Ch. 41: Elemental Cannon [2]

The dark night sea glimmered with rays of light as Chrono Vanguard galleons continued to fire the Elemental Cannons. One by one Yovannians' warships exploded and broke into two parts.

The enemy Marines' crews were seen swimming toward the wreckage of their ship, however, before they could even reach it, they were shot by arrows and fell to the sea.

Chrono's attack didn't stop with just Elemental Cannons, the second wave of the attack was a hail of arrows, which were fired by hundreds of Archers above the vanguard galleon deck.

In the end, Yovannians Marines drowned in the ocean. Chrono Vanguard rammed the remnants of the battleship as they moved at full speed, sending them completely sinking to the bottom of the sea.

I put away the binoculars from my eyes and turned my head sideways. No matter how hard I thought about it, that was not a war in my eyes, it was a goddamn massacre!

I grabbed my head and cold sweat wet my trembling hands. Although chilling breezes filled the space, I was sweating.

I wiped the sweat away from my face with my shaking hands. Seeing the war unfold with my own eyes was entirely different from watching it in movies.

An immense amount of blood splattered everywhere and witnessing how their eyes, necks, heads, and bodies were pierced by arrows made me dizzy and I wanted to throw up. 

'I realized, I'm just a 'nobody' in this world. Now I understand what 'A frog in a well' means. I failed to see how vast the sky and how deep the ocean is. Also, here I am, foolishly saying that I want to stop this so-called 'war', how outrageous am I?'

I clutched my chest as my breathing became rough for some reason.

"Are you okay?"

I glanced to the side and my eyes locked with Alex's golden eyes.

"I'm fine."

He gave me a bottle of water and without thinking much, I drank it.

"First time is always the hardest, you'll get used to it."

"Cough, cough."

I couldn't help but cough heavily when the liquid entered the wrong hole.

"Jeez. Calm down."

He patted my back.

''Used to it?' Used to what? Seeing people being butchered? Seeing how their bodies exploded into pieces?'

I twirled my head to Alexander and he looked perfectly fine, he wasn't trembling or sweating like me. As if the gruesome scene presented before his eyes meant nothing to him; he didn't faze by it at all.

His mentality was indeed something else. Now that I think about it, wasn't he sent to conquer the Yovanny Kingdom at a young age?

"Feel better?"

"Yeah."

After calming myself down, I drank the water once more and returned the bottle to Alexander. He eyed me intently to make sure that I was okay before he turned to resume his previous activity; watching the war.

I looked at the binoculars on my lap. I exhaled a long deep sigh and put them on again to see how the battle would unravel.

Nothing was different, Chrono's vanguard was still shooting Elemental Cannon, arrows rained down as the second wave attacked and they rammed the remnants of Yovannians warships to make them sink to the bottom of the sea.

Although they started with the same number of galleons, in less than two hours, the enemy ships were annihilated, and now Chrono's fleet under Sir Ethan's commands advanced at full speed toward the Yovanny Kingdom coastal waters.

Yovannians Knights at the beach panicked as their morale plummeted down to the ground. Instead of regrouping, they were running and scattered everywhere; they were trying to save their own lives.

I wouldn't blame them though, it was absolute madness. When they just used normal cannon, the enemy used a laser beam! It looked like they were fighting off a calamity rather than a war, they simply had no chance to win this battle.

'Poor Yovannians.'

Once the fleet arrived at the coastline, the vanguard galleon bombarded the beach with Elemental Cannons. However, I hurriedly removed the binoculars from my eyes and glanced sideways.

Alexander was grinning and his legs swayed merrily as he saw the war through the binoculars. I couldn't believe he looked so happy to see such a horrifying sight like watching a comedy show. Nonetheless, my brows furrowed when a thought crossed my mind.

"I have a question."

"What is it?"

He put down his binoculars and looked at me.

"It's been five months since the war started. Why didn't the Empire use the Elemental Cannon from the beginning?"

"That's because the Elemental Cannon was still under development. When the Yovanny Kingdom declared war on us, the Arcanist Tower rushed to complete the weapon in the past five months. Now that they had successfully finished it, they immediately put them to a test in actual battle."

I shut my mouth tightly. I cursed every foul word I could think of inside. Wouldn't that mean that the Emperor and the Arcanist Tower agreed to prolong the war just to use the Yovanny Kingdom as a guinea pig? I grabbed my head at the sudden headache. So, in the past five months, the Empire was toying with them? 

'I have heard many absurd things, but this one is in a whole different league!'

"Are you okay?"

I waved my other hand.

"Don't worry, I'm fine."

Alexander nodded in response and continued observing the war. However, he uttered words that made me abruptly turn to him with a deeply wrinkled plant on my forehead.

"The Yovanny Kingdom surrenders."

I hurriedly put the binoculars on and cavalry lined up at the top of the hill, there were so many of them, probably a Corps or Army. Each of them waved a white flag. Seeing the sight, the fleet stopped their attacks and swirled the galleons as they were withdrawing.

"Forfeiting from this battle?"

"No. From this war."

"How could you be so sure?"

I clearly remembered that the war would officially end once Alexander reached the age of 17.

"The King of Yovanny Kingdom, King Loewy is there."

"Which one?"

"The one who wears fancy golden armor."

I scanned the forefront army and finally found the one Alex talked about. But, it didn't make sense, though. If the King of Yovanny declared that he was relinquishing, how come the war continued for another nine years? 

--Tap!

I looked downward and Alexander was seen standing below whilst staring at me.

"It's getting late. Let's go back."

"Alright."

I jumped and gave the binoculars back to him. He received them and stored them back in his magical sphere. But, damn, I feel tired and massaged my temples involuntarily. There were so many bizarre things happening today, starting from Fedel, Sir Ulrich, the war, and many more.

"By the way, Alex--"

I turned to him but what I saw was he swung his hand at me and my vision went dark.

...

Before the boy fell to the ground, Alexander skillfully caught him.

--Tap! 

Fedel landed perfectly on the ground and Ulrich appeared behind a tree.

"How is the enemy?"

Alexander asked the old man without bothering to look at him. 

"They moved exactly as Your Highness predicted."

"I see."

He rolled his feet and leaned Damian's body against a tree. He took out a blanket and covered the boy's body with it.

"The preparation?"

Ulrich stepped forward.

"The Knights currently standby at their position."

The black-haired boy nodded in response. A magic circle was formed and the earth around Damian emerged, creating a dome that entirely devoured the boy's body. Fedel expressed his concern.

"Is it okay to leave His Highness like this?"

"I know you are worried about him, but don't worry, he'll be fine. What's important right now is; we must end the war before he regains consciousness."

"I understand."

With that, the three of them descended the mountain.