She flooded her mind with mana using a technique she knew in her past life just so she could process the crazy amount of visual data pouring into her eyes.

It only took her two seconds to spot the target. A boring two story stone building with a small wooden sign hanging out at the front. Magic Communication Center.

Aria just raised a hand. An invisible thread of raw mana shot right off her fingertips. It cleared the high walls in a flash and dove straight through the shop’s front window.

The thread split into multiple tiny strands and scanned the entire shop. Whenever a strand found a person, it immediately connected directly to their ears. In total, the mana locked onto exactly four people inside the building.

Aria spoke, her voice going directly into their ears.

’Leave the communication center.’ Aria warned them, her tone having zero emotions as she stared at the building. ’Leave without taking anything with you. All communication devices must remain inside, and you have exactly thirty seconds. If you do not leave in this time, you will burn to death.’

Inside the building, the four workers screamed. They dropped all their work and ran out the front doors, not even stopping once they were out.

Aria watched them run and raised her right hand toward the sky.

First, a spark appeared on her palm and then, grew quickly into a massive, violently swirling fireball. The heat was absolutely insane. The sphere of flames grew quickly until the diameter was almost double Adrian’s entire height. It floated exactly two meters above her raised hand.

The archers on the wall looked around in fear as the heat hit them even though they were far away. But unfortunately for them, they couldn’t see a thing.

She waited.

Once those four terrified workers put enough distance between themselves and the building, Aria casually flicked her wrist.

The massive sphere of flames took off. It flew right over the wall and shot straight toward the shop.

And absolutely nobody inside that city had the power to stop a hit like that.

Even Alexander could not do anything. He just stood on the wall and stared as the massive fireball quickly flew toward the center of his city and hit it’s target.

BOOM.

The fireball wasn’t a bomb, but it still held a lot of physical weight. Just crashing into the ground was enough to make a loud sound and building was instantly engulfed in hot flames. The magical devices would soon be damaged to the point of no return.

Alexander watched the smoke rise into the sky.

’Why?’ Alexander thought frantically. ’Why did he attack the communication center first?’

If Adrian could throw a giant fireball, why didn’t he aim for the armory? Why didn’t he hit the barracks and burn his soldiers? Why wasn’t he going for the important people instead of this?

He was standing right out in the open on the wall. They could have easily just aimed that monster of a spell at his face and ended the war in one shot.

His armor was enchanted and he was actually waiting for them to try an assassination. Though, he didn’t expect something with this level of destructive capability.

But they ignored him completely. So his brain just stalled out for a second.

But then the realization hit him hard.

’Wait.’ Alexander realized. ’If he is cutting off the communications, then he plans to make sure that I cannot talk to anyone.’

Adrian didn’t want to kill him right now. he wanted to isolate him, and without the magical devices, Alexander could not call for reinforcements. He couldn’t contact his allies in the capital and not could he’t reach out to Ironhold.

But Alexander had to be absolutely sure. After all, theories would only get him so far.

He turned to his soldiers who were all around him.

"Get me a communication pigeon!" Alexander ordered one of the men.

The soldier sprinted down the stairs and returned three minutes later carrying a small bird.

Alexander grabbed a blank roll of paper. He skipped the writing process and just strapped the blank roll of paper to the bird’s leg and tossed it up into the air.

The pigeon flapped hard and gained altitude. But the exact second it crossed the defensive boundary...

Thwack.

An arrow ripped through the night sky and shot the pigeon down instantly.

Alexander stared at the falling bird and frowned..

It was not a bluff. Adrian really wanted to cut off all of his ability to talk to anyone else.

’Unless someone has the resources to wait, they are not going to play the long game.’ Alexander grinned as he thought that had zero reasons to panic.

At first, he genuinely believed Adrian was just bluffing about waiting a whole month to strike. But now he felt like this might not be a bluff at all. Maybe Adrian was actually going to wait for a whole month. He probably wanted to strangle the city from the outside and cut off all resources to slowly starve them out.

But Alexander just looked down at the thick white fog and smirked.

’So what? I can easily just sit back and keep this entire city running without help from outside for a long time.’ Alexander thought. ’I have enough food for four to five months, so there is nothing that this guy can do.’

He turned to his soldiers.

"Go and capture all the merchants!" Alexander ordered loudly.

Since this was a war time scenario, he was going to take over all of their warehouses and storage places. He didn’t really care about these merchants at all. This was war, so he was going to make use of everything. Whatever belonged to his people was his property anyway, so he was going to use it however he wanted.

Because right now it was a dangerous time, and he was the one who was in proper control.

The soldiers ran down the stairs to execute the raid while Alexander stayed on the wall, watching the white mist covering Adrian’s small group that continued to stay where they originally were. He felt pretty good about his chances.

A couple of hours passed and the soldiers returned to the wall. They did not look happy at all.

"Report." Alexander demanded.