A Burning Crystal Cannonball trailed a dazzling light as it carved a long parabola through the air and crashed onto the semitransparent city-scale barrier. The chaotic energy released when the Burning Crystal Cannonball activated produced a continuous series of explosions across the barrier's surface. Amid the mutual interference and resonance of magical energy, the sturdy city-scale barrier rapidly crystallized into countless interlocking hexagons, each piece gradually stained with gray-white noise.
When the amount of noise exceeded the critical threshold, Eagle City's energy shield finally dissolved into a sky full of glittering fragments without a sound. This militarized city, standing in the central region of the Empire as one of the imperial capital's satellite cities, finally opened its gates.
"'Boros's' Burning Crystal Super Cannon has finished firing. Entering cooldown!"
"Enemy barrier disintegrated. The city gates have collapsed!"
"Watch out for the rapid-fire turrets and Lightning Chain Crystals on the walls! Spellbreaking Squadron, disrupt their defensive installations—Broken Sword Knights, sortie with the squad!"
"The flank has reached firing position... The flank is beginning its bombardment of the enemy walls!"
The battlefield was thick with smoke. The bombardment of Burning Crystal Cannons and the release of strategic-grade spells filled the land with violent, dangerous magical energy. Uncontrolled mana continued to gather as the battle dragged on, forming wandering magical creatures of various sizes. Those magical creatures then rapidly perished under the soldiers' Absorption Amulets, becoming another link in the chain that fueled the flames of war.
On this tense, scorching battlefield, the bodies of the fallen lay everywhere. The twisted, rotting chunks of flesh constantly gave off a pungent burnt stench as they baked in the flames. Most numerous among the corpses were still those hideous, mutated monsters.
"Haah!!" Accompanied by a roar like a peal of thunder, a Guardian Giant raised both