Otherworld Adventure 302 He's Close

Now that Angelia's monsters were being restricted from heading into battle, it was up to them and the Silvaria army to defend the mountain path which led behind the walls.

After making it back a few days ago, Serilla had reported all her findings. This included the fact that the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality's Lord was here and the multiple Mag-Cannons situated in the back of the army.

The Silvaria forces prepared for the eventuality that would come, but even they weren't prepared to withstand the amount of firepower that the Mag-Cannons provided for the Merkruz Army.

On the wall's battlefront, they were suppressed and were put on the back foot. They couldn't even try to retaliate amidst the cannon fire and they couldn't even go out to repair the armored plating.

Serilla also reported that Quinn had placed her safety in front of his and bought time for her to get back. She was now very worried about Quinn because after a few days had pa.s.sed, he still hadn't returned.

She feared for the worst, but Lucia kept on rea.s.suring her that Quinn was alive. They've been lending their power in the defense for the past few days, but it wasn't enough now that the Mag-Cannons were put into use.

Neither Lucia nor Serilla had the confidence to try and attack the array of Mag-Cannons placed in front of the gates. It was such an ingenious formation that let the cannons in the two front rows replace each other during their downtimes to keep the bombardment going while the cannons placed further back would aim up on the mountainside to prevent the Silvaria Kingdom from trying to pull a fast one.

Lucia and Serilla had once tried to attack the Mag-Cannons sneakily, but they were quickly met with a large bombardment of mana bullets. Lucia had even injured herself and this stopped any further plans of trying to attack the Mag-Cannons from the mountainside.

Going in for a frontal a.s.sault was also impossible because the Mag-Cannons kept on rotating and not once have there been a lull in the bombardment. As for waiting for the cannons to overheat, that was impossible, because once any sign of the cannons overheating shown, the Merkruz soldiers would immediately replace the cannon and send the overheating one back for maintenance.

Only during the night would the cannon fire stop, but even then, if the Silvaria engineers try to come out and repair the plating, the cannon fire would begin once more in gusto. Any sign of movement during the night from the Silvaria Kingdom's side would immediately attract the cannon fire of the Merkruz Army.

Kaiser couldn't help but curse at the unreasonableness of those Mag-Cannons. The ammo was practically unlimited because it only ran on mana, and the most dastardly thing was that it could still function despite being under the M-Jammer's influence.

They tried to send a message to the Regulus kingdom for aid, but no reply had come. Even Rowan personally went himself, taking the route that Fatima had used to enter Silvaria, but when he came back, he only brought the despairing news that the Regulus Kingdom didn't want to have anything to do with the war against Merkruz and Silvaria.

Regulus Kingdom's excuse was that when the Merkruz Princ.i.p.ality had sent their armies to attack them, the Silvaria Kingdom didn't provide any aid. This was total bulls.h.i.+t because the Princess of Silvaria had helped repel the Princ.i.p.ality's attack, but Regulus only replied that this was because Fatima was Rowan's fiancée and it was her obligation to help them.

Regulus' acting ruler, Albert, had also mentioned about the non-aggression pact that they signed with Merkruz so they weren't able to send troops to support Silvaria even if they wanted to. The current king was currently sick so Albert had stepped up in his father's stead to manage the kingdom.

Rowan had argued with his brother for a long while before he eventually returned to Silvaria in a fit of fury. It was a good thing that he had already mobilized his private army earlier, if not, his brother might even forbid him from providing any troop support for the Silvaria Kingdom, not like he'll listen to his brother's words for that matter.

When Rowan came back with no support and the bad news that Regulus would only stay on the sidelines, he felt so remorseful that he dedicated himself even further more into the defense. He didn't have any face to see Kaiser, Anastasia, or Fatima.

A few days had pa.s.sed and soon... the armored plating on the walls collapsed and the concrete wall was exposed. Kaiser had long since evacuated all the weapons and personnel from the walls.

They started building trenches and holes behind the walls to hinder the Mag-Cannons from proceeding too deep into their territory. Kaiser immediately set up their siege weapons and battle formations behind the wall and simply waited for it to fall.

******

At the entrance of the mountain pa.s.s, Cecil, Ren, Silver, and Yuna all stepped out of a Misty Gate.

"Is this the place?" Silver asked as he eyed the mountain pa.s.s. In the distance, he could see some soldiers stationed at the entrance of the pa.s.s.

"Let's go in and look..." Cecil said as he walked forwards.

"Yuna...are you okay?" Silver asked as he carefully helped Yuna.

"Silv, you guys can stay here. Let Yuna rest for a bit, I'm only going over there to ask around."

"Okay, Master."

"I'll come with you Teacher!" Ren said as he chased after Cecil.

The two boys walked to the mountain pa.s.s' checkpoint and the soldiers guarding the checkpoint immediately had them stop where they were.

"HALT! State your ident.i.ties and purpose for coming here!"

Cecil stepped forward and asked, "We're just adventurers and we're wondering if this is the mountain pa.s.s to get to the rumored Silvaria Kingdom."

A few days back, Cecil and the rest had arrived at Regulus and they immediately began searching for the mountain pa.s.s that Lucia had been talking about over the phone. They couldn't find it at first so they went to some cities and began searching for information.

It wasn't long that they discovered some information and rumors about the Merkruz Army mounting an attack on the Silvaria Kingdom and from these rumors they found the route that the Merkruz Army had taken and they were able to quickly find the mountain pa.s.s.

What they didn't understand though was why there were soldiers stationed here.

"Adventurers? You should head back boy, no one gets past this point! The great Merkruz Army is still a.s.saulting the foolish Silvaria Kingdom! It's only a matter of days before the war ends and the pa.s.s is opened to the public. Please head back now and come again at another time!" The soldier dismissively said.

"So... this is the place..." Cecil mumbled.

"Tsk, didn't you hear what I just said kid?! Turn back! You're not allowed to be here!"

"...May I ask, are you part of that 'great Merkruz Army'?"

"Hmph! I am! Now that you know, you better not get on my nerves kid! I'll kill—"

Before the soldier could finish his words, Cecil directly beheaded him with a flash of his sword. Ren who was next to him paled at his teacher's actions.

"T-Teacher!"

"Ren...get back...let me deal with this filth."

The nearby soldiers immediately rushed at Cecil when they saw him suddenly attack and kill their comrade. Ren was a little scared at this, but he immediately chased after his master.

"N-No! I'll help!" Ren steeled himself as he pulled out his Mag-Gun. He loaded a bullet and shot it at the soldiers approaching.

The bullet didn't activate, but it did blow through the chest of the soldier that it had struck.

"Huh?" Ren raised a puzzled cry.

"It's that M-Jammer Lucia was talking about. Whatever kind of weapon it is, it sure has a long-range. I don't sense any device here that can disrupt mana...��� Cecil shot forward and made quick work of the small company of soldiers guarding the mountain pa.s.s.

In the end, Ren wasn't of much help and he could only find a safe place to hide and wait for his master to finish dealing with the soldiers.

The outcome of the fight was a one-sided ma.s.sacre. Silver and Yuna quickly noticed the commotion and had immediately rushed over to see what was happening, but only saw the outcome of the one-sided battle.

Cecil was apathetic, and his emotions didn't cause Silver to feel any sort of influence on his mind, but he was still a little worried.

"Master..."

"We're heading in. We've wasted enough time trying to find this place. Who knows what state my family's Kingdom is in now..."

Silver nodded and he immediately transformed.

"Get on everyone!" Cecil flashed over next to Ren who was hiding and brought him up on Silver's back. Silver lifted Yuna up with his tail carefully and placed her on his back. Once everyone was firmly sitting on top of him, immediately Silver dashed forwards.

"Silv, follow my orders. My sense isn't hindered by that M-Jammer! I'll guide us!"

"Yes, Master!"

It didn't take long before Cecil and company were about halfway through the mountain pa.s.s. Thanks to Cecil's Ether Sense, his upgraded version of the Mana Sense, he was able to cleverly navigate through the pa.s.s.

Just as they were on the last stretch of the journey, Cecil was able to hear the sounds of cannon fire and battle cries.

"You hear that?!"

"Yes, Master! We're close!"

"Speed up Silv—WAIT, STOP!" Cecil immediately shouted.

Silver came to a complete stop once he heard Cecil's command and he looked up at his Master in puzzlement.

Cecil immediately flashed to a ledge on the mountain walls. If he wasn't mistaken, Cecil saw an injured man somewhere up there.

It didn't take long before he found a man struggling on death's doorstep near the area he was searching at.

"QUINN!" Cecil immediately recognized who the man was at a single glance. It was their family's butler.

When Silver heard his master's exclamation, he immediately rushed up the mountainside and got onto the ledge his master was on.

Cecil had already arrived next to Quinn and begun using his Healing Arts on him. He injected as much Ki as he needed and the butler's wounds bleeding began to stop and his opened wounds and injuries began to slowly close and heal.

"Quinn! Quinn! Wake up! Oi!"

Quinn began to stir and he slightly opened his eyes... "Ah...M-Master Cecil..."