CHAPTER 141: CHAPTER 141 | WITHOUT HESITATION

*Bang! *Bang!

*Vrrrrrrrrr!

The sound was sharp, almost agonizing to the ear—like an endless chorus of glass being splintered apart under the weight of an unseen hammer.

Each crack in the great dome echoed through the battlefield as the shield-piercing artillery roared without pause, hurling shells with a merciless rhythm that felt less like a battle and more like the slow, inevitable crushing of will.

*Bang! *Bang! *Bang! *BOOM!

"FIRE! DESTROY THAT DAMN SHIELD!"

Every blast rippled across the shimmering barrier, jagged lines of strain racing outward like fractures in fragile crystal.

It went on and on.

*BANG! *BANG!

"Keep Firing!"

"It’ll break sooner or later!"

Relentless.

*BOOM!

Unforgiving.

The metallic thunder of the artillery rolled over the field in ceaseless waves, drowning out lesser sounds, leaving only the language of war to speak for them all.

To some, that sound was the drumbeat of their doom—an omen that death was drawing closer with every volley.

To others, it was the sweetest of music, the pounding herald of an approaching victory they had bled and endured for.

*Continuous Distant Explosions!!!

And still, the cannons fired, each detonation shaking the earth beneath the siege lines.

For five long days they had rained destruction upon the barrier, enduring the counterassaults of the defenders who clung desperately to their city.

Wave after wave of enemy soldiers had surged against them, yet the Zerafhon war machine did not falter.

.

.

.

Then, at last, it began—subtle at first—

*crack...!

a single, deep crack blooming at the heart of the shield.

From that wound, the break spread outward in jagged streams, branching and crawling like spiderwebs spun in pure light.

*CRACK!

The siege guns roared again.

One final strike.

*BANG!

One final, bone-shaking bang.

And then it happened.

*CRASH!!!

The shield shattered in a sound that was less an explosion and more the dying breath of something ancient and powerful.

The hum of its energy faded, the air itself seeming to exhale in relief—or resignation.

There it stood.

The city of Ebonhart—

once guarded by the unbreakable—

now lay exposed under the bleak sky, naked and vulnerable, at the mercy of the Zerafhon Empire.

"CHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGE!!!"

The bellow tore from Gaius’s throat like a warhorn blast, his voice booming over the chaos as he stood tall atop the colossal battle ram.

*Grrrrrrrrrrrrrr!!!

The massive siege engine—armored in blackened steel and studded with jagged spikes—rolled forward on wheels the size of houses, its weight alone promising to splinter the gates of Ebonhart into dust.

His cry was the spark that set the battlefield ablaze.

"FORWAAAARD!"

"KILL THEM!"

From every direction, the soldiers of Zerafhon answered with a tidal roar, a single voice born from thousands.

They surged forward.

*rumbling!

The ground quaked beneath the thunder of their boots, each synchronized step pounding like the beat of a war drum.

Armor clashed and clattered with every stride, the metallic chorus mingling with the deep, snarling growls of the war engines that advanced behind them.

The air itself seemed to tremble under the combined force of flesh, steel, and machine.

"Jinn!"

A voice cut through the din, followed by a firm hand clapping against his shoulder.

Without hesitation, Jinn swatted the hand away—not in hostility, but in unspoken focus—and swung his leg over the saddle of an engine-powered war bike.

The machine answered him instantly,

*VRRRRRRRRMMM!!!

roaring to life with a guttural growl that rattled the air.

"Let’s go," he said, voice steady but carrying the unmistakable edge of urgency.

With a twist of his wrist, the bike leapt forward, its wheels tearing across the churned earth.

Mud and dust exploded in his wake as the engine howled, the scent of oil and burning fuel clinging to the wind.

Dreilla—the one who had reached for him—paused just long enough to glance at her outstretched hand.

Then she vaulted onto her own bike, the engine snarling beneath her as she slammed the throttle forward.

"You heard him—let’s go!" she shouted, her voice cutting across the chaos with the sharpness of a commander’s order.

One by one, the other individuals who belonged in the same group as Jinn followed suit, mounting their machines with practiced speed.

*Vrrrrrrrrrrrrm! *Vrrrrrrrrrrrrrm!!!

Engines flared and screamed as they fell into formation behind Jinn, tearing across the battlefield in a spearpoint of roaring steel, keeping pace with the living wave of soldiers surging toward the city gates.

Jinn’s single visible eye narrowed to a razor’s edge, the cold wind slicing against his face as his bike tore across the churned battlefield.

The air was thick with the howl of distant cannons and the deep, earth-shaking thuds of heavy artillery.

*SKREEEEEEEEEEE!!!

*BANG!

A scream of incoming fire split the sky—an unmistakable, shrieking whistle that grew sharper with each passing heartbeat.

Then, like burning meteors, the shells came raining down, trailing ribbons of flame and smoke in their descent towards the army of zerafhon soldiers.

But they would not strike true.

With a mechanical whir and a sudden flare of shimmering light, the mobile eidra-powered shield carriers activated in perfect unison.

Massive hexagonal barriers unfolded from their chassis, snapping into position like the walls of a fortress being conjured from thin air.

*BANG! *BANG! *BANG *BANG!

*whrrrrrrrrr!!!

The incoming bombardment slammed into the barriers in a series of deafening impacts, bursts of fire and smoke exploding harmlessly against the glowing surfaces.

The shields rippled under the assault, their pale light shivering with each hit, but they held—

at least for now.

"They won’t last long!" a soldier barked over the roar of engines, his voice almost lost in the chaos.

"Shit! The shields aren’t gonna hold up at this rate before we reach the gates!" another shouted,

*skreeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee—

*BANG!

ducking instinctively as a nearby barrier shuddered under a direct hit.

"Kurghk! Just keep running, man!" came the gritted reply from another trooper, his jaw tight with desperation.

But then—movement.

Out of the corner of their eyes, several soldiers caught sight of a dark blur weaving through the dust and fire.

"Look! It’s them!" one soldier cried, arm shooting out to point.

"It’s Dreilla’s squad!" another shouted, his tone a mix of relief and awe.

*vrrrrrrrrrrm!!!

Jinn’s bike roared past them in a streak of speed, the blackened metal of its frame reflecting the firelight as it surged ahead.

Dreilla flanked him on the right, her eyes locked forward in steely determination.

Behind them, the rest of their squad rode in tight formation, their bikes darting between the trudging infantry like swift predators slicing through a herd.

*VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM!!!

Their engines screamed as they overtook the frontline soldiers, leaving only the churned dirt and the acrid scent of burning fuel in their wake.

Every second they closed the distance to the gate, the air grew heavier with the promise of imminent violence.

Yet their presence on the battlefield could not remain hidden for long.

The enemy’s watchful eyes, honed by days of unrelenting siege, caught the swift-moving shapes slicing through the chaos.

*VWOOOOOOOOOOOM!!!

A harsh, ear-splitting alarm blared across the war-torn plain—a metallic wail that echoed between the battered city walls and the sky above, vibrating through the chest of every soldier present.

At once, the towering siege cannons mounted before the city’s gates began to shift with deliberate menace, their enormous barrels creaking as they rotated away from the main army and locked directly onto Jinn’s squad.

The mechanical groan of their movement was accompanied by the faint, rising hum of power building within—

*whirrrrrr...!

light began to swell from deep inside each barrel, glowing brighter and brighter until it seemed ready to burn holes in the air itself.

Jinn’s gaze flicked toward them briefly, his sharp eye taking in not only the priming weapons but also the mass of movement behind them.

There, stationed like a living wall, was the city’s final line of defense—the enemy’s main force, tightly packed together, weapons at the ready, their formation braced for what was surely their last stand.

The air itself felt thick around them, heavy with desperation and defiance.

Without hesitation, Jinn twisted the throttle of his engine,

*vrrrrrrrrm!!!

his fingers tightening until the leather of his gloves creaked.

The bike answered with a thunderous roar, its frame rattling as it leapt forward with newfound speed, kicking up a wake of dirt and smoke in his trail.

His acceleration was so fierce that he instantly began to pull ahead, surging past Dreilla and leaving the rest of his squad struggling to keep pace.

"Jinn! Wait for us!" Dreilla’s voice cut through the wind, sharp with alarm.

"You can’t handle them all alone!"

But the rushing air swallowed her words, and even if they had reached him fully, Jinn gave no sign of acknowledgment.

His focus was absolute—his gaze locked on the gate, his mind set on breaking through.

Instead of slowing, he pushed the bike harder,

*VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRM!!!

the engine’s roar climbing into a feral snarl as it devoured the ground between him and the looming cannons.

"Tch!" Dreilla hissed between clenched teeth, yanking her handlebars and gunning her own bike forward, the machine leaping in response as she tried to close the widening gap.

"What is that idiot doing!?" Zhyn’s voice rang out over the comms, laced with panic and fury.

"He’s gonna get us killed!" His own bike surged as he twisted the throttle to the limit, the vibration running up through his arms.

"DAMMIT!" came another voice, raw and guttural—Gerahl.

The dark-haired eidric’s eyes narrowed, the insignia of House Nythrael gleaming faintly on his armor, marking him as kin to Troy himself.

Sparks of shadowed energy began to dance between his hands, twisting and writhing like living tendrils of night.

With a sharp thrust of his palm, Gerahl hurled a beam forward, cutting through the dust and chaos like a lance of darkness.

It struck Jinn squarely, but rather than harm him, it sank into his form like liquid flame, dissolving into his flesh and blood.

Jinn’s breath caught for a single moment—then came the surge.

His body thrummed with renewed vitality, every muscle coiling with explosive power.

His eidra flared violently inside him, rushing like a roaring current through every vein, every nerve, flooding his limbs with unrelenting strength and urging him to unleash it.

His heart pounded like a war drum, each beat stronger than the last, and the world around him seemed to sharpen into crystalline clarity.

He was closing the gap now—

every second bringing him deeper into the shadow of the towering gates.

The ground trembled beneath the pounding of the enemy’s boots, the air thick with shouts, the metallic tang of blood, and the acrid bite of burning oil.

Jinn’s grip tightened until his knuckles whitened beneath his gloves.

He twisted the throttle one final time,

*VRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR *click! *crack! *VRRRRRR!!!

wrenching every last ounce of speed from the machine.

The bike responded with a feral roar, its engine screaming in protest, every click and shudder from the overworked pistons echoing like a death rattle.

The vibration beneath him was so violent he could feel it rattling through his bones, but he didn’t relent—

not when the gates loomed so close.

"SHOOT HIM! SHOOT!" came the frantic cries from the defenders ahead.

The words were raw with panic, nearly swallowed by the chaos of the battlefield, but they reached his ears all the same.

He could see the glint of their weapons now, the jerking motions of men taking aim, their faces pale under the glow of the charging cannons.

Jinn’s breath steadied into a slow, deliberate exhale.

"Hup!"

In one smooth, explosive motion, he planted a boot against the seat, pushing off with a burst of force that cracked the air.

The bike roared on without him as his body rose higher and higher, propelled by his own strength.

For a fleeting heartbeat, he was above it all—above the choking dust, above the screaming soldiers, framed against the smoke-streaked sky like a black silhouette against a dying sun.

Dozens of faces turned upward to meet him.

What they saw was not a boy, but the shape of their own death hurtling toward them.

"Die."

The word was spoken not as a shout, but as a quiet decree—

a sentence passed down from something that had already decided their fate.

With a swift motion, Fangeryth was drawn, the blade singing as it left the sheath.

*ROAR!!!

Eidra surged violently through him, condensing into a single, monstrous wave that burst from the blade with a roar like a raging tempest.

The air itself seemed to tear asunder as the wave slammed downward into the tightly packed ranks, cleaving through shields, flesh, and armor as if they were no more than reeds before a storm.

A hundred men—or more—were split apart in a single, merciless stroke.

Their cries were drowned in the deafening rush of power, bodies collapsing into the mud with wet, final thuds.

And then, with a violent crash, his abandoned bike slammed into the flank of the formation, the force of impact followed instantly by an eruption of fire and shrapnel.

The blast tore through the air, flinging men aside in burning arcs, the smoke curling upward in choking plumes.

When the haze began to clear, he was there—standing alone amidst the carnage.

The bodies of the fallen lay around him in a ragged ring, and the surviving soldiers had pulled back in instinctive fear, weapons shaking in their hands.

"T-This can’t be!"

"Monster..."

Fangeryth hung loosely at his side, its edge dripping scarlet, before he gave it a sharp flick.

Crimson energy crackled along the blade’s surface, like a living thing eager to strike again.

Jinn’s eyes, hard and unyielding, swept over the sea of enemies still blocking his way.

His voice was low, but it carried, the promise in it unmistakable.

"Now... time to destroy the cannons."