Sugar, spices, and silkworms. Many nations on Terra are warring over these precious resources. The problem with these three ingredients is that they have a tendency to attract large amounts of monsters if there is a large amount of it. As a result, mass farming of these precious resources can only be done in well-defended areas or on islands. In addition, transport of such material has to be guarded. It is no wonder that these three products are extremely expensive, and many nations have gone to war over production lands and trade routes. So... I want you to tell me how the hell you have so many of such items.

-An excerpt of a lecture from Cecilia that Descal slept through

One of the hardest things before and during a battle is the waiting. Waiting for the screams to start, waiting for the charge to initiate, and waiting for death. Cecilia was with her elite Royal Guards with a bunch of cavalry milling around. That's right. Elite Royal Guard. Because of the drastic decrease in the number of the Royal Guards, Descal could spend more time in training each individual, and Felix was able to afford the best equipment for each Royal Guard member. In literally 10 days, everybody was Gold Ranked with the three veterans on the tipping point of ranking up.

Of course, it was difficult to know if someone truly ranked up due to the sheer variety of factors that determined one's rank such as intelligence, strength, mana manipulation, and mana levels. As a result, the only way to truly know if one ranked up is to defeat someone or something of a higher rank or gain the recognition of someone who is higher. The four fresh gold ranked knights had difficulty settling the butterflies that rampaged in their stomach.

"How many do you think will die this battle?" (Grisch)

"C'mon. Don't talk about that. It's already hard enough waiting." (Goob)

"Well, we aren't going to lead the battle this time around. If anything, Mr. Binus' plan is that Queen Cecilia stay away from the front lines. In addition, we are going to be far away from the main battle and only going to defeat a couple of reinforcement troops... with us in the back." (Pan)

"Yeah. But we are now gold ranked soldiers. I don't think we can stay away from the battle, especially after that charge in the first battle." (Grisch)

"Uggh. My stomach hurts just thinking about going back to the field." (Goob)

"Might as well get used to it Mr. Goob." (Cecilia)

"Your Highness!" (Royal Guard)

"Get up. No need to kneel when a battle is about to start. We are going to be fighting side by side should the time come." (Cecilia)

"If I may your highness, you seem awfully calm about this. This is your first war, yes?" (Pan)

"Well, I am the Queen, and I have to keep a dignified appearance. Although I had lots of practice with patience when I had to act out my countermeasures for rooting out assassins." (Cecilia)

"Forgive me for bringing up bad memories." (Pan)

"No. It's alright. It's kinda pitiful, to be honest. Look at me. An 18-year-old royal who has experienced so much death that she is desensitized to it." (Cecilia)

After that, there was an uncomfortable silence among the five people. However, this was interrupted when Felix, Bob, and Manos galloped toward the Queen at top speed.

"Your majesty! The battle has started!" (Felix)

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When General Sheela's army came to the Fortress City, the first thing that encountered them was nothing. There should have been troops, traps, catapults, mages, anything! But alas, there was nothing. Not even the gates were locked. It was wide open as if beckoning the troops to enter.

The first thing that went through everyone's mind was that it was a trap. Descal already had an infamous reputation for traps due to how he utilized it to wipe out the first wave. Due to the massive losses incurred from the first battle, General Sheela knew that she couldn't afford to lose another battle.

The political situation was already tense on her side. Many nobles supporting the usurper were not happy with how badly the first battle went. It was literally a third of the army that went down the drain. In order to prevent any nobles thinking of defecting back to that child-devil's side, Sheela needed a victory. As a result, she was forced to send her troops through the gate. Sheela wouldn't be able to defend herself if the nobles had heard of how she was "too scared" to enter a seemingly abandoned city. She would become the laughing stock of the entire army and lose her position. Until she gets her vengeance, she cannot risk losing her position. She left some troops outside to keep watch on their rear. If this city was indeed an ambush, Sheela wanted an escape route.

The first thing that everyone noticed was that the streets were littered with gold statues and treasures. However, they were all mainly buried with only the tip peeking out. Sheela saw that some of the soldiers stopped marching and were trying to dig out the gold.

"Give the order to have the men continue marching. Nobody touches any of the treasures."

"Yes, my lord."

Gold. It seems that Cecilia the devil was intent on tormenting her even in the battlefield. Every time she sees a large amount of gold spent nilly-willy, her stomach coils up in anger. Cecilia should know of what gold meant to Sheela, and yet she has the audacity to use such a plan.

The screams and shouts began to ring around her head. Her family destroyed due to the greed of others, caused by the Devil Princess. Sheela unconsciously started to flex her fingers, fingers that desired to wrap around a neck and snap it.

Her guards immediately went off to bring the men back into formation. While she was looking around, Sheela couldn't help get a bad feeling of why Descal would abandon an entire city without a fight. It was completely unheard of. She watched as her soldiers lead by her elites taking the walls with absolutely no difficulty, and the mercenaries she hired to dismantle traps continued to report that there were no traps. None of the building was rigged, and neither was the ground unless one could count the gold as traps.

It wasn't until the front lines got to the city center that sounds of fighting rang out.

Sheela smiled. She heard of how Cecilia was in the front lines in the previous battle. If luck would have it, she would be in the front lines this battle as well.

---------------------------------------------

"Hold the line! Don't retreat until we buy enough time for her majesty to escape!"

This was what was shouted by numerous soldiers that Descal paid a bit extra to shout out. Descal wanted Sheela's soldiers to think that the five hundred men that remained in the city weren't a diversion for another attack, but a diversion to buy time for an army to retreat.

Of course, it was highly unlikely for Sheela herself to fall for it, but the same could not be said for her men. If Descal can occupy Sheela so that she was unable to give out orders, it would be easy for the army to fall into the trap. This was why Descal was being incredibly showy with his magic (as much as he could with the sealed state he was in) to try and lure Sheela to his position. That and he had no choice but to use some of his spells cause Sheela's tactics were pretty damn good.

"Fuck. These fuckin pikes are so annoying!" (Descal)

It turns out that long pointy sticks can be very deadly in tight spaces if used correctly. Descal's side was taking heavy damage because they had difficulty getting close to the enemy while mages calming casted spells from behind the pikemen.

"Watch out! They let loose the dogs!"

"Gaaah! My legs!"

"Get them off me!"

Also, they somehow managed to get hold of some sort of rabid dogs and were releasing them onto Descal's men. As a result, Descal was losing far more men than he originally planned for. Suddenly, he saw a glimpse of reflective metal from one of the buildings down the street, and he quickly grabbed the arrow before it could pierce his head. Descal was positive he rigged the rooftops with traps, but it seems that Sheela found a way around it. So, this is what is like to face off against someone who knows exactly what they are doing.

A dog leaped at Descal, only for him to lean to the side and stab the dog through the eye while it was jumping past him.

"Move back to the fourth outer gate. We're gonna get surrounded at this rate!" (Descal)

Without another word, the infantry and mages quickly began running back only to encounter another group with a silver-haired beauty in shiny form-fitting leather armor. In her hands was a staff that had two crystals on each end.

"General Sheela. It's quite rare to see a general to lead her men so close to the front lines."

"That is the last thing I want to hear from someone like you."

Sheela was a platinum level individual from the reaction that Descal's black diamond was giving. Descal quickly began wrapping his hand around the black diamond and broke the seal. Immediately, he felt the rush of power as his mana levels rose to what most Mythril rank people have. Descal put his hand on one of the buildings to his right and destabilized its molecular structure so that it came crashing down as dirt and ash.

"Take that street over there and get out of here! I'll distract Sheela myself!"

"Yes, sir!"

Descal began concentrating the numerous air molecules around him and started seven fireballs fueled with mana with more on the way. When gas molecules are suddenly and quickly compressed, it results in a jump in temperature and heat which should be enough to kickstart a fire. Of course, the next problem would be fuel, but Descal solved it by fueling the magic with mana. Of course, that meant that the fire would be weak to armor that was resistant to mana; however... Descal shot the fireballs at the group in front of him. Sheela merely stood still as the fireballs dissipated with a small flash after contacting her armor while the rest of her men fled from the oncoming barrage. Unlike what happened with Sheela's armor, when the fireballs made contact with the ground or flesh, they exploded burning everything in its surroundings. Descal gained an important piece of information. Cecilia's armor was warded against mana.

When an armor is warded against mana or resistant to spells, it doesn't mean that the armor is invincible to magic. There is always a limit to how much mana the armor can dissipate before it is overwhelmed. In addition, a magic that is not fueled by mana is effective. To clarify, the fireballs by Descal were fueled by mana. In other words, the fireball needed a constant flow of mana to keep its effectiveness.

However, if Descal created a large ball of ice from the water vapor from the environment and shot it at Sheela not with mana fueled velocity, but a small explosion of compressed air, the mana warding would not work because, in the point of view of the armor, it was simply a big ball of ice with no mana on it hurtling towards it. That was exactly what Descal did when the initial barrage of fire was ineffective.

Sheela, confident in her armor, did nothing and simply stood there which was completely understandable. One key weakness of chant magic was that everything was fueled by mana. In other words, Sheela probably never met an opponent who used spells like Descal.

The ball of ice smashed into Sheela and hurled her into the building 30 meters behind her. She went through the wall with such force that the building ended up collapsing on top of her.

"Well, that was anticlimactic. Welp, time to collect her body! I wonder if she has any special physical traits."

Descal began to walk toward the fallen building; however, he suddenly stopped when his ears picked up some muffled words. His eyes suddenly opened in surprise as multiple ice swords came from the dusty remnants of the building and hurtled towards him. He quickly smashed apart all of them with his blades, but Sheela followed up her attack with a sudden lunge with her staff smacking Descal in his diaphragm and sending him crashing into an inn's stables.

"That is the last time I underestimate a subordinate of Cecilia. I should have known that you would be different in some way. No wonder you defeated Farrago."

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The city was flashing with all sorts of explosions and fire. Some of the spells had sent massive beams of light and energy all the way into the sky that even a small army about a day march from the fortress city could feel and see its power. The Royal Guards were watching the light show from afar with concern as they followed their queen who was leading a detachment of mages and infantry that numbered 2,000 away from the city to somewhere else.

"I know this is kinda late, but where are we going?" (Goob)

"If you just pay attention for once... Apparently, enemy reinforcements have been reported by our Commanding General's informant so we are going to stop them. This was all explained a couple days ago." (Fersal)

"What are the numbers again?" (Pan)

"100,000." (Felix)

Immediately, the four newer members froze up when the captain informed them of the massive army.

"Sir, if I may, I just need to confirm that my ears weren't going crazy recently, isn't that the majority of the enemy army?" (Grisch)

"Yes. I know that it is hard to believe, but it is 100,000 troops." (Felix)

"We only have 2,000 thousand troops. How are we going to defeat such a large army?" (Grisch)

"There is a reason why not a lot of people don't know about the true number but don't worry. I can't say anything yet, but there is going to be a nasty surprise for them. Thankfully, the general of the reinforcing army isn't familiar with this part of the country. Our job is only going to be mopping up the survivors. We are going to have the easy job. It's those poor blokes at the city that I worry about." (Felix)

"Oye. Felix. Queen Cecilia requests your presence." (Dob)

"Got it. Tell Manos to stop flirting with that girl over there and get back in line."

"You got it."

Felix began riding up towards Queen Cecilia who was discussing something in private with this suspiciously dressed woman. At first, Felix thought she was a man, but after listening to her voice, he realized his mistake.

"You requested my presence, your majesty?" (Felix)

"Ahh. Commander Felix. I have come to tell you that there will be some changes to the plan. The enemy has changed course." (Cecilia)

"Hmmm. Is that a map? If you may, could you be more specific?"

"From what Yang here tells me, it looks like the enemy has been going farther south than previously thought. This would cause them to go behind this hill which would shield them from the worst of the effects. We need to pull them back up north a bit to this valley."

"We would need to go ahead of schedule then. If we can pull some small skirmishes to have them chase us back north..."

"Exactly. However, it would be too much for us to rush there with so many so I am planning on taking a smaller detachment of 30 of our fastest cavalry to do hit and run tactics on them to pull them back up. However, since we need for them to chase us, I am going to use myself as bait. Ready your men and find some people for this mission. I want to get to this position by midday. It's going to be a close one, but I think we can pull this off. By sundown, we should be able to wipe out this army."

"Your majesty, I would simply like to say that it is awe inspiring to fight alongside royalty who is willing to put herself in danger. I believe I can understand why the late king has named you his successor."

"...You are dismissed."

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The sun was halfway through the sky. If one wished to be poetic, the position of the sun could be used to describe the current stalemate between Sheela and Descal. Their fight was so furious and dangerous that Sheela's men were being caught up in the crossfire. As a result, Sheela took the initiative to pull Descal outside the city walls, and Descal willingly went along with her plan.

Descal did not have the luxury of playing around at all unlike the fight with Farrago. Sheela wasn't a platinum. Although the black diamond displayed Sheela as a platinum, Sheela was most definitely not a platinum. One of the weaknesses of the black diamond was that it used mana level as the deciding factor for deciding the opponent's strength which made sense because the black diamond was mainly a seal for Descal's own mana levels. However, this meant that if the opponent was strong in other methods, the diamond's evaluation became inaccurate and an inadequate amount of Descal's strength was unsealed. From Descal's fight with Sheela factoring in her physical strength, mana manipulation, thinking, she was easily a Mythril rank.

"[Chain Magic: Ice Sword Dance]" (Sheela)

Thirty swords made of ice appeared in front of Sheela, and every single one of them pointed itself at Descal. Descal immediately dived to the ground and began erecting multiple stone walls which the swords began piercing with ease. To Sheela's credit, she was doing an excellent job of pinning down Descal and preventing him from utilizing his flight spells very well.

If only Descal could use a force field spell; however, such a spell would have to be entirely chant magic. One of the limitations of natural law based magic was that it had to be somewhat based on the user's understanding of the natural laws. From what Descal knew of physics, force fields were impossible. Yes, a magnetic field could be erected and strengthened to the point of being able to deflect charged particles or iron, but this was ice. Ice can't be affected very well with a magnetic field. If Descal was to block Sheela's attacks, he needed to do it the old-fashioned way with no fancy magic spells... or use chant magic, but like hell if Sheela would give him time to chant.

While Descal was busy hiding behind the multi-layered stone walls, he heard rumbling. Descal frowned before a staff caught him in the face and sent him tumbling a couple of meters. Sheela was also very skilled with her staff. Her staff which also were equipped with what turned out to be freaking shock crystals. Crystals that sent out shockwaves when magic was fed to it and contact was made with a physical object.

Descal quickly tried to put his eye back into his socket before Sheela noticed, but it was too late.

"You're not human."

"Maybe. Maybe not."

"Talking in riddles. You're definitely not human."

"Okay. That's just rude."

"I'm not surprised that Cecilia would stoop down to summoning demons."

"Umm. I'm not a demon."

"Enough talk. [Blizzard]."

Descal's line of sight was obscured by a thick snow storm. Quickly understanding the dangerous situation, Descal activated one of his entropy spells. It increased the entropy of all mana in the area so that spells were nullified for a certain period of time. In other words, mana became too unstable for spells to take hold. However, one of the special traits about mana that baffles Descal (and all Earth physicists if mana existed on Earth) was that mana had a tendency to naturally decrease entropy so it was a temporary fix at best.

Descal noticed a shadow over him so he quickly dodged out of the way before a staff smashed into the ground where he was.

"[Ice Spikes]."

However, nothing happened. Sheela blinked in confusion while Descal brutally smiled. Descal still had access to the void matter, and it wasn't affected by unstable mana. In addition, the void could be converted into usable mana. In other words, Descal was still able to use magic.

"What did you do?"

Only a smile answered back.

-------------------------------------------------

Cecilia smiled once more as she brought down another fool yelling orders to his troops to chase after her squad. In order for commanders to be much more easily recognizable, most of them tended to sit on horses in big flashy uniforms. Of course, it made them bigger targets; however, to become a commander, one had to have a certain rank so that they wouldn't die so easily.

In a world of swords, magic, and arrows, this system tended to work. However, when guns were introduced, things begin to change. Even with magic, one had to understand guns in order to pace proper countermeasures. Even with countermeasures, it required a very strong individual to consistently survive shots. With most commanders being rank gold or lower and little understanding of guns, they stood no chance against Cecilia's sniping.

After the fifth commander kill, it would be obvious for the commanders to know something was up. However, Cecilia got hold of these harmless firecrackers that Descal made during the winter when he was training the troops. By firing in tangent with her hit and run squadrons throwing the firecrackers at the enemy, the enemy commanders got the impression that it was the firecrackers that were mysteriously taking them down.

"Retreat! Let's move north!" (Felix)

"After them! A million gold coins to the man who kills the devil queen!"

*crack*

"Your Highness. We are trying to get them to chase us not chase them away..." (Felix)

Cecilia shouted in a voice as loud as possible: "You call yourselves men! Not one of you has the courage to kill me!"

"This bitch!"

"Wait till I get my hands on you!"

"*sigh* Your Highness. Making them mad like that was not my intent." (Felix)

"Shut it." (Cecilia)

Cecilia turned around and shot another round with another man dropping with his leg shattered.

"Tell Pan to ready the signal. In a few more kilometers, we should have lured them into the optimal area."

"Understood."

Soon, it seems that Descal would get another nickname. After all, wiping out such a large army in one go is sure to turn heads.