Chapter 420: Betrayal’s Blade I
Military Headquarters
Sector 1
Triton’s Ark
"Fifteenth Company, be careful! I’m detecting demonic energy signatures on your four o’clock!"
[Roger!]
Major Lamkins heaved a sigh of relief as she saw the demonic energy signatures in the area where the fifteenth company of the Aramisian Army 3rd Division reduced.
But she didn’t even get time to rest when she detected wood demons sneaking under the maintenance tunnels to ambush another Brigade from behind.
She imitated a connection and warned them of the danger, preventing them from being ambushed by the demons.
’How do they even know our Maintenance tunnel lines?! We have traitors on this Ark! Traitors in very high positions!’
Just as she thought that, there was a knock on her room door and she sent her aura out to sense the presence on the other end.
"Father?"
"indeed."
The door opened and Fleet Admiral Gnurl peeked inside, glancing around at her pretty disarranged office. When she saw his gaze, she quickly figured out what he was thinking but it was not something she could bother with at the moment.
"I’d have someone clean it up when we’re done with this mess.
But what about you? Should you not be in the situation room?"
"Tamal and the others are competent enough to handle things without my constant input. And right now, I was waiting for the analysis reports from the Power Plant Area damage."
Gnurl walked in and closed the door behind him as he spoke, but each word he spoke made Major Lamkins feel strange.
She slowly dipped her hand into her drawer and grabbed a small disk-like device, pressing a button on it before letting it fall into the pile of files present.
"Your Analysis abilities have increased a great deal recently. Your contributions today would also net you a promotion."
Gnurl commented as he looked at the multitude of floating screens holding data and analysis results from different parts of the Triton’s Ark. From structural damage reports to casualties in each corps and predicted Demon attack routes.
"I aimed to get better so you’d be proud of me, Father."
Major Lamkins replied with a shy smile and seeing this, Gnurl shook his head while also smiling wryly.
"Indeed. Your father would be proud."
"..."
The office went silent for a moment as Major Lamkins silently grabbed a disk that was on her desk and fiddled with it.
The silence went on for a few more seconds before she suddenly turned in Gnurl’s direction with her hand stretched out. The disk in her hand glowed and projected a four-ringed magic circle in front of her and the spell activated almost immediatel—
**POP!
"..."
Major Lamkins’ arm trembled heavily, accompanied by a sudden sensation of emptiness in her chest.
When she turned her gaze down, a depreciating smile appeared on her face as she realised the source of that feeling.
It was none other than the fist-sized hole in her chest right where her heart was supposed to be.
She looked back up to Gnurl who was standing in front of her with his hands crossed at his back, before muttering one last line.
"I fucking knew it..."
The young woman’s body then dropped down to the ground lifelessly.
Gnurl looked at this impassively, shaking his head as he walked up to her corpse and picked up the disk-like device in her hand.
"Being smart isn’t always a good thing, huh?"
He repeated Yedrist’s words as he turned the disk around and pointed at it with his finger. The tip of his finger then glowed with the light of the law of death, and he flicked the disk twice.
The disk vibrated lightly in response before a thin black thread of light extended from it and right into the desk drawer.
"Good thing I moved immediately. If she had gotten to hide this somewhere else, then I would have had a bit of a hard time locating where it was."
Gnurl spoke as he picked up the second disk and juggled it in the air.
Although Major Lamkins had suspected something and even prepared countermeasures for the event of her assassination, she had not gotten enough time to properly hide said countermeasures.
"Soul Transfer magic. Pretty high level for how young she was."
The last magic circle she had deployed was not an attack circle but a soul transfer one. It was meant to send her soul into another vessel upon her death, but sadly, that vessel had not yet been moved to a safe location so Gnurl was able to find it pretty quickly.
Gnurl picked up her corpse and tossed it into his subspace, before coating his palm in death law energy and shattering the disk containing her soul.
Since there was no Soul Transfer magic circle to capture it, the law of reincarnation did its job and claimed her soul in mere seconds.
"Lord Alvey. The nuisance has been taken care of."
Gnurl, no, ’Jabberwocky’, informed his master about the completion of his task via their telepathic connection and a response came through very quickly.
[Good. Proceed with the next stage of the plan]
"The Evidence has already been planted, and the target is already under the effects. You should be seeing results soon."
◇ ◇ ◇
"Fire on Sector 13!!"
Lieutenant General Tamal barked out orders as the mages launched their barrage of flame spells against the incoming wood demon platoon.
Immediately, he turned his gaze to another part of the Triton’s Ark that had now become a battlefield and ordered.
"Evacuate Sector 5! We have to keep away from the gods’ battles!!"
He had the soldiers in the sector retreat immediately so they would not be caught up in the crossfire of the battle between one of the Mid-ranked gods and a trio of Demon Vice Admirals and their summoned monsters.
The man was breathing heavily and sweating all over as he spread his consciousness-infused aura as far as he could to detect what was going on all over the battlefield.
’To think that two of the Four Star Generals were here!!’
He exclaimed internally as he saw the gigantic black demonic tree lashing out with its branches at hypersonic speeds while a trio of gods and divine humans flew around in the air to avoid the bloodstained branches.
Who knew just how many Aramisians those branches had pierced through and ripped organs out of?
Tamal took a deep breath, turning his attention towards his Corps’ Second Division when suddenly he heard a familiar voice scream out his name.
[TAMAL YOU BASTARD!!!]
"wha?!"
By the time he turned in the direction of the voice, a spear coated in pure divinity had already torn through his multi-layered barrier and pierced him in the side.
**BOOM!!
The wielder of the spear twisted it and ignited their energy in an explosion that blasted out a portion of his flesh aside.
Tamal’s reaction was delayed for a second since the person who had attacked him was an ally, a Lieutenant General like him.
Unfortunately, that one second was enough for the other General to deal a serious blow to Tamal.
"What the?! What are you doing!?!!"
Naturally, this scene was not unnoticed by the major players of the battlefield, and for a moment, the attention of the transcendents was turned in their direction as they did not understand why Tamal was suddenly attacked by his own ally.
But some of them had to return their focus to their battles as their Demon opponents did not give them any leeway to pay attention to Tamal’s predicament.
Some of the Major Generals nearby rushed forward and grabbed the arms of the person who attacked Tamal, holding him back and preventing him from dealing another blow.
"SCAR!! WHAT IS THE MEANING OF THIS?!"
The Lieutenant General who attacked Tamal was one nicknamed ’Scar’, due to the gash over his left eye which he had gained in battle against the Commander in Chief of the Demons years ago.
It may sound heroic, but the only reason he had survived was that the Peak Ranked Demon-Five Star General Cruz Orkorin- had zero desire to kill the man and only just smacked him in the face to make him get out of the way.
Anyway, when he was held down by the Major Generals and one of the Divine Humans broke out of his battle to heal Tamal, Scar screamed out the reason why he had attacked his ally.
And since his voice was amplified with magic power, it boomed loudly enough to be heard for miles.
[BASTARD TAMAL! YOU SOLD US OUT TO THE DEMONS!!]
"???!!!"
"...what?"
Tamal was dumbfounded when he was suddenly accused of this by Scar.
Scar’s hatred of the demons ran deep, but his hatred for traitors ran even deeper as the man had lost his wife because a traitor had sold them out to General Orkorin, hence the reason why the Peak Ranked Demon had moved that fateful day.
"How can you make such a false accusation?!"
[FALSE?! LOOK AT IT, THE EVIDENCE IS ALL HERE!!! TELL ME IF THIS IS FAKE!!]
