Dungeon of Pride, Laplace

Redcrest City, the city of Mountmend, Morgress and his fief, Castledor were the only remaining bastions that were still mounting a resistance against the enemy. If even the Castledor fell in the fight between the two siblings, it was not hard to imagine what would happen to the kingdom.

This was the worst possible scenario that he wanted to avoid at all costs.

"Winner or not, I don't care at all. I must do this, I have tolerated Alstin far too much. Today is the day I have determined to resolve everything with him. There can only be one king in the kingdom of Ellesmere and this time it will be a queen. My father, the late king Henry enthroned me as the queen of the kingdom and with his last wish. I shall see to it no matter what" Cynthia's resolve was firm and her stance unchanging.

"Even if the kingdom ends up getting destroyed in the midst of all of your ambitions, you will still see to it?"…

"Yes, but you are wrong about one thing. The kingdom won't be destroyed, I won't let it. That said, I understand where you are coming from too. As such, if you want me to stop all this, there is one thing you can do"

"Hand over my brother and swear your loyalty to me from this moment forward. If you can do that, I won't have any qualms about pulling my forces back" She offered a choice.

"That… is something I can't do"…

"Then I am afraid I can't stop here".

Duke Montford sighed seeing that he could not change her mind. He could only lament about what would happen of the kingdom from this point onwards.

"Since that is the case, soldiers take your stance. Our enemy is the princess of the kingdom. Her objective is to harm Prince Alstin and disturb the kingdom. We cannot allow her to do that, as such we must fight here and win. Soldiers raise your weapons, you are fighting for the kingdom!!"…

"Yeah" With his shout, the soldiers rallied behind him, their morale reaching its peak.

"He is impressive" Blake spoke out his true thoughts.

"Yeah, it is not without any reason that he is regarded very highly by all the nobles back in the capital. In this raid, he will be the toughest opponent for us" Cynthia agreed.

"Your Highness, please leave the duke to me. I shall do my best not to disappoint you" Blake asked; however, he was rejected by Cynthia who stepped forward herself.

"This is something that I must do myself. Everyone in the city has their attention on us. If I can win against the duke and show everyone that they cannot win, then perhaps we can minimise the casualties in this battle".

"I see" He nodded his head, he didn't know that the princess was considering so many things.

"But will you be alright? The duke is above level… "

"Leave it to me" Saying so, she stepped forward. At this moment, Duke Montford who had his left arm raised up, suddenly brought it down.

BOOM… BOOM… BOOM… At this very instant deep roaring noises like the rumbling of the thunder, sounded out from behind the duke and a second later, multiple flashes of light sped past him, swaying his mantle.

Opposing him, facing the attack, Cynthia muttered something under her breath and extended her hand. At that moment, a strange white light flashed from her body and a barrier like a blossoming flower, appeared in front of her.

When the flashes of light collided with the barrier, it instantly disintegrated into nothing but pretty sparks. The flashes of light which were none other than the compressed mana balls fired by the magic cannons, which had enough power to easily penetrate the hard defence of level 200 monsters, couldn't even create any cracks in her magic shield.

Cynthia continued to step forward.

BOOM… BOOM… BOOM…

Just like before, the duke waved his hand and multiple magic cannons zipped past him. They came from behind, on top of the walls and even from inside the buildings. However, no matter how many molly was fired, none of it managed to get past the magic shield.

"Nevermind her, direct your attacks towards the people behind her" Duke Montford ordered.

Flashes of light condensed inside the magic cannons and whizzed through the air. However this time, their target was not Cynthia but the adventurers behind her. Blake and the others who were prepared for the firing from the magic cannons took sufficient measures.

Warriors used their shields or fortress abilities, the assassins disappeared using stealth and mages created their magic shields. Using their own means, these elite adventurers easily rendered the firing from the magic cannons moot.

That being said, dealing with the soldiers who were suicidal enough to jump into the bombardment of the magic cannons was difficult for them.

"Blake we are ready" In such a situation, Wyot sent a sound transmission to Blake. He nodded his head and used another sound transmission conch to relay out his orders.

"Begin the bombardment". Novel Fire - novelfire.net

WHIZZ… a piercing sound similar to a whistle, broke through the commotion of the battle and then exploded in the air in a brilliant display of firework.

WHIZZ… it was not just one, multiple whistling noises repeatedly resounded in the city followed by bright flashes of light that appeared in the sky.

What was going on? Who was using flares at this time of the night?

Just as those questions appeared in the minds of the soldiers and citizens of the city, the answer also arrived to them a moment later. Illuminated by the bright fireworks in the sky, they saw figures who have the ability to appear and disappear freely, materialise on top of the rooftops and areas where the magic cannons are.

The next second while the entire city was dazzled by the firework, something came dropping from the sky and exploded with a tremendous force.

BOOOM… the ground trembled and a pillar of fire and dust covered the area for dozens of meters. The building which was in the centre of the blast, was reduced to nothing but sand.

If even the condition of the building was like that, one need not even ask what happened of the people who were inside those buildings.

BOOM… BOOM.. the first pillar of fire was just the start more and more objects fell from the sky or more precisely from the air engine that was flying in the sky. These projectiles razed the army of the Castledor down to the ground in no time.

"Overloaded core stones huh,"

Duke Montford remarked. Just before one of the projectiles falling from the sky razed a nearby building, the sharp senses of the duke captured what the object falling was. It was a barrel that was filled with core stones.

The thing with core stones was that they were quite valuable, found only in a monsters that meet certain conditions. Not only are the core of the monsters where all their bloodline and power reside, but it is also one of the two ways one can get a beast inheritance from.

Aside from that, they are also used in the manufacturing of various kinds of products. For mages especially, they are used in their staff and are excellent conductors of mystical energy as well as mana depot.

When the mana inside the core stone is disturbed or its flow is reversed, the resulting phenomenon generates an extreme amount of energy which then gets discharged outwards thus destroying the stone completely.

This is called core stone overload. Mages usually use this method when faced with a life and death situation. As destroying the cores was the very same as destroying the staff, mages don't usually like using this method and only keep it as a last of the last resort of sorts.

With his experienced eyes, it was not difficult for Duke Montford to see through the quip involving the falling projectiles. Barrels stuffed with core stones whose mana flow has been disturbed and being thrown from the air engine.

It was quite an ingenious idea, he had to admit. The falling momentum and the confined space inside the barrel give the overloaded cornerstone more power and destructiveness.

"So you saw through that huh? That's right, adventurers usually carry a few low grade core stones with them to use on monsters when things get too ugly. Though only veteran adventurers who have gone through a lot of experience know about such a technique"

Cynthia commented impressed by the duke's vast knowledge. Even she who had a lot of adventurers as subordinates and had interacted with them for a good part of her life, was only able to know about such a method recently.

However, all it needed for the man was a look and he immediately understood the trick behind the falling projectiles.

"Core stones are quite costly, even a low grade one would be an entire week's income for an average adventurer. There is no way they are capable of using that many amount of core stones as nothing but simple explosives"

"What's more, these ones seem to be of medium grade. Without a vast resource, it wouldn't have been possible to employ this kind of technique. And I for sure know that you don't have that kind of money. The Serene Palace Merchant Guild that you built, was ceased by Alstin as such, you shouldn't be able to finance such a cost inefficient method. Who is supporting you?"

Being someone who was adept in politics, Duke Montford quickly deciphered that Cynthia was being supported by some faction from the shadows.

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