Chapter 203 - Stain Of Conflict

The Elder in the military officer uniform saluted. "I shall temper our disciples like a steel of churning core."

Damascus soared to the sky, piercing through a shelter of leaves that barely let any ray of light to hit the forest ground. She left a visible trail of mana dust in the air.

"Meshia." Foel prodded the tall deity whose lap she sat on. "What are you going to do to the winner of the cooking contest?"

"Fufufu, we'll probably give them their own personal accommodation near the sect. An extra reward, you could say."

The Pine-Looters who had been peeking their ears from the start, immediately prodded one and another as if they all had the same idea.

"Let's plead." Cassilk nodded to herself, as if she was proud of her ingenuity of a brain.

"Indeed." Cola also nodded to herself, with the same reason as her older sibling.

"By some amount of luck, we might be able to gain the privilege!" Chuyan showed an expression of bliss as she caressed her chin, until she noticed that both of her sisters were behind her. "Wait, why are both of you pushing me!?"

"You're the smartest!" said Cassilk.

"You're the wisest!" said Cola.

"Such excuses! You both are just lazy! I'm the one who is supposed to be sitting here and watching both of you plead to our goddess like mongrels!"

""One, two~""

"Gyahh!!"

The poor Chuyan tumbled and rolled like a barrel until she stopped one meters in front of the Ouroboros and her wife. Shuddering, she tried to raise her head. The red eyes of her lord was too entrancing and fear inducing.

Not only that she had just barged into their private moment and came without any respect like a rude animal, her heart beat faster upon the realization that this might have been her last hour being a forest spirit within this world.

Chuyan's face exuded the aura of a dead person—despite still having an eternal smug nonchalant expression. Deep inside, she was frozen. She then looked back and saw both of her siblings giving her a supportive thumbs up as they hid again behind the bushes.

'I'M DEAD!'

Obviously, both MF and Foel knew the context of what was happening. Both of them didn't mine as much but to the lowly forest dweller such as Chuyan of the Pine-Looters, it made her feel that she had committed a huge sin.

Her trait nature of being a Mandragora however, did give them the bravery and mindset to act friendly and close to those who were higher than them. It shouldn't really be a mental issue if not for the fact that she was forced to do this. Likewise, Cassilk and Cola thought that it was funny to push their elder sibling like that.

In reflex, Chuyan immediately shifted into a kneeling position with her forehead touching the ground.

"M-my apologies, Almighty One! B-both of my siblings over there are brutally pushing me to your benevolent gaze!" said Chuyan as she pointed her finger to the bushes on the back.

"Geh!"

"Uoo."

Disregarding the event that was happening between the three of them, MF continued to caress her wife's rodent ears as she put on an understanding smile. "Aren't you trying to plead to me so that I would take you as my disciples?"

"Ah~!" In a moment, Chuyan immediately shifted her target. Instead of focusing on the tragedy that was happening to her, she began to put her mind into getting herself given the position of being the sect's disciple with vigor.

Her facial expressions might be eternally smug, but her heart was true to her desire. "Yes! As expected of the Benevolent One! You truly are an all knowing and omnipresence within this feeble world~!"

Sign number one if a Mandragora has an inner motive: They would exaggerate their sentences and they will excessively do a hand gesture to prove their unconvincing point.

In the meantime, Damascus had arrived at the sect. Because it was still morning, most of the disciples were still training their movement verse to unlock more symbols-pill to enhance their vessel.

With a walking cane handle tucked to her thumb, she lightly clapped to signal everyone for attention. The disciples immediately created a row of formation, giving a fist and palm greetings to their Elder.

"A bright day and a bright time!" Damascus lightheartedly giggled. "This might be a bit sudden but our sect leader has already instructed me to take all of you for a study tour in the nearby southeast region.

"To those of you who have any complications that disable your opportunity to follow this activity, feel free to raise your hand."

All of them replied to the offer to miss their first outside practice with silence. Of course, even if they had real complications to reject the study tour offer, it would bring nothing but demerit for their growth.

And all of the disciples within Lautus Tunguska pursued nothing but strength.

"Alright!" Damascus showed a wide closed-eyes smile. "We will be departing right away!"

"Excuse me, Elder!" Ragoni said as she slightly bowed forward. "May we all know our study tour location beforehand?"

Damascus smirked.

"The battlefield."

With all of the disciples knowing that their day would be a lot more bizarre than they thought, Damascus led them to the aforementioned study field filled with bloodshed with clashing steel and projectiles.

The Faranor's Main Army was already nearing the long caravan. The Bearing Edge, being more experience with raid from numerous Citadels going after their head, they immediately prepared all of their slaves and artillery to greet their bloodlusted guests.

Balistas loaded, elite guards were assembled, numerous spellcasters, and summoners were appointed in a mission called the peripheral massacre to anything that stood on their path.

Yayoga, one of the Quilled Dragons, sprayed the content of his smoking pipe into the air. In just a second, it formed a colorful vision that revealed the location of the stampeding army of Faranor.

With more than 800 Valkyries on the sky, and multiple obelisks being carried by an armored vehicles on the ground, the Faranor Army immediately launched their volley to the caravan of slave smuggler without any discrimination.

"SPARE NO ONE! UNLEASH OUR WRATH AND SMITE THOSE CALLOUS HERETICS!"

The Valkyries cast each of their own long range spells as they advanced through the murky sky filled with flying wyrm of high rank Calamities that were waiting for their presences. The rich and vibrant volley of spells from each side were tainting the dark cloud and sandstorm with their ideology and motivation.

Force Fields were cast, defensive shields were raised from the ground, and the flying fortress of Faranor had scattered its loads of lead and mana-concentrated explosions onto the pursuing Calamities.

Numerous small void portals were summoned by the Bearing Edge, those portals spewed hundreds of Yelpers and other small Calamities to join the chaotic clashing. With the 'void' substances getting a little bit suffocating, all of the soldiers, both PMC and officials from the Faranor Citadel's military unloaded their destructive spell and projectile from their artifacts.

The Stunted Turtles ended up going o give their best to survive. Although they could immediately escape from this dire battlefield, knowing that there was no such thing as a deeply rooted and loyal mercenary within this world, the Stunted Turtles were supervised by both the high ranking Valkyries and the paid Steel Stugs by Zappur.

Each edge of any pupils within the vicinity of was either covered by sand, smoke, or the excessive essence of mana from the byproduct of high amount of mana usage within this area.

The battle was tricky for both sides. The Bearing Edge was high in numbers and their arrays of controlled Calamities, but their forces were mostly unguided and fully lacking in discipline to be instructed to perform any decisive strike. Likewise, the forces from Faranor Citadel were too focused on raising their defense. Although they had control of the sky and were still advancing, their pace was too slow to make anything consequential to the order of the battle.

Clobbering skeletons, deeply roasted within the searing heat. Trenches and flesh of abomination, all were roared away by the unheavenly screams of the deafening sounds of numerous artifacts, throwing and mowing their projectiles at the cycle speed of an unruly machine gun's barrels.

The Lautus Tunguska's disciples have already arrived by the cloud, higher than any of those army and Calamities could ever reach. There was only Guda, Carla, and Elon who had the capability to fly, so the rest were mostly being given a flying platform of their own to stand on by Damascus.

"Blood is spilled, neither the good guy or the bad guy would make it out alive." Jaro keenly gazed into the spectacle from his position.

Guda could be seen smirking wryly, unsure of what kind of lesson that they would receive. 'Nyehye, I hope that Elder Damascus won't tell all of us to dive and join the war."

"So this is what a war that breaks out from Citadels looks like." Ragoni expressed her curiosity. "Elder! What will we be doing now?"

"Heheheh." Damascus deviously smirked.. "I want all of you to dive in and capture one of the assigned factions that I'll be giving to each and every one of you."