"Prepare to fire!" the artillery commander of the Far East Vanguard Army's Third Regiment shouted loudly to the soldiers behind him while wearing a gas mask.
Immediately, the Far East soldiers, also wearing gas masks, moved skillfully into action. Working in pairs, one soldier calibrated the new weapon known as a mortar before him, while the other carefully removed a silver shell gleaming with cold light from a tightly wrapped canvas bag.
Inside the shell was the iron canister that had previously turned the Middle Eastern positions into hell.
At this moment, the Far Eastern artillery barrels were once again aimed at the distant Hakkar Fortress. Taking advantage of the gap while the soldiers prepared to fire, the artillery commander's adjutant hesitantly approached him.
"Officer Samel, I don't understand. With our weaponry and equipment, taking Hakkar Fortress wouldn't be difficult at all. But do we really need to use such an inhumane weapon?"
In truth, there were quite a few Far Eastern soldiers who shared the adjutant's confusion. Although the combat strength of the Far Eastern armies had always been looked down upon, there was never a shortage of honorable soldiers among them. The weakness of the Far East military stemmed more from the nation's poor resources and backward technology. In fact, the Far Eastern army possessed the strongest fighting spirit in the world.
Other nations mocked the Far East army's backwardness and repeated defeats, but they all overlooked one thing—although the Far Easterners lost more battles than they won, they had never surrendered. Cases where entire Far Eastern armies were annihilated without surrendering were far from rare. Soldiers raised in the bitterly cold climate possessed the toughest resilience.
Although most Far Eastern soldiers did not understand the world war initiated by the Far East this time, as soldiers, they still obeyed orders without hesitation. At the same time, Ebson's early arrangements allowed Louis Arms Company to infiltrate the Far Eastern nations, and all kinds of advanced weapons quickly armed the Far Eastern military, directly multiplying their combat power.
The Far Eastern army had finally gained a chance to prove itself to the world.
But soon, the shells known as "Evolvers" shook the honor of the Far Eastern soldiers. Those cruel and terrifying weapons could temporarily transform humans into hideous and horrifying Blood Titans.
After becoming Blood Titans, these Titans could remain active for one to two hours. During that period, the Blood Titans would frantically slaughter any human they saw nearby. Then, after some time, their bodies would suddenly collapse into pieces.
Titans had always been synonymous with Eldians, and the world viewed Eldians as descendants of demons.
But now, the Far Easterners' weapons were creating demons themselves.
Because of that, many Far Eastern soldiers privately referred to these shells as "The Despair of Demons."
"Krus, you shouldn't question your superior's orders. As soldiers, what we must do is obey commands completely!" Artillery commander Samel harshly rebuked his adjutant. Through the mask, Samel's voice sounded especially muffled.
The adjutant Krus immediately lowered his head.
"Yes, sir. I spoke out of turn."
Though he said that, Samel himself also felt deep contempt toward this utterly dishonorable method. But he was nothing more than a minor artillery commander. What qualifications did he have to question the higher-ups or disobey orders?
Besides, in the eyes of the politicians at the rear, the Far Eastern military was indeed achieving one victory after another, with casualties so low they could almost be ignored. They didn't care about military honor or disgrace.
They only cared about victory.
"Ah... the shame of soldiers," Samel sighed inwardly.
"Fire!!"
Boom! Boom! Boom!
Countless shells carrying death roared into the sky and smashed toward the ancient Hakkar Fortress of the Middle East.
Samel raised his binoculars. After the "Despair of Demons" landed inside the fortress, crimson arcs of electricity soon began flashing everywhere throughout Hakkar Fortress.
Clusters of explosions erupted from time to time within the fortress. Those were probably the desperate counterattacks of the Middle Eastern soldiers who had not been transformed into Blood Titans. No one likely would have imagined that one day, races other than Eldians would experience seeing their own people transformed into savage Titans.
Samel lowered his binoculars.
He didn't want to keep looking at Hakkar Fortress. The crimson electrical arcs inside the fortress made him feel as though countless despairing and agonized screams from the Middle Easterners were echoing in his ears.
The artillery units fired several rounds of "Despair of Demons" according to orders before entering standby mode and waiting quietly.
Soon, several hours passed. There were almost no signs of Middle Eastern resistance left within Hakkar Fortress, and the dark red arcs gradually disappeared as well.
Following orders, the Far Eastern artillery then launched dozens of rounds of ordinary high-explosive shells, nearly washing the entire Hakkar Fortress with bombardment.
Only after that did the Far Eastern infantry begin advancing toward Hakkar Fortress under the cover of dozens of tanks.
The Far Eastern forces entered Hakkar Fortress almost without suffering any attacks, but the hellish scene inside deeply shocked them.
Even the legendary purgatory was probably no worse than this.
The Far Eastern soldiers once again gained a profound understanding of the terror of the "Despair of Demons."
And Hakkar Fortress was not the only target attacked by the Far East.
In truth, the Far East's one hundred thousand troops had split into more than a dozen routes and simultaneously launched attacks across the Middle Eastern border.
The result was easy to imagine.
Within three weeks, all thirty-two fortresses along the Middle Eastern border had fallen. More than a hundred thousand Middle Eastern soldiers were completely wiped out, and the hundreds of thousands of civilians living around the fortresses were nearly exterminated as well.
This horrifying news rapidly swept across the entire world, shocking every nation. The upper ranks of the Middle Eastern Union were thrown into violent turmoil.
More than a hundred thousand soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of civilians.
The Middle Easterners were practically coughing blood in fury. They simply could not bear such devastating losses. Their ambitions toward Marley were completely shattered, and the Middle Eastern Union swiftly began preparing for total war against the Far Eastern nations.
This war was entirely driven by revenge.
The two hundred thousand troops originally stationed at the Marley border were all redeployed, surging toward the Far East like a tidal wave.
However, the Middle Eastern leadership seemed not to have paid attention to the reports lying on their conference tables.
Blood Titans. Steel monsters. Strange green gas. Weapons never seen before.
They paid no attention to any of it.
All they noticed was the annihilation of over a hundred thousand soldiers and the deaths of hundreds of thousands of civilians.
Nothing else mattered anymore.
The Middle East now sought only revenge!
The war between the Far East and the Middle East also provoked different reactions among different nations.
Some countries trembled in fear.
Some remained unconcerned.
Some openly supported the Middle East and condemned the Far East.
Others harbored ulterior motives and greedily eyed the weakened Middle East that had suffered such catastrophe.
...
Meanwhile, the war in the outside world did not affect the development of Paradis Island.
The new military, technology, infrastructure—under the assistance of the nation of Hizuru and other countries drawn into the profits of Iceburst Stone, Paradis Island continued developing in an orderly manner.
And the Eldians were gradually gaining the confidence to step onto the world stage.
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Pls Drop some Power Stones
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