Southeast of Bandzhen, over a hundred war mechs towering more than a hundred meters tall formed the front battle formation, with a total of ten thousand intelligent armed robots mounted with drone platforms flanking both wings.
In the rear of the battle formation stood several thousand modified Ascendants wearing electronic goggles, and among them sat a special-model mech built entirely from pure alloy.
Calling it a mech was a stretch; in reality, it more closely resembled an oversized launch combat vehicle.
The mountain-like colossal machine was composed of a mobile base platform, a large missile bay, mobile launch silos, and an anti-jamming radar guidance array, purpose-built for thorough ground-destruction warfare.
It was Suroma's secret killing weapon, the "Annihilator," a creation that abandoned long-range launching and satellite guidance, designed specifically for short-to-medium-range combat.
Bruce, who had tasked Heisen with leading its design, knew very well that Xisiya and Beixing had Suroma under tight surveillance.
It was fine for Suroma to use tactical nuclear weapons domestically to eliminate the resistance, but if they launched externally, whether from domestic launch silos, stealth bombers, or nuclear submarine vertical launch tubes, the moment a missile took to the sky, both nations would detect it instantly.
If the two nations couldn't immediately determine Suroma's launch target, they would most likely trigger a nuclear counterstrike directly, and a global nuclear war would erupt in an instant.
That wasn't the result Bruce wanted, at least not the one he wanted right now.
And even if the two nations could determine the missile was heading for Sakura Prayer, Xisiya's Administrator Yelanka and Beixing's officials would both notify Guan Tong at the first possible moment.
Based on Suroma's intelligence department's analysis of Guan Tong, as long as he received an early warning, he could retreat to a safe area at the first opportunity, and even have enough spare capacity to bring some people along with him.
In that case, no matter how many Sakura Prayer citizens died, it would be meaningless, because in Bruce's eyes, even hundreds of thousands or millions of Sakura Prayer people combined were far less of a threat to him than Guan Tong alone.
Especially since the threat from Guan Tong was imminent. After Ai Ya was taken away, Suroma no longer held any hostages, and Bruce knew Guan Tong could act against him at any moment.
To eliminate the threat, he had to strike first.
To that end, he didn't hesitate to take two of Suroma's total four coordinate-stabilizing anchors to secretly construct a spatial folding passage.
One end of the passage was in New Covenant, and the other end was deep in the rainforest of Antu.
Bruce dispatched over a hundred modified Ascendants who were completely under his control and absolutely loyal to carry out this mission.
For absolute secrecy, he spared no expense in using multiple teleportation-type items to transport those modified Ascendants from Suroma to the Antu rainforest, where they secretly constructed a massive teleportation gate under the cover of the towering trees.
The entire process was arranged flawlessly by Bruce. Neither Sakura Prayer, nor Beixing, Xisiya, or any other nation detected a thing.
The moment the massive teleportation gate was completed and the coordinate-stabilizing anchors were embedded, a stable spatial folding passage was constructed.
Bruce didn't even wait an extra hour. He immediately ordered the gate opened and the operation launched.
Over a hundred war mechs, several thousand modified Ascendants, and over ten thousand intelligent machine soldiers mounted with combat drone platforms passed silently through the massive teleportation gate, arriving in the Antu rainforest.
They then advanced rapidly and launched an erasure strike on Bandzhen in the early hours of the morning.
The "Annihilator" carried more than ten large-yield nuclear bombs in total. The commander in charge of remote combat direction didn't hold back and ordered them all launched at the first opportunity.
Bandzhen was not a large city, nor did it have high-specification official shelters constructed on the scale that Beixing or Xisiya had built.
Over a dozen large-yield nuclear bombs rained down, like heavenly fire descending on Judgment Day, leveling the entire city in an instant. Countless Sakura Prayer citizens sleeping soundly were vaporized by the ultra-low temperatures in the blink of an eye.
Only a few lucky ones farther from the blast points, or some Ascendants with special life-preserving items, didn't die in the first moment.
But surviving was a torment in itself. The ulcers caused by intense radiation on their bodies were agonizing beyond description, and the complete destruction of everyone they knew and the city itself along with it was sheer despair.
"Has the radiation index dropped to an intervention range yet?"
"It's only been a few minutes. What's the rush?"
"Yeah. Although we've undergone modification, most of our bodies are still flesh and blood, unlike those robots."
"Actually, those robots can't withstand high radiation either. Only those war mechs use full anti-radiation materials."
Some modified Ascendants in the battle formation chatted among themselves as they waited, waiting for the radiation levels in the nuclear blast center to drop slightly before advancing in force.
This time, Bruce dispatched such a large-scale group operation not to "sightsee" and leave after watching the explosion.
The operation was divided into two phases: the first phase was nuclear bombing to clear the path, destroying the target location while basically eliminating irrelevant personnel and flattening bunker structures.
The second phase involved a mixed ground force composed of war mechs, intelligent robots, and modified Ascendants intervening to sweep the battlefield.
Although everyone thought that with so many large-yield nuclear bombs dropped, no matter how powerful an Ascendant was, they would surely die, Bruce's order was to ensure not a single living Ascendant remained on site.
The sole exception was the Ascendant known as "Shadow." Bruce gave special instructions that if Guan Tong was found alive, the highest priority mission would immediately change to capturing him alive and bringing him back to Suroma.
At this moment, these Ascendants gazed at the scorched wasteland of a city in the distance. Some remained silent, some looked away, and a few continued chatting as if nothing was wrong.
"Given His Majesty's instructions, does he really think Shadow can survive a nuclear explosion?"
"Haven't you heard about the resistance last time? He apparently escaped from a nuclear blast site."
"How is that comparable? That time he was prepared. This time it's a night raid! And that explosion was only a tactical nuclear weapon with minimal yield. It's not on the same level as the strategic-grade weapons being used today."
"I think..."
"What is that?!"
The crowd suddenly fell into chaos. Everyone looked ahead and saw a figure rapidly moving toward the battle formation through the nuclear dust falling from the sky.
That figure didn't seem to be running, it was more like gliding across the ground!
"Someone! Someone came out!"
"Impossible!"
"Is that a monster?!!"
Suroma's Ascendants couldn't believe it. Someone had actually managed to run out of a city at the center of a nuclear explosion.
In their understanding, after a nuclear blast of this scale, even if someone in the blast zone managed to survive, they would certainly be in a half-dead, crippled state, barely able to move.
But this person charging toward the battle formation... no, it wasn't a person!
"It's a snake demon!" Someone screamed in terror as the figure rapidly closed in.
The others noticed it too. That figure covered in reddish-brown scales didn't look like a human at all, but more like a giant serpent.
That bizarre gliding movement was also because a massive serpentine tail had replaced human feet!
The commander spotted the situation, and his voice immediately sounded through the soldiers' earpieces.
"Attention, enemy attack. There's only one target. Everyone else, don't move. Leave it to the front-line mechs."
The commander's voice was very calm, clearly feeling that a single enemy required no concern at all.
Meanwhile, in the combat command center at Hall of Halls, Bruce, Dr. Heisen, and other core personnel were all watching the battle remotely.
After spotting the serpentine figure rapidly approaching through the cameras mounted on the mechs, the newly appointed Minister of Intelligence immediately exclaimed in surprise: "Your Majesty, this person appears to be..."
"Uenoshi?"
Bruce's tone also carried some doubt.
He was very familiar with intelligence on people associated with Guan Tong, especially since Uenoshi had stopped concealing her appearance. Photos of her body covered in serpentine scales had been collected into the database at the first opportunity.
Looking at the scales before him and comparing them to the photos in the intelligence database, they were identical without a doubt.
But the previous Uenoshi, apart from the scales, had still retained a human form in other parts, at least on the surface.
Yet now her legs had actually transformed into a serpentine tail. This was truly astonishing.
"It might be ability mutation!" Dr. Heisen said, staring at the screen. "I've done some research on bloodline-type abilities. For this type of Ascendant, bloodline concentration gradually rises as Mind Power increases. When a certain threshold is broken through, the body undergoes obvious mutation."
The moment he finished speaking, the battle on site had already erupted.
The war mechs in the front of the battle formation opened fire in unison with their autocannons. Large-caliber bullets rained down like a downpour on Uenoshi, whose serpentine transformation had become severe.
What was astonishing was that she didn't dodge at all. She actually endured the hail of bullets and pressed forward. The bullets struck the scales on her body, producing dull thudding sounds before deforming and falling off, completely unable to break through.
"Are those scales really that strong defensively?"
"Use explosive rounds!"
At the commander's order, multiple mechs' modular ammunition bays automatically switched over, preparing for a new round of fire.
But at that moment, Uenoshi, having charged to the front of the battle formation, launched her attack. She opened her mouth and sprayed out a massive cloud of emerald-green fog that rapidly spread in all directions.
When the metallic shells of those towering war mechs came into contact with the fog, severe burn marks immediately appeared. Every wisp of fog could drill a large hole through them, and within seconds, multiple war mechs suffered severe damage!
"Highly corrosive poison fog! Disperse!"
As the commander gave the order, Uenoshi, relying on her agile form and using the fog as cover, moved swiftly and quickly crossed the battle formation formed by the front-line mechs.
Her target was clearly not those lifeless metal constructs, but the Ascendants in the rear of the formation.
"Damn it! That monster is coming for us!"
"Those in front, stop her!"
"Ahhhhhhh!"
Uenoshi charged into the group of Ascendants while spewing poison fog. The nearest dozen or so were instantly corroded into bare white bones, and then from bones into ash, terrifying the others into scattering in all directions.
The robot soldiers on both flanks received orders and quickly converged, using melee weapons to attack Uenoshi at close range.
At this moment, she truly was like a snake demon, sometimes spewing poison fog, sometimes firing petrification beams, and even twisting large numbers of Ascendants into Serpent Servants to fight alongside her.
The robot soldiers' weapons struck her body with almost no effect.
And the war mechs couldn't open fire on Uenoshi who had charged into the crowd. For a time, this multi-group battle formation was thrown into complete disarray by her single-handed rampage.
Bruce and the others watching remotely had grave expressions. They hadn't expected Uenoshi's combat power to be so terrifying.
"The scales on her body are even tougher than the most advanced alloy? And the poison fog she sprays can corrode and penetrate metal. She's a real problem." Bruce said.
"No, Your Majesty. Look closely. The color of the scales on her body is changing."
The sharp-eyed Heisen was the first to notice the turning point.
The others listened and looked carefully. They did indeed notice that some of Uenoshi's scales were changing color.
Initially, when she first arrived, her scales were all reddish-brown. Now they had turned slightly pale blue-white.
"No matter how powerful the strength, there's always a price, a cost. No matter how strong her ability is, her Mind Power is still limited!" Heisen said. "I believe the change in scale color is proof of that. She can't hold out much longer!"
The moment he finished speaking, Uenoshi's shoulder took a heavy blow. The scales on that spot, which had completely turned pale blue-white, shattered with a cracking sound.
Everyone was overjoyed at the sight. So it turned out that as long as enough attacks were accumulated, her seemingly indestructible scales could also fracture and break!
The commander immediately ordered an intensification of the siege, to strip Uenoshi of her ability to resist as quickly as possible, and to attempt to knock her unconscious and capture her alive.
Facing a tide of endless enemies, Uenoshi's vertical pupils dilated slightly, as if she were fighting purely on instinct.
And her mind, at this moment, drifted beyond the battlefield, drifting through a sea of stars. Whether it was an illusion or not, she seemed to see a colossal tree laden with fruit.
Was that the Starry Giant Tree hung with Authority Fruits that the Troupe Leader had spoken of?