The Record of Unusual Creatures
chapter-456

Chapter 456: Battlefield: Otherworld

As Y’zaks bellow rang across the battlefield, both sides were shaken by what the demon king had proclaimed. General Grigory held his sword tightly, his eyes were cautious. At the same time, he asked his adjutant, “What’s a phone call?”

Serathon had also tightened his grip on his warglaive, and roared at one of the demonic army officers, “Quick, go check what ‘blast your a**es to kingdom come’ means!”

Upon Helcrown’s battlements, Hao Ren and the rest were still in a daze. Each and everyone of them were stunned into silence. It took a while before Vivian managed to come up with a reaction. Her face was rather incredulous. “So… Big Guy, care to share your combat strategy?”

Well, that was proof that even a person like Y’zaks was not immune to Earth’s influence after staying there for half a year. The demon king had already picked up a boat load of words that only Earthlings would understand. On top of that, due to the difference in worldviews, Y’zaks knew the exact meaning of the words, but did not find them offensive. He took the words literally, word for word as they were, and when he bellowed them out, his looked serious…

The Allied Army had increased the pace of its attack as more and more arcane cannons finished charging; their load was being blasted towards Helcrown in a flurry. But, just as the army thought victory was within grasp and the end of the Demon King’s army was nigh, an unknown screech traveled across the sky!

The western skies suddenly lit up in silver as countless white and madder red missiles rained upon them like a sudden storm. Neither the Allied Army nor Demonic Army could react in any capacity, They were thrown into chaos by the sudden attack of this skyborn “phenomenon” and the rear of both encampments was an inferno.

“Mysterious silver objects…” Only then did Grigory realize what the sentries meant after looking at the attacking metal vessels. He now understood why they had ignored the outposts during their initial flight. They only bared their fangs at the battlefield, and with the reappearance of Helcrown, it was obvious that the two were definitely related!

However, Aerym’s attack came in a blitz and it was about as quick as the magical transmission used by the Allied Army. By the time General Grigory got word of it, he did not have time to even assess the situation, or react. He did the only thing he could, and ordered his men into defensive formations. “Deploy barriers! Spread out!”

The Allied Army quickly formed a defensive formation as each race hurriedly deployed barriers and spread out. While the arcane cannons changed their targets to their new airborne threat. Griffon riders and mages took to the air to combat the weird metal monsters.

It was a battle of epic proportions, which no one had ever seen before.

Plasma blasts scorched the earth in blinding rays, and the floating debris above the Broken Plains were blasted into white hot chucks of molten rock. Those demons, who were too slow to react were seared into ash by the superhot plasma blasts. Serathon immediately deployed an army-wide demonic barrier as he commanded the demonic cannons to counter-fire. His eyes were still locked onto Helcrown. Shortly after, something appeared and it was forever seared into the minds of all who were present.

The dimensional gate next to Helcrown had grown into massive proportions, almost like a black wall descending from the heavens. A dimensional rift was visible as the object broke through the gate. At the same time, a few pyramid-shaped aircrafts had earlier bypassed the aerial defences and everyone’s attention. They were now slowly appearing from the dimensional gate. Behind the ships were countless guiding lights, which made it seem like they were towing something out of the gate.

Under the guidance of the light, the object finally showed itself, blocking out the heavens.

It was like a floating mountain range, a city beyond the clouds, or a moving continent above everyone’s head. The old space hulk bore the scars of past battles and disasters. A few miles at a time, the space hulk appeared from the gate as though it was threatening to crush everyone underfoot. The sudden appearance of such a colossal hulk that was riddled with holes and appendages struck fear into every being on the field.

The 100-km-long ancient space hulk floated with the aid of the anti-gravity generators as it lumbered its way out of the gate. The Aerymian spacecrafts were massive objects in the eyes of those who had seen it earlier. But with the space hulk’s appearance, they were nothing but gnats next to the behemoth.

The space hulk blocked out the heavens, bringing premature night upon the entire Broken Plains. Under the teeming darkness, only the flashes of plasma and explosions of heat-seeking missiles reminded everyone that the battle was still ongoing.

One of the micro-missiles flew towards him, and General Grigory easily destroyed the missile with a slash of his sword. The holy light obliterated the missile before it even got close and the fragments as well as aftershock slammed against the magic barrier. But, behind the first micro-missile was a swarm of its kind, racing towards him.

A paladin of his caliber could have easily taken care of a missile, but the advanced firepower that the Aeryms brought smothered the heavens.

The target of the missiles were however, not him. Instead, the targets were the arcane cannons behind him. Hao Ren was right; while the Aerymians indeed had advanced technology, the fight was real, not a simulation. Those cannons were a real threat.

Well, they were at least towards the space hulk, which did not have any barriers. Its armor was also ruined. The structure itself was barely held together by nails and duct tape.

Grigory realized too that Helcrown was not the main character that day; it was the massive iron continent, which appeared from another dimension.

What was that thing?

Grigory, Serathon, Banuklaak and all other commanding officers wondered at the same time. Was this what the demon king would use for his revival? A super weapon of sorts? Or, was it an ancient demonic relic, or the true source of the demon king’s power?

And, were those flying metal boxes summoned by the demon king from another world?

Grigory pointed his sword towards the floating behemoth. “Take that down!”

“That will cause massive casualties, sir!” His adjutant was horrified when Grigory gave the order. The long shadow had covered the entire Broken Plains. It was like a moving continent above everyone’s head, and if it were to crash into the ground with its current trajectory, the casualties would be unimaginable.

Grigory gave his adjutant a cold glare. “Don’t make me repeat myself, officer! Take that down! What happened to your convictions to die in battle?!”

At that very moment, the demonic host came to the same conclusion as the demonic cannons trained their guns towards the space hulk. Countless corrosive green energy pounded the behemoth. In an instant, the belly of the space hulk was lit green. The structure itself was not stable from the outset, and the rattling was even worse now.

Behind the demon cannons, a fusillade of spellflame churned into a fiery net.

Looking down at the battlefield, Y’zaks drew his sword. “Men, follow me! We will destroy those demonic cannons!”

“I’ll take care of the humans’ artilleries,” Vimm’s voice rang out from the communicator. “The space hulk’s structure is worse than expected. The tow ships are accelerating now. Please help to take out those stray missiles.”

The hulking spacecraft creaked as the tow ships accelerated towards the western teleportation gate. Hao Ren inititally thought to show off the Petrachelys for a bit, but he decided otherwise as it went to deploy the gate. It was the only ship in the fleet that was capable of opening a gate big enough for the space hulk to pass through, therefore it had to be at the forefront of the fleet.

The Aerymian spacecrafts started bombarding the Allied Army’s firebase, while the smaller fighter crafts tangled with the griffon riders and mages. They seemed to be winning. Y’zaks and his demonic retinue leaped from the high walls of Helcrown, while more joined in using the city’s teleportation gates. Demons, obsidian golems, and the mighty army rushed headlong towards Serathon and Banuklaak’s forces.

There were plasma blasters that were used to cut up their floating islands; photon cannons that were used to destroy out-of-control coronal stations; and disintegration beams that were used to well.. disintegrate abandoned islands…. Technically speaking, the Aerymian combat crafts were in fact engineering tools, but with their vast gulf in technology, even an ore digger could be a doomsday weapon!

As the griffon riders fought against the advanced aircrafts, arcane cannons bombarded the anti-gravity frigates. The heat of the battle dominated the skies. As mages as well as paladins unleashed their spells and holy light, an unprecedented scene of battle unfolded over the field.