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456 It Begins (3)

Shortly after Count Eldridge departed, Emperor Renardier entered the command center. Inside, Ulrich was alone, overlooking the battle map and receiving reports from different channels via their communication crystals.

However, Ulrich immediately paused his work upon noticing Emperor Renardier\'s arrival.

"I\'m terribly sorry, Your Imperial Majesty," Ulrich immediately said apologetically, kneeling on one leg with his head lowered. "I shouldn\'t have asked you to create an opening in Fort Whitebridge for our army\'s advancement. I didn\'t expect the Kingdom of Black Rose to have hidden such a powerful figure."

"At ease, Marquis Salazar. Neither did I," Emperor Renardier coolly replied before shaking his head. "But, no, this is good. If I didn\'t make a move, we wouldn\'t have known we were dealing with such a powerful person, a man, no less."

"I had some suspicions, but to think a man was actually leading the witches in this war. I can\'t even begin to fathom how he achieved such a feat. Those supremacist witches definitely wouldn\'t have allowed such a thing to happen."

"It\'s almost as if... Queen Henrietta disguised herself as a man to throw us off guard..." Emperor Renardier suddenly felt alarmed by his speculation.

Nothing made sense if the man leading the witches was truly a man. His authority, background, and power all came into question.

However, if they assumed the man was actually Queen Henrietta in disguise, everything made sense, whether it was her authority, background, or power.

Only someone as powerful as Queen Henrietta could have faced him without being oppressed by his aura.

"Did Queen Sybil betray us and release Queen Henrietta? Or have they been in cahoots from the start?" Emperor Renardier seriously wondered with a grim look.

The seven witch kingdoms couldn\'t expand their territory by waging war on other countries.

However, if other countries initiated war on them, it would be a completely different story. They just needed to weave the truth and lies to come up with a convincing justification to swallow the Holy Knight Empire.

"If that was true, we might have fallen into a big scheme, Your Imperial Majesty," Ulrich frowned before suggesting, "Although I don\'t hold much hope, we should contact Queen Sybil to confirm the truth."

"Un. We should," Emperor Renardier agreed with a nod.

...

Boom! Boom!

Meanwhile, the war continued to rage on as countless spells exploded between the two countries\' borders.

The wizards did their best to intercept as many spells with their own, but they were severely lacking in both numbers and power.

The Kingdom of Black Rose\'s battle witches seemed way too powerful to be ordinary Early-stage High Witches; they felt like they were facing Mid-stage High Witches.

If the three tower masters didn\'t have their powerful staffs, even they might not have been these battle witches\' opponents!

"Goddamit! No one told me the Kingdom of Black Rose would be this powerful!

However, that makes them all the more desirable! If I could use their mana veins to create a new magic core, I\'m sure my magic staff would reach a new level of power!"

Alistair licked his lips with greed as he gazed at the battle witches on the distant wall of Fort Whitebridge.

A few battle witches felt his uncomfortable gaze. They couldn\'t help but feel creeped out and disgusted, causing their expressions to become colder.

However, they couldn\'t target someone so far away. As such, they just focused on defending the fort.

All of the empire\'s wooden plank bridges lost their stability after the battle witches destroyed the land surrounding their impaled tungsten arrows.

Unfortunately, the Holy Knight Empire had more of where those came from.

Twang! Twang! Twang!

New tungsten arrows attached with chained wooden plank bridges were loaded on the large ballistae and fired across the river once more, allowing another wave of soldiers to rush across.

Some also used the floating bodies of their fallen comrades as stepping stones to help them cross the river.

As a result, the empire\'s holy soldiers got dangerously close to reaching land.

"Light them up!" Artemis barked.

In that instant, two groups of battle witches, a water-attribute group and a fire-attribute group, quickly acted.

The water-attribute battle witches transmuted water into oil and poured them over the abandoned rafts, while the fire-attribute battle witches lit them on fire before they even reached the rafts.

As a result, a blanket of fire descended on the rafts, then soon spread into the lake, wherever the burning oil flowed.

A large blazing wall of fire and a sea of flames blocked off the holy soldiers\' path ahead, but it did not the holy soldiers\' advancement. The holy soldiers charged through the fire, disregarding their fears of getting burned; they relied on their aura to minimize the damage.

...

Meanwhile, the empire\'s fleet of magic airships continued to be bombarded by Fort Whitebridge\'s battle witches.

Eventually, their magic defense systems were destroyed or depleted of power, causing their magic airships to lose the protection of their magic barriers.

Boom! Boom!

Important components of the magic airships were struck, damaged, and destroyed, causing several magic airships to lose their flight capability.

As a result, they quickly plunged toward Fort Whitebridge with increasing speed.

Artemis felt a cold chill when she looked up.

"Raise the defense!"

Following Artemis\'s order, the falling magic airships smashed into a bubble-like magic barrier that covered the entire fort.

However, the magic barrier failed to hold under the magic airships\' falling velocity and weight as the magic airships squeezed their way through — only for the magic barrier to set off the magic bombs on board.

Ka-boom!

Countless explosives went off mid-air in a series of chain reactions, easily tearing apart the magic airships and magic barriers alike.

However, only four out of seven magic airships were blown to bits by their own magic bombs.

Seeing the other three magic airships continue to plunge toward the fort without the magic barrier to protect, Artemis and many battle witches froze on the spot.

If they tried to blow up the magic airship with their spells, it could set off the magic bombs they carried, and the blast wave would rip them apart.

"Useless!" Aeliana spat, stomping the ground.

In that instant, countless vines grew out of the ground and proliferated with accelerated growth, transforming into colossal vines — the biggest Vaan had seen.

Aeliana, in her Dryad Transformation state, controlled the colossal vines to catch the three falling magic airships and stop their crash, but not without suffering the backlash of their immense weight bearing down on her as if she was part of the vines.

She bled from her nose and lips while all her nails split apart as if it wasn\'t vines but her hands that held up the three magic airships.

Nevertheless, Aeliana gritted her teeth and persevered.

"Fuck... off!!!"

Following her cursing, the vines hurled the three magic airships away from the fort, sending them into the lake beyond the fort\'s wall.

\'Oh, fuck...\'

Hundreds of holy soldiers had the same thought as they saw the three huge magic airships falling toward them.

But before the magic airships even landed in the lake\'s water, they were struck by the barrage of spells as they fell into its striking zone.

Ka-boom!

The magic bombs onboard all exploded at once, creating a seismic shockwave that blasted everyone and everything away from its range with an earth-shaking, sky-rending roar.

Even the battle witches were blown away from the edge of the wall.

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