We planned out the entire culling of Ulanos. Really, there wasn’t much to take into consideration besides the order and size of our conquests. But we still took most of the morning planning other little things. For one, we wanted freedom in walking about, so masks and disguises were in order.

From my fuzzy memory, I thought about the first mana powerup Emily put me through and imagined the black apparition of terror she transformed into. The fear I felt that time was, visceral. To this day, it remained to be the most bizarre entity I’d ever seen, one only second to deities like Zanthia herself. In order to copy that appearance, I had to create black clothing and armour and have August enchant it to give off a certain visual effect. The eyeholes in the helmets had a dark violet flame-like look, similar to our entire getup. Emily’s black apparition was covered in a shadowy darkness that appeared like a hybrid of a living flame and misty fog. It also served to make it more difficult to see exactly where to strike us because that smokie look made the armour seamless.

We suited up, preparing to send the first town down under. Every Avatar buff was on. We were powered with health, mana, and strength potions. Just as we were about to get to it, Bianca stopped us. “Take me, with you,” she softly spoke.

August and I shared a look, then placed our eyes on her. She was meek, and this entire thing clearly bothered her. “Bianca, you know what we’re going to do. I suggest you sit this out.”

She looked down, clenched her teeth and balled her fists, “I’m not going to sit here and do nothing! I hate this goddamn system! If I don’t have the blood of this messed up culture on my hands, then I’m just like them!”

We watched on at her in silence. “You like one-handed swords, right?” I asked and a gleam exuded from her eyes. We fitted her similar to us and began moving towards our first target.

Approaching the first village, sentries spotted us from far away. August and Bianca’s drawn swords made the guardsmen sound a horn immediately. “Remember, soldiers and guards only. Normal citizens are to be spared unless they attack,” I reiterated.

They both sprinted forward in front of me after, beginning the slaughter. I knew Bianca was quite strong, but I never really had a good comparison. Now that she was mowing through dozens of soldiers in front of me, my opinion of her strength had to be adjusted.

Time to begin… I flew past both of them to go to the centre of the village and activated Magnet then cast Mind Break, terrifying all around me. I sat at the centre of the place and cast Arcane Missiles. With my current mana power, it produced forty missiles per wave. The three thousand soldiers manning this village were destroyed inside-out in less than three minutes. The barracks were burned and razed with Flame Strike. Its stationary and contained flames were ideal for burning particular places.

No injuries or no casualties, just smooth sailing. We were off to yet another village, repeating that process. If anyone even managed to land a hit on any of them, the enchanted armour pieces were enough to absorb the damage.

Bianca spared no one donning the soldiers’ regalia. Her blade pierced straight through a young man’s neck and was deftly pulled out to decapitate an oncoming enemy after a side-step. The enemies were somewhat fast, but she was a lot faster. Even in the skill department, her technique seemed to be one refined through good old repetition. She stole a knife from one of the fallen and used for quick thrusts when her proximity made using her sword uncomfortable. I could see and understand all her movements only because of Timedial. All her micro-movements flowed and meshed effortlessly with her bigger and more powerful strikes. It was glaringly obvious that this girl was a pro, one who had killed before, despite her playful attitude from time to time.

August on the other hand had hesitation when it came to killing. I could see it in his eyes, but his anger towards Ulanos trampled on the doubts in his mind. Unlike Bianca’s sleight of hand, he relied more on his raw power and speed, not so much caring for his form. Instead of ducking and dodging, or even deflecting, he straight up blocked or simply took the strike like the rampaging lunatic he was. His naturally hardy constitution could probably give unenchanted armour a run for its money. But they’d have to get past that enchanted armour first, and even if they did manage to injure him, he’d be back to full health in ten seconds because of the health regeneration enchantments. To stop him, they’d have to totally detach a limb, in which case my Eden would step in. All of that were just his defences.

His unbreakable and unbelievably sharp longsword quite literally ignored the enemy’s armour. That demon cleaved through entire bodies of men. Armour, flesh, muscles, bones. Everything was like cutting butter for his quintessential energy. I could understand now why people in Hyzek respected – or maybe feared – anyone with the status of knight-paladin or paladin, and they weren’t even at a full hundred percentile in quint usage. That blacksmith was a beast.

I kind of sat through most of the fighting, only defending myself as I glided through the streets with the occasional Hand of God. Instead, I mostly observed Bianca and August to get a handle of their limits. However, that didn’t really apply to August. Gliding through the streets, the screams of horror when people saw me was unsettling. I didn’t find it to be that thin line that most mages thread between admiration and fear when it came to my power. This was just plain old fear with an unhealthy dose of hatred thrown in. As I ventured through this village – casting Hawk Eye at my two partners every now and then – I could get a feel for the lives of people here. It was horrible. A mother and her two children trembled at my presence. A weak Mind Break coupled the ghastly appearance we donned was certainly not a good experience. Even though I made sure Mind Break was weak enough so children wouldn’t be affected in the long term, it still bothered me. The woman grabbed her children and protected them, using her body as a shield. Her son unsheathed his dagger and stood up, even though she tried futilely to stop him. She was shaking way too much, but so was he. Yet, he mustered that courage. The fire in his eyes and the desperation to protect his family earned my respect. I cut Levitation off and stooped down, looking up at him a little. It was a pity he could only see a repulsive spectre and not a smiling teenager. I grabbed his wrist, and ran Renew through him to calm his mind, then did the same for his mother and sister.

“I, don’t understand,” the woman commented.

I put my hand out to her to help her up, and to no surprise, she didn’t take it. Fair enough. “We do this only because Ulanos forced our hand. We will not kill innocents. Only those enlisted in Ulanos’ military force. You are safe.”

Half hour later, August finished the job. Bianca slowed her pace to maintain enough energy to defend herself after a while. Our third target was one of many bases Ulanos used purely for militant training. After an hour of travel, we arrived there. My partners didn’t need to raise their swords here. Once I ensured the base was filled with military personnel, Arctic Rage snuffed the lives out of seven thousand in less than a minute, only taking that long because the shards of ice that flew around in the domed blizzard couldn’t get to the men inside buildings. The unforgiving temperature had to freeze those indoors.

Just as I was about to fly off, a small group of men came back from a training exercise and looked at me, then at their frozen training camp. One rushed in, planning to bludgeon me with his fist alone, but was stuck onto a nearby tree trunk from an Ice Javelin to through the chest. My fiery purple eyes then sought his other colleagues, but they ran off.

Our goal of three consistent attacks were complete for the day and we retreated into the forests. The gold of the evening lit the skies, and soon, darkness would fall. “Hmm,” I took a look at the map and our course again, getting a count of all the villages, towns, settlements, training grounds, and cities. “If we continue like this, we should finish up in about four to five months.”

“Yeah…” Bianca made circles in the dirt with a random twig.

I looked to August like a lost child for help. He shrugged and gave me a that’s-your-problem look. The bastard even fled. “Fresh air” he said; as if.

I sat on a rock next to her, “Do you think Isana is here?” I asked her.

She looked only at my feet, then went back to drawing circles. “I’m fine if that’s what you’re wondering, magic boy.”

“You are literally making circles in the ground. Not too believable.”

She looked up at me and smirked. “What? Are you worried about your enemy?”

“Yes.” I answered promptly, startling her a little. Her smirk disappeared and she broke off eye-contact again. I could guess there was reluctance about this whole situation wavering her resolve, but I figured that was inevitable. Her coming along in the first place was kind of an issue. Should I need to really resort to my more destructive spells, I couldn’t guarantee her safety; her presence made those spells off-limits.

After some moments of silence, I fetched August and we had some dinner in the dimly lit cave.

The following day, another three settlements were assaulted, and we extrapolated the average strength of the soldiers. The barracks were engulfed from Flame Strike whilst we congregated in a square in the last village. “Five?” August asked, trying to note how many hours passed.

“Around that, yeah. Most of it was travelling though,” Bianca elaborated.

I passed my fingers through my hair. Yes, it grew back. In fact, it was longer than I’d usually have it. Hmm. “It’s around, err, twelve thousand soldiers? We could bump that up to twenty if we add on another couple hours.”

August nodded in agreement, and we both simultaneously looked at Bianca.

“Geez, I’m fighting just to keep up and you want to increase it?” She palmed her face, then suddenly looked up with endearing eyes. “You can see me even if I’m invisible, right?”

“What? Are you an idiot? The idea of invisibility is people not seeing you. How the hell wou– Oh… I guess I can.” Life Perception and Light Link. Of course. “So then, you can take it easy the entire fight and stretch your stamina.”

“Hmm, I guess you’re not as stupid as you appear, magic boy.”

“You smug ass. Just because you thought up one good idea doesn’t mean you’re a genius.” It’s a pretty damn good idea though. I don’t even think she realises the impact it could have. I thought about it more and more. A literal invisible force that can decollate enemies without a trace added tremendously to the fear factor we incorporated, making Mind Break even less necessary. The yells, screams, clanking of armour, and even the horns of war would drown out whatever already little sound Bianca’s footsteps would emit whilst she was invisible. The spell was dog cheap too, so she could literally stay in it for eternity and my mana would still regenerate faster than Invisibility could consume.

That was a plan we’d decided on trying out tomorrow. The rest of the day was spent training. My manipulation and alchemy needed some attention. Bianca and August practised a more efficient Windsail so we could remain airborne longer.

The entire week met increased body count, peaking at around twenty-five thousand and averaging twenty thousand. The soldier-citizen ratio in this country was damn outrageous, I had to admit to myself. Every village had a huge military presence, quite unlike Methelia. The number certainly entertained the thought that they were bounds and leaps more warlike than us. We were the amateurs, even if we were strong.

This was proven by how many times I woke up from nightmares of innocent screams. I couldn’t imagine how Bianca felt. All this blood we spilt had gotten thick to the point where it was getting hard to even fall asleep. Even if we remained awake, the howling winds of the night felt like the dying shrills of the other people. I kept thinking of Dawn and Methelia as a whole. Part of me did this for revenge, using the defence of Methelia as an excuse to exact it. However, I knew protecting Methelia by attacking Ulanos wasn’t truly just an excuse for revenge. I knew this because, should anyone close to me meet death by the sword of the enemy again, I might lose it and try to destroy their entire country. Soldiers, women, children, animals, everything.

Bianca grew colder and quieter as the days went by, as did August and I. But we weren’t as affected by it as she was. Every night, I’d summon the spirit lords to keep us company. Being left alone with our thoughts probably wasn’t a good idea.

A couple months of that passed, and the morning of assaulting the first of the three major cities, Blackmane, came about.

The mere walls surrounding the city were colossal. The gates felt like they blocked the entrance to an entire country. Hmm, now what do I use to destroy this bad boy? I thought, standing in front of it. We were cloaked by Invisibility so they didn’t detect us, and I wanted to make a nice entrance. Ah, of course. A convoluted smirk came over me and I whispered in August’s ear to ensure none of the passing guards or soldiers heard me. It seemed Blackmane was expecting us; there were a couple hundred soldiers outside this gate alone with dozens of archers lining atop the blackened ramparts. “Hey, buddy, think you can literally punch that gate down?”

“Dude, what? That thing looks thicker than Hydra’s ass…”

“So?”

“Well, maybe I can. I’ll go full hundred and see.”

“Or, you know,” Bianca cut in, “we could just fly over it! Since we can do that and stuff!”

We both chortled, holding ourselves back from being heard. “But this way is a lot more fun, sword girl.”

August snuck past whatever guards were in his way, ramped his quint up to full capacity – which gave him one hundred and ten percent if you included his enchantments – and sunk his first punch into the gate. I immediately regretted that idea. Our ears felt horrible after that stupendously deafening bang. All of the soldiers jumped. He took his Invisibility off after that first strike busted a hinge, then kicked the gate wide open. It swung so hard that when it hit the inside of the walls, the rest of hinges got busted.

The horn to signal Blackmane was under attack sounded immediately. The men outside the gate, even upon seeing August right before them, greatly hesitated. I could imagine after fighting humans, to see the getup we had on must’ve made them think we were demons of some kind. However, duty was important in Ulanos. It only took one to gather his scattered pieces of mettle and crudely forge it, and the rest followed in kind. Frost Nova wouldn’t have any of that though.

The archers atop the bulwark of a wall readied their shots when I removed my Invisibility. They released their volley, and began weaving Fireballs after. The arrows were easy to take care of just by manipulating wind. Bianca stood behind me and the Fireballs aimed at me went right back at the casters after it hit Reflect’s translucent shield. But even if they were hit – which they weren’t – Fireball wouldn’t be enough to kill any armoured soldier. Chain lightning did the trick, bouncing from one man to another and putting them to rest.

By the time I’d looked down, most of the footmen had surrounded August, and only a dozen or so approached me. Hell’s he doing? I wondered. The crazy blacksmith didn’t use his sword, but simply bashed his enemies’ faces in so hard that they died. I guess that’s a more, hands-on approach. Get it? Get it?

Anyway, we probably had a crap load of soldiers to handle inside the city, so I cut his playtime short by halving the entire group of soldiers he was fighting using Wind Cutter. I made sure it was the weakest Wind Cutter I could cast, because August would be hit by it as well, but he wasn’t even scratched. Sure, I made the armour as strong as I could, be his enchanting really was ridiculous.

It made me wonder just how effective the strength and agility enchantments on my rings were. I’d never truly tested it since I got them. The men who were approaching me began backing off after I slaughter most of their allies in front of them. I picked a random one and darted in his direction, executing a kick somewhat similar to what August did. The guy flew a few metres back; maybe an extra metre if you included the rolling stoppage. Hydra’s sweet ass, August! That enchanting is just cheating! I remembered myself before Division. I was probably one of the frailest mages ever. Physical exercise wasn’t my thing at all, but when gaining stamina through spell conditioning, it didn’t feel like exercise.

“Are you two done?!” Bianca yelled out at the top of her lungs. So much for her being our silent assassin.

I glided back and we went to August, who patiently waited for us. “I know this is random, guys. But when we get back home, I’m gonna give Melissa a baby.”

Both our eyes opened so wide at that jarringly out of place statement, we almost forgot the tens of thousands of soldiers inside the damn city who wanted our heads. Well, that was the number we envisioned at first. But boy did we underestimate Ulanos’ baby-making capabilities.