Arknights' Lock of Heaven

Later, when the promised bill was withdrawn, the infected people launched a riot. The Patriot was ordered to suppress it, but he did not expect that his own son was also in the march and eventually died in the suppression.

The defeat in the tenth Uka War exacerbated domestic conflicts, and the late emperor immediately launched another war against the Eastern Kingdom, only to suffer another Waterloo and lose the war against the Eastern Kingdom.

At this point, the old and new aristocrats completely broke off relations, and the Fifth and Sixth Armies clashed.

The Fourth Army, which came to reinforce the army, defected to the new nobles, leading to the complete annihilation of the Sixth Army. The old nobles, having lost two major army groups in this struggle, were forced to make concessions.

After that, the former emperor of Ursus fell ill due to exhaustion and eventually passed away, at least that's what the official announcement said.

However, there have always been rumors that the late emperor was assassinated by the imperial guards, but the truth is something that outsiders can never know.

After that, a series of upheavals broke out between the old and new nobles, and it was at this time that Helag was ousted from the army and forced to flee St. Jun's Castle.

The old aristocracy gradually regained the power that had been taken away by the previous emperor.

In the end, having done everything possible, all that remained was to leave using the methods most familiar to him.

Thus, the Chernobog incident occurred. Talulah was manipulated by the Black Serpent, but the hidden Third Army was secretly sent by Grand Duke Baikal and Viscount Dunkel. This was also a conspiracy devised by the old nobles to regain power.

Because they controlled the army, while the new aristocracy controlled various assets, they wanted more power, and the only way to achieve this was by starting a war.

But Chernobog failed, and the war with Yan did not take place.

In short, the former Sixth Army was annihilated after the defeat in the war against the Eastern Kingdom due to infighting within Ursus and betrayal by its comrades.

The current Sixth Army Group is newly formed, with most of its personnel being newly recruited, while the veterans are supported by other army groups.

But the problem is that the old aristocracy isn't a monolithic entity. Who would offer their true elite troops to build your army?

Therefore, those transferred from the armies controlled by the old nobles were either troublemakers or seasoned veterans, the kind who were as brave as tigers when things were going well, but would just step on the gas and say goodbye when things were going badly.

Just watch how they perform in Ciprini these next two days.

In short, they were all scoundrels.

The newly recruited soldiers were corrupted by the veterans who had been transferred over before they were even properly trained.

The intelligence estimated that the 20,000 men were mostly dregs from the Sixth Army, which is why they were sent here to intercept the Orville, a cargo ship—out of sight, out of mind.

You'd be furious if you had an army like this under your command in normal times, let alone in the snowy plains where several army groups are clustered together. Look at them! And look at your own troops... How can you even survive like this?

As the saying goes, comparing people will only lead to misery, and comparing goods will only lead to waste.

To be honest, a cargo ship with a maximum capacity of 3,000 people doesn't need two warships and 20,000 men at all. Why send so many people? Probably just to keep it far away, so it won't be so embarrassing to have it constantly in front of them.

However, it cannot be said that the Grand Duke behind the scenes was not concerned. After all, a new and advanced ship like the Ural is highly sought after everywhere, and sending it here shows that it is important.

No matter how incompetent these soldiers are, this configuration is like using a cannon to kill a mosquito when dealing with a cargo ship.

Well, W's concerns are valid. Given the current state of the Sixth Army... it's really hard not to worry about whether they might breach the contract.

Here's a joke: it was clearly an agreement between the mayor of Ciprini and the general of the Sixth Army to deal with the Orville, but the one most worried about whether the latter would break the agreement wasn't the mayor of Ciprini, but the Orville itself.

"So what exactly are your trump cards?" W asked curiously. "Should we start preparing?"

“This… is not necessary,” Mudrock and Earth Spirit exchanged a glance, both seeing the helplessness in each other’s eyes.

That so-called trump card is really hard to say.

They had been out of the city for nearly ten hours, and the Orville was moving at full speed, while W would come to scout things out every now and then under some pretext.

It seems they wanted to annoy them to death so they would have to speak up.

Well, they're pretty childish, and so is the consultant. Before leaving, she specifically emphasized that she was angry because W didn't come to the meeting, so everyone should isolate her and not tell her anything...

It looked like a scene of two children bickering, but it actually happened in such an emergency.

However, let them fight it out. As long as the advisor can cover it up, none of this matters. Besides, he doesn't seem like he can't cover it up.

“It’s nothing really,” Eyjafjalla, who had been reading a book, said seriously as they looked at each other helplessly.

"The advisor hid two top-tier experts on the ship, the kind who could defeat the two warships behind it with a flick of their fingers."

She said with a serious expression, "But these two experts weren't originally planning to appear here, so we'll avoid using them if possible!"

"Oh, my beautiful Miss Eyjafjalla, are you kidding me?" W paused for a moment upon hearing this, then approached Eyjafjalla with an exaggerated, chanting manner. "Such a powerful master, such a master, such a master, do we really deserve to have one?"

"One person defeated a warship. Could it be that this small Orville is hiding two kings of the royal court?"

"Oh, if that's really the case, then we don't need to worry about those two warships behind us. What we should be worried about is whether we will become the food of those two big shots at some point."

W said with a grin, "But I think even if Kal'tsit has a lot of influence, she can't invite two such powerful people to deliver goods to her."

“But I really wasn’t lying,” Eyjafjalla blinked, her face full of innocence. “That’s exactly what the advisor said.”

"Impossible! Absolutely impossible!" W said confidently, spreading his hands. "Who would lower themselves to deliver goods to us at that level? Do you really understand their status?"

"To be able to defeat an army single-handedly means you've basically reached the pinnacle of any nation. For example, your former Witch King of Letania, now the Twin Queens, are among the top-tier figures."

"The Sarkaz Royal Court, the Twin Swords of the Victorian Empire, the Celestial Master of Yan Kingdom, the Saints of Iberia... and so on."

"Of all these people, who can come and deliver goods with us? Two of them? Do you know what that means? They are people who can truly stand at the top of the world."

"Anyone who appears in Ursus without a reason will be seen as a threat from the forces behind them."

W looked at Eyjafjalla, spread his hands, and said, "Could it be that your Letanian twin queens are on the ship?"

“That’s impossible,” Eyjafjalla shook her head and asked seriously, “To be honest, I don’t know much about this, Miss W. Even though I’ve read about it in the tomes about the Witch King, I still find it hard to believe. Can anyone really do such a thing?”

"Then do you know about the Blood Demon?" W asked in return. "The legendary Blood Demon, one of the ten royal courts of Sarkaz."

"I do know this."

"The longest-lived Blood Demon is the Blood Demon Lord of the Blood Demon Royal Court. Legend has it that two hundred years ago, during the war to defend Kazdel, he single-handedly annihilated an entire fully armed Victoria Legion, and the crimson glow he produced could even outshine the sun's brilliance."

“This is something many ancient Sarkaz have witnessed,” W said confidently. “If it weren’t for the existence of such ancient beings in the royal court, and given our reputation on Terra for being able to stop children from crying at night, we would have been wiped out by other countries long ago.”

"How could it still be jumping around today?"

"Uh, you sound pretty proud of yourself?" Di Ling said, looking at her with a strange expression.

“Pride? Not really, just some facts,” W replied calmly. “The existence of such ancient beings can only guarantee that Kazdel will not be destroyed.”

"They can't save all the Sarkaz."

Speaking the most offensive words in the calmest language.

"If those people from the royal court find out, they'll probably arrest W and convict him in the next second," Mudrock thought to himself, shaking his head.

Even if what she said is true.

The existence of the Elders prevents the Sarkaz from being completely destroyed, but they also cannot restore the Sarkaz to their former glory.

Otherwise, we wouldn't have been able to wait until today.

Those ancient beings, who experienced the most glorious era of the Sarkaz, remain immersed in their past even in their current state of decline, unwilling to face the progress of the times.

Mudstone shook his head at this thought.

Actually, Eyjafjalla didn't lie to W. That's exactly what Xia Yuzhen told them. She's not that kind of person.

Two unparalleled masters are in a secret cabin. If the situation gets out of control, go find 'them'.

But W simply didn't believe it.

381 Boris's Doubts

"Something's not right..."

On the Ural, the latest warship commissioned by the Sixth Army, General Boris frowned as he looked at the report in his hand.

It wasn't any particularly important intelligence; it was just that during the process of tailing the Orville, they gradually discovered various vehicles left behind by Captain Nikolai's troops who were on their way to pursue the ship.

At first, he thought it was Walpole Leopold who was secretly sabotaging him by dropping a batch of supplies for his own use.

However, they did stop along the way to retrieve some vehicles abandoned by Nikolai's troops, only to find that the damaged parts of these vehicles were remarkably consistent.

And that's not the most important thing. The most important thing is that, according to the damage analysis reports from the engineers in the military, these vehicles shouldn't have such quality problems at all.

The engineers racked their brains but still couldn't understand why the device would break down for no reason when there were no quality issues and the design was working perfectly.

It wasn't until someone suggested that it might be influenced by some kind of Originium Arts that the reason became clear. After all, they couldn't think of any other explanation besides this human factor.

Even now, the engineers responsible for maintaining the warships are still arguing amongst themselves around the dismantled vehicles.

There are conflicting opinions, with some even suggesting that a natural disaster is brewing and that abnormal fluctuations in Originium in nature are causing this phenomenon.

To this, Boris could only say...heh.

While he was not familiar with academic matters, he was well-versed in matters of war and security.

As a general, his first thought was whether, if everything Nikolai's troops had encountered was indeed caused by Originium Arts, then could this unknown sorcerer have the same effect on the warships?

He asked the engineers responsible for maintaining the Ural about this, and their reply was that it was basically impossible.

The energy system gap between land-based ships and ordinary vehicles is an insurmountable chasm. Being able to slowly scrap dozens or hundreds of vehicles does not mean that he can also paralyze the energy system of a land-based ship. Ordinary people do not have this ability. If someone has this ability, why would they need to paralyze several vehicles at a time?

He could probably kill all 5,000 men led by Colonel Nikolai by himself.

Moreover, the former is far beyond everyone's imagination. To be able to precisely destroy a specific part of each vehicle while it is in motion, the skill level of this Originium Arts is definitely not low.

Furthermore, if those vehicles really did break down due to Originium Arts, such precise maneuvering would have made it impossible for him to be far from the vehicles.

The most likely explanation is that the unknown sorcerer is infiltrated into Nikolai's army.

If he wants to disable the landship, he must be on this ship, but Nikolai's troops haven't returned yet.