Chapter 73

Red Sands Desert, Principality of Rebirth.

City of Rebirth, Outer Defensive Line.

Aline withdrew her hand from her pouch, and took a deep breath as she felt the weight of the metal orb.

She focused, emptying her mind...and pressed the button.

The orb clicked.

Her mind reeled as power filled her core, and the spell began to take over. She fought for control, and managed to overcome the flow of energy and rage that threatened to overwhelm her.

She didn't understand quite how the Order had managed to make artifacts that could hijack a person's core to cast a spell. She knew enough to realize that only the greatest of archmages could create such artifacts, and that every artifact had to be carefully, individually enchanted to avoid simply overwhelming the caster's mind and straight up overwriting their core. There were rumors that high commander Lesly herself had made this orb, and even managed to create an enhanced version for her personal use, but she had dismissed them. Even the Order had it's limits after all!

The spell finished weaving itself inside her, and exploded outwards, connecting with her mind to help allies, and hinder enemies.

The Crimson Veil spell descended upon the battlefield...and everything went mad.

*****

Philia recoiled as terror filled her thoughts, before parrying in-extremis as the mercenary, which she had previously had on the ropes, leapt at her with renewed vigor, his eyes filled with a frenzy that flat out hadn't been there before.

A simple glance around as she counter attacked showed the same thing was happening everywhere. Her knights were wavering, and the enemy was pushing forward.

The knight-commander swore viciously as she recognized the effect of a large scale enhancement spell, with a terror spell stacked on top of it. Extremely powerful ones at that! She assessed her chance, and then gritted her teeth.

She knew the spell was impairing her judgement, but her knights' discipline had its limits. If they broke here, especially when facing an enemy in such a frenzy, they'd get massacred.

She looked at the mercenary she was fighting and dashed forward, accepting a cut on her flank for a clear killing blow, and decapitated him in a single, flawless strike, before stepping back.

"To me!" She yelled out, thrusting her sword into the air, using her helmet's enchantments so her voice could be heard clearly throughout the battlefield. "Form a wall and pull back!"

Terror spell or not, her knights obeyed like a well oiled machine, stepping back and forming a defensive shield wall, before starting to fall back in complete unison.

Even then, it was barely enough, as the main mercenary body arrived like a tidal wave of death.

*****

Allya swallowed as she felt the distant pang of terror, almost stumbling in her charge, even at this distance from the caster. She had never faced those spells in battle, but she had been trained to recognize them. She also noted as the mercenary formation dissolved into chaos as they charged the knights. A concerted rush with the spell to overwhelm the knights, probably.

"Fuck. Terror spell. Anders!"

"Milady?" Called out the captain from behind her.

"Tell our mages to cast everything they've got!" She looked at the enemy cluster of mages, but mentally shook her head. It wasn't coming from them, they were still busy firing everything they had at the Alberta, clearly seeing it as the greater threat, which given the fact that it had reaped a rich harvest into their own ranks was more than fair. Which also had the terrifying implication that either someone was casting that terror spell in combat...or had an artifact that could handle such a powerful spell. In any case, she had no way to just target the source. In which case their best shot was to simply reduce their main fighting force. They were, after all, the ones that could benefit from it. "Target their infantry!"

"Right away milady!"

Anders grabbed something on his belt, and aimed it at the sky.

The flare sputtered, and rose into the air. For a second nothing happened...Then the air filled with the sound of mages incanting, and spells began to fly.

Those were no war spells. The mages had to go forward and accompany the ranged soldiers, many of them having in fact received a crash course in using crossbows so they could contribute to the battle without exhausting their magic. But even without the powerful, specialized spells, mages were still fearsome foes.

Tendrils of electricity, spears of flames, and even the odd fireball flew through the air, and the mercenaries' backline began to evaporate. Literally, in some of the more gruesome cases.

Allya frowned as the mercenaries...didn't even notice. In fact they only redoubled their assault. What the-

Then, as the knights finished getting out of the way, the pressure on her mind eased, and the mercenaries and knights alike just...stopped. The mercenaries suddenly seemed to remember that they had other priorities to killing the knights, and reformed into a coherent formation, before beginning to retreat once more.

The baroness hesitated. They could still charge them, but...their mages were finally realizing that the Alberta wasn't coming back, same for their artillerists, and reforming to face her. Moreover she had almost outrun her own ranged and magical support, and the mercenaries' backup unit was finally catching up, giving them a fresh frontline.

Allya sighed. She could risk it all for a shot at victory, try to overrun them and finish it once and for all. Hell, if the situation was more desperate she probably would. But time was on her side here. An entire damned army was on its way to relieve her, and she had the single largest country on the continent to back her up. She didn't need to risk it. Even just those losses should buy her enough time.

She slowed down, and her troops slowed behind her, and she gestured at the knights.

"Anders! Let's link up with our friends here, and pull back." She elevated her voice so her troops could hear her. "We've won today. Let them fall back to their camp, with their tail between their legs. Let's see how full of bravado their 'Gothram' is after that defeat!"

Her soldiers howled in laughter, throwing catcalls at their retreating enemies...but Allya could also hear the hesitation and the residual fear from the spell in their collective voices, and she knew she had made the right choice. If that spell had been activated when they'd properly encircled the mercenaries...it would have been like the story of the hunting hound that had caught the wyvern.

*****

Aline sighed in relief as she put the orb back into her pouch. Casting the spell, even with the orb having its own internal mana crystal to draw from, had been draining in the extreme, and she wasn't sure she could have held it up for much longer anyway.

Not that it had proven necessary. It had turned a near perfect encirclement into a breakout, and although they'd gotten clipped, the Scarlet Swords had made it. It was what counted.

People on both sides had probably realized what was happening. That was...unfortunate, but this had been her quieter option. Tossing a handful of maelstrom grenades into the knights' formation might have been effective, but it would have raised a lot more eyebrows. As it was she'd just have to plant a few used up scrolls for enhancement and terror spells, and she should be able to get away with it, as long as the supposed casters were, ah, too dead to testify.

She looked over her shoulder, and nodded towards the dungeon entrance, whose top she could vaguely see in the distance. She was sure that high commander Lesly was watching. Hopefully she would approve of her performance.

*****

Alexandra whistled softly as both sides broke apart, and headed back to their respective lines.

"Well, that was...impressive."

Emilia nodded.

"I agree. They seemed to have used some kind of mass spell at the end. Probably some kind of enhancement one? It's hard to tell."

"How so? I just saw them surge forward like berserkers."

"Precisely. And they clearly weren't doing that a few seconds beforehand. Plus even the ones already engaged started fighting far more effectively."

"Mmmhhh. Fair enough." Alexandra shrugged. She'd never been an expert in medieval combat. Especially large scale combat. It hadn't looked that much different from the general melee at the barricade to her. It was probably something she'd have to correct, if she ever wanted to effectively lead her own golem army. Which given the context...

"Say, vampy? Since we seem to be the center of attention and our dear dungeon town a veritable war magnet, do you have some books on warfare? Large scale unit tactics, that kind of stuff. I know, it's mainly background knowledge, but at least I won't have to bombard you with questions every time a battle happens."

"I mean, I am here to answer your questions, but...fair enough. I have some essays and books on the matter." Emilia whirled around and firmly poked the Earth-born's torso. "But don't you dare use it as an excuse to procrastinate, got it?"

Alexandra laughed, holding up her hands. At least the vampire girl thought she was asking at least partially to avoid some design work, which was good.

"Alright, alright, you got me! Which reminds me! CQ, remember the bracelets I promised you?"

The boss instantly perked up.

"Yes! Did you make them?"

"Yep!" Alexandra gestured, and Jared handed her over an ornate box. The Earth-born blinked, she could have sworn he'd been halfway across the room just a second ago...she shook her head, and cracked the box open. "Three matching bracelets. One for you, one for Emilia, and one for me."

Emilia and CQ leaned forward to look at the bracelets. The box was fairly simple, and wasn't exactly complimenting the jewelry inside, but the bracelets themselves were beautiful.

They were made out of pure silver, at least on the surface, and intricately engraved with images of swords, golems, and books, each representing one of the wearers.

"They're...beautiful." Emilia chuckled. "See? You can make some magnificent stuff when you put your mind to it!" She extended her hand towards one of the bracelets, looking up at Alexandra for permission, who nodded. She took it, and brought it closer to her face to examine it. "Wait...it has runes on it?"

"Of course! It's the same teleport spell on CQ's sword, so she doesn't lose it when she...gets defeated." Even knowing the boss would just be recreated afterwards, it was hard to say 'die', especially for her daughter!

"Ah. And since they're matching..."

"All of them have those runes."

Emilia nodded, and Alexandra concealed a sigh of relief as the vampire girl slipped the bracelet on, and then fussed over CQ, trying to make her wear it 'properly'. All the bracelets had the same teleport spell to retrieve them...but they also concealed the second spell. The one buried inside the layer underneath the silver, made of the best steel she could create through her interface, reinforced with additional runes. Then at the core, was another layer of silver...where a full on teleport spell was engraved.

Teleport spells which were bound to a teleport pad she had hidden in a room at the extreme edge of her influence. One with every tool necessary to dig out of, although it would take a while, as well as ample mana reserves in the form of chests full of mana crystals and the best life support she could make, which was mainly vents with some options to block air intake. She'd had to stop her discreet defense and military programs for several days entirely to have the funds necessary to make the room and it's resources.

She hadn't interacted much with the logistics branch responsible for building and maintaining the EFSN's planetary defense centers, but she had picked up a thing or two about surviving from a technologically superior enemy from her marines in Alpha Centauri, and the subsequent fortifications built there after the first campaign. She was fairly sure someone could straight up detonate a nuke inside the deepest level of her dungeon, and the panic room would survive.

Just to be safe however, she'd made sure that not only the bracelets could trigger their own teleport, but that the pad could trigger it as well, and she had hardwired the pad to a hidden button in the command center. Push came to shove she could instantly transport Emilia to a safe location. It would also bring her avatar, as well as CQ if she was still there, but that was just bonuses. Best case scenario she could make a lot of excuses and explain herself to Emilia. Worst case scenario the vampire girl would have everything needed to survive and escape while Alexandra did what needed to be done.

She reflexively checked her final defense protocols, before stepping back from her interface as CQ jumped and hugged her avatar.

"Thank you mom!"

Alexandra chuckled.

"It's my pleasure CQ. Anything for you."