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C468 - Goal?

Aina felt her arms trembling on impact. She could see the indifferent eyes of the White City soldier through their crossed blades. However, despite the dull pain in her arms and the trembling of her knees, her gaze too remained unmoved.

Somewhere deep inside, she quite appreciated these soldiers of White City. Their emotionless, unquestionable resolve toward battle, as though they could forget about everything else other than the opponents before them… She too could resonate with this feeling.

While Leonel felt an excitement when he laid eyes on a battlefield, Aina felt a soothing calm. However, the raging blood in her veins told a completely different story.

Unfortunately, this battlefield was completely unlike the battles Aina had experienced in the Joan Zone or even against the Invalids and Braziner family members she faced alongside Leonel.

Whereas in those battles, she reaped lives as though they were weeds, on this battlefield she felt as though it was her own life that was constantly in danger. Even finding an opponent like this whom she was evenly matched with was a problem.

This wasn't because Aina was too weak, but rather because the soldiers of White City were simply too strong. Aina needed to exchange several moves to take down just a single one. And, since this was a battlefield and not a sanctioned duel, how could it possibly be that she would always be allowed a one on one battle?

Aina dug deep, a light shout parting her lips as she pressed her great sword forward.

An audible snap rang out. But, on such a large battlefield, the only two who likely heard it were Aina and the soldier before her.

Other than a light flash in his gaze, the soldier didn't show any other reaction to Aina's blade piercing through his shoulder and cutting down through his hip.

Aina took deep breath, her amber eyes shooting forward as though already looking for a new opponent. But, she quickly found that there were already none left.

At that moment, an irrational rage welled up in her heart as she pulled her sword out from the corpse before her. Unfortunately, ust this small action caused her legs to tremble beneath the weight she carried.

Aina stabbed her sword into the ground, her body almost unable to continue standing.

'Heal…'

Aina urged through her own thoughts, forcing her body to rapidly repair itself. The strain caused her scars to become even more inflamed.

If others were paying attention, it would become very obvious that the restrictions Aina was under didn't leave even her ability be…

Just as Aina's vision was swimming, she suddenly felt an arm wrap around her shoulders. She looked up to find Mordred looking toward her with a worried expression.

Mordred was quite tall for a woman, almost a head taller than Aina. Even so, her visage was quite clear.

"Are you alright?"

Aina nodded faintly.

Mordred wanted to say more but her expression suddenly changed.

"It can't be… another one?" Mordred's brow furrowed.

"… Is there a problem?"

Aina looked around the battlefield, but from what she could see, it was another victory. Though they had lost quite a number of knights and mages, it was still a victory nonetheless. Those that hadn't died had already long since retreated, so it was hard to tell what reason there could possibly be to have such a reaction.

That said, Aina was also very much aware that her sensory abilities weren't very good. So, she deferred to the most talented mage of Camelot. Aside from maybe Leonel, it was doubtful that there was anyone else on this moon with stronger Internal Sight in comparison to the Demon Empress.

Mordred's brows furrowed tighter.

"It's another army… I thought it was more men from White City, but it seems like this isn't the case. If it's not them, then it's more likely that it's… The Empire?"

According to what Mordred knew, the Empire had been attacking from the direction of Perveaux Barony. Though it hadn't been expressly stated, their actions most definitely took a lot of pressure off of Camelot and allowed the Demon Empire to focus all their thoughts on support.

What Mordred expected the least, though, was that they'd leave their pincer position and come here. What purpose did they have for doing this? It can't be that they wanted to attack Camelot now… right?

At the moment, this battlefield was under Mordred's command and the large majority of the troops were demons. As for King Arthur's armies, they were on the more northern wing of the battlefield.

This was for the best. Though they now had an alliance, one couldn't just magically forget the past enmities between humans and demons. So, trying to fuse them into one fighting force would be like asking for problems to break out.

This was all to say that in order for The Empire to make it to them, they would most definitely have to go through Mordred and her men first.

"It doesn't look like they came to battle, but it doesn't look like they came on friendly terms either."

After a while passed, The Empire's armies finally entered Aina's sensory ranges.

She was exceptionally sensitive to matters related to battle and could read the air quite well. The Empire definitely wasn't here for peace, but they didn't seem to be here to battle either. One might want to say that they came here as a neutral party, but it wasn't quite that either.

At the helm of the army, Prince Noah Fawkes stood on the back of a black wolf. Despite its swaying body, he didn't seem to be impacted in the slightest.

To his back, a group of nearly a thousand followed along. Many were also riding such wolves, but others rode various other beasts.

Though the army wasn't completely uniform due to this, they still carried an oddly structured and strict air to them. Even their mismatching beasts couldn't detract from this.

It didn't take Mordred much to realize that these beasts were actually the demonic beasts of no-man's land. Somehow, The Empire had subjugated and domesticated these wild beasts even to the point of taking them to war.

Noah had no idea that this action alone left Mordred in more awe than any of their other combined other actions had. Only she, who had been trying to reel in and reign over these beasts for decades, knew exactly how difficult it was.

What was their goal here, exactly?

To be continued