Just as Flandre continued her search for the drone squadron, the air was ripped apart by the thunderous roar of cannon fire erupting from a nearby ridge. The enemy, desperate to ground the flying monster, unleashed a specialized barrage.
Shells exploded around her in a rapid-fire sequence. This time, they weren't mere iron and explosive; they were wide-range thermobaric bombs paired with Originium Dust shells. The high-intensity thermal bloom from the bombs instantly activated the suspended Originium Dust, triggering a violent secondary explosion. The sky turned a brilliant, sickly red as a massive sphere of flame swallowed everything in a hundred-meter radius.
"Oh no!" Yelena, watching from the Reunion lines, felt her heart drop. A surge of anxiety consumed her as she watched the girl disappear into the inferno. She immediately raised her arms, trying to channel her Originium Arts to drop the temperature and extinguish the flames, but the sheer scale of the blast was overwhelming. A hastily cast Art, even from someone as powerful as Frostnova, could not easily dispel a firestorm spanning nearly a hundred meters.
However, as the flames began to curl and dissipate, two figures gradually emerged from the smoke.
The battlefield fell silent. Both the Reunion fighters and the Ursus Noble Army looked up in absolute disbelief at the two figures hovering in the sky, completely and utterly unharmed.
Flandre was very angry at this moment. While the terrifying flames were physically inconsequential to her, she was offended by the persistence of the "little people." Moreover, she was worried about her companion. The fire hadn't touched her, but Sakuya Izayoi beside her was different; if it weren't for Sakuya's ability to stop time and use the frozen moment to pass through the epicenter of the flames, the maid might have actually suffered burns.
Since these people insisted on delaying her mission, she decided she would take them out first.
Flandre still remembered the exact trajectory of the cannon fire. With a sharp snap of her wings, she instantly accelerated, breaking the sound barrier and charging toward the artillery position. The Ursus crews were still frantically reloading their pneumatic mortars, never expecting Flandre to survive a direct thermobaric hit, let alone counter-charge.
She dove headfirst into the artillery camp, unleashing the full weight of her Power of Destruction. With a simple, casual wave of her hand, she "shredded" every "Eye"—the structural core—of everything she could see. In the next second, the surrounding soldiers and the massive steel cannons were simultaneously pulverized, blown into a fine, metallic powder that settled over the blackened earth.
A specialized sniper team had been lying in ambush around the perimeter of the artillery camp specifically to deal with Flandre. Seeing her land, they immediately popped from their cover and fired a coordinated barrage of heavy bolts from their crossbows.
Spell Card 2: [Checkmaid]
A low, melodic female voice rang out over the din of battle. The bolts didn't hit their mark; they simply disappeared from the air as if they had never existed. Simultaneously, a thick, unnatural mist began to rise from the forest floor, and the sky turned gloomy in an instant, the sun blocked by a sudden, heavy overcast.
Everyone on the field could hear a sound like the rhythmic, heavy ticking of a massive clock in their ears. The Ursus soldiers looked around warily, their grips tightening on their weapons. Then, a dark figure stepped out of the mist. Those who caught a glimpse of her saw only a flash of silver light before their vision faded. The forest began to echo with the sound of lives being snuffed out in a series of short, sharp screams.
The continuous wailing gradually threw the Ursus soldiers into a state of blind panic. Someone finally caught a clear glimpse of the figure stalking through the fog—it was the woman in the maid outfit who had been following Flandre.
Sakuya was moving with a fluidity that defied physics, weaving through the military formation with three throwing knives held between the fingers of each hand. She was harvesting the soldiers' lives row by row, her movements a blur of silver and black. Her eyes were now a deep, predatory blood-red and her expression was ferocious, a sharp and terrifying contrast to her usual cold, noble demeanor. The chilling efficiency of every strike made it clear that she was no longer a servant, but a perfect executioner.
"Damn it, kill her! Kill this monster!" a commander shrieked.
The soldiers hastily clustered together in a defensive circle, aiming their bows and Arts at Sakuya Izayoi. But in the next second, they saw a giant flaming sword cleave down from the heavens.
"How dare you try to hurt Sakuya! All of you, die!"
With a brutal swing of her forty-meter flaming sword, Flandre instantly wiped out the battle line the enemy had struggled to assemble. The fire turned the mud to glass and the men to ash. Those few who managed to flee the flames and run into the mist were easily harvested by the silver knives of Sakuya Izayoi.
Back at the Reunion lines, the fighters had originally intended to follow the charge and support the two... but before they could even get close to the Western flank, they found the environment transformed. The sky had turned pitch black, and a dense, impenetrable fog had swallowed the battlefield.
Buldrokkas'tee immediately called a halt to the Reunion Movement's advance. He recognized a "dead zone" when he saw one. However, he didn't just have them wait; he ordered everyone to retreat from the area of darkness and circle around the flanks to intercept and kill any fleeing members of the Ursus Noble Army who were driven out by the terror inside.
"Why aren't we going in to help?" Yelena asked, looking at the wall of darkness before her. She knew her question sounded naive, but she was feeling a profound sense of frustration. These enemies had come specifically to crush Reunion, yet they were being dismantled by two outsiders while the Reunion warriors watched from the sidelines. The movement had barely played any role at all.
This made the proud Yelena feel utterly useless.
Buldrokkas'tee understood his adopted daughter's feelings. He pointed toward the battlefield and said in his deep, gravelly voice, "Now is not the time to discuss this. I know what you're thinking. If you want to go further, you should work harder instead of wallowing in self-pity here. I'll leave the remnants in the north to you. Go and complete your mission first."
Yelena bit her lip, nodded, and led the Yeti Squad toward the northern part of the battlefield to catch the stragglers.
Patriot looked up at the darkness ahead. Even through his heavy helmet, he could hear the screams drifting out of the fog. A red light flashed in his mechanical eyes, as if he could see through the magical gloom and witness the slaughter inside, which was akin to mowing grass.
It wasn't until more than ten minutes later that the curtain of darkness finally fell. Flandre and Sakuya Izayoi flew back to Buldrokkas'tee's side together. Flandre looked satisfied, like a child who had finished a particularly fun game at a playground, while Sakuya Izayoi had already smoothed her apron and returned to being the calm, composed Head Maid.
"Sorry about that. I originally only wanted to deal with that drone squadron, but those Ursus people were so annoying that I accidentally killed them all," Flandre said with a sheepish, apologetic look.
"It is no matter. Flandre, you did very well, far beyond my expectations," Patriot rumbled. He then turned to his subordinates and ordered them to clear the battlefield.
Before long, the first piece of good news arrived: under Buldrokkas'tee's decisive orders, the Ursus soldiers fleeing from both flanks had been successfully eliminated. Combined with the sheer number of enemies killed by Flandre and Sakuya in the black mist, the battle on the western front had ended perfectly.
Then, a second, more surprising piece of good news arrived. The drone squadron's camp was discovered. The pilots and technicians were found to be entirely dead, yet their drones—including the accompanying bombs and controllers—were all left there completely intact.
Upon inquiry, it was learned that Sakuya Izayoi had been the one to handle that sector. The reason was simple: Flandre had gotten too excited and run off to smash the artillery on the far side. Seeing this, Sakuya had "conveniently" cleaned up the drone pilots while Flandre was occupied. Since Sakuya's method of attack targeted the people with surgical precision, the delicate weapons and equipment were preserved. Had Flandre reached them, those drones would likely have turned into a pile of scrap metal and slag, just like the cannons.
While cleaning up the battlefield, the Reunion fighters seized a massive amount of high-quality weapons and arrows. This brought a wave of genuine joy to the movement.
Flandre asked curiously, "Can't the Reunion Movement produce its own weapons? Why are you still interested in these things?"
"The Reunion Movement does indeed have its own arsenal that can produce some basic equipment," Patriot explained as he inspected a seized crossbow. "But the equipment used by the Ursus Noble Army is far from basic. For example, the range of these hand crossbows is around 300 meters, while the best hand crossbow we can currently build only reaches 200 meters. The gap is significant. Also, the composite steel used in these blades isn't produced by Reunion at all; we can only obtain it through seizures like this, or by purchasing it at exorbitant prices on the black market."