And now it was all up to them to decide. If they didn’t cooperate, I’d throw them off my chariot with a single order; kill your friends and colleagues.
I waited for a single minute. During which I noticed the rise of something dark at the horizon from the direction I just came from. I knew it was that paragon and he was coming at me on his flying island.
But even if he tried to catch up with me, my chariot’s top speed was slightly faster than his island. There was little chance for him to catch up with me until I reached my destination.
“No one?” As one minuted passed, I held my glaive up, preparing to start a spree of killing.
They couldn’t even raise a single finger to stop me under the effect of the contract or they’d instantly die.
“Wait… Wait…” just before I’d take a single step forward, one of them finally was smart enough to speak up. “I’ll… Speak…”
“Nortan! Stop it!” another one tried to stop him from telling me what I wanted, and it wasn’t a surprise for that dude to fall over my glaive the next moment.
“I’m all ears,” I looked at the white face of Norton who was shocked to see his friend getting killed in such a way.
“I… I’ll speak…” he retorted a couple of steps. Those Hectors… Their leaders might be arrogant above any imagination, but their common people looked normal as any human in my eyes.
That dude got terrified and showed reactions befitting any weak human. So they weren’t that terrifying as a race after all.
“Ok…” I moved back to my initial spot, giving him space to breathe and speak freely without much pressure.
I got what I wanted here. As he spoke, I realised what happened.
“You are saying that… A human army appeared from the West and joined my forces?” I asked again, trying to make sure that dude here didn’t mix facts up.
And he nodded for the second time as he added:
“I swear, mighty one, that is what happened.”
I bypassed that mighty one title as I asked: “And then? What happened?”
“We… Don’t know exactly,” he seemed a bit hesitant, “but we were already going south when we got the tip that the human army was now entangled inside a big sphere. We came here with other races, planning to kill who remains out of them.”
“Remains?” His selection of words made me more worried. “You said a big sphere? Then what if they were using a shield to protect themselves? How did you know they are in danger?”
Even if what he said explained much, it still didn’t explain everything. Something was still missing here.
“Well… Our paragon… the past mighty one…” he seemed much more anxious than before. I gave him a nod, as I never cared about such titles or past relations, “he said that someone spread the word; the humans are trapped in a deadly illusion. Most of them will fall there, and only a few will come out pretty much exhausted.”
“And?” It matched what I guessed already. So that enemy didn’t just target my elites, but my entire forces as well.
And he didn’t just stop at that, he even spread the word among all races, telling them about what was going on to my human forces.
Another human army joined mine… Was it the mysterious army which was facing the combined Selvators and Dragon archlords? Did they win? Or those two races just retreated after what I did back there with most of their forces?
I solved some, and got more to solve. I looked at Nortan and listened to what he said.
“We came here, surrounded by that big sphere, and waited for humans to come out.”
“Do you know where it is?” I looked around, but couldn’t see any sign of this sphere anywhere close to here.
If the army of Hectors was here, then they must be close up to that sphere. But even after flying this far, I couldn’t find it.
“It’s that way,” Nortan pointed at North, a different direction than what I was moving at. “We… were moving in the wrong direction from the beginning.”
“Ok, lead the way then,” I pointed to him to come at the front of my chariot. Hesitantly he stepped forward, while getting bathed with complicated gazes from everyone else.
“Don’t give him that look, after all he just saved your lives, idiots,” as I noticed much hatred coming at him, I couldn’t help but say that.
“That way, mighty one,” it seemed that standing up to defend him here left him touched. He pointed in more enthusiasm towards a direction, and I instantly led my chariot towards it.
From far behind, that black spot was still there. It meant that paragon was still coming at me, not caring about anything else.
He wanted me dead. That fool… didn’t he learn something from the demise of his friends?
Anyway, I didn’t intend on fighting him. He wasn’t my top priority for now. I had to first find the one who casted this illusion, or try to break that illusion by force.
I had seen records about illusions left by the old man. But thinking about listening to them would be unrealistic.
The only way for me to break the illusion was by using brute force. Of course as far as I understood illusions, they weren’t made out of physical force, but pure energy.
That meant to break it, I needed to pour a much higher form of energy into it and break it down. According to Nortan’s words, this illusion was massive.
That meant the one used and controlling it wasn’t simple. Could a paragon do it? Or was he using an artefact?
“Do you know who caused this to my people?” as my chariot flew fast towards the direction he was pointing at, I noticed other races gathering at the horizon, letting me feel more reassured that I was heading towards the right direction.
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