Claudette was reported in her kingdom by the half-angel, Laila, about the failed attack in the forest to eliminate Alleyne. Claudette wasn't discouraged, however, as she believes that fate would require them to work harder to eliminate them, believing that it is the job to stop them is meant for her.
"You don't get it your Majesty. Do you even realize what you are up against?"
"The Rebel Army isn't something to fear since the other kingdoms have fallen after showing resistance against the Queen's rule. Why should I be afraid of them?"
"The former hero of the Queen's Blade War has recently joined the Rebel Army along with Airi."
"So Nathan has come back. It looks like it will be harder fighting against the Rebel Army after all, but we shouldn't worry about it too much since some of his friends have joined the Queen's Army. When the time comes, we will use that to our advantage. As for you, get out of my kingdom and stay in your position like you are suppose to."
"Fine, being inside here makes me feel way too uncomfortable anyway." Laila leaves with a dissatisfied look on her face.
In Gainos, Elina walks by an outdoor market wearing a new black armored attire, feeling uncomfortable with the peaceful surroundings as her sister, Leina, has gone missing. Her attitude has gotten worst since then instead of better, which Nathan made Elina promised. When a ball landed near her foot, one of the kids tries to get it back, but much to his horror, Elina destroys the ball and gave the boy a menacing look, scaring him off as he cries for his mother.
"Where did you go Onee-chan?" Elina thought to herself.
Elina turns to see another kid playing with a stuffed cat resembling a more primitive version of the doll Nathan had bought her in his world. Seeing it caused Elina to have a flashback of that time, hinting that she may still have some leftover feelings for her former friend, but quickly shakes it off.
"I can't be disloyal to the Queen. She is the only sister of the Vance family who is still here." Elina said to herself.
Before Elina can go any further, she starts hearing rumors about former heroes returning to the Rebel Army to over throw the Queen. Elina did not take the news well as she comes closer to the civilian talking about it and lifts him on the neck once she makes contact.
"I am the leader of the Assassins of the Fang, I will not tolerate anyone who dares talking about overthrowing the Queen."
"It's not me who is joining the Rebel Army. What I was saying are just rumors about a former hero returning. They said it is possible he joined the Rebel Army. Please let me go, those are just what I heard, I am not even sure they are true." The civilian begs.
"Do you know who the so-called hero is that dares to overthrow the Queen?"
"Nathan, the former leader of the allied forces. I heard he has returned, but that is all I have, especially since those facts came from other witnesses."
Hearing his name took Elina by surprised and releases the civilian. As people soon started watching Elina in shock, she takes notice and raises her head.
"If all of you don't want to be killed, LEAVE ME ALONE!"
The crowd obeyed and returns back to their usual activities, leaving Elina to think for herself.
She then looks up to the sky unsure if what will happen next and again begins talking to herself. "I would have been more than happy to see you if you didn't join the wrong side. I wish we didn't have to fight, but if the rumors are true, I can't allow you to go against the Queen. This is my goodbye to our bond."
Elina then walks away wiping away I tear from her eye, but later forms a sinister smile.
Meanwhile, Annelotte, Nathan, and the rest of the group stop by the next town after taking sight of a crowded battle between female combatants.
"Annelotte, do you mind telling me why there are so many battles all over cities among female fighters?" Nathan asked.
"Claudette recently banned the Queen's Blade tournament, fearing that someone would overthrow her. These illegal battles were made to appease those who still want to fight, but it also puts them at risk since Claudette's army is all over town. I heard that one of the organizers got burned alive after one of the Queen's henchman heard about it."
"That bad, huh?" Nathan continues to watch the fighters with sympathy, knowing that Queen's Blade was not only seen as tradition, but also a lifestyle to them that was taken away.
Annelotte touches Nathan's shoulder. "That is why we must act in order to overthrow the Queen in order for the Continent to return to the peaceful land it once was."
"I would never imagine that things would change this much while me and Nathan were gone. This world looks more damaged than when I left it." The equally dismayed Airi became angry at what the Continent has become under Claudette's rule.
Annelotte turns to Airi. "Don't worry Airi, it won't be too long before the Rebel Army finally has a chance to fight. We even recruited former members of the Queen's Army to our own after finding out how much her brutality has affected them. Sigui used to punish the organizers of these battles, but ended up with us after Claudette tried to attack her."
"It seems as if Claudette might be indirectly helping us with our battle against her by attacking her own soldiers. If this keeps up, the Queen's Army will have barely anything to fight with once the battle begins." Legolas pointed out.
"That is true, but I wouldn't go that far Legolas. We have only recruited small numbers of former members of the Queen's Army, as many others remain strictly loyal to her. We can't let our guard down just because we have a few."
"I can see why they appointed you as the leader of the Rebel Army." Legolas laughs a little.
"You are awfully easygoing, especially since we are going to fight an army that killed my entire tribe and left me to die." Alleyne becomes a little angry with Legolas.
"I am not trying to be insensitive Alleyne. It is just that whenever I am at war, my little friend, Gimli, and me would often hold a contest to see who would kill the most Orcs. My apologize if you think I am a bit insensitive to your situation with them."
Alleyne turns away from Legolas out of embarrassment to his sincerity. "It's okay, but please be a little sensitive with other, especially if they have a bad background with what you say. I am also sorry for not understanding you as much as I should."
"Once I head back to Middle-earth, I have got to stop hanging around with Gimli too much." Legolas said to himself.
Nathan turns to Annelotte. "I have another question. What exactly happened to the weapons that were made from my blueprints after the battle?"
"The Queen attempted to recreate them, but it was no use since many of them were confiscated and destroyed by you and Menace so she had to take the ones that were already made, but we manage to rob enough for about two divisions."
"Good, because we are going to need as much armor and weapons as we can get, especially since Claudette holds superiority over us when it comes to the military."
"We are still trying to get more to recruit to our army and knowing that Claudette still holds the advantage over us gives us more of a reason too since she has high ranking soldiers in her army whose skills surpassed our own." Yuit explains.
Before the conversation could continue, their path to the next town was halted when they find themselves surrounded by female mercenaries.
"Those are the Queen's mercenaries. Apparently, they have spread the word of your return Nathan."
Nathan takes out his sword to prepare for battle. Airi does the same as she picks up her scythe.
"No worries, we will take them out." Yuit activates Vante and aims her arms at the mercenaries.
"Leave some to us." Tarnyang and Sainyang immediately went to their battle pose.
Legolas was hesitant hurting humans, but takes out his bow and arrow anyway. "Let us go and no harm will come to you."
"There is no talking your way out of this you stupid elf." One of the mercenaries smiled sinisterly, as she begins to charge at Legolas.
Nathan and Annelotte stood back to back in the circle. "So Annelotte, how many are we facing?"
"About 20."
"That little, huh? Let's finish this off quickly so we can move to the next city."
"Agreed." Alleyne begins charging and easily takes out 2 mercenaries with one strike.
"I may not need to suck life energy anymore, but I can still fight back." Airi sends out a few lesser spirits to disarm her attackers before showing her true combat skills when she literally flips the two mercenaries by grabbing their arms.
Another charges at Legolas, but moves side to side to avoid his arrow. "Very unwise for you to underestimate my aim."
Legolas releases the arrow after the mercenary hopped into the air and hits her shoulder. The injury causes her to unable to continue and was forced to retreat after she pulled out the arrow accompanied by another. A third attacker attempts to strike Legolas, but he was able to take out his blade and easily blocks her attack. Three of the mercenaries surrounds Yuit and Vante, but Yuit did not faze as she smiles with confidence.
"Let's see how you like it when you fight Vante." Yuit activates Vante's guns and begins shooting all over the mercenaries, keeping them at bay as they struggle trying to keep themselves from getting shot.
One mercenary attempts to ambush Vante and immediately jumps to catch her by surprise. Yuit easily catches on.
"Not good enough." Vante stops one of her arms from firing and punches her attacker, sending her flying a few feet and does the same to another who did the same attempt.
Annelotte easily waves off her attackers as she quickly disarms them, forcing them into a retreat after realizing that their weapons are gone. Tarnyang and Sainyang already made quick work of their enemies as they are seen being knocked unconscious around them. After several minutes, the mercenaries found themselves completely outmatched and decides to retreat.
"Don't think we will forget this!" One of the mercenaries yelled out.
"This was way too easy." Yuit crossed her arms smiling.
"It appears that Claudette's rule as Queen also affected her judgment. She knows we are stronger than that." Alleyne points out.
"Maybe, maybe not. Claudette only sees me as a leader during the last war because of my knowledge rather than skill. She has never seen me fight directly."
"Looks like you gave us another advantage Nathan. Claudette doesn't really know how strong we really are so we will have the element of surprise, but remember that her new army also included Orcs, It is best not to underestimate them as well." Legolas puts away his blade.
"Hey, it seems like the mercenaries left some of their own behind." Airi saw four unconscious bodies lying in front of her.
"They will wake up eventually. We should get going to the fortress." Yui and Vante attempted to leave the area, but Nathan stops her.
"We can't just leave them like this. They will only head back to the Queen if we do."
"What do you want us to do with them then?"
"Take them with us." Annelotte suggested.
"What are you, crazy? These three tried to attack us like the rest of them. They will only try to sabotage us if we allow them into the fortress."
"We still have some of the former members of the Queen's Army with us. We can hope that they can talk some sense into them. We are looking for new recruits, right? It might be necessary to get more from the Queen as well as trying to find more members in the next town."
"For the army's sake, I hope you are right Nathan." Yuit grudgingly accepts Nathan and Annelotte's decision to take the four mercenaries to the fortress, which means that they will have to delay their destination to the next town.
As soon as they reach the sacred ruins of the Calibara tribe, Luna Luna wasted no time in welcoming Annelotte back to the fortress. She attempts to grope, but Annelotte easily subdues her from doing so.
A sweat drop formed on Nathan's head. "Does she always do that to you?"
"You have no idea how much it bothers me, especially when it is done in front of other people."
"I see you brought some new soldiers with you, although I didn't expect you to bring some men with you."
"Do you have any idea who a few of them are?" Annelotte asked.
"No, are they strong or something?"
"That is an understatement. This boy here was the former leader of the allied forces during the Queen's Blade War."
"Wow! You actually got him to be part of the Rebel Army? This is going to boost our morale greatly. By the way, who are those four that Vante is riding on?"
"The Queen's former mercenaries. We were hoping that by bringing them here, they will know from the Queen's former members about what the Queen truly does to them if they fail. We can't just let them go back to the Queen."
"So they are our prisoners?"
"Only if we can't convince them to be a part of us. Right now have them treated."
"Of course." Luna Luna moves away from the entrance to allow the group to enter.
As soon as the group enters, the Rebel Army initially meets them with suspicion. However, when they recognize Airi and Nathan, their suspicions immediately dies away and instead becomes excited that they are here.
"I can't believe it. Nathan is here. It looks like the army might be able to match with the Queen after all." One soldier said.
"Is he really the one who lead the battle against the Swamp Witch?" The other asked.
"It appears that the rumors are true about your return Nathan." A woman in a nun's outfit shows up in front of the group.
"Sigui, it has been a while." Annelotte raises her hand.
"Of course Aneue-sama. I see you have managed to get valuable members for the army."
"It is not over yet. We delayed our destination to the next town, because we have these four mercenaries to take care of. We found them left abandoned after the rest left in a retreat after fighting us."
"I see we have some cleaning up to do with these three. Come on, let's move along so we can have them treated." Sigui leads them deeper into the fortress.
"So how long do you plan on staying this time?" Sigui asked Annelotte.
"Not too long. We plan to recruit more members in the next town."
"I see. It is good to know that we have some valuable members in the Army."
"None of us in the group can stay too long either. With everyone else being under threat by the Queen's two armies, We have to make sure to grab whatever we can while trying to lower the risk of anyone getting caught by her. It already happened once to our newest recruit, Legolas." Nathan said.
"I see. Since you are all skilled fighters, I will leave you with the job of gathering more recruits, but the founder of this army isn't here yet, so do you mind waiting until you meet her. It will be a breakthrough if she accepts you to become a part of the force."
"I am sure we can all spare so time to meet her. Might as well let the rest of you explore the fortress as long as we are here." Annelotte dismisses the group to allow them to get used to the fortress.
Once Legolas is done walking around the fortress, he finds Alleyne secluded in a single room looking out the window at the clear blue sky.
"You look troubled. Is something wrong?"
"I'm okay. I'm just wondering what I am going to do after this war is over. That is if I live to see the end of it."
"Both of us lived through the odds of our previous battles before, so I can't see why we won't be able to survive this one just because the enemy is a little more powerful."
"That's a good point, but even if we do survive, what exactly am I going to do afterwards? All of my tribe is gone and I cannot revive it if I am the only living elf there."
"You maybe the only elf originally from the tribe, but not the only elf in existence. You can still revive it with the other elves instead. I know you miss them, but nothing stays the same forever."
"I suppose you are right, but if I do, will you help me?"
"Middle-earth isn't going anywhere. I am sure my friends can wait a little longer." Alleyne smiles at Legolas' response.
Before their conversations could continue, Nathan interrupts them. "Sorry to interrupt your conversation, but Sigui tells me to call you two out here. The founder of the Rebel Army has arrived and everybody is heading to the entrance."
Once everybody is at the entrance, a woman enters through and Nathan immediately recognizes as well as those who fought in the last war. The woman also takes notice of Nathan and was caught by surprise as well after recognizing him.
"Risty, is that you?" Nathan asked.