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The fire had completely swallowed the entire forest an hour later. The glow of the fire was so bright that the night sky was painted in a shade of red. Looking down, it looked just like a huge red patch has covered the earth.

4 kilometers to the East of the woods, the soldiers who had escaped gathered and gazed at the fire from afar, fear still evident in their eyes.

".....Do a headcount."

After an hour of non-stop rescuing, Benjamin was utterly exhausted that dizziness wrapped around his brain like cotton. He bent down to hold his knees and ordered the System to count for who remained, and a few moments later, the System announced the results.

"The soldiers who managed to successfully escape amounts to 20 thousand people. Almost half of the army were lost in the woods. However, the number of mages remained at approximately 2000. We lost more than half of our weapons and supplies, but it can still sustain the rest of this battle-torn army if we use it all."

Benjamin nodded.

At this moment, he was overwhelmed with a sense of sadness. No matter what, this ambush was his idea, and he was the one who set off the self-immolation of the bishops and the priests. He suddenly realized what a decision-maker needed to shoulder when they took up the job.

General Kent probably lost his life in the ambush too...

"You do not need to feel guilty for what happened. This was a great ambush." The Guild Master suddenly spoke. "We managed to eliminate over ten thousand knights and a thousand priests of the Kingdom of Helius. 3 bishops died as well. The Church is going to suffer greatly from this. You protected Icor’s honor, and every life sacrificed on the land was worthy for that."

".....Thank you." Benjamin inhaled as he collected his thoughts.

"Let’s go. We should leave here as soon as possible," continued the Guild Master, "The Kingdom of Helius would probably send another wave of soldiers to trail us, thus we should meet up with our other troops as soon as possible."

"Of course."

After they stood in silence, mourning for their loss while they gazed at the fire, the Guild Master led the rest of the soldiers and marched on to Rock City in the East. Miles explained the situation when they were on the way there.

When the coup first started in Regina, Miles had coincidentally snuck into the Palace - don’t ask him why - and the bishop was interrogating the Guild Master. Miles hid in the dark and waited until the Guild Master was put in a sack and moved out of the city by some mercenaries before he took action. He tailed them for quite a distance; that was when he sent the message to Benjamin.

That explained why rushed footsteps were heard in the message.

The mercenaries continued northwards, but Miles did not have the chance to act as they travelled amongst the refugees. It was only when they left the main route that Miles jumped out of his hiding and saved the Guild Master.

The rescued Guild Master was very anxious. He did not even have time to return to Regina to tell people that he was safe. He went straight to the borders, intending to warn the guards there, but the guards were no more, just like Benjamin expected. Instead, they found Benjamin and the others, hiding in the woods.

"Our ambush was almost perfect, how did you find us?" Benjamin was curious.

"It was okay..." Miles shrugged. "There’s too much signs of activity around the forest. Frankly, if you take notice, the signs were easy to spot. After that, I sneaked into the forest, and found out that it’s you guys. We were quite surprised, to be honest."

"About that hole." The Guild Master stepped in. "It was too dangerous to have an ambush in the woods. I thought that the enemies might think of setting the forest on fire, so we did not rush to reveal ourselves. Instead, we prepared something just in case."

".....Okay."

After he finished listening to Miles’ side of the story. For some reason, Benjamin cannot help but feel a sense of helplessness. If he knew that the Guild Master was rescued, he would not have needed to do everything he did like his life depended on it, right?

No matter what, as long as everything was okay, then the rock would be off Benjamin’s chest. Once the Guild Master returned to Regina, the situation would improve so much once he controlled the situation alongside the Acting Prime Minister.

Two days later.

"Alright. Most of our soldiers are already camped in Rock City, and we gathered a total of 70 thousand soldiers within the city. We should be able to defend ourselves for some time."

Half a day before, Benjamin and the Guild Master had returned to Regina. Now, they were discussing about the plan with the other officials.

"Not only we need to defend ourselves, we need to defeat the enemy." The Acting Prime Minister shook his head. He asked the people who made the report. "What about the Kingdom of Helius? What are they up to?"

"They attacked quite a number of cities, and did not face much opposition. However, their strongest army are still in the Morant Fields. They did not press the attack."

"Morant Fields, huh...." Benjamin frowned.

The Morant Fields are a wide landscape to the west of Icor. It was mostly barren, but it was the nearest route to Regina. From there to Regina was only some hills where Rock City is located. That was probably the only barrier of defense that offered them an advantage.

Once Rock City falls, Regina would be in danger. Seems like the situation was still very disadvantageous to them.

"How many people did the Kingdom send out? Have you investigated the strength they have and their supplies?" The Acting Prime Minister inhaled and asked.

"No details yet, but from the looks of it, they have at least 200,000 men. Strong anti-fortress weapons... They probably have more than a hundred."

"More than a hundred? Hundreds of the Cannons of Holy Lights?"

"Apologies, sir, but we cannot confirm that. However, it is entirely possible."

Everyone gasped.

"Hundreds of those Cannons... We might as well surrender to them, Rock City could never withstand that." An official looked ashen. "If they fire simultaneously, even Regina would turn into ruins!"

"Stop with all that nonsense!" The Guild Master rebutted. "There’s no confirmation. Why are you only thinking about surrendering?"

"You’re a mage. They’re the church, of course you would never surrender. However, Icor is a place for people to live and prosper peacefully, and if it was destroyed, what could you mages do? Besides... Besides, we don’t need to actually surrender! The church only wanted to spread their religion, maybe we could seek for a peace treaty of a sort!"

"What peace treaty? If you’re a coward, then get out of here! We don’t need rubbish like you!"

"I’m not a coward, I’m just thinking for the people of Icor..."

The terrifying difference in power caused a huge divide in opinions even between the officials. Two parties were formed, one for war, one for a peace treaty, and the voice from the peace treaty side was not small.

A peace treaty....

Benjamin clenched his fist. There was no way of reconciliation between them and the Church. Sending a bunch of things there and sign pages of pages of humiliating rules? How is that different from surrendering?

Furthermore, if Icor wanted a peace treaty, then they would need to kick the Academy of Magic out. Don’t forget - the entire reason for this war was for the Church to take their key back. These people want them to retreat? The only way for that to happen was them to tie Benjamin up in tons of ropes and send him over.

Also, would an organization like the Church let Icor off the hook even if they retreated?

"Enough!"

Finally, the Acting Prime Minister forcefully stopped the discussion, his arm waving. Then, he turned to look Benjamin, who remained silent all this while.

"Director Benjamin. What do you think? What should we do to stop the invasion of the Kingdom of Helius?"