I couldn't sleep.
I lay down, closed my eyes, but the image of the destroyed village kept returning. It wasn't the destruction itself that bothered me. It was the way everything had happened. Too fast. Too direct. As if it were just a stage of something much bigger.
I got up before dawn and went to the guild alone.
The hall was still empty. Only two attendants were organizing reports accumulated from the previous night. When they saw me, they cleared space at the counter without me having to ask.
"The maps," I said.
They pulled out a large scroll already full of markings.
Red points scattered across the kingdom.
Attacked villages.
I remained silent, staring.
It wasn't random.
It never had been.
Elara arrived a few minutes later. She didn't even ask what I was doing. She just stood beside me, looking at the same map.
"You noticed it too," she said.
I nodded.
Shortly after, Liriel, Vespera, Rai'kanna, and Lyannis arrived. Within moments, we were all there, around the counter, as if that map were more important than any battle we had faced.
I picked up a piece of charcoal that was on the table and began connecting the points.
One.
Two.
Three.
Four.
A line began to form.
Vespera narrowed her eyes. "They're not spreading chaos."
"They're advancing," Rai'kanna added.
Liriel lightly touched the scroll. "Like a path already decided."
Lyannis took a deep breath. "They don't choose the villages. The villages are in the way."
Elara looked at me. "Where does this point to?"
I followed the line with my finger to the end.
It pointed to a specific region of the kingdom.
A vast area of forest and mountains, sparsely inhabited, but strategically positioned between three important routes.
"The center," I said.
The attendant's eyes widened. "That region is practically empty."
"Exactly," Vespera replied.
I already understood.
The Fifth General wasn't trying to destroy the kingdom.
He was preparing a ground.
"He wants space," I said.
Liriel nodded. "A field."
Rai'kanna crossed her arms. "A place without civilians."
Lyannis added. "No distractions."
The silence that followed was heavy.
Because that meant one very clear thing.
He wasn't sending monsters to conquer.
He was sending monsters to clear.
The entire guild went on alert as we explained what we saw. Messengers were immediately sent to warn other teams.
"So he wants us to follow this path," Elara said as we left.
"No," I replied. "He wants us to notice."
We walked out of the city within minutes. There was no time to rest. Now that we understood the pattern, standing still was even worse.
The trail we followed was exactly the direction the map indicated.
With each step, the feeling became clearer.
We didn't encounter monsters along the way.
None.
That was strange.
"Too quiet," Rai'kanna murmured.
Vespera nodded. "They've already passed through here."
The ground confirmed it. Deep marks, broken trees, crushed vegetation.
But no sound.
No presence.
Lyannis looked around with heightened attention. "They're far ahead."
Elara held her staff tightly, alert to any sign.
Liriel walked with a distant gaze, as if trying to sense something invisible.
I felt the same.
It wasn't pursuit.
It was tracking.
After almost two hours of walking, we found what remained of a small rest post used by travelers. Destroyed tents, extinguished fire, everything overturned.
But again, empty.
"This happened yesterday," Vespera said after observing the place.
"No fight," Rai'kanna added.
"They don't stop," Liriel murmured.
I began to notice something else.
The speed.
They weren't slow. They weren't scattering. They were advancing at a steady pace.
Like an army with a determined destination.
We continued walking until the sun began to set.
Then we heard something.
Far away.
A deep, continuous sound, almost like prolonged thunder.
We all stopped at once.
"What is that?" Lyannis asked.
I closed my eyes for a moment to listen better.
It wasn't thunder.
It was movement.
Many bodies moving at the same time.
Liriel slowly opened her eyes. "They're up ahead."
Elara swallowed hard. "How many?"
"We won't know until we see," I replied.
We advanced more cautiously.
When we finally reached a higher point on the trail and could see the area ahead, the view confirmed everything.
A vast stretch of partially destroyed forest.
Trees on the ground.
Upturned soil.
And, in the distance, like a dark tide moving, the horde.
Hundreds.
Perhaps more.
But they weren't attacking anything.
Just moving.
In the same direction.
To the same place.
Rai'kanna gripped her weapon tightly. "They haven't even noticed us."
"Because it doesn't matter," Vespera said.
Elara stared intently. "They're focused."
Lyannis whispered, "This isn't an attack."
I felt a weight on my chest as I fully understood.
We weren't chasing monsters.
We were following the trail of something much greater.
And he knew it.
The Fifth General wanted us to follow.
Wanted us to see.
Wanted us to understand.
I took a step back.
"We won't attack now," I said.
Everyone looked at me.
"If we attack here, it's like trying to stop a river with our hands."
Liriel nodded slowly.
Elara took a deep breath. "Then we follow."
"Yes."
The sun disappeared on the horizon as we descended the trail again.
The sound of the horde continued in the distance, constant, steady.
For the first time since this began, I didn't feel like we were reacting to attacks.
I felt like we were being guided.
And the path he was drawing across the entire kingdom led to a single point.
A point where, sooner or later, we would meet him.