Man on the ark, forced to become king

Muttering to himself, the commander touched his bearded cheek and found that his expression had frozen at some point, and he looked quite strange now.

"Sir, should we continue?"

The adjutant's voice came from the narration. The commander turned his head and saw that the marching convoy had stopped. All the vehicles seemed to have stopped at the same time, still maintaining their complete formation.

He saw confusion and fear in the eyes of his adjutant and the other soldiers.

Even the most battle-hardened elite troops of the empire would feel fear.

Before this, the commander would definitely answer firmly: No!

The army group is the empire's strongest legion, guarding the frontiers and conquering various countries. It has never feared the enemy.

Whether it was the knights of Kazimierz, the musketeers of Lateran, or the mad barbarians, they never retreated, forging an invincible reputation through war and bloodshed.

But today, the commander suddenly realized that they, too, could be afraid.

No matter how powerful or difficult the enemy may have been, they are still living beings with flesh and blood, and they will die if they are cut by a sharp blade or bombarded by cannons.

What now?

What hangs over their heads is an unprecedented disaster!

Once it falls, it could even destroy most of the ice field and burn the land of Ursus!

How do you fight against something like this?

impossible.

Even the longest-range crossbow bolts cannot reach the clouds in the sky, and cannons capable of tearing apart fortified fortresses have their limits. For a sorcerer's spells to travel that far is simply a pipe dream.

Faced with this inverted sea of ​​fire, they were like a pack of wild dogs howling madly, unable to cross that insurmountable chasm despite their best efforts.

Human strength has its limits, and even the most elite army is not omnipotent.

"Sir?"

The adjutant asked another question, eager for an order. Not only him, but all the soldiers in the command vehicle listened silently, wanting someone to tell them what to do to dispel their fear.

"Stop advancing, estimate the extent of the disaster, activate high-powered communication devices, contact other units, and report the situation here to higher command. We cannot proceed further without accurate information; otherwise, if the disaster strikes, we won't even be able to retreat."

After a moment of silence, the commander made the safest decision.

Faced with the crisis, he had to put the lives of his subordinates first. This time, the enemy was not someone to plunder wealth, nor was it a villain who invaded the empire's territory. Instead, it was a natural disaster that did not even have consciousness. There was no need for them to take any risks.

As for the distress signal received earlier... that was from the Third Army Group. What does it have to do with them?

If there is still some capacity, we can help out appropriately later. Right now, no one can say for sure when the disaster will strike, and who would risk being burned to ashes by the fire to go deep into the disaster area to provide support?

People are inherently selfish. Compared to so-called brother units, commanders care more about their own subordinates. They wouldn't lead a large force into the disaster zone to provide support when they know that continuing forward might lead to their annihilation.

How ridiculous it would be if the Empire's most elite army groups were wiped out by natural disasters in this vast icy plain.

Ursus soldiers are not afraid of dying in battle, but no one can accept this absurd way of dying.

"I'll make arrangements right now!"

Upon receiving the order, the slightly younger adjutant visibly breathed a sigh of relief. He was genuinely afraid that his superior, who always spoke of imperial honor, would make an irrational decision that could lead to the annihilation of the entire army.

Fortunately, the worst did not happen, and the commander was still able to think calmly and make sound judgments, which was good news for everyone in the unit.

They are an army, not a prisoner army or suicide squads. No one wants to die for some inexplicable reason, to die outside the battlefield, to die without any value.

"Sir, the sky is starting to change!"

However, before the adjutant could issue the orders, the soldiers shouted urgently from the side. Everyone subconsciously looked up at the boundless sea of ​​fire that had set the entire sky ablaze.

"Meteorite? No, it's not... then what is it?!"

The adjutant cried out in alarm, but no one could answer his question; even the commander was lost in thought.

What appeared in their sight were orange-black crystals, of varying sizes and in great numbers, which were expanding rapidly from the moment they appeared.

When they came to their senses, the suddenly appearing crystals had already occupied most of the sky, like countless sharp blades made of crystals hovering above their heads, as if they could fall at any moment and inflict equal destruction on everyone.

The fire spread out, and the crystals reflected the firelight, forming a continuous expanse that was countless.

This scene reminded the commander of the Originium spells used by sorcerers, but he rejected the idea as soon as it came to mind.

Spell? How could this possibly be a spell?

If all of this was a spell cast by someone, how powerful must that person be? Even a legendary god couldn't do it, right?

Rather than making baseless speculations, he preferred to believe that this was an unprecedented 'mutated' natural disaster, manifesting in a slightly unusual way, which made it more shocking than any natural disaster he had encountered before.

"Wait, that's—quick! Raise the telescope and aim it at that spot!"

Having just dismissed the conjecture about the spell, the commander suddenly noticed something discordant in the center of the sea of ​​fire and the crystal—within the flames, there seemed to be the outline of a pair of wings.

Is it a strange phenomenon caused by a natural disaster, or... a biological entity?

The thought that suddenly popped into his mind sent a chill down his spine, and he quickly ordered the operator to start the vehicle-mounted telescope.

The command vehicle carrying officers is equipped with special devices not found in other vehicles, including a high-powered communicator, a wide-range radar scanner, and a high-precision vehicle-mounted telescope. This allows for close monitoring of the battlefield situation during combat. Normally, these devices are not very useful, since although they can see very far, the field of vision is limited and the information that can be obtained is not much. However, they come in handy now.

"Yes, sir."

The operator responded and quickly began operating the system. Soon, the special device built into the command vehicle was activated, pointing the camera at the center of the natural disaster.

Then, everyone's heart skipped a beat in shock.

On the screen connected to the high-powered lens, a blurry shadow with wings on its back appeared brightly. Due to the distance and the obstruction of the flames, it was not very clear, but it could still be distinguished as a human shape.

Within the natural disaster, there exists a humanoid entity!

How is this possible? What could possibly survive a natural disaster?!

Common sense was completely overturned at this moment. The commander opened his mouth, but found that he did not know what to say.

There was a person in the natural disaster whose understanding had been exceeded and whose knowledge had been stifled.

"He... he's moving! He's manipulating natural disasters!"

The soldiers operating the equipment screamed in panic, and the commander, who instinctively looked over, also saw the astonishing scene displayed on the screen.

The blurry humanoid figure amidst the natural disaster seemed to be waving its arm, and flames spread and changed with its movements. Crystals condensed around it and flew away into the distance.

Unrealistic and absurd conjectures have actually come true!

The commander felt a buzzing in his head, as if he had been hit by a sledgehammer, and he felt dizzy.

He hoped he was dreaming, having a bizarre dream.

But the gasps around him and the oppressive feeling that struck his heart told him that this was not a dream, but reality, and that there really were people who could survive and control natural disasters.

He couldn't help but begin to doubt whether what he was seeing was truly a natural disaster.

Or perhaps the sea of ​​fire and the crystal array hanging in the sky were all created by an unknown creature, and were spells he used?

If we follow this logic further, what about other natural disasters that have occurred in this world?

Within that destructive cloud that no one can reach, are there similar entities that guide and manipulate the arrival of disaster? No one knows, simply because no one has been able to see through the clouds to the interior of the natural disaster before.

Is there really a group of gods who bring calamities upon the world, above everyone's heads?

Then, what are these people? Ignorant ants crawling on the earth?

What they consider a civilization is nothing more than ants playing around in the eyes of the gods.

The deeper the commander thought about it, the more his mind trembled, and his body began to shake slightly. The world he knew was filled with a terrifying sense of unfamiliarity.

He looked up blankly, peering through the car window at the burning sky, watching more and more crystals emerge from the flames, covering an ever-expanding area, until at some point, it seemed to reach a critical point, or perhaps the beings in the sky lost patience to continue.

The flames began to boil, and the inverted sea of ​​fire rolled like boiling oil, as if it were about to swallow the world.

The irregular crystals, large and small, fell along with the flames, densely packed together, covering the ground like a torrential downpour.

An aura of destruction began to spread across the land.

A feeling of despair rose from the depths of everyone's heart.

Chapter 231 The Collapse of the Empire

"Preparations are almost complete."

Amidst the utterly transformed natural disaster clouds, Lin Lu stood in the air, relying on the Wings of the Furnace, looking down at the earth, her raised arm swirling with a golden, almost tangible, light.

Black Serpent said that an old thing from an ancient era had awakened on the ice plains, but even after Lin Lu had this massive natural disaster under her control, she still couldn't find anything about it. Maybe it ran away? Or maybe it fell asleep again after awakening?

He didn't know why he hadn't found it, and now wasn't the time to worry about that.

The Cataclysmic Cloud, diluted by the Ashfire, still retained a considerable concentration of energy after being used to unleash crystal magic. This energy was perfect for feeding the Golden Tree.

The creatures on earth were engulfed in the might of the raging inferno, and no one noticed that a seed had quietly fallen from the sky and disappeared into the snow-covered earth.

Click~

The frozen earth was propped open by slender branches, and golden branches sprouted from the soil, swaying precariously. Lin Lu stood in the sky, intently controlling the energy that had not yet been exhausted, and poured it into the newly sprouting golden trees on the ground.

Countless crystals and boundless flames swirled around the golden tree at its core, forming a terrifying vortex that seemed poised to engulf the sky and the earth.

The immense energy even caused the air to visibly distort, with a huge energy funnel hanging above the little golden tree, creating a tornado-like phenomenon.

With the infusion of abundant energy, the golden tree began to grow rapidly, expanding from a slender seedling into a thick tree that two people could hug, and eventually growing into a giant tree nearly a hundred meters tall.

In just a short while, the newly sprouted golden tree surpassed the one at Longmen.