As the Fürer as Dullahan, both of them were somewhat mad, taking risky decisions just like the ones of the recent days, both nations mobilized their armies faster than any other of the four countries.

Dullahan still wasn’t aware what were the enemies looking for, but losing an important location was enough to respond to their aggression, and he did it as best he could.

The enormous army led by the King entered the castle despite many parts of it were being wiped down by the raids, and this is when the Smiling Man ordered that any artillery battery would start roaming around the castle to cause as much damage as they could.

Rundara was huge, so raid it from all fronts was a risky bet, but the Smiling Man was pretty aware; but also he knew that; even if they managed to tear one piece of its wall, the entire castle would fall into their hands.

He was standing in the small portable outpost near the super tanks location.

-Aim carefully for the foundations of the main wall, aim at their base and fire at will…

As soon as he gave that order, the huge cannons started striking the main gate foundations, those huge towers that served as a support for the low level resistance walls.

These constructions showed to be extremely strong, resisting the fire as if it was nothing; in fact, they were so tough that the powerful bullets bounced off the wall, but the commander ordered to keep continuous fire.

Meanwhile; near the castle backdoor.

Dullahan himself could hear the screams of all civilians and his men rushing up into the southern wall, carrying water, equipment and all the weapons they could still use, his army broke lines and all of them tried to find a way to that same location in order to prepare a more efficient defense.

The King rapidly assisted to one of the command posts where he immediately was informed about the situation, which wasn’t as good as he thought.

His commander, Aspen managed to stop them for a while in the past hours, but he and his men were awfully dropped down, but they kept resisting.

Far away from there; in Al Maghrib; Andros was informed about the situation; he didn’t pay much of attention when the informants said most of his main attack force was destroyed in the first minutes of the battle; he was immune to all hesitation and declared:

-…The casualties won’t matter if we achieve this… We must take any necessary risk in order to obtain the Brionac…

In this country; the feeling of the imminent victory raised the morality of all the people, who reflected a deep interest in how the Brionac would change their lives.

They also in their education basis heard of the advantages of all the Five Energy Sources, which, in al Maghrib were deeply studied as a way to achieve a victory in a war, or to find several technological enhancements, like the benefits of feeding an entire country with a limitless power supply.

They were leaving magic studies behind, in favor of pure technological enhancement and any improvement related, despite this; all those few who could use magic were still a huge benefit…

Linuss, Isaacs and many others placed in the south region of the wastelands were totally terrified about this, the television and radio broadcast said the raids on Rundara had started without any previous war declaration.

This led many to think that Al Maghrib would try to take over all other countries, trusting their new regained strength through tech advance, Linuss couldn’t believe that only a small force like that could put into check-mate to a huge castle the size of a city.

-It won’t take so long until we all are summoned to battle… -Isaacs said while watching the T.V.

-I suppose the remake of educational system had as main point to create a loyal army that would go to war if called… -Linuss answered.

-Yeah, that’s true, for we haven’t been in Maghrib that much time since we were brought here, the old man has been playing wide and luck with all the country, no surprise this would end up happening…

Isaacs lighted a cigarette and left the room, immediately was followed by Linuss, both of them didn’t want to see that massacre, yet, when they went out of the compound and looked in direction of Rundara, the could see the already huge smoke columns raising to the skies.

-Good thing this is at least a 1 vs. 1, otherwise all other countries would destroy us quickly…

-Do you think so, Isaacs? I just think it was matter of luck that the countries had no alliances of this would turn into a world war…

Linuss checked again his sniper rifle and kept looking to the skyline.

-I hope they don’t do a stupidity in the prison…

In fact, that was just a very, very small part of Maghrib’s army, the gruesome main force was still within their territories arming themselves and preparing for any bigger incident.

Most of Maghrib soldiers were trained in all form of combat, even for urban combat, the most bloody amongst all types of warfare.

The soldiers in the wastelands had not had such training, so; for them to try to fight in a city or its outskirts would be nothing but a suicide.

Back in Rundara’s outskirts…

The sieged continued, the Smiling Man kept his order of smashing down the main gate of the castle, but the support towers were still undamaged.

Other of the cannons were running around the desert and opening fire to random spots on the castle, as a confusion tactic, dealing any random damage to deviate the attention of the enemies from the main focus of their attack.

The super tanks and all the random attack forces didn’t dare to surround the entire castle, for their force was not big enough to be able to hold it.

More than half of the castle was still intact, and Dullahan, taking advantage of this, decided to focus all civilians and Aspen’s remaining forces into these places or evacuating all those that needed out of the castle and back to Esmalfania.

Dullahan might be a cruel regent, but he cared for his people as best as he could, so he allowed the left out of any civilians that wanted to flee, with exception of those absolutely necessary for the war effort in the castle.

Some of Dullahan’s army stayed in the backdoor of the castle, guiding all civilians and all wounded that would suppose a death weight in the incoming battle.

He spoke in the local broadcast system to all the sectors of the castle.

-Listen to me carefully…- The King said.

Everyone in the castle got surprised; this was the first time they all heard the voice of the King himself in that remote location.

-This is Dullahan, King of Esmalfania and Emperor of the northern realms; I am in this remote place to guide our armies against Maghrib’s invaders sent here by his Fürer, we still don’t know what is their purpose by driving us out of this location, but we shall be victorious and march towards Al Maghrib in no time!

They all realized their emperor was willing to defeat the enemies here and move forward to Al Maghrib and end that by destroying the country that started this.

Meanwhile, in the royal palace in Mudahash, Queen Skyla was reading the recent report on Rundara’s siege.

-It seems the Fürer had found a quite powerful commander, that Smiling Man… Who would think they could be able to hold the power of an APB like that…

-APB? What are those things? –Dianna asked.

-Nobody knows certainly what they are, it is said they appeared more than 4 million years ago in the ancient Planet Earth, it is said they are strange entities, creatures or objects that posses a huge power and can only be controlled by certain means, the legends say there are, or there were seven of them…

-It is spooky, isn’t it? –Dianna replied.

-Indeed it is, most of them are unknown; and this Smiling Man at the orders of the Fürer is the very first I’ve ever seen… This battle will show the world the power of the APB’s and perhaps this will led all other countries to siege Madanbelle and get their own…

The commissioned officers near the Queen got surprised as well; but mostly because their Queen was awfully quiet, like if nothing of what was happening would worry her.

-My Queen… -One of the officers got close to her and asked nervously. –Are we going to fight? Will you lead us in battle?

-I will only when it is necessary… For you all here and now must know that I will do anything if possible to avoid war… We don’t have time to lose into this useless conflict when we are so close to finish our most important achievement…

-Do you mean… -The man said.

-Yes… Madanian Fleet will be completed shortly, and then; and only then we will respond any aggressions from whoever dare to challenge us, but as long as it is not finished, we will NOT DO ANYTHING…

Skyla Pic was totally determined to not to interfere in this growing war, she was a kind of pacifist just like certain warrior from Esmalfania who was also trying to stop this war.

Anastasius; King of Landia decided to move his offensive forces to gain some security perimeters out of Rokudaira, in a simple attempt to send a message that any unauthorized incursion would be repelled with deadly strength.

Besides, from the heights of the platform there was no need of using technology rather than simple telescopes to have a quick glimpse of the battle taking part in the heart of the desert region of the wastelands.

From almost any point of the wastelands everyone could see the smokes rising from the castle, and the intense black smokes at ground level didn’t allow them to see the battle or even if there was still a battle out there…

A couple hours later…

A second army reached Rundara from the Great Bridge of Al Maghrib, this time the army was bigger, and had much more heavy weapons; it took them some time to get ready, yet they still were willing to join the battle aside their comrades.

The second army upon their arrival deployed all their new battle systems into the desert, heavy weaponry besides the super tanks, mobile cannons, snipers, infantry and enough ammunition to feed all those powerful weapons.

The Smiling Man ordered the slow deploy of all the weaponry, separating the batteries a couple kilometers one from each other in order to keep a continuous line of fire over the castle.

-We will not move from here until that castle is finally down… -He declared to his men, and due to this; this powerful APB was gaining his own fame amongst all warriors, just in the first moments of this battle.

Al Maghrib’s Fürer was laughing out of control in his central command center, he trusted entirely on the power of the Smiling Man for this battle, and this creature was showing him that nobody could stop Al Maghrib under command of one of the most powerful APB’s…