Dandelion walked away from the makeshift camp his army had made just outside Gican City, they couldn’t make it look threatening so they had absolutely no defences. He knew that the man he was waiting for would soon appear.

“What the hell is this?, You cocky brat!!” A roar that made Dandelion’s soul tremble came from the walls, a man and various other soldiers peeking from behind the stone defence.

He had heard rumors that his master had retired, that his body had slowly decayed over his long years in combat. It was also a rumor that his personality had become much more mild.

What a load of bullshit…

Before him stood The Shield of Dresden, as imposing as the first day he met him, wearing full body armor colored in red and white. Right in the center of his chestplate, the various contours formed a spiked shield.

The only difference Dandelion could notice was that his hair was now much grayer.

“ArchDuke Redshield” Dandelion bowed.

“Stop the formalities you bastard, I asked you why the hell you have thousands of soldiers surrounding my city!”

Dandelion immediately frowned, he had learned from an early age that lying to his mentor was the act of a fool, he was one of the smartest men Dandelion had ever met. Which is why they took so long to prepare the perfect excuse.

“ArchDuke Redshield, we were doing our normal patrols through the Zanya border when we noticed some burnt villages and came here to your aid”

It had taken Dandelion and Oliver years in order to capture a monsterkin and ship it back to the Human Continent, worst of all, it was but a youth with no real strength under its belt. It served its purpose though, they had used the same excuse when marching through Redshield territory. The villages and towns who heard it would rain praises and share some supplies with them.

Ethan Redshield seemed to be taken aback, his eyes widening before completely closing, turning deep in thought.

Dandelion’s muscles immediately tensed up and he grasped a certain item on his pouch.

“Then why didn’t you just take care of the problem over there?” Ethan asked after deliberating for a while.

“We didn’t want to intrude on your business, the crown respects your right to rule over the lands it has lent you, we simply wish to make ourselves available for you”

Ethan stared straight at Dandelion’s eyes for a few seconds, if he had been a higher mind cultivator than Dandelion, he might have noticed something amiss in the expressions of the soldiers.

Unfortunately, Dandelion was the highest level mind enhancer in the Kingdom, he had long ago taken care to mask the expressions of his soldiers.

“While I thank you for your aid, we have already sent people to take care of the problem…” Ethan shouted back.

Dandelion couldn’t help but smile, that was also part of the plan after all.

“Is that so? That is certainly good news!” The corners of Dandelion’s smile became slightly crooked from the lie, he was getting close to his goal, but he wanted it to end as fast and as painlessly as possible.

Thankfully, he could hide it due to his mind enhancing prowess.

“Still, we are taking security in the border very seriously, if you don’t require us, we shall head out to the border and make sure that no more monsters escape from the gap”

Ethan frowned once he heard this.

“Since when do you Royals care so much about the border?” Ethan expressed his doubts.

Although technically, Dandelion was not part of the Royal Family, he had all but joined its faction.

“It is a decree from His Majesty Oliver, we don’t want to wage a war on both fronts”

As Dandelion said this, Ethan nooded.

With the Grandia Alliance nipping ever more at the border, Ethan had been forced to diverge a good amount of manpower to defend the villages from raids. Things were getting tenser everyday, which meant that the Zanya border was getting neglected.

It would not be a good idea to leave the border to Zanya completely defenceless though, the Royals getting involved would lessen his pressure by an order of magnitude.

“Good thinking!, I’m proud of you!” Ethan shouted back joyfully, his eyes shining as he looked at Dandelion.

Dandelion felt many things when he saw this, all of them mixing in his insides, like a melting pot.

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He felt a heat on the center of his chest… the gaze Ethan was directing at him, was the gaze of a proud father looking at his son.

It felt good.. Dandelion had never met his parents or even lived with them, by all accounts, the man before him was his surrogate father.

When this feeling fell into the melting pot inside Dandelion, it tainted the mixture and resulted in his final and most pronounced emotion. Dandelion felt shame, a deep, soul-crushing shame.

“Might we bother you to open the gates so that my soldiers can rest and eat? we will head out by tomorrow morning” Dandelion muttered, he didn’t have control of his emotions so he simply forced his face into a blank look.

When the scouts had spotted the approaching army, they had made everyone outside the gates gather and then closed them. Dealing with such a chokepoint would not be easy for Dandelion and his army.

So he looked at Ethan, who was now brightly smiling, and waited for the words of the man.

Ethan turned around, clearly about to order the gates to be opened.

He was interrupted by a scout though, who muttered something into his ear.

Ethan’s smile disappeared, his expression turning into a rageful storm.

Dandelion looked at his expression for a second and realized that they had been caught, no amount of lies would get them out of this one.

Dandelion turned pale and shook his head, they had been so close. They had clearly underestimated the information network that Ethan had built on the Redshield Dukedom, to be able to hide such a thing from years of investigation was amazing.

“You were always too sharp for your own good, Master” Dandelion whispered and relaxed his body.

He didn’t doubt for a second, he couldn’t doubt… His mind had been made up long ago, he would walk the path of destruction together with Oliver, as his friend and follower. Dandelion was still completely wracked by internal conflict, but in the face of his determination, it was only background noise he could ignore.

…

A long mottled scroll appeared on Dandelion's hand, splotches of red,green,brown and blue covering it in its entirety, making it look almost ethereal.

It was the strongest scroll the Dresden Royal Family had, one of a few in existence, and an entity feared by all who gazed upon it. Once upon a time, it had been used to great effect in the War of Indepence, and now, it would signal the start of a Civil War.

The Myriad Elements Scroll.

Before anyone on the walls could even react, a gigantic bolt made out of the four colors hovered above Dandelion. The colors on the bolt shifted and moved, as if they had a mind of their own, sometimes flaring and others flowing.

A gasping Dandelion fell to his knees, blood pouring from his mouth, he had used up all his na, to disastrous consequences.

However it was worth it, as the bolt moved towards the wall, accelerating so fast that you would miss it if you blinked. No one on the wall had time to move even a single finger.

The bolt crashed into the gate, an explosion covering the area. It turned a flaring red before shifting into a flowy green and then a solid brown, ending up with a tinge of blue.

When the smoke cleared and the final streaks of blue disappeared from the air, the gate had been blown apart, together with a massive portion of the wall that surrounded it.

……………………………………………………………………………………………………………

The march back towards Gican City was considerably harder than the march towards the plains.

The thing that made the march truly grueling was the lack of slaves to carry the goods. Although none of the slaves were body refiners, demi-humans, especially beastkin were naturally stronger and more agile than humans, though this was countered by their short lifespans.

Only 10 wounded demi-humans had survived the battle though, a pitiful number considering the fact that they were 40 strong. It was a very big disappointment, they were better equipped, better fed and more numerous, it shouldn’t have been so bad…

Jule hadn’t planned for their mental barriers to be so strong.

Either way, those slaves were being forced to carry all they could and more. Once they recovered from their wounds, Jule would make sure they wouldn’t doubt his orders next time. He couldn’t kill any of them though, he didn’t want to plant such a strong seed of resentment.

Anyways, the lack of mules meant that every soldier had to carry something back. The loot of the dire wolves and goblins was absolute trash, but the skin of the Bulettes was top notch, they would be able to make many inscribed items with it.

The bad news was that not only the slaves, but the soldiers themselves had also taken quite a beating.

In total, about 30 rank 1 body refiners had died at the hands of the Wendigo Bulette and of the rest, two thirds were wounded. Even though the plan was to support them as soon as possible.

The fight had gone on for longer than it was acceptable, and losses were bound to happen.

What irked Jule more than the body refiners was the mind refiners of which 5 rank 1s had died, an extremely heavy cost, even when compared to the 30 body refiners.

Jule did not plan well enough, He overestimated his abilities to fight the Bulette, he overestimated the demi-human’s willingness to fight and above all he had overestimated the abilities of his rank 1 soldiers.

He wouldn’t make the same mistake again.

...

All was not lost though, the losses on the rank 2s were much better. Only a single rank 2 body refiner had died from mortal injuries, the rest were only wounded. Better yet, not a single rank 2 mind refiner had died.

Rank 2 mind refiners usually stood on the backlines and used their scrolls to harm the enemies, turning into their primary targets, this number was better than Jule could ever hope for.

The true crowning achievement of this expedition was the black goo Parn had gathered and stored in a special inscribed bottle. Although Parn had melted most of the Wendigo, the leftover materials could surely be used for something interesting.

Speaking about Parn, Jule noticed that he had reverted back to his clown persona. He had slept in a carriage the whole trip back, using some lame excuse about his wounds acting up.

Jule wouldn’t take anything he said at face value anymore.

...

As the group got closer to the Capital, things were taking a turn for the worst, even if they stopped and healed, most of the wounds that the body refiners had suffered needed medical attention. It didn’t help at all that they also needed to carry gear back.

Jule even had to carry some wounded people in his personal carriage, which he used to relax his body after riding his horse for a while. Jule had to carry some of the gear too, seeing that as a rank 2 body refiner, he was stronger than most others in the group.

Every single day of the march was pure torture, even the trained soldiers were on the point of breaking down.

Thanks to all these reasons, the march back took longer than planned, but eventually, they managed to reach the first sign of civilization.

The farms weren’t too far from the Capital, which meant that they were only a few hours away from getting a relief to their tiredness and pain.