The day of battle arrived, the Erlking’s army hadn't yet made their move. In fact, the amount of alraune spotted during night had slowed down a little. Arata could also be a lot more confident in his plan.

  This was because his role in making it was lessened. Rachamah would lead artillery coming from a flank, allowing her to breach the castle and the rest of the forces would be all dedicated to either clearing a path for her or drawing the rest of the army's attention.

  Chive and Arata led the forces in charge of taking out the knights. Their supporting men mainly consisted of elven archers to soften up the enemies and a mage to launch spells at Arata to make him activate Demiurge's Foundry on command when needed. Arata's job was to let Chive lead him to the enemies.

  Conveniently, Arata had a map from his scouting courtesy of Ravenna. The original general there questioned the legitimacy yet between Morgan and Chive vouching, the map was accepted as fact.

  The only part of the plan that didn't turn out how Arata thought it would was how the soldiers were ready to put all their faith in victory towards two strangers named Justice Knight and Justice Bird respectively. Celine's ability to rally the soldiers was seriously impressive.

  Yet there was a small minority who didn't believe, a group Arata was intimately familiar with yet still dragged the glory of Justice Knight through the mud.

  Gavian chuckles, “You’d get along well with my grandson, he’s 9.”

  Albert cackles madly, “Oh man, Justice Knight! Not the hero we needed but we were desperate anyway~!”

  Leon tags on, “Albert, you sound like a villain, maybe Justice Knight should step in to defeat you.”

  The only one who never gave Arata shit was Alexander. Even Morgan, trying to lend Arata all the support she could, was lucky that hiding her identity meant hiding the expression she had under that helmet upon hearing it.

  Alexander finally decides to chime in, “You guys should be a little more sympathetic, back in my home village, you could see kids run around all the time with those kinda dreams… to not abandon them when you grow up is a sign of courage.”

  A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

  I should thank him but that doesn't make me feel any better… Rachamah seemed to like it. Arata sighs. They're not being much more mature about it either.

  Arata takes Leon and Alexander to Chive, it was decided those two would be his backup while the others supported Morgan.

  Chive, awaiting Arata, calls out to him, “We’re moving out now, hurry your asses along!”

  To Arata, the sight of the elven country was breathtaking, not new but certainly a spectacle. Alexander and Leon were stoked but to the elves, it was a lot more personal. They were not united through race. The Erlking was merely a stranger with their likeness who stripped away their homes, turned their kin into his regalia, turned the fairies they lived in unity with into beasts.

  Even if the battle was won, the forest was doomed as the fairies would perish alongside the Erlking, it wasn't about what they had to gain but rather the obligation to see him dead that they still fought. There was no end goal for the resistance.

  At the entrance stood the horde of alraune, dispensable vanguards for the greater force. In a flash, they were met by a blanket of flames cast across the sky, arrows made their mark on the frontlines. Among the mass of corpses, there was no way to tell who drew first blood before the battle began. Arata scaled a nearby wall with Bloody Mary, Chive floating behind him as the Elves leaped to the top.

  Chive spoke, “our mages are guarded by the two knights but they move slower than us, don't move far from Arata and engage smaller forces first.”

  The “smaller forces” started to climb up after Arata, predictably after all the research he did. Just as the first scaled to the top, Cauterizer lacerated their face as the first fairy knight fell dead. With the wound left spawning a script inside it, Arata could confirm it was dead.

  Unlike when he was on his stealth mission, the forces had no reason to spread out, just as fast as he could strike down one, ten more scaled the roof after him.

  The enemies stood in a line, brandishing their weapons as a mist flooded the roof, much to the dismay of the elven archers.

  One shouts, “Men don't shoot! Justice Knight is still in there! Mages!”

  The mist… it wishes to stop the fire… but that’s not our new plan. Arata harnesses the fireball launched at him with Demiurge Foundry. Energy sparks across Arata’s fingertips, condensing, heating and speeding up the particles in the mist. The water turned acid inside the mist begins to seep into the metal armor of the fairy knights. Due to the high mana content of the mist, Arata can dispel the surrounding mist to both keep himself safe and contribute to turning the surrounding mist acidic. The fairy knights don’t last a second, there was no counterplay available since Arata wasn’t counting on magic being fired at him with the mages to back him up.