[Seryanna’s point of view]

The blood on my sword, freshly drawn for the monsters who threatened the citizens of Amir’Dalla, was wiped off with a single slash in the air. Kataryna just froze it over and then shattered the ice.

“There weren’t that difficult to kill.” I said as I looked back at the battlefield.

The soldiers and adventurers were all crying tears of joy for having won against these monsters. There were also those who could not celebrate because they were too sad for having lost friends and family in this tragic battle. It was a sight quite similar to the one from when we won the war against Draejan. However, this time, instead of looking at the bodies of misled draconians, I was looking at the fiendish remains of the creatures corrupted by magic.

As I kicked it to the side, I looked at its features. One hand was bigger than the other, it had a secondary pair of eyes growing at the top of its head, a tail that split in two at the end, and spikes poking out of its back, tearing up the flesh. From the gaping wounds on its body, black blood was oozing out like a vile poison that wished to spread and contaminate the land.

“These are corrupted monsters, aren’t they?” I pointed out as I looked back at Kataryna.

She frowned and then turned her attention to the creature in front of me.

“Yes, but... why so many?” she wondered.

I looked back at the battlefield, and I could not help but wonder if the elves had been dealing with similar waves of monsters year after year. It was rare to see these many different beasts gathering in a group to launch an attack, but it was not so weird if these were corrupted creatures. After all, when Magic Energy overflowed from the core of a monster, it would begin the process of turning them into these grotesque creatures or, if they happened to survive and be compatible with this unnatural change, they would become creatures that were far more powerful than their normal counterparts.

The problem with these corrupted monsters was that they did not act like any other beast did. They did not run away when they were hurt, and they didn’t refuse to gather up with creatures different from them.

In other words, sheep and wolves were predator and prey in the wild, but their corrupted versions were allies that aimed to achieve the same thing, which was to hunt and kill any non-corrupted creature, especially bipedal creatures like draconians and humans. Some believed that the more intelligent an individual was the higher the chances were of being targeted by them. The reasoning behind this was the fact that those with a high intelligence also possessed a high Magic Energy pool, which was an attractive treat for those starved corrupted creatures.

When we cleaned up the area, we made sure to kill all the corrupted, but we spotted some normal ones among them as well. They were most likely in the process of being turned or had an exceptionally low degree of corruption so far. We killed them too just to be safe.

After we left the battlefield, we returned to her Highness, who seemed to be enjoying a cup of tea together with Duchess Desterus. Our report was short, but we did include our suspicions that such a high number of corrupted creatures was not normal. We suggested that the local authorities should patrol the surrounding area more often and attempt to lower their numbers as much as possible unless they wished to be face with a second wave.

My words seemed to have triggered a hint of worry of in the Duchess’ gaze, however, whether or not the elves took our words seriously remained to be seen. It was their land, their citizens, their responsibility, after all.

Our stay in Amir’Dalla was short. For me, it passed in the blink of an eye, but Tanarotte was apparently quite busy as she went around gathering information for her Highness. There were some affairs that she wanted more clear details about. The Anui’Yahna Empire was not as stable as it seemed at first hand. Rather, the current number of factions was quite worrying, especially since all of them fought for the control of the empire.

Even if I did not wish to pay attention to the back talks of the nobles, my sensitive hearing still caught onto their whispers. They were unsatisfied with how they were treated by the Princess and spoke about how they could try to use her for their own benefits. They saw her as a child, someone whom they could control or a foreigner who was not as wise as them. Little did they know that her Highness was already aware of their filthy thoughts. She would just lead them by the nose until she got what she wanted from them and then show them why they should not mess around with a gold scale dragoness.

If any of these idiots tried to threaten us by force, well... I welcomed them to try, I still did not get the hang of how to do precision cuts. Kataryna’s advice was good, but I still had a long way to go before I was able to do the same. For my own learning process, a living target could be considered as ideal.

The idea of creating a new skill set for myself was, without a doubt, tempting, but... unless I overcame my current weakness, whatever new move I would come up with wouldn’t be able to show its true potential.

Later that night, instead of heading off to sleep at an early hour, I flew out into the forest and went about practicing on some of the trees there. The hardness of the tree bark on the Elf Continent paled in comparison to the one on the Dragon Continent, where individuals of low power could not even so much as leave a scratch on it. In other words, these trees were perfect for me who lacked in control and precision.

With a focused mind and a simple sword in my hands, I aimed at the trees in front of me and slashed. A Breakthrough-er could go on without sleep for days at an end, and the armor Alkelios gave me also had magic enchants that helped restore my fatigue.

“Left. Right. Up. Left. Right. Back. Vertical Slash. Diagonal. Spin. Slash. Dodge left. Jump back. Tail Strike. Wing Flap. Punch. Grab. Stab. Stab. Stab. Cut. Slash. Grab...”

Each time I struck, I said what I was aiming for. At first, in order to avoid damaging the trees, I kept my distance from them, then, when I felt ready, I stepped closer. The reason I did this was because I was hoping to feel the push of the bark against my blade when I struck it. Thus, getting used with cutting the air first was crucial to me.

Even so, I barely felt the feedback from the trees, and my cuts were... chaotic. Sometimes they were too deep, sometimes they were too shallow. Stabbing always created a shockwave at the end, and no matter how hard I tried to control my strength, I felt as though I could not avoid it.

By the time the Nocturnia and Nocturnis left the night sky and Gaias was shining brightly at the edge of the horizon, I had cut down enough trees around me to make a meadow. Some of them, unfortunately, were cut down because of my anger at my own failure.

Letting out a sigh, I sheathed my sword, which despite being used so much did not even have a single scratch on it.

“And to think that el’doraw noble thought it was a common blade...” I scoffed and then absorbed it into my [Purse] ring.

The trees that I cut down were also used as practice as I turned them all into chopped wood or... toothpicks.

“I’m getting closer... I can feel it.” I said as I looked at my hand and then clenched it into a fist.

I was determined to gain control over my strength and speed.

Upon returning to the city, everyone was already up. I had breakfast together with them and then we departed from Amir’Dalla. On the way to the capital, instead of sitting in the carriage, I asked her Highness to let me stand at the front with the leading soldiers, so I could continue my training. She agreed, and I thanked her with a happy smile on my face.

There were not that many monsters on the way, but I took down each and every one of them. Some of them were cut in half because of my attacks, while others suffered miserably until I dealt them the final blow. At one point, a snake jumped out of the bushes at me, and out of instinct, I punched it. The critter burst into a mess of blood and guts, which kind of scared the soldiers.

Because the entire convoy was moving too slow for my liking, I took out my normal sword and advanced while slashing forward. The movements were minimal and simplistic, but if I added too much strength, I moved too far from the convoy. I struck too slow, the soldiers behind me would catch up. It was a fun game to play, but the soldiers were a bit unnerved by my actions. Maybe it was because I accidentally slashed a tree in half when I sneezed cutely in the middle of a strike?

At some point, I saw Kataryna taking flight to the sky, then the temperature dropped. When I followed the dragoness with my gaze, I saw her practicing her attacks in the middle of the air, creating ice spikes with magic and then rushing after them to cut them with her sword. I could not do that with my fire spells, and there was almost 60% chance if not more to miss.

When we finally arrived at El’Damaran, the capital of the Anui’Yahna Empire, I sheathed my sword and returned to the side of my Princess. For some reason, the soldiers let out a sigh of relief when they saw me go back. Was I that intimidating? I was just practicing basic swordsmanship while killing monsters from time to time. There were no accidental deaths, since even bandits were not that stupid as to attack a fully armed convoy like this one, however, I did sense several of them running away from us as fast as their legs could carry them. I felt no need to give chance at that time.

The city of El’Damaran was... in a few words: extravagant, beautiful, imposing, and one with nature, if that was a way of describing what we saw.

The outer walls were molded with Earth Magic and used giant trees as towers. Spiky vines covered the top and spears spreading outwards, hidden behind bushes that completely covered the base. There was no moat around it, just a wide plain on which only grass grew. This made it easy for the soldiers at the top to easily kill the attackers below with either magic or arrows.

From what I could tell, however, this structure was meant to defend more against the waves of monsters that could threaten the citizens than a possible enemy army. From where we were, we could not see any sort of anti-air weapon either, but if they had skilled archers, maybe that was enough?

The doors that permitted entry within the fortified city were large enough to welcome two draconians standing side by side in their full beast forms and tall enough to allow them standing on their back legs and stretch their necks up without worrying of hitting the frame. It was impressive, and at the same time, a sturdy defense against anything that wanted to get inside. Siege weapons were practically all but useless against this fortress, at least on the ground level, which meant that having Breakthrough-ers in one’s army was an absolute must if they wanted to attack this place.

Upon arriving at the long line before gates, one of the soldiers moved ahead of us and went to speak with the guards. From what we could see, there were many elves, el’doraw, and humans who were waiting to get inside. Some of them were tired from the long journey, while others still looked fresh and chatted merrily with their companions. All of them were carrying a decent-sized backpack with the exception of those who had their own carriage. Once the soldier returned, he exchanged a few words with the Duchess and then the convoy entered the city without checking our identities or luggage.

From here, ten Royal Knights welcomed us into the city. They were wearing ceremonial armor instead of a practical one. It was decorated with gold leaves and spiraling tendrils. The swords had big red gems embedded in their pummels and the scabbard was tied to a gold sash. Their helmets were pointed at the top, with a patch of fur sticking out the back, almost like an animal crest. It was eye-catching and expressed not only the prosperity of the empire but also the nobility. As for whether this was something anyone would wear on a daily basis? I highly doubted it, ceremonial armor was meant to be eye-catching but not very practical. It was designed to impress foreigners and display the status of the mother nation. Even the Royal Knight armor of Albeyater was stiff and hard to move in. Kataryna fled as if chased by a horde of sheep when we asked her to wear that for an event one time.

First time I saw a Breakthrough-er pretending to be sick.

Duchess Alve’Yahna Desterus was the first to step forward and greet them, afterwards she introduced me and Kataryna as the Starscryers of her Highness. When they heard this, the Royal Guards did not seem impressed. They probably received word about us already, but the locals who happened to hear her were gazing towards us in awe.

Afterwards, we followed the ten at a steady pace to the Imperial Palace.

One thing that I noticed was that the rank of the guards belonging to the ruling family also had the same name as ours, Royal Knight, but spoken in their language. Imperial Knight was apparently the rank that followed right after this one, which, honestly, was a bit confusing. Wouldn’t an Imperial Knight be considered higher than a Royal Knight? Or maybe I translated it wrong? I studied the elf language together with the Princess while we were sailing here, but I could not say that I was an expert in it. The el’doraw language was just a different dialect of this one, but it was still a bit difficult to speak. Kataryna did not seem to have any problem with it and neither did Tanarotte.

At the very least, I explained it well enough for the others to understand me, and bad enough for them to immediately pick up the fact that I had an accent.

The city itself was quite large from what I could see, larger than the capital of Albeyater, at least. All the buildings here had three stories with the first one reserved for a shop of some sort. There were dark alleys and also signs of individuals struck by poverty. For the most part, everyone seemed to be living peacefully, but this all could have been just an illusion that was presented to us because we were guests of this empire.

There was a significant difference between entering a city plagued by poverty and sickness and one that appeared to be at the very least normal if not prosperous.

The houses and buildings in general appeared to borrow the esthetic of nature as most of them incorporated the leaf and vines patterns. Trees were naturally planted on the side of the road too, making them an ideal place to stop and just sit down to recover. When looking at this sight, I came to realize that by doing this, they were forced to make the roads larger and more spacious, leading to an overall growth of the borders of the city.

This made me curious as to how they were able to expand the border of this place, but this question was shortly answered as we reached the second inner wall. Here, a similar gate welcomed us, followed by buildings that were now four story tall, older, and resembling trees more than actual buildings. Then came the third and the fourth inner walls. All of them were built in a similar manner with similar gates.

“Four inner walls... Laying siege to this place would be nothing more than a waste of time.” Kataryna said as we were moving through this fourth area.

“The elves are also well-versed in cultivating plants, so cutting down their food supply could also be a problem. I don’t think it’s possible to attack this place unless you have overwhelming force.” her Highness added to the dragoness’ comment.

“It feels intentional...” I spoke in a murmur.

“Intentional? Why do you think that?” asked Kataryna as she raised an eyebrow.

Most cities and settlements grew together with the people who settled there, leading to parts of it going past their initial defensive walls. Sometimes, those walls were taken down to make place for new ones or were left as they were, and a ‘noble area’ was born on the other side.

“All the walls are being patrolled by squads of soldiers... It does not make sense to do that. Having two or three soldiers placed as scouts for possible signs of dangers is enough, unless you expect that something powerful enough to crush the first wall will attack.”

“So, what you are implying is that the elves might be afraid of being attacked by someone? But who could that be?” asked Kataryna.

“My guess...” I then looked at the two “The rumored Mad God’s army...”

Kataryna narrowed her eyes at me and then said “It... makes sense, especially given how their myths and stories about that entity go around. For us, that so-called deity could be nothing more than a fictive Breakthrough-er at best, but for them, it’s an entity that certainly exists, holds terrible might, and they are trying their best to find methods of defending themselves against it and the forces it could employ.”

“A mythological deity proven true by the acts of the elves...” said Princess Elleyzabelle as she closed her eyes. “Maybe I’ll be able to find out more about this entity after we finished our negotiations.”

Whether or not our observation was true, her Highness was probably the only one who could find out. Kataryna and I remained quiet for the rest of the journey to the palace.

The only ones who were allowed to go past the massive gates of the Imperial Courtyard were the ten Royal Knights, the Duchess, and our carriage. The soldiers who accompanied us so far were dismissed and sent to the barracks to rest and recuperate.

Once we reached the front gates of the Palace, we got off the carriage and took a moment to look at this impressive building before us. It was almost the same size as the Seyendraugher Palace, but this one had more towers, seven in total, standing tall like arrows pointing towards the sky, with deep grooves spiraling down around it, ending in what were roots made from a green stone similar to jade. The windows were tinted, but Magic Energy flowed through the entire structure, so even the weakest part of it was probably strong enough to survive a blacksmith’s hammer.

There were Royal Knights and Royal Soldiers all over the place, standing tall and proud, wearing the armors that represented their loyalty towards the crown as well as their skill. Not just anyone could join their ranks, or so I would have liked to believe. It was not that unlikely for some nobles to try to bring their progeny within their ranks in the hopes of letting them gain fame and reputation.

The ten Royal Knights who brought us here formed two lines to our left and right then stood straight, chest pushed out, one hand on their sword and the other behind them. Their eyes were serious, releasing the pressure of a warrior trained in battle and disciplined within military ranks.

The Anui’Yahna Empire was not a nation that was currently submerged in wars and battles for honor and glory outside a few skirmishes here and there with the Akutan Empire. The peace that surrounded the capital should have shown its marks on the soldiers and knights we met so far, yet they all seemed ready to rush to the battlefield at a moment’s notice, which… I found a bit weird, but at the same time respectable.

Looking past these knights as we stepped forward, I could see that the same strict discipline could be found in the regular Royal Soldiers as well. So, either their commander was someone who wanted his troops to be on guard and ready for action at any given time or the elves were preparing for a battle that required this sort of training and discipline.

Still, in terms of strength, I could not say that I felt threatened by them. Outside a few who seemed to last more than a strike from my sword, everyone else was at most similar to one of Albeyater’s average Knights. As for whether or not they could outmatch the Royal Knights who guarded our Queen and King? Well, they definitely didn’t. Even if they equaled them in terms of strength and skill, our knights had better equipment than them.

Now, the inside of the palace was something draconians with green scales could find themselves at peace in, while I felt as though I just stepped back in the Seculiar Forest. There were vines everywhere. Moss covered the walls and grass covered the ground, changing shape to a brilliant gold the moment we stepped on it. There were flowers and small trees growing throughout the corridors instead of vases and statues.

Actually, when I took a better look at one of those trees, I noticed that its trunk grew in the shape of a statue. It was almost as if an actual elf had merged with the tree itself and became one with it. Of course, it was highly unlikely that those were actual elves just trees that were shaped in that form by a skilled Nature Magic user, but the very idea of using a life to shape another like that made my skin crawl.

“These tree statues are... creepy.” Kataryna spoke the words that were on my mind, but no one dared to confirm or deny it.

We accepted them in our hearts and moved on.

“Beyond these doors you will find the throne room. I hope that the few etiquette tips I taught you on this journey will be of use, your Highness.” Duchess Alve’Yahna Desterus said and then took a step aside.

“Thank you once more, Duchess. I hope we’ll have the pleasure of talking again.” her Highness replied with a smile.

“Likewise, your Highness.” the Duchess bowed her head and stayed like that.

We then stepped inside the throne room.

To say that we entered a garden of flowers with birds chirping inside and even a small pond with a waterfall at the back would not be an exaggeration. Rainbow birds were perched up on the branches that sprouted from the columns, multicolored flowers grew to our left and right, pointing their heads towards us and following us at every step. Two wooden statues were placed to the left and right of the throne. With a shield in one hand and a spear in the other, both were filled with Magic Energy to the brim and looked like an Elf Knight with the lower body of an armored horse.

“Golems?” Kataryna wondered as she furrowed her brow.

The actual throne was made from crystal, while four smaller chairs were placed to the left and to the right. Between them and us was a pond with no bottom filled with fish and covered with a thin sheet of glass.

All the chairs were empty, with the exception of only one. A human male with black skin, long black hair that looked like a sailor’s rope, and sharp brown eyes was sitting on it. He was wearing a Royal Knight’s armor, but it was slightly different because of the emblem on the chest, which signified a higher status than the others.

We stopped at the edge of the pond, and the human sat up, spreading his arms wide.

“Welcome to El’Damaran, esteemed guest from lands far far away! My name is Xardun Overtur Anui’Yahna, First Prince of the Anui’Yahna Empire and the current political representative in the absence of her Majesty, Empress Eld’Wanna Anui’Yahna.” he welcomed us with a big smile.

“It’s a pleasure to make your acquaintance, your Highness. I am the 7th Princess Elleyzabelle Seyendraugher and the political representative of the Albeyater Kingdom and the Alliance it is a part off.” she replied with a smile without bowing her head.

Kataryna, Tanarotte, and I took a step back and simply bowed our head once.