Pillar of Yita

Because as long as you hold such a belief, you will be gathered under this banner. Whether it’s Ye Hua or anyone else, there actually is no need to designate, nor does anyone have the qualification to designate — but the greater the strength, the greater the responsibility, and someday, someone will inevitably reach this step, just like the former Chairman of the Southern Alliance at this moment.

It was precisely at this moment that Luo Hao, who had been listening to the conversation between the two, finally spoke: ”I have found the place.”

Fang Hong immediately looked in that direction, with all hesitation in his heart long gone, he spoke with unwavering determination:

”Landing in fifteen minutes.”

”Have Miss Afeifa ready to disembark, Parker, you will be responsible for guarding this area and maintaining contact with us.”

”Mr. Alphonse, Pasha, you also prepare yourselves.”

The Half-Person leaped up, glanced at the burning Royal City, and silently nodded.

...

Rupert’s voice was somewhat hoarse: ”Sir Aipal, please lead people to block the gap to the west, we must not let the Sand Thieves seize the tower.”

And facing the stern demeanor of the Grand Princess, the knight with a face full of smoke stains silently nodded, then led his men in that direction. Rupert watched the departing backs of the crowd, her hand holding the sword slightly trembling.

The people sent out right now are merely making one final attempt, as the Sand Thieves have already broken through multiple strongholds, and the complete breach of the defense line is merely a matter of time.

She looked back at her rear, Aleph had previously brought all the remaining guard forces from Kashan Palace out, claiming to come to aid, honestly, she did not quite agree with this approach. Entrusting the rear to those currently in the Royal Palace is not reliable, among what are so-called royal ministers, only Saisheer is truly trustworthy.

But at this point, the Grand Princess couldn’t care about so much anymore. Besides, a Crown Prince, the future King of Istania, has personally come to the frontline to fight alongside everyone, and has brought considerable reinforcements, which sparked morale and allowed the perilous defense line to hold out a bit longer.

But such an effect has become exceedingly weak by now.

Quistack’s Inner City has two lines of defense; the first line, decrepit and weapon-lax, fell into the hands of the Sand Thieves early. The second line formed by twelve towers held out for longer — both sides have continually battled around the three most crucial towers, until after the seven surrounding lesser towers fell one by one, two of the three important towers then successively fell into the hand of the King of Sand Thieves.

And the remaining one now has become the center of the battlefield. She had ordered some knights to reclaim the western gap precisely to delay the tower’s capture. Once this tower falls, then the Inner City’s last defense line will soon declare its failure, and what they will face will only be an endless influx of enemies.

Those enemies, don’t even deserve to be called people, they’re purely a swarm of humanoid beasts.

But whether sending out these people will be effective, Princess Rupert doesn’t hold certain confidence in her heart. She silently gazed forward, the messages from the last tower have stopped coming for ten minutes already. She even had a vague sense of unease, if the sand thieves have broken the defense, then where should Quistack go forward from here?

But the Grand Princess’s unease now mirrored in Tianlan’s eyes —

The young girl had been struggling to drag the Paladin’s corpse down from the city wall, and just when she returned to the wall to retrieve the lost sword, she suddenly froze there.

Tianlan stared at the direction, which was the battlefield on what’s called ’Majian Tower’, the last fortress.

There, she could still see the flags belonging to the Androma Knights and the Royal Guards, but now, there’s only a dense mass of Sand Thieves crossing the line that originally belonged to the Grand Princess’s side — so densely packed like countless ants, they’re swarming toward the Inner City.

Where are Her Highness’s people?

Seeing this scene, Tianlan suddenly felt dizzy, a terrible thought surged within her heart.

The Inner City has fallen.

And behind it, there’s only the defenseless Kashan Palace.

With a clang, the sword in her hand fell on the city wall, the last piece of hope within her heart that had been left, now suddenly extinguished like a star.

The belief she had always held — at crucial moments, Brother Ade would somehow descend like a god-sent soldier to solve all troubles. Just like at Dolifen, on Fenris Isle, and all that followed, at every critical moment, they could always change the situation, avert disaster.

But now, even if Brother Ade returned, what good would it do?

She knew in her heart, everyone’s only hope was that the Inner City hadn’t been lost yet, then waiting for the captain to return would bring a sliver of chance to reverse the battle. But now, everything came too late, the sand thieves have broken the last line of defense, and the King of Sand would never be able to lead an army back before noon.

The last opportunity of impeding the Sand Thieves’ advance was lost at this moment.

All Tianlan wanted in this moment was to cry, she definitely didn’t blame anyone for coming back too late, because everything is simply because she was too incompetent. Miss Atira, the Big Cat People and Brother Ade are not here, Xiangzi and Luo Yu are not here, Gita is not here, she just had no means at all.