Princess Ley had been marching through the forest for more than three weeks, and despite having the guidance of her drake, their progress was miserable.
Firstly, they lacked a reliable guide, so often the drake's sense of smell led them into dangerously risky places, or due to the drake's defiant attitude towards nature, they engaged in absurd fights with the forest inhabitants.
Another problem was the large number of gnolls they brought with them. Since these creatures couldn't be used as fighters, they had to be protected if they hoped to use them as a peace offering. At this point, the expedition's expectations were plummeting, with the first casualties among the imperial soldiers undermining morale.
The forest had always been feared, and every expedition into it had been severely punished. Few believed they would find anyone here, let alone find them alive. In their minds, whatever they were looking for was probably already in the belly of some beast, similar to the ones they had faced countless times before.
Princess Ley began to notice the lack of determination among her soldiers. They increasingly tended to use the gnolls as flesh shields. She knew it was her fault; in previous situations, it was a tactic she had employed. Unfortunately, this time, that tactic was not available. They urgently needed to make contact with the human, and if the Marquis was right, he wouldn't listen to a word they said if they hid behind the gnolls.
"Lieutenant, you should know that if we lose more gnolls, I'll make you understand how valuable they are to me," threatened the princess.
The lieutenant shuddered at the princess's comment. He thought his attitude had gone unnoticed, but he was unaware of how crucial these creatures could be for the mission and their imminent destiny.
The march continued for another week without any incident. Initially, the troops were relieved that mishaps were no longer happening, but as they advanced, the forest became eerily quiet.
Nothing could be heard, as if they were in a completely soundproof room. It wasn't that they weren't making noise or couldn't hear each other; rather, the environment had stopped making sounds. It was as if the air didn't flow to move the treetops.
This anomaly made the expedition members' hairs stand on end, and they began to slow their march. Suddenly, no one wanted to be at the vanguard or the rear. There was a growing sense that something would jump out of nowhere and devour them.
And a few short minutes later, this feeling would become a reality.
Out of nowhere, a giant silver-backed lion would emerge to face off against a void giant. Princess Ley watched in astonishment and concern as the peaceful atmosphere of the forest suddenly shattered with the appearance of a giant silver-backed lion. Its fur gleamed under the faint light filtering through the tree branches. This majestic predator emerged out of nowhere, defiant and ready for action.
Simultaneously, a void giant, a creature of mysterious and menacing appearance, appeared in front of the lion. Its dark figure and blurry contours created a disconcerting contrast with the forest surroundings.
Almost instantly upon seeing each other, they engaged in a fierce hand-to-hand combat.
Not long after, the silver-backed lion's pack emerged and joined the fight against the void spawn accompanying the giant. What started as a local fight would soon turn into a clash between two armies. A dozen large predators would slowly appear, along with their packs, as well as hundreds of thousands of other animals, to confront an army of void spawn ten times their number.
Princess Ley immediately ordered evacuation, but she remained in the vicinity with a small escort of her elites. She faced the presence of a void invasion, which was met with full force by the forest. All the top predators present were the apex of the food chain, and they would never share territories with each other. Yet now, they were fighting side by side.
Although outnumbered ten to one, the princess was sure the fight would end soon. Void spawn were known to be incredibly weak, but their strength lay in their literal endless numbers. As long as you didn't close the gap where their numbers appeared, they would continue flooding the forest. Additionally, while each spawn was weak and harmless on its own, each one eliminated deposited a small amount of void corruption in the body of its executor, which was difficult to get rid of and could lead to serious problems and probably death in the long run.
Ley knew from the appearance of the large creatures that this wasn't their first fight. They were full of wounds, and there were obvious signs of corruption on their bodies, indicating that they were quite close to the breaking point.
The situation was extremely delicate, and the princess began to calculate in her head. Maybe it would be better to return home and gather an expedition to clean the forest of the void portals that maintained the invasion. They had already cleared some invasions before, and the process would not be unfamiliar to them. Also, if the forest was so weakened, it might finally be an opportunity to capture it.
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Although Ley also knew that her mission was incredibly important and needed to be completed as soon as possible, otherwise, her empire would be severely punished by Sera. If she could achieve her goal on this expedition, she would not only avoid punishment for her empire but most likely receive rewards since hers was one of the many competitors to see who found the human first.
In the brief time it took her to reflect, the battle had almost finished. The forest animals conducted a brief cleanup and began moving in a certain direction.
Ley didn't know when, but at some point, she could smell the corruption flowing out like a broken dam. Nausea aside, it didn't stop her from moving in that direction to observe how events unfolded.
For some reason, every animal present didn't even flinch at the human, and they only made threatening sounds if she got too close. After five minutes of walking, they finally reached the end of the journey.
The princess could see a large area protected by a void energy dome. Far in the center of the sphere was the portal maintaining the invasion, and next to it were five Rift Abominations holding a ritual that corrupted the land and its resources to keep the dome in place.
The forest animals were besieging the dome from all sides, but they couldn't leave a mark on it. The alphas of each species could leave marks on the wall, but they couldn't break it completely. If multiple alphas gathered in one area, the abominations would simply shift their focus to reinforce that sector, resulting in a stalemate.
Every so often, the number of void spawn would be so high that they would attack the besieging forces, weakening them a little more before they could do anything to bring the war inside the dome and destroy the portal.
At this point, the princess recognized that the forest was finally doomed. Countering a Rift Abomination required a high-level mage and their assistants. With five present here, it would be impossible for her empire, which only had two, one veteran and one newly promoted.
The princess observed the siege for a couple of hours until she determined that there was no way they would achieve a favorable result. Most likely, this wasn't the first siege they had attempted and failed, so they would retreat soon, allowing the rift to reinforce its forces and accelerate the speed at which the forest would be lost.
When the princess was about to leave, there was a change in the field that caught her attention. Each species abandoned the siege and withdrew slightly, and their alphas gathered on the side of the moon stalkers.
Although the princess couldn't understand how they communicated among themselves, she could interpret that each alpha seemed to complain and show dissatisfaction to the moon stalker alpha. He, in turn, seemed to try to prolong the meeting and prevent the others from leaving.
Soon, the reason for prolonging the meeting became clear. A small moon stalker predator walked toward the giant alphas, and every animal in its path simply made way for it to report. Immediately behind it was a human followed by an elf.
"Torel," murmured the princess.
"Is that the oath-breaker? What is he doing here?" asked the imperial delegate in charge of the meeting.
"I don't know, but if the information we have is reliable, Torel was with the human we seek," replied the princess.
"Is it him? Hurry, we must get him," exclaimed the envoy.
"Hold on, damn it, look around," the princess reprimanded the delegate. "Control yourself, or you'll condemn us all."
The delegate realized how he had almost lost his composure, and shame turned his face red. Many years had passed since he had shown such irrational behavior.
"What is happening? Will the human really die in front of us after coming so far?" the princess asked aloud.
"It doesn't seem that the human is in danger. It's really mysterious what's happening. It's almost as if he's here to help," said the Marquis incredulously.
The princess was about to refute the Marquis's outrageous statement when the human finally reached the center where the alphas were.
Except for the moon stalker, all the other alphas were angered when they saw the human enter their council. However, the moon stalker silenced them and looked at the little stalker firmly.
She promptly understood and changed to her stalker form to jump onto Alex's shoulder and start communicating with him about the reason for her presence.
"A portal, breach, what? It's not very clear what you want to tell me, little one. Let's set aside the details. What do you need from me?" said Alex the audacious, the only human in the world capable of looking a moon stalker directly in the eyes without fear of suffering the consequences—or without knowing what those consequences were, for that matter.
The stalker decided to change her approach and keep the communication concise.
"You need a breach in the dome. Do you really think I can help with that if the most powerful among you can't break it?" said Alex, who limited himself to talking with the little one, monumentally ignoring the alphas, as he headed toward the dome in question.
When he reached the barrier, he tried to hit it with a good amount of his strength, and bam... it did absolutely nothing. The rest of the animals couldn't help but mock the human's pathetic attempt to break the wall with that insignificant amount of force when not even their leaders could break it.
Alex, however, was unaffected by the various reactions and continued trying a variety of things until he finally had success.
When he activated his armor and channeled his ash energy into his sword, it could cut through the energy wall like butter, passing through it effortlessly. Unfortunately, the wall regenerated instantly after the blade passed through.
This limited success, however, was enough to silence everyone present. Not even the moon stalker alpha expected such immediate success with the plan the little one had proposed.
After another round of small tests, Alex stepped away and approached the moon stalker alpha and its partner, the largest and most powerful of the pack.
"It's possible. If I try, I can get something your size, although I won't be able to maintain it for long. I'm sorry I can't be of much help," said Alex, acknowledging his limitations.
The alpha looked at its companion, and both came to an unspoken understanding. Then, it gave a look to the little Lunaria, clearly pleased with how she had managed to bring the key piece to stop this invasion once and for all.
Finally, the alpha's fur began to stand on end, and the color of its eyes reversed, turning the sclera into jet black and its irises into white.
"It will be enough," resonated a deep voice in the human language, echoing through the forest.