FATE: Target of Grand Master

After confirming that Villeneuve had no more information, Xia Yan acknowledged the value of the intelligence he had provided and had Sugitani Zenjubo, who had been taken to Moscow as a hostage, speak with him to put Villeneuve at ease.

After ending the communication, Xia Yan continued to stare at the map for a long time.

As a fan of SLG games, Xia Yan has played many strategy games such as Romance of the Three Kingdoms, Nobunaga's Ambition, Civilization, and the Total War series. When faced with a situation where he is besieged by multiple enemies, the most important thing to do is to strengthen the defense while dividing the enemy.

Fortunately, Xia Yan was confident in his team's individual combat strength, and he was able to take down the enemy Master's strongholds one by one.

Since Villeneuve's stronghold, which he controlled, was located to his south, Xia Yan focused his attack on the north.

Pointing his finger upwards from the village of Vyazma, which he had just transformed, Xia Yan saw the first enemy stronghold he encountered: Sechevka.

This location is not far from the Great Valley Fortress to the north and the rebel fortress to the northwest. The three strongholds are positioned in a mutually supportive manner, which shows that the leader of the opposing forces is quite capable.

However, apart from the Master group "Lighthouse" that Xia Yan built himself, he has never seen any group that can be united and unwavering. Moreover, the five Masters opposite him do not even have the weak connection of being in the same Master group. The only reason they can unite is because of the requirements of the trial mission.

However, the trial missions are not absolute. The existence of teleportation orbs gives these Masters a way out. When they find that they cannot defeat the enemy on their own but can defeat them by joining forces, they will naturally choose to join forces. But when they find that they cannot defeat the enemy even by joining forces, they will only consider how to protect themselves.

Therefore, even though Serchovka seemed like a tough nut to crack, Xia Yan did not hesitate.

After finishing their business in Moscow, Xia Yan and his followers immediately used teleportation magic to return to Vyazma. Then, accompanied by Morgan and Anastasia, the three of them secretly went to Serchovka to investigate the enemy's situation.

The village of Sychevka is about the same size as Vyazma, but at this moment, a Yaga armed with various weapons is patrolling near the village, indicating that it has been completely occupied by the resistance forces.

In fact, in the original work, besides the Chaldea trip, the natives of the Russian Lostbelt also split into many factions.

There were die-hard Tsarist loyalists who believed "the Tsar is heaven, and the Tsar's kindness can never be repaid," as well as those who believed "the Tsar is not wrong, he is just blinded by the treacherous ministers around him," and there were also rebels who believed "we can't survive anymore, we can only rebel," fence-sitters who "help whoever gives us benefits," and bandits who "I just want to be a mountain king and rob grain to make a living."

However, it now seems that the strongholds occupied by those five masters are unlikely to have any loyalists of the Thunder Emperor or those who want to purge the emperor's inner circle. Even those who are on the fence will have little room to survive.

Xia Yan's attention was quickly drawn to the various weapons that Ya Ga in the unit was holding. Normally, a unit would use uniform equipment. Even if the resistance forces were short of supplies, they would usually use hunting rifles and ordinary long knives. It was really strange that such a variety of weapons, which were obviously beyond the standard equipment of the resistance forces, were used.

"Xia Yan, the weapons in Ya Ga's hands are all of similar quality to treasures."

Morgan's words startled Xia Yan, and a guess immediately came to mind.

The opponent's lineup includes an extremely troublesome writer-type servant—Alexandre Dumas.

The Count of Monte Cristo and The Three Musketeers are both his works. One of his Noble Phantasms is called "Tales of the Distant Endless Food," which has the ability to raise the level of items by creating legends about existing things and turn them into pseudo-Noble Phantasms.

A single ability is not particularly remarkable, but it is a Noble Phantasm that can lead to a qualitative change through quantitative accumulation. In FSF, its Master, Police Chief Orlando, relied on this ability to form a special combat group called "The Twenty-Eight Monsters". However, twenty-eight is not the upper limit of the number of Noble Phantasms that Dumas possesses.

To be precise, given enough magic and time, Alexandre Dumas could produce a continuous stream of weapons that resembled Noble Phantasms. If a force of a hundred strong and healthy Yaga soldiers equipped with these Noble Phantasms were to emerge and be trained, they would definitely be able to confront the Killer Hunters head-on, and it wouldn't be impossible for them to defeat them.

This force can threaten not only killing hunters, but even Servants of average combat strength; this is the terrifying aspect of Alexandre Dumas's Noble Phantasm.

Xia Yan wanted to get closer to the village, but Morgan stopped him.

"Xia Yan, if we go any further, we'll enter a range where we can be detected. If the other side has a good Caster-class Servant, there's a chance they'll be able to detect us."

"Even Morgan, your invisibility magic can be seen through?" Xia Yan retorted.

"I am very pleased that you have such high trust in the magic I perform, but this kind of invisibility magic has little to do with the magician's skill level. Whether it is an ordinary magician or a genius like me, the effect will not be much different. The difference lies only in the incantation time, duration, and range of the effect, because the upper limit of the effect of this kind of magic is limited."

Xia Yan would never argue with Morgan about magic, so he immediately accepted Morgan's explanation.

"Then let Wei go."

Anastasia suddenly said, "Ve has the added advantage of mystery and environment here. If it weren't for a top-level magician setting up a top-level counter-surveillance spell, Ve would never have been discovered."

Xia Yan thought about it and decided that Wei was indeed suitable, so he readily agreed.

"Wei, good luck! Make a good impression on Xia Yan."

Hearing Anastasia's whispered words of encouragement, Wei sighed inwardly. Clearly, his little princess had the mentality of competing with Morgan, the great witch.

If you're going to argue, fine, but you have to drag yourself into it.

"Wei, why do you look so unwilling?"

Anastasia puffed out her cheeks.

Wei hurriedly shook his head, then slowly drifted towards the village.

Wei first circled around the village. In addition to the patrolling Yaga troops and a few Yaga soldiers guarding the village entrance, there were also Yaga soldiers stationed at fixed points inside the village. The whole village already had the feel of a military encampment.

Unable to gather any more information from the outside, Vi cautiously attempted to enter the village, but triggered some kind of alarm just seconds after drifting into the village.

Several chains shot out from the surrounding space in an instant, trying to trap Wei, but fortunately Wei reacted quickly and dodged the attack in time.

Then, a flame suddenly rose up near Wei, dispelling the invisibility magic on him.

"Enemy attack! Enemy attack!"

Immediately, the nearby Yaga soldiers rushed over with their weapons.