The tragedy on the Champ de Mars was immediately captured by the two Armored Airships hovering over the east of Paris.
In fact, before the lightning had fully gathered, piercing alarms had already sounded on the bridges of L28 and L29.
"High-intensity magic reaction detected! Bearing: Champ de Mars! Energy levels spiking rapidly!"
"It's the Eiffel Tower!"
Colonel Schneider, Captain of Armored Airship No. L29, rushed to the observation window immediately.
He didn't even need binoculars to clearly see the heart-palpitating blue electric light gathering at the spire of the massive steel tower.
"Quick! Use the loudspeakers to warn the ground troops! Tell them to evacuate the Champ de Mars immediately!" Schneider roared at the communications officer beside him.
"Yes, Colonel!"
However, it was all too late.
Before the communications officer could pick up the microphone, the devastating lightning bolt had already descended from the sky.
All the officers on the airship bridge watched helplessly as the thick bolt of lightning instantly swallowed the vanguard unit approaching the tower.
From their perspective, the scene looked like divine punishment from mythological legends.
The entire bridge fell into a dead silence.
Everyone was struck speechless by the terrifying sight before them.
"They… they're all gone…" a young observer said, his voice trembling.
That was a company, over two hundred Imperial soldiers, gone in just a few seconds?
"Damn it!"
Schneider slammed his fist onto the console, his eyes red with fury.
"All hands to battle stations, Condition One!"
He turned abruptly, his voice hoarse from extreme anger.
"All turrets prepare to fire! Target: Eiffel Tower!"
"Simultaneously broadcast to the whole city! Warn all ground troops! The Eiffel Tower is attacking! All units clear the Champ de Mars immediately!"
"Yes, sir!"
Meanwhile, at Gare de l'Est.
Morin and his Instruction Assault Battalion were escorting the Armored Train 'Odin' slowly into the empty station.
The Gaulish government had taken almost every operational train during their evacuation, leaving the vast Gare de l'Est unusually quiet.
After the Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers confirmed the area was secure, Colonel Lucas simply had the 'Odin' park directly inside the spacious workshop of the locomotive maintenance area.
"Alright, soldiers, dismount! We're here!"
Standing at the door of the command carriage like a retro train conductor, Morin shouted to his Instruction Assault Battalion soldiers.
After fighting for so long, they could finally rest their feet in this world-famous city.
However, just as they jumped off the train and before they could even stretch, a dull, loud noise came from the direction of the city's west side.
"Boom—"
The sound was like a muffled clap of dry thunder.
"What's going on? Thunder?" A soldier instinctively looked up at the sky. It was clear and cloudless.
Morin's heart, however, gave a violent lurch.
His damn intuition was sounding the alarm once more.
Sure enough, the next second, the massive broadcast from the Armored Airship echoed through the sky over all of Paris.
"Warning all ground troops! The Eiffel Tower is attacking! I repeat! The Eiffel Tower is attacking! All units clear the Champ de Mars immediately!"
The broadcast voice reverberated in the empty city, sounding exceptionally clear.
Inside Gare de l'Est, all the Saxon soldiers who had just dismounted froze in place.
Morin felt the world spinning. He felt as though he had been promoted from a 'jinx' to a higher level…
He exchanged glances with Manstein and Kleist beside him, seeing the shock in each other's eyes.
"Something happened!"
Just then, Colonel Lucas also jumped down from the 'Odin's' command carriage, his face grim.
"Captain Morin! You heard it too?"
"I heard it," Morin nodded. "Colonel, what exactly is going on?"
"I don't know either!" Lucas shook his head. "Go! To the station's clock tower! That's the highest point around here!"
The group wasted no more words and immediately ran toward the towering clock tower of the main station building.
Although Paris's urban planning was orderly, there were no skyscrapers, so the visibility should have been excellent.
But in reality, the uniform four-to-six-story Haussmann-style buildings acted like high walls, dividing the city into a giant maze and severely obstructing the view.
Morin and the others trotted up the narrow spiral staircase of the clock tower.
When they breathlessly reached the observation deck at the top, they finally saw the situation in the west clearly.
Then, everyone's jaw dropped in shock at the sight before them.
On the west side of the city, the entire upper portion of the massive Eiffel Tower was shrouded in violent blue electric currents.
Countless tiny electric snakes danced and jumped wildly on the steel tower body, making a sizzling sound.
The entire tower seemed to have transformed into a gigantic pillar of blue light connecting heaven and earth.
"Holy sh*t…"
Morin stared at this magical scene, his mouth forming an "O" shape.
Only one thought was in his mind.
Isn't this Red Alert 2 that I played as a kid?
Tesla Coils are here now?
On the bridge of Armored Airship No. L29, the atmosphere was also tense to the extreme.
"Colonel! Unable to establish radio contact with the First Army Group Headquarters! Strong electromagnetic interference!"
The communications officer took off his headset, sweating profusely as he reported.
"As expected."
Colonel Schneider's face was dark, but he wasn't surprised.
"Look at that tower now; it would be strange if radio signals could get out…"
"Since we can't contact headquarters, I will take command on-site according to the 'Armored Airship Combat Regulations'!"
Schneider waved his hand violently, his voice carrying unquestionable decisiveness.
"All main guns open fire! Blast that damn iron frame to pieces!"
"But Colonel, the General Staff's order was to 'occupy' and 'control'…" a nearby adjutant reminded him quietly.
"Screw the orders!" Colonel Schneider cursed directly. "It's attacking us now! This is self-defense! I'll take full responsibility for any consequences!"
"Yes, sir!"
The adjutant said no more and immediately issued the order to the fire control room.
"Main guns fire! Target: Middle section of the Eiffel Tower! One volley!"
"Received! Turrets One through Four loaded!"
The massive twin-barreled 203mm naval gun turrets slowly rotated, aiming at the distant target.
Simultaneously, Armored Airship No. L28 reacted in the same way.
Seeing the friendly ship preparing to fire, their captain also unhesitatingly issued the attack order.
"Boom! Boom! Boom! Boom…"
Accompanied by continuous loud noises, sixteen heavy 203mm bunker-buster shells, trailing pale blue wakes, roared out from the muzzles of the two Armored Airships, flying toward the Eiffel Tower.
At this moment, the straight-line distance from the airships to the tower was only about 2 kilometers. For such large-caliber naval guns, this was practically point-blank range.
Coupled with the target's immense size, all the gunners believed this attack was a sure hit.
On the clock tower of Gare de l'Est, Morin and the others also clearly saw the sixteen streaks of fire tearing across the sky.
"The airships fired!" Kleist shouted excitedly.
"Well done! Blast it to bits!" Colonel Lucas also pumped his fist.
In their view, no matter how outrageous that tower was, it was ultimately a steel construct.
Before the 203mm naval shells designed to breach fortresses with Magic Shields, the tower wouldn't be that sturdy.
However, just as the sixteen shells were about to hit the Eiffel Tower, the countless electric snakes winding around the tower seemed to suddenly come alive!
They converged in an instant, forming a visible blue force field made of pure electricity around the tower's exterior!
"Buzz—"
The sixteen shells slammed headlong into that blue shield, and then… a bizarre thing happened.
The shells did not explode, nor did they penetrate the shield.
It was as if they had hit a soft yet tough wall; their trajectories were forcibly deflected at an angle.
Ultimately, the sixteen shells flew past the edge of the Eiffel Tower and landed in the Seine River behind it, splashing up four towering columns of water.
"…"
"…"
Whether on the airship bridge or in the clock tower at Gare de l'Est, everyone witnessing this scene fell into a stupor.
"Wha… what happened?" Kleist stammered, even suspecting his eyes were playing tricks on him.
"The shells… turned?"
Colonel Lucas also looked incredulous.
"What is that? A Magic Shield? No, I've never seen a shield that can make shells turn!"
Only Morin's expression became unprecedentedly solemn.
He seemed to already know what it was… an electromagnetic deflection field formed by powerful currents!
However, Morin quickly came to terms with it.
After all, this was the Gauls' Mage Tower, and a unique 'Wonder' in the world.
In a certain RTS game, a 'Wonder' built with the strength of a nation could grant an unconditional victory.
Now that the Eiffel Tower was showing off these 'signature moves,' it was understandable…
Understandable my ass!
Morin looked at the giant tower flickering with electric arcs, feeling as though his brain had been trampled by a 'frenzied elephant tribe.'
Just as everyone was in shock, the Eiffel Tower acted again.
"Warning! High energy reaction detected! It's counterattacking!"
This time, its target was no longer the ground, but the two massive threats in the sky.
Several more thick bolts of lightning sprayed from the top of the tower, like wild dancing electric snakes, biting toward the two Armored Airships with astonishing speed!
"Evasive maneuvers! Full speed evasive maneuvers!"
Colonel Schneider reacted instantly, letting out a hysterical roar.
"Engines to maximum power! Emergency turn to open distance!"
The propeller power units of the two Armored Airships roared loudly, and the massive hulls began to adjust their headings clumsily.
The lightning bolts pursued relentlessly, carving blinding trails across the sky.
Fortunately, the Armored Airships' Magic Shields had some 'hardness,' and lightning attacks were not as direct as the 'Anti-air Sunflare Ray,' so for a moment, the currents merely danced on the exterior of the Armored Airships.
When the two ships retreated to airspace about five or six kilometers from the tower, the pursuing lightning bolts finally dissipated unwillingly into the air a few hundred meters from the airships due to excessive distance.
"Huff… huff…"
On the bridge of L29, Colonel Schneider leaned on the console, gasping for breath, his back soaked in cold sweat.
For a moment just now, he truly thought he was done for.
"Report damage!"
"Report, Colonel! Magic Shield integrity dropped, but the airship is undamaged! We seem to be out of the Eiffel Tower's attack range!"
Hearing this report, Schneider finally breathed a sigh of relief.
He looked again at the distant giant tower still shrouded in electric light, his eyes filled with apprehension and lingering fear.
"What on earth is that thing?"
On the clock tower of Gare de l'Est, Colonel Lucas couldn't help but curse as he looked at the unscathed Eiffel Tower in the distance.
Morin, however, said nothing. He just stared intently at the tower, the system interface in his mind frantically refreshing with new information.
[Building Name: Eiffel Tower (Gallic Republic – Eye of the Loire Mage Tower)]
[Status: Combat Mode Activated]
[Permanent Spells: Eagle Eye, Lightning Bolt, Chain Lightning]
[Pending Activation Spells: Animate Dead, Create Undead]
[Translator's Note]
Check my another translation project at patreon/caleredhair:
Title: Bloodstained Soldier. On Yuanling Planet, due to a food and oil crisis, the various nations that had not experienced large-scale war for a hundred years suddenly erupted into conflict. Tens of billions of civilians were swept into the war. As an Earthling, Hu Hao transmigrated for the second time. He originally intended to travel the world, but war broke out instead.