Chapter 941: New Problems
Samira’s enormous blade tore through the last monster with enough force that the impact opened a deep line in the ground covered with dirty snow. The beast, an elongated creature with dark hide, curved fangs, and disproportionate front legs, fell several meters ahead, dragging its body until it struck a broken tree. For a few seconds, it still tried to move, its muscles trembling by instinct, but Samira spun the greatsword over her shoulder and lowered the tip to the ground beside her, without needing to attack again. The creature stopped.
Silence returned to the outskirts of Asgard.
Or almost.
There was still the sound of the three women breathing, vapor leaving their mouths because of the cold, the crack of broken branches, and the small noises of slaughtered beasts still collapsing among the snow and stones. The clearing had become a battlefield in only a few minutes. Beast corpses were scattered among fallen trees, claw marks, cracked ice, and dark puddles that stained the white of winter. It was not an invasion large enough to truly threaten Asgard, but it was far too large to ignore.
Samira rested the greatsword on her shoulder and looked around.
"Twenty-three."
Daniela, a few meters ahead, pulled her short blade from the neck of a smaller beast and shook the blood from the weapon before sheathing it.
"Twenty-four. You forgot the one Cassandra smashed against the stone."
Cassandra stood near a broken trunk, one of her hands still wrapped in mana. Beside her was a completely motionless beast, half-buried in snow compacted by the impact. She looked at Daniela calmly.
"I did not smash it. I merely interrupted its advance with sufficient force."
Samira let out a short laugh.
"That is an elegant way of saying you smashed it."
"It is a precise way."
Daniela walked over to the two of them, lightly kicking the body of a fallen creature to make sure it would not get back up. Her expression, however, did not match the lightness of the conversation. Her eyes moved across the clearing attentively, counting marks, directions, tracks, and movement patterns. Something was wrong there, and all three of them knew it.
"It has been a long time since we saw this many beasts near Asgard," Daniela said.
Samira looked north, where the distant walls of the city could barely be seen between the trees and the snow.
"Since Strax took the territory and Monica began reinforcing the routes, most creatures learned not to come close. Either they die in the barriers, or they become a guild contract before they get too near."
"Exactly," Cassandra said, crouching near one of the beasts. "These were not merely wandering."
Samira frowned.
"You think they were guided?"
"Perhaps not guided. Perhaps pushed."
Daniela narrowed her eyes.
"By something else?"
Cassandra did not answer immediately. She extended her hand and touched one of the dead creature’s paws. Her fingers passed over the snow stuck to the hardened fur, then over the dirt accumulated between its claws. She rubbed the material between her thumb and index finger, analyzing the texture.
Samira noticed.
"What is it?"
Cassandra raised her hand.
Between her fingers were fine yellowish grains, mixed with dried blood and melted snow.
"Sand."
Daniela approached.
"Sand?"
"On its feet."
Samira looked at the ground.
"It could have come from some road."
"Not in this amount."
Cassandra stood and walked to another creature, repeating the gesture. Then another. And another. On at least five beasts, there was the same residue trapped between the claws, stuck to the joints of their paws, or mixed with the short fur near their bellies.
"There is sand on the feet of several of them," Cassandra said. "And not a little."
Daniela looked around the snow-covered forest.
"Asgard does not have an abundance of sand."
"Not enough to dirty animals of this size," Cassandra completed. "Not like this. They crossed somewhere dry recently. Very dry."
Samira was silent for a few seconds.
Then she turned her face southeast.
"There is a desert to the southeast."
Daniela followed her gaze.
"Far away."
"Yes."
"Too far for a horde like this to arrive here by chance."
Samira tightened her grip on the greatsword’s handle.
"I agree."
The wind blew between the trees, carrying snowflakes and the heavy smell of battle. Cassandra continued examining the bodies, now with more attention. The beasts did not all belong to the same species. Some were forest predators. Others seemed like mountain creatures. There were even two with bone plates that normally lived in underground regions. It was far too strange. A natural horde usually had a pattern, leadership, territory, common hunger. This looked like a disorderly mixture of creatures torn from their habitats and pushed in the same direction.
"Their paws are injured," Cassandra said.
Daniela crouched beside her.
"Long march?"
"Very long. Some were running even with torn muscles. This does not look like hunting. It looks like fleeing."
Samira spun the greatsword and cleaned the blade with a thick cloth tied to her belt.
"Fleeing from the desert all the way to Asgard?"
"Perhaps fleeing from something that came from the desert," Daniela said.
That sentence made the air colder than the snow.
Samira looked at the slaughtered beasts one by one. Now, the fight seemed different in her memory. At first, it had looked like an aggressive, hungry horde running toward the outer patrols. But, thinking better, many of them had not fought with coordination. Some had tried to break through the line and keep going even after being wounded. Others had attacked only when cornered. One of them, large enough to tear a horse in half, had tried to dig beneath a formation of rocks before Daniela killed it.
"They were terrified," Samira murmured.
Cassandra nodded.
"Yes."
Daniela stood slowly.
"Wonderful. Because, apparently, now we have something frightening beasts large enough to invade Asgard’s safe zone."
Samira smiled, but there was no humor in the gesture.
"Strax will love hearing this."
"Monica will like it less," Cassandra said.
"Monica likes problems that can be organized into reports," Daniela answered. "This looks like the kind of problem that becomes a map, a budget, and a crisis before dinner."
Samira looked southeast again. Beyond the trees, beyond the frozen hills and roads, there was a desert that rarely appeared among Asgard’s immediate concerns. A dry, unstable region full of ancient ruins, wandering tribes, monsters buried beneath dunes, and stories that traveled poorly because most messengers did not like crossing that place.
"Has anyone seen movement coming from there recently?" Cassandra asked.
"Not that I know of," Samira answered. "But we also were not looking southeast. Strax was busy with the North, the East, Aelyra, Vex, and the Heavenly Emperor. Monica was building an entire city. The guild was closing internal contracts. If something started moving in the desert, it may have gone unnoticed."
Daniela passed a hand over her face, bothered.
"That is a problem."
"Yes."
Samira then crouched near one of the larger creatures and slid the tip of her sword beneath its paw, lifting it slightly to observe the sand stuck there more closely. There was something else in it. Small dark particles, almost metallic, mixed among the ordinary grains. She touched them with a finger and felt a faint vibration of mana.
"This is not just sand."
Cassandra approached immediately.
"Let me see."
She carefully took a little of the material, placed it on her palm, and concentrated mana in her eyes. For an instant, her pupils glowed. Then her expression became more serious.
"There is magical residue."
Daniela frowned.
"What kind?"
"Dry. Ancient. It does not feel like ordinary desert magic. It feels like something that was sealed for a very long time."
Samira released a sigh.
"Of course. Because an ordinary horde would be too simple."
Cassandra closed her fingers, storing some of the sand inside a small vial she pulled from her pocket.
"We need to take this to Frieren."
"And warn Monica," Daniela said.
Samira nodded.
"And Strax."
Daniela looked at her.
"He just dealt with a crisis involving his daughter."
"I know."
"You think it is a good idea to tell him there may be something ancient coming from the desert?"
"Good idea or not, he needs to know."
Cassandra walked beside her.
"If this is linked to some broken seal, it may worsen quickly."
"If it is linked to some force trying to test Asgard’s borders, that too," Daniela said, following the two of them.
The clearing was left behind, marked by beast corpses and stained snow. Soon, guild teams would be sent to collect remains, examine tracks, and ensure that no wounded creature escaped near the trade routes. But the three of them already knew that this was only the surface of the problem.
Samira stopped at the edge of the forest and looked one last time toward the southeast.
The wind came from that direction.
Too dry.
Too warm for an instant.
So brief that perhaps anyone else would have ignored it.
But Samira felt it.
Cassandra did too.
Daniela brought her hand to the hilt of her weapon.
For a second, amid the smell of snow, blood, and broken wood, there was the distant odor of sand heated by the sun.
Samira narrowed her eyes.
"It definitely came from the desert."
Cassandra stored the vial with the magical residue.
"Then that is where we need to look."
Daniela took a deep breath.
"And if something is coming from there?"
Samira smiled, raising the greatsword as she began walking back toward Asgard.
"Then we had better find out before it arrives."
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