Chapter 164: The Outbreak of War

The distant roaring sound gradually drew closer. Xie Liu and Wang Qi turned their heads simultaneously to look toward the source of the noise, frowning in unison. In the quiet of the night, these approaching roars sounded like death warrants, causing their hearts to flutter with faint dread.

"They're moving fast," Xie Liu muttered, punching his still-stiff thigh as he stood up from the rock. He tossed away his unfinished roasted fish and cocked his ear to listen.

"Hawk-class warships, Scorch-class warships, Ground-Dragon low-altitude armored vehicles, and Moon-Ring destroyer vessels. They've really brought out the heavy artillery just for us," Xie Liu sneered, his gaze growing increasingly cold. "To think that the higher-ups of the metropolis would use such formidable equipment not on the battlefield, but to hunt us down. I am deeply honored."

"Do you really have the leisure to feel honored right now? Their vanguard is already a dozen kilometers away. If I hadn't set up the signal jammer ahead of time, you'd have been exposed by now," Ailuo's figure materialized on a tree branch behind Xie Liu.

"It's fine. It'll still take them a little while to find us, plenty of time for us to come up with a countermeasure." Xie Liu smiled with quiet confidence, earning a skeptical look from Ailuo. "We're in this situation now, so spit it out. What do we do?"

"Simple. We run." Xie Liu delivered his answer without hesitation. Ailuo's lips twitched slightly at that; an urge to slash him to death rose within her. Yet, seeing that Xie Liu was not joking, she pressed further, "Do you actually have a plan?"

"Not a plan per se, just taking it one step at a time. I'm waiting."

"Waiting for what?" Ailuo asked. Xie Liu shook his head in silence, unwilling to elaborate. Even he could not guarantee the outcome of what he was waiting for.

"I'm pinning all my hopes on him. He'd better not let me down," Xie Liu muttered, clenching his fists. At that moment, Ye Leng and Qili approached together.

"Have they arrived?" Ye Leng asked first. Xie Liu raised a hand to point behind them. Far off at the edge of the mountain range, several massive dark silhouettes blotted out the moonlight, advancing slowly in this direction while sweeps of green light periodically scanned the ground below.

"Explorer-class warships. They must know we're using a signal jammer, which is why they deployed Explorers. Our jammers won't protect us for long. Let's move," Xie Liu said, pulling a few small gadgets from his coat. "These are portable signal jammers. Put them on. They won't stop an Explorer's scan, but they'll block ordinary signals."

The others took the small devices from Xie Liu and attached them to their gear. Ailuo then asked, "Which way?"

"That way." Xie Liu pointed toward a densely wooded hillside to their flank. "That's a hilly region, full of mountains and trees. It'll give us good cover."

Before Xie Liu's voice had even faded, the searching beam of an Explorer-class vessel in the distance swept across the opposite cliffside. Xie Liu frowned slightly. "We're out of time. Let's go."

Everyone wore grave expressions. Ailuo listened intently, then nodded as well. "Their surface combat droids are here too. Everyone, be careful."

Xie Liu shoulded his guitar case and glanced back into the forest behind them, catching sight of countless droids weaving back and forth among the trees. He recognized these machines; they belonged to the Coalition's mechanized forces, certainly not the Ravager Legion.

A distance of a dozen kilometers was merely a matter of minutes for them. Xie Liu and his companions had no time to waste.

"Let's go," Xie Liu signaled with a wave of his hand, and Ye Leng turned to extinguish the campfire. The group of five darted swiftly through the woods, pressing westward along the riverbank.

Barely had they left the spot when, behind the mountain peaks, a massive flying warship slowly emerged from the other side of the ridge. Had Xie Liu been looking, he would have recognized it as the Hawk-class warship he had mentioned earlier, one of the metropolis's primary capital ships.

Though inferior to the four main battle-class vessels, the Hawk-class possessed a hull diameter exceeding two thousand meters. As it cleared the mountains, it emitted a deep roar that caused the peaks below to tremble slightly.

Its dark cyan hull projected an oppressive, heavy-metal density. Aside from a few blinking indicator lights, the entire warship was plunged in absolute darkness, as though seamlessly fused with the night.

In the wake of the Hawk-class, four slightly smaller, dark-red warships emerged from its flanks. Measuring four to five hundred meters in length, these were the Scorch-class warships Xie Liu had referred to, typically deployed as escorts for the Hawk-class. Sacrificing defensive plating for increased firepower, Scorch-class vessels rarely operated independently, instead moving in tandem with the main capital ships.

Behind the four Scorch-class ships followed a dozen elongated vessels resembling giant earthworms. They flew erratically through the air, their long bodies twisting and coiling like gluttonous serpents writhing across the sky.

Ye Leng and the others might have been unfamiliar with these, but Ailuo knew them all too well. These were the Moon-Ring warships of Fantasy Metropolis, possessing arguably the most terrifying destructive potential in existence. Once they launched a charge, nothing could halt them.

Though relatively small in volume, these vessels spanned hundreds of meters and were segmented into over fifty independent, combat-capable sections, making them one of Fantasy Metropolis's most lethal offensive assets.

In addition to these, the vanguard of the fleet comprised a dozen Explorer-class warships with hulls spanning dozens of meters. While lacking in combat capacity, they excelled in mobility and were frequently deployed for reconnaissance and the annihilation of scattered ground forces.

At that moment, on the command bridge atop the Hawk-class warship, Chairman Hagen sat in the central command chair, his eyes fixed on a three-dimensional holographic display before him.

"Report to the Chairman. The targets, including Dead-Eye, have been located." A bridge officer transmitted the visual feed to Hagen. In the gloom, Xie Liu and his companions could be seen fleeing rapidly toward the west.

"Is the order to execute confirmed?"

"Negative. They cannot escape. Before that, I'd like to go and greet an old friend of mine," Hagen said, rising from his seat. A swarm of particle-like matter materialized before him, gradually coalescing into a human form—Vladimir.

"Hagen, don't make a move yet," Vladimir said with a hint of urgency. "Wait until I arrive before making any decisions."

"Vladimir, I don't understand your intentions. You should know what that cat-girl represents. Are you still trying to stop me? What is your game?" Hagen narrowed his eyes.

Vladimir shook his head repeatedly. "Hagen, believe my words or not, I can only tell you this: you cannot kill them, especially Dead-Eye. Compared to him, that cat-girl is a mere trifle."

"Do you hear yourself?" Hagen stared at Vladimir in disbelief. "The existence of that cat-girl could shake the very foundation of the metropolis. This is far from a trifle."

"Hagen, do not strike!" Vladimir did not explain, instead lowering his head. "For the sake of our long acquaintance, trust me this once. Do not harm them."

Hagen's expression shifted slightly as he frowned. "Vladimir, do you realize what you are doing? As Chairman, every word and deed of mine represents the metropolis. You ask me to halt without offering an explanation—I simply cannot agree."

"I cannot explain right now. All I can say is that compared to the cat-girl, Dead-Eye's survival is paramount. I would rather let the cat-girl go than allow Dead-Eye to die." A rare note of anxiety crept into Vladimir's voice. "Hagen, we have known each other so long. Don't you know by now? Why do you think I always protect the Doom Squad? Am I a fool? I do it because I have no choice. Dead-Eye cannot die; if he does, the entire metropolis will be in mortal danger."

Hagen fell silent at these words. Every Chairman harbored private secrets—secrets some would take to their graves. Clearly, Vladimir also possessed unspeakable reasons. Yet such secrets usually concerned the interests of only one or a few Chairmen; weighed against the stability of the entire metropolis, they seemed utterly insignificant.

At that thought, Hagen looked up and said, "Vladimir, I know you are caught in a difficult position, but I beg your pardon—I cannot heed your advice this time. Over a century ago, it was the hesitation and mercy of a Chairman that split the metropolis in two, giving rise to today's conflict between the city and the alliance. We cannot afford to repeat the mistakes of the past."

Hagen turned back to his subordinates. "All hands prepare! Charge weapons. Eliminate the cat-girl and all associated personnel."

At his command, the operations room burst into frantic activity.

"Main energy cannon charging..."

"Auto-targeting system online..."

"Energy convergence coils initiating..."

"Pulse suppressor activated; explosive shockwaves will be dampened..."

As system after system flickered to life, a dark-red spherical crystal deep within the core of the Hawk-class warship grew increasingly brilliant, locking its sights upon the fleeing Xie Liu and his group.

"Hagen!" Vladimir shouted. "Stop!"

Hagen ignored him. When the front-line officers reported that the main gun was ready, Hagen did not hesitate to press his hand down upon the crimson button. "Vladimir, I hope you can understand. I am forced into this."

"Hagen! Do not do this." Vladimir's tone darkened. He sighed softly. "If you persist, I will be forced to take drastic measures."

Hagen's eyebrow arched, yet he pressed the red button nonetheless. "Even so, I refuse to become a sinner of history."

The moment the button was depressed, the crystal aboard the Hawk-class warship erupted in intense crimson brilliance. In the next instant, a massive beam of light shot forth from the crystal, bridging the vast sky and hurtling directly toward the retreating Xie Liu.

"Ah!"

Catching sight of the beam plunging toward them, Ye Leng and the others cried out in terror.

Xie Liu spun around. As he watched the incoming beam of light, he showed no panic, merely frowning. "Right on time," he muttered, ignoring Ye Leng's shrieks beside him.

The crimson radiance carried the force of annihilation, vaulting across a dozen kilometers of sky to shriek toward Xie Liu's position, threatening to reduce the group to cinders in a heartbeat.

At that exact moment, the empty space directly above Xie Liu distorted violently. Accompanied by a booming shockwave, the void warped, and another massive warship emerged with its fleet, instantly deploying a shimmering golden defensive barrier right before them.

"Boom..."

With a deafening crash, the dark-red beam shattered into a spray of glowing fragments, scorching the surrounding hillsides and forests into ash.

"Ah! That scared me to death!" Ye Leng collapsed onto the ground in fright. Had it not been for the sudden appearance of the energy barrier, she would have been reduced to ashes right alongside the surrounding hills.

"Is this Vladimir's warship?" Ye Leng recognized the vessel, having seen it previously at the Huaxia branch. It belonged to Vladimir. "That bastard, showing up only now. He scared the life out of me."

Xie Liu remained silent, gazing upward at the warship hovering overhead before shifting his eyes back toward the opposing Hawk-class warship.

"Vladimir, do you truly intend to go to war with me?" Hagen stood on the bridge, his expression grim.

Vladimir appeared on the bridge projection of his own warship, surrounded by blaring alarms indicating shield damage. Unfazed, he addressed Hagen, "I cannot allow you to kill Dead-Eye."

"I never imagined we would end up facing each other on a battlefield," Hagen said, his voice laden with regret. "Vladimir, neither of you nor I are men who easily change our minds. Enough words. Let's finish this."

Vladimir nodded and signaled his crew to charge their weapons.

"Report, Chairman! A beacon ship has appeared thirty kilometers out!" At that moment, Hagen received an urgent notice.

"A beacon ship? Whose?" Hagen demanded immediately, a sudden sense of foreboding gripping him. "Run a scan, now!"

The visual feed updated swiftly. "Lord Chairman! It's a Special Alliance beacon ship!"

"What?!" Hagen was jolted with shock as they watched a tiny red light flare in the distance. "What are the Special Alliance doing here?"

"Report, Lord Chairman! Spatial distortion detected! The enemy is opening a jump portal!" the communications officer shouted. Simultaneously, high above the red guiding beacon, space warped unnaturally, and a massive warship materialized above the marker.

"A Gryphon-class warship!" Hagen recognized the vessel instantly as one of the primary capital ships of the Special Alliance!

"Lord Chairman! High-energy signatures detected from enemy weaponry! We are being targeted!"

"Raise shields!" Hagen barked. Before he could finish the command, the Gryphon-class warship discharged a beam of emerald-green light that struck the port side of the Hawk-class warship dead-center.

"Rumble..."

A violent shockwave rippled through the deck. The entire Hawk-class warship shuddered, forcing Hagen to steady himself by gripping his command chair as red emergency lights flooded the bridge.

"Status!" Hagen frowned.

"Enemy penetrated our shields; the port side third deck has suffered seventeen percent thermal damage. No casualties." The report came back swiftly. Hagen scowled, then looked toward Vladimir's projection.

"Vladimir, can we set our personal grievances aside for now and deal with the immediate enemy together?"

"I have no objection," Vladimir replied, folding his arms across his chest. "All hands, prepare! Bring all weapons online. Battle stations."

At Vladimir's command, his warship began a slow, deliberate pivot. Down below, near the distant beacon, a second crimson flash heralded the arrival of the Special Alliance's second capital warship onto the field.

Four great warships stood staring each other down across the expanse, war poised on a knife-edge.