Five rescue teams cautiously slipped out of the city from different directions. They dared not ride horses or even run upright, instead shuffling forward with hunched backs. The swarms of monsters circling overhead felt like the Sword of Damocles, threatening to plunge down at any moment.
Some time later, as the first rescue team approached the nearest village, Imperial Guard soldiers spotted several collapsed houses and Featherless Birds wreaking havoc in the streets, swooping low over the rooftops.
The houses in the village were undoubtedly far less sturdy than those in the city, likely crumbling after just a few monster attacks. The civilians trapped inside would either be buried alive or dragged out and devoured by the Featherless Birds.
Seeing this, a Corrupted soldier in the team pulled out a pocket watch-like device—the Gravity Modification Device given to him by the Herta Puppet.
This device could reduce gravity, making it harder for the Featherless Birds to spot them. Conversely, he could also use it in reverse, increasing gravity to make himself more conspicuous to the creatures.
The Corrupted soldier stated firmly, "I'll draw the monsters away. You focus on rescuing the villagers!"
Before anyone could respond, he surged forward, breaking away from the retreating group. His superhuman physical conditioning allowed him to sprint over a hundred meters in mere seconds. Without hesitation, he activated the device in his hand. A tremendous pressure materialized on his shoulders, yet he didn't falter.
In an instant, every Featherless Bird in the area turned its attention to the soldier. If ordinary humans were fireflies in the darkness, this soldier blazed like a roaring torch, his brilliance naturally drawing the gaze of every monster nearby.
"Featherless Bird" was merely a casual nickname Herta had given them, referring to the creatures' lack of feathers. However, considering their peculiar traits, perhaps "Anti-Gravity Bird" would be more fitting? After all, everything about them seemed to defy gravity itself.
Seeing all the monsters take flight and leave the village, another Imperial Guard soldier shouted urgently, "Quick! Everyone inside the village! Alert as many villagers as possible and get them out of here!"
This was precisely why the Imperial Guard needed to gather civilians and move together through the city. Otherwise, if one soldier lured away the monsters, the remaining one would have to go door-to-door to notify the civilians—a painfully slow process. In this crisis, every second counted.
As he spoke, the soldier pulled out an identical "pocket watch" that reduced the gravity in the area by about 20-30%, making everyone lighter and further decreasing the likelihood of detection.
Thanks to mass production by the Black Box "3D Printer," the number of these "Gravity Modification Devices" was astonishingly high.
An hour later, the first rescue team returned. Eleven of them had left, but now they returned with over five hundred rescued civilians. When these civilians saw the safety of the city and the "Angels" soaring in the sky, relentlessly attacking the Featherless Birds, they couldn't help but kneel and weep bitterly.
With no time to tend to the traumatized survivors, the rescue team hurried to another village. The situation there was far worse than the last—a raging fire had engulfed the village. It was unclear whether the blaze had started accidentally during the monsters' attack or if the villagers had deliberately set it in a desperate attempt to drive the creatures away.
There was no time for speculation. The remaining Imperial Guard soldier handed his spare Gravity Modification Device to a volunteer, gave him a quick demonstration of its use, patted him on the shoulder, and said, "The rest is up to you."
Then, the soldier broke away from the group and sprinted into the distance.
It turned out that the Corrupted soldier who had lured the Featherless Birds away from the previous village had never returned. Even with their enhanced strength, how could anyone survive against dozens, even hundreds, of monsters while weighed down by gravity debuffs?
If even a Corrupted soldier couldn't survive, an ordinary soldier stood no chance. Yet without hesitation, after running far enough away, he activated the Gravity Modification Device.
Watching the swarm of monsters being lured away, the volunteer stared at the device in his hand, a slight tremor running through him. Am I next?
But as he entered the burning village, confronted by the mangled corpses littering the ground and the terrified survivors huddled around the flames, he found his fear inexplicably dissolving.
When someone knows their death is imminent, as the countdown to their final moment ticks away, fear should intensify. Yet, instead, he felt a profound serenity, as if this wasn't a countdown to death, but to conquering his own fear and becoming a hero.
Each return of the rescue team brought scores of survivors, but it also meant at least one person had died horribly, sacrificing themselves to distract the monsters. And if they were unlucky enough to encounter a Featherless Bird along the way, someone else would have to step forward and lure the creatures away again.
Meanwhile, high above Africa, Herta gazed up at the Dimensional Rift before her. Hours had passed, and the repaired area had grown significantly, but the rate at which Featherless Birds were being "born" nearby showed no sign of slowing down.
However, Herta wasn't without countermeasures. Over the past few hours, she had modified the Gravity Modification Device by adding a detonation mechanism. If the device could lure Featherless Birds together, why not simply detonate them to wipe out the monsters more efficiently?
With a detonation mechanism in place, adding flight capabilities seemed only logical. These modified devices could now fly autonomously to areas teeming with monsters, lure them into clusters, and then explode.
The only limitation was the production capacity of the Black Box "3D Printer." Even at full power, its manufacturing speed was finite. It couldn't magically conjure hundreds or thousands of flying bombs out of thin air in a minute!
At that moment, the Black Box was tirelessly churning out these explosive drones, which scattered in all directions to intercept Featherless Birds freshly "birthed" nearby. The drones lured the birds together and then detonated.
At its current production rate, Herta estimated she could intercept over 95% of the Featherless Birds. This meant that virtually no new Featherless Birds would reach the battlefield in France.