---

Emily was panicking. Seeing moving corpses was nauseating even if it was so far away that she couldn't make out their face. She was standing on the rampart above the gate with Elena and the soldiers watching them moving closer and closer.

Barrels of arrows were stacked full behind her and firebombs were also stacked next to them.

It was like war in the movies she knew. Everyone was tense and scared but they didn't run.

Emily was so nervous that she found it hard to breathe.

"Calm down, just stand there and watch."

Elena reassured her but it did little to dissuade her nervousness.

The sun was burning hot and the sky was cloudless. It was the peak of noon. Their ramparts had roof and wind flow so they were quite comfortable.

Aren't zombies and ghosts supposed to be weak in the daytime? Why are they marching so energetic!? And why is this happening to me!

Emily was screaming inside when the archers started shooting the slits on the rampart. The wave of undead had arrived. She almost puked.

"Ugh, those zombies and skeletons smell disgusting."

Emily agreed with Elena. Luckily she wasn't down there fighting because she couldn't fight at all. It wasn't like they would force her. The first rule of fighting undead was not to add corpses to the enemies.

She was thinking that those zombies were villagers from the surrounding area but the number was too much. The zombies were well armed too. The number of weapons and armors was impossible for farmers to have.

On the front line were zombie soldiers with spears and swords, their rotten faces were clearly visible under the helmets. Their charge was shaking the ground with disregard for everything else. Knights with shields held the line with all they got while the rest started destroying the enemies.

The battle was long and very nasty for humans. As everyone was doing their best to survive, Elena raised her finger and started shooting small yellow [Fireballs] at the horde. Small explosions consumed chunks of them leaving emptied, charred spots on the ground.

The image made Emily remember her old pc game where she joined with three other people online and shot zombies through the campaigns.

It's like a grenade launcher. I want to be able to do that too.

Those zombies weren't like in her games or movies. They didn't run but they weren't dull either. The steadiness in their steps was so menacing, so intimidating.

She heard the battle mages around her who were resting after exhausting their mana whispering quietly with each other.

"Hey, look. The Lady doesn't chant. I didn't know she was this powerful."

"I saw her training a few times. Her wind magic is more awesome."

"But I heard that her main element is fire."

"Don't you know? Nobles usually aren't taught fire magic until they go to the Academy. It's dangerous to let them play with fire."

Emily felt a bit superior to them because she knew the true power of Elena, and she was being taught by that powerful person. Although she hadn't learned anything yet.

She puffed up her chest a bit, her nervousness was also gone.

When some confidence had formed inside her, Emily looked over the rampart to see below.

It was a mess.

She didn't know what was what when looking down. All the knights were slaughtering the seemingly endless horde without stopping. There had been no death yet and the defense was working well. Some zombies climbed the wall but the soldiers pushed them down with spears. There were a few hulking zombies around three meters tall slamming their bodies into the wall to bring it down. Everything was shaking but still held very strong. Mages were taking down those things with [Fireballs] continuously.

The Count and the new captain were too busy shouting out orders from behind the wall.

Group of knights and soldiers were taking turns to rest. Some citizens volunteered to help but were refused.

This was clearly an attempt to destroy their city. The only suspect was the mercenaries from the Kane empire. They didn't know who could be the enemy right now, so taking help from the people was too much of a risk.

Even a greenhorn merchant could see the tactic. They were using the undead to level the city, then they would take over the city later. Step by step swallowing the whole kingdom while it was in peril. Sabotaging the defense was the best method currently.

Only the kingdom had faced those disaster-class monsters so its neighbors saw no threat in encroaching deep into its land. Emily saw it as foolishness. But then she thought again, it was not the leaders that would die so they had no such fear.

Of course, those maneuvers were in secret. On the surface, they were allies and were helping.

The Count knew it and everyone knew it but they couldn’t risk diplomatic issues. It would give the empire a reason to declare war and invade them with full force.

I can't believe the Count let Elena join the defense. He seems to be the kind that would lock his daughter up in a tower. On that note, Finn guy is also stubborn and is competing with Elena even now.

Finn was nearby, shooting arrows at the zombies but nothing was killed by him. His shots were too weak and his mana had run out long ago. He was supposed to go home a long time ago but still stayed for some reason.

Emily was being useless so brought water over to the resting mages. Meanwhile, Elena was unceasingly scattering [Fireballs] over the enemies. She didn't even sweat so how could she serve her?

She noticed something about the undead. There was no corpse pile. The number of enemies easily exceeded the ten thousand mark. So where were the corpses?

"It looks like the wave is ending."

Elena's voice made everyone around perked up. Murmurs spread out fast as a few mages confirmed it. The horizon was clearing up.

"We are winning."

"It's finally over."

"So tired."

Everyone relaxed and started chatting. It became noisy quickly.

"Shut up or I will throw you down there! It will be over when it's over!"

The unexpectedly loud voice rocked everyone out of their mood. Elena glared them back to their posts real quick.

"Hmph!"

She blasted off a bigger version of her previous [Fireball]. It exploded lightly on the group of undead below but the fire didn’t go out. Just like how oil spread on the water, her fire consumed zombies en masse. The wind was added by Elena with a gesture of her hand and the fire spread even further.

It was scary being yelled at by her!

Her heart stopped and skipped a beat even though she wasn’t the target of the scolding.

An hour later, the last of the zombies were crushed under the might of the knights. Soldiers' cheer resounded the whole city and everyone started celebrating for real. But it didn't feel right to Emily.

Isn't this too easy?

There was a strange anxiety that she couldn't quite put it. She stopped looking at the city and turned around on the outside of the wall.

The field was empty. Not a single corpse in sight. If not for the trampled ground and the foul air she would believe it when someone said it was just an illusion.

"Um, Lady Elena? This is..."

There were only the two of them left on top of the gate, the others had been giving her the whole place and gathered at the other parts of the rampart to chat and cheer. She didn't know how to tell it but Elena seemed to understand her just fine. If the butler were there she would be in trouble again for her manner though. Addressing people with long names was her bane since she grew up on modern Earth.

"This is the first wave of course. There have been only small fries and no leader so far."

"Where are the corpses?"

"You have seen me doing it too. Those things were made from mana."

Emily paled.

That power is too powerful, why would the enemies have them too?

She thought only a Demon King like Elena could do something so out of the world.

Seeing her kind of admiring someone else made Elena a bit annoyed.

"Hmph, creation magic is not easy. Wizards can learn it but what they can make is doubtful. The necromancer did a cheap alteration of that. Nonfunctional organic constructs are the best they could do. Me? I can make a fully working soul! Don't even dream of touching my heels with that level of skill!"

Emily calmed down when seeing Elena become strangely worked up. She didn't think Elena could read minds but it looked like she somehow picked up her thought of comparing their skill. She also forgot to conceal information and let loose some incredible things about herself. But Emily didn't catch the significance of it, as she always had.

"Oh no, would Mari disappear as well?"

"Huh? No way. The necromancer is just bad at it and can't make a stable thing."

She let out a big sigh of relief.

I see. So with those unstable, fake zombies, he could make a lot more than what he was actually able to.

Wait a minute, isn't this…

Then it hit her and she remembered something she tended to forget recently.

This is a game world. D-Don't tell me this is the game mechanism becoming real!? Now that I think about it, the arrows curved and followed the enemies too!

The shock came suddenly and smacked her hard. She didn't know anymore. Was this a real world? Was this a game? The game turned real or the reality became game-like? Would she see an affection bar if she started wooing the love interests? Would she respawn when she hit game-over? How to save and load? Could she use cheat programs?

Elena looked at her with a raised eyebrow as her face turned dumber and dumber as she fell into the rabbit hole. They couldn’t stay there forever so they returned to the mansion for the moment.

Emily continued to be like that for the rest of the day as she followed Elena around like a duckling.

Meanwhile, Mari who joined the defense outside the wall was having quite an awkward time as the knights were getting close and talked so friendly with her. Her hammer was broken and discarded midway through the battle. In her hand was a wooden trunk, a crudely made club from the trees outside the wall. There was dried blood spotted on her clothes. Although all the corpses crumbled like dust in the wind, some of the blood remained.

Elena, who came down from the gate, gave her an order to get rid of those dirty clothes and follow her back. She was glad to leave the noisy place and ran like children to their mother while her improvised weapon was thrown to the side immediately.

The day passed without further trouble. People were celebrating on the street like a new year’s festival. Shops and stalls were opened very quickly to the opportunity.

Carpenters and mechanics were fixing the gate as fast as they could. The Count also returned to the mansion and dealt with other bothersome businesses.

---

It was nighttime. The city was still pretty much awake.

Elena was in her room alone pretending to sleep. When she was sure that no one would go to her room and bothered her, she sat up and left the bed.

She undressed and threw her nightwear on the chair. New dark clothes formed on her body with a hood to complete the set. She looked in the mirror to inspect herself.

"Hmm, look good on me. Maybe some gold lining too."

She looked like a master assassin but the added gold lining made her unexpectedly fancy. Although she planned to be stealthy, she wanted to look good too.

The undead attack from the day made her angry a bit. Not toward them because they just helped her show her fire element. It was the people who had tried to sabotage her city that irked her.

The night was ideal for those kinds of people to work so she would join them too.

Normally she would have the minions hunt down the rats but she had a reputation now. Her maids weren't usable for this job either.

It wasn't the first time she did this. She had tried to assassinate the Heroes in the past and it worked quite well too. But then the gods had given them some new kinds of divine protections to avoid instant death like that. Cheating, she had to say.

She knew if those people disappeared, she would give the next-door empire a great excuse to invade. Not like she cared and not like she would lose to them.

Satisfied with her look, she covered her face with a red mask with one of her real demon eyes on it. The vertical eye took almost all of the mask's space.

"Heh, my eye looks cool on anything."

Elena opened the window and disappeared into the night silently.

---

The Kane empire was the most powerful on the continent and owned one-third of it. But its territory was getting too big to manage efficiently. Even though it was like that, the emperor still wanted more.

And then the opportunity came. The Agava kingdom to the west fell into a crisis. It was a rare chance so the emperor immediately sent ‘aid’. Conquest wasn’t the only way they knew how to take over a kingdom.

While the diplomatic entourage worked its way at the capital, the emperor sent mercenaries and spies to the Silver Pass city on their border.

The agents that were sent to that city were currently arguing with each other.

“What the hell did you do to miss such information? How are you even getting this job?”

“I’m gonna bash your face in!”

“Whoa whoa, calm down everyone! We have a job to do!”

There were ten people in this room. They all dressed like normal citizens in Silver Pass but their aura was clearly too extraordinary.

“A lich leading that army was unexpected. I thought it was just some normal necromancer.”

“Lure that vile thing here may be a very bad idea. It could go over to the empire.”

“How powerful is that lich? Could we take it down?”

“Don’t be insane. We will retreat and leave this place to the army to deal with.”

Lich was a legendary monster that existed in myths. They were evil and very powerful wizards that went down the path of heresy and sought immortality. Defying both the dead and the living, those monsters kept advancing their dark art with cruelty.

The undead army they led here was small so they didn’t think something like a Lich would be among that. Only after the attack on the city that they knew about it.

One of their colleagues died while scouting the undead. The last encoded message they received only contained one word, ‘Lich’.

Now, they had to draw a new plan. The defense force of the city was stronger than they expected but the Lich wouldn’t send simple zombies again. If they sabotage the defense again they would also die when the undead took down the city. If they pled, the emperor would hunt them down.

They would leave the city but only after they made sure of its fall. That way, the executioners would spare them. It was easier said than done because leaving the city was impossible right at the moment. The soldiers were keeping watch very tight on the wall.

“But hey, why are the knights here so strong? There is not a single death today.”

“It isn’t just the knights. Have you seen that girl on the front line? An absolute maniac! I have never seen someone plucked out a tree and used it as a club.”

“Oh, I saw her. It looks like she was a melee fighter. Magic should take care of her easily.”

“Speaking of magic. Who is the mage that shot so many [Fireballs]? That is another insane person.”

“I don’t know. The military didn’t have such a mage recorded. It baffled me that even the rogue mages in the city were recorded but that person wasn’t.”

Although they looked like they weren’t much by failing the sabotage but in truth, they were very proficient in gathering information and doing covert missions. It was just that Elena was not someone the military would dare to record without permission, just like all the high nobles.

They weren’t too familiar with the kingdom’s inside workings. The notes they gathered about strong points and weaknesses of the city were laid out on the table. Plans were forming and things were getting good. But suddenly a knock came from the door. Everyone was cautious and prepared themselves for a fight while one of them approached the door.

The door was opened but there was no one outside. Chill crawling up their spines as the door was closed.

"It's good that no one ran."

They all snapped their heads upward following the voice. On the ceiling was a black thing like a giant demon bat with golden lines running on its body. The red face under the shadow was terrifying.

"So you guys are the one responsible. I need you out of the way before the next attack."

All the people erupted into action immediately. Fire flashed up to consume the figure while the others jumped and slashed with their swords that they pulled out of nowhere.

But they hit nothing. The black thing on the ceiling faded away slowly in front of their eyes.

"You're stupid. That is just an illusion, can't you feel it?"

The voice came from the door as it opened again. The feminine figure in the same black suit came in. The red mask that covered her face under the hood still made her quite intimidating in the dark.

"Well, this tactic works every time though so…”

She raised her palm toward them and they all slumped down.

“Humans without high mana tolerance are so easy to kill.”

She just pumped them with her mana and they died from shock. If this was the hero’s party, everyone would be empowered by her. But they died because she had intended to kill them by adding more mana than two dragons combined.

“Now then, this is faster than I planned for.”

Elena wasn’t expecting all of them to be here in one place. Of course, she knew these people weren’t the only group the empire sent but she wouldn’t be able to find them all in one night. She sensed the presence of big monsters on the horizon so the enemies would be attacking again soon.

Satisfied with killing the group that destroying the gate, she returned to her room. Only to meet another group of people. Four in total.

She hid outside her window to spy on them.

“What to do? Getting in here is not an everyday thing. We can’t do this again.”

“Her clothes are here so she would be here sooner or later. We will wait.”

“What do her clothes have to do with anything?”

“You know what? I don’t know! Just wait and see, she will have to come back to sleep or something.”

They looked like thieves but more professional. She saw rope and chemical potion on their belts. There was a big bag too.

Taking advantage of the undead situation, these people sneaked in here to do something to her. She was also curious about it so she moved to the door with her clothes replaced with a basic red dress. There were guards at the hallway entrance but not in front of her room.

She opened the door and came inside. Chemical mist immediately spayed on her face and a cloth was put against her mouth to block her voice.

I see. They want to kidnap me. That means their client must have been some big shot to afford this.

She wouldn’t kill these guys though. She wanted to let them take her to the mastermind and she would work from there. But right now was a bad time. She would have a performance with the undead soon. So she needed these people to wait for their turn.

She casted three instances of [Confuse] on each person and made herself invisible.

“The guards are coming! Let’s get away quickly!”

“Huh? R-Right!”

As expected of some professionals. Even though they were confused, they still acted quite quickly and vacated the room in seconds with her shouting. But because they didn’t have a mess-up story in their brain to think about, they would get suspicious soon. Elena didn’t mind it as they would still know nothing about her and wariness wasn’t a reason for those kinds of people to abandon their job.

She watches their back from her window with a sinister smile as she closed it.

---

Powerful howls were echoing the city the next morning. The undead attacked again. But this time the people were calmer and preparations were made beforehand. Ballistas and canons were lined up on the wall this time because the enemies were not numerous zombies like the day before.

This time, the undead were giants of various races. The most numerous were two-headed wolves that were taller than an adult human.

Today too, Elena and her maids appeared at the gate.

Mari wore her armor that the knights provided and held a great warhammer, a gift from the dwarves living in the city. The hammer head was spiked and as big as her head. She seemed to like it a lot. Elena could make her one but decided not to as sometime, the dwarves made things that went beyond logic. She used to suspect them to surpass the limit like her but found out later with the Heroes that it was some science thingy.

This warhammer wasn't such an exceptional creation. It was a good weapon but that was it.

Elena walked on the gate again. She would launch the first attack since her strength was verified by a lot of people now. The Count had permitted her to do so too.

She took the opportunity and gave the best performance she could have done currently as Elena. At least she thought so.

She held the treasure staff of her family, something her father had given to her to boost her magic.

She dismissed it at first but when she read its enchantment, she felt excited. The staff made her spell ten percent stronger. It wasn't much but that was the first time she saw something like this staff. It was fancy and beautiful but its enchantment was ridiculous.

Ten percent of her power was not a joke. And this staff somehow could make that happen. She had tested it and it worked no matter how powerful the spell was. She decided to learn this kind of enchantment at all costs.

She stepped out of the area that had a roof on the rampart and started making motions to cast. Of course, she didn't need it but the people needed to see something.

The clear sky was clouded quickly and the wind started to churn. The typical weather of the ocean was now forming above their territory like magic. It was magic. Shadow covered the whole county as the sun was blocked out by dark clouds.

The wind over the city was strong but not that strong. However, the wind outside the wall was different. A continuous torrent of shearing wind following the spiral of the clouds above the territory was grinding the ground and everything above it to dust. The storm of destruction had no mercy on anything in its path. The undead didn't stand a chance.

It was a complete massacre that leveled the land surrounding their city. The only thing left was a single skeleton floating above the ground with a menacing aura. But a blur with golden light quickly zoomed in on it.

A loud crack was heard and then bones shattered into tiny bits everywhere. Standing on the ground was a glowing golden-eyed girl holding a smoking great hammer that was as tall as herself. Her legs dug two long trenches on the ground starting from where she landed. The skeleton was nowhere to be found but the soldiers saw how the barrier was shattered along with its owner.

Wind was still howling and rocks were still flying but the girl with the hammer stood firmly on the ground like an immovable object.

Then the wrath of nature ceased like it was not even there in the first place. Shining sunlight of dawn greeted the land and made the battlefield look glittering due to the residual mana particles.

The image of the battle maiden holding the great warhammer was engraved in everyone's mind along with the peerless princess of their county.

This was the battle of the century that went down in the history of the Agava kingdom.

---

The empire didn’t expect its perfect strategy to fail. Even with many agents trying their best to flung the city into ruin, the plans did nothing.

The knights of the county were strong enough to hold the gate. The soldiers kept their walls clean of climbers. Finally, the rumor, the young Lady, the evil maiden princess of their county. She stood upon the gate and cast magic with grandiose.

That day marked the day the empire recorded two new threats on their border.

Some of the citizens who were brave enough to not hide witnessed the feat of the supernatural and started to spread new rumors.

Her power was now known to her people. Although only mages realized how significant that spell was, the people still managed to come near the truth about her spell and made her achievement seem to be less exaggerated which was the opposite of how her usual rumors work.

And following her fame, different secret factions also noticed Elena’s presence.

People were coming to her as she wanted it.

---

End of chapter 8