"It seems that the situation recorded by the sages of past generations has appeared once again." Lindsay also felt a certain complex emotion; he truly was the heir of history but didn't expect to witness such drastic changes firsthand now.
"Is it the doing of the Silver Wings or the chanical Council's cluster..." Tilan closed her eyes and pondered.
"We can only send soone over to check." She wondered whether to go herself or send Loloria.
But soon, soone made the decision for her.
A mber hurriedly ran into the hall and reported to Hexia, who hadn't left yet.
"Your Highness, we have received a telegram from the Southern jungle expedition team—" He was gasping for breath and seed very anxious.
"They discovered a large migratory chanical cluster passing through the Land of Fallen Stars and heading north."
"North, which ans according to their route, once they pass through the jungle area, they can reach the southern grasslands." Tilan knew the terrain distribution of the surrounding areas.
"Yes, Your Highness." Seeing that Hexia understood the urgency and importance of the report, he was especially excited.
"I understand. Are there any other detailed ssages?" Tilan then asked a few more questions, but the telegram conveyed limited information, providing no more intelligence.
"First the Southern Continent, and now the southern chanical cluster." Tilan rubbed her temples, feeling that things suddenly beca complicated.
She could guarantee the survival of herself and a few others from large-scale attacks, but now the Chasing Star Covenant had tens of thousands of mbers, and if you added the various species settlents on the grasslands, it would be hundreds of thousands, close to a million people.
They couldn't just abandon everyone and save themselves.
It seed she had to personally go and see the situation this ti.
The young girl stood up from her seat and began to thodically arrange various affairs and prepare contingency plans for any sudden situations, ensuring all parts were ready.
"Spring plowing cannot be abandoned, otherwise even if the enemy does not co, hunger will cause a large number of deaths."
"As for the war..." Tilan thought for a mont.
"Get the newly built weapons factory up and running at full capacity and try to produce as many weapons as possible. We might need to unite with more forces to deal with this upheaval." She thought of other forces on this continent, such as the Fede Alliance to the north and the ancient forces further east.
After setting everything in order, she inford Ores to prevent them from worrying, and then she and Loloria set out, flying towards the Southern jungle.
After a year and a half, Tilan returned here, recalling the ti she supported the frail Ores through this rainforest, avoiding various insects, a scene she still rembered vividly.
There wasn't much change here; her eyes scanned the dense trees and vegetation below, occasionally catching sight of so insects and reptiles moving in the shade and muddy water.
Continuing forward, after flying over the verdant jungle area, there was the desolate land of fallen stars, where many craters of varying sizes dotted the blackened, vegetation-less ground.
The geomagnetic environnt here was peculiar; if a teorite ca from the sky, it would easily deviate to fall here, and over ti, the teorite-bombarded surface no longer supported any vegetation, creating a barren and open landscape.
Upon arriving here, she and Loloria imdiately stopped their movents and hovered far above because, in their view, the ground below was crawling with advancing chanical clusters. They were made of dark gray alloy, with forms resembling mantises, beetles, centipedes, and stink bugs. These clusters were gathering as if summoned by a command, constantly converging and drawing out long lines across the land, making a slow progression, akin to layers of iron-gray waves.
Such a majestic scene amazed the spectators; this was perhaps the first ti in nearly a century that the chanical cluster acted on this scale, not wandering aimlessly as in the past but with a distinct plan.
An unplanned, chaotic chanical cluster already represented a natural disaster, leading many species to extinction. If allowed to gather, there would be little power on this land to confront them.
Seeing this, Tilan shook her head; even she wasn't sure she could completely clear out this massive number of chanical Autonomous Units, their numbers overwheld the horizon, almost appearing endless.
"Can Loloria try to communicate with them?" she asked the girl beside her.
"No, I've tried many tis, but their friend-or-foe recognition key has long changed, and they don't accept overwriting changes." Loloria's voice was sowhat dispirited, feeling perhaps too useless.
"I'm also a chanical Body, an Artificial Angel at that, surely I should be better than these fools."
"Give so manpower, Tilan, and I can start building my own autonomous unit factory to mass-produce war machines to combat them." Loloria proposed proactively.
"I'll do my best." Tilan and Loloria increased their altitude again, avoiding the surveillance of the chanical cluster below as they flew over them.
Through the clouds, she watched the layer of soil beneath being plowed, trees collapsing, turf overturned, and various hiding small animals exposed, processed by the chanical bodies.
If left unchecked, life on this land would be wiped out long before any so-called restraint force could intervene.
As the two continued flying southward, they increased their speed and eventually reached the southern coast of the continent an hour later.
On the distant sea horizon, storms gathered, dark clouds billowed, and lightning flashed intermittently within the clouds. By the light of the lightning, Tilan also saw the outline of a giant skyship floating within the clouds.
"So they're using natural lightning to recharge?" She realized why these large floating battleships weren't seen on land — likely because land had scarce lightning, unsuitable for energy replenishnt, so these floating battleships usually hovered above the sea.
The two hovered in the air, quietly observing the giant crab-like mother ship erging from the cloud sea, at which point the floating mother ship amidst the sea and lightning flux detected sothing, firing a bright crimson particle stream that pierced through the atmosphere and enveloped the two's location.
Seconds later, the dazzling particle stream dissipated, Tilan remained unscathed, but her body's surface shimred with light points.
She and Loloria separated, rapidly maneuvering through the sky, and shortly after, another particle stream pierced the atmosphere, striking Loloria's forr location.
"Ya—" Within the particle stream, Loloria's pupils shifted from erald to red, her chanical wings on her back shielding her front, resisting the continuous bombardnt of high-energy particles.
In just a few seconds, the chanical wings made of special alloy lted and sublid. Fortunately, the few seconds gained allowed Loloria to escape the bombardnt range of the particle flow.
"What power," Loloria remarked, dodging while marveling, though it was dangerous earlier, but now she was accelerating, and the particle beams found it increasingly difficult to hit her.
Minutes later, she even deciphered the opponent's fire control system's logical flaws, effortlessly floating mid-air, rely needing to twist her body every few seconds to evade the particle streams passing her flank.
"You can't hit like this, after all, I am your senior." She even found spare monts to wave and greet the distant floating mother ship.
After so teasing, Loloria retreated as per Tilan's order, not prolonging her proximity to the floating mother ship.
"Let's head back; we need to devise a mature plan." Close combat would be much more dangerous, especially given the mother ship's surrounding drones were not re decorations.
"Alright, Tilan," a slightly unsatisfied Loloria responded, but obediently quickly disengaged from the battle, gradually evading the pursuit scans of the chanical bodies behind.
"My equipnt is far more advanced than yours, not seeing is only natural."
Circling in the sky a few tis to collect data, Loloria and Tilan headed back north.
Reflecting on the situation observed along the way, Tilan faintly felt that this planet's millennia-long cycle ga might not end as smoothly as it usually did this ti.
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