Supreme Magus novel Chapter 2296

"If she can only move forward, she'll be forced to expose the Golden Griffon and reveal her plan. _{ƒrēewebnoѵёl.cσm}

"At that point, we can strike while she's at her weakest and take Phloria back. Then, we blow the lost academy and her sorry ass in one fell swoop."

***

Griffon Kingdom, a few days later.

Tessa and Fyrwal kept looking for Phloria, but had no luck.

The missing Ernas had just switched to a different partner and her fame as the Dragon Knight kept growing. Ne'sra, the capital of the Deirus Grand Duchy had held out just to fall the day after Valeron's companions left.

There was no trace of Thrud, yet her army kept advancing and no one knew how.

On top of that, reconquering the north was taking much longer and was harder than Lith had expected from the reports. Even with the Warp Gate network, moving troops and supplies took time.

To make matters worse, Thrud abandoning her outposts had only been a ruse.

The moment the army had lowered their guard and the cities relaxed their security, thinking that the Mad Queen's focus was now in the south, they had been taken by storm.

Fresh troops and Forgotten had attacked in great numbers, ruining in a few hours days of hard work and even recapturing a few cities.

"I swear to the gods, this makes no sense." King Meron's frustration and stress worsened his health. "Even if the Golden Griffon were a perfect academy, this shouldn't be happening.

"We have a precise estimate of Thrud's troops yet these numbers don't add up. If she had this many Awakened, she should have already won during Verhen's honeymoon. The only plausible explanation is that she can somehow move her troops quickly and recharges them with Invigoration."

"Maybe, if you told us what an academy can do, we could help you figure out a solution." Raagu said, barely holding the curiosity in her voice.

"Yeah, right." Sylpha said with a snarl. "So that you can add more crazy demands or request the blueprints of an academy for 'research purposes.' Thanks, but no thanks. Only the Royals know the secrets of the academies, and for a good reason."

"Not even the Headmasters?" Lotho was flabbergasted.

"Too dangerous." Meron dismissed the idea with a wave of his hand. "It would make their retirement equal death or the risk of the secrets of the First King being exposed."

"I see." Feela nodded in understanding, yet now her curiosity now burned even stronger and the same happened to her peers. "Can you at least tell us what you think Thrud's goal is? The attack on Deirus is surgical, it can't be a coincidence."

"It's not." Sylpha replied. "The Fire and the Black Griffon are there. We can assume Thrud is going to destroy them, starting from the Fire Griffon."

The arrays of the War Room projected a map of the region and how Phloria's attacks were moving along an invisible line that connected the known mana geysers and led to the Fire Griffon.

The Black Griffon had only been recently acquired by the Deirus household after foiling the civil war so it was at the edges of the region on the hinterland.