When they entered the first wall, thousands of patrolling soldiers stepped aside and placed their fists on their chests, giving respect.
The dwarf that led them slightly nodded in response to the soldiers. They walked for minutes before reaching the second gate as it opened. They then walked much more and ascended, entering the third gate. After that, they once again ascended up, and, finally, reached the front of the main palace.
Hundreds of soldiers lined up at the side of the gate and two blocked the two doors. Different from the patrols on the outside, the soldiers here were more powerful looking. Matthias assumed that they were the Royal Guards of Garendor. Each ten person party held a banner of the Garendor Royal Family; a same red banner with a hammer in the middle but was encircled by a lion and a bear.
Oddly, even though they were inside the mountain, the ventilation inside was so strong that it couldn't be called just ventilation and instead, it was wind. That wind blew on the banners, making it flutter with it.
Matthias and the others marched forward and stopped in front of the closed gate. The dwarf that assisted them here knelt and greeted, "Lord Guqnir, your subject Haron kneels to your presence! Your Majesty's guests are here! Should I let them enter?" He asked loudly.
After a while, a deep voice sounded from the inside of the main palace, "Let them in."
The dwarf nodded and stood up. He looked at the two dwarves that blocked the entrance and signalled them. The dwarves placed their right fist on their chests and used their left to open the doors.
Inside, contrary to the outside that uses glowing stones, the light source were flames that raged in brazier bowls. The flame was different from an ordinary flame as it shone with blue light.
The structure of the inside could be likened to a medieval era throne hall. On the other side was the Dwarven Lord, ruler of the dwarves of Garendor. His brown curly hair cascaded down to the middle of his back, his beard also reached mid his torso, his beard accentuated his dwarven look.
On his head was a titanium crown with seven jewels embedded on it. The elven general looked in marvel at the crown, specifically the jewels. "I believe that that's the Jewels of Alieroth that contained the power of the seven laws of fire, earth, water, wind, lightning, light, and darkness." He muttered.
"What brings all of you guests here?" The dwarven king suddenly talked.
The five bowed and greeted him, "We greet the Dwarven Lord Guqnir, Owner of Mount Arthron, Ruler of Garendor."
The first one to explain their goal was General Tatec that stepped forward, "Your Excellency, as you know, the Ichtir moves rampantly inside the realm. The Four Races are currently suffering in their claws. Therefore, the Forest of Ganae and remnants of Hayle requests alliance between the surviving territories of Garendor and the elven territory." He appealed to the mountain lord.
Still, Lord Guqnir stayed silent. Sensing that what General Tatec said wasn't enough, General Lanros added, "Lord Guqnir of The Mountains of Arthron, once the Tyrant fully decides to attack the last surviving territories, we would be doomed for sure, that goes the same with the Dwarven Territory. With the alliance, we would at least be able to fight. What say you?"
After a while, Lord Guqnir that had been silent all this while finally talked, "Garendor would NOT join the coalition against the Ichtir."
"What?!"
"No way!"
"Why?!"
A shocked and terrified face showed on the faces of the group. "Have you gone insane, Lord Guqnir?!" General Lanros exclaimed with anger.
"Lanros!" General Tatec pulled the elven general back. "Are you not going to do anything about this? Is this just okay to you, General Tatec?!" Lanros shouted.
"This will never be okay!" General Tatec shouted back, "Without the support from Garendor, we have lost a potentially powerful ally against the enemy! Who would be okay about that?"
General Tatec inhaled deeply and calmed himself down. "Your Excellency, why have you decided on this? Are you sure about this decision?"
"I need to decide for the betterment of my kin. We have preserved Arthron to what it is today. Garendor has already stood for millennia, I don't want Garendor to fall under my rule. Going against the Ichtir now would be preposterous." Guqnir replied unemotionally.
General Lanros got out of Tatec's grip and raged once again, "You're the one that is preposterous right now, Lord Guqnir! Have you gotten insane?! Once the Forest of Ganae marches to fight the Ichtir, to which we would surely lose, we would be honored that we died fighting! Your kin that hid inside your mounds of stone would be left to be the only force that would even think of going against The Tyrant's rule! Do you think you would even stand a chance once The Tyrant decides to decimate your race too?!"
"Your stupidity would be the cause of Garendor's imminent fall! Garendor stood for generations and millennia, not because they hid, but because they fought for it! You don't want Garendor to fall under your rule, so you want to pass that responsibility to the next generation? Laughable!" He continued with exasperation. Not being able to resist his urge anymore, General Lanros yelled and bolted towards the throne and drew the sword at his left, which shocked his group.
Dong!
Suddenly, ten dwarves appeared at the sides and pointed their staff at him. A circle light suddenly came out of their weapons and restrained the elf by wrapping them around him.
"Lanros!" In shock, Matthias and the others drew their weapons and pointed at the ten dwarves. "Leave."
The ten dwarves threw Lanros down with the group. "You!"
"We'll leave." Matthias spoke. "We would not achieve anything here." He then turned around and walked to the door. Left with no choice, the group sighed while glaring at the Dwarven Lord and walked with dismay.
Suddenly, Matthias turned around and looked the Mountain Lord in the eye and stated with coldness, "You do not know what you are doing. If you think that if Garendor remains neutral that The Tyrant wouldn't assault the Mountain, then you are definitely wrong. Once the Battle of The Karumenhir begins and we do not see the dwarves march against the Ichtir, expect to face their humongous black tide after." He then turned around again and continued to leave.
General Tuwa was the last one to leave. Before leaving, she uttered the words that echoed throughout the hall, "You dirty the name of Guldir and Gundir. You shall represent the shame of all dwarvenkind."
When they left, they were escorted down to a door below the mountain. When it opened, it showed an underground river. A boat was prepared for them, tied to a wooden pole.
Matthias and the others got on the boat and paddled their way out.
They paddled for a while, and with the help of the current going to the same direction as to where they were paddling to, they reached outside and saw that they exited from a small cave in an inconspicuous spot below the west of the mountain. Looking around, General Lanros figured out where they were and ordered them to keep paddling.
They paddled for another half an hour and arrived at a lake. They stopped the boat and disembarked. Until now, General Lanros was furious about it. Matthias and Tatec sighed.
Lanros punched the ground indignantly while Tatec poured all of his anger into a rock that he picked up and threw it on the water surface with all his strength, causing the rock to skip on the surface of the water a lot of times and reaching far to where they cannot see it anymore except for Matthias that can now sense as far as 4200 kilometres.
Matthias sat on a large rock at the side of the lake and contemplated. Now that this situation occurred, their situation just worsened. Once Ganae fails to defeat the Tyrant and his men, his only choice would be to bring Isabelle and Alexander out of the realm and let the Ichtir rule over Aqiartha.
But, of course, he wouldn't go down without a fight, so he continued to formulate plans and moves in his mind. "Because of the situation, we really need to rush back to the Forest of Ganae. We have been outside for too long. If I'm not wrong, we're now being followed by a group of Ichtir." Matthias suddenly spoke, which made the group solemn. Looking at the place, they knew that they had paddled their way through River Sikhya and arrived at the lake that was connected to it, Lake Laje. The lake was about seventy kilometres from Ganae. Knowing that, they then began to rush back to the southwest, where the forest is.
While they were traveling, about twenty kilometres from the lake, they suddenly heard noises of battle.
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