"Bring the artillery forward," Iron-Scale ordered.

Commander Novus relayed the command. The heavy siege divisions rolled massive, star-iron cannons into position along the wide avenues. The desert warrior mages channeled their flames into the artillery cores, superheating the massive iron projectiles.

"Orikal," Iron-Scale called out. "Crack the gates." 𝘧𝓇𝑒𝑒𝑤ℯ𝑏𝓃𝘰𝑣ℯ𝘭.𝘤ℴ𝘮

The towering Obsidian Golem stepped past the frontline infantry. Orikal possessed the Mythic-tier Centipede Carapace Plating, granting him absolute immunity to structural fracturing. He lowered his massive shoulder and built terrifying momentum.

The ground shook with every step as he charged directly at the primary iron gate.

He collided with the metal. The sheer kinetic impact generated a localized shockwave that shattered the cobblestones within a fifty-foot radius. The protective runes etched into the gate flared violently, desperately trying to disperse the physical trauma.

The artillery fired a second later. A volley of superheated iron cannonballs slammed into the upper parapets of the wall. The combined bombardment of extreme heat and Orikal’s relentless, unyielding kinetic strikes overwhelmed the arcane enchantments.

A massive fissure snapped down the center of the black iron gate. The metal groaned and warped under the pressure. Orikal delivered one final, devastating punch. The heavy iron doors violently tore off their hinges, crashing down into the courtyard beyond.

The Vanguard roared. Novus raised his broadsword, ready to lead the human heavy infantry directly into the meat grinder. They expected thousands of royal guards, heavily armored knights, and the remaining Earthling Heralds to be waiting on the other side of the breach.

Novus charged through the smoke and dust. He abruptly skidded to a halt.

The inner city was completely empty.

Iron-Scale walked through the shattered gates. He looked down the sprawling, opulent boulevards of the royal district. Palatial estates, grand marble fountains, and massive crystal spires lined the streets. The architecture was entirely untouched.

However, there was absolutely no movement. No guards manned the barricades. No citizens cowered in their homes.

The utter lack of sound was deafening.

Up in the orbital sanctuary, Red narrowed his eyes at the holographic projection. He activated his Omniscient Eye trait, pushing his perception to its limit to scan the inner city.

The digital map returned completely blank.

[ ZERO BIOLOGICAL SIGNATURES DETECTED IN SECTOR. ]

[ ZERO SOUL SIGNATURES DETECTED. ]

[ ZERO AMBIENT MANA SOURCES DETECTED. ]

Red leaned forward, his fingers gripping the armrests of his obsidian throne. A city of this scale should hold hundreds of thousands of souls. Even if Voranthar evacuated the civilians, the royal guard and the Heralds needed to defend the palace.

The sheer density of the capital’s population could not simply vanish into thin air.

’Sweep the district,’ Red commanded through the Vanguard network. ’Check the estates. Check the subterranean levels. Find where the King hid his army.’

Down on the surface, Iron-Scale deployed the commanders. Niha took to the skies to run aerial reconnaissance over the spires. Torix and Hawl scoured the deep cellars and subterranean drainage grates.

Novus and the Kingdom Knights violently breached the doors of the massive palatial estates, expecting ambushes hidden in the shadows.

They found nothing but abandoned dining tables, unmade beds, and empty armories. The entire inner ring was a pristine ghost town.

Syra materialized from a shadow next to Iron-Scale in the center of the main boulevard.

"There are no bodies," Syra reported, her draconic eyes scanning the empty streets. "No signs of a forced evacuation. The armories are fully stocked, and the food stores are untouched. It is as if the entire population simply ceased to exist."

Red analyzed the unsettling data from his throne. His gaze drifted past the empty estates, locking onto the massive, towering structure looming at the center of the city. The royal palace of Aethelgard.

Suddenly, a singular, catastrophic energy signature ignited directly beneath the palace.

The bedrock beneath the royal district violently ruptured. The royal palace at the center of the city tore itself free from the earth. Colossal pillars of twisted black stone expanded into massive segmented limbs.

The entire structure rose hundreds of feet into the sky. Balconies and grand parapets shifted to lock into new biological configurations.

Commander Novus gripped his broadsword as the true nature of the architecture revealed itself. The outer walls of the fortress consisted entirely of fused human corpses. Calcified bone formed the primary structural supports.

Thousands of distorted, screaming faces stretched across the mortar. King Voranthar had melted his entire civilian population down to construct a living stronghold

A catastrophic energy signature flared deep within the underbelly of the walking citadel. A colossal biological heart pumped stolen Earthling mana through veins of pulsing black rock.

The palace immediately engaged the Vanguard forces in the streets below. Turrets of sharpened bone extruded from the parapets. Organic cannons unleashed torrents of concentrated arcane fire down upon the invasion force.

"Shields up." Iron-Scale raised his claw to signal the frontline.

The Kingdom Knights locked their star-iron barricades together. Magical bombardment struck their ranks a second later. Concussive blasts cratered the cobblestones and sent dozens of soldiers flying into the ruined estates.

The defensive formation fractured under the overwhelming firepower of the walking city.

Orikal drove his massive obsidian shoulder into the nearest towering pillar of fused bone. The colossal golem’s impact pulverized the structural ribcages and sent bone shards scattering across the ruined plaza.

A torrent of arcane fire immediately swept over the damaged joint to incinerate the surrounding cobblestones. The splintered bone rapidly knitted itself back together to form a thicker layer of calcified armor over the breach.

Iron-Scale watched the biological architecture heal the massive crater in mere seconds. He channeled his emerald core to summon a violent cyclone around his boots, launching himself backward to avoid a sweeping strike from the palace’s articulated limb.

Fortunately, he landed safely next to Commander Novus and pointed a scaled claw at the regenerating citadel.

"The structure feeds on a continuous loop of stolen mana," Iron-Scale assessed over the roar of the artillery. "Striking the exterior yields zero structural damage. We must locate the primary magical conduits."

"Indeed. If we keep attacking it, we will just waste our strength and resources."

Novus gripped his broadsword and scanned the vacant balconies lining the upper tiers of the moving fortress. The human commander wiped a streak of blood from his cheekplate.

"The battlements are completely empty," Novus yelled over the chaotic bombardment. "The royal mages and the elite guard are absent. We are fighting an abandoned shell."

Up in the sanctuary, Red analyzed the cascading data streams flooding his primary monitor. He activated his Omniscient Eye trait to penetrate the multi-layered defensive enchantments woven into the bone palace.

The visual filter stripped away the physical geometry to reveal the underlying arcane circuitry.

The massive biological heart pumping in the underbelly served merely as a localized battery. The true source of the golden magic flowed upward from deep beneath the city’s foundational bedrock. Red traced the glowing energy tethers trailing behind the walking citadel.

The King and the remaining Heralds were entirely absent from the surface. Voranthar had buried his ultimate defense force underground.

’There is something operating this. But... I don’t see any life signatures. It’s like it has become one with the palace itself and now it’s working as a brain.’