The Runic Alchemist - Chapter 715 715: The War For Malveria 2

“Lord Keeper, Your Majesty..” the emperor greeted them in private after all the official welcome had ended under a fancy tent.

Damian had brought Sam, Einar, Lucian, and Souldealer. The five of Sanctuary. From Eldoris, the queen herself, Vidalia, and the spellsword captain of the queen’s guard. Added with two third rankers that were stationed here on the border.

One was Bonecrusher, and another was a man Damian did not recognize. Looked like a Spellsword.

The Empire had gone all out with all four of their third rankers. Once the emperor had seven of them, including Moondancer. Now only four. Two were at the border, including the emperor himself, and two who kept the Faerunians from coming deeper into Dawnstar. He had heard Moondancer also had a duchy near the ocean. She wasn’t as effective, but she still had a third ranker physique and had learned swordsmanship—ranking below all Transcendants but still above peak-level second rankers. She wasn’t around or his spell would have activated. In one day, only those who could fly or had help could get here.

Added with the one Faerunian Transcendant already present at the border—the Faerunians had sent two people, the same female mage and another man Damian did not recognize. He was built like a tank though, almost equal to Bonecrusher—must be a pugilist.

And of course, one Mindseer of Highswords. Once, the Highswords alone would have been enough to face the threat present. Gone were those days though.

The alliance army, led by all the second rankers brought by him and Eldoris along with all the captains of the alliance army which were already present there, had already formed ranks and taken their positions.

The peak-level second rankers, the ones considered Transcendent seeds, had a special position in it. The Sanctuary only had one of those—a young knight named Quazshi. He was a Spellsword and quite a loyal knight that had served under the king of Dawnstar and was now part of Prince Leon’s retinue.

They weren’t the only ones who were ready. The gathered army was dead silent, looking straight forward—the army of demons was equally prepared. It was clear they had expected the humans to unite together sooner or later—all seven Transcendent demons with their own armies behind them stood ready. Each even had impressive second rankers in their frontlines.

And that was not all.

Behind the giant army of the Malveria, an enormous dragon was releasing the mist of corruption into the open air without pause. Not sure there was any control over the release for the resurrected unnatural monster.

How much of that Legendary power still remained in the thing? The Land-Breaker sure had roughed up the guy. There were bones sticking out and rotten flesh dripping with darker-than-abyss-like liquid. Was that mana or blood?

The eyes of the resurrected Chaos Dragon were chilling purple. Just like the mist coming out of its nostrils with each breath. Seated upon it was the Demon King. Compared to the Chaos Dragon, the Transcendent Esper was barely worthy of note. The mana in him was below average; his hands and hair were bright purple though—an Esper with physical signs barely survived for long. Only people like Moondancer and, supposedly, this Demon King with their overwhelming Esper power could survive long enough to rank up. Sam had no outward signs and even he was hunted like a rare animal. Without his mana generators or weird powerful dungeon relics or ancient sacrium weapons—only Esper powers had the potential to become so powerful that they rose far above their rank. They were too much for Transcendent kings to handle or control—needless to say, that was not a good thing.

Prime Espers, the ones with overwhelming power or control over primal elements, were the most dangerous ones. Sam, despite being a third ranker, had the potential to even fight against a fourth ranker for a while—he had done so against the Demon Lord. And that guy was far above what even fourth rankers could do. Espers were always seen as a great imbalance in this world of systemic power.

However, that was all before a Transcendent Rune Shaper existed.

“How was it?” Damian asked the emperor.

Only the three of them were in the tent, all their Transcendants were eyeing each other at a bit of a distance outside the tent. The emperor not inviting a Faerunian representative was a clear sign of disrespect—if the guy was nothing else, he sure was petty.

“They want us to surrender—the reward of which will be a simple death, they said.” The Dragon Emperor replied.

“Let’s do it then.” The elf queen said.

All their Transcendants had arrived for over ten minutes now. And the demons had not changed their stance at all. They were confident to fight eighteen Transcendents with their eight. A bit too confident in their fancy dragon, weren’t they? They did have almost equal armies, but over 70% of humans were second rankers or at least first rankers with two jobs. While only 30% of demons present in the army were second rankers and high-level first rankers.

“What’s the plan for Transcendents?” the Dragon Emperor asked.

“Two for each one of theirs—it’s simple enough.” The Elf Queen said.

They had much greater strength—a detailed plan was indeed not that needed, it would just confuse people.

“And you get the dragon?” the man who was a dragon himself asked.

“Sure,” Damian replied.

“I will come along. Vidalia can handle her alone.” The elf said with a matter-of-fact voice.

“Then I will join too.” The emperor said.

Damian eyed. What did that mean? He was not confident enough to come along if it was only Damian himself?

The cheeky emperor smiled, noticing his glare as if he was the purest soul in the three worlds.

They separated. The emperor’s people and Eldoris’s people already chose their opponents. Damian first let the three Faerunians choose their one target. Then the remaining female mage joined with one of Eldoris’s third rankers. In the end, the two remaining weirdly dressed demons came to Sanctuary’s share.

Damian was not worried though—it might be arrogance or favoritism, but he knew for a fact that in all Transcendants present, his five were the best in the best.