landbeastnovel Chapter 667 One Night Millions Massacre - Final
Chapter 667 One Night Millions Massacre - Final
The news of an army of one million soldiers being destroyed overnight became a global sensation in just half a day. War reporters stationed near the Qing Empire border recorded many harrowing scenes, and now, every channel that received the story was broadcasting it worldwide.
On screen, a fiery apocalypse unfolded in the distance. Flames rose high into the sky, and the horizon echoed with the relentless sounds of explosions. The footage showed fiery bombs raining down from orbit, obliterating the army below.
The super-heated impacts and detonations generated temperatures so intense that soldiers within the affected area were vaporized instantly, leaving behind nothing but green, glassy craters where the ground had been scorched to molten smoothness.
Each fiery detonation illuminated the night sky with white-hot flashes, as bright as daylight. The chilling screams of the soldiers echoed briefly before being silenced by the deafening blasts, painting a grim picture of utter devastation. To the audience, it was nothing less than a massacre.
The orbital bombardment lasted only ten minutes, yet in that brief time, all life, tanks, ammunition, weapons, and military equipment in the area were annihilated. What remained were vaporized, carbonized, or reduced to molten metal.
At dawn, once the reporter confirmed the bombardment had ceased, they ventured closer to document the aftermath. The scene they encountered was no less than hell on earth.
A long trail of glassed craters stretched endlessly, scattered with carbonized remains and melted iron slag. It was impossible to discern whether the twisted scraps had once been tanks or other military hardware. The sight of the carbonized soldiers left the reporters deeply shaken.
Some inexperienced reporters couldn't handle the horror and immediately turned aside to vomit at the gruesome scene.
As the investigation continued over the following days, reporters uncovered stragglers and deserters hiding among the local population in North Korean territory. Some had fled into the forests, terrified of being re-conscripted by the Qing Empire to fight against New Atlantis.
Within the dilapidated shack nestled deep in the forest, the reporters conducted an interview with one of the deserters. This group of soldiers had fled together and now survived by scavenging old wood for fire and sustaining themselves through foraging and hunting game.
The face of the leader, along with those of the other deserters moving about in the background performing their respective duties, was blurred for their personal safety.
The interview began. The reporter asked in English, and a translator relayed the question in the Qing language:
"What happened that night? Can you tell us?"
The heart-wrenching and despair-inducing testimonies of surviving soldiers became invaluable material for the reporters. These stories, laden with pain and hopelessness, were the perfect ammunition to create a sensation.
With these materials in hand, the reporters wasted no time. They sent their recordings back to their home countries and began broadcasting the harrowing accounts of the defeated soldiers.
Scenes of despair and devastation spread across nations worldwide, shattering the grip of the Hightower mind-suggestion spell over those less affected. The primal survival instinct within all living beings did its job, compelling them to pull back from this catastrophic folly.
In just half a day, allied nations contacted New Atlantis' foreign affairs office to negotiate war reparations and eagerly declared themselves neutral.
These countries scrambled to secure deals that would cause the least damage to their political careers. They understood that the fallout from this debacle would inevitably land on their shoulders.
Even though they and their citizens had been influenced by magic to participate in this reckless war, someone had to take the blame. Even is it's a scapegoat... there's need to be one... to take the fall accountability was inevitable. This... is how the world works.
But... that's not going to happen. Daniel had clearly stated in his announcement that he would wait until tomorrow midnight to declare the ultimatum. That deadline has long since passed.
— Elpis - Foreign Affairs Building —
Within the Foreign Affairs Office, Russo Veneziale was managing a meeting with a representative from Country A, one of the allied nations. This representative had called in a favor from the Stenmark family to gain access to Elpis, hoping to personally appeal to Daniel.
In the guest room, Old Man Stenmark was enjoying himself, savoring an aged whiskey, while leaving the representative from Country A to fend for himself. Ragnar had done his part; whether or not Country A managed to close the deal was no longer his business.
"Yes, sir, I understand that you're in a bind and that your people forced you into this war. But are we really supposed to believe that as a representative of one of Country A's mage family, you didn't even have a way to protect your citizens from the spell's effects?" Russo asked with a polite smile.
It was a smile so courteous it pricked at the listener's conscience coupling with a sharp edge behind the polite words Russo had spoken.
Hearing the words spoken by this glasses-wearing, butler-like young man, the representative wanted to scream that they hadn't bothered with protective measures because they believed the cost was too steep to prepare a protection ritual for an entire country!
But how could they have possibly f*cking known that New Atlantis possessed the means to vaporize a million-strong army... a f*cking modern-day army!!! in a single night!? If they had known, they would have done everything in their power to shield their citizens from the spell!