Cthulhu Gonfalon

This bombarding gunfire was, undoubtedly, under the command of Lion.

When Olian was injured and fell, Lion and Xiao’ao had already discussed their countermeasures. Because their combat power was lagging behind, they had decided to win by novelty where they would take their enemy by surprise. To put it across bluntly, most probably they would not win if they were to fight in a head-on confrontation, so they had to play some tricks in order to win.

The entire plan was divided into two parts. Xiao’ao would be responsible for one part, which was to find a chance to assassinate one to two of the Legendary Masters from their opponent’s side. The other part was Lion’s job, which was to render Xiao’ao with assistance whenever necessary. She also was to create diversions to confuse their opponents to hide their real agenda, as well as to deliver the final, crucial blow.

Xiao’ao completed her part of the mission very successfully. She had an advantageous edge with her petite build and extreme speed. Taking advantage of the smoke and dust flying all over, she dashed into the battlefield. It did not take a long time to pin down the two Sacred Warriors who happened to be the most determined and strong-willed members of the other side. With her special skills, the two Sacred Warriors were knocked unconscious with just a few potatoes.

Although she died in her own battle, to an Oracle like herself, dying in a battle was nothing more than returning to one’s own God’s Kingdom for resurrection.

Right now, she had returned to the God’s Kingdom she belonged to and was having a conversation with her companions. They were discussing the battle that had just taken place.

“All of you would never know how urgent the situation was back then, it was truly, an emergency! Watching how the two streams of blade rays were about to strike, and if that happened, at least two from our side would fall. Who knows? If the two Sacred Warriors smoothly pulled out the first strike, then dashed to the front and attacked another time, most probably all six of our side would fall! But, at the most critical moment, I shouted loudly and made a boisterous appearance. With just two potatoes, I knocked them unconscious. When the other six regained their composure and ability to react, shua, shua, shua, shua, the two living beings became two dead bodies! From the start to the end, I took at most two seconds!”

“Just look at yourself tooting your own horn. Do you really think your potatoes could be so powerful? It’s not like we haven’t experienced the power of your potatoes during our practice drills.”

Xiao’ao retorted, “What’s tooting my own horn? During our practice drills, all of you were mentally prepared to be struck. If my potatoes were used to hit enemies who are prepared to receive the blows, the effect would be reduced. Only if I strike when the enemy least expects to be hit and is thus caught unprepared, will I be able to unleash the greatest potential of my skill and maximize its effectiveness!”

“From the way you narrated, it must be a very heated fight down there right now?”

“Yes, unfortunately, that summoning technique is greatly limited. Within a given period of time, it will be absolutely impossible for the same person to summon twice in a row. If not for that, I would have wanted to go back there and fight another round! Now is the most exciting and crucial moment!”

“It sounds like manpower is required over there right now?”

“That’s right, urgently.”

“Then what are we still waiting for? Let’s go down!”

“Are you sure they will be able to summon you?”

A young maiden with a white bonnet and blue butterfly hairpin laughed upon hearing this question.

“The summoning technique is managed by my sister. Let me talk to her about it, she is bound to help!”

The young maiden was like a stone that raised a thousand waves, and all of a sudden, the crowd’s enthusiasm mounted and feelings ran high everywhere. Many young maidens who had not participated in any major battles in this period were starting to feel an itch from being idle too long. Immediately, they started to make a lot of noise. The most aggressive ones were those maidens donning clothes that had patterns like cherry blossoms. Right away, they grabbed the young maiden with the blue butterfly hairpin by her four limbs and lifted her up. They paid no heed to her loud protests and headed straight for a cliff where a gentle sea breeze was blowing. There, they found the commander of the Oracle troop who was seated under the shade of the tree basking in the gentle sea breeze.

“General Lexington, the mortal world needs our strength right now. Do let us all go down together!”

“Yes, yes, if we don’t set off, we will not be able to catch up with all the buzz!”

“Not making it in time for the buzz is not a big deal. The key point here is that they are waiting for us to save them!”

“Eh? Waiting for us to save them? Is the situation that serious?”

“How could you possibly be so upright! If we do not make the situation out to be so serious, do you General Lexington would give consent?”

“I thought we agreed to take Little Sa as our hostage and force General Lexington to agree?”

“You are either pretending to be silly or truly brainless! If General Lexington refuses to give her consent, do you really think we can do anything to Xiao Sa?”

“Seems like there is not much we can do.”

“So, shut up! Let me do the negotiation, understand?”

“Understood!”

Hearing the babble of voices because everyone was talking at the same time, the other young maiden who was also wearing a blue butterfly hairpin like Little Sa laughed.

She said, “Rules are rules, the summoning has always been random.”

“But… the battle is getting really intense down there!”

“True! Someone might get killed if we delay any further!”

The pioneer Oracle who was responsible for leading this group was all smiles but shook her head the entire time.

“We are soldiers. To us, it is our duty to obey orders. I will not be giving special allowances unless specific orders are given.”

Although her voice was gentle, the underlying meaning of General Lexington’s words was firm. She was not going to give any preferential treatment, and most certainly not about to take even half a step back. The faces of those young maidens itching to go to battle were almost distorted because they were so angry. Yet all they could do was relent and show obeisance.

It was not by nature that they had to be controlled by her. It was because, aside from the fact that their capabilities were a far cry from this general of theirs, it was also a fact that they belonged to a country that had its army’s “settings” programmed in such a way that positioned its soldiers within a top-down hagiarchy. This hagiarchy determined that they would have to be extremely respectful and compliant to their general. There were still traditions like “bottom overcoming the top” that existed, but in their case, since it was a fact that they would not be able to win against their general, then of course, they would have no other choice but to show obeisance.

On Earth, the country that they belonged to had been managed for so many decades that it had come to resemble a family with three generations living under the same roof. These young maidens were like the grandchildren, who were usually so obedient that there were never occurrences of rebellious acts.

Of course, they were created by Sui Xiong after all, so their character would still be very different from the real thing found in the actual “country of origin.” Strictly speaking, these young maidens were created according to the settings found in comics that Sui Xiong was familiar with. Back then, Brother Xiong might not be wealthy, but neither was he so poor that he would be reduced to begging out on the streets. On the other hand, his assets were not enough for him to travel to the other island country thousands of miles away either. So he was not really well-informed of the actual situation over at that other island country.

But it did not matter. Anyway, now that he could not even return to Earth, the fact of whether the settings were close to the original version or not had simply lost its significance.

Just as both sides were bickering and causing a din, a gentle voice that sounded like its speaker was all smiles was heard.

“Let them go. It is not good to have them cooped up at home all day long. Youngsters like them should move about more. That is better for them.”

The speaker was a young man sitting on a bamboo chair, holding a book in one hand and a feathered fan in the other. This was Crick Keane, another clone of Sui Xiong, the Traverser.

Crick’s identity was, doubtlessly, kept confidential. However, the Oracles, relying on their instincts, could still sense that he was essentially similar to the Void Mask, so naturally, he became the Supreme Commander of the Oracle troop. There were even many people who called him their “Admiral.” Usually, he would just quietly be reading a book while sorting out his thoughts, and no one dared to disturb him.

So now, the moment he opened his mouth, the matter was settled right away.

…

And so, a moment later, Kabbalah, who was standing right before the altar, stared in muted amazement at the streams of golden rays and the mighty maidens who emerged alongside the golden rays. His expression registered nothing else but stupefaction as he went into a daze.

“Hey! Kabbalah, you are truly a formidable Light Mask! You have consecutively summoned six to seven elite Oracles!”

“This is not an issue of being a Light Mask or not! With this many resources, you could actually summon Oracles at the battleship level. Oh, what is going on!”

High up in the air, Sui Xiong smiled slyly.

He knew that so long as Xiao’ao had made a trip down, this talkative young lady was bound to tell her companions all about the situation down in the mortal world. And then, when there were Oracles who were willing to volunteer themselves to be summoned, things would certainly be much simpler.

Strictly speaking, this was kind of hypocritical. On one hand, he seemed to be the encouraging leader who found it meaningful for the young maidens to step out of home for more exposure; yet in fact, he had another agenda in mind. But in this world, most things only required a reasonable excuse to validate their existence.

No matter what, he had no intention of seeing Wall’s church lose this battle!