Vera finally relaxed and turned to look for the stupid dragon, only to see people from Faris Empire walking toward her. Her eyes widened.
"Gundam!"
A solid machine body built from high-strength alloy, dozens of meters tall, appeared instantly among the crowd. A flash of cold blade light followed.
A Battle Aura slash dozens of meters long sent the massive Gundam flying. At the same time, mixed among the crowd, those from Faris Empire drew their blades and attacked Paraten Empire without hesitation.
Their coordination was flawless, instantly killing the strongest fighters present. In just a moment, two Gold and nearly ten Silver died to the sudden outbreak.
Outnumbered, the Paraten forces realized something was wrong. A general shouted, "Faris Empire! What are you trying to do!"
The faces of those from Paraten Empire were grim. That strike had clearly been planned long ago.
"What are we trying to do? Heh."
A man bearing the bloodline of Augustus of the Royal Family, with a lion emblem on his robes, stepped forward and waved his hand, surrounding the bomb. "Just as you think. We will kill the princess here and then detonate the bomb."
"This is no longer just diplomacy…"
"Please wait. We never intended diplomacy. Three days ago, everyone in your embassy within Faris Empire was already killed by us."
The man smiled and drew his sword. His golden hair flared like a mane, the lion emblem seeming to roar. "The great Augustus never intended to share peace with the weak. Now do you understand? We are not diplomats. We are the real assassins!"
"In the name of Augustus, the lion's roar will echo over the capital of Paraten!"
"We must seize the bomb!"
"We cannot let them join up with the Ascendant Hall-level Demonkind!"
With a roar, the general charged. The two sides clashed fiercely, all of them above Silver, and the scale was immense, spreading across dozens of kilometers in moments.
"That is…"
"Hahahaha! Where are you looking!"
The battle's disturbance naturally drew the attention of Vedoras in the distance. His face darkened, because such fluctuations meant at least five Gold fighting together. He could also tell those were his side's auras, which meant something major was happening.
Parak looked delighted and laughed even harder, swinging his great axe. A mountain-like phantom smashed Vedoras away at supersonic speed.
"Cough… cough!"
"You still have people? Impossible! With the eastern front intact, how could you…"
Crashing through a small mountain and carving a trench in the forest, Vedoras wiped the blood from his mouth. Parak pressed the attack. "That is none of your concern!"
"Boom!"
On the other battlefield, blades flashed as countless Battle Aura techniques and Magic strikes tore everything apart, reducing the surroundings to scattered Shard.
"This fusion bomb is yours? Impossible. How could you obtain our technology…"
"That is also none of your concern. How could the great Augustus be something you can comprehend?"
Fervor filled Augustus's eyes as golden Gold Rank-colored mane-like hair grew on his face, his power steadily rising. One thing was certain, that bomb technology did not belong to Faris Empire at all, but came from a mysterious ally of the great prince.
His original order had been to use the bomb to destroy Paraten Empire's northern bridgehead, ruin the diplomatic ceremony, and force the two nations into open war. At first, Augustus had been confused about where to find the bomb, and the reply he received was equally strange.
"Do not worry. At the right moment, someone will find it for you."
Back then it made no sense to him. Now, seeing this unfold, his awe for the prince's unfathomable plans only deepened.
"For Augustus!"
With a fierce slash that sent a general flying, Augustus leapt forward and raised his sword high, gathering all his Battle Aura into a massive light blade nearly a hundred meters long. He brought it down on the Gundam that was fleeing at maximum thrust.
The high-strength alloy body split cleanly in two like hot metal through Gold Rank oil, then exploded. Yet Augustus did not show the smile he expected.
He turned sharply to see the general had already retreated, returning his gaze with a grin. "Move now! Our people cannot hold them for long. If you do not want to die, fly with everything you have!"
"Carrying something this dangerous, my wings are going numb, and you still tell me to fly! I am really using all my strength!"
"They are catching up. Hurry!"
Vera grabbed Ham's horns. Ham transformed into a Black Dragon Ham, clutching the person-sized bomb and flying forward with all her might.
Looking back, she saw Augustus leading the remaining pursuers after them. Ham was so scared her legs nearly gave out. "This is really over. Did you not say you had another backup plan? Use it now!"
Vera kept a stiff expression and touched the necklace she had worn since childhood, inlaid with a brilliant crystal gifted by her elder brother. She vaguely remembered it had some function, though she never thought she would need it in this life.
After all, she was a princess. How could she end up somewhere so dangerous? Yet now everything felt like a cruel joke of fate, returning once again to the scene of a princess fleeing desperately with an evil dragon.
"Turn left now. We are heading into that forbidden mountain range."
"If they are not afraid of corruption, let them keep chasing."
Vera still remembered what her imperial brother had said when he gave her this Crystal. He claimed it was a gift from a powerful figure, able to resist the remaining rule pollution of the Evil God. At least, it left a deep impression on the young Vera back then.
She had thought this was just an ordinary sword-and-Magic style Otherworld. Who would have thought it was even related to the Evil God of all things. Still, a treasure like this was not something she would ever refuse, and she had even tried to study it before.
First of all, this Crystal was absurdly hard, and its microscopic structure was just as stable. It used a combination of more than six elements, and its capacity to store Magic and elemental power was extremely high. Back when Vera was desperately short on funds, she drew inspiration from this Crystal to raise money for building the Gundam.
After several sleepless nights, she excitedly took her early design drafts to Louis. When faced with his sister's Magic-based hydrogen bomb concept, Louis initially treated it as a joke. He laughed and played along, but gradually, he stopped laughing.
That was because after many mages and people from the Alchemy Department studied it, the idea actually seemed feasible. In the end, a large amount of resources was spent, including one of the five precious Crystal crystals. That was how fusion white light first appeared in this Otherworld.
However, due to the difficulty of detonation and the fact that the crystal came from Lilith, and might be needed later to prevent Evil God pollution, the project was shut down. Coincidentally, this city was not only a forward base but also an observation station. It had originally been built by Louis to guard against regions that Lilith said were still contaminated by Evil God.
No one had dared to send explorers inside. Now, it was going to be Vera and Ham who became the first to step in.
"Now we might actually have to pray that the pollution left behind by the Evil God is strong enough," Vera said, "and also pray that this Crystal is strong enough to keep us alive while killing those guys behind us."
"Y-you're serious, right," Ham cried. "It has to be true, it must be true. Wuu…"
"By the way, if we rush into a Evil God-polluted zone and come out alive, is that enough to earn the approval of the Ancestors?"
Ham felt that she was supposed to be kidnapping a princess, not getting kidnapped by one instead. But reality was exactly that, and all she could do now was grit her teeth and fly into that region. She could not help thinking about how doing a small job had dragged her into a clash between godlike beings.
And she was holding a Magic Fusion Bomb in her claws. Anyone would be nervous.
Vera was just as uneasy. Even if the Crystal could protect against pollution, there had never been a clear calculation of its limits. What if it depended on strength, and she died before the enemy did.
At the very least, she could not let this weapon fall into their hands. If it detonated in a physical sense, other places would also be affected, no less severe than that invasion back then. For her own life and for her country, this absolutely could not happen.
"That dragon is fast, but it can't shake us," someone said.
The leader, Augustus, frowned slightly. He felt something was off, but when he looked again, it was just two weaklings. What could possibly go wrong.
With the power granted by his prince protecting him, and his own strength already at Gold Rank, killing a young Black Dragon and a princess was trivial. As for traps, with absolute confidence in his power and his burning zeal, how could he care about such things.