Chapter 240: Nocturnal attack

They were all necessary casualties that the generals had taken into account, calculated sacrifices to cement a base of support. In war, people’s lives are nothing more than a currency to be exchanged without hesitation, an expendable resource that buys moments of advantage.

It is a cruel vision, inhuman even, but it is nonetheless the reality: the numbers are cold, the strategies impassive, and the bodies just another datum in the reports of the high command.

“haah~…”

I guess that would be all for today. Although I hadn’t witnessed the carnage up close, the lingering stench in the air-burnt flesh, coagulated blood, the early putrefaction of abandoned corpses-was proof enough of the magnitude of the situation.

The camp was littered with limbs severed from their owners, faces frozen in grimaces of terror, bodies unrecognizable amid piles of rubble and ash, some crushed by the weight of the golems with no chance of survival.

It was not pleasant to see soldiers stuffing thousands of people into storage bags. Such a thing was only possible if there was no life left in them.

With a bad aftertaste of the situation, I listened again to the meeting for tomorrow’s attack plan and then went to sleep. The good news was that, finally, my main self had managed to find a clue about my little platinum ticket, which is good.

….

.

Shnk!

“….”

It all happened out of nowhere and too fast, I instinctively opened my eyes, but it was too late. Before I even had a chance to dodge, a dagger was lodged and piercing my heart.

“Ughh…”

I could feel that it had indeed pierced my heart. Not only that, it had poison, a fast acting poison that was quickly causing my body functions to cease.

My heart pierced and poisoned and ceasing to function, I was basically dead and helpless.

Yes, if I were a normal human. But doppelgangers, despite exactly replicating each and every bodily function down to the smallest detail, are ultimately beings made of maa.

They are ultimately beings made of mana, which although with enough damage can cause them to malfunction, they will not disappear until they run out of mana.

With no time to think, I quickly switched my one skill to my blessing. Immediately, in an instant, I expelled the poison, pulled out my heart dagger without any qualms, and

’Claritas Salutis, Virens Refugium, Verdis Lumen’

I quickly cast spells of sanction and life preservation, even being a dopelganger , this body will stop functioning properly without a heart in a few seconds.

Once I did that, I looked around and didn’t notice anything, but I knew it was there. I was using some kind of concealment.

if it was the ones that affect perception My blessing would reject it and see it clearly, so it had to be some kind of camouflage. I quickly changed my ability and activated the eyes of lust.

I could see him standing to the side. My eyes could clearly see the veil of the camouflage spell he used, as clear as the barriers that are normally invisible.

This all happened in a moment, so the attacker probably thought I was moving reflexively and uselessly, believing I was no better than a corpse with post-mortem reflexes .

I didn’t have time to think about how strong I was, so I acted on my senses.

’Art of Radiance, First Stance: Dawning Strike’

Quickly, I emanated from me, like a small sun, a light that shone brightly and exerted a pulse that expelled the attacker, who did not expect that I could do anything with such a lethal poison in my body.

But now my wound was healing and I was back to my optimal state. Quickly, I threw the poisoned dagger at him, stabbing him in the stomach.

Maybe it was because the poison didn’t let him keep the camouflage spell. I felt his aura, and noticed that he was someone with seven metamorphoses. Someone hard to deal with for this doppelganger with only four.

But my stats, with the exception of defense, were stable, unlike most people. So I quickly took advantage of that little attacker’s bewilderment and switched my skills back to runic affinity.

“Noctis Devotio,” “Vitis Tenebris.”

At that moment I cast, spending twenty percent of my mana, two binding spells, made of runes of darkness and plant.

One of the magical branches left by my alternate self is called “Magic of the Tangled Shadows”.

This branch specializes in restriction spells, and is very useful, as I have an affinity for darkness and plants although right now I am only relying on my affinity, for runes.

The guy, like most assassins, seemed focused on agility, so it would take a moment for him to break free. He seemed desperate to reach for his belt, so he must have an antidote to the poison and wanted to get it out fast, but he could take advantage of that moment in his fight.

“Lumen aeternum me protegat,

speculum divinum hostem reflectat.”

“AEGIS PRISMAE LUCIS.”

Crystal gloves quickly formed. It was my favorite spell, for situations like this when I was unarmed. I put in the other twenty percent of my mana and with the first ten of healing, and the art, I was at half my mana tank. I had to be decisive.

I saw him break free and quickly pull a vial from his belt to drink it, but those moments of carelessness were his true undoing.

“Art of Lust ; Tempting Torrent”

Immediately, my strongest attack, and using another twenty percent of my mana, in an instant, before he even noticed, my gloves were in front of his face.

Probably the only thing he saw was the reflection of his eyes in my shiny Crystal gloves.

Bang!

porque le atravesé la cabeza por los ojos con el filo de esos mismos guantes y acabé con él al instante, sin dejarle espacio para nada más.

“Haaa~… fuck, it’s a pity I had no margin to extract his memories.”

Well, now I had survived a murder, and I had about thirty percent of my mana. I began to calm down and execute mana breathing to recover the mana that was the vitality of this body.

I quickly severed the corpse’s head, or my art would begin to disintegrate it to ashes.

“….”

Now that I had time to observe its appearance, I realized that it was a woman.

“Haaa~ this is going to get complicated.”

And she was human.

I scratched my head in frustration, but I had to figure out what was going on outside. Now that I was calm, I heard a commotion outside.

I have to be more careful and practice being more alert when I sleep or do anything, even if I have good instincts they are no good if I react too late, a prick in the heart is enough to remind me for life.

..

“Quick, reinforce the west side! Wizards, get to the turrets, your support is needed to man the siege guns!”

Once outside I saw Philips giving orders, his tent was next to mine, so that I would be “safer”, which seemed silly to me, considering that I would be dead, if I were anyone else.

Philips is busy giving orders through his communication device, while receiving reports from the other side. Apparently, it was a surprise night attack.

Gradually, several generals began to approach while giving orders, and some left for battle after speaking quickly with Philip.

I had noticed it, but apparently, even though they were all of equal rank, as long as the big general was gone, Philip took control.

I wondered if it was because he was capable or because his father was the great general, but not that I cared much.

I stood in a visible place nearby as I waited, watching the generals come and go. I paid special attention to their reactions to my presence. Leaving aside that some didn’t like me, there was one who was noticeably surprised to see me.

He did his best to hide it, and he certainly succeeded, but as I was paying special attention with my lust eyes, I noticed this small change. Although it wasn’t definite, I already had a suspect for my attack.

..

.

“Casualty report.”

“Yes, General. Over 5,000 common soldiers were killed, 114 knights who broke through at least two existence barriers, and we lost 645 mages of all ranks, with our worst casualty being 5 mages who had broken through eight existence barriers.”

“….., that was a pretty hard hit. Do you have any idea what could have caused our barriers to fail for those three minutes?” ”

“No, General, Everything was in order, and no wizard made any mistakes. We made several checks on the runic circles and all the runes were well made and worked properly. It is believed that the enemy used some artifact that caused them to stop working for a moment.”

“It’s either that or those who installed them put in a secondary function to disable themselves.”

At that moment I interrupted and spoke.

We had finally been able to repel the demons, and now they are looking for the cause of what was a dangerous and unexpected situation, not because we did not expect a night attack, but because our barriers failed for three minutes when the attack started, causing massive casualties until it was fixed.

And what I just said basically means it was internal sabotage.

anyone who knows anything about magic will know that, although difficult, it is possible. After using this feature, the runes disappear or leave no trace, that there was this kind of feature installed, although you had to have knowledge, experience and control of runes to do it.

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