The Villain's Story

Chapter 940: Siege of Terra Damnum(3).

How effective was human weaponry during the invasions? Or even the age before it, the age of dungeons?

How effective was a standard firearm? A gun? The very weapon that had carried man to the top of the world? How effective was a rifle? How effective was a ballistic missile? How effective was a tank? And what about a jet?

A standard gun, the nine-millimeter, is capable of killing a human being, and most F-rank and E-rank monsters, save for those that are specialized in defense. The standard rifle will protect you even against formidable D-rank monsters, even those specialized in defense.

However, a C-rank monster will thwart almost all manners of ‘normal’ weaponry. Any gun that a normal civilian can purchase, as well as the standard rifles given to soldiers, will stop being effective at C-rank.

Why? For what reason is a C-rank monster, and an awakened, relatively safe from standard firearms? It is because their bodies are different, or rather, the quality of their mana.

Not only are their bodies enhanced, but the mana within them undergoes a qualitative change, one that makes it extremely responsive to anything and everything, especially foreign objects entering the body at high speeds.

Almost instinctively, the moment a bullet approaches the body, the mana reacts, rushing towards it. The bullet will pierce the skin, but it will stop there. The mana within the body will react to it, rushing to the location to protect the body. Furthermore, it will spread throughout the body, strengthening it against other attacks.

And besides that, any C-rank being, whether driven by instinct like a monster or intelligence like a man, will immediately cast a defensive skill for protection. One would need a heavy rifle, aimed precisely at the head, to kill a C-rank. Or an extremely potent poison.

But B? Only an endless barrage of bullets would kill a B-rank, and even then, it is merely a question of the being’s mana reserves being able to hold out until an opening appears. B-rank, even in the modern age, are seasoned awakened that are well-trained, capable of exploiting any gap that appears.

However, no matter what type of gun you bring, it will not be enough to kill an A-rank, even a low-class A-rank being, which was immune to the guns of the time. They were simply skilled; they had extraordinary reaction speeds and a plethora of defense skills. They are, even in the modern age, the cream of the crop.

A swarm of ballistic missiles is required to kill an A-rank, and you basically have no chance at using them to kill a ‘speed’ type or a ‘defense’ type A-rank. You won’t be able to hit the speed type, and hitting an A-rank defensive skill with a ballistic missile is akin to throwing an egg at a boulder.

However, the real threat, the true insurmountable wall, is S-rank. Only a nuclear warhead could kill the old S-rank monsters, back when humanity was still new to mana. The emergence of one was an omen, one that could only be dealt with catastrophic consequences.

In a time when there were no S-rank awakened, the entire military of a country would have to be involved to take one down, along with multiple awakened. If the location it spawned in was unimportant, the residents would be evacuated, and it would be left alone.

You can’t expect them to nuke every single one now, can you? That is simply suicide. A nuclear warhead, the pinnacle of human war, is destructive to man, monster, and planet.

A nuclear missile must only be used in the most dire situations, and even then, it is advised not to do so.

Things only escalated when SS-rank and the monstrous SSS-rank monsters appeared, but by then, both the demons and humans were dealing with them. An odd sort of cooperation between the two.

The demons were significantly better at dealing with the monsters than humans, and they could even guide them to human settlements, resulting in severe losses. Furthermore, human weapons, the standard rifle and pistol, were ineffective against an average demonic soldier, one equipped with intelligence.

They could use all sorts of spells to render basic weapons useless, and even take it steps further. Once high-ranked demons got involved, it was hell.

Quite literally, hell.

However, even the demonic feared ballistic missiles… and the king of them, the Nuclear Warhead.

A total of three hundred and seventy-four nukes were detonated during the invasions, each of which crippled all three sides. The demons feared the nuclear weapons, the humans feared the nuclear weapons, and the planet wept with each detonation.

The other half was all consumed by the barrier erected by the Demons on Terra Damnum; to this day, it remains as their greatest spell, created to combat the nuclear bomb. Funny enough, the function of the barrier meant to deal with nukes is a simple transportation spell using Spatial Magic.

Since they carry no mana, they do not disturb the ‘mana environment’ unless actually detonated, the demons simply thought to transport them to a dead planet or abyssal layer and be done with it. However, as time passed, they improved the barrier, making it capable of withstanding an actual nuclear assault, along with a variety of other functions.

Before the emergence of the Three Heroes, The Sage, The Sword Saint, and The Spear Saint, Humanity was always losing. The pinnacle of their technology for war would destroy them as well as the enemy.

And they were ready for it. A special protocol was put in place to detonate every single nuclear warhead if they completely lost, to make sure the enemy would not have their planet. That was the last resort.

Human weapons, aside from the Nuclear bomb, were ineffective in the War. Guns were useless, tanks were slow and easily capable of being targeted with magic, and after a while, even fighter jets were dealt with, with the deployment of a vast array of magic… It was hell on Earth. The War was devastating…

However, the War was sixty years ago.