Ten hours after the full outbreak of war.

Underneath the night sky, distant lights began to flicker faster. Raindrops washed over the tightly sealed flying armor, as the low rumble of the engine resonated continuously. The wide wings flashed red navigation lights at a fixed frequency. This hovercar was advancing at 600 kilometers per hour, with its side deflectors raised, creating a white waterfall visible to the naked eye.

After a brief jolt, the hovercar’s speed stabilized.

Tang Xin leaned against Bai Youyou’s shoulder with her eyes closed, her sleep was shallow, and the brief bump woke her up.

Skyline City is a giant energy city, with a geographic area of over 40,000 square kilometers, divided by the West Forest Mountain Range running through the skyline into north and south. The northern part includes twenty-one zones like the sleepless city Purisaid, while the southern part has twenty-three zones including the Chaplin District where Ausen Technology Innovation is located.

Most of the zones are named with numbers and iconic buildings, with only a few that are named after famous individuals, such as Chaplin, Lawrence, and Marcuse Districts.

Currently, they are driving in Lawrence Zone 3, with 40 kilometers left to reach the Mu Yaoyin school district. According to the previous teacher’s announcement, the campus little star singing competition is scheduled to start at 9 PM tonight, at which time the black box will be delivered to Yaoyin Primary School.

Given the current situation, people in the school have already mostly been evacuated, and the singing competition is sure to be canceled, meaning that whoever appears on campus afterward can only be the enemy.

"Do you need to lean for a while longer?" Bai Youyou asked as she held the steering wheel, glancing over with her eyes. "If you need to rest a bit more."

Tang Xin shook her head.

"Big brother, don’t you feel like we were forcibly hijacked onto this car?" Evil Slayer scratched his head and asked from the back seat.

"Such an embarrassing thing, let’s not say it out loud, okay?" Chu E covered his face.

If spoken, others wouldn’t believe that they were somehow kidnapped by two primary school students.

Demon Slayer didn’t respond to the two, instead gazing outside, where the rain was pouring down heavily, constantly flushing over the holographic armor. Among the gray clouds, lightning interwove, as if a long narrow thing flashed by, approaching at high speed.

This long, narrow thing seemed to be growing bigger, no... it was growing fast!

Demon Slayer’s pupils suddenly contracted.

That’s...

Just then, a piercing alarm suddenly blared inside the car, and in the instant the alarm sounded, fierce gusts of wind rushed into the car, shattering the glass as flames roared and all the instruments were ignited by fire.

In the moment when time seemed to freeze, Demon Slayer clearly saw that long, narrow thing.

It was a lance!

The hovercar they were in was pierced by a lance!

Someone launched a lance from the ground, accurately hitting the hovercar in the sky!

From when the alert of the lance went off to when it pierced through, less than 0.2 seconds passed, and the warning radar’s range was 2 kilometers, indicating that the lance’s speed exceeded 10 kilometers per second. If the thrower wished, they could even throw it into space!

The flying armor was continuously deconstructed, torn to pieces by the fierce wind, then thrown away. The dashboard’s data began jumping frantically, subsequently sparking and malfunctioning, the external holographic projection vanished, fading into alloy armor, the world began to spin, replaced by a continuously spinning, dead silent gray.

Gazing at the beam of light piercing through the night sky and the fireball rolling towards the endless night, a centaur-like figure leapt down from the slope of steel and concrete interwoven. The exhaust devices on the mechanical arms dissipated heat as red lights lit up, segmented arms clasped together with a ’clack,’ and the thrusters embedded themselves into the arms.

His mouth emitted an incoherent roar before finally howling towards the sky, sharp electrical flashes lit up, illuminating his flawed face and that ghastly, lava-like flowing body, as the bright heat and light coursed through his entire being.

"Opina... Opina!" 𝑓𝘳𝑒𝑒𝓌𝘦𝘣𝘯ℴ𝑣𝘦𝑙.𝘤𝑜𝑚

This beast breaking free of its cage was venting its anger to the world in this way!

...

Seven o’clock at night, Huoxun Medical Center.

Countless medical facilities lay scattered about haphazardly on the ground, shadows of people loomed in the medical center’s corridors, transformed into a temporary command center.

"Report, the combat units of lines one, three, and seven have totally collapsed. We’ve informed the outer combat forces of Skyline City to enter the city, but received no response."

"Report, a Firefly army with the code 012 is encircling our direction, we’re trapped in Huoxun Medical Center."

"Report, the Kevojia stationed at Zone One on West Forest Avenue refused to execute support orders."

Cervantes’s gaze was bleak:

"Ker Xilin, where is Ker Xilin? Tell her to prepare to lead people for a breakthrough, we can’t stay here any longer."

The Revolutionary Army members around exchanged glances.

"And aren’t you moving quickly?" Cervantes said in a low, hoarse voice.

"Ker Xilin, Ker Xilin at the very beginning already... she was covering your transfer to Huoxun Medical Center..."

Cervantes rubbed his forehead and injected 60ml of morphine, clearly exceeding the sedative’s scope, to ensure his mind stayed clear. Surely there was something he hadn’t thought of.

Since the declaration of full war, the Revolutionary Army had been retreating step by step, Firefly’s army seemingly having anticipated all their actions, making early arrangements, leading to the total collapse of their attack deployment against Ark. They had no choice but to retract the front line entirely, falling back to Huoxun Medical Center for defensive setup.

Just a while ago, the support lines of Huoxun Medical Center were completely cut off, they were utterly isolated and helpless. They even relied on the more primitive telegraph method to transmit commands externally, most of which fell on deaf ears.

Either intercepted or received by the senior Revolutionary Army members leading the troops, but unresponded to.

One negative battle status after another almost drove Cervantes insane, he couldn’t understand how the situation had changed so drastically in less than a day.

If this continued, by dawn, he would be found and killed by the encircling Firefly army.

The excessive sedative caused his consciousness to blur and even hallucinate. He scanned around, suddenly scrambling onto the ruins like mad, shoving aside collapsed boulders, his hands probing underneath, searching for something immensely important to him.

"Sancho... Sancho..." Cervantes’s hands were bloody from the search.

"I lost touch with you..."

"Where are you, I can’t find you, I can’t find you..."

The Revolutionary Army members around him were anxiously circling around, repeatedly asking for the next orders, while Cervantes ignored them, shoving away those attempting to stop him as he followed an illusion before him, quickly heading towards the door.

Suddenly, he seemed to hear a familiar voice, stunned in place, turning around abruptly, his awareness suddenly becoming clear. He thought of the war weapon he had hidden beneath Picasso District, a war weapon capable of reversing the entire situation!

"Gernika, activate Gernika, let Gernika come!"

Those around him gave him an ice-cold reply.

"Just moments ago, Gernika was invaded by an unknown program, it’s out of control..."