The wizard coalition had long been unable to wait any longer.
Upon hearing Link's order, they immediately took the main forces of the British Ministry of Magic as their core and formed a defensive formation.
The shock they had received when they first saw the real Sky City just now had been considerable.
Now, many people in the coalition were thinking that, no matter what, they had to return the favor.
Thus, accompanied by everyone's chanting, a huge translucent, pale-white curtain of light spread out from the front of the coalition, forming a semicircle that blocked the entire front of the army.
The cannons protruding from the distant high-rises had also completed their brief charge.
Hundreds of enormous beams of magical power, each nearly a hundred meters in diameter, were like sharp swords, piercing through the darkness and shooting straight toward the coalition.
The instant they collided with the translucent protective shield directly in front of the coalition, the intense flash lit up the entire night sky. Many people in the city turned to look, narrowing their eyes toward the light. Some onlookers even directly changed the direction of their flying mounts and, shouting excitedly, followed behind the Sky City guards toward the scene.
The residents of Sky City more or less knew what was happening at that moment.
After all, the alarm that had sounded throughout Sky City earlier was a special alarm that only sounded when an outside enemy had invaded the city.
Yet there was not much fear in their hearts.
Sky City had been at peace for hundreds of years.
Perhaps the first or second generations of their ancestors who had immigrated to Sky City still knew what it meant for an enemy to invade the city. They knew how terrifying war was, and understood that there was always someone stronger out there.
But their descendants, the current residents of Sky City, did not have such awareness.
They considered themselves people of the Celestial Realm, looking down on every living thing outside Sky City and believing that their own race was a group of gods standing above all others!
If they were already gods, why would they fear the attacks of mortal ants?
Their current state was much like that of the nobles during ancient Rome. They spent their days immersed in the prosperity brought by peace, constantly seeking more intense forms of stimulation.
And what could possibly make one's blood race and adrenaline surge more than war?
So, they loved war, yearned for war, and even adored war!
They were the happiest people when Sky City was invaded.
In their eyes, this should simply be a one-sided slaughter.
How could those lowly people from the outside world possibly withstand the firepower of the people of the Celestial Realm?
They were only coming over to join the excitement and see whether they could pick off a few enemies for fun.
However, when the intense flashes at the battlefield gradually dimmed and the smoke hanging above it slowly dispersed, the truth revealed on the battlefield left the originally excited residents of Sky City, as well as the Sky City defense forces that had come to meet the enemy, completely stunned.
Because after enduring an entire round of bombardment from the city-defense cannons, those lowly people from the lower realm had not been destroyed.
There was not even the slightest crack on the protective shield they had erected.
The translucent curtain of light radiating a faint glow remained just as dazzling.
After a brief daze, the Sky City residents who had come to watch the excitement began another charge, shouting wildly.
Quite a few members of the Sky City defense forces, however, had already turned around and were preparing to retreat.
Although they looked down on the lowly creatures of the outside world just like the other Sky City residents, they were not as ignorant as ordinary people of the Celestial Realm.
They had undergone special training and studied professional knowledge!
Because of this, they all understood very clearly that if the enemy could withstand the city-defense cannons, and their numbers were greater as well, then there was really no point in fighting.
Rather than charging forward and throwing their lives away, it would be better to retreat and call for reinforcements.
Thus, a strange scene soon appeared.
The regular army of Sky City, the Sky City defense forces, was constantly retreating and fleeing, while the very residents of Sky City whom the defense forces usually arrested as criminals were displaying extraordinary courage and continuing their charge.
If someone who knew nothing about the situation saw this, they might even think that those Sky City residents were heroic civilians.
Unfortunately, in Link and the others' eyes, there was actually little difference or meaning in their actions.
Because Link had never intended to let them go.
"Boom!"
As Link's wand came down, countless spells shot out from the coalition's formation behind him.
They converged in the sky, forming a dense curtain of light that almost left no gaps as it shot straight into the heavens, then plunged rapidly downward from its highest point.
The light produced by this enormous rain of light was even more dazzling than the light created earlier by the city-defense cannons and the coalition's protective shield. Even Sky City in the distance, with its constantly flashing neon lights, seemed dim beneath this blinding radiance.
The charge of the Sky City residents finally stopped.
They stared blankly at the rapidly descending "rain of light" in the sky, each of them standing there with their mouths open, at a loss for what to do.
Only when the "rain of light" gradually separated into layers across the sky, with the largest group descending into the crowd first and killing dozens of people instantly, did the others finally react.
Screams immediately rose from the crowd.
The people of the Celestial Realm who had been charging toward the battlefield with great ferocity now cried out as they retreated at an even faster speed than when they had come.
But it was useless.
The "rain of light" had already covered an area several kilometers around them.
As a second, denser wave of "rain of light" descended, the screams and cries abruptly stopped.
All the remaining people of the Celestial Realm were killed, leaving only a few members of the Sky City defense forces still fleeing at full speed across the battlefield.
They pressed their bodies against the flying vehicles beneath them, which resembled flying brooms but were clearly more technological, while frantically pressing the emergency transmitters in their hands.
These emergency transmitters would send signals to the nearby city-defense cannons, allowing them to lock onto targets more accurately and bombard them.
Only by concentrating the attacks of the city-defense cannons more precisely could they hope to break through the protective shield of the lower-realm wizard coalition.
And only by breaking through the protective shield and truly injuring the lower-realm wizard coalition, throwing them into confusion, would they have even the slightest hope of surviving!
Perhaps the distant city-defense cannons had heard their frantic and disordered prayers. They finally completed their charge.
As scorching beams of magical power passed close beside them, the members of the Sky City defense forces all revealed excited smiles.
But soon, those smiles completely froze.
"Vmmmm!"
A tremendous buzzing sound rang through the sky. The people watching the battle from afar inside Sky City all covered their ears in pain.
The members of the Sky City defense forces did not do so.
Because they clearly saw that, from the lower-realm wizard coalition's formation, an enormous magical dragon composed entirely of pure cursed magical power was rising into the sky!
The magical dragon roared as it freely stretched its enormous body.
Its entire body was formed from pure, flawless white light, yet the magical power it scattered as it moved carried an intense sense of evil and curse, making people shudder.
Even more despairingly, when faced with the giant laser beams shooting toward it, the magical dragon merely swung its tail and claws a few times before stopping every attack.
No!
It was no longer as simple as stopping them!
It was completely devouring them!
The laser cannons fired by the city-defense cannons, composed entirely of highly concentrated magical power, were swallowed up the instant they touched the magical dragon's body, transforming into pure power that caused the magical dragon to grow even larger.
"This is a demon..."
One of the members of the Sky City defense forces muttered.
But before he could finish speaking, a single breath attack from the enormous magical dragon completely destroyed him and all the other members of the Sky City defense forces, along with several buildings behind them.
"Charge! Charge!"
Deafening roars came from the wizard coalition's formation.
The translucent protective shield disappeared. Aurors and hunters rode their flying brooms, shouting as they charged into the neon-lit city ahead together with the enormous magical dragon.
As buildings collapsed and the ground shattered, the people of the Celestial Realm inside the city finally panicked.
Crying and alarm sirens became mixed together.
The crowds that had originally gathered on the streets and atop the high-rises began fleeing in all directions. Those with flying vehicles took off immediately and flew toward the enormous building at the center of the city that seemed to connect heaven and earth.
That was the same building Link and Dumbledore had visited earlier when they came to the International Confederation of Wizards to attend the mediation meeting with the French Ministry of Magic.
At the same time, it was also the headquarters of the International Confederation of Wizards and the governing center of Sky City.
As for those without flying vehicles, or those who could not reach their flying vehicles in time, they rushed toward the underground shelters immediately.
These underground shelters had originally been constructed specifically to deal with the special situation of Sky City being invaded.
Their distribution was so extensive that they covered the underground space of the entire Sky City.
However, Sky City had been peaceful for hundreds of years. In the eyes of many people, facilities such as underground shelters were completely useless.
There had even been many developers and civilians who wanted the International Confederation of Wizards to demolish these shelters and convert the spaces into other facilities, such as residences or commercial streets.
After all, although Sky City was enormous, it also had a very large population.
Even with spatial expansion spells such as the Undetectable Extension Charm, the amount of space they could provide was still limited.
Facing the steadily expanding population, Sky City was under enormous spatial pressure. Before No. 1 occupied Sky City, the International Confederation of Wizards was already considering expanding the city.
The reason Old Harris had extorted the French Ministry of Magic so aggressively was also to obtain enough profits to support the upcoming Sky City expansion project.
Of course, no matter how foolish the International Confederation of Wizards was, they would never actually accept the proposal to demolish and remodel the shelters.
However, under the current population explosion, civilians privately occupying underground shelters to build all kinds of illegal structures remained extremely common. The International Confederation of Wizards could only turn a blind eye, because the pressure they were already facing was enormous.
According to their estimates, if they carried out strict enforcement and suppression in this area as well, there was a high chance that these unruly civilians would be incited by the major families to launch a rebellion.
The concessions made by the International Confederation of Wizards also made the Sky City residents living in the outer districts increasingly smug, and they began occupying the underground shelters even more aggressively.
In their eyes, a gigantic airborne city like Sky City could probably never be breached.
But now, the magical dragon had risen into the sky, roaring in the night!
Tens of thousands of lower-realm wizards whom they had once regarded as ants had invaded Sky City and were rampaging through the city.
Only when this nightmare-like scene truly became reality did they realize for the first time how important the underground shelters were.
They desperately began tearing down the illegal structures, trying to enter the underground shelters.
After all, at a time like this, underground was certainly much safer than above ground.
In fact, they were somewhat too afraid.
What Link wanted was an intact Sky City.
There was simply too much technology within Sky City.
Only an intact Sky City could allow the Unspeakables from the various countries' Departments of Mysteries to completely extract Sky City's technology and use it in the world on the ground.
With such a goal, it was impossible for Link to cause much damage to Sky City.
Even the several buildings he had previously destroyed with the controlled Fiendfyre magical dragon were merely defensive towers equipped with city-defense cannons. Aside from the technicians operating the city-defense cannons, there were actually not many other people inside.
As for the Sky City residents on the ground, in fact, as long as they obediently knelt down and surrendered instead of arrogantly insulting the Aurors as people from the lower realm, nothing would happen to them.
At most, they would be beaten up and locked away.
Unfortunately, the residents of Sky City clearly had not realized this.
Or rather, the education they had received over the years had already fused their sense of superiority and pride toward people of the lower realm into their very bones.
They simply did not believe that people of the lower realm possessed concepts such as etiquette or shame.
Thus, from the instant the wizard coalition poured into Sky City like a tide, the entire city completely descended into killing and chaos.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
Link and the others walked through the slightly narrow, dirty streets of Sky City, the soles of their shoes striking the metal ground and producing a series of footsteps.
Around them were Aurors systematically advancing through the various streets of Sky City to conduct searches and arrests, as well as Sky City residents fleeing in all directions.
Looking at the bizarre decorations and colorful hair and makeup on the people of Sky City, Sigefin frowned in disgust and said, "I really didn't expect the people in the cities outside to all look like this... like this..."
Perhaps he did not know how to describe it, and Sigefin's words suddenly stopped.
"You want to say they're all pretty damn stupid, right?" Newland picked up his words. "They think filth is beauty, think chaos is fashionable, and are both foolish and self-important."
Sigefin hesitated before nodding.
"Although your language is crude and unbearable, I can reluctantly agree with what you said."
Hearing this, Newland gave a disdainful snort.
That last part of what he had said had actually been mocking Sigefin.
Unfortunately, it seemed that the fool Sigefin had not noticed, which greatly reduced his enjoyment.
At the same time, Link, who was walking at the very front of the group, turned his head and said with a smile, "Then, Sigefin, what was the place where you used to live like? How was it different from here?"
As soon as he said this, the others in the group also turned their gazes toward Sigefin, causing his brows to furrow even more tightly.
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