I Became a Witch and Started an Industrial Revolution

Lerjsk

On the walls of the central state city, a large number of white flags had been raised.

The defending commander, wearing a bitter expression, bent over and presented his command saber with both hands. The commander of the Airborne 1st Division reached out to take it, and the two sides formally completed the handover of the city’s defenses.

The Church soldiers watching this scene all looked as if their parents had just died.

But there was no choice—it was simply too overwhelming.

No one knew what kind of ghost-struck expressions these defenders had when they saw the main force of the Seris Alliance airborne division. Twenty thousand five-meter-tall mecha soldiers, along with large numbers of heavy armored vehicles and artillery—what were they supposed to defend with?

With that kind of configuration, even attacking their royal capital would be enough to plow it back and forth several times. They felt they were not worthy of receiving the same treatment as the royal capital, so they simply surrendered outright.

Their number of defenders was not even as large as the number of troops deployed by the airborne division. They only had a few hundred mechanical soldiers. Surrender was an act of helplessness—even if they did not surrender, their defensive strength would not last more than a few hours against a direct assault from the airborne division.

Although understandable, their surrender as an organized force left a massive gap in the Church’s strategic defense. This allowed the Alliance army to free up forces to support the Second Division attacking Pevitz State, completely cutting off the Church’s army attempting to return and reinforce.

Now, if the reinforcements wanted to support Belzetsk, they could only either forcibly attack the two states occupied by the Seris Alliance or take a long detour. Neither option was friendly to Belzetsk.

The Ushesk coastline was the first to be breached under the Alliance army’s no-cost-spared assault. More transport ships were sent to the area to expand the occupied zone. At the same time, trucks equipped with iron frames rolled off large transport ships one after another, installing long-barreled rockets on the beachhead.

Two battalions of Katyusha rocket launchers were gradually assembled into formation and began bombarding the super fortress behind Ushesk.

Amid the piercing whistling sounds of “whoosh—whoosh—whoosh,” countless rockets spewed flames from their tails and shot into the sky, forming waves of projectiles that arced over the city walls and slammed into the magic shields inside the super fortress, triggering bursts of fire.

Originally, the Church had planned to rely on three super fortress clusters to engage the Alliance in prolonged warfare and urban warfare, thereby weakening the Alliance’s advantage in heavy firepower projection.

But Ernesto’s urban warfare tactics had all been learned from the Alliance—how could he possibly suffer losses so easily in that regard?

Especially since the interior of the super fortress contained only military personnel—it was a purely military city. This gave Mitia the opportunity to continue launching napalm bombing.

Close-range or even zero-distance urban combat? That was wishful thinking.

Rocket artillery and 152mm howitzers swept the area, consuming the defensive strength of the magic shields. Fighter aircraft continuously dropped aerial bombs, causing widespread destruction of internal fortifications.

Finally, multiple rounds of saturation bombing with napalm were carried out, using gasoline bombs that burned like flowing magma to incinerate the remaining soldiers hiding within various structures.

After breaking through the beachhead, the main force continued advancing inland. Only after reaching relatively safe woodland areas did they stop to rest, eat, and maintain their weapons.

Fox, who had been working with his comrades to pre-set and assemble a heavy mortar position, suddenly heard the sound of metal plates colliding twice. The source of the noise was a well-hidden firing slit not far from them.

Fox immediately waved to signal his teammates to stop what they were doing. Then he pointed to his ear and toward the hole, indicating something unusual inside.

At first, his teammates were skeptical, but after his quiet explanation, one soldier raised his gun and cautiously approached the location.

Moving lightly to the edge of the opening, he immediately noticed barbed wire installed at the entrance. Just then, two more strange noises came from inside. He leaned in and glanced sideways—and came face to face with a soldier wearing a helmet marked with the Church emblem.

‘Bang bang bang…’

The soldier rolled awkwardly to dodge the gunfire, spat out dirt, and cursed, “Damn it, these bastards! There really are bastards hiding in there!”

The surrounding Alliance soldiers quickly moved into blind spots outside the machine gun’s firing range.

“Fox! Check the other side!”

Hearing this, Fox lifted his head and leaned to peek at the reverse slope of the firing slit. More than a dozen Church soldiers, upon seeing his face, immediately shouted and opened fire without hesitation, forcing Fox to snap his head back.

Still shaken, he glanced at his helmet, now pierced with two small holes, and shouted, “Throw grenades inside! Now!!!”

Amid the Church soldiers’ ghost-like screams, grenades were thrown into the bunker from all directions, triggering a series of violent explosions.

Other soldiers armed with AKM rifles took advantage of the machine gunners being distracted and rapidly maneuvered into the rear trenches, coming face to face with more Church troops.

In the confined terrain, the advantages of assault rifles were fully realized. The 7.62mm rounds ensured both power and a high density of fire.

A single Alliance soldier equipped with an AKM could easily wipe out more than half of the Church troops along a trench line. The ferocious rate of fire and powerful impact left the Church soldiers completely overwhelmed.

At the same time, heavy mecha flamethrower units and Sherman tanks advanced rapidly.

Seeing this, Fox immediately called to the tank: “Enemy target at 400 yards to the right, near the mud mound—requesting fire support!”

【Received!】

The nearby Sherman rotated its turret as instructed, the barrel aligning with the bunker previously discovered by the infantry.

‘Boom!’

With a single cannon blast, dirt and debris were sent flying. The Church soldiers, already barely holding on, could no longer withstand it and rushed out of the bunker—only to be picked off one by one by waiting Alliance troops like a game of whack-a-mole.

‘Click click click’

Fox fired rapidly to clear nearby targets. Suddenly, his rifle stopped firing with a crisp mechanical sound—it was out of ammunition.

The last Church officer who emerged saw this and, with a sharp ‘clang,’ drew his command saber from his waist.

“Alliance dogs! Die!!!”

Shouting, he charged forward with his blade raised.

At the critical moment, Fox decisively abandoned the action of reloading. He quickly drew his large-caliber revolver from his waist—‘bang bang bang…’

The charging officer trembled violently under the impact of the shots. Seizing the moment, Fox swung his left fist—augmented by his exoskeleton—and struck with full force, denting the officer’s chest armor inward by six to seven centimeters.

The officer coughed up blood and collapsed to his knees in front of him, leaving Fox drenched in cold sweat.

As he gasped for breath, a sudden wave of intense heat surged beside him. A towering Bear-type beastman soldier, carrying a fuel tank, roared as he unleashed a long stream of fire toward another bunker entrance flickering with light.

The napalm flowed into the opening, triggering horrifying screams and the sound of ammunition detonating. Over a dozen Church soldiers, their bodies engulfed in flames, ran out of the bunker—only to be shot down one by one by Alliance soldiers.

Behind Fox, more soldiers approached, using bayonets and captured command sabers to approach the still-wailing Church soldiers, granting them a swift end.

All three beachhead positions were successfully breached by the Alliance in succession. More Alliance troops continued pouring in from the sea toward the Church homeland.

Seeing the situation grow increasingly dire, the Goddess of Light could no longer hold back.

Above the battleship fleet that had been continuously bombarding the nearshore with main guns, a sharp cold snort suddenly echoed. The sky lit up with a vast white radiance, within which dozens of figures flickered faintly.

“Hey! Not allowed!”

A light, playful laugh echoed from afar. Golden light began to glow from the bodies of those within the fleet, gathering together to form a pale golden dome above them.

“Mitia! Don’t go too far!”

“If you want to fight, I’ll accept it. But think carefully—without Dmitria, you’re still a goddess. But without these Saint Spirit believers of yours… who knows what you’d become~”

Miwei, who had been secretly dozing in the cathedral, also appeared within the fleet. Behind her, three pairs of golden wings slowly formed.

Seven or eight girls with varying expressions—but all with the same white hair—appeared together, watching with great interest the white radiance in the sky that had yet to be unleashed.