Chapter 977 — Detonation Point

But it did not matter that he could not figure it out—the situation here had already been urgently relayed to the imperial capital, and the army at Changfeng Fortress had already completed its preparations and assembly according to contingency plans; even as the Iron Throne—Jörmungandr annihilated those Iron River Knights, the bulk of the First Legion was ready to mount a ferocious counterattack. Cecil's warriors had never relaxed; everyone was prepared for war, and now war had merely come a little inexplicably and a little suddenly—but since those Typhonites had come... then they would not be leaving.

Next, perhaps it would be Winterwolf Fortress's turn to shed some blood.

……

The Winterwolf Knights halted after crossing the boundary line at Covenant Fortress; the faster griffin scouts and several mechanized mage squads continued westward.

This was An Luo's arrangement—she had to prepare for the worst.

If the vanguard could catch up with the Iron River Knights, they could interpose themselves to delay, harass, and stall those knights who had already lost control, while the Winterwolf Knights in the rear could use the opportunity to charge and build up power and launch an attack on the rogue knights—this was the only means she could think of, after seeing those mutated War God priests, by which those out-of-control knights might be stopped. Though an ordinary knight order could not employ a legion attack on the scale of the "thermal cone," An Luo was still fully confident that, given numerical superiority and tactical coordination, she could intercept Count Mogelrock and his knights.

But if the vanguard failed to catch the target, if the target had already successfully carried out their terrible plan...

Then the Winterwolf Knights would have more time and space to withdraw swiftly back into Typhon territory, fill in along the Winterwolf Fortress defense line, and make ready.

Make ready to face the Cecilians' furious counterattack.

Of course, even now, a tiny sliver of hope still lingered in An Luo's heart—she hoped Count Mogelrock had not yet become as irredeemable as those mutated War God priests, hoped the warriors of the Iron River Knights could still be stopped by relatively gentle means, because unless absolutely necessary, she would never wish to point her sword at the Typhonites...

Suddenly, bright magical flares rose in the distance, cutting short all of An Luo's reflections.

Three red ones.

The young wolf general watched the magical flares climb into the sky, her expression grimmer than it had ever been.

This was no longer something that could be settled at a negotiating table.

In the next hundredth of a second, An Luo cast out every thought in her mind that was doomed never to come true, accepted the cold fact, turned, and raised her longsword—

"Back to Winterwolf Fortress!"

……

The urgent dispatch from the border raced through the relay nodes of the magic net, crossing mountains and rivers in the blink of an eye. By the time the terrifying torrent of the rainbow light cannon swept across the land, a special magic-net terminal in the Supreme Administrative Hall was already humming with insistent urgency.

As the passive party, the Cecil Empire's capital received the news even faster than the Typhonians who had "initiated the war."

The clerk in charge of this magic-net terminal was a young woman. She darted to the desk, connected the device, and within the next few seconds her face went slack with astonishment.

The girl had been transferred to this office less than a week ago and seemed not yet to have grasped what she was hearing, but the next moment Hetty, passing through the corridor nearby, had already pushed the door open.

"What's happened?" Hetty looked at the young clerk standing frozen beside the magic-net terminal. "Why do you look so dazed?"

"Chief Administrator Hetty..." The young clerk blinked, finally coming to her senses. "The Longwind defense line has been attacked! The Typhonians have gone to war!!"

Hetty's eyes flew wide. "What did you say?!"

The next second, her face turned stern and she rapped out her orders. "Summon Typhon's resident ambassador at once—and prepare Meeting Room One!"

The administrative apparatus of Xuanyao City was like a magic-powered engine suddenly thrown into overload, roaring to life in an instant.

In the shortest possible time an emergency meeting was convened. Half of the participants were not physically present, but the magic net let every attendee sit face to face as though in one room.

Hetty swiftly laid out the situation, and the explosive news made even the icy Duchess Victoria show a look of astonishment.

"Is our line to Typhon still open?" Duke Boyu, connected through the magic net, was the first to speak, his tone urgent. "What does their ambassador say?"

"The Typhonians haven't cut the line. I've already sent an emergency communication to Aldernan—but due to relay and manual transcription delays, we haven't yet received a reply," Hetty said just as rapidly. "As for the ambassador they posted to the imperial capital—I summoned him on an emergency basis just now, but he seems to know nothing about this. When he heard the news, he looked more surprised than I was."

"The ambassador doesn't even know his own country has declared war?" A government official's eyes went wide, his expression caught between laughter and fury. "Is this Typhon's idea of humor?"

Hetty turned to a holographic image at the round table. "General Philip, brief us on the situation at the border."

Philip nodded. "We've lost a border defense point near the Paramere Highlands. Only a tenth of the garrison withdrew in good order; the rest have died heroically. Fortunately, General Maqi has already wiped out the enemies who breached the defense line. The Iron Throne—the World Serpent—and three columns of light armored trains are patrolling the railway network, temporarily plugging the gap in the line while searching for any remaining invaders. Preliminarily, we've confirmed that the intruders into imperial territory were Typhon's Iron River Knights, but for some reason this elite Typhon army advanced without infantry or battle-mage support, charging straight in—which is the main reason they were destroyed so quickly."

"Have the Typhonians made any other moves?"

"No clearly defined military action detected so far—but the First Legion is always prepared for war."

Prepared for war.

The words Philip spoke seemed to carry some invisible force, casting a solemn hush over the meeting room.

Hetty lifted her head and looked around the room.

The attendees—or their holographic projections—ringed the round table, every gaze fixed on her.

But she could see it plainly: behind each of those eyes lurked a measure of unease—

The one person who mattered most of all was, of all times, absent.

Even Hetty found her emotions hard to master; her heart had been beating faster than usual ever since the news came in. At this moment she wished more than anything that her mountain-like ancestor would appear at once and, with thunderous means, swiftly suppress and dissolve this staggering crisis—or lay out a flawless response. But she knew that imagination would not solve the problem.

The Ancestor had not returned, but he would return soon, and until then she must do her duty.

"Summoning the ambassador, contacting their capital, sending a state inquiry—international rules require this; it is the rule our Emperor and the Typhon Emperor established together, and Cecil has now fulfilled its responsibility in this regard—" Hetty said in a low, steady voice. "Whether the Typhonians honor the rules they themselves promised is their affair. What we must do now is our own."