The Rise of the Black Plain

A few minutes earlier.

While Eduard and hundreds of soldiers of the Black Plain Army were waiting for the moment to act in tunnels around the Maritime City, suddenly, a loud sound spread throughout the entire area of this city.

BOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

Then a compelling sound of explosion came from the maritime area of this city.

That had been so loud that every single person in this city heard it as if it had happened right next to them!

There had been five explosions, but to the people in this city who were several kilometers away, it had seemed like only one explosion, the combination of the five!

On the other hand, something so sudden had caused thousands of people in that area to shiver as they were startled by such a thing.

"What was that?"

Several people around this city wondered, at the same time as they got up from where they were sitting, lying down, or simply turned towards the local shore, curious.

But while many people inside buildings tried to get close to the windows or out into the street to see what was happening, those in places overlooking the coastline had eyes and mouths wide open in shock.

By the time that sound had reached their ears, they were already seeing a powerful explosion happening on the northernmost part of the coast, where some warships were.

Such a thing had been so extreme that even from kilometers away, the people in this city could see the flames from the explosion reaching heights exceeding those of the tallest buildings in this city!

That had been truly impressive!

For people who were walking on some of the inner streets with no view of the sea, if they had been looking in that direction, at the sky above the buildings, they would have seen something similar to a second star appearing in the sky and then exploding.

The explosion had been so strong that an intense tsunami of light had spread throughout that region, something capable of blinding for a few minutes those below the 2nd stage, who were looking in that direction!

Moreover, the heat of this light had been so high as to produce a thermal pulse so energetic and hot that it just burned everything within hundreds of meters of the focus of the explosion.

But such a thing had only lasted for a few fractions of a second until a large amount of smoke quickly covered the flames.

"What the fuck is that?"

"What's happening?"

"Our ships just exploded? How could that have happened?"

Several soldiers from the Counter-Revolutionary Army who had seen such a thing wondered aloud, drawing attention from those in their surroundings.

But while thousands of people in this city were beginning to feel bad omens, the mighty shockwave arrived in that city!

That was not enough to damage the local infrastructure, as buildings built by cultivators were indeed solid. But for the weaker people near the local beaches, especially those further north, many of them had been thrown to the ground because of such a thing.

"Are they attacking us?" 

"It can't be! Has the war already reached our city?" 

"But the royal forces have just arrived here!"

People in the vicinity of the coastal part of this city wondered aloud, as they felt they should run to their homes and hide.

That all was very strange. But since the local forces had already launched the war effort program for the local citizens, many already knew that strange things could happen. Not only that, many had realized what was happening very quickly because of this program and were fast about returning to their homes.

As for the leaders of the Counter-Revolutionary Army in this city, upon hearing that intense explosion, they had been as perplexed as to the citizens.

But since their location was further away from the coast, the effects they had felt had been minor, and none of them had seen the explosion happening.

Still, they quickly stopped what they were doing at that central station, worrying about what might have happened.

But before they were leaving that place, cannon sounds followed the previous explosion, making it very clear for them that hundreds of these weapons were being used at the time.

"What? Are we being attacked?" Then, after hearing the beginning of the sequence of cannon fire, one of the Spiritual Kings in this post asked aloud, surprised by it all.

Previously, they had thought that some incident had happened in a local building since none of them could imagine that an explosion at sea could be heard from here.

But just as they were about to send someone to go and see what had happened, the sounds of cannon had reached their ears.

And since such a sound was very distinctive, each of these people could realize that the problem was much bigger than they imagined.

"Damn, are we..." One of them was about to say something, but a distinctive sound reverberated through that area they were in at that instant.

'It can't be!'

'It can't be!'

The thoughts of the people in that place flew away as they heard the distinctive sound of the activation of an explosive array sounding there.

But it was too late for them to run or even defend themselves!

Once activated, such an array could operate as fast as the snap of fingers!

And then...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

...

BOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOM!

At that moment, dozens of explosions of various intensities happened almost simultaneously!

Several Counter-Revolutionary Army posts around Maritime City had suddenly suffered from powerful explosions, which had created the effect of small earthquakes around tens of square kilometers.

In sequence, similar effects to what had happened during the explosion at sea happened in this city, with several buildings being directly destroyed by the explosion of the arrays activated from afar by Minos' soldiers.

On the other hand, while the buildings at the center of the explosions had been partially destroyed, hundreds of buildings in the vicinity of these places had suffered.

The artificial earthquakes had created large cracks in the walls of the buildings closest to the explosion.

And secondly, they were affected even more by the strong shockwave, which shattered the glass of almost every house in that city!

"Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhh!"

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

"Help me! Help me!"

"Damn it! The roof of my house fell on my wagon!"

"Ahhhh! My foot is stuck! Help me!" Someone shouted as he saw that his house was starting to catch fire due to the thermal pulse created by the explosions around the area he was in.

"Ahhhhhhhh!"

And with that, the many traps spread around this city by the soldiers of the Black Plain Army had been fully activated, causing chaos around here.

Not all of them were the explosive type. Still, these were the ones that had caused the most commotions around this city, creating a typical battlefield symphony.

First the sounds of explosions, then the screams of pain and cries for help. Following that, as the terrible smell of burning bodies wafted through the air, euphoric sounds coming from deep in the throats of hundreds of people added to it all.

"Kill!"

"Kill the damn invaders!"

"For the Black Plain!"

Then the soldiers of Minos finally began to act, running towards the enemy survivors, those who were not near the focus of the explosions, or had narrowly escaped the traps around this city.

No one was left in the tunnels built by the army, and groups of soldiers could already be seen in the local streets activating their techniques while starting to fight.

The same was true for the soldiers infiltrating the enemy forces, those who were already stabbing their 'comrades' in their backs!

As the battles began to spread to the outer areas of this city, the powerful enemies who had managed to survive the traps were finally standing up amidst the local rubble, wounded, shocked, surprised.

All of this had been very unexpected for these people. After all, one way or another, they were inside their own 'headquarters' since they had turned this city into such a thing.

Yet, overnight, they had been attacked from within their base!

That was entirely unexpected for these people!

"Shit!"

"The damn rebels infiltrated Maritime City before we came here!" One of the surviving Spiritual Kings said in a hoarse tone while feeling several wounds around his body.

However, as he said this loudly, Eduard's group arrived in that location, passing through the curtain of dust and smoke that surrounded it.

....