When Nightin and Ash regained their consciousness, they realised that the two of them were the only ones here, their soldiers and their mounts had vanished without them noticing.
Nightin fishes out his communication device card and attempts to contact all of the commanders, but a mysterious energy barrier was preventing him from sending a message to them.
Suddenly, one of the contacts lights up and when he saw the face of their person, he was surprised by the person who managed to bypa.s.s the barrier, it was his great strategist.
Sending his spirit energy to his great strategist through a tidal wave of energy, he realised that unless the other side cooperates and manages to strike with enough force, communication wouldn"t be possible.
Why am I worrying? I"m pretty sure that… Smith will figure it out on his own. Coupled with his eighth gate Martial Emperor realm, the army should have what they need to make it out alive.
Come on Smith, I"m coming on you.
Meanwhile, on the other side where Smith is with the rest of the army, worry covered their faces. They were currently situated in a vast garden, hedges the height of the sun formed a maze and encircled them in the centre.
The dim illumination of the moon was their only source of light for vision, it was a full moon and bats can be seen flying around it. If the soldiers were to look up, they"ll see a majestic castle made of pure diamond enchanted by countless ores and scrolls to fortify its unbreakable defense.
"What do we do now?" One of the soldiers asked before he could process his thoughts as the eight commanders turned to look at him. The commanders didn"t know what to do either when they heard this, one moment they were still in the middle of the ridges and before they even made sense of what was going on, they were already here.
The commanders remained silent, clueless as to what"s the best course of action they can take right now. After a brief moment of someone, an unfamiliar voice broke the silence among the vision impaired sight of everyone.
"Since we have no clue as to which of the three directions to head to, why don"t we look around first?" The person who stood out was n.o.body else but Smith who has already been given the position of great strategist. Even though he had the intention to reveal his true ident.i.ty to them at the start of the war, he hid the matter so that he can make use of it only when the time arises. Now, the time was almost ripe, he just needs to gain their recognition first.
"That"s right, we should look around first for any possible clues, we might get lucky to pick up any hidden clues."
"d.a.m.n! You"re a beast even though you"re a strategist, you might be calmer than all of us present right now!"
"By the way, who are you?" One of the soldiers asked meekly, the soldier was young and his skin was still fair, but the effort he had placed in was vividly obvious from his well shaped body.
"Me? I am the great strategist of this entire army and am also the person in charge of leading all of you to war."
"What?" That"s the only thought that all the soldiers and commanders had in common right now. The guy standing before them was actually above them in position and judging from his demeanor and previous behaviour, all he has left to them right now is a good impression. But that is the simplest task and what he needs to prioritise right now is finding the exit.
"Alright, disperse to look around for clues." Smith issued an order before calling for all eight commanders to tell them his plan. "Look, I know that all eight of you doubting my abilities and my authority, but you should have already known that I was speaking the truth when the team of strategists behind me didn"t pose any objection."
The fox commander then asked "Are you sure that you"ll be able to find the way out with just the slightest amount of clue?"
"I don"t make empty promises, but I stand a much higher chance in finding the way out compared to all eight of you commanders. You guys may have the potential and battle sense for warring, but none of you here can match up to me in the field of intelligence and application of observation." Smith says with such absolute confidence that the only female general from the Tigers was staring at him with fire blazing in her eyes.
"General of the tiger platoon, please calm down before a.s.saulting me with those flames in your eyes." Smith says patiently, his voice tranquil.
"Hmph!" Seeing how she was behaving again. The guys backed off in unison without putting up any signs of complaint or attempt to stop her. After a few times, they have learnt from their lessons and understood that they should never make her an enemy or they"ll be the ones suffering.
Ignoring her, Smith looked around and saw one of the leaves among the hedges flas.h.i.+ng for a moment, it flashed for a moment and when he looked again, he realised that the leaf was artificial and man made.
With a smile, he told everyone "This was much easier than expected."
Back to Nightin and Ash, they were currently perched on some trees and based on their current location, they should be in a vast forest with no ends currently.
Right when Ash was about to take off and try das.h.i.+ng out of this forest by travelling in a straight line, Nightin called out to him from behind and explained "Come back! There"s no point in trying to do that!"
Ash halted abruptly and shouted back "What do you mean!?"
Nightin took in a deep breath before explaining "I know that you"re confident that all illusions are nothing but a joke in your eyes, but I can feel a magical force field in the area and if we don"t shut it down, then we"ll probably be stuck here till the day we pa.s.s on."
"What do you suggest then?" Ash questioned fiercely in spite of anger, his fists were clenched and his venis could be seen from under his skin. He was angry, but not at his friend but the sudden unexpected situation which wasn"t explained in the map.
"Ash, can you take out the map again so we can take a look?" Nightin asks softly, but the warmth and confidence in his voice made Ash sigh before reaching his hand out into his robe.
"Sorry for just now, it was just… What the f.u.c.k!" Ash cursed with a swear word for the first time in front of Nightin which made him unsure of how to react for a moment.
"Ash, what"s the matter?" Despite the confusion, Nightin still ensures that he keeps calm and once again, asks Ash what happened for him to have cursed for once.
"The map is G.o.dd.a.m.n missing! I remember bringing it in with us! I"m absolutely sure of that!" Ash half explains while half ranting, his face twisting in anger and panic. He just tried and realised that his imagination law was nothing but a joke compared to this magic circle, he wasn"t even able to see through it.
"Don"t worry, I believe that you didn"t lose it. If I"m not wrong, that map must have awakened its wisdom ever since we burned it with flames, the price of attempting to seek the flower was to put every partic.i.p.ant into a test. It"s just a game of the map for fun so, if we can find it and get it to cease everything once and for all, we can leave this place unharmed with our soldiers." Nightin explains everything at once without taking a moment to breathe, worried that Ash might let curses slip from his mouth again.
Right when Ash was about to curse again, Nightin stared at him in the face which made him keep his lips sealed, only opening them after some time has pa.s.sed as he says "But… I"m so lost. It"s the first time the power of imagination has been helpless to a.s.sist me."
"Everything will be fine. Instead of standing on these tree branches, maybe we should follow the path deeper into the forest instead. I mean, who knows? Maybe the map that we"re searching for is hiding somewhere in this lush greenery.
"You never fail to cheer my up man." Ash says as he lands on the ground with a soft thud, Nightin followed closely behind him.
Walking deeper into the forest, they realised that most of these trees had scratch marks on them not from humans, they weren"t sure what it was, but the scratch marks told them that it wasn"t a simple being that caused it.
The scratch marks were deep and despite the high resistance against scratches that the trees here have, it was being proven futile against the face of such claws that sunk deep into their body, leaving behind scars that the pa.s.sage of time can never erase as the wound causes a corrosion mark.
"Purr…"
"Purr…"
"You gotta be kidding me…" Ash muttered from under his breath as he readied a energy barrier around him and Nightin, pus.h.i.+ng the s.h.i.+eld to its limit to block off the incoming attack and being which might sneak of them from anywhere.
"Behind us!"