Chapter 113: Termination of the Ritual
Amidst the dizziness, Gu Hang refused the soldier who stepped forward to support him, choosing to walk over to the group of communication officers on his own.
As he rested nearby, he said, “If news arrives from other areas, inform me immediately.”
“Yes, sir!”
After saying this, Gu Hang closed his eyes, sitting in the rain to regain his energy.
It wasn’t that they couldn’t afford to set up a canopy for the Governor; it was just that, in this environment, a canopy would be useless and would get blown away.
Fortunately, Gu Hang didn’t care about such things.
Over the following ten or twenty minutes, news from various locations came through one by one. Three more Fury Owl projections at different wind farms were taken care of.
Counting the previous four, that made seven in total.
A smile appeared on Gu Hang’s face, even with his eyes closed.
It seemed like things were going well.
But a few more minutes passed, and the news he had been waiting for from the final wind farm still hadn’t arrived.
The smile on Gu Hang’s face faded.
“Make a call, find out what’s going on over there, and what the situation is now.”
The communication officer followed orders, and a response came back quickly.
“Five minutes ago, a Star Warrior and two Battle Nuns arrived. They… they…”
At this, the communication officer stammered, and Gu Hang sensed something was wrong. “Speak up.”
“Yes!” The communication officer didn’t bother organizing his words and quickly explained the situation in the order it happened, plainly stating, “One of the Star Warriors touched that void. Then, after a moment, the void didn’t disappear, but that Star Warrior fell down. Then the two Nuns checked the situation and said the Star Warrior was already dead. One of them touched the void herself and… she fell as well. The remaining Nun took over the communication signal and is now requesting assistance.”
Gu Hang’s face darkened completely.
Although it wasn’t a total failure, he realized that a big problem had emerged.
Aside from himself, a high-level psionic, only the Star Warriors had a good chance of dealing with the Fury Owl projections remaining in each of the original wind farms.
These veterans of penance expeditions, each with at least a century of combat experience, were all individuals of incredibly firm will. But there were only seven of them, and including Gu Hang himself, they should theoretically be able to handle all the Fury Owl projections.
Though it was a close call, Gu Hang hadn’t expected any of them to fail.
However, even if the Star Warriors had a seventy to eighty percent success rate in the spiritual realm, facing seven projections consecutively made the odds of an accident far from negligible. Gu Hang also remembered that one of the Star Warriors had taken a blow from a wind bullet in an earlier fight and then endured a slap from the Fury Owl Incarnation as well.
While he had no concrete evidence, Gu Hang suspected that the fallen warrior was probably this unfortunate individual. Perhaps that Star Warrior had already been significantly wounded, making it difficult to fully resist the projection of the Fury Owl in the mental domain and leading to his eventual defeat.
Losing a Star Warrior was a heavy blow.
Even though the Phoenix Battalion could only be considered his allies, their relationship was hardly one of ‘watching idly while allies suffer.’ On the contrary, they had been cooperating quite well during this period.
Although their presence had required him to allocate manpower to build them a monastery and even pull Specialist Wu Jiarong’s research lab away to manufacture custom explosives for them, the Star Warriors were dependable when needed. What Gu Hang had invested was less than what mercenaries would charge for the same level of service.
In return, these Phoenix Battalion warriors had been a tremendous help to him.
Losing one of them felt like losing at least 300 Grace Points—equivalent to the value of a standard Star Warrior, and that’s not even counting the added experience of a veteran.
Beyond the loss itself, the death of a Star Warrior immediately signified a major failure in stopping this heretical ritual.
With seven Star Warriors assigned to seven wind farms, there was zero margin for error.
Now that an error had occurred, compensating for it would be extremely challenging. The Battle Nun who had died right after the fallen Star Warrior was a clear example of this.
Where in the entire Revival City could they find another person whose mental resilience was on par with that of the Star Warriors?
Gu Hang’s only idea for seeking help was Gretel.
Would the Sister Superior be willing to send her remaining nine Nuns, one by one, to engage in a life-or-death struggle with the Fury Owl projection?
Gu Hang felt reluctant to even make this request.
The Sister Superior had already lost two of her subordinates. If it were merely a matter of sacrifice, it could be accepted. The problem was that no one knew the odds of success for each Nun entering the spiritual realm to challenge the Fury Owl projection.
What if all nine Nuns perished, and the problem still wasn’t solved?
Gretel would hesitate.
But it seemed that Gu Hang had no other options.
He took a deep breath and spoke to the communication officer next to him, “Go and ask where Sister Superior Gretel is right now. I need to speak with her.”
“Yes, sir!”
The communication officer quickly departed to carry out the order.
At that moment, Gu Hang heard an intensely unwilling roar echo from the sky, seemingly from the void itself.
Suddenly, he felt that the dark clouds shrouding the city were beginning to dissipate, and the violent storm and rain seemed to lessen.
Gu Hang was taken aback: Was the ritual terminated?
Was the Fury Owl projection taken down?
But how? Who did it?
Could it have been the remaining Nun from the previous report, unleashing an extraordinary effort to defeat the Fury Owl projection?
Gu Hang was filled with immense joy.
Regardless of what it was, this was fantastic news!
Even though the outcome was positive, the rollercoaster of emotions was far from gentle on the heart. If he could help it, Gu Hang would rather not experience something like this again.
Shortly after, another communication officer arrived with news.
“Governor, there’s new intelligence from the wind farm where we lost a Star Warrior and a Battle Nun. They resolved the issue!”
“I see,” Gu Hang replied, smiling. “Who was it that solved the issue? The Battle Nun?”
“No, sir.”
Oh?
Hearing this, Gu Hang was momentarily stunned.
“Then who?”
“It was Tadius.”
Tadius? The name struck a familiar chord for Gu Hang.
He quickly recalled the series of battles involving a food transport convoy that had been attacked. Gu Hang had read the battle reports, where the newly established position of Political Commissar had played a crucial role.
At the time, his attention had been drawn to the most notable figure, Coddie, who turned the tide of battle with his self-sacrifice.
As for Tadius, it seemed he’d only been a background figure in Coddie’s story.
However, it was this seemingly minor character who became the key to saving the entire city.
Now, Gu Hang was intensely curious: how exactly did Tadius pull it off?