Raise Joan of Arc to be an empress, then discard her.

Sivan was usually a carefree and nonchalant person, seemingly indifferent to everything, and many people disliked his aloof demeanor. But at this moment, he said seriously, "I am an all-knowing knight, and it is my mission to go to the battlefield to defend the country! You are not! You are not even a princess anymore! You are my sister! I want you to protect our mother! You must get through the war safely! Because you are my only sister!"

The prince then revealed a fierce expression, grabbed his sister's wrist without any room for argument, and led her upstairs to find their mother. Charlotte's entire body suddenly went limp, and she could no longer resist him.

"Where's Joan of Arc? Where's Aaron?! Why aren't they here?"

“They all went out early this morning. They should be in different places. By the way, go upstairs and ask Mom to pack your things. They've taken care of me for so long, I should at least leave them a letter!”

*

Meanwhile, on the other side...

Joan of Arc got up very early in the morning. Aaron also had work to do that morning, so she specially made him breakfast one last time before they went to different places together.

Joan of Arc arrived at the society's headquarters. She had other matters to attend to, but waking up early made her the first to spot the thick fog. By the time fireworks lit up the sky, she knew that war was imminent.

As the leader of the community and the banner of the millions of people in Asgard, she should have appeared at this time to stabilize the people's hearts, so that everyone would not panic, and to fulfill her duties as a saint. However, Jeanne did not do so. After receiving a message, she abandoned the people who were waiting for her, pushed all the difficult tasks to her assistants, and did not allow anyone to accompany her, choosing to go to the meeting alone.

This morning, she received a message from Brand: they've captured Jerome Bescon!

Originally, given Brand's personality and the Red God Church's service-oriented mindset, they would have directly taken Jerome Bescon to Joan's room on a certain agreed date to help Joan handle all matters and ensure her satisfaction. However, things are different now.

Because of the outbreak of war, the guards around Jerome Bescon were relaxed, which is why they captured him.

Secondly, the secret research base where Jerome Bescon was located happened to be in the outer city of Esgard, which was the place that would be attacked by war after the first line of defense was breached. That's why they sent a message to Jeanne d'Arc to come over as quickly as possible.

Joan of Arc followed the letter's instructions and went to the agreed location alone, without any attendants.

"Where is he?" Joan of Arc arrived at the agreed-upon platform as promised and met Brand who was waiting for her.

“I know you’re in a hurry, but there’s no use in being in a hurry. You have to take the train to get there. Come with me.” Brand waved his hand, and a small train appeared on the tracks. It had only four seats. As soon as Brand and Jeanne jumped on the train, it started moving and glided along the tracks.

Although it was a small train running along the tracks, Brand seemed to have tampered with it, making it very fast. An ordinary person would have been thrown off the train, but Brand and Joan of Arc were both superhumans, which is why they were unharmed. This was exactly what Joan of Arc wanted.

"Where is this place? I never knew there was such a place in Esgard."

"This is the King's secret research kingdom. Many experiments that seem incomprehensible to you are conducted here. If the war hadn't started, I wouldn't have been able to bring you here so quickly. By the way, there might be some roadblocks ahead. Although I've already cleared them once, there might still be some that slip through."

"Roadblock?"

“They’re here,” Brand said.

As if in response to Brand's words, a terrifying roar suddenly reached Joan of Arc's ears, and countless dark figures rushed toward the train at a speed too fast for the naked eye to perceive! A dark aura that Joan of Arc knew all too well surged forth like a tide, and those rushing dark figures stood tall and imposing, like ancient demons, revealing golden eyes like bats in the darkness!

"This is where the King conducted his Dark Awakening experiments. We destroyed all the areas where the monsters were kept a few hours ago and released all the monsters."

“They mainly communicate with the outside world through the Omniscient Stone. Since the Omniscient Stone has become ineffective, they can no longer contact the outside world. The area inside should have been cleared out by now. In short, thanks to this war, we were spared any trouble, which is why I was able to bring you here so quickly,” Brand said calmly.

As Brandt spoke, Joan's pupils slowly contracted. She hadn't expected that the first thing she wanted to do when the war started would lead to a bloodbath. Although she knew it wasn't intentional, she also knew that finding Jerome Bescon was inevitable, and she knew that if she wanted to continue, the blood would eventually flow up to her ankles.

Brand also paid attention to the girl's reaction. He saw Joan gripping the train's handrail tightly, silent and without saying a word, and he felt a slight disappointment. He didn't expect that after a while, Joan would just ask blankly, "Then how do you guarantee Jerome's safety?"

"Our people will ensure his safety."

Joan of Arc nodded, then suddenly said coldly, "They're here!"

Joan of Arc stepped onto the train, summoned a white banner, and unleashed flames at the shadowy figure!

The shadowy figures had already reached them, but Brand remained calmly seated, motionless, the firelight obscuring his eyes. The train hurtled past these monsters, whose power had increased many times over after awakening in the darkness, and they were all burned and split in two under the banner of Joan of Arc, black blood rising like a fountain behind the train.

“It seems your teacher has indeed taught you well,” Brand said softly.

Chapter 93 Heavenly Fire

Before the train even arrived at the station, Joan of Arc could smell the strong stench of blood.

Just as Brand said, the experimental base had already been cleared out. As soon as Jeanne stepped onto the platform, she almost stepped on a corpse wearing a white coat. They seemed to have tried to escape to the platform before they died, but they had obviously been violently attacked. Jeanne saw that the bloodstains on their bodies had dried, and they looked like they had been dead for a while.

“If it weren’t for the war, we wouldn’t have gotten this far,” Brand said, leading the way. “Let’s hurry, before Jerome gets eaten by the monster.”

They continued deeper into the platform and soon came to a keypad door. Joan of Arc recognized this type of keypad door; not only did it require the correct password, but it also required identifiable spiritual power to open. If this was the king's research base, the security level should be even higher. Even if everyone inside were dead, they might not be able to open the keypad door.

But Brand, like a staff member, walked smoothly to the keypad door, quickly entered the password, then took a small step back and released his spiritual power, and the keypad door opened with a bang. The kingdom's defenses were a joke to Brand.

Joan of Arc felt a chill run down her spine, not at the research base, but at Brand.

She had only made her request a few months ago, yet Brand had already infiltrated the kingdom's most important research base like a sieve. Had they been eyeing this place for a long time? Considering that Brand had once opposed the All-Knowing Sword, their influence on the political situation in Lusset was probably far greater than she thought.

"Jerome's research area is at the very back. To get there, we have to cross several large districts. Let's hurry."

Brand led Jeanne inside when suddenly a huge black shadow lunged at them from above. Because the experimental base was dimly lit and filled with a strong smell of blood, they didn't notice the terrifying monster hovering above them for a moment.

When she sensed the presence, Joan of Arc had already grabbed the flag and swung it diagonally upwards. The flag sliced ​​across the belly of the shadowy figure, the most vulnerable part of the creature's body, but the scene of blood splattering as she had imagined did not appear. Joan of Arc felt as if her flag had sliced ​​through steel, and a series of sparks flew over her head.

A dark figure stretched out a hairy arm in the air and slashed at Joan of Arc. Joan of Arc desperately twisted her body to dodge, otherwise her shoulder would have been a bloody mess.

The dark figure landed on its hands and feet, and only then did Joan of Arc see its appearance clearly. It was several times the height of a human, and she could hardly believe that this thing had just been hiding above their heads. It had a monkey-like face with a pair of golden eyes. When Joan of Arc saw those eyes, she felt a sense of majesty, an aura that only a powerful superhuman could exude.

His limbs were as long as an ape's, and his muscles bulged abnormally on his body, more exaggerated than the strongest man Joan of Arc had ever seen. His whole body was covered with black hair as hard as steel, exuding the dark aura of a wild beast.

Joan of Arc knew that this was also a person who had fallen into darkness after awakening, as could be seen from the shackles still around its neck. The problem was that while they could easily deal with the monsters that had just broken out of the experimental base, the monsters inside the experimental base were a challenge even for Joan of Arc.

"The deeper you go, the more terrifying the monsters you'll encounter. Inside are the culmination of the king's years of research."

A faint voice rang in Jeanne's ears, and a flash of light, too fast to see, descended from the sky, striking the monster's head like a thunderbolt. The once menacing monster collapsed as if wilted. Brand sheathed his fighting dagger, without making a sound from beginning to end. Jeanne didn't even see how he made his move.

“Monster…” Joan of Arc thought to herself.

"Although these monsters have fallen, some still retain some of their animal instincts. We should avoid them. Let's go."

Jeanne followed Brand deeper into the experimental area. She had hoped there would be some survivors, but the area was just a scene of carnage with the same monsters they had encountered at the entrance roaming among the corpses. This meant Jeanne didn’t need to waste any time and followed Brand directly to the deepest part of the area.

When they arrived at the mechanical combination lock door again, Joan of Arc smelled a strong stench of blood once more. An ominous premonition rose in Joan of Arc's heart. Brand, on the other hand, remained calm and quickly entered the code. The combination lock door opened with a click, and the scene inside appeared before Joan of Arc's eyes.

The ground was still littered with corpses, but not human corpses; they were the corpses of monsters. Their bodies were piled up at the entrance, and the gruesome sight of their deaths was enough to send chills down one's spine.

Joan of Arc frowned as she walked through the area piled with monster corpses. After searching the laboratory for a while, she found Jerome, who was wearing a white lab coat, behind a white table.

He hid behind the table, slumped on the floor, his face pale. When Jerome saw Joan of Arc, he immediately raised his hands, but his face showed a look of surrender.

"You've come to save me..."

Before Jerome could finish speaking, Joan of Arc stepped in front of him, grabbed his collar, and said, "Tell me everything you know, or I'll throw you into the room where you raise monsters and then slam the door."

"Wait, wait... let's talk this out!"

“I was not sent by the king to save you. I have no mercy for you. Whether you live or die depends entirely on your behavior.”

"Okay, okay! I'll tell you everything!"

Joan of Arc threw Jerome to the ground. Although Joan of Arc's tone remained calm throughout, Jerome had no doubt that she would keep her word.

“I’ll tell you about the experiment I’m conducting,” Joan of Arc said.

"I've conducted many experiments. Which one do you want to know about? Oh, you've seen those monsters outside, you must be very interested in them, right? Let me tell you first..."

Before Jerome could finish speaking, the flagpole whistled and slammed into the wall just centimeters from his cheek, smashing a large hole in the wall. Flying shards nearly flew into Jerome's eyes, and Jerome could also smell a strong stench of blood from the flagpole.

“We found pink crystals near Esgard, and I know it was you who was researching them,” Jeanne said expressionlessly.

“This…this…” Jerome, who had just been all talk, now looked troubled. He was clearly terrified of death, but when this topic came up, his face showed even more fear.

“I…I didn’t want to either…I have children at home…I was ordered by His Majesty…otherwise…otherwise…” Jerome stammered.

"The Seven Nations Alliance is attacking Asgard. Soon, the first line of defense will be breached, and a third of Asgard will be engulfed in flames, and many people will die."

Joan of Arc's voice was quite calm, making one doubt her resolve: "I came to you because I wanted to protect my country, but too many people have died because of you. Now, I have no patience to waste my time on you. I will not be merciful to you."

Jerome stared at her, partly out of fear of Joan of Arc, and partly because of Joan of Arc's words, "I want to protect my country."

“Okay… I’ll tell you.” Jerome finally lowered his head.

"What's the deal with the pink crystal? How's Project Catfish going?"

"Project Catfish failed. We spent a lot of time and effort and only managed to create one experimental subject. However, we were unable to mass-produce it, no matter how we experimented. Therefore, Project Catfish was disbanded several years ago."

"Failed?" Did she go through all that trouble, with so many people dying, just to find the truth behind the failure?

“But after Project Catfish failed, you stayed here. You are the kingdom’s top scientist, and the king couldn’t have sent you here just to waste his time,” Joan of Arc said.

"Yes. Although we haven't figured out a way to mass-produce soldiers, we accidentally discovered another path while researching self-destructing soldiers, and we successfully navigated this path, creating our research result—Skyfire."

"what is that?"

Jerome smiled and said, “This is the most outstanding research result of my life. They are colorless and odorless, extremely difficult to detect, and normally pose no harm. Even if you light them with a flame, they will not react. As an element, they are extremely stable. They are simply incredible creations.”

"What is its purpose?"

Despite being on the verge of death, Jerome still said with the pride of revealing the answer, "It can ignite spiritual power."

"Ignite spiritual power?"

"To be precise, Heavenly Fire can only ignite unstable spiritual energy. Stable spiritual energy will not have any effect when it comes into contact with Heavenly Fire. You can think of unstable spiritual energy as an unstable factor that is 'triggered' when it comes into contact with Heavenly Fire."

"The result of the trigger is an explosion. It is not the heavenly fire itself that explodes; the heavenly fire is just the trigger. What explodes is the unstable spiritual energy. You can imagine where in the world there is the most unstable spiritual energy."

“Only on the battlefield will there be so much unstable spiritual energy,” Joan of Arc said.

"You're right. Heavenly Fire is a weapon researched for war. Because we don't need to consider the power of Heavenly Fire, our research is progressing smoothly. Now, we have successfully mass-produced Heavenly Fire. The power of the Heavenly Fire explosion depends entirely on the amount of spiritual energy on the battlefield and the strength of the unstable spiritual energy itself."

"In other words, the more unstable spiritual energy there is, the wider the explosion range of the heavenly fire; the stronger the unstable spiritual energy, the stronger the explosion of the heavenly fire. It is the best fuse."

“We have tested it in battles between ordinary superhumans. The power of the explosion is enough to destroy them. But the experiment I haven’t conducted, and can’t conduct, is releasing heavenly fire on the battlefield of those sword-level experts.”

"We haven't yet discovered the upper limit of the explosion caused by the Heavenly Fire, but we've imagined that the sword-level experts from various countries, whose spiritual power is the strongest in the world, would have their spiritual power detonated by the Heavenly Fire on the battlefield—'Bang!'"

"The entire battlefield will be ignited, and it may even trigger a chain reaction. The explosion will instantly wipe out all the enemies on the battlefield, leaving no one alive. We can achieve victory in just a moment."

"What will happen to our soldiers?" Joan of Arc asked in a trembling voice. "Weapons like Heavenly Fire rely on unstable spiritual energy, but if the enemy has no opponents on the battlefield, how can the battlefield be filled with unstable spiritual energy? If our army has to fight the enemy to create unstable spiritual energy on the battlefield, what will happen to our soldiers?"

Jerome scratched his head: "The explosion of spiritual energy does not distinguish between friend and foe. Just like bullets, we haven't figured out how to protect ourselves from it yet, so our soldiers will die along with it. If the enemy is completely wiped out, then our soldiers will also be wiped out."

"You haven't even tested this weapon on the battlefield, have you? You couldn't possibly predict the outcome of putting Heavenly Fire on the battlefield, could you? Have you calculated how terrifying the unstable spiritual energy is on a sword-level battlefield? Have you calculated the intensity of the unstable spiritual energy on the battlefield of the Seven Kingdoms Alliance? Have you considered that the explosion might exceed your expectations?"

"As scientists, we certainly did the calculations."

"In the worst-case scenario, Esgard, which is closest to the battlefield, will also be affected by the blast wave and destroyed. Even with the most conservative calculations, only a small part of the area will be spared. Of course, if even Esgard is destroyed, then the enemy will have no chance of escaping. So we will win no matter what."

"What a madman..."

After a moment of silence, Jerome said, "Although I didn't see it with my own eyes, I estimate that the Skyfire in the experimental base should have been removed long ago."

"What do you mean?"

“That thing could actually be mass-produced a long time ago, but the industrial aspects are not under my jurisdiction; they are handled by others. I estimate that these things will also be put into use.”

“I see, that explains everything.” Brand, who had been listening in silence, finally spoke.