Author's note: The previous chapter's passage about Xiao Qi killing Torchbearers was an error carried over from an abandoned draft. It has been corrected. Xiao Shi does not know that Xiao Qi killed Torchbearers. Apologies for the confusion to those reading along!
...
The war erupted without warning. No one could fathom why the Grand Tribunal would launch a full-scale offensive just as darkness was about to fall.
At this hour, visibility would plumt within minutes to levels wholly unsuitable for large-scale army operations. True, the Land of Hope's battlefields didn't lack for illumination thods, but wouldn't the resources spent on lighting be better used for offense? Why deliberately choose a ti that created problems?
And even if it were a night raid, no one had ever heard of a night raid heralded by blaring war horns. That kind of fanfare could only signal the final decisive battle. So this baffling decision, which was practically synonymous with stupidity, was utterly incomprehensible. If history truly played out this way, it was small wonder the Grand Tribunal's defeat had co like a collapsing mountain.
Abandoning every advantage to impose a disadvantage on yourself. Even though the darkness interfered with the War Legion too, they had fire!
[War]'s flas would naturally dispel the dark, but [Order]?
All the filth and cris that [Order] despised most loved nothing more than to unfold in darkness.
When Cheng Shi and Sun Miao saw the left-flank army actually mobilize, they knew the Grand Tribunal was already on the road to defeat. But their concern wasn't the Grand Tribunal itself. It was whoever was issuing orders from the central camp...
Could it really be Keinlaur?
Given the commanding genius Keinlaur had shown repelling the night raid on the left flank, it was hard to imagine him making such a decision.
But if it wasn't him... then who was the commander?
'Wait. Hold on!'
'There actually is soone!'
In that instant, Cheng Shi and Sun Miao reached the sa conclusion simultaneously. Their expressions darkened in unison as they spoke at the sa ti:
"Xiao Qi..."
"The Beast Tar!"
That's right. Cheng Shi's first thought was Du Qiyu.
It was known that Xiao Qi was searching for the giant bow lost sowhere on the Boro battlefield. He apparently didn't know the bow was in Keinlaur's possession. So after failing to find the real Keinlaur, it was entirely possible he'd assud Keinlaur's identity to issue commands and accelerate the war's progress.
After all, he was a [Deceit] believer with ample disguise capabilities. Moreover, as a Beast Tar, he could ta knights who shared the sa military bearing and apply light disguises. Fooling players might be difficult, but fooling NPCs? That was more than enough.
So this historic defeat was actually engineered by Xiao Qi?
But even if he'd inadvertently replicated the historical outco, who had given the order in the real history, the one that cost two nations their frontline fighting forces?
There was no ti for further deliberation. Cheng Shi needed to confirm his suspicion while also mixing into the Grand Tribunal's battle formation, because the incoming teor fire rain and elental maelstrom wouldn't recognize any "Lord Yu Xi." If he got crushed by a falling teor on this battlefield, forget the Fun God and Xiao Qi laughing themselves to death, even the Wrath of Abomination, his colleague currently lobbing fireballs at the Boro Highlands from inside its cramped cage, would laugh itself breathless.
The two of them sprinted toward the central camp, determined to find out what had happened in the command tent before the Grand Tribunal's charging line made contact with the enemy.
This was a race against ti. And with the situation between players now transparently clear, Sun Miao dropped all pretense. He burst forth from the Mi Master's belly, and with a flash of silver light, the horse-faced [Folly] believer Cheng Shi had only t once stood before him again.
Cheng Shi looked at the Mi Master behind him, her eyes gradually going vacant, and frowned: "I thought you'd reached an agreent. Looks like negotiations broke down?"
Sun Miao stood taller than Cheng Shi. He peered down his aristocratic nose at him and smiled:
"Either trade in silence, or die in silence.
She knew too many secrets but never wanted to share them. So, to help her keep those secrets as she wished, I had no choice but to assist her. I'll bury her here.
I'm not a man who kills for pleasure, but the God Worship Society is the kind of organization where you could throw a dagger blindly and never hit an innocent person."
Sound reasoning, yet sohow it reeked of sophistry.
Cheng Shi pursed his lips: "If ordinary mbers aren't innocent, then you, a Vice President, must be deeply sinful."
"I told you, their madness is real. Mine is fake. I only wanted to use them for intelligence. But they genuinely believed I was closer to the Gods than they were.
Heh, eting the divine twice hardly counts as closeness.
If you want to talk about being close, that honor belongs to the Servant Gods and Envoys who attend Them constantly...
Never mind. Drop it. If I say too much, you'll think I'm another one of the God Worship Society's lunatics. Cheng Shi, I waited for you for a long ti and you never tore open the Void. Sothing on your mind?
You're not planning to run back, are you?
Getting from the left flank to the central camp on foot takes all night. By the ti we arrive, the battle will be half over.
You... won't contribute even a sliver of effort?
Or does every strenuous task have to be foisted onto soone else just to conserve a bit of unnecessary spiritual power?
You're a priest. A priest who can fight. If you're not going to use that spiritual power for sothing useful, what are you saving it for? To hunt down that old friend of yours?
He's directly in our path anyway."
Without the need to type, Sun Miao's speech finally carried a proper [Folly] flavor. Seeing Cheng Shi smile without responding, he drew a deep breath, irritably slashed open the Void with the dagger in his hand, and stepped through first.
Because he knew that if he hesitated for even a second here, Cheng Shi would never go first. Rather than gambling on whether the man would budge, it was better to save that second and reach the central formation faster.
And so the two hurtled through the Void, returning to the central camp's position in just a few hours.
But when they erged, the entire central army had already charged down from the highlands, abandoning their superb geographic advantage to sweep across the flat valley toward the War Legion's encirclent.
Seeing this, Sun Miao shook his head:
"I'm now one hundred percent certain the person commanding this battle is an idiot. Quite possibly your old friend. Because only he would issue such a reckless charge order.
But what I'm curious about is, even if 'Keinlaur' lost his mind, wouldn't his battle-hardened subordinates try to stop him?
Unless..."
Cheng Shi's gaze sharpened as he spoke those two words again: "Tad beasts."
Sun Miao nodded:
"Exactly. The only explanation I can think of is that the Beast Tar took over the entire high command in one swoop, turning every officer into his tad beast.
But what I'm even more curious about is this: even if the Beast Tar altered history's presentation, what about the original history? Who launched this 'suicidal' charge?
If a single disguise could doom the Grand Tribunal, is it possible the historical defeat also resulted from a disguise? From the War Legion's disguise?
Could they have carried out a decapitation strike, eliminating the Grand Tribunal's command staff?"
Cheng Shi watched the fire-bright formation advance while war cries shook the sky. He frowned in deep thought for a mont, then shook his head.
"Keinlaur's slices would never fear a decapitation strike.
But you've actually reminded
of sothing. Where do you think Keinlaur is right now?
If his slices are everywhere, then why hasn't he stepped in to stop Xiao Qi's foolish act? Even just holding the left and right flanks back would give him more than half the army to reverse the tide."
Now Sun Miao understood too. His expression hardened, but his eyes blazed with scholarly fervor.
"Because he also wants the Grand Tribunal to fail. This is exactly what he wants to see.
You must break before you can rebuild. Well, well, well. So that's where his mind has been all along.
Perhaps you're right. The one who authored this defeat in history wasn't anyone else. It was Keinlaur himself.
Only, fate is cruel. In the end, everything the Shared Law Faction worked for only served to make a wedding dress for the War Legion."
...
Reviews
All reviews (0)