Maria’s forces had just conquered another swab of land that was owned by another Vampire noble. This time, it had taken a few days because the land belonged to a vampire of Count nobility so their forces were much stronger than the previous ones they faced. However, it still wasn’t much of a challenge since she had many strong soldiers, NPC mercenaries, and NPC adventurers in her ranks.
Everything was moving according to plan and Carmilla’s involvement in all of this still wasn’t known to their opponents. Some of the vampires had already held a meeting back at the capital requesting that the Blood Lord deal with the rising threat presented by Maria’s Dire.
The Blood Lord did decide to provide aid but it wasn’t anything too helpful. Carmilla had been requested to attend the meeting but since her relationship with the Blood Lord wasn’t all too amiable, she had only sent a doppelganger. She used the doppelganger to spy on the meeting and the information she obtained was quite helpful to Maria’s cause. Carmilla was immensely rewarded by Maria and although she didn’t need anything in terms of wealth, Maria did promise to give Ash a few days off from leading the war so that she could spend time with him.
Despite her being a vampire, Carmilla’s request was pretty human-like and this surprised Maria who readily said yes. She didn’t have to bleed out her treasury for Carmilla and instead only had to sacrifice a few days without having Ash at the frontlines leading the war. It was fine since there were others that could replace him and he could be called upon at any moment if anything were to happen.
Although, it was quite unfortunate for Carmilla because something big did happen and that was Gaia calling back Maria to her planet.
Champion Maria, I believe that the war between the two factions will begin soon. I request that you return to Gaia as soon as possible.
Maria was reading the said message in one of the established front-line bases that her army had created. Every now and then, her army would need to create a new forward command post because they would consistently be taking over new lands almost every day. So, after a day or two, Maria would have to move her dwellings to the new place. It didn’t bother her because this meant that every day, there was progress. She could already see herself being the Queen of the entire continent and her quest being completed very soon if they continued at this rate.
“Hmm, it seems that I’ll have to head back to Gaia soon… the Goddess over there needs my help.”
“My Queen, I have cut my break short. If you are preparing to leave, then I will be ready to fulfill the role as temporary leader of the Dire at any time,” Ash said as he kneeled before her.
Maria nodded and asked, “I trust that you won’t fail me like last time, yes?”
“You can be rest assured, Your Grace, I will not let you down.”
“Good, and if you need to, reveal that Carmilla is on our side if things take a turn for the worst. It doesn’t matter if everything doesn’t go as planned but I will not tolerate any failure towards this conquest.”
“Yes!”
“I’ll stay for a few more days and see how the situation here plays out. We’re about to attack one of the Vampire Marquis’s territories, right?”
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“Yes, I will be personally leading the battle,” Ash said in confirmation.
“I heard from Carmilla that this vampire is being backed by one of the Vampire Duke’s of this era. I naturally have to see how you conduct this battle. If you give me a victory, I can leave Vanhal with assurance.”
“As you command.”
Ash quickly left and immediately rushed to where the Dire’s Army were all ready and waiting for their commands to move out. When he arrived, all of the soldiers immediately looked up to him who was floating in the sky. Not long after, Maria materialized next to him after she teleported to his side.
“My Queen!”
Maria had received the reward [Blink] from completing the Planetary Escape quest that she had done back on Eur. Although Paimon had been captured, she was still able to escape so the quest was counted as being completed so she received her reward.
Now, she was able to teleport to practically anywhere she wanted thanks to her new skill, [Blink]. Naturally, there were restrictions such as not being able to teleport into a dungeon or anywhere restricted. She could also only teleport to a place that she or any of her subordinates had explored before but the farther it was from her present location, the more Mana the skill used up. However, with her massive Mana Pool, the distance was hardly something she ever needed to worry about. Another great thing about [Blink] was that it had a very short cooldown so she could actually use it in fights as well. This gave her battle style even more flexibility than before.
“I’ll be watching, so do give me a good show~”
“Yes!”
Ash turned towards the soldiers down below before raising a loud battle cry and saying, “Hear me! Our Queen is personally going to watch today’s battle! Let’s give her a good showing and conquer these foolish bastards that stand in our Queen’s grand ambition of uniting the continent under Her rule!”
“YAAHHHHH!!!”
“YAAAHHHHH!”
“FOR HER MAJESTY!”
“Follow me and let us claim our victory!”
The war horn was blown and the army immediately began to march towards the enemy camp that was just ahead. Right at this moment, the two sides were going to meet out on the field to fight, and with Ash’s words, the Dire’s side was the first to make a move.
The enemy side immediately prepared to defend against the Dire’s push and started firing arrows and magic spells from afar. On their side, the Dire’s vampire knights immediately stepped forward and raised their shields before invoking their defensive skills.
The army that Ash had trained fought in an organized and systematic manner. They were all in sync and didn’t even need to be told what to do as they took action together in unison themselves. This was actually the first time Maria was personally watching the battle in real-time because normally, she would just watch from afar or behind a screen. She wanted to participate in the battles but Ash forbade her from doing so because the Queen wasn’t supposed to be doing such a thing. The Blood Lord hadn’t stepped out to personally lead the war so, as the Dire’s Queen, she shouldn’t do it as well.
Maria didn’t see why she needed to copy the Blood Lord, especially since she was missing out on so much fun, but Ash and even Carmilla insisted that she shouldn’t step out onto the battlefield so as to preserve her dignity as the Dire Queen. She could only sigh and listen to her insistent subordinates. It didn’t matter because she would soon take part in another war on another planet anyway. Either way, she’d still have her fun and feel what it’s like to be in the middle of a chaotic battlefield.
The two opposing forces soon collided with one another with neither one of them gaining the advantage over the other. This was a first since Maria would always see that her forces would trample across their enemies so this greatly intrigued her.
“Ohh, I guess these are the Vampire Duke’s forces, huh?”
She noticed that the enemy vanguard was dressed rather uniquely and they had visibly better equipment than the rest of the enemy army.
“Hmm, it’s still not enough. Only a part of them is from the duke’s forces while the others…”
The ones that weren’t equipped better were trampled on a few moments later and this led to breaches on the enemy vanguard’s formations. Maria chuckled a bit because she could see that although the Vampire Duke had provided his or her’s aid, they weren’t entirely committed to it.
“If you wanted to help, you should’ve brought your entire army here instead of just a small portion…Now, my army’s going to turn their enemies into valuable EXP and grow stronger again~”
Maria’s forces thrived on conflict. With every battle they went through, all of the surviving warriors would get stronger as they leveled up and were promoted in rank. It was such a nice cycle and she was greatly pleased with her forces’ continuous growth on the battlefield.
“Heh, Ash is even going make his move soon, this should be exciting!”