I Pioneered Scientific Magic - Chapter 551 (Patreon)

Chapter 551: Let them taste the supreme masterpiece of wizards!

Thousands of cannon shells fell like raindrops, blasting the advancing hordes of zombie ghouls and skeletal warriors into a sky full of shattered flesh.

However, more undead continued to pour out from the temporal gates behind them, seemingly endless.

At that moment, the skies were also a battlefield, as thousands of airships surrounded the entire valley, though they didn't rashly attack.

Each airship was wrapped with layers of copper wire barriers, not for protection against enemy attacks, but as lightning rods!

Inside the airships, wizards proficient in thunder magic, collectively unleashed the legendary spell—The Net of Thunder Prison!

Powerful bolts of lightning, using the airships above the valley as anchors, interwove into a giant net of thunder that instantly enveloped the entire airspace.

The ferocious electric arcs ceaselessly leaped about, exuding a terrifyingly destructive power, annihilating masses of wraiths and screeching demons that emerged from the temporal gate under the vast storm of lightning.

Even some high-resistance flying monsters, not killed instantly, were paralyzed and fell to their deaths from the sky.

The aerial forces were tougher to deal with than ground troops. Using traditional means to destroy such a large number of flying undead without exception was nearly impossible!

Thus, Victorio specifically assigned those wizards skilled in thunder magic to the airships, using a large reserve of electrified thunderstones as their power source, allowing the thunder magic they cast together to cover a vast area for more than a day!

Under the relentless bombardment of artillery and thunder, even if tens of thousands of undead emerged every second from the temporal gate, they often were annihilated before they could even leave the valley.

However, the temporal gate itself was undergoing changes, as a massive shadowy figure emerged from the swirling vortex.

It was a gigantic stitched monster, over a hundred meters tall, uglier and more ferocious than other stitched creatures, with spine-like bony armor growing on its back, and sharp claws hanging from its elbows and ankles.

Successive artillery hits created craters on its bony exterior, but they were insufficient to shake its massive form!

More importantly, everyone soon realized that this monster was not alone—two, three more gigantic stitched monsters quickly appeared before them.

Within ten minutes, a total of thirty-five massive stitched monsters emerged from the temporal gate, like towering mountains moving toward them.

Hundreds of electromagnetic railguns began to charge up, and with a series of violent explosions, producing sonic booms, soldiers clamped their hands over their ears.

Then, hundreds of red beams screamed towards the nearest stitched monsters.

At seven times the speed of sound, the attack reached its targets in just a second, and one of the stitched monsters was hit by twenty railguns, its body blasted into holes, with blood and fragments of flesh flying everywhere, killing it instantly.

With one round of fire, ten of the giant stitched monsters were killed, their fragmented bodies heavily falling to the ground, burying into the earth.

Seeing this, those present breathed a sigh of relief, thinking they were facing a group of legendary creatures, not realizing they were merely decoys.

During several rounds of railgun bombardments, these mountainous creatures were completely eradicated.

But clearly, these creatures were meant to draw fire. Accompanying these giant stitched monsters, a large number of higher-order undead such as Bone Crushers, Death Knights, and Dark Guardians appeared.

Despite being bombarded, they possessed formidable defensive capabilities. With the giant stitched monsters drawing most of the fire, they quickly closed to within less than a kilometer.

Outside the valley, rows of machine guns were set up, and dense tongues of flame poured towards the distant enemies, shredding approaching undead into pieces before they could near the valley.

But the tide-like surge of the undead host still steadily advanced...

"Is this number about right, Chairman?" Sanchez turned to Victorio, asking.

The undead gathered in the valley likely numbered over a million!

"It's time!" Victorio nodded, then raised his hand, and a purple beam of light shot skyward.

Seeing this beam, the alchemists at various corners outside the valley immediately sprang into action, launching their spells.

The whole valley shook violently, the ground beneath their feet began to crack, and massive fissures spread from all directions towards the center of the valley.

Thousands of charging Death Knights suddenly found the ground beneath them collapsing, falling head over heels into a giant pit over sixty meters deep.

For the past few months, over eight thousand elemental wizards had worked together to hollow out half of the valley's underground. If time had allowed, Sanchez would have wanted to turn the valley into an abyss.

This tactic was undoubtedly effective; the millions of undead lingering in the valley all sank into the depths below, followed by artillery switching to incendiary rounds, and a sea of flames began spreading under the valley's surface.

"It seems these undead are not that formidable; if that's all they can muster, then no amount is too much!" Alade remarked as he watched the bones of those who had fallen into the pit, some still struggling to stand only to be buried.

Weak, far too weak—just cannons, muskets, airships, and a few traps were enough to crush all these invading undead.

Like Alade, many wizards shared this sentiment, some even starting to critically discuss which of the undead emerging from the temporal gate were stronger and which were weaker.

Harof and others, however, did not let their guard down, because so far no legendary-level undead had appeared before them, suggesting that all the undead they were facing were merely cannon fodder, which is why he hadn't yet allowed the use of more powerful weapons.

In fact, as Harof had anticipated, as time went on, Alade and others who had initially been dismissive began to sweat coldly.

The battle continued from morning deep into the night, with an endless stream of undead pouring out of the temporal gate. Many wizards keenly sensed that since they had submerged the entire valley, no ground undead had come from the temporal gate anymore, turning instead to more flying undead.

These flying undead were not as foolish as imagined; they kept changing their attack strategies. Some clustered while others dispersed, and some screeching demons even tried to approach via low-altitude flight.

Relying solely on the Net of Thunder to block all targets was no longer sufficient; the rumbling of machine guns never stopped as they used crossfire to eliminate those that slipped through the net.

This meant that the undead army's commanders seemed to have a way of knowing what was happening here and were adjusting their tactics accordingly. Moreover, their numbers were much larger than expected, so they weren't bothered by the losses and remained very patient.

"Have you noticed? Some undead don't participate in the battle after flying out of the temporal gate; instead, they immediately return inside," Harof said thoughtfully.

"Are they reconnaissance sentries?" Sanchez immediately responded.

But even knowing this, they couldn't kill every undead that passed through the temporal gate; naturally, they couldn't prevent them from returning.

"How many more of them could there be?" Alade couldn't help but ask.

The council had spent over a year stockpiling ammunition, which had already been depleted by nearly a third. After running for more than ten hours, the thunderstones' stored energy was also nearly exhausted, yet the undead emerging from the other side of the temporal gate showed no signs of decreasing.

Though the pervasive Net of Thunder and the wizards' luminescence spells meant that darkness did not weaken their combat effectiveness, after fighting continuously for over ten hours, many were mentally and physically exhausted.

Even the most resilient warriors needed rest, and the enemy might just be planning to wear them down over days or weeks, consuming all their ammunition and energy.

No one could answer that question, and Harof had already implemented shifts, involving even official wizards in combat to replace some of the artillery, even temporarily halting the Net of Thunder.

Magic could be replenished, but ammunition and energy production and replenishment couldn't be resolved in a short time.

"Should we use that?" Aurora asked, referring obviously to nuclear weapons.

Against such a vast number of enemies, deploying a Skyfall would undoubtedly be the quickest solution!

It could even be sent directly to the other side of the temporal gate, likely eliminating millions of undead at once and giving them some breathing room to regroup and rest.

Harof hesitated a bit; according to previous plans, the council's nuclear reserves were meant to counter legendary creatures and the master of the undead, and using them on mere fodder seemed wasteful.

But continuing like this was no solution—it seemed they had to use their nuclear reserves sooner than planned!

Harof quickly made up his mind.

"What's that?" Sanchez suddenly pointed at the swirling temporal gate, speaking in shock.

Harof and others paused, then looked in the direction Sanchez was pointing.

A few kilometers away, a fist-sized dark sphere was drifting out of the temporal gate. Without the aid of long-range magic, no one would have noticed it.

Was it some kind of offensive spell? Or perhaps a unique kind of undead creature?

Harof couldn't guess, but he wouldn't allow it to continue existing. With a gesture, a rune-flashing electromagnetic cannon appeared before him, speeding at over thirty times the speed of sound, and quickly hit the chaotic sphere directly, instantly blowing it up!

But Harof's expression turned extremely grim, because as the sphere burst apart, an invisible force immediately swept through the valley.

The trigger for this spell was apparently its explosion!

The opponent had used their hand to complete the last step of the spell!

As the sky was filled with falling undead, blasted by machine guns and shattered by beams, they hadn't even reached the fierce fire below when they burst open, spewing forth waves of dark green poisonous fog from the fragments, quickly covering the entire airspace.

This was the legendary undead spell—Advanced Corpse Explosion!

"This fog must not be touched..." Victorio looked at the drifting fog, feeling an ominous sensation even as a legendary wizard.

Even someone of his caliber would suffer if touched by it. Seeing the poisonous fog approaching, Victorio and Harof immediately joined forces with around a dozen great elemental wizards, summoning a hurricane to try to blow the poisonous wind back into the temporal gate, since armies of the kingdom surrounded the valley on all sides, and airships filled the sky.

However, even with the combined power of the wizards and the legendary efforts of Harof and Victorio, they could only barely contain the poison fog within the valley.

As the hurricane blew, sharp-eyed Sanchez realized this wasn't fog at all but a sea of ghastly souls!

Faces of anguish and ferocity emerged within the swirling mist.

It turned out that they were actually facing a conglomeration of the millions of souls who had died on the battlefield!

Realizing this, a chill ran down the spines of the wizards present.

These souls, tortured in life and enslaved in death, displayed their utmost malice, continuously assaulting the encroaching storm, trying to break the blockade to devour the living outside.

Then, the roaring of skeletal dragons resounded through the dark green fog.

With the cover of the Death Mist, the real offensive began!

More numerous than before, screeching demons surged out from the temporal gate, along with dozens of skeletal dragons, a host of undead griffins, high-level banshees, and corpse witches—they were the core strength of the undead legion, a step beyond mere fodder.

At this moment, Harof actually breathed a sigh of relief; what they had feared and dreaded most was the uncertainty of the enemy's depth, and now that the elite forces had finally been deployed, they could afford to be somewhat more aggressive.

"Let these skeletons taste the ultimate creation of wizards!" Harof unhesitatingly declared.

Positioned at the center of their ranks but hitherto immobile, the Solar Flare Cannon suddenly turned its barrel towards the direction of the temporal gate. As a 500-kilogram high-purity uranium stone was loaded, a dazzling light of destruction immediately appeared on the battlefield...

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