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A massive wall of fire had completely surrounded the enemy forces.

They couldn’t move forward, let alone retreat.

Everyone stood dazed, shocked by the sudden appearance of the phenomenon.

Viktor was the first to regain his senses and shouted at the wizards beside him.

“Break this magic! Dispel it, now!”

However, the wizards were frozen in place, their eyes wide open, unable to move.

“We… we cannot dispel this magic.”

“What?! You’re wizards, aren’t you?!”

“This magic is beyond our circle.”

One of the wizards stuttered as he explained.

“Look closely. Does this look like normal magic to you? Have you ever seen anything like this before? Even the Tower Masters of most Magic Towers couldn’t cast something like this. We can’t dispel this magic.”

Another wizard, glaring at the wall of fire, joined in.

“This is 4th-circle magic. But the one who cast it isn’t a 4th-circle mage. At least…”

“At least what?”

“…at least a 7th-circle.”

“Don’t be ridiculous! There are only two 7th-circle mages in the entire kingdom! Are you saying one of them is here?”

Viktor gritted his teeth and shouted, but the wizard mumbled to himself as if not hearing him.

“No, even a 7th-circle mage couldn’t do this. What in the world is this? This goes beyond the concept of typical magic. This isn’t just personal power. What is it? A magic circle? An artifact? There must be some kind of device. There has to be a medium.”

Even in the midst of this, the wizards seemed more interested in satisfying their curiosity than defeating the enemy.

They began to inspect the wall of fire, analyzing the patterns of mana.

However, Viktor had no interest in the principles behind the magic.

“The Count sent you to deal with any mages! And now you’re saying you can’t do anything? Do you think this is the time to stand around gawking?”

“There… there’s nothing we can do.”

“Even the Count wouldn’t have expected something like this.”

Hearing the wizards’ excuses, Viktor’s anger flared to its peak.

“Ugh, useless fools! Weren’t you supposed to be prepared for something like this?!”

Count Desmond had assigned two wizards to Viktor in case Ferdium had hired their own mages with the money from selling the Runestone.

Even the thorough Harold hadn’t anticipated that Ferdium might have a mage above the 5th-circle.

In the entire kingdom, there were fewer than fifty mages who had surpassed the 5th-circle.

No matter how much money Ferdium had, the best they could have brought in that short time would have been a 4th-circle mage.

That’s what Harold had thought.

“Are you saying even the Count couldn’t have foreseen this?”

Viktor muttered to himself before suddenly lifting his head.

The siege had become impossible due to the wall of fire blocking all sides.

They had no choice but to wait for the magic to fade.

The flames surrounded them, but if they ran quickly, they might be able to retreat through the back.

“Retreat! Regroup and wait until the fire dies down; then we’ll advance again! Get out of this area as quickly as possible!”

As Viktor shouted loudly and was about to turn his horse around, one of the wizards spoke up.

“Come to think of it, the concentration of mana here is unusually dense. Something’s off…”

Rumble!

In an instant, the horses they were riding staggered. The wizard couldn’t finish his sentence and pulled at the reins.

Vanessa had begun casting the next stage of her magic.

The golden magic circle engraved in her eyes rotated once.

Crack!

The Runestone bracelets worn by her and Alfoi’s group shattered into dust and scattered.

The wall of fire was merely a means to trap the enemy in place momentarily. The actual attack was just beginning.

The mana that had been blending into the surroundings slowly began to take form.

It seeped into the ground, meeting something that had been waiting beneath.

At last, the conditions were perfectly met.

Vanessa softly muttered,

“…Flame Strike.”

The ground trembled as if mana was erupting forth.

Boom!

Rumble!

KABOOM!

With an earth-shattering roar, dozens of massive pillars of fire shot up from all directions.

“Aaaaargh!”

Viktor’s soldiers screamed as they were engulfed in flames.

Those who stood at the center of the fire pillars couldn’t even scream before being reduced to ash.

“This is—!”

KABOOM!

Neither Viktor nor the wizards could escape the explosion.

The battlefield had turned into utter chaos.

Those who survived began to scream, throw down their weapons, and scatter in all directions.

“Aaaah!”

“Spare me!”

“Fall back! Get back!”

The fire spread, filling every corner.

The gigantic fire pillars devoured siege towers and ladders, growing ever larger.

Soldiers whose bodies were set ablaze rolled on the ground in vain.

Inside the gates, the soldiers of the Ferdium estate could only swallow nervously as they watched the hellish scene unfold before their eyes.

Who could have possibly prepared something like this?

Zwalter, who had been in a daze, staggered but barely regained his balance. He stood upright to peer down at the chaos below.

Unlike the confused soldiers, Ghislain and the mercenaries appeared calm.

“Could it be… Ghislain, was this your doing?”

At that moment, Vanessa collapsed, coughing blood.

A nearby mercenary caught her as she fell from the air.

Ghislain briefly looked back and spoke.

“Belinda, take care of the mages.”

“Huh? Oh, yes, yes!”

Belinda, along with a few soldiers, began to carry the fallen mages and retreated.

Ghislain turned and started walking. The mercenaries followed behind him.

Zwalter shouted loudly.

“Ghislain! What are you doing?!”

But Ghislain neither responded nor stopped. Zwalter, now desperate, shouted again.

“Stop! Stop! That’s enough! We’ve already won! They’re all going to flee into that fire! Why on earth are you going out there? It’s a sea of flames out there!”

Only then did Ghislain halt his steps and look back at him.

His reply was cold and emotionless.

“Because they need to die.”

“What?”

“We’ll hunt down every single one of those fleeing bastards and kill them. They need to feel the painful consequences of daring to covet Ferdium.”

“You’re serious about this…?”

“Any future enemies who set their sights on this place will think twice. They’ll wonder if they truly have the courage to risk their lives.”

Thud.

A brutal killing intent radiated from Ghislain. It was the kind of presence only someone who had survived by piling up bodies could emit.

Zwalter felt chills run down his spine as he saw this unfamiliar side of his son.

How could he exude such terrifying power?

But for now, stopping his son was the priority.

“I understand your intent, but how do you plan to enter those flames?!”

Even if one used mana to shield themselves, there would be limits to how much it could protect against such an intense fire.

Anyone foolish enough to attempt to break through would surely die.

However, despite Zwalter’s desperate plea, Ghislain merely gave him a silent, sly grin.

* * *

Count Tamos, who had been observing from the rear, was utterly startled by the sudden eruption of flames.

“What, what is this?! What’s with these flames? Why are they shooting up out of nowhere?!”

He had no idea what was happening, nor could he comprehend the situation at all.

A few of the soldiers on the outskirts managed to escape, but far more had perished.

Some had managed to flee even while their bodies were aflame, but they died shortly after.

As Tamos stood there, dazed, a young officer shouted loudly.

“Get a hold of yourself! You need to issue a retreat order! Sound the horn and send the remaining soldiers forward to help the wounded!”

The officer urgently continued when he saw that Tamos still hadn’t recovered his senses.

“This isn’t a forest, sir. The area is wide open, and we don’t have mounts. If we can just escape, we can regroup and gather the troops again!”

One of the greatest dangers of fire attacks was how quickly the flames could spread by burning trees and other surroundings.

However, in this open plain, there wasn’t much for the fire to consume, so it wouldn’t spread far and would die out quickly.

“You, you’re under the scribe’s command… Lowell, was it? But what if the enemy comes after us? Shouldn’t we just flee right now…?”

“The enemy can’t cross the fire either, sir. They’re probably waiting for us to either run or burn to death. It’ll take time for them to circle around to another gate. We need to act now.”

Tamos, still stumbling over his words, asked again.

“But, but… what if they come before we’ve gathered our forces? Isn’t it better to just run?”

“For god’s sake…! Lord! Without an army, it’s over whether we surrender or not! We need soldiers left alive if we want to negotiate any sort of surrender! We need to save as many as we can!”

“Yes, yes, you’re right. Move the wounded! Once we’ve gathered enough, we’ll retreat!”

At Tamos’s urgent shout, the guards stationed at the rear finally began to move.

He had only about a hundred soldiers left, but this was all that remained of his forces.

* * *

Meanwhile, Ghislain dusted off his armor and looked back at the mercenaries.

“We won’t hold out for long. Kill as many as you can as fast as possible, and take care of the rest.”

The black armor worn by Ghislain and the mercenaries was reinforced with the inner hide of the Dirus Ent. It was strong enough to temporarily withstand even 4th-circle fire magic, which meant it could endure the immense flames of that powerful magic for a short time.

Gillian shook his head as he remarked.

“This must be the most expensive trap in history.”

“Probably. We blew all the Runestones we gathered for this.”

“Aren’t you bothered by wasting those Runestones?”

“Money is just a means to an end.”

The mercenaries, who had followed orders without knowing the full plan, finally understood Ghislain’s strategy.

From the moment war was declared, Ghislain had ordered the mercenaries to bury a large number of Runestones in the ground outside the castle.

“At first, I thought we were hiding them to avoid having them stolen, but to think they’d be used like this. All those enemies just got wiped out.”

“Doesn’t it seem wasteful to you?”

“I was planning to dig some of them up later and take a little bit for myself, but now they’ve all blown up.”

The mercenaries let out bitter laughs.

Normally, they would have taken the Runestones and run. It was more than enough wealth to live comfortably for the rest of their lives.

But they had used all of them for a single trap.

Whether it was brilliant or insane, they couldn’t quite decide.

“Still, that woman is impressive. Turns out she’s a real mage.”

“What circle is she, anyway? Could she be an Archmage?”

“I thought she was just a servant.”

The mercenaries marveled at the result, but the truth was slightly different.

No matter how much mana was transferred to her, Vanessa wasn’t yet skilled enough to simultaneously detonate so many Runestones.

She had only triggered a few of them.

However, each of the Runestones had been meticulously engraved with techniques for concentration, chain reactions, and explosions.

Before the war was declared, Vanessa tirelessly inscribed these formulas onto the stones under Ghislain’s orders.

It was a task only possible because of her exceptional magical knowledge and intuition.

Ghislain had been preparing this trap ever since he had first extracted the Runestones from the Forest of Beasts. Bringing Vanessa from the Magic Tower was all part of that plan.

Finally, it was time to make those who dared invade pay the price.

It was time to unleash the rage he had held back for so long.

“Kill every one of them in sight!”

With a loud shout, Ghislain charged forward.

Gillian and Kaor followed behind him, and the hesitant mercenaries, gritting their teeth, rushed in as well.

“Damn it! Let’s go!”

“They said it’s safe, so it should be fine!”

“Let’s kill them all before they run away!”

Sizzle!

The inner hide of the Dirus Ent began to dry and release steam as it came into contact with the flames.

“Whoa, it’s hot! It’s really hot!”

“We can hold out, right?”

“Let’s kill quickly and get out of here!”

On the hellish battlefield, there were still quite a few survivors.

The mercenaries chased after those desperately trying to flee, swinging their weapons with all their might.

“Kraaagh!”

Enemies struggling in the flames fell helplessly to the ground.

As the mercenaries slaughtered the survivors, Ghislain was searching through the fire for someone.

‘I need to kill that bastard Viktor first.’

Even now, Viktor was formidable. As time passed, he would surely become an even more dangerous adversary.

Ghislain had to find and kill him in this battle.

‘If he died from a direct hit by one of the fire pillars, that would be best… but I need to confirm even a piece of his corpse.’

Ghislain sprinted through the battlefield, cutting through the horrifying screams of enemy soldiers.

‘I found him.’

At last, he spotted a man standing alone in the flames.

“Kraaah! My army! How dare you!”

Viktor roared with fury.

Half of his face was covered in blisters, still sizzling from the heat, and his armor was cracked and dented in various places.

Yet, he was still alive.

“I’ll kill you all! I’ll rip your guts out and hang your heads from the walls!”

His eyes gleamed with madness.

There was no turning back now.

Even if it meant going alone, he intended to cut down the lord of Ferdium and all his retainers.

Even if he died here, this would be the last way to preserve his honor and pride.

As Viktor poured out streams of mana and prepared to charge toward the Ferdium castle—

Whoosh!

Something tore through the flames, hurtling straight toward him.