Volume Five: Return from the Other Shore - Meet the Attack (Happy New Year, Everyone)

"So! You're saying! You taught all this nonsense to Sin Annihilation?"

"Come on, calm down, it was just a little joke~"

"Your joke almost tainted the girl's purity and nearly blew my upper body away!"

Xiao Wu glared at Haoyue with murderous eyes. In her 100% demon form, she exuded a terrifying aura. The purple lightning emanating from her entire body shattered the surrounding trees and rocks into dust, but Haoyue remained calm and composed, playing with her black hair.

"You—forget it! But don't do it again!"

"Ming~~~Bai!"

"... Stop that disgusting laugh of yours."

"No, and besides, Sin Annihilation is watching from the side. Don't speak so rudely, lest you set a bad example for him~"

"Well..."

Xiao Wu glanced to the side, where Sin Annihilation was watching them with his big, silvery-white eyes.

"Tsk... Sin Annihilation!"

"Exist."

"Anyway... well, it's nice to see you again. Also, don't believe anything this Qipao Woman tells you in the future!"

"Why?"

"She's the kind of person who doesn't care about anything as long as it's fun. If you approach her without any suspicion, you'll be devoured without a trace!"

"... So you mean, they need to be identified as enemies?"

"More or less... huh?"

"Offer, Eyeball!"

Before Xiao Wu, Sin Annihilation gouged out his left eye. A blinding silver light gathered in his silvery-white pupil, transforming into a laser beam that shot towards Xiao Wu! The attack was so sudden that even Haoyue didn't have time to react. By the time she was about to act, the laser was already upon her!

"Idiot, get out of here!!!"

Xiao Wu roared and lunged at Haoyue, forcefully pushing her out of the laser's trajectory, while she herself—

"Xiao Wu!"

The immense impact sent Xiao Wu flying backward, pulling Haoyue down with her. The two, one in black and one in white, lay haphazardly on the ground, their arms and legs tangled together. Haoyue's cheongsam was wide open, revealing her panties, while Xiao Wu's collar was pulled open, revealing her beautifully shaped collarbone, making her look exceptionally alluring.

"Ouch... it hurts..."

"Are you out of your mind? Can't you even dodge this, Qipao Woman...?"

Haoyue rubbed her head, which had hit a rock when she fell, and sat up. Xiao Wu also touched her shoulder, which had been struck by the laser, and looked up.

Then they both froze.

They were almost touching face to face, their noses were almost touching.

""... ah!""

The next instant, the two separated as if they had touched something extremely filthy; Xiao Wu looked disgusted, and Kogetsu looked annoyed.

"What are you doing, Qipao Woman! Have you lost your mind!?"

"No way! You tackled me first! You claim to be straight, yet you pushed a married woman? Disgusting! Shameless!"

"You have no right to call others dirty!"

And the Sin Annihilation beside it—

"I hit Xiao Wu!? I hurt Xiao Wu!?"

It descended into chaos.

"Wait, your Sin Annihilation! It's not your fault... uh, I should say it's only 30%... 40%... 50% your fault?"

"Xiao Wu... you hate me now..."

"No! But you were so sudden! Why did you attack her?"

"Because Xiao Wu said that this black-haired pervert in the cheongsam (Haoyue: Who are you talking about!?) is a bad guy, so of course he has to be considered an enemy..."

"No! She's not an enemy..."

"But didn't Xiao Wu say that if you approach her without any suspicion, you'll be eaten alive?"

"That's true, but..."

"Didn't Xiao Wu say she was really bad?"

"She's very bad, but..."

"Doesn't Xiao Wu dislike her a lot?"

"It's annoying, but also..."

"Didn't Xiao Wu want to kill him beforehand?"

"I didn't say that!"

So you don't actually dislike her?

"No! I hate her, I really hate this guy... But, but I never thought about killing her. On the contrary, I'm happy to fight alongside her. If she could be a little friendlier, I wouldn't be unable to... Wait, wait, what am I saying! You, the Qipao Woman, say something too..."

Xiao Wu turned to Haoyue, her forehead covered in sweat, only to find him with his head down, his eyes peeking out from under his cascading hair, and his face flushed.

"... Qipao Woman?"

"So, it turns out, that delinquent girl actually had feelings for him... (blushes)"

"Huh!?"

"Honestly, you should have said so sooner... But she already has Xiao Ye, what am I going to do... (blushing)"

"Blush my ass!"

"Xiao Wu... so this is what she likes... Xiao Wu doesn't want me anymore..."

"You're using this trick too, Sin Annihilation!? You've already picked up bad habits from this deadbeat lesbian so quickly?"

"Cough cough..."

"Nid, what do you want now!"

"I just wanted to say..." Nid, who hadn't spoken for a while, smiled wryly and steadied himself against a tree, "Don't you think we've gone a bit off-topic? We have more important things to do."

"Ah, right!"

"Right? Miss Xiao Wu should have a communication device with her, right? Let me use it."

"It's this... I'm sorry, Nid, these two idiots messed things up, I completely forgot about the important thing."

It's okay.

"Alright, hurry up and let the commander of the Second Division know you're safe. I'll lead you to rejoin the main force now, and then we'll retreat."

"Retreat?"

Nid's expression suddenly changed.

His scarred lips curled up slightly, revealing a strange smile, while his messy bangs obscured his eyes.

"... Nid?"

The atmosphere... seems to have changed a bit?

Xiao Wu suddenly had a strange feeling.

The man in front of her, who was more than two years younger than her, suddenly seemed a little unfamiliar.

Nid didn't look at her again, but instead gave orders to the Second Division Commander on the other end of the divine communication device.

"... Sall, no problem... Retreat? No, I think this is a golden opportunity..."

There was a subtle, almost imperceptible chill in his voice.

"Such a good opportunity to annihilate the enemy in one fell swoop is rare. Since we've encountered one, we should make good use of it, shouldn't we?"

"Wait a minute, Nid! I don't quite understand what you mean... First of all, we're here to rescue you, right?"

On the other end, the commander of the Second Division frowned, his forehead covered in cold sweat, while his subordinates looked at him in astonishment.

"Yes, thank you for not making the decision to abandon me, although the main reason was to appease the troops."

"What are you talking about? No matter what, our initial plan was to rescue you and then immediately retreat! Now you're suddenly saying we want to fight the Vatican's pursuers!? Our scouts say the Vatican has sent nearly a million dogs! A million! And the troops we've sent are only a tenth of theirs!"

"As far as I know, they had at least 300,000 troops coming from Gloria, and later almost all the troops from major cities and military bases along the way were incorporated into them. It would be strange if they didn't have a million by the time they got here."

"You know that's good! Right now, the number of Vatican dogs here is more than the total strength of our Revolutionary Army! It's fortunate that that bitch Tianlu is busy suppressing the 14th Division on the southeast coast and can't get here, otherwise we'd be writing our wills!"

"I see."

"Do you understand? You're already incredibly lucky to have been rescued, so—"

"This is the Commander-in-Chief's order. As for the battle plan... I will dictate it to you immediately. I will only say it once, so please listen carefully."

"I told you to stop messing around! Has losing Loxue completely ruined your brain?! We can't possibly win against an enemy ten times our size if we start a war right here!"

"But is that really the case? Think about it carefully, Saleh, what is the purpose of the Papacy sending so many troops?"

"Of course... we'll make sure we capture you without any mishaps."

"And what are they most afraid of?"

"You were taken away by the Revolutionary Army before they could capture you."

"That's right. In other words, mobility is the most important thing for them right now. Only with high enough mobility can they ensure that they catch me before the Revolutionary Army. I wonder how much equipment they brought with them? Plus, they set off in such a hurry... they're probably traveling light."

Even so--

"And considering their objective... their objective is to search and capture, so the biggest mistake they should avoid is casting a wide net and missing some areas. To broaden the search area, they're probably divided into several teams, each advancing in a single line. Is that the same as what the scouts reported?"

Yes, that's true...

"That's roughly the enemy's situation. Now think about our side... When you initially organized your forces and mobilized your equipment, wasn't your premise 'a direct assault on Gloria, a rescue operation in the chaos, and then a retreat'? Because of the need for a diversionary tactic, our individual forces are much stronger than the Papacy's soldiers. Moreover, we started as a unified force, while the Papacy's pursuers, though numerous, are a temporary merger of several regional legions, making their coordination far inferior to ours. Imagine them as layers of thin, brittle planks, while we are a concentrated, powerful hammer..."

"That's true... but that alone is far from enough to make up for the difference in numbers!"

What is our current troop strength?

"More than 97,400 people..."

"If we take into account the advantages I just mentioned, I think adding another 50,000 to 100,000 people shouldn't be a problem."

Even so...

"Most importantly... the Vatican did not send Templar Knight- level personnel."

"But—wait, there are no Templar Knight!? Why?"

"The person who rescued me has a rather special identity. We can be certain that the Holy See won't send any Templar Knight, and as for the Heavenly Law, it certainly won't appear. I'll explain the specific reasons to you when we get back. And don't forget our super-powerful forces here: Miss Haoyue, Miss Xiao Wu, Miss Sin Annihilation... Ah, I'll introduce Miss Sin Annihilation to you when we get back."

"Such a disparity in numbers is very difficult to reverse with individual combat strength alone!"

"Some people just can't be judged by common sense, hey, I'm telling you—"

"""What's wrong?"""

The three women turned and looked at Nid with curiosity.

"I believe that the three of you are all warriors who can take on ten thousand men single-handedly, but if you were to get completely serious, could you 'take on a hundred thousand men single-handedly' in the upcoming battle?"

"As for me... I should be fine. If all else fails, I can just activate my demon form." Xiao Wu nodded.

"We won't be afraid of any number of them coming." Xiao Wu nodded in Sin Annihilation.

"If I use that move, even if they come with ten million, they'll still die. Although, in that case, we'll also get caught up in it and die..." Haoyue tossed her hair.

"Very good... Did you hear that, Saleh? Including these three, as well as Miss Sinan and the Rakshasa Army over there, we now have more than 500,000 troops."

"That's utter nonsense! Even if it actually worked, how are you going to make up the remaining 500,000 shortfall?"

"How do I fill this out... haha."

Nid suddenly burst out laughing.

"... Nid?"

"To devise strategies to defeat the many with the few, and to overcome the strong with the weak, to gain the greatest possible benefit with limited military strength and resources—isn't that what Sister Xue usually does as the chief strategist? It's just that now... I'll be temporarily taking her place."

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It's a new month and a new year, and this book has been going on for a year now. I hope both new and old readers have a happy new year, and thank you for your support during this time.