The Shining Star Above The Heaven-Chapter 394: The Opening Attack

"Where is the traitor I asked for?" Aldrian’s calm yet authoritative voice resounded, reaching the approaching army.

Aldrian’s calm voice could be heard by everyone in the area, but he focused it toward the distant army.

Baroness Weilmar and her guardian knight hovered far from Aldrian, yet they could still see him. At this moment, their gazes fixed on the four massive flying fortresses and the overwhelming army before them. Their expressions wavered with disbelief. To think that the second prince would go to such lengths—deploying such a force just to capture one person and take this city.

This was beyond excessive. Even a single flying fortress would have been overwhelming, but he had sent four.

The city had yet to fully recover from the traces of the past battle. Many buildings and sections of the city walls remained broken, their repairs still unfinished. The city’s defensive formation had already been destroyed in the previous battle when the second prince’s faction seized control, forcing Baroness Weilmar to retreat to Weilmar City.

Right now, the city had no protective barrier to shield it. If the flying fortresses fired their lightning cannons, the devastation would be unimaginable.

However, Baroness Weilmar noticed that Aldrian did not seem concerned at all. His calm voice resounded with unwavering authority. She did not know who this ’traitor’ was, but it was clear that Aldrian had already sent the second prince his message—now, he was waiting for an answer. He did not care about the massive army sent against him; he only wanted what he demanded.

Her guardian knight looked at Aldrian’s back, which now appeared heroic, and couldn’t help but feel a sense of respect. However, he still thought Aldrian was too arrogant to face such a massive army alone. It was no different from standing against multiple emperor-stage cultivators by himself. Even if his master aided Aldrian, there was little they could do—they could only wait for their inevitable defeat.

Throughout the civil war, the second prince had rarely used flying fortresses. He only deployed them when attempting to breach the capital cities of one grand duchy and two dukedoms, and even then, he had never sent more than two at once.

Now, he wanted to see for himself whether Aldrian was merely an arrogant fool or if he truly possessed the strength to justify his confidence.

When Aldrian’s voice reached the massive army seven kilometers away, they felt their hearts tremble and their eardrums ring. Even Duke Alikin, who was inside the flying fortress, could sense the sheer power behind his voice. However, he merely frowned and sneered.

"Surrender yourself, and we will spare you and this city. Resist, and we will destroy you along with it," Duke Alikin’s voice rang out once more.

Aldrian, ignoring his words, repeated in a calm tone, "Where is the traitor that I asked for?"

A vein bulged on Duke Alikin’s forehead as he realized his words had fallen on deaf ears. His expression turned cold as he glared at Aldrian and replied,

"It seems you have chosen the path of destruction." Then, he turned to the crew behind him.

"Firing the lightning cannon process."

"Firing the lightning cannon process," the crew responded.

Duke Alikin then took out a communication artifact and spoke into it.

"Once the lightning cannon fires and I kill that bastard, you will attack the city immediately. I want you to kill anyone in sight."

Harison, who had been waiting for the signal, heard the command through his own communication artifact.

"Yes, my lord," he answered before letting out a sigh.

"Don’t blame me, I’m just following orders," he thought to himself as he gazed at the city’s scenery. Then, he looked up at the lead flying fortress.

Suddenly, the large white spherical structure embedded at the front of the flying fortress began to crackle with lightning. The sound of thunder followed, and the atmosphere grew heavy. The pressure was so immense that even the army below felt a chill, as if they were standing before an emperor-stage cultivator.

The people inside the city also heard the deafening thunder from the leading flying fortress. Fear gripped them as they scrambled to take cover.

Baroness Weilmar and her guardian knight looked at the terrified people with pity. Their efforts were futile, once the lightning cannon fired, no amount of hiding would save them. The attack would instantly obliterate everything in its path.

For high-level cultivators like her and her guardian knight who were already at the king stage, survival was possible by swiftly taking to the sky.

They returned their focus to Aldrian, who had become the main target of this weapon of mass destruction.

Aldrian continued to watch everything with a calm expression behind his mask. There was no panic, no worry, no trace of fear at all. Instead, he simply found it interesting to finally witness a flying fortress in action firsthand.

He had already read about these war machines, which the empires typically used during wartime. Their numbers were limited due to the difficulty and cost of production and operation. The exact number of flying fortresses each empire possessed was known only to a select few, but many speculated that no empire had more than twenty of them over the years.

These war machines required an enormous number of peak-level energy stones just to remain airborne. And that was only for flight, as for activating their main weapon, the massive spherical structure embedded at the front of the fortress, demanded even more.

That structure served as the flying fortress’s primary offensive weapon, capable of unleashing an attack on par with a mid-stage emperor cultivator. If they completely depleted their energy stone reserves inside the flying fortress, it could even reach the level of a high-stage emperor.

Typically, these war machines were deployed only in the most dire situations, when the imperial family deemed them one of the last resorts alongside their legacy artifacts. That was why he hadn’t seen any flying fortresses during the war between the devils and the Doria Empire, the Doria imperial family had still believed they could handle the crisis without resorting to them.

The appearance of the flying fortresses—four of them, no less—was proof that the second prince was not joking about his sudden appearance and challenge. He had no qualms about destroying the city if necessary, using it as an example to warn others not to meddle in Atria Empire’s affairs.

This was by far the most extravagant show of force Aldrian had ever witnessed, yet he remained calm even as one of the fortresses prepared to fire its main weapon.

The massive spherical structure at the front had finally fully charged, its power now reaching the level of a mid-stage emperor cultivator.

"Fire!" Duke Alikin shouted.

A deafening explosion of thunder erupted across the region, as if doomsday had arrived. Inside the city, people clung to one another, bracing themselves for the inevitable impact.

The massive beam of lightning shot directly toward Aldrian. Baroness Weilmar and her guardian knight had already raised their energy shields to protect themselves and the people nearby. Although their barriers would do nothing to stop the beam itself—well, the attack was clearly aimed at Aldrian anyway—they could at least shield the others from the resulting shockwave and flying debris.

The people who witnessed the incoming attack fell into despair. But just as the beam was about to hit, something opened in front of their city lord. Space itself split apart like a giant maw, revealing a dark void behind it. Before the lightning beam could reach Aldrian, it was swallowed by the spatial rift. A moment later, a thunderous rumbling echoed from another part of the sky above the city.

Everyone watched as another spatial crack appeared in the sky above the city, redirecting the lightning beam upward. The sight left the onlookers wide-eyed in shock—the devastating attack had been effortlessly diverted into the sky through the rift! The only effect that reached the city was the strong gusts of wind generated by the beam’s sheer force.

Baroness Weilmar and her guardian knight stared in disbelief, their eyes wide with astonishment. Aldrian had blocked an attack from a flying fortress with ease—something they had never thought possible!

The massive army was equally stunned. None of them could believe that someone was capable of stopping the lightning beam in such a manner. Harison, who had been on the verge of ordering the attack, found his command stuck in his throat as he witnessed the unbelievable scene unfold.

What kind of person were they facing this time?! Was he a high emperor stage cultivator or even at the peak?! Impossible! Someone of that caliber would already be famous across the continent—high emperor stage cultivators were exceedingly rare. Yet this man was an unknown, and he was still young!

Duke Alikin and the others watching from the control room were equally shocked. The beam of lightning hadn’t even touched Aldrian, instead, it had reappeared elsewhere and was redirected into the sky. Through the control room, he saw the massive pillar of lightning beam split the clouds before finally receding and vanishing. The cannon had completed its firing.

Silence engulfed both the city and the massive army, even after the lightning beam had disappeared. All eyes remained fixed on the sky as the spatial crack slowly closed itself. Then, Aldrian’s voice echoed once more.

"It seems my warning was ignored, and you refuse to hand over the traitor. I see."

With that, he reached into his storage ring and drew out a peak heaven-grade sword. Unsheathing it, he pointed the blade toward the sky.

"Then, as I promised, from this moment forth, I will give the second prince his nightmare."

Suddenly, a pillar of golden light erupted from the sword’s blade, shooting toward the heavens and splitting the clouds apart.