Spirits are the independent and powerful beings which can share their powers with the person who form contract with them. Spirits are friendly beings who can't be corrupted but can be consumed.
Heroes are the summoned ones from otherworlds, they can't survive without forming an contract with spirits. Spirit power is the actual power heroes use, but they can't force out full potential of an spirit with normal means. So in order to force spirit to release full power, they used an taboo practise i.e Hoodoo ritual.
Hoodoo ritual, its an old ritual in which evil spirits were trapped in bottle but humans used this illustration for their own gain i.e by trapping the spirits into heroes body. The behaviour of humans towards spirits angered the Spirit king which led to the birth of Durandel. Spirit king made an contract with an exceptional human who was favoured by spirits despite being an ordinary human, to bestow punishment upon heroes during war of heroes.
Weaker section of heroes made a deal with humans, in exchange of power they have to execute the revolting heroes. Due to Hoodoo ritual, the heroes who were weak overpowered the stronger ones but as the Durandel landed in battlefield, hundreds of Corrupted heroes were executed due to its overwhelming power. Since the power of Durandel originally comes from spirit world, it cannot be used for so long, due to the forced contract with spirit king. After the execution of almost most of Corrupted heroes, the number of Corrupted heroes counted even less than hundred. Rage of spirit king traumatized heroes so they beg for mercy, since most of the Corrupted heroes were dead, spirits were released and capability of Durandel's weilder to draw power was exhausted. Spirit king who doesn't has any other mean to exact punishment withdraw himself from the world, cursing the heroes with killing curse.
The person who they will love, will die due to their sins.
Some heroes doesn't paid much attention to it, but some who faced the curse gone mad some even severed their contract with the spirits by themselves, releasing spirits in the process. Because when your beloved dies because of you even if he/she forgives you but regret can't be overcame.
But still some heroes who were corrupted from the core, never faced the curse and wanted the revenge from Spirit king.
Ivy who was in the puzzling situation, staring at Magnus
"the more time you take, the more lives will be lost"
"your country can't hold for much longer, since you will be next heir to throne make an decision to save your country or just see it destroyed".
Magnus's thoughts made Ivy more uneasy, as she can't just let her country die and can't give up on Durandel either .
Ivy was clueless about the situation, as Magnus had already planned of driving her to corner by introducing her to Phoenix. To him, she was like a struggling dear trapped in an hole.
"princess if you don't hurry up, I will change my mind and your country will be gone for good".
Hearing Magnus's blackmail, her face became pale. She was totally cornered by him, after scheming something , she replied
"fine I will tell you about the whereabouts of Durandel but you have to promise that you will rescue my country first ".
Magnus smiled in joy,
"not a big deal, I will help you conquer your territory back but don't take me up for fool".
"And don't think of backstabbing me, if you tried to sacrifice me for gaining Vestry's support don't blame me for being cruel".
Ivy's expression worsened on being exposed so easily, As mentioned before, Humans think demihumans as inferiors, cooperating with them will hurt their baseless pride,
"you underestimated me, princess"
"I was human once so i know trusting them would be two sided sword".
"I am originally a mage, so before meeting you this morning during your sleep, I had casted an mind reading spell on you, your thoughts are exposed to me, so stop acting clever",
Seeing the hopeless expression on Ivy, delighted Magnus. The phoenix who was witnessing the whole situation, was surprised on cunningness of Magnus and cleared his doubts of him.
Brains can defeat power but when both combined it can bring age of revolution.
"what else do you want?"
"I want your country to become my subordinate"
"so you wanna make us slaves",
"no princess, I am against slavery"
"so whats your motives",
"an alliance" .
Hearing the suggestion of Magnus, freaked Ivy out. She began imaging Magnus as some kind of phycopath, Phoenix chuckled on Magnus wish.
" you won't be taking away our rights"
"no princess, I just wanted to make an better communication between humans and demihumans, with the help of demihumans your country can become as strong as Vestry".
"have you heard of weapons of mass destruction of Ancient times?"
"yes"
"I can provide those to you so you can protect yourself from Vestry"
"I will provide you with 100 Golem knights for your protection if you join alliance".
Golem knights, one of the great masterpieces of Dwarfs that they had created in order to raise their Battle prowess as they lack both in physical and magical capabilities. They beat elfs in terms of magic and giants in term of physical strength. An total abomination of battlefield, Most of the present nations preserved them for last stand for survival.
Even though, Humans had blueprint but they can't beat Dwarfes in field of engineering .
Ivy questioned,
"how can I trust you?"
"why don't we sign a contract with phoenix as the witness".
Since Magnus suggested an contract and phoenix as witness, Ivy erased all doubts of being deceived and gave up, an soul contract was made between Magnus and Ivy, if any one of them tried to violate the terms of contract their souls will be burned by the sacred flames of phoenix.
"you really are cunning , even using me in your plan"
"don't act naive master, you know its more fun this way".
As the contract formed two balls of flames went into bodies of Ivy and Magnus, and they were casted out of the enchanted forest.
Ivy was still thinking of whole conversation as some kind of hallucination. On returning, Magnus gave out orders to about 40,000 troops to gather outside the city to March towards Ledia kingdom. Ivy questioned,
"when will we be leaving for Ledia kingdom".
Magnus grinned,
"lets departe now".
Hearing Magnus's reply, Diaz objected,
"lord, lady isn't in a state of travelling "
"you don't need to worry doc, I will patch her up real quick".
Magic circle appeared above Ivy's head,
Supreme healing
All the internal injuries and stamina of Ivy recovered and she was shocked on her conditions being improved in such a short time. Diaz who have only heard of citylord's miracle was shocked on its reveal.
Most of the citizens knew that their Lord was proficient in field of magic but many of them haven't witnessed it by their eyes. Some might thought that why didn't Magnus used healing before even if he know her identity. Everything was planned, if He healed her before the right time she might not submit to him but now since the existence of her country was on line. She doesn't have many choices to make.
"Are you ready now? "
"lets go we don't have much time to spare ".
Storing the dead army in shadow world, Magnus lifted princess and took flight towards Ledia.