The Emperor’s Angel of Death

In the blink of an eye, the rock surface turned molten, emitting a red glow. Hundreds of gene-stealers previously clinging to the wall were instantly vaporized upon contact with the laser's heat energy, while many more screamed as they fell into the suddenly flowing lava.

Such a precise strike drew cheers from the knights. Sereye also watched the long, red ribbon of energy, wondering if he could achieve such accuracy at that distance.

Just then, the tactical screen updated the battle line configuration, requiring their gun line to shift and intercept the gene-stealers' potential escape route.

"Knights, move out!"

A cacophony of commands came through the comms. Sereye began to move. The thick smoke of battle clouded the sky, but the wind still blew strongly, dispersing the battlefield haze in patches. The ground was littered with colorful fragments, the remains of countless corpses, human and alien, like insignificant specks of ink in a painting.

Suddenly, in a fleeting glance, Sereye noticed the flashes of plasma and the explosions of shells illuminating the interior of the fortress, along with the explosive destruction of buildings.

As he moved into position, he quietly observed the battlefield. Prince Andrea's gun line had already torn a hole in the fortress's defensive wall. The gun knights' deadly charge crushed everything in their path. The Prince's mount, a red-gold Crusader-class knight, stood at the center of the gun line, unleashing a barrage of fire into the fortress.

The Crusader is a medium-sized mech designed for long-range output. These knights typically position themselves slightly behind the main force, constantly seeking optimal firing positions. Once in position, they lock down their recoil stabilizers and use their superior observation systems to provide fire support for attacking allies or quickly eliminate high-threat targets at long range. This specialization in long-range firepower and pinpoint strikes makes them renowned within knight families for their immense firepower.

Their primary weapon is a specialized Avenger Gatling cannon, capable of decimating enemy infantry clusters with terrifying efficiency at long range. In its other hand, it wields a thermal cannon, capable of vaporizing even thick alloy walls into molten slag with a single shot. It also carries a Stormspear rocket pod on its back and a heavy machine gun on its shoulder, making its ranged firepower more than twice as powerful as a Helbrute Punisher.

Defensively, the Crusader can activate a plasma shield, providing considerable resistance to long-range fire.

Such a versatile and powerful knight is naturally rare. Therefore, within knight families, Crusader-class pilots are usually high-ranking nobles or members of the royal court. Their machine spirits are generally humble and respectable, making them less difficult to control.

As the tallest structure in the fortress, the Golden Claw Cult's cathedral, collapsed with a roar, these enemies were declared utterly defeated. A horde of gene-stealers then squeezed out, their brains dominated by the desire to survive, but they were met with the knights' merciless fire and trampling.

In less than twenty minutes, the fortress, besieged by tens of thousands for six days, was declared fallen.

After a brief respite, the knights immediately set off again. After all, their target was not just a small fortress. Their real goal was to destroy the gene-stealers throughout the region. This fortress merely blocked the road from the landing site to the gene-stealers' lair, Golden City.

However, during the ten-minute preparation, Sereye saw what was happening in the fortress ruins through his long-range observation scope. The local ragtag militias, as soon as the spoils of victory fell, rushed over like leeches smelling blood, seemingly wanting to find the treasures they desired in the ruins.

Unfortunately, their delusions were extinguished by the servitor's merciless bullets. The fortress did indeed contain gold, but it was the knights' spoils of war, not trinkets for commoners to steal.

The servitors then used detectors to quickly locate the gene-stealers' hidden gold cellar and rapidly removed several tons of molten gold bars – gold was also a highly valued resource for the knight families, essential for grand ceremonies and adorning their sacred mounts.

Not to mention its value as a high-value mineral, which could be distributed as rewards. The Prince probably intended to use this gold to reward the knights and servitors in the gun line.

Once the knights left, the local militia, full of pent-up anger, could only vent their frustration on what remained. A few gene-stealers had not been killed, but were hiding in the ruins or feigning death on the battlefield. They were dragged out one by one, but not immediately executed. The nobles driven out of their 'territory' used the most cruel methods on these unfortunate aliens. Skinning, tendon extraction, and bone removal were child's play. Others were tied to vehicles by their limbs and torn apart, or impaled with sharpened wooden stakes from below, leaving the victims to die slowly in agony.

But the knights didn't care. After all, in their eyes, the locals were crude primitives, and even the priests here were just a bunch of idiots mingling among the rural villagers. They believed in the Holy Flame Order, which was the true doctrine.

After passing through a valley between two mountains, the gun line arrived at the real battlefield: Golden City, built against the mountains, its scale no less than a planetary capital. It was the holy city built by the Golden Claw Cult over a century. From afar, one could see a statue of their worshipped "Golden Emperor" standing at the city's highest point, cast entirely in gold, said to weigh over three hundred tons. However, these blasphemous idols merely masqueraded under the Emperor's name; their appearance was actually a four-armed, ferocious alien.

Here, artillery fire was already raging. The main force of the Dupondling family had already launched attacks from other directions.

The gene-stealers, to defend their holy city, had also exerted their full strength, digging countless crisscrossing trenches outside the city. At the same time, they had clearly recognized the power of the knight mechs, so they also used explosives to create many large pits on the battlefield, trying to hinder the knights' advance with such terrain. As for various landmines, there were countless. In terms of weapons, they also concentrated all their heavy firepower, even bringing out their own manufactured heavy artillery. Although these siege mortars were relatively primitive, they had the advantage of a huge caliber, and the high-explosive shells they fired still posed some threat to the knights.

But was this really useful?

"It is said that this place is home to millions of vermin. Knights, this is a time to seize glory. Let us seize glory!"

The teaching knight's voice echoed in the comms channel, but looking at the tactical instructions, Sereye knew that they were still doing the grunt work.

More updates tomorrow~