the Oma Empire's southern bandit groups.

The main Mechanical Cities of more than a hundred bandit groups, along with the miniature Mechanical Cities used for supplies and troop transport, numbered well over a thousand.

In the instant he froze, the City of Destruction's first barrage of artillery shells rained down in dense waves.

Boom, boom, boom, boom—

The dense cannon fire exploded across the sky, deafeningly loud.

For a moment, thousands of shells fell like raindrops upon the bandit groups' Mechanical Cities by the lakeside, blasting up vast swathes of fire.

What made Rein's jaw drop the most was this.

At that moment, he saw the Mechanical monster slowly coming ashore actually "eat" a small steel city like a whale swallowing prey!

Yes, eat it!

Once the steel city came ashore, a massive gap split open in its exaggerated wall like the gaping mouth of a beast, revealing a scorching steel-smelting chamber like a volcanic crater.

Then dozens of Whale Harpoons shot out, effortlessly piercing the nearest small Mechanical City. Like prey bound in ropes, that Mechanical City could not break free no matter how hard it strained its engines.

As the winches reeled it in, the bandits inside the steel city had no time to escape. Castle and people alike were dragged into the furnace and turned into molten iron in an instant.

It crushed into the battlefield with an invincible posture!

"The Steam Boilers are at full pressure! Boiler workers, add coal! Add coal!"

"Gunners, load ammunition and return fire!"

"Don't panic! Large cannons take a long time to reload. Spread out and flee while you can!"

"..."

The bandits reacted swiftly in battle as well. After being caught off guard by that first artillery barrage, the commanders of each group quickly recovered.

One steam-powered Mechanical City after another threw its engines into full power and scattered in all directions.

Though their cannons were not as powerful as the City of Destruction's top-tier technology, at this distance they could still concentrate their fire and destroy some of the buildings atop the fortress.

After all, no matter how powerful the enemy was, it only had one Mechanical City.

Storm Lake's shore suddenly descended into chaos.

Only then did White Wolf Bazel finally understand where his sense of foreboding had come from.

He glared viciously at the Oma group before him, killing intent exposed in his voice. "Do you gentlemen think that setting up an ambush with a Behemoth Mechanical City in advance is enough to wipe out several hundred bandit groups in one stroke?"

Though the City of Destruction was unmatched, trying to wipe out more than a hundred bandit groups with this one super Mechanical City was nothing but wishful thinking!

In his view, this encirclement would end like countless previous ones: without results.

After a pause, he added with a hostile expression, "The City of Destruction may be formidable. But before we leave, we can still take your lives!"

"Oh? Then let us wait and see."

The Oma group remained standing where they were, their expressions unchanged, as though they did not care about this threat in the slightest.

"Hmph!"

Bazel snorted coldly. His transformed Silver Wolf form stopped wasting words, muscles knotting as he gathered strength, clearly about to strike.

"Brothers, whoever kills this Oma prince gets a bounty of one hundred million!"

The surrounding bandits were all desperadoes who lived with blades at their throats. At the mention of a bounty, they howled excitedly. The moment their leader made a move, they would swarm forward and tear those Oma royals to pieces.

But at that moment, an unexpected development occurred.

Suddenly, clusters of blood-red fireworks exploded in the sky.

PIU~BOOM!

PIU~BOOM!

PIU~BOOM!

A series of fireworks shot into the sky, bursting into enormous clouds of blood-red powder. Within just a few breaths, a faint red mist filled the air around Storm Lake.

"What are these people up to now?"

Bazel sniffed the air, catching a faint medicinal fragrance, and a trace of suspicion immediately appeared on his face.

What he could not understand was that this powder was not poison, and the explosions could not hurt anyone. What was it for?

He vaguely sensed that something was wrong, and even his wolf claw hesitated for an instant.

At that moment, the black-robed adviser beside First Prince Quentin swept his gaze over the bandits and spoke again. "I have spent three years laying the groundwork for this day. Did you gentlemen really think I would let you escape so easily?"

Three years of planning?

The more Bazel thought about it, the more terrified he became.

Ever since he had been ambushed and plotted against, he had keenly sensed that there were too many strange things about this matter.

First, there had not been the slightest trace of a large Mechanical City anywhere near Storm Lake. That meant the City of Destruction had been hidden beneath the lake for at least several months.

Second, the location of this Black Market Trade Fair had been decided through discussion between him and the leaders of several major bandit groups, yet they had now walked right into this trap.

That meant there was a mole among the decision-makers of the major bandit groups!

All signs indicated that this trade fair had fallen into someone's scheme long ago.

Thinking of this, Bazel knew that if they delayed any longer, something might change.

With one command, he launched the attack directly.

"Attack immediately! Kill the Oma First Prince!"

At that moment, the Oma Royal Family had already been prepared.

Rhine, the knight commander clad head to toe in heavy armor, erupted with battle aura and stepped in front of the bandits without hesitation. As the court's foremost knight, he possessed defenses strong enough to withstand cannon fire head-on!

Meanwhile, Archmage Enma Blackmoss had finished chanting his spell. The six-pointed star flashed, summoning four Hellfire Demons over eight meters tall to protect First Prince Quentin.

For a time, the Hyacinth Tavern fell into fierce battle.

Meanwhile,

Rein, who had already fled several kilometers away, naturally noticed the "red fireworks" exploding in the sky.

"Could this powder be some kind of graphite bomb? Has this world's technology really reached such a level?"

That thought had only just surfaced in his mind when the powder settled and slipped in through the filter of his gas mask.

The scent was like a cat inhaling catnip, sending a jolt through his body.

"Eh... no, this is medicinal powder?!"

Having been an apprentice potion maker for several days, Rein was no longer unfamiliar with the smell of medicinal ingredients.

The red powder entered his respiratory tract, and it was suddenly like cold water dripping into boiling oil, making the blood in his body boil.

"No, there's something wrong with this medicinal powder!"

The abnormal changes in his body instantly made Rein's face pale in shock.

His instincts told him that disaster was imminent!

At that moment, he suddenly felt a tingling itch all over his skin, as though body hair were being stirred by the wind.

When he raised his hand to look, crimson strands began growing wildly from his exposed skin like hairs!

"What is this?"

Within only one or two breaths, red fur nearly an inch long had grown from every pore on his body, turning him into something like a red-haired baboon.

The red fur grew longer and longer, accompanied by intense dehydration and blood loss. A powerful wave of dizziness surged into Rein's mind.

When he looked again at the bodily status projected by the Mind Core, he immediately understood!

Warning! Catalyst intrusion detected. 'Zombie Potion' activated. Host estimated to die in 30 seconds.

Warning! A large number of unknown lifeforms detected invading.