It seems that the heavens don't favor the Strong Grandson. More than 30 centimeters of snow had fallen by the time morning came, and the depth is increasing as time passes. On top of that, there was a strong wind mixed in with the falling snow, and thick, black clouds covered the sky. All of that hid the sun, making the light outside dim even though it was daytime.
It's not possible for them to march in this situation. Although they'd be able to march if they made use of magic, there would be pointless sacrifices because of things like frostbite, which would cause the rest of the troops to become demoralized. Since the snowstorm will probably stop in a day or 2, the Strong Grandson postponed the march until it passes.
Just like the Strong Grandson, the Duke leading the Tomboy Princess's army wasn't able to march either. It wouldn't be a good thing if they had to set up tents in a snowstorm and sleep outside though, so the nobles that I sent in advance, which are a part of "Grass," let the troops take shelter in the towns within their territories. I'd say this should help a little for we want there to be as little wear and tear on the Tomboy Princess's army as possible when they clash with the Nobles' army.
On a side note, it was rare for snow to fall in this season. I heard that whenever a floating continent, where a[Wise Serpent/Dragon]lives, passes over the skies, the King Tsumoru clouds that support it causes weather like what we have today. These clouds, which are unique to this world, appear to have a scale that's greater than thunderclouds.
However, it's difficult to predict these flying continents since they don't show up on fixed days. For that reason, it's just the Strong Grandson and his allies' bad luck that the King Tsumoru clouds showed up today. There's no way that we'll pass up such a perfect opportunity, though.
Since the sunlight is conveniently blocked by thick clouds and snow, the lowest class of undead, such as Ghosts, shouldn't be naturally purified by the environment. Because the Tomboy Princess imposed a limitation that damage to the castle should be kept to a minimum, I was in the basement summoning a large amount of[Ghosts]and their strengthened version,[Black Ghosts].
Ghost-type monsters can't attack with purely physical attacks, but in exchange for that, everything passes through them, and they are invulnerable to physical attacks that don't make use of magic. This makes them the most suitable option to use as they won't damage the castle.
I summoned approximately 4,000 Ghosts and Black Ghosts and modeled their faces after the dead nobles and private soldiers. In addition to the black ghosts, I had Kanami summon approximately 2,000 strengthened[Purple Ghosts]using[Intermediate Summoning: Undead].
Although ordinary ghosts are semi-transparent, ours were given colors such as black and purple. This seems to be because the Divine Protections we've obtained from our Gods have had an influence on our summoning abilities. By the way, in the case of the Black Ghosts and Purple Ghosts, the black ones are stronger. However, due to the modifiers granted by[Intermediate Summoning: Undead], which is an ability one rank higher than mine, there doesn't seem to be a huge difference regarding their attributes.
From the 6,000 units that were summoned, I left 2,000 of the common ones behind and used[Soul Eater]to slurp up 4,000 of the black and purple ghosts like they were noodles.
[Ability learned: Ghost's Touch]
[Ability learned: Black Ghost's Touch]
[Ability learned: Purple Ghost's Touch]
[Ability learned: Ghost Cry]
As I expected, by consuming 4,000 ghosts, it was possible for me to learn something. However, I've determined that I have to eat approximately 1,000 of them to gain one ability in my current state.
This made me wonder whether or not there was any convenient prey that I could gather that fills both the quality and quantity criteria. After doing this, I became able to summon the same Purple Ghosts that Kanami-chan had summoned after consuming so much of them
Well, that probably doesn't mean much anyway, since I don't think that I will need the Purple Ghosts in the future since they are inferior to my Black Ghosts. I sent the remaining 2,000 ghosts that I didn't eat into the Royal Castle. Want to know what happened after that? There was pandemonium.
The ghosts passed through the walls behind people and inflicted minor adverse status effects like[Fatigue]and[Melancholy]on them with their contact attack,[Ghost's Touch]. There was almost no physical damage, but their minds took massive damage. After soldiers were attacked by this ability, they complained about feeling sick and were taken to the medics.
When the housemaids and ladies in waiting were unlucky and saw the ghosts that had the faces of the nobles and the Minister, as well as hollowed cheeks and sunken eyes, they turned pale in horror before they screamed and fainted.
Because they didn't know where the high-pitched screams of[Ghost Cry]were coming from, they continued to be heard inside of the Royal Castle, wearing down the minds of the people that heard them. Overwhelmed by the large crowd of ghosts that resembled a flash flood, the excessive number of unfavorable status effects pushed people beyond their limits, causing them to begin foaming at the mouth as they passed out one by one.
In these conditions, quite a few things happened. All Ghosts, including the Black Ghosts, are weak to attacks with magical properties, which makes them simple to kill. Because of this weakness, the only reason it took some time to completely destroy the Ghosts was that there was a large number of them.
Thus, it took approximately 1 hour to entirely destroy them. It looked like they were more effective than I expected, so I summoned Ghosts 8 times today to assault the Strong Grandson and his allies in the Royal Castle.
The more I summoned the ghosts to attack them, the quicker the enemy dealt with them, but the outcome was still satisfactory because it didn't give them any time to relax. Since the laughter of the ghosts could be heard throughout the night, it looks like the enemy's march in a day or two will be reasonably harsh.
On my end, I took a break until each group of ghosts had been thoroughly destroyed to generate and refill my magic, and then summoned them again. As a result of this, I didn't become too tired. It was actually quite easy to do.
Today's synthesis results:
[Ghost's Touch] ＋ [Black Ghost's Touch] ＋ [Purple Ghost's Touch] ＝ [Wraith Touch]