30: Chapter 30 Company Commander, Can You Stop Them?

Across the Ocean.

Woo—

The deep air raid siren blared like the horn of the grim reaper.

In this land of freedom, this sound had last been heard during Cold War-era drills.

But this time, it was no drill.

Above Yellowstone National Park, Wyoming.

The sky, once filled with the colors of sunset, was now violently obscured by a massive black curtain.

That was not a cloud; it was billions of tons of volcanic ash and rock debris violently ejected into the stratosphere from underground.

They blocked out the sun, turning day into night.

Alexander stumbled and rushed toward a helicopter bearing the Stars and Stripes.

As the White House spokesperson, his eloquence was useless now; his legs were shaking like noodles.

He glanced back.

On the distant horizon, a black-and-red pillar of fire connecting heaven and earth was wildly dancing.

How to describe that scene? It was as if God had taken a red-hot carving knife and, with irresistible, immense power, brutally sliced open the Earth's main artery, causing scalding earth-blood to gush out and splatter the firmament with scarlet.

"Hurry! Take off! Damn it, take off quickly!"

Alexander roared, scrambling into the cabin using his hands and feet.

The helicopter struggled to ascend in the gale.

Through the porthole, he saw the highway below packed with fleeing vehicles.

Those 'free citizens' who would normally draw guns over a supermarket parking spot had now completely shed the veneer of civilization, resembling an ant nest scalded by boiling water.

There was none of the 'for the children' or 'women and children first' celebrated in Hollywood blockbusters.

In the face of true, overwhelming disaster, the bottom line of human nature was instantly pierced.

He personally watched a burly man drag the driver out of the driver's seat, shoot him dead, and then drive over those blocking his way, fleeing frantically.

But what was the use of that?

Alexander shakily pulled out his satellite phone; only a busy signal came through.

Just a few minutes ago, the President and the real power brokers of Congress had already boarded the 'Doomsday Flight' heading for the underground bunker deep within the Grand Canyon of Colorado.

As for the remaining three hundred million people?

Sorry, Noah's Ark never sold standing room tickets.

Boom—!

A deafening roar that threatened to shatter eardrums came from the distance.

The second wave of impact had arrived.

A visible shockwave, mixed with high temperatures, swept across the ground like a giant broom.

Forests, houses, vehicles, and screaming crowds all turned into dust the moment they were touched.

The helicopter violently pitched, and Alexander's head slammed against the glass, blood streaming down.

He didn't bother wiping it, staring fixedly toward the East.

In that direction was the Pacific Ocean, the sea, and... Dragon Summer.

Just moments ago at the press conference, he had been clamoring about redeploying forces and showing Dragon Summer what they were made of.

Thinking about it now, it sounded like a joke.

"Oh God..."

Alexander's eyes were vacant, his lips trembling as he muttered, "God has abandoned us... but it seems He lives in Dragon Summer."

Zzz—

The satellite signal was completely cut off, and the screen returned to static.

...At the same time, in the land of the Sun.

If the Eagle Federation was under 'dark clouds pressing down on the city,' then this place was a true 'picture scroll of purgatory.'

Tokyo, Ginza.

The usually bustling and noisy intersection had now become scorched earth.

The ground was dancing.

The asphalt road cracked like brittle biscuits, revealing scarlet fissures underneath.

Lava surged directly out of the subway entrances.

The scene was utterly absurd—office workers, dressed in neat suits and carrying briefcases, who a second ago were worried about being docked pay for being late, were swallowed the next second by orange-red, high-temperature liquid surging from beneath their feet, turning into balls of burning charcoal before they could even scream.

On the Shinkansen tracks, a speeding train was hurtling toward its end at three hundred kilometers per hour.

The driver frantically pulled the emergency brake, but it was too late.

The mountain ahead—Mount Fuji, which they regarded as a deity—was disintegrating.

The perfectly conical summit looked as if half of it had been sliced off by a giant, and countless tons of crimson magma flowed down the slopes.

Sizzle sizzle sizzle—

That was the sound of steel melting.

The white locomotive plunged into the lava flow, instantly turning red-hot, softening, and then vaporizing.

The people inside the carriages were instantly evaporated into gas by the sudden high temperature before they could even feel pain.

Inside the Prime Minister's official residence.

The Prime Minister was currently kneeling on the floor, tightly gripping a red dedicated phone line.

This was the highest-level hotline to the capital of Dragon Summer, and it was his only lifeline now.

"Answer it... Please, answer it..."

He was weeping uncontrollably, devoid of any dignity befitting a leader of the Land of Cherry Blossoms, resembling nothing more than a stray dog.

"We were wrong... We are willing to cede Okinawa, willing to publicly apologize and retract our statements, save us... Now only Dragon Summer can save us..."

Zzz— Zzz— Zzz—

Only static came from the receiver.

It wasn't that Dragon Summer refused to answer; it was physically impossible.

The violent volcanic eruption had disturbed the entire ionosphere, compounded by the global electromagnetic storm originating from Yellowstone.

The land of the Sun was now an isolated island.

Outside the window, the sound of the air raid siren was drowned out by the roar of the ocean waves.

The Prime Minister looked up in despair.

On the eastern horizon, a water wall over a hundred meters high was advancing.

This was not an ordinary wave; it was a black grim reaper carrying seabed silt, wreckage from sunken ships, and the power of destruction.

This was the prelude to submergence.

"It's over..."

The so-called 'Bushido spirit' that the right-wing politicians were so proud of was utterly worthless in the face of this water wall connecting heaven and earth.

...On the East Sea Defense Line of Dragon Summer.

This was the very front line of the storm.

Although it was still some distance from the epicenter, global disasters knew no borders.

The terrifying shockwave, transmitted through the ocean, had lost little of its power.

Sea Defense Company Commander Cheng Bin gripped the edge of the bunker tightly, his knuckles turning white.

"Everyone! Hold onto something secure! No matter what happens, do not let go!"

He roared until his throat was raw, but against the gale and giant waves, his voice was no louder than a mosquito's buzz.

All the soldiers stared with wide eyes at the approaching monster.

It was a wall.

A black precipice connecting the sky and the sea.

It was nearly two hundred meters high.

The churning crest was mixed with broken ship debris and the corpses of deep-sea beasts, obscuring all light from the East.

Before this immense power capable of leveling crustal folds, the reinforced concrete seawall that humanity had spent decades building looked as fragile as building blocks on a beach.

Fear?

Certainly.

It was the instinct ingrained in their genes when facing a natural predator.

But not a single person retreated.

Cheng Bin gritted his teeth; he thought of his mother at home, and his newborn daughter.

If this wave crashed down, several coastal provinces...

"Company Commander... This... Can we really hold it back?"

The raw recruit beside him asked with a choked sob.