Supreme Magus

Chapter 2296 Wrong Bloodline (Part 2)

”If she can only move forward, sheʼll be forced to expose the Golden Griffon and reveal her plan.

”At that point, we can strike while sheʼs at her weakest and take Phloria back. Then, we blow the lost academy and her sorry ass in one fell swoop.”

***

Griffon Kingdom, a few days later.

Tessa and Fyrwal kept looking for Phloria, but had no luck.

The missing Ernas had just switched to a different partner and her fame as the Dragon Knight kept growing. Neʼsra, the capital of the Deirus Grand Duchy had held out just to fall the day after Valeronʼs companions left.

There was no trace of Thrud, yet her army kept advancing and no one knew how.

On top of that, reconquering the north was taking much longer and was harder than Lith had expected from the reports. Even with the Warp Gate network, moving troops and supplies took time.

To make matters worse, Thrud abandoning her outposts had only been a ruse.

The moment the army had lowered their guard and the cities relaxed their security, thinking that the Mad Queenʼs focus was now in the south, they had been taken by storm.

Fresh troops and Forgotten had attacked in great numbers, ruining in a few hours days of hard work and even recapturing a few cities.

”I swear to the gods, this makes no sense.” King Meronʼs frustration and stress worsened his health. ”Even if the Golden Griffon were a perfect academy, this shouldnʼt be happening.

”We have a precise estimate of Thrudʼs troops yet these numbers donʼt add up. If she had this many Awakened, she should have already won during Verhenʼs honeymoon. The only plausible explanation is that she can somehow move her troops quickly and recharges them with Invigoration.”

”Maybe, if you told us what an academy can do, we could help you figure out a solution.” Raagu said, barely holding the curiosity in her voice.

”Yeah, right.” Sylpha said with a snarl. ”So that you can add more crazy demands or request the blueprints of an academy for ʼresearch purposes.ʼ Thanks, but no thanks. Only the Royals know the secrets of the academies, and for a good reason.”

”Not even the Headmasters?” Lotho was flabbergasted.

”Too dangerous.” Meron dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. ”It would make their retirement equal death or the risk of the secrets of the First King being exposed.”

”I see.” Feela nodded in understanding, yet now her curiosity now burned even stronger and the same happened to her peers. ”Can you at least tell us what you think Thrudʼs goal is? The attack on Deirus is surgical, it canʼt be a coincidence.”

”Itʼs not.” Sylpha replied. ”The Fire and the Black Griffon are there. We can assume Thrud is going to destroy them, starting from the Fire Griffon.”

The arrays of the War Room projected a map of the region and how Phloriaʼs attacks were moving along an invisible line that connected the known mana geysers and led to the Fire Griffon.

The Black Griffon had only been recently acquired by the Deirus household after foiling the civil war so it was at the edges of the region on the hinterland.

”We can anticipate her movements and set our defense forces on her path.” Meron said. ”This way, when she reaches our academy, Thrudʼs resources will be spent and sheʼll find us ready.”

***

Nestrar Region, at the same time.

”Dammit, not only are we going to conquer these cities a second time, but if it keeps up like this, in a while Thrud will be back and everything Tessa has achieved will be for naught.” Lith grumbled as his appearance was enough to make a city militia surrender.

”Think positive, little brother.” Xenagrosh replied. ”Iʼve taken a few free days exactly to be by your side and strike together as soon as we learn the position of the Golden Griffon.”

Seeing the two Divine Beasts fly side by side with the Golden Knight in the middle made the Kingdomʼs soldiers bust into cheers and the rebels despair. No matter what strategy they tried or how many of her Generals Thrud sent, any city they attacked would fall in the space of a minute.

The Blade Spells, the Cursed Flames, and the Eldritchesʼ Chaos Magic needed but one hit to take down the strongest barrier.

The Divine Beasts fighting for the Mad Queen used teamwork to combine their bloodline abilities, but with their 25 meters (82ʼ) of height, they looked like children in front of Xenagrosh who stood 35 meters (115ʼ) tall.

On top of the extra mass, she also had two cores that fueled respectively Chaos and Decay.

Her millennia-long battle experience allowed the Shadow Dragon to make the best of her superior magical and physical prowess, taking out opponents infused with Life Maelstrom in a few exchanges.

Bytra wasnʼt as powerful, but she was much faster. One hit from Solusʼ Fury while at the Raijuʼs top speed was enough to rip a Divine Beastʼs head off their spine, let alone when Solus used both the Fury and the Absolution.

To make matters easier, Nandi fueled everyone with the world energy equivalent of a mana geyser, bestowing upon Solus the full prowess of the tower and to Lith the boost of his abilities that came with that.

Theseus the Bastet was there as well, but he kept himself at a distance. His allies had plenty of destructive power already so he preferred to keep an eye on their surroundings and watch out for any nasty surprise Thrudʼs army might have prepared.

When it happened, he combined his Mana Body bloodline ability with his Meneos regenerative powers to take even a Silverwingʼs Annihilation without so much as a scratch.𝐟𝚛𝚎𝐞𝙬𝗲𝒃𝗻𝒐𝘃e𝒍.c𝑜𝚖

”Not to be a sourpuss, but Iʼm afraid itʼs already too late.” Bytra sighed. ”White cores have uncanny recovery abilities so I bet that the moment Thrud got back to the Golden Griffon, she got her body back before sundown.”

”Way to be the Lith of the situation, Bytra.” Solus said. ”Is she always this optimistic? Because if thatʼs the case she and Lith can start a whine club.”

”Thatʼs hysterical! Iʼm stealing that.” The Shadow Dragon laughed her ass off while her wifeʼs horns turned from white to red. ”I donʼt know about Lith but Byt is one of the hardest to please people Iʼve ever met.

”She always has something to complain about. Her work, her social life, her work, her original selfʼs atrocities, her work, and everything that doesnʼt go exactly as she hoped.”

”Thatʼs Lith down to a t.” Solus laughed as well. ”Just replace the original self with any mistake he made in the past. By the way, is it me or did you say ʼher workʼ three times?”

”You heard me.” Zoreth nodded. ”When it comes to Forgemastery, Byt whines about everything. She wasted too many ingredients, the artifact is not as powerful as she hoped, more powerful than she hoped hence harder to control, or too average powered.

”Nothing is ever okay and she goes on and about like that for days after a failed experiment. Donʼt get me started about what happens when she succeeds.”