Chaos Heir

Chapter 1397: Savior

The scorching blue mana expanded wildly, burning and melting the nearby buildings’ surfaces and the metal street below before that energy could even reach them.

The damage intensified and spread even further once that scorching energy actually landed on those surfaces and swallowed them whole. The explosion expanded unhindered, covering entire blocks of that vast city, eventually rising to the sky to create a bright, mushroom-shaped pillar.

A deep, breathtaking roar invaded the city, making the very air tremble and twisting the scenery under its unbearable heat. The missile seemed to have submerged the black smoke in the area, too, but the attack didn’t stop at that.

The explosion hid it, but more missiles descended toward the city, either detonating above its blocks or waiting to land on its streets to unleash their devastating energy.

The metal ground trembled, melted, and shattered under the earthquakes, heat, and scorching, heavy shockwaves the explosions generated. They didn’t even stop, fueled by the seemingly unending barrage of missiles that fell on Aynor, covering almost a quarter of it in blinding mushroom-shaped clouds.

’Couldn’t they have waited for me to leave before nuking the place?!’ George cursed in his mind as his figure cut through streets, buildings, and blocks in a straight line, rushing at full speed away from the expanding shockwaves.

George had exploited that opportunity as soon as it arrived, resorting to his best running technique. He pointed his blade forward, turning himself into a spearhead enveloped in dark-silver light that allowed him to cut unhindered through the city, avoiding making turns or incurring delays.

The technique was so seamless that it could hardly be described as running. George had become a sword that pierced ahead, acting as a piece of his blade’s slash.

That generated incredible speed and optimized his escape route to the extreme, saving him as much time as possible. Yet, running away didn’t prevent him from studying the catastrophic scenery he was leaving behind, chasing after his figure.

As the Patriarch of the Ildoo family, George had studied its armory’s specifics. He was a man of the sword, but that didn’t stop him from learning about more technologically advanced weapons, especially since he was in charge of several of those.

Despite the silent curse, George realized that the reinforcements had used tactical nukes instead of their more extensive versions. The former could inflict the same damage in more limited areas, giving George some room to escape.

Of course, the decision to use tactical nukes probably had nothing to do with George or other potential survivors. The barrage of missiles was only focusing on the areas the cloud’s main body had invaded, even overwhelming one side of the city’s defensive wall with their blinding, mushroom-shaped pillars.

That was an effort to isolate the invader while preserving the city as much as possible. George could even guess that rescue teams were en route to the area, which needed safe zones without interference where to operate and continue the evacuation.

That guess turned out to be right quite immediately. As George kept running away from the explosions’ consequences behind him, whooshing noises mixed with the roars, making him look in their direction whenever he wasn’t busy cutting through a building.

A fleet of ships of different sizes had appeared above the defensive wall on the opposite side of where the black cloud had landed. Some were cargo vessels probably meant to aid the evacuation, while others were proper battleships that advanced inside the city, splitting to head for each trail of the expanding smoke.

George allowed himself to be relieved before some confusion ruined that feeling. Despite the nukes, the black smoke’s influence had infected the city, and the trails that the mushroom-shaped pillars didn’t overwhelm were still spreading that troublesome influence.

Actually, the nukes themselves were confusing. Theoretically, their scorching mana shouldn’t have been able to expand in the presence of the two evolved warriors’ True Chaos. Mana-based rescue vessels shouldn’t have been functional, either.

Khan’s forces and humankind had yet to find a solution to that technological issue. George would have known if they had devised one. He wouldn’t have bothered jumping into that reckless mission otherwise.

Yet, the scene was undeniable, and George let his curiosity win once the situation allowed it. After crossing several blocks, George finally escaped the range of the unbearable and potentially hurtful consequences of the barrage of nukes, switching from advancing to rising.

George cut through another street, only for his figure to slam into the following building. Except, he didn’t pierce that surface. Instead, a silver slash rose through the metal wall, instantly climbing floor after floor until it reached the terrace at its top.

The silver slash dimmed until George’s figure became visible. He stood at the terrace’s edge, a deep cut stretching from under his feet to the street. Mushroom-shaped pillars raged behind him, sending violent gales on his back, but he remained straight as he gazed at the defensive wall in the opposite direction.

The fleet of ships was indeed functioning rather perfectly inside that troublesome influence. A few cargo vessels had already landed inside the defensive wall and were starting to set off again, planning to continue the evacuation.

Meanwhile, the battleships had reached the black rivers expanding through the streets and had started to submerge them in endless barrages of mana bullets.

That normally wouldn’t have amounted to anything. The bullets would have disappeared before even landing on the black smoke.

However, the bullets didn’t only land and explode. They also stopped the rivers’ advance, pushing them back to clear the streets and blocks.

George frowned in confusion, and that feeling intensified when one of the military black ships spotted him and flew in his direction, ignoring the black rivers below to reach his block and stop above him.

The ship’s side doors opened, revealing the last figure George would have expected to see on a battlefield. A well-groomed man wearing a tidy military uniform with five stars on each of his broad shoulders peeked down at the terrace, immediately addressing him.

"Mister Ildoo!" The man shouted. "The battlefield is no place for a Patriarch!"

"Rodney?!" George couldn’t help but gasp upon recognizing the identity of his savior.