(Third POV)

Vassil was reaching his limit on every aspect. As of now, after killing another High-class Mal’eur, He was sitting on his ass just behind the bunker while watching his tired clones bickering. He had already used up all the charge in his Soul Weapon.

“I can’t do this anymore.”

“Number two, shut up. You’ve been yapping like an idiot ever since we started.”

“Number three, you nearly killed us including the Originator, restrain yourself more.”

“So what if he dies, Number one?!”

“If he dies, then we all would, idiot!!”

Vassil was slightly amused watching them as watching four version of yourself arguing is quite hilarious. With the retreat, he was allowed a certain amount of time for a respite but there were still a few high-class Mal’eur at his side, so this was but a brief respite.

He got up and just when he was about head into the battlefield-

“Yo, Vassil, did you miss me?!!”

Up in the air, August who was floating grinned at Vassil.

Vassil chuckled heartily when he saw that.

“I never thought I’ll say this to a man but I’m glad to see you here, you bastard!”

August dropped down and clasped his hand with Vassil.

“Did Ruigne send you here?”

“Yeah, he said something like ‘Vassil might die from being distracted by Vefal, so I’m sending you there’.”

“That asshole…”

Both of them were smiling. The four clones was just staring at the exchange without any expression.

“Anyway, you can rest longer.”

“Naw, I can still move. I mean how else I could last in bed for three hour if I can’t even do this!”

“I don’t think that’s normal though I’m not one to judge…”

Muttering quietly to himself, August followed Vassil as they strode forth into the battlefield together, along with the four clones.

--

Kiefy had lost count on how many High-class Mal’eurs he had killed and the numerous Low-class Mal’eurs that had died under his blade.

Right now, he was using his normal blade as he decided to conserve His Soul Weapon. Still he was exhausted. Fighting continuously for an hour and half was tiring and there was no end to the Mal’eurs.

He had took a brief respite for five minute and then got up as he took a deep breath. He set his sight at the Mal’eurs that were trying to breach the Guardians but then-

Arrows had appeared at where their vital was and most of them staggered and dropped dead.

Kiefy was dumbstruck for a while and he turned around quickly at the direction where the arrows had come.

Up in the air, He saw a long-haired girl who wore feathered leather armour and the same cloak as he did, floating.

“Vefal?!!”

He exclaimed. Vefal, hearing that, turned and saw her brother. She then went down near him.

“It’s good to see you again brother.”

“Ruigne did say to August to bring reinforcement and I half-expected that you would be the one to come here.”

He smiled warmly at her. Vefal made the same smile back at him.

“It’s great seeing that you three are doing alright but we have pressing matter to attend to, we’ll catch up later.”

Vefal then summoned her [Shadow] and Her gauntlet [Rhelya].

Kiefy nodded, with that, both of them turned towards the battlefield.

--

As she stood on the air a bit far from the [Sanctuary] after renewing the ‘Air Walk’ from one of the Eomancers on the [Sanctuary], she had seen the enormous creature that had rear its ugly head at the place where the Leylines were breached. It was taller than the wall of the Capital in her old empire, Monomakhian and wider than the great white rock of Gerberalda.

Earlier when she was still fighting, at the corner of her eyes, she had seen five of the summoned had come as reinforcement. She saw one of them; a person called Therius had flown straight towards that monster. She had a few altercations with that man and a deep resentment wells within her. Afterward, he saw the human that was from the same world as Ruigne and August called Horatius, currently engaging in a fighting on the side where she was. He must be her reinforcement.

She then stared again at the huge creature. Seeing a creature that was certainly on a legendary scale, Katarinova felt the rush of exhilaration surging inside her.

She came from a matriarchal tribe of prominent nobility answerable only to the royalty of the empire that lived in a constant war against the barbarians, so every female and male in the tribe was an able warrior.

Still she was an exception. Gifted in the art of battle and of a sharp mind at the age of twelve, she was offered as a military tribute by her tribe to serve as a Royal Guard.

When the warriors who evaluated the tributes had seen her, they had scoffed at first but after they saw a twelve year old girl broke the jaw of the person who had tested her with a single punch, they had to acknowledge that she was a warrior through and through.

Afterward, she had risen in ranks and her fame was quite well-known. As she became famous, there was a string of suitors wishing to tame this ‘beast’.

For Katarinova, she was by no mean oblivious to love. She roughly understands the concept as she had once asked her mother about it.

‘How did I fell in love with father? Well, at that time, we were both in tribes that were bitter enemies and we were involved in several skirmishes against each other. On the last skirmish that we fought, we were alone and both of us had tired ourselves. Your father howled and rushed at me with his weapon. He knocked my weapon aside as I was startled by the sudden howl and I thought I was gonna die on that day but when he attacked, the attack wasn’t coming from the weapon but it was from his mouth to my mouth. I was enraged with indignity, so as he was kissing me forcibly, I twisted both of his nipples. Instead of hurting him, he seems to enjoy it and then one thing led to another and here you are!’

After watching her mother gradually gushing with excitement about the bizarre encounter and feeling a little perturbed, she went and asked her aunt instead. Her aunt had told her the same story with fed-up expression that after the incident, his father had willingly become a prisoner of war and had delightedly submitted to a forced marriage. Perhaps it was because of a complex sexual tension between the two of them but in the end, both of them were happy with each other.

That was why Katarinova had a rough understanding about love and from that understanding she concluded something. Every time a suitor proposed to her, she would often tell them that they have to duel with her.

She didn’t care whether they would win or not but rather whether they could give her any hint of excitement because that was what her parent must have felt at that time but none of them did. Not even those square-jawed, purebred warrior archetypes who boisterously proclaimed that he would make her his ‘woman’ could give her a sliver of passion.

It lasted for years and then they were summoned into this world. It was all the same until she met him.

At first she didn’t think much about him. The first impression was that he had given was being naked. When the naked man was glancing at princess Kristalisha, as a Royal Guard, she naturally shielded her from his gaze.

He made a slightly positive impression to her during the parade. Even though he was plain in almost every aspect and abysmal in physical aspect, he had deep insight and awareness that eventually foiled most of the plans that the enemies had in stored and even managed to come up with counter plans and took command of the summoned and the guards.

Then three months later, they were in the same group. Even though it was only for a week, she had nothing but growing respect for him although occasionally he would piss her off as she had quite a temper.

But it was that time, when he instructed her on how to initiate an Origin Circle. Deep down inside of her, it was a point of frustration for her as she was the only one in her group that hasn’t been able to even invoke an Origin Circle.

Everyone in her group and others tried to teach her but it always end in a failure. She had resigned to the fact that she would never be able to use Eomancy.

But when he had instructed her, strangely all the words that came out from him was calming and clear that it felt like they removed the stopper that prevented her from using it or as if they corrected the path into a right one.

And when she finally did it, joy wildly shot up within her and the only way she could express it to her benefactor was by action.

As she was remembering this, she was gutting a High-class flying Mal’eur. Amidst this, she had smiled to herself. Ever since that day, every time she was near him, she felt a peculiar warmth permeated inside of her and a sense of belonging.

Was that love?

In order for her to confirm it, that was why she initiated a Yarbuchkhov tradition-

“?”

In the midst of battling another High-class Flying Mal’eur, she backed down and saw that it was snowing, something she didn’t expect to see in this world.

But it wasn’t like any snow she had seen; in fact it was quite tiny like a dust. Since it would irritate her eyes, she flew back where there were none of them.

She stopped at the edge of the snowing and held out her right hand and pointed her index finger, collecting some of the ‘snow’. She then tasted the tip of that index finger.

Her face was amused and she stared back at the [Sanctuary], looking at that particular person from a far.

“So this is what you meant Operation: Salty Storm.”

(Ruigne POV)

--

Operation: Salty Storm had commenced. All three groups of Eomancers were invoking the Advance Light Blue Eomancy spell ‘Great Wind’ continuously. Of course, if they had actually casted, it would only be for two or three times since they were mostly high-tiered basic level Eomancers but with [Synikorvus], that wasn’t a problem at all. Even though the wind that blew the salts would dissipate as it was Eomancy in nature, it wouldn’t matter since it had enough momentum to carried them.

On the rampart in front of the [Sanctuary], bags of salt piled on top of each other and with the continuous strong wind current, all the salts was furiously blown forth. From both side, soldiers were running back and forth carrying and throwing the bags of salt that was stock piled from behind the higher step pyramid on the rampart as the wind blow.

I started the operation after receiving the green light from both scout of the frontal tower after they confirm the distance between [Sanctuary] and the leeches. Fortunately, my calculated trajectory was more or less correct and my initial estimation on the size of the horde of leeches was a bit larger than the actual size so I packed more salt than I actually needed but that’s okay.

Now, let’s see the result.