The God of Jesters
Chapter 438 - 7.13.2 The missiles.

Chapter 438: 7.13.2 The missiles.

A foolish leader would be the death of an army. And it was for this very reason, even with its nepotist nature, that the ones in the leading position were the ones with talent.

Still having a noble background, most of these soldiers or Knights were from branch families, never capable of holding any influence in their family, so they joined the military to obtain merits and make a name for themselves that way, which in turn also brings honor to their house.

That was the case with Wilhelm Faust, talented to the extreme, but due to his feeble talent as a Knight, he had no place in the family, so he ran away and joined the Tower mages.

Such a story can be repeated for many on the high post of the military, and it was why, they were well aware that the moment the ghoul rampage began, it would be the start of war as well.

This is why they were on alert, spreading their scouts through the battlefield, trying to sense when and where Yethel would attack from.

It was then that they noticed the sky getting bright, as a ball of light flew over the heads of soldiers and ghouls alike, heading towards a place that none of them knew.

"A falling star? So big?"

"It’s a meteor."

"A mage?" Someone wondered, before ignoring it and focusing on dealing with the ghoul nest that had opened to the ground.

"Heard there are Knights capable of flying... legendary knights." There were some that still panicked seeing something odd flying over their head, wondering what kind of master had chosen to show his face today.

And considering this ball of light moved from Yethel to Cynark, there was a high chance, this existence was an enemy at least.

Of course, none were correct, it was their ignorance that limited their imaginations, as never in a hundred years would they ever be able to conceive the destructive power this ball of light contained.

As for its destination, it was the barracks where General Vera was helming the whole operation.

But before it could reach its intended destination, a beam of light appeared from the barracks, striking the missile in its path, with no explosion as well.

"Seems like they made a joke out of us." This was Mage Black Sun, appearing in the nick of time to protect the barracks, but it would seem he had been made a fool. "It’s just a declaration." He understood this was the start of the war and sending just one of these things was odd to begin with.

Mind you, the first time these missiles showed their face to the world, they rained down on Luthanza non-stop for hours, devastating the factories and leaving nothing behind.

But now, there was only one. It would seem odd, but Black Sun understood why the enemies did this. "They are just checking how attentive we are."

Since the last incident, Cynark had developed various countermeasures to deal with these missiles, among which the easiest way to put a powerful elemental mage at the forefront, who can counter the missiles before they reach the destination from range.

The second was to develop a detection system, which a mage can’t use for this, they need to find a way to keep non-stop surveillance on the sky which detects any object that might be flying through the air at a certain size.

Using magic would burn through a lot of money, so like Yethel developed that weapon through mortal means, the same was being tried by Cynark, as a way to counter that weapon.

If not as limited by time, some results will obviously show up in the coming years, but the war waits for no one, and the only way to counter the missiles is left to the mages, who can only react when the missile is too close for comfort.

But not all was lost.

"Follow the smoke trail, find where they are firing this from, and annihilate them." General Vera, from the logistics, gave a direct order to Mage Black Sun, who saw a small trail of smoke and chose to follow it as well.

Last time in Luthanza, his wife came close to death due to these very weapons, so at the moment Black Sun was a bit angry and intended to find the perpetrator and make them pay for all of this.

He is not going to stop until he has his revenge.

"Oh, a small platoon?’ It was then that he noticed white flying through the air, it would seem he had entered Yethel’s airspace, as right below he saw a small army composed of what appeared as only mortals, slowly using the trenches and cover to move toward Cynark.

"Well, I should already be found by them." He was a mage, it would be harder for him to hide from Yethel’s mages, so why not put on a show?

A small fireball appeared on his hand, going unnoticed in the night sky, as it only appeared as a dim star above the soldier’s head.

A small fireball that turned even smaller and paler with time, turning into a black ball. "This is my gift for you." He said, pushing this nail-sized ball toward the soldiers before he carried on in the direction.

He had little time left, it wouldn’t be long before Yethel mages came to surround him, he needed to find the location of these missiles and destroy them.

If not destroyed, he needs to know how much the enemy has in their inventory.

And if that fails, he has to find someone who might know about these weapons and kidnap them.

There were various things on Black Sun’s shoulders.

*****

I could feel it, the small ball of death heading right towards us.

A ball of fire that could easily annihilate our platoon if it exploded.

Which would be comedic considering we were still far from the Line of Control.

"Why me... it’s always me."

None knew of its existence, none could feel it, as this was a platoon of mortals. If there was a Knight here, he might have felt the massive amount of mana that was waiting to explode on us. But there were none in our group, as the group’s purpose was never to fight.

Ours was to be the scouts, that’s how most battles begin.

’This problem... hah.’ If it was the old me, I would have done something drastic and ruined the atmosphere that surrounded my group filled with passionate soldiers. But I was not the old me.

’Just this amount should be enough.’ Before the dark sphere the size of a marble could reach us, a small hole appeared in reality, devouring the marble, before it closed up on its own.

This was the gate to the land of dreams and that was the maximum size I could muster after ascending to the ranks of Totem, but this was enough to deal with a problem like that.

******

On the other hand, the moment his mana was devoured by the world of dreams, a startled look appeared on Black Sun’s face, which caused him to stop in his tracks and look toward the direction of the platoon again.

’A higher level of existence.’ He could feel that the spell never exploded, it was wiped from existence without making a sound.

And that won’t be hard for someone of Black Sun’s level, but the issue was, that mages of Black Sun’s caliber are radiation powerhouses, wherever they go, they would easily be noticed by transcended people around them.

Even the mortals might feel something.

But this time, Black Sun felt nothing, all he could feel was the existence of the distant mages who were aiming for his position. ’This is really odd. An existence like that would have easily annihilated me.’ It was for this very reason, he had stopped in his tracks before looking at the dissipating smoke trail. "Not worth it."

This was the start, and if the first missile could be a fake, then the place he was going following the trail could be a trap as well.

He was not arrogant enough to think his enemies were stupid. Only fools would think in such a way. And he was no fool, nor was he a coward.

With a twist of his hand, multiple fireballs appeared in the air, and then just like before, all of them compressed to turn into dark spheres.

This was his signature spell, Dark Sphere Explosion.

The small balls are a compressed form of explosive mana, which had been compressed to such a level, that they have turned inert, which resulted in it turning into a dark sphere of mana.

But the moment it explodes, it could devastate an entire army all on its own, as the sudden release of pressure and spread of fire overwhelms any enemy that Black Sun had come across easily.

Black sent such destructive spells in random locations before he turned around and flew back to his country.

"I hope you love my gift." Although few would ever hit a living being, or cause any direct harm to the army, everyone would hear it, and everyone would see it.

This can be treated as a great psychological shadow for the enemies. A great way to break their confidence.

Or so it might have been, if not for the sudden appearance of seven different missiles on the horizon, from different destinations, all aiming toward a single location.

And these were not aimed at the barracks.