Iron endures hardship and tempers itself anew.
When the Metalum Empire invaded the Silva Empire, even after Silva mobilized its guardian tree spirits, they could not withstand Metalum’s army and began to fall.
At the moment the forest’s barrier collapsed, Metalum believed half of victory was already in their grasp.
“Occupation of Silva’s western and southwestern regions complete. Two tree forms destroyed. The forest defense line has nearly collapsed.”
Commander Carden reported the state of the battle to Emperor Oruma.
Oruma was watching his soldiers from the rear.
“No matter how strong a tree may be, it cannot be stronger than iron. In the end, it will be split apart by us. But I do not intend to annihilate them completely. Occupy as much of Silva’s territory as possible and seize their cores.”
Rather than advancing directly toward Silva’s heartland, Driandel, Metalum’s army attacked the surrounding regions first.
Silva’s citizens were busy fleeing, and its soldiers merely fell one by one beneath iron hammers.
Oruma shouted even louder.
“No one dares stand in our way! Their allies can do nothing to us! Keep pushing in!”
It was then.
Commander Robic, who had remained at Metalum’s main base on standby, arrived in haste.
“Your Majesty! This is terrible! We must turn the army back at once!”
Oruma turned to look at him.
“What? What happened?”
“We are under attack from Ignis!”
Oruma’s eyes flashed.
“Are the defensive walls sufficient?”
“They are not enough! We lack troops!”
Oruma, who had stopped moving for a moment, shouted again.
“Retreat the troops! Everyone returns to Metalum!”
Agnon also cried out urgently.
“All forces, prepare to retreat!”
The ironclad infantry and the Steel Knights turned as ordered and withdrew from Silva.
Oruma’s gaze twisted.
“For them to come at a time like this. Did they aim for this moment?”
The Silva Empire lay to the east, and the Metalum Empire lay to the west.
The distance from Silva to Metalum was considerable.
Oruma and Metalum’s army hurriedly crossed through the territory of the Terra Empire.
The army stationed within Terra also headed to Metalum with them.
The citizens of Terra watched Metalum’s army moving busily.
“Is something going on?”
“They were coming from Silva’s direction, weren’t they?”
“Could they be fleeing from Silva? Then aren’t we in even more danger?”
“Metalum, from Silva? And nothing is coming from Silva right now, is it?”
“Then why are they in such a panic?”
Metalum’s soldiers continued their retreat without paying any attention to the reactions of Terra’s citizens.
Robic kept shouting.
“Three sections of the main base’s walls have collapsed. A large portion of Ignis’s forces appeared to be composed of embers!”
“Damn it!”
Belkar spat out the words.
“It seems Silva has joined hands with Ignis. Otherwise, there is no explaining how Ignis took advantage of this opening.”
Oruma said, his eyes flashing.
“We turned our backs on home for too long. We must get the situation under control before it is too late!”
At last, Oruma and his army arrived at Metalum’s border.
The defensive wall along the border had already fallen to Ignis, and flames were licking across the steel floor.
“Put out the fire at once!”
Oruma shouted.
Agnon also gave orders to the soldiers.
“Deploy the ironclad infantry to the center of the defensive line!”
At his command, soldiers in gray armor advanced without hesitation.
The ironclad infantry had a hard and heavy appearance.
In terms of compatibility between iron ore cores and ember cores, iron ore held a slight advantage.
Iron ore was a fusion of the energy of metal and the energy of earth, while ember was a fusion of the energy of fire and the energy of wood.
The fire of ember melted metal, and wood dug into earth, but fire created earth.
Iron ore, on the other hand, contained no energy that aided ember.
Only the metal of iron ore split the wood of ember.
Rather, there existed the possibility of turning the opposing relationships of fire and metal, wood and earth, into mutually supporting ones to gain an advantage in battle.
The fact that ember contained energy that aided iron ore was its weakness.
The ironclad infantry charged straight at the charred infantry all at once, extinguishing the flames with merciless blows.
The charred infantry were strong enough as well, but the ironclad infantry had the numerical advantage.
“Wait?!”
Commander Robic shouted after noticing something.
It was the third-stage unit of the ember core, the Coal Thrower.
The Coal Throwers began hurling burning spheres at the ironclad infantry.
Whoosh, thud, fwoosh……!
Flames surged up where the spheres fell.
Agnon shouted.
“They can’t attack what’s close to them! Charge!”
Following Agnon’s command, the ironclad infantry and the Steel Knights pressed close to the Coal Throwers and attacked.
The Coal Throwers, who could only throw coal, were helplessly destroyed in close combat.
“Are those truly units that came from the ember core as well?”
At Belkar’s question, Agnon answered.
“Yes. Judging by their appearance, they seem to be third-stage units. If they have become capable of producing soldiers of that level, I can only think that Silva provided them with cores.”
As the remaining charred infantry tried to melt buildings made of iron, arrows from Crystal Archers flew in and struck them directly.
Ripples of water gathered at the arrowheads spread outward, and the embers were extinguished just like that.
“They are retreating! Finish them off!”
Having barely succeeded in defending, Oruma carried that momentum forward and ordered the army on.
Metalum’s soldiers continued their attack against Ignis’s retreating army.
A small number of Crystal Archers revealed themselves and poured arrows from behind them, while Machine Throwers also hurled pieces of metal to block the flames.
Agnon summarized the situation and reported.
“Ignis has completely withdrawn. A total of five regions have fallen. Our losses are forty-six Steel Knights, twenty-four Machine Throwers, thirty-three ironclad infantry, and sixty-eight metal cores.”
Oruma silently looked around.
After a long while, he stepped into the fortress and spoke.
“For the time being, we will take time to reorganize.”
While the outside was in chaos from Ignis’s assault, new research was being carried out in the underground laboratory.
Inside the laboratory, the researchers murmured among themselves.
“I thought we were done for. How many times has it been now?”
“As far as I know, I believe this makes the fourth. They are truly persistent.”
“In any case, I’m glad we held them off again. We must continue doing what we have to do.”
Two kinds of cores lay on the experiment table.
One was the life core of the Silva Empire, and the other was the flame core of the Ignis Empire.
Keldren quietly looked down at the life core.
“Last time’s research ended in failure, but this time, we must make certain it succeeds.”
Beside him, Renma was carefully examining the flame core.
“My, this is difficult even to touch. The heat is quite strong.”
Keldren turned to him and said,
“Even so, we must do it. We cannot allow those wretches to dare handle gold. Through this research, we must prove who the true master of gold is.”
Another researcher, Lexon, quietly placed the life core inside a tank.
A metal core had already been installed inside the tank.
Lexon muttered to himself.
“Metal and wood. How can these two be mixed…… A tree as hard as iron? Or another kind of metal?”
The researchers coordinated their breathing in silence.
The metal core and the life core were each generating different waves.
If they tried to forcibly fuse the two, the life core would be destroyed like last time.
“Blue……?”
Lexon looked at the life core and murmured again.
“What if it’s blue metal……?”
The blue light of the life core was different from the light of the crystal core.
While the crystal core was a solid crystal with the hue of water, shining transparently, the life core was an even firmer solid.
When metal met life, it would become an entirely different substance.
Thud, thud, thooom…….
Heavy footsteps were approaching Montera, the center of the Terra Empire.
Those footsteps shook the land of Montera.
Oruma looked up at Montera’s fortress.
The fortress had grown larger, deeper, and higher beyond all comparison to the past.
A short while later, Terra’s emperor, Terramont, emerged from underground.
Terramont seemed to know everything that had happened in Metalum.
“You are unharmed. How is the situation?”
Seeing Terramont speak so impassively, Oruma immediately raised his voice.
“Does this seem like no great matter to you? For your sake, we struggled desperately to stop attacks coming from every direction! Yet you shoved the defense onto us, and while you remodeled your fortress like this, you thought it would be enough to just keep your own place alone?!”
Terramont quietly looked at Oruma.
“I am certain I warned you. Of course, by then you were already advancing into Silva. I hope you are not blaming me for not stopping you.”
His gaze held neither emotion nor excuse.
Oruma’s eyes narrowed.
“Do you think you would still be sitting here so leisurely if not for us? Know that it is thanks to us that you continue to act as the center! If we had defended only our own territory all this time, who knows whether this place would have been taken by Aqua, Silva, or those Ignis bastards?”
Terramont answered Oruma in a low voice.
“If you put it that way, then it seems you lack the qualifications.”
“What did you say?!”
“From the moment you speak of the center, the weight you must bear follows as well. In other words, you are saying that you neglected your main base because you were protecting this center. But then how can you be qualified to protect the center?”
Oruma’s eyes flashed as he spoke.
“You are the ones who dare say such a thing?! How can you claim that you are bearing that weight?”
“Ah.”
Terramont nodded.
“You must not know yet because you were fighting. We have sent out the Yellow Dragon, Montanus. Our final unit. It is currently heading toward the border between Aqua and Silva. It would be good to watch and see what happens from now on.”
Oruma’s gaze wavered.
“W-what are you trying to do?”
“I do not know either. I left every choice directly to Montanus. I believe Montanus will make the best decision on his own.”
Oruma glared silently at Terramont, then said,
“It seems you are gradually revealing your true colors as well. At this point, we should sever our relationship. Our army will withdraw from here now. Next time, we shall see whether we meet as allies—or as enemies.”
Oruma turned away with his army.
As he led the army, he muttered to himself.
“We must remodel our fortress quickly as well. The Yellow Dragon? Montanus? Just how dangerous a being is that? If we are to oppose it as well……”
Terramont looked back.
It was the direction in which the Yellow Dragon Montanus had departed.
Montanus was not a mere weapon.
The fact that he had moved meant that the will of the Terra Empire, which protected the earth, had moved.
After Oruma left, Gaia appeared and carefully asked him,
“What will we do about Montanus now?”
Terramont, who had been quietly gazing into the distance, opened his mouth.
“We, too, shall follow after him.”
Terra quietly began to move.
The moment the center moved always came one beat late, but at the same time, it would become a heavy movement that overwhelmed the battlefield.