Chapter 104: Descent of the Bait
Zephyria plummeted.
The descent was not uncontrolled. Lucifer regulated the Void-Core Reactor’s output with absolute precision.
The massive jagged black mountain, ringed by the glowing blue Cryo-Pylons, dropped out of the stratosphere like a colossal falling anvil.
The air roared past the stone and whipped the heavy banners of Obsidian into a frenzy.
Lucifer stood on the high balcony of the central keep. He did not brace himself against the railing.
His Void Arcanist core neutralized the intense vertical gravity shift. This allowed him to stand perfectly still as the world rushed up to meet him.
"Altitude passing twenty thousand feet," Sarah’s voice echoed through the comms rune. The Star-Touched Oracle was anchored to her Scepter on the golden Spire above and feeding him real-time atmospheric data.
"Hold the drop at five thousand feet," Lucifer commanded smoothly.
He didn’t want to crash the city. He wanted to dangle it!
Through his Warlord sight, the massive Coalition army on the plains below came into sharp focus.
Three hundred million soldiers formed a dense shimmering crescent of polished steel and raised shields. In the center of the formation, Lucifer saw the true threat.
The Ivory Legion.
They were not human infantry. They were a thousand massive heavily armored War-Behemoths. The mammoth-class elephants were clad entirely in thick dull gray iron plates covered in glowing purple runes. Bolted to their broad backs were massive siege ballistas. The Star-Piercer Cannons!
[System Warning: Hostile Siege Units Identified!]
[Unit: Ivory Legion War-Behemoths (Level 45 - Heavy Artillery)]
[Status: Anti-Magic Plating Active. Anti-Air Ordinance Loaded.]
"They are dug in deep," Elara noted as she stepped onto the balcony beside Lucifer. The Twilight Sovereign’s iridescent armor shifted slightly.
"The Behemoths are heavily warded against magic. Standard aether-fire will splash off their plating."
"We are not going to use magic," Lucifer stated coldly. "We are going to use gravity."
The violent drop ceased.
The Void-Core Reactor roared and engaged its primary suspension thrusters. Zephyria shuddered as it hit the designated altitude.
The floating mountain hung perfectly still in the sky. It was exactly five thousand feet above the sprawling human army!
The shadow it cast was absolute. A massive circle of darkness completely blotted out the late afternoon sun and plunged the center of the Coalition forces into sudden terrifying twilight.
Down on the plains, the three hundred million soldiers stared up in awe and horror.
"It stopped!" a Royal General shouted and pointed up at the glowing blue ring of the Cryo-Pylons. "The demon stopped the fall!"
Lord Vorian sat on his armored destrier near the center of the formation. He glared up at the floating black rock. The scar on his neck burned with phantom pain.
"He is hesitating," Vorian sneered. He tried to inject confidence into the trembling ranks around him. "The Warlord knows if he brings it lower, our Star-Piercers will tear the bottom of his rock apart. He is trapped in the sky."
High Warlock Xoroth hovered nearby on a disk of swirling purple magic. The dark mage narrowed his black pupil-less eyes.
"Do not underestimate him, Vorian," Xoroth hissed. "He killed the World-Eater. Be ready to fire."
High above, Lucifer tapped his comms rune.
"Celeste. You are clear for deployment," Lucifer ordered. "Make them chase you."
"Jumping now, Grand Marshal," the High Ranger replied.
On the lowest tier of Zephyria, built into the jagged bedrock jutting out below the Cryo-Pylon ring, a massive iron hatch ground open.
High Ranger Celeste did not ride her dire wolf for this drop. She stood at the edge of the open hatch and the freezing wind whipped her dark hair.
Behind her stood four hundred Phantom Rangers. They wore sleek dark leather armor designed for maximum aerodynamic efficiency.
They did not carry heavy shields or longswords. They carried high-tension climbing ropes and short curved daggers.
"We fall fast, we hit the dirt, and we run south!" Celeste yelled to her scouts over the roaring wind. "Do not engage the heavy infantry! Let the Warlord handle the big game!"
Celeste stepped off the edge!
She plummeted into the five-thousand-foot drop. The four hundred Rangers followed instantly. They poured out of the hatch like a stream of dark arrows!
They didn’t use magic to slow their fall. They didn’t have gliders. They relied entirely on the Warlord’s aura to save them.
Lucifer tracked their descent perfectly.
When the Rangers were exactly fifty feet above the rocky uneven ground of the Shattered Plains, Lucifer engaged a microscopic fraction of his Void Arcanist magic.
"Gravity Crush," Lucifer whispered.
He didn’t target an enemy. He targeted the air directly beneath the falling scouts. He created a massive perfectly flat cushion of compressed high-density air.
The four hundred Rangers hit the invisible cushion. Their terrifying terminal velocity was instantly absorbed by the spatial distortion.
They bounced slightly. Their momentum was completely arrested and they landed softly on their boots in the dirt.
"Boots on the ground!" Celeste called out and instantly sprinted south.
The Phantom Rangers scattered. They executed a flawless high-speed retreat away from the massive Coalition army.
Down in the Royal ranks, Lord Vorian saw the sudden deployment.
"He is dumping his scouts!" Vorian roared. His eyes widened with aggressive greed. "The Warlord’s thrusters are failing! He is shedding weight to maintain altitude! They are retreating!"
Vorian didn’t wait for King Carlos to issue an order from the capital. The resurrected noble saw a tactical advantage and seized it blindly. He wanted to slaughter Lucifer’s men on the ground.
"Ivory Legion!" Vorian screamed and drew his broadsword. "Break formation! Pursue the scouts! Run them down before they reach the tree line!"
High Warlock Xoroth hissed in protest. "Vorian, wait! Do not break the defensive crescent! If you move the Behemoths out of formation, our anti-air coverage will be compromised!"
"Silence, warlock!" Vorian snapped. "I command the vanguard! I am going to crush his retreating rats!"
Vorian spurred his destrier forward.
The massive heavily armored wall of the Ivory Legion responded. The thousand War-Behemoths trumpeted. It was a deafening sound that shook the plains!
Their heavy handlers whipped their thick hides. The colossal beasts surged forward and broke the perfect defensive crescent shape of the Coalition army.
The Behemoths charged. They moved with terrifying speed for their size. Their massive iron-plated feet tore up the dirt as they chased after the retreating Phantom Rangers.
High above, standing on the balcony, Lucifer watched the maneuver.
"He took the bait," Elara noted. A fierce predatory smile touched her lips. "Vorian’s pride is thicker than his armor."
"He broke his anti-air shield wall," Lucifer stated smoothly. "The Behemoths are no longer protecting the infantry. They are completely isolated in the open."
Lucifer turned away from the railing.
He didn’t order the Glacial Wyrms to attack. The Wyrms’ frostfire would struggle against the anti-magic runes plated on the elephants. He needed kinetic physical devastation.
He walked into the grand hall.
"Thrain," Lucifer commanded over the comms rune.
Deep inside the Citadel, King Thrain was standing over the glowing Aether-Forge. The dwarf grinned. "I am here, Warlord!"
"Open the primary drop bays," Lucifer ordered. "It is time to test the suspension."
"Drop bays opening!" Thrain roared and slammed his hammer onto the console.
On the bottom of the floating island, massive heavy iron doors slid open. They revealed ten wide dark shafts leading directly up into the belly of the fortress.
Lucifer walked through the grand hall and out into the main courtyard.
The titans stood in perfect silent ranks. The twenty-meter-tall holy machines held their massive Star-Metal broadswords at their sides.
Their glowing blue runic veins pulsed steadily.
"Titans," Lucifer commanded. His voice echoed across the courtyard.
The massive machines turned their glowing cross-shaped visors toward him.
"The enemy heavy cavalry is currently overextended on the plains below," Lucifer stated coldly. "They are clad in anti-magic iron. They believe they are untouchable."
He raised his Gauntlet of the Void King. Black lightning crackled violently across his knuckles.
"You are going to show them the weight of Obsidian," Lucifer declared. "Enter the drop bays. Execute an orbital strike."
The Paladin-Mechs did not hesitate. They did not need to coordinate a marching order.
The thousand towering giants turned and marched toward the massive open shafts in the center of the courtyard. They didn’t slow down when they reached the edge.
They simply stepped off!
Twenty-meter-tall constructs of indestructible Star-Metal and Spectral Dragon Bone, weighing hundreds of tons each, plummeted straight down the five-thousand-foot shafts.
Down on the plains, Lord Vorian was leading the charge.
The Ivory Legion thundered across the dirt and rapidly closed the distance on the fleeing Phantom Rangers. Vorian laughed and raised his broadsword. He was eager to ride down Celeste and her scouts.
Suddenly, the sky above them screamed.
It was not the sound of magic. It was the terrifying physical shriek of massive objects displacing the air at terminal velocity!
Vorian looked up.
Dropping out of the shadow of the floating mountain were a thousand golden meteors!
"What is that?!" a Behemoth handler shrieked and stared up in absolute horror.
The titans fell perfectly straight. Their massive bodies were completely aerodynamic. They didn’t slow down. They didn’t cast levitation spells.
They relied entirely on the sheer indestructible density of their Star-Metal frames to survive the impact.
At the very last second, exactly fifty feet above the ground, the Titans engaged their secondary magitech thrusters. The massive blue flames erupted from their boots and sharply arrested their catastrophic downward momentum.
But they didn’t stop completely. They needed the kinetic force.
The one thousand Paladin-Mechs slammed into the earth directly in the center of the charging Ivory Legion!
CRASH!
The impact was apocalyptic!
The sheer physical shockwave of a thousand heavy mechs hitting the ground simultaneously caused a localized earthquake. The dirt plains exploded upward in a massive obscuring cloud of dust and debris.
The anti-magic plating on the War-Behemoths was entirely useless against pure overwhelming kinetic mass!
Dozens of the colossal war-elephants were instantly crushed beneath the heavy iron boots of the Titans. Their anti-air ballistas were smashed into splinters.
The massive beasts were physically thrown backward by the shockwave. They tumbled over each other in a chaotic screaming pile of broken iron and shattered bone.
The charge of the Ivory Legion was completely and violently arrested.
The dust settled.
The one thousand Paladin-Mechs stood in a flawless golden wall in the center of the carnage. They were completely undamaged, the Star-Metal easily absorbing the impact.
They slowly raised their twenty-foot broadswords.
Lord Vorian’s destrier had been thrown to the ground by the shockwave. The noble struggled to his hands and knees and was covered in dirt.
He stared up in absolute unadulterated terror at the towering golden giants surrounding him.
The trap had snapped shut. The Warlord’s heavy cavalry had hit the ground.