Lord: I have built a witch's sanctuary.

Chapter 87 The Will of the Industrial Revolution

Chapter 86 The Will of the Industrial Revolution

By 3 a.m., more than 150 new mechs had been added.

By daybreak, there were over 1,200 units.

Adding to the remaining seventy-odd units, there are now nearly 1,270 silver-gray mechs arrayed outside the city walls.

If it hadn't been built halfway through, the poor mineral deposits at the foot of the mobile city would have been completely mined out.

I'm afraid that with the production capacity of the All-Powerful Mechanical Repair Factory, the number of mechs produced will double.

They stood motionless in the morning light, their metallic surfaces reflecting a cold luster, like a silent steel forest.

Victor peered down from the battlements and swallowed hard.

"My God—"

Lyra stood beside him, her black and gold eyes reflecting the steel array, and said softly, "Uncle Victor, are you scared?"

"What's there to be afraid of?" Victor rubbed his nose. "It just feels so damn reassuring to stand on Young Master Lorraine's side."

Leila smiled, a rare occurrence, but didn't reply.

Lorraine emerged from the fortifications, his face showing obvious fatigue, but his spirits were high. He walked to the city wall, glanced at the size of the mech formation, and said to the air, "Ohm, formation completion?"

"One hundred percent," Ohm's voice came from the turret's loudspeaker, tinged with pride, "One thousand two hundred and seventy fighter soldiers, both Tier 3 and Tier 2, all programmed with autonomous systems, ready to be deployed in battle at any time."

"Damaged aircraft and spare parts?"

"Damaged mechs can be recycled and put back into the production line. In theory, as long as the refining center keeps running, I can keep building them."

Lorraine nodded in satisfaction.

This is the power of industry.

They didn't rely on personal martial prowess or extraordinary talent, but on a continuous supply of production lines and logistical support.

Individual erosion mechs and Ohm-made mechs are almost identical in quality, but Ohm's mechs have unified command, tactical coordination, and continuous replenishment.

Messiah's corruption network is indeed vast, but those corruption mechs are a stockpile—each one destroyed reduces the remaining supply.

Ohm's repair shop produces mechs in incremental increments—building them as they fight.

This is a long time.

"Anna," Lorraine turned to Anna, who was sitting on the battlements eating dry rations, "how's your magic recovery going?"

Anna took a big bite of jerky and mumbled, "Seventy percent done. Give me two more hours and it'll be full."

"That's enough. You don't need to go all out today like you did yesterday. Conserve your stamina. Let Ohm's mechs hold the line. You're only responsible for clearing out the high-tier units that break through the defenses."

Anna chewed on the jerky, thought for a moment, and nodded.

"Alright. Let the canned goods come first."

The morning was peaceful.

Lorraine used this time to have the engineering golems clear away the battlefield debris outside the city walls, sending all the recyclable metal fragments to the refining center for remelting. Waste wasted nothing, making the most of everything.

Victor led several mechs to set up a makeshift roadblock in front of the tunnel entrance—a metal wall made of the remains of the corrosive mechs. He didn't expect it to hold out for long, but it could at least slow down the advance.

Laila sat atop the highest point of the city wall, her eyes closed, the faint light of her black and gold pupils flickering beneath her eyelids.

She is using the power of destiny to perceive future events.

"Noon," Leila said to Lorraine, opening her eyes.

Lorraine glanced at the sky and nodded.

"Same as yesterday."

Just like yesterday, the moment of unexpected change arrived at noon.

But this time, from the moment the red rift tore open the sky, a deafening roar, like the collapse of mountains and the cracking of the earth, came from the depths of the tunnel.

It wasn't three separate channels flowing out.

Instead, all three channels erupted simultaneously.

In the omniscient field of vision, the red dots were so dense that it looked as if the entire screen had been dyed blood red.

Lorraine quickly scanned the number, her pupils contracting slightly.

"ohm."

"I saw it—" Ohm's voice tightened, "Preliminary estimate—over four thousand units. Twice as many as yesterday."

Anna stood up, and the jerky fell from the corner of her mouth.

"double?"

Victor gripped the hilt of the Wolf King Greatsword tightly, his knuckles turning white.

Four thousand erosion machine soldiers.

Even if each one isn't particularly powerful, four thousand of them together would be a metal tsunami. Yesterday, two thousand pushed them to their limit; today, that number has doubled—

"What's the panic?"

Lorraine's voice wasn't loud, but everyone on the city wall heard it clearly.

He walked to the edge of the city wall and looked down at the more than a thousand silver-gray mechs lined up below, ready for battle.

"Yesterday they came in two thousand, and we held them off. Today they came in four thousand—"

'

He raised his hand and snapped his fingers in the direction of the repair shop.

"Ohm, all troops, attack!"

One thousand two hundred and seventy mechs were activated simultaneously.

Pale blue lights lit up simultaneously, and the hydraulic rods of the joints emitted a uniform "click" sound. The steel warrior stepped forward, his metal feet striking the alloy ground with a low rumble.

Ohm's voice rang out simultaneously from the communication modules of every mech, no longer trembling, no longer hesitant, cold as iron.

"All mechs, execute the defense protocol codenamed Iron Curtain." Squadrons 1-60, frontal tunnel, wedge-shaped assault formation. Squadrons 61-120, left flank tunnel, horizontal blocking formation. Squadrons 121-193, right flank tunnel, echeloned depth formation.

Objective: Annihilate all enemy mechanical units.

"start."

Two torrents of steel collided.

At the entrance of the passage, hundreds of silver-gray mechs lined up in a wedge shape and charged into the tide of corrosive mechs. The three heavy-armored mechs at the front, holding alloy shields, smashed open a path. The mechs behind them extended their mechanical arms from the gaps and precisely grabbed the heads of the corrosive mechs, twisting them off in the opposite direction.

The number of Corruption Mechs still far exceeds that of the enemy, but their attacks are completely disorganized.

The Messiah's erosion command is singular—charge. There is no formation, no coordination, no tactics.

Ohm's mechs are the complete opposite. Every three mechs form a minimum combat unit, covering each other, taking turns attacking and defending, immediately surrounding and killing any lone Corruption mechs, and shrinking their formation to form a shield wall when encountering a group charge.

The horizontal blocking formation at the left flank tunnel entrance was even more spectacular.

Hundreds of mechs formed a rectangular formation, blocking the entire passageway shoulder to shoulder.

The erosion mechs crashed in like waves hitting a dam, only to be blocked, pushed back, and strangled.

Every ten seconds, the mechs in the array rotate; those that are damaged retreat to the back row to enter the mechanical repair shop for repairs, while those that are fully repaired take the front row to continue the battle.

The tiered deep formation on the right flank is the most ferocious.

The more than two hundred mechs are divided into five layers, with forty mechs on each layer, like five gates.

The erosion mechs break through the first layer, then there's the second; they break through the second, then there's the third.

By the time they reached the fifth level, exhausted, the mechs on the first level had already repaired and replenished their supplies and resealed the breach.

"Beautiful." Lorraine stood on the city wall, looking at the battlefield where three lines were engaged in battle simultaneously, a slight smile playing on his lips.

Anna stood beside him, arms crossed, her expression somewhat complicated.

"—These tin cans, once the quantity increases, will be more effective than I thought."

"Of course," Ohm's voice came from the turret above, tinged with a rare hint of pride. "I built every single one of them myself, and I wrote the tactical logic myself!"

"Stop showing off," Anna rolled her eyes at the turret, "Your wedge formation has a gap on the left side, and the left arm joint of number seventeen has slipped."

"————Ah!" Ohm immediately adjusted, and a rapid command came from the communication channel. The number 17 mech retreated from the front row, and a spare mech took its place.

Anna snorted and fell silent.

The battle lasted from noon until the afternoon.

The erosion mechs launched wave after wave of attacks, rising and falling like the tide. Ohm's mech phalanx suffered enormous losses, with casualties constantly climbing from ten to twenty, and from twenty to over a hundred.

But the chimneys of the repair shop never stopped.

Every forty seconds, a brand-new mech rolls off the production line and joins the reserve squadron.

The wreckage of the battle-damaged mechs was dragged back to the factory by the engineering golems for dismantling and recycling, and the alloy parts were put back into the furnace.

A perfect war machine cycle.

By the third hour of the war of attrition, the offensive of the corrosive mechs began to wane.

The red lights emerging from the depths of the tunnel became increasingly sparse, and the pace of the charge slowed down from frenzy.

"The data flow is weakening," Ohm reported. "Sister Messiah doesn't have many mechs left to mobilize—at least the existing ones in this area are almost exhausted."

Lorraine breathed a sigh of relief.

"Battle damage statistics".

"Our total combat losses amount to 240 units, all of which are recoverable. We destroyed approximately 3,600 corrosive mechs. Currently, we have over 1,000 mechs remaining, and the repair shop is replenishing them. We expect to be back to full strength in two hours."

Lorraine looked toward the repair shop, where the billowing smoke from the chimneys looked particularly spectacular in the twilight.

"ohm."

"Um?"

"Tonight I'll move the mobile city to a rich mine, and your repair shop won't be short of alloys later."

"Let the machine repair factory work harder tonight; I want to see more mechs tomorrow."

Ohm chuckled softly, "Big brother, don't worry."

"Give me enough alloy, and I can build until Sister Messiah has exhausted all the mechs."

Lorraine looked at Ohm and couldn't help but chuckle.

That's great! In the past, a few would occasionally slip through the walls despite the gunfire, but with so many mechs, not even a mosquito would be allowed in.

Previously, I was worried that not only the two remaining Fimbulwinter warriors were formidable, but their massive monster armies could also overwhelm me with sheer numbers.

Now, when it comes to numbers, who's afraid of whom? With a large army of machine soldiers, maybe we can overwhelm Fimbulwinter with sheer numbers!

He even said that one day he would return to Frostwolf City and face off against the Frostwolf family's knightly forces.

Just when they thought they only had witches and wanted to overwhelm them with a large number of knights, they suddenly pulled out a sizable mechanical army.

Then they overwhelmed their knightly legions.

Trading machinery for human lives, even at a ratio of ten to one in casualties, is worth it above all else.

It's cool to think about.

Lorraine waved to Ohm and left the Universal Repair Factory.

Night fell over the mobile city of Babel.

The deafening roar of machinery gradually subsided, and most of the engineering golems returned to their charging stations to standby. Only the silver-gray mechs on patrol were still pacing back and forth on the city wall, making dull footsteps.

Lorraine was not in a hurry to rest.

After finishing the deployment of the mech defense line, he walked along the city wall to the only Gothic building in the camp.

It was a building whose style was completely different from the surrounding rugged industrial style.

The black basalt is piled up to form a solemn high wall. Instead of sophisticated gears or steam pipes, the wall is engraved with simple and rough sword and shield emblems.

The building's doors were tightly shut, but even through the heavy stone doors, one could feel the oppressive atmosphere emanating from within, a feeling that made one's skin tingle.

Knight's Monastery

This is a training ground that Lorraine spent a huge sum of money to create specifically for Victor.

In this world ruled by witches and moments of calamity, knights are not weak; it's just that their path to advancement is too tightly monopolized by nobles.

Without expensive elixirs to temper the body, and without advanced breathing techniques to guide battle qi, an ordinary person, even if they break their bones, is just a large-sized infantryman.

Lorraine reached out and pushed open the heavy stone door.

"boom--!"

A wave of scorching heat, a mixture of the smells of sweat, blood, and dust, hit me.

Inside the monastery is a huge circular arena.

In the center of the field, a burly figure was moving at high speed.

Victor was shirtless, his once-fine "Winter's Bulwark" armor removed and placed aside, revealing a body covered in crisscrossing old scars.

He wasn't holding the iconic Wolf King Greatsword, but rather a specially made black iron training sword weighing over 100 pounds, which was used in this training ground.

His opponents were three semi-transparent humanoid figures formed from light and shadow.

This is one of the core functions of the monastery: [Projection of Heroes].

These projections felt no pain, were tireless, and each possessed the standard combat strength of a peak second-tier knight. Their moves were exquisite and ruthless, each strike aimed directly at vital points.

"drink!"

Victor roared, and the ground beneath his feet trembled violently.

An earthy yellow halo instantly covered his entire body. It was the earth-type battle qi he had comprehended after advancing to the third rank, which was thick, steady, and seemed to be connected with the earth.

Facing the long sword of light and shadow slashing down from directly in front of him, Victor neither dodged nor avoided it. Instead, he slightly lowered his shoulders and charged forward like a wild, savage bear.

"clang!"

A piercing metallic clang rang out.

The peak second-tier Light and Shadow Knight was actually sent flying by this savage charge. While his body was still in mid-air, Victor swung his sword and scattered it into countless points of light.

But the remaining two light and shadow effects did not stop at all.

The spear on the left stabbed towards Victor's ribs like a venomous snake, while the giant axe on the right whistled as it cleaved towards the back of his neck.

A ruthless glint flashed in Victor's eyes.

Instead of retreating, he advanced, his black iron heavy sword carving a terrifying semi-circle in the air.

A heavy sword has no edge, and a heavy sword has no skill.

The raw power, amplified to its extreme by the enhancement of earth-type battle aura, is undeniable.

The air was torn apart, emitting a mournful wail.

That sweeping strike actually generated a visible shockwave, directly knocking the spear on the left away and slamming it into the waist of the axe-wielding figure on the right with unparalleled momentum.

"Bang"

Another visually stunning spectacle.

Even training projections devoid of any emotion appear incredibly fragile under such absolute and violent crushing.

Victor sheathed his sword and stood still, his chest heaving violently, sweat trickling down his muscles and pooling at his feet.

He was radiating visible heat, looking like a volcano that had just erupted.

"Wonderful."

Lorraine clapped as she emerged from the shadows.

>