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A Black Sun Rises Over Terra Wastelands Outside Lungmen / 8:00 AM / Weather: Clear / Catastrophe Status: None “Kai, Kai, what do you think of this vehicle?!
I modified the ‘Little Rhodes Island’ myself!
I poured all my proudest engineering techniques into this baby.” “It’s pretty impressive.
It’s way faster than a horse-drawn carriage.
Doesn’t look quite as cool as Swire’s sports car from yesterday, though,” Kai replied lazily.
He was currently lying completely flat in the passenger seat.
If he tried to sit up normally, the fifty-centimeter horns on his head would absolutely punch two massive holes right through the roof.
Given his current anatomy, a convertible was probably the only thing he could comfortably ride in.
“A m-m-horse carriage?!
Comparing my Little Rhodes Island to a carriage?!
Even if it beats a carriage, that’s nothing to be proud of!
And the Rhodes Island is definitely way cooler than a sports car!” Closure protested loudly.
“Sorry, my bad.
I haven’t seen many modern vehicles, so I don’t really have a good frame of reference.” “Whatever, whatever, let’s change the subject.
Kai, how exactly are you planning to stop Chernobog?
Are you just going to charge in and slaughter Reunion?
Or are you going to dismantle the mobile city’s treads and force it to break down?” Closure’s voice was buzzing with adrenaline.
As a logistics and engineering specialist, she had always desperately wanted to go to the front lines.
Unfortunately, despite being a Vampire, she had dumped all her talent points into mechanics.
Plus, unlike Warfarin, she wasn’t a seasoned, centuries-old veteran.
Because of this, every single one of her frontline transfer requests had been mercilessly rejected—first by Kal’tsit, then by Amiya, and now even the Doctor was tossing her applications into the shredder.
This time, however, since Kai had absolutely no idea how to operate modern transportation, and Closure had conveniently just submitted a field test report for her new vehicle prototype, they decided to let her drive Kai to his destination while running her diagnostics.
“Your mindset is a little dangerous, Closure,” Kai chuckled.
“Ursus hasn’t officially announced that Chernobog has fallen out of their control yet.
Politically, it’s still Sovereign Ursus territory.
Since when does Rhodes Island have the confidence to launch a full-scale assault on an Ursus industrial city?” “Tsk.
Then what are you going to do?” “I’m going to draw a line between Chernobog and Lungmen.
A line they will never be able to cross.” “Ooh, that sounds kind of badass.
I’m definitely going to film you looking super cool later!” “Film?
Film what?” Kai asked, raising an eyebrow.
“Rhodes Island has a tradition of recording combat data.
Usually, when Elite Operators take on missions, we keep the footage so Reserve Operators can study it.
It also helps the newbies understand exactly what kind of threats Rhodes Island is dealing with.
Is that okay?
Can I?” Kai naturally agreed.
Having his combat data recorded didn’t affect him in the slightest.
If anything, he actually wanted this footage to spread to the leaders of Terra’s major factions.
He had been in this world for a few days now, and he had fully mastered the Alatreon template.
But his time to return to Orario was rapidly approaching.
He needed to leave behind a deterrent for Rhodes Island.
“Closure, make sure Rhodes Island stockpiles plenty of Originite Prime in the future.” “Huh?” “The Doctor is going to need it.” “Oh.
Okay.” Although Closure didn’t entirely understand what Kai meant, she made a mental note of it.
The problem was, Rhodes Island didn’t have specialized Originite Prime refining equipment.
Originite Prime’s primary purpose was to act as the lifeblood of massive industrial machines.
Private production without serious backing usually ended with major nations swallowing you whole.
So, Rhodes Island could only buy it on the market…
and those originium clusters were not cheap.
It looked like they were going to have to find new ways to increase revenue and cut costs.
About fifty minutes later, the vehicle’s onboard radar began blaring a warning.
Was that Chernobog?
It was moving vastly faster than Rhodes Island had predicted.
The communication limits of Terra really were a massive hindrance; even if Lungmen had spies operating inside Chernobog, they couldn’t transmit accurate data out.
Otherwise, Lungmen would already be mobilizing for all-out war.
At its current speed, Chernobog would collide head-on with Lungmen in a maximum of three days.
“Whoa, Reunion has completely lost their minds,” Closure gasped, staring at her monitors.
“They must be running the mobile city’s engines deep into overdrive to move this fast.
Looking at this data, those engines are going to be completely unsalvageable after this.
If Ursus industrial machinery wasn’t built specifically for raw durability, this thing would have exploded halfway here.
But even so, Chernobog is completely ruined!” Closure’s voice was heavy with pity.
Seeing a perfectly good industrial city run into the ground like this was a tragedy for an engineer.
“Yeah…
but this isn’t bad,” Kai mused, sitting up slightly.
“Facing fear directly is much more impactful than watching it on a screen.” The wasteland wind never ceased.
It carried dust and grit, ensuring that every breath tasted of the wild, untamed frontier.
The vast expanses of Terra’s wastelands had birthed countless legends.
In Sami folklore, though the Lord of Deer’s physical form had decayed, its spirit supposedly roamed the wilds forever, patrolling every corner of Sami through the rivers, storms, and lightning.
The Siracusan wastelands outright belonged to the Lords of Wolves, who claimed to be the avatars of the wild itself, locked in an endless, brutal slaughter.
To anyone raised in a mobile city, the wilderness was an terrifying, unknown void—a place they desperately wanted to avoid.
But Kai felt right at home.
It was open.
It was vast.
Here, he didn’t need to restrain his limbs or carefully control his breathing.
The wilderness had always been the domain of monsters.
Crimson lightning materialized out of thin air.
It was a natural phenomenon, born from the raw Dragon-element energy spilling from Kai’s body and violently colliding with the ambient atmosphere the moment he stopped holding back.
Then—the sky changed.
This wasn’t a metaphor.
It was a literal statement of fact.
Pitch-black storm clouds rolled in at an unnatural speed, swallowing the land below.
But the darkness did not reign for long.
A black sun rose over the wasteland, radiating an ominous, bewitching crimson light.
Hellfire and dragon lightning began tearing the earth apart, terraforming the landscape into an environment pleasing to their master.
It looked like the dawn of a primordial, savage age.
Behind Kai, the silhouette of a god manifested.
Its body was covered in razor-sharp, pitch-black reverse scales that overlapped like jagged armor, pointing defiantly toward the heavens as if declaring rebellion against the world itself.
Atop its head grew a pair of massive, backward-curving horns.
This time, Closure could see clearly that these massive horns were actually formed from countless smaller, interlocking horns.
Though the creature stood upon the earth, those horns looked as if they could pierce the sky.
Wings, claws, a spiked tail…
every single aspect of its biology was forged for absolute destruction.
It looked like a shadow of pure darkness, yet radiated light.
It exuded an overwhelming sense of ill omen, yet felt undeniably divine.
It was the god of ruin, the devil that would sweep across the world.
It was a walking paradox.
Mortals could never comprehend a being of such terrifying majesty, but there was one thing no one could ever doubt: its absolute, overwhelming power.
By merely standing there, it transformed the land into a vicious hellscape where even gods would fear to tread.
When the black sun rose, even the divine would tremble!
This was the dragon capable of commanding all Catastrophes, the reaper of life possessing the visage of a black pegasus.
The disaster capable of rending space and time, known as the “Black Sun.” The strongest dragon feared by the gods—the Alatreon.