Unlimited Power - The Arcane Path

Although Makoto's plan was crazy, at least he came prepared. He had brought the magic box that could store a stupid amount of things, and inside of it, he stored everything that they would need for the journey, including a stupid amount of mana potions. If Leon had imagined he would do something so insane, he would have brought the shield of dawn.

Anyway, thanks to the spies' work, Makoto had a pretty detailed map of Russia's territory. The map showed the best roads, what cities were being used by survivors, and even the localization of dungeons. Still, despite so much information, Leon couldn't help but frown. All because to reach Moscow, they would have to travel seven thousand kilometers. It was almost the same distance between New York and Rome.

To make matters worse, since Russia had a lot of dungeons and its territory was vast, the number of monsters was high everywhere. Although Leon was using earth to auxiliary their movement while they pretend they were running, they had to stop many times to fight. They got attacked by Ice Slimes, Frost Dire Wolves, Frost Bats, and Frost Trents.

Makoto charged forward like a bullet, and with a single swing of his sword, he split the head of a Frost Dire Wolf. He heard the sound of something hissing through the air, Makoto turned and used his sword to block perfectly an Ice Arrow that a Frost Bat shot. Once again, he charged forward, but in the last moment leaped to split Frost Bat in two.

Meanwhile, Leon used his spear to cut a Trent in pieces swinging his spear horizontally. Those were slow and big, their only advantage was their long-ranged magic, which was the Icicle field, and Frost leaves, but by using earth under his feet, Leon was fast enough to kill them. Contrary to the other slimes, Frost slimes were quite easy to kill with physical attacks because their cores were made of ice.

Anyway, even though Makoto was the emperor of Japan, his fighting style was quite simple. There were no elegant footwork or skills. He used brute strength to overpower the enemies, speed to surprise them, and lightning reflexes to stop their attacks.

"Fighting without using magic is a pain…" Leon said while he used a steel spear to pierce the head of a Frost Bat."

"I feel the same way," Makoto said. "Fighting without my katana makes me feel weird. That being said, you are quite strong, even without magic."

Leon created a spear for him to use since Spearmanship level was quite high. As for Makoto, he was using a long steel sword that Leon also made. It wouldn't be weird if some Russians use katanas, but it was better to avoid any suspicions.

"Makoto, is there any chance that Seiji's new friends may ask for ransom?" Leon asked.

"I don't think they will, they are probably planning to use my daughter and make me surrender my country," Makoto answered. "Then, on the first chance, they will kill Yuki and me. After that, they will kill the advisors and every single famous soldier in order to make the population lose all the hope and surrender themselves."

Leon nodded, in the end, without leaders or those related to them, ordinary soldiers and citizens would have no choice but to follow the new chain of command. It wouldn't be weird if Seiji did that to become the new leader of Japan. The people leading the Russian survivors had a lot of territories to maintain, so the best option would be to put loyal individuals to keep things under control.

"I can understand that the chances are low, but what will happen if they ask for ransom?" Leon asked. "What if some other problems happen while you are away."

"Not to worry, I gave my ninjas the order to only give my advisors reports in the meeting room for a reason," Makoto explained. "I put several electronic devices around that place, and I can hear everything there in real-time."

Makoto pointed to a small earphone on his ear… Although he was a hot-blooded middle-aged man, he wasn't a fool. For some reason, he had faith in the ninjas that worked in Tokyo, but Leon decided not to ask. Like William, Makoto probably has his own way of keeping things on a tight leash.

Since Leon and Makoto were quite close to Chinese territory, it didn't take long before they found some survivors. However, the situation wasn't like they expected. The number of monsters was plenty in that region, but they saw Russian and Chinese survivors killing each other. Leon and Makoto decided to hide behind a hill and observe the battle.

"We are only here for a few hours, and we already found survivors killing each other…" Leon frowned. "I knew that the situation between those three countries wasn't good, but to think they would fight even here…"

"The situation is pretty much like this all over the borders between Russia and China," Makoto explained. "Even though both nations have a lot of dungeons, they start a fight whenever someone tries to steal resources."

Leon nodded, in the distance, he could see a cargo truck, and it looked like the Russians were trying to slow down the Chinese survivors. Things were so tense that they didn't even consider trading or selling resources amongst themselves.

"Well, it's only obvious. When one or more powers are fighting for hegemony, they use many methods to weaken their rivals."

That being said, the number of monsters around was so big, that stealing resources from dungeon wasn't even necessary. Both sides were just wasting time and doing those crimes just to piss each other off. Leon thought that after four years, the world has stabilized, but he couldn't be more wrong. With the sole exception of Japan, the whole Asia and Europe was a warzone. No wonder he had such an easy time 'borrowing' the Angelic Bow…