Having the rest of the day to rest was a godsend. With the army enchanters able to work together to protect against the corruption, life for Zalia was just a little easier. She didn’t have anything to do, however, so the time was entirely spent thinking.
There wasn’t much that thinking could accomplish either. There was simply one path forward. They knew what they were doing and why. All they had to do was do it.
The one thing she did have that she could do during that day was look through her messages from the fight.
Congratulations! Hunter’s Mark has gained two levels reaching Bronze 7.
Congratulations! Survivalist and associated skills have reached Bronze 10.
Congratulations! Herbal Magic has gained three levels reaching Bronze 10.
Congratulations! Nature’s Wrath has reached Bronze 7
Congratulations! Protection of the Wilds has reached Bronze 7
Congratulations! Druid class has reached Bronze 7.
The next day came slowly, the sun rising as slowly as the usually quick and orderly army. It seemed that even Faian didn’t want to leave. Once they did, there wouldn’t be much opportunity to turn back.
The plan set by the Generals was to punch straight through to the capital, where they would either capture it or die trying. They didn’t know how many demons there were in the capital or surrounding towns, but the army was as strong as it was ever going to get, while the demons could only get stronger. Zalia already knew that they had some way of bringing more of them from Cormaine, as the obsidian skin demon hadn’t come over during the initial ritual.
That was the main source of motivation for the seemingly reckless plan. It was now or never.
The army gathered, down about five hundred soldiers. Those who were staying behind, to protect this centre point. Another large caravan would have left the army camp further back west not long after the main army contingent had. This would be protected by similar enchantments, a strange oval contraption carried by beasts of burden, with a unit of healers to ensure the people survived whatever remaining corruption leaked in. It wouldn’t have worked for the main army, the size of the contraption needed to accommodate the number of soldiers just being unrealistic. For smaller caravans though, it would do just fine.
With Boreal by her side, Zalia moved to the protected section behind the vanguard, where Faian and Ballast were.
They left Et’s Way, Zalia peripherally curious about who exactly Et was, and headed again for the capital.
Without much to do, Zalia began practising her wood manipulation. She hadn’t had to watch where she was stepping for quite some time now, her subconscious more than capable of managing that for her. If she continued growing the mental attributes, would many more things become something she didn’t actively have to do?
In a way, that theory somewhat held up when considering ascendant beings. The way they acted was very much in tune with their nature, as far as she had seen. The starlight wolf had acted like the stars, guiding, showing the way in darkness, giving hope. What if it had just been doing all of that subconsciously, not actively? It was interesting to consider.
She made a little wooden sculpture of Delphi, separating it from the main chunk of wood and storing that away. It wasn’t the best, but after a little bit of work it was passable. She showed it to Boreal, who sniffed at it, nuzzled it, then continued walking.
With slightly lower numbers, Zalia had a little easier time maintaining the wider aura of Healing Presence. She had to be careful with it, she found, as it could be a strain on her to allow it to act on its own. When it was at the limit of its distance, which it did if she wasn’t paying attention, it exhausted her much quicker than when she actively kept it restrained. It felt like it should be the opposite but she put it down to her theory about the subconscious. Perhaps she was pushing it to its maximum distance subconsciously, causing that greater strain unintentionally.
Either way, it was manageable at a distance of a few hundred metres, enough to cover the length of the army. She wanted to play around with shaping it some time, to make it into an oval or square, rather than the circle it was now.
It was a few hours before a small commotion drew Zalia’s attention from her thoughts. Towards the front of the vanguard, Hildebrandt blasted an undead into mist. It seemed to be alone, just a single undead out in the wilderness. Nevertheless, Faian stopped the army and sent scouts out all around them, looking for the source of it. According to their maps, there wasn’t any town close to this place.
When the scouts found nothing, they put it down to the undead wandering this far from Et’s Way.
A short half an hour later, they found another. Perhaps forty minutes after that, two more. It happened once more twenty minutes after that. At this point, Faian didn’t stop the army for the disturbances anymore.
Very soon, it just became a normal occurrence to them. Every now and then, they would come across one or two undead that were just wandering about the wilderness. Often, they were blown into a fine mist by Hildebrandt before anyone else could react.
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One day of travel turned to two, then three. The undead wandering about the wilderness became more common and more numerous. Groups of four or five began appearing, often within ten to twenty minutes' walk from each other.
The capital was looming over them now, half a day’s walk away across flat plains. There was no doubt in any of their minds that they had been seen at this point, the tension and worry amongst the army building ever higher.
Everyone was preparing themselves for a larger-scale battle similar to how Et’s Way had been. Most were silent, though a select few turned to constant joking about to relieve their tension. Zalia had to focus everything she had on holding back the aura. Even this far out, it was strong enough that she almost couldn’t handle it. It wouldn’t be long before they would have to reveal their secret, before Ro would have to use his own aura to hold back the corruption.
They didn’t know what would happen to the undead if Ro was able to neutralise the Thousand-eyed one’s aura, but Zalia suspected they would react to Endaria’s normal air much as they reacted to her own aura.
Today was the day they began their assault on the capital. Faian and Ballast were constantly in one conversation or the other, making plans.
She hadn’t been told everything yet, but Zalia did know that her role in it all was to stand amongst the army, using her aura to heal and protect them as much as she could. Ro would fight the Thousand-eyed one and assuming everything went well, would then help eradicate the demons after that. If he struggled to take it down, Hildebrandt would need to leave the army to help destroy it. They would just have to defend themselves from the undead as well as they could while that happened.
Unlike in Et’s Way, the entire army would be in a single group. They should be able to last against the undead for longer than just the vanguard by themselves were able to. They were strong for sure, but just simply didn’t have the killing power that the area specialist units did. Mages and archers with abilities focused around area attacks would be invaluable in this fight.
Zalia wasn’t quite sure why the generals didn’t use them to help the vanguard during the fight. Maybe they felt it wasn’t worth exposing the entire army to the horror directly, or wanted them as rested as possible for the attack on the capital.
While Et’s Way, a relatively large town by the scale of this world, had a population of just over thirty thousand at last count, the capital way out scaled that with a population of upwards of two hundred and fifty thousand. Two hundred and fifty thousand against perhaps five thousand soldiers. It wasn’t the worst odds in the world, when you thought about the considerable difference in power between the undead and the soldiers in the army. These were Bronze and Silver rank trained soldiers, while they were mostly Tin and Iron rank mindless undead without any abilities at all.
There was, however, also the rest of the army that had fought for the king.
During the early days, when the Morning’s Shade had gotten involved, the king had run a recruitment drive for the army, conscripting many of the young men and women from around the lands. Those had just been farmers and other non-combatant types for the most part, yet there had been quite a few of them.
Those soldiers, if they were even still alive and not undead by now, would be armed and armoured. That would make them a considerable threat.
There were also the city's walls to take into consideration.
Ro had promised that he would be able to break a hole in the wall for them to begin the battle, which would create a choke point they could use against the undead. Then he would go off to fight the Thousand-eyed one and they would hold that point as long as they needed to clear out the city.
There had been an argument amongst the leaders that sending in Ro-ak alone to take out the Thousand-eyed one first would be a better idea, yet in the end they agreed that being as close as possible to provide backup if needed was the better way to go about it.
That was what Zalia had picked up by standing there listening as much as she could manage. There were a million more specific details she just couldn’t keep in line. Troop placements, how to react to various situations that could arise and all other sorts.
They stopped for a rest about two hours march from the city. There was still no reaction from the demons, no countering force sent out to attack or intercept them. Just the odd undead here or there wandering the plains.
Zalia was struggling. She was struggling a lot.
Holding back the corruption had become so hard that she lay on Boreal’s back, too concentrated on her task to even walk anymore. She had to hold out, just a bit longer. When they reached the city, then she could let go of her aura and focus on the fighting.
The army enchanters, now much smaller in number than before, rushed about trying to get the protection against the corruption up and running. Zalia waited impatiently, panting, sweating and in a weird kind of pain as they worked.
It felt like her soul was on fire, like the mental or… magical strain of what she was doing caused a different kind of damage. It was like what had happened when she spent almost a week consecutively running. A not-quite-there pain that wasn’t in her body.
It took the enchanters half an hour, but they got the protection up. Zalia was able to breathe properly and even relax slightly under the significantly lessened pressure.
Faian began sending out messages to unit leaders, explaining their battle plans in detail, going over exactly what each unit would need to do and what their role in the coming battle would be.
Ro-ak stood nearby, silent as ever but watching the capital intently.
The red haze over the top of the wall was moving ever so slowly like it had finally sensed them and was waking from its slumber. Or perhaps they had only just gotten close enough for it to care about them.
It was only ten more short minutes before they packed up the barrier and Zalia had to strain against the aura once more. Pain wracked her as it smashed down like a physical force, but she held on.
Ro looked at her in concern, but she waved him off. She could hold it, she would, as long as she needed to.
They began marching towards the capital.
The time to retake Endaria had come.