The Rise of the Black Plain

"My goodness!"

"Look at that, Paul!"

"Ah, the Maritime City truly has been lost forever..."

"They actually destroyed it... I hadn't believed the rumors!"

"Unbelievable!"

Several of the people who the Black Plain Army was escorting into Dry City commented among themselves as they watched back in the direction of that explosion.

Many were already dozens of kilometers away from that place. Still, they could see the tremendous amount of dust and gas covering that city very well, the consequence of the destruction of that place.

They already knew that such a place was lost forever since the soldiers of the Black Plain Army had warned them that the future of whoever stayed there would not be good.

But seeing the place where not only they but also their fathers, grandfathers, and ancestors had been born and raised come to such a definitive end was quite shocking for most there.

With that, while many were commenting in shock about the sudden end of that city, most there remained silent, looking in that direction, while still making their way to Dry City.

'It's a shame...'

'If it hadn't been destroyed, we could still come back in the future.' Some of the older people in that group of immigrants thought about it in silence, regretting this outcome.

But although upset about the changes they had been forced to accept, these people were pragmatic enough to understand that they were already in the best of all possible alternatives. And as such, they knew that complaining to those soldiers or something like that would not help them.

On the other hand, although cities could connect their inhabitants to it, bringing feelings to their citizens, at the end of the day, those areas were just places built by humans.

As long as they had their lives, they could connect to other places and live their lives!

So, most of the people there were merely lamenting in their minds the fate of the place they had grown up in.

Also, many there didn't know how much longer they could continue to live. With the war under this territory, they might not have a much better fate than Maritime City.

Therefore, some were more concerned about the situation in Dry City than the destruction of their former home.

The promises of Minos' army soldiers were terrific and attractive. But were they true?

There was no way that they, the inhabitants of that place now under destruction, could know such a thing. After all, considering the situation they were in, the attitude of these soldiers could very well be a way of deceiving them to make it easier for the army to capture them.

As for the people who didn't agree to go to Dry City, for many in that group watching the destruction of Maritime City, the soldiers of Minos' soldiers would probably kill those individuals!

That was an enemy force of the Brown Kingdom, which had just destroyed a royal force.

It was common for people like them to be dominated by the victors of conflicts in situations like these. Consequently, many there were concerned about the integrity of the propaganda made by those soldiers.

But others were not thinking this way. That was because some of these people had had at least one close acquaintance of theirs who had already visited Dry City and taken their families there. And knowing this, they had no doubts about the opportunities and quality of life there!

However, although they were hopeful for the future, they did feel a bit depressed when they saw this shocking scene.

Anyway, it did not take long for the effects of those many explosions in the Maritime City to spread over dozens of kilometers of that urban area.

The noise had been shocking, having even reached the place where the last groups that had left that city were passing at the moment.

As for the shockwave, it had not reached that place with much force. Instead, it had only caused a gale, only a little stronger than those typical local storms.

And so, amidst the din of that event, those thousands of people continued to move away from the Maritime City and into the now unique city of the Black Plain!

That was a mass migration that was never before seen on the Black Plain, something that would completely change the status of Dry City once these people were absorbed into such a place!

But the journey was not short for these dozens of thousands of people who practically had to make the trip on foot.

However, that was the normal thing to happen in this situation. After all, there weren't that many beasts or carriages in that now destroyed city.

However, this was not entirely bad for these many people. That was because they at least had the protection of the strong soldiers of the Black Plain Army while they were doing this!

So, despite the tremendous physical effort that many would undergo on such a journey, they would not have to worry about possible dangers on their journey.

'I think it will take us about five days to reach Dry City...' Angela silently pondered as she traveled in that carriage from before, together with Barbara at the back of the march.

'I wonder what happened during the night that passed... All the attacks worked out?'

'What will happen now?'

While Angela had these questions in mind, curious to know the results of this first significant action of the army, time began to fly!

...

Two days later.

After the many hours that had passed since the explosion of Maritime City, the dust clouds that had covered this place could no longer be seen in great density.

There were still some traces in the sky that would make any experienced person understand what happened here. But even so, such remnants were not enough to cover up the place where that city previously stood.

Because of this, at the present moment, anyone flying over the vicinity of this area would be able to see the result of what had happened to this place.

After those many explosions, almost all the buildings in Maritime City had been destroyed, leaving behind only a compound resembling sand, only of different colors.

But most of this compound was a light gray, indicative of the material most often used to build the local infrastructure.

However, besides this layer of 'sand,' many rubbles could be seen around, mainly where the central part of the Maritime City used to be.

Anyway, all this and the brown dust that was also present followed a sedimentation pattern in the form of a large crater.

This crater covered almost the entire area of the old Maritime City, even affecting the places where the local ports and beaches had previously been.

In fact, these places had almost completely disappeared as the seawater had advanced the parts of that large crater that were closest to where the local beaches should have been.

Apart from this, nothing helpful for human settlements had remained in this place!

And that was just what a group of newcomers saw from a distance, standing on top of a giant winged beast a few hundred meters up.

"Huh?"

"What's that?" One of the three people on that great beast exclaimed in surprise, trying to understand whether they had mistaken the path or something shocking had happened in this place.

At the same time, the strongest one there waved one of his hands, indicating for that beast to lower its altitude, while his old face, full of white hair, grew paler and paler in worry.

As they got closer to that place, they finally had the opportunity to scan the surroundings and look for answers.

But they could not find even a single living soul in this place, which was supposed to be the Maritime City, the home of 300,000 inhabitants!

"What the fuck is this?"

"How did this happen?" Finally, London Brown roared in a fury, shouting with all his fury, as his aura spread in the surroundings, causing tremendous pressure on those individuals with him.

"Where is our fleet? What happened to our men?"

And while saying those things and getting angrier and angrier, one of those people then looked in the direction of Dry City and said.

"Don't tell me this is the rebels' doing?"

Gulp!