Pillar of Yita

As Fang Hong gestured, with several soft clicks, the copper-shell spheres hanging under the Alchemist’s coat detached and fell downward. But before they hit the ground, a command passed through the Resonance Crystal, activating the Main Crystal inside the spheres, and Magic Power surged out, driving the hinges—only to see the copper shells spin open, extending thin wings like fairy wings from below, flapping like a hummingbird, drawing a downward arc and taking flight back up into the air.

The golden spheres rose one by one behind Fang Hong, slowly ascending into the sky. They formed a large net of equidistant points between each other, reflecting the firelight, twinkling like stars in the sky.

After being improved, the Fire Giants were only one-third the original size, with the flying device greatly simplified, and all parts that could use disposable components were replaced with the cheapest materials; the cooling and stabilization systems were almost entirely cut out, the hinge mechanism reduced to the bare necessities, the visual Crystal was no longer present, and the balance mechanism was in a pitiful state, reduced to just two pairs of wings, losing more than two-thirds of its flying ability.

It could nearly sustain flight for only about half a minute, but that was more than enough: inside, aside from being filled with Explosive Crystals and an automatic Magic Power infusion device, there was only a closed-loop component left. Overall weight was reduced by more than half, and despite the loss in flying capability, the speed was even faster, especially in a straight line.

Previously, Fang Hong had to manually infuse Magic Power into the Fire Giants before activation. Now, however, Fang Hong had specially designed an automatic Magic Power infusion device so that as long as he activated the Main Crystal inside the Fire Giant, it would automatically infuse the Explosive Crystal with Magic Power — though there were only three settings of three seconds, fifteen seconds, and thirty seconds, it greatly simplified his operation.

This meant that the Fire Giants had less startup delay, allowing more of them to be activated simultaneously.

More importantly, due to these modifications, the cost of the Fire Giants was less than one-fifth of the original—

For Fang Hong, the only factor now limiting his use of the Fire Giants was likely only the total capacity of his Information Crystal. Of course, there might also be a hidden factor: this attack mode was so unique that it easily exposed one of his identities.

That identity was not just Fanric’s Hero...

His gaze fell on the ’beasts’ wielding curved blades rushing toward him.

The golden spheres whistled as they flew into the crowd.

The Sand Thieves instinctively evaded, but how could evasion be fast enough?

In Fang Hong’s gaze, a narrow beam of light blossomed from beneath those golden copper shells, rising like a Novastar. In the next moment, a flame engulfed it—

Then transformed into a deafening roar.

...

The battlefield was filled with flashes, catching everyone’s eyes.

Explosions at a very close distance formed a wave on the ground, sweeping across, with the last remaining building in the tower’s direction emitting a mournful groan before collapsing with a cracking sound. Dirt, pebbles fell to the ground with a clatter, like rainfall.

The Grand Princess stopped, Aleph also halted, both looking toward that direction, while the knights seemed to have become somewhat numb to the changes on the battlefield—since that previous earth-shattering explosion, nothing else could really capture their attention.

Rupert slightly bowed his head, faintly feeling he had seen such a scene somewhere before, and not far from him, the Crown Prince was also troubled with a similar question tumbling in his heart. The few Nobles on the battlefield wore a similar look of perplexity on their faces.

Have they seen such a scene somewhere before?

Only one person, upon seeing that series of flashes, had his eyes slightly flicker as well—the continuous flashes reflected in the pupils of the former Chairman of the Southern Alliance, moving like a ray of light from front to back. He picked up his Communication Crystal, recorded the scene, and chuckled softly:

”So it was you.”

A chaotic voice came through the Communication Crystal, a somewhat flustered voice asked: ”Chairman, did you see it?”

”Hmm?”

”That spire, that spire sunk underground...”

A solemn look appeared on Ye Hua’s face as he softly said: ”Shut up—”

Then the next words were a command. ”Tell your people to stop idling, help rescue others, relocate the city’s residents to safer places. Don’t come near the Royal Palace, spread out, and don’t let others recognize your identities.”

The voice replied with a bitter laugh: ”We’ve been doing that for a while, but lost quite a few hands, but the Royal Palace...”

”This side is none of your concern.”

”Alright, Chairman.”

Ye Hua clenched the Crystal into his palm, looking at the ground littered with corpses, emitting specks of white light.

Turning back, he looked at Tianlan standing blankly before him, noting the disproportionately large Great Sword clutched in both hands, still trembling as it pointed in this direction, and couldn’t help but smile. ”It’s alright now, you can relax a bit, brave little girl.”

Tianlan looked at him, her voice trembling slightly as she asked, ”Chairman Ye Hua?”

Ye Hua was slightly taken aback: ”You know me?”