Man on the ark, forced to become king

All they could do was pass on the intelligence and then leave as quickly as possible.

“No, we cannot leave now. If the Ursus nobles’ army is allowed to garrison the border, Kazdel’s army will not be able to pass through here and reach Columbia. The king’s plan cannot be stalled at this point, so we must find a way to stop that army.”

Loretta's voice was very calm, but what she said was so crazy that Fiameta's eyes widened in shock.

If she weren't tied up, she would have even wanted to run over and touch the person's head to see if they were delirious from a fever.

"Stop us? By what right? Just the few of us? Even if the Ursus army stood there and let us kill them, we wouldn't be able to finish them off in days!"

"Wouldn't the wisest course of action be to evacuate first, relay intelligence, and have the Golden Tree send its top experts to open a breach?"

Fiameta felt that her approach was completely correct; this was the proper way to respond.

A team of less than ten people trying to intercept an army of forty thousand?

Is she crazy, or is the world crazy?

They are not like Lin Lu; they don't possess the terrifying power to turn the world upside down with a wave of their hand. If they stay, they can do nothing but wait to die!

"No, it's not that we can't do it."

Loretta shook her head slightly, her gaze falling on the lifeless corpse of the inner guard on the ground, a ruthless glint flashing in her eyes.

It's true that the people of the North are all crazy. Their normalcy is often just an appearance; in reality, they are more extreme and obsessive than anyone else.

Now, she had a crazy idea.

It is unrealistic and impossible to intercept an army of tens of thousands of people head-on by force.

But what if it's... corrupted by evil spirits?

In this world, not just anything can withstand the corruption of demonic power.

The power of demonic beings can mutate normal creatures, turning them into mindless monsters. However, most normal creatures don't even qualify for mutation; they die from the pollution and become the medium for spreading it.

If we kill all the guards present, extract the demonic fragments from their bodies, find a way to intensify them, and then release them into the Ursus army, the contamination will spread rapidly.

In a densely populated army, the spread of demonic power is extremely rapid, a fact that dealt a heavy blow to Ursus countless years ago.

People who don't understand this kind of thing can't even come up with a countermeasure in a short time.

If they operate well, they can completely turn that 40,000-strong army into a hunting ground for devils without even a fight.

How many people will survive?

Probably not too many.

Furthermore, the mutated monsters that lose their minds also cause great trouble for the surrounding nobles, leaving them no time to attend to what is happening on the border.

"You're fucking insane! How dare you!"

After Loretta calmly explained her plan, Fiameta put down her gun, looking at her as if she were a madwoman or a demon.

She had traveled to many countries and encountered many mentally unstable lunatics and extremists.

But none of those people were as pure as the guy in front of me!

How could you possibly think of using demonic corruption to wipe out the Ursus army? How dare you do that?

If that were done, an army of tens of thousands could certainly solve the problem, but the spread of the mutants would turn vast swathes of land into hell on earth, and even allow real evil to be resurrected.

That would be a real disaster! A devastating disaster!

This is crazy!

Just thinking about that scene sent chills down Fiameta's spine. She wanted to grab this guy by the collar and demand an explanation for what was going on in his head.

It looks like a human being, so why doesn't it act like one?

Is this a plan even a human could come up with? It's more devilish than the devil himself!

A madman! A complete and utter madman!

This person is beyond saving!

Chapter Twenty-Two: You Can Always Trust Saria

"Hoo~ Hoo~ What are you all arguing about? I don't object to your friendly interactions on the battlefield, but could you at least try to control me first?"

Remian's voice drifted from the leaf-shaped earring, punctuated by heavy breathing, clearly indicating that something was wrong.

That's exactly what happened.

Fiamet's firearms are among the most unique even in Laterano. Their potential is extremely high. With external assistance, they can even achieve power approaching that of city defense cannons. Even without external assistance, with his superior personal skills, he can still achieve amazing destructive power after paying a certain price.

However, there is a major prerequisite for using that kind of attack—that is, Fiameta must devote herself entirely to controlling the gun and pour all her life energy into it. At this time, she cannot move freely.

Therefore, among the three-person team that had come all the way from Laterano, Loretta chose to stay by her side to ensure that she would not be harmed by the enemy during the attack.

This meant that Remian would naturally have to act alone, and since her combat style was based on agility and long-range sniping, it would be more convenient for her to be alone.

However, her tactics are unlikely to be effective against enemies of the same caliber as the Inner Guard.

At this moment, she was being closely pursued by an inner guard. The time she had taken to get here from Laterano was too short, preventing her from learning the spells of the Golden Tree to further enhance her combat abilities. She could only rely on the physical enhancement brought by the blessing of the Golden Tree to strengthen her original abilities and deal with the inner guard.

This is her limit.

They can manage to stall and buy time, but they can't do much more.

Even simply protecting herself wasn't enough for her to last long, since the inner guards were best at close combat.

In this respect, she is not proficient at all and has no advantage whatsoever.

"Hang in there, they've realized what's happening."

Fiameta responded in a low voice, her eyes fixed on Loretta, her body tense, ready to stop the man's crazy behavior at any moment.

The thought was already incredibly crazy just to run through her mind; she would never allow it to become a reality.

If she weren't outmatched, she might have directly knocked Loretta unconscious and taken her away, nipping the potentially terrifying plan in the bud.

"You make it sound so easy!"

Remien gasped for breath, rolling awkwardly on the snow to avoid the guards' blades, gritting her teeth.

Hang in there? Do you think she can make it happen just by hanging in there?!

Do you want to listen to what you are saying?

If it weren't for her past experience, she would have suspected that Fiameta was deliberately trying to embarrass her as revenge for the countless pranks she had played before.

These bodyguards are really too troublesome!

Bang!

The short gun he carried burst into flames, pointing at an empty spot in the air. The next second, the bodyguard appeared there, his movements suddenly halting as if he had deliberately moved forward to catch the bullet.

Taking advantage of this opening, Remian once again widened the distance, gaining a brief respite.

Fortunately, just as Fiameta said, Saria and the others who had set up camp on the ruined fortress joined the battle. A long spear, moving so fast that its afterimage was almost invisible to the eye, came flying through the air and struck the stunned inner guard with a fierce storm. The huge impact knocked him back for decades.

Among them, the fastest, Gretia, covered a distance of over a thousand meters in the blink of an eye, appearing in front of Remian with a speed that was only slightly inferior to that of the long spear.

While she may not be as destructive as Skadi, her speed allows her to easily do things Skadi cannot, such as integrating the entire battlefield into her support system and providing support to her teammates at any time.

"Intruder..."

The fog on the inner guard's black overcoat remained condensed and did not dissipate, with writhing shadows clinging to his body. He had withstood Goredia's first throw and seemed to have suffered no serious injury at all.

However, this outcome was expected. Graceia was no exception. She stepped on the ground and burst forth instantly, sending up swirling snow mist. The sonic boom caused Remian, who was not far away, to have a ringing in her ears.

Her speed was so fast that it seemed as if she were teleporting. Even the guards didn't have time to react and were kicked in the back of the spine. The long spear, which had been imprisoned by the black mist, was once again in its owner's hands, leaving a trail of afterimages.

Sweep!

The move was extremely simple, but what was extraordinary was the immense power infused into it, as if it had severed half of space, cutting a clear fault in the air, pressing the recently injured inner guard into the snow layer on the ground, leaving only a human-shaped outline.

Such destructive force would be too much for an ordinary person to withstand; they would be instantly shattered into pieces.

But the internal guards are not ordinary people; it's hard to say whether they can even still be called human.

Even after suffering such severe damage, it still did not lose its ability to fight.

The dark magical aura, embedded in the ground, disturbed the air, forming a shrinking vortex that then expanded and exploded in the next second.

Unlike Loretta, who was unfamiliar with the methods of the inner guard, Goredia was unable to identify the effects and weaknesses of the spell and shatter the core before it took shape, nor did she use the power of gold to suppress the power of the demonic fragments during the attack.

In a moment of folly, it was too late to stop her. All she could do was take Remi'an away from there and observe the situation from a safer distance.

Boom!

A thunderous boom!

The pure black sphere expanded across the earth, compressing the snow layer, tearing up the ground, and spreading outwards layer by layer, swallowing up an area with a radius of hundreds of meters in the blink of an eye.

Considering Remian's physical limitations, Grandia was unable to go all out and was eventually drawn into the edge of the incredibly fast-expanding black sphere at the last moment, pulled into the inner guard's magical domain.

Kingdom, that is its name.

This means that wherever the inner guards set foot is the kingdom of Ursus.

In essence, this is the ultimate means of the inner guards, the strongest spell used with the power of the demon fragments, to replicate the dark domain used by the demonic species.

Using this technique, their power will be greatly enhanced for a short period of time. The filth that has corrupted reality will also turn the area into a barren wasteland unsuitable for human habitation. Furthermore, the domain formed by the kingdom will seal everything inside, making it impossible to escape until the spell ends. The price is the burning of life.

This is not a spell that humans can master; it comes from the authority of demons. Such reckless expansion of the spell almost guarantees that the inner guards who cast it will also bear an enormous burden.