I only wanted to retire, but I ended up becoming an extremely popular character.

The city of Saarlom is like a city built of steam and an ever-burning furnace.

The enormous chimney pierced the night sky like a silent giant, its intermittent bursts of thick smoke obscuring the already faint starlight.

A crisscrossing network of steam pipes twists and turns high above the buildings, filling the air with the mixed smell of coal ash and sulfur.

On the top of every towering factory building, and on the steam tower at every intersection, stood a straight sentry post.

The searchlights behind them swept slowly in a fixed rhythm.

The streets were deserted, save for the heavy clatter of the Holy Kingdom's patrol boots.

The chill seeped into the outermost line of defense with the evening breeze.

Some of the Holy Kingdom's garrison huddled in the outermost defensive fortifications, enveloped in cold and weariness.

There was only endless darkness before my eyes, and I could do nothing but wait for dawn, but time was passing so slowly it was unsettling.

Inside a fortified position, Soldier A fumbled for a crumpled pack of cigarettes, pulled out two, and offered one to his comrade beside him: "Want one to perk you up?"

Soldier B initially remained wary, shaking his head and lowering his voice:

"According to regulations, smoking is not allowed on night duty; the light from a fire would give away our position!"

Soldier A leaned back nonchalantly against the rough sandbag:

"Where did all those imperial troops come from?"

"If they want to attack Sarlom, they need to take Segner first, right?"

"I have a brother over there, and I heard that they have to report to the division headquarters every twenty-five minutes."

"If there were really something going on in Segnar, we should have been on high alert long ago; the orders would have come down already."

He paused, looking out into the deathly darkness: "Look at you tonight, does it look like something's wrong? Fine, if you don't smoke, I will, it'll save me a cigarette."

Soldier A took a cigarette from the pack, brought it to his nose and took a sniff. He immediately felt refreshed, as if some of his fatigue had disappeared.

On such a tiring and boring night, even a cigarette can be enough to make one's soul yearn for it.

He struck a match, lit a cigarette, inhaled the smoke into his mouth, and exhaled it through his nostrils.

He felt all the fatigue from the whole night vanish.

Soldier B, watching Soldier A puffing away on a cigarette, felt a strong urge to do the same.

Finally, he steeled himself, stretched out his hand, and said, "So be it! Quick, give me one too! My eyelids are so heavy I can barely lift them!"

Soldier A grinned and handed over a cigarette and matches.

Soon, two faint lights flickered deep within the fortifications.

The two leaned against the wall, sharing this moment of unconventional relaxation in silence.

Amidst the swirling smoke, another Holy Kingdom soldier, also tormented by drowsiness, sniffed the air and approached, pleading in a hoarse voice, "Brother, please, have a bite too... I really can't stay awake any longer, I'm so sleepy I can't keep my eyes open..."

Just then, hundreds of unfamiliar dark figures, like a swarm of bees, silently swept across the night sky above them.

Before the soldiers could even exhale the last puff of smoke, which carried a sense of relaxation, they were already dead.

Several figures wearing "Imperial Blade" armbands swooped down precisely at the few faint sparks.

A flash of sword light, accompanied by several muffled thuds and the sound of a sharp weapon cutting through flesh, and the Holy Kingdom soldiers were killed instantly.

Led by Major Steele, the advance force launched a surgical strike against the first line of defense of the city of Sallom.

"It's an enemy attack! Those damned imperial troops are trying to steal..." A Holy Kingdom soldier's roar just ripped through the silence of the night.

Before he could finish speaking, the roar abruptly stopped.

The soldier who was shouting was ended by a cold glint of light that pierced from the shadows.

Subsequently, the first line of defense exploded like a hornet's nest that had been poked open.

Faced with an enemy of unknown origin and number, panic spread like a plague among the Holy Kingdom's soldiers.

Panic screams, haphazard blind firing, chaotic footsteps of fleeing, the clatter of weapons colliding in disarray... all the sounds mingled together.

Many soldiers couldn't even pinpoint the enemy's exact location.

"Stay calm! Everyone stay calm!"

A Holy Kingdom lieutenant swung his sword, felling a fleeing soldier, and desperately tried to regroup the battle line:

"They only number a few dozen! Look behind you, the 'Black Sheep Holy Chief' legion is stationed in Sarlom City!"

"Quickly, organize the defenses, follow me and push forward!"

The lieutenant raised the Holy Cross sword in his hand and began to organize the soldiers to attack the invading Imperial army.

Under his suppression and encouragement, some soldiers quickly regained their senses, gathered together, and followed the lieutenant to launch an attack on Major Steele's troops.

Faced with the surging crowd, Major Steele didn't even turn around to look at them.

With a seemingly casual swing of his longsword, a solid sword aura burst forth.

The sword energy did not strike the crowd, but instead slammed into the ground at the forefront of the charging team.

"boom--!"

With a muffled thud, the ground exploded, and rubble and dust billowed up like a curtain, instantly obscuring the enemy's vision and successfully disrupting their charge.

Taking advantage of the brief chaos, Major Steele turned to the soldiers behind him and gave them an unquestionable order: "Leave this to me. Execute your mission as planned. Immediately!"

Once the order was given, the imperial elite behind him did not hesitate for a moment, and suddenly dispersed like a pack of wolves that had been gathering strength for a long time.

Then, at an extremely fast speed, it passed by Major Steele's side, bypassed the stalemate on the front line, and rushed towards the artillery positions deep within the defensive line.

Their mission objective was very clear: to create as much chaos as possible within the Holy Kingdom's garrison and completely cripple the most threatening long-range firing positions.

Almost at the same time their figures disappeared into the shadows of the fortifications.

A muffled explosion came from the direction of the Holy Kingdom's artillery position.

Immediately afterwards, even more violent and continuous explosions rose into the sky.

Orange-red fireballs shot into the air one after another, the roar of exploding shells.

Thick smoke, carrying debris, quickly enveloped the battlefield.

The Holy Kingdom's garrison poured out of the barracks, streets, and fortifications like a tide, surrounding them from all sides.

They attempted to use their overwhelming numerical superiority to divide and encircle the Imperial vanguard forces that were charging around inside the defensive lines.

Faced with a huge disparity in troop strength, the advance team's swift raid immediately became bogged down.

Advance team members kept falling under the siege of an enemy force several times their size.

They had to scale back their offensive, fighting and retreating as they moved toward Major Steele.

Major Steele and his men were cornered on a street in the city of Sallom, with two buildings standing on either side of their formation.

Both ends of the street were completely blocked by the Holy Kingdom's pursuing forces.

"You are surrounded. Lay down your weapons; there might be a chance of survival!"

A captain from the Holy Kingdom, sword held horizontally across his chest, shouted to Major Steele with a smug look on his face.

"You might be the ones who are surrounded!"

Major Steele's voice was unusually calm, even carrying a hint of mockery.

He didn't look at the enemy who was shouting, but instead made a seemingly unrelated gesture.

He calmly put the Wingwave Messenger, whose call had just ended, back into his pocket.

The smug look on the Holy Kingdom captain's face froze instantly, turning into astonishment.

When did he complete the communication?

A chill ran through him, and the Holy Kingdom captain suddenly roared at his soldiers, "Quick! Quick! Take cover!!"

Before he could finish speaking, a sharp whistling sound tore through the night sky.

Several shells landed behind the Holy Kingdom's troops, bursting open with flames and shrapnel, sending a large number of unsuspecting Holy Kingdom soldiers flying.

Immediately afterwards, more shells, trailing trails of sound, whistled through the air.

The coordinates they were aiming at were all within the city of Sallom, the coordinates where the firelight had shone during the fierce battle with Major Steele's advance party, and the coordinates that Major Steele had transmitted through the Wing Wave Messenger during the battle.

The fierce artillery fire, carrying the long-suppressed rage of the "Imperial Blade" legion, transformed into a torrential downpour of steel and flames, pouring down on the outermost defensive line of Sarlom.

The city of Sarlom trembled violently amid a series of massive explosions, with dazzling flames tearing through the darkness time and again, turning the sky a terrifying orange-red.

Thick smoke and the stench of blood filled the air, and the first line of defense of Sarlom City was instantly transformed into a burning hell.