The Republic’s army arrived first. Rows upon rows of heavily armored fairies marched towards the plains next to the abandoned village and I watched them from afar. A small party of fairies and spirits entered the village, with Taoc Esprit at its head. The Senate had decided to put her in charge of this expedition because she was the closest to me. Still, it looked like a few of the bolder Spirits were trying to hang onto her coattails to have an audience with me, and Taoc seemed to be carrying herself with a haughty air. As she disappeared into the abandoned village, I imagined her confidence evaporating once she found out I wasn’t there.

I grabbed a piece of grilled monster meat and nibbled on it. Lazing in the treetops outside the outer perimeter of the scouts, I didn’t have much to do. I spent some time running through my new magic in my head, wondering how to use it for the war. With flight magic alone, I could bombard large armies with magic from up high. Even dropping stones from the sky would kill thousands of beastmen. And unless the Immortals got involved, the beastmen wouldn’t be able to stop me at all. Even Noel would have no way to get to me as long as I went high enough.

Idly, I wondered if I could go into space. I hadn’t tried to go too far up yet, mostly because I was worried about running into the Immortals’ domain. But I could try to get near the edge of space. I’d be able to breathe with my air magic and I could perhaps get a better look at the moon and stars. Yes, the more I thought about this, the more I began wanting to do it. But not now. I could see another army approaching from the distance.

The Izlandi Kingdom’s army was larger than the army that came from the Republic. Yet, the armored demons were not as intimidating as the fairies had been. They weren’t as well-organized. The fairies had been marching in unison but the demons were marching by division. The structure of their army also seemed a little rigid, probably because of the hierarchical feudal system in their country. Although the spirits ran the Senate, they usually let the fairy commanders lead the army, but the demon nobility liked to lead their armies themselves. I’d have to talk to Kol about that, just in case any of the demon nobles were swayed by the Immortals and decided to betray us in the heat of battle.

I was about to drop down from the tree and fly over to the village, when I stopped and frowned. I squinted my eyes and tried to use light magic to observe the approaching demon army. I saw the army head towards some open fields to set up their tents, and a small group of demon nobles broke off to accompany Queen Kol to the abandoned village. Bain Rusta went with them as well, and he gave some orders to some of his men, asking them to bring refreshments to the command tent in the center of the village. This was the same tent where I had met the scout leaders, which meant the scouts would be sent out for missions into the Hordes’ lands while the leaders of the united army would set up their headquarters in the old scout encampment. Smart thinking, though I wondered if the nobles could endure living in such spartan accommodations.

I kept looking but I couldn’t find the humans. I knew they were coming from the furthest away, and the scouts had told me they wouldn’t be here until later, but Kelser should’ve come with Kol so we could go over some of the plans for the war. We couldn’t really plan for the war without the humans, and I didn’t want to be stuck talking about this terrible business without Kelser. I also had to confirm whether he was being influenced by the Immortal of Desire like everybody else.

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Well, I could always check Kol and Bain Rusta first. Having confirmed that the humans weren’t anywhere nearby, I jumped off and flew to the abandoned village, staying low enough to let the soldiers see me. Strange cries and loud shouts erupted below me, as soldiers dropped their equipment to point and stare at me as I flew through the sky. Only the scouts inside the village knew that I could fly, and even the fairies, who had arrived before the demons, would not know about it yet. I glimpsed a demon soldier falling into his tent as his eyes followed me through the sky. I spotted a fairy spill soup into her lap as she stared at me. A few fights broke out too as people walked into one another with their eyes glued to the sky, but they were quickly broken up by commanders and officers who were able to recover much more quickly than the foot soldiers.

It was noon and the sun was high in the sky. I manipulated the sunlight so it would fall past me, creating a halo around my body and making a large shadow fall across the plains as I flew over them. It was a little dramatic, yes, but I knew this was important. This war was becoming a battlefield of emotions, and seeing a spectacular scene like this one was sure to get these soldiers motivated.

The scouts guarding the village were switching out with better armored and tougher looking guards. These tougher looking guards couldn’t see my face with the sunlight behind me, so they put up their weapons just like the scouts had done the first time I dropped into their camp. A couple of the scouts seemed to recognize me as I flew in and told their superiors to lower their weapons but before anybody could react, I rushed past them all and stepped into the village. A couple of guards fell over and the rest craned their necks over their shoulders, their weapons still facing to their fronts.

“Come on fellas,” I said as I walked towards the command tent, “you won’t be able to stop any Immortals if you don’t check the skies.”

Somebody had heard my voice from inside the tent. They were trying to open the entrance, but I walked in before they could. I began speaking as soon as I entered: “Kol! It’s so good to see you again. How have you been? You’re looking nice in that imperial armor. Is that steel? Must mean your trade with the humans is going well. You know you can paint over that stuff, right? It looks so drab and boring like that. It’ll look worse with some blood on it too. And there’s gonna be a lot of blood, isn’t there?” I kept prattling on, not letting anyone else get a word in. “Taoc, hey, how are you? I can’t believe they made tiny armor for you. And it’s steel too! Wow, I guess you guys really did decide to get along for this fight. Right, I have a couple of questions for you guys, but do you mind if we talk somewhere else? Somewhere with less people would be nice. Here, take my hand. Yes, yes, don’t be shy. Awesome. As for the rest of you, Bain, do you mind entertaining these Senators while I have a chat with these two? It’ll only take a minute. Thanks, Bain, you’re the best. We’ll catch up later, okay?”

I dragged the two bewildered leaders, Queen Kol and Senator Taoc, out of the tent. Their entourage blinked their eyes and didn’t start for the tent’s opening until I was already past the guards and scouts who had been gathering around the command tent. The demon guards saluted their queen and the fairy guards made a gesture towards Taoc, but nobody stepped forward to free them from my grasp. It was only when Bain Rusta burst out of the tent asking where I was going with the Queen, that some of the guards were startled out of their confusion and began reaching out for me with their hands.

But it was too late. I was far enough away from the stragglers and had a firm grip on both Kol and Taoc. I bent my knees, looked up at the sky, and jumped.