Book 6: Chapter 24 – Princess Maria
Over the nine months, everyone who was anyone had their eyes focused on Ace, or rather, the territory of the Gol Family.
Unfortunately, they were destio be disappointed. Whilst everyone had expected and even hoped that Ace would capitalise on his ret success to tinue his expansion, Ad his group did the opposite.
Choosing to implement their Grand Marshall’s pns, the Gol territory focused on stabilising its current foundations.
But it was in that time that something else happened, catg everyone by surprise.
On the opposite side of the Anarchids, a new and unignorable city took form – the Baruch City.
After arriving in the O’Brien Empire, Linley and his group quickly found Wharton and Lina, where they gave her the finished potion, finally allowio restore the sanctity of her soul – minus her ialent.
The moment it happened, Lina almost had a breakdown after remembering all the horrible acts she had itted over the years.
From her treatment of Ad his family to the way she treated her beloved husband, and worse yet, her attempted pollution of her dear son’s mind.
Linley and Hogg both expihat it wasn’t her fault, that she wasn’t in her right mind, and she k was true, but it didn’t make it any easier to swallow.
Oddly, the one who mao get through to her in the end wasn’t her husband, nor was it either her children. Instead, it was the words of her eldest son’s master, D Cowart.
He reminded her that she couldn’t ge the past; all she could do was trol her as from this point on; Lina decided to spend the rest of her life atoning for her sins by being the best mother and wife she could be.
Aside from Lina herself, the most shocked by the suddeion of her dition was undoubtedly Wharton.
The young Dragonblood warrior was now and had always been a mother’s boy. As such, how could he be ahan enraged by the as of the Radiant Church?
Simir to Linley, he too had a heart that desired nothing but vengeance. Unfortunately, he was nowhere near strong enough, and after watg Ace’s performa year at the War God’s College, he found his drive to get stronger waning.
A feeling which was only made worse when he found that his older brother had also awakeheir family’s bloodline, and the purity of which was far beyond his, to the point where it wasn’t even parable.
It should be hat Wharton had always loved and greatly respected his brother; even now, after all these years apart, that hadn’t ged. But subsciously, as the only one of his to awaken the Dragonwarrior bloodline, he always felt that he would be the oo lead their to prosperity, or at the very least, he thought he would be their ’s greatest warrior of this geion, but now…
First Ace, then Killian, now his own brother. It felt like he was destio be tinuously surpassed by everyone. Even his father had awakeheir family’s bloodline.
Still, when he heard his brother’s pns for their family’s future, he couldn’t help but feel his blood start to boil iement.
The thought of their family peting with Ace’s Gol family, a feat which, after seeing Ace’s strength a year ago, seemed all but impossible, now became a genuine possibility with Linley’s current strength.
The thought of he and his older brother standing side by side, overing oribution after the o slowly climb to the peak of their ti, peting against Ad his group…
As demoralised as he had been, Wharton was still a Dragonblood warrior at the end of the day. Ead every one of them had this burning desire to be number o was that drive which led them to be the number one for such a long period of time.
From that moment on, Linley now led a group with one neahree Dragonblood warriors, and five Undying warriors, all of whom had strength at or above the seventh rank, with the stro – Linley – having the strength of a weaker saint.
It was a terrifying force, so it should’ve e as no surprise that they quickly took over a small city in the Anarchids before quickly expanding to the point where, within a couple of months, they had pletely caught up and even surpassed Ace’s territory, being the first of the two to form their own Duchy, ahe rest of the ti couldn’t have been any more surprised had they tried.
It had been almost eight months since Ace’s group began their resolidation project, and in that time, they hadn’t paid any attention to the happenings of the rest of the world, or at least Ad the rest of his cssmates hadn’t.
“So you mean to tell me that Linley has gone from f a city t the Baruch Duchy in these st eight months?” Ace asked, a petitive light flickering within the depths of his eyes as Cirulus y on the flhting to catch his breath, uo move his body freely after the hellish training session he was forced to endure.
“Yeah,” Cirulus voiced betweehs as he shakily sat up. “The Baruch Duchy was officially formed as of st night.”
“I see,” Ace said before pausing momentarily. “That lizard may have formed a Duchy before us, but I refuse to let him be the first to create an empire as well.
Are we…”
“Yes,” Cirulus answered before Ace could finish his question. “We’re ready to begin our phase as well.”
“Good!” Ace grinned. “Have Killian and the others prepare to set off; we move out tomorrow.”
Just like that, Killian and the enerals’ led their forces on round two of Operation Gol Duchy, and as Cirulus predicted, the other major forces had secretly armed each of their targets with top-quality equipment and resources. Unfortunately, it wasn’t enough!
Not only were Land Ace’s cssmates just as invincible as ever, sweeping through their respective battlefields with incredible momentum, but with the incredible tactics Cirulus taught the rest of the army, the Gol Army showed incredible prowess, destroying their enemies with minimal losses, but that was just the beginning.
“Are we going to have to wait another nine months to solidate these forces?” Ace asked Cirulus as he watched Kannal and Osiris successfully quer their sed City.
“No, not this time,” Cirulus replied. “With the strength of our foundation, we march straight on to the city as soon as you give the word. We’ll stop to solidate after the formation of our Duchy.”
“In that case,” Ace grinned. “You tell Osiris and Kannal, I’ll go ahe other divisions know – we move out in a week!”
Just like that, Ace stepped off against the pressed space beh his feet, causing an explosive soni as he shot off into the distance like a bullet.
“Is it just me, or has he gotten faster?” Cirulus muttered to himself as he stared i Ace’s speed.
Over the st nine months, he had spent most nights training with this young master of his. Although, it robably more accurate to call it a beating rather than training.
That being said, because of the differen strength betweewo, Cirulus had no idea how much Ace had improved, if at all.
Still, he had seen Ace go all out in the past, and even though Ace had always looked like nothing more than a blur in those moments, he could always barely follow him with his senses, but in that moment, as Ace moved, in Cirulus’ eyes, it was genuinely as though Ace had teleported.
It didn’t take more than a few hours for Ace to reach each of his territory’s four divisions and pass on word of the pns moving forward, and without fail, everyone was excited about their new orders, including each division’s new additions.
After getting to experiehe infamous Gol Army’s power first-hand, most, if not all, were excited about fighting alongside this incredible army.
Unfortunately, because Ace’s side didn’t pn on making time to properly stabilise their force, a few spies finally made it into their ranks; as such, word of Ace’s pns got back to several of their enemies.
.
.
.
A few days ter, he tre of the Anarchids, a team of six extremely powerful experts could be seen sitting around a table, one of whom was an entiy who looked like an almost identical version of the Dark Empress, Shelia, only younger.
Maria was the only child of Gediah, the ander of the Demoniacs, and his wife Shelia, the reigning Empress of the Dark Alliand leader of the infamous Cult of Darkness. The same young woman Shelia offered to Ace to join her side all those years ago.
Like Olivier, Sis, and Wukong, she too was one of the peak geniuses of the previous geion, and judging by the powerful, yet somewhat unstable energy she was radiating, she had ehe saint realm not too long ago.
“Princess, this is the first time we have received word of that boy Ace’s pns in advance,” a little giant who was clearly over seveall when standing, dressed in obsidian armour, voiced with respect as he looked at the dark-haired young woman sat beside him. “We would be foolish not to take advantage of this opportunity.”
Had Ace been here, he would have reised the tyrannical man speaking. It was Sulturn, an Archbishop of the Cult. The same man who called Asolent for turning down his Empress’s offer of an arranged marriage.
At the time, the man was no different to the Shelia today, a newly promoted saint, but now, his aura was far more stable and more powerful than it had been back then, and judging by the cold glint in his eyes and urained killing i, it was clear he hadn’t fotten or fiven Ace for his previous rudeness back then.
“Her Highness already said not to take a against Ace lightly,” A handsome middle-aged man with four lo-bck wiending from his back retorted. “Not unless we’re 100% sure to take down Ace.”
“Don’t be such a pussy, Dehis is the first and only time we’ve been able to be oep ahead of him. This is our ce to take him down ond for all; who knows if and when we’ll get another ce like this,” Sulturn snorted before turning back to the princess. “Our side has a dozen two-winged fallen angels with the power of ninth-rank warriors, and aside from you and I, we even have four saint-level fallen angels, one of whom is a six-winged angel with the power of a mid-staged saint.”
“You wish for us to be the first side to break the unwritten rule and send saints to take part in the wars of mortals?” Maria asked lightly, her opinion virtually impossible to read from her almost emotionless face.
“Yes, princess,” Sulturn nodded solemnly. “Since we don’t know which battlefield Ace is likely to appear on, we would have to split the six of us evenly among the four battlefields, but if done correctly, one of roups will undoubtedly run into Ace; at that point, we easily kill him!
After all is said and done, who will dare say anything about our tactics, especially with Ad his group provoking so many of the other major forces?”
Maria didn’t respond immediately. Instead, she looked at the old woman with bck wings sitting with her eyes closed beside her, radiating a power far surpassing the other saints in the room. “What do you think, Granny Harriet?”
The old woman didn’t even open her eyes as she indifferently replied. “It doesn’t matter to me one way or the other; my only job is keeping you safe.”
Maria didn’t take the old woman’s blunt words to heart, clearly used to this old woman’s chilling indifference. Instead, she closed her eyes to pohe options.
“Fine,” Princess Maria said after thinking things through properly. “We’ll do it your way, Sulturn!”
P.S. Support me oreon listed below to read ahead - The release rate is at least 2x as many chapters every week! XD
Currently 158 chapters ahead!
P.atreon./ACoilingDragon
Book 13: Part 15 – ’t Wait
