Chapter 207
Theresa stared at the overwhelming flames, momentarily stunned.
This was the first person to die in this absurd battle.
"Ho, look at that surprised face of yours..." Beside her, the Sanguinarch laughed wantonly. "Tsk, tsk, tsk. It seems your trump card isn't as obedient as you thought."
"I thought she would carry out your every command."
Faced with his mockery, Theresa only slowly lowered her head and glanced at him sideways.
She knew exactly how to provoke a man as proud as the Sanguinarch; without saying a single word, that look alone was enough to make him grit his teeth.
After all, he was currently just a little toddler.
"I naturally can't control someone who has her own ideas," Theresa shrugged with a look of feigned helplessness as she watched his face stiffen. "Who told her to be so strong? Even with the Sarkaz elites out in full force, they're no match for her."
Although the Royal Court of the Sarkaz was not fully present today—only three had come—it was effectively no different from the full strength of the Sarkaz.
The Banshees had suffered heavy losses in the war two hundred years ago; they later lived in seclusion in the river valleys and went against their own nature, leaving them with no new generation to take the lead. The Liches had long since taken root in Leithanien, and the Cyclops had gone far away to Sami. The other courts were in even worse shape—only one pure-blooded Wendigo remained, and he was currently fighting a guerrilla war in the snowfields of Ursus.
Looking at the state of this battlefield, what difference would it make even if all of them were counted?
Three Lords of the Royal Court and Theresis, plus thirty thousand elite Royal Court Army soldiers, had ended up being utterly dominated. Now, even a former Demon King had been directly cremated...
"Plotting with a tiger—aren't you afraid of being swallowed whole?" the Sanguinarch questioned through gritted teeth.
He was naturally thinking of the Sarkaz's welfare, even if he didn't usually act like a decent person.
"Therefore, starting today, I need the help of all of you. I need you to stand behind me," Theresa said with a smile. "Weigh the options for yourself. Will you refuse to accept defeat after this battle and fight us to the death, causing the Sarkaz elites to die out completely, leaving me to take a crippled race to cooperate with others?"
"Or would a Sarkaz with its elites intact and its Royal Court whole have more say in a partnership?"
Hearing this, the Sanguinarch's expression stiffened again.
In the past, Theresa had always been gentle with him. Though her words sometimes hid needles in wool, they were never this... distressing.
"They've certainly given you a lot of confidence," he said, giving Theresa a deep look. "A say? Heh. Faced with such a powerhouse, what kind of say can the Sarkaz possibly get?"
"You don't think she's actually going to stay in Kazdel permanently, staring at this barren land all day to fight for power and profit, do you?" Hearing this, Theresa spread her hands and said helplessly, "She has her own things to do. How could she possibly take an interest in this barren land?"
"This person is only here temporarily to help. How long can she stay?"
"So, who exactly is she?" The Sanguinarch took the opportunity to ask, hoping to fish for more information.
"Do you remember the Rhodes Island?" Theresa smiled slightly.
"That precious ship of yours?" The Sanguinarch narrowed his eyes. "The one bought from Rim Billiton?"
"Bought?" Theresa shook her head. "No. Kal'tsit led me to dig that out from deep underground in Rim Billiton."
"It's a relic of the Prehistory. On that ship, we obtained many things," Theresa began to paint a grand vision for him. "Things sufficient to make the Sarkaz great again!"
She knew that talking about development or livelihoods to these fanatical warmongers was a waste of breath; all they thought about was plundering.
So, she could only sell them a dream.
"Look at that armor. Do you really think the nations of the outside world could build such a thing?" she bluffed. "That is a warrior left behind from the Prehistory. Tens of thousands of years ago, when they chose to sleep on that ship, the Sarkaz hadn't even appeared on Terra yet."
"Prehistory..." Hearing this, the Sanguinarch was eighty percent convinced.
Mainly because that person's strength was completely illogical. Up until now, no one had even been able to inflict a decent wound on her. She possessed such power, yet in his long life, he had never heard of her existence.
Other than the First Civilization, who else could train such a warrior?
Coupled with Theresa's long-standing credibility, even as an opponent, the Sanguinarch would believe at least thirty percent of what she said.
"You know how powerful the Prehistory was," Theresa continued to urge him on, seeing that he believed her. "The technology developed on Terra today is basically just banging around inside houses left behind by the Prehistory."
"So rest assured, she doesn't care for the Sarkaz's meager belongings," she shook her head. "If it weren't for the insistence of Kal'tsit and The Doctor, she might not have even come to help. They have more important things to do."
"What things?" The Sanguinarch narrowed his eyes.
"To face the ultimate apocalypse," Theresa recalled the things Bailu and The Doctor had discussed. "The culprit behind the destruction of the Prehistory."
"Don't ask me what it is. I don't know. Or rather, they told me, but I didn't understand what they were talking about," she sighed. "Just like not understanding those engineers describing the principles of their creations."
"..." The Sanguinarch fell silent for two seconds before asking, "Then why did she kill Quisatustar? If we're talking about being steeped in evil, I've killed far more people than him."
"I don't know," Theresa shook her head. "Perhaps you can go and ask her yourself?"
Ask her?
The Sanguinarch looked at the Sea of Fire in the sky, then looked at his current toddler height.
Forget it, forget it. Survival was more important.
Though he was usually arrogant, he still had some self-awareness in his heart.
On the other side of the battlefield, Xia Yu looked at the Sea of Fire in the sky and the directly cremated Quisatustar, then put away Shamash.
She slowly descended from the sky.
"Shall we continue?" she looked toward Theresis. "Have you seen reality clearly now?"
"What do you want?" The King of the Sarkaz Foragers beside him asked directly.
"I want you to listen to Theresa," Xia Yu said. "That is the only requirement."
"...That lenient?" The King of the Sarkaz Foragers clearly didn't believe it.
"Believe it or not," Xia Yu said easily. "Anyway, what comes next isn't within my scope of work. My mission for this descent was just to give you a beating."
"What about him?" Theresis looked toward the sky. "How did Quisatustar offend you?"
"Someone placed an order to take him out," Xia Yu said. "It was just a convenient task."
Theresis and the King of the Sarkaz Foragers looked at each other.
Wait, how did Quisatustar provoke someone this strong? Strong enough that they specifically placed an order just to kill him?
What exactly did he do?
Naturally, they weren't so tactless as to ask who placed the order; after all, might makes right.
"We admit defeat," Theresis looked at the scarred warriors around him and sighed.
Although she had been light-handed, it was impossible for them to be completely uninjured. At most, no one had died.
"Fine. Since the mission is complete, go talk to the local person in charge yourselves," Xia Yu nodded decisively. She was currently Firefly, a straightforward mercenary.
Then she turned and flew toward the high ground where Theresa was located.
"Sorry, I picked up a new order," she said as she returned to Theresa's side, deactivating the SAM Armor. "Someone placed an order to kill that man, so I just took care of it on the way."
Theresa froze for a moment. "May I know who placed the order?"
This Miss Firefly had been right under her nose ever since she arrived in this world. Who could have hired her to kill Quisatustar?
"Oh, it was his daughter. I don't know her name. She was holding a sword and said she was a physician with the codename Shining," Xia Yu thought for a moment, unable to recall Shining's real name.
"In the future, she gave me this order."
"The future..." Theresa nodded.
Because of the existence of the Cyclops, the Sarkaz weren't actually that resistant to such things.
"Alright, the job is done," Xia Yu stretched. "Now it's vacation time. I'll leave the cleanup to you."
"Is that a problem, Ms. Theresa?"
"Of course not. Thank you for your hard work, Miss Firefly," Theresa smiled. "Let's return to the Rhodes Island first. Too much has happened today; the city of Kazdel needs time to digest it."
"I'll have to trouble you to go back and inform them," she looked down at the Sanguinarch. "In five days, we will talk again about where the fate of the Sarkaz should lead."
With that, she led Xia Yu and the Sarkaz who were willing to follow her toward the Babel encampment.
The Sanguinarch watched their retreating backs with a complex expression.
At first, he thought some powerful tough guy was under that armor, but once the suit was removed, it turned out to be a delicate young girl.
"Why not just talk now?" Xia Yu looked at Theresa beside her.
"I have to give them some time to react," Theresa smiled. "Let these thirty thousand Sarkaz tell everyone in Kazdel what exactly happened today."
"Let this unprecedented defeat extinguish the raging fires of war in the hearts of the Sarkaz."
"It will be easier to talk once everyone knows what happened today."
"Oh, I don't quite understand your roundabout ways," Xia Yu shook her head. "Sounds like something Silver Wolf and Kafka would do. I only do orbital drops and then execute all resistors."
"Who are Silver Wolf and Kafka?" Theresa looked at her.
"My companions, members of the Stellaron Hunters," Xia Yu said frankly. "Usually, they're the ones responsible for the brain-taxing tasks like yours."
"Is the universe outside the Starcasm... exciting?" Theresa asked curiously.
"It's not that exciting," Xia Yu sighed. "There is always more danger than romance."
"Even a warrior like you finds it dangerous?" Theresa was a bit surprised.
With the strength shown just now, she could practically crush the entire Sarkaz race with one hand.
"I am a Glamoth Iron Cavalry, a Molten Knight," Xia Yu said indifferently. "I once served the Glamoth Empire."
"Once?" Theresa keenly caught the word.
"The Glamoth Empire has already collapsed. I am the sole survivor—at least for now," Xia Yu shook her head. "Do you know why I wanted those Sanguinarchs to leave the battlefield?"
"Didn't you say you hate bugs?" Theresa asked tentatively.
"It was bugs that destroyed Glamoth," Xia Yu sighed. "Bugs that blotted out the sun, an endless stream of bugs."
"That was an empire spanning twenty thousand light-years. Oh, a light-year is the unit of distance light travels in a year."
"You can think of it like this: in the center of the Glamoth Empire, when you look up, most of the stars you see are the territory of the Glamoth Empire."
"Such a massive empire could be destroyed by bugs?" Theresa looked up at the sky. The twilight glow still shrouded the horizon, and not a single star could be seen.
"Those weren't ordinary bugs; they were the remnants left behind by the Swarm Disaster," Xia Yu said. "Just one branch was enough to destroy Glamoth."
"During the peak of the Swarm Disaster, let's put it this way: the catastrophe your Prehistory encountered was basically on the same level as it."
"Everywhere the Swarm went, every concept related to Propagation was polluted. Fetuses in the womb would turn into bugs upon birth, planted seeds would grow into bugs, and products from factory assembly lines would turn into bugs..."
"So just one branch completely destroyed the former Glamoth Empire."
"Truly disaster-prone... this universe," Theresa began to regret asking.
Why did she have to ask? Now she was starting to worry.
"It's more than that," Xia Yu shook her head, looking worried. "Even that Scepter Computer your Doctor is concerned about—Miss Acheron is guarding it right now."
"She's the strongest among us, but if something goes wrong with what's inside the Scepter Computer... tsk, it would be another cosmic catastrophe."
"Ah?" Theresa shuddered. "What kind of catastrophe?"
"It would digitize all planets within its range of influence and then delete all life on them one by one," Xia Yu shrugged. "Of course, you don't have to worry. Terra is not within its range of influence."
Whew. Theresa breathed a sigh of relief.
"Are the crises you face every day all like this?" she didn't know what to say.
The scope of this work was simply... indescribable. She wasn't worried at all anymore about them plotting against the Sarkaz.
What was there in this broken Kazdel worth their planning? They were truly here for The Doctor, a top-tier scientist; helping Kazdel was all for The Doctor's sake.
"Not necessarily," Xia Yu shook her head. "Those are top-tier projects, not common. If we did that kind of work every day, the universe would have ended long ago."
"Like recently in Penacony, that incident at most affected a single galactic system."
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T/N: If you spot mistranslation, do tell me.
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