"Mrs. Starr, you shouldn't have come." The figure of Duke Madness soon appeared in the urban area of ​​Bonn.

The old woman wearing the robe of the Eye of the Stigma looked at Duke Madness with a gloomy expression, and said hoarsely: "I was just guided by God. As a mortal, I cannot go against the will of the great Stigmata."

Obviously Mrs. Starr also agrees with Duke Crazy War's words, but God's will cannot be violated.

The War-Crazy Duke sighed and took off his battle ax and buckler from his back: "It seems that the battle is inevitable."

"For the stigmata!" the old woman yelled stubbornly, with an aura that was no less powerful than Duke Madness's. She was actually a powerful transcendent at the grandmaster level.

However, at this moment, a dazzling golden sword light suddenly stretched out from the sand table in front of the old woman!

According to the scale of the sand table, this sword light should be hundreds of meters long, but when it protrudes from the sand table, it is only the length of an ordinary long sword.

Even so, it's enough.

Mrs. Starr was completely unprepared as she suddenly emerged from the sandbox in front of her. She was only staring at Duke Madness opposite.

As an old enemy, she was well aware of Duke Madness's strength, and she did not want to fight him if it was not necessary.

However, this golden sword light broke all this.

This is the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion released by Rudy from the sandbox!

With a golden sword light, it rushed out of the sand table, and then slashed downwards. With a click, the sand table was cut into two halves!

With a bang, the sandbox condensed by Mrs. Starr's extraordinary ability suddenly collapsed, and then many things gathered in the sandbox poured out instantly.

The sand table is very large, almost equivalent to a small city.

Mrs. Starr had added countless things to it over the years, and they all fell out in one fell swoop, forming a small mountain.

And Rudy also escaped from it, along with the Golden Wheel Reincarnation Explosion he waved!

The huge sword light broke away from the sand table, expanded hundreds of times, and fell with a wave of his hand.

The dazzling sword light directly overwhelmed Mrs. Starr.

There was only half a scream, the sound suddenly stopped, and everything was over.

Not far away, Duke Madness was still a little confused. He did not expect that the battle would end in such a ridiculous way.

After all, Mrs. Starr was a master-level strong person, but she was killed just like that? Isn't her death a bit too humiliating?

The war-mad Duke put away his buckler and battle axe, and couldn't help but rub his nose with his fingers. He secretly wondered if it were him, would he be mad if he died like this?

However, it seems that after death, one will no longer be angry.

The Duke of Crazy Fighting was running a strange brain circuit, and he met Rudy again. There was no sense of unfamiliarity between the two of them, especially the Duke of Crazy Fighting, who patted Rudy on the shoulder warmly and said: "You seem to have become stronger again!"

Rudy smiled, and while checking the 30,000 points obtained by killing Mrs. Starr, he changed the topic and asked about the Eye of Stigmata.

The face of Duke Madness became even more solemn: "Your Majesty has received reliable information. This time the Eye of Stigmata is not trying to summon the Stigma of the Sky, but... it is cooperating with the Holy Light Church to create a Holy Grail!

"

Rudy frowned, why did he come up with another Holy Grail?

The Holy Light Church tried to create the Holy Grail last time but failed. This time it was the Eye of Stigmata's turn.

And how do the Stigma Eyes create the Holy Grail? Do they ask a woman to give them a big eyeball?

Duke Madness explained: "Their ceremony this time is a preparation for making the Holy Grail..."

It turns out that the reason why these believers of the Eye of Stigma obtained the souls of so many children was to use their souls and bodies as raw materials to synthesize a huge womb through alchemy and magic.

Then use this huge womb to give birth to the Eye of Stigmata that they believe in.

And according to intelligence, this is not the first time the Eye of Stigmata has tried.

They had been there several times in the Hall Kingdom before, but due to years of war and the raging necromancers in the Hall Kingdom, the land had a strong aura of death, and problems arose in the process of nurturing the artificial womb.

The plan to make the Eye of Stigma failed several times in a row, and finally, with no other option, it was moved to the Kingdom of Thorne.

However, Rudy heard that there were some understatements in it, and I am afraid it was not as simple as the Duke of Madness said.

Just based on what the Stigmata Eye did in West Rand Province, you can guess that this process must contain unimaginable killing and bloodshed.

But it was too far away from Rudy. He didn't see it and couldn't care about it.

After listening to Duke Madness's words, Rudy asked: "What did His Majesty say? Are you going to wipe out the people in the Eye of Stigmata just like you did decades ago?"

Duke Kuangzhan sighed helplessly: "Times have changed, and the situation now is different from what it was back then. It is no longer possible to destroy the Eye of Stigmata."

Rudy nodded slightly. It is indeed impossible for the Kingdom of Thorne to devote all its national power to West Rand Province.

On the contrary, for the next step of his plan, Karl III might even treat West Rand as an abandoned son.

Given the current situation, the Eye of Stigmata's infiltration in West Rand Province has reached a very serious level.

This is also because of the revenge of the Holy Light Church.

Although the Holy Light Church was expelled from the Kingdom of Thorne, it still retained a lot of influence and secret channels.

This time it is completely open to the Eye of Stigmata. It can be said that the Eye of Stigmata was able to develop like this in a short period of time entirely thanks to the help of the Holy Light Church.

And if the Kingdom of Thorne wants to clean up this mess, the manpower and material resources it needs to invest are simply unimaginable.

However, Karl III had already invested a lot of resources in other areas, and could not spare much to fill this bottomless pit.

Therefore, even if the Duke of Berserk did not explain, Rudy could think of the West Rand Province and probably maintain the status quo and use it as a buffer zone to block the Eye of Stigmata from the hinterland where Thorne played.

But while Rudy was thinking this, he didn't expect that Duke Madness suddenly made an unexpected proposal to him: "Rudy, although it is a bit abrupt, but...if I give you the province of West Rand, are you sure you can hold it here?"

?”

Rudy was stunned for a moment, looking at Duke Madness in disbelief, his brain spinning rapidly, thinking about the current situation.

Obviously, Duke Madness cannot say such a sentence casually, so it means that to some extent, he represents the meaning of Karl III.

But what does it mean to give him the Province of West Rand?

Rudy didn't think this was a good thing, and his impression of His Majesty King Karl III had always been that he was an ambitious and talented man.

Seeing Rudy frowning and saying nothing, Duke Madness did not rush to continue speaking, but gave him time to digest the information just now.

It wasn't until a moment later that Rudy asked tentatively: "Is this your Majesty's intention? Do you want me to temporarily take charge of this mess? Try to stabilize the situation as much as possible?"

Duke Kuangzhan shook his head with a smile: "No, I really give it to you. I will make you the Duke of West Rand Province. With your current strength, you are not inferior to the Grandmaster level. It is not an exaggeration to make you a Duke. And West Rand

The province will be your fiefdom, and you will have all the rights of a lord, but only if you can hold it here."

Rudy frowned. This condition surprised him even more. It was really too generous.

If he was not very clear about his life experience, he might even wonder if he was the illegitimate son of Karl III?

However, with the following words of Duke Madness, Rudy finally came to a realization.

Just listen to the Duke of Mad War say: "Your Majesty has received reliable news. Through the coordination of the Eye of Stigmata, the Kingdom of Hall is forming a coalition force. Regardless of whether the sacrifice is successful or not, they are preparing to attack West Rand."

The province launches an attack."

Rudy asked back: "The coalition is very large? Your Majesty doesn't want to fight?"

The Duke of Mad War nodded: "It is said that the total force will reach more than 300,000, which is almost the limit that the Hall Kingdom can mobilize. I don't know what benefits the magic sticks of the Eye of Stigmata promised to those warlords who were fighting each other to death.

pinched together."

"Where's our side?" Rudy asked again.

The Duke of Mad War shrugged and said: "The garrison in West Rand Province is 15,000 people. Including the local militias and knights, there are about 40,000 people."

Rudy rolled his eyes, those scattered knights and militia also count?

Those private soldiers who are not nobles have become the guardians of the capitalists. If a war really breaks out, there is no way to recruit them, and the combat effectiveness cannot be expected.

Only the 15,000-strong garrison can be considered a capable force. However, compared to the 300,000-strong coalition army, the number is too small. There is really little hope of defeating the large number with less.

Not to mention the war in the Hall Kingdom that has been going on for years, most of the remaining soldiers are veterans who have experienced hundreds of battles.

Even if there are all Zhan Wushu over there, 300,000 is enough to kill 15,000 people.

And among these fifteen thousand people, if Rudy became the Duke of West Rand, how many people would be able to listen to his command?

Although Rudy was moved for a moment, considering the difficulty of facing him, he still shook his head very calmly: "It's impossible. Even I, with this few manpower, can't possibly hold the West Rand Province. What did you just say?

I also said that in addition to the Eye of Stigmata, there are also people from the Holy Light Church behind the scenes to add fuel to the flames. Once a war starts, they will definitely send out master-level experts to contain me, and they may even send out two or three people to suppress me."

Duke Kuangzhan thought for a while and said: "I can't guarantee anything else, but if this happens, I can help."

Rudy smiled. He still trusted the character of Duke Madness, but this was not enough. He had to get more chips.

In fact, Rudy had already made his decision when the Duke of Crazy War made this proposal.

Taking over the hot potato of the West Rand.

Although we face huge difficulties, and although we may not be able to defend this place in the end, what does it matter?

At least until then, he will obtain the title of Duke and gain the highest power in charge of the West Rand Province.

That is the right to allocate the resources of an entire province!

Even if they were defeated afterwards and lost control of the West Rand Province, it would still be enough for Rudy to plunder heavily before then.

You must know that he may not be able to stop the 300,000-strong coalition army of the Hall Kingdom, but if he can control the 15,000-strong garrison, it will be more than enough to deal with the local nobles and powerful factions across the West Rand Province.
To be continued...