36 COUNTERMEASURE MEETING

When hell calmed down, leaving tons of soldiers dead on the ground, everyone in the battlements together raised their voices in cheers, even those who vomited tried their best to join in the celebration, however the people they protected on the ground had a mix of sadness and relief, as the ones that chased them were their own countrymen, this was also the feelings of Rara and her army who received the defectors together with Michaela as they rode horses to their position.

Gideon savoy bit his lips in frustration, "It's great that we survived, but… If only they didn't chase us that much…. Whoever commanded them is a damned idiot!" he kicked his own carriage as if he was in pain, and shortly his tears slowly fell from his eyes, "I refuse to acknowledge this as the Emperor's order, Kydus… no… Emperor Hadethius Popannus VII isn't this kind of man!" he exclaimed.

Everyone who arrived at the scene as well as the people with him heard his words and the area was filled with silence, everyone had a sad look on their faces, even Ethareri's knights bowed their heads lightly as a sign of respect.

And a soft motherly voice could be hear from the carriage that he kicked, "It's not your fault my dear" as she stepped out of the carriage, everyone knew that the woman was beautiful at first glance, if her ears were pointed they would mistaken her for a light elf that they read on fairy tales, she went to her crying husband and hugged him from his back.

"It's alright…. It's alright, this was inevitable, I'm sure their souls will rest in peace once we return Kydus back to normal" then she noticed everyone's presence and with grace she turned to them and bowed.

"Queen of Ethareri, Princess of Kydus, we are the magic casters of the Kydus, Gideon and Layla Savoy, we will be at your service to defeat the dark elves that lurks in the hearts of Kydus' men" she said with eyes of conviction unfitting her graceful looks and bowed gracefully.

….

Gideon and Layla went with Rara to Ethareri's castle, while their servants and knights started to build up tents and any kind of shelter for the newly came refugees, they needed to attend the meeting first to pay respect to their allies who helped them defect successfully.

When they arrived at the castle, Gideon could see the Queen, Erneis as well as two unfamiliar persons, a young girl who was nonchalantly sipping from her tea and a young man who wore strange clothes and was speaking to Erneis directly, to him he seemed to be a servant from what he was wearing, he moved his head around to find the man Erneis talked about, "If he was a King he should he around here, I have to meet him as soon as possible, so that I may ask about those weapons" he thought.

As a mage, Gideon was also a researcher of magic, it first for him to see such kind of magic, he knew that he had to thank the person who save their lives with his magic, accompanied with the intention of knowing what kind of military-tier magic was it, thought that the person himself might be someone who stood equal with the Queen in appearance.

When they finally settled on table Erneis formally introduce the couple to the royal family.

"Your Highness Michaela, Claire and Andrei, here is the leader of the second batch of defectors Mr. and Ms. Savoy"

Gideon couldn't believe what he heard from Erneis when he introduced the servant-looking man to him as the Queen's betrothed and the one who made the ground erupt, he couldn't help but instinctively ask the old knight for a clarification, "...wait! This man is whom you were talking about?" as he pointed at Andrei who had a surprised reaction on his face when the man's finger slowly got nearer and nearer to him.

"Ahhh yes and ahem… I can understand why you are pointing your finger on His Highness that way but no matter how he looks, it doesn't change the fact that he's still our future king and your savior as well" Erneis responded on a serious manner.

Gidron reluctantly removed his hand, he didn't have prejudice against the common people but it was a shock for him to know that the person who was able to kill more than half of the pursuing forces was a common man.

To ease his doubts, since Rara felt that the meeting could not begin properly with Gideon's expression, she began to give him a bit of information on how Andrei came to the kingdom, his past missions, inventions and the fact he wasn't a mage, which Gideon attentively listened to, while nodding his head again and again.

When she was done explaining, the man relaxed and sighed on his chair, the woman beside him, Layla bowed her head in front of everyone, "I'm sorry for the trouble my husband caused, he's not a bad person or anything, but when he's curious about something… as you can see just like a child he won't calm down" and she looked at him with a peaceful look.

"It's alright, it's alright" Andrei waved his hand to the man's wife.

"-and it's normal for a researcher magic caster to be shocked on the fact that a commoner who doesn't even know how to read and write could produce military grade magic-like explosions that defeated half of the enemy forces, you don't have to feel sorry for this idiot" Claire interrupted on her flat toned voiced.

"Somehow… coming from you Claire, it's irritating" Andrei muttered as he was being dissed by Claire.

The man regained his composure and bowed, "I'm very sorry about this Your Highness Andrei, but I do hope that we could get along in the future"

"Yes, it's alright, so let's proceed with the meeting shall we?" Andrei responded while pointing at Michaela from his back who gave a yawn, it was a long day for her and she haven't sleep for a few days.

"Understood!"

The meeting proceeded properly, firstly they exchanged information about what was happening in Kydus and the potential threats that it could produce to the continent.

"So, about those large swords that were flying at you?" Claire asked Gideon who was still talking about the happenings inside the Empire.

"I was about to talk about that when we get to that part Your Highness but, alright, let's get to that first… actually…" Everyone's eyes were pinned at him, on curiosity about the large swords that dealt the defectors lot of damage, "My wife Layla would explain about that… "

"Wasn't she just on the carriage the whole time?" Erneis asked him thinking that he didn't see the wife until she came down from the closed carriage.

"Yes she was indeed in the carriage, but she has the ability to see the things we normal people couldn't dream of" Gideon couldn't tell the true nature of his wife to them, that she was a light elf and had the ability to see through any disguise of the dark elves "at least… not yet" he thought.

Layla stood up from her seat and started speaking, "What we saw was a silhouette of a dark elf, I believe Your Highness saw the pursuing knights odd position?" she asked Claire, whom she believed oversaw the battle.

"Yes indeed, some of them, no… atleast half of them formed groups of 20 to 25 people which was odd for a pursuit strategy"

"As you can see in those 20 to 25 people a large and dark silhouette of an elf appeared in their center, I don't know what kind of magic is this since dark elves were only found in ancient scriptures and fairy tales, but I know that those knights that formed groups was the reason why they were able to do create such destruction, those knights were probably... possessed by some dark magic which allowed them to wield such magic.

Dark magic can only come from a corrupted heart, and these dark elves according to the scriptures are experts on that. This dark magic when used by humans would make their bodies disintegrate, but by utilizing many humans at once they were able to utilize the magic by making them as containers for their souls.

Luckily when those eruptions from the ground happened, some of the knights fell, it broke their formation and those silhouettes disappeared, that must be the what have occurred in the battle"

After the long explanation she made an elegant bow and took her seat.

"A magic that can be made by a group of non-magic knights by using them as containers for their souls… they are disgusting, using humans like that" Michaela said as she pondered on the event, "Does any idea come to mind Erneist?" she turned her head to the old man, who seemed to be in shock and couldn't move and was a bit shaking.

"According to the scriptures, there's a dark magic that could create magic from a non-magic person your highness… but it was only used for rituals and sacrifices, with the use of magic they will be able to extract life power from them and convert it into magic, I never heard of such a high-level magic that makes sacrifices while the target is moving or perhaps…"

"- Most likely a sacrifice is happening, and they are channeling the magic from those sacrifices towards the controlled knights and when they gathered, the sacrifices life forces was being forcefully taken, and formed those unbelievably large swords" with a sad expression Layla interrupted.

A silent breeze filled the room when they realized how terrifying the enemy could be, and where the sacrifices would have been from.

"Then we need to plan countermeasures as soon as possible, first how are they able to control minds, next how will we be able to avoid that, and finally, the plan to retake Kydus from their hands, this isn't time to be shocked, that is why we are having this meeting right?" Andrei tried to break the silence.

Everyone was lifted out of the heavy atmosphere, and the meeting went on to find the solution to these questions.