Arknights: The Scarlet Devil of Terra — Chapter 81

Chapter 81: The Power of the Gap

A few seconds later, the little vampire pointed a finger toward an unremarkable hill in the distance.

“Flandre’s target is over there!”

Without a moment of hesitation, the three of them took to the sky, gliding swiftly over the barren ridges in the direction Flandre pointed. The wind whipped past them, carrying the bitter scent of Originium and blood.

Before they could even steady their altitude, a dense barrage of Originium Arts swept up from the ground below. Fireballs, jagged rock spikes, and crackling energy blasts covered the sky and earth, forming a lethal net meant to tear them from the air.

“Oh ho, so these are the spells of this world?”

With a graceful wave of Yukari Yakumo’s hand, the fabric of reality tore open. A rift—a Gap—manifested directly beneath their feet. Its edges were lined with red ribbons, and the pitch-black void within was filled with countless eerie, unblinking eyes.

The incoming storm of Arts was entirely swallowed by the rift, vanishing into the void without so much as a ripple. The three figures hovering above remained completely untouched.

Down below, Count Miles was frantically grabbing the collars of his subordinates, demanding answers.

Why would Flandre Scarlet, his primary target marked for death, suddenly fly out of the command ship? Where were the guards stationed on that vessel? What had happened to all the careful backup plans and layered ambushes he had arranged?

And more, who were the two terrifying women standing next to the little monster?

“Reporting to your Lordship, there is no response to the emergency messages we sent to the High-speed Warship. Perhaps…”

The adjutant beside him looked up at the three figures standing effortlessly in the sky, his eyes wide with raw terror.

“What ‘perhaps’? There are no ‘perhaps’!” Count Miles roared, his face pale and slick with cold sweat. “I want precise information! What on earth happened up there?!”

He tilted his head back, looking up at the sky once more. He found all three of them staring directly down at him. A chill shot straight up his spine, and his scalp tingled with an overwhelming sense of doom.

Before he could even turn to run, the solid earth beneath his boots simply ceased to exist.

Amidst the horrified screams of his guards, the Count plummeted into a pitch-black tear in space, surrounded by dozens of crimson eyes staring into his very soul.

The very next second, his terrified shrieks echoed from high above the battlefield.

Everyone on the ground snapped their heads up, only to see that Count Miles had been deposited directly into the open sky.

At that exact moment, the frantic volley of Arts fired by his own Casters reached its apex. The spells converged on the newly appeared target. Before Flandre could even raise a hand to strike, the concentrated firepower detonated around the Count. He was blown into a mangled ragdoll by his own troops, his remains scattering into the wind.

For a long, heavy moment, a suffocating silence fell over both the sky and the ground.

“Uh, did you do that on purpose, or was it an accident?”

Considering the deeply twisted sense of humor of the blonde old hag floating beside her, Flandre asked the question with genuine uncertainty.

“My dear, it was accidentally on purpose, of course!” Yukari replied, hiding a sly smile behind her folding fan.

After the brief, stunned silence from the Ursus forces below, the air suddenly erupted. Even more intense and concentrated firepower surged upward, painting the sky in chaotic flashes of destructive light.

“Eh? What’s going on?” Flandre scratched her head in confusion, easily dodging a stray blast of fire. “Flandre doesn’t understand. Don’t they want that Count’s body anymore?”

Why did the enemy’s attacks feel even more frenzied and desperate than before?

“It is quite simple.” Yukari’s narrowed violet eyes looked down at the chaotic army with emotionless detachment. “If they manage to kill us here, no one will ever know that they were the ones who accidentally murdered their own Count. Humans… they truly are such a selfish and cold-hearted race.”

“Then Flandre says we should just go back. That Count whatever-his-name-was is already dead anyway,” Flandre suggested, losing interest in the screaming soldiers below.

“Certainly. I just happen to want to see exactly who these friends of yours are.”

Remilia crossed her arms, her crimson eyes flashing with a dangerous light. She desperately wanted to see exactly who possessed the sheer nerve to use her precious younger sister as a weapon.

“Great, great! Let Flandre tell you, they are all very, very good people!” Flandre cheered, clapping her hands together. She looked exactly like a happy child eager to show off a new drawing to her parents.

Yukari cast one last, dismissive glance at the Ursus troops below, who were rapidly falling into a state of hysterical frenzy.

“Is it over?” she murmured. “I don’t think so.”

With a soft chuckle, she unhurriedly followed the Scarlet sisters as they turned their backs on the bombardment, flying smoothly toward the Reunion Movement’s defensive lines.

Soon, they arrived at the eastern front.

Since the Ursus army had focused their main assault on this sector, both Talulah and Buldrokkas’tee were stationed here, commanding the defense. The western front was currently being held by Reed and Alina.

Upon spotting the commanders, Flandre grabbed Remilia’s hand and eagerly pulled her down toward the command tent.

“Talulah, Old Stubborn! Flandre took out that Count!” the little vampire shouted cheerfully as her boots touched the scorched earth.

Hearing Flandre’s voice, the two Reunion leaders looked up. They were stunned for a moment when they saw three figures descending from the sky instead of one. Their gazes immediately locked onto the young girl who bore a striking resemblance to Flandre, radiating an aura of absolute nobility and ancient power.

In an instant, they understood her identity.

This was the ‘all-powerful’and’majestic’ elder sister Flandre had spoken of so highly—Remilia Scarlet.

“Really? That is wonderful news! Thank you, Flandre.” Talulah’s eyes lit up with genuine relief and pleasant surprise. In her tactical view, once the commanding Count was eliminated, the enemy’s chain of command and combat morale should rapidly collapse.

She immediately signaled her scouts to begin observing the enemy lines. Once the Ursus formation began to crumble, it would be the perfect moment for Reunion to launch a full-scale counterattack.

Flandre proudly puffed out her chest and began the introductions. “This is Flandre’s sister, Remilia, and this is…”

Before Flandre could finish, Yukari stepped forward, her fan snapping shut with a crisp clack.

“My name is Yukari Yakumo, a friend of Remilia’s. I have accompanied her this time to visit her sister.” Yukari offered a polite but entirely hollow smile. “Flandre mentioned her living situation was very safe… but the reality seems quite a bit different from what she described.”

Yukari’s gaze drifted pointedly toward the smoke-filled battlefield and the distant sounds of artillery. Her casual words carried a heavy, suffocating weight, making both Talulah and Buldrokkas’tee stiffen with embarrassment and guilt.

After all, they had sent someone else’s little sister deep into enemy lines to perform an incredibly dangerous assassination. It was only natural for her family to mock and judge them now that they had arrived to witness the warzone firsthand.

“No, no, this time was just an accident! It’s usually very safe, and Flandre is even a master!” Flandre waved her arms wildly, trying her best to defend her friends.

“It was indeed our fault for letting Flandre take such immense risks. If you have any punishment in mind, or demand compensation, I will take full responsibility,” Talulah said, her voice steady as she looked seriously into Remilia’s crimson eyes.

“We will discuss that later. At the very least, my sister went to so much effort and took so many risks; it shouldn’t all be for nothing.” Remilia lifted her chin haughtily. “Now, according to your grand plan, where exactly do we stand?”

Remilia was furious. The very idea of these ragged rebels using her sister’s terrifying power for their own war made her blood boil. But she knew she couldn’t stay in this world for long, meaning she would eventually have to rely on these people to look after Flandre., her silly sister looked genuinely happy here. For now, she could only suppress the burning anger in her chest.

Talulah quickly outlined their strategy. In her estimation, the Ursus army, having just lost its supreme commander, should be rapidly losing morale and falling into disarray.

But Buldrokkas’tee, who had been silently observing the horizon, let out a low, rumbling breath.

“No. The enemy’s offensive… it is still intensifying.”

Had Flandre and the others failed? Or perhaps they hadn’t killed the real Count Miles, but merely a body double?

“Can you tell us exactly how you defeated Miles?” Talulah asked, looking down at Flandre.

Flandre rubbed the back of her head, looking somewhat sheepish. “Defeated… well, it wasn’t exactly Flandre who defeated him. It was their own people…”

She quickly recounted the absurd sequence of events: how the Count was dropped into the sky by Yukari’s Gap, and how, before Flandre could even summon her Laevateinn, the chain reaction of several Arts exploding right next to him blew him to pieces.

After hearing about the enemy’s subsequent frenzied bombardment, Talulah’s expression darkened. She understood the grim reality of the situation immediately.

“Damn it. Those Casters are deliberately concealing the news of Count Miles’ death.” Talulah’s eyes burned with cold anger. “They intend to use the lives of the Reunion Movement to atone for their sins. If they wipe us out, they can present it to the Noble Council as a victory and cover up their friendly fire.”

“So, they won’t retreat!” Flandre’s wings drooped, and she felt a sudden wave of dejection. After all her hard work flying over there, had Flandre failed her friends?

She couldn’t help but look up at Remilia with large, teary eyes, silently seeking comfort.

Seeing her precious little sister looking so pitiful, something inside Remilia snapped.

She immediately stepped forward, her aura exploding outward. Isn’t it just an army of ordinary humans?!

She declared coldly that it was high time to let these ignorant people of Terra witness true majesty. Grabbing Flandre’s hand, she launched herself back into the sky, rocketing toward the battlefield.

“Flandre, watch closely! Let me show you your elder sister’s true power!”

A massive, complex red magic circle instantly expanded behind Remilia, illuminating the darkened sky with a blood-red glow.

In the blink of an eye, blinding beams of light, massive crimson orbs, and dense waves of magic bullets rained down like a torrential, apocalyptic storm upon the Ursus army below. The sheer density of the Danmaku left absolutely no room for evasion.

Seeing her sister go all out, Flandre’s sadness vanished instantly. She giggled, spreading her crystal wings as a matching, brilliantly colored magic circle expanded behind her.

Thousands of multi-colored magic bullets materialized in the air, glittering as beautifully as glass marbles in the sunlight. Then, they fell.

Every single ‘marble’ that struck the earth detonated with terrifying force, blowing one-meter-wide craters into the reinforced trenches. The two vampires flew side by side, bombing everything in their path, carving a path of absolute destruction from the front lines all the way back to the distant hill where the Casters were stationed.

Those Casters hadn’t retreated yet because they needed to maintain the illusion that everything was fine, desperately trying to stabilize morale and force the infantry to continue the fight.

But in that brief moment of hesitation, the combined bombardment from the Scarlet sisters arrived directly over their heads.

By the time they realized the sky was falling and turned to run, it was already far too late for regrets.

When the deafening roar of the bombardment finally ceased, the smoke cleared to reveal a landscape utterly reshaped by craters. Not a single living person could be seen standing on the hill.

At this point, the situation on the battlefield completely and irreversibly collapsed.

The reason was simple: while the front-line infantry had been fighting tooth and nail, all communication from the rear had suddenly vanished. Both the High-speed Warships and the Casters’ command center had fallen into a dead, terrifying silence.

A battle without command, even with ten times the numbers, is nothing more than a swarm of headless flies.

Crucially, the apocalyptic round of bombardment from Flandre and Remilia had shattered the minds of the surviving low-level personnel. With zero resistance against aerial units and not a shred of support from their commanders, how could they possibly continue to fight?

And so, the collective decision was made. They broke.

Once one soldier threw down his shield and ran, the panic spread like a plague. Soon, the Ursus soldiers—usually so arrogant, majestic, and heavily armored—were sprinting away faster than anyone thought possible.

Saying they ‘discarded their armor and weapons’ wasn’t enough to describe the sheer desperation of the scene. They were practically tearing off their heavy coats to run faster.

Back on the defensive line, Talulah watched the rout with wide eyes. Following the pragmatic principle of ‘if you want to run, run; I will just focus on grabbing the dropped resources,’ she ordered her troops to hold their fire. Both sides engaged in a tacitly understood routine. As long as the Ursus troops discarded their valuable equipment, the Reunion Movement didn’t bother chasing them down.

Seeing this, the Ursus army, whose courage had been thoroughly bombed into dust by the Scarlet sisters, decisively threw away all their weapons, rations, and Originium gear to flee as lightly as possible.

While the Reunion members eagerly swarmed the field to scavenge the mountain of supplies, Buldrokkas’tee, acting on Talulah’s behalf, led the three otherworldly guests back toward the main settlement.

“Flandre, you…”

Alina, who had just flown back from the western front to check on the situation, landed softly near the command tent. She was about to speak when her eyes landed on Remilia standing next to Flandre.

A suffocating, ancient pressure radiating from their shared bloodline slammed into her, making the Elafia snap her mouth shut instantly.

“Are you Alina?” Remilia turned, her crimson eyes locking onto the delicate-featured woman with the large deer antlers.

Her frail body and prominent horns immediately reminded Remilia of a certain oni drunkard back in Gensokyo who loved her sake a little too much.

“Yes, Lady Remilia. I am Alina,” she replied, bowing her head respectfully. Alina had studied ancient texts regarding bloodlines and Originium Arts; sensing the terrifying, Sanguinarch-like aura radiating from the woman, she easily guessed this was the elder sister Flandre spoke of.

“My sister mentioned that you treated her very well. That is good, but it is not enough.” Remilia stepped closer, her tone carrying the haughty elegance of a true noble. “Next time Sakuya comes over, you should follow her and learn well from her example on how to properly serve.”

[Rhodes’s Note: Remilia comparing Alina to a “drunkard who loved to drink” is a reference to Suika Ibuki, an Oni from Touhou Project who also possesses prominent horns and a petite stature.]