A New Phase (1)

Click.

As knights lowered their face guards and fixed their lances under their arms, Loen’s words flowed into their ears.

It was an icily cold voice.

“Show no mercy to mere rebels.”

With those final words, the charge of the Southwestern United Knight Corps began.

Amid the ground-shaking roar and the knights’ battle cries,

Loen stretched her hand forward.

At the foot of the hill, a blonde mage with blazing eyes glaring at her.

Partisan Commander-in-Chief Darus.

To eliminate him.

The two mages simultaneously stretched their hands toward each other.

Countless calculations flashed through each of their minds.

From the optimal move for victory to the selection of the appropriate magic.

A magical battle unfolded where both sides gave their all from the start.

“Planar Cut.”

“Fire Judgment.”

With Loen’s shout, a pure white line sliced through the air.

Simultaneously, a massive sphere of flame reminiscent of a meteor descended with fierce momentum above Loen’s head.

“Judgment.”

“Incandescent Beam.”

The second spells followed.

Following Loen’s gesture, a massive gray spear shot toward Darus with a cutting sound.

Darus also refused to back down and fired a scorching flame beam.

Their colliding spells in mid-air emitted tremendous heat and dazzling light.

But the intensity was brief.

The flame beam faded away weakly.

It was because the extinction property contained in Loen’s mana had devoured Darus’s mana.

The third spell followed.

Loen uttered the activation word first.

“Magic Bullet.”

Darus frowned.

A spear flying toward him at a terrifying speed, a gray beam rapidly following behind it.

Two threatening spells were rushing at him simultaneously. Not to mention the white line slicing through the surroundings.

The attribute advantage was too clear.

“Mana… damn it!”

“Commander!”

The guard captain’s shout.

In the end, Darus interrupted his spell casting and urgently threw himself aside.

There wasn’t even time to cast a defensive spell.

As he flung himself aside, the guard captain beside him parried the Judgment with his sword.

Clang!!

“Urgh.”

Cold sweat trickled down the guard captain’s forehead as he barely deflected the spear.

A ridiculous power that could have taken off his wrist.

He immediately threw himself backward.

Boom!

The Magic Bullet that grazed past them completely vaporized all troops in a straight line. Roughly over a hundred.

Disbelief crossed the guard captain’s face.

How could a basic spell have such destructive power?

Even more soldiers laid down on the ground from the following cutting spell. Insane.

The sight of soldiers’ bodies being separated at once was something too horrific to watch with open eyes.

It was clearly a spell created solely for the purpose of slaughter.

Meanwhile, on the hill above.

Loen did not avoid the fiery sphere charging at her.

She simply stood there intact.

Looking down at the enemies below the hill with cold eyes.

Boom.

Eventually, a massive firestorm engulfed the place where she stood.

Loen too disappeared, wrapped in flames.

In the meantime, the legion knight corps had reached right up to the Partisan formation.

A collision between the two sides was about to occur.

However, Darus did not let his guard down.

Though it might be reasonable to use a spell to block the knight corps’ charge, such complacent thinking… Unless he killed that witch, nothing would matter.

“Guard unit! Shield the Commander!”

“Yes!!”

Among the guards, Darus once again stretched his hand toward the hill engulfed in flames and smoke.

He didn’t harbor such a meager hope that she had died.

“Incandescent Beam!”

He sent a burning beam to where she had been standing, and then once more. Just as he was about to cast another spell, his thoughts proceeded no further.

Because two spears appeared, tearing through the smoke that had risen like clouds. Followed by a sphere of light hovering in the air.

Darus hastily cast a spell.

“Flame Whip!”

A whip that rose from the ground like a snake coiled around one of the gray spears. But the whip soon crumbled. The spear was still flying toward him with threatening momentum.

“Judgment!”

Then Darus’s flame spear collided with another spear. Bang! But the result was the same as before.

The two spears were still cutting through the air, flying toward him.

‘We should be at the same 6-star level, but how, how can there be such a difference!’

Darus felt the unfairness of the world throughout his entire body anew. Despite barely reaching 6-star through a contract with a demon. It was lamentable that he still couldn’t change anything.

“Mana Shield!!”

In the end, Darus, biting his lips, chose to defend rather than counter.

The two Judgments that had flown to close range, the guards who desperately stood in front of him. Hundreds of black fragments pouring from the light sphere. Numerous fragments embedded around him and.

Soon, an intense explosion that seemed to shake the world erupted.

Darus’s eyes were filled with a pure white light that devoured everything.

Loen flew through the sky.

“Flight.”

Below her feet, a desperate melee was unfolding.

The shouts of knights fiercely sweeping through enemy formations on horseback, the sound of clashing steel, and endless screams.

On one side, Seraphine, Leus, and Psyche formed a trio, performing brilliantly.

Lightning cut through the atmosphere, dark red flames burned the earth, and Psyche’s fists crushed the enemies’ armor.

Western Legion Commander Harkon as well, with each flash of his sword, dozens of soldiers lost their lives.

Loen landed in the middle of that chaos.

And then slowly walked toward Darus.

Without anyone’s escort, alone.

“Imperial puppet, urgh.”

Slash! Beheading a nearby swordsman.

Shockwave. Blowing away soldiers trying to surround her.

Chain Beam. Piercing through the armor of those in front.

Crack. Splitting in half the body of someone attempting an ambush.

When she finally reached Darus’s vicinity.

Only one person remained around Loen.

“Loen!!”

Darus, staggering to his feet. His appearance was miserable. Partisan uniform torn apart from the explosion. Scorched face.

“Somehow, I must avenge my brother…!”

But his eyes were still burning fiercely.

Soon, an ominous mana began to boil like a wildfire from within his body.

Demonization?

Recognizing this fact, Loen gripped her sword and immediately kicked off the ground, leaping forward.

Slash.

Thud.

Darus’s head rolled helplessly on the ground.

Loen, briefly letting out a relieved breath, quickly raised her head.

By the way, avenging his brother…

To be honest, Yorhan?

The memory was already fading.

Meanwhile, regardless of his babbling about avenging his brother or whatever.

It didn’t resonate at all and evoked no emotion.

She had simply beheaded the Partisan Commander-in-Chief.

That was all.

Soon afterward, Loen, looking around, stretched her blood-soaked right hand high up into the sky.

And she shouted.

“Mana Storm.”

Immediately after, merciless mana beams began to pour down from the clear sky.

A destructive sight like a lightning storm covering the sky.

That day, the Partisan army, which had persistently harassed the Empire, was completely annihilated.

The Age of Barbarism.

This was what people called the current West.

Chaos spreading like wildfire and evil forces permeating everywhere.

Even the stirring of opportunists revealing their ambitions by seizing the opportunity.

The legion that should have stopped this had long since collapsed.

Nevertheless, the Imperial Palace took no measures.

The West was slowly being stained with darkness.

That’s why.

“We cannot just sit idly by. Even now, we must join forces to fight against those evil hordes!”

“Right! If we continue like this, the traitors will take everything from us!”

Those who had chosen silence began to rise up one by one.

Where there is darkness, there is also light.

Throughout the West, large and small alliances formed to rekindle the dying embers of hope.

Many had decided to overcome the crisis with their own strength.

Nevertheless… it was beyond their capability to clear away the darkness spreading in all directions.

It was a time when a powerful central figure was needed.

A plain in the southeast.

A noble coalition led by a margrave had gathered here to confront the forces of opportunists.

However, the atmosphere in the command tent was not good.

“Margrave. We’ve just received bad news. The reinforcements led by Count Arten were ambushed by demons and completely annihilated.”

“What did you say!?”

“Oh my.”

Only sighs and worries continuously flowed from the mouths of the nobles.

The demons were cunning. They selectively ambushed armies loyal to the Empire. Sometimes they didn’t hesitate to assassinate key figures.

As a result, the number of those fighting against evil was being mercilessly reduced.

“Shouldn’t we retreat now? The difference in power is too extreme. Defeat is virtually certain, Margrave.”

“If we retreat, who will stand against them? Retreat is absolutely out of the question!”

“Then you’re saying we should die like dogs!?”

Heated shouts were exchanged among the nobles.

3,000 troops, 50 knights, 4 mages.

This was the military power the coalition had mustered with all its might.

On the other hand, the opposing force was more than twice as large.

As someone said, defeat was a predetermined course.

At that moment, an aide standing beside the margrave spoke.

“Margrave. It’s time for negotiations. Let’s go out for now.”

“…Let’s do that.”

The two sides’ armies confronted each other in the middle of the plain. The leadership of both sides gathered in the center.

It was the negotiation process commonly seen among nobles in territorial wars.

A greedy count trying to expand his influence amid the chaos.

With an oily voice and a slimy smile, he proposed.

“Why don’t you surrender now, Margrave? The tide has already turned long ago. Resistance will only lead to more bloodshed of innocent soldiers.”

The margrave sighed.

“When we barely have enough strength to unite against the traitors, must you do this?”

“That’s the legion’s job, isn’t it? I’m merely waging a territorial war according to a suitable justification, aren’t I?”

It was sophistry.

Even the justification he claimed was merely a cleverly manipulated falsehood.

The margrave gritted his teeth and issued a warning to the count.

“Someday, when the chaos in the West subsides, you will pay dearly for your actions today. Remember that.”

“Yes, yes~ Then I’ll take it that the negotiations have broken down. Let’s meet on the battlefield next time.”

It was just as the count was shrugging his shoulders and openly mocking the margrave.

Raising dust, a group of cavalry holding up two flags was galloping at a fierce speed toward the negotiation site.

The gazes of nobles on both sides turned there at once.

“T-those flags!?”

“Aren’t those the flags of the Southern and Western Legions?”

The cavalry stopped their horses right beside the negotiation site. The nobles on both sides froze at this unexpected situation.

Why is a legion messenger here? Could it be?

A faint light of hope rose in the margrave’s eyes.

The messenger who rode his horse to the center of the leadership of both sides.

Snap! He took out a letter from his chest and unfolded it, and finally opened his mouth with a resounding voice.

“Let all nobles hear!”

The messenger’s cry echoed across the vast plain.

“A statement from Senior Investigator Loen Franz, who also holds the position of Southern Legion Commander!”

At that moment, all nobles exchanged glances with those beside them. Loen Franz?

“From this moment on, anyone who engages in the invasion of neighboring territories for any reason.”

The messenger’s gaze turned to the count who had been smiling arrogantly.

“Will be immediately considered a traitor, and not only the individual but all members of their family will be exterminated without exception. This is her message!”

As soon as the messenger’s words ended.

A breathtaking silence fell.

The face of the count, who had been unreservedly revealing his ambitions until just moments ago, had already turned deathly pale.

Of all people, for her name to come up here…

If he ignored this and proceeded with the territorial war, what the future would hold was crystal clear.

In fact, being an opportunistic count, he knew that fact better than anyone.

In contrast, with a bright smile spreading across his face, the margrave threw a refreshing question at his opponent.

“What will you do? Count?”

“…”

From that day on, the West entered a new phase.

The momentum of those trying to satisfy their selfish desires amid the chaos began to rapidly decline,

and the power of the noble coalition standing against the traitors rapidly increased.

Who could be more sensitive to changes in the political situation than nobles?

The change in stance occurred with remarkable speed.