Chapter 178: Another Air Raid

In the world of Pentateuch, there exist a clad law of nature, that is, all power wielded by a body not modified by gods near, in or above the level of heroes will inevitably kill the wielder after a set duration, that means, any body aligned in all of its facets to that of a hero's ability artificially will meet its end, that's why Eleanor can only take one aspect from a hero's repertoire of abilities and surpass it, it will make her exhausted wen prolonged, but at least, she won't die.

Such ability of the one known as "The Defiant" let her live despite edging towards breaking such an iron-clad rule that even the genius of Sophia won't be able to break if she is yet to become a hero.

That's why, Luna, who have of course, experimented on this unique skill and had an ample education to know such a law that seemingly makes common sense complicated knew that she shouldn't use the unique skill [Filibuster] unless she really cannot get out of the encirclement that she will be put through to meet the requirements of the said unique skill. In her lifetime, it was inevitable that she would have made the unique skill [Filibuster] activate on its own; however, until now, she has never felt the need to truly activate it.

_5 generals, killing 5 of the artificially boosted hero prospects of Stardust even though only one of the five is a hero prospect, a trap set from the start of our cooperation, being so flexible that even though its conception was delayed for days due to the resurrection sequence being sealed, yet can still be implemented with new vigor as the number of soldiers from the front and back evening out... all of my soldiers are probably dead by now, with only me as the remaining dark elf in existence..._

Luna sighed, feeling the dreadful presences outside the tent, this was all her fault, she has no excuses for she can only discern how to use on-field war tactics, meaning she can't connect politics to war even though she reports it regularly, of course if the main reason why they are being persecuted is because the goddess of nature is not brown, then the leader of the revolution will not think much of politics, plus the fact that she doesn't have time to learn (due to the fact that they were studying during war times and the government laxed the educational attainment requirements of the soldiers, prompting for more battle ready and order oriented soldiers than those who can be promoted and lead politically inclined wars) nor have the materials that can make their meager next generation learn, this is all because of Luna's hasty revolution because of her being manipulated by master illusionists, which is, in a world who have people who can drop suns that can tore through the atmosphere, can only be attributed to her weakness.

In this world, weakness is a sin, and Luna, at this moment is on the way to repent, thus, she did not hesitated, she affirmed her resolved and activated her life syphoning unique skill, causing an invisible burst of mana and aura to emerge from her body, blasting throughout the tent, causing the rather sturdy leather clad tent to be torn into countless shard of small patches of fabric, revealing the generals that have pounded the once strong army of the elves, one a deformed rabbit, one is an oversized goblin, one is an assassin that is oddly making himself be seen, one is a lady directly opposing Luna, radiating colorful auroras.

Luna is also aware of the two presences away from the battlefield, probably the archer and a hidden generals marksman or something, yet Luna doesn't care about any of their identity, for at that moment, the invisible radiant force flowing out of her turned red as her dark, tanned skin started to crack, outlining distorted yet somehow organized spider web-like patterns, and alongside such ominous cracking is the enlargement of her body, Bakunawa who is the smallest of the undead generals and Philo, the tallest cannot help but look upwards as they saw the once beautiful lady turn into a monster for the land, for the people she wanted to protect.

And indeed, a monster, Luna have become, for the moment she turned into a giant that constantly cracks its skin, red, glowing as if gaining bioluminescent characteristics blood emerged from the cracks all over Luna's body, they floated towards her back, forming several projectiles while two of the particularly large coagulated clump of bloods turned into a glowing red sword.

Ğ̴̢̢̧̜̝̥̟͍͍̗̮̹͔̬̫͈͌̆͑̋̌̔̎́̾̀͒̿͘͠ͅĘ̷͎͈̤̭̣̺̏̓͐̐̎̀̄̾̉͝͝T̸̡͖̊̍ͅ ̸̦̱͔̲̼̣̪͍͓̮̭̘̠̳͈͍̳̹̰́̓̎̋̓̐̍̂͑̔̄̀͗́͑̽̕͘O̸̤͙̭̘̘͈̤̘̎͊̐̓̕U̴̢̨̢͔̠͕͓̯̖̤̬͙̔̀́́̐̚ͅT̴̢̢͈̫̲̼́̿̒̽̈́͊̈́̒̋͊͂̀̄͒̌͘͝ ̸̡̡͎̦̼͕͎̜̼̩̭̜̖̹̤̝̮͙̟̿̀̆͂͒̔̑͜Ò̴͚̫͍̹͒͌̅̈́͌̽̀̐́̇̿̃̉͌̃̚͠͝F̶̦͑̒͐̔̈́̅͂̓͛̚ ̸̨̟̝̼̩̫̼̳̐̈͌͌͐̃͐̈́̃̈́̇̀̓̇͌̒̾̕͘M̸̨̜̺͖̘̳̠̻̹̜̹̬͖͎̞͛̀̉̈͆̑̎̋̕͜Ỷ̵̛̹̫̖̱͊̌̃͝͝ ̴̢̞̘̪͕͉̝̪̟̩̈͋̈́̀͒̍͒͐̌͠L̷̨̡͈̳̰̥̘͇͛̏̀͛͑̓͗̓̈́Ȃ̸̛̹̞̔̋̐͂̃́̈̅͝͠N̸̗̙̠̙̬̦̣͒̑̋̏̍͂̈̓̕͝͝D̴̢̛̻̫͖̗̱̮̜̦͈̦̗͖̙̮̼̃̌̿̐̏͐͗̉͗̎̄͘͘͜!̵̞̣͇̤͙̠̇̔̐́̓͝ (GET OUT OF MY LAND!)

Luna shouted, her voice shrill and overlapping as if long due phlegm is obstructing her airways, sending shivers to the undeads, who knew by instincts that Luna became significantly stronger than them, well of course, fearing is one and backing out is another, the random undeads tightened themselves whilst the generals remained unphased, except for Bakunawa, she is now looking at Luna who have started to raise her two swords with a pervent expression, and as she did, her scales started to envelope her whole body whilst her eyes glowed, causing her slanted pupils more prominent as she licked her long winded tongue that is only familiar to Sophia across her lips.

The generals besides her were terrified as all of them saw how Bakunawa had turned into a giant serpent before, though of course the serpent woman, who have just turned to hero and immediately got her wish come true didn't care about what anyone thought.

"GEHEHEHE... THAT'S MORE LIKE IT...!"

This is what she yearned for, an enemy who is as strong as her, someone who have clear contempt against the thing that she's fighting for, and for that, Bakunawa is thankful, not caring that her opponent have already abandoned any hope of survival, for her it's all the same, she will have an opponent apart from Sophia when the two of them are in a confined space that she can thoroughly enjoy.

Her land or her air, Bakunawa can only cherish this rare, god-given gift.

____________

Former Eastern dukedom of Gjallarhorn known as Eastern Gjallarhorn, bordering the west of Stardust and east of Gjallarhorn, the whole patch of land was encased in a sealing barrier, not allowing anyone inside from going outside and vice versa, such preparations is normal for war, after all, their opponent are good mages, however, right now, all the people inside cannot help but grit their teeth in fear and apprehension, for in just a day, the once strategic buffer that will stop the invasion of Stardust against Gjallarhorn was invaded by a detached force of Stardust.

The white elves who have invaded were particularly irritable, directly killing the noble family down to their numerous branch families and declaring Stardust ruler of that land, the people naturally wanted to resist, but because the soldiers guarding not only the dukedom but the whole Gjallarhorn are in low morale because of the death of their king, the normal civilians cannot do anything but to wait the new orders of their new masters, and indeed, in a few hours of their rule, the elves created a mass enslavement spell targeting all bipedal in all of Eastern Gjallarhorn, making all the people sign a forced contract to the elves, the order is simple, the elves will give a paper each to the whole population of the dukedom, they then will eat it without water, no questions asked.

At first, the people doubted these orders; after all, how can a handful of 100 mages and 50 melee soldiers be able to distribute hundreds of thousands of papers, right? They only knew of the existence of elves and thought of them as mystical creatures without fully understanding how bizarre they can be, it took them half a day using earth magic to fold paper into paper planes and used wind magic to home-in on their respective targets, amazement and dread of the unknown creeped to the conquered minds, making them fearfully eat the papers, and alas, their dread and subtle obedience was amplified when they here the confirmation of the system notification.

All of those happened until the morning of the 4th day of the elven undead war, a little bit short of defeating the record of Urduja in the shortest successful invasion, however the white elves is far from happy, even though they knew in there subconscious that the army have grown weaker from what it was before, it was still shocking for them that they have to use the contingency plan of their king, enslaving the dukedom of Eastern Gjallarhorn while making their outside cities unaware, making sentries that creates illusory suggestions to not enter the dukedom as they defended their stronghold that they will use to lick their wounds and slowly swallow Tydings, because right now, the current populations of the elves is not enough to recreate an entire army.

Unfortunately, to create a good enough population, they have to mate with humans.

They feel like their pride is falling apart, yet no one spoke of it; the lead invaders sat silently in the meeting room.

"Will we just sit here and wait hopefully for survivors?"

One of them asked, helpless indignation evident on his voice, yet, no elf present supported him, for they knew that they have no power to contend against the revamped undeads that unnecessarily retreats and regroups even though they are basically immortals, making practically all of the elves' experience on dealing with them void, its like fighting against an old enemy that acquired a new brain, making the oldies of the elves disgruntled whilst also being helpless, their only saving grace is that they still have a chance to win if their king won the fight against Sophia.

And even then, because of the consecutive defeats of the living army, their confidence in such a clutch victory started to wane.

And they can't do anything about it other than to wait, or at least, that's what the elves present, even the one who talked thought, for just when another elf was about to kindly reject the idea of the first elf who spoke, the whole barrier and even the ground beneath it shook violently, so violent the shaking is that the whole palace, reinforced with magic by the former duke himself was also affected, causing dust from the second floor to fall down the teas and coffees of the main invaders.

The said invaders' had their eyes widen in surprise and fear, in this juncture when they have to rely on their king to win this unwinnable war, such an explosion is always a bad omen, what's more is that, the explosions came from above and they knew what country in the whole world can specifically produce those kind of soldiers, if not of course, the ones responsible are magicians, thus the elves only need one glance with each other all of them run towards the exit of the palace in unison and as they did they heard shouts of great terror from their distressed citizens.

"The army of the kingdom of heaven has joined the war!"

"Our land is in peril!"

"Repent! Repent and be forgiven before all of us die from the enslavement of the elves and the wrath of the army in the sky!"

The elves frowned, all of the ones patrolling the city looked at the sky, doing their best to ignore such senseless shouts, they knew that Valentine will soon enter the fray, but Loki, the schemer that he is will most likely start invading when one of the two monarchs won in their fight, instead they suspected one undead variant, something that verged in the thread of success and failure.

"I knew it..."

One of the leading elves said through gritted teeth, for in the sky they saw a whole legion of flying undeads, half their bodies are gone and they are caressing their belly as if pregnant, though what they have given birth into were metallic spheres that they once again dropped in the middle of the barrier.

The once underutilized mananangals have finally been trained, and the second order of their first mission is already in the process of being fulfilled.

Let the immigrant elves occupied until Sophia finished the fight between her and Aerendil.

_______

Gjallarhorn, Royal Catacomb, Kampay, with her ever-spinning arc reactor and [Guide] that disappeared on his commanding post.

"So it was covered with a very potent illusion."

Kampay asked, in her face is a little disappointment that she have succeeded on her mission for that means no punishment for her and also pride because she have completed it, making her hopeful for a reward, [Guide] caught her tone but choose to ignore it, because in front of them is a vertical casket, made out of thick iron outlined with gold, creating a stylized horn in the middle, the crest of Gjallarhorn, just below the casket is a name that once put the world in a state of dread and awe, like how the previous Roselles of the Kingdom of Gjallarhorn is, much to the dismay of the now diseased king.

"Roselle the Fixer"

It says.