Tyre! (XI)

A rocket shrieked overhead and slammed into a luxurious building behind the square.

The once-smooth stone structure had long since become pockmarked and scarred, thick smoke rising from its formerly white exterior.

The rocket punched through the building's outer wall and exploded inside, blasting down part of the structure as fragments rained across the square.

As artillery fire flew past the monument at the center of the square, Alfred did not retreat even a step. He stood calmly as the fading sun cast a long shadow behind him toward the horizon.

Ork rockets battered the area relentlessly from beyond the walls, as though they had been launched by the sun itself.

Everything around him was collapsing. The Wizard shook his head in astonishment as he watched the magnificent monument perish in War Fire.

How much greater was their power to destroy than their power to build!

The Wizard pondered it, but found no answer.

Yushikin's command post was in an office building beside the statue. The ring of defenses around it did little against Ork rockets.

Under the officers' command, the soldiers transformed heaps of rubble into fortifications comparable to the surrounding buildings—creating the illusion that they had always been part of the city.

To the Black Legion, war was the highest form of art.

Alfred watched the busy figures around him with mixed emotions, then looked toward Yushikin, who was speaking with several officers outside the office building.

"Mm..."

Suddenly, flickering visions erupted in his mind. The Wizard staggered forward and fell, powerless to resist the images relentlessly battering his consciousness.

This uninvited outburst was so powerful that it shook the mind of the Fourth Great Wizard.

In all these years, it was the first time he had encountered such a thing.

Flashing images circled through his mind, hissing