This isn't a souls-like game at all.

"What's going on? Is it not over yet?"

Leo looked surprised and subconsciously turned his head to look in the direction Ye Yiyi was looking, but he saw several blue-black winding spikes rising from the ground in the smoke and dust, growing in a coiled pattern and pointing straight into the sky.

Immediately afterwards, a peasant woman's shrill screams were heard from the distant housing area.

"Help! Help! Bugs...ah!"

The screams stopped abruptly and were drowned out by a fine buzzing sound.

"what is that?"

Fabio looked up at the sky, his eyes suddenly widened, and then he shouted loudly.

"All knights! Prepare to meet the enemy!!"

As soon as he finished speaking, a black shadow passed by from the eaves in the distance, turned into an afterimage and rushed towards a bewildered Cursed Armor Knight.

"Buzz!"

Two jets of azure moonlight suddenly shot out, piercing through the air and piercing the incoming black shadow.

"what's the situation?"

The cursed-armored knight felt a chill pass through his neck and subconsciously shrank his head.

Then he looked up and found that Ye Yiyi had been standing in front of him, holding a gray insect as big as a hound in his hand.

"This……"

The knight was shocked and couldn't help but look up, only to see that the insect had a round head, two meter-long antennae on top of its head, a pair of sharp sickle-shaped claws with a cold glow under its head, a slender body, and two pairs of thick and long curved hind limbs behind it.

At this moment, the insect was caught in Ye Yiyi's hand. Even though there were two holes as thick as fingers on its chest, it was still full of energy. It struggled and moved its limbs, and threw out its sickle and claws to grab around, making a whistling sound.

"Sickle locust?!"

The Cursed Armor Knight's pupils shrank and he couldn't help but cry out in fear.

"Do you recognize this insect?"

Ye Yiyi frowned and looked over, but couldn't wait for the knight's answer. When he looked up, he saw countless black insects rushing along the roof of the earthen house, as vast as a tsunami.

"So many?! Are they all sickle locusts?"

Leo was shocked, but anger burned in his eyes and he couldn't help but roar!

"I fucking knew it! The locust plague that swept across the eastern border back then was caused by these filthy bug-men!"

"Stop cursing and get ready to fight!"

Fabio roared, then raised the cross sword in his hand above his head, shouted loudly, and emitted a golden glow from the tip of the sword, covering everyone present.

"Gilded Holy Protection!!"

"Humph!"

Then Fabio heard a cold snort, and then saw the raging flames turning into a raging fire wave erupting from not far away.

“Where did the fire come from!!!”

Seeing the fire wave coming, Leo had no way to avoid it. His face turned pale and he was trembling with fear.

But the bright flames passed by him without causing any harm to him.

He was stunned, watching the smooth tongues of fire licking his body and clothes. He felt a heat flowing out of his body, warm and comfortable, and almost cried out.

"Crack!"

At this moment, he suddenly smelled a burnt smell and heard a series of crackling sounds in his ears. He looked up and was stunned again.

Ye Yiyi held high the illusory holy sword of fire and stood before the swarm of insects formed by sickle locusts. Flames surged on his body, emitting endless scorching flames.

The locust army had no power to resist and was dispersed by the sea of ​​fire in just an instant.

"This power..."

Fabio put down his sword and looked up at Ye Yiyi, who was emitting endless flames from his body, with an extremely complicated expression.

"Mister Michaela, how do you know the King's combat skills passed down from ancient nations and possessed by the King's Knights?"

"This kind of combat skill can't even be found in the King Selection Hall..."

No one knew what Fabio was thinking. After the knights were frightened, they found that the flame was not only harmless but could also heal lives, so they quickly entered combat mode.

Then, under the leadership of the two knight leaders, they surrounded Ye Yiyi and killed the locusts that were burned by flames but not dead yet.

"This locust is clearly being burned by flames, yet why is it still so hard to kill?!"

Leo's face was full of indignation. He pulled out a long sword from the body of a charred sickle locust, suddenly raised his copper-yellow iron boot and stomped on the locust's head, crushing it to pieces.

But even so, its headless body was still moving and struggling, and was not completely dead.

"What the hell!"

Leo was shocked.

"This is no ordinary sickle locust!"

Valer on the side said casually, then pulled out a long sword from a locust, and then swung the sword with blood, brushing off the light green juice suspended on the sword.

The locust under his feet had been drained of its blood and burned by flames, and had turned into a pile of dried insects.

But even so, the locusts did not die.

Seeing this, the Blood Knight Valer was worried, "This kind of vitality is too terrifying."

"Those are the immortal insects."

Suddenly, a voice came from behind the two knights. The two knights turned around and saw that it was Ye Yiyi who was speaking, holding up the illusory holy sword and continuously emitting flames.

He was bathing in the center of a sea of ​​flames, the brim of his pointed hat rising and falling, swirling in the flames, occasionally revealing his indifferent face underneath.

"Immortal insect?"

The two knight leaders looked at each other, and indeed neither of them had heard of this name.

"To be more precise, these locusts possess immortality."

He looked past the two knights and up into the sky, beyond the sea of ​​fire.

The two knights followed Ye Yiyi's gaze thoughtfully, and only then noticed the strange giant tree towering into the clouds.

When the locust swarm attacked, the long, coiled thorns that grew out of the ground gathered together and tangled together, turning into a strange giant pillar hundreds of meters long.

A large number of pale limbs like human hands stretched out from the top of the giant pillar, spreading and growing like branches, and eventually turned into a pale canopy that covered the sky like an umbrella.

Outside the umbrella, a pale white illusory spiritual curtain descended from the sky, covering the entire ancient city of Bona.

“What the hell is that…!”

Leo opened his eyes wide. Even though he was surrounded by flames, he still felt a chill running down his spine to his forehead.

"That is the immortal tree..."

Ye Yiyi's eyes darkened. "I never thought this was the plan of that Skyworm. He's been stationed in Bonagu for all these years, and he's come up with something like this. Is he planning to seize the Folding Tower?"

Upon hearing this, Valer fell into deep thought, while Leo was already furious and turned his head to glare at the silent Fabio.

"Old man, I told you to guard the Folding Tower, and this is how you do it?"

"Leo! You, the Shaolin League member, are slandering me!"

Fabio's expression was grim. "Didn't it your Empire who refused to allow the Knights of the Golden Kite to garrison Bonagu during the Round Table Conference?"

Leo refused to give in and angrily said, "That's nonsense! This land is yours, and the people stationed there are yours too. If the Folding Tower is repaired, who will own it?"

"Of course it belongs to me. Now, everyone, shut up."

Ye Yiyi suddenly spoke, and glanced around indifferently, which made the two old men sweat on their backs and had to stop.

Soon, the knights wiped out this wave of undead insects and repaired on the spot.

Only then did Ye Yiyi dispel the illusory Holy Sword of Repelling Flame and looked down at the light curtain.

These sickle locusts, which are as big as hounds, look extraordinary, but their basic soul echo is less than 100.

Even though the first wave of nearly 500 insects was wiped out, in the end only 48,000 soul echoes were recorded.

On the contrary, all the Gray Feather Knights had a basic soul echo of 1,800.

There are a total of 24 Gray Feather Knights, and the amount of echo they provide is on par with that of the Scythe Locust Swarm.

Finally, with the addition of more than 10,000 Skyworms, there are currently 253209 soul echoes.

"Two hundred and fifty thousand is only enough to upgrade two levels..."

He looked away, closed the light curtain, and shook his head in his heart.

"Those insect sickles are of poor quality. Their combat effectiveness relies entirely on their immortality. They're cheap battlefield cannon fodder, but their numbers are too few."

As he thought about it, he looked up and looked around at the city shrouded by giant trees and enveloped in pale white spiritual mist. He saw the Blood Knights who were on a reconnaissance mission rushing in from the port and reporting.

"Knight Valle, Bonacour is sealed off. Ships can't pass that wall of fog!"

"Damn it!"

Valer frowned, "Fairport wants to trap us here to death!"

"If the ships can't get through, then the magic vehicles probably can't fly either."

Leo shook his head repeatedly. "Not to mention the ancient air defense systems installed by Fairport in the city. We can't escape now."

"Why did you three come to Bonacour?"

Ye Yiyi suddenly spoke.

"..."

The three knight leaders looked at each other, and finally Leo spoke with an apologetic smile.

"Last night, we each received news that the Folding Tower was about to be repaired. They and I happened to be in Iron Kite City at the time, so we each brought some people and rushed here overnight on magic vehicles..."

"How did you receive it?"

Ye Yiyi interrupted Leo's meaningless ramblings and narrowed his eyes slightly.

"Did someone tell you?"

"Uh……"

Leo shuddered inexplicably, shook his head and smiled bitterly:

"Who could have informed us of this kind of thing in advance? The Folding Tower itself told us."

"The folding tower itself?"

Ye Yiyi raised his eyebrows, thinking that he had just repaired the calculation component last night, and he knew where the information came from.

Then he glanced back and forth at the three knights representing the Iron Kite Knight Kingdom, the Sons of Cyber ​​of the Rodno Empire, and the Holy Alliance of the Hundred Religions of the Kingdom Alliance.

And the "Magic Knight Master of the Knights of All Beings" who was on his way to represent the Hall of Stopping War, who was mentioned in their previous conversation, finally understood.

"So, the other repaired components of the Folding Tower are in your hands?"

"exactly."

Leo rubbed his hands and smiled awkwardly:

"The Folding Tower is an ancient weapon of immense power, even if it's broken... Even so, the forces and organizations aware of its existence will not allow it to be exclusively owned by any one organization."

"That includes me, right?"

Ye Yiyi grinned and smiled brilliantly.

"Ah...M-Mikaela-sama, you...you should..."

The bitter smile on Leo's face suddenly froze. He stammered and couldn't utter a complete sentence.

"Ah!"

Ye Yiyi snorted lightly, glanced at the other two who were silent, and said with a smile:

"You all think that the Folding Tower shouldn't belong to anyone, but have you ever considered that even if it's completed, it won't belong to you?"

"Then we just need to make sure the Folding Tower can't be repaired."

Valer shook his head. "Maintaining the status quo is always safer than undergoing a major change."

"What you said sounds very consistent with your image. You are a conservative."