The story of the black silk female knight

Valensa did not refuse and officially regarded the fallen maids as a new elite force in the expeditionary army, personally training them in military affairs.

During the training, Valensa made another amusing discovery... There were a total of 82 undead maids who had been fallen by the Sun Goddess, 77 of whom were zombie maids, and only 5 were ghost lolis, all of whom were ghost lolis whose figures and faces did not quite match, and who were very well-developed.

Cuteness has once again been utterly defeated by charm and sexiness.

However, this advantage gained through physical appearance is only temporary. Valensa had already observed this carefully when she led the undead maids in prayer... Even those petite and cute ghost girls, as long as they continue to pray earnestly to the Sun Goddess every day, can be holy within a month at most.

Apart from the relatively fortunate Myrcella, all the fallen female servants received roughly the same amount of power and blessings, regardless of the order in which they were born, which is quite fair.

The fallen undead maidens can even use divine magic, so using bullets soaked in holy water and blessed by divine magic is of course no problem.

After Valensa and Mysella conducted numerous experiments, they discovered that the originally planned automatic rifle was not suitable as a weapon for the undead maids, nor did the undead maids like it.

Many of the fallen zombie maids fell in love at first sight with Valensa's big sniper rifle, including Myrcella, who would hug Valensa's arm and press her chest against her, saying that she also wanted to fight with that cool weapon.

This was easy to do; there was no need to even buy it from Vi... Valensa went directly to Friedeja and used her imaginary alchemy to handcraft over 100 more of her own large sniper rifle, which would serve as the main weapons for the zombie maids.

Of course, as the price for asking the Great Witch to intervene, Valensa inevitably had another wave of magic power drained by the Great Witch... in the way and position the Great Witch liked.

Tia was also forced to watch the live stream as a consequence of the Witch's Miracle... but she was already watching surveillance footage from hundreds of large settlements of wild beasts at the same time, so she didn't care about one more.

After obtaining their desired sniper rifle, the zombie maids immediately began shooting training and learned from Mysella how to infuse the bullets with holy light.

Valensa then summoned Suzuran, who was speculating about the ancestral spirit ritual, and asked her to use black magic to simulate a magical shield with a similar strength to the blood-light shield of the evil lantern, based on Suzuran's experimental records from that day, to test the training results of the zombie maids.

As for the result... Misella is definitely fine. She can destroy a shield with one shot, and no elite beast warrior should be able to survive her second bullet.

The other zombie maids are less efficient at breaking shields; the stronger ones require two or three shots to break the shield, while the weaker ones require four or five shots.

Even so, Valensa was quite satisfied... With these zombie maids providing long-range sniping support, the elite squads using ordinary skeletons and zombies to surround and kill the wild beasts would be much easier than before.

Chapter 39 Rushing into anything will only lead to a faster death.

With the addition of the undead maid squad led by Mysella, the expeditionary force's ability to fight against elite troops has been significantly improved. Even if the beasts send out more elite squads to carry out infiltration tactics behind enemy lines, they will only be sending them to their deaths.

On the other hand, after the designers, engineers and ordinary workers of Arasaka Company worked for nearly 18 hours a day for half a month, a total of 300 new heavy mortars specially customized for Valencia rolled off the production line.

Although everyone involved in manufacturing this mortar was puzzled by its various design requirements, the boss had given the orders, and the security personnel were supervised by someone holding a gun in one hand and a bonus in the other. Naturally, they had no choice but to try their best to meet the requirements.

This mortar has a barrel length of 3 meters and a diameter of 0.6 meters. It is muzzle-loaded and is compatible with shells that are 1.65 meters long and 0.55 meters in diameter. It looks exactly like the nuclear bombs that Valencia and her team made themselves, and its range can reach 10 kilometers.

While placing the order with Vi, Valensa also had Lily of the Valley and Princess Miyabi develop a new type of undead to serve as the mortar's mobility and base, based on the mortar's size and weight.

It was a centaur-like skeletal beast, over 4 meters long and 3 meters tall. Its rectangular horse-like body was hollow, and the outer skeleton could be opened to accommodate mortars.

When it is time to fire, the skeletal centaur only needs to turn its back to the enemy, open the bone cover of its body, kneel on its forelegs and stand upright on its hind legs, and it can immediately transform into the base and carriage of a mortar.

Each skeletal centaur is also equipped with about 20 zombie loader soldiers. Each zombie loader soldier carries a mortar shell and is responsible for firing the mortar and loading the shell.

After the initial prototypes of the skeletal centaur and the mortar were completed, Valensa personally tested them before allowing Via and Princess E to begin mass production of the mortar and the skeletal centaur, respectively.

The first batch of 300 undead mortar squads was clearly not enough, but Valensa was still quite satisfied since it had only taken half a month. She readily paid Vie and told her to produce more at this standard for the time being, at least another 2000 mortars.

In such cross-world transactions, no currency matters, and gold is of little use. Valensa naturally pays with various magical items.

Just as miniature cameras and miniature listening devices, which are becoming increasingly common even in civilian use in technologically advanced civilizations, can be very useful on Eve, many ordinary magical items and scrolls that are not considered valuable by the people of Eve can be very useful to Vi.

For example, ever since the Lightning Strike Scroll and Curse Scroll came into existence, many of Arasaka Corporation's competitors have been inexplicably struck by lightning and died on the spot or suffered sudden heart attacks. No matter what kind of technological means are used to detect them, no trace of human intervention can be found, let alone evidence. Even if people with eyes can see that this is Arasaka Corporation's doing, there is nothing they can do, at least not on a legal level.

The laws of the cyberpunk world do not recognize magic, and the people do not believe that magic exists in the world at all... If the investigation department dared to publish such investigation results, it would definitely be scolded to death by its superiors and ridiculed by the public, so it simply claims that they are all accidents or deaths from illness.

Besides assassination spells used externally, various spells for consolidating their rule internally were also favored by Wei and Arasaka Miyuki.

For example, various mind control and brainwashing spells exist on the continent of Frenoia. Hypnosis-themed games and comics are not impossible here; in fact, they are very easy to achieve. A Pearl-level mage skilled in mental magic can use this method to build a harem for ordinary people.

However, in reality, such things rarely happen on the continent of Frenoia.

The reason is simple: these mind control and brainwashing spells can be dispelled; a single purification spell from a priest of the same rank can handle it. Furthermore, the residual magical fluctuations on those who have been mind-controlled or brainwashed are quite noticeable, making it easy to track down the caster. Then, the police or paladins will come knocking and arrest them, sending them to jail… If the criminal resists with force, law enforcement won't hesitate to kill them outright.

However, in the technological world, people who are controlled or brainwashed by magic are undetectable by any medical equipment, let alone the spellcaster can be traced and caught.

After resurrecting a large number of excellent employees with necromancy, Miyuki Arasaka quickly turned her attention back to the living employees, placing many orders with Valensa through Vi.

Now, almost every employee of Arasaka Corporation is absolutely loyal to the company, would rather sacrifice their life than harm the company's interests, loves working overtime, is not interested in any entertainment, and can often work for two or three nights in a row without sleeping, without any fear of sudden death.

In fact, even if you die suddenly, it's okay. You can be resurrected as a spirit and continue working, and you will never have to worry about physical fatigue again.

Unfortunately, low-level undead have no creative abilities and cannot learn new knowledge, so they can only perform repetitive tasks and find it difficult to be competent in technical positions for long... Otherwise, Arasaka Corporation might really become a cyber undead empire.

In fact, Miyuki Arasaka did ask Valensa through Vi, asking if there were any more advanced necromancy spells that could create advanced undead that could learn and evolve on their own.

Valensa replied seriously that such high-level undead certainly exist, but it is difficult to guarantee their loyalty... Undead with free will all have extreme hatred for the living, especially those who previously controlled them with magic. Once they break free from the magical restraints, they will immediately take revenge.

As it turns out, Miyuki Arasaka is quite self-aware of how she is perceived by her employees... If those undead employees really break free from the spell's control and gain their freedom, her fate will probably not be that of a typical erotic game heroine, but rather the more extreme kind.

So after that, Miyuki Arasaka gave up on her plan to turn the company into a necromantic empire. She would also deliberately control her outstanding employees to prevent them from dying suddenly. She even bought some healing spell scrolls from Valensa to save employees who collapsed while working overtime.

In short, both parties in the transaction will always have new needs, and the cooperation will always be pleasant.

Eighteen days after the first battle of the war against the savage beasts ended, the Holy Fallen Undead Maid Corps, led by Mysera, completed its initial military training, and 300 undead mortar squads were also formed.

Meanwhile, within the sandstorm barrier—the largest settlement closest to the expeditionary force and the one Tia had just designated as Target Number One at the military conference—the mobilization of the entire Beast race and the assembly of its forces were also completed.

Based on intelligence gathered from numerous miniature listening devices and cameras within the settlement, Tia estimates that at least 600 million wild beasts have now gathered there, which is close to one-third of the total number of wild beasts.

The ancestral spirit rituals within the settlement are held daily, and several times a day, often simultaneously.

Now, the wild beasts no longer allow underage individuals to undergo five battles of training to select the best material. Instead, they directly place 80 to 100 underage wild beasts at the ceremony site to fight each other. The final winner will bear the curse of all the losers, gain power, and instantly become an elite warrior starting from the Pearl level.

The beasts have already made up for the elite warriors lost in the previous flanking maneuver by consuming a large number of underage individuals, and even more of them.

Of course, the zombies and skeletons lost by the undead army had long since been replenished.

Although the wild beasts would rather use themselves as fuel for evil magic than leave corpses for the undead legion, the Frostmourne magic sword does not require complete corpses to create undead; enough flesh and bones are sufficient.

Valensa, who had made a fortune from the new trade routes, immediately went on a buying spree, issuing missions to adventurers through the Nora Merchant Guild to buy up monster corpses... Now the material warehouses in the underground ruins are almost full, enough for Princess Valensa to create tens of millions more undead.

In wars of attrition and resource wars, the undead army never suffers a loss.

In summary, both the expeditionary force and the wild beasts are now fully prepared, and it's time to end the truce and begin the second battle.

They started fighting without warning.

The 40-strong undead army assembled at the border of the controlled area, still led by Valensa, and launched an attack on Target Number One from the front.

Unlike last time when she disguised herself as a zombie and mingled among the undead, this time Valensa made no attempt to conceal herself. She wore her signature silver armor, short skirt, and black stockings, and floated above the middle of the undead army with Nana, moving slowly forward with the army.

This rather unusual behavior clearly surprised the wild beasts. Along the way, the spiritual senses of powerful beings of the Radiant Rank swept over from afar, observing and probing Valensa.

Valensa directly countered all the probing attacks, directly giving the middle finger to those beast-level spellcasters hiding in the distance to show her contempt, and occasionally launching a mental blast at those beast-level spellcasters through her mental perception.

After all, the distance was too far, and Valensa wasn't sure if the Mind Blast had any effect. Anyway, after she bombarded those Radiant-rank beast spellcasters a few times, no more mental energy came to scan her, and no more Radiant-rank beasts came to fight her.

Just like in the first battle, the wild beasts abandoned all the territory outside the large settlements and relied on the sandstorm barrier to fight a defensive battle.

Meanwhile, the skeletal crows responsible for patrolling and reconnaissance also discovered that more than 200 elite squads of wild beasts had bypassed the main force of the undead army from other directions, with their target still being the isolation zone and the new trade routes behind it, seemingly still planning to launch a flanking maneuver to relieve the siege of Wei.

Everything seemed to be a repeat of the first battle, except this time both sides were better prepared and invested more resources, both determined to win.

At least that's what the wild beasts think.

The undead army's marching speed is definitely slower than that of the elite squads that are all lighthouses.

Valensa's forces had only advanced less than 200 kilometers when the elite squads of wild beasts that had infiltrated the area re-entered the isolation zone and began charging towards the new trade route.

While it may seem the same as last time, the Wild Beasts have actually updated their tactics.

This time, the elite beast squad clearly poured more blood and life force into the evil magic lantern, making the blood-red shield even more solid.

Moreover, these elite squads of wild beasts completely ignored the skeletal crows monitoring them, as well as the zombies and skeletons transported by teleportation, and charged straight in despite the group's blood-red shield.

The failure of the last infiltration battle seems to have allowed the wild beasts to see through the true strength of the defensive forces on this side of the isolation zone.

They knew that the expeditionary force didn't have many elite combat personnel, and that ordinary skeleton zombies were no match for the elite warriors of the wild beasts. They would have to rely on their numerical advantage and firearms to have any chance of fighting back.

However, the lethality of automatic rifles and grenades has its limits, so the beasts have developed a new tactic in this infiltration operation—using more squads and thicker blood-red shields to charge straight in, ignoring the bullets and grenades of the skeleton zombies, just charging.

However, if they encounter a powerful figure like Miss Phantom Thief, who is at the Radiant or near-Radiant level, personally taking action to intercept them, the elite Wild Beast Squad will immediately gather all their blood energy and life force to self-destruct.

The self-destruction of more than a dozen pearl-level and lighthouse-level beings, exhausting all their resources in an instant, would force even a true Radiant-level expert to temporarily avoid its edge; a direct confrontation could still result in injury.

This was precisely the beasts' objective... They didn't expect the elite squad's self-destruction to harm the powerful individuals. After all, while the self-destruction was powerful, it was useless if it didn't hit anything. But even if it didn't hit anything, it didn't matter. As long as it forced the powerful individuals to defend or dodge, everything was to buy time and create opportunities for the other squads.

The beasts had also studied human society, and they knew that someone like Valensa would never allow the merchants and ordinary people on the new trade route to suffer any losses... Therefore, as long as the infiltration operations could put some pressure on the defense of the isolation zone, Valensa would definitely abandon the attack and go back to rescue them, even if she disobeyed her superiors' orders.

That would mean the beasts' flanking maneuver was successful... Without Valensa, the undead army would be no match for a Radiant-rank expert, and a few Radiant-rank beasts could easily wipe them out.

As a result, the Wild Beasts lost many of their mass-produced elite warriors, while the Expeditionary Force lost hundreds of thousands of undead soldiers... The war could only enter a buffer period again, with both sides replenishing their forces in their own ways to prepare for the next battle.

It seems like a slow suicide that can only prolong the war... After all, no matter how prolific the wild beasts are, the number of juvenile individuals in their herd is limited, and they will eventually perish if this continues. On the other hand, the materials for producing the undead army are cheap, plentiful, and of good quality, so they are definitely not afraid of a war of attrition.

But the wild beast's purpose seemed to be to buy time.

Valensa had sensed the large red dot on the small map once before, which was suspected to be the Great Chieftain of the Wild Beasts. It never appeared again after the outbreak of the war, along with many spellcasters among the Radiant-Rank Wild Beasts.

According to intelligence, these wild beasts are likely engaged in something they firmly believe will turn everything around once it is completed. All the wild beasts currently resisting the expeditionary force are simply stalling for time in order to accomplish this task.

Therefore, the expeditionary force cannot afford to delay, nor can it allow the wild beasts' plan to succeed.

Shattering the wild beasts' illusions will begin with annihilating the elite squads that carried out the infiltration operation.

Mysella and her fallen maidens make their dazzling entrance.

Even if a necromancer falls from grace, they are still a necromancer and are not afraid of nuclear contamination or black magic curses.

So instead of wrapping themselves up in protective suits, Mysella and her sisters went to the battlefield still wearing their light, short-skirted maid outfits. The only difference from before was that each of them carried a sniper rifle that was taller than themselves on their backs.

After a squad of elite beastmen rushed into the isolation zone, they soon encountered the skeleton crows that their instructors had repeatedly mentioned during their intensive training over the past two weeks. Then, a magic card held in the skeleton crow's beak flashed, and hundreds of skeleton zombies armed with automatic rifles appeared.

It's impossible to say that they weren't afraid at all, after all, these elite warriors of the wild beasts were all minors around 2 years old, which is equivalent to 7 or 8 years old in human years.

However, driven by their burning passion to protect their people, these elite warriors of the wild beasts did not hesitate to follow the plan, increasing the infusion of blood energy and life force into the evil lantern, intending to rush over with stronger defense and faster speed, rather than wasting time entangled with low-level undead.

Even if the final outcome is that the lantern is blown to pieces by the evil magic and becomes a shower of blood, as long as we can cross the isolation zone and reach that place, we can complete the battle plan and save our race from extinction!

Go!

Thinking this way, the elite warriors of the Wild Beasts became even more excited, their minds filled with fantasies of victory and the wonderful future that the Wild Beast leaders had painted when they tricked them into coming to their deaths.

At first, this operation was really effective.

No matter how the ordinary zombies and skeletons fired their automatic rifles, or even threw multiple grenades at the same time, they could not penetrate the blood-red shield of the evil lantern, nor could they keep up with the speed of the elite warriors who were burning their lives to sprint away. It seemed that they could only watch helplessly as they disappeared into the distance.

Become!

The elite warriors of the wild beasts were overjoyed and excited at the sight, and couldn't help but cheer in their hearts.

Until... bang!

The cheers abruptly ceased when a gunshot, distinctly different from that of an automatic rifle, rang out.

The shot must have been fired from a great distance, but the bullet traveled even faster. The spinning bullet shone with a holy light that was clearly visible even in daylight, and it slammed into the crimson shield.

click!

The shield wasn't broken, but it showed obvious cracks and flickering. The elite beast warriors charging forward felt like they had hit a dump truck, their bodies jolted so badly they almost vomited blood.

boom!

Before most of the elite warriors of the Wild Beasts could figure out what was going on, a second gunshot rang out from the same spot in the distance, followed by a large-caliber Holy Light Blessing bullet.

click!

This time, the crimson shield of the evil lantern was indeed much stronger than the last time. The ordinary fallen undead maid was not as strong as Mysella. She failed to penetrate the crimson shield with two consecutive shots, only creating cracks and causing the crimson light on the surface of the shield to ripple violently.

"It's not one of those powerful human beings the instructor mentioned. If we had encountered them, we would be dead by now. This new enemy isn't that strong!"

The captain of the elite beast squad, possessing some intelligence and composure, immediately made a deduction and reassured the other team members. After quick consideration, he made a decision:

"Keep charging! Our ancestral spirit shield should be able to withstand a few more of these attacks, and the enemy's attack direction and position haven't changed in either of the two attacks, so they probably can't or can't change them! As long as we can get out of the enemy's range before the shield is broken, we still have a chance to complete the mission! Charge!"

"Charge!" xN

The other elite warriors of the wild beasts did not hesitate and chose to obey orders... In fact, they really had no better choice.

Before leading his team to continue the charge, the squad leader observed the positions where the blood shield had been hit by the previous two shots, and slightly adjusted the angle of the charge so that the blood shield could use the areas that had not yet been hit to defend against the new shots that would inevitably follow.

Objectively speaking, the performance and judgment of this beast squad leader were quite good.

But true military geniuses can make near-perfect, flawless plans... including the fact that such an outstanding captain appeared in the elite beast squad, which was also part of Tia's calculations.

"...Commander, you're amazing!"

The fallen undead maid, observing the elite beast squad from afar through the scope of a large sniper rifle, couldn't help but sigh. She then reached under her skirt and pulled out three palm-sized remote controls:

"The route the enemy will choose to accelerate their breakthrough after I fire two shots is exactly one of the three possibilities that Commander predicted, without any deviation."

Without firing any further, the fallen undead maid simply used the scope of the sniper rifle as a telescope, keeping a close eye on the elite squad of wild beasts.