Chapter 145 - Heaven and Hell (1)

Dragon Maken War

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Clouds of war were gathering at various locations on the continent.

The seven kingdoms had originated when an empire broke up, so they weren’t on best of terms. There was always tension along the border.

Still, no large war had been waged after the initial period of confusion. There had only been small border skirmishes.

However, the Bijes kingdom and the Iellos kingdom had gathered their armies along the border, and it felt as if a single twitch could set off each side…. Similar situations were occurring in various locations around the continent.

The Yudusk kingdom and the Garan kingdom were descended from the ancient royal line, so there was bad blood between them regarding the legitimacy of their lines. In the early period of chaos, those two kingdoms fought the fiercest battles.

This was why the border between the two were very heated. However, the members of the Guardian Shadows worked in the political scene for three years to negotiate a cease-fire. However, the prince who was sent as an emissary was assassinated, so the fire of war was stoked..

The Dailan kingdom’s king was poisoned with his successor not named. There were signs of civil war erupting in that kingdom.

The Rulain kingdom and the Ralos kingdom had several recent incidents where the tension along the border between the two countries were at an all time high.

In such an atmosphere, Dragon Demon Princess Arrieta was dispatched when the Western Border Guards requested reinforcement.

‘The Grand Alliance of Darkness is being revived.’

…it was an urgent news that had arrived from the Western Border Guards.

A mutated Orc named Dakan had formed the Grand Alliance of Darkness around 30 years ago. It was a similar situation right now where a massive number of demonic creatures were attacking the Western Border Guards. They were somehow able to hold them off inside the fortress, but it said in the missive that they would fall if reinforcements weren’t provided soon. The Western Border Guards resided in a fortress outfitted specifically able to hold off a force that was of same size as the Grand Alliance of Darkness. However, a variable they had never accounted for had appeared.

It was a Dragon.

For some reason, the Water Dragon who lived in a lake deep with the forest had attacked them. After a fierce battle, they were able to repel the Dragon. However, the damage to the fortress had been heavy, and the Western Border Guards had taken heavy casualties.

This was when a large horde of demonic beasts had attacked them.

“Is that the bastard?”

Arietta was on top of the fortress’ wall as she observed the enemy force.

The throne had quickly dispatched 200 troops with her leading them. She was also given command of reinforcements sent from other regions. She had arrived at the Western Border Fortress with over 1,000 men.

Moreover, this was only the vanguard. The throne was gathering more troops even at that moment. However, when the reinforcement had arrived, the castle wall was in horrible shape. It would be a tall task to be able to ward off 10,000 demonic beasts.

“It is big enough to make me doubt if it really is an orc.”

Giles was next to Arrieta. He had already risen in rank, and he was firmly entrenched in his position as her lieutenant.

He spoke.

“It is as Azell had said before.”

“They have a way to mobilize a dragon, and all these schemes are being hatched by the Dragon Demon King worshippers…..”

Arrieta was dumbfounded.

The cloud of war hanging over the continent was all manufactured by the Plain of Darkness.

Arrieta and Giles was aware of this truth. As they were taught techniques under the tutelage of Azell and Kairen, they had learned a lot about the Dragon Demon king worshippers from them.

Azell spoke.

‘They have superb bodies, and their intelligence is on par with humans. They have the charisma to make other demonic beasts obey them. Then there are the ones with enough magical energy to be on par with Dragon Majins. These types of Orcs were used quite often in the Dragon Demon war. It was surmised that the secret to making them was with Aunsaurus….

Azell had told Laura about the mutated Orcs. One had been used to lure Seigar into the County of Baldan.

However, when she arrived at this location, she found that Falkan possessed more power than the previous mutated orc named Dakan

It showed martial skills that could easily break through the knights of the Western Border patrol, and it didn’t end there…...

Shwee… Kwah-kwahng!

A sound of an explosion rang out from below as the walls shook.

It was enough force to be mistaken for a high rank magician’s spell. However, the impact had surprisingly come from a single arrow.

“A mere Orc is a magical archer? I’m so surprised that I don’t know what to say.”

Arrieta expressed her amazement.

Surprisingly, Faikan was shooting magic arrows. It was infused with magical energy that was on par with that of a Dragon Majin. It was using an enormous long bow that couldn’t be used by humans, and it had great accuracy with the weapon. It also had destructive capability on par with a high rank magician.

It had already killed double digits in troops with its sniping. The Orc was a nightmare-like existence to the Western Border Guards.

Shweee… Puh-uhng!

Another arrow flew towards them.

However, it wasn't able to reach the fortress wall this time around. It exploded in midair. Arrieta had used her technique to shoot down the incoming arrow from afar.

The light in Faikan’s eyes changed. Instead of aiming for Arrieta, it continuously shot towards various locations along the wall.

Puh-uhng! Pah-pahng! Pah-ah-ahng!

It was useless. All of the attacks except the first arrow was intercepted.

It was as if Arietta was reading Faikan’s mind. When it found a new target to shoot, she used Instantaneous Movement to appear at the target. She used her Dragon Arts to intercept them. Moreover…….

“Oh Evil Darkness, Rend Apart!”

She shouted the words of power as a white light erupted from the sword she had stabbed into the empty air. Faikan threw away its bow in shock as it raised its sword.

Kwahhhhhh!

Surprisingly, her attacked had reached a target that was 100 meters away.

This was something Arietta hadn’t been able to do before. However, when she learned the forgotten techniques from Azell, her inner reservoir of qi had drastically increased.

“As expected, I didn’t expect it to stay still.”

Arrieta mumbled to herself as she let out a cold laugh.

“Koo-uh! You dare defy me, little bitch!”

Faikan got on the body of an Ogre that was stationed below the fortress wall. When given the command by the orc, the Ogre grabbed and threw the Orc towards the top of the fortress wall.

It was a tactic that was feasible, because the Ogre possessed great size and strength. However, Arrieta wasn’t taken unawares by the move.

Cha-ahng!

Faikan’s enormous sword clashed against Arrieta’s pure white sword. Faikan was shocked. It had used the momentum of its flight to unleash a powerful sword strike, but Arrieta easily deflected it.

It wasn’t because Arrieta was strong. When their swords touched, an explosive and repulsive force was created using Dragon Demon magic, and Faikan was flung away.

“You are better than expected.”

Faikan smoothly neutralized the repulsive force to land on top of the castle wall. Arrieta broke out in cold sweat when she saw this.

‘I cannot believe how much skill this Orc has. My previous self would have a hard time facing it.’

She was able to extrapolate that fact from just a single exchange. Faikan possessed martial prowess that exceeded her previous self.

Arrieta spoke.

“Orc, you will hate yourself for overestimating your own ability. I’ll end the 2nd Grand Alliance of Darkness here.”

“Hmmph! A weak bitch like you should know your place before you speak such words! I’ll sever your head right now, and I’ll open the gates to this fortress!”

Faikan spoke eloquently in the human tongue as it once again attacked Arrieta.

This was how she confronted the 2nd Grand Alliance of Darkness, and the battle at the Western Border Fortress intensified.

After running away from Reygus, Azell’s party headed eastward.

Azell had lost to Reygus, but the enemy force had been decimated. However, the problem was the fact that the enemy’s reinforcement was coming. When Reygus joined with the reinforcement, it was obvious that they would start tracking down Azell’s party.

However, the party couldn’t move as quickly as they would have liked even in such a desperate situation.

They had fought a fierce battle, so the party was tired and wounded. Moreover, Azell was hovering between life and death right now. It restricted their mobility.

In the end, the party had moved for an hour before they decided to rest and apply first aid.

Yuren had used magic to move Azell in an attempt to reduce any turbulence. He carefully placed Azell on the floor.

“Well, now…..”

Yuren turned to look at Laura.

“I’ll go first. You should mediate.”

“All right.”

Laura nodded her head.

They were quite fortunate in the fact that there were two high rank black magicians within their party. Since there were no healers inside the party, no one could heal wounds aside from Yuren and Laura.

“You should use this potion. I only have two bottles left.”

Kairen took out healing potions from within his armor, and he hand them over to Yuren. Originally, he had several more bottles, but they broke during battle.

Yuren asked him a question.

“Everyone is injured. Shouldn’t you be using it?”

“It is best to use it on the person with the most serious wounds.”

“That’s true, but….”

“Use it.”

Kairen was firm with his words, then he approached Leticia.

“We’ll take turns resting. You should meditate first.”

“I’ll do so.”

Leticia acquiesced to his words. It was because her injuries were more serious than his.

Yuren scratched his head as he unstoppered the potion bottle. He started pouring the liquid into Azell’s wounds.

“Ooh-ook…….”

Azell groaned in his unconscious state. The healing potion disinfected his wounds, so it hurt when it was applied.

However, he wasn’t showing any signs of waking up. Yuren took a deep breaths as he looked carefully over Azell’s wounds.

“Let’s see…….”

Yuren put one hand against a large tree, and he place his other hand on top of Azell’s chest. Soon, an ominous energy arose from Yuren as rapid change occurred to the tree.

Pa-sah-sahk….

The tree, which was as twice as thick and thrice as tall as Yuren, was rapidly drying up. The thick leaves dried up as it fell away, and the branches became emaciated.

Yuren’s black magic was stealing life energy from the tree.

Yuren used some of the energy on his body, then he poured the rest into Azell.

He was a black magician, so he didn’t have subtle techniques like the healers. However, he could steal life energy to increase the survivability of one’s body, and it could imbue unnaturally fast regenerative ability. That was all he could do.

However, this kind of healing skill needed extreme caution. It was less effective to use it on someone else, and the risk also increased. If Yuren transferred too much power, Azell’s body might break down instead of healing.

“As expected… The the healing effect using the life energy of a tree is quite meager.”

“Should I go catch something?”

“If you leave your post, it’ll be hard for us to fight off an ambush from our enemies. Let’s ask them to do it.”

Yuren swept his hand towards the surrounding as he pointed out the hazy shapes.

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