If anyone had dared to walk the streets of Suburra at that time, he would have been terribly impressed. Life had stopped and an unnatural silence permeated the whole neighbourhood.

Helial paced the streets, his brows furrowed, full of pity.

On the edge of a street he noticed a Goblin, thin and gaunt, with a blank smile on her face. There was a girl in her arms, with fair skin that did not even look like a Goblin; her little body, still and heavy, was covered with blackish and putrefied spots.

And her mother, her face too marked with black, held the baby and cradled her, combing her gnarled and dirty hair, squeezing her body more and more, so that no one would take away what was left of her creature. What did it matter if her body had already started to rot due to the summer heat? Soon she would die too, and they would be together again in death, as they had been in life.

Helial remembered seeing the same woman the day before, in the same spot and with the same manic smile, but he wasn't sure. In just a few days, he had seen many mothers and children succumbing to the infallible blow of death's scythe.

The plague had decided not to spare anyone: in the more peripheral areas of Orma, the disease had spread like wildfire within a single week, causing hundreds of victims, making no distinctions of any kind; men, women, children, the elderly: all were forced to endure the disease and die shortly after contracting it.

Doctors watched hopelessly as life abandoned the bodies of the sick. The miasma, resistant and hard to be eradicated, had fiercely enveloped the poorest neighbourhood of the city. No matter how hard they tried, doctors were unable to eradicate the disease and did not understand how it appeared in those areas, what caused it and what was the best cure for it.

Pain and anger mingled in the hearts of the citizens of Suburra, who saw their loved ones die every day. Some of them started a revolt against the doctors and some of them were even put to death while trying to treat the sick. Their bodies were exposed for days on the streets of the city, together with those of the plague victims, as a warning of the anger of the citizens.

The people, hit by such a calamity, had completely lost control.

People at the Second Phase and higher seemed apparently immune to that miasma; however, they tried to keep as far away from Suburra and pestilence as possible.

But this did not apply to Helial, who had gone to Suburra to bring aid to a place that seemed desperate, accompanied by Francesca. As the two walked among the rows of corpses, the Human noticed a small body that was still breathing. He crouched beside the boy and began to cure him with Flame of the Qilin.

"This morning, Cesar met all the big shots of Orma," said Helial grimly, while the Meridians of the little Goblin were beginning to be cleansed of the disease.

Francesca nodded, but remained silent, helping the boy to get back on his feet. She stroked him on the cheek and smiled at him tenderly, watching the last spots disappear from his hands and his complexion return to a healthy green.

Helial taught him a short formula for cultivating, advising him not to be discovered by anyone. Maybe one day he would have become strong enough to enter in some Academy, but if it had been known in Suburra that he had one of the rare Breathing Techniques to accumulate Mana in his Soul, that blessing could have turned out to be a calamity. Then she patted him on the shoulder and told him to go home.

The boy thanked him, with tears in his eyes, and ran off to find his family. Francesca could not help thinking about the discomfort that the child would have felt if she had discovered that only the remains of her parents and brothers had been left behind by the disease.

Sighing, the young woman looked at Helial, making him understand that she was aware of everything. “Let's get ready. Orma is already at war."

...

Several months after the clash between Helial and Medusa, Orma had suddenly found herself in the midst of a disaster: the two peoples who most hated the Goblins, the Undead and the Trolls, had signed an alliance to get rid of Orma.

Individually, neither of the two powers had the credentials to compete with Orma. The two peoples only had one Immortal each but as allies they would have had two, balancing their strength.

Despite everything, Orma would have been in advantage anyway. Cesar was far more powerful than any average Immortal on the continent and Aure was still more powerful than any of the two enemy Immortals.

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With those two monsters guarding the city-state, who would have had the guts to declare war?

In fact, none of Orma's big guys explained in his heart where those barbarian tribes had found so much courage.

In any case, war is war, and there was a need to prepare for any eventuality. After assembling Orma's bigwigs and agreeing on a strategy, Cesar had summoned Circe and Helial together with their teams and informed them that they would lead a legion each, during the clash.

In previous wars, fighting had always taken place on multiple generational levels. If they had mixed the warriors at First and at Tenth Phase, it would have been only a useless massacre. In fact, the members of one generation never got involved in the affairs of the others. It was a tacit agreement to prevent total chaos in the conflict and avoid that the descendants of the two powers would be annihilated with no chance to fight back.

The enemies of Helial and Circe would therefore have been between fifteen and twenty years of age, from the First to the Third Phase.

Leaving the Royal Palace, Circe winked in the direction of Helial and told him to follow her. The boy left his companions in front of the imposing entrance and began to walk behind the Goblin, who was walking wiggling her hips.

"Where are we going?" Helial asked, unable to understand where they were headed. The farther they went, the farther they got from the city centre.

Circe didn't reply, but kept walking until they found themselves in front of a wooden hut. Only bare planks formed the walls of that house, devoid of any frills. It was so simple that Helial wondered who could ever live in such an austere place, so far away from the city centre.

Circe planted her feet in the ground and shouted, "Are you going to come out?! In a few hours the enemies will be at our walls!"

Skill Activated:

Perception

Without waiting any longer, Helial got caught up in curiosity and casted Perception to analyse the house and its interior.

Before Perception could pass through the walls of the house and get inside, a terrifying Divine Sense enveloped Helial's throat and left him breathless.

"People knock before they get involved in other people's business," commented a dark and hoarse voice from inside the wooden house.

They heard several metallic noises before they saw the door open and reveal one of Orma's legends to their eyes. Pseudonym wore his usual shining armour, while the visor of the helmet left an almost imperceptible crack, which barely allowed them to glimpse his pupils.

"Are you coming or not?" Circe said solemnly as she looked down on Pseudonym.

Puffing, Pseudonym flooded Circe and Helial with terrifying pressure. His Aura did not seem the one of a warrior in the Late stage of the Third Phase, but that of an Immortal.

At the dawn of the war, Orma's three greatest warriors were ready to take sides.

…

In Floralivoly City

Conveniently, he patted nervously on his leg as he waited to be received.

He had been there for at least half an hour now and it seemed that the person he was about to meet liked to make him wait. He was waiting for one of the craziest characters on the whole continent, also feared by the bigwigs of the Fiercelake Nation.

Among other things, his trip outside Orma had been kept hidden from his father; he had told him that he would go away from the chaos of the city to refresh himself for some time in the outside world.

Aure had consented, warning him to be careful and not to return before the end of the conflict that would have occurred between Goblin, Undead and Trolls.

Although the mere thought of his father's face made him nervous, at that moment anxiety and fear were the feelings that enveloped his heart and almost prevented him from breathing. But his face was an expressionless mask. In an attempt to hide his emotions, he had totally erased them; at that moment, the only thing he wanted was not to appear weak in front of that man.

Suddenly he heard the sound of a door opening in the distance and sprang to his feet. It must have been in the anteroom. Comodo prepared to maintain a diplomatic smile for the duration of the conversation.

Footsteps, the door to the room opened, and an eccentric figure entered.

"Comodo, I hope you are at comfort," a voice passed through the door with the same fanfare as a general returning victorious from a war.

Having heard the fantastic jokes dozens of times, Comodo remained silent and continued to smile.

Both were in the Initial stage of the Sixth Phase, but the heir to the Sect of the Worthy knew that in a direct confrontation he would not have even a grain of hope against that man of extraordinary talent.

"Hades, I'm here in my father's place," said the Goblin solemnly.

"Really? Aure must be really cornered if he decided to send you."

Helial's brother's comment was a burning slap to the face but, swallowing the humiliation, Comodo continued: “Soon waves of Undead and Trolls will arrive at the gates of Orma. Allying with them was the greatest possible humiliation."

"Humiliation? If I had not mediated, that lunatic of your father would have continued to believe that he could assassinate Cesar directly within the walls of Orma." Hades smiled sideways, narrowing his heterochromatic eyes. “Let me tell you, if he really somehow managed to kill the King, then not only would he never have reached the throne, but the people would have turned against him. You should thank me instead of complaining about your centuries-old hate."

As much as Comodo didn't want to admit it, Hades's words made sense. Aure too had repeatedly worried about the possible reaction of the people of Orma to the death of Cesar by his hand. Still, if the King had accidentally died in a fight, how convenient would it have been?

“Remember your part of the deal. We have been collaborating for quite a while now. Since the attack on the outpost failed, I hope you can get the job done this time.”

Comodo did not know what to say, so he nodded silently and stood there, motionless, while Hades sat down in an armchair and opened a book appeared out of nowhere. Looking up, Hades saw Comodo clearly uncomfortable. He had to restrain himself so as not to burst out laughing and dismissed him with a simple hand gesture.

Aure's son turned and left the room with his cloak fluttering behind him, with all the honour that a useless man can carry by himself.

This war involved far more than Comodo or Auras could have imagined.