The nobles in the capital lacked the power and influence necessary to challenge our army, and many had already lost their souls to Elizabeth, which made the transition of power relatively quick and peaceful, even though we could not yet asure the broader public opinion.
Still, this result would end an internal war and alleviate the citizens' worries, at the very least.
Based on Isabella and the other girls' predictions, I assud the common folk, peasants, and rchants would not resist us much.
With their only hope being the army that had marched into Evretis, the nobles and ministers accepted Isabella's rule, albeit, montarily.
What would, ultimately, decide this country's fate was the last battle between Isabella and Edmond, as he was the only one who still had a claim and had not surrendered his position.
And so, as her loyal aide, I prepared myself for the battle I'd face in her na against this world's hero.
A few days after our takeover, we heard the news of Terith's army marching back to the capital.
Using [Gacha Kingdom Building], I reinforced the orders to the nobles we already had under our control in the outskirts. With Anna pressuring their army from behind so that they couldn't stay and argue in a village or town for too long, in every territory they passed by, a portion of their army, the n from that territory, was returned to their land to restore order and stability.
With news and rumors of Isabella taking the throne spreading, Edmond's authority beca almost null. Only those loyal to him or the king were willing to follow his orders, and as his army grew weaker, it beca harder for him to challenge the authority of even a minor noble.
Once they understood the reality... They were surrounded and now in lesser numbers than both the army pursuing them, as well as the army they were to face in the capital, morale crumbled, and only the most loyal and brave remained.
Still, eventually, Edmond reached the capital.
Alone.
Miwen: "Such a sad sight, huh? I don't think we can call this a war anymore."
Edmond: "Where is my family? What did you do to them?"
Miwen: "Hm? I've been taking pretty good care of-"
Suddenly, a sea of flas surrounded Edmond.
They were as tall as the palace's gate and as wide as the main hall where dozens of people could gather at any ti.
They swirled around him, the fire hot enough that even before launching the attack, the heat alone was enough to deal a small amount of damage over ti against .
My defense was quite high. Thanks to Anna's Gift, more than what I should have at this level considering how much I invested in it.
But even then... It was not enough.
To properly face this attack, I had no choice but to equip Cassandra.
Thanks to her nature as a living weapon, all of her stats were added to mine when equipped.
She has constructed her build similarly to mine, focusing on strength and speed.
However, thanks to so points she invested in other areas, and the sharing of skills that boost stats, this was enough for
not to worry about the heat of the flas from Edmond's attack.
It was already my loss that I had to escalate this much against such a miserable man, but even beyond that, once the attack was launched I could only see in front of
an unending, all-consuming fire, I had no choice but to coat myself in [Water Magic], and worrying it might not have been enough due to the power of his fire, I decided to cast a drill-like [Dark Magic] spell that, to my surprise, cut through his flas with ease, hitting his arm in the process.
Interesting...
Power-wise, it was as Anna said.
[Fire Magic] capable of, with ease, rivaling Claire's at her best.
Normally, this would be beyond what I can contend with without any tricks, but...
While it was as powerful as Claire's, it was lacking in too many places for it to be considered on the sa level as what she could do.
Miwen: "Wasn't this a little too much? I an... I get that you want to hit Isabella and all, but... Was that really necessary? The people around us might get caught in the crossfire, you know?"
Isabella was watching us from a balcony in the palace.
And in the streets below, a crowd had gathered seeing that for the second ti in less than a month, a huge commotion had started right before the doors of Terith's royal palace.
Edmond: "It's not my fault if they get hurt. They shouldn't be here."
Miwen: "Right..."
His attack was powerful... But it was also unfocused.
He couldn't maintain the sa amount of power on its entire area once launched, leading to
being able to neutralize it easily, and the rest of the fire itself, while capable of destroying the outer gates of the palace, not nearly as powerful as what ca in my direction.
In other words... It was a waste.
However, it was also quite problematic.
The fact that he couldn't control this power was a given. Not only is it a lot, it's also power he didn't earn or train to control.
It's a nice advantage to have, but it also made it a little too unpredictable.
I wanted to appeal to his sense of justice so he could tone down a little as I was confident I could deal with him even if he could focus his attacks solely on , but it seed like his justice had priorities...
Miwen: "I guess you're trying to make yourself king, then?"
Edmond: "...What do you an?"
Miwen: "I've locked your family in the palace. You might be able to get Isabella by burning it to the ground, but... Your family would definitely not be able to escape."
Judging by his reaction, this seed to do the trick.
Edmond: "You are a vile man."
Miwen: "Hey. You're the one trying to burn them alive. I'd never do sothing like this to-"
Edmond: "You are using innocent people as hostages!"
Miwen: "...Innocent? After trying to kill Isabella?"
Edmond: "It's what she deserves! She's a wicked woman who has tried to harm the Saint several tis! She woke the North Dragon! Brought... demons to our land. The world is better off without her-"
Demons?
Did he mistake
for one as well?
Pfft.
I'm glad Liz is not here, she would probably never let
live this down.
Miwen: "I thought we had already proven Isabella did not do any of that."
Edmond: "Trickery done by a witch. One needs to look no further than the magic elent you use. Only those with hearts lost in darkness can use [Dark Magic] whereas only those honest and pure, the gentle and the ones with good intentions, can use [Light Magic]."
Miwen: "Hahaha! Ah... Boy, I've never seen soone be so confident and so wrong in real life..."
At this very mont in this world, at least two people contradict his theory.
Edmond: "What are you-"
Miwen: "What else? I'm proving you wrong."
Pointing Cassandra at the sky, I started to launch water blades upwards.
They were reinforced with [Dark Magic], making them unable to evaporate naturally and even resistant to fire magic, as well as capable of inflicting a few debuffs like [Tiredness] and [Stagger].
Once the dark rain started, to Edmond's surprise, I combined [Fire Magic] and [Light Magic] to cast white flas to attack him.
I'm not the greatest at [Light Magic] yet since our best mages either can't or don't usually rely on it, but, I could still use it to reinforce the flas, making them slightly stronger and insanely faster.
Edmond: "...! Kuh!"
It wasn't only his power that had increased.
The God was quite thorough. Every one of his stats was now top-tier for this world.
Still, by putting all I had into it, thanks to the increase in speed caused by the [Light Magic], I managed to hit him multiple tis.
The damage wasn't great, but I made up for it with sheer quantity as my casting speed was pretty high up there after training so much under the Spam Queen Elizabeth.
Also, thanks to the Debuffs, it beca harder for him to move and properly respond, even if he had the ans to do it.
Unfortunately... This wasn't enough, and soon after I started the counterattack, he clad himself in fire and charged at
with his sword in hand.
It was quite fast, and I had only a few seconds to react but...
Thanks to
and Cassandra focusing on speed so much, I dodged him fairly easily.
Even using his flas for a delayed attack proved worthless.
Once we were in close combat, no matter how many tis he tried to hit , all his sword t was the air.
I even had the opportunity to cast dark water directly on him a couple of tis, making him even slower.
Edmond: "...That woman must have corrupted you."
Miwen: "Woah. You always have such convenient explanations."
However... He was always so far from the truth.
Miwen: "You know... Isabella is not the woman you think she is. After all that happened, she is still willing to negotiate."
Edmond: "Hmph! I won't fall for her tricks!"
He really seems to detest her.
Just ntioning the thought of her being a good person triggered him enough to cast a spell on a large area again.
This one had the sa flaws as before but power-wise, it was on another tier compared to the last one.
Cassandra: "...Dangerous. Want my help?"
Miwen: "...No need."
The last ti, I managed to get by simply using two elents separately.
Since mixing them into a single spell makes the result stronger, by doing it this way, I could probably resist this and take just a small amount of damage in the process.
However...
To make this a humiliating defeat, it would be better if the crowd never saw a single drop of blood coming from my body.
Nor a single fla reach Isabella.
Nor any bystander getting hurt.
Miwen: "...Phew."
I learned how to mix two elents quite early on in my training.
I can also multi-cast around 2 or 3 spells without losing control as long as they aren't too big or powerful.
Usually, I don't try to do things the way he's doing it.
This size requires too much power, and it's a waste when Claire is more than happy to burn everything in our way anyway.
I much prefer to focus on a single, troubleso opponent.
Because of this, I wasn't very confident in blocking it unless I pushed my abilities to their limit.
And so, I used one of my skills, [Body Double], to create a temporary clone.
It instantly takes away a fraction of my mana, but thanks to my contract with Elizabeth and the [Mana Transfer] skill, I can always get her to replenish , even when she's not around.
It hurts her output during the process, but... I was sure she wouldn't mind.
After all, the rate of transfer I'm capable of is like a drop in the ocean compared to her basic mana output.
Cassandra: "Eh? You're using it on him? After I asked you to use the clone on
so many tis?"
Miwen: "Shh..."
The clone's abilities are basically the sa as mine, but he can't do much outside of specific orders.
And so... It was as hard for him as it was for
to go beyond what we were used to.
I had no choice though... The fire Edmond was casting was now as tall as the buildings around us.
It could easily reach the balcony Isabella was watching from.
The last ti, his attack was stopped at the gates, but... I couldn't be sure how far it would travel.
To deal with it... It was impossible for .
But half of it? Yeah, hard as it may be, it was doable.
Using [Water Magic], [Ice Magic], and [Dark Magic] I was able to create a do around him.
This alone trapped us in a closed space, and although there was a lot of oxygen to burn, it beca limited, due to the consumption rate of the fire, unless Edmond attacked quickly, we would both start suffering from oxygen deprivation.
Of course, unlike him, I had access to wind and water magic, so I wasn't too worried about this outco.
Most importantly, the [Ice Magic] made the do cold inside, passively reducing the power his flas would otherwise have and together with the [Dark Magic], it made the water incredibly hard to evaporate.
I still had to face the brunt of the swirling fla tornado, but...
After the flas collided with the first layer of dark water, instead of exploding, half of it evaporated, while the other was lost in the darkness.
What little managed to reach the ice barrier was not enough to lt it, thus, neither I nor anyone else took a single point of damage from his ridiculous attack.
Although... Having the clone stand right in front of
to act as a human shield might also have helped...
Still, with his attack blocked and the clone gone, the do started to crumble, and ice blocks fell all around us.
Miwen: "...Is that all you have? It's not even a warm-up."
Edmond: "...You-"
Miwen: "You can have Sabrina."
Edmond: "Huh?"
Miwen: "I told you, Isabella is willing to negotiate."
With those words, the last act of our play against Edmond and Terith began.
The mont they attacked Isabella... Their downfall was already set in motion.
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