"Residential District Three..."
Ryen fell silent for a brief moment, rapidly recalling the geographical layout of District Three.
It was a residential sector situated relatively close to the inner wall. During the earlier defensive preparations, Ryen had explicitly flooded the subterranean foundations of that area with magma.
However, a subterranean magma grid was not an absolute, foolproof seal.
Against an ocean of millions of mutants, the horde was bound to eventually trigger a statistical anomaly.
The immediate priority was no longer determining how the zombies had bypassed the liquid fire. The priority was exterminating the breach force and sealing the tunnel permanently.
"I am moving out."
Ei exchanged a brief, understanding glance with the Shogun puppet. Drawing her weapon, she nodded toward Ryen.
Ryen let out a soft sigh, reaching out to pull Ei into a gentle embrace.
"Your safety remains the absolute priority. Do you understand? If you fall, holding this city loses all meaning."
"You are a true shadow warrior. You are the sovereign protector of Inazuma, and a hero of this siege."
"Yet in my eyes, your singular, overriding identity is that of my partner."
"Protect yourself. I believe in your strength, but do not act recklessly."
Ei's violet eyes softened with profound warmth. For the very first time, under the watchful gaze of the entire assembly, she raised her arms and hugged Ryen tightly in return.
Pressing her cheek affectionately against his, Ei lowered her voice into a soft, private murmur.
"When this is all over, I will... give myself to you."
Ryen let out a dry, helpless laugh, gently pulling back to look at her.
"Do not raise such ominous flags right before deploying. It is terrible luck. Go."
"It is merely a breach of one or two thousand mutants. You can handle this effortlessly."
Ei offered him a lingering, devoted look before exchanging a firm nod with Makoto. Unfurling her Elytra, she and the Shogun leaped from the battlements, gliding swiftly toward the interior of the city.
Ryen raised a spotting scope to his eye, tracking the chaos unfolding in Residential District Three.
The zombie incursion was significant, and fresh mutants were continuously pouring from the breach.
Fortunately, given the district's proximity to the wall, a massive contingent of infantry was already stationed nearby.
The moment the mutants erupted from the earth, the ground forces immediately began deploying obsidian blocks to construct a quarantine perimeter.
Simultaneously, the artillery battalions stationed on the inner wall rotated their heavy machine guns inward, blanketing the district in suppression fire.
A destroyed residential block could be rebuilt. Dead soldiers could not.
Despite the heavy initial surge, the mutants found themselves trapped. Pinned down by the relentless crossfire of nearly ten thousand guardsmen on the wall and blocked by the obsidian barricades below, the breach was firmly contained within District Three.
Ryen lowered the spotting scope, his brow furrowing in deep irritation.
"Could you discern their point of entry?"
Zhongli asked the question softly. Ryen shook his head.
"I can only confirm it was a subterranean breach. It is highly likely they are the survivors from the batch that fell into the outer trench earlier."
"I cannot pinpoint the exact coordinates of the tunnel."
Zhongli fell silent, a heavy, somber look crossing his features.
"Nearly twenty thousand mutants tumbled into that specific trench."
"Even factoring in the fall damage and our continuous TNT bombardment, the number of survivors that managed to mine their way into the city cannot be small."
Makoto shook her head, offering a calm, tactical correction.
"You are overlooking a crucial variable. We personally verified the subterranean layout of Redstone Tech City. The magma grid provides total coverage."
"While I do not know the precise mechanics of how they bypassed the molten rock, logic dictates they paved a path with their own corpses."
"Out of twenty thousand zombies, very few could have survived that process. The breach is contained; there is no need for excessive anxiety."
"The true theater of war remains beyond these walls."
Hearing her analysis, the commanders nodded in reluctant agreement.
Makoto's deduction was entirely sound. It was not mere self-deception.
For the mutants to successfully tunnel upward, a vanguard of zombies wearing Fire Protection armor had likely waded into the magma, allowing the horde behind them to literally step over their burning bodies to construct the tunnel.
Furthermore, the interior of the city housed a massive reserve of off-duty soldiers waiting for their shift rotations, ready to deploy at a moment's notice.
District Three was also heavily patrolled by Iron Golems and combat-ready wolf packs.
While the breach presented a tactical pressure point, it was hardly a catastrophic crisis.
With Ei and the Shogun leading the reserve battalions, neutralizing the threat was a certainty.
Ryen raised his scope again, tracking Ei's progress. She had successfully rendezvoused with the ground forces and was actively leading the vanguard into the ruined streets of District Three.
Ryen lowered the scope and handed it to Guizhong.
"Keep a close eye on Ei. If the situation deteriorates, notify me immediately."
Guizhong accepted the brass tube with an amused, affectionate smile.
"You are being far too paranoid. Both Ei and the Shogun possess overwhelming martial prowess, and they are commanding a massive detachment."
"A necessary precaution."
Ryen possessed zero desire to joke. His partner was currently wading through a horde of mutated horrors.
Under these circumstances, his overprotective, fatherly instincts were fully engaged.
The siege had been raging for nearly two hours.
The air within Redstone Tech City was thick with stinging, acrid smoke. The sulfurous stench of gunpowder left many soldiers coughing and rubbing their burning eyes.
Once the war concluded, a significant portion of the army would likely suffer from acute respiratory issues.
Yet within the physics of the block world, such ailments were trivial.
Provided the affliction did not cause instantaneous death, any illness could be cured. They held oceans of milk and mountains of gold in reserve.
At present, there was no ailment a bucket of milk and a Golden Apple could not eradicate.
The internal crisis within the city was stabilizing. Aside from the localized devastation in District Three, the infrastructure remained pristine.
However, the landscape beyond the obsidian walls of Redstone Tech City...
It was a total, apocalyptic wasteland. Not a single square inch of intact terrain remained.
The earth was pulverized. The previously flat plains had been violently excavated into a series of jagged, craters and deep basins.
The sheer, catastrophic devastation wrought by concentrated modern firepower was laid bare for all to witness.
While the commanders had utilized firearms in smaller skirmishes before, they had never witnessed a synchronized, continental-scale artillery bombardment.
Looking down at the apocalyptic killing fields, the leaders felt a profound, chilling awe, followed swiftly by intense exhilaration.
It was no exaggeration to state that if the firearm battalions currently garrisoning Redstone Tech City were deployed across native Teyvat...
Any entity possessing a life force weaker than a sovereign god would be instantly annihilated.
In fact, even a low-tier, lesser deity would likely be vaporized by a few rounds of saturated artillery fire.
In simple terms, relying entirely upon their modern arsenals, the Five-Nation Alliance now possessed the martial supremacy to conquer the entirety of Teyvat.
And if they factored in the high-tier commanders wielding fully enhanced Master Staves...
Aside from the Heavenly Principles, nothing on the continent could pose a genuine threat.
And looking further ahead...
Once Guizhong and the administrators secured Server Administrator authority...
Even the Heavenly Principles would be forced to kneel.
The era of Teyvat harboring genuine existential threats to their alliance was rapidly drawing to a close.
While the heat of battle was hardly the appropriate time for such grandiose reflections, observing the sheer destructive efficiency of their firearms left the commanders feeling a distinct, soaring elation.
"These modern armaments are truly terrifying."
Buer whispered the sentiment softly.
"If we unleashed this exact volume of firepower upon Teyvat, we could shatter the geography of an entire nation."
"For any combatant who has not reached the threshold of divinity, concentrated firearm volleys represent an absolute, insurmountable taboo."
The commanders nodded in deep, solemn agreement.
"You are forgetting the most crucial variable," Jean noted quietly, shaking her head.
"The ballistic force of these weapons will be dramatically amplified once they cross the threshold back into Teyvat..."
"Therefore, maintaining standing firearm battalions will forever remain a cornerstone of our military doctrine."
"A thousand riflemen could pacify a region. A battalion of ten thousand..."
"Unless a mid-tier god personally intervenes, the entire continent would be forced into submission."
"The era of cold steel is truly ending."
Jean possessed a keen, tactical understanding of the terrifying value modern firearms held in their native world.
While the Fatui employed crude elemental muskets, those primitive weapons could not even begin to compare to the automatic rifles and rocket launchers of the MC world.
"I actually harbor some concerns. These weapons represent the absolute pinnacle of technological civilization. They are catalysts for rapid civilizational acceleration..."
Makoto frowned slightly, a shadow of ancient worry crossing her features.
"Ryen once explained the nature of the Imaginary Tree. Civilizations that advance too rapidly draw the destructive gaze of the Honkai."
Before the worry could spread, Ryen waved his hand dismissively.
"You have nothing to fear. These armaments are harvested entirely from the resources of this specific universe. They carry zero karmic connection to Teyvat."
"Simply put, the Honkai has zero jurisdiction over these weapons."
"Furthermore..."
Ryen pointed a finger toward the chaotic killing fields below.
"We are currently fighting a desperate war against mutant zombies. Is this truly the moment for philosophical debates on civilizational collapse?"
Hearing that, Jean and the others offered sheepish, awkward coughs.
"Ryen, Ei has successfully breached Residential District Three. The mutant numbers are rapidly dropping."
"They have located the breach point. It is a massive six-by-three crater."
"Ei is coordinating the engineers to seal the tunnel with molten lava now."
Guizhong waved Ryen over, handing him the spotting scope.
Confirming that Ei was executing the containment protocol flawlessly, Ryen let out a long breath of relief.
"Everything proceeds according to design."
He offered a light chuckle, turning to face the commanders.
"It appears our defensive preparations were exceptionally thorough. If we maintain this current rhythm, surviving the next seven days will not prove overly difficult."
Zhongli shook his head firmly.
"Do not allow complacency to take root. The sheer volume of the horde remains a lethal variable."
"A fair point."
Ryen shrugged easily.
"Popping champagne at halftime is a classic military blunder."
"Champagne? Are we authorized to drink champagne now?!"
Venti, who had been slouched against the parapet in utter boredom, suddenly snapped to attention, his emerald eyes blazing with eager anticipation.
The bard had clearly ignored the entire tactical briefing, tuning in solely upon hearing the word 'champagne.'
Ryen shot him a withering glare, completely ignoring the request.
The city was fighting a war of survival, and this drunken poet wanted to pop a bottle.
The audacity of the wind god was truly boundless.
The pressure against the outer walls remained firmly under control.
When the magma moats were active, the horde was stalled and systematically vaporized by the TNT rain.
When the mutants inevitably plunged into the trenches to tunnel, the engineers sealed the breaches.
Thus far, aside from the minor incursion in District Three, the perimeter remained absolute.
During the windows when the magma flow was deactivated to allow the horde closer, the infantry methodically picked them off with precision rifle fire.
The brutal, grinding warfare continued for nearly four hours.
The total volume of the mutant horde had plummeted below thirty thousand.
That staggering success brought a wave of immense joy to the exhausted defenders.
If they maintained this efficiency, the field would be entirely cleansed before dawn.
They wouldn't even need to deploy the vanguard to sweep the plains.
Perhaps they might actually secure a few hours of sleep tonight.
It was almost too smooth.
Ryen felt a profound sense of satisfaction, yet a cold, sudden prickle of unease crawled up his spine.
This was the seventh Blood Moon. Were the zombies truly identical to the sixth phase, save for their immunity to sunlight?
Frowning deeply, Ryen sensed a fundamental, terrifying flaw in their assumptions.
As the thought crystallized, a piercing, unnaturally resonant shriek erupted from the center of the horde.
The sound sent a violent, icy shudder straight through Ryen's marrow.
Snapping his gaze toward the source of the roar, his eyes locked onto a towering, pitch-black mutant zombie standing far across the plains.
Within the mutant's glowing crimson eyes burned a terrifying, undeniably sapient spark of fury.
It was a zombie possessing true intelligence...
Intelligence?!
Goosebumps exploded across Ryen's arms. He quickly swept his scope across the remaining thirty thousand mutants.
Every single one of them was clad in full, matching sets of enchanted iron armor. There were no longer any poorly equipped stragglers.
More horrifyingly...
More than half of the surviving horde were gripping drawn bows!
Ryen's heart plummeted like a stone. Bypassing all deliberation, his voice roared across the battlements with absolute, desperate authority.
"SHIELDS UP! BRACE FOR IMPACT!"
Fortunately, the disciplined tension of the siege held true.
Whenever Ryen or Zhongli issued a direct command, the troops executed it with zero hesitation.
The deafening roar of gunfire ceased instantly. Across the entire length of the obsidian wall, a solid, unbroken wall of heavy shields locked into place.
Venti and the commanders barely had a second to process the command.
An instant later, the synchronized, deafening snap of fifteen thousand bowstrings echoed across the killing fields.
A localized hurricane of black arrows blotted out the sky, raining death upon Redstone Tech City.