"Oh right, if I win I want this guy's life too"

The mocking laughter only got louder with Mars' demand, James gave a frown and looked troubled even though the greed shown clearly in his eyes he was hesitating a bit, at this point the mocking laughter suddenly stopped and then the general spoke out

"James, why don't we just have this clown executed and take his crystal card instead?"

James gave a frown and so did Vanessa and after some time did James speak again

"Who should keep track of our bet? Surely you have thought of this too have you not Mars?"

"Oh I have someone in mind... So what do you say, do you agree on our bet?"

"...Fine, I'll inform you which city tomorrow, then we'll all travel out there and you'll do your... conquering"

Mars gave a nod and a smile and shock hands with James before he took the crystal card back and walked out of the office, after he, the girls and Vannessa left James gave a wide smile and spoke to the two generals that also had wide smiles on their faces and spoke

"Whoever said that there's no free lunches in the world is a liar"

"James how much was on that crystal card?"

"just over 250.000.000 cel"

The two generals looked stunned for a moment before they both laughed with happy smiles on their faces until one of them asked

"...But what do we do if he actually wins the bet?"

The other general laughed and James also gave a smile

"Then we simply take the city from him afterwards, after all who can possibly hold us accountable and make us uphold our end of the bargain?"

"Well that's true... mind if I am the one to finish him off?"

"Oh, are you bothered by his extra demand?"

"It's insulting to think that he can just threaten me like that"

James gave a smile and a nod

"Fine... Let's talk about how to share the contents of the crystal card"

Mars' smile widened as he suddenly let out an intense bloodl.u.s.t, but only for a moment before he reeled it in again and gave a sigh before he muttered

"Mortals are really greedy... Oh well"

Then he gave a sigh and sat down on the bed, he and the girls were currently in a guest room in the castle, as he sat down 78 walked over, she looked a little concerned

"Umm... Mars, is this really okay?"

"It'll be fine, worst case I'll earn back the card within a year from doing merc work"

"Okay if you say so Mars then I'll trust you"

"Thanks"

The night pa.s.sed quietly and the next day Mars walked out of the guest room along with the girls, outside stood about 50 elite guards, the captain of the guards gave a shallow bow to Mars and spoke

"Please follow after us, the sky carriages have been prepared"

'not letting us go huh... Well this works for me, besides it's adorable how the mortals think they are in control...'

Mars gave a smirk and obediently followed after the guards to the roof of the castle where a couple of sky carriages stood waiting, they were a little different from the ones from Green river however as they were about twice the size

'If the ones from Green river were a carriage then these are like a mini truck...'

Mars and the others boarded a sky carriage together and soon it lifted off...

About 3 days of flying later the sky carriages landed somewhere north east of the Ichma province, the environment was arid and few trees stood on the open plain, Mars stepped out of the carriage and found himself on a flat plateau and looked down on a fortified city in the distance, besides the city the armies of the NNE also entered his eyes, active mana armors, soldiers, siege engines and the like

"Looks like they plan on taking the city anyway... Oh well"

"Well well... looks like you guys made it"

Mars looked back and saw James, the two generals and Vanessa stepping out of one of the other sky carriages and gave a smile

"Well let's just stop the bulls.h.i.+t right there... I have work to do"

James and the two generals gave a sneer as Mars turned around and walked over and collected his luggage from the sky carriage, meanwhile Vanessa spoke out to her dad

"Umm... Dad, are you sure this is a good idea?"

"What? I believe you told me his combat powers are equal to a squad of active mana armors right? If that's the case then there's no problem"

Vannesa gave a nod, however she could not stop the strong unease she felt when she looked at Mars... It was like he was almost transparent, like a piece of gla.s.s of course that all changed when he grabbed the broadsword out of the luggage, thyen his presence ever so subtly changed

'What is this unease..?'

Vannesa didn't know but she definitely felt that her dad was in the progress of kicking a steel plate, Mars of course didn't care for the thoughts of some mortal so no matter how much undisguised scorn the two generals and James threw at him he really didn't care, it was simply benthe him

'I suppose that's also why I let the elders go... I really didn't care enough about them to be angry with their so called betrayal, besides that was a rather poor betrayal... compared to my past life that was simply---'

"Mars? are you okay?"

Mars snapped out of his thoughts and gave a smile while he unwrapped the cloth that covered the blade of the adamant.i.te broadsword

"I am fine Elsa, I was just thinking about something"

"Okay... Then go kick some a.s.s, the others and I will be right here waiting for you"

"Sure, I'll be right back"

Mars floated off the ground slightly and gave Elsa and each one of the girls a kiss before he suddenly blasted off towards the valley below, as he flew over the flat ground the broadsword dragged a line on the ground under him as he flew low to the ground until he was about two kilometers away from the fortified city, there he stopped and stabbed the broadsword into the ground before he closed his eyes and mumbled

"Now how to best go about this... Let's make it flashy while minimizing the casualties of my new citizens... Also keeping the structural integrity of the walls will spare me some cel"

When he opened his eyes again they faintly shone before he yelled

"[I decree it thus... MANDATE OF ENERGY]"

It happened in a moment, no an instance, the sky seemed to crack open as a beam of light shone down on Mars but the light didn't hit the ground instead it was absorbed into Mars. After a few seconds of this the fortified city seemed to come alive as the enemy commanders probably realized Mars was with the enemy and that he was doing something they probably should try their best to stop, but at two kilometers their options were limited and so soon long range magic cannons opened up along with catapults that flung giant boulders through the air, meanwhile Mars seemed to slowly float towards the sky with closed eyes as more and more light was absorbed into him

"..."

As the magic projectiles and boulders hurtled towards him Mars was silent with closed eyes but when the fastest projectile was about to hit his eyes snapped open and then... Silence

"Imposible..."

It was unknown who mumbled this, but the same thought was mirrored in every person that watched the scene, magic projectiles and boulders that weighted seemed to have frozen in time for a moment before they all fell to the ground as the kinetic energy that had carried them so far had been annulled, Mars wearing a slight smile on his face slowly raised his hand and pointed to one of the boulders that now lay on the ground beneath him before it slowly floated up from the ground, then he pointed to the gate of the fortified city as he muttered

"...Knock, knock"

The boulder disappeared from view, an instance later a loud bang was heard as the front gate of the fortified city was smashed to pieces, a soldier that happened to be standing just inside the gate slowly opened his eyes and saw a large piece of wood floating right in front of him and fell on his bottom in shock, in fact he was one of many that looked at the scene in front of them, the moment just after the boulder had crushed the gate seemed to have been frozen in time before them, then Mars appeared in front of one of the guards and spoke

"Take me to your leader"