Chapter 154: The Joke of the Lord Ravager
Orion walked to her side and gently pressed her temples, and the familiar warmth dispelled the pain.
"Tell me, what should I do?" Cocolia grabbed Orion's hand, like a drowning person grasping at a last straw. "The Silvermane Guards are already exhausted just fighting the Fragmentum creatures, and now they have to face the Antimatter Legion..."
At this moment, she was no longer the Supreme Guardian but just a helpless woman, hoping for a hero to save her.
Orion wrapped her cold hands in his own. "Right now, we can only fight to the end."
"But..."
"Don't worry," Orion squeezed her hand. "I'm here. And so are the Trailblazers." He looked back towards the door. "They are experienced warriors and will definitely help Belobog get through this crisis."
Seemingly drawing strength from Orion, Cocolia pulled herself together. She stood up and invited the Astral Express Crew back in.
"Trailblazers," Cocolia regained her aura as the Supreme Guardian, but her voice held a plea. "Belobog is facing an unprecedented crisis. On behalf of all the residents of this city, I ask for your help."
"Of course we'll help!" March 7th was the first to respond. "Isn't that what Trailblazers do?"
"It's our duty," Dan Heng concisely expressed his support.
"Leave it to me, the Galactic Baseballer!" Stelle raised her baseball bat, full of confidence. "I'll make sure those Voidrangers are utterly defeated!"
Soon, the entire Belobog entered a state of war. In just three days, the Antimatter Legion had formed an encirclement. Those Voidrangers, who had slept in the ice for 700 years, were awakening from every corner of the planet, instinctively surging towards the city.
Cocolia formulated a defense plan. Orion and Dan Heng formed an assault team, responsible for infiltrating behind enemy lines to break up their formations. The city's defense was led by Stelle, March 7th, and Bronya, with Gepard Landau serving as the overall commander.
The forces of the Underworld were also mobilized. "Brothers of Wildfire! This is our home!" Seele stood on a high place, her scythe pointing to the sky. "We must not let those monsters step one foot into Belobog!"
Even Svarog, who usually did not interfere, joined the battle, leading his army of ancient automatons to construct a steel defense line.
However, as the battle continued, an unsettling discovery surfaced.
"Orion, look at this," Bronya said in a temporary command post, spreading out a map. "These are the attack locations of the Legion over the past few days." She picked up a pen and began connecting the seemingly chaotic red dots. A strange pattern gradually appeared.
"This is..." Orion's pupils constricted slightly.
The Legion's attack routes were slowly and methodically "drawing" something on the land.
"They are not attacking blindly," Bronya said in a deep voice. "It's as if someone is treating the entire Belobog as a chessboard, a game for amusement."
In the following days, the massive pattern became clearer. Finally, when the last batch of Voidrangers completed their attacks, a sentence was fully displayed on the map, written in the common language:
"The frozen past is burying the future. This is the first joke dedicated to you."
A strange silence fell over the command post.
"Dedicated to... you?" March 7th repeated in confusion. "Who is this speaking to?"
"The first joke..." Bronya frowned. "Does that mean there will be a second?"
Orion did not speak, but his heart was stirred. Dedicated to you... Could this "you" refer to... me?
"In any case, this indicates that someone is behind this," Orion analyzed.
"To be able to simultaneously control such a massive number of Legion," Dan Heng's expression became unusually solemn, "Such a level of existence, I'm afraid is only... a Lord Ravager."
Silence once again enveloped the command post.
"But why?" Stelle asked. "Why would a Lord Ravager be interested in a small, ice-bound planet like Belobog?"
"Too little information," Dan Heng shook his head. "We don't even know which one it is."
"Could it be Zirnitra?" March 7th guessed. "After all, she might have led the invasion 700 years ago."
"Or Dubra?" Stelle also joined in. "I heard he's very strong."
"Or Phantylia? It's said she excels at weaving conspiracies," March 7th continued.
"And Asat Pramad," Dan Heng added. "Legend has it that planets invaded by him are swallowed by one malicious joke after another."
Hearing that name, Orion's eyelids twitched. Writing jokes on the ground with Voidrangers... This dark humor indeed resembles the style of that legendary Lord Ravager.
"If we really have to face a Lord Ravager..." Dan Heng said worriedly. He didn't finish, but everyone understood. Belobog would have no chance of winning at all.
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