Two days have passed without anything noticeable going on, besides the soldiers building the shelters.
At first, they started chopping the nearby woods to make a proper palisade, even before Hazelmere has arrived. However, Galizur quickly pointed out they won’t have enough time to build it and should focus on constructing several smaller shelters that would mainly protect against the elemental effects instead. So, they started digging deep holes in the ground and reinforcing them with overhead wooden structures. That turned the camp into a strange mix of tents and burrows.
On the third day, Galizur approached Hazelmere:
“The others will arrive soon. Everything will be fine, but you mortals should go to your shelters, just in case. I will let you know when it is over.”
Hazelmere nodded, looking a bit uncertain: “I understand. Best of luck to you!”
Galizur just smiled and walked away.
As everyone in the camp ran for their shelters, Galizur took several dozen steps away from the camp, kneeling on the ground. He sat on his feet, straightening his back and closing his eyes. His wings relaxed, arranging themselves around the back and the sides of his body. From far away, he looked like an oversized, bright-white pigeon with golden hair. Only the tail was missing.
The slight smile on his face left the impression of utmost peace.
---
Hazelmere’s shelter was close to her main tent so that, in the case of an emergency, she could quickly jump into it. It was big enough to accommodate five people, which it did.
“Ugh, the earth is making my dress dirty!” She complained.
“This is certainly … disgraceful, but it is better than nothing,” Mizette said, “gods only know how bad the astral battles can get.”
“Yes, but it is too cramped in here! I can’t even sit properly! And it is uncomfortable as hell!”
The large soldier, Kortan, who was assigned as Hazelmere’s bodyguard, looked at Vukasin in the most unamused way.
“Why are you giving him that look?” Peratha’s voice carried a lot of open hostility with it, “You are taking most of the space!”
“Still mad about it?” He asked.
“Of course I am! And on top of that, I am forced to share a hole in the ground with someone I can’t trust!” As Peratha said that, she turned her head Towards Hazelmere, giving her a judgmental look. Hazelmere just looked in the other direction.
“But it is the logical choice,” an uneasy smile showed on Mizette’s face, “it only makes sense that our best offensive mage is in the same shelter as the royal archmage. Hazelmere got you here to act as yet another bodyguard.”
“Tsk!” Peratha jerked her head away from Hazelmere, “But why bring him in here?”
That got Vukasin talking: “It’s only natural to have someone guarding miss Hazelmere so, Heartwell sent the two people he considers to be the most capable. I’m here to defend you if someone attacks, and he is here to carry you if we must run. Heartwell is concerned that the same thing that has happened near the portal could happen again. This guy’s name is Kortan, by the way,” he said while patting the broad soldier’s shoulder, “that’s the name you will need to yell if you want him to pick you up.”
“Nail that! I am not being carried by that oaf again!” Peratha protested.
“I wouldn’t carry you if my life depended on it, you ungrateful harpy!”
“Don’t worry miss, he’s here for miss Hazelmere’s sake,” Vukasin tried reassuring her.
Which made Hazelmere worried in turn, making her eye Kortan up and down.
“Hush!” Mizette lifted her hand, “Can you sense it?”
Peratha’s ears perked up: “Oh, yes. Something is definitely in the air.”
A few long, unpleasant moments passed.
“Oww … nail this! I can’t take it anymore!” Hazelmere yelled as she grabbed a part of the wooden cover on the edge of the shelter, moving it aside. Then, she stood up through the hole in the cover, exposing her torso over it.
“Miss Hazelmere, you shouldn’t do that!” Vukasin reacted.
“Oh, shut up! How am I supposed to lead if I have no idea what is going on?”
That silenced Vukasin for good. It sounded like something his commander would say, making him instinctively back away.
Looking around the camp, Hazelmere saw no difference. Everything looked exactly like before.
But there was something out there. She could feel it. She was as sure of it as she was sure her hands rested on the ground in front of her.
“Do you see anything?” Peratha asked.
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“There is nothing my mortal eyes can see.”
And yet, something was gathering out there, growing slowly. It grew in intensity with each passing moment.
Another part of the wooden cover was removed from the shelter as Peratha stood up next to Hazelmere.
“Is this what the divine presence feels like?” She asked, “Perhaps, we should have had that archpriestess with us instead of that idiot!”
“Archpriestess?” Hazelmere asked.
“The one the transcendent priest left here.”
“Oh, her …”
“What, you forgot about her?”
Hazelmere responded with silence.
Nothing appeared for quite some time. Only the experienced mages could feel something gathering out there. But, while their magical senses were well-honed, their mortal shells were inadequate to make anything out of it.
Then, all the mages sensed the shift in the air. It was so strong, both the experienced and the novice mages could sense it.
“The portal … it feels as if its energy is waning …” Peratha spoke.
“It really does …” Hazelmere stared towards the portal in disbelief. Even though she couldn’t see it with her eyes, since it sat on top of the hill, she was able to sense it ever since the mages have summoned it. And, since the air around the portal was devoid of any energy, the enormous amount of mana it held stood out from the surroundings.
“I guess this really will be over soon. What are we going to do once it is gone?”
“What do you mean?” Hazelmere looked at Peratha, looking surprised to hear that.
“Well … even if the immortals close the portal to hell, there will still be hell to pay.”
“We did everything we could! We did nothing wrong!”
Peratha started twisting her neck: “I think I will be out of the Empire for a few years at least. Just in case. I don’t have much faith in our justice system.”
“You are just paranoid …” Hazelmere started laughing, but her face turned pale in the middle of the sentence.
There was the first visible change in the landscape. Massive, dark clouds started forming in the distance, far away.
And Hazelmere quickly noticed they were approaching quite fast.
“What is it?” Peratha asked. Hazelmere just pointed in the direction.
“Oh, nail me! You think it’s them?”
Hazelmere didn’t respond. So, Peratha grabbed her by the collar and started shaking.
“What are we going to do!”
“I … how would I know?”
“Those aren’t the natural clouds! It could be Yesis!”
“But … why would he care about the portal? I mean, he didn’t show any interest in it so far! Why would he care about it now?”
“It looks like we’ll see for ourselves soon enough,” Peratha still held Hazelmere’s collar tightly while staring at the approaching clouds.
“What are you … oh, nail me!” As soon as Mizette lifted herself above the cover, she regretted it.
As if on cue, the strong winds started blowing, chilly as the night itself, as the thunder started rumbling in the distance.
“All right, time to hit the shelter!” Peratha yelled as loud as she could while ducking down and returning the wooden cover over her head.
Hazelmere and Mizette did the same.
“What’s going on?” Vukasin asked.
“It’s damn Yesis! For some reason, he’s interested in the portal now! And he’s not alone!”
“The god of wrath?”
“Yes, that nailer!”
“But … I thought he doesn’t care about the other gods and the mortals!”
“I thought the same too!”
“That’s not necessarily the case,” Kortan spoke like a scholar, “Yesis doesn’t care about the mortals, he does as he pleases. But, while he’s indifferent towards us, the mortals, he loves toying with the plans of the other gods. He’s vengeful towards the other gods for some reason, both the good and the evil ones.”
“What could you know about the gods, peasant?” Peratha’s face twisted in disgust as she looked at him.
“Much more than your arrogant tail thinks! My grandmother is a sage!”
“A peasant sa …”
Thunder ended quarrel abruptly, making all the archmages squeal in terror. The winds got even more intense.
Soon after, an incredibly intense downpour started falling. It was so fierce, the top cover got drenched quickly, making streams fall into the shelter, forming small puddles at the bottom of it. At that point, the thundering became constant.
“Great, just what we needed!” Peratha grumbled.
The storm wouldn’t stop, it rained, and it poured. It appeared as if the storm had no intention of ever stopping. It lasted so long, the ground beneath their feet turned into thick mud. The thundering got so loud and intense, it almost made any conversation impossible.
Then, an especially powerful gust of wind blew all of the wooden covers above them.
“Oh, come on!” Peratha protested to the heavens.
“Barrier, now!” Mizette yelled as she immediately started casting the spell. Hazelmere and Peratha quickly got the idea and started feeding her mana.
In a few moments, a half-circle barrier formed over their shelter.
“I don’t think it will last for long, not at this intensity!” Mizette complained as she visibly struggled to maintain the spell.
“Focus, nail it!”
The barrier lasted for some time but, even with Hazelmere and Peratha helping out, it collapsed eventually, leaving them thoroughly drenched. Their ears and tails came crashing down under the sheer weight of the water falling onto them.
As they lifted their heads to take a look at the collapsed barrier instinctively, they saw an extraordinary, awesome sight. Twisted, concentrated winds formed a huge, sky-high whirlwind which bent in all possible ways, as if it was constantly trying to dodge something. Out of it came dozens, if not hundreds of lightings. And, although the whirlwind was too close for comfort, not a single lightning came close to the bunkered-down mortals. All the bolts of lightning were shooting up in the sky.
The heavy rain made it almost impossible to see any details but, to Hazelmere, it looked as if some shiny threads were trying to restrain the whirlwind as it bashed around.
All the tents in the camp were gone, there was nothing but empty space out there. Nothing but a huge patch of mud, as far as Hazelmere’s eyes could see.
Which wasn’t very far, considering she was in the middle of the storm.
“We must protect the mages Vukasin, come on!” Kortan’s deep voice managed to travel through the thunder somehow. He rose up and bent in such a way that his hands were resting on the muddy ground above the dug-out shelter.
“Get under!”
Hazelmere quickly realized what he was doing. By bending like that, he turned his large frame into the roof, towering over half of the shelter, shielding the others from the rain with his body.
Not hesitating for a single moment, Hazelmere shoved Peratha under the large soldier. Peratha was in the way, so Hazelmere had no other choice but to shove her so she could get under the living cover herself.
“You whore!” Peratha screamed as she spat into the ground, “You threw me face-first into the mud!”
Seeing Peratha’s mud-covered face, Hazelmere started laughing maniacally. She knew it wasn’t the time, nor the place for it. She knew it was the wrong thing to do. But she didn’t care.
For some reason, seeing Peratha like that made the horrifying situation they were in just a bit more bearable.
“Get nailed, whore!” Peratha cursed as she continued repeatedly spitting on the ground, trying to clean her mouth. Nevertheless, Hazelmere didn’t stop laughing.
Seeing Kortan’s example, Vukasin did the same, trying to cover Mizette.
“Umm, sir knight?” She said.
“Yes?”
“Maybe you should take off your metal armor. Yesis hates shiny things, quite a lot.”
“I think he has much more pressing concerns right now.”
“That’s a good idea, Mizette,” Peratha said, “I also need something to wipe my face with.”
“W-w-what do you think you’re doing?” Kortan started panicking as Peratha reached for his trousers.
“I’m taking my just revenge!”