"Lady, did something happen last night? You look quite happy today."

Jessica who sat on the opposite side of the comfy and decorated carriage interior asked out.

"Why indeed... Our lady seems to be 'sparkling' all over... What could've happened?"

Xenthur who sat on the same side as Jessica butted in.

"I beat Alexei at wrestling last night so I'm quite satisfied, that's all."

Jessica just couldn't believe her ears.

"Arara-!? Beat him at wrestling-!?"

"Yep, we wrestled all night long... There were many close matches... It was a tough battle... But in the end, I won."

"So that was why Sir Alexei seemed so sluggish this morning-!?"

"Ah, you're right... Come to think of it... Wrestling, was it?"

"Yep."

"Is that it?"

"Wrestling."

"I see."

"So thanks to that I'm also feeling somewhat sluggish, although probably not as much as Alexei."

Vixella took off her low heels before shifting herself sideways to lie down on the entire seating.

"Hooh... It seems our lady is going to sleep again..."

"This is what she usually does during long trips."

"Naruhodo."

The two idly watched as Vixlla placed her hands behind her head before closing her eyes to doze off.

However, she immediately reopened her eyes and sat up to put back on her low heels before sighing.

"Aah, guess there goes my resting time."

Xenthur and Jessica were about to ask why but eventually understood.

Popping out from the thick plains of snow were bandits lying in ambush.

The caravan quickly broke line formation and together formed a circular defensive perimeter. 

Arrows and magical projectiles had already begun to fly back and forth from either side.

Guards and mercenaries then split up to bring the nobility and merchants to safe cover.

Since the wagons carried important goods and passengers, they were reinforced and enchanted to withstand damage.

The mages present had also set up barriers of different elements to counter the varying spells being thrown at them.

The bandits, on the contrary, were in disarray and attacked without much more than a scattered encirclement.

They were being pushed back by the organized defenders despite them being in much larger numbers.

Being at the disjointed rear of the wagon defensive formation, Vixella kicked open her carriage door and hopped out.

Jessica, on the other hand, had already gone out to assist everyone with the defense a few minutes earlier.

"Lady, watch out!"

A nearby caravan guard holding an enchanted pavise quickly ran up to her, much to Vixella's confusion.

Skidding to a slippery stop in front of her, he raised the enchanted pavise and braced himself.

Impacting noises came against the shield's surface as arrows and bolts were deflected away.

The caravan guard then let out a slight breath of relief before realizing that something was missing from his hands.

"Huh? My shield-"

"Aah, I'll be borrowing this."

The guard nodded unsurely but quickly took action as he scuttled back towards the defensive position.

A cold tempest rushed past the scenery, causing Vixella's next breath to exhale steam.

"Where do you think you're going-!?"

"Nani-!?"

The 'no-longer-has-his-pavise' guard was jumped by a bandit prowling in the snow.

Tumbling down together, he wrestled to survive against the bandit who was trying to plunge a dagger into his throat.

Squinting his eyes as the blade came ever closer, he screamed out with all his remaining strength.

"CAN SOMEBODY HELP ME FOR FUCK SAKE!!"

BOINK

As if God heard his calls, the bandit boy's head was busted away by his pavise which came flying over.

"O-Ooh! M-My shield!? I-It came back for me..."

"My bad, I guess he needs it more than me."

Vixella mumbled from the distance before expanding her arm-blade to swish away an arrow.

The guard, still a bit dazed, groaned to himself as he clutched onto his pavise's handle.

A mercenary who noticed him weak on the ground ran out from the defensive formation to help.

"Hey, you there! Are you oka-"

CHUK

She was gone in an instant as an arrow struck right through her temple.

"Ughhh... Fuck... I hate this job!"

The pavise guard wailed out and cowered behind his shield as more arrows came his way.

Vixella grumbled out from the snow as she laid low to hide her presence.

"Wha a waste... That girl should've worn a helmet."

In the distance, bandits tumbled away as Jessica ran forth to cleave with her giant claymore.

Proceeding to keep the pressure on them, she began stepping forward to violently thrust multiple times at them.

Despite being at the disadvantage of agility and speed, her skills in handling such a large claymore sure did the trick.

Slipping out no amateur mistakes for her opponents to exploit, she pushed and tumbled them back one by one.

The ones receiving the end of her attacks had no choice but to back off as she continued advancing against them.

Even if they somehow made it through her striking distance, she would just bust them back with brute strength.

Especially since it was a fight in the snow, one's mobility was strictly limited unless they used skis.

Although using clunky skis strapped to your feet in a melee situation was out of the question.

Unless one was a proficient magician, it was quite hard to maneuver in the snow.

Jessica used this greatly to her advantage and turned her usually defensive aspects towards the offensive.

Vixella's head suddenly popped out of the thick snow in front of Jessica, causing her to nearly stumble back from panic.

"Lady Vixella-!? Arara, to think I didn't notice at all..."

She jumped up to her feet before brushing off some snow.

"I just didn't bother to fight all the way to get here, that's all."

Jessica spun around and lowered her stance to block some arrows with the claymore's flat side.

"What an honor... To fight side-by-side with a legendary adventurer such as my lady..."

"Aah, please don't make it sound too glorious."

Both of them puffed out steam into the cold air as they went back to back against each other.

The bandits who didn't understand why a gorgeous noble lady came to the fight decided to continue their attacks.

Pivoting herself sideways with the right foot out front, Vixella lifted her right arm with the momentum.

A beam spurred through the air, forming a small trace of smoke as it flushed through the cold atmosphere.

One of the bandits in the background that charged in first tumbled down, sizzling the snow around his burnt torso.

Jessica took full steps forth as she threw herself with the claymore's momentum.

Despite the bandit's efforts to block her giant claymore, his flimsy shield was sliced in half.

His body, just like the shield, was cut clean through by the waist down.

The severed corpse then tumbled down to paint the snow crimson red.

Little did this affect Jessica's composure as she turned her attention elsewhere.

Vixella smiled to herself wryly, seeing how Jessica wasn't wavered at all by the gory sight.

Whether from the cold or fear, the look in the surrounding bandits' eyes didn't seem too content about it.

One of the bandits took the initiative to flank Vixella's side when Jessica was busy holding off a few other bandits.

Mistaking her for a full-out mage due to her powerful magic, she charged in recklessly with both her daggers out front.

Within a moment's notice, Vixella spun around and kicked up snow into the bandit's eyes within the same motion.

This story is posted elsewhere by the author. Help them out by reading the authentic version.

Staggering in her charge, the bandit completely missed Vixella and was knocked out by an elbow strike to her face.

In the distance near the barricade stood the pavise guard with his shield raised alongside his friend.

The two of them were just recently appointed to protect the small rear disjoint in the wagon formation.

Little did the two have to do but overlook Vixella and Jessica from a safe position.

"Damn! They messing up those bandits! Not much work left for us to do!"

"Yeah, that's the Lady who borrowed my shield earlier."

Another guard who stood nearby walked over.

"Beautiful women are always scary, huh."

The two friends silently looked over at him before coming to a mutual conclusion.

" "Damn right." "

The rest of the bandits at the rear began to turn tail as they quickly made the distance.

Pulling out their bows and crossbows, the men and women hurriedly prepared to fire.

Jessica, upon realizing their intentions, shuffled in front of Vixella as she braced with the claymore's flat side.

Holding off against the oncoming waves of arrows that clanked away at them, Jessica grimaced as she winced slightly.

"Hey, looks they're in trouble!"

The pavis guard blurted out.

"Then let's help... Huh-!?"

Much to their expectations, Vixella cartwheeled out sideways and blew herself off the ground with wind magic.

By going high in the air, she avoided all the arrows that were previously aimed at where she would've been below.

Still being thrown up with the twisting momentum, Vixella stretched out both her arms while expanding her fingers.

Her eyes swiftly scanned the surroundings as they shifted back and forth to locate all the bandits within view.

Vividly spinning through the air, many small Light Beams protruded forth in multiple directions.

They all accurately found their marks by on the bandits that had been surrounding them.

The others who didn't meet their untimely fate cowered in fear as they plead aloud for their miserable lives on the spot.

Gradually losing momentum, Vixella rotated back to the ground at a weird angle.

The dress which suddenly caught air from underneath caused her to unexpectedly dip headfirst.

"Umuhffmmm-!?!"

Vixella's muffled voice was barely heard as she flailed her legs about while being stuck in the deep snow.

"Seems like The Greatest Adventurer is quite reckless herself."

Jessica, upon saying such to herself, shortly pulled Vixella back out of the snow.

Upon seeing the development, the caravan guards pushed out the rear and broke through the bandits' encirclement.

The hectic battle shortly came to an end after they defeated the bandits in detail.

Reforming their line formation, the caravan was once again slowly back on the move.

A CENTURY LATER

(Whistling Snow Transition Music)

The injured defenders were later healed and tended to at the next village they restocked supplies upon.

Vixella, on the other hand, focused on healing the nobility that were hurt during the earlier confrontation.

This was an even better opportunity as she began to advertise her Magical Jars to them.

It was the perfect moment to begin presenting the products and samples they had towed within their wagon.

This proved better as she handed out a few to the mages and healers who had become magically exhausted.

The caravan, after restocking, continued towards the destination of Cold Point, the Capital of Enchantia.

It had been two weeks since they entered Enchantia... That's already about a month since they had left Merchantia.

Alas, no matter the reason, time otherwise went relatively quick for Vixella.

She, unlike most people, had a certain power to skip long travels.

It was, of course, the ability to sleep as long as she wanted to.

Vixella yawned as she peeked outside of the windowpane.

There was not much to see beyond the barren landscape.

"Aah, wasn't this where the 666th demon king was slain?"

"Indeed, my lady! We are nearing the Crescent Tundra."

"Ara, the ancients must've been quite strong... I've heard that those peaks used to be whole mountains..."

"Yeah... That's some excessive deformation to the landscape... I can why the 666th demon king perished here."

[https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/455394821364908032/459164173335527425/edgy_cresent_valley.jpg]

What occurred here many centuries back was beyond anyone's comprehension.

For many varying reasons, combat capability had steadily decreased over time.

It was already scary to think how powerful the first men to settle Afria were back then.

From what Vixella knew, a demon king would approximately appear during the worst times of each century.

However, she as Xiveall, the 911th summons, rewrote destiny by eradicating the demon race once and for all.

Every century, the demons would retreat their impregnable Twin-Tower Fortress.

The humans had always failed to topple the same fortress over the ages... So the demons kept coming back.

Xiveall's masterplan to destroy that fortress came from a certain memory of a certain tragedy back in the former world.

He can't remember much of it.

Though he was indeed there to witness it.

Perhaps he was also a part of it.

Of course, he would be.

Gathering mages skilled in Ground and Wind Magic, Xiveall's army together conjured forth two massive stone birds.

The 911th summon then prioritized this as the main siege plan... Throw these birds at the demon fortress!

There were however many who disagreed with the stupid idea since it completely seemed like an utter joke.

None of the commanders from the main fighting force took the plan to support and decided not to coordinate with it.

Despite the setbacks, Xiveall's independent army ignored this fact and proceeded to do what they planned anyway.

They hauled the two stone birds up to the nearest cliff overlooking the so-called impregnable twin-tower fortress.

The two stone birds were then flung against the fortress just as the main force of the army were about to withdraw.

Upon seeing the two towers collapse under their weight upon losing structural integrity, they recommenced the attack.

The remaining demons that somehow survived were caught in disarray and panic and became easily defeated.

This masterstroke eradicated the demon's fighting force which had fled to regroup at the said fortress during the times.

After the demons lost their strongest fort, there was nowhere left for them to mount a resistance on the Afrian continent.

The demons who fought back or surrendered were slaughtered without mercy.

Perhaps there were a few 'peaceful demons' which managed to escape to see.

Whatever their fates became, the demons were gone from the Afrian continent.

Defeat for the demons.

Victory for the humans.

That day was surely a time to celebrate for the humans who lived on.

An era of peace finally came after 911 centuries of living in constant fear.

Ancient scriptures heavily pinpointed that it was all thanks to Xiveall's stupid siege plan which liberated the world.

Just like that, the so-called 'Great War' came to an anticlimactic end with nothing more to be said regarding it.

That happy ending, as one would notice, became the start of the many conflicts amongst humans themselves.