Demon continent Alsace in the year 307 in the 10-month Asmodum on the 26th day after the shattering of the empire.

No sooner had they gotten a block away than they could see the nearest Larrua fighting each other.

"Shield bearers to the front, we will crush them between us, and you Titan can build another wall like yours and watch our backs."

Roared the commander, trying to make himself heard above the din.

She just nodded silently, it wasn't like she had anything against his strategy and she didn't see why she should do the thinking for him. She would do what he asked her to do and more should this become necessary.

After all, it was in her interest that the Larrua of the city won and not the attacking ones.

However, she was still preoccupied with the fact that she had been able to kill the other troop of Larrua with a simple attack.

It wasn't that it didn't happen from time to time that someone who was one or more levels lower killed an arcane user of a higher level, but not with the ease with which she had done so.

Also, their cores and the arcane energy of the Larrua she had killed were a drop in the bucket compared to the ocean of arcane energy she had at her disposal.

Within her domain, she could see that the troop of Larrua they were charging towards had similar cores to the one she had just killed, and they were again a mix of levels four to six.

None of them gave her a sense of threat, and yet she could read in the faces and body language of the Larrua around her that they were bracing themselves for a tough fight. Not that their thoughts were constantly singing with fear and worry, but she didn't even need to look into the heads of her allies to see how they felt, since it was obvious among all of them.

The only one who could hide it to some extent was the commander and from him emanated the calmness of an experienced commander, which unfortunately only reached the Larrua around him.

Maybe she would help more, after all, it would not help her if her allies died.

Eder had helped her and asked her for help, even if he could have easily given her the knowledge of the writing.

Probably something stopped him.

She would put that point behind her for now and once the battle was won, she would bring it up to him.

The shield bearers had increased their speed and were now running ahead of them and would dash into the enemy's rear in a few moments.

To make this possible, she interfered with the minds of the attackers, directing their thoughts forward, except for the ones in the rear, which she froze so that her allies would have an easier time penetrating deeper into the enemy's formation.

This also had the nice side effect that the opponents did not notice them even though the shield bearers jumped into the fight with a battle cry.

The back row of enemies was simply run over, the loud sound of breaking bones and the fact that many limbs of the enemies were twisted or crushed, gave hope that they were eliminated for the further fight.

Those who were already getting up again were greeted by the swords and spears of the following Larrua. The handful of enemies who managed to escape this storm of swords and spears were killed by her without anyone noticing.

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Like the first two battles, this one was decided in a few moments and was already over in the breaths that followed.

She looked around, but could not see any enemies with her eyes or with her other senses.

"Here a wall would do no good, since we would only cut off the other wall, which is manned, from any reinforcements. However, I can seal this one first and we can then seal off the interior of the city in a circular motion."

As she did so, she pointed to the side street to her left.

The commander told her to wait and gave instructions that everyone should keep an eye on the surrounding area and sound the alarm in case of enemy contact.

"Where is your commander?" he ordered one of the soldiers of the other Larrua squad.

This time not as out of breath as last time.

The squad parted only to reveal a shackled commander.

"What is the meaning of this?" Roared the commander after spotting the other commander lying against a house wall behind the Larrua like a sack.

One of the Larrua stepped forward to block the commander's view, but also his path.

"You have come to our aid, but we must stop you from freeing the commander." He looked the commander of their troop directly in the eye and the two paused like that for a few moments. In which the two troops faced each other and eyed each other uncertainly.

She in particular was being eyed and the Larrua standing around her seemed unsure if they could take her on and when she reviewed the recent battles, she wasn't so sure either.

The cores and arcane energy available to the Larrua were as small as those of the other Larrua.

During the staring contest between the commander and the acting leader of the other squad, she looked into the minds of the Larrua and the bound commander once.

"How did your commander get touched by Meinoume? Oh, ..." while she had asked, she had already come to the answer in the Larrua's mind.

"That will complicate everything a lot."

"What will make everything more complicated? And what were you saying about that damn Hunger?" The commander retorted, but not before the acting leader had turned his gaze on her after her question.

"It's true what she says, we were barricading the roads to the center when a demon showed up accompanied by some of the priests of Diva. But they came from outside of where the enemies were coming from. Like us, our commander found this strange because the priests should be with the civilians or with Diva, but they came from outside the city, so our commander approached and talked with them a little later he came back and was changed and ordered us to let our efforts be because there was no attack. He came back with the priests and the strange demon, which shortly after continued to run we wanted to stop them, but he ordered us to let them pass, a few minutes later, in which we were just standing around, a squad of us strange Larrua came and we were ordered by him to let them pass too and then another. You have seen the third troop. That was enough for us, also they kept talking about freeing us from Diva and bringing us closer to the Savior. While they passed us by. Then we had enough and when we tried to confront our commander again, he raised his sword against us. We managed to overpower him before the enemy squad got close enough and if it hadn't been for you, we probably would have died here and they would have freed him again and who knows what damage would have been done."

As far as she could tell from the commander's face, it had grown paler and paler as the story continued. Fear and worry also crept into the thoughts of the other Larrua in her squad.

Only now did she notice how depression was spreading through the city like fog, and she could feel how the defense that this place was experiencing through the presence of Diva was becoming less and less, and in the gaps and cracks that were forming, desperation and the promise of redemption were seeping in.

With each passing minute, the thoughts of the Larrua around her grew more and more similar, and they longed only for redemption if it were to continue.

Mental manipulation during combat was not new to her, which is why it had not seemed like a problem until now, but the Larrua seemed to have no defense in this regard.

With a simple thought, much like one would expel a fly with a wave of the hand, she dispelled the fog that had settled over the Larrua around her. With a loud clap of her hands, she had brought the Larrua back to the here and now.

"You defend the street and let no one through. -" pointing to the road with her other hand, she again made a wall, on which the ten Larrua with bows immediately climbed, while it was still in the process of being built. - "The rest of you follow me, we will liberate your city and chase Meinoume back to where he came from."

With this promise, the morale of the troops rose again and they all followed her as she set out for the next battle.