The druids, stepping forward one by one after their leader, explained the element they dominated and their affinities regarding attacks to Jashua, the Leader of the twenty-thousand-strong Hell Realm Army. The Hell King was splitting hairs; he wanted to know the druids before him down to the finest details.
The nine-member Elemental Ten team had no objections left to this either, but the rumbling stomach of a man who was an earth element user raised the flag of rebellion. Jashua, exiting the tent after the laughter that lasted for a while, had servants behind him who had completed their preparations to set a table inside when he returned.
Even though the conversation suffered a short interruption with the meal break, it didn't prevent it from being repeated in the following days. Even if he couldn't risk leaving the head of the army during the day, he took a breather in the druids' tent during their night accommodations, and the Elemental Ten also seemed to enjoy his participation.
In the gatherings lasting until late hours, sometimes until the first lights of the morning, at first only the approaching war was talked about, but as days passed, many topics from history to art, from the principles of elemental domination to ancient druid customs would be opened to discussion.
"Your king has become quite the regular at the druid tent, what's up?"
Meanwhile, Nafız had also taken the baby-faced old man captive; while Alis and her husband preferred to spend time alone, Hueso had nowhere to run.
"Perhaps this is for the best. No matter how much the druids insist they will be warriors, they are naive people at their core. King Jashua, for the last five years, advanced at full speed in the exact opposite direction of them, and now if he wants to find the balance, it is a good development that he is in communication with someone from the other side.
You know; it's easy to conquer lands with wars, what's hard is to establish order and rule. King Jashua struggled to assert himself and succeeded in this, but no one can live their whole life with the shadow of a tyrant over them!"
Hueso's outward appearance might be radiating youth due to the life essences he stole from the enemies he killed, but inside hid an old man who had managed to rule a massive sect for a long time.
"We will see whether it will be good or bad! We will arrive in front of the Death Pass before two days pass, we'll separate the sheep from the goats there!"
Nafız left Hueso's side after finishing her milk-white drink, which she didn't allow the others to drink, in one gulp. Just as she said, there were two days until they faced the enemy, and it was proven once again that numbered days flew by.
When the army stopped as the sun's rays hid behind the horizon line, this time a wall whose topmost point they could barely see appeared before them. This structure, whose majesty they witnessed thanks to the twilight, could be none other than the obstacle named Death Pass.
That night Jashua didn't come next to the Elemental Ten; he was uneasy like the rest of the army, and he was trying to overcome this by entering war mode again. On one front, the desired place was reached, but behind the mountain ranges remaining on their left, a surprise awaited the Sand Army arriving at the exit of the Desolate Realm.
"Where did these come from now?"
Boss, advancing in front of the army, first grumbled upon seeing the three people appearing in the distance, then accelerated together with the two warriors he took by his side. While the two-thousand-strong force came towards them step by step, the three people were waiting where they were.
"You have ten seconds to introduce yourselves and state what you want!"
Boss, taking his axe in his hand, what a coincidence that he spoke with ten paces left and continued to approach the trio in his target every second.
"Are you Wind of Death? You look more like the fart of a steroid-pumped orc to me!"
The two weapons on the back of the man, crossing his arms on his chest, stood in a crisscross shape, and the golden color on their hilts was carried everywhere with the help of the desert's sun. He had a height that could be considered tall for a human and an armor leaving his muscular arms exposed, but these weren't enough for him to compete against Boss's majesty.
The man, realizing this, took his weapons waiting on his back into his hand; the cutting edges of the broad machetes were at least as bright as their hilts. The axe, one of the symbols of orcs, and the weapons of the man among the trio whose origins were unknown, were about to clash at the exit of the Desolate Realm, but a wind bringing a dust cloud with it managed to get between them.
"I was looking for a commander named Batu too, but a boy playing with his little swords appeared before me!"
The highest-ranking army commander of the empire, standing above billions of orcs; she was holding the body of the axe with one hand and Batu's collar with the other. While the army halted its advance and watched them, while the tension had climbed to the highest possible point, a laugh managed to drop all the blood pressure.
"Finally I met an orc with a sense of humor, I need to record today in my special calendar!"
When Wind of Death took a step back, the two sides joined her too; on her right was Boss breathing fire, on her left was the man named Batu grinning as if he wanted to show however many teeth he had in his mouth.
"I didn't think you would come personally. With two major merchant guilds after you, you should have been hiding in a hole!"
Even though Wind of Death, who had a faded leather armor on her, looked like any orc from a distance, the insolence in her words screamed that she was an important someone. Despite this, the smile on Batu's face wasn't wiped off; on the contrary, it was as if the two dimples on his cheeks were becoming prominent.
"Actually, you are not wrong; I haven't lost the first place to anyone in recent years on the wanted lists in the headquarters of the Golden Leaf and Emerald Leaf Guilds. There was a time when they came after me with all their might, but then, whether you call it a twist of fate or the acceptance of my prayers, very interesting things happened in the place called Hell Realm.
When a few obnoxious ones calling themselves Generals died, there was quite a decrease in the number of those after me. Then, due to my pursuers decreasing as years passed, I could come out of the hole I hid in and formed a force of five thousand people which I called the Golden Army!"
As soon as Batu finished his words, the soldiers hidden inside the desert sands appeared at the same time. They had buried themselves with their long sand-colored capes and waited there until the agreed time, and when the twelve-thousand-strong Sand Army saw them, they had difficulty taking a battle stance.
"Your army is quite cute! I'm thinking, if my warriors attack now, I wonder how many of them could manage to survive!"
The Golden Army, raising their swords in the air when the words advancing along the desert reached their warriors' ears, was intimidating the Sand Army they had surrounded. The army, which advanced with a fast pace from in front of the Heart of the Sand up to here, was reeling in panic while falling into the worst situation they could fall into militarily.
The image, resembling the struggles of a fly caught in a spider web, could be an enjoyable spectacle for Batu and the two people standing behind him, but the skin of Boss, chosen as the commander of the army, had turned red.
"Battle Formation, One!"
Just a moment ago Batu's sounds were like a song extending along the desert, whereas the shout of the orc, screaming using all the air in his giant body, turned into a sandstorm. The Sand Army could only be saved from the panic they fell into thanks to a fiercer warning, and their forming a circle within seconds showed the intervention was made exactly on time.
When the side panels of the mechanical vehicles with the appearance of transport purposes opened, weapons making element attacks in three rows, with three in each row, were exposed. There were dozens of mechanical devices, and Batu had only now understood why they preferred to travel by walking instead of inside them.
The warriors of the Golden Army were also affected by the change like their leader. They were bewildered due to both the reaction of the army they surrounded and their hands they couldn't stop from trembling following the orc warrior's shout.