Cataphracts, surviving in a world full of mods

She really couldn't do that, not only because jumping from that height would break her leg, but also because as the leader of the Imperial Guard, she had her own responsibilities and couldn't do something foolish on a whim.

"It's just a fire in the palace, it shouldn't have anything to do with you, so why are you making such a fuss in the middle of the night? Isn't that the work of a traitor?!"

Barely suppressing his anger, Ingersoll continued to question loudly, his voice so loud it almost shook the surrounding bricks and tiles, and quickly began to spread, making the commotion below the city wall even more obvious.

"Now that things have come to this, do you still intend to keep it a secret, Lord Ingersoll?"

Turias remained unmoved by the situation. Instead, he suddenly raised his head and roared, just like a patrolling soldier seeing a pickpocket about to reach into someone's pocket in a bustling city. His words were full of self-righteous indignation, as if he were simply fulfilling his duty.

"Ha—I'd like to see what else your viper-like tongue can say."

Ingersoll calmed down completely, his right hand constantly spinning his axe, the broad, sharp blade flashing coldly in the firelight. The incredibly tough steel poked small dents into the city wall bricks, like an executioner about to strike.

"Stop putting on an act, Ingersoll. You may fool others, but you can't fool me... His Majesty has already been harmed by you! Yet you still stand here pretending, trying to cover it up!"

With a clang, the axe in his hand shattered a stone brick. Ingersoll's right hand clenched tightly, and his whole being exuded a ferocious and dangerous aura, like a hungry tiger suddenly grinding its teeth, making people tremble with fear, and even the guards standing on both sides couldn't help but turn their heads to look at him.

“What are you talking about, Turials?”

“I say you are the true regicide! It’s that simple, Ingersoll, and Chief Elder Scripps… You conspired with him to murder His Majesty in the palace. You were not satisfied with the reduction of your power, so you committed this heinous act and prepared to reinstate a monarch under your control! His Majesty has already delivered all of this to me through his trusted servants!”

At this point, Turiars' expression turned indignant, and he gritted his teeth, ripped off his helmet, and threw it to the ground.

"It's a pity that fate is so cruel! I couldn't save His Majesty in the end! You traitors succeeded! Now, I have no choice but to make you pay the price!"

At this point, tears welled in his eyes, and his face flushed crimson, clearly due to extreme anger. He could barely speak, and after a long pause, he abruptly turned to look at the now somewhat quiet garrison.

"This is what I want you to know! Soldiers! Our glorious and great Emperor has been murdered! And the culprits are these conspirators!"

"We are supported by Her Majesty and receive generous military pay, yet we cannot protect the Emperor of the Empire when she is assassinated by villains. What a disgrace this is!!"

A commotion arose within the garrison ranks, but it was not one of wavering; rather, it was one of growing doubt and anger. Although the soldiers did not fully believe their commander's words, they were already furious at the news.

No emperor has ever enjoyed such widespread support, especially from the military. With successive victories, vast swathes of land have been adorned with the imperial flag, and countless honors have been claimed by the legions. The empire is now undoubtedly the greatest and most expansive nation on this land... and all of this has happened since the current emperor ascended the throne.

Their current status, their comfortable lives, and their ability to ruthlessly crush their surrounding enemies are all things that happened after this emperor ascended the throne. Who wouldn't respect and love such an emperor?

The young soldiers had already started shouting and cursing, but the veterans who had retired from other legions remained suspicious. They were not reckless young men who were easily swayed by others, or in other words, such reckless people would never have lived to retirement. So it was easy for them to notice that this so-called rebellion was just Turials's side of the story. He had no evidence that the emperor had been murdered; he was just crying and stirring up emotions on his own.

Such meager evidence was insufficient to convince them, and the young soldier, after a moment of rage, calmed down somewhat... Almost everyone was confused; they didn't know what had happened and desperately hoped someone could provide them with answers.

And then, the answer was presented to them—Turiars pulled a magnificent parchment from his robes, its edges inlaid with fine gold thread, and even bearing the emperor's seal. He held it high, facing everyone's gaze, illuminated by a dozen torches:

"This is the secret letter His Majesty entrusted to me! This is my proof, and you traitors cannot hide it no matter how hard you try! Otherwise, you can naturally invite His Majesty out to refute my words in person! ...But can you do that?!"

Suddenly, the entire legion began to waver. The soldiers' murmurs rose like a storm from the ground and rushed towards the palace, causing the flames burning in the braziers to shake. The sounds of swords rubbing against armor blended into a tempestuous storm.

The situation immediately became dangerous. More and more soldiers began to have doubts, and more and more people were starting to have reservations about Turials's words. They were like lake water in a storm, beginning to ripple and gather... After all, everyone knew that Turials had fought alongside the emperor, while Ingersoll's becoming the leader of the Royal Guard was something that had happened with the previous emperor...

Chapter 445 Falling short of success (7)

Most people tend to follow the crowd in public, and as the atmosphere becomes more heated, their emotions are often stirred up as well. At this time, the ability to think independently and analyze calmly becomes invaluable, and even if one has it, it is often drowned out by the tide of the masses and it is difficult to make any significant changes.

It's hard to say whether this situation is beneficial or detrimental... but for the current situation, this trend is becoming unfavorable—more and more soldiers are beginning to believe Turials's nonsense, and their doubts and anger will spread this sentiment, thus infecting more people like a disease and making the situation increasingly uncontrollable.

After all, the evidence presented to them was enough to sway many people's judgments—one was a legion commander who had followed the emperor since his humble beginnings, and who had even been a butcher in the past. His ability to get to where he was today proved his competence and loyalty.

The other is Ingersoll, who took over the command of the Praetorian Guard from the previous mad emperor Igulus, who was already deeply resentful and criticized by the people... Everything was against her. Outsiders would not know the emperor's trust in her, and would only become suspicious of her under such circumstances, guided by those with ulterior motives.

What's worse... seeing the thief's confident demeanor, she couldn't help but worry about the emperor's safety... After all, Turiars seemed too certain, and even though she had just met the emperor, she couldn't help but feel suspicious, and a sense of anxiety began to spread in her heart.

Driven by this emotion, while exchanging words with Turiars, she couldn't help but irritably hammer the stone bricks under her feet with her long axe. The crisp clanging sound was like the drumbeats of war, fueling the anger in her heart.

But although this anger burned fiercely and for a long time, it did not truly affect her reason... Ingersoll knew her duty very well; anger would never be a distraction for her, but would only make her killing intent colder and purer, like a whetstone sharpening a blade.

Before receiving news from inside the palace, she needed to stabilize the situation. Even if things deteriorated to the worst possible point, with all the soldiers of the capital's garrison being bewitched by Turiars and launching an attack on the imperial city, she would firmly keep them outside the city walls and not allow anyone who could threaten the emperor to set foot in the palace.

"The situation is beyond saving, my soldiers! We have nowhere to retreat!"

Turials began his performance again. Seeing that the soldiers' emotions were becoming increasingly agitated, he finally revealed his true intentions, drawing his longsword and pointing it directly at the emperor's palace:

“From the moment we arrived here, we had no other choice! We can no longer retreat! If we do not achieve victory and a decisive victory tonight, we will become traitors in their eyes tomorrow! We will be unable to defend ourselves, and the entire legion will face a great purge. Our only chance is tonight to expose their actions completely! Only tonight can we avenge His Majesty and make them receive the punishment they deserve.”

"I assure you, soldiers! I assure you! Follow in my footsteps, we are going to do something just, we are going to carry out righteous revenge, we are going to vent the righteous rage!"

"You have gained far more than what you have now! We will become the enforcers and saviors of the law! Now I beg you to carry out the legion commander's order one last time, and follow my blade forward!!"

The trusted confidants and officers who had been planted among the soldiers immediately began to cheer loudly, continuing to fan the flames and fuel the soldiers' emotions, causing something intense, powerful, yet extremely dangerous to grow stronger. Gradually, someone spoke up first, and others began to echo and cheer.

At first, such calls were scattered, but then they quickly became more frequent and intense at an alarming pace. Soldiers are the kind of people who are best at obeying orders, and they are already used to following commands. Under such incitement, the situation became completely out of control.

The sky seemed to tremble at the soldiers' shouts, the earth shook before them, rooftops collided, nesting birds flew away in panic, and the sounds of armor, swords, hammers, and axes scraping together were dangerously loud.

The situation is now completely out of control. The capital garrison is now a fully mobilized war machine. They have also received rigorous training, are equipped with the best weapons, and are currently in high spirits.

Once the Legion's war machine is set in motion, it is bound to cause destruction and bloodshed... What's more, the one operating this machine now is a person with ill intentions, and it is in the most important heart of the Empire, the capital... Even the most foolish person can imagine the terrible consequences they will cause.

Turias slowly advanced his longsword, its sharp blade gleaming with the cold light of the moon, while countless footsteps behind him followed him forward, as if about to step into an abyss.

“Tell me, who are you seeking revenge for, Turials?”

The world fell silent. The legion, which had been raging and clamoring just moments before, instantly transformed into a frozen sea of ​​iron. Tullils, who had been filled with grief and indignation, looked like a statue cast in brass. Every detail revealed stiffness and shock.

On the towering marble walls, amidst the sculpted battlements, the imperial supreme's golden laurel wreath gleamed, his magnificent purple robes almost blinding him, and the scepter in his hand seemed to gleam with a cold, icy light, eagerly attempting to smash and tear something apart.

But what terrified him most was the emperor's silver hair and those eyes like lava under the moonlight—it was the real Empress Claudius!

"Answer my question, Turials, for whom are you seeking revenge? How come I didn't know I was dead? I even forgot the secret decree I gave you before I died?!"

The emperor's scepter struck the stone bricks of the city wall with a heavy thud, the clear sound carrying far like the ringing of a great bell. Turiars shuddered violently at the sound, his face stiffening and contorting in pain...

He was undoubtedly in dire straits… The soldiers behind him were staring at his retreating figure with fear and anger—the emperor was still alive, proving that everything he had said before was a lie! And a lie that the emperor himself denied; he was the real traitor!!

Their anger was self-evident, but their fear was equally palpable... If their legion commander was the real traitor, then what did their midnight siege of the palace mean?! The moment the emperor appeared and exposed this lie, they lost their last reason for doing so, and were now completely inextricably linked to this damned man!

The laws of the empire are the foundation of this nation, sacred and inviolable. They have become the most heinous criminals in the law—those who intend to overthrow the country, attack the palace, and murder the emperor!

Even the veterans in the legion would feel despair just thinking about it.

They suddenly realized that everything from the past was about to slip through their fingers... their respected status, their comfortable and easy life, even the preferential treatment they gave to their parents and children—all of it was about to leave them, simply because they had committed such a crime.

After the fear came a deep-seated hatred that was enough to grind one's teeth. For a moment, even the officers could not suppress it. Many soldiers even tried to rush out of the formation to grab the man who had just been their legion commander and tear him apart and eat his flesh and bones right there! Even if they did that, it would not be enough to quell the hatred in their hearts.

Faced with such a terrible predicament, most ambitious people would be utterly desperate. But Turials had already recovered from his shock. Under the emperor's cold and composed gaze, his lips twitched, then suddenly he grinned, revealing a very strange smile, and burst into unrestrained laughter, looking like a madman who had been hit hard on the head.

His almost maniacal laughter actually calmed the people around him down. Even the soldiers who had just tried to tear him apart stopped, looking on with some confusion, wondering what he was up to.

After a dozen or so breaths, before the others' patience ran out, he finally stopped laughing. He wiped the tears from the corners of his eyes, turned around, but still couldn't suppress the smirk on his face, and arrogantly spread his arms, facing the army behind him:

“I must confess to you, soldiers, I have deceived you… Most of what I just said was fabricated, and I gathered you here for ulterior motives, but not everything I said was false.”

He didn't seem flustered at all; on the contrary, he exuded a sense of confidence and ease.

"At least one thing I said was right... that is, you have nowhere to retreat! I believe many of you have already figured it out yourself. As long as you follow me and surround the palace at night, as long as you do this, it means you can't get away with it."

"Yes, Her Majesty is indeed still alive, something even I didn't expect... But you can guess whether she will forgive those of you whom I have ruled for years and who did this tonight? No, she absolutely will not. Our Her Majesty is an excellent emperor, and an excellent emperor would not leave himself with such a future threat!"

"Sooner or later you will be cleansed, arrested, transferred, and enslaved... And if you want to escape this fate, you have only one choice from the beginning! That is to follow me and continue to do this until we succeed! Only then will your current crimes become insignificant."

"This is not something I can do alone. Right now, three legions are approaching this city. This city will surely fall into our control today. So, make a choice: will you gamble that the emperor will forgive you for what you have done, or will you continue to follow me?"

Turials' eyes gleamed with ambition and determination, burning like flames in a lamplight... No one had ever seen him like this before. This man had always been a conservative and reliable figure; no one had ever seen him so consumed by the fire of ambition, no one...

The emperor sighed softly... She knew what the soldiers of the garrison were worried about—they were not attracted by the man's ambition, but simply feared the punishment of the law, simply feared what a controlling emperor would do to them.

This has happened countless times in the empire's past history, and their concerns are not unfounded... Neither the tyrannical nor the wise emperors of the past would tolerate such things, especially when it truly threatens their lives.

And now, Turials is using this to his advantage, to force the garrison soldiers to join him, to force the city's most powerful armed force to remain loyal to him, so that he can do whatever he wants.

The emperor had to admit that he might indeed succeed... of course, only possibly...

At the same moment the emperor smiled, a strange change occurred below.

Whoosh! Sizzle!

ah!!--

Turials suddenly cried out in pain and fell to the ground, rolling off his saddle. A long black arrow pierced through his knee, entering from the unprotected gap behind him and exiting from behind his knee. The incredibly accurate arrow destroyed his ability to move.

Along with the screams, the sound of footsteps gradually became denser and clearer on the surrounding streets. Then, a lithe, somewhat short figure nimbly climbed down from a nearby building and slung a large bow, as long as his height, over his back... Clearly, the arrow had been shot from that bow.

The legionary soldiers, who were still maintaining their formation, turned around in surprise. Their formation was undulating like waves, and they had almost forgotten to leave enough space between each other to move around. Many of them were crowding together.

And amidst the gaze of tens of thousands of people, amidst the countless footsteps and the clash of armor, amidst the hesitant and surprised hearts of the masses, a magnificent black double-headed eagle banner flashed out from the street corner, standing proudly amidst the throngs of armored soldiers. The golden double-headed eagle at the top caught the first rays of sunlight that were about to end in the early morning, so dazzling that it was almost impossible to look directly at it.

At the very front of them, those riding tall warhorses, wearing winged helmets and clad in gilded steel armor, calmly advanced, fearlessly facing the vast army.

"...It's General Tersolius!"

Containing unimaginably complex emotions, it's unclear who first shouted that name, but soon enough, a cacophony of voices erupted, enough to shake the entire street...

Chapter 446 Falling short of success (8)

Some people seem like miracles just by appearing... This phrase couldn't be more fitting to describe the current situation. The fact that no one in the entire capital knew of Tersolius's appearance, except for a select few, only added to the incredible, almost divine, aura surrounding the scene.

The moment the magnificent double-headed eagle banner appeared at the street corner, it caught the first rays of morning light from the sky. The ornate golden decorations on it became so bright they were almost blinding, and the person riding out in this light no longer looked like an ordinary person.

Although the magnificent heavy armor was still exquisite and sturdy, the plates were marked with traces of knife cuts, axe strokes, spear thrusts, and arrow wounds. Each mark faintly exuded the stench of blood, adding to the armor's majesty, and each defect increased the coldness of the steel.

The fur stripped from the white lion covered his shoulders and elbows, each hair shimmering with an unusual crystalline translucence, as if sculpted from winter ice and snow, spreading every ray of light into a gentle halo.

The winged helmet, which had almost become his trademark, was the most eye-catching feature. The tips of the feathers on one side of the outstretched wings were broken off, and the intricately carved gold visor was tightly closed, obscuring his face. But almost everyone knew who he was, and no one doubted it.

Thus, Thesolius rode straight into the dense army formation without flinching or dodging. Before he even reached them, the officers of the phalanx hastily ordered their soldiers to clear the way, allowing the dense armor and spears and swords to part like a tide before him. No one dared to delay, and he passed through the thick formation unimpeded, as if using a red-hot iron blade to cut through snow.

For a moment, the whole world seemed to fall silent. The only sound in the vast square in front of the imperial palace was the crisp sound of his warhorse's hooves pounding on the ground. His scale armor leg skirt shimmered like a dragon as he moved. His fingers, encased in exquisite armor plates, unconsciously tugged at the reins, keeping his warhorse in a straight line through subconscious movements.

With each step he took, the oppressive aura emanating from him intensified. This feeling was intangible and invisible, but when you realized that the eyes of tens of thousands of people were focused on him, and when you realized just how much bloodshed this person had once commanded, your breathing would change with his gaze, and your heartbeat would rise and fall with his every move.

He was undoubtedly a general who could make the whole world tremble, and whose will could shake the earth. When such a person rode towards him in this situation, how many people could remain calm?

Turials initially appeared somewhat flustered, partly due to the injury to his leg, but mostly because of the figure slowly approaching him on a tall horse. The red warhorse's hooves felt as if they were pressing down on his heart, not on the stone pavement, making it almost impossible for him to breathe.

But then, as the other party drew closer, and he saw clearly the bloodstains on the other's armor and the muddy hooves of the warhorse, he completely relaxed. He leaned back, supporting himself on his elbows, and looked at the man on horseback with a half-smile.

“It’s been a long time, Turials. I wonder if you expected that our reunion would be like this.”

The horse's hooves lightly stomped four times on the ground before coming to a steady stop, perfectly positioned so that Teresolus could look down directly at the other's face, looking down at him from a height that almost completely blocked out the cold morning sun.

Turials's face stiffened for a moment, but then he surprisingly smiled with relief.

"It's been a long time, Lord Tersolius. I still remember your high spirits when I greeted the general at the city gate last time. At that time, you had just conquered the entire East, and the whole empire was singing your praises. The legion's monument was carved in the most magnificent and splendid way... I remember that the monument was just like you now, blocking out all the sunlight."

"You have quite the composure, Turials... Can you tell me why you can remain so calm at this moment? My appearance means that your decades-long ambitions have been completely thwarted. I believe that even the most resilient person should feel lost for a while. To be able to deceive all of us, you must have paid a heavy price."