Harem System In A fantasy World

Chapter 359: Sinister

Alexander looked toward Elion with a questioning look. They exchanged a glance.

The prince’s jaw clenched, and for a heartbeat, Elion could see the war inside him. Turn back and help the camp, or continue forward and fulfil the operation.

There was far too much at stake. The entire war might depend on what came next. Elion understood that look because he felt the same thing clawing at his chest.

Elion closed his eyes for half a second, and he sighed deeply.

’Of course. Of course, this would happen now.’

Alexander’s voice came out tight. "If we turn back..."

"The operation stalls," Elion finished. "And if we continue..." The rest was left unsaid.

Peter looked between them, horrified. Either decision meant nothing good. The others said nothing either.

Alexander looked back toward the direction of the camp, his face pale with restrained frustration. Slowly, he turned forward again.

His voice was eerily cold when he spoke again.

"We continue."

Peter flinched while Gareth lowered his gaze. Lukas looked like he wanted to protest, but forced himself to be silent.

Elion stared at Alexander for a long moment. Then he nodded once.

"Good."

Alexander looked at him sharply, almost offended. "Good?"

"If you had said turn back, I would have knocked you off that wyvern and gone forward myself."

Alexander’s eyes widened slightly.

Elion’s expression remained calm. "Maya, Aeron, Zenovia, Tristan, they’re not weak. If we abandon the main objective every time the demons make a move, then we’ll never end this. We have to trust them."

Alexander’s jaw tightened.

Trust...

What a cruel word.

But he nodded.

"Then we move faster."

The group surged forward.

The mounts accelerated through the forest, claws tearing across roots and moss, bodies weaving between trees as the alarm horns faded behind them into the distance. Elion leaned low over his mount’s back, one hand gripping the reins, the other resting against Kurogoroshi’s hilt.

Alexander’s face grew tense by the second; he was gritting his teeth so hard his jaw tightened. It was far too clear to him that they had to be much faster than this.

So there was only one option.

"Take to the skies." He said rather calmly.

Peter, who had gone pale a long time ago, turned sharply toward him. "Your Highness?"

"You heard me," Alexander said, his voice cold and decisive. "We fly."

Gareth looked uneasy. "But the reports said flying deeper through this region could be dangerous. There have been signs of powerful flying wild beasts, and violent mana currents..."

"Time is more dangerous for us right now," Alexander cut in.

That silenced everyone.

Elion looked at him for a moment, then smiled faintly. "Look at you, making reckless decisions now."

Alexander glanced at him. "I learned from the worst."

"I’m proud of you."

"Don’t be."

The mounts were guided into a wider clearing not long after. The birds stretched their wings, shaking off leaves and damp forest debris, while Alexander’s wyvern lowered its long body and gave a low hiss as if it understood that the pace was about to change. One after another, they rose up into the skies.

The forest canopy broke beneath them as they shot upward into open air, wings beating hard against the wind. Branches whipped past them, leaves scattered wildly as the sky opened above them.

The moment they were above the canopy, the world stretched wide and terrible beneath them.

Far ahead, however, the horizon was stained red and black. Smoke rose in thick columns. Flashes of light burst through the haze. Even from this distance, Elion could see the signs of battle with his sharp eyes, even though it was still leagues away.

Alexander’s expression hardened.

"Move."

The mounts surged forward.

From that point onward, the journey was silent.

Only the heavy beat of wings, the rushing wind, and the distant thunder of war grew louder with every hour.

By night, they had seen small pockets of fighting below them, scattered clashes between coalition patrols and roaming demon groups. They avoided most of them, not because they lacked the courage to help, but because their mission did not allow them to be delayed.

Of course, Elion had suggested that it would take him only a moment to end these skirmishes, but he didn’t insist when Alexander decided against it.

One time was fine, but one time would quickly become two, then three, and eventually ten, until they get delayed by a day or more.

Several times, black shapes moved through the clouds nearby, forcing them to descend briefly beneath the cover of smoke or storm haze, and once, a flock of corrupted winged beasts passed so close that Elion had to go ahead and take care of them. freēwēbnovel.com

By the next day, when the sun rose through a sky already darkened by ash, the battlefield finally came into view.

And what they saw made every single one of them go still. Below them, the land had become chaos.

Demons and coalition soldiers clashed across the battlefield like swarming ants, thousands upon thousands of bodies surging against each other in broken waves. Spellfire burst everywhere. Barriers flashed and shattered. Siege weapons burned. Massive beasts crashed through formations while mages filled the sky with fire, ice, lightning, earth, and streaks of holy light. The ground itself had been torn apart in places, carved by craters, trenches, and rivers of blackened blood.

It was a mess.

A terrifying, impossible mess. And that was what shocked them most. This part of the battlefield should not have looked like this.

Alexander’s face went pale.

"The front line..." he muttered.

Elion looked at him.

Alexander’s eyes widened with disbelief. "The front line has been pushed back this far?"

The last report had said the coalition was holding firm. More than holding firm, even. With reinforcements arriving from Haven and the other kingdoms, they had been gaining control over the major fronts. This region should have been secure enough to allow movement toward the infiltration route.

Instead, war had swallowed it whole.

"How?" Gareth whispered, voice barely audible beneath the thunder below. "How did this happen?"

Before anyone could even begin to answer, the battlefield noticed them. A rain of black flaming spells suddenly shot upward from below.

"Scatter!" Elion roared.

The mounts broke formation instantly.

Black fire screamed past them, burning through the air with a heat that distorted the world around it. One spell clipped the wing of a bird to Elion’s left, forcing its rider to jerk hard and spiral downward before barely regaining control. Another burst in the air behind Alexander’s wyvern, showering them in burning fragments that hissed against the creature’s scales.

Elion leaned low over his mount as another volley came.

"Of course!" he shouted over the wind. "Of course they can fucking shoot this high!"

Alexander’s voice cut through from ahead. "Descend! We land near the coalition line!"

They dropped swiftly.

The world below rushed up toward them, a blur of smoke, fire, steel, and screaming bodies. As they descended, Elion could see more clearly just how badly things had deteriorated. Coalition formations were scattered in places.

The demons were not merely attacking; They were pressing, coordinating, exploiting weaknesses with a precision that demons should not have possessed.

Something truly sinister was going on.