Four hundred ninety-sixth bombardment.
Inside the Baruk Palace, the battle between Dorothy’s side and Muhetar was nearing its end. Both sides were in a terrible state. After Muhetar used his final commandment with a high cost, the originally favorable situation for Dorothy’s side suddenly took a sharp turn.
Under the influence of a more powerful counter-attack commandment, Vania, affected by this, fell unconscious, and Shadi lost most of his mobility. Facing the two nearly powerless figures lying on the ground, Muhetar did not hesitate; he raised his curved blade to strike them. From afar, Dorothy immediately controlled several metal fragments to lift Vania away, allowing her to dodge Muhetar’s attack. However, at that moment, a bloody wound suddenly burst open on Vania’s body, making Dorothy realize that both Vania and Shadi were still under Muhetar’s inescapable commandment, and her actions would trigger the commandment!
Realizing this, Dorothy immediately threw Vania next to Shadi and then used magnetic force to control countless metals floating up to protect them. Muhetar repeatedly attacked Vania and the others with his curved blade, but each time the attacks were blocked by the floating metals. After suffering severe injuries, despite using two advanced sigils, Muhetar’s physical abilities had greatly decreased, and he could not break through this defensive barrier composed of numerous metal objects.
In the hidden space, to protect Vania and the others, Dorothy continued her manipulation. With the influence of the city defense system, most of the metallic items within the palace were levitated. Metal plates, metal statues, metal armor, metal weapons… countless iron objects converged toward the hall from all directions. Under Dorothy’s control, these metal objects formed a large metallic dome above Vania and the others, tightly interlocking to create an impenetrable shield. As more metals joined, the thickness and size of the metal shield kept increasing until it became something Muhetar could not possibly move.
“Can she control not just lightning… but also iron?”
Muhetar said sternly, watching the rapidly growing metallic shell. He knew that these strange abilities, which he had never seen before, were the work of the mysterious Extraordinary Being in the hidden space. Although he had suffered a counter-attack, he somehow survived and continued to hinder him.
“Keep hindering me… you can only do so much now…”
Looking at the tightly sealed and continuously thickening metal shield, Muhetar muttered coldly. He clearly understood that the mysterious Extraordinary Being currently dared not attack him directly but could only protect their companions through such means. For Muhetar, although he couldn’t destroy the metal shield himself, his subordinates could.
At this moment, Muhetar could sense that more of his subordinates were finishing off their opponents and entering this area of the palace, guided by the landmarks toward his location. They would soon be by his side. With the two main enemies now incapacitated, Muhetar just needed to wait for his people to arrive, break the iron shell, k*ll those inside, and then go to the Radiant Church to find that mysterious Extraordinary Being.
While Muhetar waited for his subordinates to gather, Dorothy inside the hidden space of the Enlightenment Mark Temple was extremely anxious. She hadn’t anticipated that Muhetar still had a trump card, especially one so powerful. Vania had fallen instantly, and Shadi was severely injured. What was this trump card?
“The Extraordinary Being of the Red Tier… besides possessing strong abilities, they have an extraordinarily long lifespan. Long periods of time allow them to accumulate substantial resources… these resources greatly enhance their combat capabilities during battles. I underestimated Muhetar’s reserves.”
“That guy’s evasion commandment is still in effect. I can’t move Vania and the others now. I can only use magnetic force to create a protective shield. But his subordinates are gathering over here, and if they use explosives to blast through, the shield won’t last. I need to think of a solution now…”
Sitting in the hidden space of the Enlightenment Mark Temple, Dorothy thought deeply about the current situation. To find a way to break the deadlock, she needed to know what Muhetar’s new commandment entailed. To learn the content of this commandment, she could only ask Shadi.
Thus, Dorothy used a spiritual thread to contact the puppet mark on Vania’s body, manipulating the unconscious Vania. Under Dorothy’s control, Vania slowly sat up and opened her eyes, surveying the dim interior of the metal protection shield before finally focusing on Shadi, who was breathing heavily nearby.
“What is the content of his new commandment?” Dorothy asked Vania to inquire of Shadi.
Listening to Vania’s words, Shadi turned to look at her unexpectedly and then explained.
“Breathing heavily… That guy’s new commandment is an enhanced version of the original counter-attack commandment. Now, anyone who tries to attack him or harm him will trigger the commandment before they even make a move. The punishment is soul scourging, which is extremely intense. Even I, a White Chalk Tier ‘Silence’ Extraordinary Being, have been reduced to this state after being hit once…”
Shadi explained Muhetar’s new commandment’s strength while panting. Dorothy frowned upon hearing this, her face becoming increasingly serious.
“As long as someone intends to harm him, they will be punished before the attack is made… This commandment directly involves a person’s subjective will… As long as there is malicious intent to harm Muhetar, the commandment will punish before any action is taken… No wonder the malicious healing didn’t work…
“A commandment that defends based on subjective will… This is almost an invincible ability, judged by the perpetrator’s subjective will… This means the previous method of exploiting the commandment bug with malicious healing won’t work anymore. Shadi’s ice body is also restrained by Muhetar’s soul scourging…”
After learning about Muhetar’s new commandment, Dorothy’s expression became heavy, struggling to come up with a solution.
The best way Dorothy could think of to solve such a commandment was self-deception, self-hypnosis, completing the attack by convincing herself that attacking him is for his own good. Unfortunately, she did not possess this skill and could not achieve it.
If self-hypnosis was impossible, Muhetar’s new commandment would be extremely difficult to deal with. Any normal person attacking with hostility would be punished beforehand. Unless she could deploy a specially programmed autonomous robot, which was impossible at the moment.
Gazing at the increasing number of Savior Faction armed fighters gathering in the hall, Dorothy felt extremely anxious. Scanning the city, she searched for anything useful. Soon, she spotted something interesting.
“This might actually work…”
From a high vantage point, Dorothy stared intently at a certain spot in Adis, pondering. A plan began to form in her mind.
In this critical moment, Dorothy decided to put her idea into practice. She closed her eyes and used the information channel to call Neve.
…
Near the outskirts of Adis, Neve, dressed in white with gold ornaments, was near the Enlightenment Mark Temple. Her surroundings were filled with various corpses of Savior Faction armed fighters.
Not long ago, Neve followed Dorothy’s orders, arriving at the Enlightenment Mark Temple, the main base of the Savior’s Incarnation Sect in Adis. In the capacity of a Judge of Heaven priestess, she cleared out the area, with support from Dorothy’s lightning power. The Enlightenment Mark Temple and its surroundings were thoroughly cleared. Due to the lack of coverage of commandments, most believers and armed fighters fled due to fear of divine thunder. The temple had become an empty sanctuary.
“How is Sister Vania doing now?”
Standing beside the temple, Neve gazed at the distant smoke-filled Baruk Palace, worriedly murmuring. At that moment, she heard the familiar voice of Dorothy. After a slight pause, she listened carefully and realized it was a new order.
“Send me to the right camp?”
Upon receiving Dorothy’s instruction, Neve did not hesitate and turned to walk briskly to the right. Soon, she arrived at the Savior Faction’s armed encampment next to the Enlightenment Mark Temple. Most of the people had already gone to the palace with Muhetar, leaving only a few either killed or scared away. The camp was now deserted.
After arriving at the camp, Dorothy quickly gave Neve new instructions.
“Now, Senior Sister Neve, please stand by at the cannon position in front of you. Oh, and use the zombie ring to control two zombies to go with you. When the time comes, you and the other two zombies will prepare to operate the largest cannon there.”
“Cannon?”
Listening to Dorothy’s words, Neve’s gaze shifted to the defensive works of the camp. There was a very noticeable fixed cannon, larger than typical field cannons, seemingly better suited for use in fixed fortifications.
Following Dorothy’s instructions, Neve used the zombie ring given to her beforehand to control two zombies, rushing to the cannon position. She closely observed the large black cannon. Through Neve’s vision, Dorothy could clearly see the Faraluo script on it, indicating it was likely a new model developed in recent years. During the civil war in Adus, the Baruk Dynasty had extensively purchased military equipment from the various nations of the Main Continent. This cannon was undoubtedly one of them.
Using Neve’s perspective, Dorothy quickly examined the cannon’s condition and rapidly learned the specific operation methods. Then, she directed Neve to use the two zombie soldiers to adjust the cannon’s angle towards the desert, firing two shots. Based on the impact points from afar, Dorothy quickly calculated the speed, power, and range of the cannonball, clarifying its parameters.
“Why am I supposed to operate this cannon, Miss Dorothy?”
Standing beside the cannon, Neve, who had just fired a shot, asked Dorothy, puzzled. She wondered why she was called here to operate the cannon. Dorothy clearly had powerful zombie capabilities and could operate the cannon much faster. Why didn’t she come herself?
“You don’t need to worry about that, Senior Sister Neve. Just follow my instructions.”
“When the time comes, I’ll give you the shooting parameters. Adjust one for each report. Once everything is set, fire directly. Don’t worry about anything else, okay?”
“Okay…”
Dorothy responded seriously. Listening to her, though still confused, Neve nodded affirmatively.
After giving instructions to Neve, Dorothy refocused on the palace. Inside the grand hall, many Savior Faction armed fighters had gathered. They looked at Muhetar, who was in a sorry state, but no one dared to speak much under his stern gaze.
“How is it? Can we break this thing?”
In the hall, Muhetar looked at the Savior Faction armed fighters, who were frantically working on the massive metal ball, gasping for breath. They turned around and replied helplessly.
“No, Lord Muhetar, this bunch of iron pieces are stuck too tightly, we can’t pry them apart. Moreover, any metal tools get attracted to it, and it keeps getting bigger. To break it, we’d have to find explosives.”
“Then hurry up and find them! Don’t make me wait longer!”
“Yes, yes!”
Following Muhetar’s words, several Savior Faction armed fighters immediately ran out to find explosives. Muhetar then turned his attention back to the massive iron ball in the hall. After prolonged metal absorption, the original metal shield had transformed into a metal ball, twice its original size. Most of the palace’s metal had been absorbed, and the average thickness of the magnetic metal ball was about half a meter.
“Hmph, no matter how thick your turtle shell is, I’ll definitely break it open.”
Watching the metal ball, Muhetar said coldly. Inside the metal ball, Vania, under Dorothy’s control, was talking to Shadi.
“What? You want me to freeze the surroundings?”
Shadi, weakly, said in surprise after hearing Vania’s words. Vania, under Dorothy’s control, nodded and spoke.
“Yes, can you still use your abilities? If you can, freeze all the metal around us, seal the gaps with ice, and add another layer of ice protection inside!”
“Ice protection… Cough… Cough… I can’t use my abilities like before. I can only try my best… but I don’t think this will resist Muhetar,” Shadi said gloomily, and Vania continued.
“It doesn’t matter. Anyway, the ice isn’t meant to defend against Muhetar. Hurry up, time is tight. Start from this direction, do as much as you can…”
…
After dealing with matters in the palace, Dorothy redirected her attention to the cannon position. After calculating the time, she said to Neve in a serious tone.
“Alright, Senior Sister Neve, let’s start. I’ll calculate the shooting parameters, and you’ll operate the cannon. I’ll call out one parameter, you adjust one, and once everything is set, fire directly. Understand?”
“Understood.”
Neve, fully prepared at the cannon, responded to Dorothy. Hearing Neve’s words, Dorothy took a deep breath and closed her eyes to begin calculating the shooting parameters to send the cannonball to the target.
Generally speaking, with Dorothy’s computational abilities, calculating these parameters was straightforward. However, at this moment, Dorothy found it unusually difficult, as she had deliberately increased the difficulty.
A simple math problem, Dorothy had complicated it immensely by incorporating various complex problems, adding stringent conditions, and requiring extreme precision in decimal places. Successfully transforming the simple calculation of shooting parameters into multiple high-difficulty problems.
Through intentional design and stringent demands, Dorothy made the originally easy-to-calculate shooting parameters extremely difficult, reaching a level that would take an ordinary person years to solve, and even Dorothy had to exert nearly all her computational power to solve it within a short time.
The reason for this was that she needed such intensive problem-solving and calculations to somewhat blur her consciousness, concentrating all her energy on solving the problem. When Dorothy focused entirely on solving the problem, the reason behind solving it would be somewhat ignored.
“Sight… 386… Angle… 467…”
Muttering the answer to the difficult problem, Neve adjusted the cannon’s shooting parameters according to Dorothy’s spoken data. Gradually, the originally black cannon, used for defending Adis, began to turn under Neve’s adjustments, pointing toward the distant palace of Adis.
At this point, Neve was still unsure who she was aiming at.
“Boom!!”
With all the parameters adjusted, Neve pulled the rope to fire the cannon. Amidst a huge roar, the cannonball shot out from the blazing barrel, flying toward the distant palace.
After a brief flight, the cannonball descended from the sky of the palace. At that moment, a bolt of lightning struck down, helping the cannonball penetrate a roof and fall into a luxurious hall in the palace.
Inside the hall, Muhetar and a group of Savior Faction armed fighters were looking up at the roof split open by lightning. Their view was quickly covered by the spreading flames before they could even catch sight of the fast-falling cannonball.
In the midst of the explosion and flames, countless bodies shattered, including Muhetar’s. His soul, overwhelmed by shock, finally disintegrated along with his body.
