Chapter 17: Arc 2: Princess of White (10)

[White Blessing]

It was Xiahana’s skill, gained from a contract with the Unity Lord. Unlike techniques or knowledge which could be learned or practiced, skills were like an extra organ. It automatically separated you from the rest of your species by granting you an extra ability outside the usual Mana and Aura.

Sometimes skill augmented the mind or gave mystical ability. It could even function as a weapon created by the user will.

[White Blessing] was built as a metaphysical organ to accommodate White Mana — the Mana of peace and order. It lowered the physical and mental cost of using White Magic, increased its cast-speed, power, efficiency, Mana gathering rate, and aided the user comprehension of the higher Rank in White arsenal. It also granted resistance against White and its two enemies — Red and Black. Upon gaining this skill, Xia had become the White Mana’s favorite daughter.

With this ability in hand, Xia leaped from the edge of Rank 5 to the door of Rank 6. However, what truly made it possible for her to employ wide-area Sanction was the food Amy made.

A meat-dish with cream-sauces that increased vitality, Aura and strength by over fifty percent. A mushroom cream-soup, cooked with expert hand and [Instinct], raising her proficiency in White Magic by three-fold. The steamed fish dish, which further enhanced her speed and concentration.

With this buff on hand, Xia was more than ready to repay Slomrath a thousand-fold.

…

The capital watched the savior’s advent with a gape.

The Princess of White entered with an endless amount of White Mana pouring from the sky.

It was an image of an angle advent.

Her platinum-blonde hair was so pure it seemed to be forged from light. The simple linen dress flowed as the congregation of White Mana jubilantly gathered to win her favors. Rosy skin glowed in the distance, reflecting the color of fulfillment. Her blue eyes shone like the summer day. Her posture relaxed, freed from her burden.

The throne room watched in silence. They couldn’t recognize the hero coming to save the day. Spade viewed the projected live-image in dumb confusion. Betty stared at the working of Rank 6 Magic, mentally short-circuited at the insane amount of White Mana slaughtering the screen. Deputy Commissioner of the Military Police finally entered the room to gawk. As for the Commissioner, he watched the angelic advent with a troubling headache.

“Who is that?” Spade asked Hunter. “How in the world did you miss her when you brought those lists for prospective queens?” Spade shouted. “That girl would have clapped Betty in the next beauty pageant! How did the entire capital miss her?”

At the mention of a woman superior to herself, Betty’s mind automatically shifted to that person in those glory days. She dismissed the thought. It was impossible for the tyrannical shadow of her sister to return like a phoenix in a mere ten-days.

It was Carolina who bashed that delusion.

“This is Xiahana, isn’t it?” Carolina’s mouth hung open. “I can’t forget that image even in my sleep.” The Black mage murmured. “How is this possible?”

“Xia?” Spade’s jaw dropped again. “That is Xia!” he pointed at the incarnation of all the beauty White offered. “Are you blind!? Xia is—”

Xiahana La Louve—the mayor of Springsong — was many things.

A foot in the grave, petulant and exhausted, she was the woman on the edge of breaking. The anxiety case, legendary in her fall from grace, her vitality robbed from stress, malnourishment and insomnia. The beauty crippled by a bad diet, so far away from recreation that bathing was a luxury.

But the woman on the screen was a total one-eighty of those words.

Noble and pristine, she glowed with purpose and health. Her body burst with supplements in all the female forms. To associate the mayor with her was like comparing a duckling to a swan.

“Something must have happened during her disappearance,” Hunter accepted the terrifying reality. “But that is no doubt her highness, Xiahana, and she returns as a Rank 6 White mage.”

That got everyone’s attention.

“White Magic Rank 6: Sanction,” Betty stated. “A suppression Magic that hampers opponents Mana. In wide usage, it essentially turned average mage squadron useless.” Betty was conflicted between relief and frustration. “Just casting it makes her a national asset.”

Spade gawked. Meanwhile, Hunter was rapidly weighing his options to deal with Xia.

Then the Princess of White made her move.

...

Three-hundred meters.

That were the distance between the two. But even at such a distance, Slomrath could feel the familiar presence that once pathetically crawled away from him in fear.

“So the ant returns,” Slomrath vibrated. His pinkish core flickered in an imitation of laughter. “You dare challenge me again after your pathetic showing. Did that weakling tell you anything about me? Oh, judging from how confident you look, you accepted the blessing to wait his bedchamber.” Slomrath tried to dig in even further. “Even your master ran from me, and now that heartless wimp sent his woman to die.”

Xia’s face was stony, “For being older than Acceltra, you throw insults like a five years old.” Her finger drew a line with White Mana and cracks of light spread above her. “Congratulation, you piss me off. I am going to shove everything you just throw up about us back down your throat.”

White Magic Rank 5: Wrath of Sol

The glowing cracked exploded, showering Slomrath and his army with the meteors shower of White Mana. Slime-beasts were swallowed whole under the comet. Mimicries of bear and bird vaporized beneath the rain of solar meteoroid.

Slomrath, shielded by his stack of faith power, tanked the shower, but his army was hammered by the falling stars without stopping. He concluded that Xia’s firepower — of both Rank and intensity — was higher than the mages huddling behind the city wall, and summoned his countless slimes to address the biggest threat on the battlefield.

Xia, still covered in the whirlwind of White Mana, rushed to meet them in the field bombarded with White Magic.

…

“This is insanity!” Hunter exclaimed as witness Xia charging into her own bombardment. “She is running into Wrath of Sol. That Magic is an indiscriminate bombardment, and she put herself in the middle of it.”

“That is the conventional wisdom,” Betty’s eyes were glued to the screen. Her hand reached toward Carolina’s emergency popcorn, and grabbing a handful despite her nemesis glares. “But Xia isn’t the type who will be killed by her own attack.”

…

Betty statement proved true later, when several comets of White Mana veered away from hitting Xia. Some fallen stars even started orbiting around the Princess of White like a personal vanguard.

…

“Color Transcendence,” Hunter Westerna’s mind blew again

“No way,” even Betty, who expected something, was shocked. “Isn’t father’s…”

“What the hell is that?” Spade pointed at the comet circling around Xia, vaporizing any slime that dare to interrupt her charge. “How did she do that?”

Hunter was the one who explained, “According to the ancients, there are two methods for mages to transcend above Rank 6. One is to delve so deep into the color they risked corrupting themselves,” Hunter gazed at Xia’s progress with fear and admiration. “Another is to master the color, understanding its flaw and find peace within it. Instead of letting Mana dictates them, those who achieve Color Transcendence decide their own interpretation, and thus, able to freely alter their Magic beyond its original parameter. Such a person is so rare that there is only one who achieved this feat in recent memory — our previous monarch — Edmond La Louve.”

“That old nut-case is that powerful?” Spade gaped.

“Isn’t he supposed to be a demented mad man?” Westerna of all people said that. “Betty, your old man is a Rank 7. Why did—”

“He never reached it,” Betty bit her lips at the thought. “He died before that happened, but Xia must have inherited whatever made him the closest person in the living memory to sanely step into Rank 7.”

It was then Hunter Westerna accepted the knocking of karma.

“King Spade, if Xiahana emerges triumphant,” Hunter spoke in a non-sense voice. “Tomorrow, we will both make our formal apologies and ask crown princess Xiahana for forgiveness. There will be no argument, even if she calls us the usurper. The very nation survival depend whether we can appeal to her love of the nation.”

“You are telling me to capitulate,” Spade was outrage.

“Yes,” Hunter won’t be compromising this. “Our nation will not survive a rebellion from such a powerful White mage and Aura user. If she defected to Eleanor, or worst, Montgomery, Curtis will face an unprecedented crisis. You will apologize as I kneel to preserve this country.” Hunter turned toward Carolina. “We will offer Xiahana an appealing position, and you will be her aide.”

“Er, dad,” Carolina freaked at the notion. “She really hates me, and I just sent her on a…”

“Deal with it, Carolina,” Hunter commanded. “You should know better than to pick on a person when they are down.” He turned toward Betty. “Princess Elizabeth. Tomorrow you will discover a document that vindicates Edward La Louve and turns him into a great hero misunderstood by history. You will make your apology public.”

“I know,” Betty shrugged. “Personally, I believe those will be good enough to reconcile with Xia. She isn’t the one who will let personal grudge impede the kingdom.”

To cut it short, the entire room believed Xia-the-head-wife was still Xia-the-mayor.

…

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Back at Cutler, Slomrath pushed back against Xia as hard as he could. The young woman already crossed the hundred meters mark, and he was worried.

Green Magic flooded the battlefield to empower the creatures. Projectiles of remaining four colors fired like countless machine gun. However, Xia wove through it all as if she predicted the attack. Her ten-day of physical (and mental) healing ensured her speed was nothing like the first encounter. Aside from Amy’s buff, it was Xia’s newest skill that ensure her victory in evasion.

[Strategist]

It was the skill that allow Xia to pick, sort and organize information. Although it didn’t grant the calculation and analytic ability of [Calculative], its user could instead handle a vast amount of data and sort through them to build an attack plan.

From the moment the battle started, Xia took in each trajectories of projectiles being flung and planned the optimal sequence of movements to overcome countless salvo of projectiles, while countering those attacks with the nano-sharp throwing knives summoned from Ciel’s [Treasury].

Acid globs couldn’t stick landing near her. Blue Magic Rank 2: Freeze whistled past her ears as Xia danced away from barrages of Slaughter. Slomrath’s Bolts were too predictable. A Flare — Rank 3 Red Magic — grazed her in a flaming explosion, but her [White Blessing] skill nullified any damage its heat could inflict. Xia felt her body tighten for a second. That was a Rank 4 Black Magic — Puppetry.

Xia was impressed as she popped the spell using her ample Aura and massive resistance against Black. Rank 4 wasn’t a big deal, but still impressive. She believed Slomrath must have eaten a skilled Black mage, probably the dispatched Commander. A woozy feeling stuck her. Yep, that Black Magic Rank 3 confirmed it, but [White Blessing] stacked with Aura and Strengthen easily powered through that.

By this point, Slomrath was feeling the heat. His spells weren’t getting through layers of passive Heal, permanent Strengthen, Aura and sheer ‘fuck-you’ of [White Blessing]. So far, the only Magic that could phase Xia was Green (require a specific preparation) and Blue (which was too slow). The proud acidic troops of the slimes army—the bane of all weapons—were quitting life by endless, mass-produce, expendable razor blades. Worst, Sanction retarded his Mana so much casting spell above Rank 5 was impossible (not that he had any).

Slomrath watched several slimes beside him melted away by steel razors amped with Strengthen Magic.

Then he felt something hitting his reserve of faith power.

“What did you do?” Slomrath panicked as his most important resource got shorted. “What is happening?”

Xia grinned, casting Smite on both palms, “That is my hubby burning down your house. Like it?”

…

The Forest of Separation was having a massive forest fire.

At the distance, Ciel was manipulating a catapult with [Construction] and launched barrels after barrels of Flameseed oil with lighted fuses in an attempted to burn Slomrath’s faith farms with all its gory sculptures. Inside the Residence, Amy acted as his spotter with her [Instinct].

It was then Xia was rang in.

Xia: Dear, the plan work. The slime is squirming.

Caislean joined the chat.

Caislean: I am in position. Wow, the fatso is sloppy. He pretty much left this place alone after attacking it.

“Good,” Ciel nodded and parted the dimension to go back home. “To the next phase.”

Ciel disappeared.

…

Xia fired the twin beam of Smite, wiping at least fifteen giant slimes from the battle.

Slomrath raged as the one resource that mattered was being hit.

“You won't triumph !” Slomrath yelled at the ever-nearing Xia and ordered his troops into the melee. They were promptly greeted with the rain of razor blades that Xia kept throwing. “Just many of those knives do you have? You must have used several hundreds by this point.”

Twenty more knives appeared between each of Xia’s fingers and she smiled sweetly at her nemesis, enjoying her upper-hand. “I don’t know. My hubby, can create around forty of these from one sword.” Xia mocked him with a fake, wondering look. “I recall a Lord, so arrogantly believe human is so below him, he didn’t even stop to loot the battlefield.”

Slomrath finally realized where the knives came from.

…

In the smoking camp made by the Hecate’s dispatched troop, and destroyed in Slomrath’s night assault, Caislean scoured the scorched battlefield, salvaging weapons, opening supply crates of spare weapons and putting it in [Treasury] with a groaned.

Caislean internally complained about the crates of spare weapons three-hundred men need.

..

Slomrath watched Xia turned his air force of slime-birds into dart board and his armies of bears and giant mantises into porcupines. His troops were halved. The endless throwing knives, White Mana laser and area-of-effect meteor were filing his number. Worst, his bane delicate hands were glowing with immense White Mana as she gathered power for the largest Smite of her life.

“You cannot beat me! I still have faith farm left!” Slomrath declared, leaning on the desiccated living-dead in his stomach for confidence support.

“I know,” Xia cupped the glowing ball of power and threw out her Wave-Motion-Gun (yes… it is the kamehameha)

White Magic Rank 4: Smite

Unlike their previous battle, the Smite unleashed this time wasn’t a beam. It was a humongous death-ray that lighted the entire countryside, indiscriminately burned the remaining slimes army into oblivion and refused to stop as it washed over Slomrath, boiling him alive. The blast narrowly missed the city of Culter and barely avoid blasting a new hole in the city wall.

As the light faded, only the Lord of Devouring Slime remained steaming in the path of destruction.

“I survive!” Slomrath declared.

“Agreed,” Xia pointed at her stomach to clue the slime. “But ever wonder what happens when you put half-dead people inside a boiler?”

Slomrath investigated his body to find all of his remaining prisoners — his terror farm — dead from intense heat stroke.

And Xia was right in front of him.

“How!” Slomrath screamed. “How am I lesser than that weakling? What is it that is so special about that soft, indecisive wimp? Why are you fighting for him?”

It was then [???] activated.

A rapier of golden light appeared in her hands.

“I can answer all those questions all they long,” Xia swung the sword of glittering gold. “But the last one? That should be obvious.”

The golden slash of compressed Aura went through the slime, cut the pinkish core in half and left a mark on the earth as it flew and shattered Cutler’s barrier with the passing shock-wave.

Slomrath, the Lord of Devouring Slime, exploded into a green mist from Xia’s mighty swing.

Xia’s blade dissipated. She breathed and recited the script Ciel wrote for her to the entire city and the capital to hear.

…

“My name is Xiahana La Louve, the crown princess of Curtis, and I have this to say. I always consider it my life privilege to serve this nation. That is why I tolerate the assassination and slandering of my father — the wise king Edmond La Louve. It is the reason I grit my teeth when I am condemned for saying truth. But after this gross incompetence, the corruption and infighting, that endangered the entire fiefdom of Cutler and my fellow citizens, my tolerance officially end. From today onward, I sever all ties with this regime and throw my office back to those usurpers. My justice shall not be represented under a tyrant. Henceforth, I resign!”

…

The capital silently watched Xia opened a mysterious gate of light and departed to the unknown.

“What just happened?” Hunter said, never expected his reconciliation plan to be preemptively annihilated.

Betty’s face paled, “This is bad. I think she throws the book at us.”

“What is the plan now?” Carolina squeaked.

Truth was none of them had a back-up plan.

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