When the blizzard hit, no one in the entire village had time to react. It was not until the howling cold wind and blizzard covered everything that they realized something was wrong.
"What happened?"
A black-haired woman who looked to be in her thirties and possessed enchanting beauty raised her head, looked around and asked in a stern voice. She was none other than Yotsuba Maya, the head of the Yotsuba clan and also a magician with considerable power. However, even she could not figure out what was going on.
"Lord Maya, it looks like we're under attack!"
The Four-Leaf Clan member who came to report had a panicked look on his face, as if he was saying something he himself didn't even want to believe.
"Attack?"
Hearing this ridiculous answer, Yotsuba Maya narrowed her eyes and a look of confusion appeared on her face.
To be honest, the Yotsuba clan is the most mysterious clan among the ten clans. Each clan has different rules, and the Yotsuba clan is no exception. As the darkest of the dark, the Yotsuba clan is almost hidden in the most unknown depths, and no one knows where their base camp is. According to the family rules of the Yotsuba clan, children are not allowed to use the Yotsuba name before they are officially recognized.
Moreover, the power of the Yotsuba clan is also quite strong. This is Yotsuba's base camp. There are countless barriers set up here. Who on earth dares to attack Yotsuba here?
"Who is the other party? Is it a magician from Daya? Or a magician from the Soviet Union?"
"I, I don't know..."
"have no idea?"
Hearing this answer, Yotsuba Maya stared at her subordinates. Even if she didn't know the other party's identity, she should be able to get a rough conclusion by judging from the magic formula. Could it be that Yotsuba's family is now full of these trash?
However, before Yotsuba Maya could scold, someone else rushed in in a hurry.
"Lord Maya, please leave immediately. The defense line has been breached and the enemy will be here soon!"
"Who is the enemy?"
Looking at another subordinate who also had a pale face, Yotsuba Maya's expression became even more gloomy.
"Who dares to attack the Yotsuba clan?"
"No, not a human. The enemy is not a human..."
"What? Explain clearly!"
"It's a dead person, an unkillable dead person! Lord Maya, that's not a human being..."
"What nonsense!"
Seeing that she could not get any clues from her subordinates, Yotsuba Maya hurriedly walked out of the room and came to the railing to look around. The Yotsuba family's mansion was located on the highest floor in the center of the village, so it was easy to see everything around. However, when Yotsuba Maya walked out of the room and saw the scene in front of her, she finally understood why her subordinates were so incoherent.
Originally, Yotsuba Maya thought that this was an attack against the Yotsuba clan.
But in fact, this is a war.
Looking around, the entire village including the surrounding mountains were all blocked by snow. Countless monsters with strange shapes crawled out from the frozen ground. Cold flames burned in their dark, empty pupils. From their mouths came roars of disgust and hatred for the living. There were hundreds, thousands, or even more of them.
Undead, banshees, gargoyles, frost dragons, all kinds of creatures that are almost impossible to exist in reality now appear right in front of Yotsuba Maya, making her terrified.
"What... is... this?"
As the head of the Yotsuba clan, Yotsuba Maya had seen many scenes, and she even thought she had seen hell clearly. But now, what appeared in front of her was a scene far more terrifying than the hell that Yotsuba Maya had imagined. She could see that the Yotsuba family's subordinates were desperately resisting the attacks of these monsters, but the powerful magic that they were proud of and that allowed the Yotsuba clan to gain a foothold among the ten master clans was meaningless in front of these monsters. No matter how many monsters they killed, the monsters behind would still rush up continuously.
The banshees laughed and grabbed the struggling enemies and sucked their souls, while the gargoyles grabbed the enemies who were caught off guard and had no time to escape and lifted them into the air, then tore them into pieces.
This is not magic!!
Although this scene is very similar to the scenes described in many fantasy novels, at this moment, Yotsuba Maya only felt a sense of absurdity.
This isn't magic at all!
The magic used in this world, whether ancient or modern, can never reach this level. Indeed, in the early 21st century, there were often such fantasy-themed entertainment works, but that was just entertainment after all! That was fantasy, and even ancient magicians could not really control the army of the undead like in fantasy novels!
So what did I see? Was it an illusion?
"roar--!!!"
The deafening roar vibrated her eardrums. Yotsuba Maya looked up and saw a giant skeleton dragon roaring down from the sky, landing directly in front of her. The Yotsuba family's house collapsed under the feet of the skeleton dragon, and the skeleton dragon stared coldly at Yotsuba Maya in front of it. The azure soul fire emanating from its dark eye sockets seemed to penetrate Yotsuba Maya's body, making her blood seem to freeze at this moment.
This is not an illusion!!
At this moment, Yotsuba Maya's magician instinct began to act. She raised her hands, and the power of magic began to manifest. Countless balls of light emerged out of thin air, wrapping the dragon in front of her. Then, rays burst out from the light balls, interlacing to form a large net, which exploded towards the skeleton dragon.
This is Yotsuba Maya's most powerful trump card magic "Meteor Swarm", a powerful magic that can cause damage to the opponent as long as the opponent is not 100% transparent. This is also Yotsuba Maya's trump card as the head of the Yotsuba family and the strongest magician. It can shoot out unstoppable aggregate rays from all directions and 360 degrees at the same time. No magician can block this move.
However, this is of no use.
The light hit the skeleton dragon, but it did nothing except break the shattered debris on its surface. On the contrary, the skeleton dragon did not even react at all, but just shook its body, as if it had been bitten by a mosquito.
Then it opened its mouth and took a deep breath.
Yotsuba Maya's experience saved her life at this time. When she came to her senses, her body had already fallen backwards uncontrollably. At the same time, a gushing cold torrent roared out like a landslide, completely razing everything in front of her to the ground, and then freezing it into cold ice.
“Ah…ah…”
Falling to the ground, Yotsuba Maya groaned in pain. Half of her body was completely frozen. Everything she looked at was covered in ice. At the same time, Yotsuba Maya saw a dark shadow slowly walking towards her.
"You, who are you..."
Yotsuba Maya raised her head, trying to see the attacker's face clearly, but all she could see was a body in black armor, and the attacker's face was also blocked by a black helmet, so she could not see anything. In those black eye sockets, a blue light shone.
The attacker did not say anything in response to Yotsuba Maya's question. He just raised the sword in his hand and aimed the tip of the sword at the woman in front of him.
The next moment, a heart-wrenching pain came.
Invisible chains shot out and tightly wrapped around Yotsuba Maya's body. With a shrill scream, her soul, like smoke, was pulled out, and then quickly rolled into the sword.
Then, Yotsuba Maya's body fell to the ground like a tattered rag doll.
"Well, it looks like everything is going well now."
Fang Zheng retracted Frostmourne and nodded with satisfaction as he looked at the Four Leaf Village that had been razed to the ground by the Scourge.
Fang Zheng was not worried that the world would stop him from attacking the Yotsuba family, because in a sense, this was an obstacle that the protagonist should face - this could be seen from the fact that in martial arts novels, the protagonists' families would be torn apart and their children would be separated from them.
Therefore, Fang Zheng's actions were not blocked by the world. Apparently, the world also wanted to see whether Shibata would show his side as the "protagonist" after experiencing all this.
This is another reason why Fang Zheng attacked the Yotsuba clan. Although from a student's perspective, he has completely stolen all of Shiba Tatsuya's limelight, but Shiba Tatsuya still has the official identity of "Special Forces King", which is why the world did not give up on Shiba Tatsuya immediately.
But this time is different. Fang Zheng attacked the Yotsuba family, killed the Yotsuba family head, and razed the Yotsuba base camp. The Yotsuba elites are almost completely wiped out, which means that the Yotsuba family will completely lose its status as one of the Ten Master Clans. This incident will naturally alarm the Ten Master Clans and the military. In this case, Shiba Tatsuya, as the protagonist, a member of the Yotsuba family, and a person with military connections, if he cannot take actions that satisfy the world itself...
Then Fang Zheng could be sure that Shiba Tatsuya's death was a foregone conclusion.
Next, let me see how Tatsuya Shiba, as the protagonist, will react.
Thinking of this, Fang Zheng sneered and turned away.
Only the remains of Yotsuba Village remained silent in the cold ice and snow.
The news of the destruction of the Yotsuba clan spread throughout the Ten Master Clans almost within a day.
Of course, it was not that the Yotsuba clan wanted to keep it secret, but Fang Zheng did not mind the trouble and directly sent the news to the other nine clans of the Ten Master Clans. Although everyone thought it was too absurd at first, it was precisely because it was too absurd that they hurriedly sent people to investigate. After seeing the body of Yotsuba Maya and the destruction of the secret village of the Yotsuba clan, the Ten Master Clans were immediately furious.
The Yotsuba clan is the most mysterious clan among the ten master clans, and people keep their distance from them because of this. But on the other hand, this is also because the Yotsuba clan is so powerful that everyone is afraid of it. However, even so, the Yotsuba clan was still exterminated, and even the head of the clan, Yotsuba Maya, and all the elite were killed.
For the Japanese magic world, this was undoubtedly like an earthquake.
Almost at the same time when the news spread throughout the Ten Master Clans, Shiba Tatsuya and Shiba Miyuki also learned the news.
“…Is the information accurate?”
Looking at the figure on the screen, Shiba Miyuki's face turned pale. The other party was from the branch family. The reason why he was sent to contact Shiba Miyuki was because almost all the main members of the Yotsuba family had died, so only the branch family could make the decision.
"Yes, we saw with our own eyes the body of Lady Yotsuba Maya. Not only her, but most of the members of the Yotsuba clan also died in the attack. Only a few people who were not in the village at the time for various reasons escaped."
“…”
Shiba Miyuki and Shiba Tatsuya looked at each other, then Shiba Tatsuya looked at the screen and spoke.
"So, what do you want with Miyuki?"
"The Yotsuba family is now leaderless. We hope that Miss Miyuki can return to the Yotsuba family and take on the responsibilities of the head of the family."
"...I'm really surprised. I didn't expect you would give up."
Hearing this, a cold look appeared in Shiba Tatsuya's eyes. He certainly understood why the other party said that. Under normal circumstances, these branch families would have wanted to fight for the position of the head of the family, but now they have decided to let Shiba Miyuki be the head of the family. This is naturally not out of kindness. It is not because of the blood relationship between Shiba Miyuki and Yotsuba Maya. The main reason is worry. After all, the attacker's origin is unknown. No one knows whether the other party is coming for Yotsuba Maya or the Yotsuba family. But no matter what, under the current circumstances, the position of the head of the Yotsuba family is simply a hot potato, and no one wants to take it.
So, letting Shiba Miyuki take the position of the head of the family can be regarded as a shield in front.
"Besides that, we have another proposal."
The man on the screen didn't even look at Shiba Tatsuya, but looked at Shiba Miyuki.
"The Yotsuba family is now seriously injured and may be expelled from the Ten Master Clans. No matter what, we must protect the Yotsuba family's reputation and status."
To put it nicely, it's your reputation and status.
Although Shiba Miyuki thought so in her heart, she did not say it out loud.
"So, what is your proposal?"
"We hope that Miss Miyuki will be able to get engaged when she ascends to the position of head of the family."
"engagement?"
Hearing this, Shiba Miyuki's face showed obvious disgust.
"Yes, we need to join forces with someone who is strong and has great potential... Miss Miyuki, you seem to have a good relationship with the boy named Kasugano in your class, right?"
"……Why?"