Back at DreadHaven, the atmosphere was thick with tension and heaviness. The war was at its boiling point, ready to spill over into violence at any moment.
Right now, Cryptus's side of the army had already been informed about the arrival of Mystveil's army, and he acted immediately, rushing toward the Mystveil base camp area with grim determination etched on his face.
At the same time, Li Feng marched with his army from the front, their steps steady and purposeful as they prepared to engage the enemy head-on.
The situation felt quite equal on both terms right now. Mystveil had the huge numbers, with those strange sturdy robots who could fight without thinking of their lives, their mechanical bodies making them fearless and relentless.
Their numbers had already turned over thirty thousand and didn't show signs of stopping, as every few seconds, the portal flickered and more soldiers would come out, their forces swelling continuously.
While on the other hand, DreadHaven's army had territorial advantage and they were surrounding the enemy from both sides, their position strategically superior despite being outnumbered.
"That portal, we need to destroy it, or else they'll just keep popping out," Li Feng says, pointing toward the Mystveil base camp where the magical gateway continued to spit out reinforcements.
Meanwhile, on the other side, Cryptus ordered, "Everyone, eat a slice of golden apples and be ready!" his voice carrying across the ranks.
There was no scarcity of golden apples, although eating them in large quantities would result in turning berserk, so it was good to eat small slices instead, enough to enhance their abilities without losing control.
Meanwhile, from the base camp, everyone was ready for the attack as well, their anticipation building as they waited for the signal to begin.
Vladimir was resting on his horse, looking back and forth between the DreadHaven army and then glancing back at his subordinates, his expression calculating as he assessed the situation.
Adam, Thomas, Ashford, Sparda, and other Holy Knight members were fully ready for the battle as well, their armor gleaming and weapons at the ready. They were just waiting for the command to show their terror on the battlefield.
"Are you all ready?" he asks, his voice steady despite the tension in the air.
"Of course, I even chose which one I'm going to fight," Adam says, his gaze piercing through the distance, directly landing on Lunatic, who was standing behind Li Feng.
"It'll be a good experience to purify a succubus," he adds with an amusing chuckle, confident in his abilities to deal with the demonic threat.
"For me, I can feel quite dense dark energy coming from there. To think there would be a dark swordsman in this era as well," Sparda says, unable to help but feel nostalgic, as magic swordsmen were rare after all, especially dark element ones who could wield such corrupted power.
"My opponent is on that side as well," Ashford steps forward, pointing toward a specific spot in the enemy ranks.
"Hmm... what a pain. Guess we have to split into groups and attack each side," Vladimir sighs, hugging his horse's neck in a gesture of mild frustration.
"What about you? Which side will you fight?" Thomas asks casually, adjusting his grip on his weapon.
"None, I'm the king here, I'll just observe from behind, only interfere if things go worse," he answers truthfully but then pauses for a second, observing himself and then looks back at Thomas with an irritated face.
"You did it again, didn't you? Do you want to die by Auren's hands again?" he shouts, definitely pissed off by whatever transgression had occurred.
"Oops, sorry, it has become a bit of a habit... hehe," Thomas scratches the back of his head, looking sheepish.
Before Vladimir was about to scold him even more, he points behind him, "Guess we were late, both sides have already started moving."
Stopping his scolding session, Vladimir looks at both sides of DreadHaven's army, which had already started moving toward them at rapid speed.
Seeing this, a huge smile appears on Vladimir's face. "Everyone, attack!"
*******
Meanwhile, back at the borders of Mystveil, there was a huge complex magic circle prepared, its intricate patterns carved into the very earth and pulsing with otherworldly energy.
From the center of it, a beacon of white light was endlessly pouring forth, piercing through the clouds—or at least, that's what it seemed like to any who might observe from a distance.
In reality, it was completely the opposite. The complex magic structure was actually an automatic suction force, invisible but powerful in its function.
It was sucking the mana from the surroundings to keep operating the ritual. Meanwhile, Vesilisa was continuously pouring thousands of human souls into it every second, the innocent souls being used as mere offering for the ritual.
With mana and soul being mixed into one, it was causing a corporal blinding white beacon of light. The pure mana extracted from nature itself was making it look divine and white, masking the dark truth of its composition with an appearance of heavenly purity.
Meanwhile below, Vesilisa kept murmuring some ancient words in a language long forgotten by mortals, her voice steady and hypnotic as she worked the magic that would change the fate of kingdoms. Her disciples accompanied her, their faces pale with concentration as they helped stabilize the ritual in its starting phase, their hands moving in precise patterns as they chanted in harmony with their mistress.
As her chanting continued, several more magic circles appeared in the air, spinning like wheels of light before merging inside the white beacon, turning its force even greater but more stable with each passing second.
A few minutes later, the white beacon of light had turned still, as if it wasn't moving at all. If someone were to look from afar now, it would be more like some kind of huge white pillar of steel rather than a column of living energy.
It just showed how much it had been stabilized, the chaotic forces now contained and focused toward a single purpose.
Xeno and Beatrix were casually sitting around the corner, watching the ritual with bored eyes, their postures relaxed despite the immense power being unleashed nearby.
They still didn't understand how a ritual was supposed to grant them their wishes.
Just what kind of thing would they summon? Perhaps an ancient wish-granting artifact that could bend reality to their will?
As she was pondering about it, Vesilisa casually stood up from her position and looked at her fully white-clothed disciples, their faces etched with exhaustion but determination.
"The starting phase is done now. Just focus on keeping it stable. Any mishap happens, call me immediately," she instructs before turning toward Xeno and Beatrix.
She casually walks up to them and sits down beside them, the scenery in front of them not unpleasant in its own way. Sitting across a vast land field, with an unknown ritual going on just a few meters beside them.
"The starting phase is done as well. Time is with us. We'll definitely succeed," Vesilisa says, now that the starting phase was done, she could move and help defend the ritual if needed, her confidence growing with each passing moment.
"It feels more like this Scarlett is just negligent. Not a single attack at all. It's like she's not even trying," Xeno sighs in disappointment, her hand resting on the hilt of her broadsword as if itching for a fight that wasn't coming.
"It's better that she didn't though," Beatrix adds lightly, her practical nature overriding any desire for battle.
"Still..." Xeno sighs again but pauses and turns to Vesilisa. "By the way, you still have to tell us what this thing is you're about to summon, that'll grant us our wishes?"
Hearing Xeno's question, Vesilisa chuckles lightly to herself, shaking her head slightly as if amused by some private joke that they weren't privy to.
"That's where the real secret lies. Everyone is thinking we're about to summon 'something,' so even if we succeed, they'll have the chance to steal or break it to foil our plan. That might be the reason for her negligence," Vesilisa answers calmly, her eyes glinting with cunning intelligence.
"But we aren't summoning something," she continues, her voice dropping slightly as if sharing a confidence of great importance. "We are summoning 'someone.'"
**************
Outside of the planet, Scarlett kept flying through space. It wasn't her first time in space anyway; she knew she could survive in the vacuum just fine, although it was her first time traveling through the vast emptiness like that.
Despite being so far away, she could see her destination clearly. Two glowing balls of light hovered in the darkness, soft blue like gentle flames, yet something about them didn't seem right. They spun around each other in a mesmerizing dance, quick and constant.
Their speed was so high that they were spinning around each other at least fourteen times a second, creating a dizzying spectacle of cosmic motion.
Ring-shaped, massive black spheres, even larger than the neutron stars themselves, enclosed them. It wasn't made of iron or anything she'd seen before. It seemed to be absorbing the energy from the neutron stars—their gravitational pull, gravity waves, and their raw power.
Scarlett wasn't wasting any time either. She was closing the distance of weeks in just mere minutes, but it was still quite far away.
Because of it being in space, it was hard to imagine its exact location and directly teleport there.
Right now, Scarlett was just a blur of light moving through space, a streak of purple against the backdrop of stars.
But then, in front of her eyes, both of the neutron stars collided without making any sound, Releasing energy of two supernovas against each other—which meant energy of a kilonova.
This made Scarlett freeze in her place for a split second, Before the whole energy could obliterate everything in its sight, it stopped.
And then it started condensing back, and those ring-shaped black spheres absorbed its whole energy in one go.
The whole frame of those rings became incredibly heated, the black colour turning into bright orange for a few seconds before turning back to normal.
Although she didn't have to bear the burden of stopping the energy of a kilonova from hitting the planet (Chetna), it didn't mean it was a good thing.
"If what he said is right, then a portion of its energy will shoot towards DreadHaven, obliterating it in one go," she thinks to herself, gritting her teeth as the weight of the situation settled heavily upon her.
"It's just silence before the storm. I need to stop it," she says to herself, immediately continuing her flight toward the giant black spheres.