Hera walked around the camp, seeing how the army was setting up. She wasn’t in the trenches, but even then, she could see people injured and dirty from being stuck in a place without a chance to clean themselves properly. The haunted eyes of people who saw death on a daily basis. Still, things were looking good. The spirits were high, or as high as one would expect them to be in a war zone. From the little she could gather, it had been a few weeks since the last big battle. Only a few skirmishes were happening here and there, and nothing got close to the camps.

Still, the Empress got worried that something was going to happen while she was here. There was no way to prove that, but Hera believed her [Silver Linings] skill would make bad things happen more frequently in order to trigger. If that was really the case, then she might be attracting danger to the army. Logically, the Ophidianite knew that this was just superstition. She wasn’t a bad luck magnet, but it was hard not to think about that kind of thing when so many things seemed to go wrong in her life. From not being able to be an explorer to finding Boothudurn, even Alex’s curse was mostly her fault. And so were the months they got stuck in the Abyssal Deep.

Pushing those thoughts away, Hera called her court out and sent them all into the sky. They made a conga line to increase the range as much as possible, with Robin staying at the very top. Thanks to everyone, including the titled blades, the bow blade reached a height of 400 meters and had a nice view of a large area of the room.

‘I can see some movement, but no one is getting closer,’ Robin said after a moment.

Hera was about to ask something when an elf came rushing over, “What the hell are you doing?”

“What?” the Empress stared at the woman.

“What the fuck is this?” she gestured to the floating weapons above, “You can’t do that. I saw you summoning those weapons. Send them away now!”

“Oh. Sorry,” Hera dismissed the entire court, “Why is this a problem?”

“Because you will give away our location to the humans!” the elf huffed.

Hera blinked slowly. She glanced back towards the opposite side of the room. From the ground, she could see the skyline of the human city and some tiny things moving a few kilometers away. Not the people exactly, but maybe some flags or structures that were being built or moved. The Ophidianite looked around the camp, seeing several tall tents, over 3 meters tall, and the command center, a structure made out of small branches with at least four floors that should amount to a total height of about 10 meters.

“Sorry to say this, but I think that ship has sailed. Besides, the base camp doesn’t move, right? Like it’s not mobile,”

“No, it’s been here ever since the war reached this room.”

“Yeah, so I’m sure the humans already know about our location,” Hera saw the woman was about to complain, but continued, “I’m not saying I’ll do that again. You said I can’t do that, so I won’t. The reason just feels pointless.”

The elven woman huffed, her ginger hair held in a tight bun, not unlike what you would see in a ballerina, “I don’t care what you think. Those are the orders, the harpy can’t fly above a certain height, and you can’t do whatever the fuck you were doing. Who is your captain? I will remind them to properly drill our rules.”

“I don’t have a captain, sorry. I came with the supplies as their escort,” Hera replied.

The elf clicked her tongue, “Of course. You are one of the cowards who are too scared to see a real battle. If you can’t even help your crew take out the boxes, just find somewhere to sit and stay out of our way. We don’t have time to babysit you spoiled brats,” the woman turned around and walked away.

“What a bitch,” Daskka huffed.

“We are on a battlefield. Tensions are high, and I think she just needed to vent,” Hera shrugged and walked away. It was funny. She never expected to not be affected by someone like that. If this was the old her, she would either break down and feel bad about herself or argue and explain that the elf was wrong. Yet, right now, she didn’t care. Watching that woman walk away was an oddly introspective moment.

“Mum? Are you ok?” Daskka asked.

“Yeah. I’m fine,” Hera nodded and continued to walk around the camp.

She found a few soldiers talking and resting, others preparing some food, and even a small group playing cards. Eventually, a harpy from one particular battalion approached her. He asked who, and more to the point, what she was. The Empress answered and asked more about the overall situation in exchange for sharing more about her kind.

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The war here was in a complicated situation. Because of the way the room was set up, it was impossible to attack without letting the other side see the attack coming. This meant that any attempt to break through the opposite side had to move quicker than their enemies could react. Larger battles only happened on the rare occasions when mist covered the middle of the room. That was a moment when either side could risk sending a larger amount of troops without having them battered by the watchtowers that protected each army. However, it wasn’t easy to predict when those things would happen. And it also came with the danger of monsters who emerged from the mist.

According to the harpy, the worst conflict that happened here was during a rampage. Neither side could leave their position, which forced them to fight not just against the army but also against monsters that continuously spawned everywhere. But it didn’t seem like things would change anytime soon. The Alliance army had entrenched themselves in this position, making it harder for the humans to advance. Even if they had superior numbers, another thing the harpy showed her was a few watchtowers that were even taller than the command center. Seeing that only made the Empress find that previous interaction with the elf even weirder, but she wasn’t about to mention it.

There was one more thing that became apparent during that conversation. This wasn’t a real army. Not in the proper sense of the word. Basically, most of the troops deployed here were made up of people just like her. Random adventurers who were exploring the MAZE and, once the war started, refused to take the human abuse and lie down. Each battalion was made out of several parties that came together instead of one cohesive unit. People were not as well versed in following strict rules and commands as one would expect, and their organization wasn’t the best. Especially when it came to a chain of command. Still, it wasn’t like everything was horrible. Hera could see people receiving orders and scoffing, only to be reprimanded by their friends. That showed how some people were getting the hang of things and helping everyone else follow along.

If that was actually the best option for how to behave during a war, the Empress had no idea. She was never the kind to enjoy thinking about large-scale battle tactics or about the history of conflicts. But if it worked for thousands of years of civilization, she wasn’t about to question it.

After thanking the harpy for all the information, Hera went to look for Randolf to see if he was ready to go to the city. Ever since they got here, she didn’t have her titled blades walking by her side. It was one thing to show up in a city with a crew of different species, another to do that in the middle of an army camp. She was already unique enough to make some people uncomfortable. After all, there wasn’t a rule that said new species would join the alliance. Considering what happened with the centaurs, it was easy to understand why some would be uneasy with her presence. Adding a griffon, a living armor, a giant sea serpent, a pair of half-Naga, and a kangaroo with anger issues wouldn’t help.

Randolf was close to finishing up the delivery, and the Ophidianite took the chance to gather all of her teammates so they could leave soon. There was a tiny voice in the back of her mind saying that she would end up having to fight against some humans if she stuck around for too long.

The easiest ones to find were Neria and Flint; both were in the same place they told they would be. The medical tent and the crafter’s area, respectively. However, it was much easier to bring Flint along than it was to take Neria out of the tent. The triton desperately wanted to help the wounded. By itself, that wouldn’t be a problem, but the healer seemed to be struggling with something. She refused to move away even when another medic appeared to take care of the patient. It got to the point where she was escorted out of the tent.

“What was that?” Flint was staring at the triton.

“I… I just want to help. I can’t stand seeing people hurting and no one doing anything!” Neria gasped.

“Do you know why they are not doing anything? Maybe it’s part of the treatment,” Flint crossed his arms.

“What kind of treatment leaves people suffering?” Neria yelled and got some angry stares from the guards in front of the medical tent.

Hera pulled the triton away, “Pretty much every treatment. Even battle heals leave some pain behind. I get that you are trying to help, but maybe you are confusing this with something else.”

“I…” Neria shook her head, “You might be right.”

“Want to talk about it?” Flint offered.

“Maybe later. I need to get my head straight,” Neria sighed and just followed along, not saying anything else. Hera and Flint shared a look but didn’t say anything else.

Vash wasn’t that hard to find, the harpy was doing a small performance near the ‘cafeteria’ to lift up people’s spirits. And with his help, locating the other became much easier. Not because he could fly, but his sound based spells let him pinpoint locations better. Especially if he was used to how someone spoke.

With the Harmony Guardians together again, they headed back to Randolf, who was ready to depart. Even in the current state of the caravan, along with Drew and Veronica, the merchant made enough repairs to keep the vehicle operational until they reached the city. In there, they could fix everything properly before going back to Zinctorum. However, he had already warned the group that it would take at least two days to get everything in order, even if it was a best-case scenario where all the parts he needed were available. If not, he hoped that at least the materials were there, which would let him craft the parts himself and not worry about a longer delay.

“If that’s the case… do you think we can come back here tomorrow? Or Nimbus can just come to drop me off?” Neria turned to Hera.

“Let’s climb on the caravan, then we talk. Ok?” Hera replied.

The Harmony Guardians stayed on the back this time as the container started moving. It was hard to tell why Neria was so insistent on helping the soldiers, and it didn’t feel like just something out of the goodness of her heart. There was another reason, something deeper and more personal. At least, that was what everyone was thinking as they got away from the command center. But it would still take a few more minutes before Neria was ready to speak.