Clearly, resistance was out of the question.
Staring at the door-sized greatsword, the surrounding soldiers submissively raised their hands and knelt. After all, how much did an Ursus soldier even earn in a year? Bullying unarmed Infected and civilians was one thing, but engaging in melee combat with a dragon that had dismantled an entire fleet in twenty minutes...
Forget it. Life was more important.
As for the honor of Ursus, they couldn't care less. It was understandable, given these weren't elite troops. This fleet had been cobbled together from second- and third-rate units; no sane commander would toss their best men into a cleanup mission, save for a few elite bodyguards assigned to noble scions.
As thousands of men dropped to their knees in unison, Count Boris froze in place. The noble officers beside him all looked toward him.
Obviously, he didn't want to kneel.
A few terrified noble officers had knelt moments ago, but seeing their peers and superiors still standing, they quietly stood back up. Their old aristocratic habits were acting up. Had the giant dragon beat its wings, landed before him, and glared, Boris would have knelt as fast as any common soldier.
The unknown is the ultimate terror. When you aren't even sure if the other party is capable of communication, it's best to submit. Otherwise, who could you complain to if the dragon simply vaporized you with a breath? A Count of Ursus? Would a title matter to a dragon?
But the figure appearing before them was clearly a knight capable of speech, and his courage surged back. Since she could speak and be reasoned with—and sounded like a woman—everything seemed to return to a domain he understood.
He felt capable again.
Count Boris glanced at the expectant noble officers around him, gave them a reassuring look, and straightened his uniform. He stepped forward to speak, but before he could open his mouth, the terrifying greatsword flashed, appearing right at his shoulder.
"They all knelt. Why didn't you?"
Xia Yu didn't necessarily require people to kneel. Her intent was surrender, not absolute servitude; dropping weapons and raising hands would have sufficed. She hadn't expected the Ursus soldiers to drop so uniformly. Seeing them, she'd almost been tempted to make a joke about standing up and not kneeling.
But seeing everyone else on the ground while these nobles stood as if it were their birthright made her blood boil.
If everyone else could kneel, why couldn't they?
Xia Yu couldn't stand that attitude and had no intention of indulging them. Noble? A noble was nothing!
"I am a Count of Ursus..." Boris began instinctively.
Before he could finish, Xia Yu frowned. She raised the Grafted Blade Greatsword high and brought it down in a violent strike, crushing Count Boris into a heap of gore.
The door-sized sword was a terrifying sight. Under Xia Yu's absolute strength, it swung as a blurred black shadow. Before anyone could react, Count Boris had met his end.
"Count Boris!" His attendant froze for a split second, then drew his weapon and charged Xia Yu. She swung the greatsword again, swatting him like a fly. He was sent flying over a hundred meters, hitting the ground as a mangled mess that barely resembled a human.
"Count? Noble?" Xia Yu turned back to the remaining noble officers. "A noble is nothing!"
I just destroyed an Ursus fleet, yet these people think I'll respect their titles or their empire... Xia Yu found it incomprehensible.
At that, the noble officers finally broke. They dropped to their knees in a synchronized crash.
Only then did Xia Yu nod in satisfaction.
That's more like it. Either nobody kneels, or everyone hits the dirt. In its own way, wasn't this a form of equality?
"Now, you are my prisoners," she announced loudly to the crowd. "But I don't have time to manage you. Pitch your camp right here. Do not step outside the circle I've drawn until the Guerillas arrive to take charge of the captives."
"If someone escapes... heh, don't worry. I won't come looking for you," she said, a trace of a smile touching her lips. "I don't have a roster; I can't recognize each of you."
"But it doesn't matter. Ursus has one!"
"Once I've finished my business, for every one of you who escapes, I will head south and kill one noble or official. If a hundred escape, I will slaughter the entire administrative structure of a city. If a thousand escape, I'll start hunting and killing from the rank of Duke upward."
"And if more than three thousand escape, I will go rip the Emperor of Ursus's head off and kick it around like a ball!"
Xia Yu paused, observing the reaction of the soldiers, before continuing. "Of course, as the ancients said, to execute without instruction is tyranny. I won't just show up and kill nobles who haven't done anything yet."
"I'll give them a full year to get their affairs in order!"
The noble officers were trembling with fear.
When they heard she was busy and would leave the prisoners to manage themselves, they had secretly rejoiced, thinking they might survive this. Not run? I'd be a fool not to!
But after her threat, not a single noble dared to flee. If they actually escaped, the first people to hunt them down wouldn't be this humanoid dragon, but the entirety of Ursus. From the Emperor down to every level of the aristocracy, no one would let them live.
To put it bluntly, though this dragon had crushed an Ursus fleet and reduced a force of fifteen thousand to six or seven thousand, no one would dare come looking for trouble once the news spread.
Without a fleet, how could mortals of Ursus fight such a legendary unit? Send more warships? That would just be feeding the beast.
Until the day Ursus warships could reliably take down a dragon, no one would be stupid enough to wage war with her. On the contrary, she would become a target for every faction to recruit. If a legendary unit like this joined a battlefield, Ursus could even challenge Victoria's hegemony.
After all, Victorian warships couldn't hit aerial targets either!
Against her, they'd be no different from the Ursus fleet.
Thus, they not only couldn't run, they had to ensure their soldiers didn't run. If even one escaped, the entire Ursus nobility would suffer. And since the dragon had given the nobility enough time to react, faced with the threat of death, they would ruthlessly hunt down the escapees to appease her.
As the saying goes: the one who tied the bell must be the one to untie it. These prisoners would find no happy ending if they fled back home.
Seeing that everyone understood her, Xia Yu nodded, transformed back into a dragon, and soared into the sky. The burning dragonfire surrounding them would last for a while, long enough for the officers to establish some order. They would keep their soldiers in check; these people weren't going anywhere.
Now, it was time to return to business.
★ ★ ★
At the mobile settlement of the Infected.
"Buldrokas'tee, you must stand with me!" The Black Snake was still shouting. "You have seen what lies beyond civilization. We must stop her from overturning the civilized world!"
Patriot remained silent, while FrostNova looked like she wanted to tear its throat out. After witnessing the dragon destroy five warships with such ease, even the Black Snake went quiet.
'It's over!'
What was there left to say? With that kind of combat power, even with Buldrokas'tee, they couldn't win.
'Wait, if you're that strong, why were you playing the little white rabbit earlier?!'
If everyone on the snowfields—the Guerillas and the Imperial army combined—were thrown at her, it probably wouldn't be enough to keep her busy for a single day.
"You knew all along?" Kashchey looked at Patriot.
"No, I did not," Patriot shook his head. "But I never betray a friend."
"But you betrayed Ursus!"
"Ursus betrayed us first!"
"Why are you wasting breath on him?" FrostNova couldn't take it anymore. she looked at her father. "Is Sarkaz witchcraft useful for this? Father, we can't let that thing stay in Talulah's body!"
"Witchcraft cannot solve this. At least, mine cannot," Patriot replied.
"Don't bother," Kashchey sneered. "No one can fight the Black Snake..."
"I think the doctor can," FrostNova glared at him. "Otherwise, why are you so afraid of the power within her?"
Kashchey gave a cold laugh. "Ignorant! You have no idea what that represents! That aura of total ruin... I cannot be mistaken!"
"You think she brings salvation? No, it will only bring indiscriminate destruction to everything!"
"The doctor isn't that kind of person," FrostNova's resolve was unshakable. "Am I supposed to listen to the delusions of a monster that can't even stand the light?"
"Go ask Buldrokas'tee yourself!" Kashchey snapped. "See if I am lying! Your inability to feel it doesn't change the truth!"
"Father," FrostNova turned to Patriot.
But Patriot remained silent. He truly could feel the profound malice toward the world within those frantic flames. Had it been anyone else, he wouldn't have hesitated to join forces with Kashchey, but it was the doctor...
"Why aren't you speaking, Father?" FrostNova's body trembled. "It's the doctor! The doctor!"
"How can we doubt her!"
"I am not doubting her," Patriot said. "But that flame... it is indeed ominous. I will not lift a hand against the doctor, but I will ask her for the truth."
"But..." FrostNova wanted to say more, but the dragon rose again in the distance and flew toward them.
Xia Yu arrived over the mobile settlement, dropped her Remembrance, and became the Tarnished once more. Whisps of bright yellow flame flickered across her body. Unlike a normal bright tone, anyone who glimpsed that fire felt their sanity being eroded piece by piece.
Yes, she was acting. In reality, while the Flame of Frenzy was agitated by the suffering of the Infected, the Elden Ring suppressed it without issue. Moreover, since she had physically crushed a fleet—the symbol of Ursus oppression—the flame had been somewhat satiated.
In short, it couldn't actually cause trouble. But Xia Yu needed it to look like it was causing trouble, so she intentionally put on this display.
"Doctor, are you alright?" Seeing Xia Yu's pained expression, FrostNova was the first to approach.
"Don't come closer, Yelena," Xia Yu stopped her, a strained smile on her face. "Don't touch the flames on my body."
"So you know those flames are no good," Kashchey said sinisterly. "See, Yelena? Even she admits it!"
"Shut up! You aren't fit to say my name!" FrostNova instinctively wanted to hurl an ice shard at him, but seeing he occupied Talulah's body, she had to restrain herself with hatred.
"Doctor, is there any way to... eliminate or suppress the flames on you?" she asked with concern.
"It's useless," Xia Yu shook her head. "It is chaos. It is the roar of the oppressed. It is the frenzied flame that melts everything into one."
"It cannot be eliminated."
As long as injustice and oppression existed in the world, the Frenzied Flame would never die; it was born from them. Even at the height of the Golden Order, it could only be suppressed and sealed, never truly destroyed.
"But..." FrostNova watched the flickering fire on Xia Yu, pacing frantically. "Doctor, is it because you helped treat us... that it burdened you?"
She said guiltily, "You were fine at first. It's because of us..."
Hearing this, the surrounding Infected looked at Xia Yu with eyes full of remorse. Even Patriot bowed his head.
"No, on the contrary," Xia Yu shook her head. "You are wrong. Helping you was also helping myself."
"But if not for us, you wouldn't have had to pay such a price to crush the Ursus fleet," Patriot said solemnly. "I have some connections in Kazdel, Doctor. People there might have a solution. Wendigo witchcraft isn't suited for this, but the Banshees or other races might..."
"Useless," Kashchey whispered. "Once one tastes power, who would willingly cast it aside?"
"Buldrokas'tee, you should know that better than anyone."
"True. Actually, I feel the same way," Xia Yu said before Patriot could speak, looking at the Snake with a bright smile. "Perhaps opening my arms and fully embracing the Frenzied Flame is a fine choice, isn't it?"
"You see! You see!" Kashchey laughed loudly. "Buldrokas'tee, don't be a fool! She was never a good person, just like those flames. Frenzied Flame, was it? Aptly named!"
"With power comes authority. Ursus would welcome it, just as it welcomed you back then! Do you think she'll still remember the Infected then?"
He no longer expected this fragment of himself or Talulah's body to leave the snowfields alive. Naturally, he was doing his best to incite conflict and gather more information.
"Yes. In that case, let's start with Ursus," Xia Yu's smile remained, the flames on her body growing more intense, casting a distorted glow on her face. "Let's strip the seal of the Frenzied Flame entirely. Let's burn every living soul in Ursus to cinder! Let everything return to chaos!"
"Then, when there is nothing left, there will naturally be no distinction between the Infected and the healthy. No discrimination, no oppression. How wonderful, don't you agree?"