Mount and Blade System: Start from Pioneer Lords.

Chapter 427 The Demon Returns
Although there were many suspicious points, Tokai didn't think too much about it.

Whatever schemes these Gulfers are plotting, a war will reveal all.

"General, the siege equipment is ready!" The lieutenant's voice was filled with barely suppressed excitement. For them, fighting was the fastest way to gain honor.

Tokai suppressed the strange feeling in his heart, his eyes sharp as an eagle: "According to the plan, the infantry will advance with shields raised, the archers will provide cover fire, the magic crystal cannons will bombard the city walls, and the Zai Dai golems will provide flank cover for the attack."

"As ordered!"

Within the Holy Sith Kingdom's army, horns wailed and war drums thundered, and a silver torrent began to surge.

The heavily armored infantry phalanx at the very front, holding aloft tower shields adorned with exquisite patterns, advanced with heavy but resolute steps.

The alchemist lightly touched the Ring, and hundreds of eight-bladed golems began to run toward the city gate. Each step of these behemoths caused the earth to tremble slightly.

In the sky, the circling Golden Eagle Knights began setting up magic nodes, preparing to unleash their signature technique, the Gunawen Electric Cloud.

Tokai, mounted on his warhorse, gripped the reins tightly and stared intently at the city walls.

He waited, waiting for the expected rain of arrows like locusts, waiting for the rolling logs, burning oil, and rocks to whistle down, waiting for the enemy's fire mages to ignite a deadly wall of flames.

However, the expected fierce resistance did not materialize.

The arrows shot down from the city wall were not dense; they clanged and clattered as they struck the mountain-like golems, leaving not even a white mark and posing no threat whatsoever.

Even worse, they weren't as sharp as the Munk monkey archers on the sea last time, making one wonder if the garrison in Wirtz had spent all their energy on women's bellies last night.

The fire mages were nowhere to be seen, leaving the magic crystal cannons to bombard the guards on the city wall.

In an instant, screams of agony filled the air, and blood and flesh flew everywhere.

Amidst the intense roar of cannon fire, the eight-foot-tall, hundreds of thousands-pound bronze golems of the Zhaidai, carrying a specially made battering ram, slammed into the massive, eighteen-blade-high city gate of Wirtz with a deafening boom.

These golems possessed earth-shattering power; even from the very first impact, the city walls trembled, and dust fell in abundance.

These alchemical creations soon crashed through the city walls and began a wanton massacre within Wirtz.

The hundreds of thousands of Persian Gulf soldiers were routed by these iron lumps and quickly fled in all directions.

There were no fire mages, no sacrificial artifacts that had once caused them great harm, no powerful warriors capable of fighting the golems—nothing at all…

The enemy's weak resistance caused Tokai's brow to furrow like a copper lock.

However, he did not let his guard down, not ruling out the possibility that the enemy would use the same underhanded tactics employed at Shiling Fortress—deliberately relaxing defenses to lull people into a false sense of security before delivering the final blow.

The battle lasted from dawn until midday when the sun was at its fiercest. Just as Tokai was eating his first meal of the day, with the tender, stewed beef tendon still in his mouth, the battle on the walls of Wirtz was nearing its end.

Soldiers of the Holy Sith Kingdom scaled the walls, clearing out the last remaining sporadic resistance. The Zai'ai Golems smashed through the walls, clearing out the guards in front of the city gates, and stood like a mountain blocking every intersection in Wirtz, preventing the enemy from sending reinforcements from inside to support the city walls.

However, this was clearly a futile effort, as there were almost no soldiers coming from within the city to provide support.

The city wall's defenders fled in panic.

"What kind of undead tricks are these Persians up to now?!" The Sith officers were filled with doubt.

Wirtz won too easily, too simply, so easily that they couldn't believe it was real.

There's no such thing as a free lunch. These officers are all shrewd and wouldn't believe that the enemy would easily give up such an important city.

Wirtz can be considered the last strategic buffer zone of the Southern Province. If the other side were to abandon the city, it would be as if they were handing over the Southern Province to them, which is obviously impossible.

"Could it be that these guys have hidden a large number of soldiers inside the city, waiting to launch a fatal attack when we enter and are completely unprepared?" one officer speculated.

This conjecture was quickly dismissed. Although Wirtz was a large country with a million permanent residents, hiding hundreds of thousands of soldiers would not have been a problem.

However, this tactic is only used when there is no other way out. The enemy has hundreds of thousands of defenders on the city walls alone. If they also have hundreds of thousands of soldiers hidden in the city, the sheer number on paper is enough to crush the Sith. Even the most foolish commander would choose to defend the Wirtz walls to the death rather than surrender them.

The officers discussed it for a long time, but still couldn't come up with a solution.

"First, garrison the city walls, and send out small teams to scout the situation inside the city." Tokai sipped the last bite of beef in his mouth, drank the last bit of fruit wine in his cup, wiped his mouth with a fine silk handkerchief, and then spoke slowly and deliberately.

As he gets older, Tokai prefers softer foods, which make him feel more relaxed. Today's stewed beef was just what he wanted, and he ate more than usual without realizing it.

What's the use of not rushing into the city, no matter what schemes or tricks the other side may have?
Bernard is right behind us and will arrive soon. At that time, even if it's just a pretense of abandoning the city, it will become real.

Tokai touched the ring on his hand, thinking to himself.

……

News of the weak defenses in Wirtz quickly reached Bernard at the rear. At first, everyone thought the same thing: that the Persians were up to something again.

Therefore, Tokai began to send people to carefully scout the entire city of Wirtz, and the scouts searched until nightfall without finding anything amiss.

Wirtz could indeed hide a large number of soldiers, but he could never evade a targeted search.

The Sith soldiers brutally kicked open every door, only to find the Wirtz residents hiding in their kitchens; there was nothing else inside.

After repeated reconnaissance, all the Sith officers had to believe that Wirtz was indeed no longer guarded by enemy troops.

Although the victory came too easily and the enemy's main force seemed to have vanished into thin air, after careful consideration, Tokai still ordered his troops to be stationed in Wirtz.

If we continue to stay outside the city, we are easily attacked if the enemy's army rushes in, which is far less safe than staying inside Wirtz.

However, to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, Tokai chose an open space near the city wall in the western district of Wirtz as the military camp, and strictly prohibited soldiers from going out and suspicious persons from approaching the camp.

As the sun disappeared and the moon rose, rays of soft white light fell upon the city of Wirtz, and pairs of red lantern-like eyes lit up in the houses of Wirtz.

……

Late at night, a simple residential building in Wirtz was transformed into a modest study. Compared to the luxurious studies of the nobles, it contained only a desk and stacks of documents.

The large, antique mahogany table had two high-backed chairs on either side, one by the door and the other by the window. At that moment, Tokai was sitting in the chair by the window, resting with his eyes closed.

But this rare tranquility was soon shattered.

"Sir, we've apprehended a suspicious man." A burly Sith officer hurriedly pushed open the door and entered. The gray-haired old man opened his eyes and noticed some fresh bloodstains on the man's fine plate armor, which shimmered crimson in the dim light of the luminous pearl. In his experience, the bloodstains were definitely no more than an ounce of an hour old.

It's clear that the other side has just been in a battle.

The officer, Tokai, knew that the other party was Ons, the regimental commander in charge of the patrol team.

"What's going on?" The old man frowned, slightly displeased, but he didn't show it.

He wondered if they had discovered the group of Persians hiding there. If so, it would save him from racking his brains.

"Bring them up here," Ons waved his hand.

Soon, two Sith soldiers carried in a middle-aged man wearing a white turban.

Tokai knew the customs of the Persian Gulf people, where men would wear turbans once they reached adulthood. In addition, the other person's skin was slightly darker than theirs, so he was obviously a resident of Wirtz.

"Sir, while I was leading my soldiers on patrol, we suddenly heard a scream coming from a house on the side of the street. When we rushed in, we saw this guy..." Ons recounted what had happened with lingering fear, as if he had witnessed something horrifying: "cutting the flesh of his daughter and wife with a knife!"

Tokai raised an eyebrow. Cannibalism when civilians are starving to death is a perfectly normal thing in every country.

However, Wirtz had not yet experienced war, and after entering the city, he strictly forbade his soldiers from looting to prevent any accidents. How could the civilians living there possibly be without food?

In the past, Tokai would not have cared about such a trivial matter at all; he was not a virtuous monk with overflowing divine favor.

But now, even the slightest thing that seems off will attract his attention.

He looked at the middle-aged man on the ground. The man was kneeling on the ground with his head down, and his face was in shadow so he couldn't see his features clearly.

"What's your name?" Tokai's voice wasn't loud, but it carried the authority of someone who had long held a high position and the iron-blooded aura honed on the battlefield, making it exceptionally clear in the quiet study.

He used the common language.

The man on the ground seemed to tremble slightly, but did not answer immediately.

"Raise your head!" Commander Ons shouted sternly, taking a step forward, his boots slamming heavily on the rough stone ground.

The man slowly raised his head.

It was a typical Persian Gulf face, dark-skinned, etched with the hardships common to ordinary people, but at this moment it exuded an indescribable madness and strangeness.

His eyes were bloodshot, and something seemed to be slowly wriggling deep within his pupils.

What caught Tokai's eye the most was the dark red mark left at the corner of the other person's mouth, and the large patches of congealed blood on the chin and clothes.

Tokai changed to a calmer tone, but the question became more pointed: "Why did you eat your own wife and daughter?"

There was blood on the other person's mouth and clothes, indicating that they had eaten raw flesh and blood, and it was almost impossible to guess where the flesh and blood came from.

His hawk-like gaze was fixed on the other person's face, not missing a single subtle change in expression.

The man made a gurgling sound that was hard to understand, as if his trachea was blocked by thick phlegm.

His lips moved a few times, and finally he managed to squeeze out a few hoarse, questioning syllables: "Why... can't my wife and daughter eat it?"

Tokai's heart sank slightly.

Something is wrong!
Deep in the man's eyes lay the greed of a dog seeing a bone, without a trace of fear.

"What...what are you?! You don't even know the meaning of wife and daughter!" Tokai's hawk-like eyes snapped open, like lightning streaking across the night sky: "No human being would ask such a question!"

This statement was like a thunderclap that opened the curtain.

The man kneeling on the ground suddenly stiffened. An indescribable, nauseating smell of sulfur mixed with the stench of blood suddenly filled the simple study.

“Heh…heh heh…” The man’s throat emitted a low, beast-like growl, no longer a human gurgling sound.

The human expression on his face was completely stripped away, leaving only naked malice and greed.

The next second, a chilling scene unfolded.

The middle-aged man kneeling on the ground began to contort his body. His coarse cloth clothes were instantly torn to shreds, and the exposed skin was no longer dark, but had turned into a scarlet color.

The human face melted down like wax, replaced by a hideous and terrifying one, with two curved horns piercing the skin and bursting out.

demon!

Everyone present looked stunned.

This monster, nearly two meters tall, with bulging muscles and an aura of the abyss, has finally revealed its true form.

"Human flesh and blood are such a delicacy! If only... if only I had waited a little longer I could have finished eating them!" The monster grinned, revealing a terrifying smile.

The two Sith soldiers suppressed their fear, drew their longswords, and stared intently at the demon.

This Sith Kingdom had appeared before, but it was only a fleeting phenomenon. Only a few elite soldiers who went to quell it saw it. They never expected that even the Persian Gulf Empire would have one.

As a highly skilled swordsman, Ons held a broadsword and stood in front of General Tokai.

This demon looks quite intimidating, but he is confident that he can slice off the opponent's head with a single sword strike.

"How many of you are left in the entire city of Wirtz?" The old man's gaze turned heavy, and he stood up from his chair.

His gaze was sharp as a knife, piercing through the demon's greedy and malicious eyes, as if trying to see the truth behind this horrific change.

At the same time, he glanced out the window out of the corner of his eye—in the city of Wirtz shrouded in night, there seemed to be more, denser, and faint red lights in the windows of the scattered residents, like countless pairs of hungry eyes silently lighting up.

The demon grinned, revealing its massive, fang-filled maw, and let out a malicious roar, which served as its response.

Its powerful hind legs slammed into the ground, and its massive body pounced on Tokai and Ons with devastating force!
Inside the study, a battle erupted instantly!

Outside the window, the entire city of Wirtz finally revealed its true face.

(End of this chapter)