Eastward! Eastward! (VII)

Somewhere on the outskirts of the Magic Council headquarters in the Kingdom of Fiore.

After taking some time to process the discomfort caused to his eyes by the Silver-White Light, Ogg slowly opened his eyes to check his surroundings.

"Um?"

"Could this be the headquarters of the Magic Council?"

After drawing a conclusion based on the surrounding scenery, Ogg immediately overturned it.

"Impossible! This is absolutely impossible! Philiers is so far from the Magic Council, how could he have arrived so quickly..."

His words abruptly stopped, and at the same time, a look of fear suddenly appeared on Ogg's face. Then, he began to shake his head frantically, so much so that his hair was completely disheveled and tangled with his beard.

"No! No! Impossible! That formation is from ancient times and has been lost. There isn't even anyone who can activate it. How could he... how could he possibly master it? This is absolutely impossible!"

"That's absolutely impossible!"

Just as Boss Ogg was awkwardly shaking his head and dancing by himself, a long white line suddenly appeared in the distance, and as time went on, the white line continued to grow larger and clearer.

Milantes, Haru City

Just as Ogg and his group arrived in Philiers, Leizhi also led the Fourth Restraint Force to the vicinity of Haru City.

Gazing at the bustling, vibrant Haru City ahead, Leizhi exclaimed, "I never imagined that the ruthless King Erus would be so adept at managing his army and governing the people. He's restored order to Haru City in such a short time and even got the residents to accept these invaders, the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard." (Sordil: You're the ruthless one! I was just restoring order! I didn't harm them, so how am I ruthless?)

"Leizhi, shall we continue our attack?"

Glancing at the captain of the Fourth Restraint Force who had asked him a question, Leizhi composed himself and said firmly, "Zat, although King Erus did not allow his army to harm the people, he has no intention of letting us members of the Magic Council go. Therefore, we must still launch an attack on the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard according to the original plan."

"In that case, I will immediately go and relay the order to attack!" (Zat)

"Zat, wait! (Leizhi)"

Upon hearing Leizhi's shout, Zat immediately stopped in his tracks.

"Leizhi, didn't you say we were going to proceed according to the original plan? Why are you stopping me?" (Zat)

Seeing Zat's completely bewildered face, Leizhi said with a wry smile, "Even if I said we should proceed according to the original plan, shouldn't you first conduct reconnaissance of the surrounding area, determine the direction of the operation, understand the strength of the target, and then launch an attack?"

"Slap! Slap!"

After Leizhi finished speaking, Zat lightly patted his forehead and then chuckled, "Heh! I was so busy thinking about how to deal with those guys from the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard that I completely forgot about this!"

Hearing Zat's answer, Leizhi shook his head with a smile, then laughed and scolded, "Then what are you standing here for? Hurry up and go scout!"

"Yes, yes, yes!"

Zat nodded repeatedly in agreement, and then he jogged off towards the white formation behind him.

Fifteen minutes later, at the temporary camp of the Fourth Restraint Force

"Zat, is this intelligence reliable? (Leizhi)"

"Lord Leizhi, the intelligence agents we sent out operated separately, and they extracted information from various people, including local residents, merchants, and city guards, but the results were all mediocre. Therefore, I believe this intelligence is likely true!"

"Did they suddenly leave Haru City two hours ago and head east at an extremely fast speed? (Leizhi)"

After muttering to himself, Boss Leizhi frowned and fell into deep thought.

"Hmm! The timing is reasonable. It seems that King Erus anticipated we would send reinforcements, so he ordered the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard to speed up their attack, attempting to end the battle before we arrive! (Leizhi)"

Upon hearing Leizhi's words, Zat hurriedly said, "Lord Leizhi, in that case, let's hurry and chase after them, or it will be too late!"

After Zat finished speaking, Leizhi glanced up at him, then lowered his head again, lost in thought. (It seems that Ogg isn't the only one with an amazing sixth sense; even Leizhi was affected by it, losing his previous decisiveness!)

"Leizhi, what are you still hesitating for? If you don't chase after them now, it will really be too late!" (Zat)

"Leizhi, we came to Milantes to rescue Lord Leo and the others. If we waste any more time here, Lord Leo and the others will be in danger!" (Zat)

"Lord Leizhi, if you are truly worried, then I will lead a group to pursue them first, while you lead the other group to provide support from the rear. (Zat)"

"Lord Leizhi..."

Under the bombardment of Zat's artillery shells, Leizhi's fortress of doubt was finally breached.

"Alright! Enough talk! Immediately reorganize the troops and set off!" (Leizhi)

Upon hearing Leizhi's words, Zat saluted with delight and then shouted, "Yes, sir! I'll go and reorganize the troops right away!"

Ten minutes later, the temporary camp was dismantled, Fourth Restraint Force, along with Boss Leizhi, chased after the direction the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard had gone. However, none of them noticed that not far behind them, a long black line was steadily approaching them.

After three hours of intense forced march, Leizhi and his group still hadn't found any trace of the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard, but the increasingly loud sounds of battle made them convinced that they were not far behind.

"These guys are really fast at attacking; in just two hours they've advanced nearly 200 kilometers and captured four or five major cities. (Zat)"

"Heh! If they didn't have such terrifying fighting power, they couldn't have conquered most of Milantes' territory in such a short time, forcing the King Milantes and Leo to send out an emergency distress signal! (Leizhi)"

After Leizhi finished speaking, Zat nodded in agreement. The next second, he asked in confusion, "Since the Erus Kingdom has such a terrifying military force, how come they lost most of their territory and went from a top power to an insignificant little kingdom?"

"Perhaps the Kingdom of Tsuyioru Xiu once possessed such military strength, but the Bosco Kingdom absolutely did not. Otherwise, the Posco Royal Family would never have cowered in the center of the continent for so many years, allowing others to divide their territory, nor would they have been so easily replaced by King Erus!" (Leizhi)

"But if the Posco Royal Family didn't have such power, then where did King Erus conjure up such a terrifying army from?" (Zat)

Faced with his subordinate's question, Leizhi shook his head blankly.

"Only King Erus himself can answer this question!" (Leizhi)

"Alright! When we get back, I'll ask King Erus about this secret and have him share it with our Magic Council so we can improve our army's fighting strength!" (Zat)

"The prerequisite is that Ogg can bring King Erus back to the Magic Council alive! (Leizhi's inner thoughts)"

After grumbling to himself, Leizhi looked up and said, "Alright! Let's talk about this after we get back to the Magic Council. We need to hurry on our way now, otherwise the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard will advance again, and it will be even harder to catch up with them then!"

After Leizhi finished speaking, Zat nodded and then relayed the order to his men to continue the march.

A moment later, the black line appeared where Leizhi Leizhi the others were resting, and then continued to chase after them. However, at this moment, the length, thickness, and curvature of the black line had changed significantly. If one could observe from the sky at this time, one would find that the black straight line was turning into an arc, and a semi-circular arc at that.

With Leizhi and the others in hot pursuit, they finally found the Thirteenth Heavenly King Guard before the battle ended.

Gazing at the lunar surface littered with corpses and blood, and looking at the members of the Magic Council imprisoned in a prison van not far away, Zat hissed softly, "These guys deserve to die! How dare they treat our Magic Council members like this!"

Compared to the furious Zat and the ordinary members of the Restraining Force, Leizhi was much calmer, because his reason and life experience told him that this was war! A dangerous, equal, and ruthless war!

"Alright! There's no point in talking about this now. Let's think about how to rescue our captured comrades!" (Leizhi)

After being enlightened by Leizhi, Zat and the others remembered the purpose of their trip and began to offer suggestions for their next move.

"Um?"

"Sing, what's wrong?"

"Mate, look at the bushes over there!"

"The bushes?"

Hearing his friend's words, Mate muttered something under his breath, then turned his head to the side and stared at the bushes not far away.

"Sing, are you kidding me? There's clearly nothing there, what are you showing me?!"

Hearing his friend's words, the young sentry scratched his head and said, puzzled, "That's strange! I clearly saw movement in the bushes just now, why is it quiet now?" (Sing)

"Alright! Stop acting! You're just fooling me, don't you think I don't know? (Mate)"

"No... I really just... (Sing)"

"Hey! You're getting cocky, aren't you! Fine! Since that's how it is, I'll punish you by making you give me that pair of boots you just bought. (Mate)"

"Pah! You wish! (Sing)"

"Hmph! I knew you wouldn't agree, but this is compensation for my emotional distress. If you don't give it to me, I'll go get it myself! (Mate)"

Upon seeing Mate run toward the vehicle where the supplies were stored, Sing immediately gave chase.

Seeing that the only two guards had Contradiction and left the vicinity of the prison cart, Zat, who was in the grass, was overjoyed and immediately relayed the order to his men to proceed.