Chapter 141 – Strikes

Everyone watched the countdown in the vision with nervousness and expectation.

[5...4...3...2...1...Release.]

Up in space, the platform activated a propellant and released the carrying mechanism, allowing a missile to fly out on its path.

[5 minutes to detonation...]

[4 minutes...]

[2 minutes...]

[20 seconds to detonation...]

When it got to this point, everyone could almost see the missile up above them. The missile was big, being nearly 30 meters long and 7 meters wide. It didn't look like anything special, just a round cylinder of metal. But Dream, Luna, and Iris knew what utter destruction it was capable of.

Soon, the missile got closer to the detonation point.

[5...4...3...2...1...Ignition.]

*Flash*

*Bͫ̋̌ͤ̽҉̧͖̗̞̤͞OO̞̮̒͛M̟̲͓̙̬ͅ*

"..."

Above the kingdom was a second sun. 

This nearly 14 km wide fireball encapsulated the entire castle plus the nearby city. And everything outside of the fireball... well, it was annihilated with the explosion. 

Everyone was silent as they watched the shockwave traveled across the 120 miles between them and ground zero. As they were so far away though, it would take a while for it to reach them as per the speed of sound. 

As the fireball faded and the flash dimmed, everyone looked up at the clouds that had begun to form. And just like in every picture, it was a mushroom cloud. They watched as the rings formed around the top of the fiery mushroom and as the clouds around were violently pushed away by a seemingly invisible force. 

The cloud for the next several minutes rose miles into the air, creating a towering dark middle finger specially formed for the demons. The shockwave also reached them after a while. Not long after that, Dream broke the silence.

"Luna, use your restoration on everyone."

"Ok."

Activating her skill, Luna cast her healing on Riddick and Selene and passed it through the connection to Dream and Iris. 

After using it for a minute, she retracted it.

"Everyone seems fine, though I actually consumed a tiny bit of energy."

"Since we're far away, we don't have to worry too much about the radiation released from the explosion, but I just wanted to make sure."

"...That explosion was a bit scary."

Iris spoke after him. Hearing her, Dream nodded.

"It's a surreal experience. It's like you shouldn't be allowed to see something so powerful. The mere fact that the release of such power is possible is scary."

"...Did you kill everything?"

"God I hope so. If a demon were able to survive that then I don't know what I would do."

"We should go check."

"No, I will check. The radiation over there is dangerous for you guys."

"But it's not dangerous for you?"

"Nope. One of the perks of being synthetically enhanced. Just wait around for a bit and enjoy the pretty clouds. I'll be back."

Saying so, Dream flew off towards ground zero.

.......

Upon arrival, Dream immediately let loose his influence and mana, scanning for anything around him.

[No life signs detected.]

"Good. At least they aren't capable of surviving a several hundred million degree fireball. Not to mention the sheer amount of radiation and kinetic pressure exerted by the blast."

[The area within a radius of a couple hundred kilometers won't be hospitable for a long while.]

"This continent was taken over by demons anyway. Besides, it's a small price for such a huge blow to the demons. In fact, start loading up the soldiers and get them over here. They can go through the place and kill off the survivors outside the blast zone."

[No problem.]

"...How many do you think we killed?"

[I think that regardless of the amount, any class 4's at this castle were annihilated. The specific amount, I'm not sure. But it likely wasn't small since it was their main kingdom. Just going off of what we see, I'm estimating around 70 million. Their population was extremely dense in this kingdom.]

"A little over half. Good."

After nodding, Dream turned and headed back to the family. 

"So? Find anything?"

"Other than smoke, no. Everything is very dead."

"Good. I'm sure there were plenty of class 4's there. We won't have to worry about them now."

"Hey Dream, what about experience? Since it was your weapon, wouldn't you have gotten experience for killing everything?"

After Iris asked, everyone suddenly turned to him with wide eyes. If that were true, then how much would he have leveled up?

"No, I didn't get any experience."

"What? Why not?"

"Because I had no mana tied to it. I launched that weapons platform at my very first rocket launch several months ago, and even then it was summoned with zero mana. And now that it's been sitting in space for so long, any sliver of mana it did have was dissipated."

"So if you don't have your mana tied to your weapon, you can't get experience?"

"Yup."

"Oh. That sucks."

"Not really. I'm not eager to level up at all. In fact, it would be detrimental to me. So I'm rather glad that's the case."

"...You're weird."

"Maybe a little. Anyway, since there's nothing more we should head back. The Emperor wants to speak with me."

"How did you know that?"

"A little birdie told me."

Dream smiled as everyone turned and boarded the ship behind them. 

........

"Dream? You're back..."

After arriving, several class 4's came to greet him. Though all of them were a little suspicious.

"What was that flash? And there was a bit of shaking in the ground."

"Did you see that Dream?"

"Oh, yes I did. It's nothing to worry about though."

"Hmm... The Emperor wants to meet with you actually, so come with me."

"Sure."

Nodding, Dream followed one of the men to the palace. 

After arriving in a hall with a few people in it, the Emperor noticed and beckoned Dream over.

"Dream! Thank you for coming."

"Sure. Now what might the Emperor need from me?"

"Another employment. And gentlemen, if Dream and I could get some privacy..."

The Emperor looked to the other officers in the room, who nodded and left. After they were gone, he continued.

"From the looks of things, the city is recovering well. Construction projects are underway and many people are working."

"Do you want my help with rebuilding?"

"I think we're going to handle that. It's a good way to give work to those who lost their businesses and jobs."

"Ah, good thinking."

"Thanks. But with the most recent intelligence of yours, things may not be as peaceful as we think. We're being threatened again, and I'm sure you know this better than we do."

"I do. In fact, I checked out the approaching armies myself."

"I see. Well, at the very least, we're in a bad position. Bad enough to the point where we're facing annihilation. And if we're going to get past this, we need all the help we can get. This of course includes you. Your ability to face armies is perhaps only rivaled by class 4 mages of the Spire."

"But defending against 20 million demons is something I may not be able to handle, unless of course I receive a huge amount of materials needed to bolster my army."

"And that problem is exactly why we're changing tactics. After discussing with the generals and officers, we've decided to go on the offensive and hit this army before it can approach our kingdom."

"Sounds like a good plan. One that lets you save your citizens."

"Indeed. Though the way we've planned this is not exactly conventional, which is why we want your help in more ways than just immortal soldiers."

"What were you planning?"

"Hit and run tactics using elite class 3's and class 4's. Putting it simply, if we send our army against them head-on then we'll be annihilated. So we've decided to use multiple strikes with only our best. This requires fast transportation and fluid communication, both of which you are capable of providing."

"I see. I have no problem doing that. Though I might have a better way of fighting that army."

"Do tell."

"We blitz the Grand Demons and kill them off. Once all the class 4 threats are gone, my army can go in and wipe them out over time."

"The only problem is finding them."

"Is it impossible to detect them unless they expose themselves?"

"No. They can either expose themselves or one of our own would have to expose themselves and scan the area with their aura."

"So then we do that. We gather a large squad and have one or two scan the area, finding the demons. Once we find most of them, I can identify them and tag them. Then we can go back later and assassinate individual targets, killing them off one by one."

"...But what if they group together?"

"Then we'll have to improvise and do group attacks. The point is having the element of surprise. Plus, with my ships we should be able to escape any time we need to."

"...That's a good plan. I would just need to run it by the others who are participating."

"How many are participating?"

"I've requested a force of at least 35, so most of the class 4's the Empires have. I've also requested more resources as well as more men, amounting to 8 million in total. Though the problem is them getting here fast enough. That amount of people wouldn't be able to get here in only two weeks, so I've made sure that the class 4's at least get here, which they should in only 2 days."

"Alright. Now I actually have contact with those class 4's who went back to their Empires. I can send them messages and a ship to transport everyone here while also giving those participating a bracelet, making things much easier."

"I would appreciate that. And speaking of, I've sent one of those class 4s back with a message to the Mountain who will be handling your transaction. I've told them to add payment for your help making shelter as well as for your two partners for their healing. This is on top of your original payment, of course."

"Thanks. I'll be sure to contact them and collect it."

"Please do. Your help has exceeded our expectations and saved millions of lives. You deserve it. Now, other than that, we just need to wait for everyone to arrive before we begin our missions. Until then, I have nothing for you."

"Then I will probably head back home and continue building and training. If you do need anything, you can always contact me through your bracelet."

"Of course."

"Then I'll take my leave."

Standing and shaking hands, Dream left the palace and met back up with the family. Not long after, they were on a ship headed back home.

..........

Upon arriving home, Dream began giving out various orders for construction.

The first thing he built was plenty of communication bracelets. These would be given to all the class 4's he could give them to.

And the second thing he ordered was for more mining teams to be formed.

Ever since Dream did an upgrade on all his bots, he had been pulling in over 3 times the resources per mining team. Plus, at the time he had also expanded his mining fleet, increasing gathering speed even more. This had allowed him since then to stockpile nearly 10,000 tons of steel and 6000 tons of other materials, and it had only been around a week since then.

But after seeing those enormous armies of 20 million and the demon kingdom, he knew he couldn't be passive in his production anymore. 

The demons were becoming more and more threatening, and he needed more materials for anything he might need. This included expanding his army as well as building more weapons, but it would also allow him to have plenty of building supplies should he need to build anything else, for example, more ships or bracelets.

So Dream ordered the uninhibited construction of mining teams to expand his operations as much as possible. At the same time, the factory was even further expanded to accommodate more resources and processing facilities. Such a huge influx of raw materials needed huge processing abilities to keep up.

At this point, Dream's bots were spread across half the human continent, and all of them were mining at their peak efficiency. His gathering rates were terrifying, but they were about to skyrocket once more.

Other than that, Dream just needed to wait. His bracelets were quickly built the day he ordered them and flown over by some delivery bots to be handed off. After that he was able to quickly coordinate and communicate with every class 4 in every Empire besides the ones that basically hid themselves, and the ones who were going to participate in the strikes coming up were also allowed to board his ships for transportation. 

So while he waited for everything to be set, Dream spent time with the girls and either trained, relaxed, or did some small experiments.

...........

.......

3 days later...

Dream and the Emperor along with 35 other class 4's were gathered within a hall.

"Are we prepared to start?"

The Emperor looked around at everyone. They had discussed the plan in detail and since time was of the essence, they wanted to begin the mission as soon as possible.

All the class 4's around the room nodded. Seeing this, the Emperor stood.

"Then we leave now. Everyone board your ships."

Clattering out of their chairs, everyone left the hall and then the palace. And hovering in the sky were 3 ships, which everyone boarded 12 each.

Once boarded, the ships took off towards the 20 million strong army still marching towards them. It only took a few minutes to arrive.

"My god..."

"They really are massive..."

Everyone gasped a bit after their ship hatches opened, letting them see the chaotic demon army. Though none of them worried about being seen themselves as Dream had enchanted these ships for stealth, which could be easily maintained after cutting the reactor engines and hovering with mana.

"Alright, we have no idea where any of the class 4's are. So we're going to spread groups of you out to scan the areas, just like we planned. Once you find them with your mana, tag them and we'll all be able to see." (Dream)

"Remember to avoid battles, we aren't here to attack right now. Now, the 9 who were chosen, step out and scan."

Nodding, the nine pre-chosen class 4's flew out of the ship and descended. Moments after, their influence and mana swept over the demon hordes.

*Screech!*

*Growl!*

All the millions of demons were disrupted and began screaming at the 9 floating humans. Though none of them dared to do anything as they could sense their power.

"4 Counts...10 Counts...17 Counts...25...29...34...Alright, I'm picking up on 37 demon Counts. Can you verify?"

"That's what I'm seeing."

"I'm also seeing that amount."

"I as we- wait, add one more on the edge over there."

The class 4's outside began rechecking and verifying how many they saw as well as expanding their scan even further just to make sure they caught everyone. And after a few minutes, they had discovered and marked 38 demon Counts. Sophia marked them all visually and kept eyes on them with the drones. Soon, everyone could see targets in their vision.

"A few are attacking."

Since they didn't feel like letting these humans scan them for nothing, a few of the Counts launched ranged attacks at the nine floating humans.

"Get back on the ship. We've got our targets. Time to leave."

After blocking a few strong attacks, the 9 retreated into the ships, which quickly flew away to regain their stealth.

After regrouping and assessing the number, the Emperor nodded.

"Since we have eyes on them, it's time to begin our strikes. We need to cut down their number as much as possible before they get alerted and group up. And once we have more than them, we can attack all together safely. We'll start in an hour."