Pillar of Yita

”You don’t,” Aleph said coldly, ”but I do.”

The hall suddenly fell silent.

The speaker was momentarily struck dumb. ”But, Your Highness, you...”

”If my sister can do it, why can’t I?”

Aleph stood up from his seat and looked around the hall. ”...The sons and daughters of the King of Sand, there’s no one who doesn’t dare to stand up at this time... And the Istania people, there’s no one who doesn’t dare to give their lives for friends, have you all forgotten? This is the kingdom of the desert, where your ancestors’ honor is still adhered to by some—aren’t you all looking down on the Penelope Family, thinking today’s royal household is nothing but nouveau riche.”

”Don’t be hypocritical and deny it, let me say it for you. But look at yourselves, compared to us, you are nothing but a bunch of cowardly weaklings.”

The young future king at this moment resembled an angry lion, much like his father in his youth. He looked around everyone, rare and unrestrainedly said: ”Fine, you stay here and wait for the sand thieves to come and behead you. Those with some courage, who still think of themselves as descendants of Istania, come out with me.”

”Even if I die, I’ll stand and face that King of the Sand Thief.”

After he said this, no one in the hall dared to speak.

The ministers remained silent, but a few stepped forward, coming to the side of this young king.

However, Miss Nightingale couldn’t stand to watch this scene any longer. She looked coldly at those still hesitating, throwing down a sentence: ”You figure out how to contact Captain Ade yourselves, I’m going to find Tianlan.” Leaving these words, she walked alone out of Kashan Palace.

Following closely behind her, Miss Ship’s Officer also gave a slight smile and turned to leave.

Once they were out of the royal palace, Elisa looked somewhat surprised at the noble lady: ”Miss Hilveld, why are you here too?”

In her impression, this noble lady was not one adept at frontline combat.

”I’ve asked Bakins and Xiesta to go with you,” Hilveld smiled, ”I wouldn’t dare lose you before Ade returns. As for me, I’m going to find some others.”

”Others?”

Hilveld nodded slightly. ”There’s actually another force in this palace we can use. They’ve watched the show for long enough, it’s time for them to step in. After all, the sand thieves won’t care about their status.”

Elisa looked at her and suddenly realized: ”You’re looking for the Colin people, but they’ve already boarded their airship, they’re just watching from the sidelines.”

Hilveld chuckled: ”They won’t.”

Elisa quietly looked at the other person, suddenly shook her head.

”Hilveld, Ade definitely won’t agree, and neither will I.”

Hilveld squinted her eyes in a fox-like mischievous laugh. ”Thank you, Elisa, but no need to be so tense. I haven’t said I’ll sacrifice myself; things haven’t gotten that serious, and I’m not that stupid.”

”Then you...”

”Leave it to me.”

Miss Nightingale looked at the other with skepticism.

...

”Luo Yu, you big fool, why haven’t you shown up...”

As the hoarse crying voice gradually faded from the Crystal, the deck became quiet, only the sound of wind remained.

Fang Hong couldn’t help but look over at Luo Yu, but the latter was just pressing the crystal pillar on the Magic Guided Reactor, saying nothing. He then looked at Luo Hao standing in front, who had previously said he had something to discuss but hadn’t spoken yet.

After a while, Luo Hao listened to that voice, then turned back and replied:

”Explosive Crystal.”

Fang Hong was slightly startled, with a hint of surprise in his voice. ”Explosive Crystal?”

Luo Hao nodded. ”A large number of explosive crystals were left on the Dawood. At the time, we didn’t deal with them. Later, after the airship crashed, I had the Shield of Lufu’s people bring those things out, but Quistack City’s inspection is strict. There’s no way they’d let us bring these things into the city, so we hid them outside the city back then. I can probably find that place.”

This was indeed an unexpected delight, Fang Hong quickly asked: ”How much is there?”

”About several tens of kilograms.”

Several tens of kilograms, enough to blow up the Dawood into oblivion. And these items could indeed come in handy right now. Fang Hong looked at him, suddenly recalling how the guy had been quiet earlier, probably realizing he had a mature idea. He pondered for a moment, then asked: ”So, what do you plan to do?”

”Against the sand thief’s level, these explosive crystals have killing power, but limited, unable to decisively end them.” Luo Hao, confident as expected. ”But if the sand thieves haven’t breached the inner city, they will have a primary assault direction, maybe even the King of Sand Thief Mahazar will be there. If we could air drop the whole ship’s crystals—”

This was definitely a bold idea, though there were many issues.

Fang Hong listened, eyes slightly flashing. ”Then let’s retrieve those crystals first. I’ll have them land Miss Affia there first, then we’ll ascend again and break into the city. But the problem now is, how to ensure after we disembark, control the ship to fall in the correct direction without deviating from the target—and how, in the final segment, to set a detonation time for so many explosive crystals?”

Luo Hao couldn’t help but fall silent.

That’s been his headache all along. The former was manageable but several tens of kilograms of explosive crystals were at least a hundred pieces, according to the maximum initiation time of explosive crystals, leaving only about two minutes for channeling Magic Power at most. The time wasn’t really insufficient, but the issue was how to precisely determine them to initiate upon impact?

Given the fragility of explosive crystals, once Magic Power is channeled, if they aren’t initiated before the airship crashes, the intense vibrations would surely damage their internal Ether structure, rendering them ineffective.

And it was at this moment, Luo Yu raised his head, quietly answering: ”I have a way.”

Pausing for a moment, he added, ”I have a method to control the airship and set the timing node for the crystal detonation...”

...