Arknights' Lock of Heaven

"Dr. Kelsey!!!"

The usually calm and collected earth spirit lunged at Kal'tsit, stammering, "Which messenger—no, which master—predicted this calamity???"

"There wasn't a single trace left. I used all the knowledge I had in the first half of my life, but I couldn't foresee this natural disaster..."

"But since it has already happened, it shows how shallow my knowledge was, that I didn't predict anything!"

"Does Rhodes Island still have such top-tier masters?"

Faced with the scorching gaze of the Cataclysmic Messenger, Kal'tsit thought for a moment, then grabbed the Doctor who was calmly drinking tea and pulled him in front of her.

"This is the Doctor, the world's top Originium expert, and also a messenger of natural disasters."

“That’s right!” Kal’tsit’s face was serious. “This is the master who predicted this natural disaster!”

"So you're the Doctor?" Earth Spirit stepped forward with delight and grasped the Doctor's hands tightly. "I've heard so much about you!"

"What principle did you use to predict this natural disaster? Was it the abnormal accumulation of Originium? Or a fixed historical cycle? Or perhaps..."

The Doctor stared blankly at the Earth Spirit opposite him, thankfully wearing a mask so no one could see his expression.

So, I was sold out by Kal'tsit too?

But in front of the operatives nearby, this became a top strategist's decisive victory from afar; despite the huge commotion caused by the meteorite falling, she could still calmly drink tea.

He remained calm and composed even when faced with such an excited and worshipful inquiry from the Scourge Messenger of Rhodes Island.

Those who joined after the Tower of Babel collapsed looked astonished.

It seems this rumored doctor... is even more exaggerated than the rumors suggest...

Meanwhile, the veteran agents who had come through the Babel era remained completely calm.

If it's a PhD, then it's fine.

You can never predict when the doctor will play an unexpected card.

This is a doctor, the evil spirit of Babel, capable of incorporating uncontrollable natural disasters into his plans...

Isn't this normal procedure for a PhD student?

But even if the Doctor has lost his memory, does he still retain such powerful abilities?

ACE and Scout exchanged a worried glance.

While it should be encouraging that the Doctor still retains this ability, however…

They didn't want the Doctor, this simple researcher, to return to the way things were in Kazdel.

She didn't have to carry so much burden.

They watched as the Doctor transformed step by step from a simple scholar into the evil spirit of Babel that struck fear into the hearts of his enemies.

“Alright, alright, calm down,” Kal’tsit stopped the earth spirit’s questioning. “You should have heard that the Doctor suffered memory damage and is currently suffering from amnesia.”

"This state is too strange. She can clearly use her past knowledge and experience to judge some things, but she can't express it in words or formulas and theorems."

She still needs time to recover.

“I see,” the spirit said, her eyes filled with regret and sorrow. “For a scholar, this is truly…”

"Keep it up, Doctor," Earth Spirit said, adjusting her mindset and encouraging the Doctor, "You will definitely regain your past knowledge."

"Um... thank you?" The doctor hesitated for a moment before responding.

Clearly, she was being used as a shield by Kal'tsit.

Fortunately, the old lynx had some conscience and didn't leave her to deal with it alone.

But this is enough to illustrate some things.

Beneath the mask, the doctor squinted.

Kal'tsit knew in advance... and even formulated her battle plan based on it.

Gee tut.

interesting.

Interesting.

"..."

In the camp, only Amiya was still staring blankly in the direction of the core city, gazing at the mushroom cloud.

That's not a meteorite.

She had seen such light before!

Kal'tsit looked up at the sky.

To be able to unleash such dazzling light single-handedly...

Compared to those forbidden weapons buried in one's memory, they are not much less impressive.

It's truly... a monster...

-

On the bridge of Rhodes Island, Miss Nian's expression was a mix of emotions.

Even from hundreds of kilometers away, she could still see the brilliant shooting star streaking across the sky.

Miss Nian is now contemplating a serious question: should she run away with the bucket, and what would be the consequences?

I can't stay on Rhodes Island anymore!

The desert surrounding the waterway.

The spies from various countries are very busy.

This is big news; it needs to be sent back to China as soon as possible.

As the core city continuously broadcast its city-state identification code and charged towards Lungmen, almost everyone knew the truth behind the riot.

It was all Ursus's conspiracy.

Even politicians as far away as Lentinium could pinpoint that it was all a conspiracy by the old nobles of Ursus who controlled the army.

In the decades since Ursus rose to power, they have enjoyed too much as beneficiaries and have become increasingly powerful and difficult to control. The current emperor's policy changes have made these nobles who control the army very dissatisfied.

Meanwhile, the growing resistance from the lower classes gradually wore them down.

They yearn to wage war and use countless lives to achieve their goals.

By waging a large-scale foreign war to divert internal conflicts, the nobles could incorporate the increasingly unruly troublemakers in their territories into the army and send them to the battlefield. They didn't need many intellectuals or people who were open to new ideas; they only needed obedient serfs.

To counter the growing pressure from the emperor with a war, forcing him to bow to his nobles, and to unite them—the nobles who control the army—in order to win, rescind the reforms that were cutting into their flesh, and consolidate their position in the country.

Once war begins, even the emperor has no choice but to bow down to them, no matter how unwilling he is.

Ursus is a nation founded on military might. An emperor who refuses war might gain the support of some war-weary people, but an emperor who cannot win a war will definitely face opposition from everyone.

In order to win the war and preserve his throne, the Emperor of Ursus had no choice but to compromise with the nobles.

This riot by the infected is an extension of the internal political conflicts in Ursus; the old nobles need a pretext to start a war.

When the car with the identification code crashed into the Dragon Gate in the core city, all the conspiracies and tricks became clear.

The so-called infected riot is just an excuse. The Reunion Movement is just a black glove in the hands of the nobles, a pawn to be used and discarded.

As for why they didn't choose their old rival, the Eastern Kingdom? Why didn't they choose their arch-enemy, Casimir, or Victoria, Syracuse, and instead chose the Yan Kingdom?

That was merely a minor personal grudge stemming from Grand Duke Kosiché, the central figure in the plan.

All the nobles needed was a war against foreign powers; they didn't care who the enemy was.

Moreover, perhaps in their eyes, the Yan Kingdom, which has not waged war against foreign powers for a century, is merely outwardly strong but inwardly weak?

How will we know if we don't fight it out?

Even if we lose, it doesn't matter. If we can't plunder wealth from other countries, then reducing the pressure on ourselves at home is also a good thing.

Moreover, not many nobles believed they would lose.

In addition, the wealth of Yan Kingdom is well-known in Terra.

The moment the spies at the front sent back the news, all the rulers except for Ursus and Yan Kingdom sat back on their thrones, watching with schadenfreude as the two countries started fighting.

Yan Kingdom had already passed an emergency plan overnight. The usually inefficient court was operating at an astonishing speed, and all the troops along the border with Ursus were mobilized and ready for battle.

But all these ambitions had to come to an abrupt end here.

That rising mushroom cloud shattered the ambitions of countless people.

No one believed that the core city could continue to move forward after suffering such losses.

Ursus's plot has to end here.

To be honest, this natural disaster was quite strange.

It's one thing if no natural disaster messenger predicts it, but meteorite disasters usually fall in a massive, overwhelming manner. Even if there are some large meteorites, the friction in the atmosphere will still produce a lot of fragments.

But this time, a meteorite crashed straight into the core city. If it weren't so contrary to common sense, they would have almost regarded this natural disaster as a man-made attack.

This couldn't possibly be man-made!

After receiving the news, top think tanks from several countries reached this conclusion.