“A magic attack is coming! Deploy the six-fold layer “Invisible Shield”!!”

“YES!”

While moving to surround the entrance of the Royal Castle’s main building, Leia and the other Chamberlain Knights immediately deployed defensive shields in response to Adre’s group of reformist rebels who were forming balls of light between their palms.

The main purpose of defensive magic is to defend, so the speed of activation is given more importance than the sturdiness of the defensive spell.

As a result, the “Invisible Shield” of the White Elven Female Knights activated right away, and a magical ward that emits blue light composed of pure attribute-free magic power is deployed in a six-fold semicircle, and the attack magic from the enemy’s side clashed with it!

Fwoooom zaaasssshhh

“W-we might not be able to stop them any longer, waah!!”

With the sound of shattering glass, the first ward catches the thunderbolt attack, while the other two layers catch the flames and pops, but… That was a good thing considering that the protection magic that is normally focused on deployment speed can only catch one blow at most.

That was how effective the Blessings of the World Tree was.

“W-we can do this! Let’s show them what we got!!”

“Yeaaah!”

“Let’s do this!”

The “Invisible Shields” were popping off one by one as they were hit by the flying rock bombs and wind blades one after the other… But the last one was left behind to catch all the attack magic that Adre and the others had unleashed.

“Th-this is ridiculous!? Even though their shield is multi-layered, it shouldn’t be able to take this many attacks!”

“Seriously…”

“Mr. Adre, they’re going in for a counterattack!”

Aiming for the sorcerer unit of the rebel group who had momentarily stopped their movement, the soldiers who had been preparing their offense magic from behind the Chamberlain Knights emerged to the front and commenced their attack.

“Now’s our chance, fire!!”

“Uwooo!?”

“Tsk!!”

On their Captain’s command, the 12 guards unleashed Wind Blades at the members of the militant sorcerer unit, including Adre, but… Several walls of earth rose from the ground with great force, catching the wind blades and shattering them. The ones who deployed the earth magic, “Ground Wall”, were the militant Elves who did not join the attack earlier.

“Th-thanks, Bright.”

“No problem. But that was such a close call.”

In this kind of place, there was no room to even pause and breathe.

According to Gregor’s plan, after capturing the key personnel, they were going to set the inside of the Royal Castle on fire and incite more than a thousand of their Black Elf brethren to march toward the west gate to protest.

To do so, they sent a number of their people into the protest rallies to incite the crowds and take the initiative to cause trouble with the guards and provoke a riot… But time was not always on their side.

For a moment, the two sides stared at each other while the entrance to the main building of the Royal Castle was half surrounded, then Gregor issued another set of orders.

“They may have received the Blessings of the World Tree, but the effect won’t last forever! Prepare for the next attack! There’s no need for us to get too close, we’re going to crush them from here!!”

The militants divided themselves into defensive and offensive roles, and the sorcerer squad led by Adre once again began chanting attack magic spells. But this time, they will take some time to build intermediate and higher-level magic that is more powerful than the initial attack.

“Kuh, don’t let them attack!!”

“Hmph, that’s supposed to be our line.”

Once again, the guards fired Wind Blades and Thunderbolts at the rebels, but… Since Bright and his unit of earth mages outnumbered them, another Earth Wall was put up in defense while the guards helplessly received the enemy’s counterattack.

“Kuh, uuugh, Sir Zeist, if this keeps up, the barrier won’t be able to hold any longer!!”

“C-captain Leia, look at that!”

Alerted by one of her subordinates, Leia looked at the section protected by the earthen wall where she felt a large volume of magic being generated.

“It seems to be the Thunder Spear that could pierce through everything.”

“Not even our shield would be able to stop that thing…”

The man leading the rebels’ sorcerer unit, along with three other Black Elves, was casting the advanced thunder magic spell, “Azure Lightning Spear” while several others supplied their magic to make up for the insufficient power as the spell was being put together.

(… looks like we’ll have no other choice but to let the rebels set foot inside the castle.)

The time they bought may have only been a few minutes, but that time was precious to the Civil Servants who were inside the castle.

It’s not like they are conservative extremists who are slaves to the ideology of White Elf supremacy, so the nobles cannot ask their subordinates to die alongside them no matter how prepared they are. I am not going to let Leia and her unit who are the personal Knights of the Queen die here either.

At that moment, Zeist, who had been controlling the flow of sound with his wind magic, announced the order to retreat.

“Everyone, this is as far as we go! Retreat to the west wing and…!?”

“WOAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAANNNN!”

【Activated：Howling Noise】

Just then, a hellhound’s roar echoed throughout the garden and shook the atmosphere!

“What’s going on? The spell is collapsing…”

“No way, we can’t maintain the “Invisible Shield”!!”

The interference from the magic-imbued roar interfered with the spell being cast by the rebels while the Chamberlain Knights let out a panicked cry as the “Invisible Shield” flickered repeatedly until it died down, but… they were also confused as to why the rebels’ attack magic was also dying down and disappearing.

“What the hell!?”

“Th-the spell!”

“Kuh, do everything to maintain it! If it goes off, we’re all going to die!!”

“We know that!”

Adre and his unit, who were casting the advanced magic “Azure Lighting Spear”, were desperately trying to resist the effects of the Hellhound’s roar as the explosion from the spell they were casting could be fatal for all of them.

“I-impossible, why is a member of the Dog People here!?”

“It looks like some advanced variant of the Elder Kobold!!”

Both White and Black Elves stared in shock as a silver Kobold roared from behind a nearby tree.