Chapter 264: Chapter 251: Strategy to Breach the City, the Vengeful Soul

Tactically, the Resistance Alliance reacted quite swiftly. With Jon having already created an opening, they broke camp and attacked at the first opportunity.

From the perspective of the entire battlefield, however, moving a large army was never a swift affair, and this was true for both sides.

When Jon and his men arrived at the front lines, only the elite knights under the various nobles had managed to keep pace with the Gun Cavalry. They charged into the rebel camp at the foot of the city walls, wreaking havoc to prevent the enemy from regrouping. At the same time, they had to contend with attacks from rebels pouring out of the County City’s secondary gates to provide reinforcements, having noticed the main gate was under assault.

The more numerous infantry, coordinated by their respective commanders, advanced slowly with siege engines.

It was during this brief wait that Jon met with the command layer of the Resistance Alliance.

However, before Paris could offer some polite words of thanks, a figure darted out ahead of him, scrambling to Jon’s horse and hugging his thigh.

"Mr. Jon! This is magnificent! Truly magnificent!"

"The Mechanical Body you designed will usher in a new era for this continent!"

It was Wood, who was "observing in the field" with the command staff.

It had to be said, as a professional, the old Artisan’s vision was far more prescient than others; he immediately saw the historical significance the Crystal Energy Construct would come to possess.

But...

Jon shifted his leg, and when he realized the man had no intention of letting go, he had no choice but to resignedly remind him.

"Mr. Wood, please calm down. We have an audience."

"Ah? Oh..."

Under the bewildered gazes of the crowd, the old man finally regained some of his senses and sheepishly let go of Jon’s leg.

But he still showed no intention of leaving, instead looking up at Jon with a burning gaze.

"Please, join Princess Belina’s faction! With your support, she’ll surely win that... that King Selection Ceremony, and the design for your great Mechanical Body will spread across the entire continent along with the Empire’s glory!"

As soon as he said this, not only did the nobles frown deeply, but even Stier couldn’t help but cover his face and lower his head, looking as though he was too ashamed to be seen.

The old man’s emotional intelligence was truly at rock bottom.

’Even if you want to recruit talent for your own side, you wouldn’t be so blatant about it, especially with a competitor’s people right here!’

Sure enough, seeing how "shameless" Princess Belina’s faction was being, Evelyn, the accompanying Envoy for the Seventh Princess, decisively stepped forward and declared righteously.

"Mr. Wood, please watch your words. His Highness Jon is a Prince of the Apollonia Duchy. His status is far too noble. How could he possibly become someone’s subordinate?"

She knew full well it would be difficult to win Jon’s support with the resources her master possessed, so she simply elevated him to a position no one could attain.

Of course, a court lady as tactful as her wouldn’t burn all her bridges. After shutting Wood down, she turned to Jon and gave him a deep bow.

"Your Highness Jon, after witnessing the Power of the Mechanical Body you designed, I believe it is necessary to purchase a batch to supplement Princess Cecilia’s security forces. I hope for your approval."

The moment her voice fell, Stier, seeing his rival launch a monetary offensive to build a relationship, could no longer care about losing face. He stepped forward directly to chime in.

"Precisely! Your Highness Jon, the Mechanical Body you produce is of epoch-making significance. As an Imperial Knight, Princess Belina has always valued military armaments. When she hears of this, she will certainly be delighted to purchase your products."

"On behalf of the Gray Blade Knight Order, I propose that we enter a deep cooperation with the Giant God Workshop. Whatever you need, be it resources or money, we can provide it!"

After speaking, he shot a provocative glance at Evelyn, as if to ask: ’Can you make such a decision on behalf of your master?’

Evelyn’s polite smile froze. Her delicate brows arched slightly as she prepared to retort.

However, before the words could leave her mouth, Jon timely intervened to stop the little dispute.

"You two, a great battle is imminent. Let’s discuss these business matters later."

He then turned to Paris and asked.

"Viscount Paris, do you have a way to breach the city? Although my [Fortress] can strike from outside the range of the enemy’s defensive weapons, my supply of Enchanted shells is ultimately limited. I can’t maintain suppression indefinitely. Once the enemy catches their breath, the situation will return to a stalemate."

His words were level, but they were by no means polite.

Everyone’s gazes subconsciously fell upon Paris’s face, awaiting his reaction.

A bitter wind, carrying the stench of gunpowder and blood, howled through the ruins beneath the city wall.

Ahead, the elite knights of the Resistance Alliance were locked in a fierce melee with the rebels among the rubble and broken walls. The sounds of clashing metal and guttural roars were incessant.

Behind them, vast infantry phalanxes advanced like heavy anvils, pushing forward resolutely with scaling ladders and battering rams at their commanders’ orders.

It was against this backdrop that Paris slowly began to speak.

"Now that the main army is here, we have of course prepared more than one strategy to breach the city. It’s just that the rebels’ defenses are tight, and many of those plans have faced difficulties."

He paused, his gaze shifting toward the distant city wall.

"But now, since His Highness Jon has created an opening for the allied forces, some deployments that had been stalled can now be set in motion again."

With that, he tilted his head slightly and issued a crisp, clean command.

"Locke, give the signal! Have the ’Dark Crow’ inside the city begin their operation!"

"Yes, sir!"

The loyal Knight showed no hesitation, as if he had been waiting for this moment for a long time.

He quickly pulled a palm-sized, antique-looking brass cylinder from his coat and twisted the knob at its base.

With a faint, crisp click of a mechanism, a beam of ethereal blue light shot out from the top of the cylinder!

The light, trailing an elegant and conspicuous tail, silently tore through the lead-gray sky, instantly drawing countless eyes.

And the surrounding nobles couldn’t help but gasp in astonishment.

"The Dark Crow?"

"We still have people inside the city?"

Since the beginning of the rebellion in Heta County, Count Nerva’s rebel army had controlled the County City with an iron fist, locking it down like an impenetrable fortress. Countless attempts to break through had failed.

This had long led the Resistance Alliance to believe that the city had been thoroughly purged.

How had Paris managed to maintain contact with someone inside the city under such intense pressure, even planting an asset known as the "Dark Crow"?

Facing the crowd’s questioning gazes, Paris casually dropped a remark.

"This is naturally thanks to the agents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs sent by His Grace the Duke to provide support."

At these words, many people were instantly relieved.

That’s right. The Viscount had previously contacted the Grand Duke and stated that agents from the Ministry of Internal Affairs would be coming to Heta County to help. It was just that those elusive individuals had never shown their faces, so naturally, no one knew what they had been up to.

It seemed now that the Ministry of Internal Affairs truly lived up to its name as the Empire’s Shadow Blade, accomplishing great things without a sound!

For a moment, words of praise for the Empire flowed from the mouths of the nobles as if they were free, each afraid they would be marked by some hidden agent of the Ministry of Internal Affairs for not appearing "loyal" enough.

Only Jon narrowed his eyes slightly, scrutinizing Paris’s face, which had grown gaunt from hardship and pressure.

’Given how ruthless this man was—willing to deliberately incite riots in the towns under his own rule—he’s definitely not telling the whole truth.’

But...

’What does that have to do with me?’

Whatever ulterior moves Paris had hidden, as long as it helped breach the city, it didn’t matter.

Jon looked up at the ethereal blue light slowly descending from the sky, his thoughts already far away.

’I hope... this time I can finally deal with that guy...’

...

Just as there are always shadows beneath the light, a city as prosperous as Heta County City also had its own filthy and chaotic Lower City District.

However, even though order was non-existent and chaos reigned here, it didn’t stop the people within from looking up at the sky.

When that ethereal blue light streaked across the sky, many people instinctively looked up, including a man in a tattered cloak huddled in a corner.

He numbly raised his head, and his hood slid down, revealing a haggard, stubble-covered face that looked as if it were carved by a knife and axe. In his sunken eye sockets were a pair of dull brown eyes, making him look no different from any other homeless vagrant.

But as that cold light slowly descended, its reflection exploded in the depths of his pupils, as if something had been ignited within him.

"The signal... has come..."

The man’s voice was hoarse and cracked, like sandpaper scraping against a rusted blade. Every syllable was forced through gritted teeth, tinged with the taste of blood.

He would never forget that day.

The chilling glint of cannon muzzles, Walter’s twisted and unfamiliar face on the city wall, and then his comrades, dying worthless deaths under a barrage of ice and gravity.

The flames and smoke that soared into the sky from the direction of Red Crying Castle were the final, crushing despair—a scarlet brand seared into his mind that haunted his dreams.

Betrayal!

The most absolute betrayal!

From the colleague he once considered his right-hand man, from the home he had sworn to defend with his life!

"Walter... I’m coming for you!"

The man staggered to his feet, a tragic and ferocious aura pouring out of him without restraint. The broken sword at his waist seemed to sense its master’s bone-deep hatred, and it began to hum and vibrate incessantly.

The other vagrants huddled in the corner with him instinctively sensed the danger and scrambled away from the dangerous madman. But farther away, in the shadows of the crumbling ruins of the Lower City District’s dilapidated houses, several other figures in similar gray-black cloaks quietly emerged.

There were no words, no extraneous movements, only the faint metallic scrape of Armor under their cloaks and heavy, suppressed breathing like that of wounded beasts.

They were once the sharpest swords of the Heta family, iron-willed Knights who galloped across battlefields for their lord.

Now, their armor was stained with blood scabs that would not wash away, and the gazes from beneath their helmets held only a shared, bone-chilling fire of vengeance.

The hellish scene before the city gate that day, the indignant roars of their brothers-in-arms before they died—all of it had long since burned away the last shred of affection they held for this city.

Now, they were survivors who had crawled out of a disaster, and more than that, they were soul-reaping Envoys returned from Hell!

A one-armed Knight stumbled up behind the haggard man and asked in a low voice.

"Lord Yagor, is it time?"

"..."

Yagor did not turn around. He only glanced at the magnificent castle built into the mountain in the distance, then gave a heavy wave of his hand.

"Let’s go! The time for our revenge has come!"

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