Chapter 982
Episode 243: The Red King’s Ambush (2)
At that moment, Kelliak was sitting with Ragal, sipping tea as they reviewed Elona’s report.
It detailed the captured records of the Red-Eyed tribe’s airborne fortress, Ussu. As Simat had predicted, Elona was using the Holy Water Pavilion’s abilities to interrogate Gaila and analyze Ussu.
“Was it because they lacked blood? Despite possessing such formidable assets, they’ve been dragged around by the royal court like pawns. I find that hard to understand.”
“Same here, Kelliak. Before the Demon-Sealing Wall was built, those Red-Eyed and Azure tribes were truly terrifying.”
Just as Ragal replied, Kelliak flinched, sharpening his senses.
From somewhere far away, an immense power was approaching Drakka. Among everyone in Drakka, only Kelliak sensed this shift.
“Wait, Ragal.”
“What is it, Kelliak?”
“Something powerful is coming toward Drakka. But it’s hard to pinpoint the direction…”
“Huh? Really? Could it be a surprise attack from the Alliance? We haven’t received any unusual reports from our spies over there.”
Kelliak stood up abruptly.
“All forces, enter Level 1 defense posture. We’re under attack.”
“Yes, sir!”
Nearby mages quickly spread Kelliak’s orders. Then, he stepped outside and raised the fiery seal once more, signaling the assault.
The city’s outer walls shot even higher, forming an ironclad fortress. From the skies down to the Zipl headquarters, layers of massive protective barriers were erected.
The entire process took less than five minutes. As the federal capital and Zipl’s home base, Drakka’s defenses were arguably the strongest in the world.
Had the enemy launched a conventional assault—attacking from outside—Drakka could have minimized damage successfully.
But an ambush from below was something Kelliak hadn’t anticipated.
Rumble rumble rumble…!
The first to feel the tremors were civilians in southern Drakka.
“Is it… an earthquake!?”
“Ahhh!”
Just as two civilians shouted while trying to return home, the ground collapsed, and a massive pillar of red light shot upward.
It was the main cannon of the Red-Eyed fleet’s flagship, Laviette. Dozens of nearby civilians were caught in the blast, melting away without a trace.
The earth and buildings twisted as if they were liquid.
Mages rushing back to headquarters after the emergency declaration were struck down by the relentless bombardment before they could even scream.
When the Red-Eyed tribe had declared war on Zipl in the past, they promised to avoid civilian casualties. But now, they were indiscriminately slaughtering every visible human.
“Help! Please, help me…! Aaah!”
From the ground and the fleet just above, relentless cannon fire rained down.
Each blast swallowed entire buildings whole. People vanished without leaving even a bloodstain.
No flesh or bone fragments remained. The debris of buildings was pulverized into fine particles. The once-solid, paved ground transformed instantly into a volcanic landscape of flowing lava.
Naturally, Drakka’s citizens had never witnessed such hellish devastation.
Though the Red-Eyed tribe had launched surprise attacks on Drakka and nearby districts before, they had never caused such catastrophic civilian casualties.
“Advance! Not a single Zipl will survive on this land today!”
Raki-man shouted, commanding the fleet from the airborne fortress Patl, which had just risen behind Laviette.
This ruined area was southern Drakka.
The Red-Eyed tribe was ambushing Drakka from all sides simultaneously. Tens of thousands of civilians and mages had already died in the north, east, and west.
“K-Kelliak! It’s the Red-Eyed tribe! They’re coming up from underground…!”
Ragal shouted, looking at Kelliak.
Though Kelliak’s face remained calm as usual, even he seemed at a loss this time.
‘…From underground. I thought that threat was neutralized when Jito was dealt with. I miscalculated.’
Indeed.
Even though Kelliak had fused with Shinu to gain divine power and reclaimed Zipl, he couldn’t fend off this ambush alone.
Elona was absent, and Ronil, Satrin, Octavia, and the bio-golems were all on missions elsewhere.
“Lord, airborne fortresses! We’ve confirmed one fortress positioned in each direction—north, south, east, and west!”
Upon the mage’s report, Kelliak sighed for the first time.
Even one fortress would put them at a disadvantage, but four was hopeless. One of them had already broken through the protective barrier surrounding Zipl’s headquarters.
“Ugh!”
The mage reporting to Kelliak staggered from the tremor.
A single strike.
The main cannon of the first airborne fortress, Pibil, tore through the protective shield around Zipl’s headquarters. The shield was maintained by tens of thousands of mages using every magical amplification artifact available.
That shield shattered into pieces before it could even mount a proper defense. Once the breach began, over half the personnel inside the headquarters would die.
The decision to seal off the city and enter defense mode had been a mistake.
Even if they abandoned Drakka and ordered a full retreat now, the blockade already in place would delay their escape.
“We’re abandoning Drakka.”
Kelliak made the call. Ragal and the mages’ eyes widened.
“Summon all the dragons. Any forces already outside the headquarters are lost.”
“Y-Yes, Lord.”
“They caught us completely off guard. There’s no time for explanations—issue the retreat order immediately.”
Kelliak raised the fiery seal in the sky again, signaling withdrawal.
To the mages helplessly taking cannon fire and the citizens below, it was a symbol of despair.
Kelliak gathered his magical energy, intending to hold out until the dragons regrouped and evacuated key personnel.
But as the dragons returned to the headquarters one by one, Pibil’s bombardment ceased.
Not just Pibil—the other airborne fortresses also refrained from firing. Despite closing the distance, they held their fire.
This was proof that Kelliak had lost another round of strategic mind games against the Red-Eyed tribe.
Crack! Rumble rumble!
“What the hell now!?”
The central garden of Zipl’s headquarters suddenly cracked and began to collapse like a cookie breaking apart.
Like a giant whale surfacing from the depths, the Red-Eyed tribe’s war deity fortress burst through the ground.
Kelliak, Ragal, and the mages had no choice but to break through walls and flee blindly to the rear, avoiding the fortress’s psychic waves.
This fortress, Kri, was a class apart from the other four airborne fortresses—Red-Eyed tribe’s ultimate weapon. It was larger than all four combined, and every pulse from its core sent out terrifying psychic waves.
The moment Kri broke through the garden, over 70% of the mages inside the headquarters were instantly killed by the psychic shock.
It wasn’t a direct attack. Kri simply appeared, demonstrating the Red-Eyed tribe’s overwhelming might.
[Kraaaak…!]
“K-Kelliak!”
Even the dragons couldn’t withstand the heat, melting like wax in the sky. Some tried to flee outside the headquarters, but the psychic waves spread faster than their flight.
Kri resembled a giant spinning top. Above its flat upper surface, a red spear appeared—visible to the entire city.
The spear displayed Simat seated on the throne inside Kri’s command bridge.
“You’ve been living in peace, haven’t you? Today, this land and sky will be dyed red and belong to us, the Red-Eyed tribe.”
Simat’s cold voice echoed throughout the city.
He was watching Kelliak retreating, evading the psychic waves. Behind him, the airborne fortress Rital was closing the encirclement from Drakka’s eastern underground.
“Kelliak, this is our first face-to-face. I am the Red-Eyed tribe’s war deity, currently using the name Simat. If you surrender, I will spare your subordinates.”
Simat knew Kelliak would never accept.
He was merely creating a witness to glorify the Red-Eyed tribe’s might. Once the battle ended, news of their resurgence would flood the world.
Kelliak had no intention of fighting. His focus was on escape. If he were captured now, Zipl would effectively be finished.
He was confident some would survive. Kadun was already breaking through Rital’s encirclement with other dragons and Kojek.
Only they had a chance to live. Simat didn’t seem intent on pursuing Kelliak relentlessly. Turning his gaze away, he continued.
“Also, civilians need not worry. As we declared before, we are conquerors, not slaughterers. As long as you don’t resist pointlessly, you will be treated as second-class citizens of the Red-Eyed tribe. You will experience our superior civilization.”
Over a hundred thousand civilians had already died.
Yet Simat believed this massacre would never be publicly exposed. Both the Red-Eyed tribe and Zipl preferred to keep this fact hidden from the outside world.
The Red-Eyed tribe to govern civilians more effectively later, and Zipl to preserve whatever dignity it could.
“A defector from the Twin Clans, Kellyak Ziphl, is about to link up with Kozek and Kadun.”
“Leave him be. He possesses martial prowess on par with Changseong. If we try to take him down hastily, Elona will join the fight, and the risks will outweigh the benefits.”
“Understood.”
“More importantly, this man will be invaluable when dealing with the Balmel Alliance. For now, our focus should be solely on securing Drakka as our new stronghold.”
The bombardment was rapidly dying down. The forces of Drakka, who should have been responding to the invaders, were already all but wiped out.
Simat looked down at the city, ablaze with the psychic flames of the enemy’s mindwave assault, a satisfied expression on his face.
From this moment on, this land no longer belonged to Ziphl. It was the first time since Ziphl’s founding patriarch had declared Drakka the capital of the alliance.