399 Is It Over?

The 155 mm rail gun shell traveled over hundreds of kilometers roaring like some avenging god. The passage of the shell shattered roofs and caused panic to all lives. Hundreds of feathered wyverns died beneath the shockwave and overpressure caused by the displacement of air by the hypersonic shell while animals, creatures and elves both weak and old suffered from burst eardrums or damaged internal organs.

Those unfortunate died as their hearts seized up or had ruptured organs as the super boom from the hypersonic shell slammed into them. To those without warning, all they knew was a mightly echoing roar that felt like the end of the world.

The armor piercing discarding sabot slammed at a slight downward angle right on the right golden chest of the newly born God Emperor as he hovered in the air unmoving. The light weight ballistic cap was crushed on impact and the penetrating cap then struck against the golden skin.

The shock of the impact was distributed across the whole surface of the core's nose, reducing the initial shock experienced by the core. The steel sheath surrounding the core then peeled away, and the core went on to penetrate the golden skin, punching through the golden skin and muscles of the newly reborn God Emperor.

The frangible high density alloy of the core fragmented into many high-velocity pieces, shattering the right collarbone and severing nerves and piercing through the infraspinatus muscles before exiting.

But all that doesn't matter anymore as a split second later, all the kinetic energy of the sabot was all dumped into an area no larger than a dinner plate and everything vaporized instantly. The force tossed the remains of the God Emperor into the sloping cracked cobbled path of the castle and created a massive crater that shook the entire cliff before the cliff shattered and crumbled down together with the castle into the sea.

-----

The transcendental eye floating in the skies flickered briefly before vanishing from view. A hush descended upon the city as the roar of the hypersonic shell echoed away. What remained over the city was smoke and dust thrown up by the passage of the rail gun shell.

The city's buildings directly underneath the passage of the rail gun shell laid broken and shattered. Slowly people emerged out from the ruins as they stared up to the skies and the destruction around them.

The Marines picked themselves off the ditches and declines where they had taken cover, most of them suffered some form of ear damage but other than that, most of them survived without any other serious injuries.

They stood around looking at the ruined city while those civilians who escaped with them cried and screamed for help. The medics quickly provided aid to those who needed it, but mostly it was the children who were badly frightened and injured.

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Joseph pinched his nose and blew hard with his nose. His ears popped and he shook his head to clear it the ringing tone. He quickly picked himself up from the ground and started yelling orders at anyone who can still hear. "Start moving the wounded to the side! Those still can fight to gather up! I want a team into the city to see if we killed that thing!"

The Officers and NCOs started rounding up the scattered Marines and putting them to work. Imperials soldiers and civilians were shepherded to one area while the wounded went to another. Medics and Imperial healers quickly went to work on the wounded.

Tyrier rubbed his chest as the overpressure from the rail gun shell had made him feel like he was hit by a truck, several times. He coughed and gestured to his team to gather. "Alright, we are going back in to determine the status of the Imperial Emperor!"

"Man, can we take a break?" Hitsu whined. "I feel like shit! Like a damn muffalo sat on me and farted in my face!"

"We all feel the same..." Young said as he finished his healing spell on Wolf whose nose had a trail of blood leaking out. "Stop whining!"

Tyrier shot a warning look at Hitsu who smartly kept his mouth shut and quickly checked his weapon. "Alright, gear up and let's go!"

They reentered the city with a small Battalion of Marines as an escort. The city was filled with smoke as shell shocked people covered in grey dust wandered the streets in confusion. Everything seemed to be painted grey as the Marines and Claymore One navigated the debris covered streets towards the castle.

They directed everyone towards the gates, telling them that there were healers and aid. Some of the people that retained some form of sense, nodded dumbly and stumbled their way there. Others remained confused as ignore the words of the Marines, sitting or lying down on the streets.

The UN troops made good time as there was no one stopping them this time. They reached the last bastion of defense and to their surprise, they found the castle gone, together with half the cliff hill.

"Ah... Fark..." Tyrier cursed as he stared at the rubble. "How the hell are we going to clear this shit..."

-----

2nd Imperial Army, Center of the Front

"Lord General!" A messenger rushed into the tent panting. "I... I bear... grave tidings!"

The Commander of the 2nd Imperial Army looked up from the map on the table and frowned. He gestured to his aide to take the message scroll from the messenger. "What grave news?"

"T- The City of Silverton... h- has fallen!" The messenger gasped. "The Emperor... he..."

"How about the Emperor?" The General's face turned pale. "What happened?"

"The Emperor is missing!" The messenger reported. "The city has fallen to the rebel's Barbarians!"

"How is that possible?" The General hammered the table. "How did they slip past our troops? How come no one saw any army?"

The messenger couldn't answer as he did not know either. "The Emperor... he... used some kind of power... and he tried to fight the enemy... but... something struck him down..."

"When was this?" The General asked quickly.

"Three days... ago!" The messenger replied. "I came by the fastest courier dragon..."

"Does the 3rd Army know about this?" The General asked next.

"They should... couriers were sent to them too!" The messenger replied.

The General tapped his fingers on the table before he glanced down at the map. He waved for the messenger to take his leave and stared blankly at the map before he looked up at his aides. "Pass the order. We are pulling back. All forces to march directly to Silverton! We must find out what has happened!"

-----

United Nations, City of Haven, Fortress Singapore, Conference Room

The whole room was filled with all senior officers of all departments both physically and virtually. The atmosphere was jubilant as the officers all had smiles on their faces. Captain Blake tapped a button and the display lit up. "We now had confirmed reports of the 2nd and 3rd Imperial Army falling back from the center of the Northern Front."

The officers burst into cheer from the news. Blake waited for them to quietened down before he said, "But some elements of the 3rd Imperial Army remain at our right flank. We will need to mop them up before they cause trouble in the future."

"I will leave that to you, Colonel Frank," Blake directed his words to the virtual image of Colonel Frank who bobbed his head in acknowledgment.

"Now, we still have yet to retrieve the remains of the Emperor," Blake said. "But we did found something in the collapsed cliffs..."

Magister Thorn's virtual image stood up and he gestured to something off screen. The conference room display switched and an image of a broken golden medallion was shown. "The Marines dug around the area for the past few days and this was dug up from the scene where the Emperor disappeared."

"It bears striking resemblance to the other medallion we have in our possession which if you remember, was taken from the Hero we killed," Magister Thorn said. "Now, if you look at the two images..."

The display split into two, showing both the broken pieces of the golden medallion. "We can match them up together and they form into one."

The images interset each other and formed a complete medallion. "If following the example of how the Hero died without his half of the medallion... We can safely conclude that the Emperor, without the medallion, has died too."

This time, the news of the Emperor's high chance of demise was met with louder cheers and even Magister Thorn cracked a smile. "Now, with the Emperor gone," Blake cut through the cheers. "We can take a breather."

"The Empire will most likely collapse into anarchy now that the Emperor is gone," Blake said. "This gives us a breather from all the fighting and for us to build."

The heads of the senior staff all nodded in agreement. "The fastest we predict that the Empire will split up is one year."

"Even so, we should be relatively safe from any more wars for the next five years at least," Blake smiled. "Ladies and gentlemen, I am glad to say... We won!"

-----

United Nations, City of Orwell's Point, Command Center

Titanna watched the men and women in uniform going about their tasks with quiet professionalism and smiled to the soldier beside her. "I really did not expect you all to win against the Emperor!"

Mills rolled his eyes and replied smugly, "Come on, how can a small time Emperor win against us?"

Titanna giggled before she said, "You and your nonsense!"

"Ha!" Mills laughed before he whispered. "Well, now that the Emperor is gone... We are going to have plenty of free time... you and I got more time together!"

Titanna blushed deeply and pushed Mills away, "Behave yourself! You scoundrel! We are not married yet!"

"Haha!" Mills laughed again. "How can you be so old fashioned? Hehehe"

"Enough of your jokes!" Titanna turned away from Mills. "The Emperor might be defeated but we still have enemies at our borders!"

"Oh, you meant this group of troops?" Mills shooked his head in pity. "They are so gonna get crushed when the other Marine Battalions get here..."

-----

City of Silverton

The loud roar of a FB - 1 'Super Mariner' came over the skies. The flying boat did a loop over the city before it aimed its bow at the sea and smoothly cut through the waves and came to a gentle stop at a makeshift pier where three other Super Mariners were tied up.

Major Joseph watched as a troop of Marines hurried down the pier to help tie down the flying boat before he turned to his gathered officers. "Alright, most of our wounded had returned. Now all is left is us."

"The remaining troops are to board the Mariners and head to Orwell's Point," Joseph briefed his officers. "Any remaining equipment or gear will be destroyed. As for food supplies, give it to the people here."

The officers nodded. "But, Sir? Are we not going to find the remains of the Emperor anymore?"

"No," Joseph replied. "No time, since word of the Emperor's defeat has spread out. The 2nd and 3rd Imperial Army is pulling back from the Front and heading this way."

"So, we all done our jobs and a bloody good one too!" Joseph smiled. "So let's go all home!"

-----

United Nations, City of Haven, Fortress Singapore, Captain's Quarters

"Sir," Intel Officer Tavor slid a folder over to Captain Blake who picked it up and read its contents. "I have a bad feeling about this... artifact."

"Why so?" Blake asked as he continued to read the report.

"Dr. Sharon and Magister Thorn have tried many ways to destroy the artifact..." Tavor explained. "But nothing damages it... Hell, we fired our main guns at it and it barely shows any wear and tear..."

"Yet... for some goddamn reason, it broke into two pieces..."