Xyrin Empire
Chapter 380 - Chapter 380 Chapter 380 Demolition Squad of the Empire

Chapter 380: Chapter 380 Demolition Squad of the Empire Chapter 380: Chapter 380 Demolition Squad of the Empire Such a striking and conspicuous fashion, I recognized the character shackled on the radiator at a glance. It was none other than Kanmaki Sazaki, the Temporary Pope of the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect.

After Shen Lie Huozhi, originally the Female Pope, left to protect the weaker Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect by joining the British Puritan sect, this man temporarily became the acting pope of this local Japanese sect, leading its followers in Japan. But why was he here now?

It seemed it wasn’t just him.

After Kanmaki jumped onto the deck and gestured to those below, more agile silhouettes followed suit, climbing aboard. Judging by their attire, they were all dressed like ordinary, even trendy young people, no different from the fashionable students on city streets, except for the various weapons in their hands. They looked like a group of ordinary young men and women. But I knew very well that these were indeed the followers of the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect.

Unlike behemoths such as the Roman Orthodox or British Puritan sects, the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect has had to survive in a unique place like Japan. They faced not only the direct pressure from other Cross Sects but also historical suppression from native religious forces and the shogunate in Japan. To survive in these cracks, their specialty was hiding themselves, completely integrating into the lives of ordinary people, and even conducting daily religious ceremonies covertly within everyday activities. Hence the “religious attire” in front of me that was indistinguishable from those of ordinary people.

After the followers of the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect jumped onto the deck, they immediately looked around cautiously and signaled to each other before quickly scattering. Soon after, only Kanmaki Sazaki remained in front of us.

“What are they doing?” I asked Qianqian, puzzled, as I turned my head. She was busy picking at the ice flowers on the side of the boat.

Alright, I might as well use my inter-regional loudspeaker to ask the Prophet.

“They are from the Divine Split Sect, here to help.”

Lin Xue indeed saw something.

“Due to her identity, Shen Lie Huozhi, who belongs to the British Puritans, cannot directly intervene. Similar to Lola, the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect, which is already seen as heretics and hostile by the Roman Orthodox, has less to worry about. Of course, that’s not the only reason she chose this course of action. More importantly, it seems Shen Lie wants to use this opportunity to place the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect under the ‘Heavenly Power’s’ protection–the Female Pope has her own little schemes. She’s willing to risk her most valued past followers taking up arms against the Roman Orthodox just to have us later provide cover for the Cross Desolate Sect. It appears that their situation is indeed quite dire.”

Well, since she has her little schemes, Shen Lie made this choice simply to protect these people she has always wanted to protect. It makes sense that by doing so, the followers of the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect would indeed be considered part of the “Heaven’s” camp after serving the “Angels.” To these religious figures, even without tangible benefits, such nominal matters are quite significant.

Moreover, what’s more important is Shen Lie’s character: She is the type who is compelled to repay favors she has received, a tenacity that can be quite headache-inducing. We “pardoned” her “offense” against the Angels last time, and I personally presented her with a Divine weapon in my own name. Knowing her nature, it would be strange if she didn’t try to find a way to help this time.

But should I tell the Female Saint that we, the Saviors, would just be making an appearance and then leave after the fight is over?

With such unreliable thoughts flickering through my mind, I still felt quite pleased with the surprise appearance of the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect followers. After Lola made it clear she couldn’t help us, I thought we were going to be worn out again, but it turned out that in the end, some tough laborers popped up. Having such useful strong arms at our disposal, how could I resist, Sister Shen Lie…

Seeing them stealthily hiding, their original plan was probably to infiltrate the Ice Battleship in advance and take action after we arrived. Since Shen Lie had not communicated with us beforehand, this approach would be the best. However, they clearly did not anticipate that we had already arrived on the battleship, even standing just a few meters in front of them.

With this realization, a mischievous urge took hold of me.

“Young people, your appearance is somewhat of a surprise to me.”

Pretending to be serious and authoritative, I controlled my voice to echo within a two-meter radius around Kanmaki.

The sudden sound immediately startled the composed man. He promptly took the rule-breaking two-meter “Flame-shaped Sword” from his shoulder, looking around alertly, ready to face any threat, of course, unable to see anything due to the cloaking force field.

“Relax, Kanmaki Sazaki. I am the one you have been waiting for. However, it seems Shen Lie didn’t inform me of your arrival beforehand.”

Suppressing a laugh, I continued in a low voice.

Shen Lie had apparently not revealed to the other party the true identity of the person they were to assist. Kanmaki was slightly stunned for a moment before he frowned and asked, “Are you the friend mentioned by the Female Pope? So you’ve already infiltrated the warship ahead of time, but why haven’t you shown yourselves?”

I felt a bit surprised and asked, “Friend, huh… How exactly did Shen Lie describe it to you before?”

Kanmaki immediately showed a wary expression, but it was fleeting, replaced by a look of understanding, “She didn’t say much, just asked us to assist a friend, and all we had to do was blend onto a certain Ice Ship and wait for your arrival. As for what comes after… the Female Pope said to await your commands.”

Just these vague instructions? The people from the Heavenly Grass Cross Desolate Sect are astoundingly loyal to their former Female Pope – to the point of absurdity. I fear that if Shen Lie asked them to die, they’d promptly turn around to write their wills. Of course, I didn’t believe that Shen Lie would dare to put her valued followers at such risk without good reason. She must have arranged many other things, at least to the extent that Kanmaki and his companions dared to stealthily infiltrate the Ice Cold Warship. However, it seemed that Kanmaki wasn’t going to tell me more.

“How many people have you brought in total? And how did you know we were on this ship?”

I asked out of curiosity. With over a hundred warships in the Queen’s Fleet, Shen Lie had sent these stalwarts without any consultation with us, forcibly dragging us into the situation. For the people of the Heavenly Grass Style to infiltrate these warships and meet with a person of unknown appearance was almost like looking for a needle in the ocean.

“We have about two hundred people,” Kanmaki replied, “As for meeting you here, it was merely a coincidence. The Female Pope seems to have quite a bit of faith in your power. She told us, as long as we cause some chaos on the warship after the battle begins, it doesn’t even matter if we don’t meet you. We might not have the strength to shake such a huge fleet in combat, but when it comes to infiltration and sabotage, that’s relatively easy for us.”

So that was it. It seems I had misunderstood Shen Lie at first; her main intent was indeed just to repay us.

“Then, help with the rescue later on. Sabotage is too risky, and I already have my own plan.”

After thinking it over, I assigned them a task that suited them best. While the people of the Heavenly Grass Style were strong, their numbers were too few. Using their stealth skills to secretly board an Ice Ship was one thing, but to fight against the entire Queen’s Fleet, they were too weak. Shen Lie must have had no intention of sending her people to be cannon fodder from the start; otherwise, Kanmaki would have directly infiltrated the enemy flagship.

“Help with a rescue?” Kanmaki nodded, “We’ve brought some convenient submersibles, so when the time comes, we just need to…”

I interrupted with a smile, “I’m afraid that won’t be enough. When I say ‘help,’ I mean–rescue all the crew of the entire Queen’s Fleet.”

“I know you have special magic to quickly build ships. The Queen’s Fleet may collapse instantly later on; just help rescue the prisoners of war. Of course, if they don’t cooperate, let them fend for themselves.”

After saying this, I didn’t bother about the shocked and incredulous look on Kanmaki’s face and promptly led Qianqian and Pandora away from the Escort Ship.

The Adriatic Sea Queen, the flagship of the entire Queen’s Fleet, was as conspicuous as a bright pearl in the night sky due to its massive size and the unavoidable energy fluctuations. Effortlessly, the three of us had already arrived on this largest Ice Cold Warship. Unlike the Escort Ship with patrols around the clock, we didn’t see a soul upon arrival on this vessel.

Pandora activated the Life Detector, and after a while, said, “Life signs are all on the lower decks; this area seems to be manned by autonomous defense systems.”

“Magic is truly fascinating,” Qianqian remarked again, “Centuries ago, they managed to create automatic doors.”

“But centuries later, they can only create automatic doors–compared to technology, magic requires way too long time frames and higher demands to progress. Except for high-energy worlds, practicing magic in a culture dominated by technology is a tragedy.”

Of course, that doesn’t include the Superhumans of the Xyrin Empire…

Since the entire warship was maintained by a constantly running “Ice Melting Magic,” the ubiquitous and layered chaotic magic interference greatly disrupted our regular energy perception. Our x-ray device turned into a screen full of snowflakes, and we could only explore the warship in the most cautious and gradual manner–this is why I dislike dungeons, especially those without a mini-map.

Pandora led the way, and Qianqian and I curiously looked around at the back. The structure of the Ice Cold Warship seemed quite peculiar, filled with useless corridors and rooms that were not conducive to a combat vessel. Plus, every so often, we’d confront a baffling turn that, after just a few meters, would turn back in another direction–If one of my subordinates came up with this, I’d shoot the bastard; it’s irritatingly whimsical.

Of course, I knew that this thing definitely had magical significance, something like a large permanent magic array or a 3D rune, but it seemed now that it was just making a bunch of map-dumb dunces without wall hack cheats more and more irritated as they went.

“Brother, there are a lot of energy traps ahead.”

Pandora’s sudden voice snapped me out of my map frustration, and the little guy had already taken out her signature rotary cannon, now staring ahead with a serious expression.

I gave her a knock on the head: “We’re on a secret operation!”

Pandora responded with an “Oh,” reluctantly swapping the cannon for two lightning-entwined Ship-Slicing Blades.

I had Alaya initiate magic interference, lulling the numerous traps ahead into a state of hypnosis, and then carefully stepped into their midst.

It seemed to go smoothly–the wide, gloomy frozen corridor remained tranquil, and none of those Jedi Knights suddenly popped out. White halos emanated from under my feet, continuously pacifying the twitchy defensive mechanisms. Alaya’s power held absolute dominance over the magic creations. At that moment, I felt like I had finally become the main character type, treading on halos, and my heart swelled with heroic elation.

The very next second, however, a sudden cracking sound came from the wall beside me.

“Qianqian, did you hear anything just now?”

I thought I might have been hearing things and turned to ask Qianqian.

That girl was busy using a block of ice as a mirror to make silly faces at it–could you at least pretend to be a bit anxious?

“Crash!”

The sound of shattering crystals immediately behind me interrupted my train of thought. Instinctively sidestepping, an armored warrior made entirely of ice, holding a long spear, whizzed past, grazing my hair.

“The defense devices have been activated!”

I shouted, casually detonating an ice sculpture guard that had just separated from the ice wall, charging at us weapon in hand, while Pandora had already dashed towards the opposite side, smashing a wall that was continuously producing ice sculpture guards into pieces.

“So annoying…”

After dealing with the first wave of enemies, Qianqian’s gloomy voice suddenly rose from behind me, followed by a sudden drop in air pressure. The personality-shifted Qianqian slightly bowed her head, her facial expression unclear, but she muttered softly, “These pieces of trash only waste my time…”

“Perish into dust in the endless march of time!!”

“Boom!!”

The corridor echoed with the sounds of collapse, merging into one. Under the rapidly passing time, severe structural chaos occurred, and finally, the hallway collapsed into a shower of glistening fragments.

But immediately afterward, more neat and heavy sounds of armored friction and heavy objects sliding on ice gathered from all around.

“Lord Brother!” Alaya’s voice rang out, “The magic techniques here have changed. All the ice blocks that make up the ice ship have become things that can continuously produce guards. I need some time to recalculate this magic!”

I charged forward and scooped up the violent loli who was gleefully hacking away with her long knife, tucking her under my armpit. I turned my head and shouted at Qianqian, “Girl, stop wasting time! We’ve already alarmed the guards! Hurry up and find Silvia!”

Damn it, I should’ve known I’d never pull off a successful covert operation in this lifetime!

Just like Alaya said, the Magic Techniques on this warship were really weird–they kept reconfiguring themselves. Heaven knows when I triggered a mechanism, but now, no matter where we went, the ice around us would instantly become a guard factory. The Pandora I had clamped under my armpit wouldn’t stay still for a moment; as she was being carried, she kept tossing Plasma Hand Grenades everywhere, while Qianqian turned up her Decay Field to the max. The time around us pulsated madly in milliseconds, and the guards who charged at us either got blown to bits by the grenades or were washed away into pure water by the temporal surge. After a while, I couldn’t be bothered with these two crazy girls anymore and just used them as mobile door openers. Wherever the trio from the Imperial Army, Government, and People went, they left chaos in their wake, like a demolition team sweeping through.

“They’re over there!”

A loud shout suddenly rang out not far from us, and from the corner of my eye, I saw a small squad of men in black clerical robes and cloaks burst from around the corner. The leader was holding a weapon that resembled a Javelin, but with a ridiculously long spearhead, and he was shouting loudly in our direction.

These guys must have an IQ below average! Any normal person who saw the rapidly collapsing space behind the three invaders would have turned tail and run!

“You will rot in your own flesh and blood!”

Qianqian shouted out loud before I could even make a move. Then the obstructing Roman Catholics were suddenly turned into a cloud of black remnants, without even a chance to scream. This skill, which she called “Thousand-Year Kill,” was ridiculously more efficient against short-lived humans than Pandora’s cannons.

“More enemies are approaching.”

Pandora spoke calmly from under my armpit and then casually pulled out a shiny, oval little thing and threw it far away.

“Hey, girl!”

“BOOM!!!”

“Don’t throw Quantum Bombs indoors, cough cough…”

I snatched another Quantum Bomb from Pandora’s hand. This child has no sense of restraint!

“Alarm interference complete.”

Just then, Alaya finally said something, taking her sweet time.

…Should I say let’s continue with stealth now? Will you kill me for that?

Although we had already alerted the enemy, the Quantum Bomb that Pandora had thrown still successfully diverted their attention. Even a small grenade like that had a powerful shockwave that probably destroyed a third of the upper deck area. Taking advantage of the confusion, our trio from the Imperial Demolition Office swiftly moved to the lower deck area. Then, with the help of Pandora’s Life Sensor, we dodged other searchers and gradually approached a place where the magic operation was clearly different from elsewhere.

“It’s strange, why are there fewer guards here?”

From the shared signal of Pandora’s Life Detector, there were only a handful of life forms behind the door in front of us, which greatly surprised us who were ready for a boss fight.

“Bosses in real life shouldn’t be this stupid.”

I muttered under my breath, and then a man’s voice suddenly sounded in the air around us: “Since you’ve made it this far, why don’t you have the courage to come in?”

(To be continued. If you want to know what happens next, please visit www.NovelFire.net. There are more chapters, support the author, support legitimate reading!)

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