Arknights' Lock of Heaven

She said she wanted to save the Sarkaz, and if she couldn't save them all, she would save as many as she could.

She asked herself for help.

Although I mocked her for wanting to do all this without even understanding the basics of Rhodes Island... but...

His Highness thought and acted in the same way back then.

Although she has left us, there are still people in the world who remember her ideals.

And they are willing to dedicate themselves to it.

For this reason alone, W... cannot face the mudstone directly.

Damn it! When did I become so cowardly?

"W, do you really want that power?" Looking at W who turned away and covered his face, Mudrock slowly said, "If you are serious, then I can help you get it."

Upon hearing this, W whirled around, grabbed Niyan's shoulders tightly, and stared at her with a ferocious expression.

"You're not lying to me? You're not just comforting me? You're not making empty promises?"

“Why would I lie to you?” Mudstone blinked, looking at her. “It wouldn’t do me any good.”

"You're dead if you lie to me!"

Faced with W's somewhat childish threat, Mudrock tilted his head.

"Do you have some misunderstanding about this, uh, let me think, um, the [Simulated Gaia - Spiritual Particle Environment Modification System]?"

"Do you think it's a weapon from some ancient ruin? Or some mysterious technique passed down for thousands of years?"

"Otherwise what?" W asked doubtfully. "What else could it be?"

“It’s something that an advisor will teach you as long as you want to learn,” Mudrock said with a smile.

The premise is that you can learn it.

"How could that be! You must be lying to me!" W, of course, didn't believe it.

How could something so powerful, enough to be considered a national treasure, be taught just because someone wanted to learn it?

But Mudstone really wasn't lying to her.

“If I’m lying to you, you can do whatever you want to me,” Mudrock said, blinking. “Whether you can learn it or not, you’ll know once the consultant comes back, won’t you?”

“That would be best,” W said absentmindedly, releasing Mudrock’s shoulder.

“Oh, by the way, if you had come to the meeting that night,” Mudrock added, “you would have known about this already.”

Upon hearing this, W instinctively slapped himself.

What exactly were you being so dramatic about that night?

If I had known about this thing earlier, I would have stubbornly squeezed in even if they wouldn't have let me in!

"Don't worry, I won't lie to you," Mudrock said with a smile.

Then, mentally, she added, 'Learning is definitely possible; even consultants are struggling to find people to learn. But whether they can truly master it, and when they can learn it… that's another question entirely.'

As far as she knew, Rhodes Island had also screened people to learn, but in the end, only the Earth Spirit and Eyjafjalla were able to understand anything.

Among them, the Earth Spirit was someone the consultant had dug out from under the Doctor at great cost... Previously, the Earth Spirit was the Doctor's right-hand man.

Of course, they're not the only ones who can understand it to some extent, but the others all have their own important projects, so these two are really the only ones who can squeeze it out.

Moreover, these two are still at the stage where they can understand, but only grasp a little bit... They basically spent the entire trip in their dorm studying materials, or rather, textbooks.

My biggest daily activity is pestering the consultant with all sorts of questions.

It's clear to the naked eye that we can't expect anything for at least a few years.

After all, according to them, this is a different route from Terra's tech tree, and there are all sorts of problems with adapting to the local conditions here... Even to scientific geniuses like them, it's like reading gibberish.

Even top scholars find it so difficult to learn... W wants to learn... Hmm, I wonder if it's possible to dedicate half a lifetime to it.

Then let her go and learn.

Being able to learn it is actually a good thing.

It's no exaggeration to say that all Eyjafjalla and the two scholars could do with the advisor was use the various scientific instruments available today to analyze the advisor's spells. Nobody expected them to actually learn them. As long as they could come up with a way to combine them with modern Terran science, that would be considered a success.

This is their real mission.

Well, according to Miss Diling, it'll be within my lifetime.

The reason they study so diligently is partly due to work requirements and partly due to their curiosity about knowledge.

W is a master at handling bombs, but his studies...

How many doctoral degrees does she have?

So even though Mudrock knew she wanted to use this thing to shroud Lentinium and kill Theresis, she didn't care.

391. A stick-like man fears both ends when fighting a wolf.

"Oh no, this is a huge problem."

Franz looked at the seven or eight hundred fully armed Sarkaz mercenaries who were eyeing them menacingly, and then looked around at himself.

Of the eleven vehicles that ran out, only a little over a hundred people got out... This number was several times larger than the Sarkaz... Even if he himself was a highly skilled sorcerer, he could only be hacked to death by a hail of blades.

So he looked at the only person he could count on.

Jonathan.

Franz learned from the previous events that these veterans, though from less privileged backgrounds than himself, had something to teach him about their military service.

Faced with his eager gaze, Jonathan sighed and gave him a look that said, "Leave it all to me."

Then, facing the Sarkaz who were gradually surrounding him, he raised his hands and said in a very straightforward manner, "I surrender!"

"What? How could you..." Franz was completely stunned when he saw this.

“I remember what I taught you, just now,” Jonathan said, turning his head away and whispering, “Living is the most important thing.”

“Even though there were prisoner exchanges in the Uka War and the Eastern Uka War, the Grand Duke will do everything in his power to ransom us in order to find out what happened here. We must also let the Grand Duke know what happened here.”

"It's easy to die, just pick up your weapon and charge in, but living is what's for Ursus."

Upon hearing this, Franz was stunned.

That makes sense.

"But will they let us go if we surrender?" Franz knew how the Ursus army treated the infected.

"However, they might not kill us. Otherwise, they would have already done it. Eight hundred Sarkaz veterans could easily crush our hundred or so men."

Hearing this, Franz's hand gripping the weapon wavered more and more.

Yes, why throw your life away when you can live?

Furthermore, we need to let the Grand Duke know what's happening here... Otherwise, if a war really breaks out, the Ursus army will unknowingly walk into the infected's trap, just like today...

Franz simply couldn't imagine what would happen if such a situation occurred...

Seeing his wavering expression, Jonathan breathed a sigh of relief.

Actually, he had no idea whether the other party would try to kill him.

After all, who would casually reveal such a secret weapon once they possess it?

It would be normal for our group of about a hundred people to not survive.

But resistance also means death, while surrender might offer a glimmer of hope. After all, as he said, if they really wanted to silence them, the Sarkaz would have done it already, instead of simply surrounding them all here.

Over the years, he learned from Boris how to protect himself.

The most crucial thing is to persuade Franz, that stubborn guy, to calm down first. Otherwise, if he uses his battle cry to charge into battle for Ursus, things will get complicated.

Fortunately, he wasn't really stubborn. Come to think of it, he was only in his early thirties and had a long life ahead of him to enjoy. Who would be willing to die?

The surrounding soldiers were also in a state of panic.

Originally, they had hundreds of vehicles and thousands of people rushing over together, but now only about a hundred of them remain when they arrive at their destination.

These hundred or so people had to face eight times their number of Sarkaz mercenaries... without rear support, without reinforcements, fighting alone...

With such a hellish start, how many people can survive?

The Sarkaz opposite them were also hesitant.

"Should we make a move?" the leaders asked, gathering together to discuss.

“But what if we kill someone?” Hearing this, Fariad hesitated and said, “W said she wants them alive… No matter how weak these hundred or so people are, they are still fully armed Ursus soldiers. We can’t take them down without using lethal force.”

The surrounding leaders all nodded in agreement.

The reason we've gathered these remnants of the defeated army here, staring at each other, is because we're worried about this.

If someone who didn't know what had happened came here and saw Sarkaz so hesitant, they would definitely be shocked.

When did Sarkaz become so... 'gentle'?

True to their usual style, even if you request to be captured alive, they will only grin and brandish their weapons as they rush in and slaughter everyone, leaving you a few survivors as a token gesture.

When did you become so obedient?