Steel steam and flame

Mud and gravel are mixed directly in rainwater and washed away along underground sewers. It's already murky, so adding some color won't attract attention at all. The rocks and stones were moved out and piled up in a cavity that had been dug beside the shaft. There is a lot of rainwater there, but under the physical strength of the operator who can't breathe for a long time, whether the rainwater accumulates is not that important.

The teams that took turns continued to dig deeper into the shaft hole. Half an hour later, with the sound of raging rainwater, the shaft hole seemed to have reached their destination. The other members who were taking turns to rest dived into the rainwater and dived down towards the bottom of the shaft.

It only took a minute or two for me to quietly return to this undiscovered and unnoticed underground waterway. In the light of a few lime lamps that had not been extinguished, the color of the turbid rain became darker and darker. Gray-black pollution gushes out from the bottom of this shaft, infecting the rainwater with its color.

The pollution that emerged was a bit strange. The concentration and quantity did not reach the theoretical limit. It only caused a small area to be covered with a thin layer of mold-like substance.

The place with the permeating pollution continued to be quiet and unknown, and the sound of the rain covered up all the abnormalities here.

At the same time, in other parts of the city, roughly the same teams and shafts with roughly the same structure existed. Most of them have fallen into silence, and the remaining small parts are progressing to the point where they are about to reach their destination.

On the ground, the heavy rain covered the sky like rain clouds, covering everything under the ground. The emergence of entrances and exits to the underground world around the city distracted the attention of a large number of defense forces. The intervals between patrols during the day became longer and the level of carefulness also decreased.

Perhaps the things under the heavy rain became moldy. Even though they were full of differences before, now they all have the same damp look, covering up all the abnormal features.

Time began to take this city with it, irreversibly passing by.

Three nights later, the still-moving clock on a certain building emitted a lonely chime of eight o'clock in the evening. It no longer spread to any place. Around the building, all the bells were ruthlessly knocked to the ground by the heavy rain and flowed into the underground sewers.

In the turbid rain, the large and small shafts and potholes scattered all over the city, after three days of silence, seemed to be awakened by the sound of silent bells. The color of the rain is getting darker and darker, and it keeps pouring. The lime lamp had been extinguished long ago. Under the light that the dim street lamp finally got in, one after another humanoid infected bodies emerged from the potholes.

They have roughly the same body shape, and the surgical development projects they reveal are almost identical, with no obvious differences. Perhaps their operations were performed by the same person, and the materials and medicines used were all mass-produced goods on the assembly line, otherwise they wouldn't have so many similarities.

The breath of reason can no longer be seen in them, and the gaze revealed in those bright eyes is also gray. The world under the heavy rain must have lost all color in their eyes.

I don’t know which hole the pitiful roar came from, but the first roar did become a signal. When this sound broke through the blockade of the heavy rain and floated over the city, a large amount of gray-black pollution poured out of the shafts and holes. They are mold-like substances that form like a carpet of fungi and spread across the ground. Moistened by the rain, pure white flowers began to bloom one after another.

Various sirens sounded five or six minutes later, and the airship's various indicator lights flashed in the sky, followed by the roar of the armored vehicle, rolling down streets with few pedestrians. Gunshots and explosions became the main melody here shortly afterwards. Tracer bullets drew bright ballistic lines in the night, and the blocking battle inside the city officially began.

,,,,,,

Imperial Manoma, the headquarter of the Qiraandi family.

Macquarie was holding a communicator in his hand, asking and receiving information from the southern forest defense wall. Cassia's arrival allowed the pollution purification plan to proceed smoothly, which was one of the things he cared about most. Since then, in daily regular contact, he would understand the changes around the purification plant in order to obtain the latest information.

The explanation on the other side of the defensive wall just ended, the communication was disconnected, and the electronic noise was heard for less than two seconds before another communication was connected.

Macquarie was about to speak, but stopped in time.

"Wait a moment." All the words changed to these two words, the communicator was immediately put down, and the connection was disconnected at the same time.

With anxious footsteps coming from far and near, when he arrived in front of the room, McGregor said just right, "Come in directly." The door opened in response, and it was a member of the intelligence team. His scattered mental perception made him know in advance The identity of the visitor was revealed, "Sir Macquarie, excuse me, there is urgent information that I need you to know."

Seeing the slightly suppressed red face, Macquarie stood up and took the stack of information handed over by the person who came over, "It doesn't look like good news."

"I'm sorry, and I feel regretful." The visitor expressed his apology, because the actual situation was like this. There was no need to rush over here to notify the good news. It was always urgent and bad situations that allowed them to come over and report in person.

"It is a medium-sized city close to the border of the Far Sea Commonwealth. The time of occurrence is estimated to have started around 8 to 9 o'clock last night." Seeing that Macquarie was already flipping through the information, the visitor took a deep breath and introduced. Information not found in the document is, "There are signs of interference in communications, because other nearby cities received rescue signals at 12 o'clock in the evening, which should not be so late."

"The information for help is also incomplete. In the absence of information, the reinforcements dispatched are completely insufficient and ineffective. They only have the effect of a reconnaissance team. After that, when the real rescue team sets off from various surrounding cities and rushes to this place By the time it was a medium-sized city, most of the territory had been lost.”

"They said the city was filled with pure white flowers and nothing else could be seen."

Macquarie flipped through the information faster and faster, and his expression became more solemn. It wasn't until he read all the information that he let out a heavy breath, "What's the current situation?"

The visitor raised his head slightly and glanced at Macquarie, "The Empire and the Military Ministry have mobilized two military battleship-class airships from the frontier front. Currently, the request for a saturation attack should be on the way to the Imperial Parliament and the Military Marshal. .”

"The Imperial Parliament and the Marshal of the Military..." The information was put down by Macquarie. After falling into silence for a few breaths, he raised his head and looked over. "Receive information in real time. Come and explain to me immediately when there are new situations."

"In addition, this document and all subsequent information should be notified to the first-level managers in other regions. They need to know about this terrible situation."