"Sir!"
The crowd of students waiting one step behind Hank, the only commander remaining behind the front in the ranks of the Army of Four Civilizations, had shouted in unison.
Their brains couldn't comprehend what their eyes saw; young architects were asking for help from their teacher to escape from the deadlock they fell into and return to reality.
"Impossible, fire once more!"
After the order of the youngest architect in history, the sky was covered with the cloud formed by twelve thousand explosive cannonballs once more. The target hadn't changed; what they wanted to destroy was the three-layered shield covering the enemy's support force at the last moment.
"Only with this little power?"
In the first explosion, all eyes were on the barrier because it was the only obstacle standing between them and death. In the second attack, there would be only one thing changing, and that was the faces of millions of warriors turning to Ainle.
"You could finally finish it!"
While Nafız welcomed the druid with a tall and thin physique in her own way, her eye was actually focused on the area behind Ainle. Although no one could see due to the exciting events experienced, she was aware of what happened.
"I obtained all of my ancestor's legacy. What happens next depends on how determined I am!"
While the young druid straightening his back proudly advanced toward the front step by step, he was also examining druids who went to the Orc Steppes to receive training and returned due to the war.
In the minutes when the technique of twelve thousand explosive cannonballs descended onto him, Ainle was unhurried and light as if he went out for a calm spring walk.
"My brothers resisting for the sake of protecting their lands, step forward. Today is the day you will receive your reward!"
There were many druids recognizing the speaking person inside the Druid Settlement. The one opposite them was Ainle, whose head was in the clouds and who constantly daydreamed. If it were another time, undoubtedly they would laugh at him with laughter as soon as these words left his mouth, but now all druids felt obliged to almost kneel in front of him.
Power was something like this; it didn't matter at all that you were a loser everyone made fun of yesterday, what mattered was who you were right now.
"Many long years ago, our ancestors created a place where no one could harm us while inside by sacrificing themselves with the dream and aim of a peaceful generation. They thought the day would come and people's cruelty would end, but insatiable creatures continued to strive without stopping even for a second to eradicate us!"
When the third attack wave started to descend on the shield he created, Ainle paused his speech and turned his face to the frenzy formed by a thousand and one lights.
"We have already paid the price of past sins with our blood, life, and freedom. The time has come for Druids to take what belongs to them; we will fight to protect our lands!"
Behind the young druid completing his words, an image familiar to everyone around him was appearing; this was the phenomenon of the Great Tree of Druids with its gigantic trunk and magnificent aura.
Ainle's tree was shedding leaves, and this action hadn't stopped until each of them fell into the hands of druids going to the Orc Steppes.
Druids, unaware of what was happening, were looking at each other in astonishment. All of the leaves, without exception, were in the hands of those striving to defend their lands.
"I won't hide anything from you. The Great Tree protecting our settlement for centuries was actually the soul tree of a supreme druid warrior inside our ancestors. Thanks to the sacrifices of comrades under his command and himself, we were able to survive for generations."
"What belongs to the supreme druid, who granted me all his wisdom a short time ago, is now mine!"
"Now you will also take what belongs to our self-sacrificing ancestors; from this moment on, we are both the shield and the shelter of our kinsmen!"
While leaves falling into their hands integrated with their bodies, the ears of the chosen ones were also on Ainle. Actually, even if he didn't say it, the energy circulating in their veins and feelings appearing in their hearts had already whispered to all of them what they needed to do.
"Orcs will be the axe cutting the enemy, and we will be the shields protecting everyone. The time is the time to go out to the battlefield; go and show the whole world that no one can bully druids from now on!"
A thousand druid warriors had started running at their top speeds; trees appearing in their souls in addition to the combat training they received were telling them they had completely different abilities too.
Together with them, Ainle would also take action. He was expanding his shield, which he used to cover the army of two million people, to cover the entire battlefield.
"Retreat, we are leaving this place!"
Hank would make his decision as soon as he saw the barrier he couldn't pass growing as far as the eye could see, in addition to his fifth attack repelled back by hitting the shield he couldn't identify.
He didn't care who came with what kind of trump cards on their side; the only conclusion his mind making calculations incessantly reached had been to flee.
"Don't they teach in academies anymore that leaving without finishing the started job is great rudeness?"
The moment he turned his back, the young engineer would jump in fear as if he saw a ghost; the face of the man at whose back he looked and strived for years was right in front of him.
Leonardo hadn't hesitated to use the camouflage created by the battlefield in chaos. As soon as people who would defeat him in close combat left, he had made a landing on the enemy headquarters using his power animal.
"First, let's break these new toys of yours, shall we?"
Although they were blocked by Ainle, the most effective mass destruction weapons on the battlefield were ten giant metal blocks which were Hank's new invention.
The master wouldn't show mercy at all; tools capable of killing millions were torn to pieces within seconds. If he stayed only with this, perhaps the youngest engineer in history had a chance to escape, but the man with messy hair had brought his little friend with him too.
Tiny mechanical spiders were pouring from Raffaello's hands made of the same material; a very short time later, Hank's invention would enter under his control.
"We architects designed, produced incessantly for the sake of the glory and development of the Machine Empire, satisfied our selfish desires without thinking what the result would be. Did you ever think the weapon you invented could be directed at you one day, Hank? I hope you did!"
Leonardo bombarded the people of the civilization he formerly belonged to first with words, then with weapons the little one he took as an apprentice reshaped.
Protective shields would appear one after another; would architects ever come here without taking devices they produced themselves with them?
How painful that since they didn't show the effort they spent for destruction for defense systems, they couldn't endure the violence of thousands of explosive cannonballs falling upon them.
First, architect apprentices low in seniority started to lose their lives under their shattered shields; they were vanishing without leaving a single trace like the command team staying in the headquarters and observing the war.
"Leonardo, how can you betray your own people? Do you have no pride, no dignity left at all?"
Hank, whose defense-purposed devices he used were destroyed one after another, was screaming in a panicked state. His aim was to save his life by influencing the emotions of the old man holding his fate in his hand.
"Pride, dignity? I lost those things you mentioned the day I produced my first weapon!"
"No, it can't be! I cannot die here; the youngest high architect in history cannot die at the hands of a traitor!"
Hank's balance was thoroughly disturbed due to the fear of death; when his last remedy remained unanswered too, he was trying to deceive himself not to go mad.
"How easy it was to stay calm and pontificate while others were dying, right? When your own life is on the line, all your attention scattered, my young friend; are you sure I am the one killing you?"
Leonardo spoke slowly while looking at Hank, the only person remaining alive on the enemy headquarters, with pitying eyes. No matter how calm the master looked, he was slapping his colleague likely to die in a moment by using his losing the cool-headedness he always boasted of.
"I, the youngest high architect in history ...!"
Voices were cut in the place where the Armies of Four Civilizations came and settled with all their magnificence. Together with Hank mixing among bodies destroyed by explosive cannonballs falling one after another, the only ones able to breathe in the enemy's headquarters were Leonardo and his little apprentice.
"The youngest high architect in history! If I knew it was such an important title, I would probably tolerate paperwork and accept it when I was ten years old!"