Chapter 679: Magical Fission
Inside Inav Valley, the newly born green-skinned orcs were ravenously devouring the surrounding soil, vegetation, even stones—turning everything into nourishment for their growth.
Suddenly, a sharp, piercing shriek echoed overhead. An orc looked up in surprise and spotted a dark dot in the sky.
"What's that?"
"No clue, kinda looks like a giant black bird egg."
"Think it's edible?"
"Nah, looks like it's made of iron. It's even glowing. Probably good for crafting clubs."
The newly spawned orcs, having never seen such a thing, stared up in curiosity, chattering away noisily and filling the valley with chaos.
They had no idea it was a gift prepared by Cassius and the Imperial military engineers— a magical fission bomb.
Inside the dark metallic casing were two draconic saliva pearls crafted by a red dragon, each capable of unleashing the power of a 9th-tier spell in an instant, inscribed with a triggered spell formation.
High-purity plutonium, extracted jointly by Arcane Hermitage monks and imperial archmages, served as the nuclear payload.
When both pearls were triggered simultaneously, a powerful implosion would compress the outer explosives inward, forcing the core past critical mass.
The result was a chain reaction, unleashing immense energy and neutrons within fractions of a second—equivalent to tens of thousands of tons of TNT: a nuclear fission explosion.
This was the Ember Empire's most advanced weapon of mass destruction, a fusion of science and magic, layered with several nested 7th-tier and higher spell formations, costing nearly 100,000 gold coins.
The first test was conducted in the uninhabited Wakhala Glacier region, and it's said that the explosion turned dozens of miles into scorched, toxic wasteland.
But it wasn't called an atomic bomb—it was named by the Empire's military research department: "Dragon's Wrath Bomb," symbolizing the Ember Emperor's fury.
The newborn green-skins, ignorant of all this, simply kept gazing at the strange black egg in the sky.
"Don't let it drop!"
"Stop it now!"
Soro roared in fury, his bellow transmitted through the spore network into the minds of all green-skins. The chaotic field around them intensified.
"Huh? I think I just heard the chief's voice?"
"What the hell is that thing anyway?"
Amid the noisy confusion, the orcs remained clueless, unaware that a catastrophic doom was approaching.
The iron sphere in the sky descended faster, its shriek growing more unbearable, nearly tearing the orcs' eardrums.
Just under 100 meters from the ground, the two draconic pearls activated, unleashing a devastating implosion.
The magical fission bomb was triggered!
The Ember Emperor's wrath descended upon the world!
First, there was silence—an eerie calm before the storm, a prelude to disaster.
Then, an incredibly bright, blinding light tore across the sky, blotting out the sun itself.
"My eyes! I'm blind!"
"So bright!"
"By Gruumsh above!"
Green-skins screamed and shielded their eyes, scrambling for shade. Never in their lives had they seen such searing light—even their skin blistered with black scorch marks.
Next came the heat. The flash released a wave of terrorizing heat, instantly raising the air temperature to millions of degrees Celsius.
The superheated air ignited everything flammable. A fiery sphere formed at the blast core, expanding rapidly in white, orange, and red hues.
In this hellish temperature, all matter within range vaporized instantly, fragile beyond resistance.
"Divine punishment—this is divine punishment! Is the Ember Empire backed by the Sun God?!" Mork was stunned.
"No! My blessing!" Soro screamed hoarsely and hurled a spear toward the bomb—but it was already far too late.
In an instant, every green-skin in the fireball's radius vanished without a scream—incinerated, melted, even vaporized. Not a speck of ash remained.
The water in their bodies ionized, flesh and bone carbonized. Their forms "disappeared" in less than 0.1 seconds.
Then came the shockwave, spreading violently across the land and sky, hurling dust and smoke in every direction.
"BOOM—!"
The earth roared. The heavens howled. The world trembled in the wake of the explosion!
The high-temperature, high-pressure shockwave leveled everything within several kilometers.
"BOOM!" Mountains split, valleys collapsed. The wide Bindler River boiled instantly, vast plumes of steam rising as it evaporated completely—a scene of apocalypse.
Heaven and earth shattered!
The explosion violently shook the land. Cracks split the ground. Stones and trees were hurled skyward. Smoke and flame choked the air, reducing visibility to near zero.
"KRAKOOM!" Boulders fractured in the heat and collapsed like a tidal wave, burying Inav Valley beneath tons of debris.
The resulting gas, dust, and smoke surged upward, carrying immense energy into the sky—a massive mushroom cloud rose into the heavens!
Its base glowed dark orange, transitioning to ashen white, stretching over ten miles high—truly magnificent and terrifying.
Heat radiation swept outward for hundreds of kilometers, igniting trees, grass, furs—anything flammable. Firebrands danced across the land.
The earth rippled like water struck by a boulder, radiating intense heat waves that obliterated everything within a hundred miles.
A single stone stirred a thousand waves!
"Run!"
"I don't wanna die!"
Orcs scrambled to flee, pushing, shoving, leaping into rivers.
But soon the water boiled, cooking them alive. In a breath, the river evaporated, leaving only blackened, unrecognizable orc remains.
Even the unborn orcs in the earth beneath were incinerated, becoming one with the soil.
From the sky, burning debris rained down, spreading death and calamity.
"No, no! I haven't completed Mother God's task yet!" Mork raised his staff, shrieking hoarsely. For once, his shadowy face showed anger, despair, panic.
Spores and mycelium rushed from all directions, binding him into a massive cocoon over twenty meters tall, encasing him within.
But before the burning winds and choking smoke, it was as insignificant as a speck of dust.
"BOOM—!"
The searing storm came like a tsunami. Mork's cocoon lasted a heartbeat before igniting, becoming a scorched fireball.
Inside, his wailing echoed with venom and despair: "No—how can it be the Sun God?! How could He still be awake?!"
Soon, the orc shaman burned completely, all moisture gone, reduced to blackened charcoal.
Even to his death, Mork believed this was divine punishment, refusing to believe such power came from the Empire—it was too terrifying, like something from an ancient divine war.
Soro knelt, eyes closed. His skin blistered, peeled, steamed—but his legendary-tier vitality barely kept him alive, allowing him to endure the hellish heat a while longer.
The last orc chieftain trembled, voice quivering: "Why... why is this happening? I was supposed to be the orcs' savior! Why...?!"
He slammed his knees onto the scalding earth, threw his head back, and screamed in mad prayer: "Mighty Father God Gruumsh! The damned Imperials destroyed everything! I curse them—I beg you—"
"KRAKOOM!"
A crimson thunderbolt split the sky, cutting through the smoke and striking Soro directly.
When he opened his eyes again, his left eye had dulled, while his right blazed with chaotic, frenzied light. Strange totems etched themselves across his scorched skin.
Soro stood unshaken in the burning storm. When he finally spoke, rage saturated his voice.
"Cassius."
"You will pay."
"Full acceleration! Ascend now!"
"Quick! We must get out of blast range or we're all dead!"
The shriek of engines was barely audible over the roaring explosion.
Streaks of flame cut across the sky—riders shooting upward, piercing the smoke, climbing to the upper atmosphere.
——They were the Ember Empire's aerial corps, the ones responsible for the cataclysm.
Staring at the rising mushroom cloud, Mantou gaped. "Thank the gods we ran. I don't wanna get roasted again."
In his headset, a fittingly intense, explosive track played—"aLIEz".
"Holy shit. A nuke!"
"Damn! We almost got wiped out!"
"How was I supposed to know it was that strong?! No warning! I thought it was a thermobaric bomb!"
"If we got irradiated, think we'll mutate? Three eyes, four legs—that'd be kinda cool."
"Go drink some nuclear waste yourself."
Singo clicked his tongue. "Magical fission weapon. Figures it's that lunatic Curtis behind it. Guy's bloodline definitely awakened."
"A nuke?"
Mantou felt a chill. Wasn't this supposed to be a sword-and-magic fantasy? Why did it feel like everything was going off the rails?
Guns and cannons were one thing—but nukes? The Machine God Cult had clearly gone too far!
Singo said mysteriously, "That's not even the worst. I heard they've got a spatial collapse bomb that can destroy small demiplanes. Still unstable, though."
Cold sweat dripped from Mantou's brow. He made a mental note never to mess with these bomb-crazy bastards—especially that refined-looking Bishop Curtis.
Another rider asked, "Anything alive in that radius? Is our mission complete?"
"Not sure. I haven't gotten a mission complete notice. Stay alert," Singo replied, scanning the ground.
The mushroom cloud still rose. Smoke still cloaked the land. The shockwave still expanded.
Even now, safely outside the blast radius, Singo, Mantou, and the others felt waves of heat buffeting them.
Mantou joked, "We nuked orcs, not Saiyans. You think they can tank that bare-skinned?"
Singo shook his head. "Not necessarily. In Erezaghe, legendary beings can be ridiculously tough—nukes might not be enough."
He glanced sideways at Mantou before continuing, "Like that orc warrior who skewered you like a kebab from hundreds of meters away."
"Goddamn it."
Mantou's mood soured. He fell silent, mourning his lost XP.
The wyvern riders circled high above, monitoring the post-blast conditions.
"Inav Valley has collapsed, buried in lava. No signs of surviving orcs."
"Bindler River is gone."
"The orc shrine halfway up the mountain is rubble. No survivors there either—all orcs likely dead."
As the riders chatted, static crackled in their headsets, then a connection to command reestablished.
Curtis's voice returned: "Quite the fireworks, eh? So, what do you think of my surprise?
Heh. That magical fission bomb's name was 'Fat Boy.'"
Silence. Not one rider spoke. But in their hearts, they cursed in unison: "Madman."
"Wait—"
Curtis suddenly paused, voice turning grave: "We've detected an enormous energy signature—well beyond instrument limits.
Near your location is a being beyond legendary. Possibly a divine avatar!!"
"BOOM!"
A whirlwind of blood erupted, scattering the smoke below.
The riders looked down in panic. A massive orc in full black armor, scarred and one-eyed, stood wielding a blood spear, emanating crushing pressure.
Just one glance from that eye—across tens of thousands of meters—sent terror through their souls, nearly knocking them from the sky.
"Cassius——"
The orc bellowed in fury, his roar shaking the land.