Unwilling Defeat

Salwyn was stood atop his carriage, gazing at the battlefield far ahead as he continuously yelled out orders. His voice was already amplified by his mana as much as possible, but in this battlefield full of death cries, yells, and world-shaking howls, his range was limited.

By this point, the great mage had already lost his calm grace. Sweat continuously dripped from his forehead, and despite the aid of magic his voice had grown hoarse from all the roaring. However, he himself was unaware of all this.

His loyal messengers were still shuttling between the carriage and the army like a stream, but facing the ever-changing battlefield even his orders were too difficult to execute accurately.

“Right wing! Hold the right wing, who let you send in the cavalry, withdraw! Don’t you see the back lines ready for the attack... Damn it, they already charged. Block... Tch... Send a team of imperial knights to the right wing and break their charge. Remember to take a cleric!”

Twenty imperial knights in bright armour started charging out from near the carriage after Salwyn’s roars, gradually speeding up until they reached maximum speed in a few hundred metres. They had already levelled their long lances, using the inertia to crack down on the bearguard knights who had broken through the frontlines on the right wing.

Two currents of steel clashed into each other, but the violent collision ended with the defeat of the imperial knights. The tall, strong men had encircled the bearguard knights, but the difference in power was far too great. Most of them were sent flying away alongside their horses as the enemy’s magical horses burst forth with unimaginable strength. There seemed to be no resistance during the collision, as the black-armoured knights didn’t pause for even a moment. They just sped up to chase the imperial knights who were thrown out, cutting many knights and their horses in two with their swords.

It was as though the bearguard had been possessed by a god of death, sweeping back and forth across the region until none of the imperial knights were left alive. The gap on the right wing grew even larger. Fortunately, these demons didn’t seem able to withstand a long battle. They retreated after disrupting the right wing, and countless warriors in all sorts of attire began fighting in their place.

The right wing was embroiled in complete chaos. The bearguard knights had chiselled through the middle of their formation, ripping it apart and allowing a large number of fierce and extremely vicious warriors to break in.

When the allied armies of the Iron Triangle Empire and the churches of the Sequoia Kingdom couldn’t hold on much longer, a ray of holy light poured out from the middle of the formation that was on the brink of breaking apart. It was like the warriors within had drunk potions, their spirit boosted as their strength, reflexes, and endurance were greatly enhanced. They immediately brought disastrous casualties to the enemy, even pulling two bearguard knights off their magical mounts.

Not far away, Sinclair squinted her eyes from atop her manticore’s back, licking her lips lightly as she murmured, “The stench of magic again... I hate priests...”

She had neither joined the attack nor commanded the army this entire time. It seemed like she was a little girl who was out of her mind, standing blankly in position and repeatedly talking to herself. However, once she was done murmuring her silhouette suddenly disappeared. She maintained her posture from before disappearing when she returned, her expression still one of naive and innocent confusion, but she was right behind the only high-ranking priest on the battlefield. She had moved hundreds of metres away from her original position, and now she looked around and screeched like a lost little girl as she fled to his side.

The small troop of paladins protecting the priest did not manage to respond in time. A petite, beautiful doll of a girl who was almost naked was screaming as she ran towards them, and nobody even though of stopping her.

It looked like she didn’t do anything, but the priest’s magic was suddenly cut off. Soon after, the blessings he’d cast on the soldiers disappeared one by one. The priest was stunned, looking down at his chest only to see an unknown large hole in the luxurious and expensive robes he wore. The hole revealed a terrifying cavity in his exposed chest, with nothing inside.

Isn’t that where the heart is supposed to be? With this last doubt, the priest lost all light in his eyes before rapidly collapsing onto his back. As for the little girl, a heart had unknowingly appeared in her hand.

However, this heart was not the priest’s. That one was already in her stomach. She sniffed this one and threw it aside, before another heart miraculously appeared in her little hands once more. The warm heart was still beating tenaciously, unaware that it had left its owner.

Just like that, Sinclair’s silhouette appeared and disappeared in this battlefield where thousands of people were killing each other. Her appearance was tender and delicate, completely at odds with the brutal fighting around her. She was just like a wilful little girl that was picking fruits from the trees along the way, taking a bite from the delocious ones and throwing away those that were not. It was just that any other little girl would probably be picking real fruits; she was picking her enemies’ hearts. The soldiers she walked past suddenly paused in their movements, falling off their horses without a sign. Only then would one see fresh blood rapidly pooling below their bodies.

Sinclair passed through the battlefield, returning to her frontlines before she conveniently shoved the heart in her hand into the manticore’s mouth before jumping on its head. She looked at the battlefield and let out a sharp whistle, pointing ahead to ten bearguard knights. The manticore immediately leapt forward.

They quickly crossed towards enemy ranks. Just ahead of the bearguard knights’ charge, the paladins fell off their horses one after the other. The chaos in the right wing was slowly starting to bleed into the left.

“Damn it, we can’t guard that any longer!” Salwyn smashed down on the guardrail of his carriage roof, turning his head abruptly as he shouted, “A squad of imperial knights, paladins, a hundred infantry, and a priest!”

Salwyn’s voice suddenly became faltered after giving the orders. The neat square formation of the reserve troops behind him was now staggered apart. The soldiers corresponding to the orders stepped out immediately and charged into the battlefield to reinforce the defensive line, but that left only a few hundred soldiers behind. Of that, only twenty of them were knights. All the mages and priests were already on the battlefield.

The only ones capable of magic who weren’t deployed apart from Salwyn himself were a level 15 great mage and a level 16 priest. The two were considered the cream of the crop in the Sequoia Kingdom, their status no lower than his own. They were truly distinguished figures that could not be placed in danger.

“Demon... She’s a real demon! We need to annihilate her, regardless of the price!” The priest’s grizzly beard was trembling, his old wrinkle-filled face distorted with rage. Words were not enough to express his anger, as he smashed his jade-embedded gold sceptre into the roof of the carriage.

‘MY CARRIAGE!’ Salwyn snarled inside his mind, but he didn’t speak it out loud, ‘Since you hate demons so much, then go kill her already!’

However, he knew quite clearly that this priest in front of him wouldn’t dare go out onto the battlefield after seeing Sinclair take out his companion so easily. The most he could do was bless the reserve troops who were prepared to move out.

Neian’s influence in the Sequoia Kingdom was limited, with only three level 16 priests in total. One of them would be a cardinal in the future, and now that one of them had died unexpectedly in battle the possibility for the remaining ones to advance had increased from a third to a half. This was a huge increase, but if he died in battle as well the one priest who hadn’t come here would be guaranteed that spot.

The mathematics was simple, but human minds weren’t. Even while working for the honour of their god, worshippers were allowed to retain some amount of selfishness.