Chapter 290 - There’s No Going Back

Fatima led her contingent across the west side of the wall and began cutting down all the enemy soldiers in their path. They had to beware of the cannon fire from the east wall, but it was fortunate that Albert and Rowan were able to preoccupy some of the enemy soldiers on that side.

"Stop!" Fatima halted her troops and glared menacingly at the human blocking their way.

"Ah~ isn't it the War Saintess, I knew that we'd meet on the battlefield again~," The man blocking their way said as he waved around the large glaive in his hand.

"Hmph, General Harold... I thought you would have died by the water already!"

"Wahahahaha! That strategy was indeed good, but it seems you have some disloyal bastards in your ranks! It did destroy some of the magic formations on the walls, but unfortunately for you, we already prepared for it!"

"...Tsk..." Fatima grimaced at the enemy general's words. Her suspicions were true and a spy had indeed informed the enemy of their plans.

"Well, I'll have you stop here now. The Mag-Cannon we bought from the Empire is aiming at you all right now. You can either surrender or turn into charred corpses like those fools down there."

Fatima eyed the battlefield still taking place in the middle of the fortress. Some enemy soldiers had hidden in the upper floor of the buildings and had now come out to engage the kingdom's forces.

Serilla immediately informed her that some of the troops who were chased out earlier were able to get in and reinforce the ones on the ground, but the large Mag-Cannon would occasionally fire off a shot and eliminate some of the unfortunate soldiers who didn't make it past the gate in time.

As for the large magic cannon near them, it had its power relay and battery switched out and couldn't be used. Now that the large cannon was aiming at them, Fatima furrowed her brows as her mind immediately began thinking and processing all the information around her, trying to devise a plan, but no matter how hard she thought, that large cannon was a clear obstacle.

'Should we rush for the General? They won't fire the cannon at their commanding officer, right?'

'But...what happens if they do fire regardless of him being there? This isn't the first time that vicious bastard sacrificed his people to win a battle...'

The bastard she was talking about was naturally the current ruler of the Merkruz Principality, Johann Merkruz. This middle-aged ruler was ruthless to himself, his kingdom, and more so, to his enemies, but under his rule, the Merkruz Principality had achieved their golden age where the principality's economy, domestic affairs, and military power were at an all-time high.

It was just that his cruel methods and iron-grip on his principality made him out to be more like a tyrant. He didn't tolerate any incompetence and it wasn't unheard of for him to execute any of his generals or ministers if they failed to do a task.

So in Fatima's mind, the general in front of her who had lost battle after battle against her and should have long since been killed by that tyrant yet, he was still alive.

He was now blocking Fatima's path forward and even had a Mag-Cannon aiming for their location...this only meant that the general was already prepared to risk his life to eke out a win and hopefully even kill her, the cause of all his losses.

"Sis-in-law, let me deal with the cannon's attack later, you and Lucia just rush up and quickly take care of him," Serilla whispered solemnly as she eyed the large Mag-Cannon that was powering up in the distance.

"What can you possibly do Serilla? That thing's too far away! We can't destroy it from here!"

Serilla smirked at her and leisurely said, "Who said that I can't?"

Lucia also quipped up from the side, "If I could use my mana, that stupid cannon wouldn't even be a threat!"

"Huh?"

"Just leave it to Seri, she'll take care of that thing! Sis-in-law, we should focus on the task at hand and quickly kill this pest." Lucia said as she readied her katana.

Seeing her take up a battle stance, General Harold only raised an eyebrow and scoffed, "Hah, so you're willing to throw away your life? For what?! If you just surrender, I'm sure that our King will spare your life and you'd have a much better future by his side and serving under him!"

Fatima decided to put her faith in Lucia and Serilla since the two didn't seem to be scared and seeing that Serilla was so confident in 'taking care' of the Mag-Cannon, she refocused her mind on their initial battle plan.

"Serilla, we'll leave that cannon to you. Lucia, help me deal with this pest," Fatima said slowly. Ironically, her weapon of choice was the same as Cecil, a spear. However, unlike Cecil, Fatima's spear was a Qiang or a flexible spear.

When she pulled out the weapon from her spatial ring, General Harold frowned in displeasure. He had already lost to this young lady multiple times in a battle of wits and strength. The soldiers behind him were also cowering a little when they saw her pull out this unique weapon.

The Qiang or flexible spear was an unusual weapon in the eyes of the alternian humans since it had a flexible wooden body that could probably be easily cleavable by a sharp blade. However, Fatima's spear was a little special. It was crafted from an unusual tree found only within Midgard's No-Man's Land.

This tree was incredibly sturdy and had a hardness that rivaled even dark Mythril, a unique ore that the Silvaria Kingdom was able to mine from the Sky-Piercing Mountains. It was hard, but at the same time still limber and flexible after being processed into a rod.

It was an ideal choice of material to create the Qiang and Fatima had this weapon with her for a long time now, but it was her first time taking it out in battle in front of Lucia and Serilla.

Fatima would normally stay in the back and direct the soldiers. Until now, she had only been using a standard issued sword that the Regulus Army's soldiers were using and the girls thought that this was her weapon.

Seeing the unique spear in her hand, Lucia grinned and thought that the Silvaria siblings had the same kind of preferences.

"I never got to see sis-in-law in battle~"

"I'll take care of the general, please handle the rest of them," Fatima replied to Lucia.

"Alrighty~"

Lucia immediately flashed forwards and immediately attacked the closest soldier that was behind the general. Harold could only widen his eyes in shock at the girl's speed.

Lucia indeed couldn't use mana, but her Ki-enhanced physique was much better than these humans who hadn't cultivated their Ki. It was the first time that Fatima was battling alongside her sisters-in-law, so she too was also surprised at the speed and power that Lucia had just displayed.

Seeing it from up close was much different than seeing it from afar. So she was a little shocked, however, she immediately gained her bearing and charged straight at the enemy general.

From afar, the soldiers who were manning the large Mag-Cannon immediately saw the general engaging the enemy. It seems that their threats didn't work so they could only proceed in the next stage of the plan.

They were going to fire the cannon, regardless of whether the general would get caught in its range. The cannon operatives had already begun powering up the cannon since earlier so all that was needed was to fire it.

While Fatima, Lucia, and the other allied soldiers were engaging the enemy, Serilla had empowered her body with Ki and immediately made her way to the large Mag-Cannon in the distance.

None of her sword arts could reach the cannon from the distance she was at earlier so she needed to move closer. She jumped from building to building and shortened the distance between her and the cannon.

Just as the large Mag-cannon was about to fire, Serilla immediately stopped and readied an Ascending Blade when she saw the muzzle of the cannon glow.

She didn't spare an ounce of her Ki and had even infused a little bit more ether into this attack than her previous one. Serilla needed to cleave the beam in two and hopefully redirect it to a different location.

When the cannon's beam was fired, Serilla immediately swung her sword. Her attack directly cleaved the beam in two, successfully directing the blast away from Lucia and Fatima's location. One of the two beams struck the enemy's forces, while the other struck some random area behind Serilla.

She didn't know whether she had accidentally diverted that beam at an enemy or an ally, but she didn't have the time to care about that. As long as Lucia and Fatima were safe, then her mission was already half-complete.

Serilla continued dashing from building to building and had quickly arrived at the Mag-Cannons location just before it could fire off another beam.

She had already destroyed one of these before, so Serilla quickly dispatched all the enemy soldiers around the cannon and was just about to cleave the cannon in two, but a voice immediately stopped her.

"STOP!"

"Hm?"

When Serilla turned around, the person who had stopped her was the Second Prince, Armano. She didn't understand how the prick had gotten all the way here, but she frowned at the prince's ambivalent command.

"Why should I stop?"

"We can use this weapon to our advantage! All we need to do is defend this place and have our men quickly learn how to operate this thing!" Armano hastily argued.

His words had some merit to it so Serilla lowered her sword and gestured for him to quickly get it done.

Armano ordered some of his men to quickly go and operate this machine, but his gaze the entire time didn't leave Serilla's body. He eyed Gildart who was next to him. The man seemed a little reluctant, but he immediately flashed forwards and arrived just behind Serilla.

"Huh?"

Being caught off guard, Serilla was just about to raise her sword and defend, but Gildart was faster and he jabbed the pommel of his dagger on the back of Serilla's neck, knocking her out unconscious.

"Yes! Haha, yes!" Armano laughed gleefully. He immediately picked up the unconscious girl and hastily moved down into one of the empty buildings nearby.

Gildart was already on full alert and he couldn't help but curse in his mind.

'F.u.c.k, f.u.c.k, f.u.c.k...that man...I haven't seen him in the past few days, but I keep feeling that we've been under constant observation...'

Gildart felt an impending sense of danger envelope the air around the building they were in. When he took a glance inside the room the prince was in, he noticed that Armano had fed something to Serilla and had started stripping off her clothes and armor.

"F.u.c.k..." When those words left his mouth, one of the soldiers outside of the building collapsed and the door into the building immediately blew open.

"I thought...I warned you already..."

A man slowly walked into the room as he was choking one of the soldiers. He twisted his hand slightly and the soldier's neck immediately snapped. This man who was enveloped in a murderous air was wearing a neat suit befitting that of a butler.

He took off the glasses he was wearing and neatly placed it into his pocket before two daggers appeared in his hand.

"There's no going back now since you've touched the Madam..." Quinn said coldly. With a flick of his wrist, the daggers in his hand flew out and embedded themselves into the throats of two random soldiers inside the building.

"If you block my path, I will kill you."