Volume 2, Chapter 20 – The Start of Something Strange

Fia flew straight towards the chaos that was covering the sky and shot nearly a hundred fireballs at the dome. She and some of the soldiers below did not have night vision, so ensuring visibility was paramount.

As if throwing heavy stones into a small puddle, the chaos obscuring the sky was instantly torn into large holes by the fireballs, accompanied by the sizzling sound of liquid evaporating. Nearly a hundred fireballs were obviously overkill; most of them passed through the holes and flew into the sky. Following the principle of not wasting anything, Fia used [Telekinesis] to change the trajectory of the fireballs, making them fall to the ground.

In the blink of an eye, the chaos covering the sky was pierced with one large hole after another by the fireballs. When Fia added another wave of fireballs, the chaos could no longer maintain its shape and completely collapsed.

However, the chaos did not give up its attack. Instead, it broke apart, targeting the soldiers below and engaging them in battle.

Are the chaos that smart?

If they are entangled with the soldiers, I can’t deal with all the chaos at once. After all, [Telekinesis] only creates a spatial hand that grabs fireballs to change their trajectory; it doesn’t truly use her will to make fireballs fly. It wasn’t suitable for this complex environment.

Although the chaos’s struggles would only buy them a short amount of time at most, the intelligence they displayed made Fia vigilant. An ambush could be said to be a predatory instinct, but to flexibly change one’s fighting style according to the opponent’s performance required a certain level of intelligence.

They had not shown this behavior in the underground of the temple in Aurora City.

If it wasn’t that there were intelligent types of chaos and non-intelligent types, then someone was controlling them from the shadows, just like the Despair Demon General had controlled the chaos that formed the lake last night.

Fia used [Wind of Exploration] to scan the battlefield.

She didn’t find any enemies hiding in the dark.

Tch.

Clicking her tongue silently, Fia focused her attention on the soldiers below who had been ambushed. In the initial first wave of attacks, some of the soldiers’ feet had been pierced by chaos. Now, the entire convoy was in a mess. People could only huddle together in small groups, fighting on their own.

Although Estelle had distributed the [Tears of Life] to the soldiers in advance, faced with the shapeless, elusive chaos, the soldiers were already in disarray. Only half of them had taken out the [Tears of Life], and among that half, some had panicked and poured the [Tears of Life] directly onto the chaos.

They are too inexperienced in fighting chaos.

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“Pour the [Tears of Life] onto your weapons! Chaos fears weapons covered in the [Tears of Life]! Everyone, rally around me!”

Estelle’s sharp voice cut through the battlefield. As if giving a demonstration to the soldiers, Estelle swung the golden long scissors in her hand at the chaos attacking her. The long scissors easily cut the chaos in two. Immediately after, the chaos that fell to the ground lost its color and turned into a puddle of water.

This action quickly inspired the soldiers. They began to pour the [Tears of Life] onto their spears and swords and regrouped. Even more so, some poured the [Tears of Life] onto their shields, and the final effect was much better than with spears and swords. The team gradually rallied around Estelle.

Taking this opportunity, Fia also cooperated by using fireballs and [Telekinesis] to clean up the scattered, ready-to-attack chaos around the convoy.

I can feel the soldiers’ gazes becoming more respectful.

Fia felt a little embarrassed, and at the same time, a little relieved.

It’s a good thing I have a habit of wearing safety shorts and making the underside of my skirt “invisible” with [Cloud Moon of the Illusory Sea]. Otherwise, floating in the air right now, the situation would be quite awkward. ¹ ah…

“Speaking of which…”

Fia looked at a more eye-catching figure on the battlefield.

Unlike the small skirmishes with the soldiers, the chaos around Norton was exceptionally numerous, and their attacks were extremely fierce. When attacking the soldiers, the chaos was just lunging. But when attacking Norton, the chaos would condense itself into long cones. Fia even saw some chaos that was as sharp as throwing knives.

In just a minute since the battle began, Norton was already covered in wounds, with blood staining most of his clothes. The only thing to be thankful for was that Norton’s combat skills were extremely high. Whenever a fatal injury was about to occur, Norton would narrowly dodge it, turning it into a flesh wound.

I should go and support Norton first. He can’t hold out much longer.

It was too much to ask of Norton, with his Second-Tier strength, to fight against the “mutated” chaos.

Having made this decision, Fia dove towards Norton. She created a beehive-structured [Bee Shield] in front of Norton—the chaos also seemed to realize that they could not drag this out any longer and turned themselves into hedgehogs, besieging Norton without regard for their own safety.

Although the sudden appearance of the [Bee Shield] made Norton hit his head hard, it also blocked the fatal injuries that he could not have avoided otherwise. The chaos that hit the [Bee Shield] could only make a clanging sound, unable to even shake the [Bee Shield] in the slightest. Fia, with Norton as the center, shot out nearly ten fireballs. With the pillars of fire and smoke that rose, the chaos around Norton was instantly blown to bits.

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“Are you okay?”

Landing next to the tall Norton, Fia’s hand emitted a light blue glow, a symbol of [Elementary Hydration Spell].

“I-I’m fine. Thank you, Your Highness the Eldest Princess.” Given a chance to catch his breath, Norton, with his long dark blue hair, gave Fia a grateful look. “These beasts are targeting me specifically. If not for you, Your Highness the Eldest Princess, I would have died just now.”

“Go and join up with Estelle. Leave the rest to me.”

“Okay.”

“Ugh, ahhhhhh!!”

Just as Fia received Norton’s answer, screams from several men came from the carriage, about twenty meters away from Fia.

Fia and Norton immediately looked up.

It was the small nobles who were dissatisfied with Estelle’s rule.

Apparently wanting to escape from here, several of them had gotten into the carriage and were driving the horses in the direction they had come from. However, the chaos on the battlefield had not yet been fully cleared. The chaos lunged into the carriage, and the screams were a result of that.

“A bunch of useless people. They don’t deserve to be here.”

A low whisper filled with contempt came from Norton’s side.

Usually, he gave off a refined impression, but now he was cursing. It made Fia glance at him.

Although she didn’t like these small nobles, she would check on them just in case.

After telling Norton to join up with Estelle, Fia flew towards the carriage. With [Wind Blade] and [Telekinesis], she opened the roof of the speeding carriage.

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The sight that met her eyes made Fia pause. Everyone in the carriage was lying motionless in black mucus. They still had a look of horror on their faces. Most of them had their hearts, brains, and windpipes pierced by chaos. Fia could also see some of them spitting out black chaos from their mouths.

With the blood containing her [Nanomachines], she might be able to pull them back from the gates of hell, but that would be too much of a waste. These people were not worth it.

From a humanitarian standpoint, Fia used [Telekinesis] to pull a few of the small nobles out of the carriage. After giving them an [Elementary Hydration Spell], she threw them to the soldiers not far away. Whether these people would survive or not would depend on whether God chose to favor them.

Putting the small nobles out of her mind, Fia returned to the top of the convoy. Due to the varying skill levels of the soldiers, some of the weaker ones were still unable to get close to Estelle and were in a predicament of being surrounded. Fia had no choice but to use [Telekinesis] to grab these soldiers and place them next to Estelle.

“I… I’m flying!”

“Let me down!”

“An angel! An angel is saving us!”

Although the soldiers were terrified at first, when they realized that Fia was helping them, their fear quickly turned into excitement and joy. For the First-Tier soldiers, everything Fia did was a miracle. She could create food out of thin air and manipulate the battlefield at will.

After separating the soldiers from most of the chaos, the rest of the matter was very simple.

A carpet bombing of fireballs would do the trick.

With the rumbling of the earth and the rising grass and soil, the chaos was quickly and completely cleared by Fia. Only the chaos around Estelle remained, as Fia was worried about friendly fire.

It was worth mentioning that Estelle, like Norton, seemed to have received special attention from the chaos, but because Anastasia was nearby, Estelle was not as disheveled as Norton.

When the last of the chaos was blown into the air by Anastasia’s wind magic and severed by her sword, the battle completely subsided.

“Count the casualties and clear the battlefield! This is only our first encounter. There is more chaos waiting for us in the city, but as long as we use the [Tears of Life] well, chaos is no different from ordinary magical beasts!”

“With the Eldest Princess of Silvar, chaos is not a difficult enemy to deal with!”

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Estelle’s and Norton’s voices rang out in succession throughout the convoy. The soldiers began to wipe the sweat from their faces and count their casualties. Especially Norton’s words. When the soldiers saw Fia, who was gradually landing in the center of the team, their previously nervous and uneasy expressions all turned into confidence and motivation.

Just a moment ago, they had witnessed Fia’s one-sided crushing power against chaos. Having such a powerful person in the team greatly boosted their morale. At the same time, the six-petaled wings behind Fia also increased their trust in her. Although they were not the six-winged feathers of a divine messenger, the golden light they emitted made them unable to stop themselves from guessing that she was one.

The soldiers’ gazes, filled with respect, forced Fia to keep a straight face and maintain a dignified appearance befitting an eldest princess. Only after the soldiers who were occasionally looking at her had all dispersed, Fia could finally relax a little and looked at Estelle and Norton helplessly.

“I didn’t tell you to publicize me like that. How are you two? I mean your stamina. If you’re not okay, we can rest for a while before entering the city.”

“In this state, we have no choice but to rest.”

Putting away his longsword, Norton smiled wryly.

Fia couldn’t help but let out a long sigh.

“It’s a good thing we were ambushed outside the city. If we were inside, we would have been surrounded. I’ll go heal the injured people and horses. These soldiers have no experience dealing with chaos, so there will surely be more casualties when we enter the city. We should change our strategy. I’ll go in first and clear the streets of chaos, and then you can enter the city.”

At this, Fia’s gaze fell on Estelle’s ankle. It had been cut by chaos, and the blood had soaked most of her black stocking.

Do you need me to heal it?

Just as Fia was about to say it, she saw that Estelle’s expression was not relaxed. Her face was especially grave, and the hands gripping the long scissors were pale from gripping them too hard.

As a leader, she was ambushed right from the start. And with her home destroyed, and her father and sister killed by chaos, it would be strange if Estelle didn’t feel angry—it’s too humiliating.

If Estelle’s subordinates were to see this expression on her face, they would surely become anxious. Fia crouched down, placing her hand near Estelle’s ankle. As a faint blue light flashed, the wound on Estelle’s ankle healed in the blink of an eye.

“Calm down. There will be plenty of time to settle this score. Don’t let your subordinates see you like this.”

“…I know.” The hands gripping the long scissors gradually relaxed. Estelle took a deep breath. “I’ll leave it to you, then.”