After hearing Otto’s explanation about the so-called Protocol 66, Emery cast Spatial Gate that would bring him to the nearest Nexus colony. All four of his friends also decided to come with him, as they wanted to see for themselves what the protocol meant.
The short hours of the night eventually passed and it was early dawn when the group saw several ships descending from the orange sky. They landed in the colony where people were seen congregating. A group of soldiers got out of the ship, leading the people inside in batches.
“The minister said that at this time they only have enough room to bring about 300,000 people. That’s just one in every 100 people on the planet,” said Klea, stating the fact.
“I guess they only selected the trained workers and their families, while leaving behind the rest.”
Upon hearing that, Chumo asked, “Should we stop them then?”
The Roman heaved a sigh and shook his head before saying, “Who are we to tell them what to do with their survival.”
It was a dilemma that weighed on the minds of Emery and the others. Even though they wanted to help, they had nothing to offer as a solution. Moreover, significant matters like deciding the fate of 30 million lives was something they could not do without the alliance’s approval and support.
Julian turned around facing the other four and said, “We have unraveled the mystery on the missing item and solved the rebel problem. To put it simply, our mission here is done. Hence the safest way for us was to just lay low for a few days until the group from the alliance arrived.”
Noticing the look on his friends’ face, he continued with a smile, “But of course, I am sure none of you like to do that.”
p “You damn right, Roman! We won’t!” exclaimed Thrax, eager for more battle.
Nodding his head at the battle thirsty friend of his, Julian then turned to Emery and said, “What’s your opinion, Emery? What do you think we should do?”
“Stop the stargate from being launched and save as many lives as possible,” he replied without missing a beat.
Julian replied with a smile. “Nothing much then.”
Before they started on the stargate, the main concern Emery had was the orc hordes that could be arriving at any time. Even though they had notified General Lucien, with the ongoing evacuations, he was quite sure that there were no Nexus soldiers deployed to hold those monsters off.
He was exactly right.
The group reached the southernmost settlement from the colony, only to find the entire place void of any shadows with wrecked and burnt houses. There are many traces and clues that say the place was attacked just recently before it caught fire.
Dead bodies of the orcs and humans scattered all over the place, and by the looks of it, most of the locals had escaped to the north.
“We are late!”
Emery quickly brought out the two Chizpur Fangs from Spatial Space and asked them to go underground to be his eyes. In the meantime, Chumo and Klea quickly flew into the air riding the latter’s thunderbird, following the orcs’ trail who chased after the residents of the destroyed settlement.
It didn’t take them long for Emery to sense another horde a dozen miles away, Thrax was ready to dive into the horde when Julian asked to be sent back to the rebel hideout.
Facing a questioning look from Thrax, he simply said, “We’re going to need all the help we can get to handle these many orcs. So I’m thinking exactly that.”
Nodding his head, Emery cast [Spatial Gate] for Julian to return while he and Thrax headed for the orc horde that the Chizpur Fangs had found.
Emery and his four friends worked together to deal with the hordes of thousands of orcs.
As soon as they arrived at where the Chizpur Fangs were, Emery and Thrax were greeted by a tragic sight. The two of them saw a devastated settlement where hundreds of villagers were screaming and running as thousands of green creatures swarmed the yellow landscape.
“ORAAAAA!! COME AT ME!!” shouted Thrax loudly as he stomped the ground. His figure shot into the air and smashed into the center of the orc horde, toppling those around him to the ground.
A golden streak flashed and all the orcs around him were split in half. Unconcerned about the alarmed reactions of the other orcs, the Immortal Gladiator swung the glaive in his hand, starting a massacre that stained the sand with orcs’ guts and blood.
While Thrax was rampaging amidst the orcs, Emery also didn’t remain still. With hundreds of lives to save, Emery decided to cast [Jade Wall], creating a three meter high wall that surrounded the entire settlement. Immediately afterwards, he summoned hundreds of Jade Warriors and ordered them to confront the abominable monsters.
Each Jade Warrior was capable of fighting two or three orcs at the same time, thus eventually forcing the advancing horde to a halt.
“Quickly! Run north!”
Emery shouted to the villagers as he took out his Light Staff and started shooting the orcs that managed to slip through the defensive line the Jade Warriors formed. Hearing the shout, even though they were still in a state of chaos, the villagers immediately rushed north.
Time passed and the fight against the orc hordes lasted for half an hour, at which point there were already several thousand orc corpses strewn across the desert. However, through Spirit Reading Emery knew most of the orcs had run past the left and right side making their way to another village.
“Retreat, Thrax!!”
Emery was forced to move the defensive as time went on, gradually closer to the colony following more villagers escaping towards the north. At this point, an hour had passed but still not one Nexus soldier could be spotted.
As he was cursing the Nexus faction’s incompetence in his mind, Emery heard the sound of a mechanical horse galloping towards him. His Spirit reading informed him that several saint-level individuals were approaching, led by three familiar figures.
“First Brother, that’s the one who defeated us!”
“Second Brother, we have to fight with him now!”
“Enough, two of you!! Focus!! We’re here to burn all those orcs!!”
Several fireballs flew through the air and hit the horde, causing dozens of orcs to scream miserably as their bodies were engulfed in scorching flames.
Chiwiwkk!! Chiwiwkk!!
At the same time, similar fights took place in several locations south of the colony.