It was hard to see during a snowstorm, but the warriors still had to man the walls. They had a special light that allowed them to penetrate the storm, but its magic requirements were a bit high; it was only activated every hour.

Due to pure coincidence, as the warriors scanned the nearby area around the wall, they found them. It was the Black Hood and the party; the bell started ringing three times.

“OPEN THE GATES!!! IT IS THEM!!!” the warrior immediately screamed. The scream could reach down, but still, there was a repeater on one of the wall floors; the warriors at the bottom of the wall started opening the gates.

The gates were being moved by clutching gears to the same motor that runs the elevator of the wall. Warriors stationed at the gate were on the ready, nobody could tell what might happen.

The Black Hood and his party immediately saw the light, and the warrior operating it used the light to guide them exactly to the gates of the wall. The party immediately went inside as soon as they could fit in the gate.

Gallo and the Mayor had already woken up. They rushed into the gate to meet the returners.

“Where are the others?” the Mayor asked. Percival arrived a little late; he was carrying some blankets and brought some of the villagers who could do first aid.

“Open the gates for a while; others will come. They are probably behind us in a few minutes!” the Black Hood said.

“What do you mean?” Gallo asked for further explanation.

…

“I see, then we will be ready to receive them…please tell me if anything comes up” the Mayor answered.

<--->

Desolated Lands…

The snow and the dark, visibility clearly diminished, but the light from his spear shined like the sun in the dark. Paramour raised his spear, and the spikes knew where he was.

“Ugly little shits… I will butcher you,” Paramour said in a low voice.

This was for the guys they failed to save.

He began a dance… the snow around him started to melt as he arrived at his first stance. He performed this dance as part of a ritual when he graduated as a disciple of a famous hero. Something he would never forget as long as he lived.

It was called the “Sun Dance,” and his body started emitting heat.

“This would feel good,” he muttered, and he started dancing.

Spikes started swarming towards him, but as they approached, a searing fire would cut them… dismember them. He didn’t have to worry about the corpses that much since as they fell, they started to burn even in the snow.

Song of the Sun:

“The dark is so cold, the wind has no life”

“We scream against the odds, lie against strife”

“Hold your head high, feel the warmth of the sun”

“We feel our lives, we never stop the run”

“For the lands hold the origin of life”

“For the lands, ye hold the ending of life”

“For I carry the trident of the fire”

“A flame that’s bursting with magic and ire”

The hero of the era literally sang while performing the dancing spear. The spikes that were attacking continued, but the Mother who was among them started to worry. There were two Mothers leading the attack. The snow hid them but the chaos of the hero’s light inspired fear in them, the Mother had never seen a magic that was too effective against them.

<--->

Amidst the snow.

Not only did the queens reproduce, but they could also heal the spikes as long as they were in a safe place and their armada was within range. However, since the spikes that were getting torn apart were melting, it posed a problem.

A boy approached the mother in silence, his sword was flowing with a spray of water, and what was left of the reddish tint slowly diluted with the water his sword was producing. He vaults making an arc near the Mother’s head.

“You are a Mother…” It was Simon, he landed in the snow.

The queen's head instantly dropped off. She, who was so focused on commanding her army, died with no sound at all. She didn’t notice that the wall crusher guards around her were already dead but still standing.

“One more,” Simon said. He was in a trance; everything looked like a plane with dots. The ground was telling them their locations; it was all in his mind. If they could clear the other horde on the right side, there would be a clear path for the stranded scouts to escape.

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<--->

Andy was quite frustrated; the three teams that went back first were still outside. He was sure that they didn’t see them. Even the Black Hood said that they didn’t see them when they went outside of the wall to the valley.

“But they were going home because of the shift change,” Andy muttered.

“How much distance have they made?” Gallo asked.

“They should be two days earlier,” another scout answered. In a few moments, the warriors from the top started screaming, then bells rang three times.

“They are here!” another warrior who heard the message that was on the ground screamed. It was the other team that was supposed to be an hour and a half earlier than them. That team immediately entered the wall with the help of the magic light on the top of the wall.

“The hero and the kid saved us but they didn’t come with us; they are still outside the wall! They are saying that there is still somebody outside!” It was an adventurer known as the Lucky Rabbit who reported the situation.

The Mayor, Percival, and Gallo were present, still waiting for what would happen. “I trust them; the hero is really strong.” It was Gallo who immediately broke the silence.

“Then we wait for them… close the gate for a while, turn the light scan into 30 minutes,” it was the Mayor’s command.

“Brother, I can come to them,” it was Percival who suggested. He was one of the few scouts who could navigate through a snowstorm. The reason he had to stay is that if something happened, he must be there to command and defend the wall.

“You stay… can you feel it…” the Mayor suddenly spoke, and his eyes brightened… the adventurers felt it too, the warriors, and even Gallo. The effect on the boy was much worse as he started jumping in excitement.

“Let’s climb up the wall!!” Gallo screamed in excitement.

<--->

It had been 7 minutes since the hero started the dance. The plan was simple: Paramour would lure all enemies and slaughter them, while Simon would kill the queens that were outside. Simon actually detected 2 queens roaming around with her colony.

With Simon’s new detection abilities, he had been weathering the colonies, but the second queen was totally on guard. Simon made sure that the other queen didn’t have the time to scream or anything.

“Hmm… something higher is commanding them?” It was Simon’s hypothesis.

They probably knew that the other queen was dead. Simon stopped for a while and smiled; he was actually appreciating the magic the hero was releasing. He had seen the old man do these things in a different way; it seemed that everyone had their own ways of using magic.

“I will muscle it out then,” Simon said. He started running; the queen’s guards were around her.

He circled around, checking them out. The boy was just 10 meters away from them but they still couldn’t detect him… the training in the snow really paid off… He stopped and found it… There was a small gap between the 2 guards. He started bee-lining there.

The guards didn’t even notice him slip with his speed; he was then behind the queen. The water blade was really effective, and he really loved it. He had experienced his blade getting dull because of too much fat, but now that the water blade was under his better control, he could use water to cleanse it. Additionally, he activated a pressurized water blade for better cutting.

The queen’s head fell; he then landed on the ground and dashed into a circle, cutting the guards before they even turned around. Although they knew that the queen was dead, they didn’t have the chance to see who even did it.

The desolated lands are now a bit safe. Simon and Paramour just needed to rescue the other scouts who were hiding in a cluster of Ice Trees.

<--->

A few moments earlier.

The 6 unlucky scouts felt hopeless as they watched the colonies move. They had been staying on top of the trees for hours now. They had no idea what was happening, but it was probably bad. They were not even that close, but they had already noticed the moving steam. They still needed 2 to 3 days to cross the desolated area.

It became worse when the snow fell, and the fall turned into a snowstorm.

“We have been here for hours…” one of the scouts spoke. The others were still silent. One of the scouts saw an Elm Bird with a red tie on its feet. He remembered, but he didn’t tell the others; he didn’t want to create confusion.

They still had provisions that could last them another week. There was a sudden change in the light.

“What the hell is that?” It was another scout. They saw a ball of light from afar, a majestic phenomenon they had never seen before. The scouts had been far from home and had only heard a few stories from Andy.

“It's probably some kind of magic… but it's amazing. I can even feel the change in temperature from here,” another scout commented.

<--->

The Northern Wall had spectators watching from above. The burst of light only lasted for 20 to 30 minutes, but it was a sight to behold. “We are usually near him when he does this… that looks so epic,” Raphael, who also climbed up the wall, shared his impressions.

In a few moments, the wind covered the whole view again, and darkness started to shroud everything.

“Maintain watch!!!” the Mayor commanded the warriors on the wall, instructing them to do the same as earlier.

“Wake me up when they return,” the Mayor said to Percival, who was already in his full armor, ready for the night watch.

“Of course, brother. Hey kid, you can sleep too,” Percival tapped Gallo, but the boy was still hyped.

“AMAZING!!!” he exclaimed. It seemed that he wouldn’t be able to sleep for a while.

<--->

It was already 3 in the morning when the weather started to get better. After a few more hours, even though it was still a little dark, they saw a shining beacon from afar. It was Paramour’s spear in his back. They were pulling the 6 scouts who were stuck on a patch of ice trees a little bit farther north.

They actually used the tails of the spikes and some of the ice tree branches to make a makeshift snow cart.

“Oh, how beautiful the wall is,” Paramour exclaimed as he saw the weather improving. It was the first time he had a proper look at the northern wall. It was a rare sight for him since he usually lived in the central region.

“Kid… Simon, can you really not use magic?” Paramour started a conversation with Simon, who still wasn’t fazed or didn’t even look tired.

“No… after casting, my spell usually fails and the magic I used disperses,” Simon answered, recalling how the old man described his failure to use magic.

“Your magic disperses? But you can use the snowboard without a problem at all,” Paramour continued to investigate. The water blade and wind blade, the wind board they were using right now, are all powered by channeling magic into them.

“Channeling magic is easy… using it for spells is hard… I don’t really understand how the visualization works,” Simon replied. Paramour scratched his head.

“Dear hero, just my suggestion, but this kid probably can use a different element, some of the void types maybe,” the scout being pulled by Simon suggested.

“Void… hmm, interesting. How about we find that out, Simon?” Paramour smiled at Simon.

“How?” Simon asked since traditional methods had failed him.

“We spar until something happens,” the hero nodded, the idea was just too novel that he smiled.

The hero and the old man had the same mind about this. The old man said that in due time, Simon would learn how to use magic or that he really sucked.

“I like how you think. Let’s get it on once we go back,” Simon smiled.

The boy was actually asking for a spar; isn't he tired?

The scouts were literally too tired to react anymore; the 2 were monsters.