Chapter 1272: Beneath the Flames

The first explosion hit and Jodel was already moving — out of the hiding place, into the open, the whole unit filing behind him as planned.

Then the second detonation came from the north, and the ground lurched.

Jodel stumbled and caught himself. Around him, dust rose in curtains and soldiers grabbed at walls and each other. He turned toward the Tusk City. Standing on the lower ground, he could only see the top of it: an orange fireball muscling through the sky, black smoke corkscrewing up behind it, the Red Mist rimming the fireball lit orange-white where the fire touched it. The whole sky above the city was on fire.

The Sand Nationals went still.

Only one phrase existed in that moment: the wrath of the Three Gods.

“Don’t stop!” Jodel’s voice came out harder than he intended. He swung his arm forward. “This is the chief’s weapon against the demons! They’re the ones who should be afraid — not us!”

The words cut through. Bodies started moving again.

“Heaven’s fire! The chief summoned it!”

“Stop standing there — move!”

The unit surged. Soldiers poured from behind walls, from window frames, from the hollows of collapsed buildings, joining the stream and pressing toward the Tusk City like water finding its level downhill.

Jodel ran at the front.

He had pledged himself to the chief’s rule without reservation, but he still believed Sand Nationals were built for this — for fighting, for enduring. The oasis starved you young and taught you to move anyway. He could use a bow, a sword, a flintlock. Brian’s training had sharpened that: fixed targets, moving targets, accuracy while running. He was ready for all of it.

He wanted to be first through the gate. He wanted his name passed from mouth to mouth across the whole army.

Then the unit crested toward the city wall, and a wall of heat met them instead.

For one disoriented second, Jodel was back in the desert in midsummer — the air pressing in from all sides, the sunlight something physical. His skin felt the heat before his mind registered it. Beside him, soldiers flinched and slowed; some of the northerners near the front actually retreated, crouching below the slope with their arms up as shields.

Jodel forced himself forward. He took another step.

Something was wrong.

The fireball had died. A single thin thread of smoke still coiled from where it had been. The Red Mist above the city was torn — a whole section missing, as if a great jaw had bitten it away — and through that gap the sky showed, open and strange. Through the city gates, heat waves rolled along the ground and made the buildings beyond them ripple and bend. The wooden structures had all fallen; their blackened columns jutted from the rubble like fingers. No demons moved in the streets. No demons at all.

Jodel’s chest tightened. Each breath came in smaller. His legs had become stone.

Why am I so weak?

The city wall was close enough to touch. He reached for it and his legs gave out. The ground came up to meet him.

The last thing he saw was Farry — contemptuous, efficient — dragging him clear of the road.

This battle exceeded Iron Axe and the General Staff’s every expectation.

The plan had been straightforward: the napalm would set the northern city blocks ablaze, burning the houses and scorching off the Red Mist from around the city. The Tusk City would be isolated temporarily, the demons inside thrown into panic without their breathing devices. The ambush unit would pour in, engage them at close range, and drive them down. The demons assigned to a recently evacuated city would be few — past intelligence suggested no more than five hundred in the first days after the Red Mist arrived. Numbers and strength, both, would favor the First Army.

The ambush unit had been constrained: no heavy weapons, all soldiers hidden in underground passages and ruins to avoid the Devilbeasts’ scrutiny. Rifles and anti-demon grenades were enough to suppress; pursuit was never part of the plan. The goal was simpler. Lower the demons’ morale. Show that human beings could strike back even in retreat. Buy breathing room for the units falling back.

What they got instead was an explosion that stopped the battle before it started.

No fire wall appeared as planned. The heat from the detonation itself became the barricade — rolling outward through the gates, forcing the ambush unit back, burning several soldiers, dropping others unconscious. The operation dissolved.

It was not, necessarily, failure. No one who felt that heat outside needed to imagine what it had done inside. No written record suggested demons withstood heat better than men.

What Iron Axe could not escape was the fact that he could not see. He had no eyes in the city; no way to assess what remained. And he could not wait for the temperature to drop. The demons would come.

“Sir,” Brian said, emerging from the headquarters with something bright in his face despite himself. He had not watched the weapon’s test, but he would carry the image of what it had done to the sky for the rest of his life. “All troops except us have withdrawn from the Broken Tooth Castle.”

“Then we withdraw too.” Iron Axe looked north once more before turning away. “The demons will notice. When they come, it won’t be easy to run.”

He was not wrong. The next day, Devilbeasts appeared over the Tusk City in a dark constellation, and at their center, the Sky Lord — Hackzord himself.

Chapter 1272 - Beneath the Flames

Translator: Transn Editor: Transn As soon as he heard the first explosion, Jodel and his unit filed out of their hiding place according to the instruction. However, no sooner had they trooped out than an ear-splitting boom came from the north. Dust was stirred up, and they almost fell as the ground shook violently. Jodel managed to steady himself and looked toward the Tusk City in surprise. As he was standing on the lower land, he could only spy an orange fireball punch the air as thick smoke spiraled up. The Red Mist around the fireball was lit up, and the sky was aflame. The Sand Nationals looked horrified. They could only think of one phrase at this moment: the wrath of the Three Gods! “Don’t be afraid,” Jodel yelled through clenched teeth and waved his arm. “This is a weapon created by the chief to fight the demons! It’s the demons that should be scared not us!” His words jerked everyone out of the trance. “That’s right. This is Heaven’s fire summoned by the chief!” “Don’t just stop there. Move!” The unit resumed to run. People came out from behind the wall, the windows and the collapsed houses. They soon joined the advance team and swarmed toward the Tusk City like a tidal wave. Jodel was running at the very front of the unit. Although he had completely submitted to the chief’s ruling, he still believed that Sand Nationals were more suitable to fight than northerners, especially for warriors from small clans like him who had grown up in a barren oasis and been used to struggling to live. He could use not only bows and swords but also flintlocks. After receiving further training from Brian, he could now shoot fixed targets accurately and also fire on the go. This was a perfect time for him to demonstrate his power. He not only wanted to be the first one that entered the city but also the first person to gain the victory. He wanted his name to be remembered by the entire army! However, when the troops ascended and gained the city wall of the Tusk City, a smothering heat wave greeted them. For a second, Jodel thought he had returned to the desert blazed in the summer sunlight in the Southernmost Region. His skin was basking in the burning air, and he could hardly open his eyes. Neither could the soldiers following him. The whole unit was thwarted by an invisible wall and slowed down. Some northerners at the front even retreated in embarrassment and crouched down below the slope, in an attempt to protect themselves from the heat. Jodel forced himself to march forward, but he immediately realized that something had gone wrong. The fireball in the air was extinguished. A thin strand of smoke was still coiling. The thick veil of the Red Mist was now missing one corner, as though a giant beast had bitten it off. There was thus one blank area in the sky free of the Red Mist. Through the wide open city gates, Jodel saw heat waves rolling at the end of the horizon, and the buildings on the ground looked distorted after the impact. The wooden houses all collapsed during the explosion, their blackened pillars sprouting out like the devil’s claws. The demons, however, did not come up to stop them or disperse in various directions. In fact, there was not a single demon in his view. Jodel suddenly felt it hard to breathe in the scorching heat, and his body started to protest. His step became increasingly heavy. “Darn. Why do I suddenly get so weak?” The city wall was within his reach, but in a second, he lost all his power, and his vision blurred. Jodel stumbled and then fell to the ground. That last thing he saw was the contemptuous look on Farry’s face as the latter dragged him out of the way. This battle exceeded Iron Axe and the General Staff’s expectation. They had expected that the north of the king’s city of the Kingdom of Wolfheartwould be ablaze. The flames would have not only burned all the houses but also the Red Mist outside the city. Then the Tusk City would have been isolated temporarily, and the demons without the breathing device would have been in a panic. After that, the ambush unit should have raided the demons and finished the rest of the enemies off. Although Iron Axe did not know how many demons there would be, based on the past intelligence, the demons would normally assign troops according to the population of the city. The demons definitely knew that the Tusk City had been evacuated. Therefore, during the first few days after the appearance of the Red Mist, the number of the demons should have been no more than500. In other words, the First Army should have gained a very advantageous position in terms of number and strength. Nevertheless, they were not relying on this battle to eliminate the demons, for the soldiers had to hide themselves in the underground passages and ruins to avoid the scrutiny of the Devilbeasts. As such, they could not use any heavy weapons. It was not hard to suppress the demons with the rifles and the anti- demon grenades, but it was difficult to pursue them with only light weapons. The main goal of this battle was to lower the demons’ morale and make them realize that human beings could fight back even while they were retreating. In this way, the army would be able to alleviate the stress of the retreating unit. Nevertheless, the battle simply ended after the explosion. The fire wall did not appear as planned. Instead, the heat waves as a result of the earth-shaking explosion barred the ambush unit from entering the king’s city. Many soldiers were burned and had even passed out. As such, it was impossible for them to continue with the operation. Of course, it did not necessarily mean that they had failed. They could easily imagine what the inner city looked like judging from the heated air outside. No written records had shown that demons had a higher tolerance to heat than men. The only thing that Iron Axe felt regretted about was that he could not see the outcome of the battle at the front in person. As he had no idea when the temperature in the city would drop, he had to leave to avoid getting burned. “Sir, all the troops except us have withdrawn from the Broken Tooth Castle,” Brian said as he walked out of the headquarters in excitement. He had not participated in the test of the new weapon, but he would remember what it had done in this battle for the rest of his life. “Very well. Let’s retreat,” Iron Axe said while nodding. “I think it won’t be long before the demons notice us. It won’t be so easy to escape when they come after us.” Just as Iron Axe had predicted, the next day, a demon unit arrived at the Tusk City on the Devilbeasts, the leader of which was none other than the Sky Lord, Hackzord.