Chapter 1495: War Breaks Out

Chapter 1495: Chapter 1495: War Breaks Out

A distance of five hundred meters in a cavalry charge takes only dozens of seconds. Almost at the moment when both sides uttered their battle cries, the torrents of steel collided with unstoppable force.

The expected scenario of crushing the opposing forces did not occur. After being blessed by mages and priests and simultaneously casting numerous negative effects on the mechanical army, the Temple Knight army of Council City did not topple as anticipated in the first charge. The source-infused lances pierced row by row into the bodies of the Mechanical Knight Order.

However, this did not excite the opposing army at all because the Mechanical Legion, with large holes pierced through their bodies, was unaffected. The iron flow from the surface of the mechanical puppets not only filled the damaged openings but also fixed the lances that penetrated their bodies. In these odd postures, each Mechanical Knight emitted the roar of motors, spraying clouds of white smoke while forcefully thrusting their spears.

The Mechanical Knight Order deliberately refrained from launching an immediate attack to pin the opposing forces in place, leaving them with no escape. The sharp spears cut through the air, each thrust piercing the Temple Knights, staining the ground red with blood!

Knights pierced by spears, whether on horseback or on foot, demonstrated extraordinary vitality as long as they were not instantly killed. They grabbed the weapons embedded in them, drew their longswords, and slashed at the enemy, creating opportunities for their charging comrades.

Meanwhile, mages and archers in the air and on the city walls unleashed various magical attacks on the mechanical army. Despite the incoming onslaught, the Mechanical Knight Order fearlessly ignored the attacks.

Explosive fire, lightning, and ice erupted amidst the army. Apart from some Mechanical Knights being knocked off their mounts, most endured the attacks. The magical assaults were less troubling than the source-infused arrows, some of which pierced through armor and lodged in the enemy’s bodies.

"Their armor has some source energy immunity!" In the air, the mage quickly identified the issue, exclaiming this fact. A steel army forged with Metal of Immunity—this is a mage’s nightmare!

"Don’t panic! They can’t be fully made of source energy immune metal! It’s just their power mixing the metal into the puppets for resistance against magic attacks. Exceeding this limit will still injure them! Keep attacking!" The steel army fully forged with Metal of Immunity only exists among the most elite Demon God Guards, Immortal Palace Six Guards, and the Council City’s Divine Punishment Army. Aside from these, Pei Yan couldn’t organize a large army with such a resource. Neither the Immortal Palace nor the Holy City would generously relinquish these precious resources. Understanding this, Aleister immediately commanded.

Reassured by these words, the aerial mage legion reorganized their assault on the mechanical army, but in the brief interval, a series of explosions erupted ahead of them.

The Mechanical Knights at the front launched the initial attack. The already wary Temple Knight Order was astonished as the scales on the chest armor of the Mechanical Knights slid down, revealing a line of gun barrels. Simultaneously, shoulder armor compartments opened to erect small turrets. Upon seeing these, the Temple Knights sensed imminent danger, yet before they could react, gun barrels within the Mechanical Knights and countless bullets and small caliber shells were fired into the enemy’s bodies at close range.

"Ugh~ah~ah~!"

Templar knights, already wounded from clashes, found their protective source energy rapidly depleted under this dense gunfire. Even in these circumstances, they were worthy of their title as one of Council City’s finest, executing final counterattacks by channeling all their source energy into their longswords to deliver energy slashes. These desperate slashes indeed lived up to expectations, slicing through the enemy. But to their despair, apart from some Mechanical Knights directly struck in the head or sliced in half that dissipated into smoke, others sat immobile, continuing attacks as if nothing had happened despite losing limbs.

This isn’t fair! was a shared thought among the Temple Knights about to be ripped apart by the shells. Since birth, they had trained relentlessly to become Temple Knights, honing their techniques day after day. Even after joining, they never gave up. Yet their lifelong efforts were annihilated by lifeless scrap metal—this isn’t fair!

The knights died unwillingly, and the Council City elites in the air alongside felt the same anguish. They were losing knights whose excellence took decades to cultivate, while the enemy’s losses could be reassembled with some effort. Driven mad by this thought, Urban grabbed the bishop by the collar, roaring, "Find them! Identify who controls these puppets! Audess, relay their source traits and appearance to everyone! Find and rip them apart!"

"The second wave of attacks from the Investigation Corps is coming! Prepare defenses!" The mage troops’ alarm interrupted Urban’s roar as he turned to see rows of fire-tailed rockets launched into the sky toward Council City.

Behind the mechanical cavalry, the mechanical infantry line revealed their might. Each held a crossbow without a bowstring, as their ammo required none. Soldiers aimed at the sky, setting angles before pulling the trigger, sending rockets aloft one by one.

Mages, witches, and priests of the Bright Church teamed up swiftly, forming a magic barrier capable of shielding the entire army.

Boom! Boom! Boom! With power greater than grenades but less than small mortars, rockets exploded one after another on the barrier, while mages struggled to maintain the Magic Defense Array. Just as they thought the barrage had ended and sighed with relief, a second row of rockets soared into the sky from behind the mechanical legion.