The Girl Who Looted Tomorrow

Although the plan was now being forced forward, even General Jerome himself did not know whether this half-finished ritual qualified or could be considered a success.

So of course the adjutant hated Freya and Euphemia, the two people who had obstructed his General’s advancement. He had been furious for a long time.

Even though the adjutant was already Rank Four, his spirituality was still limited. At most, it could support him using his extraordinary ability two or three times.

He had actually used this ability once during his first encounter with Freya and Euphemia.

It was called [All-Out Strike].

Its effect was to gather all the strength in his body into a single attack and release the strongest blow possible. There was no restriction on the carrier of the attack. It could be a curved blade, an arrow, a bullet, or even a cannon shell while loading a cannon.

It was an extremely powerful extraordinary ability.

But Jessica was even stronger. The adjutant knew very well that even if he used [All-Out Strike] three times at full power, he still probably could not defeat her.

So he had deliberately held it back.

Throughout his fight with Jessica, he had never used his ability.

He had been waiting for this moment.

He would use his killing move to take revenge.

Bang!

A scarlet bullet burst from the muzzle.

Because the adjutant had already entered a near-death state, his ability [Blood Fury] took effect and nearly doubled his physical ability. Naturally, that also greatly increased the power of this [All-Out Strike].

The attack was far too sudden.

So sudden that almost no one reacted in time.

Only Euphemia happened to see it.

The moment she saw the adjutant raise his gun and aim, she pressed her left hand to her earring and pointed her right hand toward Freya.

A soft white barrier was projected outward and stood directly in front of Freya.

Boom!

A violent explosion tore through the battlefield.

But that was not the end.

The instant after he pulled the trigger, the adjutant immediately used [Reset Stance] to reset his condition, then activated [All-Out Strike] again.

His second target was Euphemia.

“Damn it!”

Jessica reacted quickly as well.

She swiftly swung the weapon in her hand and cut straight through the adjutant’s neck.

But the second shot had already been fired.

A second violent explosion erupted at the top of the earthen wall.

And with it came the sight of Euphemia being blasted away.

Her earring had already endured one of the adjutant’s [All-Out Strikes] yesterday.

Today, it had blocked a second one.

Its effect had reached the limit. There was no strength left to block a third.

In fact, when it blocked the second shot, the barrier had already shattered.

Even Freya had been staggered by the blast, and many shallow cuts appeared across her body.

But she had no time to care about those injuries. She immediately turned and ran toward Euphemia.

Freya climbed over an earthen wall.

On the ground below, she could clearly see a fist-sized wound through Euphemia’s chest.

It was an absolutely fatal injury.

There had not even been time for any last words.

The girl had already stopped breathing.

Freya’s steps grew slower and slower.

At last, she stopped beside Euphemia.

She lowered her head and stood there motionless, silent for a long time.

The adjutant’s near-death strike had been terrifyingly powerful.

At the time, Freya had been maintaining [Healing], and her attention had also been drawn away by the explosion.

Without exaggeration, if Euphemia had not blocked that attack for her, Freya might very well have been killed instantly.

But the price was now right in front of her.

Freya did not know how to describe what she was feeling.

She only murmured, “If you had known that blocking that attack for me would get you killed… would you still have chosen to do it?”

Of course, Euphemia could no longer answer her.

At that moment, Atticus and several Earth Church members arrived as well.

Looking at the scene before him, Atticus also fell silent for a moment before saying to Freya, “Your Holiness, I’m sorry.”

“It’s fine. You don’t need to comfort me.”

Freya took a deep breath and said, “If something happened that I didn’t want to happen, then I just have to make it so it never happened.”

The sentence sounded a little awkward, and strange besides.

For a moment, Atticus did not understand what she meant.

Freya had no intention of explaining.

She turned around and said, “Let’s go. That General is on the back hill of Kobdo National Academy right now. We have to deal with him too before this incident can be considered over.”

Jessica watched the church members walk past her one by one.

She opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she only sighed.

“Forget it.”

And so, the people from the church and Special Affairs advanced together.

Very soon, they arrived at Kobdo National Academy two blocks away.

As the core of the array, this place had not shown any signs of explosion.

When everyone arrived near the open space on the back hill, Jerome was standing there with his hands clasped behind his back, looking as if he had been waiting for them for quite some time.

Only when he heard the rustling footsteps did he slowly turn around.

“You arrived faster than I expected.”

As he spoke, he glanced at Freya and the other Earth Church believers.

“Special Affairs and the church acting together. That is… a little unexpected.”

Jessica frowned and pointed the tip of her spear toward Jerome.

“Isn’t that because of your monstrous crimes? Your adjutant is dead. What about you? Are you still planning to resist to the end?”

Jerome shook his head.

“No, no. I can feel that the ritual has already been completed. Even if I failed to burn the entire city in one stroke, one-third of it is more than enough to satisfy the requirements for my advancement.”

As he spoke, Jerome took a bottle of potion from the pocket of his coat.

“This is the Rank Six War Path potion. As long as I drink it, I will be able to advance to Rank Six.”

Right now, General Jerome was Rank Five.

If Special Affairs and the church rushed him together, they could definitely beat him.

But if they let him successfully advance, the result would be much harder to say.

In the various works Freya had read in her previous world, scenes often appeared where someone advanced during battle, suddenly grew stronger, and turned the tables.

But that kind of thing did not work in this world.

Every different potion caused different “symptoms” after being drunk.

For example, when Freya drank the War Path potion, her whole body heated up. When she drank the Earth Path potion, she dropped asleep on the spot.

That was the process of the body adapting to new power.

So if Jerome dared to drink the potion now, it would basically be the same as stunning himself.

While the potion forcibly locked him down, everyone could just rush up and tear him to pieces.

Jerome clearly knew this as well.

So he had no intention of drinking the potion immediately.

Instead, he looked at Jessica and said, “Captain Jessica, the city has already burned, and the ritual is complete. If you kill me here, then one-third of this city’s people will have died for nothing. Their deaths will be meaningless.”

“But if we stop here, the Kingdom of Tarapaca will gain one more Rank Six General. Or perhaps a Marshal.”

“Perhaps you were right before. Even if I advance to Rank Six, I may not be able to persuade that foolish king. But I will still try. Even if I fail, I will think of another way. And even at the very end, even if I am the only one left, I will still stand guard on the front line. No matter what, I cannot accept Tarapaca’s land being swallowed by others.”

“Huh? You’re begging for your life now that death is at your door?”

Atticus glared at Jerome fiercely.

Euphemia was dead, and Atticus had seen the expression on Her Holiness’s face at that moment.

Naturally, he was now filled with hatred for the man who had made Her Holiness so heartbroken.

You dared bully my “Mother”?

I’m killing you.

But just as Atticus stepped forward to attack, Jessica suddenly turned her head and raised her right hand.

She held her spear sideways, blocking Atticus’s path.

“He’s right. Killing him now would be meaningless. It would be better for the kingdom to gain one more Rank Six practitioner. That would be good for the Kingdom of Tarapaca.”