"They are all dead, sir," The mage reported to the command tent.

All the expedition leaders but one, or all the ones still alive were gathered there. Nobles, army officers, guild rankers. Titus, the commander of the expedition, slammed the wooden table where a map of Mirfield and outskirts was open.

"Blasted demons! I told that idiotic Leeroy to not rush them," He cursed. "And now his soul will feed the revival of the Demon Lord!"

It was commonsense that the rebels that took over Mirfield were mingling with monsters and demons and working to finish what the Demon Lord started five thousand years ago.

"Suits him for trying to be high and mighty. For Kingdom and Glory!" Someone mocked.

"It couldn't be helped, you saw how angry he was," a Nobleman replied. "And after what happened last night, Queen's tits, what slaughtered Whiteridge's men?"

"I thought the guild supplied top-grade repellent potions. We knew we were going against monsters!" Titus glowered at the guild representative.

"That's the most potent repellent potion you will ever see," The guildmaster shrugged. "However, we are dealing with monster tamers. They are known to allow their monstrosities to roam inside low-magic areas. It was the army sentries that failed to spot the monsters."

"Monster," One A-ranked adventurer grumbled. "A snake-type. Probably a Venom Naga. I scoured the site and looked at the tracks. Only one monster."

"Three hundred dead to one monster!" A nobleman cried, outraged. "Where is the support the guild promised us?"

"It is coming around. Takes time to maneuver in position," The guildmaster defended himself. "And there are troublesome monsters in their way, that's why the S-rank team went with them. Trust me, nobody here stood face-to-face with hem. Felt the dread of being dragged by that monster disguised as a human."

"And you fed him your guild crystal," The noble retorted. "Master Gruenwald, what was that magic out there?"

"Some heretic demon magic," The old wizard explained. "They must've sacrificed dozens of innocents to summon that rain. But if you are telling about the magic that killed Lord Bolton and his men hours ago, some sort of demonic ritual."

"That your apprentice cast," Another noble mocked.

Titus slammed the table again. "This is serious! Keep bickering and I'll feed you to the monsters myself. Remember you are all sworn to His Majesty King Hrothgar who bestowed the honor of leading it to me. I'll dispense the King's justice if you whine one more time. Understood, gentlemen?"

All the men nodded.

"I'm updating the threat rating of all these traitors to S. The Guild will reward their subjugation accordingly," Titus declared.

The guild master lowered his head, biting his lips. Titus was abusing his powers and he'd pay dearly for that after his usefulness ended.

"Now, how is the construction of the siege weapons going?"

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"Delayed. We had to go far to get suitable wood. The ones in the nearby forest are drenched and prone to warping. And it seems someone cut the best trees out. We found a lot of useless stumps."

"Give me a time frame I can work with, not excuses, damn it!"

Another slam on the table. Tensions were running high. A town hadn't rebelled in centuries, all of humanity knew they had to band together or die. But the insidious demons and their servants, the monsters had their ways to corrupt the hearts of men with promises of power. With that many monsters inside the town, Mirfield was as good as lost, if the magic levels inside the town rose due to their wicked rituals.

"Five days. Our crafters are working on the double as we speak. Aided by our mages."

Titus directed his anger toward another person.

"Gruenwald, your apprentice is their main spellcaster, this rain is her work. You either dispel it or I'm handing you over to the Guild. Maimed."

Everyone in the room knew how the Guild would sacrifice talented or powerful individuals to create permanent effects matching their talents. A person with an anti-magic talent like a dwarf boy found in the northern kingdom would be perfect to found a new town or someone with magic like Gruenwald could be used to create a powerful mage's staff.

Furthermore, the sins of an apprentice reflected on the master. The old magus was dragged out of his retirement to fix this. Everyone knew they were beholden to Hrothgar and his representant, Titus.

"It will be done If you excuse me. I'll need the adventurer mages."

The guild master present was going to protest but Titus slammed the table in front of him as he opened his mouth.

"I want that rain gone. Before nightfall."

The commander could only hope the sea monsters wouldn't delay the arrival of their secret weapon.

Outside the tent, Gruenwald shivered and went around gathering the adventurer mages. He was suspicious of the magic that created that storm and suspected a trap. Yes, he couldn't shake the feeling there was some kind of trick to that rain. The amount of MP to maintain such a huge spell formation would be more than any spellcaster would be able to regenerate. Unless she had another source of MP... No. That wasn't the apprentice he knew. The brat Helen he trained and conditioned would never be that bold.

Maybe the girl was already dead and some sort of demon was possessing her body. if demons were inside Mirfield, the town would have to be abandoned. The towns were not drained of magic to keep monsters away even though they disliked being in a mana-dry environment. No, it was because of the demons. Demons died in mana-dry places.

As he mused, he gathered the spellcasters, dropping Titus's name everywhere. Let the burden of failure fall upon the fool. Then he gathered a team of lower-tiered mages, most of these tier 3 and put them in place at the dispelling ritual. These were mostly just MP batteries so only their status mattered. Then he assigned a tier 4 Elementalist to perform the ritual and gave the signal to start.

A few minutes after the start all of the casters clutched their throats, whithered and died. In the time a Knight would take to swing the sword twice, twelve mages perished. Gruenwald clicked his tongue, annoyed. A trap, indeed. If he wasn't mistaken, some sort of feedback loop when they connected to the spell, or...

He examined the dried husks. Drained. The rain clouds drained their HP and probably the MP too. He then checked the rain spell. It wasn't stronger. In fact, he could tell the ritual was a minor success. The rain was weaker by a faint margin.

"Another team. You, you, and you are to clean up the corpses, the others redraw the circle."

The casters were frightened. The old crook gave them the choice of dying by flogging for disobeying orders from the King or trying their luck at the ritual. He even pointed out the rain was weakened by the first group.

Twelve of them "volunteered". This time, he used no third tiers. Ten four-tiers and two fifth-tiers. Then he sent one of the mages running to the command tent to ask Commander Titus if he wanted to go ahead, given the circumstances. Gruenwald would make sure the blame fell on him. He was just "following orders".

The second disenchanting ritual started. The results were... as expected. They lasted longer but all of them withered and died the same. The magic, however, was a success. The heavy thick ring of clouds vanished over the next hour, leaving a bog behind. Studying the land, Gruenwald was sure the geomancy and terrain of the place was forever altered because of that event.

Mirfield was now a swamp town.

But the siege could commence. For real, this time.