"Cel, do we wait for Quinn or what?" Lucia asked.

"No, let's go now, Yuna will take care of his teleport and he can take care of himself once he's teleported in. The only thing that's similar to every border cities' layout is the location of the magic barrier's array.

"Alright, which way to the barracks?"

"One second," Cecil spread his senses into the city and quickly located the barracks in the southwest district close to the walls. "Okay, found it. Lulu, it's your turn now."

"Mhm," Lucia nodded and quickly began chanting. She cast an illusion spell on them that enveloped the entire city. "Alright, I'm done. Now, no one can see us. Just make sure you don't accidentally b.u.mp into—actually, never mind. We won't need to worry about that, now do we?"

"Heh, let's go!"

Cecil and Lucia activated their Mana Burst and Elemental Burst respectively and jumped onto the roof of the building that was next to them. After Cecil locked onto the barracks, he immediately rushed from rooftop to rooftop in its direction while Lucia followed closely from behind.

A few moments later, Quinn stepped out of a Misty Gate in the same alley that Cecil and Lucia were at earlier.

"Hmmm... it looks like Master is already on his way to the barracks," Quinn quietly mumbled. "I better get going too."

In the next instant, Quinn disappeared from the alley.

At the southwest end of the city near the walls, Cecil and Lucia had arrived on a rooftop that was overlooking the city army's barracks.

"...Should we just go in and a.s.sa.s.sinate everyone...or just blow them up from here?" Lucia asked.

"We'll wait," Cecil replied.

"For what?"

"Before we left, I already told Quinn that we'd wait for him to lower the barrier before we attacked. I won't waste time killing the mages one by one. We'll just blast them all. It'll also serve as the signal for the army to begin their attack."

"M'kay. So, father-in-law gave us an hour to complete this mission... but I think we can get it done much faster, right?"

"That's why we'll wait for the hour...Quinn also needs some time to infiltrate the city lord's mansion and get to the barrier's magic formation."

"Quinn's skill set is exactly for those kinds of missions! Knowing him, I bet it'd only take half an hour—maybe even less—for him to get to the magic formation~" Lucia said with a smirk.

"That's why we'll wait. Father is also getting the cannons ready. Thanks to your illusion magic, Lulu, these people are still unaware there's an army, a few kilometers away, that's preparing to siege them..."

"Hehe... sounds a little cowardly though..." Lucia sheepishly said.

"What? Nonsense, this is all just strategy. Why would we knowingly fight a tough battle when there's a better approach to it? Catching them off guard with a surprise frontal a.s.sault is better. This way, we can reduce the potential casualties on our side," Cecil explained.

"Mhm."

"We've lost plenty of soldiers in the defensive battle when they attacked us. Losing any more will hurt our kingdom's military strength. Training soldiers and warriors take up quite some time. Lulu, did you know, back on Earth, the way we Earthlings waged wars... a small company of soldiers is actually enough to take down an entire city, y' know."

"W-what? Really? Is that true?!"

"Yup, and we did that using tactics. Infiltrations, extractions, sabotage, that's what we Earthlings are extremely good at..."

"...You people sound more like a.s.sa.s.sins..."

"Hahahaha! I've only learned about such things in history books and through the time I was with my father in the military. The soldiers would train and do mock training ops with such scenarios like that..."

"Hmmm..."

"I was never a part of it, but it looked really interesting. This is my first ever mission but it's really exciting and at the same time a little dull. I didn't think this was all that we'd do..."

"Well, our abilities make these kinds of things easy for us!" Lucia said after thinking for a bit. She had a point there.

"Heh, I guess you're right," Cecil amusingly said.

They pa.s.sed the hour by idling around and talking like this.

"Alright, the hour is almost over, I'm sure father and the rest are already in formation. Let me check."

Cecil sent his Mana Sense outside of the city and quickly located the army, which was already in formation, about 3 kilometers away from the fortress city's walls.

"Alright, let's get this over with," Cecil pulled out his MID and called Quinn. Once Quinn picked up the call, Cecil immediately ordered into the MID, "Do it."

"Yes, Master."

Right after Quinn's orders were received, a loud rumbling noise sounded out from the city lord's mansion and the magic barrier covering the city immediately started to crumble.

"Lulu, now!"

"Got it!"

Cecil pulled out his spear and stood guard while Lucia immediately started her Apocalypse Spell.

"Quinn, quickly head back to the alley, we'll teleport out of the city together!"

"Yes, Master... but this may take a while on my end. It seems I've been discovered..."

"...Just make sure you get there. If you need help, don't hesitate to ask!"

"Yes, Master," Quinn said before he ended his call.

On Lucia's end, she had finally finished casting her spell and its activation started. The enemy mages had already noticed the collapse of the city's barrier and the large concentration of mana that was being gathered in the vicinity. Many had stepped out of their barracks to see what was happening.

Some mages began to form squads to quickly head over to the city lord's mansion while others began scanning the area around them. They couldn't find Cecil and Lucia because they were hidden away by Lucia's illusion magic, but once the Apocalypse spell activated and the magic formation made itself known, Lucia and Cecil's cover was immediately ripped away due to the spell's activation sequence.

"W-Who're those two?!"

"Whoever they are, kill them! Can't you see that they're activating some kind of High-ranked spell and targeting it at us?!"

"Create a barrier, now! We have to withstand this sp—"

"Too late~" Lucia said playfully before she snapped her fingers and the Apocalypse immediately activated in full.

The entire barracks' location was immediately engulfed in a purple h.e.l.l of fire and ice. Cecil swiftly cut down the few spells that were shot by the mages before the Apocalypse's activation. He grabbed onto his somewhat dazed wife and flashed away.

"Phew, okay, I'm good now, Cel!"

"Just hold on tight, we'll get there faster!"

"Mhm."

The mages who were at the barracks had to fend themselves from Lucia's spell, but it was futile. The Apocalypse had messed up the ambient mana and they couldn't cast any spells while they were within its range.

They could only gather together and help maintain the barrier that was already conjured earlier by some of the mages but even then, it was still meaningless. The enemy mages could only watch in horror as the barrier around them slowly disintegrated under Lucia's powerful spell.

"S-s.h.i.+T! W-what kind of spell is this?!"

"N-NO! I-I don't want to die!"

"f.u.c.k! M-my family! Who's attacking us anyway?!"

"s.h.i.+T!!"

The city inhabitants had already noticed the large commotion caused by Lucia's magic spell. Some quickly made their way over to the barracks while other soldiers also quickly went over to see what was happening, however, large explosions and plasma fields soon started bombarding the outer districts of the fortress city and its walls.

"Good, father and big sis are already starting their attack," Cecil said when he noticed the large explosions attacking the city's walls and outer district.

"Hmmm... We're doing this another 4 times...right?" Lucia quipped up from Cecil's embrace.

"Yeah...so be ready. Next time, don't use Apocalypse. Just use Meteor Fall or something..."

"M'kay~"

"Alright, that's the alley," Cecil landed into the alley that they had arrived at and placed Lucia down. "Now we wait for Quinn. After that, we'll see how things go. If it's possible, we'll help them from the inside but if the cannons are still firing, we'll teleport out of here."

Lucia nodded. It didn't take long before Quinn walked out of the shadows and regrouped with Cecil and Lucia.

"Master."

"Oh, Quinn, you're finally here."

"Mhm, I had a few pursuers on my tail so I had to deal with them first..."

"I see, not injured are you?"

"I'm fine, Master."

"Okay, we'll wait for now. If the cannons stop firing, we'll go and a.s.sist the army from the inside, if they don't stop after 10 minutes, we'll teleport out of here."

"Yes."

Lucia had already reapplied an illusion magic on this alleyway right after Quinn appeared. Cecil sat down and spread his senses onto the city's walls and noticed that the city's defense force were trying their best to defend the city and attack the Silvaria Army who were firing cannons at them from far away.

It was useless though. Their trebuchets and siege weapons couldn't possibly reach the army who were so far away. Cecil noticed that there were a few mages who were still alive and creating barriers to defend against the cannon fire.

These flimsy barriers were easily crushed by the Silvaria Spell Cannons and Storm Howlers. They couldn't withstand even a single hit and the soldiers hiding behind these barriers quickly met their end.

The cavalry was already rus.h.i.+ng towards the walls with the infantry right behind them. With the cannons covering their approach, none of the enemy archers could get up on the walls to try and fire arrows down at the soldiers.

Once the first soldiers arrived in front of the city's closed gates, the cavalry immediately dragged the portable version of the Storm Howler and blew the gates open with a few rounds of the cannon's powerful mana blasts.

"Charge! Cavalry, head into the city, and quickly set a perimeter, infantry, head up onto the walls and begin the operation! Once we've secured the walls, we'll carve a path and head towards the city lord's mansion!" The commander immediately began ordering.

Cecil saw all this with his Mana Sense and nodded in approval. He stood up and said, "Alright, it looks like we won't need to regroup with them. Let's help them out by securing the walls."

"Alrighty~"

"Yes, Master."

The trio immediately made their way over to the city walls and started dispatching any soldiers that they encountered. For the ones that laid down their arms and surrendered, Lucia quickly put them to sleep with an illusion spell before rounding them up together. For the ones that didn't, they were mercilessly killed by both Quinn and Cecil.