reincarnation npc, but tomorrow's ark

Chapter Seventy-Three: Driving a Tiger to Devour a Wolf

(Palu's things are always scattered around, and someone has to tidy up his boxes. I really wish I could grab a player to be Palu.)

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The Sarkaz had originally sealed off Lentinium, preventing anyone from entering the mobile city.

Now, the combined fleet of the eight dukes has blocked the Sarkaz at the exit of Lentinium, leaving them unable to advance or retreat.

If Manfred hadn't pointed his cannons at the Duke's allied forces and temporarily halted their advance with the city's defensive artillery, the Sarkaz would probably have been completely wiped out by now.

Even if the King of the Carrion were to lead these Sarkaz regulars and mercenaries in a forced breakout, very few would likely survive. Just as the Lich King's messenger, Emengard, had told Bai Ye, "If the Sarkaz fail here, we will lose an entire generation of young people, and perhaps all the young people of the future."

Bad news kept piling up, and Manfred's communicator remained unable to reach the Regent, the Absolute Master, or even a single Lord of the Royal Court. It was as if all the Sarkaz within Londinium had been abandoned in that instant.

"Tracy..."

Manfred murmured.

He was unaware of the Regent's current situation. According to rumors, some people even saw that Therese was dead... The Western Hall of the Holy King's Society was destroyed, and there were obvious signs of battle and bloodstains in the underground hall.

Before leaving, Theresis only instructed him to retreat to the Sarkaz, while she herself claimed she was going to deal with the race's greatest enemy. This should be the mysterious enemy who destroyed the Shards. They even suspected that the sudden appearance of the calamities might be somehow connected to that person.

Now, the Sarkaz have exhausted all their trump cards. Even their airships have been witnessed crashing, and the Shard has been melted by rays. All they can rely on are a few city defense cannons.

……

At the center of the Dukes' coalition forces, the Duke of Wellington sat atop his high-speed warship, the HMS Gastrill, which also served as the flagship of the entire combined fleet. The fleet under the Duke's command was the absolute main force of the Dukes' coalition forces this time—a high-speed warship battle group.

The Gastrill is the most powerful high-speed warship on Terra, for it was forged from a keel of Lingons, the former capital of the mighty Gallic empire. In the battles against Gaul, Duke Wellington utterly destroyed this powerful empire, demolishing Lingons and dividing up its moving territories.

The high-speed battleship "Gastril" was his trophy, proof of his victory in that war.

There was a saying that was once considered an ominous sign among the nobles of the Duchy of Caesar: "After the War of the Four Kingdoms, Victoria had only one true Grand Duke."

Therefore, after that war, all the other dukes reached a tacit understanding, and they joined forces to restrain and weaken Wellington, known as the "Iron Duke," for more than sixty years. The people forgot the hero in peace, and the nobles rejected the death knell in fear.

However, this time, they had no choice but to select the Iron Duke to command the combined fleet. Only this "imperial death knell," who had emerged from the flames of war, was qualified and capable of commanding such a massive combined force.

Duke Wellington halted all allied forces outside the range of Londinium's defensive artillery. He wasn't in a hurry; Londinium was already theirs, and these Sarkaz were nothing to him. They had other important matters to consider.

Meanwhile, the Duke of Wellington must also be wary of the mysterious figure in Londinium who was witnessed directly destroying the Shard and shooting down the airship. The destructive power he displayed was far more threatening than the city's defensive cannons.

Therefore, he remained calm and patiently waited outside the city, refusing to make any rash moves. In fact, news of the arrival of this massive ducal coalition force, composed of high-speed warships, had already reached Londinium. Such a large army, those dark, steel monsters, would undoubtedly intimidate any malicious individuals within the city.

With the army pressing in, the dukes' intimidation power reached its peak. No matter how chaotic things were inside the city, they could not make any waves in the face of this absolute power.

"Transmit my order: all high-speed warships shall remain stationary and completely block the exits. Any living thing that appears within the range of the ship's guns may be fired indiscriminately to ensure that no one can break through the gap."

On the flagship, the Duke of Wellington gave the orders.

This order was even amplified by Originium Arts, so that everyone in the area where the exit was located, whether Sarkaz or ordinary citizens, heard it. The Duke's order was primarily aimed at winning hearts and minds.

Now, these surrounded Sarkaz have only one option: turn around, break out from the rear, and retreat back into the city of Lentinium. If they do, they will inevitably engage in battle with the city's armed forces.

Those Lontinim people hate these Sarkaz to the core, and they will surely fight to the death for revenge.

This also served the dukes' interests. They didn't need to maintain so many armed forces in the city, as this would hinder their control over the entire city. Furthermore, maintaining such forces might lead to different factions having different political demands. After all, they had contributed to the liberation of Londinium and could be considered heroes.

In short, the dukes didn't want more people to share the spoils, so they would watch as these people fought with the Sarkaz while they reaped the benefits. Although the Sarkaz were surrounded, the army fought fiercely, especially under the leadership of the Carrion King, the ruler of the royal court.

Although they were no match for the powerful and fast-moving warships of the Duke's allied forces, the Londiniums, with their numerical and morale advantage after regrouping, would likely not gain the upper hand.

Both sides will only wear each other down until they bleed to death.

The grand dukes didn't care who was shedding blood; they only needed to ensure one outcome: after the war, Londinium would be a deserted city. There would be no resistance fighters, and they could find whatever they wanted within its walls.

As for those who died in the conflict, all they need to do is make a statement and offer symbolic praise, and they can wipe away the blood debt of these poor people, or even the blood debt of those who died because of them.

There's no need to have any illusions about the dukes; they only know about profit.

Chapter 74 You're always there when the other side gets results

"Damn it!" *Tara curses*

In fact, besides the Sarkaz who were in dire straits and in dire straits, there were others who were in great trouble.

They were Mandra, the commander of the Deeppool Force, and her soldiers, as well as the spy Tara whom White Night had helped rescue.

This squad was originally sent by Abrahma, the leader of the Deep Pool, to communicate and exchange benefits with the Sarkaz in the city of Londinium. However, It was clear that Theresis saw through their blatant scheme and ignored Mandra.

In fact, another Deeppool cadre, Ahmoni, was deeply involved in this personnel arrangement. Mandela was sent to Londinium by Abrahana largely because of Ahmoni's suggestion. Abrahana was already very dissatisfied with Mandela's work in Little Hills County and might even have executed her for it, but Ahmoni essentially gave her another chance.

Abrahana agreed.

Later, in order to monitor this armed force, Manfred chose to cooperate with them, allowing her to assist in guarding the prison and city gates, and ordering his men to increase their vigilance against them.

However, due to the sudden intervention of White Night, Mandra was able to carry out her plan. But as she led her companions and soldiers to escape, a cataclysmic event struck. She also witnessed the destruction of the Shard and was nearly melted by the aftershocks of the attack.

Even while hiding from natural disasters in underground pipes, she encountered Rita Scamanderross, an enemy with whom she had a past feud in Hillsshire, also known as "Horn," the commander of the Stormtroopers' second division.

After the standoff, neither side chose to fight. Instead, they took refuge in a narrow underground tunnel and eventually went their separate ways.

Everything went smoothly thereafter. Mandra's squad encountered no enemies on the way, and the Sarkaz seemed too busy to care about anything else.

However, all of this came to an abrupt end at the exit of the city of Londinium. As they approached the gate, they encountered the army of the Carrion Kings, who were retreating into the exit from the outside.

Fortunately, they hid in time, and the Carrion King needed to reorganize his army and rebuild the defenses, so he did not discover these Tara people hiding right under their noses.

This was terrible. Their retreat had been blocked. The fanatical Lontinimians drove the Sarkaz to completely seal off the entrances to the city, while their way out was blocked by the Duke's allied forces.

Just now, they heard the order from the high-speed warship: the Duke of Wellington proclaimed to his men that any living creature that appeared within the range of the high-speed warship's cannons should be killed without mercy.

In other words, they couldn't get out at all; if they did, they would be bombarded by naval guns.

“We’re not Sarkaz at all…” Mandra hid underground, pacing back and forth angrily, not knowing what to do.

They had considered contacting the leader of Deeppool, given Abrahana's close ties to the Duke of Wellington, whose support was crucial in establishing the Deeppool forces. The Duke was a strong supporter of Abrahana, as people seemed to have forgotten that this "Death Knell of the Empire" was also a Tara.

However, when Mandra finally managed to contact Abrahana despite the interference from the Originium energy field caused by the natural disaster, the communication was suddenly cut off unilaterally. After that, they were unable to contact their leader.

“Damn it…this monstrous disaster!” Mandela cursed.

She still believes that it was the interference of a natural disaster that prevented them from contacting Abrahana again.

“However… the leader should know we’re inside the city, so perhaps we can still be saved!” Mandela paced back and forth in the cramped space.

She clenched her fist and looked towards the outside of the city; they were only a few meters away from the exit.

"Damn it, we've come this far, how could I possibly collapse here?"

Killian, the "spy" from Tara, couldn't stand it any longer. He sighed softly and looked at Mandela, saying:

"The leader won't know."

“We’ve made a communication! The leader knows we’re in the city.”

“She won’t know,” Killian said confidently. “Even if she did, she would just pretend not to know.”

"What—!" Mandela stopped in her tracks, turned around abruptly, and looked at Killian.

“I said, the distance from here to the fleet outside the city isn’t far, so communications won’t be easily interfered with.” Killian looked intently at the Philin sorcerer, enduring Mandra’s almost murderous gaze.

"There is only one possibility: the leader himself cut off the communication."

Wellington did not want to expose his connection with Abrahana, at least not in front of the other dukes, and he did not want to expose it now. Abrahana, the red dragon, was his key card after he moved into Londinium, and he could not easily reveal it when the situation was not yet fully determined.

At some point, Killian began addressing the leader by his first name.

"So... the leaders will not acknowledge their relationship with us now, and they will absolutely not allow us to leave here alive."

As he spoke, Killian looked at Mandela and said softly:

“Mandela, we have been abandoned.”

“Impossible!” Mandela’s voice trembled slightly.

“We have been abandoned by the leader,” Killian repeated.

“…” Mandela fell silent.

Killian continued:

“Mandra, it’s alright. We’ll draw attention to you in a bit. Anyway… I can’t run very far in my current state, so you might as well stay here. You can escape in the chaos.”

“I know your Originium Arts are very powerful. You can hide yourself with stones and fly away without anyone catching you.”

"As for us, you can't take so many people with you. You might as well leave us behind; we can help you cover your retreat."

The remaining deep-pool soldiers all nodded:

"We're already very grateful for getting us this far. Sir, you should go first, but you must leave alive. You must survive."

Clearly, they were prepared to die. Among them, only the relatively powerful sorcerer Mandra had a chance of escape, while the rest were just a burden.

They didn't want to drag Mandela down with them anymore.

“How could you do this… I could use magic to hide everyone together.” Mandela shook her head.

Killian smiled:

"Don't be foolish... Mandela, there are too many of us to hide. Whether you fly away or hide, you can only be alone."

"Remember, if you can escape, don't go... to find the leader."

“…” Mandela fell silent.

She clenched her fists.

……

However, just when everything was at a standstill, a familiar, infuriating voice suddenly rang out from the side:

Why do I always see you with that resentful expression?

Chapter 75 Character Collapse

"you!"

Mandela turned around abruptly and suddenly found Bai Ye standing among the Deep Pool soldiers.

Only then did everyone realize that there seemed to be an extra person among them.

These guys hadn't even noticed Bai Ye before, nor when he arrived.

“What a… elusive fellow.” Mandela wanted to curse, but she swallowed the words back down.

Clearly, even if this guy is crazy, he knows that if he wants to lead his Tara people to survive, then the person in front of him is his only lifeline.

……

The white night is somewhat difficult.

He had originally come here to check on the Sarkaz's retreat, but he hadn't expected to see anyone other than the Sarkaz here. At first, he even thought he was seeing things.

"You haven't evacuated from here yet?!" Bai Ye looked at Mandela speechlessly.

Clearly, these people had incredibly bad luck. If they had left Lontinim any earlier, they could have escaped and gone far away; if they had left any later, they could have stayed in Lontinim city. After all, they weren't Sarkaz, so no one would bother with them, and they could have made their escape later. Instead, they were stuck in the middle, unable to go anywhere.

“Because of that damned natural disaster, we can’t escape at all…” Mandela sighed.

“Ops…” Bai Ye’s expression froze.

Without a doubt, he was the one who caused this natural disaster. However, although it's partly his responsibility, Bai Ye won't apologize. (Chief Karasuma's face)

After all, these people's lives and deaths had nothing to do with him. In fact, they were enemies before.

However, looking at the unlucky guy in front of him, Bai Ye even felt a little affection for him, after all, it was the third time, the third time.

No one can be unlucky forever, right, Mandela?

This amusing situation even stirred a rare sense of pity in Bai Ye. He was unwilling to simply stand by and watch this guy die here, or be beaten to death by the angry citizens of Lentinium.

……

While Bai Ye was still secretly gloating, Mandra's expression kept changing. She seemed to be struggling with something, and then she frowned and gritted her teeth. But in the end, after looking back at the Tara people beside her, she made up her mind.

She put down her staff, slowly bent down, and knelt before Bai Ye in front of all her companions and subordinates.

"Bai Ye, I know you have the ability to keep these Tara people alive. Please save them. I... cough, I'm willing to do anything."

Mandela looked up at the white night and said earnestly.

"..." Bai Ye was stunned and didn't react for a moment.