Seeing unease twist Tekla’s and Mirion’s expressions, I considered sending my priestess a vision to let her know that I had already taken countermeasures, but there was no need.
The griffin, still circling the Tree of Life in hopes of finding another rat, suddenly chirped and ran toward the temple entrance, flapping its wings in excitement. Its talons scraped loudly against the hard, dark wooden floor as it hurried forward.
Just as it reached the entrance, Aurelion descended.
Or rather, he slammed into the ground.
At first glance, there was no grace to his landing. It looked as though he had fallen from the sky or had been in too much of a hurry to descend. Yet despite his size and weight, further increased by Aria and Avenor clinging to him, the ground did not so much as tremble beneath him.
The three Velmoryns, initially startled by the griffin’s behavior, rushed toward the entrance the moment their eyes landed on Aurelion.
I even caught a glimpse of relief and happiness in Mirion’s eyes when he realized my angel had arrived.
“Avenor? Aria?” he muttered in confusion once he noticed the two people Aurelion had brought with him.
“Praise be to High Father,” Tekla declared, tracing my symbol across her chest.
Her smile brightened when Aurelion gave her an approving nod. She opened her mouth, likely intending to ask whether he would help them in the battle, but my angel spoke before she could.
“My Liege wishes to see His children prevail,” he said. “He commanded me to bring His two chosen warriors to aid you in the coming battle. By His will, you shall slay His enemies and prove your faith!”
What a speech…
I watched in disappointment as Aurelion flapped his giant crimson wings and shot back into the sky, leaving a cloud of dust behind him. I had not expected a grand declaration that would set the velmoryns’ blood boiling and ignite a fire in their hearts, but even by the standards of someone as inexperienced as my angel, it had been underwhelming.
The velmoryns below did not seem disappointed. Well, Mirion might have been, since he had clearly hoped Aurelion would do the fighting himself, but the others merely looked confused.
“So, we’ve come,” Avenor said with a snort after the silence stretched a little too long. “Now that we are here, can someone explain what is happening?”
“Um…” Tekla murmured, still looking lost.
“We are at war,” Mirion began, recovering first, but Avenor cut him off.
“I know that much. The angel told us. But he also said the enemy is using divine power. Are there… I don’t know, other angels? Gods? Inquisitors?”
“So that is why He brought you here,” Tekla said, her face lighting up. “You shall smite the evil as you did last time.”
She turned toward Lucas.
“Bring the chosen one’s sword!”
Avenor stood there, completely lost for words, as Lucas walked back into the temple.
“Verde, I’m not sure I can kill a creature capable of using divinity. You do remember the Mother was barely alive when we fought her, don’t you?”
His thoughts reached me, carrying more unease than his expression showed. In front of the others, he kept his posture straight and did his best to appear confident.
“You’ve grown,” I murmured to myself as I continued observing through the Window.
While they waited for the sword I had created for Avenor, Tekla and Mirion quickly explained everything they knew.
Not far from them, entirely removed from both the conversation and the situation around her, stood Aria.
She fidgeted with the hem of her gray dress, staring into the sky without blinking.
“That strength… that energy…” she murmured. “So beautiful.”
<<>>
After several hours of planning, the velmoryn army left Eriavel and arrived at the place where Mirion had decided to meet the human forces.
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Despite her initial protests, Tekla was not among them. She might have been powerful while wielding my divinity, but she possessed absolutely no combat skills of her own, and on a battlefield, even a stray arrow could claim her life.
“They should arrive soon. Despite your concerns, they have not changed their route,” Aria said as a small green diagram faded beside her, taking with it the bird made entirely of mana.
Mirion nodded before stepping forward to where Dariel and Avenor stood.
“You can see everything the bird sees?” Lily asked.
“Yes,” Aria replied.
“Teach me when we return to Eriavel.”
Aria answered with a small nod. She was always eager to share her knowledge of magic.
“We should begin preparing our spells as well,” she said when she saw Mirion giving orders to the frontline and the rangers.
The human army was about a kilometer away. After Lucas’s attack, they had stopped marching and taken time to rest, probably to recover their morale and allow their leaders to devise countermeasures against another ambush. Yet after they resumed their advance, no further attacks came.
Even so, their tense expressions and the way soldiers flinched whenever they heard a beast growl or even a branch snap showed just how badly the first ambush had affected them. The mental fatigue had not broken them yet, but it would certainly reveal itself once the battle began.
Not that I expected this particular fight to last long.
I had watched the velmoryns prepare for the campaign against the nest, so I thought I more or less understood how Mirion would handle the battle.
I was wrong.
The force of one thousand warriors, which I had assumed would remain together and meet the enemy head-on, had instead been divided into five groups.
The frontliners, who would meet the humans directly, were led by Mirion and Dariel. The mages were under Lily and Othrien, who was practically serving as High Vael now but had absolutely no authority when it came to war. Nia commanded the archers, while Lyle was responsible for the warriors of her own tribe. They numbered around one hundred, and their orders were to circle around the battlefield and remain hidden until the rear of the enemy formation was exposed.
Lucas and the Crimson Root had been given the same task as before. They were to identify the enemy leaders and kill them whenever an opportunity appeared.
Aria and Avenor were ordered to remain behind the main force. Avenor would only engage once the enemy began using divine power. His Phantom Step allowed him to cover the distance almost instantly, so there was no reason to keep him near the frontline, while Aria, as the strongest duelist among them, would support him should a truly powerful foe appear.
The plan was simple and straightforward, and victory seemed guaranteed.
My confidence in an easy win only grew when the velmoryns roared like wild beasts the moment the humans came into view. Merely imagining myself standing among the opposing force, I probably would have been scared to death.
Then hell began.
The archers fired first.
The human frontliners raised their shields while the mages cast barriers to protect the soldiers behind them. Yet the moment the first arrow struck a shield with a dull thud and dropped harmlessly to the ground, the humans realized they had made a mistake.
It began with a flash.
A bomb fastened to one of the arrowheads flared and exploded, sending fire roaring in every direction. One after another, the bombs detonated with deafening force, their thunder rolling through the forest and shaking the earth beneath them.
Within seconds, the first line of frontliners disappeared in the blaze.
The human mages responded quickly, casting water spells that extinguished the flames with relative ease.
Sadly, Gundir had only recently discovered how to make the bombs work, so both their number and variety were still very limited.
Still, they had disrupted the frontline enough for Mirion to give the next order.
Arrows descended like rain.
Many struck branches or buried themselves in tree trunks, just as the explosive arrows had, but enough reached their targets.
Cries of pain followed. Injured men who could no longer move dragged the bodies of their fallen comrades over themselves for cover, while others crawled across the wounded in an attempt to reach the priests and beg for healing.
Finally, the mages formed a glowing golden barrier that repelled the arrows still pouring down from above.
Just as the humans began recovering, Othrien cast his spell. A giant icicle passed through the golden barrier without resistance and crashed into the frontline. It tore through several dozen men before continuing into the rear, where it ripped apart several mages as well.
The mages hurried to form a different type of barrier, a blue one, as spell after spell rained down upon them. Fire, ice, acid, even plant magic battered their position from every direction.
The blue barrier was already beginning to fade, but for the moment, it continued to hold against the barrage of spells.
Still, it was clear that the humans were losing numbers quickly. Their frontliners, who had once numbered more than a thousand, had already been reduced to only a few hundred.
That was when the same priest pulled a scroll from beneath his robe, cut open his right palm, and smeared blood across its surface.
The scroll shimmered green, growing brighter as its edges began to fade as though consumed by fire.
Almost immediately, both barriers raised by the human mages vanished.
But their magic was not the only thing affected.
The spells cast by my mages also lost their form. Whenever they approached the human forces, they faded away as though erased by an invisible boundary.
“What kind of magic is that?” Aria murmured, a glint appearing in her eyes.
Guidance.
[No-Magic Zone]
Within this area, mana cannot be shaped. The effect lasts for 10 minutes.