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With the Iron Tribe—specifically Renu’s— approval, the armored soldiers began to land on Mentis. In the meantime, Romanne continued to move towards the center of Mentis. The sphere of influence of the Lake’s Tear already covered most of Mentis now, and the only places it didn’t touch were the areas surrounding the castle and the lakefront on the opposite side of their landing site.
“It’s about time.” The robed figure looked at Renu. “Did you deploy your troops?”
“It’s all done.”
“Good. Then, should I start now?” The robed figure took out his flute again and blew it. “They’ll start attacking momentarily. Your tribe should also start attacking in accordance with that.”
“I will do that,” Renu commanded his subordinates again. After one of his subordinates jumped down the tower, the Iron Tribe’s movements became livelier. Renu and the robed figure quietly looked down on Mentis.
Some time later…
“It has started.” Like the robed figure said, the allied forces were now bustling on the other side of the lake. Due to the damage caused by the flood, Renu couldn’t see the headquarters well, but it was clear that something was happening. The allied forces were no longer moving their ship towards Mentis.
“Now is the time, Renu Ent Draus.”
“Fine!” Renu sent his signal. A fiery path shot up from underneath the castle. An intense whirlwind of mana spread out, covered Mentis, and shook up the mana from the Lake’s Tear.
Sssssssk.
The flame troopers that had weakened and decreased in size under the influence of the Lake’s Tear began to regain power once again. They returned to their original size, and their dull flames burst out again like an exploding volcano. It looked like it would burn their entire surroundings.
“Attack them!” Kandis shouted so loudly that his voice rang even at the spiral tower where Renu and the robed figure were.
The Iron Tribe elves had been backing away until now, but they now rushed forward with a hearty cry.
Clang! The two groups collided. At first, they fought on equal grounds, but after a while, the Iron Tribe began to prevail bit by bit. In terms of sheer numbers, the allied forces had more elves, but as the flame troopers regained their powers, the numbers seemed to reverse.
‘Good!’ Renu clenched his fist tightly. The war was moving along as predicted. Based on what they heard at the back of the battlefield, the allied forces could no longer dispatch more troops into Mentis, and the ones already in the city struggled to keep up with the flame troopers.
“Continue to push against them! If we continue like this, we will be able to secure the shaman and the Lake’s Tear!” Renu said energetically. At that moment, a change occurred on the side of the allied forces.
“The golems are moving.” Like the robed figure had told him, the armor right next to the shaman began to move towards the battlefield. Renu snorted, “They are at a disadvantage, they have no choice but to use even those guys as support. It’s useless. It’s obvious how the golems would perform.”
Rather, the bodyguards protecting the shaman would decrease, and killing the shaman would become easier as per Renu’s wish. The golems that approached the center of battle began to attack the Iron Tribe and the flame troopers. Renu watched that scene with a mocking laugh.
Pop! Pop!
“Kuah!”
“Ahh!”
Yet, when the flame troopers disappeared and the Iron Tribe elves died under the golems’ hands, the snide smile on Renu’s face disappeared without a trace.
“What!” Renu hastily clutched the rails of the spiral tower and watched. The robed figure seemed to have also noticed the armor soldiers’ notable performance. “Are they the low-performing golems you mentioned? But they don’t seem to be a negligible group like you said.” All the golems fighting against the Iron Tribe displayed an outstanding level of skill.
“What happened?” the robed figure asked chillingly, but Renu couldn’t answer. The golems he heard from reports shouldn’t have been able to display this level of performance. Soon, the answer to the mystery was revealed. Like they were freeing themselves, the golems began to take off their armor, and Renu was shocked by their real identities. The armored soldiers, which he thought were golems, were actually all elves.
“T-T-Those guys…”
“Hm, I see.” In contrast to Renu whose mouth hung wide open, the robed figure said coldly, “You were tricked.”
“I-I was tricked…”
“Can’t you clearly see that, Renu Ent Draus? They knew we thought lightly of the golems, so the allied forces wore armor and pretended to be golems. They predicted that we wouldn’t block the golems from entering the city since we thought they weren’t a considerable force.”
“T-Then…!”
“It seems that all the armored soldiers we thought were golems were the allied forces’ elves in disguise.” Like the robed figure said, he saw elves tossing armor here and there. The Iron Tribe soldiers seemed greatly unsettled by this sight.
“In other words, our enemy forces are much bigger than we thought. They may even be able to stop the strengthened flame troopers.”
Renu quickly scanned the battlefield. After they were distilled by their enemy forces, who had suddenly increased in number, it seemed the Iron Tribe was getting pushed back. “Ah, even if their forces increased, we have the flame troopers. How...!”
“It seems like it’s because of the Lake’s Tear again.”
“What?”
“Even if the flame troopers regained their strength, it doesn’t change the fact that they are weak to water type magic. And the Lake’s Tear amplifies that type.”
Renu’s eyes became bloodshot as he saw a large water attack destroy three flame troopers at once.
“If there were more of our troops in Mentis like planned, their attacks would have been meaningless, but right now, there are more soldiers from the allied forces.” Then the robed figure looked at Renu and let out a sigh for the first time. “You’ve been perfectly played with.”
“…T-This bastard…!” Renu suddenly rushed towards the robed figure. His hands tried to clutch the robed figure’s neck, but the robed figure easily evaded Renu’s hands.
“What are you doing?”
“It’s all because of you! If you hadn't told me to wait for the shaman to come closer and let the armored soldiers land on this island, this all wouldn’t have happened!”
“Man, I was wondering what you were talking about,” the robed figure laughed cynically. “Stop saying nonsense, Renu Ent Dras. You are the one who told me that those pieces of armor were just golems. You even added that their abilities were lacking and they were just here to fill in the numbers. Also, did I make the order by myself? From what I know, you hold authority over the Iron Tribe.”
Renu let out a rough breath. He sent a resentful glare at the robed figure, but the robed figure was not wrong. “Then send an order to your subordinates! Tell them to come and help my forces right away!”
“I really want to do that, but my subordinates are fighting with the allied forces from across the lake. Who knows? Maybe if someone of high position in Mentis allowed my soldiers to land, my subordinates could have been blocking the allied forces in Mentis right now.”
Angry sparks passed between the robed figure and Renu. Anyone could tell that a fight might break out between them at any moment. The Iron Tribe soldiers guarding Renu began to place their hands on their weapons. However, the conflict that they were expecting didn’t happen.
Renu turned his back and began to move down the tower.
“Where are you going?”
“It’s none of your business!” Renu roughly shouted at the robed figure. However, the robed figure ignored Renu’s opinion and began following Renu from behind.
“You seem to keep forgetting, but we are in an alliance right now. I can only get what I want if you win. It looks like you’re trying to do something, so tell me what your plan is. I have to know about it too so I can follow your plans for our victory.”
“…” Renu glared at him in silence and quickly turned his head back. Then he continued to go down the tower. However, he didn’t stop the robed figure from following him. Instead, he waved away his soldiers who were trying to stop the robed figure.
‘Since the situation has already turned out like this, I need to at least borrow his help.’ The situation was so bad that Renu could no longer reject the robed figure’s help.
As they continued to go down, Renu finally stated, “I’m going down the basement.”
“The basement? Where the fire tree is?”
“Yeah. I’m going to pressure the elders to raise the power of the flame troopers.”
“Is that so? If the power of the flame troopers increases, we might be able to get out of this situation. Will that be possible though?”
“We have to do whatever we can to squeeze out as much mana as we can.” Then Renu turned back to the robed figure. “You also need to give your mana.”
“No wonder you’re leading me to the fire tree when you didn’t even let me go close to it before. But it’s fine. It’s time to employ all possible means.”
The robed figure and Renu went down to the basement in a hurry. The fire tree still stood grandly in the basement. Even though the fire tree was letting out ferocious flames, there was still enough space to move around. The two of them reached the bottom of the tree; there, they could see the Iron Tribe elders sending out mana while sweating like crazy.
“Your Majesty, what is the matter?” The oldest elder of the Iron Tribe, who was leading the other elders, humbly greeted Renu. Sweat poured down his skin and his complexion looked very pale.
However, Renu paid no attention to the elder’s appearance. “Bring out more of the fire tree’s power.”
After Renu made his cold order, the leader of the elders made a strained expression. “Your Majesty, that’s impossible. Even right now, we are barely able to control the fire tree’s power! If our ritual goes even a little awry, all of us will be swallowed by the fire tree’s power!”
However, Renu did not even blink his eyes at the elder’s desperate pleas. “If we lose this war, our tribe will have no future anyway! Instead, we have to risk danger and bring out more of the tree’s power!”
“But Your Majesty—!”
“This is an order, oldest elder!”
The leader of the elders shut his eyes tight. He realized that Renu would not be convinced no matter what he said. “…Your Majesty, I understand.”
“Don’t worry too much. The guy next to me and I will be participating in the ritual this time. Then the success rate will increase, and you guys will be less burdened.” Even Renu seemed to feel uncomfortable about yelling at his elders, and his tone was now softer.
“Your Majesty has definitely enough power to participate in the ritual, but I’m concerned if that person has enough mana to participate.” The oldest elder looked at the robed figure with distrustful eyes. In order to participate in the ritual, one needed an extraordinary amount of mana to bring out the full power of the ritual.
“Even if this guy is suspicious, he’s a leader of a mysterious organization that helped us before. He probably has enough mana.”
“Don’t worry about the amount of mana I have. I’ve never heard that I was lacking in mana compared to others.”
“Yeah, that’s what he says.” Renu tapped the oldest elder’s shoulder a few times. “Just help him out with the base mana control.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
After leaving the robed figure to the leader of the elders, Renu felt the gaze of the other elders on him and walked underneath the tree. “Our tribe’s fate rests on this ritual! If it’s successful, we will stand as the supreme leaders of this world, and if it fails, our tribe will disappear from history. But I don’t have any doubts about our success! Since I will also be participating in this ritual, focus all your attention!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!” the elders all replied back in unison.
“Now, my anonymous collaborator, you go over ther…” Renu’s words were cut off. A horrific expression appeared on the elders’ faces.
“Agh!” The oldest elder who was the leader of all the elders had a sword protruding out of his chest. The person holding that sword was the Iron Tribe’s collaborator—the robed figure.