Infinite Wealth System: Crazy Tasks, Insane Rewards!-Chapter 223: Real Sovereign War (III)

The sky above Dominion City no longer felt like part of the world.

It hung there, vast and oppressive, layered with alien silhouettes that moved with unsettling coordination, thousands of Sovereign Protocol airships drifting forward in slow, deliberate formation, their surfaces reflecting the burning glow of the city’s defense grids as if the destruction below meant nothing more than background noise to them.

Harper stood unmoving at the command edge of the battlefield, her jaw set, her eyes tracking the enemy’s advance as the mech divisions beneath her adjusted position in disciplined silence. No one spoke unnecessarily. No one joked. The weight of the moment pressed down on every soldier present.

This was the line.

She activated the wide-band channel again, her voice calm but urgent as she connected to the other regional command nodes across Nortasia.

"New Winston, report," she said.

A brief crackle, then a voice came through. "Airships detected. They’re charging straight toward the city. No descent pattern yet."

"Northville," Harper followed immediately.

"They’re coming fast," the reply said. "Altitude steady. Energy signatures climbing. This doesn’t look like reconnaissance."

Harper frowned slightly and moved down the list, calling out to other cities, other regions, other strongholds that had been fortified in anticipation of this very day.

One by one, the responses came in.

"No visual on airships."

"Clear skies so far."

"Nothing above us yet."

Her fingers tightened against the console.

They were choosing their targets.

Major cities. Capitals. Population centers. Symbols of governance and control.

Harper inhaled slowly, then spoke again, her voice firm and unwavering despite the growing tension twisting in her chest.

"Hold your positions," she told them. "Fight smart. Watch each other’s backs. This is not about standing alone. This is about surviving together and taking our triumph where we can."

Acknowledgments rolled in. Determined. Resolved.

She cut the channel and turned back to Dominion City just as the massive airship formation began crossing the outer perimeter.

Beside her, Paula stood rigid, her hands clenched so tightly that her knuckles had gone pale. Her eyes darted between the sky and the tactical displays, anticipation and fear battling openly on her face.

"Stay close," Harper said quietly, placing herself slightly in front of Paula without even thinking about it.

Paula nodded, though her throat felt too tight to speak.

They waited.

The city’s defense systems hummed at full power. Mech units locked into firing stance, pilots waiting for the order that would release everything at once. Everyone expected the same thing.

Descent.

Drop pods.

An overwhelming ground assault.

But it never came.

The Sovereign Protocol airships continued forward, gliding over the city like indifferent gods, passing directly above the mech formations without releasing a single soldier.

For a brief, dangerous second, there was confusion.

Then the first explosive fell.

It was not a missile in the human sense. It did not scream through the air or leave a trail of smoke. It simply dropped, a compact, glowing object that pulsed once before detonating with a force that tore through an entire district in a blinding flash of white.

Buildings vanished.

The ground buckled.

The shockwave slammed into the mech lines, rattling steel and sending alarms screaming across every interface.

"What the hell was that," Paula breathed, horror flooding her voice.

More followed.

Not in clusters. Not randomly. But systematically.

The airships moved in slow arcs across the city, releasing those strange, devastating explosives with cold precision, targeting infrastructure, shelters, energy hubs, evacuation routes. Streets collapsed. Towers folded in on themselves. Fires erupted everywhere.

"They’re not engaging us," Harper said sharply, her eyes wide with realization. "They’re bypassing the army."

"They’re going for the cities," Paula whispered, dread seeping into every word. "They’re going for the people."

The mech pilots watched helplessly as destruction rained down around them, weapons primed for an enemy that refused to meet them on the battlefield they had prepared for.

"What kind of strategy is this," Paula demanded, her voice trembling. "Why won’t they fight us."

Before Harper could answer, Charlotte’s voice cut through the chaos on the private channel, tight and urgent.

"They’re doing the same thing in New Winston and Northville," she said. "No troop deployment. Just bombardment. Cloudbridge City is on fire."

Paula felt her breath hitch painfully.

Cloudbridge.

Jayden’s home.

The realization hit her like a physical blow.

This wasn’t a war.

It was an erasure.

Harper’s mind raced, strategies collapsing one after another as she watched the city burn beneath an enemy that refused to play by any rule she understood.

"How do you counter something that won’t even fight you," she muttered.

Paula’s fear spiraled, doubt clawing at her chest, every nightmare she had tried to suppress coming alive all at once. Had she been wrong. Had her creations never stood a chance at all. Had she doomed them by believing technology could close the gap between humanity and something built to wipe civilizations away.

The explosions continued.

Then, without warning, the sky split again.

But this time, the shapes that tore through the clouds were different.

Sleeker. Faster. Their hulls bore markings unknown to any Nortasian registry, their engines burning with a sharp, brilliant light that cut straight through the gloom.

"What is that," Paula whispered.

The newcomers did not hesitate.

They slammed directly into the Sovereign Protocol formation, unleashing coordinated barrages of energy fire that tore through alien hulls, detonations colliding midair as explosions met explosions, lighting up the sky in a violent storm of fire and debris.

The battlefield changed in seconds.

More of the new airships poured in, darting between enemy vessels with impossible agility, striking weak points with surgical precision. Sovereign Protocol ships began to falter, formations breaking for the first time since their arrival.

Harper stared upward, disbelief giving way to something dangerously close to hope.

"They’re pushing them back," she said softly.

Paula felt tears sting her eyes as a shaky smile broke across her face. "They’re actually pushing them back."

High above the city, at the forefront of the counterattack, two figures stood side by side within the lead command vessel.

A young man grinned as he adjusted the controls, exhilaration flashing in his eyes. "Told you we’d make it in time."

Beside him, a young woman smiled back, calm and focused even as chaos exploded around them. "Let’s not waste the entrance."

Royce and Esta exchanged a brief glance of shared resolve.

Then they dove back into the storm, leading the charge as the skies above Earth finally began to fight back.