The clearing fell into a deathly silence after the last group of survivors arrived.
Not the slightest trace remained of the arrogance with which they had crossed the borders of the domain. Their armor was stained with mud and soot; some pieces were still covered in dried blood. Makeshift bandages were everywhere, along with corpse-pale faces and exhausted soldiers who lacked even the strength to pull the arrows lodged in their shields free.
Thirty thousand dead. And House Douglas had suffered barely a fraction of that number.
No one dared to break the paralysis.
Arnos stood upright before the makeshift council. He bore a deep cut across his flank, and the left section of his breastplate had been shattered after the brief confrontation he had had with Lusian. He flatly refused to take a seat.
Finally, his voice tore through the air:
—We will not charge like this again.
The silence was absolute. Arnos scanned the faces before him, one by one.
—If we repeat the maneuver, we will all die.
The bluntness of the warning struck harder than any sacred sermon. Emily lowered her head, devastated. Beside her, Kara leaned her weight against her spear; both had witnessed the same truth as the rest of the commanders: the darkness was not merely providing cover for the defenders. It had transformed the entire Douglas Duchy into a lethal structure.
—We need time —Emily said, raising her eyes.
Several Heroes and captains turned toward her.
—We need to examine the domain. Understand the nature of that darkness, the movement patterns of the Douglas forces, and how to protect our troops before attempting another incursion.
—Time? —Shelby replied with biting sarcasm. —How much time do you intend to give him? Until Lusian organizes another front?
—Until we stop sending men to the slaughter without understanding what we're up against.
Shelby's jaw tightened violently.
—We are fighting the abomination of the gods.
Emily did not waste her breath answering. Kara did it for her:
—And not a single deity came down to fight in that pit.
The air froze instantly. Eyes turned toward the warrior like blades. Kara did not blink.
—We were the ones bleeding down there.
Arnos narrowed his eyes heavily.
—Are you questioning the divine mandate?
—I'm questioning the wisdom of dying like cattle.
Her reply left the clearing frozen in silence.
Alejandro watched the argument from a few yards away. For the first time since the divine mark had taken hold within him, the battle euphoria had vanished from his face. He had envisioned an epic of glory, not systematic slaughter.
He fixed his eyes on the wall of darkness devouring the mountains.
—Then we must change our combat doctrine —Alejandro declared.
Leonardo immediately nodded.
—A force of this size cannot operate according to the tactics of a conventional war. —He gestured toward the forest with his dagger. —Lusian knows the terrain down to the smallest detail. We're marching blind.
—And his forces act in perfect coordination —Norma added. —They don't fight like ordinary infantry.
—Because they're fighting on their own land —Darrel interjected. —We're the ones venturing into the unknown.
Mark dismounted abruptly from his griffin, suppressing a grimace of pain from the bruising along his ribs.
—Then let's stop marching blind.
Arnos exhaled heavily. The time had come to assert command.
—The Crusade's advance is suspended.
Several clerics stationed around the perimeter erupted in outrage:
—Such an order is an abomination!
Arnos turned his head with mathematical coldness.
—Will you volunteer to lead the next thirty thousand men into the slaughter?
The priest's mouth snapped shut.
Arnos turned on his heels, facing the group of chosen Heroes directly.
—We will not retreat —he declared, staring at the wall of darkness—. But neither will we launch another assault until we are in a position to do so.
Alejandro stepped forward, one hand resting on the hilt of his sword.
—And who will decide when we are?
Arnos stared directly at him.
—I will.
The answer was dry, sharp, and utterly devoid of hesitation.
Leonardo frowned in displeasure.
—I don't remember the rest of us agreeing to such a command—
—Then agree to it now —Arnos cut him off. He did not raise his voice; instead, he used an icy firmness that immediately silenced any attempt at argument. —Today, every Hero commanded their own contingent. Each one advanced according to their own judgment and looked after their own troops.
He gestured sternly toward the pile of corpses covering the muddy ground beyond the stone marker.
—And Lusian tore us apart.
No one could deny it.
—From this moment onward —he continued—, we will not operate as twenty fragmented factions.
He pointed toward the lands of Mondring.
—We will operate as a single armed force.
Emily closed her eyes, feeling a knot tighten in her throat. It confirmed her worst fears: a Crusade united under a single, disciplined command would become an exponentially more lethal enemy. Consequently, the chances of stopping the mutual bloodshed were approaching zero.
Arnos began issuing orders with military precision:
—The clerics will establish healing stations in the second rear line. We need every wounded soldier capable of wielding steel back on his feet.
—The engineers will study the behavior of the border barrier.
—The scouts will search for alternate routes through the mountain ridges.
—The theurgists will develop arcane methods to fracture the density of the darkness.
—And no one will cross onto Douglas soil without my express approval.
The Heroes obeyed the orders in complete silence. Alejandro eventually formed a cold grimace; it did not reflect relief, but rather the bitter satisfaction of someone who had discovered a new obstacle to overcome.
—So we'll return.
Arnos held his gaze.
—That's right.
Alejandro stared at the Eternal Night devouring the mountains.
—And next time, we won't fall into an ambush.
Leonardo moved to his side.
—The next incursion will be a war of annihilation.
Emily lowered her gaze, devastated. Kara glanced at her; they did not need to say a single word, because both had reached the same bitter conclusion.
The young priestess clenched the fabric of her gauntlets until her knuckles protested under the pressure. She had spent the entire battle trying to restrain her power so as not to become an instrument of mass execution, just as her companion had exercised the same restraint on the battlefield. Yet thousands had fallen before their eyes without their prayers being able to halt the bloodshed.
She closed her eyes, feeling a crushing knot in her chest. She desperately wanted to find a way to help Lusian and prevent the collapse of the domain; Kara shared exactly the same desire. But neither possessed the key to stopping a maelstrom of war that the entire world had elevated into a sacred crusade.
That pure helplessness was what truly terrified her.
Arnos remained standing at the center of the clearing, imposing his authority despite his exhaustion.
—We'll establish the main camp right here, on the outer perimeter —he ordered, sweeping his gaze over the surviving officers and generals—. No one crosses that stone marker again without a clear strategy.
The tension held within the troops began to shift into an uneasy operational calm. Medical tents were erected in haste, while the theurgists and inquisitors in the rear raised defensive barriers to prevent counterattacks from the Douglas Guard from reaching beyond the veil of darkness.
Emily sighed, feeling the weight of exhaustion almost force her to one knee. Kara firmly caught her by the arm.
—Thank you —the young priestess murmured.
—Don't thank me yet —the warrior replied quietly, never taking her eyes off the peaks submerged in the Eternal Night. —Arnos has stopped the slaughter for today, but the pressure from the Church will soon demand results.
Alejandro stepped forward, approaching the group of Heroes. He slowly drew his sword, examining the battered metal covered in soot.
—Next time, we won't charge blindly —he declared, a new coldness entering his voice. —If the darkness devours divine light... we'll attack the structure sustaining it.
Mark stroked the feathers of his griffin as the beast gave a low, guttural click.
—You can't see anything from the sky once you're inside the mist —the rider explained. —It's like trying to look through a well of ink. But if Lusian or that primordial god are coordinating everything from the center of the duchy, there have to be mana cores supplying such an anomaly.
—Focal points —Leonardo agreed, quickly drawing a diagram with the tip of a dagger in the damp earth. —Arcane nodes or key fortifications. If we can infiltrate with small groups instead of moving thousands of men at once...
—Elite reconnaissance groups —Arnos interrupted. —Squads of Heroes and specialists. We'll make our way through the darkness, locate Lusian's key defenses, and level the playing field before mobilizing the bulk of the army again.
Emily stared at the distant shadows guarding Douglas territory, with a single question fixed in her mind:
How am I supposed to stop this?