The sa night.
Soma Alliance Southern Capital Xia Ya, Emperor’s Palace.
With a creak, Oscar pushed open the palace door and hurriedly walked in.
Inside the palace, the imposing figure of the Alliance Emperor stood with his back to him, staring at the closed window, pondering sothing unknown.
Hearing Oscar’s quick footsteps, the Alliance Emperor slowly turned his head and glanced over, "You’ve received the news, right?"
"Yes, Your Majesty, I just received the detailed report from below," Oscar responded, his expression grave.
The Emperor stepped to the front of a wide chair, leaned on the armrest, and slowly sat down. The chair groaned under the weight, and after a few seconds of silence, the Emperor sighed and said, "Tell , what’s going on? Oh, there’s a seat over there, sit wherever you like." As he spoke, he pointed to the side.
Oscar nodded, walked over to the gray leather chair, sat down, carefully chose his words, and began to speak.
"Your Majesty, based on reports from our spies and the use of prediction magic to trace back, we can mostly piece together what happened before and after the incident. If there’s no mistake, before the accident, Mos Base was relatively normal until a few seconds prior when the moon in the sky suddenly turned crimson, and a blood-red glow enveloped the entire base.
The glow was intense, catching the attention of those in the base. If there had been enough ti, people would surely have reacted, either by evacuating or finding a way to disperse the glow. But the incident occurred too quickly. Just a few breaths after the blood-red glow enveloped the base, it erupted fully.
According to reports from surviving spies at the periter, during the incident, the center of the blood-red glow suddenly ignited, as if a spark had fallen into oil, setting the entire Mos Base ablaze in an instant. And it wasn’t ordinary flas; they were imnsely destructive. Even spies far on the outskirts experienced mana disruptions, nearly losing control. Those inside the flas were even worse off.
As a result, no one inside the base survived. Additionally... according to the report from rescue wizards who arrived later, the souls of all the dead on the base’s ruins disappeared, all burned along with their bodies in the strange flas."
After hearing Oscar’s account, the Emperor pursed his thick lips and frowned as he concluded, "This is retribution from the Truth Society, isn’t it? After all, thanks to the intelligence from your young friend two days ago, we managed to kill one of their Colorful Ring Chiefs, thoroughly destroying the soul to prevent any chance of resurrection.
Now they’ve retaliated by destroying our most vital secret base at Mos. Not only did they waste a trendous amount of human, material, and financial resources with the death of number five, but more crucially, they annihilated the entire craftsn team, including Master Amon, cutting off any possibility of continuing secret weapon production. It’s truly eye for an eye."
"I agree with Your Majesty’s view." Oscar concurred, "This is undoubtedly their retribution. Being cautious, I hope, Your Majesty, you will relocate imdiately to avoid them targeting the Shaya Palace for a similar attack."
"I will relocate." The Emperor did not refuse, reasoning calmly, and after a pause, he added, "However, there’s no need to worry too much. The thod they used against Mos Base isn’t sothing they can easily wield; it must have huge limitations. Otherwise, the entire Soma Alliance would have been destroyed long ago when we first detected them, not waiting until now."
"Your Majesty ans?"
"What I an is, the Truth Society people are indeed botherso and warrant vigilance, but at the end of the day, they’re just a bunch of moles hiding underground, afraid of the light. They’re masters of causing chaos from the shadows, not direct confrontation.
So instead of worrying about their unpredictable, astonishing attack thods, we’d be better off guarding against real-world threats, especially at the border with the Sika Kingdom. I have a hunch there’s a good chance the Sika Kingdom might take advantage of this situation, so we must be prepared."
"Yes, I will relay Your Majesty’s instructions to Reef Rock Castle." Oscar stood up and replied.
"Hmm." The Emperor nodded.
...
...
One day later, just after nightfall.
At the westernmost part of the Soma Alliance, on the border with the Sika Kingdom.
The land here is extrely barren. Even in sumr, there’s little green vegetation on the ground, let alone large trees, only clusters of low shrubs dotted around. When the night wind blows, clouds of yellow dust rise, resembling mist.
In this "mist," a watchtower stood. Its main structure was a three-story stone building in the style of a fortress, with surrounding walls to fend off small groups of enemies. It was part of the Soma Alliance’s border defenses, mainly used to monitor the movents of the Sika Kingdom’s troops and guard against small infiltrations by enemies from Sika Kingdom.
There were twelve stationed at this watchtower, including a captain and eleven soldiers. Most of these soldiers had served for many years, the youngest nearly thirty, fitting the description of the legendary veterans—cunning and crafty.
Because the watchtower was near Reef Rock Castle, also known as West Castle—nominally one of the five capitals of the Soma Alliance, an extrely fortified, almost impregnable military city, the hardest place to break through on the border. Most soldiers were close to the end of their service, longing for ho, so they were usually very lazy, dragging things out until the last mont, picking a scapegoat for the hard tasks.
The captain, though disapproving, knew these n would be out in a few months, so he couldn’t be bothered to intervene.
Today was an exception, however. The watchtower captain uncharacteristically pulled out the discipline baton, his face stern as he lectured several soldiers over minor infractions, then laid into one soldier who hadn’t caught the hint, leaving him howling.
"Today, I’m in no mood. Don’t give any trouble. All of you, behave yourselves. You three groups, take turns on duty outside overnight. If anything happens, I’ll send you... to the military law office!" The captain stated after his bout of discipline.
The soldiers were baffled, not sure what had gotten into the captain today. But seeing the captain’s terrifyingly dark face and the bloodstained baton, they wisely kept their mouths shut and obediently ford groups to stand guard.
This is one of the few advantages of experienced soldiers: they know how to assess situations, knowing when they can be sly and when obedience is required.
Frank was among them, usually slippery, but at this mont, he was proactive in leaving the stone building to walk up the wooden planks to the wall, taking his guard duty seriously.
But as he stood guard, his mind was still plagued by doubts. Seeing the captain pacing back and forth through the night, he seized a chance to intercept him. Using their hotown ties as leverage, he quietly asked, "Captain, what’s going on? You seem different today than usual."
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