If the front line crumpled, the rear would become the next target. Thus, the rear end’s priority was to help the front line so they wouldn’t fall, and this was the biggest reason why Chelsea healed Byner’s injuries immediately every time. Accordingly, Pina also tried to support Byner from the back as much as possible, but this wasn’t easy for her.
“Tch!” Pina clicked her tongue and shook her staff. She quickly murmured a spell.
Shaa! Mana gathered at the end of her staff and dramatically lowered the temperature of her surroundings. As if stars were falling around her, ice crystals that glittered against the sunlight formed in large clusters. Although the size of each crystal was small, they were imbedded with mana and surpassed most stones in strength.
Shoom! Pina pointed to the front with her staff, and the ice crystals rushed toward the area she pointed to. The sight was pretty, but none of that would come to mind of those struck by them. This spell appeared like it would devastate its surroundings easily, but a sudden rising wall of flames blocked it. Thus, the ice melted. It didn’t melt easily like normal ice since the crystals were made of mana, but what blocked them was also fire made from magic. In the end, none of the ice crystals managed to penetrate the wall of fire.
“Did you fail again? I thought you said it hasn’t been long since that mage learned how to use magic! You always prided yourself as an elite mage, but you can’t even do anything about a newbie mage!”
“Shut up!” Pina responded coldly to Chelsea’s snide comments and quickly prepared her next spell. Yet, Elena’s spell was faster. Crackle! The fire sparks twisted like a snake and thrusted forward at Pina. She also moved her staff to counter the attack.
Crack! Crack! A wall of ice rose in the trajectory where the fire sparks came flying. Yet, the fire sparks swerved around her wall easily like it was making light of Pina’s defense and continued to advance. Pina’s eyes rose.
Psh! Psh! Ice crystals rose from the ground this time. They mercilessly struck the groups of fire sparks. The fire sparks shook widely once, exploded, and disappeared into the air. Pina felt relieved after blocking the attack, but she soon heard Chelsea yelling.
“Wait, Ms. Acous! Look up!”
Pina looked up, and her eyes widened. She didn’t know how they got there, but there were several giant fire arrows hovering in the air.
‘When did they—?’ Pina wondered and a thought came to her mind: ‘Double Incantation!’
Pina hurriedly raised her staff. There wasn’t enough time for her to finish murmuring a spell and she quickly set up an ice wall with a silent incantation. The fact that she could do a silent incantation at her age displayed Pina’s talents as a mage. However, her silent incantation wasn’t perfect yet, and she made several more ice walls while bearing the risk of consuming a considerable amount of mana. Fire arrows began to fall from the sky.
Crack! Crack! Crack! The fire arrows began to break the ice walls shielding her, but Pina’s efforts weren’t completely meaningless as many of the arrows disappeared upon breaking her ice walls. Yet, the hastily made ice walls failed to block everything. Crack! The last ice wall broke and the remaining fire arrows aimed for Pina.
Pina’s face turned pale, but a wall of light appeared in front of her and shielded her.
“Ah, seriously! Can’t you do better?” Chelsea raised her voice, but she didn’t even have the time to keep being angry at Pina.
“Kuh!”
“Ah, sh—!” Chelsea quickly poured out holy power at Byner who received a big wound from Hans’ attack. After recovering, Byner blocked Hans again. However, the situation gradually turned more and more unfavorable for them.
“…I can’t lose.” Pina stared at Elena. With cold eyes, Elena was murmuring incantations and her mouth moving non-stop. Elena Dwayne had been the loser with zero talent in magic even though her grandfather was the leader of the large Conrad School of Magic and the master of the magical tower. She had been someone whom an elite like Pina didn’t even need to bother paying attention to. However, the Elena she met again was a completely different person now. Who would have guessed that Elena officially began her magic studies only recently?
Elena’s rapid growth was thanks to her natural, good mana base and the fact that she rigorously studied magic theory even when she heard she had no talent in magic. Furthermore, she had an outstanding teacher who helped her bridge the gap between theory and practice. Yet, there was no way Pina knew of all this, and the sight of Elena’s clear progress was hard for her to bear.
Due to the rebellion at the magic tower, the already frigid relationship between the Dwayne and the Jaewick family grew even colder. Furthermore, Pina was the granddaughter of the head of the Jaewick family, Wayne Jaewick. Thus, she naturally held negative feelings for the granddaughter of Walwiss Dwayne and daughter of Orland Dwayne. Above all, Pina left her city to bring back glory to her school of magic. This war was part of the steps to achieve her goal, and thus she needed to win this battle at all costs.
‘I can’t lose!’ For personal and professional reasons, she couldn’t lose this time. Pina unleashed her magic at Elena again.
Pop!
“Kuh!” Like before, Pina was pushed back again. Chelsea burst out in anger as she had to block another attack from Elena again, but Pina had no luxury to pay attention to other people’s words.
‘If I can’t even beat Dwayne…’ Pina felt more anxious. From the front, Lara fought as a reserve while Snoc stood at the back. Snoc was not intervening in her fight with Elena, but Pina was aware of how strong Snoc’s abilities were. After the two monsters, Zich and Glen, disappeared on their own and only their comrades were left, a few people tried to intervene in their battle as they thought it would be easier to join their fight. Since they were outside the Steelwalls’ camp, the allied forces were the ones to make a move. However, no one could successfully intervene because Snoc took care of all of them.
Stone spears suddenly rose from underneath the soldiers running with their weapons and penetrated the soldiers from the lower part of their bodies. A huge amount of rocks fell on those with arrows, and the knights rushing toward them were ripped apart by Nowem’s sharp teeth and claws. Pina had been warily glancing at them, and she gulped. As expected, the magical beast and his contractor’s abilities were amazing. However, Pina couldn’t happily admire their abilities since they were her enemies.
It was a bleak situation, but Pina firmed her resolve. ‘We need to win!’
This was a righteous war to defeat the Steelwalls, since they were collaborating with the Bellids. If Pina made significant achievements in this war, the reputation of the Conrad School of Magic would increase, and on the contrary, the reputation of the Pulru and Dwayne Schools ofMagic would plummet. In the best-case scenario, the next master of the magical tower might come from the Conrad School of Magic.
However, she was a mage. She couldn’t be optimistic about the situation simply by grit or will and needed facts to support her belief. Fortunately, the situation wasn’t completely hopeless.
‘We just have to hang in there until Zenard gets here!’ Anyone could tell that Glen’s power was greater than Zich’s. If he defeated Zich and returned, the situation would completely be reversed. ‘There’s still hope!’
However, it did not take long for her hope to wane. There was suddenly a huge explosion on the battlefield. Walwiss Dwayne had returned. At the same time, the Steelwall troops returned from the rear and were pushing back the allied forces. However, a completely different matter shocked the allied forces the most.
“Kill all the Bellids and those who collaborated with them!”
“Surrender! If not, you’ll receive Karuwiman’s judgment!”
“There’s only death for those who collaborate with the Bellids! If you didn’t know anything about this, immediately drop your weapons!”
The allied forces were extremely shocked by the sudden participation of the Karuwimans, and Chelsea, Byner, and Pina were all likewise flabbergasted.
“What? What are you talking about?! How can we be Bellid collaborators?” Despite leaving the Karuwimans, Chelsea, as a follower of Karuna, was the first to react. She was shocked, but as a former Karuwiman, she knew better than anyone how the Karuwimans treated those who collaborated with the Bellids. She hadn’t thought much about this when she was a Karuwiman, but judging by the current situation, they could end up in the same state as the Bellids. Most of all, the reason why she was enduring this whole ordeal was because she still hadn’t given up being the Karuwiman Saintess. However, what would happen if she was labeled as a Bellid collaborator? Her dream to become the next Saintess would be completely shattered. It wasn’t as much as Chelsea, but Byner and Pina were also flustered.
However, Zich’s party was relaxed as if they had already known this would happen. “It’s over now.”
Hans jumped down from the barrier and looked at the holy knights pushing back the allied forces and said, “Surrender. If you fight back, you’ll only die pointlessly. All of you know what it means to be labeled as a Bellid supporter by the Karuwimans, right?”
“…Surrender?” Byner was also quite taken aback by the unexpected turn of events, but he immediately became furious when Hans uttered the word surrender. “How dare you tell me to surrender to a lowly servant like you!”
“I’m asking you to surrender to the Steelwalls, not me.”
“I’ll never surrender to that damn Zich’s family! Never!”
Hans sighed. “If that’s your decision, yes, I’ll respect it.” Hans was strongly influenced by Zich, but he also greatly respected people’s choices. So, he said, “You do know that you have to take responsibility for your decision, right?”
Hans moved his eyes away from Byner and looked at Chelsea and Pina. “What about you two? Are you two also going to say that you’ll never surrender?”
“Wait! Wait a minute!” Chelsea frantically shouted, “What the hell is going on?! Why are you saying that we’re Bellid collaborators?!”
Hans answered, “This whole situation occurred because Count Flaud collaborated with the Bellids to take over the Steelwall Estate. The entire Pinne Estate was also the Bellids’ northern branch.”
Chelsea’s jaw dropped. “T-then, does that mean Mr. Glen was fooled?”
“No, it’s the opposite. Glen Zenard wasn’t fooled. He was the one who deceived others.”
“What are you—!”
“Glen Zenard was collaborating with the Bellids all along.”
Chelsea, Pina, and Byner were shocked beyond belief. Chelsea muttered in a daze, “There’s no way…”
Bam! Then someone made a loud sound and roughly approached them. People’s gazes headed towards the individual—it was Glen.
“Mr. Glen!” Chelsea was delighted to see Glen. “You came at the right time! Could you please explain the current situation…!”
However, Glen saw them and loudly shouted, “Byner! Chelsea! Pina! Protect me right now with your lives!”