Chapter 430: Operation Code ETD, Initiate
Hearing Laxus's words, the others also broke into smiles.
Facing an army of tens of thousands had placed them under immense pressure. Now that the situation was visibly shifting in their favor, they naturally felt a wave of relief.
"Ooooooh—"
Suddenly, the deep, resounding blare of horns echoed from all around, startling everyone. The Fairy Tail Mages quickly scanned their surroundings.
Atop the city walls, soldiers were continuously blowing their war horns as a sea of crimson flags was hoisted into the air.
Taking advantage of Earth Land Erza's momentary distraction upon hearing the horns, Erza Knightwalker quickly disengaged from their fierce duel, falling back to regroup with the equally battered Sugarboy and Hughes.
"Operation Code ETD?" Knightwalker said, unable to hide her shock.
"Huff... huff... At a time like this?" Hughes panted heavily beside her.
"Initiating the kingdom's ultimate homeland security defense protocol... I suppose it is necessary," Sugarboy muttered. He leaned heavily on his sword, his severe stamina drain making it difficult to even stand properly.
Looking at the Fairy Tail Mages gathering together opposite them, the Edolas Captains knew these intruders were the sole reason this extreme measure was being activated.
"What's with all this commotion? Are those machines aiming at us?" Lucy asked, pointing toward the walls. Massive squads of soldiers were rushing about, rolling out rows of colossal, searchlight-like machines and pivoting their barrels directly toward the plaza.
Erza tightened her grip on her twin swords, glancing around to confirm that the regular Royal Army soldiers had completely retreated, leaving a wide empty perimeter around the Fairy Tail group.
"They are indeed aiming this way. Are they some kind of attack device? Everyone, stay on guard," Erza warned, her expression turning grave.
The group nodded in unison, bracing themselves.
"Since they are our enemies, let's not wait for them to finish their preparations. We attack now!" Noah declared, his hands still clasped together as the golden magic circle beneath his feet continued to rotate.
"Right!" Laxus was the first to respond. Thrusting his right hand forward, a massive torrent of lightning shot toward the machines on the wall.
"Don't even think about it!" Knightwalker leapt into the air. Her spear shifted form, and with a powerful slash, she severed Laxus's magic, neutralizing the lightning before it could strike the equipment.
"Fire Dragon's Roar!"
"Sky Dragon's Roar!"
"Ice-Make: Lances!" Gray and Ultear shouted in unison.
"Divine Judgment!"
"Sunlight Angel!"
"Dark Spark!"
"Heaven's Wheel: Blumenblatt!"
"Sagittarius, I leave it to you!"
"Leave it to me, hello-hello!"
The Fairy Tail members specializing in long-range attacks immediately followed Laxus's lead, unleashing a devastating barrage of magic aimed squarely at the machinery on the walls.
Noah also mobilized his Light Funnels, directing them to fire at the surrounding devices.
"Damn it!" Sugarboy and Hughes gritted their teeth, fighting through their exhaustion and injuries to swing their weapons, desperately trying to intercept the incoming bombardment.
Knightwalker frantically twisted mid-air, rushing to block as many attacks as she could.
The Royal Army soldiers manning the walls quickly raised their magic staves, firing volleys of magic projectiles in a frantic bid to intercept the assault.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
No matter how hard Knightwalker and the Royal Army fought, they could only deflect a fraction of the overwhelming firepower.
The defensive barriers erected by the soldiers shattered like glass under the immense pressure of Fairy Tail's enhanced magic. The attacks punched through their defenses and slammed directly into several of the machines.
The impacted devices instantly violently exploded, sending the soldiers stationed around them flying into the air.
Seeing their preemptive strike succeed, the group didn't hesitate. They unleashed a second, relentless wave of magic toward the remaining intact machines.
"Operation Code ETD, initiate!" a commander roared from the ramparts.
Simultaneously, the surviving machines powered up. Massive, blinding beams of light erupted from their emitters, sweeping down toward the Fairy Tail Mages.
"Don't let those beams hit you! Destroy those machines immediately!" Ultear yelled. She had noticed that the moment her ice lances were grazed by the light, they rapidly shrank and lost power. She instantly recognized that the light was highly detrimental to them.
Fortunately, because Fairy Tail had already destroyed a significant portion of the projectors, the light beams couldn't completely blanket the plaza, leaving plenty of gaps to maneuver through.
Ultear quickly leapt aside, dodging a beam aimed at her.
"Hah!" Laxus vanished in a flash of lightning. Reappearing high in the air, his entire body crackled with immense power. He transformed into a towering pillar of thunder that shot into the sky before fragmenting into countless individual lightning bolts, raining down on the machines from every direction.
Heeding Ultear's warning, everyone scrambled to avoid the sweeping beams while continuously firing their strongest long-range spells at the walls.
A golden barrier materialized around Noah, effortlessly blocking the beams directed at him. The light sizzled upon hitting his shield, unable to penetrate.
The sixteen Light Funnels orbiting him instantly multiplied to sixty-four. They darted into the air, firing a relentless hail of thin but terrifyingly potent lasers at the projectors.
"Hold the line!" Knightwalker and her fellow Captains shouted, desperately trying to intercept Fairy Tail's attacks while simultaneously dodging the crossfire.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
Fairy Tail's attacks were simply too fast and too powerful. The Edolas Captains could barely stop any of them, and dozens of machines were obliterated in rapid succession.
With the number of projectors rapidly dwindling, the sweeping light beams thinned out, making it much easier for the group to dodge.
The machines targeting Noah were completely wiped out, leaving him standing entirely untouched.
"It hurts!"
Carla, being a bit slower on the uptake, was clipped by one of the sweeping beams. The moment the light touched her, an agonizing pain washed over her, and her muscles locked up entirely. Her legs gave out, and she collapsed onto the stone floor.
"Carla!" Wendy and Meredy immediately reached into the beam's path to drag her out.
"Ugh!" A sharp, searing pain shot through their arms the moment they touched the light. Gritting their teeth, they yanked Carla to safety and quickly ducked behind cover.
"Ah! Those beams cause intense pain and stiffen your movements if they touch you!" Meredy called out to the rest of the group, sharing her firsthand experience.
Hearing this, everyone became even more cautious, ensuring they didn't let a single ray touch them.
"Hurry, keep attacking!" Mirajane shouted, her hands a blur as she continuously hurled volatile spheres of dark magic at the ramparts.
"Ice-Make: Ice Eagle!" Ultear thrust her hands forward, summoning a flock of ice birds that gracefully wove past the Royal Army's intercepting fire to crash into the machines.
"Sunlight Angel!" Sorano commanded. A blinding orb of light gathered in front of her angel's mouth before shattering into dozens of high-speed lasers that peppered the walls.
Dozens of swords materialized behind Erza, rotating rapidly in a deadly halo. With a point of her blade, the swords launched themselves like missiles at the remaining projectors.
Noah's sixty-four Light Funnels flickered continuously, firing a devastating barrage of lasers that targeted not only the machines but also the soldiers attempting to operate them.
Laxus zipped across the battlefield as a streak of living lightning, his electrical blasts tearing through the enemy's hardware.
The rest of the group poured every ounce of their magic into the assault, sending a sky-blotting wave of destruction crashing into the city walls.
BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!
The sheer density and power of the bombardment were absolute. The Edolas Captains, already exhausted and outmatched, pushed themselves to their absolute limits but could barely make a dent in the incoming onslaught.
The regular soldiers' defensive spells crumpled instantly. The magic rained down on the remaining ETD machines, triggering a chain reaction of catastrophic explosions that blew the remaining operators off the walls.
As the smoke cleared from the ramparts, the sweeping light beams vanished entirely. Every single machine had been reduced to smoking scrap metal.
"Damn you all!" Knightwalker's face twisted in pure, unadulterated rage.
She knew intimately just how much time, manpower, and extreme technological advancement had gone into creating those machines. They were the kingdom's ultimate secret weapon. The units stationed on these walls comprised the vast majority of their total arsenal, with only a handful kept in reserve storage.
These machines were only truly effective when deployed en masse. A few isolated units were practically useless.
In a matter of minutes, the kingdom's greatest trump card had been permanently eradicated. How could she not be furious?
Sugarboy and Hughes gathered beside her, their expressions equally dark and grim.
They also understood the true purpose of the ETD machinery. These devices were crucial to their grand operation, and their destruction would severely impact the King's plans.
They couldn't even blame the King for deploying them early. Fairy Tail was utterly dominating the battlefield; if the King hadn't activated the machines, the Royal Army would have routed entirely.
What they hadn't anticipated was Fairy Tail's sheer decisiveness. They had launched a massive counter-offensive the moment the machines appeared, destroying half of them before they even fired. And before the remaining units could lock down the plaza, Fairy Tail had completely annihilated the entire battery.
"Judging by your faces, we just destroyed something very important to you. How wonderful!" Sorano beamed a radiant, mocking smile at the Edolas Captains.
"You bastards!" Hughes ground his teeth, glaring at Sorano with venomous hatred. Sorano didn't flinch in the slightest, returning his glare with a smug, triumphant smirk.
"What exactly were those machines? Why did they affect us so severely?" Mirajane asked Noah, watching as Wendy carefully treated a trembling Carla. Though Carla looked physically unharmed, her pained expression proved the light was far more dangerous than it appeared.
"Those machines were likely designed specifically to target beings with internal magic power," Noah deduced calmly.
He had noticed that during the chaos, Knightwalker and her men had briefly stepped into the light beams but showed absolutely no signs of the paralysis or pain that had affected Carla and Meredy.
The most fundamental difference between Fairy Tail and the Edolas natives was the presence of internal magic.
"Furthermore, these machines definitely weren't built for us," Noah continued his analysis. "The Royal Army couldn't have predicted we would invade their world, let alone arrive at the capital today. Developing, testing, and mass-producing equipment of that scale takes years, not days."
The group nodded in agreement. While it was possible the Edolas King knew of their impending arrival recently—perhaps tipped off by Queen Shagotte—knowing years in advance was practically impossible.
"So you're saying they built these machines for someone else?" Lucy asked, connecting the dots.
"You mean... they were targeting the Exceeds?" Ultear realized.
"Happy and Carla's race!" Lucy gasped in shock. Having read numerous books since arriving in Edolas, she was well aware of the local terminology and the societal standing of the Exceeds.
Hearing this, Natsu and the others looked at Happy and Carla in sheer disbelief. Laxus and the older Mages, who had already suspected as much from Noah's explanation, remained perfectly calm.
They shifted their gazes to the Edolas Captains and noticed the subtle, telling shifts in their expressions.
"It seems Noah's guess was spot on," Erza said, her eyes narrowing. "Those machines were built to eradicate the Exceeds, not us. But because our sudden invasion backed you into a corner, you were forced to deploy them against us instead."
"You rotten bastards..." Knightwalker hissed, her face contorting into an extremely ugly expression, mirrored by Hughes and Sugarboy.
Not only had their kingdom's secret weapon failed to fulfill its purpose, but the enemy had effortlessly deduced their true, genocidal objective. The seething fury and humiliation they felt were written clearly across their faces.
~~~
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