It's so hard being a hero!

The moment the fiery fist struck him, Baird was sent flying backward like a kite with a broken string.

He flew out of the passage, landed outside, rolled more than ten meters along the ground, and then stopped, blood seeping from the corner of his mouth.

Hinoya withdrew her fist, strolled out of the passage, and looked down at him with undisguised disdain in her tone.

"Bailder, you really won't shed a tear until you see the coffin."

Baird tried to stand up by supporting himself on the ground, but his right leg was too weak, so he knelt back down on one knee.

He coughed a few times, clutching his chest, his eyes filled with anger and resentment as he looked at Xinuoya.

After speaking, Xinuoya continued walking towards him, her boots crunching on the gravel, each step putting immense pressure on him.

Meanwhile, at the fortress palace...

Sophia was sitting in a chair when she suddenly felt a heavy pressure coming down from above her head.

The feeling was heavy, as if an entire mountain was pressing down on her shoulders, making even lifting her arms difficult.

"Hmm? The protective array has been activated?"

She looked up through the skylight and saw that the golden energy shield had completely enveloped the fortress and the surrounding area.

The surface of the energy shield was covered with dense magical patterns, radiating a suffocating sense of oppression.

"It seems that Baird has indeed turned against us."

Sophia frowned; this oppressive force had a significant impact on her.

She's only at the Bronze level now, and in front of this Grandmaster-level protective array, her movements will become extremely slow, and even her magic power won't circulate smoothly.

But she couldn't just wait around like that.

She closed her eyes, extended her mental energy, and began to carefully perceive the structure of the protective array.

The golden energy shield gradually revealed clear patterns and nodes in her consciousness, which she analyzed rapidly in her mind as she looked at it.

Suddenly, she opened her eyes, a glint of light flashing in her blue pupils.

"Wait, is the core structure of this formation connected to the military's magic hub?"

She recognized him.

This is the standard fortress defense array of the Imperial Military. In her previous life, as a high-ranking official in the Imperial Military and the Grand Duke of the Empire, she had participated in the design and improvement of this array.

The military's magic hub still retains the mark of her authority from back then.

The problem is that she has been dead for over twenty years, and the empire still hasn't erased her mark.

"Haha, interesting."

Sofia smiled slightly and closed her eyes again.

She extended her spiritual power outward along the connections of the fortress array, passing through the golden energy shield and reaching the magic hub of the Imperial Capital Military Headquarters.

Her consciousness touched upon an ancient mark deep within her central nervous system.

The mark seemed to have been dormant for many years, but the moment her consciousness touched it, the mark trembled slightly, as if responding to her.

She infused her magic into the mark, activating it.

The next moment, the golden light shield above the fortress trembled slightly, and the oppressive effect that made it hard to breathe receded like the tide.

However, the isolation effect remained, still enveloping the entire fortress.

But for Sofia, that was enough.

"It's done."

She stood up and stretched her shoulders, feeling much lighter all over.

After the suppression effect is lifted, she can move and attack normally. Now it's up to Xinuoya to decide how to fight.

Deep within the fortress, Baird, inside the passageway, immediately noticed the change.

He had just struggled to his feet when his expression suddenly changed.

The suppression effect has disappeared?

He looked up at the golden light shield above his head, then at Xinuoya walking towards him, and a surge of fear and madness welled up inside him.

"All soldiers of the fortress, listen to my command."

He roared at the top of his lungs.

“Thieves have infiltrated the fortress under the guise of the governor, with malicious intent. All personnel, listen to my command and seize these people immediately.”

His voice, amplified by his fighting spirit, resounded throughout the entire fortress.

The next moment, soldiers poured out of the barracks, sentry posts, and city walls like a tidal wave.

They were dressed in uniform armor, carrying weapons, and staring fiercely at Xinuoya and her personal guard, quickly surrounding them.

Hinoya stopped in her tracks, her gaze sweeping over the surging soldiers, and her brows furrowed.

Nearly 20,000 people poured out one after another.

Are you trying to rebel?

Xinuoya's voice deepened, and she unleashed her grandmaster-level aura without reservation.

"Have you thought this through? What will be the consequences of following Baird in rebellion?"

The soldiers paused, their faces showing hesitation and fear.

They certainly knew how serious the consequences of treason would be, but there was a deeper fear in their eyes, as if something was forcing them to do it.

Taking advantage of the moment, Baird pulled out a specially made dark red token from his pocket and crushed it forcefully.

The moment the fragment hit the ground, he hissed and roared into the darkness deep within the passage, "Belis, aren't you going to come out and help me? Do you have to wait until I'm dead?"

His voice echoed through the corridor, filled with desperate madness.

As soon as he finished speaking, a woman's soft laughter rang out from all directions.

The laughter was charming and alluring, as if it were whispering in one's ear, so sweet that it made one feel uncomfortable all over.

"Hehehe, Baird is really useless, he was discovered so quickly."

Then, a large amount of pink mist gushed out from the mountain passage, spreading rapidly along the ground, walls, and ceiling like a living thing.

Xinuoya frowned, instinctively took a step back, raised her right hand and waved it in front of her. A fiery red battle aura barrier unfolded in front of her, burning away the surging pink mist.

But the pink mist spread quickly, flowing along the passage towards the outer fortress city.

The soldiers who had just surrounded the area were the first to be hit; the moment the fog touched them, their movements visibly froze.

Then, change occurred.

The soldier closest to Shinoya suddenly had an eerie pink light in his eyes. The clarity in his pupils seemed to have been swallowed up by something, replaced by a frenzied and fanatical expression.

His mouth stretched into a twisted smile.

"Ah, that feels so good..."

His voice sounded like it was being squeezed from deep in his throat, carrying a chillingly pleasant quality.

Immediately afterwards, the soldiers around him also began to show the same changes.

One by one, pink light shone in their eyes, and the expressions on their faces changed from bewilderment to fanaticism, from fear to madness.

Their bodies began to tremble slightly, and the weapons in their hands emitted a soft buzzing sound, as if echoing the eerie power permeating the air.

"Hahaha……"

I don't know who started laughing first, but the laughter spread rapidly like a contagious disease.

"So comfortable, so very comfortable..."

"I feel, I feel full of power."

"Kill them, kill them! The master said to kill them..."

The soldiers' eyes all turned to Shinoya and her personal guard, their gazes filled with pure, undisguised killing intent.

Hinoya's face darkened completely.

She could certainly recognize what that power was.

That was Lilith's power of desire.

It doesn't kill people directly, but it amplifies the target's most primal desires and emotions infinitely.

Fear turns into madness, anger into tyranny, and even repressed instinctive desires can breach the dam of reason like a flood.

The stronger a person's mental strength, the stronger their ability to resist this force.

But for these ordinary soldiers, this power was nothing short of deadly poison.

Chapter 67 The Witch Belis

"Everyone, be careful and strengthen your mental defenses. Don't let this broken fog control you."

As soon as Xinuoya broke through the mist, she immediately shouted to her personal guards.

The guards she brought were all quite skilled, at least at the bronze level. Although they were also affected by the fog, they could hold out for a while, unlike the miscellaneous soldiers outside who were easily subdued.

The problem is that far too many people are being controlled.

They only had about a hundred men, but there were 20,000 soldiers and over 100,000 civilians in the fortress. They couldn't just start a massacre, so this was a very difficult situation.

"Governor, what do we do now?" Eileen hurriedly asked, approaching Shinoya.

Xinuoya's eyes swept over the soldiers and civilians who surrounded her like zombies, and she quickly made up her mind.

"You, take some men and create an opening in the protective array."

Eileen instantly understood what Xinuoya meant.

"Okay, I'll go right away."

After saying that, Eileen called over a few high-level mages and flew back towards the city wall.

Hinoya withdrew her gaze and stared intently at the entrance to the passage.

The pinkish ghostly mist was still continuously billowing out of the passage, which meant that something inside was definitely providing energy.