The Emperor Who Was Chapter 106 : Chapter 106

Chapter . 106

Under Desmond's command, his subordinates imdiately switched from defensive posture to attack. Sir Edward tried to stand at the vanguard, but the Duke kept him by Desmond's side, saying the battle was more dangerous than expected.

While a barrier built of shields and spears descended rapidly from above to take a charging form, the mages began forming a barrier to surround my small defensive shield.

“We have completely identified the location of the enemy's defensive shield!”

“Strike with the encirclent magic! Prevent the enemy's escape with teleportation magic as well!”

“Yes, we follow your command, Your Highness!”

The encirclent was densely woven like a net and was pretty. While I waited watching it form well, Michelon grew impatient.

“Leave the knights to , don't do it alone again this ti.”

I laid a condition on him.

“If you attack knights without armor, will they even face you? I'll steal an enemy's armor for you, fight as a knight.”

“You told

not to bring any in the first place! Are you telling

to wear armor soaked in an enemy's sweat?”

Michelon got angry, but I was already digging a pit under the feet of a knight coming at the very front.

“Aaaah!”

“Earth magic! It's an earth mage!”

People scread as the overturned knight was dragged underground.

“Water mages, counter it!”

At Desmond's command, three mages ca out and countered the earth magic with water magic. Although not as effective as against fire magic, it at least reduced control over earth perated with water.

But I had already stripped the armor off the knight the earth pit spat out beside

and dressed Michelon in it.

“Aaaah! What is this, it's not enough being covered in dirt, it's covered in blood!”

“Ah, sorry. It was a spell to teleport the knight's body within the specific space inside the armor and attach the armor to your body, but since it's my first ti trying it, it didn't go well.”

The specificity of this place being my territory and where Michelon's ho is located was suitable for creating new spatial magic, so I got too greedy.

“That knight's forearm is still left where my arm should go!”

I imdiately teleported the forearm remaining in the knight's armor and attached it perfectly to the profusely bleeding knight's severed part, and the bleeding stopped.

Although he was an enemy to be killed anyway, I still hated killing due to magic failure. After stopping the bleeding and using healing magic at maximum intensity, I laid the soundlessly fainted knight behind .

“Clean it thoroughly with water and wind! Make it sparkle!”

I cleaned the armor as Michelon pestered, and magically drew Alexander's crest on the shield as well. By law, commoners becoming knights was forbidden, but like Rhiannon's grandfather, there were always exceptions or shortcuts, and Alexander abused this to grant his crest to those he made knights to increase his power. Following his thod was convenient.

“Am I that guy's subordinate?”

Michelon grumbled again, but just then, the enemy who had entered a defensive posture to counter the earth magic switched back to attack when I didn't continue attacking.

“Encirclent complete! It is completed, Your Highness!”

“Crush their defensive shield!”

Once the encirclent was complete, the defensive shield trapped inside could no longer be called a defensive shield.

“They say crush!”

“Literally crushing with force, then the defensive shield turns into a coffin trapping a person alive.”

“Don't talk like it's soone else's business! That is happening to us right now!”

“Ah, you go. Go and fight!”

“How can I leave you behind!”

“I want to observe their magic a bit here. The Empress Faction has had a reputation for this encirclent magic for a long ti. I've seen it, but it's my first ti experiencing it.”

“You crazy bastard! Drag that knight from earlier and put him inside the encirclent to observe from the side instead!”

“Ah, spare that knight. He got hurt because I failed my magic. Killing him not with successful magic but with failed magic is a matter of pride for a mage on his first deploynt.”

“Does that make sense!”

“So you're not going? Once I start fighting, there won't be any share left for you.”

“Who knows what you'll do if left alone!”

“You worry about , but you can't trust ? You are a truly strange friend.”

“That's my line!”

Even while Michelon was getting angry, their encirclent kept tightening. It was like a living net. First wrapping around my defensive shield, then pressing down on it from all sides as if weights were attached to the net, transforming the originally indistinct form into sothing truly like a coffin.

“Transforming the shape into a coffin is impressive enough, but they go a step further from here?”

“What are you admiring, isn't this an iron maiden!”

An iron maiden is a torture device in the form of a woman made of iron, with spikes protruding inside. Torturers threaten that embracing the iron maiden is truly sweet so one can never escape her embrace, and the defensive shield was turning into that very device.

“It's only similar in shape for now, but if spikes sprouting from the void press in from all sides, the heart could stop.”

Just as I would have before my regression.

“You, looking with sparkling eyes and clasping hands, are scarier than the iron maiden!”

“The truly cunning point here is that the weights of the net causing this shape transformation are my defensive shield itself. While putting pressure on my magic, they are pouring physical attacks on , a mage.”

“You are totally admiring it.”

“That's exactly it, they are enemies but admirable.”

So I added one more spell to their encirclent.

Michelon, who was about to scream at my answer, widened his eyes.

“…What did you just do?”

“I added the defensive barrier formula of the Throne Magic Circle.”

“…If it's that…….”

“Of course, adding a formula to an opponent's magic is harder than breaking that magic, but since they have already penetrated my defensive shield, I just have to use it to my advantage. Very easy.”

“No, I an, doesn't that absorb the intruder's mana? That nonsense you said about feeding and taming or whatever!”

“That's right, you know well!”

“Know what—”

Mana flowed in enough to cut off Michelon's words.

Because my defensive shield started sucking in the enemy's mana. Although it wasn't as powerful as the Throne Magic Circle, the efficiency wasn't lacking since it was utilizing the enemy's magic circle and infiltration.

‘These spells… are familiar.’

Although it was Vincent who branded

before the regression, the branding contract itself was magic completed together with other mages. Combining my experience before the regression and my current ability, I could recognize it sufficiently.

“…Those guys' faces turned blue?”

“The fact that mana absorption happened at such a fast speed ans they were pouring that much mana in here.”

“Your Highness, sothing is strange!”

“Th-The attack… strange magic!”

“Knights, charge!”

As the mages shouted, Desmond risked being attacked by earth magic again and sent the knights out.

“Now it's my turn!”

“Wait, let

do this first.”

Michelon was delighted, but I held him back because I couldn't send him alone. Facing multiple knights alone when he wasn't even a Sword Master yet was reckless beyond asure.

“What are you going to do? Suck their mana again?”

“What for? My mana is already strong, and you are here, and it's even inside my territory where your house is, so mana is overflowing. I don't need their mana.”

“No, then why did you suck it?”

“To try this.”

I raised my hand. As I manipulated with hand gestures, mana felt palpable in my hand. It was fascinating and felt good to not only see but also feel the touch of magic taking form.

“Aaaah!”

“Aaaack!”

The screams of the mages were heard. Enough to make the knights who reached us flinch and look back.

“What on earth did you do?”

“Encirclent magic is based on spatial magic, and spatial magic is also based on elental magic. I just disassembled them one by one.”

“Disassembled?”

“Since it looks like a net, I just had to unravel it. That's all. I haven't even attacked yet.”

“But everyone over there is screaming and dying?”

“I guess magic being disassembled feels worse than being broken. Since I haven't experienced it yet, I wouldn't know.”

Simultaneously with the answer, I sent each disassembled magic back to those mages.

“Aaaaaah!”

The scream rose only once. Because besides the first mage, everyone else couldn't even scream.

The fire mage was trapped in water drowning magic. The mage spewed fire from his whole body out of survival instinct, but was suffocating due to the smoke.

The water mage, conversely, was trapped in a fireball and desperately spewing water, but rapidly consuming mana.

The wind mage was being buried alive in earth, and the earth mage was being swept away by wind, his whole body becoming tattered.

Still, they were better off than the first two, but instead, the enormous dust storm they caused was engulfing even Desmond and the knights, putting everyone in a situation of eting a sandstorm.

“…What did you do…….”

“I twisted the disassembled magic once before sending it. There is no aning in just returning it. Since it was an encirclent deployed jointly by many, I just prevented each part from returning to the original mage, but everyone skillfully went to their opposing elent. It might be a result derived because like poles repel each other strongly.”

“…….”

“By the way, aren't you going to fight?”

“If I go there, I look like I'll get swept up in the sandstorm too?”

“Ah, you hate dirty things. Should I cast a shield for you?”

“I hate fighting enemies who can't even open their eyes on my first deploynt. Of course, I'll fight excitedly during war, but this isn't war yet, it's my first battle!”

“No, what are you talking about when just the two of us are facing all these enemies right now?”

But Michelon wanted to fight knights with their eyes open properly for his first deploynt.

“Then follow .”

I went back to Maximilian. There was no need to move far. They were coming this way.

“Such commotion! They must have found Leontes first, we must not lose him!”

Amidst Maximilian's orders, mages were moving while casting search magic to the maximum. I counterattacked with the Empress Faction's net magic. After copying the Throne Magic Circle with Tess, copying others' magic circles was really easy.

“It's the Empress Faction's net magic!”

“The encirclent is tightening!”

The First Prince Faction, already advancing while prepared for an ambush, reacted quickly. My brother and the Duke would have considered the possibility that the commotion was an enemy plot to draw them out.

“Oh, they are setting fire to the net? That is also an effective counterasure. Filling the spatial magic with one elent and replacing that space with that elent. For that, fire which expands quickly is best. It's also good for counterattacking instead of being surrounded by the net.”

“I got it, so when do I get to fight!”

I wanted to watch a bit more, but Michelon pestered from the side. Moreover, Maximilian intended to stand at the forefront of the attack himself, and the Duke, not stopping him, was giving instructions to the mages.

“Raise the golem!”

“That clay doll is a golem?”

It was a clay doll small enough to surprise Michelon. However, when a mage pointed his staff at the clay doll and chanted a spell, it grew instantly.

“It's running this way!”

Since this is a large and high mountain, the forest was dense and the mountain paths were narrow. Even with horses wearing magic armor artifacts, if the space itself is narrow, mobility is worse than humans. That's why the Illegitimate Prince Faction abandoned horses altogether.

However, the golem ran while crashing into trees, bushes, and everything blocking its way. Although it slowed down, it absorbed those obstacles and grew larger.

“It is paving a road. It is paving a road for knights to advance in my mountain!”