The flower field was completely breached.
As the path finally opened, those who had only been sucking their fingers until then began to move.
“Hurry up! We don’t know when it might close again!”
“Move faster! We have to arrive before anyone else!”
The infantry, who had barely been holding the line, began to advance.
Thanks to Catherine, who burned down the flower field as she passed through, they were thrilled to finally be able to do something.
The armored corps that had halted began to move, and the soldiers marched in formation.
They saw the Demon King’s army fighting near the flower field, but upon spotting the priests confronting them, decided to pass through without interference.
A giant of light was swinging his shield and spear, stirring up whirlwinds and engaging in close combat at a speed /N_o_v_e_l_i_g_h_t/ invisible to the eye.
If they tried to help, they would only get in the way.
“Ignore it and pass through!”
“That’s not a fight for us to worry about!”
Sedina, who was manipulating the artificial World Tree, immediately sensed the shift on the battlefield.
“The flower field... it’s all burned?”
Julia felt the same.
Since she was casting fusion magic together with Sedina, they were sharing part of their senses.
Thus, she could sense just as Sedina did that the thorny vines had vanished and the field of flowers had been burned away.
“What on earth happened?”
“It seems the Saint has appeared—with the priests.”
“Ha, the Saint, huh. Things just got troublesome.”
Julia frowned.
It wasn’t just anyone—it was the Saint. And from Catherine’s display alone, it was obvious she wasn’t a Saint in name only.
It was nothing short of a miracle.
She had burned away all the thorny vines and the sleeping flower field that had immobilized everyone else.
Even though Violetta and Vierno had been guarding the field, they couldn’t stop her.
Soon, a massive number of soldiers would pour in.
But it wasn’t something to despair over.
They had a manual prepared for exactly this kind of situation.
“We just need to do our part.”
Sedina’s voice sounded almost cold, but she was right.
The breached defense line couldn’t be helped; all they could do was act according to the plan laid out for such an event.
And Sedina and Julia were not among those assigned to move.
Though they were filled with the desire to help right away, they forcibly suppressed it.
If the two of them left their posts, the citadel’s gate would be breached.
“Don’t worry too much. If it’s her, she’ll hold the line.”
The strong trust in Sedina’s voice made Julia nod silently.
“Yeah. Let’s do what we need to do.”
“Mm.”
Though Sedina answered calmly, there was something she hadn’t told Julia.
Currently, Sedina was resonating with the roots of the World Tree, receiving all sorts of information from the surrounding flora.
That allowed her to know details no one else could perceive.
And among those details, one stood out most of all—an unexpected person accompanying Saint Catherine.
‘That girl, Rine. Why is she here? No—why is she with the Saint?’
Rine.
A girl Sedina had known for some time, but one who had lately been getting on her nerves.
Because Ludger had been unusually protective of her.
As if there was something between the two of them from the past.
What irritated Sedina even more was that, after the Nirva incident, Ludger and Rine had gone missing together for a while.
They did return, but with incidents erupting one after another afterward, no one noticed there might be something between them.
No one except Sedina.
The two had vanished at the same time, and returned at nearly the same time.
Even just looking at the events that took place overseas in Isla Machia after Ludger disappeared from Rederbelk—it all lined up.
And now, Rine had joined hands with Catherine.
That fact alone made Sedina quietly seethe.
But she chose not to dwell on it.
Because Rine wasn’t the only thing bothering her.
‘Why did those people come here?’
* * *
The coast of Bretus.
Waves crashed against the sand as soldiers bustled back and forth.
Shouts and orders rang out everywhere, along with the deafening noise of armored vehicles.
The scene was louder than a crowded marketplace—and amid the chaos, a group of newcomers appeared.
Anyone looking closely would have noticed something strange about them, but no one questioned it.
The situation was too urgent, too chaotic for anyone to care.
“Mhm. This should get us where we need to go without much trouble.”
Mandelina, her long black messy hair spilling out from beneath her helmet, nodded in satisfaction.
She wore a soldier’s uniform and helmet, disguising herself well enough to avoid suspicion.
The disguise worked perfectly—no one gave her a second glance.
The problem was the person who had come with her.
“M–Master, are you sure this is okay?”
Aidan asked nervously.
He, who should have been at Seorn, was now standing beside her in uniform on Bretus soil.
Even bright, pure-hearted Aidan couldn’t hide how confused he was about why he was here.
“I still don’t really understand why I came here in the first place.”
“Why else? Because I called you, obviously.”
“No, I mean, I don’t understand why you called me.”
Just from the atmosphere around them, Aidan could feel his chest tightening.
This was a battlefield.
Not one from newspapers or books, but a real one.
And not even an ordinary war—this was a Holy War against the Demon King.
The moment he thought of that name, Aidan froze.
‘Professor Ludger.’
Ludger Cherish.
No—he had to be called Heathcliff now. The man who had declared war on the world and become the Demon King.
The Demon King—he still couldn’t believe it even after hearing it. But it was reality.
Aidan had vaguely sensed that Ludger was hiding something, but he had never imagined it would be something of this scale.
Whatever the case, the Holy War had begun.
Whether or not the fate of the world truly hinged on it, one thing was certain—it was a war unlike any other in history.
Aidan believed there was little he, as a mere student, could do here.
Yes, he was stronger than most his age, perhaps even stronger than some veteran mages.
But he was still not an adult—and still inexperienced.
He didn’t belong on a battlefield.
And yet, the reason he was here was because Mandelina had brought him.
“Well, you didn’t really call me. You practically dragged me here by force.”
“Eh, don’t sweat the small stuff.”
“How is that small?!”
When Aidan snapped, Mandelina poked a finger into her ear as if annoyed by the noise.
“Geez, what’s with you? Just act like your usual self. Why are you pretending to be normal all of a sudden? Normally, you’d be running around like a puppy on the first snowy day even in a battlefield like this.”
“Pretending to be normal...?”
Aidan looked stunned by her assessment, momentarily speechless.
He quickly recovered and objected.
“No, even I wouldn’t fool around on a battlefield! Honestly, Master, are you really okay? You seem a lot calmer than I expected.”
“I’m always fine. If anything, a place like this suits me better.”
Mandelina gazed wistfully at the soldiers rushing around.
Now she worked under Erendir, but before that, she had belonged to the Black Ops—the military’s secret special forces unit, carrying out covert missions.
She might smile brightly now, but the missions she once handled were dark, unspeakable things.
Filthy, brutal, and cruel—and her hands were stained with blood that could never be washed away.
The one who ended that life for her was, ironically, the very man now called the Demon King.
Of course, not in a righteous way.
He had wiped out her entire team. If she hadn’t begged for her life, she would have died too.
But she had survived—and been given a new life.
Serving under the First Princess had been hard, but it gave her purpose.
That was why Mandelina now stood again on this battlefield.
“Anyway, don’t worry. I’m not planning to put you in danger.”
“Really?”
“Hey, you don’t trust your Master?”
“Well, judging by your usual behavior, of course not.”
Mandelina flicked Aidan’s forehead hard.
Normally, he would’ve yelped, but this time he just rubbed his head awkwardly.
“Oh? So you’ve grown up, huh? Turned into a real man while I wasn’t looking?”
Aidan had always seemed sturdy for his age, but after entering Seorn and going through so many ordeals, he’d grown even more.
“When I saw you back in the capital, I thought you’d changed already, but you’ve gone through even more since then? What happened, eat something strange?”
“Let’s just say... a lot of things happened.”
“Well, whatever. Anyway, let’s move.”
“Move? Wait, are we really taking part in this war?”
As Aidan asked with a serious look, Mandelina suddenly grabbed him by the collar and pulled him close.
“Master?”
“Aidan, listen carefully.”
She whispered into his ear.
“This war is artificial.”
“Artificial? But aren’t all wars... artificial in a way?”
“Well, true. But would you believe me if I told you that this so-called Holy War was started by a single person’s will?”
“That one person isn’t Professor Ludger, is it?”
“The opposite. The one who started it is Salesin von Bretus—the current Holy Sovereign.”
Mandelina revealed the hidden truth behind the war.
“The leaders of every nation on the continent are under Salesin’s brainwashing.”
“What?!”
“Shh! Keep your voice down. You wanna shout that to everyone?”
Aidan nodded quickly.
“Anyway, that brainwashing—well, it’s actually some kind of divine authority passed down through the Lumenis Church. It allows him to manipulate people’s minds as he pleases.”
“So that’s why the war started?”
“Yeah. With some conditions, sure—but through those leaders, he gathered armies and launched the war.”
“Then... all these soldiers here...”
Mandelina shook her head.
“Not them. The main influence was on the upper command. The rank-and-file soldiers weren’t affected.”
“Then they’re...”
“Yeah. Just innocent victims, dragged into a war one man started for his own ends.”
“...So what’s our role?”
Aidan’s eyes hardened.
“Oh? You’ve grown. The old you would’ve started worrying about everything first, but now you’re asking for the objective right away.”
“Please answer me.”
“For starters, stopping this war isn’t our mission. We couldn’t even if we tried. Instead, you and I have a separate task.”
“It has to do with our anti-magic, doesn’t it?”
“Heh. Sharp. Yeah. My anti-magic and your anti-magic—together, they might be the key to all this.”
“Do you think that’s possible?”
“It might be.”
Mandelina said that and suddenly recalled a memory from the capital.
When the black storm had erupted from the underground and raged across the city.
She and Aidan had released their anti-magic to the limit—and for an instant, they had split that storm in two.
All to open a path for Ludger.
‘That black storm wasn’t magic.’
She later learned it had been a phenomenon imbued with a demon’s authority.
And they had cleaved it apart with anti-magic.
Anti-magic works by infiltrating mana on a microscopic level and dismantling the target’s magic from its foundation.
But the fact that it worked on something beyond magic was a first for Mandelina.
‘Maybe it’s because I’ve been the only anti-magic user until now.’
When combined with Aidan, its power had been more than double—immeasurably greater.
Whatever the exact number, what mattered was that two anti-magic users working together produced something extraordinary.
That was why she had brought Aidan here—to fight beside her.
“So, I’ll be counting on you.”
“Uh, yeah. I’ll do my best. But if things really get dangerous... you will protect me, right?”
Mandelina answered with her trademark mischievous smile.
“I’ll try my best.”