For a moment, Yada was speechless.
Igor Sullivan was still standing there, with a faint smile on his lips, making it impossible to tell whether he was confident of victory or expressing his mockery... Or maybe it was nothing, for him, it was normal to be favored by victory.
I thought of the photo taken by the drone on the big screen in the conference room. The man standing on the cliff where the highland jackdaws were nesting, facing the sea breeze, gave people a feeling of high spirits. It was surprising that there were not many traces of time left on him.
But what is the reality?
What were once the strongest shields and the sharpest spears on the battlefield have now been pushed to the opposite side by their own hands, becoming vengeful ghosts that have walked out of nightmares.
——It turns out that Wendy really went home.
Thinking of this, Yeda felt a complicated feeling in his heart.
"...Where's Wendy Sullivan?" she asked.
"She's doing well." Igor didn't answer directly but said lightly, "Should I thank you for taking care of her before?"
In this situation, official rhetoric such as "sacrifice for all mankind" and "contribution to the development of the Federation" seems to be a bit of an obstacle.
Thinking of Gresham, who was carried to the ambulance for emergency treatment, and Anne, who was frightened but not injured, Yada swallowed back those unpleasant words: "We are very sorry about what happened to Miss Sullivan."
"I regret that we haven't reached a consensus on your arrogant ambitions?" Hugo interrupted irritably. "Stop spouting such useless nonsense. Weren't you going to shoot? Why did you stop after seeing Azathoth?"
The team members behind Yeda also asked, "Sir?"
Yeda still hadn't made up her mind.
She didn't even dare to look up at Azathoth, and could only rely on looking directly at Igor to hide her embarrassment at having surrendered without a fight. Her instinctive crisis warnings were frantically sounding alarms, and her nerves were throbbing with pain. She caught a glimpse of the wolf beside her, which had completely lost its previous arrogance. If she had a tail, she would probably be hugging it and trembling in fear by now.
"I don't want to cause too much damage." Azathoth's voice was clearly heard in every corner. "But if you insist on fighting, I can also fulfill your wish and bring about the end of death."
"Stop, stop bragging." A team member shouted weakly, "You only have so few people, why do you..."
"--alarm!"
"alarm!"
"The firewall of drone No. S001 has been maliciously invaded. Automatic mode defense is preventing the intruder from gaining access."
"Number S002..."
“Beep.”
"User identity entry, authority: highest. Emergency defense mode off, command mode on."
"Attack equipment is targeting, please issue further instructions."
A dozen drones brought by the Red Line Legion took off rapidly and hovered in the air, their automatic sights emitting an ominous red light.
At the same time, intertwined black tentacles twisted into a ball, surging out from all directions like black snakes, guarding Azathoth's feet and allowing him to stand in mid-air. It resembled a throne of exquisitely designed and controlled forces, yet it also reminded people of blasphemous things only depicted in games or novels, things that most humans could never imagine... demons of the abyss, demons from the deep sea, horned black goats, murals carved with the fantasies of heretics—probably these things.
Coincidentally, the young man who vomited all over Gresham's pants during the post-celebration meeting was also present today.
His face turned visibly pale as paper, and within seconds he began to cover his neck and roll his eyes.
Yeda made a quick decision and said, "Take him away!"
"I don't—ugh!"
The players around him couldn't bear to look away.
But soon, the smell of blood filled the air amidst the sound of retching. The young man was no longer half-kneeling on the ground spitting out acid. Instead, drops of blood flowed out from between his mouth.
Azathoth also saw this scene. He was a little surprised at the other party's low tolerance. After all, these were just a few ordinary tentacles... Well, it wasn't the human's fault.
"Close your eyes," he whispered, "or you will never be able to see as you used to."
You won’t become blind, but the consequences of rationality evaporating will probably be decided by God rolling the dice.
"——The evil god's favored one!" Even after being dragged away, the team member who was kindly warned still scolded with a hoarse throat.
For a moment, Yeda was so nervous that his mind went blank.
Azathoth said nothing, but Igor pursed his lips in displeasure.
"Stop talking," Yeda said. "I'm not letting you go today, no matter what the cost. I don't think you'll ever win. The capital planet has always been our headquarters, and the military won't side with their former superiors. If widespread chaos breaks out, the consequences will be disastrous."
"Can I understand that you are persuading us to escape?" Igor said slowly.
"I didn't say that. It's up to you to interpret it however you want." Yeda remained calm. "I have my duty to arrest the criminal. Any other personal thoughts are irrelevant to the current situation."
"Heh." Igor chuckled, "You're just being righteous in words."
He hung the gun in his hand on the wing of one of the drones, put one hand in the side pocket of his coat, and with the other hand took off his hat and bowed slightly: "But what you said does make sense..."
The moment he stood up, just as Yeda had relaxed, the gray-haired young man suddenly said, "Aim!"
The drones sprang into action. After a dozen crisp clicks, one of them opened fire unexpectedly. The ammunition, trailing a blue light, fell into the bushes beside a Red Line Legion, sending up a cloud of gray dust.
"Sorry, it went off accidentally." Hugo said irresponsibly.
"Marshal Sullivan—"
"Be careful with your address, ma'am." Igor fixed his dark red eyes on Yeda. "Also, this is a response to what you just said to the machine gunner."
Before Yeda could speak, a series of hoarse roars came from one of their mouths: "Ah ...
His face turned purple, veins popped out of his neck, and the whites of his eyes were bloodshot. He accidentally bit his tongue while speaking, and the saliva that spurted out was bloody, but he was unaware of it. His mind was on the verge of collapse.
"I'm going to kill you all! Kill you all! Die! No one will survive!"
The machine gun in his hand fired wildly towards the front, and the recoil caused most of the bullets to deviate from the target and hit the ground, without causing any effective damage.
Azathoth sighed and turned his head away: "I told you not to look."
Yuri was sitting a little behind and witnessed this scene with his own eyes. For some reason, he actually felt like laughing.
The drone deployed its defenses in mid-air, easily blocking this wave of unplanned shooting.
Seeing no chance of victory, the man who had fired the gun grew increasingly frantic. He emptied his gun, tossed it aside, drew his matching saber from his waist, and walked toward Azathoth in a trance. This time, without Yeda having to speak, several members of the team hurriedly restrained him, dragged him to the rear, knocked him unconscious, and shoved him into the back seat of the transport vehicle.
Yeda was silent for a while, then asked, "Is there no possibility of reconciliation?"
Compared with the previous ambiguous statement, this is already a very open hint of surrender.
"If you give up tracking down Wendy's whereabouts and recognize our legal status."
"That's impossible."
"Then there's nothing to talk about."
Yeda's tone softened again. "I can't make a decision on this matter. I need to report it. Perhaps you would be willing to meet with the Archon."
"Forget it." It was Azathoth, not Igor, who answered her. "We are not engaging in political negotiations. Considering the stability of human society and the safety of the majority of innocent people, war is the lowest of means. But if you continue with this attitude, then I think there is nothing to discuss."
The throne beneath his feet disintegrated into black particles like sand on the seashore and disappeared, while he himself landed lightly on the ground. The black eyes under his hood met Yeda's for a moment. "Then let us begin the war. Conduct your Inquisition."
Beads of sweat had already appeared on Yeda's forehead.
The autumn wind was cool, but she felt waves of heat.
"I……"
"bang——"
From the direction of the city center came a loud bang that almost shook half the planet.
No matter what the people in the city were doing, at this moment they all looked up in panic and cast their gazes in the direction where the sound came from.
Yeda was no exception. She turned around suddenly, almost thinking that Azathoth had taken action the second after declaring war, but she soon realized that this could not be the work of the person in front of her.
A mushroom cloud several dozen meters high was blown out at the headquarters of the Capital Planet Daily newspaper.
The mushroom cloud was also filled with colorful fireworks, which were very dazzling even in the daytime, forming several huge federal common words in the air: Unfortunately, the talks broke down =w=.
The smiley face emoticon at the end gives off a rather annoying vibe.
Yeda was momentarily bewildered. He looked at the mushroom cloud that was about to dissipate, then turned back to look at Igor, whose expression was serious, and Azathoth, who was suddenly surrounded by a cold and chilling aura. He blurted out a question: "What's going on?"
"It's the newspaper." Hugo said quickly, "I checked their internal video. An hour ago, Nixon Evelyn walked to the first-floor lobby and talked to an unfamiliar male human. Half an hour later, they ended the conversation and the man walked out of the newspaper building. Nixon remained sitting in the lobby without returning to his office. Another half hour later, the man who had walked out the door found him again, and the two began arguing for some unknown reason..."
It cursed. "What kind of crappy equipment is this? It doesn't even have a recording device. It's hard to make out the lip movements. It'll take a while. Anyway, Nixon kept backtracking and denying, and finally there was this explosion."
"What about the casualties?" Yeda asked. "What about the people in the newspaper office? Has the criminal been caught?"
In her haste, she pushed her glasses several times and ruffled her hair. "Did you know we were out on a mission today? You son of a bitch!"
Hugo should have been gloating, but he looked at Igor and said nothing: "The casualties are unknown. The whole building has collapsed. It might still be in time to rescue them now."
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