Boom!
The doors of the sacred hall opened, and Eritrea walked in, fully clad in her armor. When she reached a certain area, she went on one knee and bowed her head.
“Goodmorning, Your Lordship.”
Then she lifted her head to gaze at her young lord.
“Arise.”
Asher spoke softly.
Eritrea got to her feet and clasped her hand behind her.
“I heard you encountered the Abyss worshipers.”
“I did. We encountered a mage and an abyss knight.”
“I see the result of that.” Eritrea looked at the gallant knight clad in the most eye-catching armor in the stronghold. He could no doubt be in the most handsome-looking armor in the wasteland, and he stood at Asher’s right side.
She also turned to look at Sirius, but the feeling she got from looking at Sirius was fear. Sirius, despite also being at the diamond rank like Alex, was leagues ahead of the knight in strength.
Beast knights were nightmares. Their bones had become materials able to be forged, making them a walking ton of gold, but above that, their skins were also almost impenetrable by even some diamond-ranked equipment!
One diamond-ranked knight stood no chance against a beast knight on the basis that the knight did not have a game-changing talent.
“Do you know about them?”
“I do, Your Lordship. The abyss worshipers have made a total of ten tribes extinct in the past three years, and at first, we did not know why they kill so many people and do nothing with their properties, but with time, my father and other chiefs found out that what they’re doing is called the Grand Preparation.”
“Grand Preparation?”
Asher raised an eyebrow.
“Yes. They kill in preparation of the second awakening of the abyss army, which would conquer the world. All the members we’ve met are all mages with sometimes two or three abyss slave warriors, but there are some that use humans, and the number is usually quite large.”
“You mean they also enslave people.”
Sensing Asher’s ill feeling toward that slave word, Eritrea posed a question. “But my lord, many human lords enslave people.”
“Doesn’t make it right. There will be no slaves in my territory, only those subjected to hard labour for a period of time.”
Alex looked at Asher. He was as stunned as Eritrea at Asher’s distaste toward slavery. In Tenaria, slavery was a common thing, but it wasn’t publicly accepted, so it was done in secret, but there was no force against them.
Only the Everad nation publicized their slave trade. In fact, it was their economy!
“The Grand Preparation is done by spilling as much blood as they can. The more they spill for sacrifices, the closer the time for the eventual awakening of the grand abyss army.”
“The abyss army was defeated by all the races 500 years ago. How are they now able to resurrect?”
“I don’t have an answer to that, My Lord. But the mage you killed was a two-blood star mage, meaning he has spilled the blood of two hundred people to honor the grand preparation.”
Asher frowned deeply.
“How did you know this?”
“There’s a tattoo on their chest. It’s like a blood sun. The great white wolf clan, to which our clan paid monthly quotas, was annihilated by one of those mages, but he was killed in the end. He had 20 blood sun tattoos.”
‘2000 lives!’ Alex gasped in his mind.
“And how many people were in that large tribe?”
“20,000. He wiped them out.”
Alex felt his bones grow cold because of the ruthlessness of these madmen known as the abyss worshipers.
“And they are in the desolatelands. Why the desolatelands, why not here or the high plains?”
“I don’t know, My Lord. Maybe because the desolatelands is divided, filled with lots of tribes always at each other’s throats for one benefit or the other. Here, there are nobles ruling over vast lands and officials. A united force would nub this threat at the root, but we barbarians won’t stick our necks out for those outside the clan.”
“I see.”
Eritrea took a step forward.
“My Lord, with the raging bear tribe and my tribe gone, the next place to attack would naturally be your territory. In the depths of the desolatelands, there are powerful tribes that even these abyss worshipers don’t mess with for the time being. I advise you to stop leaving the stronghold.”
“You expect me to stop leaving the stronghold and send you instead. You want me to cower behind walls I built for the protection of my people?… No.”
Asher stood up and looked down at Eritrea.
“An Ashbourne does not hide behind walls. Our founder carved out a dukedom for himself out of a land filled with vicious barbarians and beasts of all kinds, and I will do the same to bring back that glory. If he hid behind a wall, your tribe might not have survived the attacks of the millions of beasts he slayed.”
“But, My Lord-”
Asher raised his right hand.
“Now that we know the abyss worshipers are a threat, fortifying the defense of Silverleaf Bastide is our first priority. Inform the Bladebreakers and their apprentices that they shall follow me to the bastide along with half your troop.”
Eritrea bowed.
She was happy that she would be fighting beside her lord once again but didn’t reveal much of her delight on her face.
“Tell commander Alec that his lord summons him.”
Eritrea nodded and left after a bow.
“She’s wise for a barbarian.”
Kelvin said as he walked into the hall.
“I had a feeling you were eavesdropping.” Asher smiled a bit.
“The Bladebrakers have increased their numbers to 100 strongmen. Fighting beasts will be a good way for them to smoothen their edges and grow stronger.”
“Certainly.” Asher replied.
…
Some days later…
Ark White stood on the wall of the bastide and watched the soldiers from Nineveh troop into the town. The rest of them formed a snake line that continued even into the depths of the forest path they came from.
While he welcomed the powerful troops, Asher and his vanguards were before a sacred part of the silver forest.
Asher looked in the distance, at the hill where he saw that miraculous sight. From that, that day he named that place the Polarwolf Sanctuary, and Kelvin had marked it.
Flap! Flap!
A messenger falcon landed on his forearm. After reading the letter, he exhaled heavily.
“The beast tide is coming.”