Susa, capital of the Persian Empire.
The dazzling curtain of light that had descended from the dome flickered, cracked, and broke apart. The shimmering Persian divine runes gradually dimmed until they faded into weakness, dissolving once more into pure Ether and scattering into the air.
The once-magnificent inner and outer walls had already collapsed, leaving a breach more than a hundred meters wide. The city's soft underbelly now lay exposed, its gates thrown open to the wasteland.
Inside the city, thick smoke billowed straight into the clouds. To the Persians, everything before their eyes looked like the end of the world.
On the ground, the few barely organized mixed legions of Undead Army units and palace guards crumbled the moment the Amazonian divine-blood warriors charged them, utterly unable to fight back.
The elite Roman legions followed close behind, taking control of the main roads, suppressing the remnants, and splitting into centurion units to fan out in every direction. With overwhelming force, they poured into Susa's streets and alleys, taking over the entire royal capital.
In the air, the corps of arcane mages that surged out of the Astrology Tower had barely risen on their flying carpets before they were caught in the focused fire of hundreds of ceremonial spells. Countless charred limbs and drifting ashes of burned bodies scattered down from above.
At that moment, elegant winged beings already filled the sky.
Smiling with bright curiosity, they chattered happily while waving their wands, casually unleashing spells of terrifying power. Like dragonflies snatching flies, they shot down the spellcasters who tried to break away and flee to nearby cities for reinforcements.
The sky was dyed in brilliant colors. Torrents of Ether washed across it, annihilating the Genie spirits from the divine lamps that the arcane mages had been so proud of.
Immediately afterward, control of the Astrology Tower changed hands, and the magical barrier that had collapsed around the outer perimeter rose once again.
Only this time, it sealed the entire royal capital from the inside out, cutting it off as an inescapable cage of despair.
The cornered Priestesses and priests fully activated the Pantheon's defensive, intending to stake everything on the divine might accumulated over a thousand years.
Boom!
Yet a furry paw descended from the sky, and row after row of temples collapsed. The fluffy creature clinging to the wall might have looked soft and gentle, but it left the Priestesses and priests collapsed on the ground, trembling as they once more remembered their fear and reverence for the Divine Spirit.
Rumble!
Amid the dull pulse of the earth, countless lush branches, flowers, and grasses burst from the soil. With impossible vitality, they pried open the walls covered in Persian divine runes and dismantled the temples one by one.
Crack...
On the high platform, the statues of Mithra, the God of Light, and Ahura Mazda, the Lord of Wisdom, were stripped of their last trace of divine might. Like clay idols eroded by heavy rain, they cracked and crumbled. Dense greenery spread from their hollowed-out interiors and soon covered the last remaining temple.
The eternal sacred flame, smothered beneath layers of creeping vines and foliage, flickered briefly before turning into a wisp of blue smoke.
Persia is finished...
The elderly chief priest slumped to the ground. The priests and Priestesses, as though their souls had left them, huddled in the corners in despair. Their will to resist was gone, and they surrendered without a fight.
On the vine-covered steps, Boudica, the Celtic queen dressed in battle armor, leaped down from her chariot and stood upon the ruined pedestal. With one hand on her sword, she looked down over the collapsing city, the tension in her chest slowly easing as she exhaled a breath of turbid air.
The old order has fallen, and a new kingdom is rising.
The wind had begun to blow.
Boudica gently brushed back her fluttering hair, turned to gaze toward the vast Sea of Chaos, and quietly placed her raised right hand over her heart.
Your Majesty, I will await your triumphant return...
At the same time, in Tanbei Canyon, the collapse of the Divine Tower shattered the Magecraft barrier linked to it, leaving the entire camp exposed to the open air.
Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom!
In an instant, a string of shrieks sharp enough to pierce eardrums came from the airspace near the Sea of Chaos. Solid shells nearly ten meters in diameter slammed into the Persian positions and burst apart, sending fragments and violent shockwaves sweeping in every direction.
Trees and grass were torn apart, mud sprayed into the air, and the Persian army's so-called fortifications were swallowed under a saturation bombardment. Soldiers staggered like headless flies before being blown sky-high along with their positions, while mangled limbs mixed with blood-soaked earth scattered everywhere.
Many soldiers still asleep in their tents had dark purple blood pouring from their eyes, ears, noses, and mouths. Some were blown apart with their tents, some were buried in the earth and nearly suffocated, and others were shaken to death on the spot.
Immediately afterward, thousands of crimson-black Mana streams crisscrossed the battlefield like the scythes of the god of death. The weak soldiers fell in rows, harvested like wheat.
Under this relentless bombardment, even with the mountain range as cover, the Persian army inevitably descended into chaos and collapse. They could not even form an effective battle line.
After several rounds, the overwhelming shelling finally quieted, giving the soldiers trembling in ravines and blind spots beyond the firing angles a brief chance to breathe.
But before the Persians could steady themselves, a pitch-black fleet like something from the underworld broke through the vast sea fog and approached the shore. From its open landing bays, thousands of spherical wide-area annihilation weapons took off like swarms leaving a hive.
Primordial Cerberuses, Primordial Hydras, anti-humanoid extermination devices, and other creations from the Echidna Armory carried by the fleet stormed the beach, cut off the rear, and advanced toward Tanbei Canyon.
"Hold! Hold the line!"
Covered in dust and grime, Darius I swung his scimitar and desperately tried to stabilize the situation, roaring himself hoarse.
Roar! Roar! Roar!
At the same time, the earth shook violently. Three Behemoth war beasts snapped their chains and charged toward the shore with furious roars, trampling mechanical creations into sparking scrap along the way.
Buzz! Buzz! Buzz!
Yet before the three monsters could take more than a few steps, searing streams of Ether light slammed into their chests. The terrifying impact drove the Behemoth war beasts backward, plowing hundred-meter trenches through the ground.
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Then two towering bronze giants and a magnificent mechanical body, reassembled into humanoid form from a silver-white great wooden horse, descended upon the battlefield. Forming a triangular formation, they charged toward the three Behemoth war beasts.
Talos, the bronze giant soldier painstakingly restored by the Kingdom of the Ten Islands, and the End-of-Days Wooden Horse piloted by Odysseus had taken the field.
The grinding shriek of metal and the thunderous collision of bodies rang out in a chain of sonic booms. Waves of earth sprayed everywhere, filling the area with haze. From the outside, one could only vaguely see three pairs of colossal beings locked in brutal combat.
As the Deep Sea Fleet pressed forward from the rear, the Greek army surged out of Thermopylae like a tidal wave, crossing the wasteland and sweeping toward Tanbei Canyon.
In the upper air, the Scandinavian Valkyrie Legion scattered the Ifrit formation with practiced ease, cutting apart and slaughtering these fire Elementals blessed by the power of light.
At mid and low altitude, agile Battle Nymphs beat their transparent wings gracefully, hunting down Persian spellcasters on flying carpets like hunters pursuing prey through a forest.
On the ground, the Amazon warriors drove through the barely gathered Undead Army like triangular spearheads, turning their ranks into sieves and trampling across the Persian elites' positions with near-total dominance.
As for the dizzy, disoriented Persian regular troops, they had to face opponents that left them in near despair: Athenian heavy infantry, Spartan royal guards, Arcadian hunters, Thessalian bronze chariots, Scandinavian Berserkers, the Academy of Athens' elite team of Magi, Druid groups, and more.
Under the Pan-Hellenic Alliance's all-out assault, from sea to sky, and from sky to earth, the Persian army in Tanbei Canyon collapsed across the entire front.
Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh! Whoosh!
At that moment, three golden-green ghostly lights shot into the sky from within Tanbei Canyon, stirring up surging torrents of Ether as they flew straight toward Thermopylae.