The Last Sentinel

"Hagaga Road, どうしたんですか!"

"It's Honnoji Temple! In the direction of Honnoji Temple!"

"General, a major incident has occurred in the direction of Honnoji Temple; it appears that powerful figures from the Ming Empire have arrived!"

"..."

Chaos reigned within the shogunate.

No matter how hard the shogun racked his brains, he never imagined that chaos would break out in his rear, let alone that a powerful enemy would dare to single-handedly storm into his rear to carry out a decapitation strike.

"Quickly, notify the shrine!" the Shogun shouted. "All retainers, proceed to Base Two!"

"yes!"

The Shogunate's forward command post began to collapse rapidly. The cosmic rules governing the once magnificent and massive stargate fortress were shattered, and countless black spatial rifts spread out in all directions like a spider web. From between these rifts, visible black, wispy winds shot out, killing anyone who touched them and injuring anyone who came into contact with them.

Amid the chaos, a shogun, standing two meters tall and exceptionally tall among the Japanese, strode into the collapsed shogunate hall.

The moment the shogunate retainers saw the general, they hurriedly tried to stop him.

"The general has ordered everyone to retreat to Base Two. General Guangxin, what are you doing?!"

"I want to see the general!"

"General, now... ah!"

Blood flowed freely, and through the black dimensional rift, a gleaming blade flashed, turning those who stood in its way into a bloody mist.

Tokugawa Mitsunobu wiped the bloodstains from his blade and looked toward the general's platform not far away.

On the platform, the Shogun rushed out in a panic, pointing at Tokugawa Mitsunori and roaring, "What are you doing! Mitsunori! The Shogunate is about to collapse, what are you still doing here!"

Tokugawa Mitsunori's gaze swept over the chaotic fleeing crowd, a look of disdain on his face. As he paced back and forth, his voice was arrogant, "Uncle, the Empire's powerful warriors have already stormed into Honnoji Temple, and they've been held back by our own forces. Now is the perfect time for us to launch a surprise attack on Hakugyokyo!"

Upon hearing this, the Shogun clutched his forehead, almost roaring, "Tokugawa Mitsunobu, have you gone mad? Our headquarters has been attacked, and instead of retreating, you launch a sneak attack? Are you looking for death?"

"No—" Tokugawa Mitsunori's face revealed the aura of a ruthless warlord. "Uncle, the Empire's dispatch of powerful figures to our camp indicates that the recent major battle has severely damaged the Ming Empire's strength. Now is the perfect opportunity for us to launch a full-scale attack, completely shatter the outer defenses of Baiyujing, and capture Baiyujing! In any case, I believe we should strike immediately, rather than fleeing back to our rear base number two like a stray dog!"

A retainer stepped forward and rebuked the shogun, saying, "This is the shogunate. You are a domain lord; you must obey the shogun's orders—ah!"

Tokugawa Mitsunori suddenly drew his sword, and before the retainer could finish speaking, he fell into a pool of blood.

"Uncle," Tokugawa Mitsunori approached step by step, like a wild beast, his eyes bloodshot, "I have always admired you. You saved me from the ravages of history, allowing me to be reborn in this new era of the heavens. You gave me a future and a samurai sword, teaching me that force is the greatest weapon in this world! But you are old now. Your so-called strategies are nothing more than perfunctory tactics. You think about fighting a few wars to continuously reap the benefits, but you have never thought about ending this war!"

"And I want to end this war!"

The Tokugawa shogun stared at his tall nephew, as if realizing something. "You never intended to launch a surprise attack on the Ming Empire and capture Baiyujing. You only wanted to use this disagreement to become a true shogun!"

"Hehe." Tokugawa Mitsunori laughed. "Uncle, you understand me. I especially love the Ming Dynasty's 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' and in 'Romance of the Three Kingdoms,' my favorite general is Lü Bu! I have always regarded General Lü Bu as my life's pursuit! General Lü Bu followed three adoptive fathers: Ding Yuan, Dong Zhuo, and Lü Bu. You are my first uncle, but you will not be my last uncle."

"Uncle 様, 成し sui げさせてください. Fuso no future のために, rudeness いたします!"

The samurai sword pierced through the shogun's forehead!

Having killed his uncle with a single blow, Tokugawa Mitsunori turned to look at the left and right retainers of the shogunate.

The shogunate retainers, all blustering but inwardly cowardly, surrounded Tokugawa Mitsunobu, swords in hand. "Tokugawa Mitsunobu! You... how dare you kill the Shogun!"

"Tokugawa Mitsunobu, you're dead! The next Shogun will kill you!"

"The legacy of the shogunate endures forever; Tokugawa Mitsunobu, your end is near!"

Standing two meters tall, Tokugawa Mitsunobu was like a crane among chickens among his retainers. He strode forward, seemingly a reincarnation of Lü Bu, his face full of arrogance. "In such a vast shogunate, there isn't even a single powerful samurai who can deal with me. Uncle, you're quite the shogun!"

"However, on the other hand, it is precisely because my uncle made good use of you good-for-nothings that I was able to turn the tables at this moment."

"To commemorate my uncle, I will send you all to join him in death!"

A gleaming blade flashed out, and the arc-shaped flames of the particle stream devoured everything. Hundreds of retainers and generals of the shogunate frantically tried to escape, but faced with Tokugawa Mitsunori's merciless slaughter, not one of them could escape.

Flames burned on the collapsed antique wooden buildings, and the sounds of exploding ships echoed one after another. The Japanese front was collapsing rapidly.

In the blink of an eye, visible blue and white energy ripples appeared in the dark sky, and those energy patterns quickly condensed into a sci-fi polygonal network structure!

"General!" a retainer cried out in alarm, "It's the Ming Dynasty! The Ming Empire's space portal has been opened! The Ming army will be arriving soon!"

Tokugawa Mitsunori, with his hands behind his back, said, "Very good, this is the result I wanted."

"Powerful figures from the Ming Dynasty launch a surprise attack on Honnoji Temple!"

"The Ming Dynasty's space forces launched a coordinated surprise attack!"

"The front lines in Japan have been completely lost under my uncle's foolish command!"

"And my uncle, in order to repay the support of all the Dao Lords in the myriad realms, did not hesitate to end his own life by committing seppuku, a tradition of Bushido."

"And I will bear my uncle's will and utterly shatter the Ming Empire and the carbon-based universe behind it!"

"What a delightful story that sounds!"

"You agree, don't you?"

The retainer looked at Tokugawa Mitsunori with obsequious deference: "What the shogun says is absolutely right. I believe that the Lord of Ten Thousand Realms will be able to understand the shogun."

"Let's go." Tokugawa Mitsunori turned around and said nonchalantly, "Let's leave this place and hand over the remaining territory to those barbarians from Loulan and Goguryeo. We need to recuperate for a while."

"Yes! Everyone retreat!"

"Everyone retreats, Goguryeo and Loulan are defeated!"

As the Ming Empire airdropped mechs in batches, the Japanese forces quickly left, and the battlefield was quickly handed over without any fighting or casualties.

Only the battlefield where the Shogun died appeared.