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However, the invariability of war did not bring any relief to someone like Desmond; on the contrary, a part of him felt pretty depressed about it. It was natural; even someone as keen on combat as Desmond would sometimes dream of a peaceful world in which to raise a family.

Although young, the notion of having his own family was not alien to Desmond, especially with Claire, who couldn’t seem to wait to conceive her first child, but Desmond would never take that kind of responsibility lightly. It was precise because Desmond didn’t take the matter lightly, that he had already given several thoughts to it, coming to two straightforward conclusions.

The first was that both he and Claire were too young to start a family, both lacked the emotional maturity for such a task, and both still wanted to be able to enjoy life as a couple before moving on to fatherhood. The same reason Desmond didn’t understand Claire’s insistence on the subject.

The second conclusion Desmond came to was a bit more depressing. His world just wasn’t safe enough to raise a child. A person like Desmond, somewhat obsessed with control and keeping his family safe, would never risk bringing a child into this world unless he had absolute confidence to keep it secure.

Usually, Desmond wouldn’t overthink this sort of thing unless Claire had brought it up again during one of their nights together, but all the chaos and death around him makes one’s mind wander.

On the other hand, Cecilia probably didn’t have the energy or the mental fortitude to be distracted by thoughts other than the children’s safety and the pain her eyes witnessed.

Desmond had expected something like this; it couldn’t be helped. Cecilia was ultimately just a good-hearted girl; the horrors of war might be too much for her, although Desmond had to admit he was surprised that she was keeping so calm.

The minutes passed, and Desmond didn’t expect the massive resistance his group faced on their way through the city streets, as this was the third squad of soldiers his group had met.

.....

“.”

“.”

The water drill and gigantic blade of light met the two incoming attacks in unison, quickly repelling them before moving forward and turning the two Kormat knights into incomplete corpses.

But neither Xolei nor Desmond seemed happy about the victory; on the contrary, they both had solemn expressions on their faces. Both were agitated with clear signs of exhaustion, clearly indicating that the constant confrontation against knight-class warriors was slowly draining them.

However, that wasn’t the real problem no; the problem was the scale of the attack on the city of Serith. This was no longer just a sabotage or assassination strategy; this had already reached the rank of a full-fledged invasion. Otherwise, there would be no point in the massive number of forces deployed within the city of Serith.

One had to know that knight-class warriors did not grow on trees, and even the weakest among them were valuable resources for any kingdom or empire, so they were not easily deployed.

With nearly a dozen dead knights on their hands, the duo of Desmond and Xolei couldn’t help but notice that things weren’t as simple as they seemed, and while they couldn’t be sure of it, they could both already imagine an army stationed outside the walls trying to kill them. To take advantage of the chaos within the city to break through the city’s defenses and prevent a siege.

“Do you need a break?” Desmond couldn’t be bothered with the formalities anymore, and seeing that the Xolei soldiers seemed about to collapse from exhaustion, he commented without a second thought.

Xolei didn’t take Desmond’s comment kindly, but even he had to admit that the unexpected resistance had begun to take its toll on his men, the fact that they were able to stay alive so far was already a miracle.

“We cannot rest, the invasion of the city is worse than I thought, and the situation outside the walls remains unknown; at worst, this is an invasion, and if that is so, then it won’t be long before the siege weapons rain down fire on the city.”

Only a few times in his life had Desmond had the chance to give such a wry smile. Xolei didn’t understand Desmond’s expression at first, but his face turned pale when he saw the direction Desmond was pointing.

In what could only be described as a firestorm of biblical proportions, the city of Serith was falling victim to the siege weapons, as mentioned earlier.

However, Serith had not been the kingdom’s capital for so many years in vain, and the city’s magical defenses quickly repelled most of the bombardment with an energy dome that covered everything above the city walls.

God only knew what kind of resources it would take to maintain a barrier like that. Still, Desmond could already imagine that the expense would be astronomical, to say the least, not to mention that it was unlikely to be a defensive measure that could be used for an extended time.

Worst of all, the barrier wasn’t perfect or couldn’t take the total weight of the bombardment at any one time, so several giant fire bolts passed through the barrier, bringing death and ash with them.

In a clear display of the goddess of fortune’s contempt, Desmond’s party was right in the impact path of a portion of the barrage that passed through the barrier.

Desmond wasted no time; he didn’t have that luxury; he had already seen the damage those fire bolts could cause. Desmond knew that collateral damage alone would be enough to turn the children behind him into scattered ashes if not dealt with properly.

Desmond’s muscle fibers cried out in pain as they were bombarded with wave after wave of fiery mana, the blue threads never being so quick to weave together to form the blue gauntlet around Desmond’s right arm. Only with ; Desmond could exert such fast and precise control to combine multiple abilities from different elements in a fraction of a second.

Using two whirlwinds around his legs as thrusters and springs, Desmond lifted off the ground fifty feet high to meet the gigantic bolt of fire aimed at his group just in time.

Until that moment, Desmond had not stopped the flow of mana to his right arm, pouring every ounce of mana left within him into it, causing the gauntlet to throb with raw power, and in an act that might seem foolish to many, Desmond struck the firebolt with his right hand.

“”

The result was... anticlimactic. There was no titanic clash between two opposing forces or a massive burst of energy, and quite counterintuitively, the bolt of fire silently dispersed in tandem with the waves of aquatic mana emanating from the gauntlet upon impact.

It was a rare case where two opposing forces canceled each other out without causing much of a conflict in the process. However, this was mainly due to the soft destruction characteristics within Desmond’s attack that nullified the destructive effect of the firebolt.

This was not without cost, as Desmond was now in his most vulnerable state; without even a drop of mana at his disposal, it was the perfect opportunity if Xolei wanted to stab him in the back.

As Desmond landed back on the ground, Xolei gave him a thoughtful look. He was trying to gauge Desmond somehow, looking for a weakness to exploit, but the man was bound to be disappointed; Desmond was far from being such an easy person to read.

“You plan to stay there until another one of those things falls on us.”

Desmond didn’t even care about the way Xolei looked at him; it was precise because he had run out of mana that Desmond couldn’t afford to put himself at more risk, nor could he show a less aggressive attitude than he had previously shown.

Xolei almost wanted to curse at how ridiculously coarse Desmond’s mana reserves were, who was apparently OK after everything he’d been through so far.

Unknown to both of them, by the time the firebolt was found close enough to be a threat to the children, Cecilia had already slipped back into her strange trance state and only returned to normal once Desmond had disposed of the threat.

For better or worse, Cecilia’s ability to enter that strange state and exploit her power seemed to be increasing with the passage of time and the recurring events that put her safety and the safety of others at risk.