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Chapter 230 - The Calm Before the Storm (1)

It was a colossal Chimera, one of Dracan’s few masterpieces.

At Dracan’s commands, Grumpy roared ferociously. Then, as its body contorted, long thorns protruded from it akin to a hedgehog.

Shing...!

The thorns started spinning, and as they reached maximum speed, Grumpy fired them in all directions.

Whoosh!

The eerie noise that Kamuel had heard earlier echoed once again throughout the village. The thorns of the monster went flying into the air like bolts shot from a crossbow. They seemingly had no specific targets, as they flew with an unusual trajectory; they were scattered haphazardly, resembling a drizzle.

“AHHH!”

“GHAAA!”

Everyone in the village was screaming in terror, but Dracan didn’t seem to care. He went ahead and deployed the Chimeras that had been waiting in the rear.

-Kikekeke!

With that, the Chimeras proceeded to slaughter everyone in Bellatie. These grotesque creatures with various appearances ruthlessly slaughtered anyone left, scavenging their flesh like starving wild animals.

Dracan took notice of every detail with his clear, white eyes. As he looked around, he noticed Nailri, the high priest who had been reciting a prayer in front of the stone statue of Arthus.

Seeing him, Dracan couldn’t help but smirk. For some reason, his smile seemed distorted, uncanny. It looked like a ghostly apparition was smiling, not a human being.

One of Grumpy’s thorns had hit Nailri in one of his shoulders. After getting hit, the priest leaned against the stone statue and covered himself with a sacred shield and desperately cast healing spells on himself.

Seeing this, Dracan snapped his fingers. With that, Dracan vanished from Grumpy’s head and instantly warped in front of Nailri.

“AAHH!!! Haaa!”

Nailri was taken aback when Dracan suddenly appeared in front of him. His reaction was only natural, given that Dracan was over two meters tall, had long hair, and an abnormally pale face. One would get shivers down their spine just by glancing at him.

Dracan offered his hand to Nailri, who was trembling and crying in fear. Dracan’s gesture only managed to scare the high priest even more, causing him to reinforce his sacred shield.

However, Nailri’s efforts meant nothing to Dracan. The sacred shield was designed to repel demonic beasts, along with Aura and magic. However, unfortunately for the priest, Dracan was a human wizard, and at the moment, he didn’t release any magic power. Thus, Dracan just simply passed through the sacred shield.

“A pe-person...?”

The priest was even more shocked as he saw Dracan pass nonchalantly through his shield. Of course, Dracan couldn’t care less about how the priest reacted. He went straight for the thorn that was in Nailri’s shoulder; he grabbed it and violently twisted it.

“GHAAA!”

Nailri’s scream echoed throughout the village. The excruciating pain caused him to lose focus, which in turn caused his healing spells to become undone and his sacred shield to shatter to pieces.

“Hehehe.”

Drakan sneered with satisfaction as he saw Nailri in pain and in tears. After confirming that the sacred shield had vanished, Dracan channeled magic into his right hand.

His magic was purple. Seeing this, the priest’s expression contorted with shock.

“Pu-purple magic?! Y-you... You must be...!”

Purple magic was associated with demons and black magic. Nailri realized this right away because every priest of the Church of Peace received education on demonic beasts, demons, and black magicians in order to eradicate them.

“Shhh.”

In response to Nailri’s shocked response, Dracan merely lifted his index finger to his lips, signaling him to be quiet. He then placed his hand on Nailri’s bleeding wound and cast a spell.

"GAAA!"

Nailri felt like every drop of blood in his body was rushing toward his wound. In fact, it wasn’t merely a sensation. His blood was actually rushing toward his wound. Nailri’s joints twisted grotesquely, his nose started bleeding, and tears ran down his cheeks.

“Gh... GHAAA!!!”

As his death cry died out, Nailri finally passed away. He had died an agonizing death.

Just like he had done with Mireulren in Nosco, Dracan produced another flower.

-Shishishishi...

The purple flower let out an eerie hissing sound. It then quickly withered and grew berries that matched the color of its petals.

"Hehehe."

Dracan adeptly harvested the berries. He then tossed Nailri’s dried-up body, which seemed to resemble a mummy, onto the ground, and took a big bite from the fruit.

Slurp!

As Dracan bit into the berry, purple veins appeared in his pure white eyes. Soon after, the purple veins appeared momentarily on his neck, forearms, and ankles as well. He quickly finished devouring the rest of the berries.

These berries were known as grebells, and they came from Devil\'s Flower, a plant originally made by an ancient demon named Greed Bellusian with the purpose of fully absorbing a victim’s power.

Making grebells was a form of human experimentation that was banned among the 5th-Circle anthropology mages. However, Dracan Rotique, a current Archmage, was using it as a way to gain more power and become the first to reach the 7th-Circle besides Henry.

Once Dracan was done eating, he wiped the blood from the corners of his mouth and muttered to Grumpy, “Let’s go...”

Thud! Thud!

Grumpy proceeded to move at Dracan’s order.

* * *

Zipan.

It was a nation founded by first-generation immigrants from the Eastern Continent. The inhabitants had dark hair and black eyes. When Henry first encountered them, he couldn\'t help but express admiration toward them as he had never encountered such good-natured people.

They had established their kingdom in the heart of the Herrerne Plain and created a vast granary area surrounding it. Thanks to this, they yielded abundant harvests each year. Rice and wheat from the Herrerne Plains were deemed as the continent\'s finest. So, the imperial palace of Zipan offered substantial grain tributes annually in exchange for preserving their culture.

However, because the Hennern Plain was flat and had no mountains or rivers nearby, it posed a threat to Zipan’s survival.

‘We’re at a topographical disadvantage.’

While various factors influenced the outcome of war, the battlefield\'s environment had the most significant impact. Colin Castle, also known as the Swamp Castle, was known as the Natural Fortress because of the swamp surrounding it. However, Zipan didn’t have anything like that. All Henry could see was endless fields with crops awaiting harvest.

After the long march, the imperial army slowly gathered at Zipan. Then, the seven corps proceeded to surround Zipan, just as Henry had expected.

“Seeing them move exactly the way I imagined is giving me goosebumps.”

The castle in Zipan wasn’t very big because the country had been founded by immigrants. Because of that, Henry knew that even if he got the artisans of Monsieur and his wizards to work on it, expanding the castle in such a short period of time wasn’t feasible.

Therefore, the only tactic Henry could use against the imperial army was pure melee combat. They had to overpower their enemies strictly with raw strength and combat tactics.

‘The twisting castle would have been very nice right now...’

If he had been given more time, Henry would’ve modified this castle to function like the one in Vivaldi. However, with everything else going on, Henry didn’t have the means to implement the mechanism in the castle of Zipan. Thus, he planned to go with traditional melee combat without using any specialized siege weapons like the twisting walls of the castle.

Henry soon entered the Zipan Palace, where the leaders of each Allied Power were. As he entered, those who were already present got up and greeted him. He then made a couple of hand gestures and took a seat at the head of the round table.

No one showed any objection to him sitting at the head of the table because everyone had naturally assumed that Henry was the commander-in-chief of the Allied Powers.

Once he sat down, Henry asked Herarion, “Your Majesty, have you received any updates on Hector?”

“No, I haven’t heard anything... Is there an issue with him?”

"I entrusted Hector with a mission not too long ago, but after completing his mission, his whereabouts became unknown. Anyway, I don\'t think you should worry too much. I wanted to ask Your Majesty just in case."

"Hmm, if you say so... Alright."

"Of course, I would like to organize a search party right away, but given the situation, locating him has a lower priority. My apologies for the small talk. Let’s start the strategy meeting now."

Once Henry started the meeting, he used magic to sketch the Herrerne Plain and Zipan castle in the center of the table, along with the hundred thousand imperial troops surrounding it. It was certainly the type of meeting that only wizards could conduct.

“This is the current situation Zipan is in.”

"In other words, we’re completely surrounded."

"I... I knew this was going to be inevitable, but now that I’m seeing this with my own eyes, I’m not sure how to feel about this.”

“Well, Henry, do you have any good plans to overcome this situation?”

Each leader spoke up and asked the questions that were lingering in their minds.

Once everyone finished, Henry said, “Well, just as everyone probably anticipated, Zipan is at an absolute disadvantage in terms of topography. So, I believe there is only one way to get out of this situation.”

“And what would that be?”

Hela\'s eyes sparkled momentarily, as she hoped for a viable solution to get through this situation.

However, Henry responded with a slightly apologetic expression, “I do apologize that this may not meet the expectations you had for me... But I don’t think there are currently any alternatives other than direct melee combat.”

Hela let out a disappointed sigh. She had hoped that he would have a unique trick up his sleeve, like he usually had. Despite that, she knew deep down that Henry’s plan was the only viable way to fight the imperial troops.

After all, given the topography of Zipan, there weren’t many options to consider when fighting against an army of one hundred thousand troops.

“But of course, this is what all of you present will have to do.”

“All of us present...? What does that mean?”

“Given that we’re behind twenty thousand troops and we have fewer high-level troops than the enemy, we can’t just recklessly engage in direct combat.”

“...?”

Nobody in the room understood what Henry was saying.

Seeing their reactions, Henry merely smiled and continued to explain, “As soon as the battle starts, I plan to attack the capital Highlander.”

“What?”

“The capital?”

Hela and Herarion were taken aback by Henry’s statement.

However, Henry ignored their surprised reactions and continued, “Currently, the most mobile force on the continent is by far the wizards. However, even if their mobility is good simply because they can use teleportation, I will go ahead and tell you that teleportation is, of course, dangerous magic that requires a lot of effort to prepare.”

"So? What’s the point?"

“But if they could wield magic without many restrictions, just as one swings a sword, now that would be a different story. On this note, there’s currently only one person on the entire continent that can use teleportation like that.”

“And let me guess, you’re that one person?”

“Precisely, Empress.”

To some people, Henry might’ve come off as an arrogant wizard, boasting about his abilities. However, as Henry nodded shamelessly, everyone at the table had no choice but to acknowledge him.

"Now, let me share my plan with everyone.”

Close combat would be the foundation of this battle. However, it was a tactic exclusive to the Allied Powers gathered in Zipan.

With that, Henry proceeded to implement his plan that would guarantee them victory by basing it on close combat.