"My lord, if I may ask, how many more of these magic bombs do you have?" a wind-attribute battle witch asked curiously.

"Hm." Vaan paused for a moment before nonchalantly stating, "Let's just say there's enough to blow the empire's entire army to kingdom come."

The eyes of every battle witch immediately sparkled, and their hearts palpitated with excitement.

"Then, why don't we bomb them all, my Lord?" another battle witch couldn't help but ask, but Vaan's cold, indifferent gaze quickly made her sweat nervously.

"Do you take pleasure in committing a mass genocide? We aren't fighting this war to kill the empire's soldiers; killing the empire's soldiers is just one part of the requirement to achieve our goals," Vaan coolly stated.

"And if I want to erase the empire's army, do you think I need to rely on these toys? I, alone, have the power to erase a country from existence; I believe those from the capital would know that very well."

Indeed, facing Vaan's claim, the battle witch couldn't refute. As an ex-supremacist witch from the capital, the blue sun was still vivid in her mind.

Many ex-supremacist witches like her expected a life of oppression and humiliation after they swore their Oath of Magic to Vaan. However, Vaan, their lord, didn't chase vanity; he didn't need to make them suffer to flex his superiority—or, at the very least, it had yet to happen.

As such, they gradually tried to be more open-minded and observe the kind of person their lord was. Needless to say, what they had witnessed in the past several days had truly opened their mind.

What used to be their ultimate pursuit in life was easily achieved with their lord's help. To him, raising a High Witch was just something insignificant.

"What are our goals in this war, my Lord?" one of the ex-supremacist battle witches asked the question they all wanted to know.

"All of you have become High Witches with my help. But if you think that makes you qualified High Witches, you couldn't be more wrong. You won't hold a candle against real High Witches. That's why I will create opportunities to train you during this war," Vaan stated.

"If you want to become truly strong High Witches, you must be tempered through blood and fire. But don't think you can go back to living luxurious lives after becoming strong High Witches; those days are behind you."

"You will train to become strong. Then, after you become strong, you will train to become stronger. And after you become stronger, you will still train to become even, even stronger. There will be no leisure life for you."

"You are soldiers – soldiers of a kingdom that defends humanity. It is your duty to train and become strong so you can face the real threat of our world, Gehenna. So grit your teeth and prepare yourself. As the one in control of your lives, I'll be pushing you to surpass your limits over and over."

"Thus, if you still have lingering superiority over men, you can forget it now. The strong do not need to prove their strength to others. Furthermore, men aren't your enemies. Your only enemy is yourself and the limits defined by your body; that is what you must overcome."

Although Vaan spoke about forcing the battle witches to train eternally so long as they were under his control, strangely enough, they didn't feel upset or sad while imagining the future under his rule.

Perhaps, it was because their lord guaranteed results.

Thus, by his words, even after they become Peak-stage High Witches, he would push them to become Transcendent Witches. And after they become Transcendent Witches, he would still push them to go even further beyond.

As long as they followed their lord, such a day would surely come – Vaan's capability swayed the battle witches into firmly believing that.

..

"Alright, return to your posts. There will be a big battle today. The Holy Knight Empire will surely want to take revenge for last night's bombing."

"Yes, my Lord!"

Shortly after Vaan dismissed the battle witches, he notified Aeliana and Astoria that he would be leaving Fort Whitebridge temporarily. He also instructed Zodreg to inform him via their long-range communication tools if anything significant happened during his absence.

Nevertheless, after finishing his arrangements, Vaan took the teleporter and arrived in Blackthorn City.

'Any changes in the north, Urseon?' Vaan contacted the leading Rank 5 dragon in charge of surveillance over the capital.

'None, Supreme Leader,' Urseon replied before adding, 'If anything, there have been increasingly fewer demons entering our world over the past few days.'

'I see. Keep up the good work, Urseon.'

'It's my honor to serve you, Supreme Leader.'historical

Just as Astarot estimated, twenty young elite dragons had reached Rank 5 at the end of the empire's seven-day deadline.

And all that while, Vaan had allocated half of them to guard the north in case of a surprise demon invasion from Gehenna. After all, it wouldn't be strange if the demons took the opportunity to strike the kingdom in the back while they were focused on their war with the Holy Knight Empire.

For that reason, Vaan had also kept most of the witches in the capital and didn't send any aura users or men to the southern borders. He couldn't guarantee their obedience like their witches' Oath of Magic, and there was always the risk of the empire inciting them to rebel for their rights.

Nevertheless, the witches in the capital had another task besides idling away their time on standby for a surprise attack that may or may not come; they had been ordered to produce mana stones within the magic towers all this while.

Considering there were still over one million witches in the capital, without a doubt, the mana stones produced by such a large workforce had to be astronomical.

As such, there was no shortage of mana stones to power the teleporters.

Nevertheless, Vaan didn't come to the capital to collect the mana stones as he took off, heading further north for the Great Ashfallen Forest.

Someone else was already tasked with regularly delivering the mana stones to the southern borders. Thus, he didn't need to do it personally.

More importantly, he had always been curious about the dimensional crack that connected the two worlds.

Needless to say, he was disappointed when he arrived near the dimension crack.

'I can sense strong Spatial Laws in this region..'