Little Tyrant Doesn’t Want to Meet with a Bad End
chapter-599-3

What lifted soldiers’ morale the most on the battlefield?

This was a vague question with many answers, depending on the context, but there was only one answer to the united army right now—the arrival of reinforcement.

When the black-armored cavalrymen began their thunderous charge, the human soldiers fighting in the desert were momentarily stunned before cheers broke out. In contrast, the deviants howled in indignation.

The arrival of reinforcement from the Austine Empire greatly uplifted the human soldiers’ spirits, but what shocked them was that the reinforcement was more than they had expected.

The cavalrymen charging down from the northern valley’s narrow path were just the vanguard. The true army was making its way from the wider foothills. Their soldiers were well-equipped, and the flags they carried stretched all the way to the horizon.

“How many people is that?!”

“A hundred thousand? Two hundred thousand?”

The sight of that ignited the human soldiers’ fighting will.

The wounded commanders tightened their grip on their weapons and launched another wave of attack. Hope returned to the eyes of the soldiers who had resolved themselves to death. Without any pep talk whatsoever, the human soldiers pulled themselves together and launched a tenacious counterattack.

On the other hand, Lilian gathered a huge bulk of mana that could be felt even from far away and summoned an army of a thousand blue-armored knights.

This was one of the strongest knight orders of the Ancient Austine Empire, with a great legacy that had lasted a thousand years. In this decisive war between two races, the proud knights who defended the ancient human empire displayed astounding fighting intent. Their prowess was further enhanced by Lilian’s powers, granting each of them strength equivalent to Origin Level 3 transcendents.

They charged ahead of the black-armored knights, becoming the sharpest edge of humankind’s counterattack. It was under this knight order’s leadership that the Austine Empire’s cavalrymen had remained undefeated over the past two years.

Under Lilian’s command, the black-armored knights charged straight toward the deviants’ flanks. The deviants desperately put up a defense against this incoming attack, but it was no use.

The blue-armored knights pierced into the deviants’ armies and furiously brandished their mana-imbued swords to tear as many openings in their formations as possible, inducing utmost confusion. In fact, they even cut right through the deviants’ formation in a single breath.

“Look over there! Their flank!”

“They managed to tear through their formation!”

The human soldiers cheered excitedly at the sight of the deviants’ collapsing army formation. Both Nora and Charlotte also looked relieved.

We won.

That was the thought the two of them harbored in their minds.

A battle between two armies was heavily determined by their respective formations. Once an army had its flank breached, the soldiers in front would become vulnerable to attacks from both the front and the back, which was as good as dooming them. Similarly, the back lines would also be cut off from reinforcements from the frontlines, putting them at risk of being annihilated.

Of course, it was possible for the deviants to quickly regroup and counterattack, but it was a pity they were up against Lilian Ackermann, who wielded the power to keep summoning legendary armies from the Ancient Austine Empire. It went without saying that she wouldn’t give them any room to catch their breath.

The deviants’ formation was mercilessly sliced into two by a force reminiscent of a torrential current, and the footsoldiers behind steadily marched into the opening to encircle the panicking deviants and massacre them.

By the time the black spheres arrived once more, the deviants’ formation had already collapsed. There was no salvaging the situation anymore. This battle ended with humankind’s victory.

The outermost encirclement of the deviants had succumbed, opening humankind’s path into Hawe Desert.

…

Deafening cheers echoed from the united army as soon as the battle concluded.

The Austine Empire’s soldiers also raised their weapons up high and roared triumphantly as an expression of respect toward the others. It was an astounding feat for the united army to have stood their ground against the deviants for a night despite suffering a numerical disadvantage, and they saw it as an honor to fight alongside such soldiers.

The cheers lasted for a long time before slowly dying down.

Nora and Charlotte quickly ordered the soldiers to clean the battlefield and save the wounded. Lilian also dispatched her medics down to the battlefield to help out. The other soldiers were ordered to stay put and await further orders.

Lilian stared at the remnants of the deviants’ armies fleeing deeper into the desert with narrowed eyes. She did consider giving pursuit and ending them for good, but that was simply too risky. While she hadn’t met its owner yet, she could vaguely sense a terrifying mana pulsation and pressure coming from the center of the desert.

In the end, she decided not to pursue the deviants but instead gather more intelligence first.

While she had deduced the key details through circumstantial evidence, she still wanted the others to personally confirm that he was still alive. Furthermore, she couldn’t devote her full force to this military operation, as that child had told her to, until she had a better understanding of the situation here.

What had caused her to change her mind a few days ago was a girl who had appeared out of nowhere. The girl had left no traces behind, which left her wondering if it had just been a dream, but based on how the girl had addressed her, she could fathom a guess as to who the girl was.

The child in her womb.

Lilian didn’t know how it could have been done, but if that girl was truly the child between her and that man, it was definitely plausible that she possessed the means to break temporal laws. It was with such thoughts that she listened to the girl’s advice and led all of her soldiers here.

The strength of the army she had brought numbered a shocking 400,000, which was why Nora and Charlotte personally welcomed her when she arrived at the united army’s command center. However, she didn’t bother with pleasantries but instead got straight to the point.

“Tell me the current situation and your plan!” Lilian spoke with a more agitated voice than usual.

Nora and Charlotte glanced at each other before nodding.

They headed into the tent and immediately held an urgent meeting. From that, Lilian gained more concrete news about Roel.

“Based on our scouting, the Deviant Sovereign is stationed here. Roel has likely used some means to force the battle to a standstill, and he should still retain considerable fighting prowess. That would explain the Deviant Sovereign camping in that area while continuously deploying more troops there. I should also mention that Wilhelmina is likely to be with him right now.”

“Wilhelmina would give her all to protecting him. That should increase his chances of survival,” Lilian remarked.

Nora nodded in agreement.

“We’re less than a day away from the agreed meeting time between Nora and Roel. We have already opened the entrance to Hawe Desert through the earlier battle. What we have to do now is to rush to our destination and wait,” Charlotte said.

“Wait a moment. Are you saying that…” Lilian asked with narrowed eyes as a possibility came to her mind.

“Indeed. My grandfather and the others would be participating in the next wave of attack. They would be moving in to stall the deviants’ Race Sovereigns and the Deviant Sovereign, while we deal with the other soldiers. We’ll retreat as soon as we secure Roel,” Nora replied with a nod.

“I see…” Lilian slowly nodded as she finally understood why there were no Origin Level 1 transcendents involved in the earlier battle.

Meanwhile, the Race Sovereigns of humankind began making their moves.

Upon receiving an update from the frontlines, three powerful mana pulsations suddenly rippled from three different directions around the area where Roel had disappeared. Instead of hiding as they had for the past year, they were now flaunting their presence as if provoking the deviants.

One was an old man clad in holy light. One was a king cleaning his blade. One was a scholar holding a staff. These three Origin Level 1 transcendents patiently waited for the arrival of their guests.

At the center of Hawe Desert, where a huge army of deviants had gathered, the three deviant Race Sovereigns sensed the auras and turned to the Deviant Sovereign for permission. Upon receiving the latter’s approval, the three of them flitted off in three different directions.

While the Race Sovereigns rushed toward their respective battlefields, at the center of the area that countless deviants had tightly encircled, the space where Roel had abruptly vanished into thin air warped ever so slightly.