The Lieutenant General looked at the situation. Once more, she had been proven incorrect by the General teaching her.
It was her job to find potential spies and double agents on the frontlines. She had been investigating several people whom she had suspected of being double agents. One of these people had been the Commander of Fort S-878, Commander Meristo.
The data of Fort S-878 had been suspicious. The number of military deaths around Fort S-878 was higher than usual, and the deaths were also distributed strangely. Under Commander Meristo's command, Sages had a higher-than-average survival rate, but the survival rate of Crushers was low.
To the Lieutenant General, this had seemed suspicious. A Sage was worth more than a Crusher, but by killing many Crushers, a double agent could covertly weaken Humanity's future Sages without arousing too much suspicion.
Additionally, Commander Meristo had given unusual orders in the past. He had not been following protocol for many of them.
Usually, these questionable orders gave good results, but the Lieutenant General believed that it was just a distraction. Sometimes, the best way to hide was to be very noticeable in the wrong way. Some entities that tried to keep their identities hidden assumed bombastic and memorable personalities in contrast to their true identities. It was like a meticulous and introverted engineer acting like an arrogant and reckless rockstar. Everyone would notice the rockstar, but nobody would suspect them of being an introverted engineer.
Yet, when she had brought her findings to her General, he had been pretty dismissive.
"Commander Meristo refuses military aid regularly. He says that he doesn't need the aid and that other Forts need it more. Many of the Seekers that used to be under his command are reliable. His methods are on the unorthodox side, but they produce good soldiers. I don't believe he's a double agent."
However, the Lieutenant General didn't accept the General's words. The General's words sounded more like excuses. No matter what the General said, the data said that Commander Meristo was not performing well. Even when considering the little military aid he received, his numbers didn't look good. Numbers didn't lie, and Commander Meristo's numbers were suspicious.
And then, almost like fate had listened to her, Commander Meristo had sent a request for supervision.
He accused Commander Levinian of Fort U-878 of being a double agent.
The Lieutenant General just shook her head. Fort U-878 was performing very well, and their numbers made logical sense in correspondence with what they were given.
The Lieutenant General looked at the recent data and noticed that a newly registered Seeker with the title Black Sin Hammer 37 was sent to Fort U-878.
When she saw that Black Sin Hammer 37 had only worked under Commander Meristo, the Lieutenant General knew what Commander Meristo had planned. Black Sin Hammer 37 would create an incident near Fort U-878 and frame its Commander.
The Lieutenant General decided to investigate. She assumed the guise of a normal Shield and traveled to Fort W-878. The Commanders kept watch over their Forts and their responsible areas, which was why she didn't approach Fort S-878 or Fort U-878.
The incident she waited for didn't take long to arrive. Black Sin Hammer 37's Aura Expander activated, and she could immediately tell that something unforeseen had happened.
Under the protection of the chaos, she decided to come a bit closer. Such intense battles drew everybody's attention. As long as she acted like she was battling some random Demons in the distance, nobody would look at her.
She saw the soldiers fighting a chaotic battle, and she believed that the frontlines would collapse.
And then, the defenses solidified, surprising her.
At that moment, her Emblem picked up an order for everyone to retreat.
Even though she hadn't suspected Commander Levinian previously, this order immediately sounded all the alarms in her mind.
This order was senseless!
As soon as this order was given, she requested command of Fort U-878 via an administrative route. This wouldn't sound any alarms.
That was when she noticed that the primary support weapon was about to fire.
When she saw that, she was almost certain that Commander Levinian was a double agent. She could have interrupted the firing, but she had noticed the complementary Formation Array. As a Lieutenant General, she had to know a lot about Formation Arrays.
The weapon fired, and the Demons were killed.
At that point, the Lieutenant General tried to find a way to get rid of the double agent without endangering too many people.
Commander Levinian activated his Domain, and the Lieutenant General denied the activation of Fort U-878's internal defenses. They weren't powerful enough to kill Commander Levinian. If he were pushed into a corner, he could still kill everyone around him.
In the end, she decided to change the permissions of everyone's Emblems. Only Commander Levinian was allowed to leave. According to her estimate, Commander Levinian was under pressure, and he would move as quickly as possible, fearing the arrival of Humanity's elite. He wouldn't stop near the barrier to check if everything worked as intended. He would charge out with haste.
And sure enough, before he noticed what had happened, he had left the Fort on his own.
The Lieutenant General activated one of Fort U-878's weapons and fired it at Commander Levinian, killing him in one shot.
Some Sages had still died, but all in all, the results were as good as one could reasonably expect.
Sadly, death was not the only form of payment.
The Lieutenant General looked around and suppressed a sigh.
At this moment, the Karmic Luck of the five Sect Members of Fort U-878 was dropping. They lost their Minor Hero Auras and condensed Minor Sin Auras. Even though they had just followed orders, they had still activated and aimed the weapon that had killed thousands of Sage Divine Beasts. Not even 1% of the blame hit them, but it was enough to reduce their Karmic Luck by several levels.
At the same time, the Karmic Luck of the five Sect Members around Kyle dropped even lower. Two of them had already condensed Sin Flames and were writhing and screaming in pain. Without their complementary Formation Array, the thousands of Demons also wouldn't have died.
Finally, a red aura appeared around the Lieutenant General. She had just used external means to kill a Mid Spirit Divine Beast.
A moment later, Sin Flames appeared around her, and the old and familiar pain of the Fifth Refinement reappeared.
The Sin Flames around her shook unstably. This was the sign of being on the threshold of condensing a True Sin Aura.
Yet, she didn't complain. It was her own fault that she had condensed Sin Flames.
During such investigations, the Lieutenant General could request support from a neighboring Commander. If a Commander were exposed as a double agent, the other Commander would engage in battle with them, keeping them busy until other Commanders arrived. This would count as a True Battle and would therefore not have any negative impact on anyone's Karmic Luck.
Yet, without her request, none of the Commanders were allowed to leave their positions. The Forts could not stay unmanned without explicit orders.
'I'm not General material,' she thought, looking towards the east. 'Perhaps I can contribute more by becoming a Protector.'
Protectors were the most elite soldiers of Humanity and could only be commanded by Generals and Overlords. All of them wore red, and they fought east of the Z-Forts, on the shores of the Divide.
While Humanity's defenses wore grey uniforms...
The first line of defense only wore red.
After all, how could Humanity expect the Shields to defend Humanity of 99% of the dangers if Humanity didn't protect them from the 1% the Shields can't handle?
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