Things about the female knight in black stockings

A giant humanoid skeleton, about three meters tall and wielding a double-handed hammer, was clearly annoyed by the little boy's crying. It walked up to the boy, raised its double-handed hammer, and threatened and scolded him.

Instead of stopping crying, the little boy cried even louder out of fear... That became the last sound he made in this world, after which he was smashed to death by a giant humanoid skeleton that had completely lost its patience.

The other residents of Poliland who witnessed this scene were all terrified and fell silent. Even the people who were suspected to be the boy's parents did not dare to make any extra movements, but their eyes were filled with tears as they wept silently.

It wasn't that they were heartless towards the little boy, but rather that they had two other children to take care of. At that moment, they were tightly covering the mouths of the other two children, afraid that they would also cry.

The situation was similar at the other hostage settlements. Although Valensa no longer witnessed the undead killing indiscriminately, there was a lot of blood on the ground around each hostage settlement, indicating that many people like the little boy had already met their demise.

Because of these hostages, Savat Langdon didn't even need to deploy many undead to defend the walls of Poliland.

There are quite a few undead lairs outside the city, each containing several hundred undead. These lairs surround Poliland like satellites, forming Savat Landon's first line of defense.

The message package that Ilana sent to Valensa mentioned these undead lairs. Although the number of undead in these lairs was not large, each lair contained a Radiant-rank undead.

These Radiant-rank undead were all accumulated by Savat Landon over the years. Among them were the undead of humans whose bodies he had killed or stolen, as well as undead monsters... Even the three sages that the Sage Tower had sent to subdue Savat Landon when it acted on its own were now Radiant-rank zombie sages.

In most cases, the strength of the living will be reduced after they are transformed into undead. These Radiant-rank undead cannot defeat the Radiant-rank members of the Joint Action Team in a one-on-one fight, not to mention that the Joint Action Team also has a large number of paladins who are effective against undead.

However, the biggest problem facing the Joint Task Force is not combat capability, but the more than 100,000 hostages in Poliland.

The undead outside the city are not very strong in terms of combat power, but as undead of the highest rank, they are able to turn the undead's lair into their own domain.

Each domain is not large, but more than twenty domains connected outside the city of Poliland are enough to surround the city.

Although those high-ranking undead would have a hard time defeating paladins of the same level even with the support of their lair and domain, paladins also have no way to cross those domains and undead lairs without alerting the undead.

In short, Savat Landon used the domains of more than twenty Radiant-rank undead to create a comprehensive surveillance zone outside the city of Poliland, ensuring that anyone attempting to enter the city would be detected.

The decapitation operation, personally led by Gamona, was discovered by the Radiant-rank undead who had opened their domains while traversing this lair of the dead.

Although the Radiant Undead was quickly killed by the Paladins, Savat Landon did not hesitate to execute more than 1000 hostages, and declared that he would execute more than 1000 hostages for every step the Paladins took next.

Gamona was furious, but he had no choice but to lead his team to retreat.

In many legendary tales, decapitation strikes that were always successful failed right from the start.

The core members of the joint task force are now gathered in this shed to discuss their next move.

While Valensa figured out the current situation with the information secretly given to her by Elana, the others around the oval table also snapped out of their reverie about Valensa's involvement in this little episode and stared silently at the magical projection on the table.

Even the killing of the little boy by the humanoid skeleton with a giant hammer didn't cause much of a stir, clearly indicating that everyone was already used to such scenes.

Valencia didn't want to show off right away, so she quickly pretended to be very troubled, as if she was also helpless in the face of this situation.

The entire shed fell silent, with the only sound being the witch leisurely sipping tea and eating snacks.

About ten minutes later, one of the three officers from the Merchant Alliance finally couldn't hold back any longer. His face flushed red, he mustered his courage, and looked at the witch with slight displeasure:

"Ms. Ailanfeier, the lives of over 100,000 innocent residents are in imminent danger. How can you remain so leisurely? Please think of a solution!"

"Let me think of a way?"

The witch casually sipped her tea, not even bothering to look at the officer. Instead, she winked at Valensa, who was looking at her curiously, stretched, and then said:

"Didn't I already tell you my method? It's an absolutely efficient and reliable method. Since you yourselves disagree, then there's nothing I can do... After all, I am the [Destruction Witch]."

Chapters 136-138: I Have a Solution?

"Are you sure you're not joking about that idea, Ms. Alan Fair?"

The witch's words made the merchant officer smile wryly.

"Of course I wasn't joking."

The witch took another sip of tea, her expression still relaxed, but her tone was quite serious:

"The simplest and most efficient way to solve the current problem is as I said—to directly besiege the city with legendary spells. As long as you can buy me 3... no, 2 minutes of casting time, I can destroy all the undead in and around that city."

"...What about the hostages inside the city, Ms. Elanfiel?"

The Commercial Union officer countered:

"Those are over 100,000 innocent people!"

"Hostages? What hostages?"

The witch remained indifferent.

“I didn’t see any hostages in Poliland City… Those people are probably already dead. They’re just being manipulated by Savat Langdon to put on a show. Why bother with them? Just bombard them with legendary magic.”

"you……!"

"All right."

The merchant officer was clearly annoyed by Alanfeier's attitude and was about to lash out when he was interrupted by the paladin vice-commander, Gamona.

The paladin who had forcibly pulled Valensa to the table looked at the witch with unwavering seriousness in his eyes:

“Ms. Elanfell, we have already reached a consensus, haven’t we? We will not take your advice until we confirm that the hostages have indeed been killed.”

"But you guys just can't think of any good ideas, can you?"

Ailanfeier shrugged indifferently and continued drinking her tea.

"Don't blame me for not warning you, the longer this goes on, the worse the situation will become... By then, the number of victims may not just be a few hundred thousand, but ten or even a hundred times more."

"……what do you mean?"

Gamona frowned slightly, and everyone else's eyes were also focused on Elanfiel, especially the officers of the Merchant Alliance, whose expressions became even more solemn.

"What? You didn't even notice? How incredibly stupid..."

Ailanfeier scoffed mercilessly, stretched her arms overhead, and her hot figure under her sleeveless low-cut dress swayed gently with her movements, incredibly alluring.

This made Valensa unable to resist turning her gaze to Ellenfeld, but while the others were observing Ellenfeld's expression, Valensa was focused on watching the game.

Seemingly noticing Valensa's burning gaze, Elanfiel glanced at her, then gently covered the snow valley with her hand before humming:

"You've wasted so much time here, haven't you noticed that Savat Langdon's behavior is very strange?"

Normally, someone who has taken so many hostages should have already put forward all sorts of harsh conditions to negotiate with us, but what about him? He has shown absolutely no sign of communicating with us!

Is this normal? This is clearly not normal!

"……really."

After Alan Fair pointed this out, the others also showed expressions of sudden realization, followed by thoughtful expressions, all trying to guess Savat Langdon's plans.

However, while the people from the Church of the Sun and the Sage's Tower were alright, the officers of the Merchant Alliance were getting restless.

Poliland is America's city, and these are America's soldiers. If Savat Landon really causes any major casualties, they will be in big trouble too.

Then the merchant officer who had almost gotten into a fight with Alan Feier spoke up again, but this time his attitude was noticeably more humble:

"So... what are your thoughts, Ms. Alan Feier?"

"My opinion... well, it's that Savat Langdon is stalling for time."

Unlike many important figures who like to be mysterious and cryptic, Ailanfeier stated her guess directly:

"I can't say for sure what he's up to, because he's hiding in the city, and there are multiple layers of Radiant Realm surrounding the city. Even I can't find out what he's doing."

But whatever he's doing is clearly going to cause a huge commotion. Based on my witch's intuition, if he uses these hostages to buy enough time, an even greater disaster will occur, so…”

As Alanfeier finished speaking, she took a deep breath, downed the entire cup of tea in one gulp, exchanged glances with everyone at the table, and finally looked at the Paladin Vice-Commander, Gamona:

“I’ve made up my mind. I’ll wait a maximum of three more hours. If you still can’t come up with a feasible plan to stop Savat Landon, I will directly use legendary spells to siege the city and wipe Poliland off the map completely. That way, whatever schemes he has will not succeed.”

I know you self-proclaimed holy and righteous people wouldn't do such a thing, but it doesn't matter. Just push all the responsibility and infamy onto me. After all, I'm the witch of destruction.

Even if you see me as a dangerous figure like a reveler, that's fine, because I know I'm doing this to prevent greater sacrifices and losses, and I have a clear conscience... The more than 100,000 residents of Poreland are indeed pitiful, but I was powerless to help them.”

At this point, Ailanfeier shrugged again and pointed upwards:

"Perfectly solving all problems is something only a goddess could easily do. As a witch, all I can do is choose a relatively better ending."

Perhaps you could try doing absolutely nothing for the next three hours but praying devoutly and attentively to Her Majesty the Goddess? Maybe a miracle will happen and all your problems will be solved?

When Alanfiel said these words, she was clearly mocking herself and didn't expect any response from the clergy present.

The concept of a planet is little known to ordinary people, but it is no secret to the people of the Church of the Sun, the Tower of the Sages, and the Witch's Forest.

Most powerful beings at the Radiant Rank know that there are countless worlds in the starry sky, and those worlds also worship the Sun Goddess.

The Sun Goddess dotes on her believers and is never stingy with bestowing miracles to help them overcome difficulties. However, the Sun Goddess is also very busy and often cannot respond to the believers' prayers in a timely manner.

Moreover, compared to the entire starry sky, the problems of Poliland City are undoubtedly minor... If even such minor problems require the Sun Goddess to solve them personally, then what is the point of having paladins?

So this also involves the issue of the paladins' face. Ailanfeier only made a self-deprecating remark and did not really expect the Sun Goddess to personally intervene in this matter.

But to everyone's surprise, Gamona nodded at that moment, his expression extremely serious:

"In fact... Her Majesty the Goddess has already issued a divine decree."

Has the Sun Goddess already issued a divine decree?

The gazes of everyone at the table immediately shifted from the beautiful witch, Elanfiel, and all turned to look at the paladin, Gamona, with a hint of resentment in their eyes.

Since Your Majesty the Goddess gave a divine decree, why didn't you say so sooner?

Even Alanfiel was looking at Gamona, her beautiful eyes full of reproach.

At this moment, Gamona gave a wry smile, his brows furrowing slightly, appearing somewhat hesitant.

But amidst the increasingly resentful gazes of the crowd, Gamona finally sighed and gave Valensa, who was watching the spectacle with a look of utter amusement, an apologetic expression.

Before Valensa could even process the apology in Gamona's eyes, Gamona gently patted her shoulder and said in a deep voice:

"Her divine message is simple—she has a way."

ha?

Valensa was immediately stunned.

What do you mean I have a solution?

I was just watching the game casually, how did I suddenly go from being a spectator to the main character?

I have no way! I simply can't do it!

Valensa opened her mouth wide, her mind racing, wanting to scream, but it took a lot of willpower to barely hold it in.

The astonished yet strange looks in the room made Valensa momentarily dazed, and certain distant memories from her past life became exceptionally clear.

She remembered it was a role-playing game where she played a passionate lawyer who exonerated innocent suspects and sent witnesses who were the real culprits to jail.

The two phrases that passionate lawyer liked to say most often in court were "objection" and "I have evidence."

However, the lawyer often just bluffs, resulting in not only surprise from the judges and prosecutors in the game, but also frequent exasperation from the players themselves.

I have evidence? How come I don't know I have evidence?

Valensa's feelings at this moment were very similar to those when playing a game—if a group of powerful experts couldn't solve the problem, what could she, a mere beacon, possibly do?

No! I didn't! I really couldn't do it!

Valensa cried out in her heart, feeling extremely wronged.

However, this is a world where everyone worships the Sun Goddess. Although the people of the Sage's Tower and the Witch's Forest have a more objective understanding of the Sun Goddess than ordinary people due to their level of knowledge, they are also more able to understand the power of the Sun Goddess than ordinary people.

Simply put, if the Sun Goddess says you can do something, you definitely can! Even if you couldn't do it before, you will be able to do it after the Sun Goddess says so!

Given Valencia's previous demeanor as a chosen one, although the people in the room were somewhat surprised by the sun goddess's oracle, no one doubted it!

Their gazes toward Valensa grew increasingly eager; they genuinely believed that Valensa had a way to solve the problem!

Only Valencia herself doesn't think so.

"That...that one."

In extreme surprise and nervousness, Valensa stammered and swallowed several times before finally managing to finish her sentence:

"Vice Commander, are you sure you haven't made a mistake regarding Her Majesty the Goddess's divine decree?"

"I am sure."

Gamona wasn't annoyed by Valensa's questioning; he nodded earnestly.

"It was because of this divine decree that I sent Paladin Ellie to invite you to participate in this operation. If you have any objections, you can ask Her Majesty the Goddess for confirmation through prayer... Although I do not recommend that you do so, after all, Her Majesty the Goddess is very busy, but given your favor, I think Her Majesty the Goddess will not mind."

"I……"