"Things in the palace should be almost finished, right?"

Under a magical tower on the city wall of the royal capital, two patrolling Iron Wall Shield soldiers stopped at the edge of the parapet, leaning their spears aside, and looked towards the distant shouts and killings coming from the palace.

"Hard to say, the palace guards are elites, it's not that easy to break through." The other soldier untied the water bag from his waist and took a sip of water. He suddenly smiled bitterly and said, "Speaking of which, is it really okay to betray His Majesty? After all, that person... has saved the kingdom before."

"To be honest, I feel a bit guilty, but I think Prince Brad's vision for the country is more worth looking forward to."

This was the true thought of most ordinary soldiers. For soldiers coming from the common people, if the plans proposed by Brad could be realized, they would be the biggest beneficiaries.

The Iron Wall Shield Battalion had a total of about 20,000 soldiers, with more than half of them concentrated on Glory Square, attacking the palace. The rest were scattered in the city, monitoring organizations such as the Knight Association and the Magic Guild, and some were responsible for the city's defense.

But in reality, after activating the protective magic circle of the royal capital, the soldiers patrolling on the city walls didn't really have much to do. The protective magic circle not only blocked everyone from entering or leaving the royal capital, but the magical cannons placed on the magical towers would automatically lock onto anyone approaching from outside the city.

As for the patrolling soldiers, all they had to do was to confirm that the magical towers were running smoothly.

"So boring, can't we go help at the palace?" a soldier sighed.

"Stop complaining, it's our mission."

"Yes, yes, I'm just saying. But even so, guarding the towers on the upper city wall should be enough, right? Can anyone really climb up here barehanded...?" The complaining soldier picked up his spear, ready to continue the patrol. As he raised his head, he suddenly noticed a hand clinging to the parapet in front of him.

"What the hell! What's that thing?" He was stunned for a moment, his first reaction was to stab it directly.

"Tsk, what bad luck, I actually ran into the patrolling soldiers..." came a complaint from behind the parapet, followed by a dark figure suddenly jumping up from outside the city wall.

The last thing the two soldiers saw before losing consciousness was the fluttering of a skirt, and... was it white?

"Hey, stop kicking, they are still soldiers of the kingdom." Tiran climbed up after Aya, looking at the unconscious soldiers being kicked fiercely with a speechless expression.

"These two guys kept staring at what's under my skirt, damn it! If I knew that, I wouldn't have jumped so high!" Aya gritted her teeth, seriously considering whether she should learn the technique of memory erasure from Tiran.

...

The battle in front of the palace gate continued, and the Iron Wall Shield finally gained a certain advantage through attrition, forcing the palace guards to retreat step by step, with their formation becoming thinner.

"It should be almost done, Heinrich's men haven't arrived yet..."

Boom!

A sudden loud noise suddenly overshadowed Brad's voice, causing the prince to be slightly stunned.

"It's the noise from the city wall." Corinne turned her head and looked into the distance, just in time to see a magical tower on the city wall shining brightly compared to the other towers around it.

"What's going on there? Is the magic formation malfunctioning?" Brad was dumbfounded. Could it be that this ancient magic formation, which had been built since the founding of the country, finally broke down? He had never heard of the magical cannons on top of it shooting at other towers automatically!

...

Compared to Brad's astonishment, a certain officer of the Iron Wall Battalion, responsible for guarding the city wall, was furious. What the hell! It was already annoying enough to be responsible for such a boring task, and now this happened.

Amidst the rumbling noise, another nearby magical tower was hit at its base, and with the countless shattered bricks, it collapsed with a loud crash. On the protective magic circle covering the royal capital, the radiance diminished slightly.

Am I being pranked? Can you hear me? Am I being pranked?

The officer's anger erupted, and he immediately brought a team of soldiers to deal with the suddenly rampaging magical tower.

At this moment, something terrifying happened.

At the top of the magical tower, the powerful magical cannon slowly adjusted its angle, and then aimed its glowing barrel at the soldiers approaching the tower...

Boom!

The magical cannon fired for the second time, and a huge sphere with a diameter of over one meter hit the city wall, blasting a crater with a diameter of four to five meters, even though the surface of the wall was protected by magic runes."Damn..." The officer paused, realizing that the situation was not as simple as a Magic Array malfunction. Magic Arrays aren't that intelligent, and besides, unless the designer was out of their mind, why would they program it to attack their own walls in the first place!

Definitely some asshole invaded the Magic Tower and manually fired the cannon!

Gritting his teeth, the officer called in several more teams and approached the rampaging Magic Tower from two directions.

Hmph, approaching from two directions at the same time. Even if the Magic Cannon has a great firepower, it still needs time to charge. This way, even if they lose soldiers on one side, soldiers from the other direction can still make it inside.

However, he was just an ordinary officer and didn't have a clue about the specific details of the Magic Tower that were typically maintained by the court's magicians.

Two teams of soldiers slowly approached from both sides of the city walls. At that moment, the top of the Magic Tower lit up with a second magical glow, and another cannon emerged from it, taking aim at the soldiers approaching from the other side...

...

"There's nothing in this world that can't be solved with one shot. And if there is, then just shoot again!" Tiran controlled the magic cannon and laughed maniacally. Finally, he understood the feeling of those guys who attacked him with magic cannons at the Hes Mansion that day. It felt amazing to just blast away anything in front of him.

"The impression of being a 'princess' is completely ruined! You owe me all those dragon kidnaps princess stories I've heard before! Who would want to kidnap a princess like this!" Aya silently covered her face, but her actions were not slow. She raised her hand and blasted away a group of approaching castle guards.

Then, Aya fell silent for a moment, staring at her own hand and tentatively touching the smooth and cold barrel of the magic cannon.

Hmm... it actually feels pretty good, huh? How about another shot?

...

The position of the city guards below the rampaging Magic Tower had been completely blown up. Soldiers who had no idea what was going on looked bewilderedly at the Magic Tower, which should have been their own defense structure, firing wildly at them.

"TMLN! They're shooting our own troops!"

"I've been hit! I've been hit!"

"Damn, I nearly got blown up! They're shooting our own troops!"

"Teammates! Stop shooting! Quick! (╯#‵□′)—"

"Medics, damn it, come save me!"

"Stop shooting! They're our own troops!" (Please play the "Surrounded by Allies" loop here)

Bang! On top of the tower closest to the rampaging Magic Tower, a defending officer flipped over a table and demanded, "Can someone explain to me what the hell is going on?"

"I'm not sure, sir. We didn't bring any court magicians with us, and our only magic user should be with the princess." The staff officer answered nervously, wiping off his sweat.

"Isn't there any way to stop that thing?"

"It's difficult. The protective magic barrier of the capital city is integrated. In other words, the Magic Tower is now using the city's magic power to attack us. To stop it... we would have to wait until it runs out of power or destroy the entire magic barrier."

"Damn it, if we could have done that earlier!" The officer angrily pounded the wall. He was short on manpower right now; otherwise, even sacrificing lives, they could have demolished the Tower.

When the officer looked up again, he suddenly realized that a magic cannon on the tower was aiming its brightly lit barrel in their direction.

"... " It was only then that the officer realized that he seemed to have forgotten something. It seemed that this tower was also within the range of the magic cannon's attack...

Boom!

Yep, they hit their own troops.

...

Meanwhile, outside Crown Prince's villa, dozens of Holy Knights had surrounded the villa.

"According to the guards' description, the knight who broke in to rescue the princess was the one who was by her side during the baptism ceremony." Johannes held the ancient manuscript that he had used to control the suppression barrier and glanced at the damaged seal arrays on the wall, shaking his head in disbelief. "This gap looks like it was punched with a fist. It's a bit scary."

"The one from last time? Is it that kid? At the time, I thought they had decent skills, but I didn't expect them to instantly defeat two level-six knights..." Heinrich rubbed his chin, pondering. By the way, Aya has lived for over two hundred years. Is it really okay to call her a "kid"?"Alright, although the enchantment that suppresses the barrier is almost completely damaged, the secondary runes hidden underneath are still intact," Johannes wiped the sweat off his forehead, "And I've already managed to extract the rules from the princess."

"That's good, let's prepare to activate the formation," Heinrich nodded.

"Huh? Your Grace, can we really do that? Isn't that spell listed in the forbidden chapter of the scriptures?" Johannes rubbed the slightly rough cover of the ancient book in his hand. Although his question sounded worried, his expression carried a hint of excitement and eagerness.

"You...just give it a try, alright?" Heinrich looked helplessly at the young sorcerer in front of him, "There is no forbidden chapter in the Divine Punishment Scriptures in the first place. Those old fogies from the Elder Council only created such a thing because they were afraid that their actions would truly bring about 'divine punishment'."

"Divine...punishment?"

"Forget it, you don't need to understand all that right now. I'll tell you when there's time," Heinrich lightly patted the sorcerer's head, "Hurry up and get ready. We don't have much time. Even if this forbidden spell really succeeds, it may not necessarily be able to deal with her once the residual seal inside the princess disappears."

"Oh, okay!" Johannes vigorously nodded. He took out a box of various colored magic gems and a few silver crosses emitting a faint golden light from the sorcerer's white robe, and started to get busy in the courtyard.

Explosions could still be heard from the distant city walls. Heinrich glanced in that direction, a wry smile appearing on his lips, "Prince Tiran...is he still so lively even without his powers?"

To be fair, Heinrich didn't dislike the prince, who showed no respect for the church or the goddess - after all, he himself didn't believe in gods. But if Tiran interfered with the battlefield in front of the palace, his legendary-level strength could easily ruin Heinrich and Brad's entire plan.

"Why can't he just stay here obediently?"

Heinrich sighed softly.