Chương 66: Angel and Demon
The emperor and his forces were stunned as they watched lightning rain and hit only the imperial soldiers in Basilica's army camp.
It was an unprecedented scene, beautiful and frightening. Few sorcerers, mages, witches and wizards had reached such power.
A human usually becomes a conjurer in search of riches, but there are those who deepen in the path of magic in search of knowledge and power, but human life is short and they never can do that made and there are liches.
Through a ritual, a person attaches his soul to a specific gem and leaves life to go a little deeper into the path of magic. But ironically they lose the ability to use common magic, and everything that remains for them is the dark magic that has only one purpose, destruction.
Of course, there are those who are of races that have long longevity and managed to conquer the depths of magic and obtain unimaginable powers.
However these cases were eternal eccentric researchers who avoided even their on race to continue their path and go even deeper in the magic way, never appearing in records or history during their lifetimes.
These were usually the owners of ruins with many treasures and tomes of spells never seen before.
So having someone using magic of the eighth cycle or higher on a battlefield was something to both admire and fear.
"How are we going to fight this monster?" Sued, the emperor, asked when the lightning show was over.
Veta snorted as he looked at the sorcerer beside him and Verio said. "If she was the person who destroyed the walls and gates, made that weather change and used that weird yellow power that destroyed everything in the southeast wing of the city, I think she must be out of mana with this spell."
"So we don't need to worry about attacking and being destroyed with a tenth cycle spell?" Veta asked. He was thinking of the meteor that destroyed the gate, a tenth cycle spell.
"Probably. If only we had someone on our side who could see the mana..." Verio said with a disappointed expression.
That's because even though he was a powerful sorcerer, his talent was limited to that.
Not everyone could see the mana. If they did, all they would see, would be a world clouded with azure blue energy. Those who could see, could also ignore and there, among the imperials, there was a person who had this ability.
Samy gaped as he looked out into the middle of the camp. In the center of all that smoke of burned corpse, a thick, dense column of mana stretched serenely upward.
(Should I let them know?) Samy thought, torn between work and friendship.
Samy rubbed his temples through his orange hair, squinted his eyes, forced a decision, and remained silent.
To begin with, he wasn't even part of the empire. The kindred tribe took no orders from the empire and did not meddle in the affairs of the country.
Samy only accepted to be part of the order of knights led by Veta because it made it easier for him to open a shop. In other words, his relationship with the empire was just business.
(I can open another store in another city...) Samy thought and disappeared into the crowd.
***
The emperor cupped his chin thoughtfully, considering the battlefield's possibilities. He thought of several hypotheses that could lead them to victory, but he also didn't ignore the chances of defeat.
Information was sparse despite all that display of power Athena gave. He could not calculate her real power and regretted not having made a political approach sooner.
He didn't know Athena never intended to deal with the empire peacefully. In fact, he had no way of knowing that Athena never intended to interact politically with the empire.
Athena's plan had always been war and there she was, bringing war to the empire with a small but overwhelming force.
"Veta, you take care of that woman." Sued said keeping his eyes focused on the enemy army. "Samy will help you."
Veta nodded and looked to the side, looking for Samy. "Samy? Where's Samy?"
"What are you talking about sir? Sir Samy is small, but he's just..." Verio said and then his thin eyes widened as he noticed the little knight's absence. "He was right here!" Verio looked around and Veta jumped from the ground to a large boulder nearby, to get a better view of the place.
The night was dark from the clouds summoned by Athena, but Veta had better eyes than expected of a knight.
Among the millions of soldiers, Veta saw Samy's flame-colored hair and gritted his teeth as veins appeared on his face.
"Damn you coward!" Veta said and flew in a leap away, towards Samy.
That place was a battleground, but the battle started on the wrong side. Veta drew his sword in mid-flight and swung it in a blow that killed dozens of Imperial soldiers while Samy dodged with some ease.
"Where do you think you're going?" Veta growled.
Samy laughed, his hair and face red with blood that didn't belong to him and then looked at Veta with a piercing look.
Samy's blue eyes gleamed sharply and when Veta swung his sword again, Samy caught it.
"Hahaha... Veta, I won't fight Athena." Samy said upon seeing Veta's stiffened expression. "She's my friend, you know? Friend can fight, but never kill each other."
"Tsk! Didn't you swear to protect the empire?" Veta bugged when regaining control of his expressions.
Samy looked at the man with a disinterested look. The little let go of Veta's sword and jumped on Veta, hanging on the back of the man's armor and whispering. 'This coming from the man who wants to destroy the empire? You must make up your mind, my friend.'
"..." Veta was speechless. (How does he know that?) The knight thought, watching Samy walk away.
***
On Athena's side, things were much calmer. Now with time on hand, the soldiers equipped themselves and armored the monsters that were still alive, preparing for the night battle.
Meanwhile, in Athena's tent, Lobana, Trigan, Serien, Koria and Athena discussed how to attack while Mifa helped to attach the armor to Athena's body.
It wasn't relevant to the war, but Mefa did it out of jealousy of the ladies-in-waiting, which she made Athena leave behind.
"Let's make things simple and quick..." Athena said as the others came up with ideas and plots for the battle. "Let's wait for them to come to us and that moment I'm going to use a tenth cycle spell."
"Do you still have mana for that?" Trigan asked in bewilderment. (Monster...)
"Yes. I'll only be able to use this once, so don't miss your chance to kill what's left." Athena said and her eyes widened when Mifa squeezed her ass.
The people there noticed, but nobody said anything. Some out of shame like Serien and others out of envy like Trigan.
Koria cleared her throat and then continued the meeting. After Athena's attack, they would run across the battlefield to kill the rest while Athena, Oliana, Lobana, Koria and Trigan took care of the knights of Veta's order.
"They will surely survive your attack." Lobana said.
"I think so too and that's why we'll do it that way." Athena said and finally the time came.
The Basilicaan army lined up with murderous intent emanating from their eyes as they faced the imperial army in the distance.
The moons were again allowed to light the place after Athena had dissipated her magic. Athena looked at the lush natural satellites and smiled as she saw the red moon ahead of the others.
As she had proclaimed in the past, that moon belonged to her and she named it of "Moon of Massacre". Athena was satisfied with the position of the moon, it was like a signal for what was about to happen.
An imperial knight rode halfway across the battlefield between the armies, leaving Athena in confusion.
Athena had seen such thing in movies and read in books, but she thought they had already passed that stage by the time she invaded the capital.
"Majesty will not send any messengers?" Serien asked.
"What for? This war is very simple. We kill and we won."
"Yeah, but they don't know why we're invading them."
"They don't need to know." Athena said and looked for Koria. "There you are. Use that idiot as the trigger for empire."
Understanding what Athena meant, Koria drew an arrow from her quiver and aimed with her bow.
When the woman released the arrow, the silent place was overtaken by a brief whistle and then the groan of the man who was hit and fell dead from his horse.
When that happened, Athena's army vibrated and the imperial army roared. This was an obvious sign of affront to the emperor's goodwill, and in a shout from their sovereign, the imperials advanced.
The soldiers' cries of bravery thundered across the plain and the ground shook with the furious advance of the soldiers.
People close to Athena, turned away from the queen when they saw the bizarre smile that had appeared in that beautiful face of hers.
Athena laughed euphorically, stretched an arm toward the Imperials. Athena's mana decreased and a strange phenomenon occurred in the middle of the terrain where the imperial army was.
"{Solar Blast}" Athena said.
Night turned to day and radiant columns of fire and light descended from the sky as if the sun itself was attacking the imperial army that melted and burned in their armor.
Athena's magic destroyed the imperial army without giving them time to scream in pain or mourn their fate.
That magic was the materialization of absolute violence and when it was all over, that violence left behind a scar in the earth in the form of burning lava and cracks.
Athena was beginning to feel the energy of the lives she took running through her body. If this were still a game, it would be like gain over 200 levels at once.
Until that day, Athena had only killed thousands at once. The energy of thousands of lives generated a tolerable discomfort, but where is now a lake of fire and death, there were millions of people.
The energy of thousands was like an irritating wave of heat, but what about the energy of millions?
In reaction to all that energy, Athena flinched, feeling her insides being churned by something that felt like hot water running through every inch of her body.
The people of both armies looked at the destruction in the place, open-mouthed with fear and amazement.
The Basilicians and mercenaries were beginning to think of Athena as some sort of high-ranking angel, completely forgetting the Queen of Death fame that Athena had acquired nearly a year ago.
"Athena!" Mifa hurried to Athena when she saw the woman kneeling, her skin red, almost as if she was boiling from the inside out. "Athena, what's wrong? Did you use that skill again?"
The concern in Mifa's voice pulled the leaders of the Basilican army out of hypnosis and Koria, Serien, Oliana, Lobana and Trigan surrounded the queen with mixed expressions of fear, astonishment and confusion on their faces.
On the imperial side, there are still nearly a million soldiers left alive and they all had the same expression on their faces.
Everyone started to think they were facing some unknown demon lord, they were all terrified.
***
East of there, far from the empire, Mammon reached the Karena island and waiting for him, there was a white winged army.
"Mammon, demon lords are not allowed in the world above. Go away!"
SUY NGHĨ CỦA NGƯỜI SÁNG TẠO 
All_J
All_J I'll be frank, I'm dying for this war to end and have a little daily life. Athena and Mifa flirting around the corners and showing a little jealous Anemus...
That said, this arc has been a lot of fun to write.
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