The Situation Is Critical
"How is the situation?!"
In the Antir Region, around the Royal Capital, inside a lavishly decorated camp.
At this moment, a burly man dressed in fine clothes, showing no interest in appreciating the surrounding decorations, let the messenger walk in directly.
The thick mud beneath the iron boots immediately stained the Dark Red wool blankets inside the tent, but Duke Theodore made no attempt to pursue the matter.
He didn't even have the messenger kneel down as required by etiquette to report to him. Instead, he made the man sit down in a chair, took a few quick breaths, and then impatiently asked him about the current situation.
"Your Grace, there has been no news from Horn Pass for half a day. There was no obvious fighting inside the fortress, and the situation remained the same when I returned."
"The gates of Horn Pass remained tightly shut. We went up and called out, but no one answered..."
Even in a world with extraordinary abilities, feudal lords still lacked effective ways to communicate.
Not all places have the Alliance like the one that is willing to lay out large-scale communication lines and spend a lot of money to develop communication methods.
Even so, not all First Order Mage can use the remote communication system.
Not to mention Antir, which was a feudal state, so they could only use a well-established messenger system to transmit information.
This leads to a problem, such as what is happening now, where a messenger brings bad news.
After him, the messengers might arrive late for various reasons, or even die on the way, resulting in the information not being delivered in time.
For example, it's currently time for the change of shift at Horn Pass, and because of the Marquis Crawford's affair, the management is in a bit of a mess. However, because the next messenger had an accident, the message couldn't be delivered in time.
Duke Theodore wished that this was the case, that the messenger was delivering a false message, that Horn Pass had not yet fallen, and that the situation was still far superior.
But he also knew that this was unlikely, because the resonance between Antir and his territory subtly hinted at this call.
Although he had not yet felt the worst of the situation, he had sensed that eleven knights had already perished at Horn Pass.
This number was roughly half of the force he had sent to garrison Horn Pass; the loss of half of his main force almost forced him to prepare for the worst.
He paced around the tent twice, sighed deeply, and summoned his subordinates.
"Immediately send a messenger to White Flower Territory and have Count Ian activate the Territory Destroyer. Didn't he already get permission from Mage Lucy to activate Territory Destroyer last time?"
"Start it now, don't hesitate."
"Then..."
Duke Theodore thought for a moment, then sighed again.
"Have Count Ian immediately lead all the knights except the lord back from the north to the Royal Capital. We'll kill that Prince of Antir first; at the very least, we can't let him win..."
He had actually considered Count Ian's Order; if he calculated the timeline, Count Ian should have reached the second rank by now.
However, there's no way around it. After the Territory Resonance of White Flower Territory was destroyed, even though Count Ian has already reached the second tier, he will fall back to the First Order if White Flower Territory is destroyed.
Finley's influence was part of this; he was ultimately destined to become a lord, and this impending position would motivate Count Ian to advance his own career.
There's also the issue of controlling the range of the Territory Destroyer; this thing wasn't originally designed to simply bomb a specific area.
It is a device specifically designed to be used at the intersection of several territories, directly destroying several territories.
From the current perspective, although it may not ultimately lead to the complete loss of the Territory Blessing, it will still cause significant fluctuations.
However, First Order is still just First Order, and a Tier 2 is still just a Tier 2. The impact of a Tier 2 on the battle is far greater than that of First Order.
Duke Theodore sighed deeply again at this thought. If the situation hadn't deteriorated so quickly, he would have preferred to wait until Ian had stabilized his Order before letting him activate the Territory Destroyer.
If Horn Pass can hold out for another two months, by then, even if three of his territories are destroyed, Count Ian's Order will not drop.
But that's how things work; things don't always go in the right direction just because you keep thinking they'll turn out that way.
"Go quickly and call another messenger over."
Footsteps hurried past outside the tent, and another messenger rushed in.
Duke Theodore gave the order directly, without waiting for the other party to perform the proper etiquette.
"Have the knights get ready. We'll begin compressing the Royal Capital later, forcing the prince to channel all his resonance into the Royal Palace."
Duke Theodore hadn't done this before because it was pointless; he could have simply boiled the frog in lukewarm water, trapping the prince in the Royal Capital.
Once he leaves the Royal Capital, that prince will not receive any of the Territory Blessing.
If the prince is inside the Royal Capital but does not occupy the Royal Palace, which is the main landmark, he can easily come out of the Royal Palace and destroy the defensive line that they have worked so hard to advance.
He knew from the past that if he wasn't willing to take the risk of killing the prince at the last minute, he could forget about achieving anything through this method.
But now the situation is different. He knows that by the time the defense line is pushed to the edge of the Royal Palace, it will probably be the early hours of the next day, which is already the prince's bottom line.
If nothing unexpected happens, the prince should launch an attack on them at that time.
The urgent messengers he dispatched would arrive in White Flower City tomorrow night to deliver his orders, and to prevent any unforeseen circumstances, he sent three men.
Even if something unexpected happens and none of them arrive, it doesn't matter, because he now has to deal with that prince within a few days.
If time drags on any longer, and the prince joins forces with the army of Lorinvik, he will have no chance left.
Therefore, even if the Territory Destroyer doesn't activate on time, he still has to take some risks and kill the prince in order to have leverage in negotiations.
Duke Theodore knew that the army of Lorinvik was probably there to spread Christianity, and that as long as he paid a small price, plus the prince was dead...
Lorinvik's army would likely be concerned about the impact on the Alliance and would not dare to openly break ties with him without a suitable reason.
This was his only hope.
Theodore stepped out of his tent and looked at the nearly collapsed city walls, realizing that the battle had dragged on for far too long, to the point that the situation had become so critical.
Of course, this was true for Duke Theodore, and for the Prince of Antir, it was a situation he was constantly in.
By sunrise on the second day, the outcome can basically be determined.
Things developed so quickly, and the situation became so critical, that even Fran had not anticipated it, all thanks to the drawback of the slow speed of information transmission in this world.
When Count Ian decided to activate the Territory Destroyer, Finley was still about three hours away from becoming lord.
The messenger arrived near dusk, and instead of going to Finley, went directly to Count Ian's residence.
At this time, the followers arranged by Fran informed her of this news.
"What bad timing. Oh well, I'll go."
Fran sighed, spurred her Black Horse, and headed straight for White Flower City. Upon arriving in White Flower City, she did not delay and followed the road in the direction where Count Ian Count Ian was riding, tracing his trail.
She still has some time, enough time for her to stop it.
After all, the Territory Destroyer isn't something that can instantly shatter surrounding territories just by being activated, although those mages might wish they could.
However, it will take ten minutes regardless.
Lucy didn't walk with Count Ian because she needed to use this time to poach from the Earth Spirit.
So she simply made up an excuse about having an urgent matter and didn't go to the scene with Count Ian and Maeve.
Count Ian had no reason to wait for Lucy. The messenger's message was clear: act immediately upon receiving the news, or the situation might become irreversible.
So after Lucy found an excuse to leave, Count Ian had no choice but to abandon the idea of going with Lucy.
There was no other way; he knew Lucy might be setting him up, but he still wanted to jump into the trap himself.
After all, dying now and dying later are two different things. He still has time to struggle, so why not give it a shot?
However, when he arrived at the designated location, his plan to immediately have Maeve deploy the device and operate it himself was shattered.
Because he saw nothing, Maeve fell off her horse and immediately lost consciousness.
He had already reached the second tier, and his physical attributes had reached the second tier level. Even so, he did not realize when the attack was launched.
He reined in his horse and looked around, but saw nothing, until...
"Who are you, and why are you stopping me?!"
Ian looked at the figure approaching in horror, riding a tall horse. He couldn't see the horse or the person's face clearly because the entire body, including the horse, was enveloped in red light.
It wasn't until Ian's longsword was easily melted by the red light and he fell to the ground in a daze that he heard a muffled sound. It sounded familiar, but he couldn't quite place it.
Fran used Voice-Changing Potion she had prepared beforehand; if you had to put it simply, this was the voice of ' Elan ' from before.
"It's simply to protect the Earth Spirit."
Ian listened to the voice and fell into a deep sleep until the sun rose.