Arknights' Lock of Heaven

If the process is fast enough, at a certain point in time, the two will be intertwined, and at that moment, the Noble Phantasm will be able to take effect.

The rest is simple: just shove the Noble Phantasm into Elena's head before the Blood Pact can react.

It's simple, direct, but very effective.

"Hey, snap out of it," Xia Yu said, putting away the broken "Myriad Talismans of Immortality" and patting Elena's head, who was waiting to die with her eyes closed. "You won't die. Can you answer my question now?"

"I'm really curious?"

"..."

Upon hearing this, Elena opened her eyes.

Not dead?

She looked around in a daze. Her two colleagues in front of her were dumbfounded, and the shield guards in the distance looked astonished.

She touched the back of her head; everything seemed normal…

But I clearly felt the blood pact activating!

Why……

"You...no, you can break the blood pact?" She suddenly turned to look at Xia Yu.

Upon hearing this, the remaining two spies paused for a moment, then looked over with intense gazes.

This means... Elena's blood pact has been broken?!

“You should be able to sense it,” Xia Yu shrugged. “Hurry up and tell me your story!”

Hearing this, Elena was in a state of utter confusion, never expecting that her blood pact would be broken so easily...

However, she was mentally strong enough that she managed to gather her thoughts and then looked at Speaker Witt.

"Since you're so curious, I'll tell you."

"Speaker...do you still remember the name Free Ursus?"

Upon hearing this, everyone in the room turned their attention to Speaker Witt; it seemed there was more to the story.

No one in this world can escape gossip.

“Free Ursus…” Upon hearing this, Speaker Witt’s expression became very strange. “Of course I remember that name. You are…”

"Wait a minute, stop talking in such a confusing way," Xia Yu said, annoyed. "At least give us a brief overview. What exactly is this 'Free Ursus'?"

Seeing his amused expression, Speaker Witt sighed.

It's perfectly normal for someone with such great abilities to have their own quirks... It's perfectly normal... He just loves watching the excitement and has a few wicked quirks now and then. Compared to his power, these are nothing!

Incompetent people who do this are likely to get beaten up by the person they're dealing with, but capable people who do it are called unconventional, carefree, and unrestrained...

How enviable!

The shield guards around them kept their eyes down, looking like they were all respectable people, but in reality, their ears were all perked up. Who in Ursus could resist the Imperial Speaker's gossip?

“The so-called Free Ursus is just a small association made up of a bunch of overconfident noble scions,” Elena suddenly said. “Yes, they are really overestimating themselves.”

She chuckled self-deprecatingly, "To think I would try to challenge the class I came from, especially during my most powerless student years."

"They receive the most advanced education in Ursus, and their background gives them a long-term perspective. They feel that Ursus cannot continue as it is. Although they are nobles, they all feel that the nobility has fallen behind the times and has dragged down the progress of the entire Ursus."

"They were outliers. They were young, they were arrogant, and although they were few in number, they were full of passion... The person they admired most was the Speaker of the Imperial Council who turned the tide at that time."

"That man worked hard to maintain Ursus after the great rebellion. Many nobles hated him to the bone, and many so-called progressives looked down on his compromises. But in any case, without him, Ursus would probably have perished in the civil war long ago."

“These self-proclaimed progressive aristocratic scions worship him, admire him, and even want to become him!”

"They promoted their views in schools, organized marches in the streets, and spontaneously supported the Speaker's various policies."

"But they were still too foolish. Their previous petty antics were considered rebellious and ignored by everyone, so they decided to do something big to prove themselves."

"But betrayal comes at a price."

“I did have people stop you,” Speaker Witt suddenly said, “I am honored to have such people support me, but…”

“But they’re still too young, aren’t they?” Elena said, looking at him. “You know, it was because of your intervention that we did that.”

"In the end, I was taken back to the family and became a blood pact assassin under my father's indifferent gaze. The others... ha."

“It was my fault for not noticing in time…” Speaker Witt was about to say something more when Elena interrupted him.

“No, you are not wrong, we are the ones who are wrong,” she said calmly. “We were too fanatical. We were blinded by our self-proclaimed progress and failed to see our own weakness and vulnerability. When we were least capable, we tried to change the whole country.”

We must have caused you a lot of trouble back then.

Speaker Witte remained silent.

“I’ve finished asking my questions,” Elena said, noticing his expression and suddenly losing interest.

What she really wanted to ask all these years was: On that day at Saint Jun Castle, you clearly had the ability to stop the nobles' accusations, so why did you turn a blind eye? We were all doing it for you!

Over the years, with more and more experience, she has come to understand, to some extent, that the so-called freedom of Ursus is just trouble for the man in front of her.

The organization that claimed to worship him kept causing him trouble. All he wanted was to maintain stability in Ursus, and what we did at the time was actually adding fuel to the fire.

Ha, in the end, we were just blinded by worship. He wasn't as great as everyone imagined, and we weren't as clear-headed as we thought.

“Arrest me,” she said calmly, extending her hands. “I will explain whatever you do to me.”

“No, we won’t arrest you,” Xia Yu shook her head upon hearing this.

"Is it because of him?" Elena looked at Speaker Witt. "That's unnecessary. I'm just a spy."

“No, it has little to do with him,” Xia Yu smiled. “Don’t you already know that?”

"Your father is dead!"

482 Interested in going to your dad's grave for a disco?

"what did you say?"

Elena looked somewhat dazed, as if she hadn't clearly heard what Xia Yu had said.

She actually heard it clearly, but she just couldn't believe it.

“I said, your father is dead,” Xia Yu said with a smile. “Yes, that unlucky Duke of Ural.”

"Tsk tsk tsk, due to some uncontrollable factors, the last bit of your Sixth Army's assets, those few warships, were left in the snowfield, and only tens of thousands of mouths escaped back."

He clicked his tongue in amazement and said, "I heard that after receiving the news, he vomited blood and fell into a coma. Then, a few hours later, he died despite all efforts to save him. You could say that his death was quite unsettling."

Upon hearing this, Elena's expression became dazed.

That person is dead? That person is dead?!

He was nominally her father, but in reality, he was a high and mighty man who controlled her destiny. He's dead...

"As you know, the rebuilt Sixth Army can be said to be the culmination of his life's work. Most of the Ural family's wealth accumulated over the years has been invested in it. The previous incident had already dealt him a very serious blow."

"Now even our last remaining possessions, those few warships, are left in the snowfield. If nothing unexpected happens, they will all be mine."

"Tsk tsk tsk, this is like a windfall!"

"He staked everything his family had on this army and this operation, and now it's all gone. His family is doomed. As far as I know, none of his descendants are any good."

"I think he must have died a very uneasy death."

Elena suddenly felt a little unreal.

She looked up at Xia Yu and saw that the man still had a wicked smile on his face, as if he was waiting to see what kind of expression she would make.

However, ah, he was disappointed.

Ah.

Father.

Ah.

“Good riddance,” Elena suddenly smiled seductively. “That’s wonderful.”

"Tsk, boring," Xia Yu waved her hand, "You really don't have much of a bond with him."

“Family ties? Forgive my bluntness, but I’ve never received anything like that from my so-called father,” Elena said bluntly. “Not to mention, the blood pact I have is thanks to him… Why would you think there’s such a thing between us?”

Indeed, she was the Duke's daughter, but only the Duke's daughter. The Duke of Ural was a womanizer in his youth, and had several wives. There were at least fifteen such daughters in that ancient castle.

Although she was called a daughter, she had seen the Duke no more than twenty times in her entire life.

These so-called daughters were merely tools he used for political marriages; there was no real affection between them.

Have I ever paid attention to so-called fatherly love?

Perhaps he did have that thought when he joined Free Ursus; he might have considered using this rebellious method to attract his so-called father's attention.

But the result is already obvious; that cold blood pact is the answer.

He never cared about this so-called daughter.

He only cared that his dignity had been challenged and that his actions had tarnished the so-called honor of the Ural family. So, in front of all his brothers and sisters, he was branded with a blood pact and became a death knight.

How ridiculous is family affection?

"My only thought about him is that I can't spit on his grave on the day he's buried."