Milo surveyed the battlefield with a grim expression on his face. To call the battle costly would be the biggest understatement of his life. Only a little over 500 troops remained which might sound like an impressive number for an army taking on a force ten times its own size. At least until you realised that nearly half that number were reinforcements summoned during the battle. Even worse, nearly ten percent of their forces had been heavily wounded or outright maimed like Seti and his missing hand. Even now what few elementalists remained alive were struggling to keep the death toll from rising.
Lily, Beldan and Ivy were studying the field with him, of all of them Beldan looked and sounded the most pleased with the outcome.
“Their champion is slain and their forces wiped out, we now have 7 days to finish them off.”
Milo arched an eyebrow at the big general.
“How exactly are we supposed to accomplish such a feat? Our forces are depleted, and we have four thousand refugees to escort back to Emberstone which I remind you is a seven-day journey on foot.”
Beldan looked over at where Seti was being healed. The elementalist was pale but he was still lucid.
“I suggest we split our forces, Seti will return to Emberstone with the refugees and our wounded. A few hundred should suffice for the task. The rest of us will spread out around Ferdor and locate the death faction’s base.”
As far as plans went Milo felt this one went past bold and firmly into the territory of recklessness. Beldan could see that he remained unconvinced and so he explained his reasoning.
“You yourself deduced that our enemy likely has at least ten million spirit essence after destroying a city where nearly half a million people lived. At our current rate of around 40 000 spirit essence a day it would take us 250 days to match them.”
It was a good point, and yet it was not entirely accurate.
“You’re not counting the refugees, once their numbers are added we will probably earn more than 100 000 a day.”
“As you yourself have pointed out it will take our refugees at least seven days to reach Emberstone. By the time that happens the death faction’s champion will already be back in action and will drown this region with endless armies of undead. He knows we’re here now, frankly I’d be amazed if he didn’t have scouts watching us right now. By the time he comes back he will probably know the location of Emberstone.”
Lily inclined her head in agreement.
“The general is right, I fought several opponents during the battle who used similar shadow magic to our own. We should assume that Emberstone’s position is compromised, we need to finish them off before they can act on it.”
Milo looked to Ivy for her reaction.
“I agree, we’re committed now, either we finish them off or they will destroy us.”
With a sigh Milo walked over to Seti and informed the elementalist about his new mission. Seti accepted his new role without protest.
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Enix scowled as he watched the enemy champion talk to his most powerful spellcaster.
He’d watched the battle from afar despite every fibre of his being telling him to ignore his orders and join the battle. But Rostrian had been clear, his task was to follow any survivors of the battle back to their base so that they would know where their next target was located. Everything had been going as planned right until the enemy champion cut Rostrian down in the middle of a negotiation.
Normally general Exor would’ve assumed command, but Rostrian had made a point of assigning their most seasoned commander and warrior to a group of riders with orders to flank. Enix had watched in horror as the demon army cut its way into the heart of their army and started killing their necromancers one by one. Despair had been taking hold when general Exor finally arrived with his force and attacked the demon army’s mages. For a few moments victory had seemed certain, then the casters had started transforming. General Exor never having laid eyes on the enemy champion before the battle had mistaken their most powerful mage for the enemy champion and had tried to slay him in a duel. The true champion had intervened until a fellow practitioner of the shadow arts had assassinated the general with a perfectly executed strike. Once Exor was slain the battle had gone from bad to worse.
The moment it became obvious that the battle was lost Enix made his move. He used his magic to sneak up the mass of refugees who were watching the battle and when one of them broke away to relieve himself he slit the man’s throat and activated his ring of perfect mirror on the corpse. The ring had been a gift from his lord and was the second most powerful item his lord had gotten from the event. It allowed the wearer to take on the visage of a dead person and would last until he deactivated it or switched to a different corpse. For a master scout and assassin such as himself it was a powerful weapon.
Enix wandered back into the horde of refugees and watched the final act of the battle. Once it was over the refugees started cheering. Enix wondered if they would still be cheering if they knew that they had just exchanged a merciful death for lifelong servitude under the demons. Their first taste of their new obligations came in the form of an order by the powerful elementalist who introduced himself as Seti. He ordered the refugees to loot the field of anything valuable.
As Enix joined the others in looting his own people, he watched the enemy champion ride away in the direction of Ferdor. And while his army was much smaller now, Enix knew that was just a trick, somehow the champion had gained the ability to summon troops outside his settlement. If he had to guess, he would say the champion was looking for their base. Enix chuckled and a few of the other refugees turned to look at him. The champion would never find their base, the god of death had made damn sure of that.
He was looting one of the necromancers when he felt a blade pressed against his neck.
“Don’t move.”
The voice was icy and female. He remained perfectly still as somebody grabbed his hands and tied them behind his back. Once he was restrained, they turned him around. A pair of women were watching him with Icy stares, one had two blood red eyes while the other had one pale and one blood red eye. The woman with the mismatched eyes spoke.
“Your illusion spell is powerful, but not enough to fool an elementalist of Seti’s quality.”
She looked past him and he followed her gaze up to see Seti watching him. The elementalist was pale and looked like he was struggling to stay on his feet, yet the satisfaction on his face was unmistakable.
“It’s not a spell, it’s an enchanted item.”
The young hybrid with the blood red eyes ran her hands down his body searching for items. A few moments later she found the ring on his finger. She yanked it off and held it up in front of him. The ring was made of bone with a green gem at the centre. She handed the ring to Seti, and he held it up to the light.
“Ring of perfect mirror, it let’s the wearer copy the visage of a dead person. Quite potent, I dare say it would’ve probably fooled even Lizbeth.”
Enix was shoved to the ground and woman with the blood red eyes drew a dagger. She placed the tip against his manhood.
“Tell me where your base is, or I will start cutting off parts.”
Enix remained silent, he was already dead, the only thing left to decide was if he would die a traitor or a loyal servant. The woman made good on her threat and started cutting. Every now and then Seti would heal him and then the woman would start anew. This went on for nearly an hour before the woman with the blood red eyes threw down her dagger in disgust.
“There’s no point to this, they obviously have anti interrogation training just like we do.”
By this point the champion had returned to join the interrogation. The man had looked uncomfortable with the brutal torture on display, but he had done nothing to intervene. Now however he bent down and stared into Enix’s eyes. Then he stood back up with a nod.
“Agreed, let’s switch plans, bring me one of the demon soldiers, Seti you can perform the conversion ritual, right?”
The elementalist arched an eyebrow at the champion.
“I can, but we can’t force him to convert, he has to consent.”
The champion’s face drew into a cruel smile.
“I have an idea.”
A few minutes later the woman with the blood red eyes returned with a demon soldier in tow. The elementalist cut the demon and filled a cup with its blood. Then they forced the cup and its contents down Enix’s throat. Enix could feel the blood start to change his body from within and yet there was no way they could force him to complete the ritual.
The champion bent down, and his eyes suddenly flashed with a torrent of magical power. Enix felt something reach out through him and touch the blood within him. His mind suddenly went blank as he lost all control over his body.
“Now, tell me, where is this base of yours?”
