Blade Over Magic

The Full Scope

When Xander and the elite force returned to the main army, the scene was—unsurprisingly—very chaotic.

At this point, a decent foothold had already been established as a sizeable number of the de mm sonic beasts in the ravine had been killed. Those near the center, anyway. This allowed the army to continue the next phase of its advance.

Sustained pressure.

Simply put, after a certain area was controlled, the army would create artificial choke points near where there were still monsters, attract those monsters, kill them, and then gain control of that next bit of territory, killing any stragglers and consolidating themselves.

By the time the elite force arrived, Xander had already secured almost 8 miles of area within the ravine. A task that was only made easier due to the uncoordinated nature of the beasts. Granted, a few beasts had appeared and tried to rally the others, specifically those from their own species, but almost as soon as they were identified, special attention was given to them, resulting in their swift subjugation.

If things continued in this direction, then it wasn’t odd to say that the ravine would be more or less completely under Landor’s control by the end of the day. And considering how it had been a persistent threat for years, such a development was... insane.

It was a thing to celebrate, but it also came with its fair share of issues for Xander and his squad. Specifically in the aspect of them explaining themselves.

Taking a breath, Xander regarded the people before them.

After returning and making sure that the all the traitors had indeed been accounted for, including the ones he had interrogated, Xander and his squad was immediately dragged into a command tent where the remaining higher-ups, including the captain, Sparrow, and some other squad leaders, had been waiting for them.

This internal recap barely took a few seconds, and Xander glanced from the dark expressions of the higher-ups to the tense expressions of the Captain and Sparrow, hummed, and answered the question he had been asked, which was quite simple.

How had he arrived at the conclusion that there was a traitor amongst Landor’s higher-ups?

Accepting the silent encouragement of his teammates, Xander began to explain calmly.

”It all started after our group arrived at Landor, and squad leader Sparrow explained to us the general situation regarding all the threats it faced...” He have a detailed breakdown of everything that had happened from start to finish. Naturally he left out specific details, Keir’s nature as a dragon, or the fact that Curtis was actually part Lycan, and some other sensitive pieces of information. But beyond that, his into was significantly detailed.

He even calmly added the part about their investigation into the catacombs, the timeline regarding how long they had before the ants arrived, his letter to his father, and the plan devised to get rid of all the latent threats affecting Landor so that if they an archmage didn’t arrive on time, they could focus all their attention on the ants. In doing this, he also revealed Mary’s nature as an elemental spirit, using it as a cover for all the things Mia had done to assist.

He explained how they were in fact responsible for the deaths of the beast leaders, which was both part of lessening the pressure on Landor as well as an act to help root out the traitors, and so on.

By the time he finished, the room was deadly quiet.

Sparrow, who was technically the veteran who had been with them some of the longest, would have gone pale had her skin color allowed for it, her eyes showing a mix of shock, disbelief, and—yes—terror. Because only now did she realize just how horrifying Xander and his squad truly were.

The others weren’t much different. The Captain was staring at the squad like they were all monsters in humanoid skin, the higher-ups were speechless, and the available squad leaders were torn between feeling awe and fear.

And who could blame any of them? After all, let’s look at the timeline.

Landor had been in its situation for years, and the group only arrived a few days ago. Yet in those few days, somehow, they managed to deduce that something was wrong with the catacombs, and from there deduced that there were traitors who were actually artificially cultivating these problems, and quietly orchestrated them getting ousted while also pulling off several absurd feats, like killing off the beast leaders and successfully infiltrating the catacombs to grasp the truth about them.

It wasn’t just shocking, it sounded... impossible.

”... Okay, wait, let’s take a step back.” One of the higher-ups, and older woman with an eyepatch on her left eye, spoke, trying to sound stern but failing due to her lingering shock.

”... You concluded that there was something wrong with the catacombs due to, what, a logical assumption based on how ants behave? And in order to gather evidence, you personally went there? Aren’t you aware of the rule against such?” She frowned.

This time, Curtis spoke, his voice soft but still audible.

”Well... to be frank, ma’am, we indeed weren’t sure. In fact, we were hoping that we were wrong. But our investigation proved to be, unfortunately, fruitful.” Falael chimed in at that moment.

”Also, we weren’t aware of the rule back then. Then again, exploring an area deemed as dangerous by the military was probably breaking the rules. But it’s a bit hard for us to take that seriously when there had been two traitors under your noses quietly steering things in their favor.” They said pointedly, and everyone in the room winced. Some wanted to protest, but in truth, they couldn’t.

Commander James and Haru had built a substantial influence within Landor’s command chain, proving themselves trustworthy. It had started out so subtle, that by the time the suggestions regarding the catacombs had been made, very few of them questioned it. Only now did they realize just how foolish they had been.

”... This is very hard to accept.” The higher-up who had been arguing with Xander during the meeting on what to do with Ravine said with a click of his tongue. He, along with a few others, genuinely wanted to push back. But they hadn’t just been disproven, Xander’s group had taken the ground under their feet, stripped them naked, and shoved a mirror in their faces. There was simply no argument that could be made.

After a moment, the captain smiled wryly.

”... As frustrating as it is, the truth is that the service you lot rendered to this place is immeasurable.” He shook his head and glanced at Mary who stood behind Xander, feeling baffled that such a quiet—albeit beautiful—woman, was actually an Elemental Spirit, yet she was actually acting as his Maid!

Suddenly, Xander’s surname made far more sense.

Hearing his words, Xander just nodded, then he took out three recording devices from his storage ring. One contained what he, Aubrey, and Mary had found inside the catacombs, along with the information regarding its true size. The second was the one Aubrey and Mary used to record the meeting between the traitors, and the third contained the confessions Xander managed to get out of the traitors they captured in the Ravine.

”In terms of being crucial, the information on the catacombs and what the traitors revealed is probably the most important. But the one on the meeting will probably help with getting anyone up to speed.” He said slowly and placed them on the table.

Sparrow looked at them with narrowed eyes, then she looked and the group, and was alarmed to see them backing away.

”Hey, where are you guys going!” She stood abruptly, and all heads snapped to them.

Xander just gave a wry smile.

”You see, we accomplished many of our goals today, but we still have things to do. So... see you guys in a bit.” Before anyone could react, they suddenly vanished. It was so fast that none of the people present even sensed a fluctuation, so they had been unable to react briefly.

”... Still have things to do...” The Captain frowned deeply, then his pupils constricted sharply.

”They’re going after the Azure Tree!”

***

’My heart.’ Xander sighed as he pressed a hand to his chest, earning him a few looks from his teammates.

’So you aren’t as unaffected as you pretend to be, huh?’ Falael scoffed, making the former roll his eyes.

’It’s not easy to maintain my composure like that for so long, you know.’ He huffed and looked forward. ’With that said, how about we deal with this before anyone comes and interrupts?’

In front of them was a vast field of crops could he seen. However, instead of the familiar golden hue crops were supposed to have, the field was an odd blue.

Moreover, many of them had strange appearances, looking alien and unnatural in their stature.

Along this field was a vast line of flames that constantly burned in order to prevent it from expanding beyond its current size, and dozens of mages could be seen stationed along the edge to keep these flames going.

The most eye-catching thing, though, was in the distance, near the heart of the field.

It was a massive Oak Tree. At least, it resembled one. However, the crown of it alone neared a kilometer in its height, and the branches were so big that people could probably build houses on them. Let alone the thick trunk that resembled a pillar from heaven.

Simply put, it was massive.

Xander turned to Falael who was stretching lightly, and Curtis who was taking deep breaths, and asked.

’Your preparations are complete, right?’ They just nodded.

’Naturally. Just because you guys have been up and about exposing conspiracies doesn’t mean the puppy and I have been idle.’ Curtis’s eye twitched at the nickname, but he still agreed.

’Yeah. Mia has been teleporting us here so we could finish our own part of things.’ Indeed, while it seemed like Xander, Aubrey, Mary, and Keir were the only ones busy with everything, Curtis and Falael had been given another task, and that was preparing for the inevitable altercation with the Azure Tree.

’Excellent. A lot of this plan depends on you two.’ He smiled at them, and Curtis gave a thumbs up while Falael looked away, ears twitching.

He then turned to Keir on his shoulder, the tiny dragon looking excited.

’You too buddy. You ready?’ Keir let out an affirming chirp, and Xander hummed before glancing at Mia who was still on his back.

She just nodded.

’Mary, Aubrey?’

’Yup.’

’That’s correct, milord.’

’Excellent.’ Xander took a deep breath and stared at the massive tree, his sword having been drawn.

’Let us begin.’