97: Preparing for war

"So, lady Yurishia, given the fact that until they get closer, we can't be sure of their numbers, how are we going to prepare?"

"Well, since we are going to face superior numbers, I guess we need to harden the inside."

"Eh? What do you mean by harden the inside?"

"You'll see. Shizu!"

"Yep? What can I do for you?"

"Let me borrow the moon stone for a second. It will be easier than using my own magic."

"Okay."

Shizu took of the large jewel on her headpiece and slowly handed it over to me. With this in my hand, earth modeling should be cake. So I held the moon stone in one hand and I extend my other one towards the horizon.

"Create - Great Stone Wall!"

On that moment, a huge rumbling sound rang on our earlobes! At the same time, both Nelia and Shizu fell behind, losing their balance because of the earth shaking.

"Wha…What?"

The first who noticed what was going on was Shizu.

"Look at that!!"

She pointed to something in the distance with the tip of her finger… There was a huge rock wall in the distance that emerged at the boundary of this town. It was several of meters high. After the rumbling stopped, everyone looked around at my creation. As far as the eye could see, that huge rock wall surrounded the town by 360 degrees.

"Wha…Wha…What…! Lady Yurishia… what did you do?"

"What does it look like? I fortified this place. The rock wall is 20 meters high and one meter in thickness. Soil hardness is no different from steel. It won’t be easy to make a hole on it. The enemy would need extreme magic power for that, which I doubt they will have."

Actually if Liliana has some ace up her sleeve penetrating it might be possible. However since I used the moon stone, another earth user won't be able to cancel or transmute it further.

"The sloped rock walls won’t be climbed easily because of the outward inclination. They will need really sharp claws to try and climb it. The problem is an attack from the sky though… we will probably need to place some archers on top of the walls' ledge."

"I should say 'as expected of lady Yurishia' but something like this goes a bit beyond common sense."

"I'm not done yet though."

I once again stretched my hand out and a huge rumble happened imediately after.

"Wha… what did you do this time?"

"I created a new rock wall beyond the first one."

"Like an outer wall? Are you saying you surrounded the city with 2 walls?"

"Yurishia, I'm confused. You said the hardness is strong. Was it really necessary to make another one? And by doing so didn't you basically cut off this town?"

"Don't worry. I made sure to include a narrow passage so that provisions and merchants can still enter. After an inspection of course. Besides, if Liliana isn't the one that will attack, I can't be sure what strategy the enemy will use. So better safe than sorry."

Sylvia then approached me.

"Aneue, then what order shall I give to the Black Dragon squad?"

"Place archers and casters on top of the wall. Put the rest on patrol duty. They need to uphold the law and my rule. The last thing I need is a riot."

"But if we do that, our troops won't be prepared for battle when…"

"I don't need them. They'll just get in my way."

"You can't possibly think of fighting a war on your own?"

"Why not?"

I may joke, but even I'm not that crazy. Of course I will prepare various countermeasures. All those years playing strategy games and tower defense games won't go to waste. Besides. If I can avoid casualties, it's better. I'm not doing this because I care about their lives, but currently they're all more useful to me alive than dead.

More importantly, I won't need to worry about getting backstabbed again. I'm fine with just my slaves and the white uniforms that worship me.

"You're one fucked up girl. Looks like I chose a really messed up wielder. Your judgement and personality changes are drastic sometimes. At least I won't get bored this way."

I decided to ignore Zeshia's remarks. And then I tossed the moon stone back to Shizu. The moon stone drains the user's mental strength. Those giant walls weren't an issue, but using it further might be dangerous. After all, the fatigue I felt these past days didn't go away.

"Anyway, pass down my orders. In the meantime I still need to make a few preparations. Also, tell Leona and Lumi-chan to come meet me in say… 3 hours."

"Understood."

"What are you up to now?"

As I mentioned, I also need to get stronger. Leona is the only one I know who is physically stronger than me and Lumi-chan is the only one with a mana greater than mine. Although Leona is an extreme teacher, I'm hoping Lumi-chan's motherly figure will offset it.

I'm pushing myself quite a lot, but sadly I don't have much of a choice. I need to be ready for every scenario.

So for the next 3 hours I am going to create as many traps as I can and then start focusing on myself. Small tricks I picked up from the golden Yurishia I met back in the desert will also help me to learn faster. I hope. Zeshia is going to be my last resort. If anything fails, I'll try unleashing her and hope that it's gonna be enough.

Now I just need to wait for this army to get close so that Nelia's spiders can give me a more detailed report. Regardless how the enemy will choose to attack me, I will crush them. Nothing can save you from me, Liliana. Until then… all I can do is wait and prepare.