Now, the west had awakened.
Spewing out its pent-up fury, at last.
The Metalum Empire was still exceedingly clamorous.
The most important task before them now was the remodeling of the citadel.
Whiiir, clank, clank.
Grrrrr, clang, click…….
Amid the din of iron plates being ground, struck together, and assembled, the citadel’s remodeling had, before long, entered its final stage.
Under the hands of the Steel Assemblers, pure white metal plates were fitted into place one after another, and the citadel’s new form gradually began to reveal itself.
And when the final metal plate was set into the outer wall, the entire terrain of the Metalum Empire trembled faintly.
Emperor Oruma was looking down upon the scene from the iron watchtower on the uppermost level of the citadel.
Even before this, the citadel had changed its form through several rounds of remodeling, but the transformation now underway was on an entirely different scale.
“Module connection complete. Inserting fixing pins.”
“Energy wiring synchronization in progress…… complete!”
“Outer Wall No. 8 assembly complete. Awaiting orders!”
Several assemblers shouted from here and there at once.
Under the skilled hands of those who had honed themselves in preparation for the citadel’s remodeling, the orderly structure of the citadel’s outer walls finally began to settle into place.
The existing defensive walls were replaced with enormous mobile panels, and the double-layered iron walls were reinforced with a third layer, taking on the form of an even sturdier, more massive fortress.
The outer wall of the central dome was also redesigned into an angular octagonal structure, reborn in a new form.
Sensing that the time had come, Oruma descended from the watchtower and stood in the center of the central dome.
At that moment, he alone existed inside the citadel.
His retainers were outside the citadel, watching the final work of the remodeling.
“Citadel, final fifth-stage remodeling complete!!”
Kraso, representative of the Steel Assemblers, shouted.
Kugugung……!
At his cry, the sound of gears turning resounded from within the citadel.
It meant that, from this moment on, this citadel could move.
The emperor and retainers of the Metalum Empire, and even its citizens, looked up at the completed citadel.
Before them, a single immense fortress had taken form.
“How can this be?”
“To think such a magnificent structure could exist.”
“At last, a new center has been born among us.”
The citadel had not merely grown in scale.
Its defensive power had also risen dramatically.
If, by some chance, an attack came from outside, the more it resisted the attack, the more its structure would tighten and consolidate, causing its defensive power to rise even further.
Oruma stepped out to the edge of the citadel and revealed himself before the soldiers and citizens.
He cast his voice out toward them.
“With this, we can grow stronger anywhere. No matter who our opponent may be! We have nothing to fear! We advance ever onward!!”
“Ooooooh……!!!”
The cheers of the surrounding soldiers rang out.
The retainers bowed their heads as one.
The citadel’s silver sheen burst out in every direction, dyeing the skies over all of Metalum white.
As the citadel grew in scale, the existing core storage space also expanded.
Though the citadel had reached its final stage, for Metalum, that was not the end.
For the plans ahead, they would gather even more metal cores, as well as fused cores from other empires.
Oruma turned his back and murmured quietly to himself.
“We have waited a long time for this moment. Now, the barracks.”
His gaze was already fixed upon the next stage.
Without delay, Oruma and his retainers moved to the metal barracks.
From deep within Metalum’s grand citadel, countless gears were supplying power throughout all of Metalum.
Now, the barracks, too, could be remodeled to its final stage following the citadel.
Metalum had once assembled siege colossi in the barracks and sent them out into the world.
Yet before those siege colossi could even be used on the battlefield, another opportunity had immediately come to remodel the barracks once more.
And once the barracks’ remodeling was complete, the ultimate military unit after the siege colossi was scheduled to be born.
“Begin remodeling the metal barracks!”
Kraso shouted, and at once, the Steel Assemblers moved in unison.
Not only Oruma, but Agnon, Belkar, and Peron as well could not take their eyes off the sight of them working.
Their gazes were filled with anticipation.
In truth, they already had an idea of what would be born from the newly remodeled barracks.
Terra had already provided them with the clue.
“A dragon…… We, too, must have a dragon of our own.”
Oruma spoke in a low voice.
Belkar answered him.
“Indeed. It will be different from Terra’s Yellow Dragon. But I am certain that our own unique dragon, one no others can imitate, will appear here.”
The enormous floor split in two, and the interior space of the barracks expanded.
The existing fourth-stage barracks had also been enlarged to optimize the assembly and deployment of siege colossi, but this remodeling required the very structure of the barracks itself to be altered.
“Core input port disassembly complete…… beginning panel dismantling.”
At one assembler’s words, part of the barracks’ exterior was thrown open, exposing the internal structure.
Inside, no new devices had yet been installed, revealing a wide open space.
Since the existing siege colossi had to continue being assembled as needed, that area could not be touched, but beside it, another new summoning zone had to be secured.
“Beginning development of new unit summoning device.”
The barracks, which had trained the citizens of steel, had recently developed into a facility for assembling enormous units, and now it would even perform the function of a summoning station.
At first glance, the summoning zone did not appear to have an especially complex structure, but dozens of assemblers ceaselessly carried iron components back and forth around it.
“Completion rate has exceeded 80%!”
One assembler came out of the barracks and shouted.
“Is the work still proceeding smoothly?”
At Oruma’s question, Kraso answered in a powerful voice.
“Yes, of course! We Steel Assemblers have trained again and again for this moment!”
The assemblers remained devoted to their work without slowing their pace.
Again, someone’s voice rang out from among them.
“Core input port attachment complete! Conditions for summoning new unit fulfilled!”
Soon, the assemblers came out of the barracks one by one and assumed standby positions.
It seemed they had carried out all their assigned roles.
“Completion rate has exceeded 95%!”
The outer walls of the barracks slowly closed again.
The assemblers were now maintaining the exterior walls.
Kraso spoke to Oruma.
“Your Majesty! All preparations are complete. We can summon the dragon!”
Oruma nodded.
“Good. We should have enough cores. Begin the summoning at once.”
A large quantity of metal cores was fed into the newly installed input port.
From outside, there was no way to know what was happening within the sealed barracks.
Only the sound of something rotating and the sound of heavy metal objects striking one another could be heard.
As tension hung in the air, Oruma stared at the barracks without the slightest tremor.
Kuuuuung!!
Suddenly, a great noise from the barracks shook the ground once more.
Kwaang, kwaang!
Then came the sound of something made of iron rolling across the floor.
Before long, soldiers and citizens had once again gathered around the barracks.
“Uuuung…… guuuung…….”
This time, it was the sound of something roaring.
By this point, the retainers instead began to feel that presence as something unfamiliar.
“That…… is a dragon?”
Peron’s voice carried both awe and doubt.
“It seems so. I, too, have never faced such a being. The assemblers likely do not know exactly what it is they are summoning, either. Nevertheless, the reason we can summon it must be because it is something that has existed in legend since before the birth of our Metalum.”
As soon as Oruma finished speaking, the outer walls of the barracks opened again.
Whiiiiir…….
Kuung!
It took one step out of the barracks.
At last, before Oruma and his retainers, before the soldiers and citizens, it appeared.
The moment they saw it with their own eyes, everyone froze in place as if struck by shock.
The form of that being was not familiar to anyone.
Its entire body was clearly clad in steel, yet it was built from countless small pieces joined together like scales.
Oruma spoke quietly.
“So this is it. The thing called a dragon. A being passed down in legend…….”
The dragon gleamed white with the luster of its entire body.
Thud, thud, kuung…….
As if it recognized Oruma, it slowly moved its steps and approached him.
Everyone stepped back, but Oruma alone faced the dragon.
Looking up at it, Oruma said,
“Your name is the White Dragon, Aureus.”
The White Dragon Aureus stopped moving and gazed into Oruma’s eyes.
Like the Yellow Dragon Montanus, it possessed a long body.
The steel scales covering its entire body fluttered and emitted a dazzling light.
As though its interior was a precise structure of interlocking pieces, Aureus’s body bent, then straightened again.
“Uuuuuung…….”
Aureus once again let its voice reverberate from within.
Its eyes gleamed like iron beads, and within them flickered the flow of some sealed energy.
It seemed everyone had missed the moment when they should have cheered at having finally summoned the ultimate being.
Instead, they were pressed down by the awe of Aureus and could not react at all.
“This can’t be. It’s impossible.”
Keldren, who had at some point emerged from the laboratory, also beheld its existence and froze.
“How could such a being appear before us……?”
Commander Karden, too, looked up at it and muttered to himself.
Among them, the only one moving calmly was Oruma.
He spoke as if making a declaration.
“You are a being we have called forth. One of the most powerful beings in this world. For that reason, even I, Oruma under heaven, may not dare to command you. But remember this. You are the same as us. You are Metalum. As Metalum, the strongest in this world, move for Metalum. Take the lead. We will follow behind you.”
When Oruma’s words ended, Aureus slowly raised its head.
Its gaze was not directed at anyone.
It was looking at the world.
Aureus itself was similar to Metalum.
A being that honed itself, determined its own path, and submitted to no one.
“Uuuung…….”
Clank, clank, kuung…….
Aureus moved again.
It turned its body and looked toward Metalum’s borders.
Before long, Aureus slowly began to step forward.
The weight and resonance of its steps upon the iron plates spread throughout all of Metalum.
And that movement soon hinted at a destiny newly to be written upon this world.
Oruma gave Agnon an order.
“Aureus is moving. Support it.”
“Understood!”
Then, under Agnon’s command, three siege colossi and the Steel Knight Order moved.
Agnon was astonished once more.
The place Aureus was heading was southeast of Metalum—straight toward the Ignis Empire.
“At last…… at last, revenge!”
Agnon shouted without realizing it.
Aureus had known.
It had known how long Metalum had tasted humiliation at the hands of Ignis.
Now, that being was moving to seek Ignis.
The tremors created by Aureus reached even the center.
In the underground citadel of the Terra Empire, Emperor Terramont opened his eyes.
“At last, it has appeared.”
From underground, he looked toward Ignis in the south.
Terramont, who had been quietly lost in thought, slowly moved his body and headed toward the entrance of the citadel.