Saiyan stowaways on the Ark

The original plan was to wait until the Ursus rescue team took over the area, allowing the locals to soothe the trauma suffered by those whose homes had been destroyed.

But now it's highly likely that the other party isn't even pretending and has sent out a "professional" who looks like a cleaner.

The battle for Talulah, the elimination of those in the know, and the recruitment of Tomat.

Whatever the reason, there's no mention of rescuing survivors—if you want to indiscriminately kill them, at least pretend to rescue them and then deal with them on the way.

In other words, Thomas and his team couldn't wait any longer.

Since we can't wait for them anyway, we might as well join the main group.

"Do you think it would be easier for them to accept being told 'they've been abandoned,' or 'their city has been razed to the ground'?"

Thomas asked Zoya's father.

Regardless of the answer, Tomat and his men were to deal with the ruins, move them out, and then let them witness the city reduced to ashes.

"The latter, I guess..."

At this moment, his answer revealed no other emotion.

"It's better to hate the natural disasters than to make them hate Ursus..."

[Main Text] Chernobog, Amidst the Ruins: Chapter Eleven "For Ursus"

"Don't tell me you're dressed like that because you're paramedics."

Rewind a few minutes to a point earlier, and you'll hear what Tomat said as he suddenly flew out of the passage, hovered steadily in mid-air, and gazed down at two figures less than twenty meters from the entrance.

The jet-black, hollowed-out faceplate exuded a blood-red, menacing light. Slender tubes extended from the face mask, bypassed the chest covered by a black coat, and connected to an unidentified long, narrow instrument on the back. Similarly, on the cold-feeling protective armor at the back of the head, there were several thick tubes connecting to the spine on the back.

Beneath their oversized, trench coat-like garments lay sturdy, form-fitting exoskeleton equipment. No identifying marks could be seen on them, but their identical attire and matching red sabers indicated that they were wearing standard equipment issued by a certain organization.

Moreover, judging from Tomat's past experience, these people's equipment is quite advanced compared to the local technology.

"A special forces unit? From Ursus, perhaps?"

Thomas crossed his arms and looked down at the two who had stopped in their tracks, making blunt deductions about their identities.

But they didn't respond to Tomat's request. They merely flashed the red light beneath their masks very quickly, and at the same time, as if confirming a message, they spoke to each other in Ursus, a language Tomat couldn't understand:

"Matches the description, take him down."

The crimson gleam of their military knives was even more menacing than their emotionless gazes. The two moved in unison, instantly vanishing from their spot as they leaped to either side, kicking up a pile of rocks, forming a pincer movement from the left and right. One hand pressed down on the scabbard, the other gripped the hilt, and in the next moment, they would draw their swords, pointing them at Tomat in mid-air. It was unclear whether they possessed some special skill or attack method, intending to launch an attack on him from several meters away.

But in the next instant, their vision began to shake violently, and the scene before them changed.

They should have been facing Tomat in the air, but all they saw were the ruins of the buildings they had come from, which had been completely destroyed.

What unidentified Originium Arts attacked us?

The thought flashed through their minds, but they found that their heads and bodies, which should have been turning to check their surroundings, were not obeying their commands.

They tried to raise their hands, but couldn't see them reaching out; they wanted to cry out, but had no strength left to even make a sound.

Until they saw the devices that shouldn't have been on their "chest"—these things should have been on their backs.

Then, in the instant before they disappeared, they realized what had happened and let their powerless bodies fall backward.

Then, they saw Tomat still floating in the air.

The broken tube gushed out a scarlet liquid, like a runaway fountain, staining Tomat's clothes red.

Without turning his head, the latter used his energy to burn the corpse on the ground to ashes, then turned and fell back into the original pit—while also sensing the aura of other areas.

Sure enough, there were two or three similar auras operating independently in other places, near areas where other auras were more concentrated.

"Nothing should happen."

The accuracy of breath detection cannot match the intuitive data from the detector.

Although these suddenly appearing individuals are slightly stronger than ordinary people they usually see, due to the effects of Oripathy, Tomat cannot definitively say that the stronger one will definitely defeat the weaker one on Terra's side, especially considering the existence of special abilities like Originium Arts.

However, this judgment based on his personal strength was not enough to make him completely at ease about the safety of other areas. Therefore, he decided to tell Violence about this matter and ask her, as the captain, to urge her to join the main force ahead of schedule, rather than continuing to wait for the Ursus rescue team, which may not even exist.

As they began clearing away the rubble in the main passage to create a smoother route for transporting the wounded, another conflict was unfolding in the ruins of a peripheral neighborhood.

——PM 1:00. Chernobog ruins. Block number 27——

—Weather: Sunny turning to frost—

“Princess of the Yetis—or should I call you ‘Daughter of the Patriots’? I’ve heard about the battles your team fought against other Inner Guards in their early years. Back then, your team was able to hold off three Inner Guards, which was truly impressive.”

It hadn't snowed in Chernobyl, but the entire area was now a silvery-white winter scene.

In the center of this silvery-white expanse were a dozen or so shield-bearers clad in heavy black armor and a patch of snow-white.

Those were the Ursus Shield Guards with their Reunion logo scratched off, and Frostnova in her Rhodes Island operator uniform.

She removed the mask and protective cap that most operators use, revealing her true face without reservation when her identity was exposed.

Then, Froststar glanced at the masked saber-wielding man standing calmly on a high-rise building dozens of meters away from her, surrounded by frost-covered shields and armor.

And the communications radio, which was completely shredded at this distance.

It's not a good time to be distracted by anything during a battle.

However, the inner guards had no intention of launching an attack at this moment; they merely disabled her communication methods from a distance.

This brief moment allowed her to recall, in an instant, the events she had experienced with the village on the snowy plains and the still-unchanged Talulah, thanks to the other person's words.

Talulah, full of passion, had her noble status revealed in front of the commoners.

Patriots who had never thought highly of Talulah sided with her at that time.

Frostnova and her team faced the will of Ursus head-on for the first time.

But those were just old stories that had gradually faded from memory after things had changed. Now that they had been brought up again, Froststar didn't feel much emotion.

Too many things have happened that we never expected, and dwelling too much on the past that cannot be changed will only slow down our thinking in the present.

"I have no intention of taking away the general's orphan who is not related to him by blood, nor do I want to kill the warriors who have shed their blood for Ursus."

The inner guards' gaze pierced through the frigid air, landing on Frostnova and the Shield Guards with an indescribable chill.

"Put down your weapons, forget everything you've done and everything that happened afterward. Even as infected, you can still serve Ursus."

"What do you—no, I should say 'you'—want to do?"

Froststar had no extraneous thoughts in her mind, nor did she consider the "incredibly lenient" treatment offered by the other party for the infected.

She was simply curious about the purpose of the guards' arrival.

“If it were something that could be easily said, there would be no need for us to come, and you must already know why we are here.”

The guard jumped straight down from the towering building, landing on the cold ground without stirring up a speck of dust.

Each step dispelled the bitter cold; he marched towards Frostnova and the Shieldbearers like an army in one.

"Heh, let me guess." Frostnova sneered, and the Shieldbearers changed their formation to make way for her. "Another 'for Ursus'?"

[Main Text] Chernobog, Amidst the Ruins: Chapter Twelve: The Inner Guard: I've Already Stole Your Home

"For Ursus?"

We are a kind of will of Ursus.

A will known as oppression.

The voice in the cold wind was strong and resonant, and as the words continued, it became a plural echo.

A total of four interior defenders appeared at this location.

“Five shield guards can slaughter a squad of knights, and four inner guards can sweep through a settlement.” Frostnova did not change her tone, but dark Originium ice crystals appeared around her. The fluctuations of magic accompanied her words, bringing with them gusts of cold air that swept past the shield guards and blew on the inner guards. “To be regarded with such high regard by the Emperor’s blade is truly an honor.”

Ancient songs have long demonstrated their almost invincible individual strength.

A single inner guard is said to be capable of wiping out several squads.

The shield guards, who also appear in this ballad, are not only too few in number to form a group, but their dilapidated equipment also prevents them from gaining much of an advantage in battle.

Their extensive combat experience, when placed before the mysterious inner guards whom they had never confronted before, lost much of its significance.

“However…” A cold smile appeared on Frostnova’s face, as if mocking, “So-called will is to abandon your people and rush to cover up your stains like a child who wets the bed. It’s really laughable. Although, whether it’s the nature of your actions or your cover-ups afterward, if anyone knew, you would only be a laughing stock who loses trust.”

"I regret."

The guard exhaled a breath of white air, his tone tinged with regret: "The general is a true patriot. Even his original intention in leaving Ursus was for the future of Ursus. He also wanted to find a suitable place for the infected in Ursus, but there was already a more suitable place for them."

"But we can't feel any love for Ursus in your words, which is probably a result of a lack of education."

"I don't know if 'love' can be acquired through education."

Froststar raised her fingertips.

The guard gripped the hilt of his sword tightly.

The sound of their conversation was gradually drowned out by the increasingly intense sound of the cold wind.

"However, you were the ones who taught me to hate Ursus!"

With a furious roar, a massive ice pillar rose from the ground, lifting Frostnova and Shieldbearer off their original plane and propelling them rapidly upwards.

Where the crimson blade flashed, the wind and snow vanished, the ice pillars shattered in an instant, only to quickly freeze again and return to their original state.

The ice layer, several meters in diameter, was still broken by the Froststar Originium Arts, and if she and the Shield Guard had remained in their original positions, they would probably have been cut into pieces long ago.

"The impact between blades will weaken Originium Arts and material structures. Do not take attacks head-on!"

Froststar immediately assessed the inner guards' abilities, but as the ice pillars continued to support them and increase their altitude, the outer shield guards also noticed that the inner guards were actually running vertically upwards along the ruined buildings, their speed completely unrestrained by gravity.

Frostnova's ice-making speed could not exceed the Inner Guards' climbing speed. Just as they were about to reach the height where Frostnova and the Shield Guards were, the former suddenly spread out her arms and froze a thick ice surface between the buildings more than fifty meters above the ground, blocking the Inner Guards who were about to reach their position below.

Immediately afterwards, a large number of black ice cones condensed vertically downwards on the ice surface facing the inner guard, raining down like a torrential downpour.

Meanwhile, the inner guards stood on the side of the building, slashing at the even more solid ice spikes with powerful strikes.

"Shieldbearers! Block the slashes that pierce the ice! Those attacks can now be protected by our shields!"

The inner guards' attack was indeed fierce, but it could not compare to the attack they launched when they were initially on stable ground.

Although some of the ice spikes' strikes managed to penetrate the ice, the shieldbearer was perfectly capable of taking them head-on.

However, the guards continued to advance, and even as huge, stalactite-like ice spikes kept crashing down and interfering with them, their steps on the building's surface were not stopped.