Chapter 351 - 308: Rebellion is Imminent

"My Lord—!"

The steel blast doors opened slowly.

Stearns’s rough voice was exceptionally loud.

He strode onto the bridge, his steps heavy. He held his Knight’s Broadsword in one hand and a half-empty bottle of mineral oil from weapons maintenance in the other.

However, he froze in place when he saw the Technician Soldier, the upper half of his body embedded in the bulkhead.

Looking up, he saw that the second-level command platform to his right was severely damaged. Even the Vengeful Angel Battle Banner that had been hanging from the railing had slid to the floor.

Just twenty seconds ago, he had been maintaining his weapon in the armory of the Avenger Flagship. He’d heard the sounds of fighting from the bridge and assumed enemies were boarding.

When Reinhardt turned to look at him,

Stearns found himself face-to-face with eyes burning with the Eternal Flame. Compared to the traitor on the floor, whose soul was being scorched by judgment in death, the Second Company Commander merely found the flames, wreathed in Radiant Power, a bit dazzling.

He lowered his Knight’s Broadsword, hurried over to the thoroughly dead Technician Soldier, and knelt to examine him. He frowned and said, "My Lord, he’s dead."

’I was only off the bridge for less than five minutes. How did a fight break out? And someone’s even dead.’

He turned his head to see Urus Brutus climbing out of the wreckage. It was obvious that the Silencer Warlord had been utterly defeated in the conflict on the bridge.

And to be able to suppress a Four-star Earth Military Rank Imperial Knight wielding the Night Demon’s Legendary Power in such a short time...

He couldn’t think of anyone other than Reinhardt.

At the same time,

arcs of Spiritual Lightning flashed in the eyes of Koller, a senior member of the Think Tank.

Through his Spiritual Perception, he could sense the Savenxis Great Fortress, once silent, roaring to life like a war machine. Large numbers of Defense Army troops were mobilizing on a massive scale, as if on command.

Over twenty ships carrying Lima’s private Knights lifted off from various ports simultaneously. Far from showing any signs of resistance, they scattered like startled birds, fleeing the Great Fortress at high speed.

This had all been premeditated!

They had walked right into a trap!

Koller’s expression was grim. He spoke quickly, his voice rising. "Lord Reinhardt, we have to notify the Red Flame Son to intercept those ships immediately! The traitors are planning to break into smaller groups and escape Savenxis!"

As he spoke, Koller, realizing the gravity of the situation, had already acted first and reported later, using Spiritual Communication to issue a combat order to the Red Flame Son.

He realized that the Savenxis World had never intended to resist or rebel. The bastard pulling the strings from behind was planning to use Lima’s death to give the opposition forces in the Administrative Region an excuse to start a war!

These fleeing ships were meant to spread the news that the Grand Governor had ordered Lima’s assassination.

Once Lima’s private Knights provided their personal testimony, the political charge that the Grand Governor had assassinated an ally for power would be set in stone!

It would completely shake the foundations of his rule!

For these Knight Warlords, who had long harbored thoughts of independence and rebellion, the evidence itself didn’t matter. What mattered was who provided it.

Urus clenched his fists.

His heart was bleeding.

This operation to assassinate Lima and to suppress and integrate the Savenxis World had been meticulously planned by the Silencers and the Grand Governor. The goal was to execute the heavily-armed Knight Warlord as quickly as possible, before any other rebellious factions could react.

They had meant to make an example of him, showcasing their power and methods to stabilize their rear.

But now, after paying an extremely high price, their efforts had fallen short at the last moment!

This also meant that the two-decade-long intelligence war between the Silencer Battle Group and the Infiltrator Council had, at this moment, ended in total failure!

And failure had only one consequence.

Rebellion was coming.

’Bastards...’

「Meanwhile.」

Seventy-Six, the assassin who had killed Lima, had also run into trouble inside the Savenxis Great Fortress.

"It seems my long-laid plans were not in vain. Your Grand Governor couldn’t hold back after all and chose to move against the Savenxis World, heh heh."

In the vast, empty training ground,

Lima’s body lay in a pool of blood, his eyes wide open in death. The Knight General, a warrior with the power of a Three-star Earth Military Rank, would never have dreamed that someone in this world could actually kill him in a single blow.

Or perhaps,

with his power and status, he had never been qualified to even touch upon the truly terrifying side of this world.

Seventy-Six was merely the vessel, the tool.

The true one-hit kill was delivered by the bullet in his weapon, a projectile forged from a Radiant Holy Artifact Fragment. It was a Spiritual Artisan Level Armament from the ruins of the Ancient Wizard Civilization: the Gaze of the Harbinger of Death.

This armament, crafted by Ancient Wizards specifically to assassinate Transcendents, fired a bullet that, upon leaving the barrel at an initial velocity of Mach 36, would flicker and jump at high frequency between the Void Realm and the Real Cosmos, silent and traceless.

No form of Spiritual Energy or Knight Perception below Tier Three could possibly track the bullet’s trajectory.

And bullets forged from Radiant Holy Artifact Fragments were specially recreated by the Assassin Court for the purpose of assassinating Demons, Mages, and Imperial traitors.

Of course,

even if Lima hadn’t undergone the Mutated Transformation from the Power of the Void Realm, Seventy-Six had other specialized bullets from the Assassin Court for different targets to kill the traitor.

After Lima’s death,

Seventy-Six prepared to withdraw quickly according to the tactical plan.

But Enok, the Baron of Bator, merely tapped his scepter gently on the ground. His Dark Crow Feather Cloak stirred without a wind, and in the next moment, an incomparably powerful Wizard’s Power, like a stone dropped into a lake, spread wildly through the space-time surrounding the training ground!

Under the distortion of this terrifying power, the once-stable three-dimensional space-time began to churn like a stormy sea lashed by a hurricane!

Seventy-Six tried to use Radiant Teleportation to escape the Great Fortress, but the space-time around the training room was like a shattered mirror. The chaotic dimensions were stacked together, preventing him from seeing his teleportation destination.

Moreover,

an equally powerful Spiritual Storm billowed out from Enok’s Dark Crow Feather Cloak, transforming into surging violet currents that spread to every corner of the room, cutting off all means of communication with the outside world.

To penetrate a Spiritual Storm of this magnitude with a Radiant Beacon or Spiritual Communication, one would need a powerhouse at the Think Tank Director Level to even have a chance.

At the very least, Seventy-Six had no such chance now.

"Oh ho."

Since he was already exposed, he dropped the pretense of hiding. He held the Spiritual Artisan Level Armament, the Gaze of the Harbinger of Death, at the ready as his optical camouflage—like folding polygonal mirrors—faded from the surface of his body.

His Mechanical Eye stared at the powerful Wizard’s back.

"So, Lima’s death was part of your plan too?"

Enok did not answer Seventy-Six’s question.

He extended his left hand. A finger-sized worm, seemingly made of obsidian and radiating a sinister, evil aura, bored a hole through the flesh of Lima’s corpse and flew into his palm.

Then,

the Wizard standing by Lima’s corpse slowly closed his left hand, his calm and composed demeanor suggesting that everything was under his control.

"Everything is going according to my plan, assassin."

"And this rebellion will finally burn away the last vestiges of the Old Empire’s glory in this Administrative Region."