Princess's Struggle for Survival-Chapter 561: Battle at White Maple

After spending that night with Charlotte, Regent Princess Astrid left the frontlines at White Maple Town, heading for the luxurious estate in Losterling City to conduct logistical inspections and manage military supplies.

Of course, while that was the official reason, the underlying logic was that with a major battle imminent, Astrid, as a crucial imperial princess, absolutely could not remain on the frontlines facing what would likely become a clash of Arcanist mages.

Her strength was only that of a Magnus, and she would inevitably become a primary target on the battlefield. Not only would her personal safety be threatened, but the Arcanist mages would also have to divert their attention specifically to protect her, drawbacks far outweigh any benefits.

And on the third day after Astrid arrived in Losterling City, the blades of the Church knights, cloaked in biting wind, surged toward White Maple Town. Kingdom of Velys’s final military offensive against the Valeria Empire had finally begun, just before the cold wave descended. 𝘧𝓇ℯℯ𝑤ℯ𝘣𝓃ℴ𝓋𝑒𝑙.𝑐𝘰𝑚

At White Maple Town, Lyra, already prepared for the assault, instructed her adjutant to activate the defensive magic circles, while she herself channeled her mental power into the core of the circle to oversee the entire defensive operation.

This time was different from the battle at Liya Tower Fortress. Lyra wasn’t standing atop the city walls as a frontline commander directing soldiers to resist the assault. Instead, she remained in the command center as the supreme commander, coordinating the defense by channeling mental energy into the vast defensive network woven from numerous magical engravings and elemental circles.

Focusing deeply, not on sight but on the images formed in her mind from mental feedback, Lyra saw the dust kicked up by marching boots, the cold glint on knightly blades, and the violently raging elemental particles in the air.

The howling wind roared like a furious dragon; the frozen earth trembled as if the earth’s veins were collapsing. The sunlight overhead now serves as a natural blessing, enveloping the knight formations and shielding them from elemental attacks coming from all directions.

A subtle shift in Lyra’s thoughts activated the muddy terrain circles inscribed before the town. Frost melted into moist vapor, and the solid frozen ground turned into mud pits that swallowed iron-shod boots, the first line of defense to slow the knights’ advance.

Meanwhile, the soldiers manning the city walls gripped their mana-powered weapons, using their relatively weak mental power, especially compared to that of the Church knights, to calibrate their weapons, aiming their barrels at the orderly marching formations below.

The clear, crisp sound of clashing armor echoed across the battlefield. Before the blizzard arrived, White Maple Town was filled with an air of grim determination. Everyone gripped their weapons tightly; even the fingers near the triggers were sweating slightly, dampening the coarse fabric.

Yet despite this, the soldiers kept their eyes fixed on the approaching knights, silently waiting for them to enter range, not daring to breathe heavily, fearing the thin white mist from their breath might obscure their vision and hinder their observation.

Mana-powered weapons had relatively simple offensive capabilities and limited range. Once the enemy entered firing distance, it meant most magical attacks could be launched. Defensive barriers weren’t omnipotent, and the soldiers had to remain fully alert to counter any sudden assaults that could take their lives.

The next moment, in the far distance of their field of vision, several dark specks blotted out the blue sky. Before anyone could react, the specks rapidly grew larger and slammed toward the city walls with unstoppable force.

Mana-powered weapons require crystal stones to activate, but simple kinetic weapons don’t. Although lacking magical enhancement and thus having little effect on spirit-guided elemental shields, these simple siege weapons, driven only by human and mechanical power, could still provide significant assistance in the assault.

After all, elemental shields couldn’t protect the walls and soldiers at every moment. Powerful kinetic impacts could shatter armor and destroy lives just as easily as magic.

From Lyra’s perspective, a dense swarm of dark specks shot toward the town at extreme speed. The young woman’s brow slightly furrowed as she fully activated the magic circle. Massive stones crashed against the translucent mana barrier, instantly shattering into pieces that scattered at the soldiers’ feet.

Although they knew the battle had only just begun and the defensive circle was at full strength, making it impossible for these projectiles to hit them, seeing the transparent mana shield tremble and ripple before their eyes, as if it might be torn apart by brute force at any second, still filled with some defending soldiers with dread.

If they took a direct hit like that, survival would be impossible, let alone keeping their bodies intact.

Seeing the trembling body of a new recruit beside him and his gaze darting wildly with the falling stones, an old veteran who had survived the battle at Liya Tower Fortress tightened his grip on his weapon and spoke softly.

"Watch the men below. Don’t let your mind wander."

"As long as the outermost mana barrier remains intact, don’t worry about these intimidating stones. Captain Lyra will destroy all of them outside the walls."

Before the battle began, Lyra had specifically arranged for veteran soldiers who had endured long sieges to be placed among the new recruits, serving as leaders and guides.

Although Amalia had done her best to train this batch of soldiers, equip them with mana weapons, and send them to this distant battlefield, their lack of experience meant they struggled to quickly adapt to the role of soldiers, let alone become pillars of the battlefield.

At such a moment, they needed specific commanders to tell them what to do. Having veterans lead them also helped reduce casualties and stabilize morale.

Hearing his companion speak, the new recruit, who had just been disenchanted by the explosive sound of stones shattering, swallowed hard and forced himself to stop looking at the screaming projectiles.

Just then, the recruits heard a cracking sound like electricity rising and falling beside them. Looking up, they saw the defensive mana weapons mounted on the walls charging up. The operators were elite soldiers, generally reaching the Grand Knight rank. They gripped the handles, four or five working together, channeling mental energy to activate the internal circles, making the elemental particles within the mana crystals flow.

Previously, Grand Knights could only use mental energy to enhance their own bodies, unable to manipulate elemental particles like mages of the same tier to unleash powerful elemental magic. But with the emergence of these new mana weapons, they could finally use mental energy to channel destructive streams of elemental particles through crystal stones and engraved magic patterns.

In her mentally constructed vision, Lyra noted the charging status of these defensive weapons. When the knights entered effective range, a crisp, melodious female voice, carried by wind magic, reached every soldier’s ears.

"Immediately release the energy of the wall-mounted mana cannons. Target the knight formations directly in front of you. Perform saturation fire."

At the commander’s order, the fully charged mana cannons instantly fired bolts of lightning. A blinding light, as radiant as the sun, suddenly filled the battlefield. Fire and lightning elemental crystals tightly intertwined at that moment, unleashing massive thermal energy toward the radiant circles formed by the Holy Knights.

In an instant, the military formation exposed to the mana cannon’s range was directly hit. Countless light elemental particles violently fluctuated, attempting to neutralize the blast, barely managing to withstand this devastating attack.

Still, no matter how well the Church knights responded, minimizing the mana cannon’s impact area as much as possible, the knights directly struck by the elemental torrent were still flung into the air by the rolling heatwave. A very few, hit directly in vital areas by the compressed lightning-fire projectiles, died instantly on the battlefield.

At the rear of the battlefield, red-haired Knight-Captain Kales watched the destructive power of the wall-mounted mana cannons, immediately clenching his fist, his eyes locked tightly on the walls of White Maple Town in the distance.

This feeling... he was all too familiar with it...

That destructive beam of white light that had annihilated most of his knights was identical to the cannon fire now.

The only difference is that the mana signature of these wall-mounted mana cannons was far weaker than that of the massive mana cannon previously deployed within Liya Tower Fortress. This was clearly a deliberately designed, smaller, less powerful, and more efficient version.

How did the Valeria Empire... come up with so many strange devices...

Elsewhere, sitting in a room with her long, pale legs elegantly crossed, clad in sheer stockings, seemingly sipping tea and admiring flowers while her mental energy spread across the battlefield, the Arcanist mage Charlotte also closely observed the entire firing process of the wall-mounted mana cannons, her delicate lips slightly pursed.

Kales’s guess was spot on. These mana devices mounted on White Maple Town’s walls were indeed scaled-down versions Charlotte had improved upon from the successful prototype of the massive mana cannon. Even the internal designs were nearly identical, with just a few additional calibration circles added to ensure accuracy.

Now it appears the design concept was sound. The wall-mounted mana cannons had enough power to pierce the defenses of the Church of Light, although their energy consumption was high. After just a few more volleys, they will need extensive reloading of mana crystals and a long cooldown period.

As she pondered, the wall-mounted mana cannons displayed their might once again. The wounded Church Knights now understood the strength of these defensive cannons and immediately launched attacks against the mana devices atop the walls.

Blazing holy flames, arrow-like beams of light, and searing waves of radiance, pure light magic captures most of the light elemental particles in the air, even triggering localized energy tides.

Lyra, having anticipated that Kingdom of Velys wouldn’t leave the wall-mounted mana cannons unchallenged, after all, their intelligence wouldn’t know how long these destructive barrages could last, reacted one step ahead. Her mental energy activates the dispersion module within the circle, causing the mana barrier that had covered the soldiers and walls to instantly expand, thinner, but covering a wider area.

Current magic circles couldn’t distinguish between friendly and enemy elemental fluctuations. To fire the cannons, they had to be discharged outside the defensive shield; otherwise, they’d impact the barrier’s surface, blocking enemies not at all and instead harming their own side.

Precisely because of this, the person controlling the overall defensive circle had to possess exquisite mental control, something Lyra had already demonstrated at Liya Tower Fortress, backed by extensive practical experience.

At the same time, the defending soldiers, who had been waiting patiently, finally saw the knights enter weapon range. They braced their mana muskets against the walls, the long barrels protruding through pre-planned gaps, perfectly aligned through the mana-woven defensive barrier, unleashing torrents of flame.

At this moment, facing the Valeria Empire’s advanced mana weaponry forming an iron wall of defense, the quality gap between individual combatants on both sides had nearly disappeared. The Church Knights advance under the searing firestorm resembling swarms of ants struggling forward through extreme heat.

Finally, peak tier Magnus within the knight formation made their moves. A Frost Star radiating intense cold plummeted outside the walls, sending steam billowing into the air, granting the Church of Light a brief respite as they pressed forward, fearless and determined to reach the walls.

At the rear of the battlefield, Kales, watching all this unfold, frowned deeply and turned toward the regional bishop, speaking softly.

"My lord bishop, it’s about time."

The knights had achieved their initial objective. Once the "Holy Radiant City" was deployed, the rest could be left to the Arcanist mages.

Hearing Kales’s words, the regional bishop remained silent for a moment, his mental awareness remained focused on the battlefield. Only when the first knight touched the wall with his sword did he issue the order.

The "Holy Radiant City" unfolded. A surging holy light enveloped the land, and abundant light elemental particles rapidly began dismantling the mana circles on the walls, coating them with a faint layer of light, rendering them unable to be re-engraved in the short term.

Lyra, who had long known the Church of Light possessed such a technique, immediately issued orders to the entire army. Pre-prepared plasma bombs rolled off the walls and plunged into the interior of the "Holy Radiant City."

Astrid had once studied this "Holy Radiant City" technique in detail with her. During the initial release of this area-of-effect magic, Church knights needed to gather vast amounts of light elemental particles from the sky to the ground, forming the foundation of the illusory city.

During this process, if they introduced large quantities of other elemental particles into the "Holy Radiant City," disrupting the normal arrangement of light elements, they could drastically slow down its deployment, perhaps even destroy it outright.

Previously, air’s lightning elements had been firmly suppressed by light elements. Now, with massive clusters of foreign elements suddenly appearing, the magical aura beneath the walls became chaotic, elemental particles sealed within crystal stones weren’t counted toward the ambient elemental reserves, so the act of throwing bombs and detonating them actually caused elemental particles in a specific area to rapidly concentrate.

At this moment, with numerous Holy Knights clustered near the town, focused solely on chanting the "Holy Radiant City," if the spell’s progress slowed, preventing complete light-element protection, and the previously used defensive magic formations were temporarily disabled, they would face full elemental magical damage.

Such a perfect opportunity, how could Lyra, who had endured multiple wars and fully understood the brutal realities of combat, possibly miss it?

The wall-mounted mana cannons instantly locked onto the knight clusters below, like the Sword of Damocles poised to fall from the sky.