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The highlands of Thern were located on the right side of the plain.

It had long been said that those who took control over the highland won the battle, meaning that the highland was a very important strategic location.

That was why Henry decided to look after the highland of Thern himself.

Henry had sent three thousand soldiers and Eisen to the plain, and on the left side, he had sent one thousand five hundred soldiers and Kamsadia.

Excluding the supply soldiers, there were only three hundred soldiers remaining. Because of this, several of the thousand-man commanders had expressed their concerns during the strategy meeting. They couldn\'t understand why there weren’t more troops assigned to a pivotal battle like the one in the highland, while one thousand five hundred soldiers were assigned to such a role in defending the gorge. These were reasonable and valid complaints.

In addition, Henry had concentrated a large number of troops in the gorge despite the fact that he had given Kamsadia the scroll with the Stinky Pit; although, the rest of the commanders didn’t know about the scroll.

However, Henry had carefully planned this in advance.

The reason he had given a lot of soldiers to Kamsadia was not to hold back the enemy in the gorge, but to slaughter his own troops without Eisen knowing.

‘I can’t do anything about the battle in the plain, but it’s a different story for the battle in the gorge and the highland, given that Eisen isn’t there.’

Henry would’ve actually liked to fight in the highland alone and concentrate the rest of the troops in the gorge. That way, he could’ve gotten rid of all the troops at once.

However, no matter how reliable Henry was, he couldn’t have convinced Eisen and the thousand-man commanders to let him do that. Therefore, Henry had sent all but one thousand-man commander and two hundred soldiers to the gorge.

Henry trusted Hector.

Hector had once made even Golden Jackson kneel on the ground with his great swordsmanship, and now he even had a great black armor. He was also capable of releasing so much Aura that it couldn\'t even be compared to that of the Imperial Ten Swords. This was why he had ordered Hector to slaughter everyone in the gorge.

‘Should I get going now too?’

Henry had gathered two hundred soldiers from the cavalry.

They arrived at the highlands before anyone else and Henry grabbed the attention of the thousand-man commander and the soldiers.

“Attention everyone.”

“Yes, Sir!”

The two hundred soldiers dismounted, and they were terribly anxious because the troops were stationed elsewhere. Their apprehension was justified, considering that Henry had brought them here in an absurdly low number solely due to their cavalry status. It was obvious that they were going to face a miserable end.

‘They all look scared.’

Of course, Henry was well aware of how nervous the soldiers felt, but once the battle ended, they would all realize how lucky they actually were.

“Starting now, our task is to stop enemies that outnumber us by more than five times.”

“...”

All of them were silent, including Nadasman, the thousand-man commander.

However, as a thousand-man commander, Nadasman also couldn\'t keep quiet, so he finally asked, “Do you have a plan in mind?”

“I do.”

“What?”

Nadasman hadn’t expected that answer.

The corners of Henry’s lips rose, and he said, “We’re going to use a monster.”

“A monster…?”

“Yes.”

- Khaaa!

Thud! Thud!

“Ahhhhh!”

“R-run away!”

The screams of the Etherwether army could be heard over the highland.

* * *

‘There are three places in total. I’m sure Eisen allocated most of his power to the close combat fight on the plain.’

During the strategy meeting of the Etherwether army, Alfred had assumed that Eisen, given his past as a knight, would focus all of his power on the close combat battle, which took place in an area where he was most confident in.

Therefore, out of his army of five thousand soldiers, Alfred had deployed three thousand to the battle in the plain, and had placed one thousand five hundred of the remaining two thousand soldiers in the highland.

The reason for this was simple. Spiritual skill was just as spectacular and grand as magic, so it was better to use it in a large area like the highland than in a narrow gorge.

Alfred intended to use the one thousand five hundred soldiers to quickly break through the highland and attack the Shonan army from their rear in the plain.

‘I will win this battle!’

Alfred was confident that he would win this battle.

Even without acquiring the Egg of Evolution, his confidence remained unwavering. The Egg of Evolution was merely a tool that would have guaranteed his victory over Eisen by a significant margin.

Furthermore, he had also dispatched two thousand-man commanders, both high-level spiritualists, to the highlands. Among them was his eldest son, Waled, whose injured arm had been mended by Dracan.

‘I can certainly trust Waled in his current state.’

Waled had gotten a new arm and escaped from all the suffering. Therefore, as long as Waled burned with anger and a desire for revenge, there was no way they would face defeat in the highland.

“Ahh…”

Astride a horse in front of the troops, Waled quietly let out a deep breath.

He felt nervous, but strangely enough, his mind felt clear at the same time. Waled tightened his grip on the reins.

‘I have a good feeling about this.’

Dracan’s offer to fix his arm had been sudden, but at the same time, Waled considered it the luckiest thing that had happened to him in his entire life.

After losing his arm, Waled hadn’t been able to return to his normal lifestyle. He had felt empty because of his missing arm and because of the humiliation of being crippled. His self-esteem had almost completely vanished. However, Dracan had arrived and rescued him in the nick of time.

At first, he was anxious because he felt reluctant to have human transforming techniques, which were banned in the empire, used on him. However, his father felt certain about Dracan. Therefore, Waled accepted Dracan’s offer, thinking that he would rather die than continue living the way he was.

When Waled opened his eyes after the procedure, he saw his arm attached to him again as if a miracle had happened.

‘It’s not just the arm. Immediately after the procedure, my spiritual skill went up a level as well.’

It wasn’t just his imagination. Waled was certainly stronger than before.

He could feel that his sociability with the spirits had become stronger and that he had more mana circulating throughout his entire body.

As evidence, he had won a spiritual battle with Edward, a high-level spiritualist standing next to him.

‘I can’t believe I won against Edward…’

Even though Waled was part of Alfred’s bloodline, who was a high-level spiritualist like Edward, Edward was still stronger than him.

Even so, he had defeated Edward after Dracan’s human transformation procedure, so if this didn’t mean that he had gotten stronger, what else could it be?

Having gained confidence from thinking about that, Waled raised his voice to show off his dignity to the one thousand five hundred soldiers.

“Go faster!”

Waled soon reached the highland.

‘I just have to cross that hill, right?’

The highland was tall and long like the back of a demon dragon, and if Waled managed to cross that hill, it was certain that his father would win this battle.

‘I will be the first contributor to this battle.’

Waled looked up at the sky.

The sun was high up, and as soon as the shadow grew a little longer, he would be able to start the battle.

“Scout ahead.”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Go and take a look at the situation.”

“Yes, Sir!”

Since all the soldiers present were spiritualists, the scout also knew how to handle spirits.

The scout was an intermediate spiritualist who could easily conceal his presence.

The scout concealed his presence and stealthily climbed up the highland, but soon ran back to Waled, gasping for air, and stuttered, “S-Sir Waled!”

“What happened?”

The scout had a sense of urgency on his face and in response, Waled and Edward urged him with a serious look.

“T-there’s an egg!” said the scout.

“An egg? What do you mean? Explain so I can understand.”

“I found a spirit’s egg near the summit of the highland!”

“What?”

Spirits were also born in the nature of the human world, and not only the spirit world.

Spirits were sometimes born by nature, and other times were born for the parent spirit to distribute its own overflowing power to its child.

However, one thing was for certain. Regardless of the spiritualist’s mental capabilities, if they acquired a spirit egg, they would be able to call other spirits as well.

Waled and Edward both swallowed nervously.

If what the scout said was true, they would have to climb up the highland to grab the spirit egg right away.

Nevertheless, Edward refrained from succumbing to greed, mindful of his role as a spiritualist in Alfred\'s private army, the Etherwether army. He couldn\'t dare go after a precious treasure like the spirit egg in front of Alfred\'s son, and Waled was already aware of this as well.

‘God is on my side!’

With greedy eyes, Waled said to the scout, “Take me to the egg at once! There’s still time before the battle begins, so I must retrieve it as soon as possible!”

“Yes, Sir!”

“Also, you!”

“Y-yes?”

“I will give you a big reward once we get back to the mansion.”

“Thank you, Sir Waled!”

Waled’s heart was pounding. If what the scout said was true, he could become a Double just like his father.

Waled selected a handful of people for the search party and quickly followed the scout toward where the spirit egg was.

When they arrived, the spirit egg was actually embedded in the ground like a meteorite near the summit of the highland.

‘It’s real!’

As soon as the search party made up of spiritualists found the egg, they could all instinctively feel that it was a powerful spirit.

Waled’s smile grew even bigger.

“What are you guys waiting for? Lift the egg.”

“Yes, Sir!”

The spirit egg was as big as an adult pig, so one could tell it was a high-level spirit just by looking at its size.

Waled clenched his fist while drooling.

The moment the search party lifted the spirit egg…

Ping!

“Huh?”

As soon as they put their hands on it, the egg emitted a white flash of light and made a sound of something being deflated.

Boom!

A massive explosion took place.

“W-what the hell!”

Fortunately, Edward, a high-level water spiritualist, managed to protect everyone by releasing an aqua shield just in time.

However, having blocked the impact of the giant explosion, Edward couldn’t help but cough out blood due to the severe damage he had taken.

“Agh!”

“Edward!”

The explosion was so powerful that Edward had suffered internal injuries.

The egg hadn’t even hatched yet, so why did it cause such an explosion?

Waled tried his best to come up with an explanation, drawing upon every ounce of knowledge he possessed.

Crack, crack…

Crack!

A huge silhouette appeared from the foggy dust cloud caused by the explosion.

“Huh?”

The silhouette continued to grow bigger until it finally revealed its appearance over the scattered dust particles.

“A-a dragon?”

- Khaaaa!

The roar was loud enough to tear one\'s ear drums.

The dragon looked like the legendary black dragon, which was known to be vicious.

- Khaaa!

The dragon roared once more and scanned its surroundings.

It seemed angry.

- Kha!

The dragon saw Waled’s search party and the rest of the soldiers behind them, looking up at it with frightened eyes.

- Khaaa!

No sooner had the dragon roared again than all the spiritualists screamed in fear.

“Ahhhh!”

“R-run away!”

The spiritualists ran away at the dragon’s roar.

Henry could hear Elagon’s terrible roar, as he had just been awakened from his sweet slumber and felt irritable.

‘He’s awake.’