I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 490 (Patreon)

Chapter 490: Overwhelming, the Swan Song of the Old Era!

At noon, on the plains about a hundred kilometers away from the Holy City at the empire's border, tens of thousands of imperial cavalrymen, fully armed in silver armor, stood ready for battle.

Leading them was Cardinal Nick, who solemnly addressed the gathering.

“Gentlemen, according to our scouts' reports, two cities on the imperial border have now been conquered by the wizards. Those demonic minions freely slaughter and harm the followers of the Lord. And now, they have penetrated deep into the heart of the empire, ready to spread pain, disaster, and death across the entire continent!”

“The apocalypse has indeed arrived! Behind us lies the Holy City, and we have no retreat...”

As Nick spoke with heavy sorrow, a sense of fear visibly spread among the tens of thousands of cavalrymen. However, Nick's voice soon grew more resolute and rang in everyone's ears like a great bell.

“But we need not fear, panic, or be daunted! The great Lord is watching over each of us from the heavens above, fighting a desperate battle for the empire and the church!”

“Death and faith are the keys to opening the gates of heaven, allowing our souls to rest in peace forever!”

“Now shout, the Lord's most devout children, the apocalypse is not to be feared. Our sacrifices will be engraved in the annals of history. Soon, the Lord will descend from heaven, dispel the gloom of the apocalypse, and transform the world into an eternal paradise…”

Nick's passionate speech dispelled the fear and hesitation in the hearts of the knights, who then raised their weapons and shouted aloud, expressing their madness and determination.

“To kill those blasphemers...” “May the great Lord dispel the gloom of the apocalypse and transform the world into a pure land!” “May the glory of our Lord shine upon all things!”

In that moment, everyone cast aside their fear of death, fully aware that defeat and destruction awaited them, but without any hesitation.

Because death is not the end of pain but a stairway to heaven.

In the Lord's kingdom, there is no sickness or aging. In its rivers flow the sweetest wines, fields of wheat grow bountifully without toil, and every tree branches are laden with succulent steaks... Everyone will reside in splendid mansions, enjoying endless peace and joy.

As the cries echoed around him, Nick suddenly dismounted, knelt down devoutly towards the Holy City, and kissed the soil beneath him, chanting the Lord's holy name.

More and more people dismounted to make their final prayers, hoping the great Lord would protect them and grant them ultimate victory.

As the fervent prayers grew louder, a pale divine light emerged from the direction of the Holy City.

A soft magical glow appeared around everyone, filling their minds with fervor. At this moment, they felt the Lord's gaze upon them, and their only thought was to wield their swords against all enemies who dare stand in their way, defending the Lord's glory with their blood and lives...

“Praise You, my Lord, for Your mighty power dims the stars!” Nick responded to the Lord's grace, then stood up, leading tens of thousands of cavalrymen. With swords pointed forward, he cried out.

“Now... Charge!”

“Charge, charge!” With roars, tens of thousands of cavalrymen spurred their horses forward, charging like an avalanche.

On the horizon, a steel tide made up of thousands of armored vehicles appeared, their wheels kicking up clouds of dust. Underneath their fearsome armor, machine guns gleamed coldly, ready to unleash deadly volleys.

Nick knew these were new war machines devised by wizards, with formidable defenses and offensive capabilities. Yet, he believed nothing was invincible under the Lord's mighty power!

Even if defeat was the ultimate outcome, he was determined to inflict the heaviest blow on the enemy...

As the cavalry charged, they quickly closed the distance—a dangerous two kilometers!

The roar of cannons broke the silence, hundreds of shells flew into the sky, then crashed down like meteoric fire.

“God is with us!” Nick raised his sword, shouting as the magical light around the soldiers converged.

One thousand Divine Punishment Army soldiers, having ingested the Grace Potion and led by a core of priests and bishops, quietly deployed a sophisticated magical formation.

An invisible magical barrier appeared, instantly enveloping the tens of thousands of cavalrymen. The fierce bombardment created ripples and visible cracks on it, which were quickly repaired.

With the magical energy of thousands of priests and bishops, Nick led the charge against the cannon fire, quickly closing in to within a kilometer.

At that moment, hundreds of red streaks of light flew from the enemy ranks, tearing the magical protection to shreds in an instant.

Under the intense heat, iron balls, heated red and nearly molten, pierced through the ranks. Neither the knights' silver armor nor the surrounding magical light could withstand such

terrifying speed and force.

A Divine Punishment Knight in the front line didn't even see the streaks before he and his mount were turned into a mist of blood and debris...

This scene unfolded across the battlefield, without pain or screams, for everything happened too swiftly. In moments, the cavalry formation was marked by over a hundred bloody paths strewn with flesh and debris, the air thick with the smell of blood, driving the surviving knights into a frenzied charge.

Yet, this was just the beginning. After electromagnetic cannons breached the magical defenses, airships revealed themselves in the sky, their bomb bays opening to release head-sized projectiles onto the soldiers below.

Considering the cleanup after the battlefield, the airships were not loaded with white phosphorus. Nevertheless, these projectiles were lethal. The high-explosive bombs burst mid-air, covering most of the battlefield in a series of violent explosions and flames, killing nearly ten thousand cavalrymen in this assault alone! The machine guns and cannons mounted on the armored vehicles then joined in.

The combined force of gunfire, flying shrapnel, and exploding rounds, the incessant barrage of crossfire, saw countless Divine Punishment Knights blasted to pieces, falling in rows like cut wheat.

But under the influence of powerful magic, they forgot their fear and urge to flee, possibly finding release from this fanaticism only in death.

As Nick watched his comrades fall to the bombardment, rage filled his heart. His eyes red, he bellowed, “Charge, charge, end the apocalypse, kill them!”

“Kill, kill them!” “End the apocalypse!” “Heaven... Heaven is coming!”

Tens of thousands of Divine Punishment Knights roared, charging headlong into the steel tide formed by the armored vehicles, attempting to crush them with their powerful charge as they had with rebel armies and heretics before.

The distance between the two forces closed rapidly. After suffering losses of about seventy percent, the fifty thousand charging knights finally crossed the long path of death, plunging like a sharp knife into the steel tide.

However, they soon realized how unrealistic their fantasies were. Even with magical enhancements, their lances struck the armored vehicles only to leave small dents before the tremendous recoil bounced back, resulting in a gruesome scene of blood and chaos.

Among the knights, priests, and bishops who mixed in, also tried to use their magic to create deep dents in the steel monsters, to little effect.

Even with the power of the bishops, if they had been in good condition, they might have overcome a single armored monster. But most of their magical energy had been used to defend against the cannonade, and without time to pray for divine strength, they were momentarily unable to break through the armor's defense.

Only a few cardinals like Nick could easily blast open the armored vehicles and destroy them. However, such conspicuous figures quickly became targets, with a dozen electromagnetic cannons firing directly at them, turning him into a mist of blood.

As for the targets of these attacks, except for a few armored vehicles hit in their wheels or weak spots forcing them to stop, they hardly slowed down. The cold, hard armor acted like a moving wall, crushing all enemies in its path into dust, leaving only corpses and blood that slowly flowed across the battlefield.

“Have they gone mad? Not retreating even now?”

Watching as tens of thousands of the empire's soldiers fearlessly charged into the steel tide only to be crushed, Rafael and others aboard the airships felt a chill run down their spines. So far, they had eliminated five waves of church forces sent to block them.

Each time, the numbers were roughly forty to sixty thousand men.

The purpose of dividing their forces was partly guessed at; one reason was to prevent them from using “Skyfall” to wipe out everyone at once.

But attacking in such divided groups was almost like marching to their death!

The church should be well aware of this but continued to send wave after wave of troops.

“Perhaps they aim to deplete our ammunition and magical reserves, to gain some advantage for a later decisive battle,” Harof speculated.

The lives of hundreds of thousands in exchange for battle preparations?

The wizards present frowned, feeling a coldness creeping up from their feet.

If this was the case, then the church's madness and ruthlessness were beyond their imagination. However, they couldn't deny that after six major battles, they had used up more than seventy percent of the ammunition they had stockpiled over a year.

Fortunately, their core battle preparations had not been touched, and the wizards’ magical power remained at a considerable level. Lynn, Victorio, Harof, and Aurora, the four legendary wizards, had hardly taken any action.

On the one hand, the kingdom's army was sufficient for such minor skirmishes, also serving to train new recruits. On the other, they needed to be in their best condition to face potential threats.

According to their intelligence, the church still had at least three legendary clerics, over a hundred cardinals, countless bishops and priests,

plus a false god whose strength was unknown. On paper, their strength was much greater.

“Perhaps these armies are just pawns the church is using to delay our progress,” Lynn surmised.

But it was meaningless. Under the crush of thousands of armored vehicles, these sacrificial imperial troops couldn't even slow their advance.

The longest delay was when seven cardinals and tens of thousands of men held out in a wooded area.

He simply had airships, fighters, and artillery bombarded them for hours, then led the armored vehicles through to flatten everything.

Six crusading forces, over three hundred thousand elite troops, plus attacks from other directions intended to force them to split their forces for rescue operations, probably represented all the conventional power the empire could muster!

Lynn looked down at the imperial knights enduring heavy casualties, struggling against indestructible steel behemoths until their last breath, feeling somewhat moved.

The gap in spiritual magic research between them and the church was clear.

Lynn could imagine the psychological pressure such a fearless army, composed of divine magicians and Divine Punishment Knights, would impose on their enemies. No wonder the church and the empire had dominated this continent.

Unfortunately, the swan song of the old era ends here…

As he pondered, the battle below quietly came to an end. After suffering a tenth of their losses, fifty thousand imperial knights had completely collapsed.

The entire plain had turned into a slaughterhouse, with burning corpses, shattered armor, and weapons scattered everywhere.

The steel tide showed no signs of stopping, leaving the cleanup to others while they continued forward, forward, always forward!

Their destination: the Holy City!

As midnight approached, the kingdom's army, having traveled for days, finally halted for a rest.

Now, less than sixty kilometers away from the Holy City, if they proceeded without their supplies, they could arrive at its gates by morning.

Appropriate rest before the great battle was clearly necessary.

Lynn looked up at the sky, where a bright moon hung, its brilliance felt by every wizard as the tide of magic.

But he remembered that today wasn't supposed to be a lunar day…

-----------------

Table of content - Next Chapter >>>

• You can access publicly available chapters of "I Pioneered Scientific Magic" right HERE.

• Your invaluable feedback and ratings mean the world to me. Please take a moment to rate this novel at Novelupdate.

• You can also check out the other Novels I'm currently translating by clicking HERE.

• If you come across any mistakes within this chapter, kindly notify me in the comments below, so that I can make the necessary corrections.