Chinese Army Headquarters, Beijing. Strategic Command Center – Operations Room. 3:47 AM.
The operations room was usually calm at this hour of the night, but for several days, activity had been feverish, constant, charged with palpable tension. High-ranking officers and technicians constantly took turns in front of the giant screens illuminated with multiple data streams, their faces marked by stress accumulated since the announcement of the draconic invasion in Europe.
General Wei Shun, a man with a grave face, short-cropped gray hair and a sharp gaze, stood in the center of the room, silently examining the information flowing continuously on the screens. Beside him, Commander Zhao Ling, calm and rigorous, nervously consulted the latest reports from their aerial scouts.
Suddenly, the room’s door burst open with a crash. A young officer, Lieutenant Chen, rushed in precipitately, short of breath and eyes wide with urgency. He crossed the room in seconds, ignoring the worried looks turned toward him.
- "General Wei!" he shouted, abruptly interrupting the tactical conversations. "General, long-range radars have just detected an immense fleet of flying objects approaching at high speed from the west!"
The entire room froze in stunned silence. General Wei slowly turned toward the lieutenant, his features hardened by cold apprehension.
- "What is their exact position, Lieutenant Chen?"
The young officer took a deep breath, quickly regaining his composure.
- "They’ve just crossed our airspace, General. Their speed is... incredible, they’ll be over Beijing in less than two hours."
Wei exchanged a tension-filled look with Zhao Ling. Without losing a second, he immediately gave his orders, his voice resonating like a sharp blade in the now bustling room:
- "Immediately activate maximum alert systems. Warn all anti-aircraft divisions! Have every unit immediately in combat position!"
He turned to his aide-de-camp.
- "Call President Jiang immediately, he must be informed. Tell him China is facing an imminent massive aerial attack!"
- "Yes, General!" replied his aide, rushing toward the secure telephone lines.
The room instantly activated with frenzied intensity. Alarms resonated throughout the HQ, their strident sirens announcing a war that everyone still hoped to avoid. Present officers rushed to transmit orders, shouting into phones, organizing urgent mobilization of anti-aircraft defenses.
Wei turned to Zhao Ling, his face marked by the gravity of the moment.
- "Commander Zhao, order immediate deployment of A-rank fighters and special interception units. Have all squadrons on maximum alert, they will be the first line of defense."
- "Yes, General," Ling replied in a tense but perfectly controlled voice.
Wei Shun positioned himself in front of the screens, carefully observing the radar data. His mind methodically analyzed each available element. The objects were numerous, grouped in an organized and rigorous manner. He knew exactly what this meant.
- "Dragons..." he murmured, clenching his fists with contained anger.
Moments later, air defenses were deployed. Anti-aircraft artillery sites around Beijing oriented their batteries toward the dark sky. Automatic cannons slowly pivoted, ready to unleash their destructive power.
Wei Shun waited a few seconds, his gaze fixed on the enemy signals approaching on the radar screens.
- "Fire as soon as they enter our interception zone. Launch sonic anti-aircraft missiles immediately. Break their formation as soon as they enter Chinese airspace!"
- "Roger, General!" cried Zhao Ling, transmitting the order through her headset.
Outside, in the night sky, aerial interception units took flight in a roar of reactors, quickly joining strategic positions around the capital. In ground military installations, anti-aircraft missiles were activated, their targeting systems precisely locking onto the rapidly approaching draconic army.
The silence of the night was broken by a dull rumble. Anti-aircraft batteries released their first explosive charges toward the sky, tracing luminous trails that launched toward targets invisible for the moment to the human eye.
At high altitude, the missiles exploded brutally, releasing concentric spheres of destructive sonic energy. Shock waves tore through the sky, briefly illuminating the nocturnal darkness with violet flashes.
Wei observed the screens attentively, hoping to see enemy formations disintegrate under the shock. The first impacts caused brief but intense satisfaction, disrupting the enemy formation. But very quickly, he realized the enemy was resisting strangely well. Adversary signals were already reorganizing, resuming their advance with terrifying determination.
- "General," announced Zhao Ling, her voice charged with worry. "The first salvos disturbed the enemy, but they seem to have established some sort of defensive shield. Our sonic charges are no longer effective."
Wei gritted his teeth, quickly understanding the gravity of the situation.
- "Deploy the fighters. Intensify artillery salvos. Have them slowed as much as possible. Every second counts to reinforce our ground defensive positions."
His aide-of-camp approached quickly, handing him the emergency telephone.
- "President Jiang is on the line, General."
Wei took the device without hesitation, immediately speaking in a firm voice:
- "Mr. President, the draconic attack is confirmed. They will soon be above Beijing. We’re doing everything possible, but their force is considerable. We must immediately proceed with civilian evacuation from priority zones."
There was a heavy silence on the other end of the line, followed by a grave but firm response from President Jiang:
- "Do whatever is necessary, General Wei. China will not fall easily. Protect our people at all costs."
- "Yes, Mr. President."
Wei slowly hung up, his determined gaze fixed on the tactical screens. He raised his voice, dominating the chaos of the room:
- "Soldiers!" he cried forcefully. "Today, we face a terrifying enemy. But today also, we will fight with courage and honor for our homeland. No one retreats, no one abandons. China stands firm."
A silence filled with respect briefly fell over the room, before everyone returned to their task with renewed determination.
Outside, in the sky darkened by the first glimmers of dawn, anti-aircraft salvos resumed with redoubled intensity. Successive waves of sonic missiles illuminated the sky like devastating lightning, partly repelled by the mysterious enemy shield but slightly slowing their progression toward the city.
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Chinese fighters, under the direction of their squadron commanders, were already cutting through the skies toward the invader, ready to face head-on this threat from another world.
Wei remained silent, observing the battle on the screens, his gaze hard and implacable.
- "We will not fall easily," he murmured to himself, clenching his fists. "Not without making them pay dearly for every conquered meter."
Mordred silently stared at the incomplete and disordered maps scattered across the table. He frowned, visibly displeased. The dark room where he stood with Livia was plunged in thoughtful silence.
- "We can’t afford a mistake," Mordred finally declared in a low but firm voice. "A bad calculation and we’ll be trapped. The dragons won’t give us any chance."
Livia slowly nodded, arms crossed, leaning against the cold underground wall.
- "I agree, Mordred. Our first reconnaissance gave us a general idea, but we still have too many uncertainties. We must be absolutely precise if we want to succeed in a decisive strike without unnecessarily exposing ourselves."
Mordred slowly raised his eyes toward her, his incandescent gaze plunged into hers.
- "Then we need new cartography. More detailed, more meticulous. This time, we’ll have to take even more risks. We’ll have to get closer to their sensitive installations, hear their conversations, identify every detail."
Livia sketched a slight smile, eyes bright with fierce determination.
- "Nothing beats precise information," she replied calmly. "Let’s separate again. I’ll handle the western sectors, you take the center and south. Let’s meet here at dawn."
Mordred nodded without hesitation.
- "Agreed. Stay careful. The slightest misstep could compromise everything."
- "I won’t make mistakes," she replied simply, absolute confidence in her voice.
Without another word, they left the room together, each launching into the black night covering Paris.
The night was cold and silent. Mordred, concealed in the shadow of a narrow alley, progressed slowly, methodically, avoiding draconic patrols with ease born from his mastery of mana. His unique skills allowed him to cross each checkpoint, each guard post without being spotted.
He spent several hours exploring every alley, every important building, his sharp senses memorizing every crucial piece of information: patrol locations, number of guards, precise relief hours. Everything was carefully noted in his methodical mind.
Then, toward the middle of the night, while exploring a more central zone, Mordred noticed unusual activity near a former park south of the city. Dragon guards, numerous and vigilant, formed a strictly controlled perimeter. Intrigued, he decided to approach discreetly.
Without the slightest sound, he melted into the darkness of a ruined building located in immediate proximity to the park. Hidden behind a collapsed wall section, he spotted an immense structure recently erected at the center of a large square, encircled by crystals slowly pulsing with intense purple light.
His eyes widened slightly as he immediately recognized the nature of this structure.
A dimensional portal...
Mordred felt his heart accelerate slightly under sudden understanding. This portal, gigantic and active, represented a major installation. He approached further, hidden in the darkness, his ears distinctly catching the guards’ exchanges.
- "The Ignivara army arrived in China without problem," one guard told his colleague. "Patriarch Varnor Ignivara and his daughter Syléane opened the way. The battle for Beijing has begun."
- "And the human resistance?" asked the other, visibly curious.
The first guard gave a contemptuous laugh.
- "It will be broken quickly. The Ignivara are one of the most powerful noble families, nothing can stop their advance. The Chinese tried to resist with anti-aircraft weapons, but Syléane has already erected an impenetrable telekinetic shield. Their fall is only a matter of time."
Mordred, in the shadows, gritted his teeth, cold anger slowly rising in him. He felt a cold fire burn in his entrails, his pupils flaming more intensely under his hood.
They went to China... So the war is already underway...
His mind accelerated, each heard word weighing heavily on his thoughts. The Ignivara family, the war against China... All this meant one clear thing: a massive advance of the draconic invasion on the human world. And somewhere, at the very heart of this battle, there might be a chance for him to accomplish what he had long awaited.
His fists instinctively clenched as an almost irrepressible wave of murderous intent surged in him. He imagined himself leaping from the shadows, mercilessly destroying each guard, sabotaging this portal, cutting off all retreat. But immediately, he severely repressed this dangerous impulse.
- "No... Not now. Not ."
He briefly closed his eyes, perfectly controlling his mana to calm his heart and mind. Slowly, his breathing became controlled again. Cold reason regained the upper hand.
He withdrew silently, moving away soundlessly from the dimensional installation, his steps imperceptible in the darkness. Each piece of information was now engraved in his memory: the precise location of the portal, its number of guards, patrol frequency, the crucial strategic importance of this installation.
Finally out of the guards’ range, he stopped briefly, looking one last time toward the immense portal faintly pulsing in the night. His eyes, illuminated by burning determination, intensely fixed on this structure.
- "I must participate in this war," he murmured in a dark but resolute voice.