Walking around the camp of the army of Freesia, something he had become accustomed to, Isaac had no real goal in sight.
After weeks of battle against the Ares army, he wondered when things would truly escalate between the two.
At this rate, Ares is just being swept away by Freesia.
Any strong soldiers sent were annihilated by him and his ever-increasing prowess.
However, suddenly, he'd encountered a bottleneck.
For any normal mage, even from the start, they'd experience bottlenecks.
Essentially, bottlenecks were when mages felt that they were infinitesimally close to the next rank, however they were being restricted by something.
Whether it was emotions, delusions, declining will, it was essentially, when the mage was brought down.
For example, if you follow a religion your entire life, dedicate it when cultivating and other supernatural activities, and that same will is crushed or changed, unless the mage finds another firm conviction, they'll stay in the same rank for what it seems, forever.
It's ridiculously difficult to change the conviction one has desperately held for their entire life, and the newly found conviction has to be strong enough to hold its own.
Nonetheless, Isaac had no reasoning for said bottleneck.
'What am I missing?'
In some cases, bottlenecks can occur when the mage simply isn't destined to the reach the next rank.
Simply put, you don't meet the qualifications.
Whether it was talent, experience, or even knowledge, heaven themselves restricted them.
Thinking back of said heaven, he remembered of his past life.
Every single enjoyment, pleasure that every other kid could enjoy.
He couldn't.
From his birth, he had a medical condition named, 'RCD'.
RCD stood for 'Restrictive Chains Disease'.
It wasn't named that for nothing.
Every human that had been recorded with such a disease, always had a symbol on their backs.
Specifically, on their spine.
Upon closer inspection said symbol looked almost identical to chains.
Stolen novel; please report.
Unfortunately, with such a disease, that numbered under about a dozen or so, he was bedridden.
He was like glass.
Like his bones, skin, even hair, lacked the density that a normal human should have.
He was thin.
He was easily breakable.
He was like a defect that had the worst possible traits.
He felt cursed.
His mouth soured entirely at his previous condition.
However, his family stood there with him.
Thinking back, even he felt a bit sentimental.
He never knew he would be killing people, with no justification whatsoever, even.
Perhaps he should sto-
'Hmm? Why should I stop?'
With no recollection of what had just occurred, he continued on his merry way, noticed by many due to his various achievements on the battlefield.
----
Isaac, who had been training, suddenly stopped, snapping out of his trance.
Seeing his sweaty self, he was sort of confused.
'There hasn't been a single horn?
Did the Ares kingdom give up on attacking Freesia?
What's going on?'
Naturally, Isaac had the right to.
Usually, Ares attacked every 3 days or so, sometimes later, sometimes earlier.
However, for a week and a half, no news, sounds, or even rumors had spread about said kingdom.
Everyone was on edge.
Well, more so than usual.
Showering himself, Isaac only had one thought.
'Are they preparing for a full-blown conflict?'
It was as if they were preparing for something that they now had ready.
The timing was just weird all around.
For seemingly no motive, they stopped their attacks and not a single soul had seen anyone movements from their kingdom.
Naturally, Freesia had a few spies.
However, they heard no rumors, news, even word from them.
Dressing himself and leaving the estate, he headed towards Kenneth's office.
----
Sitting directly across from Kenneth, which he grew to knew better over the weeks, he asked, "General, any news from Ken or Ray?"
With a simple, yet important reply, Kenneth said, "No."
However, that was all that needed to be said for both of their moods to sour.
Isaac knew he was strong.
However, in the face of an army who seemed to move completely hidden, he knew it wasn't a good sign.
Nonetheless, if even Ken or Ryan, who were they're top spies, with both being Expert Ranks secretly trained by the kingdom, weren't sending any word...
Well, it was safe to assume both were dead.
Freesia, who had a 25 or so Master Ranks, couldn't raise one secretly.
Each and every master sought for attention.
Nonetheless, a Master Rank was extremely hard to reproduce.
They were almost at the peak of strength and raising them secretly with constantly providing with resources was extremely difficult.
Firstly, they had to find a nobody.
Secondly, a nobody with great talent.
Thirdly, they needn't be so greedy to bite their master by the toe.
All the conditions were, overall, very hard to fulfill.
However, Ken and Ryan, who were both close to being Masters were obviously killed quickly.
After all, no news of their death by other spies, who were ready to give up their lives if it came down to it, it was obvious they were killed or assassinated quickly.
Opening his mouth, trying to find any salvation to the current situation was interrupted.
*BOOOM*
A loud boom shook even the General's office, which was far from the walls that surrounded the city itself.
The loud commotion attracted the attention of every single soul.
However, after looking at the upcoming hundred thousand strong army, their thoughts halted.
Isaac, who along with Kenneth, grabbed their weapons and left the office, saw the situation.
'Shit! How did they get all the way to the wall without being spotted?!'
However, as if answering his question, he saw thousands of mages sweating, kneeling and among them at the front, he saw Ken and Ryan.
Extremely fatigued, they both collapsed.
Seeing their conditions, the soldiers at the front cut their heads.
"Hmph, useless bastards."
Although Isaac himself didn't hold much sentiment towards the two, it still angered him that it was done in front of his very eyes.
The same, instead, multiplied many folds was held by Kenneth.
'Fucking pigs.'