##

“Rook is dead. Law is killing what remains of his allies.”

That report, coming suddenly and unexpectedly, was perhaps the sweetest one that Elenore had gotten. Her mind felt those dark clouds of headache blown away by a healing wind. She readied herself to issue orders to the now-free ancient god, before another report came in.

“Nikoletta received an injury to the head from the god of pain—it refuses to heal, according to attending spellcasters, but it’s nonfatal. She’s lost an eye, but the deity perished. Almazora is surrounded on all sides, and is desperately strained.”

Elenore straightened her back, sharing a happy glance with the old Lira. The moment news came of Almazora’s demise, she was prepared to send Anneliese to Dirracha—if anyone could beat seven liches at once, it was her.

“From Relize…” came a tired voice, and she felt some of her excitement strain. “The centaurs… they’re… allies, ma’am. They’re firing upon the gargantuan sea creatures on the docks. I…” The report trailed off, its sender in disbelief.

Elenore was similarly stunned. With no word from Lorena as to their intent, and no contact with the centaurs before this moment, she’d assumed they were enemies. But… this? To have a friendly force join the battle, at one of its most pivotal moments? Her head went light and her vision white as relief blew away the black clouds of despair.

“The situation in Dirracha has improved,” came another report. “Some spellcasters have joined the battle. Thank you, Princess Elenore. Thank you,” came a relieved voice.

Elenore couldn’t help but exhale and inhale quickly, venting a thousand emotions as it seemed everything came together, all at once. She slammed her palms upon her desk, rising to her feet as she prepared to issue countless different commands.

chapter-686

Argrave had been wise in his instinct to be wary of this coming confrontation.

Argrave had joined Margrave Reinhardt’s force from on high. When he did, he could feel the distortion of time—the enemies all grew faster, while Argrave felt as though every movement was like trying to swim up the river. It had been easily remedied, fortunately. Any blood magic he cast would eat away at the divinity. He searched Erlebnis’ wiki to find a suitable spell, and found one created by a spellcasting sailor: [Tailwind]. The continuous yet relatively weak wind spell had been designed to push sails, but now Argrave infused it with blood magic and put it at the back of House Parbon’s army, breaking the fragile hold of the warped time over them all.

With that immediate concern addressed, he joined Margrave Reinhardt on the field.

Upon arriving above them all, Argrave grandly made countless divine servants perish with devastating volleys of blood magic. Droves of elites perished beneath his fire, and the margrave’s knights were granted reprieve from the relentless onslaught. Argrave thought he might’ve overestimated this force, until he saw familiar figures rise up, uninjured.

And worse yet… he received no return of essence for their deaths.

He was glad he’d learned this through relatively inexpensive magic. Without Elias’ report, he would’ve used [Godkiller] in an attempt to hunt down one of the leaders of the opposition. It would’ve worked—but the god of time would’ve resurrected the fallen deity, and the only result would’ve been a tremendous expenditure of power without any gain. Somehow, this new god had the power to hold together the fleeting spirits after a god’s death, and create them anew.

The obvious solution, then, was to kill their lynchpin. Facing three formidable forces—elite marksmen, expert assassins, and veteran berserkers—he wasn’t confident in simply bulldozing through the enemy. Still, if this god of time could so ably counter Argrave’s ability, why had he not been given a more prominent role? If he’d been able to provide the same treatment to that god of insects, Argrave couldn’t promise he’d have achieved victory at all.

There had to be a flaw in this formation. He intended to find it. With so many fronts strained, however, time was on the enemy’s side…