As the sun slowly reached its peak, so did the battle. The brighter and hotter the battlefield was, the more blood was shed, the more bodies fell down and the more chaotic the battle underwent.

The slowly rising tension between them finally erupted to the point that the major figures from both sides were in the middle of the battlefield duking it out with each other. Butch the Butcher and Yuo the Underworld Envoy.

When Butch slashed down with his ax directly aiming for Yuo's head, he dodged. When Yuo used his sword to pierce through Butch's heard, he blocked. This chaotic but equal battle was something no one else could interfere with.

Some tried to help but was only mercilessly slain down, even archers couldn't even aim properly since they were killed before they even had a chance to shoot one. Even if they did manage to shoot an arrow, that weak shot won't be able to break the skin of these two bloody men.

Butch stomped his foot forward and winded up his attack to try to break through Yuo's defenses. Yuo saw this and immediately jumped up but Butch faked his initial trajectory digging deep into the earth and threw his ax along with it towards Yuo.

Yuo gritted his teeth and prepared for that incoming ax straight towards his body. He tried to block using his flimsy sword but sustained quite the blow. Usually, this should've destroyed his sword but he reinforced mana within it.

After falling to the ground, he picked himself up and took a proper stance against Butch that was now losing an ax.

Despite having no weapon left, Butch still had a wide grin on his face, "You look pretty exhausted, eh? Looks like using mana is too much for you."

"So what? You've got no weapon left. I win."

"I don't think so."

Yuo didn't understand what he meant and looked down at his sword to only see a fraction of a crack appear on it. Though it may seem insignificant, in this kind of fight, it won't be enough.

Butch ran forward not fearing the cracked sword that Yuo was holding. Yuo tried to strike Butch but he only need to grab the sword and tightly gripped his hands, the result was the sword breaking in half. Blood flowed down from his hands but in the end, the battle was in his favor.

"You're a good warm-up for what's to come! Tell me where is he?!"

Yuo, in an instant felt fear envelop him, he tried to run away at that moment but Butch was too fast for him. Butch's overwhelmingly gigantic hands grabbed Yuo's head and crushed it.

"The 8th ranked Underworld Envoy, just about right. Now, where the other one?"

Butch looked around him to see the enemy start to immediately retreat the moment they saw Yuo die. He didn't pay them any mind and decided to grab his ax and head back for the time being.

"The starting phase finally finished, we'll see how many Underworld Envoys they'll send this time. That young man better be doing what he's supposed to."

On the cliff, Mira was still taking in mana at a time trying to continue the crystallization to increase her capacity, which is turned into an endless cycle. Right now, her progress has finally reached 30%, roughly equal to Eve but was now starting to struggle.

The mana that was being siphoned from the battlefield was constantly increasing and the effects were starting to even get worse for everyone there. Weaker wizards started to lose control and couldn't use any more spells so they used a sword instead. The few higher tier ones could only feel slight effects of it but was still noticeable.

Though the enemy felt its effects, Eve was the one who was the most affected. Though this may have seemed to limit her the most since the mana that was being siphoned the most were on their side, she had reached a state of understanding. Her presence had finally reached a state where if one were to not actively look for her, she wouldn't be seen.

Adam was standing by near the few elites Butch recommended and was fiddling with a small spell in his hands. He had his full attention on it and was muttering some words while doing so.

One of the men got curious and asked Adam, "What are you doing?"

Adam slightly went on for a while when he finally answered, "Setting up a point. Just get ready to head out any minute now."

Since he got his answer, he just stayed there silently until a few minutes later when another horn sounded, though this time it was on the enemy side.

They tried to discern what that was about when they saw a giant army coming to the side on the horizon. Their white armor and crest signified that they were part of the King Alliance, a powerhouse organization in the mainland.

Unlawfully taken from Royal Road, this story should be reported if seen on Amazon.

Their army was the same size as each side's army, numbering 10,000 troops. They had proper formations, organized troops, well-equipped soldiers, frontline commanders and, a person who was being brought by a carriage, seemingly to be royalty.

The person sitting behind the veiled screen said, "Such an unsightly scene, let's just get this over with."

From southern Bran's point of view, a man was running across quite the distance from that 10,000 unit army. He wore simple clothing yet the crest attached to his shirt made him look officially important.

When that man arrived in their headquarters, he spoke, "I am a messenger from the King Alliance. I am here to negotiate with the current leader."

Butch just arrived and saw this man in front of him, "I'm the Butch the Butcher, the current leader of southern Bran. What do you want to negotiate?"

"Ah, apologizes for not seeing your grace. There's no point in flattery so I'll get straight to the point. Surrender and everyone lives. I do assume this is a good deal for you?"

Butch didn't say anything but just wielded his ax and chopped down, slicing that messenger in half without hesitation. He then walked forward and took a seat, he ordered people to fetch him some food and refreshments as he started to relax.

The person behind the veiled screen sighed, "I should've expected this from the beginning, but since that's formalities out of the way, just kill them all."

The 10,000 strong army all replied in unison, "Yes, sir!"

The person behind the veiled screen stretched his limbs and then reminded them all, "But as much as possible, don't kill any official Underworld Envoys on their side. There's still a chance he'll join us. We already killed one of his men so we're teetering on the edge."

The army immediately started to march forward towards the battlefield, leaving behind this person and elite guards.

Adam saw the incoming soldiers and started to initiate his plan right now. He teleported the elites to each strategic point he had set up. Each one only had one objective and deal with the enemy from behind completely neutralizing them before the incoming army engages.

In the span of a single minute, every single general in northern Bran was killed. The killers were immediately apprehended and executed but the loss they suffered was too much. Now their army won't be able to organize themselves at all with their head being cut off from all sides.

The person behind the veiled screen was amazed at this efficient idea, "Sending in people from behind and cutting off their chain of command, is he here?"

Adam was standing around in the makeshift camp and saw Eve walking towards him, being ignored by people all around her. By her hand, she threw three heads on the ground in front of Adam while slightly exhausted. There was also a visible streak of blood lining her arms and legs.

"Well done! Although you suffered a bit, it doesn't matter. Here."

Mira's constant flow of mana was suddenly interrupted when a gigantic chunk of mana coming her way stopped and went towards another direction. She ignored this and started to increase her sphere of influence even more.

When the gigantic amount of mana surged towards her body, it didn't feel at all overwhelming but instead refreshing, her mana and stamina were returned back to her. The wounds she had sustained healed up.

 "This is the only time I can do it since your body won't be able to push it with another one of this. You can relax for the moment, I'll need your skills later."

Eve then found a comfortable place to lay back and close her eyes. Although her physical and mana strength was returned to her, her mental focus started to wane as learning the proper way to camouflage herself among the chaos was too taxing.

A white armored army then finally reached the southern Bran army and they finally engaged. Their mana infused equipment was a tier above what the southern Bran army had and was forced to be on the retreating side.

Mira saw the sudden influx of mana enter her sphere of influence and panicked a little bit. Then incoming one was more than what she could handle normally, this led her to focus on crystallization, even more, breaking through the 30% barrier. When she broke through, her reserves increased exponentially and could finally accommodate what was about to come.

The ones in the King Alliance army that had entered Mira's sphere of influence felt power drain out of their bodies. They didn't think about it too much since they were in the front lines and were about to engage.

When a warrior and a soldier finally clashed blades, it was slightly advantageous to the warriors of southern Bran. Their intrinsic physical strength and the soldier's innate reliance on mana worked in their favor. Though this initial clash seemed to be favorable, that slight difference wasn't enough to offset the overwhelming amount of enemies incoming.

A soldier kneeled in front of the person behind the veiled screen and reported, "Sir, it has been approximated that the enemy is around 8,000 while our combined troops are 15,000."

From the initial 10,000 vs 10,000 that the southern and northern war, it reached a point of 8,000 vs 5,000 when the 10,000 King Alliance army engaged. Though those 5,000 had no more generals nor powerhouses, they were still numbers that could help overwhelm southern Bran. Not to mention the fatigued warrior of southern Bran fighting against the well-rested King's Alliance army.

"That's good, remember my words. Finish this so we can head back to the mainland."

"The numbers may be on our side but they have something that sucks the mana from our armor and weapons! We can't advance hard enough to finish them off. We're losing more than its worth."

"Oh, really? Then that person must be an Underworld Envoy, is there any way to contact him? With his description, he should be new."

"We could but for some reason I feel that we shouldn't, attacking the enemy generals in one swift stroke and taking out the army's claws, thinking of doing that is insane but executing that is even harder."

"If it really is the True Underworld King within their ranks then this army might as well be dead. Even if we try to retreat, we'll break the agreement, we might as well see his cards up on display. It's worth it."

The soldier had shivers down his spine, "Ten thousand lives is worth... what he'll do?"

"He's worth more than that, to the point that if he joins, victory is assured. Just watch, how he'll achieve this slaughter. Let's see if he grand worthy to rule the Underworld."

Meanwhile, Adam was standing in front of Butch with a single message, "Retreat everyone. Be sure to spread this message within your men, close their eyes."