Chapter 290: Phoenix Burns Down the City and Destroys the Nation of Aedirn
The King of Aedirn ordered the gathering of heavy troops, and the nobles under him also began to gather their armies. After seeing the witches' rebellion, the northern countries also sent mercenaries, witch hunters, and Zoroastrian knights to support them.

As Richard led the witches to gain a foothold in Eisenland, Richard asked the witches to send messages to more witches and ask them to come here to join. Those who are willing to join the witch mutual aid association can join, and those who are not willing to join can also live a normal life here.

Even if these witches do not join, they are still considered advanced productive forces in this era.

Witches have been actively learning spell knowledge during this period of time. Almost all witches have completed spell model casting and mastered the [Combat Casting] metamagic feat. It is also from here that they can be called witches.

The original strength of these witches was mostly around level 10. After training, they mastered a lot of super magic expertise and integrated into the dragon veins. The most powerful witch has reached level 16.

The strength at this stage is called the master level, and it is also the last threshold before the legendary level.

These witches learn very quickly, after all, many of them have been immersed in magic for decades. They used to cast spells based on their feelings, but after being pointed out by Richard, they made rapid progress.

During this period of time, many witches from the northern countries began to flee here. In just one month, the number of witches gathered in Aisenland had reached hundreds.

There were also some witches who were unable to come due to the long distance or various other reasons. Richard speculated that even if all of them came, there would only be about 150 witches here at most.

You have to know that the population of the entire northern countries exceeds 10 million, but there are only so many female sorcerers left. You have to know that there used to be several sorcerer academies for female sorcerers, with a total of 400 to 500 people.

All the sorceresses who came to Eisenland agreed to join the Witch Mutual Aid Association and learned new spellcasting methods. Most of these witches have a craft.

Some witches know how to grow potions, some are proficient in potion making, and some are proficient in enchantment. Richard has already had someone allocate a piece of land nearby as a plantation to grow potions for these witches to work on.

At the same time, he appointed many witches as officials to help him manage Eisenland. These witches all had good knowledge and some management skills. It can be said that witches of this era were more competent than 90% of the officials.

Richard didn't want to waste time on these complicated matters, so he assigned the witches to be responsible for them.

At the same time, Richard also re-planned the city. The city used to be unbearable for him. The streets were full of sewage, the roads were muddy, and the air was even more irritating to the eyes.

The streets were narrow and all kinds of feces were dumped randomly, so Richard directly conscripted civilians to renovate the city. The crooked streets were corrected and leveled, the road surface was paved, human and animal feces and other garbage were prohibited from being dumped randomly, and drainage channels were dug.

After a month of renovation, the city finally looked presentable, and further construction was needed. At the same time, after a month of training, the 20,000-strong army finally looked presentable.

Just as Aisenland was developing rapidly, the Kingdom of Aedirn finally completed the assembly of its soldiers. In addition to the 10,000-man army recruited by the king, the nobles also brought their own troops, about 10,000 people.

In addition to these, there were also witch hunters, mercenaries, and support from the five northern countries. In the end, the army had more than 30,000 people, plus the civilians who transported food. The army had more than 50,000 people.

This is all the Kingdom of Aedirn can do with all its might.

After the army was assembled, King Aedirn led the nobles and the army to march towards Eisenland. He wanted to annihilate the rebels in one fell swoop, kill all the witches, and intimidate the southern countries and elves.

The 50,000-strong army marched towards Eisenland in a mighty manner. Almost all the countries on the continent focused their attention here. Soon, the army arrived at Eisenland after a long journey of half a month.

Richard led an army of 10,000, a dozen witches, and hundreds of bloodline knights to fight.

When the two sides met, they were extremely jealous of each other. The witch hunters, Zoroastrian fanatics and the Knights of the Church shouted that they wanted to kill all the witches and send them to the stake.

"Your Majesty, let me teach those scum a lesson!" Looking at the constant shouting and cursing coming from the opposite side, Ye Funi was extremely angry. After ruling one side for the past two months and holding great power, she has developed the aura of a superior.

"Aren't they going to send us to the stake? Then let's send them there first." Richard sneered.

He was too lazy to continue a war of this level. If he had enough manpower to manage it, he could conquer the entire continent by himself in three days.

He waved his hand lightly, and powerful magic power burst out directly. The next second, a phoenix cry resounded through the sky.

——【Summon the Phoenix! 】

A large amount of elemental energy quickly gathered in the sky, and then this energy instantly burned, and a huge phoenix was born from the endless flames.

"Oh my god! It's so beautiful!"

"So powerful!"

"What kind of creature is this?"

"what is that?"

"It's called Phoenix, also known as the Phoenix!" Richard said, and then waved his hand gently, and the flaming phoenix immediately attacked the army of Aedirn.

"Wow!"

A giant bird with a wingspan of over twenty meters descended from the sky and flew towards the Aedirn army. Countless fireballs fell directly from its wings and immediately fell into the army's formation like a meteor shower.

Flames rose, countless fireballs fell, and the originally neat army formation immediately became chaotic. A large number of soldiers wanted to put out the flames on their bodies, but these flames were all magic flames and could not be extinguished at all. They could only wait for them to burn out.

The result of burning is that the whole person is basically burnt to a crisp.

The phoenix opened its mouth and spit out a stream of flames, then flew forward. Countless flames instantly rose up, directly splitting the army in two, and the flames quickly extended to both sides. Thousands of people were directly buried in the flames.

The army was in chaos, and countless people wanted to escape. The King of Aedirn desperately ordered archers to shoot, but those arrows could not get close to it and were directly ignited by the high temperature.

After just a few dive attacks, the 50,000-strong army of Aedirn was thrown into complete chaos. Originally, this army was assembled from various sources, so naturally they would not obey orders under such circumstances.

Everyone was scrambling to escape. The flames that kept falling from the sky were like the fire of hell. Anyone who was touched would die. The Fiery Phoenix swooped down again, and endless flames fell from its body. The entire battlefield was filled with flames. The 50,000-man army had completely collapsed.

Next, Richard directly ordered the army to pursue the enemy and kill all resisters.

The collapsed Aedirn army ran faster than the others, not daring to stop at all, and even many soldiers attacked each other in competition for the road. Countless people trampled on each other and killed each other.

Richard ordered the army to attack, and the collapsed troops dropped their weapons and surrendered, while the civilians on the other side all surrendered, and even the army's supplies were not damaged.

Those Eternal Fire believers, fanatics, Knights Guardians and witch hunters all whipped their horses frantically and tried to escape, but the crowded army could not speed up at all.

Soon, they were caught up by the witches and their army. Seeing these enemies, how could the witches let them go? They directly ordered their army to take action.

Countless arrows fell, and the gathered fleeing soldiers suffered heavy casualties. Some of the Knights Templar wanted to counterattack with their armor and horses, but they were burned to charcoal by a fireball from the witches the next second, and the steel armor was directly burned into molten iron.

When the other side saw the witches chasing after them, they drew their swords and started hacking at the fleeing soldiers who were blocking the road. As a result, the fleeing soldiers also fought back, and the situation became a complete mess.

Ordinary soldiers surrendered one after another, while the witch hunters and Zoroastrians who had deep hatred for the witches fought back desperately. However, the entire army had lost all morale, and they were no match for the witches.

Moreover, the flaming phoenix in the sky would attack from time to time, scattering a large amount of flames. Those people did not dare to gather together at all, and in the end they could only be divided, defeated, and killed.

The entire battle lasted until the evening. Richard's army of 10,000 suffered almost no casualties, while the Aedirn coalition was completely wiped out. Only a few thousand people escaped, and the remaining more than 30,000 surrendered. Nearly 10,000 were directly burned to death by the Fiery Phoenix, and thousands were killed by witches. The rest were all killed by each other or trampled to death.

It can be said that after today's battle, there is almost no military force in the entire Aedirn that can stop them.

Next, all the prisoners were escorted to the prisoner-of-war camp. After some screening, the Zoroastrians, fanatics, and witch hunters among them were found and killed.

Others were sent to mines, repair roads, and build cities.

After the battle annihilated the main force of the Kingdom of Aedirn, Richard immediately ordered the army to advance, intending to seize the opportunity to occupy the entire Kingdom of Aedirn. In this battle, 90% of the king and nobles of the Kingdom of Aedirn were killed or captured, and the king was even burned to death.

Only some kittens and puppies ran away when they saw the situation was not good. It can be said that Aedirn now has no power to resist.

Of the 20,000 troops, only 5,000 were left to guard the prisoners. The remaining 15,000, led by Richard and the witches, headed directly to the royal city of Vengerburg.

The army was unstoppable along the way, and all the towns and nobles surrendered. The news of the annihilation of the Aedirn army spread quickly, and with the presence of the fire phoenix, all the rebels were burned to ashes.

There were even many towns that, in order to please the army, tied up all the Zoroastrians, fanatics, and witch hunters in the town and sent them to the army, just so that the army would forgive them.

A large number of Zoroastrian churches were demolished, Zoroastrian books were burned, and everyone avoided Zoroastrianism like the plague.

The army carried supplies smoothly along the way and soon arrived at Vengerburg. At this time, Vengerburg was in chaos. The king was dead, a large number of senior nobles were dead, and most of the remaining officials had fled.

Even the soldiers in the city surrendered immediately after seeing the phoenix in the sky. Richard's army easily occupied the capital of Aedin without bloodshed.

Next, Richard ordered his men to clean up the scum in the capital, and at the same time, he divided the army into five groups, each with 3,000 soldiers to carry out cleanup operations in various parts of Aedirn. All cities and noble territories in Aedirn had to be cleaned up.

All Zoroastrians, witch hunters, fanatics, and the Knights of the Church would be burned to death if they were caught. If any city in the area resisted, Richard would directly order the Flame Phoenix to rain fire on him. The entire city would be directly set on fire.

After seeing the fate of those who resisted, no city dared to resist anymore. Even if someone wanted to resist, they would be captured and killed by the civilians in the city.

The army swept across the country, and it could even be said that it was an armed march. All the cities and noble territories surrendered one after another.

However, in just three months, the entire Aedirn was completely conquered by Richard.

No one dared to disobey Richard's orders, and the witches would not be polite to them, and they were burned to ashes. For a time, burning at the stake became the most popular punishment in Aedirn, but this time the witches were not burned.

The news that Aedirn had fallen in just three months shocked all the countries on the continent. Both the northern nations and the unified Nilfgaard Empire in the south were shocked by the power of the witches.

Although Aedirn is not a big country, the 50,000-strong coalition army is real. They were defeated and annihilated in the first battle, and the other side didn't even suffer any casualties, which shocked other countries.

When the news of the Fire Phoenix came later, those countries became even more terrified.

If the intelligence officers had not sworn in with their lives, they would not have believed that the witch could actually summon such a terrifying giant flaming bird.

The giant bird flapped its wings, and fireballs rained down like rain. The flames were like the fire of hell, and could not be extinguished at all. A city could be easily destroyed by it.

Moreover, bows and crossbows were completely ineffective against it, and would be burned and melted before they could even get close, and anti-magic bombs could not reach the phoenix at all. For a time, these countries were helpless against the fire phoenix.

After seeing how powerful witches were, these countries also began to look for witches, wanting to control this power. However, after decades of hunting down witches in the North, the remaining witches either hid themselves or escaped and could not be found at all.

Only in the Church of the Eternal Flame are there some so-called saints. These saints are selected by the Zoroastrians from girls collected from all over the world, and after discovering that they have talents, they are trained to become saints.

But these people also had no way to deal with the Fire Phoenix. On the other hand, the northern countries found the wizard organization to seek help. Unfortunately, the wizard's spellcasting ability was not as good as that of the witch, and there was no way at all.

The situation in the southern kingdom of Nilfgaard was not much better. Nilfgaard found many witches, but they were also unable to do anything.

After Richard annexed Aedirn, he officially announced the establishment of the United Empire of Austrian Magic. At the same time, due to the demise of Aedirn, a large number of hesitant witches saw their strength and began to come to them.

(End of this chapter)