Opening Shots

If there were historians who would come after the dust has finally settled, when the fiery winds from the storms that drenched the lands of magic finally calmed and the new dawn arose, they would debate how these storms came to be.

They would debate how did the first skirmishes between two countries escalate into a full-blown war. A war that would cause the lives of millions, displace millions more, and ultimately result in the destruction of the other state. The state that attacked was the one doomed to fall, they will argue while some would say that the state who attacked could've emerged victorious if they would have just been careful.

Regardless, the outcome has already been decided when they resorted to such desperate measures, abandoning their homes to fight the enemy. But who would defend their homes from an enemy they long considered a mere nuisance? How come such a state of power and knowledge be outsmarted by some men of metal?

The opening shots were the beginning of the end for that state. The end of their monopoly in their region. The beginning of a shockwave which shook the very foundations of the world from its feet and toppled the pillars which supported it.

The forest was brimming with activity, not because of nature, but because of the men who marched through it. An army 20 million strong entered the forest that day divided into columns of 200 which were all 100,000 men and women strong. They wielded enchanted spears, swords, axes, and maces as they wore their blue decorated breastplates and helmets. They marched into the forest with mages to their front.

Ever single common soldiers in the army are in either in the <D–> to <B+> ranks.

They were separated from the army, a whole new group composed of individuals with not only the ability to bend and control magic but the wisdom of great strategists and commanders. They marched forth from the army and into the forest they went. They covered themselves and avoided their enemies ability to detect them by using their magic to the fullest.

They hid among the bushes, the tall grass, the branches of the trees. They used stealth, something they worked hard upon.

They had blessings from the Goddess Gliesia who almost had her positioned revoked and her powers stripped from her, but she was given one more chance to prove herself worthy. Using the pressure pushed against her, she utilized her plans to the fullest and used her powers directly.

Any soldiers are powerful in either at the late stages or peak of <A+> rank(Lv.90-100) were an Elite Special Group Forces, with the aid of the goddess, their power was beyond their dreams and they wept in joy, knelt before her grace before embarking. Their hearts were now as hard as gold and their will tough as iron. Determined, they set out.

Disappoint their Goddess, they did not.

When they finally met their adversaries, they were careful and disciplined. They snuck through the foliage and used their enemy's abilities against them. How did they accomplish this? It was simple for them, the Goddess watched as their scouts fell group by group at massacre and massacre whenever they took the perilous journey into the forest.

Through the goddess knowledge and observations, they managed to pinpoint the weaknesses of the enemy; they possessed immense strength and skills equivalent to the peak of A-rank but they lacked two crucial aspects that were common in Fordalt at determining the victors of war.

They lacked magic and numbers.

Magic was within nearly every being and where there was life, magic was always present. Utilized effectively using orthodox and unorthodox methods regardless of the two, magic was the most powerful energy they knew of.

Numbers was another of their advantage, spies and scouts reports says the enemy has only an army of 100,000, which they were outnumbered 1 to 200. With an army of 20 million, there were millions of others waiting for their doors to be opened asunder and they shall let loose their revenge upon the metal demons.

But that does not mean the powers of the metal demons were something to be mocking. Nay, they lacked magic indeed but they possessed great technological advances not even the Meccan Kingdom could rival their technology. They were something different and out of this world, literally.

Numbers they lacked but skills they had plenty. Their warriors were not only extremely tough than their most strongest Divine-class armors but were also extremely agile and deadly. Their weapons spat thousands of bullets in incredible rate with foreign and unmagical energy surrounding it and their swords always glowed a strange red hue whenever they wielded it in the battlefield.

Then, when the first shots finally happened. The drums of war and the trumpets of the fallen sounded and echoed throughout the lands. The sounds were powerful and heard by every creature, every monster, every human and every beastmen in the region. It struck fear within their hearts and it let them know, the horn made them know; that the war has officially begun.

The first skirmishes took place when the Metal Demons were ambushed by the Elite Forces of A-rank Knights, Mages, Assassins, Practitioners, and many other Classes of the Senadate Theocracy. They put up a fight indeed, even killed a few of them from life and their bodies were incinerated by the metal demon's weapons. But some of the Elite groups were in the peak of A-rank and they are indeed powerful as the Metal Warriors themselves, they used their high-tier magic and through the combination of fire, ice and few other elemental and non-elemental spells, but by the time everything gets out of hands, they have no choice to use their strongest trump card, Super Tier Magic.

It took a few or more Super tier spells on the Metal Demons which resulted causing more destruction in the forest but still, they manage to slain the Metal Demons.

Their bodies were torn by these powerful tier spells, at the first try unfortunately didn't tore through their thick armor, their normal spells would normally just bounce off or do nothing but thanks to the goddess blessings, their magic was nearly equivalent to their weapons. The metal demons froze, melted in the insides or were roughly battered by countless 6th-10th and Super tier spells. The largest of these metal demons stood longer and put up such a fight that they were worthy of every form of respect. But they knew no respect now, they knew revenge, for the deaths of their loved ones and millions which were slain during that day.

The day forever remembered, "The Pope's Goodbye"

A day that was embedded in their minds and hearts and pushed them even further beyond their initial capacity to stage the utmost and purest of vengeance.

When the biggest of their enemies is finally slain, they did not celebrate nor did they mock their enemies. They proceed to their path to pave the way for the millions who will trigger the judgment day for the demons of metal.

But their enemies did not go down without dealing one more blow. As they thought the metal demons were finally finished and their souls have left their bodies, they did the unthinkable.

*BOOOOOMMM!!!*

Before any of them could react, something stained the world with a blinding white flash.

There was a thunderous roar and an eruption of heat.

The shockwave it generated blew the land away and the rising dirt and sand formed a mushroom cloud in the air.

The lethal area of the superheated pulse was measured dozens of kilometers, and there was no trace of movement within it. As the dust and smoke dispersed, the horrific conditions within were made clear.

Nothing could have lived within that area, but inside it, several figures cast the soil off and stood up.

Thankfully for them, some of the special forces of the Theocacy's best scriptures manage to survive thanks to their armor and magic.

However, they were still heavily injured, many of them has life-threatening injuries, and some of their entire body had been scorched, and their once beauty features was nowhere to be seen. Some had lost all their hair as they looked like charcoal briquette.

But their is one question...

Many of these warriors should have been immune to fire, so why had they taken fire damage? How had their defenses been breached? 

What they have recalled, one by one, each metal demon they slew, they would explode into a fiery of flames so massive and destructive that could wiped out a large town out of the map, even they are powerful A-ranks, they could not even could withstand all of it, even their body was protected by their magic defenses from their inner magic but it was not enough.

They were launched back, bruised, scarred, blinded, deafen, and they couldn't cast any of their magic for a period of time because the explosion has somehow caused a dead-magic zone according to their knowledge.

They flew several kilometers away like ants were blown away by the hard wind and when they crashed down, dozens of trees were uprooted from the sheer power from their impact to not hit the ground alone. Although the enemy was then finally slain, they were dealt a dose of reality.

Fortunately, most of them are still alive thanks to their magic defenses and enchanted armors but some of their comrades didn't make it.

As for the enemy...

The enemy, until this day, until this hour, until this very moment. Was still, a mystery.

A mystery so dangerous, they could not risk carelessness.

To doom themselves was to be careless. That was a fact and the most important lesson imparted to them by the goddess before they went to the crusade.

And as they went deeper and deeper into the forest, it began to seem quieter and quieter. The encountered less opposition than the initial conflicts, they were beginning to doubt their destination. Did the enemy indeed have a fortress? If so, why the lack of defenses? A determined response? More patrols? It began to look silly.

But only when their army of twenty million was finally inside the forest did the enemy finally revealed itself to them. The enemy indeed had defenses and their defenses struck them awe and horrific. The army stumbled upon a strange clearing of trees and beyond that clearing was a peculiar hill which they crested.

They crested the hill and behold, the mighty walls of the enemy stood strong before them. The walls were unlike any other wall they have seen, it was half the size of their walls and thrice as thin but they glowed. They glowed a white color and section upon section of those walls stood a tower that was wide and menacing.

The towers posed danger, just glancing at these spider looking beasts made their weaponry known. Weaponry that are powerful, powerful and very deadly that made the goddess felt shivers down on her spine. The one thing that was clear was that the defenses were stronger than anything but they knew their wills were stronger.

And so they decided to set camp, the Elite warriors of A-ranks and the army of 20 million upon reaching their destination. They camped at the opposite side of the hill when they did, many nights have already passed. Who knows what the enemy was scheming behind those walls, would they mount a valiant defense? Or would they charge blindly at them and a great battle ensues?

They drank and they slept. They waited many days and nights and watched over those walls for anything that would prompt them to wield their swords. They were burning the eastern section of the forest entirely and with it did the black smoke covered the skies above them.

The smoke from the fires was thick and widespread until they finally blocked out the sun across their region for the wind was not in their favor. The wind blew the smoke above their lands but they paid no heed to it.

Little did they know that above that black smoke and the white clouds that were upon it. The enemy was gonna fall from the skies.

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A/n: Guess what kind of battle in the skies, readers? Its not Wyvern like in the original ;p