The atmosphere in the command center shifted from one of high-strung anticipation to sheer, unadulterated shock as the words settled. The air seemed to grow thin, leaving a heavy silence in its wake.
"The negotiations failed... so we killed all those Victorians," Remilia stated, her voice as calm and matter-of-fact as if she were reporting a minor change in the weather rather than the total erasure of a professional military force.
Hearing her words, Talulah and Alina were completely stunned. They stood frozen for a moment, their minds racing to process the geopolitical weight of such a statement.
"Killed them all? What on earth happened!" Talulah finally managed to ask, her voice tight with urgency and a burgeoning sense of dread.
Remilia took a seat with effortless grace and recounted the events that had transpired to them. She detailed the initial attempt at diplomacy, the arrogant Victorian refusal, the subsequent artillery barrage they had launched against the Mansion's members, and the swift, absolute retribution that followed. She spoke of Flandre's "windmill" through the artillery ranks, her own charge into the casters, and finally, the scarlet nightmare that had ended the struggle.
After listening, Talulah understood that things had reached a point like a bursting dam; there was no stopping it now. The Victorian regular army had been annihilated on Ursus soil. She could only be thankful that it was Remilia's group who went; they had enough strength to completely annihilate the opposition before a single messenger could escape to call for reinforcements in the heat of the moment. If Buldrokkas'tee had gone, the Reunion Movement would have likely lost many elite Shield Guards in a protracted battle of attrition, and they might not have even been able to stop the Victorian army's advance entirely.
Furthermore, after hearing about the specific way Patchouli had handled the aftermath—the artificial Catastrophe site—Talulah fell into deep thought. She paced the room slowly, weighing the implications. After a long while, she finally raised her head to look at the librarian.
"Your speculation and ideas are very reasonable and meaningful," Talulah admitted, her expression turning from shock to one of calculated respect. "The arrogance of Victorians is indeed carved into their bones. If we followed Miss Remilia's method of leaving the bodies as a warning, it would indeed create an effective deterrent against Victoria, but it would also have a high probability of inciting their legendary will to resist. They would see it as a blood feud that must be answered with the full mobilization of the Steam Knights."
She paused, looking toward the southern horizon. "On the contrary, Miss Patchouli, while your method yields the same result—also a deterrent—it is more covert and leaves them unable to gauge our true depths. Even if the Victorians develop resistance and a stress response to this, they will choose to retreat in the face of the unknown and the primal fear of Originium. They will think we have mastered the weather itself."
Patchouli nodded slowly, essentially agreeing with Talulah's assessment. "To control the narrative of a battle is often more important than the battle itself," she added softly.
"By the way, how are the battlefields on the Eastern and Western fronts?" Flandre, who hadn't had enough fun yet and was visibly itching for more action, broke in. She was swinging her legs back and forth, her eyes bright with a lingering battle-lust.
Talulah looked toward the east, her brow furrowing, then back at Remilia. "Miss Remilia guessed correctly... although the enemy sent an army to the east, it's mostly a diversion. Their mobile warships are stationed ten kilometers away from the hilly area, neither approaching nor moving further away. At this distance, the enemy's bombardment can cover the hills, but it's just outside our own firing range. If our mobile modules were to withdraw from here, the enemy could simply advance and bring the hills within their bombardment range. So we are completely pinned down."
She then turned her attention to the tactical map of the western quadrant. "Yelena sent word earlier that the enemies coming from the west number about five thousand. This is also the limit of what we can handle with our current distribution of forces."
"I want to go to the west to fight!" Flandre raised both hands high into the air the moment Talulah finished speaking, her excitement nearly causing her to lift off the floor.
"Can't you take a rest?" Remilia looked at Flandre, a touch of sisterly exasperation in her voice.
"There's time to rest every day, but opportunities to fight are too rare," Flandre replied matter-of-factly, her logic as simple and direct as a spear.
Remilia rubbed her temples, feeling a headache brewing. She looked over at Patchouli, whose face appeared somewhat pale and drawn. Mainly, today's level of activity—maintaining high-level elemental manipulation over such a vast area—had exceeded the librarian's usual physical limits. Out of concern for her friend, Remilia thought about it and decided to take her to see Eirin Yagokoro immediately.
"Sakuya, accompany Flandre," Remilia commanded. "Patchy isn't feeling very well, so I'll accompany her back to rest and find Eirin."
Sakuya Izayoi, ever the perfect servant, immediately stood behind Flandre, her posture impeccable. "As you wish, Milady."
"Then let's go!" Flandre rushed out the door impatiently, her wings snapping open before she even cleared the threshold.
Once outside, the two flew directly toward the west, two streaks of light cutting through the Ursus sky. In less than half an hour, they arrived at the western battlefield.
At this time, the atmosphere was thick with the smell of wet earth and tension. Both sides were still testing each other, probing for weaknesses in the line. The army of the Ursus Old Nobility was indeed well-equipped, boasting heavy armor and standardized Victorian-style weaponry, but the military hardware the Reunion Movement had previously seized from imperial caches was just as good. With a top-tier powerhouse like Buldrokkas'tee—the Patriot—personally overseeing the defense, the line remained an immovable wall. Even though the Reunion Movement's overall numbers were lower than their opponents', the Ursus Noble Army didn't dare to commit fully to a frontal assault against the legendary commander.
It was at this moment that Flandre arrived, her presence immediately drawing the attention of both friend and foe. She dove through the air, flying directly to Yelena's side.
"Frostnova, how are things going now?"
"Flandre! Why are you here? Has the trouble with the Victorians in the south been resolved!" Yelena was very surprised to see the girl. Her white hair was dusted with light frost as she maintained the local temperature to favor her Yeti Squad. After all, only half a day had passed since the sisters had departed. On this battlefield, they had only barely finished estimating the enemy's numbers and were still testing what types of troops and Arts the enemy had brought to the field.
"Mm-hmm, it's already settled, so that's why I came here!" Flandre nodded, her smile wide and innocent despite the carnage she had just left behind.
"That's great. Without the help of the Victorians, it won't be difficult to hold them back," Yelena said, a visible weight lifting from her shoulders.
In truth, both the Reunion Movement and the Ursus Noble Army were waiting for news from the south. For Reunion, if the Victorian army managed to flank them, they would surely be doomed to a crushing defeat. As for the noble army, although they were stronger than Reunion in a vacuum, their commanders were cowardly; they knew that a full-scale assault against the Shield Guards would lead to heavy losses. They were waiting for the Victorians to strike the rear so they could perform a pincer movement against Buldrokkas'tee's position and claim a "glorious" victory with minimal casualties.
They never expected that the Victorian army had already been completely wiped out.
The Reunion Movement's morale soared as the news of the southern victory spread through the ranks like wildfire. Sensing the shift in the air, Buldrokkas'tee decided to take the initiative. He knew that the enemy wouldn't be willing to fight a hard battle right now, nor would they expect his side to push so aggressively while outnumbered. If they launched a counter-charge before the enemy could react to the southern failure, there was a high probability of catching them completely off guard.
Flandre indicated that she could provide fire suppression for the charge.
"The enemy has a drone squadron, equipped not only with reconnaissance drones but also various types of bombs. They are hovering behind the main line and are the greatest threat to our advance; I'll leave them to you, Flandre." Seeing Flandre's eager expression, Yelena pointed toward a specific cluster of activity deep within the Ursus Noble Army's formation.
"Awoo, Flandre is on it!" Flandre declared, her eyes locking onto the distant mechanical buzzing. The drone squadron was now her prey.
With that, she pounced forward like a hungry tiger. Beside her, Sakuya Izayoi gave Yelena a slight, respectful nod before following closely behind, her hands already reaching for the silver knives hidden within her apron.
Seeing Flandre flying openly through the air while looking for her target, the enemy naturally spotted her immediately. The Ursus Noble Army, long aware through intelligence reports that the Reunion Movement possessed such a lethal and unpredictable weapon as the younger Blood Demon, was naturally prepared for her arrival.
Shortly after she flew into the heart of the battlefield, the ground erupted. Accompanied by several deep booms of specialized cannon fire, Flandre suddenly found herself surrounded by a series of massive, weighted fishing nets launched from pneumatic mortars.
Those nets were not ordinary; they were covered in dense, dull grayish-brown specks that glinted with a sickening light. The enemy had mixed a massive quantity of raw Originium granules into the mesh. The design was cruel and efficient: once the nets tightened around a victim, those jagged Originium granules would be pressed directly into the skin and muscle, causing immediate infection or agonizing physical trauma. It was an extremely insidious method of capturing or killing powerful casters.
But facing gaps in the mesh that were the size of a fist, Flandre felt the enemy seemed to be looking down on her.
Under the watchful eyes of the horrified and hopeful crowds below, she didn't struggle. Instead, she suddenly transformed into a swirling swarm of hundreds of tiny bats with a sharp 'bang' of displaced air. The bats flew quite openly through the holes in the nets, leaving the weighted traps to fall uselessly to the muddy ground below.
After reforming her body on the other side of the trap, Flandre hovered in the air and looked around with a bored expression.
"I'm here to deal with the drones; I don't have time to play with you guys," she pointed around at the soldiers below, her voice carrying across the field. She was giving them a fair warning: her mission wasn't to deal with the infantry, so they shouldn't bother her.
But the people below clearly had no intention of stopping there. For the Ursus nobles, this "monster" was the greatest obstacle to their victory, and they were prepared to throw every resource they had to bring her down.