[LitF] 55. Of Messages and Wars (Patreon)

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[A/N: Sorry about the one-week delay. This latest chapter was challenging to write, and then I got caught in other things (wife got surgery, preparing to move out of this house, ADD-related stuff).

I'm terribly sorry, but I won't be making up for the lost chapter any time soon. I won't have the time. I'll add a reminder about it to every chapter, but I expect to only be able to write it on July.

I can totally understand if you want a refund because of that. Just say the word either on a comment on via DM, and I'll do it at once, no questions asked.

Again, sorry.

Late chapters: 1]

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Gran Hotel Luna had been heavily protected the night before and would be today's real challenge. Both parties knew that. Striking it first would be a massive show of force, but the risks didn't justify the gains. If Arthur got caught up there, his enemy would likely bring troops from the other casinos, making things more challenging. He had considered doing it anyway to make those casinos less protected, then leaving the hotel to attack them, but it would look like he was afraid or required cheap tactics to triumph. That would be contrary to his primary goal here.

On the plus side, the hotel was so important that Terrell was unlikely to divert troops from it to any other place.

The second casino was the poorest and likely least covered. Terrell might leave a trap there, but that's not why Arthur dismissed the idea of going for it first. Striking against the least protected casino would send a message of insecurity.

That left the first casino. Terrell had to protect it well enough to avoid being wholly humiliated, but it wasn't as critical as the hotel. It would also look good for Arthur to attack the casinos in the order he had warned them. While not as good as demolishing the hotel first, it would be bold enough for his purposes. It might even make his enemy bet at least a little that the prince would keep being predictable the next time, allowing Arthur to surprise Terrell.

The first obstacle left by his enemies was air superiority. Margrave wasn't a military city, but it was the biggest city in the west of the human-dominated region, with only a few towns between it and the mountain range that marked the boundary between humans and dwarves. So, it had some defenses and equipment, and the nation's military could quickly deploy troops and weaponry from nearby cities.

They had done so that night. Anti-air and SAM batteries had been set up in most open areas throughout Margrave. They located and shot at Arthur as soon as he got to the skies. Shells, missiles, and smoke littered the air. The latter showed half the rockets were using inefficient liquid fuel instead of enchantments for propulsion.

No aircraft stood in Arthur's way, likely because it would have been a waste to send them against the prince after what he had done at the last military base he visited. Regardless, they were still willing to try to shoot him down. They were also keen to blame him for any collateral damage, which should be the reason behind the trashy missiles. Any projectile that didn't hit the prince still had to fall somewhere. Arthur couldn't keep everything floating; even attempting it meant wasting mana.

The prince used his domain to easily shatter all incoming shells and missiles. Some of them were filled with voidsteel, and he just dodged those. He sent most debris back to the temporary military sites and empty places below—alleys, roads, and resistant-looking rooftops—but so many projectiles came that he couldn't ensure everything went to the right place.

By this point, it was evident that Terrell was going all-in into psychological warfare. It wasn't just blaming Arthur for crimes he hadn't committed. He also wanted the deaths of innocents to weigh on the prince's consciousness.

The saddest part was that it wouldn't work, so those lives were being lost for no reason. Arthur had too many mind stats, meaning a stable will, and had been trained too well to feel responsible for deaths that were not his fault. He would feel bad if his attacks directly or indirectly harmed innocent people, which was why he saved the people in the League's branch, but he didn't categorize this situation as such. Arthur wasn't attacking or even counter-attacking properly, only destroying what was thrown at him and redirecting the debris for minimal damage. He had even announced three battlefields, yet the enemy chose to fire while he flew over the city before he got there.

Sure, he could understand the reasoning behind it, even from an honest general. An enemy was flying above their city, and who knew what he planned to do? Still, they were willing to pay the price in innocent blood for a potential "greater good," not him.

Then again, if he wasn't there...

Arthur sighed.

No one had forced the prince to attack the casinos; it had been a strategic decision to decrease his foe's network. He could even get invisible before approaching the casinos, but he had decided a show of force was needed, which included an overt approach. All this was for his own good, not to protect the world. This war was about his and his people's survival, and innocents would be caught in the crossfire.

This was awakener geopolitics at its worst.

High Houses seldom declared war against anyone. When they did, they were required by League law to follow the same rules all awakeners had to follow: attack only property and individuals belonging to their clearly stated enemies. Harboring resources or people belonging to factions at war was always risky for the host, as Arthur had reminded the world in his declaration of war.

If a party wanted to fight elsewhere, usually to preserve physical structures, they had to announce the time and place in advance. Arthur was both attacking Terrell's property and had forewarned the guy. He was more than following the rules of engagement.

The consequences of the attack on the skies of Margrave should have the League condemn Terrell at once. When either party refused to keep the fights to lawful places or individuals, it was the common understanding that the one at fault was the one who rejected it.

The rule was unfair to someone who might be fighting an overwhelmingly stronger enemy. However, in the end, power was the language that crossed all boundaries of race, culture, and nation. If you were that weak, it was better for everyone that you just died instead of bringing innocents to the grave with you.

As for the strong abusing their power? It happened now and then. Yet, the mighty needed to maintain a balance because if they pushed too much, too fast, other forces would get worried, envious, or greedy. For instance, the League's worry and greediness had caused it to prevent the alliance arrayed against the Golden Kingdom from controlling the orichalcum mine. At the time, the League's opinion on that had been the opinion of most awakeners worldwide. Everyone wanted a piece of the valuable deposit. The dangerous dungeon made it easier to justify the takeover.

Unfortunately, while avoiding collateral damage was possible and not doing so was a war crime, it required both parties' cooperation. Terrell wasn't following the rules. Therefore, the guy was to blame for any innocent that died today.

Arthur had a clear conscience—or at least, that's the message he would send. He felt an unawakened die, and it bothered him more than it should. But if he let Terrell find out about it, things would only get worse for other innocents.

Dozens of bullets kept coming every second. The missiles were as frequent. Metal rose to the heavens—then rained from the skies as Arthur destroyed every explosive as he kept moving forward. By forcing the rockets to blow up, they would at least not explode after hitting someone's house.

Arthur arrived at the casino in less than a minute and found the second obstacle: unawakened forces.

The nation's military had surrounded the casino with sand and concrete barricades and vehicles with mounted machine guns. Heavy-caliber weapons were also set up on the ground. The defenses were layered, and plenty of ammunition was made of voidsteel. Riot police forces were present, wielding standard rifles like the soldiers in camouflaged uniforms, and snipers were nested throughout the building. The rooftop was predominantly filled with people wielding homing rocket launchers.

Surprisingly, thousands of civilians were standing only a hundred yards away from the area, which had been cordoned off by regular cops. About a hundred were from media outlets, but the others were just curious. The prince worried that Terrell might have something in mind for those people but hoped for the best.

The Royal Mirage Palace looked like a tall, fancy castle surrounded by a large empty area. No one had trouble seeing Arthur approach with a trail of exploding missiles and smoke in the skies.

The unawakened shot as soon as the prince came, including the ground troops.

Even more metal littered the air, but almost everything was off-target. Arthur was more worried about where those bullets would fall than about himself. A few rockets had voidsteel shrapnel, but he easily dodged or deflected those before forcing metal bits to explode them. A small expenditure of mana with his intent strings to save lives.

Arthur reached the castle and floated above it. He felt bittersweet that these people had attacked him first. He really didn't like killing unawakened who were only following orders to protect their city, but he disliked more the thought that his people would die instead of his enemy's fighters.

This was war. Ultimately, wars of survival were clashes of self-worth. A struggle for continued existence that implicitly suggested your side's lives were worthier living than the other's.

Still, basic empathy—which felt hypocritical at this moment—compelled him to yell as loudly as his magic would allow, declaring, "I came to destroy this building and nothing else. You have been warned but chose to stand in my way. You have five seconds to leave, or I shall deem you my enemies and treat you accordingly."

His words changed nothing. If anything, the attacks increased. Those people took it as a taunt instead of a fair warning.

The prince didn't wait five seconds to prepare. He was already using one of his life authority chains to fly and keep his body free of toxins, and one metal chain to deflect incoming projectiles. That left one of each chain, plus his death chain, free for the upcoming battle.

He went for metal first. He extended his arm sideways, opening Graham's storage ring, pressed the password on the second safe, and pulled a one-yard-wide bronze ball from the inside. He turned it into a hollow metal sphere surrounding him, with small holes for sight. It was yet another line of defense, just in case. He was being a bit arrogant by standing there like that, after all.

The projectiles he didn't deflect or explode beforehand harmlessly hit his metal barrier. The power of his domain was enough to make the metal resistant to even the most vigorous explosions. Nevertheless, the enemy never stopped shooting.

Five seconds after his declaration, his life and death authority chains started the massacre.

Although he called them chains, they didn't move like his intent strings. Arthur was connected to all metal, life, and death within his domains, each with a smaller range than the other. He only needed to will it, and he instantly connected to and could affect anything made of those elements. And as soon as he let go of one of them, he could connect to another to occupy that "slot." He was only limited by the speed of his thought, really.

And so, people started dying. His 61% life comprehension meant he could just will it, and all life left an unawakened body in a split second. He further limited the suction to their brain, making it even faster. His 45% death comprehension meant he could push the micro deaths from anyone's cells to fill their entire brain, swiftly killing them.

Dozens of people died every second, with no way to protect themselves. The world had forgotten the power of high-level awakeners, and it was fitting that a de facto time traveler from the past reminded them of it. It was even more fitting that he did so after destroying the dungeon that absorbed the mana that made such forgetfulness possible.

It was also fitting, in a twisted way, that his father had also been indirectly responsible for their forgetfulness. Arthur could feel the blood staining his hands despite killing people from afar and the weight of their lives despite knowing better than to let guilt affect him.

He could only remind himself that he had no chance of using public opinion against Terrell, not before ensuring he would be heard, and that this war was thus inevitable.

The prince started killing from the rooftop, which quickly became a mass grave. Everything from the seventh floor, the last one, to the fourth fit within his life domain's range. The castle-like structure was broad but not that wide. His killing went toward the ground floor first, ignoring the margins, focusing on those in his spheres of influence.

Destroying the castle first would let some unawakened survive, but it would send the wrong message. Arthur couldn't let people attack him with no consequence, not even unawakened. They might get lucky eventually. So, he had to make it clear to them how statistically more probable it was for them to die than harm him.

All the while, Arthur kept looking at the skies above, the horizon, and the underground using his Mana Sight and Sage's Eyes. He didn't want to get surprised by a warhead again. His Mana Sight couldn't pierce too deep into the ground before everything was a thick mass of mana, only a few hundred yards, but he hoped to detect some signs of attacks in time.

Eventually, everyone in his life and death domains was gone, and he descended.

Small missiles were still coming from all over the city, but there were fewer of them. He just threw the debris onto the rooftop. As Arthur approached the casino's rooftop, the awkward angle prevented the guns below from targeting him, and the incoming attacks decreased.

He used the gaps between missiles to destroy and pull the metal in the castle with that metal authority chain. He threw metal bits against each other and melded them together, breaking every structure on the way. The metal mass swiftly took the shape of a massive, one-hundred-yard-wide, five-foot-thick, rotating disk with sharp teeth. The prince moved it around, mowing, shattering, and grinding the entire casino to pieces, floor by floor.

His saw-like weapon threw debris away at a fast speed, so he spent some mana in three intent strings to prevent civilians from being hurt. Each string prehended some metal and formed a large barrier that kept the debris from being flung too far. The demolished castle and its objects hit the barriers and fell to the ground. The first few chunks of concrete struck some unlucky people below, but the others quickly left the immediate surroundings.

They could've fled enough to save themselves, and Arthur wouldn't pursue, but they didn't retreat past the furthest barricade. Arthur kept killing people with his life and death domains as he neared the ground floor, and he did it fast. In less than a minute, the entire building had become a pile of trash. Soon enough, his life domain reached everyone who had attacked him.

Outside the police cordon, only a few dozen civilians remained; everyone else had run in panic. Most of the stragglers were from the media. They watched in unhidden terror as the soldiers on the other side of the cordon started dying for no apparent reason. A few onlookers fainted, joining the dozen others on the ground.

Some soldiers who had attacked Arthur tried to escape further than the cordon, one going as far as trying to ride a vehicle away. The prince felt tempted to let them go, but showing mercy would bite him in the back later. Whoever attacked him died; that had to become a truth in his enemies' minds. The only exceptions would be anyone who surrendered, but none tried, and he wasn't feeling so merciful as to tell them to. After all, they had attacked him with the intention to kill him.

Arthur tried to live up to the standards expected of him as the Head of a High House, but he was no saint. No awakener was.

Soon, everyone who had dared to attack him had become a corpse.

The prince didn't attack who kept the civilians away. Not only had they not attacked him, but keeping civilians away was convenient for him. He didn't want to discourage anyone from doing that.

He flew until he was before some reporters, lowered his spherical protection, and stated, "I repeat: do not get in the way of High House Boria's war against Blaze Terrell. Whoever harbors or protects him will be considered an enemy. Only Terrell needs to die."

The villain's gambit was about becoming a villain to his enemies' allies, not the world. It also meant not caring about public opinion until the war ended, but there was no reason not to clarify things when he had the chance. It would make things easier as the war progressed.

Arthur then turned and flew to the second casino.

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The prince purposefully decreased his flying speed so the enemy would burn through some of their ammunition before he attacked the hotel. As expected, a few minutes later, the incoming missiles were few and far between. Only so much equipment could be brought to Margrave on such short notice.

Arthur reached the second casino, and what he saw was both unsurprising and saddening. The place wasn't protected beyond the regular security detail, but it was packed with people who had nothing to do with Arthur's war.

The casino was open and hosting an event. Every dollar you won was tripled. It was unimaginable for most people and showed Terrell expected to lose this place instead of having to pay.

The prince stopped above the five-story, wide building. He sent a one-foot-wide metal drill from top to bottom in the middle of the casino, where he knew there was no one. The sound of it breaking the sound barrier and crashing through the floors attracted enough attention.

He filled the shocked silence with a shouted warning, "High House Boria is at war against Blaze Terrell. This casino is Terrell's property. I'll start destroying it right now. Leave, and you'll live. Stay, and I'll consider you willing participants in this war."

Using unawakened as meat shields wasn't a novel tactic. The agreed-upon way to deal with that was to do as Arthur was doing: warn them, then start attacking small so they don't doubt you. Let them run. Don't worry about anyone who decides to stay back and gets caught in the crossfire; you couldn't be blamed if anyone was stupid enough to stand in an awakener's way.

Arthur pulled back the metal from the drill he had thrown on the ground, molding it into a tall, thin pillar surrounded by sharp spikes angled so that rotating the post would see any potential debris shoot upwards. He had brought all the metal from the other casino with him and made the pillar rotate fast while slowly adding that casino's own metal to it. He expanded the pillar structure bit by bit, making it hollow in the middle as it grew more expansive.

The people closest to it were the first to see what was happening and panic. They screamed and ran away. A few more greedy ones took the time to collect the chips and money left behind. One had seemingly been tailing another guy and took advantage of the chaos to shoot him, but Arthur stopped the bullet and made the shooter unconscious.

A couple of security guards rushed to the rooftop. They yelled at Arthur to stop and pointed guns at him—or rather, at the metal sphere surrounding him. He only told them to leave if they wanted to live, and one of them swore at him before just running away. The other hesitated a little more but ultimately followed.

The prince had to save the guy he made unconscious and some who would've gotten hit by debris despite his preparations. On top of that, he also rescued a few dozen people who fell when fleeing, were too intoxicated to escape, or tried to get more money than they should have.

Not a single person died as the building fell apart. The second casino was done for.

Since there were so many despairing people looking at the debris, all potential witnesses, he took the chance to lower his protective metal sphere and yell, "I am Arthur Boria, the Head of High House Boria. My House is at war against Blaze Terrell and no one else. Whoever stands by his side or defends him, his properties, or his people will be killed. This war will only end when Terrell dies."

"Liar!" a bold woman screamed. "You damn murderer! Those people in Kalis are dead because of you! Motherf—"

The prince interrupted before she offended someone she shouldn't. "Those are lies. I saved them just as I saved you. Terrell poisoned them to create a narrative. I suggest you flee and hide as best as you can. He might come for you, too."

The media would certainly take that as him threatening them and trying to push the blame on Terrell. It didn't matter. The opportunity to tell them to escape and spread was the only reason he had spoken. If the people got far from each other, Terrell might have a more challenging time dealing with them. It increased the odds of Arthur's words piercing the information barricade the guy had erected.

With that done, the prince shot to the skies again and headed to the final challenge, the third casino.

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As soon as Arthur approached Gran Hotel Luna, he noticed he had been wrong. His foes hadn't refrained from throwing aircraft at him before because it would be a waste. They had simply concentrated everything in the hotel.

Almost a hundred attack helicopters—from multiple nations—stood side by side with the same number of hovercars surrounding every hotel's building. Snipers and foot soldiers wielding RPG launchers littered the windows and rooftops, and anti-air batteries had been set up on the ground. On top of that, high-end magitech weapons had been positioned by the land and rooftops; they were the same man-sized beam-shooting crystal pyramids that had been common in the Institute. They floated all around, pointing upwards, ready to attack.

The hotel was also protected by magic. Strategically positioned stone and metal cubes acted as cornerstones for the transparent energy shield surrounding each building. Some cubes were arranged to form small uncovered doorways for one to go through. While the flying vehicles were outside, some weapons and defenders were on the inside, suggesting the barrier would let anything leave but stop things from coming in.

Over ten squads of voidsteel-clad Anti-Mana Special Unit troops, each consisting of twenty-one people, and another ten of Specialist Response Team, each with seven people, were spread all around. A few members in every group wielded voidsteel rocket launchers with voidsteel missiles propelled by inefficient fossil fuel, which made the things untouchable by magic. Those might be an issue.

Lastly, fifteen level 30 awakeners waited atop the hotel's tallest building. They wore heavily enchanted red and black plate armor and wielded futuristic-looking magitech rifles of the same colors. The red in the rifles glowed like slowly beating hearts.

All that was, of course, in addition to the ground troops. Thousands of soldiers and cops surrounded and patrolled the hotel. War tanks and military vehicles were parked everywhere. Sandbags and concrete formed a maze that was impossible to bypass on foot.

The prince also saw a magitech tank for the first time. He hadn't even read about it, evidencing it was a secret project from the League or Terrell. Even the regular tanks were made of thick metal enchanted for extra defense and to block intent strings, but the more advanced versions had more magic. They released a ridiculous amount of heat, to melt voidsteel, and a strong kinetic force, to push projectiles away. They also weakened elemental mana that got too close. Arthur didn't know how that was possible, but that's what he gathered from the runes he saw with his Sage's Eyes.

The magic tanks were compact, half as wide and tall as regular tanks, maybe because they were made of orichalcum. Instead of a long cannon, they had a similar structure crafted with orichalcum and crystal, but not hollow in the middle. The three-yard-long rods had some of the most exquisite and packed enchantments Arthur had ever seen, losing only to computer processors, but not by far. The magic tank had plenty of processors connected to the weapon, too.

When Arthur approached, missile launchers nearby detected and shot him. The troops and weapons in the hotel were no different. If not for his Sage's Eyes, the voidsteel hidden in the middle of the rain of steel would have gotten to him, but as things were, he easily located and deflected them.

That was a great stress test for the trait, and he found no limit to it. Focusing on a single target let him get more profound knowledge from it, but even a glance at everything with his Sage's Eyes activated allowed him to simply know where the "unidentified matter" was.

The prince reverted the sphere surrounding him into a mass of metal. Although a bit risky, he found it better to display even more power here. The faster Terrell's allies understood not to mess with Arthur, the better for everyone, especially the innocents—who were becoming a greater worry every second.

Arthur couldn't destroy all the missiles this time. There was too much voidsteel coming his way, and he would have to prioritize not getting hit by those. In other words, he would have to deflect or dodge some of the incoming rockets, not to mention the bullets, and nearby civilian structures would be hit. The city authorities hadn't evacuated the hotel's surroundings, and plenty of naive people had stayed behind.

Any projectile Arthur didn't dodge struck harmlessly against his grand knight armor. The shock of the impacts and the heat from the explosions forced him to use his life authority chain to stabilize his flight and cool his body down, but that was all.

A moment later, the pyramids targeted him. Red and white laser beams covered the skies, and got to his outer armor unimpeded. Most beams struck and pushed through multiple projectiles and rockets coming at Arthur. And yet, those attacks were also stopped by his grand knight armor. They heated things up, but his life domain could still negate that issue.

It became evident that Terrell's plan A was to force Arthur to waste mana. If not for his domain, even standing in place in midair would cost the prince some resources, and not getting cooked alive would require even more. The magic armor had enchantments against heat, but they only went so far because an awakener was not supposed to test its defenses' limits.

Ultimately, while artifacts were useful, awakeners were the best weapons and shields; it was up to the one wearing the armor to do something about the attacks they were receiving. The plate was just a tool to be used at the right time, not a perfect turtle shell.

Awakeners were still, always, the only solution against other awakeners.

Not that Terrell seemed to understand that. Perhaps he had just gotten too drunk on the power of his nuclear warheads, but the awakeners pointing their magic rifles at Arthur seemed to believe they could do something to him despite the power he kept exhibiting.

They filled the guns with their mana, which was converted by an internal crystal into a beam of pure energy of different colors, depending on the mana's element.

The beams were invisible to his physical eyes and Mana Sight. They were not mana. Arthur was greatly interested in knowing more about them because they felt like the natural step between the magic he knew and the magic he had witnessed in the dungeon.

That, more than anything, showed the ridiculous gap in technology and research between Arthur and his foe. The prince still wondered whether mana was a metaphysical energy, yet these people were already weaponizing pure elemental mana power into something more—into "highly concentrated elemental energy," from the feedback he got when looking at the beams with his Sage's Eyes.

Those weapons made him a bit extra wary of Terrell. Either the guy had overestimated his odds of finishing Arthur with a secret weapon, or he had no trouble showing those guns to Arthur so soon in the war because he had even better stuff in reserve.

But that was a worry for the future. Now, Arthur had to decide whether to take the attack head-on.

He chose yes and no.

The prince moved the metal blob before him to intercept one elemental beam and moved himself to the side. He left his left pinky on another beam's way.

A red beam melted his domain-strengthened metal sphere as if it wasn't there and kept going. A blue beam froze and shattered the grand knight armor gauntlet's little finger, the unenchanted plate below, and the sorcerer's robe's glove underneath. When it reached Arthur, he used an intent string on himself and threw mana to prevent himself from taking damage. Despite his high comprehension of life, one-fifth of his vast life mana reserves instantly evaporated so he could keep his finger.

That power was absolutely astounding. For the first time ever, Arthur questioned himself and all he knew. If magitech could produce nuclear weapons and such beams...

Were awakeners actually needed to protect the world?

He got an answer soon after. The crystals in the rifles shattered, and the level 30 awakeners who had shot fell dead on the ground. They were not "only" dead, either; they were spent. Their vitality had been sucked out of them to fuel the mana conversion, just as had all the mana in their bodies.

That piece of magitech was still not fully developed. Though it provided hope for people to fight monsters eventually, it was but a pipe dream. There might be a way around using an awakener's elemental mana to fuel the beams but not an awakener's life force. Arthur knew it because he had seen the devourers.

This was why they consumed lives on top of the mana that the dungeon core had sucked out of the world. They were refining that mana into something better that made them even more powerful. They were reaching for something beyond mana-based magic—something similar to Arthur's domains!

So many answers were received, and thought-provoking considerations found, in a single battle!

Despite all the upcoming deaths, the prince couldn't help but feel ecstatic!

Further good news was that Terrell shouldn't have that many extra special guns in reserve. He had gambled. Losing so many level 30 awakeners couldn't be easy on the guy. He had hoped the prince would fall here on a surprise, almost all-in attack. He was ruthless even to himself.

Only the power of the long rods on the six advanced tanks on the ground remained to be displayed. They were pointing at Arthur but still hadn't fired. They were slowly accumulating energy, which was evident by the bright blue glow in the crystal parts and the electric arcs surrounding the rods.

As if to distract the prince, the hovercars and helicopters finally opened fire against him. Even more missiles and bullets were thrown his way.

The prince also discovered a hidden weapon of hovercars. They could accumulate energy before themselves for a few seconds, which then suddenly shot grey beams at a target. These beams were continuous and made of pure mana harnassed from the surroundings. They should be more powerful in high-mana regions, but even here, they packed a punch. Unfortunately, it wasn't enough to pierce through his grand knight armor.

Arthur still watched the skies, the underground, and his surroundings, and he was rewarded for his caution. He saw five torpedo-looking contraptions moving underground at a fast speed toward his position. Whatever they were carrying was hidden by a layer of voidsteel, just like the tactical nukes Terrell had thrown at him. He thus decided not to take any chances.

A show of force meant showing himself impervious to enemy attack before counter-attacking, which was why he was still waiting for the magic tanks. Yet, he used five magic strings to quickly produce dozens of rotating darts with as much piercing power as he could. He enspelled and shot them at the underground torpedoes.

The darts ignored asphalt, rock, and earth as if they were empty air. They homed on the torpedoes and found some resistance on the outer casing but still managed to pierce through. A hair's breadth before reaching the voidsteel, they exploded violently. The metal shrapnel finished destroying the missiles, which detonated early.

The explosions illuminated the world.

Those were nuclear warheads, alright, but blessedly much more contained than the ones Arthur had previously faced. Everything within "only" a hundred yards of each warhead was atomized, including allied troops. Overall, the six explosions disintegrated almost two hundred people and two dozen vehicles, including a magic tank.

The perfect balls of white plasma were so bright they could blind an unawakened a few hundred yards away just by looking. Yet, all heat was contained within. They existed in a strange state of continuous explosion for half a minute, then dissipated. They left only nothingness and blackened ground behind. Whoever and whatever had been caught in the blasts was gone forever.

Arthur expected shock and pause from his enemies, but while it happened, it was short-lived. A few seconds after being awed by the destruction, everyone kept shooting at him. Evidently, he would be blamed for the explosions, as his darts had destroyed the torpedoes before they left the ground and were seen by everyone. It was inconvenient, but he would've done it again. Letting those charges approach him would be too dangerous.

A moment after the explosions died, the magic tanks finally finished charging. The rods shot beams of electricity so tightly packed together that they looked like liquid lightning.

They were made of mana, but the prince tested them like he had done to the elemental beams. His domain-enhanced metal ball gained a foot-long indent when struck but ultimately held. The grand knight armor was pierced, and so was his domain-enhanced plate, but the beam lost enough power on those defenses that it failed to pierce through the sorcerer's robe.

Arthur waited a few extra minutes for another surprise, but none came. The magic tanks only managed to shoot two extra times each before the rods' magic runes were wholly consumed. Each beam required way too much mana.

Five minutes after his arrival, no more missiles were coming at him. Even the bullets had significantly decreased. Five minutes was very little time, but the logistics of moving enough ammunition for continuous shooting for longer than that was challenging—and that if the nations even had enough ammo. Terrell, or at least some of his allies, had wasted a lot of money for nothing.

And now, it was time for them to pay an even higher price.

"I am Arthur Boria, Head of High House Boria," the prince yelled. This time, he also made his metal vibrate aggressively to reproduce his voice. There was too much noise in that place. The resulting sound was so loud it shook the entire hotel and nearby buildings. Some people were deafened. "I have no quarrel with anyone but Blaze Terrell and whoever protects him, his people, or his properties. You chose to support the man I'm at war against. You brought this upon yourselves."

Then, at long last, he counter-attacked.

Arthur extended his intent strings and grabbed the unenchanted metal bullets shot at him. At his will, they all froze in place. Many of them were poorly aimed, and within moments, thousands upon thousands of bullets were floating before and around him, forming a veritable wall of lead.

The prince counted precisely how many people had attacked him and didn't freeze a single bullet less or more than that.

That done, Arthur swiftly enspelled the bullets with homing spells. He had to invest some mana for such a complex spell, but the lead pieces were small enough that the consumption wasn't terrible. Bullet by bullet was shot back. With max wisdom and six intent strings, he cast almost one hundred spells every second. His return barrage never missed.

Some projectiles were stopped, though. Although fast, many bullets were blocked by metal or magic defenses. The transparent energy shields around the buildings also blocked his shots.

Arthur could've invested more mana in that attack but would rather move around to show he didn't need to stay in place to attack. He swiftly flew around, using his life and death domains to kill people with abandon. He also used a metal authority chain to move a single, long dart around at high speed. The dart pierced dozens of skulls per second, killing as many as his other elements.

Meanwhile, he kept exploding metal bits inside every vehicle and close to everything made of voidsteel. The prince would allow no single piece of equipment to return unscratched to his enemies—the League was included because it had sent so much help. No helicopters or hovercars, regular or magic tanks, or unique weapons would return. As curious about Terrell's technology as Arthur was, he would worry about that later. Utter destruction was more critical now. Also, if Terrell noticed the prince hadn't stolen any magitech weapon, he would be more willing to deploy such things again in the future.

Now and then, Arthur also formed big chunks of metal and threw them against the transparent energy shield. They moved at hypersonic speeds, and the protection did not stop them. The hotel structures started taking a lot of damage.

To sum it up, it was a massacre of immense proportions.

There were no guests in the hotel but plenty of employees. Arthur didn't kill any of them—at first. But eventually, he arrived at an underground sex slavery ring. Some of the things he witnessed there made him so upset that he crossed a personal line and tortured some people for a few seconds that, to them, felt like an eternity. They then died a gruesome death.

Still, he only invested a little mana in freeing and comforting the almost one hundred women of all ages—and he meant all ages, literally—before taking them out and leaving them unconscious on the ground. He knew anything else he did for them might be used against both them or him in the future, but he couldn't stop himself from leaving a floating message behind.

"These women were being trained as slaves in this hotel. This is what you support by siding with Terrell."

Arthur then went for the stores and properties of Terrell that he hadn't forewarned. One of them was, unsurprisingly, a brothel with drug-addict workers.

He destroyed every one of them except one so his enemy would think the prince's information network was flawed. Arthur's knowledge would always be incomplete; Tamara was only one person and couldn't find everything Terrell hid. However, it wasn't as bad as he wanted Terrell to believe.

The prince felt ill at some things he had seen today and refused to believe anyone with empathy could do it. He concluded Terrell was likely a psychopath. Seeing as how he was an awakener, there was a high chance for magicopathy, which happened when psychopathy and some skills came together to make an awakener absolutely devoid of morals and, sometimes, even feelings. Despite such people becoming great researchers, such a condition was forbidden and heavily monitored in the past. Nowadays, though...

As terrible as it was, it gave the prince additional justification for this war. This was no longer only about his survival. Terrell had to die because a magicopath with as much power as him was akin to a natural disaster with the potential to destroy the world. In fact, the world might actually be in as much danger as what the level 100 dungeon had represented.

Yet, that possible discovery effectively changed very little. Arthur wouldn't accuse the man before he was sure because a mistake now might invalidate anything else he said. It was one thing for Terrell to filter or change the prince's words, but an actual lie from the prince's own lips would have far-reaching consequences.

He simply wrote in multiple other places about his war being exclusively against Terrell and repeated that he had found sex slaves being trained in Gran Hotel Luna. Those people would have to decide who they believed in and how they treated those victims.

Still, Arthur decided that he would stay around a little longer to watch what happened.

If he witnessed the women being returned to slavery, he would kill every high-level politician Margrave because such a thing couldn't happen without widespread acceptance. He swore it to Fate. The soul vow enveloped his soul like a tight and uncomfortable blanket.

The prince left the city less than an hour after he arrived, leaving a trail of blood and destruction in his wake.

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