A great uproar ensued in the entire Prasinos.
That was because, as soon as Emperor Valentin declared the start of the war, the troops stationed stealthily near the enemy camps started to advance!
Starting from the outer regions in the southeast, up to the coastal regions of the north where the troops from the allied kingdoms and the Green Wave Continent, all were now charging at full speed to take advantage of the enemy's lowered guards.
A wave of simultaneous surprise attacks commenced in the different parts of the Seirende Continent!
"What on earth happened?! Why are there enemy troops hiding just within our noses!" The leaders of these remote troops could only grit their teeth and start fighting.
Unfortunately, their plans would never be answered as they were destined to fall into the hands of the side that was prepared to fight -
The Unified Anti-Curse Forces!
A coalition which consists of the armies from the Seirende, Green Wave, and a number of allied kingdoms both in Seirende and some select parts that were located in the Vanderford continent, albeit, their loyalties were not yet revealed at the moment because they would be exposed too early.
"Charge men! Do not let the curse users hurt an innocent person anymore! Fight for our peace! Fight for our land!" The Commanding Lieutenants of the Unified Forces shouted as he raised his sword and took down two soldiers in front of him.
The knights immediately responded, carrying out their mission, to apprehend those who propagate evil and fight for the peace of the entire Prasinos.
Simultaneously, Emperor Valentin has yet to receive the news of Nikolai's attack against the other members of the Imperial Family in the Northern Territory.
He and the other leaders of the Unified forces had established a headquarters somewhere in the land where it is most accessible to all the leaders.
They called it Navigator's Harbor Point as it was located near the coastal areas facing the direction of the Green Wave institute.
"The first encounters have already commenced. Luckily, we have received accurate intel from Lady Eli about the whereabouts of the Pope. With this, we can rest assured that our first battles would surely be a victory." Chief Dragon Fafnir commented as he looked at Emperor Valentin and the rest of the representatives from the other territories.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇtThey were focused on looking at a large map of Prasinos which were marked by colored dots of red and green.
In the map, the areas where the surprise attacks commenced were slowly changing. The red dots slowly faded while the green dots started to grow vibrant.
This made the leaders in the entire headquarters exhibit a light of hope in their worried eyes.
They were not expecting a strong continuous momentum of victories in the first stages of the war. But having to take out many minor camps stationed at the outer borders of the Seirende allied region is already a good start.
"Our plan is to take out the noncritical fortresses first… while our core armies will appear in the area where the Vanderford Monarchs (The Vanderford Emperor's sons) and the Main Temple's army limit their movements." The female leader of the Werewolf clan, Daciana explained as she observed the movements on the map.
"Our best case would be their troops retreating back to the coastal regions of the Vanderford. With that, we can commence the second phase of the war… but that would be far from happening… it's too early to heave a sigh of relief." Emperor Valentin replied with a serious expression.
"That's for sure… we have no information yet about how strong the Pope and the Impostor Paladin were… speaking of the Paladin… do you have any clue about their whereabouts?" A Monarch from the Allied Kingdom, Bellamonte asked.
Emperor Valentin shook his head and signaled that he was in no position to answer.
Realizing Emperor Valentin's predicament, the leaders no longer insisted but still tried their luck with high Priest Enoch who was also part of the leaders' unified forces.
"She had an important mission that is equally crucial to the success of the war as well. As for the specifics, I have no idea how she is doing now… but for sure, she will appear right on time…" High Priest Enoch explained, saying the matters necessary for the group to know but not giving out too much information.
Hearing the answer, the leaders started to form their own hypotheses and no longer bothered.
Instead, they continued to mobilize their forces and monitor the progress of the first battle encounters. As for the situation on Leon's side, they could only pray that Leon and the rest would manage to defeat the Crown Prince and take out one of the strong enemies on the Spectre's side.
Back to the Desolate Wastelands, the gorge region continued to become suspenseful and dire.
The dust and rubble around the spot where Leon's body crashed took a minute to finally settle and become clear.
With that minute of the unknown, the hearts of the onlookers almost stopped as they were afraid to see the Third Prince become utterly defeated by the evil Crown Prince.
At the same time, Crown Prince Ranon pursed his lips in a dangerous smile as he eyed Kazimir and Antoine who were yet to recover from the blow they have also received.
He did not wait to see if Leon could stand or not as he charged straight with his sword directed towards Kazimir's unguarded nape.
"First Prince! Watch out!" The soldiers shouted in alarm as they saw how fast Crown Prince Ranon was in his attack
Clang! Swoosh!
Fortunately, Kazimir managed to twist his body and temporarily block the attack with his sword. This delayed the attack for a moment, while Antoine managed to also recover and completely met the full strength of Ranon's attack.
"Arrrrr!!"
Antoine cried as he exerted every bit of his combined strength with his contracted beast while Kazimir scrambled to the ground, completely steering clear in the direction where Antoine and Ranon's sword would definitely swing.
Wooosh!
The moment he was out of Ranon's sword range, he immediately helped Antoine by using a powerful wind attack to strike the ground and force the opponent to create distance and give Antoine a moment to breathe.
But now that Ranon was finally at a disadvantage, how could he allow the four opponents to turn the tables around?
And so before continuing his attack several snake-like 'tails' appeared on Ranon's back, seemingly sentient as they looked for their targets.
Six snake-like tails extended in different directions and started to attack Kazimir and Mishael while Crown Prince Ranon directly met Antoine with a heavy sword fight.
All this happened in a span of a minute and yet it felt like several days for the trio.
They did their best to hold longer while waiting for Leon to emerge but then their mental fortitude started to crumble when the synchronization of Antoine and his contracted beast were already up.
In an instant, Antoine could barely hold his sword and take Crown Prince Ranon's attack.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏm"Second Brother!"
"Second Prince!"
Kazimir and Mishael shouted in panic and tried to run to Antoine when he finally lost the grip of his sword revealing his bloodied palms with a layer of its skin visibly peeled off.
"Got you!" Crown Prince Ranon smiled while looking at Antoine like he was dead meat.
Antoine could only do his best to retreat but too bad, Crown Prince Ranon's speed and the tails blocked his escape path.
However, unlike before, his eyes did not exhibit a sign of accepting defeat.
That was because…
Boom! Sizzle!!!
A golden glimmer of light flashed in a blink of an eye completely separating Antoine from the tip of Ranon's blade.
Looking at the direction where the light came from, a proud astonished look appeared in Antoine's eyes.
To the spot where he was looking, emerged Leon in a form no one has ever seen nor imagined.
Covered with multicolored scales and sharp claws… Leon walked while slowly spreading out a single astral type wing while his eyes glowed in blue and gold hue.
"A contracted spirit dragon?!" No one knew who commented, but they all recognized the form Leon was exhibiting.
The spirit dragon is said to be the origin of the green wave continent and the father of all non-human races, not only dragons.
To poor living beings who were sentient yet not close enough to form a human body, he gave them the ability.
Thus the legend remained and all of the human and non-human races in Prasinos believed that the spirit dragon breathed life into the nonhumans to accompany man and live in harmony while he went to his eternal sleep.
No one would contend that by far, this was the strongest being that ever existed before the Guardians were even mentioned.
And now, their eyes widened in disbelief to see… that the mad blood Third Prince of the Seirende Empire, managed to contract with it!