Chapter 363   - 362 - The Rustlands' Aftermath

Point-of-View: Cusnai Bronztan

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"This is all quite overwhelming and distressing...we have sustained a significant amount of damage and casualties," Frowned my mom, as she went through the reports.

I was currently in the throne room along with a few other S-Ranks and a couple of the X-Ranks, facing King Rustlands, former Princess and Prince Silvland, and my mom, former Queen Bronztan. Oh, and Belia was here too, of course. About half a day had passed since the attack ended, and the Rustlands was in absolute shambles.

Towards the end, Belia had managed to unravel the barrier that Sant A.C. Laus had put up, though it took her like half an hour to pull it off. There was a small silver lining though, and that was the fact that she used the experience to improve the protective barriers before reactivating them.

So from now on, breaking the protective barriers will be a lot harder. But that doesn't change anything that's already happened today. So many of the buildings were in shambles, with corpses and strewn-about body parts scattered all over the place.

"Still, it could have been a lot worse," Remarked Belia, before adding, "In fact, the end result was a lot better than I'd have anticipated halfway through the battle."

"If nothing else, at least we did not lose too many civilians," Spoke up King Rustlands in agreement.

Right, shortly after the attack began, most of the civilians teleported to the underground safe zones, and thanks to that, the vast majority of them had survived.

"That said, these casualty reports are seriously concerning, so many people were killed...," Frowned Agatha Silvland, before adding with a grimace, "...I hate to bring this up now, but...if we're attacked again, do we have the power to repel the attackers?"

"Yeah, I doubt that, our forces have suffered some pretty heavy blows," Agreed Belia, before summarizing the casualties, "Just under eight hundred thousand Volunteers were killed, which only leaves a little under three hundred thousand of them remaining. And while the vast majority of civilians got to safety in time, a good forty thousand or so weren't so lucky. And we also lost of few of our highest ranked Adventurers, which is very unfortunate. In total, we have just under one million dead and counting."

One X-Rank had been killed; Kyle Quill. As for the S-Ranks, two had been killed, namely Marti Touw and Kalbowdi Payse, while several others had sustained severe injuries and were currently recovering, sleeping it off after being healed.

"We lost more than we needed to...I was attacked by a pair from Abyss at the end of the battle," Spoke up Lily Curran, one of the X-Ranks here, the other being Shin Tanaka.

"As was I...but Kyle protected me...and died as a result," Added Shin bitterly.

"Yes, we received a report about that from the Guild. Additionally, Kuro Black was seen in the Rustlands Stadium, fighting Sant A.C. Laus, before leaving after the latter managed to escape. On top of which, we also received reports of two other sightings, both of reptile-like humanoid creatures, one with feathers and-," Explained Agatha, reading the report.

"Let me see that," Interrupted Belia, snatching the report from her, her eyes widening slightly as she read it, "These descriptions sound like...two of the Elemental Dragons. Well, now, how interesting...I can't believe that I was right, they really are working under Kuro now."

"This is problematic...dealing with two enemies that are both more powerful than us is far too difficult with our current resources," Frowned my mom.

"Be that as it may...the Laus Domain suffered a significant amount of losses too, so they won't be attacking any time soon. And I doubt Abyss will attack either," Surmised Belia with a smirk.

"How can you be so sure?" Responded King Rustlands uncertainly.

"Looking at Kuro's tactics when I attacked the Elves and again today...it's clear to me that he wants to avoid suffering any casualties on his side. He'll take advantage of the situation during conflicts between us and the Laus Domain, but otherwise, he'll likely stay quiet if unprovoked. Though if he really wanted to wipe us out, he could probably do so without a single casualty...after all, the number of monsters he has at his command are well over a million now," She pointed out with a wry smile.

Yeah, there's no doubt that Abyss is the most well-placed nation right now...in the event that all out war breaks out, they'll be the most likely to win. The Rustlands exiling Kuro is still something I can't bring myself to understand, it was just such a stupid move.

"That's all the more reason why Abyss is such a concern...he may be willing to stay quiet if we don't provoke him, for now, but it's entirely possible that he'll have a change of heart somewhere down the line," Argued Agatha Silvland with a look of concern.

"It does not matter, we do not have the power to attack Abyss even if we wanted to, so all we can do is leave well alone. Do not forget that the Laus Domain has built fortresses all over the place, so we cannot even approach Abyss without provoking them," Sighed my mom in frustration, before turning to Belia, "You said Kuro has over a million monsters under his control...how many do we have?"

"About two hundred thousand, excluding the Ghouls," Replied Belia, adding, "Speaking of which, those monsters are likely the reason why we were able to repel the attack at all. And that credit goes to Minise Mefvis, she didn't even know precisely how to summon every single monster under her control, let alone spread them all out the way she did, but she still managed to figure it out and pull it off. I have to admit, I was genuinely pretty impressed by that."

"Yeah, we can't deny that if it wasn't for her efforts, we would probably all be dead right now," Said Agatha Silvland in agreement.

"Indeed, perhaps we should consider posting those monsters evenly throughout the Rustlands, assuming that they can be controlled," Mused my mom.

"Oh, that should be fine. With the exception of the Ghouls, all of the other monsters under Minise's command are easy to control," Assured Belia, before adding, "By the way, there is one silver lining from this situation that we haven't addressed yet."

"And that is?" Inquired King Rustlands with a raised eyebrow.

"The Demons are stronger now...eleven of them had their host bodies killed during the battle, and they subsequently possessed members of the other races to gain stronger hosts. However, three of them failed, their targets were able to resist the possession and maintained control of their bodies. But the other eight successfully possessed their targets," Informed Belia with a smirk.

"If that is true, they will be useful to spar against, so that we can get an idea of what to expect when fighting against someone from the Laus Domain," I spoke up.

"Sure, I don't think they'd mind that," Replied Belia with a shrug.

"This is all well and good, but the underlying issue remains...our forces were far too severely depleted in that battle, as things stand we do not stand a chance of defending ourselves and successfully repelling an enemy attack. We need something drastic in order to make up for our lost power," Surmised my mom with a frown.

"We could reinforce the top of the walls with cannons and large crossbows, we did so during the initial Vampire attack," Suggested King Rustlands.

"That could work, but I don't think it's enough," Responded Agatha Silvland.

Suddenly, before anyone else could suggest something, the doors to the throne room burst open and Elina Fenegus came storming in, her eyes gleaming with a triumphant look in them.

"I apologize for the sudden interruption, I was going to wait until your discussion was complete...but as my reason for being here is related to this current discussion, I thought it fitting that I enter," She remarked with a look of smug confidence.

Huh, she just admitted to eavesdropping this whole time, wow...

"This had better be important," Frowned my mom in disapproval.

"Oh, it is very important. You see, I too was considering how we may bridge the gap in power and numbers between us and our enemies, and I believe that I have come up with something quite remarkable," Replied Elina with a confident smirk.

"Sounds intriguing...well, come on, let's hear it," Remarked Belia with a look of interest.

"It is quite simple...I got the idea from the way respawnable monsters work. Just like how the majority of these monsters simply follow the commands of their Monster King or whoever is in control of them, this spell will utilize a similar mechanism. We create humanoid figures out of wood or metal, equip them with weapons and then cast spells on them to have them move and attack specific targets!" She proposed confidently.

That's...actually a really good idea. So basically, she's suggesting that we create wooden or metal golems, sort of. Huh, but since Golems are a type of monster in this world, would these be called something different?

"Ho, that is an interesting idea...metal may be effective, but making them using wood may be a problem, would they not be easy to destroy?" Inquired my mom skeptically.

"We could use stronger materials, but those are harder to find, while wood is easy to acquire. We can easily cast defensive barriers onto the wood to increase durability," Replied Elina almost immediately.

Wow, looks like she's really thought this through. But...

"What about fuel? A continuous spell that is cast onto an inanimate object like this will wear off almost immediately," I pointed out.

"Wait, really? Then what about the anti-infliction-spell enchantments? How come those don't wear off?" Inquired Shin, looking confused.

"Oh, that's simple, the items that are enchanted with that spell feed on the wearer's Mana, which is a miniscule amount since it's a simple spell," I explained, before adding, "But in this case, there's no Mana source to feed on, and it's definitely not going to be simple spell."

I then noticed my mom narrowing her eyes at me a bit...huh, I wonder what that's ab-...oh, crap, I forgot to talk all formally and stuff...

"You are correct in your explanation and knowledge, however, it does not matter...I have already considered the issue of a Mana source...," Declared Elina with a smirk, "We simply use Mana Orbs as cores to fuel them!"

That's...actually brilliant. And based on everyone's expressions, they all felt the same way too. That included Belia, she looked genuinely impressed by this suggestion. Elina Fenegus...I can see that her being labeled a genius is thoroughly justified...

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