Several miles deep inside the Great Ashfallen Forest, the enormous dimensional crack was revealed, towering over even the tallest ash-grey trees like a colossal titan.

Unlike normal spatial gateways, where passing through them would take one from Point A to Point B, the dimensional crack didn't look much different from a shattered glass mirror leading to a mirror dimension.

Except, it wasn't the mirror dimension; it was the Gehenna Realm, a small part of Chaos.

A person does not travel from Point A to Point B by passing through the dimensional crack in the normal sense.

Spatial teleportation at least involved covering much more distances than the steps actually taken to pass between two points. On the other hand, such a thing didn't exist when entering Gehenna; the distance taken to enter Gehenna was the same distance actually traveled.

In other words, the dimensional crack wasn't really a spatial gateway; it was just the collapse of a boundary that separated two different planes existing in the same space at the same time.

It just seemed like two different places due to the differences in governing laws.

Vaan could see that a portion of the Great Ashfallen Forest had already merged with Gehenna.

According to what he learned from Narvim, the dimensional crack would continue to expand until Chaos completely swallowed their world and Chaosverse, assimilating it as part of its own.

It was an inevitable process to conserve their Chaosverse from fading into nothingness during its destruction cycle.

Nevertheless, Vaan could also see that not everything that existed in Pangea could withstand the changes brought by Gehenna.

The overflowing mana spilling into their world was both a miraculous power of change and a poison to life. Plants that could absorb its power were able to evolve, but those that couldn't were withered and dead.

As a result, only a barren land could be found surrounding the dimensional crack. There were only dead trees and cracked. Whatever plant evolved and survived had long been plucked by other people.

Further away from the dimensional crack, many traps and barricaded walls had been set up to confine whatever came out from Gehenna.

There were also small encampments with several hundred witches, tasked with hunting down the demons that entered their land.

They were undoubtedly full of battle experiences, making them quite desirable to recruit.

However, Vaan postponed that idea for another time. Even so, he designated one of the ten Rank 5 dragons in the north to watch over them secretly.

He was more interested in the dimensional crack, which contained a strong presence of the Spatial Law. Of course, the Fire Law, Wood Law, and other laws were also present, but they had a much weaker presence.

Nevertheless, Vaan quickly understood why the governing laws were more prevalent around the dimensional crack than in other parts of the world. It was because they were clashing with Gehenna's governing laws.

It was a great place to perceive the laws.

Since he had already hit the limit of the Fire Law permitted by his Peak-stage Demigod-rank soul, it wasn't a bad idea to start comprehending other laws. The Spatial Law, in particular, would be quite useful and convenient if he comprehended it.

Unfortunately, he ran out of time.

'Supreme Leader, there are large movements from the Holy Knight Empire's camp. By the looks of things, they appear to be preparing for a full-scale attack on all three forts.'

'I understand. I will be back as soon as I can.'

Shortly after acknowledging Zodreg's message, Vaan gave one last glance at the enormous dimensional crack before preparing to leave.

However, he suddenly paused with a thought.

After scanning his surroundings with Omni-Sense, Vaan raised one hand at the dimensional crack and.. started absorbing the large quantity of mana and air into his Heaven-Swallowing Space.

Since the mana within the area was so abundant and concentrated, it would be a shame if he didn't take some back after visiting.

After all, he had many uses for it, such as speeding up the battle witches' advancement to High Witches.

Nevertheless, once Vaan was done filling up a good amount, he finally summoned the nearby Rank 5 dragon to send him back to Fort Whitebridge with its spatial magic.

..

Whitebridge Region, Fort Whitebridge

"My Lord, thank goodness you are back!" Artemis immediately rejoiced with relief upon Vaan's return. "We were beginning to worry whether you would make it back before the enemy made their move or not."

"Have the battle witches take their positions and summon everyone for a quick meeting. Today's battle will be quite different from yesterday's."

"Yes, my Lord!" Artemis answered.

..historical

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Meanwhile, the Holy Knight Empire continued to rally troops from their camp and prepare their siege weapons, consisting of a dozen large strange-looking ballistae, each equipped with two big, heavy tungsten arrows.

The end of these tungsten arrows was attached to long ropes and sturdy wooden planks that seemed to stretch as long as the river itself, if not longer.

A single glance at the strange siege weapon was all it took for everyone from the Kingdom of Black Rose's side to figure out how the Holy Knight Empire intended to cross the river quickly.

However, that wasn't all. There were other sieged weapons hidden in the back of the empire's army, obscured from view.

The entire atmosphere within the camp was heavy and gloomy as the holy soldiers lined up for war with serious expressions; they were not happy at all. No, they were angry.

"Last night, the Kingdom of Black Rose had disturbed the peace of our camp and claimed the lives of twenty thousand brothers in arms, including our respectable and beloved war hero, Duke Chalfont! This was indeed a great loss for our empire."

"The Kingdom of Black Rose thought they could get away with it. However, I say – I think not! They must pay for what they have done! What say you?! Should we make them pay for their actions?!"

"Yeah!!!"

Following the emperor's fiery and heated speech, the soldiers thundered in unison, causing the earth and sky to tremble under their collective cry, full of pent-up emotions.

Shortly after, Emperor Renardier glared at Fort Whitebridge in the distance with hatred.

Chasing a perfect victory in a war against the Kingdom of Black Rose was impossible. Therefore, if Holy Knight Empire wanted to be victorious, they must be prepared to make sacrifices!