Chapter 67

Maha Sparna, the supreme commander of the army attacking Falena, grins at the thought of attacking the country that defeated them in the past. Godwin promised them the entire eastern part of Falena, including Sable, Lordlake, and Estrise City.

They only need to defeat the Loyalist Army, which rules over the eastern and southern parts of Falena. As long as they can defeat the Loyalist Army, Maha Sparna will be promoted to Duchess and get the portion of Falena's land for herself.

"Tell me about the surrounding area."

Maha Sparna looks at the man next to her. Zahhak, one of the Queen's Knights and the reinforcement for the New Armes Army, looks at Maha Sparna and says.

"Sable is a hard castle to crack from here but easy to crack from the west. There is a reason why the previous queen built a checkpoint to the west: to defend the city from invaders from the west."

"I know that. What I want to know is the environment. Can we use the environment to our advantage?"

New Armes Kingdom is a country surrounded by rainforest and mountain regions. Because of this, they are masters of using the surroundings as their weapon. Zahhak understands this and says.

"Sadly, no. Sable is surrounded by a rocky mountain region. Most of their forest and fertile land is on the western side."

Maha Sparna nods her head and says.

"That means we can use the stone around for our war engine. However, we need to take wood from here, huh?"

"Yes." Zahhak nods, "That is why I ask you to take some wood with you."

"And I am glad you told me to do that."

While her family fought in the previous war against Falena, Maha Sparna fought in the Southwest border against the Nagarea Theocracy instead of the northern border against Falena.

"With that amount of wood, we can build seven trebuchets and four catapults. Tell me more."

Zahhak nods his head and continues.

"Before arriving at Sable, we must go through a narrow path. That path is the oath Sable uses to ambush anyone from the east."

"That means we need to raise our shield, huh? Very well. That is easy enough. Anything else?"

"There are a few places we can use as our resting spot. I already marked the map of the locations of these safe spots."

"That is good. Is one nearby? We need to rest as the sun is about to go down."

Zahhak nods and says.

"Yes. There is a small hill a couple of hours in front of us. We can make a base there for our camp."

"Perfect!"

They continue to march without knowing that someone is spying on their movement. Chiyome stands on the wagon not too far away from the two of them with her Presence Concealment on full power while spying on the army's movement before her and informing her Lord Master about their movement.

'Lord Master, they are about to go to the first trap. We have confirmation.'

'Understood, ' Gerrald answers her as he and the others stay on the first trap point. 'We will prepare the trap. How long until they arrive?'

'Two to three hours. Two and a half.'

'Roger. You can return and help us prepare.'

'Yes.'

After saying that, Chiyome left the army and returned to Gerrald.

=/ A few hours later /=

Maha Sparna takes a bite of her food and hums in satisfaction. Her troops and she have already reached the safe spot Zahhak is talking about, and she agrees with him. The area is flat enough to build a camp and is well hidden because of the rocky hills and mountains around it.

She can already imagine the glory she will achieve after winning this war. She might not be as bad as the other members of her clan, but she has a dark urge to resurface. The king of their kingdom might say no pillaging and raiding the countryside, but one or two young boys missing will go unnoticed.

As she is about to take another bite of her food, she can hear an explosion. She quickly abandons her food and leaves her tent. Her eyes widened when she saw their supply get burned by someone.

"Put that fire out! Magician! Cast your spell! Quickly!"

Maha Sparna barks an order and sees four magicians running toward the fire and preparing to cast their spell. However, before they can do that, four arrows fly from the distance and hit the magicians right in the head.

"Dammit! Search for the intruder! Kill them and put their heads on pikes!"

The rest of the soldiers search for the intruder while the other magicians arrive to try to put out the fire. Sadly for them, the intruder had already run away at full speed. Gerrald, Chiyome, Oboro, and Shigure already run away from the camp. Their mission is done. They only need to destroy the enemy's supply and continue to harass the army when a blanket of darkness covers them.

=//=

Maha Sparna glares at Zahhak with a dark circle under her eyes.

"You said that those groups you bring with you will take care of any ambush, but here we are."

For the past few days, they have been ambushed multiple times. Those ambushes resulted in a large number of their soldiers dying, their supplies gone, and their morale dropped. Many of their soldiers are now afraid of the dark; some will jump when they see a shadow.

What makes matters worse is that Gerrald and his group poison the lake on their way.

This resulted in many deserting the army. Only one thousand people die from ambushes, but more than two thousand people are deserting when they are given a chance. The worst thing is the one dying from sickness from the poison they consume from the poisoned water. There are three people who die from the sickness.

"We did not know how this could happen, Supreme Commander. They have a better assassin group than us."

"Oh! How can it not be your problem?! Not only did you never inform us about this assassin group, but you assured us that Sable would not be able to do something like this as your so-called group would take care of any people that tried to sabotage us!"

Zahhak did not say anything, but he knows that he is in the wrong in this situation. He can only appease the woman in front of him.

"I am sorry for this, Supreme Commander. I did not have anything to say, but I am sorry. However, we only need to pass this path, and we will reach Sable. I already sent my group to check if there are people waiting for us. They should be returning soon."

Maha Sparna looks at him for a second before nodding her head. The two of them wait for an hour before a group from Nether Gate and her right-hand man, General Jidan Guisu, return back from their scouting.

Jidan looks at his boss and says.

"There is nothing above. We are clear to go."

Maha Sprana nods her head and shouts.

"March!"

The army moves slowly as they go through the narrow pathway. The people who were traumatized by Gerrald and his ninja squad look around in fear. The impact of the constant explosives and fire happening when you close your eyes creates an impactful experience for the soldiers.

As they slowly but surely get their entire army into this narrow, long path, a cold wind passes them, and Maha Sprana gets even more paranoid. She looks around, orders the Nether Gate to climb, and checks once again. However, all of them result in the same thing. There is nothing above them.

With a heavy heart, she ordered her army to march once again. However, as they go deeper and deeper into this narrow path, a massive explosion happens on the rock next to them. The explosion caused the rock around them to fall off and crush anyone underneath it. What makes matters worse is that it separates her army into three—the first one on the front, her group in the middle, and the rest at the back.

"Destroy that boulder! The rest of the magicians! Protect me! Quickly"

She quickly orders some of the magicians to move the boulder and the rest of them to protect her in case of an ambush.

"Above us!"

One of the soldiers noticed someone standing above them. It was Chiyome, and she was kneeling on the edge of the cliff. She looks at them in pity and starts to chant. She says it in a low voice, but the others can hear it.

"Curse the blood that courses through me. Seek vengeance for my own sins. No matter how much time has passed, what has been passed down from Kouga Saburou is something here that cannot be cleansed."

The people underneath her can see a massive shadow that forms into a giant eight-headed serpent with dark red eyes that shine with malice and killing intent looking at them. The weak-willed soldiers start to scream and fall to the ground, unconscious, at the sight alone.

"Kill her! Kill her before she can cast her spell!"

Zahhak shouted a single command at the Nether Gate assassins next to him. However, Chiyome is already done with her chant before they can move.

"Kuchiyose... Ibukidaimyoujin-Engi!"

In the middle section of the entrapment, the army sees the giant serpent strike them at a blinding speed. The next moment, the entire army feels as if their entire body gets burned from the inside out, and the giant serpent twines around them.

Because they did not have any magic resistance skill or equipment strong enough to block the Noble Phantasm, it only took one minute to kill more than five hundred people.