The sky over the wilderness was vast and open, without a single cloud for ten thousand miles, like a piece of clear sapphire looming over the scorched earth below.
The Red Iron Dragon raised his head and gazed at the firmament, his massive body casting a long, narrow shadow in the sunlight.
Deep within those dark vertical pupils, star-like runes rapidly flowed, combined, and analyzed; his gaze seemed to pierce through layers of spatial barriers, past the atmosphere, and toward the distant, freezing void of space.
"It won't be long before I can completely lock onto its position."
He thought silently to himself.
Over the past year or so, the Xio Kingdom had frequently utilized its satellite to continue expanding its advantage.
Teleportation raids, Holy Healing Rain, Orbital Strikes... these strategic skills had repeatedly turned the tide of local battles, accumulating a considerable winning momentum for the Xio Legion.
The Aura Kingdom's Shadow Forest and Rust Valley had fallen one after another.
Iron Dragon Letizia and the Holy Spirit Deer were seriously injured in a fierce, prolonged battle and could not recover in a short time, forcing them to withdraw from the front lines.
Relying on the satellite support to construct the impenetrable wall defense line, the Xio Kingdom's defenses had become as solid as a fortress.
Having gained the upper hand in both offense and defense, the scales of victory in the conventional war were rapidly tipping toward the Xio Kingdom.
If Aura wanted to win this war, they had to find a way to deal with Xio Kingdom's satellite.
Its various effects were not only applicable to battlefields below the Legendary rank; even if Legends joined the fray, the magical satellite remained a strategic-grade weapon that could not be underestimated.
However, Galos did not charge directly into space.
He knew very well that taking down Xio's satellite would be no simple matter.
In the early days of magical satellites, they were imperfect in many ways, and there were many instances of them being directly located and destroyed by enemy powerhouses. But as time passed and technology evolved, magical satellites became increasingly difficult to destroy by force.
The first problem was simply finding it.
Normally, the magical satellite resided within a hidden rift of a parallel dimension, not within the space of the Prime Material Plane at all. It left no trace, and any satellite image that could be observed in the material plane by the naked eye or ordinary magic was merely an illusory projection used for camouflage.
Only when the magical satellite used strategic skills that required interference with the material plane—such as teleportation deployment, energy support, or orbital strikes—did it need to briefly manifest from the parallel dimension and appear in the space of the Prime Material Plane.
And even then, it would only appear for a few short seconds before immediately changing its spatial coordinates and vanishing into a new parallel dimension rift, giving the enemy no chance to lock onto it.
However, the magical satellite was not a perfect creation.
Every time it was used, it left behind subtle traces in the Prime Material space.
Slight wrinkles in the spatial structure, specific spectrums of residual Magical Power, the aftershocks triggered by dimensional leaps... as it manifested time and again, the number of these traces would gradually increase, like stones being repeatedly thrown into a calm lake, their ripples intertwining.
On one hand, Galos had space data provided by allied nations.
On the other hand, his Eye of True Sight could directly see those spatial traces that ordinary people could not perceive.
Galos gazed at the sky.
What appeared as a vast, clear firmament to ordinary creatures presented a complex and brilliant image to his vision.
Countless tiny points of light flickered like dust.
Many fainter, ripple-like waves spread slightly through space, slowly mending.
The Xio Kingdom's satellite was like a cunning fish swimming in the deep sea.
It would sometimes dive and hide within dimensions, and sometimes leap out of the water to draw air. Meanwhile, the commotion of each leap formed subtle ripples, leaving marks in the structure of space that gradually wove into a net.
Unless it completely ceased participating in the war now and stayed quietly hidden in some parallel dimension, waiting for the spatial traces to completely dissipate over time.
Otherwise, before long...
When the traces accumulated to a certain point, and its movement patterns were thoroughly mapped out, it would be completely exposed to Galos's vision.
However, there was still one problem.
"After achieving effective results, Xio's frequency of satellite usage has actually decreased this month. They are only using the most basic and unobtrusive reconnaissance skills, methodically expanding their advantage."
Galos's eyes narrowed slightly as he weighed the situation in his mind.
Clearly, the Xio commanders had also considered the satellite's weaknesses.
Even though the satellite itself possessed extremely strong defenses, the enemy still chose to prioritize caution, unwilling to over-rely on the satellite's strategic array to avoid exposing its trajectory.
But without relying on the satellite, how can you stabilize your advantage? And how can you withstand my Aura's counterattack?
The Red Iron Dragon smiled silently, his smile carrying a cold, hard edge.
"Sorog, my dear brother, implement your plan. Force Xio to use the satellite. Now that this weapon has been activated, how can it be stopped just like that?"
He sent a message through a mental link to his brother far away on the war's front lines.
"Good, I have been preparing for a long time."
Iron Dragon Sorog's steady and firm response came from the other side.
Year 343 of the New Calendar, midsummer, Ashen Plain.
The war, which had lasted for two years, had already left indelible scars on this land.
The wind kicked up ashes and let them fall, forming slowly rotating black smoke pillars like the sighs of the earth.
The plain, which originally had a hint of green, now only consisted of charred soil, crisscrossing trenches like scars, and broken flags and weapon wreckage half-buried in the dust.
The air was constantly filled with the mixed smell of sulfur, rust, and faint decay.
Thirty miles behind the impenetrable wall, the Chiseling Iron Position.
As time passed, this forward command post, originally established to deal with the Iron Wall Fortress, had gradually expanded into a fully functional war city.
Towering alchemical furnaces worked day and night, spewing thick smoke mixed with sparks to supply the front lines with components for repairing weapons and golems. Three grayish-white mage towers were distributed in a triangle, the detection arrays at their peaks scanning the sky and ground continuously like searchlights, their beams clearly visible in the hazy air. The camp's perimeter consisted of three layers of interlaced defensive walls made of enchanted concrete and metal frames, with dark, heavy alchemical artillery fixed on the battlements, their muzzles pointing toward the areas still controlled by Aura in the distance.
At the very center was a general headquarters built of deep gray metal.
It was square in shape with cold, hard lines, and the roof was equipped with multiple observation posts and communication antennas.
It lacked excessive decoration, its cold lines full of utilitarian style.
Rodrigo Crown stood in the strategic room on the third floor of the headquarters, his hands propped on the edge of a huge sand table, gazing at the complex situational markers within.
On the map...
Blue markers representing the Xio Legion had pierced the red areas representing Aura's control in many places, forming several protruding wedges.
Shadow Forest and Rust Valley.
These two former Aura border strongholds now flew Xio's flag.
Although the Iron Wall Fortress still remained embedded within Xio's borders like a poisonous thorn, the scales of victory were indeed tipping steadily.
Their side had accumulated many advantages in the conventional war: ample troops, more stable supply lines, and morale that was high due to continuous victories.
"By how much has our frequency of satellite usage decreased this month?"
Rodrigo asked in a deep voice to his trusted adjutant, Torres, without turning his head.
"Teleportation raids on major points have dropped from three times a week to once. Holy Healing Rain was only used once during the Palmer Highlands counterattack. Orbital Strikes..." Major Torres flipped through the recording board in his hand, paused, and continued, "have not been used since the assault on Rust Valley two months ago."
Hearing this, Rodrigo nodded.
He turned around and walked to a heavy oak desk nearby, looking at another report written on special magical paper.
It was a message sent directly by Alvin, its content simple yet impossible to ignore.
—The spatial traces of the Heavenly Eye's activities in the material plane are accumulating, and its trackability is slowly rising.
This meant that although the satellite leaped to new dimensional coordinates after each appearance, the predictability of its movement trajectory was slowly increasing.
Like a hunter walking repeatedly through a forest, the footprints would always become clearer.
Rodrigo knew the satellite itself had powerful spatial defenses.
Even if its coordinates were exposed, those layers upon layers of spatial-type barrier seals were indestructible, difficult for even a Legendary powerhouse to break.
However, he also had to consider the worst-case scenario.
The Red Iron Dragon Emperor Galos, the founder of the Aura Kingdom, might possess means to destroy or bypass the satellite's defenses.
Even if this probability was minuscule, war allowed for no complacency.
"We have accumulated enough of an advantage."
"The upcoming battles must be like chiseling stone—one hammer blow at a time, steady and sure. Use blades and steel to crush the enemy rather than over-relying on a single weapon."
"The satellite... shall only be used as eyes, and occasionally for emergency teleportation."
"As for Orbital Strikes and Holy Healing Rain, they are not to be used unless it is a decisive, critical battle."
Rodrigo said.
Adjutant Torres's lips moved, and he hesitated to speak.
He wanted to say that the front-line generals had already grown accustomed to the low casualties brought by the Holy Healing Rain, that the satellite support provided a huge boost to morale, and that the casualties of the soldiers would surely increase significantly from now on, with the pressure on logistics and medical care rising sharply... but seeing the commander's deep-set eyes, bloodshot with fatigue, he ultimately said nothing and chose silence.
Since the commander had said so, he surely had his reasons.
As an adjutant who had followed Rodrigo for many years, Torres knew well that this commander-in-chief never spoke without purpose.
However, Torres still had another question in his heart.
He hesitated for a moment but still asked: "Commander, since the situation is in our favor, can our Legends take the initiative to strike? Given Aura Kingdom's current public predicament, once the Legends act, they might be able to quickly flatten all resistance and end this war of attrition."
Rodrigo shook his head and walked to the window, looking out at the busy yet orderly camp.
"It's not that simple."
He said calmly.
On the surface, the Aura Kingdom has only two Legends: the Red Iron Dragon Emperor and the White Dragon Beskar.
However, Legendary Dragons cannot be treated as ordinary Legends, especially their Emperor... he is unfathomable.
The Xio Kingdom knows very little about him and lacks sufficient intelligence.
Just how strong is he? What kind of innate traits does he have?
All of this is still shrouded in mist.
Blindly committing Legends could lead to an unfavorable situation or an opportunity for the enemy to reduce our own Legend count, which would instantly reverse the situation.
Rodrigo's plan was to try and force the Aura Emperor to act first, using the lives of ordinary soldiers and the front lines as the price to gather information and test his abilities and reactions, then have their own Legends perform a follow-up counter-strike.
Then, at any cost, strive to secure victory through a decisive Legendary duel.
This was a cold but, in his view, necessary calculation.
Immediately, Rodrigo's gaze moved past the busy soldiers and machinery, landing on the grayish-white stone monument standing in the central square of the camp.
The monument was tall and solemn, covered in densely carved names of the fallen.
From the outbreak of the war in the autumn of the year 341 of the New Calendar until now, names have filled four sides, and stonemasons are clinking away, polishing a fifth smooth stone face.
New names were added every day.
"May the souls of the warriors rest in peace," Rodrigo whispered, making a simple prayer gesture across his chest. "Their sacrifice and heroic spirits will protect Xio in achieving final victory."
As the Commander-in-Chief, casualty figures were chips he had to weigh calmly.
However, while Rodrigo possessed Iron Blood methods, he was not a cold-blooded person.
He did not want to see too many familiar lives disappear forever on this Ashen Plain.
But he also knew very well in his heart.
If something really went wrong with the satellite, being destroyed or jammed by Aura; or if the expected battle of Legends couldn't end as quickly and cleanly as planned, falling into a stalemate or a pyrrhic victory... then even if the stonemasons polished ten or twenty more stone faces on that monument in the square, it would likely be far from enough to carve the names of all the fallen.
War always comes with sacrifice.
Some costs cannot be avoided no matter how much one plans.
Over the next two weeks, the war developed as Rodrigo had expected.
The Xio legions launched a series of small-scale but extremely sharp offensives across multiple fronts.
Without the immediate support of Holy Healing Rain, the casualty numbers for soldiers during assaults and defense did indeed rise. Relying solely on Medical Casters was difficult, and the load on field hospitals significantly increased. However, by virtue of their early advantages, superior equipment, and a relatively complete tactical system, the Xio army continued to advance steadily.
According to the repeated calculations and simulations of the staff department.
Given the current strength and reaction speed of Aura's defensive line, through this steady war of attrition, Xio had a high degree of confidence in taking one or two more border strongholds from Aura before the end of the year, thereby completely isolating that stubborn Iron Wall Fortress.
By then, no matter how tight the defenses of the Iron Wall Fortress were, falling would only be a matter of time in the absence of support.
Time reached mid-July.
At a certain noon, the sky over the Ashen Plain was as blue as if it had been washed, and the blazing sun scorched the charred earth without any cover, sending up rolling waves of heat.
Within the Chiseling Iron Position, the sentries on duty scanned the surrounding wilderness mechanically.
Although they maintained a vigilant attitude, their nerves were inevitably somewhat relaxed.
This place was located behind the impenetrable wall's defensive line, with several forward positions as buffers. Theoretically, it was very safe; in the two years of war, it had never been attacked.
The sound of artillery in the distance was faint—that was the ongoing tug-of-war at the front, and it sounded normal.
Inside the general headquarters, Rodrigo was holding a routine magical communication meeting with several frontline commanders.
The floating crystal ball projected slightly flickering light and shadows as the generals took turns reporting the progress and needs of their respective fronts.
Just three days before the meeting began, the Aura legions had launched fierce counter-attacks in several directions simultaneously, the intensity of which exceeded the expectations of some Xio generals.
But at the meeting, the tone of the commanders was generally excited.
They felt this was Aura's death throes after losing important territory.
Like a fish flopping violently because it's suffocating, though intense, it was destined not to last and would instead consume their already limited vital forces.
"The satellite hasn't detected any large-scale military changes on the other side, but don't let your guard down."
Rodrigo interrupted a certain general's overly optimistic assessment.
"Aura Kingdom's Iron Dragon Prince Sorog is known for his cold-bloodedness and composure; he wouldn't launch such a seemingly regardless-of-cost counter-attack without a follow-up move."
"All defensive lines must strengthen reconnaissance, especially monitoring the ground and the sky, to guard against..."
Suddenly.
He frowned slightly, and his voice came to an abrupt halt.
An extremely slight vibration came from beneath his feet, as if a heavy drumstick had struck the earth once.
Rodrigo looked down at his feet; the stone floor was motionless, but that vibration... was not an illusion.
It wasn't the periodic roar of the alchemy furnaces in the camp, nor was it the aftershocks from their own distant artillery fire. It was a deeper, thicker tremor, as if coming from deep within the earth and rapidly approaching.
Other officers in the headquarters felt it too, stopping their work one after another to look at the ground.
Next, that subtle tremor turned into a distinct swaying.
Ripples appeared in the water cups on the table, the map on the wall trembled gently, and the sturdy architectural structure of the headquarters made an unsettling grinding sound.
"An earthquake?"
Adjutant Torres asked in surprise and doubt.
Rodrigo's expression changed drastically, his years of battlefield intuition making the hair on his body stand on end instantly.
"No! It's underground! Enemy attack—"
Before his warning could fully leave his mouth, the earth let out a groan of pain.
Rumble!!!
The solid ground arched upward like a fragile eggshell, cracked, and then exploded violently!
Soil, rubble, and shattered floor materials shot upward like a fountain, and dust instantly filled the entire ground floor of the headquarters!
Amidst the tremors and the filling dust, a colossal object burst out of the ground.
The creature was shaped like an annelid worm magnified ten thousand times, with a diameter of over five meters. The length of its exposed segments was immeasurable, and its body was covered in a chitinous shell as smooth and hard as obsidian, reflecting a dark luster under the sunlight filtering in from the ground.
Its head had no eyes, only a ring of spirally arranged giant jaw-teeth, which were currently spinning frantically at an incredible speed, grinding the bricks, wood, and metal components along the way into powder.
At the same time, its smooth shell was covered with dense and hidden magical runes.
These runes efficiently absorbed sound, vibration, and energy fluctuations, so much so that when such a giant beast burst out of the ground, there was eerily little sound around it, and no strong Aura leaked out.
If not seen with one's own eyes, it was almost impossible to detect the existence of such a terrifying beast through perception alone.
"Burrowing Worm! It's a Burrowing Worm!"
An old soldier recognized this terrifying beast, his voice filled with horror.
They were a race that migrated from deep underground and swore fealty when Aura was founded. Although no Lord-level individuals were born among them, their collective power was staggering, especially in large-scale underground tunneling and surprise attacks.
In a situation where satellites were in the sky and could strictly monitor the sky and the land.
A troop type like the Burrowing Worm, which could launch attacks from underground, had unexpected strategic value.
Therefore, under the direction of Iron Dragon Sorog, their existence had been kept strictly confidential and had never been revealed in foreign wars.
The existence of these Burrowing Worms, which were outside of intelligence, exceeded Xio's expectations and monitoring range.
But this was only the beginning.
Immediately following, a second, a third, a fourth... more than thirty giant Burrowing Worms burst out of the ground in different areas of the Chiseling Iron Position! Instantly, the entire Chiseling Iron Position was segmented and thrown into chaos.
Before the dust could settle, the spiral jaw-teeth at the heads of the first batch of Burrowing Worms suddenly split to the sides.
Bottomless throat passages were revealed.
Boom!
Strong figures leaped out one after another.
They were heavy units like Ogres and Trolls!
These giant monsters, with an average height of over four meters, were clad in thick and refined battle armor, wielding heavy rune weapons comparable to battering rams. Upon landing, they let out deafeningly violent war cries, frantically destroying everything around them indiscriminately.
Another group of Dragonforged Warriors leaped out from the 'wormholes'.
They were elite units cultivated by the Aura Kingdom through the Dragonforged Transformation ritual. Their races varied, but their skin was covered in fine dragon scales of different colors, and their eyes were reptilian vertical pupils.
They were well-equipped, highly disciplined, and had powerful Auras. As soon as they appeared, they formed combat squads and lunged toward various key nodes with unstoppable force.
And the last Burrowing Worm, also the largest in size, burst out of the ground amidst the tremors of the earth.
Its giant mouth, nearly eight meters in diameter, suddenly opened, launching a dark red, curled-up, ball-like giant "cannonball"!
This "cannonball" crashed into a building with a piercing whistle.
Bricks collapsed, and dust filled the air.
However, that was no cannonball!
Amidst the dust, a colossal shadow stretched its body and stood up proudly.