“General, I think our patrol deployment needs some adjustments.”
General Srui's camp appeared larger, and within the camp, besides the General, there were two guards, which brought no small amount of trouble.
“Adjustments? Why? I need a reason, soldier. All you need to do is execute orders, not interfere with them, understand?”
The expected refusal.
Poro looked at the General before him, confirming that this person was indeed one of those in Srui's army qualified to issue orders and modify the blockade.
But he sensed a strange feeling from this General.
Some kind of protection based on magic or other special energy made this General seem stronger than ordinary soldiers.
But it was useless.
“Alright, the reason I say this is because…”
Poro spoke slowly, focusing his gaze on the guards on either side, and in the next moment, a magical glint flashed in his eyes.
The two guards beside the General fell to the ground with muffled thuds, one to the left and one to the right.
A layer of red light rose from the General's body, resisting Poro's Gourmet Curse!
“You—”
The General was stunned, instantly reacting and reaching for his waist.
But before he could touch the hilt of his sword, Leake emerged from the shadows behind him, and the Star Killer Sword easily tore through the General's throat.
“Okay, this is a bit troublesome. We must deal with these guys as quickly as possible.”
Poro took a deep breath, listening to the sounds outside the camp, turned the three corpses into biscuit crumbs, stuffed them aside, and then put on the General's armor. His face blurred, and he became the General.
“Next, it's time to issue orders.”
After tracing the General's manner of issuing orders through the shadows, Poro pondered for a moment, then walked out of the camp. Although someone was missing from the camp, such an anomaly would basically not be discovered in the short term.
“You need to make some small adjustments to your subsequent patrol routes.”
Poro, with the General's face, stared at the two officers in front of him, speaking slowly, then took out a map and drew new patrol marks on two locations on it.
“Understood?”
“But if we do that, will our route be replaced by someone else? If not, there might be gaps in our defense,”
One of the officers took the map, frowning. “Moreover, there are already people guarding the new patrol locations…”
“Soldier, all you need to do is execute orders, not interfere with them, understand?”
Poro's face darkened, and a tremendous sense of oppression instantly weighed down on the officer in front of him, making his face pale.
“Sorry, General, I understand.”
The two officers no longer hesitated. Hearing the General's catchphrase, they had no doubts, gave a military salute, and walked out of the camp with the replacement map.
Although they felt a little strange about the changes in the layout of the General's camp and the whereabouts of the guards.
They quickly put it out of their minds.
“Well, it seems to be going smoothly.”
Poro thought to himself, preparing to leave the military camp, but at this moment, not far away, another Srui army surged from the direction of the Srui Kingdom.
“Hmm?”
Poro didn't pay attention at first, but suddenly realized that the soldiers in the camp were suddenly agitated, many messengers began running around shouting, and the resting soldiers also came out of their tents.
“What's going on?”
Poro was stunned for a moment, he looked at the army not far away, his ears twitched, and he heard what happened from a soldier's mouth—
“His Majesty the King has arrived…”
“The King?”
Poro was stunned for a moment, thought briefly, and looked at the shadows under his feet, postponing the idea of leaving immediately.
The special Srui flag with the crown was getting closer and closer, many soldiers came out, lined up in neat rows, and then knelt down.
Poro also mixed in, but secretly narrowed his eyes, watching the newly arrived Srui army.
Under that special military flag, a man wearing a crown walked out.
“That's the Srui King?”
Poro thought to himself.
The Srui King looked like an ordinary young man, with a very short beard on his face, wearing gorgeous armor, a golden crown on his head, and a sword hanging from his waist.
“He looks very ordinary, could it be a stand-in or something?”
Poro thought to himself, he couldn't even sense any demonic energy from the young man who was the Srui King.
“No, he should be the Srui King himself.”
But at this moment, Leake's voice sounded in Poro's heart.
“Why?”
“My Star Killer Sword tells me that the number of innocent people killed by that person may have exceeded one hundred thousand!”
“One hundred thousand—”
Poro's pupils shrank, he lowered his face, not letting others discover his expression, “One person killed one hundred thousand people?!”
“Yes, it can be said that he is the one who has killed the most people I have ever seen.”
Leake said, “So, it is absolutely impossible for him to be as simple as he looks.”
Oz judged that the reason why the war between the Srui Kingdom and Starfall City had reached its end and would not last longer was because of the appearance of the Srui King.
“If we kill him here, will it end the war of the Srui Kingdom?”
Poro narrowed his eyes. The main driver of this war that swept through countless kingdoms was the Srui Kingdom. If the Srui King was assassinated here, then even if the situation would not end, it should ease a lot, right?
Poro remembered the previous King Weisser.
If the emergence of these wars all stemmed from a tyrannical tyrant, then ending the tyrant's rule might have a certain chance… to let peace replace the war again?
While thinking, Poro slowly raised his head, and in the depths of his pupils, tiny magical lights slowly appeared as he looked at the depths of the Srui King's pupils…
But at this moment, his pupils suddenly shrank, and the magical light in his eyes disappeared.
An inexplicable fear emerged from the bottom of Poro's heart.
Or rather, it was more like a warning!
From…
[Circular Regression: The Wizard of Oz · Facing Fear]
[Fairy Tale Authority: As long as you have not given up thinking, your actions will never be affected by fear and deterrence. At the same time, you will have a more thorough understanding of the fear in your heart and accurately lock on to things that are truly worth fearing.]
[Description: Stinging, fierce, dark… In the Land of Oz, she symbolizes fear itself. Only by having the courage to face fear can one truly kill the evil that symbolizes terror.]
“Why?”
Poro was stunned for a moment and hurriedly retracted his gaze.
He keenly noticed that the Srui King's hand had quietly rested on the hilt of his sword at some point.
In an instant, an inexplicable coercive force, like dark clouds pressing down, exploded in the entire camp, heavily pressing on the heads of everyone kneeling.
That was a sense of oppression that could only be possessed after reaching a certain level of power.
It was like the Giant King he had seen before, or like the glimpse of the Collapsed Paradise through the magic mirror.
“Hoo…”
Poro took a deep breath, calmed his mind, and suppressed his killing intent back into his heart.
The Srui King seemed to be examining his army in a subtle way.
Fortunately, after only two or three minutes, as the King's hand slowly released from the hilt of the sword, the suffocating peeping and pressure also dissipated.
“No one has left Starfall City, right?”
The Srui King was not in a hurry to leave. Instead, he whispered a few words to the commander beside him, then coldly swept his gaze over the other soldiers.
“Yes, no one can escape our encirclement.”
A general immediately stepped forward to respond.
“Very good, but I heard a bad tip yesterday.”
Hearing this, Poro's eyes turned cold. He saw the Srui King starting to walk in his direction.
Has he discovered it?
Poro thought, what methods should he use to counterattack or escape if the Srui King launched an attack.
After all, he knew very little about this strange King, and he knew his and Leake's strength. In this vast world, although he had some skills, he was far from invincible when facing true powerhouses, and the gap was huge.
But fortunately, the Srui King stopped.
He stood in front of another general, and the hairs on Poro's body stood up slightly.
He finally felt that when the Srui King's hand was on the hilt of his sword, a faint demonic energy was escaping!
“You are responsible for the defense of Lanca Valley, right?”
The Srui King narrowed his eyes and looked at the general.
The most ⊥ new ⊥ small ⊥ say ⊥ in ⊥ six ⊥ 9 ⊥⊥ books ⊥⊥ bar ⊥⊥ first ⊥ hair!
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
A trace of panic flashed across the general's face—this panic seemed a bit strange among these Srui people whose minds had been distorted.
“Well, someone tried to enter Starfall City from there and was discovered by the patrolling army, but in the end, they ran away, and not even one person was caught or killed, right?”
The Srui King's voice was clear and calm, but the killing intent in it was chilling.
“Yes… Your Majesty.”
The general's voice became a little trembling.
“Very good.”
The Srui King nodded, “You need to pay the price for this, for letting those visitors run away and for not killing or capturing anyone alive.”
In the next moment, the Srui King's finger on the hilt of the sword flicked slightly.
The long sword was not unsheathed, but in the next second, the head of the general in front of him flew up—
Poro saw clearly that the head of the dead general still had his eyes wide open and his mouth slightly open, as if he still wanted to say something.
The head and the headless body fell to the ground one after another.
“Everyone else understands, right? Whether it is Starfall City or those who want to go to Starfall City, no matter who they are, where they come from—I will not allow anyone to survive!”
After saying that, the Srui King's cold gaze swept around, then he turned and left.
Watching the Srui royal flag heading towards the center of the camp, Poro breathed a sigh of relief, hurriedly turned around and walked to a dead corner in a camp where no one was around, then disappeared into the shadows under his feet.
“Fortunately, he didn't go to replace the general in charge of Lanca Valley.”
Poro thought to himself, he also didn't have any confidence that he could survive under the Srui King's beheading technique—
The Srui Kingdom's blockade line had already appeared gaps under Poro's modification.
There was no need to stay here, even if he killed more generals, it would be like a drop in the bucket.
Moreover, that strange Srui King was stationed here.
In front of powerful casters, the Shadow Realm was not an invincible place either.
He had to enter the territory of Starfall City before the Srui Kingdom discovered the anomaly in the defense line.
……
After Poro left the Srui camp, in the center, inside a temporary wooden house, the Srui King looked at the map in his hand, and a subtle red light flashed in the depths of his eyes.
“No, the feeling just now shouldn't be an ordinary illusion!”
He placed his hand back on the hilt of the sword and began to recall the previous feeling, “Killing intent, someone in my army had killing intent towards me?”
The memories of the faces of one soldier and general after another slid through the depths of the Srui King's mind.
“No, no—how is that possible?”
“But this is Starfall City, I shouldn't have wrong illusions!”
Thinking of this, the Srui King suddenly stood up and said to the tall guard beside him:
“Gather the generals and soldiers who came to see me when I first entered the camp again.”
“Yes!”
Several tens of minutes later, the Srui King walked out of the wooden house, looking at the generals and soldiers he had just seen. The tall guard beside him saluted and said:
“Your Majesty, one general is missing, and has not been found.”
“One general?”
The Srui King narrowed his eyes, compared the appearances of the people present with the memories in his mind, and finally, the appearance of the general Poro had disguised as appeared in the Srui King's mind.
“Why? There shouldn't be rebels among the generals, they no longer have the basis for rebellion…”
After thinking for a while, the Srui King asked again, “Recently, have there been any changes in the deployment of Starfall City?”
“Today, the patrol troops on the western blockade line of Lanca Valley were transferred by General Lide.”
“Heh, as expected.”
The Srui King sneered, but there was no smile in his words, “Courting death!”
……
“Go, hurry up, I've transferred the Srui soldiers here, we can see Starfall City directly from here.”
Leake rode her horse, walking in front of the team.
A faint layer of light appeared on the horizon not far away, and under the illumination of that light, a battle flag painted with silver stars emerged from behind the vegetation.
Under the battle flag, many silver-colored fortifications appeared.
“That's the sign of Starfall City, is there really no Srui army blocking here?!”
The others beside them stared in surprise at Leike and Polo. They had also scouted the Srui Kingdom's blockade arrangements. The Srui Legion's blockade outside Starfall City could be described as airtight. The intensity of that blockade made them hesitate.
“How did you do it?”
“Disguised ourselves as Srui generals, then issued orders.”
Leike summarized briefly.
“Just like that…”
Hearing Leike's answer, the Goethe warriors who had asked the question exchanged glances. They knew that although the words were light, the actual experience would definitely not be so simple.
After all, even these roads were blocked so tightly that not even water could leak through.
If one attempted to approach the Srui barracks, the average person would be shot into a sieve by arrows after taking only half a step.
Therefore, this could only be attributed to the strength of Leike and Polo themselves.
“Wait until later, before the Starfall City defense line, state your identity first, and then go into the city…”
While listening to Oz's explanation of the subsequent procedures, Polo looked back.
The next moment, Princess Marlene beside him suddenly widened her eyes:
“Behind us, Srui troops are catching up!”
“Have we been discovered?”
“However, the distance is still far. They shouldn't be able to catch up to us, right?”
Leike also looked back. Srui troops rushed out of the bushes behind them. They were moving fast, but at this time, the distance between the group and Starfall City ahead was even shorter.
“No—hurry, faster!”
Polo was about to reply when suddenly, he felt a chill in his heart.
[Cyclical Regression: The Wizard of Oz - Face Your Fears] appeared again with a warning.
That feeling was like a guillotine slowly approaching his neck!
When he looked back again, he saw a golden crown painted on the fluttering military flag above the approaching Srui troops—it was the Srui King!
“Hurry, the Srui King's magic is very likely to kill us from a very long distance!”
Without time for further explanation, Polo said as he looked ahead at the flag of Starfall City, “We must get into the Starfall City's position before he catches up!” (End of this chapter)
