Start of the Edenia War

The next day. 

Approaching noon. Finally, the troops from Heijo arrived at their destination. 

The land in front of the City of Edenia. Their arrival was delayed by one day due to the wall of trees created by Lindell.

Because the trees kept regenerating, moving five thousand troops to the other side took quite a long time. It was only yesterday evening that they finally managed to pass through the trees.

As for the wall of trees itself, it would remain there for three days. 

So, in the end, Heijo had to enter the battlefield with no way back. They had to win the battle if they wanted to survive.

So to ensure their victory, Kranel ordered his soldiers to rest. Preparing themselves for the battle the next day. So they can go into battle with full strength.

That's why the war was delayed.

Giving Queen Melissa time to escape to a safe place up north. 

Besides Queen Melissa, some leaders in Edenia also fled. Those who couldn't fight would only be a burden on the battlefield. Among them was Loudi, the eldest son of Count Rene Turelina.

Now, on the battlefield about five hundred meters from the southern wall of the City of Edenia, two factions faced each other.

Each had five thousand troops, led by General Kranel and Count Rene Turelina.

General Kranel raised his sword into the air. Trumpets and war drums sounded. 

The thousands of troops from Heijo stomped their feet on the ground, creating a thunderous noise that intimidated the enemy.

The sword was lowered by General Kranel, now pointing towards the thousands of troops that were a few hundred meters in front of him.

"Destroy them!" 

General Kranel shouted, immediately responded by the thunderous cheers of his troops. 

Thousands of soldiers charged forward. The cavalry knights advanced first, drawing their swords ready to behead anyone in their path.

On the other side, hearing the war cry, Count Rene ordered the shield and spear troops to advance. 

They braced themselves against the oncoming cavalry knights that would pierce through their lines.

BAM! 

The clash between the two forces occurred. The sound of metal colliding echoed even into the heart of the city.

Blood began to spill. Horses were impaled by spear tips, throwing their riders into the air, only to be cut down by waiting soldiers on the ground.

"Archers, ready!" Rene shouted, a brief pause, "Fire!"

Shooooot! 

Thousands of arrows rained down on the enemy forces. General Kranel immediately ordered his soldiers to take cover behind shields.

"Miss Lindell!" 

Rene shouted, seeing the front lines of the enemy starting to be distracted.

Lindell smiled, floated, and began to recite an incantation. 

Hundreds of magic circles then appeared, surrounding the enemy's flank. From these magic circles, trees emerged, forming another wall to enclose their forces.

General Kranel would certainly not allow such a thing to happen. 

Before the incantation could be completed, he swiftly moved forward towards Lindell, disregarding the thousands of arrows in the air that seemed to bounce off him.

Lindell was taken aback, crossing her arms in front of her chest. 

She then received a blow from Kranel that sent her flying a considerable distance. 

The incantation failed, and the trees had grown but only to the height of an adult. Not enough to enclose the enemy.

"[Fly]." 

With the Wind Magic incantation, Kranel levitated in the air. His focus now solely on the one person who posed the greatest threat in this battle.

Lindell, clapping her hands that had been struck earlier, showed no signs of injury despite the force of the blow that had thrown her. 

She then looked at Kranel, who had struck a heroic pose as if ready to confront her.

"Abandoning your troops for a beautiful woman like me, oh, how flattered I am. But, will they be okay?" Lindell teased.

"Heh, the only threat on Edenia's side is you alone. As long as I keep you busy, Edenia will fall sooner or later."

"Oh, really? I like your confidence," Lindell then smiled slyly, "How long do you think you can keep me busy?"

"..."

"Well~ but you should know that it's not just me helping Edenia."

"...?"

BAMMMM! Whooshh!

'What?!'

Kranel glanced behind him. In the rearmost ranks of his troops, there were many large ice spikes resembling stalagmites bombarding his soldiers.

When he witnessed this, Kranel momentarily forgot about Lindell's presence.

'Shit!'

Shiiiing! 

Kranel turned around, seeing a sharp knife in front of his neck. Reflexively, he raised his hand.

Slassssh! 

His left hand was severed. He then flew backward to distance himself. 

Lindell didn't pursue him, or more accurately, Lindell didn't move from her position at all. What moved were two ring knives floating on their own.

One of the ring knives that cut off Kranel's hand returned to Lindell's side, hovering around her.

"Grrr..."

Kranel growled, looking at his now missing hand. 

He had already realized that fighting Lindell was impossible if he had to keep an eye on the surrounding battle. The slightest distraction, and his life would be forfeit.

"Gyo!!! Handle the issues back there!"

Kranel shouted, instructing a man who had been trying to organize the Heijo troops.

Gyo heard the command, gritting his teeth. 

At this moment, General Barlock had gone on another mission. 

Gyo was given the authority to lead the troops when the two Generals were not in leadership positions. 

Seeing Kranel busy fighting Lindell, Gyo had been trying to control the troops to the best of his abilities.

However, if he had to go to the rear lines, which currently still sounded chaotic, the next person to oversee the progress of the war would be Commander Shiftar from Rostgard, whose power was only equivalent to Rank 5. 

Gyo was unsure if that person could handle the task.

But seeing Kranel increasingly struggling against Lindell in the sky, and the rear lines diminishing, Gyo could only go to check for himself.

'What is really happening?! Is there someone else posing a threat besides Lindell?!'

Gyo left his position, handing it over to Shiftar, then ran towards the rear lines. 

There, he could already see dozens, perhaps hundreds, of ice boulders protruding from the ground. They pierced and collided with every Ethyrian soldier.

Ice magic, an element usually mastered only by people from Huntara. 

Only a few individuals outside the northern kingdom of Kastia possessed such magic.

This made Gyo think that perhaps Edenia had sought assistance from the Kingdom of Huntara. 

However, he was confused about how it could happen since the location of Edenia was not ideal for seeking help from Huntara.

Upon Gyo's arrival in the rear lines, he thought he would encounter hundreds to thousands of enemy troops pinning them from behind. But contrary to his expectations, he only saw one person. 

A woman moving swiftly, gracefully freezing every path and soldier she passed. 

The white hair of the woman danced in the territory of blood that her rapier caused.

Seeing this woman, Gyo's eyes immediately reddened. 

The person who turned out to be a stumbling block was none other than Kirana Kataleya, the genius from Westya who had always resisted Gyo and Terrion's attempts to control her.

Terrion Grenhall had given Kirana a long holiday, not wanting her to become an obstacle during the invasion of Farnodt.

However, giving Kirana a holiday turned out to be a significant mistake. It allowed Kirana to escape supervision, creating a situation where she now became a player opposing them.

Gyo knew that Kirana was the Princess of Arcadia from Terrion Grenhall. 

The name Cien Millard was familiar because, although not close, Terrion knew it was the name of his father's friend and also Kirana's father.

Therefore, seeing Kirana dancing with her sword up ahead made Gyo very upset.

"Millard!! How much longer will you disturb us?!"

Gyo shouted, then turned into smoke and attacked Kirana.

Tang!

Kirana already knew Gyo's abilities from her father. So when strange smoke surrounded her, she immediately knew the identity behind it. 

Kirana's rapier successfully parried the knife thrown by Gyo.

"Yo, Head Servant Gyo. Long time no see."

The black smoke receded, revealing half of Gyo's body. He stared at Kirana, then looked at his hand where the knife he had used was now frozen.

"..."

With just one clash, Gyo at least understood that Kirana's sword was no ordinary sword.

"Why did you interfere, Commander Kataleya—no, it might be more fitting to call you, Her Highness Princess Kirana of Arcadia?"

Kirana chuckled, then her eyes turned cold as she looked at Gyo with intense killing intent.

"Interfere? I was just visiting Kastia Garden when this foolish war suddenly broke out. Shouldn't I be the one complaining because my holiday was disrupted? Not to mention... I should be the one asking, what makes you think you can arbitrarily kill members of my troops?"

"....!"

Gyo was stunned to hear this from Kirana. 

But upon further consideration, as long as Kirana was in Westya, all information would flow to her through C-Owl. 

So, it's not surprising that Kirana would know about the massacre of the troops led by her before.

"Tch, I already guessed that your presence is a nuisance. You, your mother, and now even your father are starting to interfere in our affairs."

"Who are 'our' here? Westya, Abyss, or… Divinia?"

"! You...?! How is that possible?"

Swoosh! Tang! Tang! Tang!

Kirana didn't answer. She wanted to quickly eliminate Gyo to ease the course of the war for Edenia. However, it had to be admitted that Gyo was not a weak opponent.

His smoke ability made his body difficult to hurt. Moreover, if not careful, Kirana could be engulfed in the darkness brought by Gyo.

"[Ice Prison]."

"[Mist Body]."

Kirana tried to freeze parts of Gyo's body, but he easily avoided it by turning his body into smoke. 

However, Kirana didn't stay idle. She then created dozens of ice arrows, which attacked Gyo repeatedly. Until finally, one arrow hit him and made him stagger.

Kirana used [Ice Prison] again, this time successfully freezing Gyo's entire body into a block of ice.

Finding that her enemy could no longer move, Kirana prepared her rapier to stab Gyo's heart inside the ice. 

But just as she was about to do it, the ice prison cracked, releasing black smoke that spread rapidly to the surrounding area.

"Sigh... I knew this wouldn't be easy," Kirana whispered.