True enough there is so much happening on the battlefield that everyone was yet again subjected to a great deal of shock upon realizing that the prisoners were no longer in the carriages.
"It is easy to figure out your intentions… so I've brought it to myself to be one step ahead of you." Leon found it explained.
In reality, Leon had the prisoners transferred to the bird cages when he noticed the shadow puppets touching the rune inscription of the arrays.
As one of the people on top of the creation of these secured carriages, he would know if someone tried to intrude and decipher the array right at the moment.
With that, he gave the blades a signal and worked to transfer the prisoners away from the enemy's attention.
Crown Prince Ranon gritted his teeth and became desperate. Now, his hopes to have more reliable additions to his troops were gone and he was running out of options.
"Do you think that if you manage to survive this fight, you will all remain safe and sound?! Hahahaha! I am telling you right now, that this ambush is just the beginning! Your beloved empire is already close to its fall!"
Crown Prince Ranon could only throw mocking words towards Leon and the rest while he summoned all of his powers and channeled it all to the curse users that were still alive. He started absorbing their life force so that he could enhance his strength multiple times.
"Stand back.." Leon eyed Kazimir and the rest as there was something strange happening in Crown Prince Ranon's condition.
In front of Leon, Crown Prince Ranon finally emerged from the shadow of the gorge and his body stayed afloat in the air.
Wisps of violent purple light surged to enter his body as he spread his arms wide taking in every power one could get.
"Blades! Create a barrier and isolate the two of us on the battlefield! No one is to go beyond the barriers until I say so!" Leon shouted, alerting everyone in the hall.
Kazimir, Mishael, and Antoine could not help but gulp as they saw how intimidating the force around Crown Prince Ranon was.
The gale force was so strong that the earth crumbled on every surface where the purple streak of power was.
What's more, the presence of the malevolent force in the Crown Prince's surroundings was several times greater than that of the former Empress Carolina!
"Third Brother! We will assist you!" Antoine stepped forward, his eyes vigilantly looking at the brewing monster of curse in front of them.
"Leon looked around and saw that the battle between the soldiers was almost settled, as the remaining non-curse user soldiers had already lost the will to fight, seeing that the monarch they had pledged their loyalty with did not even regard their comrade's lives and even took it himself.
Besides, he cannot even guarantee that he could contain Ranon's power as it was even stronger than that Carolina's power of multiple fragments combined.
Soon Mishael, Kazimir, and Antoine joined Leon on the isolated battlefield. They courageously faced Crown Prince Ranon, whose features were now revealed to be so much similar to the Vesalas.
Purple hair and amethyst eyes.
In the first place, the Vanderfords are rumored to be related to the Vesalas, but since the first generation of the Vanderford family, they were only known for having pale purplish hair and eyes, but not as deep as the Vesalas.
But now, one would think that Crown Prince Ranon was part of the Vesala family.
Leon and the three other men looked at each other, could it be that the missing Vesala heir during the time of the First Victor's war managed to integrate himself into the Vanderfords?
Even so, they could only find the truth if they managed to survive the current predicament.
Before commencing the attack, Leon eyed one of the blades and mouthed the words, "Continue with the plan."
After that, he charged in Crown Prince Ranon's direction along with Antoine and Mishael.
Wooosh!
With a swipe of the hand, Crown Prince Ranon managed to give a heavy blow to Mishael while he cast a piercing lightning spell to force Antoine to retreat. Then he met Leon's attack head and he successfully stopped it with his silver sword.
"I always wanted to know how much stronger an s-class mage is… but it seems like it was only so so." Crown Prince Ranon smiled as the veins in his hands and face glowed in a faint purple light.
The next second, Leon was thrown out almost at the end of the boundary, leaving only dust and rubble on the trajectory he went with.
Kazimir did not even have a chance to conjure his spell because the turn of events was too swift for his casting to handle.
But then, the four men did not stop at one failure. With Leon as the strongest attacker, they managed to exchange several blows and pushed the Crown prince off his momentum.
However, that did not last for long.
As Kazimir and Mishael started to suffer from receptor fatigue after being pushed to exhaust their mana on the battlefield for a long time, their attack routines became weaker and more predictable.
Their team finally crumbled when Mishael was the first one to fall as he was already injured by Arabella earlier on.
Crown Prince Ranon targeted him specifically and landed a blow on his already injured rib, leaving Mishael crashing into the gorge while wincing in pain and broken ribs.
The next one to fall was Antoine who tried to save Kazimir from Crown Prince Ranon's lightning attack which Kazimir had no more mana left to dodge.
Making himself a human shield and falling from such a height, Antoine fell with Kazimir and sustained several injuries.
Finally, only Leon remained standing.
While he was fighting Ranon, he was actually spending his mana so fast. This is because his mana was being used simultaneously to maintain the dome barrier and summon Biggie just a while ago.
While he is an open-path mage, the supply of mana still played a big role in the victory on the battlefield. With the desolate wasteland having lesser mana around, it was hard for him and the other mage to replenish.
'I think I have no choice but to use the mana stones to replenish my mana…' Leon thought as he gauged the fight. 'I just need more time to take it out and absorb it.
But before he could move, Crown Prince Ranon suddenly attacked with his sword. While he was able to guard with the opponent's sword strike, he did not anticipate that Ranon would release a spell coming from his mouth.
A violet energy ball charged on Leon's chest creating a violent explosion.
Boom!
Rubbles and dust filled the air as they saw the wall of the gorge cave out a deep hole, somewhere at the end of it, was Leon's injured body from the mysterious curse ball attack.
The entire battlefield froze, and a great sense of fear and trembling appeared on the knight's faces who could only watch the battle unfold.
The S-class Mage was pushed around just like that… How on earth will they even defeat that kind of enemy?
"Behold gentlemen! This is the hope you are waiting in vain for! Look at them… the only thing they could do is fall under my feet!" Crown Prince Ranon laughed as he pointed at the four men who failed their attacks.
"See? No one in this field can defeat me! Nor can any of you make a difference in saving your land! We, the followers of Lord Raven, will rule the entire land and all of you have a choice to admit defeat and surrender!"
"Listen now! Those who submitted and were willing to pledge allegiance to Lord Raven, the Vanderford Empire, and the Main temple shall receive unlimited glory and power! Just like mine!
No powers could resist our side, not even this great Seirende everyone has been looking up to."
"Their fall meant our rise! So now, I am giving you a chance to join this war, and let the long tyrant be gone with the rise of the new regime!" Crown Prince Ranon declared.
Unbeknownst to him, a recording stone was pointing at him, capturing all of his movements from beginning to end. It was held by the same member of the Crimson Blade whom Leon mouthed the words, 'Continue with the Plan'.
It turns out that the entire proceedings of the ambush have been recorded and broadcast to the main cities of Prasinos, even the Vanderford Empire!
After recording the end of his speech, the broadcast shifted to the side of Emperor Valentin who was wearing his full body armor and sword.
"Ladies and Gentlemen, my fellow leaders and allies! Now you have seen and heard who the evil ones were and who were the ones who did not want peace to prevail in Prasinos!
As the leader of the Seirende Empire, we refuse to fall under their reign without putting forth our best fight!
Thus our empire declares war against the Spectre, Lord Raven, the Vanderford Empire, and the Main Temple!"
