On the mountain ranges near Sokovo Stronghold, thousands of warriors lay on the soft snow as several magic beasts tended to them.
"How long will your people wake up?", Arahon asked High King Garron.
"I don't know either. It's my first time inflicting that shout upon them. Probably an hour or so."
High King Garron's reply made them speechless. How could they defend against the attack with such an unknown variable on their hands?
"Then we'll have to fend for ourselves for a while.", Elder Flock sighed, "Regardless, we need to come up with a plan on how to deal with the demonic beasts and the undead beings that have spread around Norva Assili."
He had told the rest of the events with regards to the corruption of undead essence that inflicted several strongholds and villages inside the northern glacial continent. He left out the part about Eluard's involvement, however.
"But master, weren't we supposed to meet with that person you were talking about?", Emilia reminded him.
"Now that you've mentioned it, I haven't seen that brat for a while."
"What person are you talking about?", Arahon asked.
The others were intrigued as well, particularly Jinmu, 'Are they referring to senior Kai? He left us a while ago telling us that he was going to deal with his mission.'
'It is logical for senior Kai to ask assistance from Elder Flock. I remember that day when he arrived at the academy but I never saw him again. Did the academy master flung him out?'
He glanced at the old man who was rubbing his jaw in contemplation. Jinmu chose to not talk to him and waited for Elder Flock to approach them.
He signaled for his classmates to do the same as well, and surprisingly, they agreed.
"Let's not waste our time mulling whoever that person was. The battle is right in front of our eyes.", Harrtugg Naaw argued.
Everyone agreed. With that put aside, Elder Flock stepped forward and drew a miniature map of the northern glacial continent on the ground.
"The crack looks to be spanning horizontally on the horizon, though I doubt the Otherworld would scatter their forces around if they choose to aggressively attack our positions."
"I am unsure of whether they would target the nearby villages and strongholds, but just to be careful, I hope that the magical beasts could lend us a hand in defending these places until High King Garron's army wakes up from their sleep."
The frost dragon nodded, "I have already told my subordinates to head to the nearest settlements and defend it at all costs.", before looking at the High King, "With the damages we have incurred at your people, I am willing to sacrifice my men to atone for the aggression that I have dealt upon the entire Norva Assili."
High King Garron remained silent but he was actually overjoyed to hear those words. He did not want to express his emotions because doing so would irritate him and tarnish his pride.
Elder Flock then continued, "The four of us, ascended beings, will each take a position in the four different directions. I will guard the east, the frost dragon will guard the west, Arahon will guard the north, and High King Garron will guard the south."
"We will use our skills to thin out the approaching demonic beasts. I don't care if some weakling slips past through you but don't ever let go of the big ones.", he reminded.
"The beasts on our side will be grouped accordingly with most of the aerial beasts stationed at the eastern and western sides of the mountain ranges, while most of the ground and underground beasts will be stationed at the northern and southern sides."
According to the map, the northern and southern sides were not particularly mountainous and covered a lot of flat ground. The western and eastern sides were the complete opposite.
"Emilia, you stay in the center and try to close the rift above before things go bad."
Elder Flock glanced at the five familiar figures that he met at the Heavenly Magic Academy.
'Now is not the time to tell them about my true intentions. Maybe when Mr. Kai returns...'
"The elf alongside those youngsters will remain here with Emilia and protect her and the unconscious warriors until they wake up."
Elder Flock's words dampened the students' enthusiasm. They were ecstatic to be fighting alongside the powerful beings of Aludia. After all, it was a one-of-a-kind experience available only to Heavenly Magic Academy students.
The old man glared at the pouting youngsters.
"Remember, we must hold out until Emilia closes the rift. Once she does, we will kill any stragglers and hunt the demonic creatures responsible for this chaos!"
Closing the rift did not mean that the spatial isolation which was largely applied to the entire region would disappear. Emilia was certain that calling the Otherworld and isolating the planes were two different things.
In other words, once the rift was closed, the demonic creatures will remain trapped in the region and use their own spatial isolation technique against them. That will then give Elder Flock and the rest a chance to persecute the perpetrators of this incident.
As for the demonic creatures escaping through a portal?
Emilia wouldn't let them do as they wished, nor did she consider the fact that the demonic creatures have such an arsenal in their hands. The confiscated demonic scroll implied the impossibility of the scenario even happening in the first place.
If they truly were spatial magic users, why would they resort to using external tools in achieving their needs?
Elder Flock gazed at them, "Are there any questions?"
Emilia raised her hand, "Master, I think I should check out that remaining spatial anomaly first. I have a feeling that something significant lies on the other side of that isolated plane."
She felt a wave of resonance in her magic root before they departed. It had never happened to her previously which intrigued her. She remembered the direction perfectly, and it pointed to the location of the spatial anomaly.
"And who are you going to bring with you? Our hands are full here.", Elder Flock asked.
"Them.", Emilia pointed at Veron and his party.
"This is no time for speculations!", Harrtugg Naaw refuted, "You should be focusing on closing the rift and not some random spatial anomaly!"
"Also, you're going to tread in a dangerous area flooded with demon beasts around. What if you get stuck there for no good reason?!", High King Garron added, "And what about my daughter? She's just young and isn't ready for all of this. You want her to die?!"
He was furious because he had only recently reunited with his daughter and was about to lose her again.
"Academy Master Emilia has a point, elders. What if something significant truly lies in that spatial anomaly?", Haera stepped in.
She, just like Emilia, also felt a wave of resonance inside her magic root after they returned from being isolated in their plane.
"Furthermore, it's not like we are a bunch of weak wizards.", she said while putting her shoulder on Solordo and Jinmu.
The other three who were Emi, Lucan, and Olivia, were roused by a flash of Elder Flock's divinity earlier, pulling them out of the nightmare caused by the horrifying aura leaking out of the cracks.
"Master, please.", Emilia begged, "I'm a spatial magic user, remember? I can get in and out whenever I like. And those demonic beasts will be there when our presence is already gone.", assuring her anxious master of her skills.
Hearing the roar of the demonic beasts from afar, Elder Flock sighed, "Fine. Go over there and do what you must do. Do not take your time!"
The group quickly left after the old man's confirmation.
"Let's go and get to our positions. The demonic beasts are already upon us.", Arahon shouted.
Finally, he was going to get a piece of action after waiting for a long time. He cracked his draconic knuckles and jumped high to the skies.
"Oh, there are so many of them! I'd like to roast them to death!"
From 5 kilometers away, thousands of demonic beasts savagely charged towards their position. Some of them were huge while the others were small.
In their red eyes emanated a strong thirst for blood and excitement in the killing. Arahon could see the saliva dripping out of their mouths which disgusted him.
The flame dragon gathered his hands and pushed downward, accelerating his fall.
"Magmatic Downfall!"
When he reached the ground, the earth in front of the charging demonic beasts shook violently, revealing a pool of magma beneath.
The demonic beasts who were slow fell to their deaths, scorched by the hot magma and leaving nothing but a trace of smoke in the air.
The flying demonic beasts sneered and flew above the hole.
"Magmatic Hydralisks!"
A deafening hiss echoed before a long serpentine monster sprang from the pool of magma and caught the flying demonic beasts hovering in the air.
After teaching the scornful beasts a lesson, they hissed again and spat out large volumes of lava from their mouths. It sprayed the entire air and vaporized all the demonic creatures that were too slow to dodge them.
The hydralisks then let gravity take over and crushed the unlucky beasts on the ground with their monstrous bodies.
"Die, you bastards of the Otherworld!", Arahon shouted as he observed the massacre from afar.
'I wonder how the others are doing, eh?'
His sense was fully focused on the direction in front of him. He did not want a sneaky bastard to get through his defense as that would be embarrassing for a divine beast like him.
Behind him was the white-furred ape whom he punched earlier. The ape was shivering in fear that he was assigned to a group with this ferocious fellow of a dragon.
"Uh, sir… I don't think I am needed here, hehehe…"
He tried to negotiate but Arahon didn't reason.
"Stop whimpering over there! Do you see that huge fucker at the distance?!", the flame dragon pointed at a metal-bodied gorilla standing at 40 meters in height.
The demonic beast was emanating a power similar to the white-furred ape. The latter was furious just by looking at the face of that thing.
"Don't you want to punch that gorilla to death?! Run over there now and start your rampage! Prove to the Otherworld that you are mightier than their stupid gorillas!", Arahon provoked the inner savagery of the white-furred ape.
Not a moment later…
"Roar!", the ape furiously thumped its chest and grabbed a boulder before hurling it into the face of the gorilla who was busy thrashing the magmatic hydralisks that Arahon has summoned.
"Rargh!", the gorilla was infuriated. He recovered from the ambush strike and saw a white-furred ape charging at him with the intent to pulverize its existence into nothingness.
'Damn ape, you think you are stronger than me?!'
The gorilla wasn't one to back down and threw punches at its rival. The two then started to beat each other up.
Arahon was so elated to see two king-level beasts fighting. Those at the dwarven mountain compass were so cowardly. They didn't dare to cross the path of the other in fear that they would attract the attention of the League or the Knights.
It was so boring that Arahon hoped to die instead.
"That's right, you two dumb fucks! Beat each other, please this master of yours!", the flame dragon laughed.
If Harrtugg Naaw was here, he would smack Arahon's head. How dare he used his subordinates for his entertainment?!
"Achoo!", Solordo sneezed and scratched his nose, 'Why do I feel like I'm missing out on something great?'
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