Chapter 1390: The Enemy Nobody Saw

This time, everyone reacted very differently.

They immediately crowded around Ethan, waiting eagerly for him to finish. Even Namyanna stopped cleaning their clothes.

Ethan gave them a helpless look and pointed toward the sky.

"Our next destination is—the sky!"

Their eyes lit up. Every head turned in the direction he was pointing, toward the heights above.

Seraphina heard the order as well.

Her enormous wings swept downward, and the resulting air current carried her massive body higher. The clouds parted around them as they rode the dragon into the unknown reaches of the sky.

No one knew what awaited them there.

Time passed.

The surrounding clouds grew thinner until they were all below them. If they continued upward, they would soon reach the upper atmosphere.

For now, they were cruising through the relatively stable stratosphere.

An endless blue sky stretched overhead, while a soft sea of clouds lay beneath them. Sunlight poured unobstructed across the dragon’s back, sweeping away the last traces of the swamp’s damp gloom.

Everyone began to relax.

But farther below, in the troposphere, an uninvited visitor was on the move.

It was a mechanical Castle.

From the outside, the entire Castle resembled a pyramid, its shell constructed from countless gears, pipes, and steam-powered mechanisms. The gears turned constantly as white steam vented from openings along its edges, propelling the colossal structure slowly through the clouds.

All kinds of creatures occupied different stations inside the Castle.

Some maintained the gears, others controlled the steam valves, and still others monitored the world outside. Together, they kept their mobile home operational.

The mechanical Castle was also continuously deploying scout War Machines to search for energy and resources to replenish its dwindling reserves.

Up in the stratosphere, Ethan and the others were still chatting and laughing.

But Ethan had already noticed something was wrong.

There were no buildings nearby, nor could he see any other large targets. Yet he had already destroyed numerous small War Machines that approached them.

Those machines couldn’t have appeared out of nowhere.

Some hostile faction had to be hiding nearby.

They were out in the open, casually talking and laughing while their enemy watched from the shadows.

At least, that was Ethan’s assessment.

The reality was entirely different.

The scout War Machines deployed by the mechanical Castle had lost contact one after another before they could transmit complete reports. All the Castle’s crew could confirm was that something ahead was capable of destroying their reconnaissance units.

To them, that also suggested the presence of energy or resources worth collecting.

So they released more War Machines.

Their orders were to continue scouting and determine the unknown target’s strength if possible. Meanwhile, the mechanical Castle kept its distance, afraid that the other side had already detected it and would attack the moment it approached.

Both sides believed they were exposed while the enemy remained hidden.

This nonexistent exchange of probes continued for several minutes.

Ethan finally lost his patience.

The small War Machines he destroyed kept crashing near Seraphina’s back, and their wreckage had already piled into a wall of scrap. If this continued, the dragon’s back would be buried in metal before the enemy even showed itself.

"Seraphina, dive!"

Ethan pointed down at the clouds.

"Seraphine, put up a shield! Let’s see who’s behind this!"

Seraphina folded her wings and pitched downward, diving toward the troposphere. Seraphine released her power at the same time, forming a complete barrier around the group to shield them from the high-speed airflow.

Down inside the mechanical Castle, anxiety was mounting as well.

If they continued deploying War Machines, their reserves would soon be completely depleted. So far, the only thing they knew for certain was that the other side had made no attempt to approach the mechanical Castle.

Ferrick stared at the information on the screen until he finally ran out of patience.

"Korrick! Charge! Take us straight at them!"

Everyone in the control room turned to look at him.

"I don’t care whether they’ve discovered us or not—charge! Show them what we can do!"

A bitter voice came from beside him.

"Merrin, you and Korrick are my most trusted commanders." Ferrick turned toward the speaker. "Tell me. How many times can we still use it?"

Merrin looked down at the data sheet in his hands.

The number silenced him for a moment. Only after checking it repeatedly did he raise his head to face his lord.

"Lord Ferrick Vane, twice."

He stressed the word.

"Only twice. I mean it. If we use it any more than that, we’ll fall straight out of the sky."

Ferrick considered this for a moment, then strode into the control room.

A red dot flashed at the center of the screen, marking where the War Machines had last made contact.

"Begin!"

The order rang throughout the mechanical Castle.

Everyone rushed to their stations. The gears turned faster, and steam surged through the pipes. The pyramid’s outer structure began to shift as sections of its mechanical shell unfolded to either side.

It was as if the entire city were shedding its old skin.

The exposed gears and steam mechanisms rearranged themselves. Buildings, roads, and mechanical facilities rose from within, transforming the structure into a sprawling steampunk city.

Its residents were revealed as well.

None of them were ordinary creatures of flesh and blood. Every person had mechanical prosthetics integrated into their body. Metal replaced portions of their physical structure, while gears and energy conduits kept them moving.

Machinery governed every aspect of the city.

The base of the pyramid slowly opened, and several enormous thrusters extended from within.

Blue flames erupted downward.

The tremendous thrust lifted the entire city, carrying the mechanical Castle out of the troposphere and rapidly toward the stratosphere.

At that very moment, Seraphina was carrying the others down into the troposphere.

The mechanical Castle was shooting up from the troposphere into the stratosphere.

Traveling in opposite directions, the two sides missed each other perfectly and exchanged positions in a matter of seconds.

Ethan already had an energy sphere prepared.

But when Seraphina broke through the cloud layer and entered the troposphere, all he saw was an endless expanse of drifting clouds.

The enemy was gone.

Up in the stratosphere, Ferrick was equally baffled.

The red dot was still flashing on the screen, yet there was no one in sight. Whatever had destroyed the War Machines was nowhere to be found.

Had they imagined the whole thing?

He shook his head as soon as the thought occurred to him.

There was no way they had lost that many War Machines for nothing.

The enemy had to be hiding nearby.

Below them, Ethan was also searching the area.

Dense clouds blocked his view, and broad banks of white mist shifted back and forth with the wind. He patted Seraphina’s back and gave a single command.

"Blow!"

Seraphina raised her head and drew in a deep breath.

Her chest expanded. The surrounding clouds were dragged toward her mouth by the suction. Once she had gathered enough power, she opened her jaws and unleashed a deafening dragon roar.

A violent current blasted from her mouth.

The cloud bank ahead was swept away in its entirety, thick white mist churning outward in every direction. Only Seraphine’s shield kept everyone from being blown off the dragon’s back, though the violent shaking was still enough to leave them uncomfortable.

Some of the clouds were blasted upward, rising beyond their original altitude and entering the stratosphere.

That strangely moving cloud bank happened to appear within Ferrick’s observation range.

He stared at the flashing red warning dot on the screen, then saw the clouds surging up from below. His mechanical arm immediately snapped toward the display.

"Below us!"

Ferrick spun around and issued another order.

"Merrin, start charging!"

Back in the troposphere, Ethan studied the newly cleared sky.

There was still nothing unusual anywhere around them.

Had those War Machines really been an illusion?

Auri suddenly tugged at his clothes and pointed upward with her small hand.

Far above them, a red glow was steadily growing brighter.

"Daddy, is it that red thing?"

Ethan followed Auri’s finger and looked up.

The red light high above was nothing like the sun. Though the sun also contained shades of crimson, its edges blended into gold and white. This glow was far too pure, and the color at its center was still deepening.

At first, it was only the size of a fist above the clouds.

Within a few breaths, it had expanded several times over. The surrounding air began rushing toward it, dragging the once-gently drifting clouds along and forming a vast, rotating ring in the sky.