New Life, New Task: I'll Be A Mom Then!!!

"How come? Why did he summon us so urgently?!"

Forcing his mount to a stop, the Pope replied at Rachana in a baffled tone.

"I do not know, however he seemed to be enraged…" Rachana felt uneasy as she was afraid to face her lord's wrath.

Everyone in the Spectre knew how cruel and ruthless lord Raven was when he was angry or displeased. It was something Rachana does not want to witness again.

The Pope went silent for a while, thinking of what possible reasons could make their revered leader angry.

As he pondered, none of the things made sense except for the possibility of the ambush operations becoming a failure… Could it be that the Crown Prince, one of Lord Raven's premium vessels, was killed?

His aged face displayed a deep frown as he looked at the way ahead, they were just a few days away to the ambush point. If he pushed the entire army forward, then they would have a chance to see the situation.

The Crown Prince is not a weak vessel, at most, he was just second to him in strength. That meant that the other party must have sustained damage too and would be incredibly weakened.

It would also be impossible for the other party to face another army within just a few days.

However, he was woken up by a sharp ringing in his head, followed by Rachana's cry of agony.

Riding!!

"Aaaaargh…" The pain in her mind was deeply piercing. Rachana closed her eyes and tried to cover her ears to withstand the sound but to no avail.

'He is really angry…' The Pope gritted his teeth to also try to withstand the resonance of the spirit fragment in his body as it was responding to lord Raven's anger.

The agony lasted for a minute before the two, and the other temple knights who also had a portion of the spirit fragment.

'The spirit of Birsha is resonating the wrath of Lord Raven, his host… now everyone who had his spirit would suffer this kind of pain…'

Equally helpless, the Pope could only account for those who had the spirit fragment and rallied them for their impending retreat.

"Come with me to the Lieutenants and the princes, we will inform them of our summons." He announced.

With that, they went to their allies and explained the situation. The Lieutenants and monarchs quickly understood as they all worked for the same organization.

So in just a few hours the Pope and his team set off to travel back to the Vanderford Empire and meet their raging leader, while the rear army continued their journey to the ambush point.

However…

Boom! Boom! Boom!

Consecutive explosions were triggered on both the separating parties, causing chaos to the entire army. Many were caught off guard and were severely injured at the moment.

"What on earth is happening!" Rachana exclaimed in panic as she navigated her horse to safety when they were suddenly ambushed by a random explosion ahead.

"Head towards the south!" The Pope noticed the concentration of the explosion and noticed that it only emerged northward.

Both troops heard the Pope's order and did as he instructed. However this time, multiple wind gales welcomed them and reduced their troops once again.

"D*mn! We've been set up!" The Lieutenants cursed as they realized what just happened. The region they were in was full of array traps triggered upon stepping.

Explosive arrays, wind gale arrays, Quicksand arrays, mana blade arrays, and many more, were trapped in a region that was obviously made to deal with their kind.

"There's no time, take the princes with you and escape, we will pave way for you to escape…" The Lieutenant asked the Pope to take the princes with them while the army will find a way for them to escape.

After all, if they did not act on time, the people who set up these arrays would eventually come and trap them all.

"Alright…" The Pope immediately agreed and also instructed Rachana to use her curse powers.

They took the Vanderford princes with them who was supposed to be the one to lead the rear army and rushed to escape.

With Rachana using her modified curse power, they all escaped the entrapped region at the expense of heavy loss of her powers.

"When we go back, we'll find a way to replenish your lost energy." The Pope promised the resentful Rachana, who was deeply exhausted from the earlier ordeal.

"Tsk…" Rachana could only roll her eyes.

If not for the young lads who were ambitious to obtain an easy achievement, she would have escaped so easily and would have had no need to use her powers.

But alas, these young men were Lord Raven's kin and should not be neglected, for they also have the potential to be his vessels in the future.

"Quit sulking or do you want our lord to be enraged again for waiting?" The Pope reprimanded Rachana once again and the other party could only begrudgingly follow them their way.

–

Back at the ambush point the healers quickly attended to the unconscious Leon and tried to heal him of his injuries.

However, no amount of healing and restoration potion could make him wake up, worrying Kazimir, Antoine, and the rest.

"Your Highnesses, if I may… our Captain the Third Prince has left us a few words to say to you…" Olivier and Blaze went to approach the two and relayed Leon's words.

"He said that his sleep would last for a few days, as it was an effect of his one-time contract with the Ancient Spirit Dragon. Nobody could contain the might of its power and so His Highness already expected to become unconscious for a few days.

When that happens he told us to inform you of this matter, and that he apologized for not telling you things in advance…" Olivier explained as he and Blaze bow to apologize on behalf of Leon.

"Now that you mentioned, what happened on your side? How come we have heard that the Third Brother was captured by the enemy?" Antoine asked.

"It's like this, Your Highness. When we were about to apprehend the middle army as planned, we heard the details of the opponent's ambush plans.

We have found out in advance that the two stationed armies upfront and the middle stationed ambush army are set to join forces to carry out the ambush.

On the other hand, the rear army will also move forward together with the nearest stationed army outside the desert region.

Just this change alone will quickly drown our current army of only a few hundred against the opponent's thousand.

And so after we have successfully annihilated the third army, His Highness has set up everything to deceive the first and second army to believe that he was wounded and caused a chase battle.

Through that chase, His Highness also used the just-then-annihilated army to further manipulate the opponent and cause a seemingly bitter fight.

Eventually, His Highness appeared to succumb to his injuries after taking out a few hundred of the troops and he was captured.

In his prison, the guards did not know that even as they blocked the mana usage within his containment array, His Highness' contract golem was already summoned outside of the array and was working at his orders to slightly modify the array from the outside.

His highness used this weakness of the array to slowly kill off the guards and create a portal for us to come in and replace the guards.

This process was repeated until all the guard shifts that were assigned to look for him were all our men.

That is also when our men tried to gather intel inside the enemy camp and were able to identify the exact ambush point." Blaze explained the entire recollection of what happened on their side.

"So that also explained why you were able to set up a containment array and helped us completely apprehend these people…" Kazimir replied, realizing what happened.

"As embarrassed as we are to arrive, yes, we were able to put up the barrier and join you in the battle belatedly." Olivier could only answer with regret and shame.

"It's fine, do not beat up yourself. Looking back, this was already the best scenario we can achieve when we have to face an army far more stronger and numbered compared to us. The most important thing right now is to rally our troops once again and be prepared for the approaching rear army."

Kazimir comforted Blaze and Olivier.

"About that, our troops managed to set up several arrays to delay the rear army further. We have also set up teleportation arrays as His Highness Third Prince ordered. With this, we can contact our headquarters and ask for troop reinforcement so that our team can withstand the armies better."

Blaze informed me once again.

Mishael, Kazimir, and Antoine were taken aback upon knowing what Leon and his team did behind the scenes.

They could only imagine how far worse it would be, if not for Leon's team thinking and acting way ahead!