The villain's way to tame the protagonist

Chapter 5: Meaninglessness (K)

The extraordinary people of the revolutionary army looked at the majestic city standing in the distance and made noisy noises on the arranged magic positions.

"I've already read the relevant intelligence...isn't this actual situation a bit too exaggerated?"

Triumph Port City, the core territory of the Triumph Family, the main forces of the revolutionary army that arrived here are waiting for the Fierce Wind Legion, which has lost its leader Rongshan, to launch a desperate attack on other territories, forcing the East Port defenders to rush to the rescue, and then capture this port city in one fell swoop.

But even if most of the defenders really went to support other cities that were attacked, could they really take this city in one go?

The cold giant cannons that were moving slowly on the city wall searching for the enemy, the steel clusters that were floating above the city like a swarm of insects, the translucent shield that enveloped the entire city, and the various weapons in the city that were recorded in the intelligence... What they were facing at the moment was not a city for people to live in, but a fortress that was armed to every brick.

"Why, are you all scared?"

The commander with scars on his face stood at the front of the position. He was Rongshan's deputy and one of the commanders of the Gale Legion. In this empire where war was almost non-existent, he could be considered a veteran of the battles.

Originally, he should have died along with other members of the Gale Legion in the charge to attract firepower, but the arduous task of breaking through the three major port cities always requires a qualified commander.

"Afraid? Stop joking, Huoyao." His adjutant laughed. "I'm just a little amazed at the crazy idea of ​​the Iron Witch."

The adjutant put his hand on his shoulder, staring at the ferocious cannon with eyes that were indeed not filled with fear, but rather with envy and regret.

"What a pity... I heard that she and her entire organization are having a hard time in the imperial capital."

The young adjutant shook his head. "She also hates everything about the Empire and hopes to change this unjust world. If we had discovered Mingflora Zeg earlier and recruited her, would everything have been different?"

"I'm almost sick of hearing similar things."

Huo Yao drew out the dagger from his waist expressionlessly, and the shiny blade reflected his cold eyes.

That was the look of a person whose will could not be shaken even by death. No matter who his enemy was, no matter what was blocking the way, such a person would not stop until the end.

"If Wendigo's plan succeeded, and Hydra agreed to cooperate with us, if Xitana Lancemalos had been discovered earlier and joined us... If, there are too many ifs, but these are like always relying on a savior who never existed, hoping that some powerful and intelligent existence can solve all unsolvable problems."

Huo Yao sneered: "It's as if he is expecting... another emperor to appear."

The adjutant shrugged, not unhappy with Huoyao's scathing sarcasm: "But if there really is an absolutely perfect emperor, no one would refuse, right?"

“Only fools and cowards place their hopes on something that cannot possibly happen.”

Flame runes ignited on the blade of the dagger, and Huo Yao slowly grasped the blade. The intense burning pain did not change his expression at all. It was as if he was performing some kind of ritual, branding the scorching pain into his soul.

"The only ones who can save us are ourselves."

He does not believe that there is a so-called "perfect emperor" in the world, nor does he believe that that emperor can become "us".

The adjutant was about to say something when his eyes suddenly changed. The instant communication network built by dozens of soul sorcerers allowed the ever-changing battlefield information to be transmitted to his mind at the first time. The current battle situation was...

"Mingfuluo Zeg has appeared." He looked at Huoyao solemnly, "Golden River Valley, she has locked onto the area where the Gale Legion's attack is most intense, just as we expected."

"Ah."

Huo Yao seemed very calm. Even though Ming Furo's appearance meant that the Gale Legion's feint attack would begin to suffer large-scale casualties, he, who had once been a member of the Gale Legion's command team, did not show any emotional fluctuations.

The adjutant was stunned for a moment, then asked tentatively: "Then...should we start the attack?"

Huo Yao only said one word, wait.

The adjutant, who had no decision-making power in front of Huoyao, could only wait helplessly while continuously transmitting the real-time battle situation to Huoyao:

"Mr. Lark gave the First Army a lot of alchemical items, and Mr. Leng Yu also gave them a large number of spell scrolls as support. They should be able to hold out for a long time... Damn it! That damn city defense cannon shattered two fourth-level extraordinary people and the shields supported by four spell scrolls with just one salvo?!"

"Zerg's artillery fire seems to ignore the effects of alchemical equipment... All the items we tried to use against her floaters were ineffective, but at least we destroyed all of hers in the first round... How come there are still so many!"

"Be quiet, Crete."

Not everyone in the Revolutionary Army uses code names. Huo Yao frowned and scolded the increasingly anxious Crete: "No one here will ask you about the situation on the battlefield. You only need to report two things: the damage and the location of Mingfuluo Zeg."

"But fire... Commander."

Crete opened his mouth and stammered, "Huang Lie... is dead. When he tried to penetrate the defense shield, he was shot and killed by the Zeger United City Defense Artillery."

"..."

Huang Lie is also one of the main officers of the Fierce Wind Legion and has a close relationship with Huo Yao. However, like the leader of the Fierce Wind Legion, Rong Shan, he has no command ability and actively chooses to become a discarded pawn in the feint attack on the battlefield.

His friend, his comrade, was shot dead on a battlefield not too far from here... Shot dead? If he was hit by the city defense cannon without any defense, he should have been blown into a pulp.

Even though everyone knows that life is precious, when the word death comes out of someone's mouth, it sounds so cheap that it makes people feel dazed.

"...Did he cause any harm to Zeg?" Huoyao asked after a brief silence.

"Zerg did leave the shield's range very aggressively in order to kill Huang Lie...but her body...damn it, she's no longer human!"

The roar of artillery fire and the roaring and wailing on the battlefield echoed in the soul of the young adjutant. He saw the extraordinary people falling like harvested wheat straw, or being crushed into rice like rice in a millstone, but the woman who was made of steel insects and was already inhuman did not suffer any harm. She just poured round after round of artillery fire on the earth with an expressionless face.

How could the revolutionary army, who couldn't even understand the true nature of Nidhogg, possibly harm Mingflora Zeg, who had already broken free from the shackles of flesh and blood?

"I said, be quiet, Crete."

Huo Yaoba's high voice drowned out Crete's angry words. He turned his head and stared at the young man with extraordinary talent. He spoke word by word, "As long as the battle damage and movements are taken into consideration, the rest will be ignored. Don't make me repeat it a second time."

"……Yes."

Crete, whose blood was gradually turning cold, responded in a low voice: "The current casualties... the casualty rate is 11%..."

"Twelve, fifteen... twenty-three! Zeger suddenly created a huge artillery out of thin air. She crossed the battlefield and blasted most of the spell positions. She..."

Crete clenched his fists tightly and took a deep breath: "The casualty rate has reached 27... The healers are trying their best to rescue them. Wait... Zeger seems to have left?"

"The pressure from Riftwater City should be there." Huoyao stroked the dagger with the flame pattern flowing on it. "That plain city located at the transportation hub but without any barriers to rely on cannot resist Ovis."

"Yes! Ovis's assault team is about to break through the shield of Riftwater City... Damn it, why did Zeger get here so quickly!"

The joy that just appeared on Crete's face turned into shock and anger in an instant: "It was almost... Wait, Ovis didn't retreat, he-"

A few seconds later, Crete reported in a hoarse voice:

"The casualty rate of the Riftwater City feint attack force has reached 32%. Should we... continue to wait?"

"All members of the Gale Legion have been fully involved in this battle. They have launched attacks on a total of six cities. The pressure on Zeger now... is not enough."

Huoyao had no expression on his face, and only regarded Crete's report as a string of cold numbers: "Do you think she can't guess that this is a feint? The only outcome of underestimating the opponent is a miserable defeat. She must be looking for our main force."

"But Zeger's transfer speed is too fast... If we don't attack while the Gale Legion can still contain her, even if she believes that the Gale Legion is the main force, she can definitely -"

"Can you come back to defend?"

Huo Yao laughed disdainfully: "Have you forgotten why she armed the entire East Port like this?"

Zeg's purpose...

Of course, Crete knew Mingflora Zeg's purpose - that woman was so crazy that she wanted to prevent any innocent victims from appearing in this war... But what did this have to do with letting the Gale Legion die and wasting every precious minute and every second?

"Zerg has moved to Manbing City... Wait, she didn't take the initiative to attack this time? She will only fight back when we attack the shield?"

"……Ah."

Huo Yao sneered and walked out of the position step by step until he stopped at the limit of the range of the artillery on the city wall.

"She is just a scholar who works behind closed doors, Crete. A blacksmith who, apart from reading books, locks herself in an alchemy workshop where we can't afford a single brick in our lifetime and works on iron."

"So she is afraid now. She doesn't want her hands to be stained with so much blood... She wants to convince herself, so she will only passively fight back, because only in this way can her killing be justified."

The man who crawled out of the pile of dead bodies turned to look at his adjutant and said word by word:

"She doesn't understand what war is. Anyone who has such absurd fantasies... cannot compare with our determination."

Not letting any innocent people die... Is this arrogance or weakness? Huoyao couldn't make a conclusion.

But he was sure that this woman, Mingflora Zeger, was just a pet carefully raised in the courtyard by His Royal Highness the Regent.

Her life was so prosperous and perfect that it gave her an illusion, an illusion that made her think she could save everything. In fact, she was just immersed in an unrealistic dream and refused to wake up.

She has never known reality, and reality is:

There will always be casualties in war. The only attribute of death is “death”; there is no such thing as innocent people.

I don’t know how long it took, so long that Crete’s voice became hoarse and numb, and the flame rune on the Fire Bite Dagger extinguished and reignited.

"The feint attack troops of Yinli City have retreated to the magic position. The current casualty rate is... 43 percent."

"enough."

Huoyao opened his eyes and cast his gaze towards the steel fortress in the distance.

“Is that enough…?”

When he heard these two words, Crete seemed a little bit unbelievable.

"The command of the spell formation is now in your hands. I taught you, Crete."

"Wait...wait, Firebeast! You are the commander, how can I--"

"I'll give you instructions from the front line, just listen."

Huoyao said calmly, raised the dagger with the burning fire rune high up, and then... cut open the wound that had just been burned by the blade.

Purple-black blood spurted out and turned into fuel in the air, burning with an extremely fierce fire.

His aura continued to rise, and the activity level of the fire element had reached an abnormal level. As a fourth-level transcendent, Huo Yao should not be able to control this level of element.

With the blood and fire splashing towards the sky as a signal, the extraordinary people on the magic field let out deafening roars one after another. The Fire Bite standing in the front rushed into the sky with its tail flame, and then... like a meteor falling to the ground, it swept up a tornado-like flame and slammed into the shield of Triumph Port City.

Just like his comrades.

The other fourth-order transcendents in the main force also launched heavy attacks at the same time. The four spell positions began to accumulate spells under the instructions of the commanders. The heavily armored warriors either used the spells of the warlocks or ran at full speed, causing the earth to rumble and tremble.

In just a moment, the shield of Triumph Port City was already crumbling.

The first wave is also the most fierce and unreserved wave of attack, which can ensure that Ming Fuluo will never have time to return for support. If this wave of attack can penetrate the defense, then victory will be within reach.

It’s a pity that although it is crumbling, it is enough to support it until... the return of the mechanical god who is a one-man army.

In the brief interval before the next wave of offensive, the shield, which was already full of cracks, suddenly burst into a dazzling light, and endless ether rushed out as if it was worthless. Huoyao, who was completely wrapped in flames, raised one hand, and the flames shot up into the sky, forming a huge symbol in an instant, which was the signal for the entire army to retreat.

"That's fast, monster."

Huoyao's throat seemed to have been burned by the flames, which made his voice sound like the howling of a wild beast: "Let me try...you, a high and mighty man, your ability!"

He was waiting for the joint bombardment of more than ten city defense cannons on the top of Triumph Port City, but strangely, after the shield was restored to its original state in an instant, Triumph Port City... did not make any counterattack.

Just as Huo Yao and other extraordinary people of the Revolutionary Army were alert and puzzled, a cold and indifferent voice was heard in the Triumph Port City.

This voice was heard not only in Triumph Port City, but also in Deep Blue Port City and Dream Port City which were also under attack.

"Do you really want to continue this meaningless and ridiculous war?"

On the quiet seashore, Xin walked on the beach with bare snow-white feet, letting the clear sea water submerge the hem of his white robe.

She looked out at the boundless sea of ​​lostness and smiled with joy and satisfaction:

"You really are so arrogant, Miss Doll."

Xin knew that Ming Fuluo was very angry and knew that she could not accept this war.

But... so what? Can she stop the war by accepting it or not?

"Your attitude will only further arouse their anger... You clearly said that you know Mr. Devil very well, but why haven't you learned anything from him?"

She squatted down, held her chin with her hands, listened to the sound of the waves, and closed her eyes comfortably.

Next, she would have to watch how Miss Doll went step by step towards her inevitable failure.

The revolutionary soldiers who returned triumphantly before the port city were indeed just as Xin had imagined, some were furious, some were disdainful, and some were sneering.

Everyone took Ming Fuluo's words as a violation of their beliefs and the war itself.

but……

"I know you think I'm belittling you, that I'm denying your beliefs, but what if I'm just stating the facts?"

"If the nature of this war is absurd and meaningless to you, me, and all the innocent civilians in East Port, what will you choose?"

"enough."

Huo Yao's hoarse and twisted voice was filled with sarcasm and ridicule: "Isn't it too naive to say these words now? His Royal Highness the Regent's pet lady? Do you want to stop-"

"Innocent?"

The voice echoing between heaven and earth turned cold, bringing with it not only anger, but also a kind of... pity and sorrow.

"It is you who are naive, you who claim to be creating a new world."

"Do you know that the founder of the revolutionary army, the most prestigious leader among you, the guy you call Leng Lu, is not a revolutionary at all?"

"He is the second bishop of the Holy Alliance Church hidden in the empire."