Knights and Magic Wand

The leisurely and pleasant sound behind her reached Ines' ears.

The Princess silently turned her head back.

Outside the open door, the torrential rain fell on the crenellations of the open-air corridor, clattering against the bricks.

The wind swept into the room, yet there was no trace of coldness.

In the distance, the lightning flickering among the dark clouds occasionally illuminated that marvelous figure.

In splendid robe armor, interwoven with gold and white, the luminous white light on the figure appeared sacred and pure.

On either side of the slender and graceful body, a pair of wings as white as Pegasus were folded back.

This hooded being had a face shrouded in impenetrable shadow, obscuring her true appearance, with only two strands of white hair draping over her front, swaying in the wind. But judging from her tall and elegant figure and voice, she was evidently female.

"Who are you?"

Ines looked at the winged being and asked with a calm expression.

"I..." The woman with white hair, whose face was unseen, spoke with a slight hesitation in her tone, but quickly adopted a somewhat joyful tone:

"I am the envoy of the Sacred Flame Sun."

Upon hearing this, Ines raised an eyebrow slightly: "So, you're from the Holy Sun Church?"

However, the response left the Princess puzzled.

The winged woman tilted her head slightly and shook it almost imperceptibly.

"I do not belong to... the Holy Sun Church... I represent the Fiery Sun, here to guide you to the battlefield that will decide the fate of the Mortal World."

...

Kleinian.

Central region of the continent of Alanta in the Southern Hemisphere.

The low roar of engines tore through the silence, as a formation of three different model warplanes glided like shadows over the apocalyptic skies.

The lead pilot gripped the control stick tightly, his gaze sweeping over the instrument panel, the eerie green glow within the cockpit reflecting off his face.

"Command hub, this is Dawn One, the envoy squad has arrived in the central airspace of Alanta, located at Star Arc 35, Light Arc 150, altitude 30,000 feet, heading west course 270, speed 500, time 29:70, over."

The voice from the hub came through the headset: "Copy, Dawn One, continue the mission, report any anomalies in the target area, over."

The leader's gaze turned outside the window, where the Netherworld-like luminous doomsday clouds roiled like an abyss.

Behind his lead plane, Dawn Two and Three followed closely on either side, yet the lag at one corner of the formation made the triangular shape rather imperfect.

If this were past training airspace, such an incompetent pilot would be summoned by the officer for a thorough dressing-down involving various relatives.

But now, there was no time for this formation's youngest member to mature further. Although in the past he wasn't even qualified to pilot his current aircraft, there was no choice but to push him onto the stage.

Dawn Three soared above the cloud layers, navigating among unfamiliar foreign allies through the black-purple cloud peaks, the engine's vibrations traveling through the seat into his spine, beating rhythmically like a heartbeat.

The young pilot habitually looked up, gazing through the cockpit canopy at the bizarre sky—although he had already seen it more than once during flight training after recovering, the scene still made his hair stand on end.

The sky... had cracked open.

One half was a deep ink abyss like the gaping maw of a giant devouring starlight, consuming the entire planet, while the other half was a blend of red, blue, and teal, eerily colorful like auroras twisted by some force.

The originally starry sky behind the colorful lights faintly appeared, as if separated by a curtain, growing increasingly distant.

This nightmare scene, like facing a celestial entity devouring the planet, made his throat tighten.

"Has Dawn... really abandoned us?"

He murmured softly, fingers unconsciously clenching the control stick.

Suddenly, the authoritative voice of the leader boomed in the headset: "Dawn Three! Focus on the mission! Keep your eyes on your instruments!"

The young man snapped back in alarm, cheeks flushing, and quickly responded, "Understood, Dawn One."

Forcing himself to look down, he stared at the symbols and numbers bouncing on the instrument panel, trying to dispel the fear rooted in his heart.

"...Prepare to descend." The leader's voice broke the silence: "We will pass through the clouds and enter low altitude."

"Understood." Though Three's voice was slightly tense, he quickly adjusted, tilting the plane's nose per the command.

The three warplanes dove like raptors, plunging into the roiling sea of clouds below.

Inside the cloud curtain, it was a purple vortex, the gale engulfing the warcraft, the roar of engines swallowed by the turbulence, turning into shrill whines, as chaos reigned outside the cockpit and cloud mist enveloped them like the breath of a giant beast.

Moments later, the warplanes successively broke through the cloud layer, the view dim yet suddenly expansive.

The central terrain of Alanta revealed itself—on the barren plains, the shadowy outline of a massive crater left by a high-yield explosion...

A thousand miles away, in a temporary command center, a makeshift team of officers watched the blue data displays, manually updating the positions of reconnaissance units advancing around the target area, using inertial navigation and frontline reports.

Rapidly assembled ground and aerial mobile units transmitted all observed intelligence back using the most primitive visual methods.

Colonel Sasha set down her headset and looked at the back facing the map of the continent.

"Master... the Bloodlines have failed, not one of their launched long-range cruise missiles hit the target."

Even with the experience of narrowly escaping from a hellish dimension, having realized how the sect faces enemies far beyond comprehension, confirming the ultimate destruction of their civilization by Demons seemed absurdly trivial, yet intense resentment and dissatisfaction welled in her heart.

Logically, with accurate positional coordinates, relying solely on inertial navigation, the missile impact points should not deviate so drastically.

Leon turned back to her, remaining exceptionally calm. Although the Dawn Sect lacked advanced military personnel with access to former-civilization leftover missile base launch keys and operation methods, he had long been aware that this was likely the result.

If those introduced high-energy bombs with nuclear-like power could threaten Valary's plan, they likely would have been entirely destroyed before the Demons ignited the catastrophe.

For the Vampires and Fallen, who had infiltrated the Kleinians' higher echelons before doomsday, there was little difficulty.

This realm had no experience or means of countering Spirit Realm Demons. Contrarily, if what the Blood Demon said was true, the Ancient Fallen Mages known as "Immortals" have already destroyed worlds nurturing Divine Souls in the Void, excelling at infiltrating and manipulating mortal minds within a domain.

Leon only felt fortunate that, according to Squash, Valary had an alternative plan for awakening the Immortal Lord and did not conspire with other Immortals but instead sought alliance with him, a "local" Kleinian, and other factions' Fallen.

Otherwise, he and the Kleinians would be facing far more than just one Great Demon now.

Leon's gaze returned to the map, having roughly deduced the true nature of Valary.

According to the Mage Tower's secret archives and the "Book of Ascension," the opponent was likely a "Pride Demon."

A Spirit Realm entity only the most powerful Fallen Mages could succeed in transforming to without being obliterated by Spirit Realm forces.

The opponent faced might very well be an ancient Great Mage whose power rivaled "Lady Aphrodite" and "Traveling Mage Suviel."

Indeed, a true supernatural spellcaster able to be afforded the title of "Magic Guide" in the Lorelette Civilization.

Far beyond what imitative Magic Governors of the Athias Empire could compare to.

Especially now, after falling into the Spirit Realm for thousands of years, Leon predicted Valary would only grow more powerful than before. Fortunately, the Void's rejection of Spirit Realm means he cannot easily manifest.

"Prepare the army, Sasha, I'm worried those Bloodlines will send their forces to plant bombs through ground units into the primordial soup ruins. Once they detonate the bombs, it will interfere with our operations. Now that they are holding the cult troops at bay, it's time for us to act."