Xyrin Empire-Chapter 695 Warm Welcome, Yes, Very Warm

"All summoned troops head to the Fourth Star Port and stand by. A Faith-class transporter will take you to the battlefield. This is a special mission, you will receive no space firepower support, and your enemy will be Abyss’s minions. The glory of the Emperor will guide you to victory, provided you can clear the thorns on your way by yourselves."

In Shadow Base, near the starport’s Teleportation Gate in the plaza, squadrons of valiant Armored Scorpions walked toward the portal under the command of Visca. Her dual swords clashed in the air, making a loud "clang clang" noise, indicating the Scorpion Girl’s irrepressible combat enthusiasm. In the past few days, Visca had nearly been driven to the brink of collapse by the lost children and the holiday paraphernalia that needed to be moved around. The amount of Helium-3 she drank in the last two days to relieve stress had almost exceeded fifty percent of the beneficial dosage for her body.

Although the Armored Scorpions didn’t mind carrying things, they clearly preferred having a train cannon or two tons of war blade on their backs instead of festive equipment.

Above the Armored Scorpions’ formation were Shadow City’s magical girl troops: the Ravens. These playful creatures flying back and forth in mid-air were much more lively than the stiff Armored Scorpions. Despite the military discipline instilled by the Xyrin Apostles that kept them from giggling, their natural inclination for mischief, such as teasing the orderly marching Armored Scorpions below by using Flash, was evident, stemming from their identical upbringing by the Supreme Commander’s foolish antics and the endless exposure to the Imperial High Level’s lack of morals.

Then you could see how the Ravens and Armored Scorpions, two types of soldiers in the Empire with a long history of animosity, interacted: every time a Raven flashed down, there’d be an Armored Scorpion’s tail whipping out with a swoosh. The constant flashing within the formation resulted in a crackling noise, like swatting flies, although no one was hurt. Yet watching the Scorpions’ tails swing at supersonic speeds made me break out in a cold sweat.

Behind the Armored Scorpions’ formation, marching in formation were the newly enlisted Leader Bees. These silent, aloof soldiers barely interacted with other Angels Envoys except for during missions. Their guard duty during the carnival led tourists to believe they were unique urban sculptures of Shadow City. Now, they were finally doing something more meaningful than guarding posts.

Based on Ares’ combat power, we had deduced that the "Divine Servants" of Atlantis that had been infected carried at least the strength of Elite Empire Soldiers, and we couldn’t rule out the presence of monsters with the power of low to mid-level Imperial Officers. After all, they were once super soldiers engineered by the old Empire to fight against Vis, mutated in the process. Each one was the result of a considerable investment by the unfortunate science expedition teams, a cut above mere cannon fodder. Even though they couldn’t compare to Qianqian, who also developed superpowers but directly ascended beyond the usual ranks, they should still be a match for the regular Imperial Army. Besides, enhanced by Abyss Power, even Armored Scorpions might take damage when fighting them. Therefore, including the Lead Bees, who have outstanding team support abilities, in combat was necessary.

"A war within the atmosphere, and we can only deploy our best soldiers, but it shouldn’t be difficult. Armored Scorpions are the finest heroes of close-quarters combat," Sandora said in a low voice as she watched the nearly finished teleportation of the Armored Scorpion squadron, "The annoying thing is that Atlantis has fallen into the Fantasy Country. This means that our most advantageous space firepower is rendered useless."

"Alright, it’s not like big guns and warships are always useful. If an Eternal-class fires once, would you want Fantasy Country to exist after that?"

"So, uh, can I ask questions now?"

A hesitant call interrupted my conversation with Sandora, and turning around, I saw Boli Lingmeng and the other two standing behind me, with the recently recovered and freshly fluffed-tailed Yakumo Lan being the one who had spoken up.

The tense and orderly troop movements, the scrolling military information projected in the plaza, the screaming warplanes and magical girls flying across the sky, and the rumbling mechanical scorpions on the ground, it was a scene signaling the imminent storm of war that left the two unseasoned demons and a carefree girl astonished: by Dingdang’s name, a brawl in Fantasy Country involving over two hundred people was already considered a historic disaster, and daily such bustling movements would pass outside the shrine and disrupt Lingmeng’s peace, how would she live?

"Are you all... going to war?" The demon fox girl was pushed to the front by her master, looking around at the tens of thousands of power surging, violent individuals marching in formation, the gentle fox lady felt immense pressure, "Didn’t you say you’d found Fantasy Country’s location?"

Did this fox think we were going to invade?

"Well, actually, there is good news and bad news for you all." I scratched my head, a bit troubled, and pulled out the most clichéd phrase, and even the expression on Yukari Yakumo’s face showed she was intrigued.

"The good news is that one of the Empire’s ancient Colonization Ships has found the coordinates of Fantasy Country and landed in that world. In a few hours, we’ll be able to send you back home using the colonization ship’s positioning system."

"Oh~~" Yukari Yakumo and Ling Meng both uttered an "Oh."

"The bad news is... when that colonization ship landed, it crashed into Fantasy Country... Yes, Lan, it’s the same thing that sent you flying over here."

Both demon girls suddenly looked devastated: "Hah!?"

It’s at times like this that you really see a person’s true nature. Ling Meng was quick to react. While Yukari Yakumo was still sifting through the information, this red-and-white had already grabbed hold of my sleeve: "Wait! So, you’re saying your giant ship smashed into Fantasy Country, right?"

I looked expressionlessly at the armpit witch whose eyes had practically turned into gold coins: "You won’t be short-changed a single cent for the demolition compensation! So now you can board the ship with peace of mind!"

After Boli Lingmeng happily scampered off to the teleportation gate, Yukari Yakumo gave me a meaningful look and, covering her mouth with her folding fan, laughingly said, "Instant karma, my dear boss."

"Do you believe I could just default on the payment and, to bury the evidence, drop a couple of race extinction weapons on Fantasy Country?"

Faced with my deliberately fierce expression, Yukari Yakumo just smiled and said one sentence: "Scaring girls isn’t nice, you definitely won’t do that because the boss is a—good person."

Good person, indeed...

After the golden-haired girl left, pulling along a fox with a face full of apologies, it took me thirty seconds to confirm a fact: I had just been issued a good person card by Mother Zi... What a formidable life experience!

Shaking off the tragic memory of the good person card, I got ready to depart with Sandora and Lin Xue when a hasty shout came from afar: "Daddy! Wait for me!"

Turning around dumbly, there was Bubbles, carrying "Conquer Fantasy Country and be the unrivaled champion of the yuri realm" banners on her back, and kicking up a cloud of dust as she charged from a few hundred meters away. I could tell from our spiritual connection that she had one goal in mind: to dominate Fantasy Country, then build a museum...

This time, however, I didn’t have to intervene. Bubbles tripped halfway and fell flat on her face. The little loli frantically struggled to get up, just in time to meet the smile of Big Sister.

After giving me a "rest assured and set off at ease" expression and waving her hand to signal, Big Sister then left with a child’s mother surrounded by a cloud of complaints.

Prior to my departure, I made an appeal to the demon girls of Fantasy Country: My sister just saved you from the grim fate of becoming a collection of some otaku girl. Can we talk a little about the compensation for demolition?

A thunderous and authoritative voice approached rapidly from a distance, and the sound of flapping wings followed in the sky. Lifting my head slightly, a massive golden two-headed dragon just happened to slash across my field of vision before plunging into a space rift that appeared out of nowhere.

The Divine Clan Tiaozi Five were also joining this operation—as spectators. Although I very much wished I could simply hand off this troublesome task to those big shots to deal with once and for all, it was clear that those folks were just here for the excitement. Well, it’s fine. According to Sandora, this was at least considered the first cooperative action with the gods since the Empire’s resurgence, and as an historic event, I believe those historians who are more long-winded than Lilina will describe this sightseeing behavior of a group of Divine Realm hooligans in a very heroic and stirring manner.

Accompanied by tens of thousands of ferocious Heroic Combat Soldiers and an astonishing number of Combat Puppets from the space Gnaku, we boarded the mother ship. During the brief ten or so minutes of teleportation preparation and Void Transmission, Ares sat silently in his seat the whole time. The slight bulging of his muscles showed this strapping warrior had already entered a pre-battle state. Although I wanted to tell him there was no need to be so tense so early, I ultimately said nothing: as a Super Soldier created by the Old Empire specifically for combat, fighting was probably all that was left on his mind now.

"All personnel take notice, we are about to re-enter the Main Material Plane. An alien Barrier has been detected. Mild turbulence will occur during the breach..."

The soothing broadcast of the ship’s mainframe rang out on the bridge of the transporter, followed by a series of continuous tremors representing the intrusion into another space. Once the tremors subsided, various tactical devices inside the bridge immediately started booting up in protocol sequence, and the ship’s mainframe began reporting the situation: "The ship has completed the transmission and is now hovering invisibly. External image link is online."

"Hmm, Lin has to report to a nearby Void Node first, so she might arrive a bit late. For now, let’s take a look at the situation at Demon Mountain."

"Understood, mainframe."

The image on the central projection system of the officer platform switched from complex curves and the backdrop of space to the interior of Fantasy Country.

What a paradise—this was my first impression the moment I saw the green waters and blue mountains displayed on the screen.

The isolated and self-sufficient Fantasy Country, which has not been affected by the pollution of the outside civilized world since the Edo Period, remained in its pure state where everything was maintained as it was in ancient times with green hills, clear waters, and blue skies. The first thing appearing in the large holographic projection was a vast meadow. It was unclear where this scene was from, but at least from what I remembered, such pristine meadows were nearly extinct on Earth. The projection’s viewpoint shifted continuously with the operation of the ship’s scanning device, and soon we saw the shrine located in the mountains, houses where demons lived, human villages, hermit-like cottages in the forest, clear and rushing streams with blue ponds, and the lush, dense forests...

Yukari Yakumo, Ling Meng, and Lan couldn’t help but breathe rapidly upon seeing familiar scenes of their hometown in the projection. Even demons, known to lack human emotions, were just like humans, sentimental about their homeland. I heard Ling Meng’s soft murmur in my ears, "Sigh... It seems the end of the world isn’t here yet..."

"But the Great Barrier is about to be destroyed," Yukari Yakumo’s voice carried a rare sense of worry, "The barrier of Fantasy Country is based on reality and fantasy as demarcation lines, isolating things like demons and spells from the modern world outside. But the cross-world transportation you speak of has already damaged parts of the barrier, I must strengthen it right away!"

Knowing that I couldn’t help her with this, I simply nodded, "The communications channel is always open; you can ask the Imperial Technicians for assistance."

Yukari Yakumo nodded, "Hmm, I’ll leave Lan behind. If something comes up, she can take my place." After saying that, she opened a rift next to her and dove in.

With a loud bang, the golden-haired girl returned with a big red lump on her forehead.

"... Space Transmissions without landing are prohibited inside the Imperial Warship."

"Ugh..." Yukari Yakumo glared at me annoyedly and hurriedly ran out.

"There are no issues in the entire Fantasy Country; it seems the Abyss has not spread out. Now, let’s have a look in the direction of Demon Mountain."

The ship’s mainframe immediately complied and switched the projection over.

A spectacular spectacle suddenly presented itself before everyone.

At the highest region of Fantasy Country, Demon Mountain was now shrouded in mist and darkness. Large clusters of blue fog-like substances enveloped the waist of Demon Mountain like the clouds that surround tall mountains, dividing it into two distinctly different parts. Although the lower part was veiled in darkness, the color adjustment system marked it as still normally verdant. The towering trees and primitive forest land familiar to Fantasy Country covered the area. Above the misty layer, the vegetation withered, life had vanished, and a third of the mountain peak was tainted with the yellow of death.

Fortunately, it was just the brownish-yellow of dried plants, not the crazed black and red that came after being tainted by the Abyss. Clearly, no Abyss Energy had leaked from Atlantis. The dried plants must have gradually died due to the radiation from the anti-gravity engines of the sky city. The lethal heat and radiation to plants most likely couldn’t harm those extraordinary demons of Fantasy Country.

The fallen Atlantis, of course, also immediately caught everyone’s eye. It was slightly east above Demon Mountain. The inverted-cone-shaped bottom of the Floating Continent was almost touching the peak of Demon Mountain, and where they intersected, there was lightning and thunder, but clearly, they had not directly collided.

It was also fortunate they hadn’t made contact. Only upon seeing it in person did we realize just how vast the Floating City of Atlantis was. It was almost twice the size of Demon Mountain. Despite being in mid-air, it cast an entire section of Demon Mountain and a considerable area at the mountain’s foot into darkness deep as midnight. If such a massive land was to truly fall... not a single soul on Demon Mountain would remain.

"Has the anti-gravity system of Atlantis not shut down yet?" Sandora mused to herself, "Hmm, the various barriers of the Floating Island are still operating at full power, and there’s a special shield over the core area. Our ship-mounted radar can’t scan the specifics of the impact site. It seems we’ll need to send Imperial Agents in. Also, prepare the landers; we’ll make first contact with the natives of Fantasy Country."

Ares opened his mouth as if to say something, but the warrior’s code prevented him from challenging the Commander’s orders at such a time. However, I volunteered some explanation. "Support for Atlantis will also commence simultaneously, but we can’t launch a full attack now. There are various forms of Abyssal contamination. If the contaminant that struck Mount Olympus is of the explosive type, a reckless attack could very well escalate it into an Abyss Gate."

We had learned from our previous mishap.

"Yes, the people of Atlantis will hold the line until the return of the gods."

"No, you won’t need to hold the line," Sandora interrupted Ares, "I will send you back to Atlantis City. Some Imperial Agents will accompany you to inform your Race, to gradually evacuate the tainted area and all retreat to the last clean streets. Once the Agents verify and ensure the impact object is under control, the Imperial Army will land on the Floating Island. That will be the moment for your counterattack."

Ares understood Sandora’s meaning and immediately stood up to give a military salute and left. The warriors of Atlantis weren’t lacking in advanced Imperial military knowledge. He knew how to operate the Legion Transmitter.

"Now it’s our turn to go down," looking at the pitch-black peak under the shadow of the Atlantis Floating Continent, I noticed many twinkling lights. That must be where the demons of Fantasy Country were active. "Ling Meng, Lan, come with me. The rest of you wait on the mother ship, especially you two Pandora and Bubbles! Do you want to be smashed together with Atlantis and Demon Mountain? — Stay on the ship and keep Mercury Lamp company!" ƒrēenovelkiss.com

A short and chubby Strider-class small Transporter detached from the huge Faith-class transport mother ship and smoothly entered the atmosphere, rapidly approaching Demon Mountain without disturbing the Boli Barrier. We had chosen conventional propulsion over super-space landing pods for a reason. Yukari Yakumo was reinforcing the Great Barrier outside, and to alleviate her burden, the Imperial Army had restricted all vehicular jump actions (ordinary soldiers’ Space Jumps were not limited due to their minimal interference range), and during our descent, we continuously collected intelligence on this peculiar space — a region with a completely different "concept" yet sharing the same space as the outside world, which reminded me of a hard drive’s virtual partition...

"Wow, we’ve entered the lower atmosphere and are starting to decelerate now. Passengers, please fasten your seatbelts. They should have seen us by now — personally, I think it would have been better if you, Ling Meng, went down first to help greet them." I knocked on the Crystal Plate in front of my seat, and the landscape on the ground immediately zoomed in. Fantasy Country really is a wonderful place, isn’t it? Just making our debut and there’s already a big bunch of young and beautiful girls gathered below—what a dense formation.

Boli Ling Meng right then screamed, "Ahh! Move, hurry! Why are they attacking us?!"

Nonsense! Just look at the floating continent that’s covering the sky! Who in Fantasy Country isn’t allergic to things falling from the sky now?

(After giving it some thought, I’ve decided... it’s better to give you all a scare. Also, I’m preemptively asking for next month’s votes, because I feel like I’ll likely forget about this in two days.) (To be continued. If you like this work, I welcome you to vote and give monthly votes on Qidian.com. Your support is my greatest motivation.)

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