William came to feeling slightly sick and very exhausted, he woke up in a bed surrounded by Erza, Loke and Keil. It seems Erza had filled them in as Loke looked ecstatic and Keil worried,sweating a fountain. His encounter with the beast forgotten by legend, the Elder Dragon, left him weak and tired. His enormous use of mana for the long range teleportation left him with slight mana sickness, restricting some of his magic.

William clenches his stomach:"How long will this last?.."

Loke:"Ha....Twenty four hours? Maybe a tad more?"

William sighs:"I don't have time for this, how long have I been out of it?"

Loke:"You were gone for about an hour and have been down for five."

William looks out the window finding it to be late noon already:"I guess it will be morning when we arrive then."

Loke:"Arrive where?"

William:"We're heading back to Heaven's Gaze, I want you to inform The Magi Alliance that I wish to hold a meeting with them and diplomats from all the other alliances. They may not take me seriously at first, but I think I may have a way to persuade them to join me." He grabs on to Loke's arm and looks up at him "We can't lose anymore time, I can only detect the portals I can't tell how long till they rip into this realm. And this time it won't be a war, it will be a massacre."

Keil's face twitches between fear and worry:"What are we to do about it then? Do you have a plan!?"

William:"I do not as of yet, there is still so much we don't know about the Void. I will tell Arryn of our arrival and to prepare the troops, I will also have Kurt barricade the fort. If I am right, the portals will not open in the vicinity but INSIDE the cities themselves."

Loke:"Inside?! How are we to hold them!? The citizens will have to be evacuated and much of the cities will be destroyed!"

William:"We have no choice, the Void has been preparing this invasion for yeas. The Void war was simply a scout regiment, they know your weapons and abilities. And have kept themselves updated with the constant raids from smaller portals around your world. They will strike soon and we must be ready, if even one race falls. We're all doomed."

Loke and Keil stare and ponder on William's words for a couple seconds, then scramble to get things prepared.

William closes his eyes to focus:(Arryn, I'm coming home.)

A couple moments pass and she answers

Arryn:(You sound tired...I was worried after you didn't answer for hours...)

William:(The dragon...It told and showed me what the Void is capable of, and some of what it's planning. Keep the city on high alert, portals have been set to open within each city. War is upon us.)

Arryn:(War...What will you do?)

William:(I've asked Loke to call a meeting with all the alliances, this regards everyone and we must decide together.)

Arryn:(I'll order the arrangement of the main hall then, where are you now?)

William:(Rosevalt, we're leaving immediately.) He get's up and gets dressed. (I'll see you soon.)

Arryn:(May your travels be safe...)

William exits the room:"Loke! How does it go?"

Loke sigh:"I've contacted the other representatives, they will contact the other two alliances and call for a emergency meeting. I've told them to set the spot to Heaven's Gaze. We should arrive just as my colleagues do, the others should arrive a day at least later."

William:"Dam, a day? Let's hope nothing happens before then...Let's go" He follows Loke out of the house and to the warp crystal, they warp to the roost island.

At the roost some mercenaries were left to look after the gryphons, William ordered them to gather everyone and within minutes all the mercenaries and gryphons where ready. William, Loke and a small escort of thirty mercenaries would head for Heaven's Gaze while the others back to Dark Glade and inform Kurt of what is to come. The two groups parted ways and left Rosevalt, William looked back at the sky city, hoping he would get to see it again. The journey from Rosevalt to Heaven's Gaze would take a couple hours longer than to Dark Glade, the gryphons had rested but needed another short stop to recover their stamina. They set up a small campfire in a clearing in the forest while they rested the gryphons.

William:"Damn, more time wasted!" he stomped around the campfire

Loke:"Nothing we can do about it, there is no way you can use Erza to long range teleport again. Not for a couple more days. Even if you could you wouldn't be able to take anybody else with you."

William:"I know I know. But each minute we waste the closer we come to those portals opening. Rejk are the gryphons rested ye!..." He stopped talking suddenly and stood still, he sensed magic being casted. "Shit! Everyone to the floor!"

All the mercenaries dropped to the ground as a shock wave of wind was sent fort from the trees and brush, arrows following it. William summoned his armour and stood, both his eyes glowing. He caught an arrow as it flew towards him, dropping his arm he broke it and let it fall. The barrage stopped and a large platoon of around forty bandits ran out of the woods, charging at their campsite.

William:"We don't have time for this!"

He charged the bandits at great speed, fire spiralling and whipping wildly around him hitting multiple bandits. He stopped while in the middle of the charge with all the bandits taking stances facing him.

William shouts:"Arrows ready! High shots!" He slammed his fist into the ground, mana surged into the earth and small quakes left the spot towards every single bandit, the mercenaries grabbed their bows, crossbows or steam guns and took aim. Pillars of earth shot from beneath each bandit throwing them flailing into the air as arrows, bolts and other projectiles pierced their bodies. Most died but some where left alive and fell to the ground or on the pillars with a crunching sound. The mercenaries moved forward to kill the survivors. "We're leaving! Now!" 

The story has been illicitly taken; should you find it on Amazon, report the infringement.

They all get back on the gryphons and start heading for Heaven's Gaze again, corpses of bandits littered the forest opening. William was breathing heavily.

Loke noticed his heavy breathing:" Don't over work yourself! Your still mana sick!"

William:"I won't! But if it means saving time and lives, I won't hold back!" 

Loke sighed, seeing William's determination:"As you wish."

Another hour and a half of flight later they arrived at Heaven's Gaze, William noticed a large campsite in the farmland away from the city, lines of its citizens being moved to the camp site. They headed straight for the castle grounds, William ordered the mercs to aid the army in the evacuation.

Arryn:"William! Loke!" she greeted them along with Rel and her advisers at the front of the castle.

William landed his gryphon frantically, he wasn't used to the bird brains yet:"How many have arrived yet?" he hopped off and walked towards her.

Arryn:"Now that loke is here, all Magi Alliance diplomats have arrived. The Monstra Alliance have just warped in, none from the TACA have arrived yet."

Loke:"I'd be amazed if they did! That is a long ride even by dragon carriage."

William headed for the main hall where the meeting was supposed to start, he stopped by the door. "Loke I'll leave the ones that have arrived with you for now, I have to contact Kurt and the lieutenants." Loke nodded and entered, some shouts of annoyance could be heard before the doors closed.

Arryn:"Come with me, we can use a com sphere."

William raised an eyebrow:"A what?" he followed her down two corridors and into another room, Rel followed them.

The room was well lit and all around lay tables full of magical equipment, Verrona turned away from her project.

Verrona:"Arryn? William? And?....." she ignored Rel "What is going on?"

Arryn:"We need to use a com crystal, can you go check on the evacuation?"

Verrona:"Certainly" She got up and unpacked a jumble of crystals connected to a screen by its bottom edge. She put it down on a table and walked out.

Arryn:"Put your hands on the view and picture the person you wish to contact, I will chant the magic." she grabbed hold of his left arm and started chanting.

William nodded and set his palm on the screen, picturing the mercenary commander. It wasn't very difficult, he could never forget the lumbering giant of a wolf crashing his hammer down on him. Suddenly the crystals lit up in blue, green and red. The image of a werewolf in their humanoid form appeared on the screen, torturing his underlings into working faster.

William:"Kurt!"

Kurt's ears and tail suddenly flair up with hair and he turns :"Fucking hell you scared me to death!" he explained with a shocked expression.

William:"How are the preparations going?"

Kurt:"We've set up the men to engage anything that appears, when the portal opens it will suck in anything in close vicinity so we will all be on the walls at first. Also I have tasked a mage with visionary magic, we will be able to cast the attack onto what ever view you wish of reasonable size."

William:"Good, the fortress will probably be one of the first to have a portal open. Be ready as quick as possible!"

Kurt:"Hah! And they say I'm a slave driver!" He clenches his fist and slams in to his chest, a mercenary salute. William does the same.

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The vision of his new director flashes quickly and vanishes, Kurt turns back to the men and women rushing around with barricades, weapons and...Kegs of ale?

Kurt:"Drop the fucking drinks! We can always get more you damned fools!" He shouts, making many kegs of ale drop, as well as some very sad expressions."I'll be damned if I'm to die to what this fort was made to defend against!"

Seyl shouts from the top of a balcony:"I'm also too young for that!" as she is pulled back by Jax to help him carry.

Jax:"YOUR A THOUSAND FUCKING YEARS OLD! MOVE YOUR ASS HAG!" 

Seyl slaps the shit outa Jax. Kurt raises his hand to hold his face :"Why me..."

Karl walks up behind Kurt holding up a cannon, he looks up at the two then at Kurt :"We doomed."

The mercenaries prepare cannons along the walls aimed to the inside of the fort, the gryphon riders waited for a signal outside the walls, the ground troops hugged the wall at the bottom. Kurt stood atop the walls while Seyl and Karl stood at the bottom with the ground troops and Jax with the gryphon riders.

Kurt:"What I'd give to have some dwarf contraptions right now." he sighed.

They waited for several hours, every hour or so Karl found it necessary to ask;

Karl:"They hear yet?!"

while Seyl shouted back :"NO!"

Kurt:"Maybe William was too hasty? We don't even know how close they are to ripping into this realm..." He looked around, the troops were starting to relax. He had to keep many of the mercenaries on his side of the wall at full attention, passing commands in a line around the wall to make sure everyone was paying attention. Somehow on the other side of the fort kegs of ale had been snuck up,and someone had also somehow misinterpretted his orders to start drinking. 

The twelve or so mercs merrily drank to their last day, not even groggy yet they saw something shimmer in the sky above. Heading their way at great speed, they ducked out of the way as a giant black hammer landed at their previous position crushing most of the kegs. Many of the surrounding mercs started laughing at the drunkards.

Thunder clapped in the air, everyone looked around confused. There were no clouds in the sky, suddenly lightening flashed tens of times as reality itself seemed to rip open. A large rift opened a couple meters above the main building, figures dropping out of it.

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Author: Large scale battle ahead! Roll in the heavy metal! :D Thank you for reading!