Lord of the Truth

Chapter 1833 Land Cleansing-2 ”Gghh... gghhghh!!”

The Three-Spiked Emperor tilted his head back, his bulging, blood-red eyes trembling as he stared upward at the strange white-haired young man who held his neck as if it were nothing more than a fragile toy. The youthʼs casual, almost playful smile made the whole scene feel unreal-like he was teasing friends rather than crushing a martial emperorʼs throat.

And in an instant, recognition crashed upon him. ”Gghh...!!”

The Emperor hammered desperately at the arm strangling him, his blows wild and frantic. Now, everything made sense-why he had been captured with such insulting ease, why resistance had felt meaningless. At this moment, all he could do was fight against the darkness creeping in, struggling not to let his consciousness slip away forever. ”The White-Haired Demon!!” every officer in the room shouted at once, their bodies jerking in pure terror.

The White-Haired Demon-this was Richard, the nightmare that had emerged abruptly more than thirty years ago, a ghostly figure who had been haunting their sleep since the day he first appeared. With nothing but a harmless-looking smile and a few simple gestures, he would erase entire military fronts or collapse whole cities upon the heads of their inhabitants as if swatting flies.

He constantly preached about avoiding civilian casualties, and he would erupt in fury whenever the Allied Armies attempted to use densely populated cities as shields. Yet at the same time, he had absolutely no hesitation in splitting the earth open and letting it swallow tens of thousands of soldiers alive, drowning them instantly in oceans of molten fire.

Over the past three decades, a new unwritten law had formed across every ground battlefield on the southern strip...

When the White-Haired Demon appears-retreat without question.

Tactics didnʼt matter.

Numbers didnʼt matter.

Strategies, traps, formations-none of it mattered.

Just retreat!!

Anger showed on their faces first, then shock, then a crushing wave of despair, and finally-whoosh!

Without a single shared word or a moment of hesitation, every officer in the room leapt away in a different direction, smashing through walls with their heads and shoulders as if the walls were made of paper. Within a single heartbeat, the entire room was empty, leaving behind only Richard and their leader choking helplessly in his grip. ”They wonʼt get very far,” Richard murmured, still wearing that serene, almost innocent smile.

The Golden Army had already flooded through the cityʼs districts. It was no longer a question of if the city would fall, only when. They would soon finish clearing out the defenders, seize every space portal and all the remaining vehicles, and once those were secured, there would be nowhere left for anyone to escape.

Then-BAM!

With a single stomp, Richard launched himself upward through the opening he had made when entering. In the very next moment, he stood atop the smooth dome of a massive building, his white hair drifting with the wind as he scanned the skies and smoke with that strangely pure smile. At the rate things were progressing, the city would crumble completely within an hour.

As for the remnants of the Allied Army outside the fortress walls-nearly four hundred thousand soldiers?

They were trapped now, compressed between two horrors.

Enemies pressed in front of them.

The towering wall that had once been their fortress now caged them from behind.

And within minutes, the Golden Army inside the city would climb up the inner side of the walls and rain death down on them from above.

They were standing only a handful of minutes away from a massacre of historic proportions. ”Come on,” Richard said as he looked downward, toward the Martial Emperor who hung limply in his grasp, swaying between life and death. ”Iʼve got you. Thereʼs no longer any need to throw your life away. Iʼll bring you to the top of the wall so you can officially announce your surrender, alright? After that, we can use you in a hostage exchange... or maybe sell you back for a single Pearl each. Either way, this is the only chance you still have-donʼt waste it.” .....

The guy nodded-or attempted to-with tremendous difficulty. Despite standing at the very peak of the Martial Emperor realm, he felt like a newborn infant being crushed in the hand of a monstrous gorilla. The sensation was horrifying; he could tell that snapping his neck would require nothing but a passing thought. ”Good!” Richard nodded cheerfully. ”Now I will-”

BOOOOOOO0000000000000M

At that exact moment, a colossal explosion detonated at the front of the city- an eruption so violent that it shattered the massive defensive walls and sent an overwhelming wave of force surging inward. The shockwave ripped through everything in its path, uprooting buildings entirely and flinging their remains like scattered pebbles. ”!!!”

Richard reacted before thought could even form. He raised his arm sharply and swung the captive general in front of him, using the manʼs armored body as a shield to block the incoming storm of dust, rubble, and burning fragments. After the shock passed, he tossed the general aside and shouted, his voice filled with disbelief: ”What is happening?! Who could possibly unleash something like that?!”

Such a monstrous force couldnʼt come from normal ground vehicles or even advanced artillery. The only possibility was something far more extreme. Could Alexander have ordered a bombardment using a mothership above the final battlefield? Had he finally lost all sense and descended into madness?! ”Oh no...”

Richard stepped forward on top of the dome, his eyes drifting as if he were losing focus on reality itself.

The massive battle-the clash between the 400,000 soldiers of the Allied Army and the 120,000 elite forces of the True Beginning Empire-had come to an abrupt, horrifying end.

A vast empty crater now sat where the main battlefield used to be. A hollow space filled with shattered ground, crushed metal, blood, and smoke. A dead zone with no movement, no screams, no flicker of life. That area had unquestionably contained tens of thousands of soldiers from both sides mere moments ago...

Now every single one of them had vanished-erased completely.

The survivors scattered around the edges of the crater had been blasted away like helpless leaves in a violent storm, thrown far beyond the battlefield. Their conditions, their injuries, whether they were even alive-none of it could be known yet.

And standing at the center of it all...

One solitary figure.

His enormous head resembled that of a monstrous bull, with three thick horns protruding sharply like spears. His two glowing red eyes burned so intensely with fury that thick smoke drifted from them in long twisting spirals. ”Brontor!!”

Richard instinctively stepped backward. Marshal Brontor-the terrifying warrior rumored to possess strength equal to half a step into the Guardian realm-had entered a ground battle personally. ”Has he stopped caring about the last scraps of his reputation?! Has he gone completely insane?!”

Whooosh-

At that moment, a Flood Note craft swooped dangerously close to Richard, its engines roaring. A voice screamed from inside: ”You highness! Jump in-now!”

Without a moment of hesitation, Richard cough the defense leader again from his neck. leapt onto the moving craft and braced himself, gripping the metallic frame tightly. The captain instantly diverted full power into the engines, activating every Space Law mode available, and the vehicle shot forward toward the armada at a terrifying, almost blinding speed.

Even as they retreated, Richardʼs eyes never left the devastated city. His expression had changed entirely; the pure, carefree smile he always wore had disappeared, replaced by a trembling mix of fear and deep, painful sorrow. Marshal Brontor scanned the battlefield with murderous rage, his chest heaving like a volcano moments from erupting. He looked ready to unleash another attack-an attack that could wipe out what remained of the region... and perhaps even a second attack after that.

Whoosh- Whoosh-

Several small Flood Note craft raced around him, weaving in frantic circles as they desperately attempted to gather the important commanders before Brontorʼs next strike. But realistically-how many could they save?

One?

Ten?

Maybe twenty at best?

With that monster standing on the ground, the armada in the sky was powerless. Their only theoretical option would be to point their cannons downward and obliterate the entire planet in one devastating strike.

But even that wouldnʼt kill Brontor...

And the result would be the same horrific tragedy, only on a greater scale.

The True Beginning Empireʼs army-both those defending inside the city and those outside on the battlefield-had been completely annihilated.

One hundred and twenty thousand soldiers who had been raised, trained, and armored with extreme care...

Soldiers whose families waited for them in Jura, Nihari, or one of the S-class imperial planets...

Soldiers who represented the next generation of the Empireʼs pride and potential...

All of them were erased from existence in a single, merciless moment.

Minutes later aboard the armadaʼs flagship

BAM!

Richard stormed into the command chamber like a thunderbolt, dragging the captive general behind him. He hurled the general violently onto the steel floor, shattering one of the manʼs horn-like spikes. Then Richardʼs voice exploded in fury that shook the entire room: ”What exactly happened out there?! Who is responsible for this massacre?!”