27 Arrow Drill

"So he really did pursue that Lightning Tiger? Wait... that's different right?"

Makiri looked over her companion's line of sight and observed the tiger that was floating along with the demon called Ley.

"Looks like it. It's smaller than the one we saw from the report."

"A Lightning Tiger's still a Lightning Tiger."

Ley glanced at the distance and saw a familiar throne before immediately flying towards the Void Emperor, still bringing the Lightning Tiger. The two demons beside the Void Emperor saw this, and one of them stepped forward.

"Ley greets your Majesty," after he reached about five meters in front of the Void Emperor, he kneeled at once as he greeted.

"This isn't the one, but it will suffice. Rasha."

The demon that stepped forward, gathered red light on his palms, and a circle with all sorts of symbols and characters formed in front of palm.

The white tiger that was enveloped in red light slowly moved towards the demon, and its eyes slowly turned from white, to purple, and then to red. A few purple sparks bounced off of its standing fur, but the moment its eyes turned red it stopped moving.

Seeing this, Ley gathered the red light that was used to constrict the tiger, dropping it to the ground. But the tiger was nimble, and balanced on its feet on the ground as soon as it was released. It didn't try to escape, however, and just stood like a mannequin.

After a few whispers were made to it by the demon with four orbs, did it only ran away, and fitted at the massive legion near the center, just next to another white tiger but had black stripes.

A sigh suddenly filled the whole fort, and every demon that chatted with each other went silent.

The Void Emperor breathed slowly, and then he started to speak.

"The Empress has betrayed me, and I'm sure of this. One of my wives also escaped along with her. When you see them, don't hesitate to kill on sight. That's all."

After what seemed to be a command for everyone, he stood and muttered, "Open the gates."

"For the Emperor!"

After that single shout, others soon followed, and the fort was instantly shook from the deafening cheers and praise of the demons for their emperor that even the ground and air vibrated. A few of the mage-level demons even floated up high and let out loud battle cries, rousing their chests and minds.

The beasts however, had no reaction, as if they were deaf.

The massive gates opened slowly, but as soon as a gap was wide enough for about three people to fit, black blurs with faint red lines started to move towards south. The blurs increased as the gates opened. After a while, there were beasts that started to slowly rise upwards towards the skies. Some of the larger flying beasts had demons mounted on their back, and at the same time all of them erected a spherical red barrier before they disappeared into the white mist that blew ice and snow.

After the black blurs of beasts got out, they were replaced by white blurs with red lines, and a few white-robed demons floated to the side, as if counting how many beasts were going out. A while later, they joined the white beasts that went out of the massive gate, and from behind there were a lot of demons in line, waiting for commands.

All of them had swords, and their orbs were floating above them, pulsating. At the same time, they all chanted a spell which reverberated throughout the fort.

"Kiyask... Sa-adra." They all seemed to murmur the spell but with their collective chant, it was hard to not hear from the loudness generated.

The red orbs produced red light and it enveloped their weapons, and then the first line of demons started to march towards south. From a far viewpoint, it looked like they were a mass of red light that slowly flowed on the bridge, and a few seconds later a massive red barrier formed that surrounded them as they disappeared towards the horizon.

Seeing that, the Void Emperor crossed his legs as he sat on his throne, then told the remaining demons to stop.

A lot of them could only furrow their brows before they were told to reassemble in formation.

***

On the other side of the fort, two people that had white hoods on were currently hiding on a large groove at one of the walls beyond the gate.

He could fairly see a blur from the distance, yet his eyes and hands shook. With frantic movements, he didn't hesitate to cast a spell and shoot it above the skies, exploding in a red color.

From the distance, he could hear loud voices from the people behind the gate.

***

"They're here. Finally here."

"Let the training soldiers finish and rest for a while. All units currently ready, gather into formation!"

All sorts of shouting occurred and every person was mobilized. Some of the people let out battle shouts, and some of them just rushed towards the formation without noise. All of the footmen available immediately went towards the front of the massive gate and fell in line.

A loud horn's sound travelled until the end of the fort, alerting all the soldiers, Vates, and Civil Corps alike. The few hundred mage-level combatants flew and gathered near the central area and kept afloat in the air. They were arranged on top of one another as they floated, and spread towards the sides. They looked like a wall made of humans, the left side wore black cloaks and robes, while the other side wore thick leather armor and held spears with a feather attached to them.

The Vates were starting to chant each of their own spells and had their own activation techniques, while the Civil Corps channeled their energy towards themselves along with their spears in unison.

Four people gathered behind them, one of them the general; Observing the formation.

With him, a Vates, Virol, and another person that looked like a knight floated with him.

"I don't think they know about our other important units missing, but I feel that they also rushed this initial assault." Virol had his hands on his hips, with his head looking above the bridge and observing the skies.

"Do you see if there are aerial units?"

"There are a few, but I expect there are more. About five hundred if I'm correct."

"I can sense a few demons incoming, but on the ground there are only beasts as of now."

Hearing both of them, the general nodded and with a loud voice, he commanded the people at the top of the watchtowers.

"Use the trebuchets."

With his command, the whole fort went silent as his voice shook everyone's chest. They also felt their bodies vibrate and their minds clear. After that, the whole fort was surrounded by a golden barrier and the whole place became more silent.

Hundred of soldiers pushed a wheeled trebuchet, and one by one they gathered and lined up seven trebuchets in front of the massive gate. The same soldiers then worked again to carry massive rocks and boulders, loaded it on the trebuchet and looked to the general at the skies above them.

Few seconds passed and the black blurs could finally be seen from the distance, and it looked like a wave of black mass was incoming towards the gate.

The Vates and Civil Corps gathered golden and red lights respectively, and combined both of their energies in a massive ball of light that swirled continuously.

"Release."

The trebuchets were release, rocks and boulders of all sizes flew into the air and greeted the incoming beasts.

The first wave of black mass instantly became a splatter of red that scattered like a flower on the ground, but then immediately covered as if nothing happened. As soon as the projectiles were fired, the soldiers behind the gates quickly loaded another batch of rocks in the trebuchet.

"Fire."

The general let out that word, and the massive swirling vortex of light sped without delay, and cleaned the ground of all the incoming beasts. Not a blood remained, and only a few sturdy beast cores fell one by one. The sphere of gold and red swept everything and dispersed after two hundred meters.

A few of the beasts' eyes flickered, and the red color was gone; then started to run over to the sides only to find out that an abyss lay beneath them. Seeing this, some decided to run backwards, only to get run over by the incoming beast wave. Some decided to just rush ahead and look for platforms to escape to, but only a few of them were really able to jump and leap very far and were able to reach the sides of the fort, disappearing into the white forest covered in snow.

Seeing those beasts that regained their senses get killed or escaped, Virol only frowned as he floated above. As he is also a beast only wearing his humanoid form, a trace of pity could be seen on his face.

"Don't worry, there are commands not to kill those beasts that escaped. The Heart Demon sure is vicious to control the lower leveled beasts as cannon fodder." A voice from somewhere appeared, and the knight called Enjil floated to the general's side.

"Sir, we've found the other remaining elites. However, we haven't been able to find... Meltor."

"If it weren't for that snowstorm that occurred..." the general replied faintly, then he continued. "Get them ready, and also tell the Vates to supply a few healers for the recently trained units, this war is going to be more troublesome than anticipated..."

...

Meanwhile at the top of Trinity Mountain Range---

***

"Are you sure that's all he did?"

"Yes. Aunt Arc, won't you believe me?"

"Of course I do...I was just afraid that... Nevermind. What's up with you?"

Aunt glanced behind me and checked on Kirllia. She was still quiet after all this time. Her eyes were looking over below the clouds since earlier, as if she's looking for something.

We stopped walking for a moment and tried to let her observe a bit more.

After some time, her eyebrows furrowed and she let out a sigh before starting...

"Somehow, I could feel a faint burst of energy over the distance. If I'm correct, the war should've started already, and we're fairly close to the fort."

Does that mean... Dad is somewhere over there?

At the same moment, I could see an orb of golden light over the distance---only to disperse after a few seconds.

I immediately formed four swirls of Origin on my body but Kirllia held on to my shoulder at the same time.

"What do you think a kid could do there? Do you want to die?"

"Same words my Grandma said; That's why I'm here."

"Wait---"

I could hear Aunt drop off the big backpack followed behind me. Tilting my head behind I could see Kirllia over the distance, not moving until she disappeared from the thick clouds and mist that covered the top of the mountains. Aunt Arc was following me, and her whole body was glowing with white.

"I won't stop you Kaff, but I won't let you die."

Hearing that, I let out a faint smile.

"Thanks Aunt."

After rushing downwards, the familiar winds and snow once again greeted us, and I immediately erected a barrier large enough to shield us both.

I can see flashes of light in the distance, and they were mostly red and golden, sometimes there were white and blue. I'm not sure what's going on over there, but seeing the familiar blue light, I could only hope for the best and see if Dad's there.

We rushed within the middle of the forest, and I only pinpointed their relative location based from the flashes of light I saw earlier.

*shhfffffff*

The sound of something that cut wind suddenly whirred through the air and went past my right side. If not for my barrier, I wouldn't be able to see it being blocked before it passed through.

More of those things came coming towards us and with that, Aunt went to my front and deflected everything.

"It's an Arrow Drill. How many are there?..."

We couldn't see much because of the distance, but from the direction the things came from, I can only guess that they're moving towards us from the sides.

"Kakh..."

I heard someone from the side let out a silent grunt before it went silent. From the distance, I could see a familiar red blur incoming.

"Why...hah...why did you just...hah..leave me there hanging?" Kirllia went close to my barrier and stabilized her breathing.