Chapter 1217
Another day of "filial piety and parental love".
Chapter 1217 Another day of "filial piety and parental love".
Xia Xiu's great spirituality continued to advance along the battle line, and soon sensed a deeper anomaly behind the Black Mountains, far from the main battlefield.
There stands a massive steel fortress city.
Inside and outside the city walls, there were gears, tracks, crane booms, conveyor chains, and blast furnace exhaust pipes everywhere. Hundreds of steam towers rose from the depths of the fortress, spewing black smoke that gathered into a thick cloud above the mountains.
The fortress was built against the mountain, its outer walls consisting of layers of armor plates and nested black stone walls, with gun emplacements, observation towers, ammunition depots, and foundries interlocking with each other.
The streets of the city were almost devoid of ordinary houses. The wide main roads had been transformed into transport tracks, with ore cars, coal cars, and artillery shell cars running back and forth along the rails. When the heavy wheels rolled over the ground, the entire city would vibrate with a low tremor.
Countless workers toiled there.
Wearing heavy protective suits, they dragged iron chains, pushed winches, carried ore, poured baskets of fuel into the blast furnace, and sent truckloads of cast shells, armor plates, steam cores, and mechanical joints deep into the fortress.
There was no pause, no conversation.
Everyone's movements were arranged into a fixed rhythm, tired, numb, and precise, like the exposed muscles and nerves of this steel fortress.
Xia Xiu's great spirituality fell upon the center of the fortress.
There was only a roaring main furnace there, and in the next instant, he sensed the presence of the womb of the Great Old Ones.
"Tsk, a cluster of flesh-and-blood stars can even give birth to an embryo of a myriad-machine type... It seems the womb of the Great Old Ones really doesn't discriminate." Xia Xiu muttered to himself.
This time, the offspring was not hidden in the Holy Pit of Flesh and Blood, the Rotten Plague Soil, or the Polluted Vein, but instead transformed directly into a massive black steel fortress.
As Xia Xiu locked onto the Black Fortress, he also locked onto the position of the fourth Calabash Brother. Like the previous children, this perfect embryo lost in the corrupt world seemed to have little affinity with the word "obedience".
As always, the fourth Calabash Brother is rebelling!
His spiritual signal was located in the center of an army advancing towards the Black Fortress.
……
……
Lohos World.
At this moment, the great battle against Lord Lohos broke out in the mountains.
The wind here is cold. Below the snow line, the black mountains stand like a row of silent iron ridges, stretching between the gray sky and the scorched earth. In the distance, the black fortress is nestled at the confluence of two canyons.
The fourth perfect embryo—Perturabo—stood on the front-line command platform, his gaze passing over the wind, snow, and smoke of cannons, quietly watching the fortress.
He was tall with broad shoulders and a hard face. His eyes, under his brows, were deep and sharp. Behind him was a siege army composed of workers, miners, city-state rebels, and soldiers who had been exploited to the limit.
These people used to belong to Lohos, to the tyrant Damekos, to the never-ending factory machines deep within that black fortress.
They had dug iron ore in mines, burned their arms to charcoal by blast furnaces, forged cannonballs for city-state war after city-state war in arsenals, and were finally sent to the front lines to become expendable weapons they had made themselves.
Now, they stand behind Perturaber.
Because Pertura told them that fortresses can be breached, tyrants can be overthrown, and factories should not forever devour the bones of workers.
An artillery officer wearing a gray military overcoat strode up to the command platform and handed a calculation sheet to Perturaber.
"My lord, the first siege array has reached its designated position, the thirty-six heavy shockwave cannons have been calibrated, and the four primitive earthquake rams have been installed in the slide rails. The steam pressure is rising."
"The wall of the third defensive line outside the Black Fortress is more than eight meters thick. Conventional howitzers can only cut through the surface armor. If we launch a strong attack according to the old plan, it will take us at least three days to open a breach."
Perturaber did not answer immediately. He simply took the calculation sheet, glanced at the trajectory, wind speed, mountain structure, and shelling angle, and then circled three of them with a charcoal pencil.
"—Start here."
The officer paused for a moment, then looked down at the three markers.
"This is the rock support surface, not the main body of the city wall."
Perturab raised his eyes, his voice perfectly steady without a ripple.
That's why we attacked here.
"Damekos built the fortress very thick, but he mistook its thickness for solidity and its stacking for structure. He spent thirty years adding armor to the mountain, but he didn't realize that with each layer of weight he added, the old rock vein below would bear an extra layer of pressure."
"The earthquake cracked the rock veins, and the city wall collapsed on its own."
Upon hearing this, the officer paused slightly, and an excited expression appeared on his face.
“Pass on the order.” Perturaber handed the calculation sheet back, his tone still cold and clear.
"The first siege array will conduct three rounds of test firing; the second array will prepare for delayed artillery fire, and after the first resonance wave appears in the rock vein, it will immediately carry out a comprehensive attack on the eastern load-bearing slope; the four earthquake battering rams will be moved to the No. 3 slide rail opening and will be activated simultaneously after I give the order."
Once the order was given, the entire mountain siege position immediately began to operate.
Steam pipes spewed white mist, artillerymen carried shells and ran through muddy trenches, rangefinders lay behind rocks and repeatedly calibrated their lenses, and messengers ran wildly along the trenches to deliver Perturaber's orders to every artillery group and siege platform.
Soon, the first round of shelling began.
Boom—Boom—Boom—
Thirty-six heavy shockwave cannons fired simultaneously.
The shells did not hit the city wall directly, but instead struck the hillside in front of the Black Fortress at the angle marked by Perturabo. The explosion was not sharp, but rather had a very low, muffled sound, like a giant beast turning over on the ground.
The outer walls of the Black Fortress did not collapse immediately, but at the base of the walls, the rock layers that had long borne excessive weight began to show tiny cracks that were difficult to see with the naked eye.
Perturabo stood on the control platform, listening silently to the feedback.
"Second platoon," he ordered, "Fire."
The next instant, the heavy artillery units hidden in the distant mountain valley roared simultaneously.
Heavier shells soared through the sky, whistling as they crashed into the eastern load-bearing slope. The explosions tore up large swaths of black rock and frozen soil. The rock vein that had been torn apart by the first shockwave finally gave way, splitting open a crack hundreds of meters long deep within the mountain.
The Black Fortress trembled slightly.
The defenders on the city wall finally realized something was wrong. A piercing alarm bell rang from inside the fortress, and the gun emplacements began frantically changing direction, trying to suppress the siege positions in the mountains.
"Activate all four seismic battering rams."
That was a monster personally designed by Perturabo using his avatar [Ilmarinin] and his exclusive domain [White Gas Execution Hall - Hundred Furnaces Roaring Pressure].
Yes, Perturab was also a vain person.
【White Vortex Execution Hall - Hundred Furnaces Roaring】is Pertuabo's still incompletely formed illusory domain, and it is also the source of his confidence to rebel against the tyrant Damekos.
His field allows him to directly produce blueprints, materials, structural parameters, and production requirements. In layman's terms, he is a walking humanoid STC template, capable of producing hundreds of furnaces under pressure.
Given enough materials and corresponding blueprints, it can complete industrial production in the shortest possible time, transforming a cold design into a steel creation that can be deployed on the battlefield.
And it was through his own domain that he gradually armed the lower classes and surrounded the main city-state where the tyrant resided.
Now, below the hillside, four massive siege engines begin to advance.
Each machine is over ten meters tall and weighs tens of tons. The steam-hydraulic driven steel frame slowly advances along the slide rail, with a double-layered composite alloy hammerhead suspended in front, its surface covered with spikes and serrations, and the internal volcanic rock crystal resonant core gradually heating up.
Twenty operators simultaneously pulled control levers inside each battering ram, gears meshed, pressure valves opened, and the massive slide rail acceleration arm gradually reached its full length.
The artillery fire from the Black Fortress finally ceased, shells crashing into the hillside, blasting up patches of dirt and flesh. Several operators were thrown off the platform by the shockwave, and others immediately filled their positions.
Four earthquake battering rams struck simultaneously.
boom----
The low-frequency shockwaves advanced deep into the black rock, and the first thing to collapse was not the city wall, but the supporting rock vein below the mountain that had been weakened by repeated shelling.
The cracks widened rapidly, the entire load-bearing slope on the east side sank, and the outer third line of defense of the black fortress emitted a teeth-grinding twisting sound. The thick wall first collapsed inward by half a foot, and then the entire outer fortress collapsed downward on the spot like a giant that had lost its ankle.
The gun emplacements on the city wall tilted, and several heavy cannons, along with their gun emplacements, slid into the crack.
Dust billowed up, and then the army behind Perturab erupted in a long-suppressed roar.
"The breach has been opened!"
"The Black Fortress has collapsed!"
"Damekos's wall has collapsed!"
But Perturaber didn't laugh. He stared intently into the depths of the fortress. Amidst the dust, firelight, and the collapsed outer fortress, a familiar figure appeared on the highest platform of the Black Fortress. It was Damekos, his adoptive father, the tyrant of Lochus.
The man who once brought him back from the wilderness, gave him a name, food, books, and everything, yet made no secret of treating him as a tool and failing to truly see his value.
Damekos wore a black suit and a mechanical exoskeleton, half of his face was covered by a metal mask, and the gray iron emblem of the ruler of Lohos was inlaid on his chest.
He stood behind the collapsed city wall, looking down at Perturabo with a cold gaze, as if he were looking at a tool that had finally broken down.
The next moment, Perturab saw a scene that made his pupils suddenly contract.
He saw...the Black Fortress...stand up.
Click, click, click~~~~~
Suddenly, a dull, chilling mechanical roar emanated from the foundations that should have been deeply embedded in the mountain. Countless huge steel supports emerged from the cracks in the mountain, their ends gripping the rock walls on both sides of the canyon, like a giant beast that had been sleeping for many years using its claws to pry open its lair.
Layers of black armor plates flipped, slid, and reassembled from the outer wall. The towers, originally defensive gun emplacements, began to fold into shoulder gun emplacements. The outer bunker wreckage fell to the sides, revealing deeper hydraulic muscle bundles and a steam-powered spine inside.
It really stood up.
A colossal steel behemoth, the size of a city-state, slowly rose from the depths of the mountains. Its arms were formed by two folded armored walls, and the beating main furnace core was embedded in the center of its chest. Behind it, rows of chimneys spewed billowing black smoke, and its head was the original Black Rock Tower, with a huge monocular observation mirror on top of the tower shining with a scarlet light.
The rebels' cheers were instantly choked in their throats, and the next moment, the steel behemoth raised its right arm.
An energy cannon, with an absurdly large caliber and buried inside the city wall, slowly emerged from its arm armor, its muzzle aimed at the ridge where the rebels' left flank was located.
Perturabo spoke at almost the same instant.
"All troops disperse! The left flank withdraws from the artillery line, all shield vehicles move inward—"
Unfortunately, it's too late.
The cannon muzzle lit up.
A blindingly pale torrent of energy swept across the valley, instantly burning through the air in its path. The fog below the snow line was evaporated into white burst clouds. The entire ridge expanded in the beam of light, then disappeared as if erased from a map.
Boom~~~~~~
The nearby mountain, hundreds of meters high, was flattened by a single cannon shot.
The rock strata melted, the mountain collapsed, and the shock wave swept outwards, carrying lava, rubble and metal fragments. The armored vehicles, artillery positions, infantry formations and two steam locomotives on the left flank of the resistance were all swallowed up by that one shot.
The heatwave hit the command platform where Perturaber was located, sending several staff officers flying. The map table overturned on the spot, and the measuring instruments shattered all over the floor.
Perturab remained standing, raising his hand to shield himself from the oncoming rubble, his eyes filled with grief and indignation as he looked at the razed area, at his brothers who had fought alongside him and now "disappeared" before his very eyes.
He couldn't sense their presence, and he didn't believe they could have survived that devastating energy cannon shot.
A deep, cold voice emanated from the depths of the black fortress's chest in the sky.
Damekos's voice, amplified by the fortress's loudspeakers, resounded simultaneously from the mountains, turrets, and blast furnaces.
“Perturaber, you have disappointed me greatly.”
There was no anger in that voice, only a haughty indifference.
“I brought you back to Lohos from the wilderness, gave you a name, and gave you a battlefield to show your talents; if it weren’t for me, you would have died in the canyon or been sold as a freak to the next city-state by those foolish herders.”
"I'll let you learn mathematics, metallurgy, architecture, knowledge... to let you access blueprints and heritages that ordinary people can never touch in their entire lives."
"And your way of repaying me is to bring a bunch of miners, laborers, deserters and ungrateful fools to attack my fortress."
The black behemoth took a step forward, the valley trembled, and the remaining outer fortress fell off its legs like pieces of peeling iron scales.
“You always feel like I’m using you as a tool.”
"But have you ever thought that tools need someone to hold them in order to be of value? Your hands can build or destroy, your mind can calculate or just spin aimlessly. Without me giving you a goal, your talent will only be wasted on sculpting, musical scores, and those meaningless daydreams."
"I will make you the sharpest hammer of Lohos, so that everyone will kneel down and praise your omnipotence."
Damekos's voice gradually grew louder.
“But you betrayed me. You brought these lowly people to me, just because they cried out a few words, just because they made you feel that you were finally seen, needed, and called a savior.”
"madness!!!"
“Perturaber, you know nothing about Lohos’s true engineering mechanics.”
The main furnace on the chest of the steel behemoth lit up again, and pale energy re-gathered deep within the cannon barrel.
"Therefore, you will always be just an immature failure, a failure that I created but is unwilling to admit that you belong to me."
Just as Damekos, perched high above and using the amplification system of the Black Fortress's steel behemoth, arrogantly berated Perturaber, staging his nth daily display of paternal love and filial piety in the corrupt world, something unexpected happened on the battlefield that baffled everyone.
"Why didn't I die...?"
"What's going on? I remember being hit by this fortress that suddenly stood up?"
"Is this the commander's secret trump card?"
That pale torrent of energy just now clearly swept across the left flank ridge, flattening the mountains and evaporating the positions. Armored vehicles, artillery, infantry, and steam-powered soldiers should have been burned to ashes in that shot.
But after the afterglow of the explosion faded, figures suddenly reappeared in the area that should have been nothing but lava and scorched earth.
Just a moment ago they remembered seeing the light.
The light spread out from the end of the valley, like a pale shovel, flattening the whole world before everyone's eyes. They even felt their skin, bones, gun carriages, and comrades around them being swallowed up by the high temperature.
Then, the next moment, they were standing in the same spot again.
"I……"
An artilleryman who had "come back to life" looked down at his hands and then touched his chest.
"Didn't I just die?"
A combat engineer with a face covered in coal dust got up from the ground. He looked at his still intact legs and then at the completely flattened mountain in the distance. He felt as if he had been hit on the head with a hammer.
"strangeness……"
"I clearly saw the cannon fire coming, and I even remembered how my master used to beat me when I was a kid. How come I'm still here in the blink of an eye?" The sapper, who had been through a series of flashbacks, was also completely bewildered.
Further away, a steam engine soldier, which should have been burned through along with the cockpit by the beam of light, was still kneeling in the mud.
The pilot trembled as he pushed open the hatch, poked his head out, and stared blankly at the pressure gauges and control sticks still functioning normally in his cockpit.
"Hey……"
"Can anyone tell me if that shot just now went astray?"
No one answered him.
Because everyone saw it, the mountain is gone.
The ground beneath their feet was still scorching hot, and the air still reeked of the acrid smell of the high-energy impact. In the distance, the flattened mountains were still cascading down with molten lava.
The attack did happen, and the destruction did happen.
But those who should have died in that frame were forcibly removed from the "death outcome" by some incomprehensible force.
It looks like...deleting time?
Damekos, who had just been showing off, was stunned, as was Perturabo. Everyone was a little confused, with both sides thinking it was the other's crazy move.
boom--!!!
Before they could figure out what kind of trick this was, a loud noise rang out from the sky.
The sound was more like some enormous creature falling from the sky, tearing through the clouds, crushing the air, and crashing onto the battlefield with a roar of gravity and metal.
Everyone looked up at the same time. The gray-white clouds were smashed open, and a huge black shadow fell from the depths of the sky.
boom----!
The machine crashed into the valley in front of the Black Fortress. The shockwave caused the ground to collapse in all directions, sending rubble and dust hundreds of meters into the air. The damaged outer bunker and scrap metal were thrown backward by the shockwave.
After the smoke and dust cleared, a giant machine over 100 meters tall slowly stood upright.
Its armor gleamed with a cold, hard sheen in the afterglow of the artillery fire, and three enormous mechanical gears hovered on its back, slowly turning and meshing together to form golden arcs of light.
The machine stood in the center of the battlefield, blocking the way between Perturabo and the massive black fortress.
【Prometheus, the Holy Machine of the Gospel】—Descends!