Olivia, Claudia, and Ashton are back in Fernest after ousting Rosenmarie and the Crimson Knights from the north, enjoying some well-deserved time off and investigating Olivia's mysterious heritage. But the ripples of this latest defeat are spreading, and new players are moving out onto the board.
The empire's Helios Knights have mobilized to wipe out the Second Legion, while Seraph Sofitia of the Holy Land of Mekia, no longer content to watch from the shadows, seizes the chance to set her plans into motion. What havoc will her mages wreak when they join the fray?
With chaos looming, duty calls Olivia back to the battlefield. She and her friends join the Invincible General Cornelius on a mission to save the Second Legion and the central front!
The story did not change a lot here compared to the previous volumes, but it was still quite fun. I like the fact that Olivia’s side keep using clever tricks to win battles, instead of just relying on Olivia being an overpowered one-woman army. It feels more realistic.
And with Olivia’s victories, the invading Empire is now on the defensive, and a third party is starting to secretly attack both sides of the war, so things also got more complicated.
We also learned more in that volume about Olivia’s family, their previous involvement with the Death Gods, and the enemies responsible for their death, which made me even more curious about Z’s motivations for saving Olivia.
In the afterword, the author also said that we are now at the midpoint of the story, which makes me hopeful that the series will stay short and tightly written like this instead of dragging on forever like other series.
I found this very easy to read and it is definitely my favourite of the series so far.
After three of these books I now find the thing that annoys me most is the ridiculous conservations that have to take place before and during every fight. The fights are already a bit too ‘comic book’ without adding the prolonged inane babble. I realise this is the nature of this genre, but it doesn’t mean I have to like it.
Great book. A lot of fun with Olivia slaughtering whomever she wants. I thought she was OP before, but as it turns out, she’s been holding back and it isn’t until the end that you see just how powerful she is. I liked the new characters from the holy nation, especially Emelia.