Volume 5, Chapter 4 – The Sea of Chaos and the Sudden Joint Declaration of War

A vast, boundless world.

Here, the world consisted of only two colors: the endless, pitch-black sea underfoot, and the azure blue that symbolized the sky overhead. Beyond these, the world had no third color. There were neither towering mountains nor verdant fields; endless death and the stench of decay were all that existed.

A week after returning from the Witch Sanctuary, Fia came back to this world filled with chaos. She needed to verify if this chaos was the same as what she had seen in Aurora City and the Oro territory. She found it truly hard to imagine that chaos of this level could cause both gods and the Darkborn to retreat in defeat, unable to match it.

Furthermore, she wanted to take this opportunity to test the new magic she had learned. It wouldn’t be long before she had to leave Silvar and head to the Cold Night Kingdom in the southwestern part of the Empire to seek out the Polar Night Goddess and the White Night Goddess. Having now witnessed the power of a so-called god, she knew they were indeed strong. Moreover, she would be facing two of them. Although violence wasn’t a necessary premise, one never knew what kind of difficult demands the gods might make. As long as there was a possibility of a violent conflict, she had to be prepared. Therefore, learning new, powerful magic was a must.

It was worth noting that Fia had come on this trip alone, without Claire. She didn’t know if Claire could safely return after passing through that emerald barrier, so she had simply told Claire where she was going and instructed her not to follow.

Plummeting straight down with [Flight] and [Flowing Wind’s Blessing], Fia turned her body in mid-air and looked back at the World Tree Continent behind her.

The World Tree Continent was just as described in myths—a landmass protruding from the Primordial Continent, stretching beyond the horizon. However, looking at it now, reality differed slightly from the descriptions. For example, the area beneath Blossom was a suspended region, and this suspended part was quite vast, reaching at least ten thousand square kilometers.

If one were to compare the World Tree Continent to a cake, the suspended part would be like scooping out the lower half of the cake’s edge. The upper part of the cake still existed, but the part below had long since vanished. Fia had seen a map of the World Tree Continent before. According to her calculations based on the map, the vast suspended area behind her was the ocean between Silvar and the Milcandis Holy Kingdom. This meant the entire sea was situated upon a floating region, a rather fantastical sight.

If not for seeing it with her own eyes, it would be hard to believe such a place existed in the world. Gazing up at the continental shelf covered by the emerald barrier, Fia couldn’t help but feel a sense of awe. Even Silvar’s Forbidden Library had no records related to this emerald barrier that enveloped the entire floating region. It was hard to imagine just how powerful the person who had set up the barrier must have been.

“Just in case, I should probably go somewhere farther from the World Tree Continent.”

With this thought, Fia resumed a normal flying posture and flew directly north, away from the World Tree Continent. She finally stopped when only a small corner of the continent remained in her vision. Below her feet was still the endless Sea of Chaos, which writhed slowly like a living creature. As she was flying at an altitude of over a thousand meters, the chaos failed to notice her.

Since I’m testing for power, I might as well start with the strongest magic.

Putting her thoughts into action, Fia quietly inhaled the incredibly turbid, suffocatingly foul air, then raised her hand.

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[Orbital Beacon Bombardment]

Although it was daytime, the slowly rotating silver river of stars was still incredibly brilliant. A strange sizzling sound began to echo as the surrounding air rapidly grew scorching hot. In just a dozen seconds, the Sea of Chaos beneath Fia began to bubble as if it were boiling. The disturbance Fia caused had clearly awakened the chaos. It quickly coalesced into the shape of human hands and reached for Fia in mid-air. However, a height of one thousand meters was simply too far for them. They could reach a height of a hundred meters at most before falling back into the sea under the constraints of gravity.

Although they couldn’t touch her, from Fia’s perspective, it still had the feeling of a horror movie. The hands of chaos were like countless people struggling in hell, hoping for Fia to save them.

No need to rush. You’ll all be liberated soon.

With that thought, as the air grew hotter and the silver river of stars spun faster, Fia lingered no longer. She turned and flew back towards the World Tree Continent at a speed that broke the sound barrier, never looking back.

A few minutes later.

BOOM!

A blazing, orange-red fireball instantly erupted from the Sea of Chaos. Along with the violently expanding shockwave, a massive mushroom cloud appeared far in Fia’s field of vision. Even from a hundred kilometers away, Fia could feel gusts of hot wind on her face, making her black dress whip about. The air was filled with the scent of burnt flesh.

How spectacular.

Relying on [Flame Immunity], Fia quickly returned to the site of the explosion to inspect the damage. A deep crater, nearly a kilometer in diameter, was now present in the Sea of Chaos. Perhaps the explosion had been too powerful, as the formless chaos had failed to fill the crater back in during this time. The chaos around the crater was flowing back into it at an extremely slow pace, like a highly viscous slime.

As expected, even orbital bombardment can’t clear a large area of chaos at once. At this rate, even if I used it non-stop, it would take decades or even centuries to clear all of it. And I don’t even know how deep this chaos is.

Wait, if [Overload] can drastically enhance the power of magic, can I use it to enhance [Orbital Beacon Bombardment]? And if I combine it with a spell like [Ready Stance], could the power be pushed even further?

“Hmm… [Ready Stance] is worth a try, but I’d better skip [Overload].”

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The amplification from [Overload] was too high, to the point where it could make an ordinary [Enchanted Blade] capable of god-slaying. Using it to enhance the already powerful [Orbital Beacon Bombardment] would certainly increase its destructive power exponentially. A mere earthquake would be acceptable, but if it caused the continental shelf to shift, shaking the entire nearby World Tree Continent, or even generated the force of an asteroid impact that could crack off a piece of the planet, she would truly become the Witch of Calamity Flame, turning the situation into an irredeemable disaster that would annihilate hundreds of millions of people.

“Alright, let’s try it with [Ready Stance]. I’ll start by accumulating three minutes of magic…”

After that, Fia not only tested an [Orbital Beacon Bombardment] enhanced by [Ready Stance] but also experimented with new magic.

First were powerful defensive spells. Currently, her only defensive spell was [Bee-Shield Forcefield]. Although it was strong, it seemed rather powerless against a god. Therefore, Fia learned [Celestial Aegis] and [Mirror of Reflection]. The former could be seen as a higher-tier version of [Bee-Shield Forcefield], while the latter was a spell that could, as its name implied, reflect magic.

Next were spells focused on large-scale recovery and healing. [Beginner Water Healing] was indeed sufficient for most injuries, but it could only heal one person at a time, which was too inefficient. As an upgrade, the nature magic elves excelled at, [Fairy’s Protective Umbrella], could heal all injured individuals within a hundred-meter diameter at once. Originally, this spell’s range was only ten meters with a mediocre healing effect, but in Fia’s hands, its range exceeded a hundred meters and could instantly turn a dying mouse into a lively one.

Furthermore, considering her upcoming trip to the southern Empire to restore the ley lines, Fia also learned another Sixth-Tier nature spell, [Rain of Serenity]. According to the book, this spell could artificially infuse magic into the land, causing it to recover. Unfortunately, there was no soil in the Sea of Chaos, so Fia couldn’t test its effects.

Finally, as was her custom, Fia also learned new offensive spells: [Inverted Cross Lightning Strike] and [Flame Wheel]. Both were Fifth-Tier spells with considerable attack power. Not only that, but Fia also learned a Seventh-Tier spell called [Stellar Radiance]. Enhanced by [Hyper-computation], its power was even greater than [Hellfire], making it a spell that couldn’t be used casually.

It should be noted that, considering most of her spells were designed for high-level opponents and could accidentally kill low-level minions, Fia also added a few tricks to her arsenal, such as [Precise Shot], [Light Binding], [Forceful Plunder], and [Deterrence]. The effects of the first two could be understood from their names: greatly increasing the accuracy of thrown objects and binding an enemy with invisible beams of light, respectively.

As for [Forceful Plunder] and [Deterrence], they were spells that forcibly stole an opponent’s magic without their consent, and a mental spell that, if successfully cast, would create an invincible image of the caster in the opponent’s mind, causing them to break without a fight. They were very convenient for compelling unruly minions to obey in daily life.

It must be emphasized that Fia had also secretly learned spells called [Nation-Toppling Beauty] and [Majesty]. These two spells had no offensive capabilities; their effects were simply to make herself exceptionally beautiful and attractive, and to appear very dignified. Fia planned to try the former on Claire, and use the latter when in her Thanatos persona. Enhanced by [Hyper-computation], these spells left almost no trace of magic, to the point that not even Fia herself could detect them, so she could use them without worrying about being noticed.

Magic is so convenient.

Having finished her magic experiments, Fia let out a quiet breath. The oxygen in the Sea of Chaos was extremely thin, and staying here for a long time was very uncomfortable.

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“Time to go back.”

From the looks of it, apart from being endless, there was nothing special about the chaos. She couldn’t understand why the gods and the Darkborn had been defeated. Even if they couldn’t be cleared out in a short time, with the power of the gods, they could have constructed a massive magic barrier to prevent an invasion. Yet, the reality was their complete retreat. It was incomprehensible.

Lingering no longer, Fia headed straight for the World Tree Continent.

It wasn’t until ten minutes later that a figure made entirely of chaos, its gender indistinguishable, slowly emerged from the Sea of Chaos. It stared silently in the direction Fia had disappeared, as if pondering something. After an unknown amount of time, the figure slowly dissolved back into the chaos, and everything returned to calm.

No one noticed that behind it, the Sea of Chaos was densely packed with identical figures, stretching as far as the eye could see. ¹ ugh- that.. Feel ominous…

◇

A snowy night, at the bathhouse.

There was nothing more comfortable than soaking in a warm bath on a snowy day, especially with companions by one’s side. Today, it wasn’t just the three princesses of Silvar; even Claire, Milu, and Erin Slate were in the pool.

Interestingly, the always-composed Claire had shown an unexpected timidity and embarrassment after Fia invited her to bathe together. It seemed that bathing together was a very difficult, shameful thing for Claire.

As for why Fia had suggested bathing together, the reason was simple: it was a casual invitation after dinner. Liti and Milu aside, Claire and Anastasia had exceptionally impressive figures that were a pleasure just to look at—to put it bluntly, she was feeling lustful; to put it elegantly, she wanted to appreciate art.

However, Erin Slate’s sudden arrival added a small hiccup to the otherwise pleasant bath.

With one arm held across her ample chest, which the bath towel could barely contain, Erin Slate sat by the edge of the pool. With her deep green hair pinned up, she spoke in a low, solemn voice.

Fia, who had initially been happy about Erin Slate’s arrival, gradually furrowed her brows.

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“The Cold Night Kingdom has declared war on us? How is that possible?”

As Fia said, Erin Slate’s late-night visit was to inform them that the beastfolk’s Cold Night Kingdom had declared war on the elf nation.

“Aren’t we allies with the Cold Night Kingdom under a mutual defense treaty? Why this all of a sudden? Besides, the Cold Night Kingdom is weaker than the Theocracy. Where did they get the confidence?”

Faced with Fia’s questions, Erin Slate lowered her head in shame.

“This… I don’t know either. The information is still chaotic at the moment. I just learned of it myself. It’s said that the Alfrieg Kingdom is extremely dissatisfied with Baron Khesa’s territory being incorporated into our nation, so they formed an alliance with the Cold Night Kingdom to declare war on us. It seems a lot has been happening within the Cold Night Kingdom as well, and they need to declare war on an external enemy to ease internal conflicts. This matter may not be unrelated to the Holy Son who recently appeared there. Every time a Holy Son appears, it stirs up the local political situation.”

“Putting the Holy Son aside, didn’t the Alfrieg Kingdom acknowledge our claim to Baron Khesa’s territory and even sign a transfer treaty with us? How could they go back on their word?”

Just a short while ago, when Yelido returned from the south, Liti had informed him of the territory’s value on Fia’s behalf. Yelido had confirmed the situation and quickly sent people to negotiate with the Alfrieg Kingdom. By paying them a huge fortune (not just gold coins, but also magic ore and food), he had bought Baron Khesa’s territory from them.

In the eyes of the Alfrieg Kingdom, the remote and desert-filled territory of Baron Khesa was worthless; selling it was a good thing. Thus, when signing the contract, they had been even more eager than Silvar. The treaty had been signed half a month ago.

“They must have found out that sister restored the ley lines there and realized its value, so they went back on their word. First Thanatos eliminated the Flame King, then sister created a high-value magic crystal deposit in that desert. It’s impossible for the Alfrieg Kingdom not to be jealous. They’re probably kicking themselves with regret. Declaring war is just their way of avoiding the tenfold penalty for breaking the contract.”

Lying on her stomach at the edge of the pool next to Fia, revealing her smooth back, Liti explained nonchalantly as if it had nothing to do with her.

“Now that the contract is signed, if they declare war on us, we’ll just fight back. These humans never learn. The neighboring Milcandis Holy Kingdom was just dealt with by us, and now they’re here to provoke us again. If it weren’t for sister, Baron Khesa’s territory would still be a barren wasteland. To declare war on us during the winter undead offensive… Father is going to be furious. He’ll probably want to grab his spear and skin them alive.”

Translator Note

hmmmm lot of new skills, i think this name is correct enough…. Otherwise there will be future adjustment