Finally, after so much preparation, the army was prepared to march into the blood mist. Almost three hundred thousand soldiers stood shoulder to shoulder. Their armor glistened in the light of the rising sun while they stared nervously at the wall of red mist stretched out in front of them. Everyone knew the monsters awaiting them just out of sight. Even now, we could hear the low growls and roars of Demonkin, like thunder rumbling through the air.
General Arthur stood in front of the rows of soldiers, elevated by a podium of stone that could be seen by every soldier in the army. His booming voice was amplified by a glyph letting it resonate across the entire plateau.
“Brave soldiers and heroes, today we march into the lair of the enemy. We will strike at their heart and bring an end to the spread of their disease. Step by step we will push them back through the hole they crawled out of until this world is safe once more. Our enemy is numerous but so long as we are unified, we are unstoppable!”
As General Arthur spoke, my dad began to activate the glyph he and I had worked on the night before. From our perch on the floating island, I could see an icy fog begin to rise up out of the ground. It floated no higher than ankle height as it spread to encompass the entire army before beginning to form an impossibly complex diagram.
Focused on General Arthur’s speech, most of the soldiers did not notice the fog until the temperature started to plummet. Their breath turned to ice as the enormous glyph began to radiate brilliant silver light. A cacophony of shouts rang out from the soldiers but they were forcibly silenced when a wave of cold power washed over them.
The silver mist moved as if alive. It clung to the soldiers and crawled up their bodies before condensing into a thin layer of ice. The mist became an armor lighter than cloth but strong enough to stop a blade dead in its tracks.
While the soldiers watched in awe as they became bedazzled in the silver armor general Arthur continued to speak. “In the past, an entire unit of soldiers was required to match the strength of a single Demonkin. That is no more! What you are experiencin’ now is our new strength, the power of our nations united against a common foe, and through it, we will deal a blow to the Demons that they will never recover from!”
The soldiers shouted in jubilation. Disorder immediately spread amongst the ranks as they all began to feel the new strength flowing through their bodies. No longer would they have to fight at a disadvantage against beasts several times their size. No longer would they be cut down without being able to harm the enemy. This new power changed everything.
I looked away from the joyous and over at my dad. He sat at the edge of the island with his eyes closed. His brow furrowed in concentration.
“How is it?” I asked.
“Not… easy,” My dad replied with a grunt, “The glyph requires my constant attention. If I lose focus, the armors will last less than a minute before falling apart.”
Nearby, Vissna snorted in discontent. She sat on the ground near my dad. A circle of glyphs surrounded her with a line running back towards dad. She was sitting in her human form, her head resting on her hand in obvious boredom. “If it was not for my power, you would never have been able to activate something like this without losing yourself to the void. What were you going to do if I did not agree to help?”
“I would have found another way,” Dad mumbled back, “After activation, actual energy usage is fairly low. From this point on, I should be able to handle it by myself without any problem.”
Vissna stood up and brushed off her dress. “Good, just don’t come looking for me if you lose control in the middle of a fight. While I admit, the effect of this rune is not bad, the soldiers are still little more than ants compared to a real domain warrior.”
A bell-like laugh echoed softly as a small figure snuck up behind Vissna. Mare had not made a sound until she was right next to Vissna’s ear. “Is your pride hurt, little lizard? Upset the newborn adept created a feat greater than any you can mimic?”
Vissna jumped like a started cat at the sudden appearance of Mare. Her face turned red and she spun on the mischievous child. “I am not! I simply do not believe the effect is worth the price. Creating a rune that binds your enemies through turning the floor to ice would have been just as effective and cost less energy to activate.”
“Oh, so you are just jealous he decided not to copy your technique despite having a similar power to your own.”
Vissna did not retort as she stormed out of the room in a huff. Mare’s smile grew brighter. For the briefest of moments, I thought I saw a silver hairpin in her hand. It looked suspiciously like the one Vissna had been wearing but before I could verify it, the ornament disappeared into Mare’s pocket.
I raised an eyebrow at Mare but decided not to call her out on her theft. She would probably deny it even if I did and that was not worth the hassle. I stood up from my spot in a circle of glyphs identical to the one Vissna had been sitting in. My power had not been necessary for the activation of the massive glyph but I had insisted that I take part as well, just in case it took more energy than we expected. Even Charly had taken part. He sat in his own circle of glyphs. His eyes were closed, deep in thought.
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“How long can you maintain the glyph for?” I asked Dad curiously.
Dad took a moment before replying. “As long as I am awake, I think I can keep it up. I was really hoping for something more like my old glyph, where I could simply use it once and not worry about it again for a few days but spread out among this many soldiers, I just can’t manage it. I can put off sleep for a few days if I need to but that will still leave our soldiers vulnerable to attack when the glyph is not in effect. I doubt our enemies will pass up such an opportunity.”
“We will just have to manage without it,” I said in thought as I considered ways to defend the army overnight.
Before I could come up with a solution, however, Charly spoke up. “I can do it.”
“What?” Dad asked in surprise as he turned to look at Charly. I felt the glyphs in the room pulse unstably as he lost his concentration.
Rather than collapsing however the glyphs returned to a stable glow as Charly’s domain filled the room. His forehead knit in concentration as he grunted from the effort. “I do not understand how you activated the glyph or where that power you used came from but I can maintain it… I think.”
Dad’s eyes practically sparkled as he watched Charly maintain the glyph with his help. “You can maintain my glyph after only seeing me use it once?”
Charly coughed in embarrassment. “It is only because it is similar to a glyph I have been working on but I could never get to work. My glyph was always missing something to activate.”
I was completely forgotten as Dad asked about the details of the glyph. I had learned much about glyphs in recent months but I was instantly lost when trying to follow their conversation. The technical terms they used were completely foreign to me. All I could figure out was that Charly was trying to make a more powerful healing glyph but failed because it created too much power to activate properly. Apparently, it had caused more than one explosion from the failures.
Shaking my head, I left the two of them alone and looked over the edge of the floating island to the soldiers down below. General Arthur had restored order to the jubilant men and the march had begun. The first of the soldiers stepped into the mist with trepidation despite their new armor. Blood-red tendrils reached out to wrap around their body as if trying to draw them in. A myriad of faces made of the fog watched from above some were screaming, others smiling, but they were all watching.
Mare walked up beside me. Her hands were clasped behind her back as she leaned over the edge. “It’s quite the sight, isn’t it? I wonder, how many of them will make it back alive?”
“Don’t you already know?” I mumbled in annoyance.
Mare shrugged causally. “Much has already changed compared to the future that I know. It is what I wanted but it also ruins my biggest advantage in this game.”
“And will your opponent, this Aevus wannabe, appear in this game?”
“Him?” Mare remarked in surprise before breaking into laughter, “No, that man never shows himself until the game is over. He is the greatest fortuneteller that ever lived. I once saw him topple an empire with a single gold coin placed in the right spot at the right time. Why would he ever show himself in person?”
“For you,” I replied.
Mare shook her head. “Flattering but no. To him, I am merely an inconvenience and I prefer to keep it that way until everything falls into place. Only when the small ripples I create turn into a tidal wave will he be forced out into the open.”
“And how do you plan to do that?”
Mare smiled. Her gaze drifted to the horizon. “Do you really think that one Preateritum remnant on one small world is the only preparation I made in ten thousand years? You really need to learn to think on a bigger scale. The shadows I cast are spread across a thousand realms touching a thousand lives. When they all come together, it will herald a calamity, unlike anything that came before it.”
I gave a sidelong glance at Mare. “I think I am starting to understand why the other founders of Dragon’s Nest turned against you.”
Mare’s smile faded. She bit her lip and looked surprisingly downcast. “They didn’t want to listen but I don’t blame them. My path only has one outcome and it will not be pretty.”
“Then why do it? Why do any of this? Will you really not tell me until it is too late?”
Mare chuckled and hopped back from the edge. “If you knew the truth, you would become like me. That is not something I want. Don’t worry. As I said once before, I am here to help you, and that is all that is important.”
“That never sounds comforting coming from your mouth,” I murmured.
“It is the same mouth as yours, shorty, so you should be used to it,” Mare replied indignantly, “Just be happy my goal is for you to win this silly war. If I wanted, you and your entire family would have died in that cave where you found Dragon’s Nest and nobody would have ever found the body. A little appreciation would be nice.”
I waved my hand dismissively. “Yes, yes, thank you for not killing me. Are you happy now?”
Mare placed her finger on her chin. Her eyes sparkled with a mischievous light. “I don’t know. It didn’t sound sincere. Maybe I should just take my powerful floating island and just leave…”
“What do you want?” I growled in annoyance.
“Well…” Mare replied in a drawn-out tone, “I could be convinced of your sincerity if you help me with the halfwit.”
I blinked in surprise. “Donte is still trying to take over Dragon’s Nest?”
“Constantly!” Mare shouted, her voice carrying a tinge of anger, “If he doesn’t let up soon, I am going to throw him over the side of the island just to watch the splat.”
“Is it really that bad?”
“Every time he tries, it feels like he is reaching inside my body and grabbing hold of my spine! He does it over and over and over again until he passes out. Then, when he wakes up, he immediately starts again. Worst of all, he is adapting to the feedback from my power so he can make dozens of attempts now before collapsing.”
“Are you worried he might actually take control?” I replied with a grin.
Mare narrowed her eyes to glare at me. her voice was dead serious as she spoke. “Convince him to stop or I really will kill him.”