The Tyrin, despite having existed in the Oasis for a long time, had always been an unknown race.
And, curiously, one that never awoke much interest. Maybe it was the incapacity to maintain any kind of diplomacy. Maybe it was the simple fact that they lived in a place where they always kept themselves hegemonic — driving away, by force, anything that wasn't of their own race. The fact is that, aside from a few known characteristics and attitudes, it was a race impossible to know beyond the surface it itself chose to show.
No one knew what existed in the depths of that society. No one knew how far their hierarchy went, nor what they guarded at the bottom of their own nests.
Maybe that was why I was so startled when I discovered that son of a bitch had a shell so absurdly strong.
✦ ✦ ✦
"Hold as much as you can! Livina, try to stop it with the Treebeards!"
The creature had a peculiar appearance in relation to the other Tyrin.
Despite the clear similarities, I would say it looked much more like a colossal ant than those bipedal things that preferred to run on all fours. And the difference didn't stop at the form. Its shell was resistant to a point that bordered on the absurd — the Brutal Birman, the elite that had been slaughtering enemies for days without effort, could barely leave dents on the black surface. The blades ricocheted. The spears glanced off. It was like striking the wall itself.
Even Morgana, with her darts, couldn't do anything.
And not for lack of precision — she hit, shot after shot, exactly the points that should be vulnerable. Eyes. Joints. The cracks between the plates. And, even so, barely scratched the creature. Pegasus, whose capacity I still didn't even know how to properly measure, was nothing more than a disposable nuisance to that colossus — swatted away with a movement of its leg, like someone swatting an irritating insect.
In truth, the only thing we managed to do was hold it.
And, even that, only with the help of Livina's summons — the Treebeards clinging to the creature with all the strength of their wooden bodies, creaking, cracking, being crushed one by one while they bought seconds. I saw each death pass through Livina. Her face contracted with each Treebeard destroyed, the rebound of the pain descending through her like invisible blades. And she didn't retreat. She just summoned the next. And the next.
But that wouldn't last forever.
"Lord… we need to get out of here! We're not going to win if we can't cause damage!"
Morgana had a point.
The creature seemed to simply see us as obstacles — things getting in the way of its advance, and nothing beyond that. And that was exactly what worried me. Because, if we managed to cause some real damage, there was the risk of it starting to see us as enemies. And I didn't even want to imagine what that thing would do if it decided, in fact, to attack.
There was something profoundly wrong about being ignored by an enemy.
Fury, I understood. Hatred, I knew how to face. But that indifference — the absolute certainty that we weren't threat enough to deserve attention — was more frightening than any roar. We were ants to a creature that, ironically, looked like a twenty-ton ant.
"Let's pull back to the portal!"
That fight was useless. And I finally admitted it to myself.
There was nothing left to protect down there. As far as I could understand, all those tunnels would belong to whoever won the battle happening in the nest. And, besides, unlike me — who was weak — those two monsters back there would surely do a number on that creature. Let them settle it among themselves.
"Go! I'll hold it with my summons as much as I can!"
While everyone pulled back, Livina and her summons were the only ones to stay behind.
It was nearly five minutes of retreat — five minutes in which she paid, in pain, for each second the units needed to reach the surface. She and I were the last to leave, and I held her by the arm on the crossing, feeling her body tremble from the accumulation of rebounds.
"Void, close this portal. Now."
The Aquamarine obeyed me reluctantly — the usual disdain stamped on his face — while I left Livina in Morgana's care and advanced, running, to the other portal.
Arachne's portal.
✦ ✦ ✦
When I crossed, the situation was quite different.
Because Arachne was as strong as the creature. The confrontation between the two made the entire tunnel tremble — colossal legs against chelicerae, webs against shell. But, just as had happened with our group, despite all the size and power, she couldn't do anything beyond preventing the advance. And there was a crucial difference: while the creature we faced seemed indifferent, that one there was clearly irritated.
And it was there, seeing the two at the same time, that it clicked once and for all.
Two colossi. One in each main tunnel. Exactly two — the same number the Prince had described, days ago, protecting the giant creature of the white sack. The queen's guardians had descended. And, if the guardians were there, beneath the earth, forcing their way through…
Where was the queen?
"Daughter! We're going back!"
"Understood! My daughters and sons go first. I'll hold him here!"
Another tremor caused a new crash — and, this time, I couldn't say where it came from.
To me, it was still too early for the winner of the fight to begin facing the nest's guardians. And too early, too, for the great creature to have reached the site of the confrontation. But something, somewhere in that labyrinth, was moving — and it was big enough to shake the earth. Either way, I just wanted to get out of there.
"Let's go, before everything falls on top of us!"
The Yokais advanced quickly through the portal, one by one, until finally only Arachne and I remained.
"Let's go back, daughter. NOW!"
Arachne spat what seemed to be a dense web directly into the creature's eyes — drawing from it a scream more of confusion than of pain — and ran, the colossal body squeezing through the tunnel while the two of us crossed the portal.
"Close this one too, Void."
✦ ✦ ✦
"Is everyone okay?"
Finally up top, I could do the count.
And it hurt. Even Arachne had lost two of her children in the fight against that creature. But that was still little next to my loss: that colossus had been capable of exterminating my Orghaal — of the hundred and twenty that still remained, only twelve remained standing — and of reaping nearly half of the Burmans I had, both the common and the brutal ones.
I was irritated. With myself.
Because fighting against the common Tyrin for so many days had given me a sense of capability that clouded my command. I got used to winning. I got used to holding. And, when something beyond the curve appeared, I took too long to accept that the right answer was to retreat. Half of those deaths could have been avoided if I had ordered the retreat sooner — or fought with more strategy and less pride. That creature wasn't just larger than the Tyrin.
It was on another level.
And there was, still, the political weight of those losses.
The units that died weren't mine — they were lent. The Lords of the belt expected daily reports, and the next one would have to explain how more than a hundred Orghaal and dozens of Burmans became carcasses in a single confrontation. Some would understand. Others would use that as ammunition — the proof that trusting troops to a human had been a mistake from the start. But that was a fight for later. If there was a later.
"Could it be a Lord…? But it doesn't make sense."
Unlike summoned creatures, or creatures native to the Oasis, Lords had the capacity to evolve.
I had temporarily given that up to strengthen my kingdom — but I knew how it worked. And I knew, too, that only a Lord would manage to be strong enough to ignore forty Yokais as if they were flies. But, if those creatures were Lords… what was the one they defended? The giant thing of the white sack, that birthed soldiers without stopping — what would it be, then? It was impossible to understand the dynamics of that race. There was no parameter. There was no record. In truth, I felt that, with each day in that place, I learned something new — and none of it was good.
✦ ✦ ✦
"My Lord… do you think they're going to the nest?"
Livina and Morgana approached while I thought.
Their doubt was something I had no way to confirm — but I bet all my chips that yes. It was too convenient. An attack by those colossi, in both tunnels at the same time, right after those two sons of bitches decided to try to kill each other? No. That wasn't coincidence. That was opportunity being seized with both claws.
"I can't say. But it's very convenient. Unfortunately, the winner of the fight is going to have to deal with that alone. We have too many problems to solve now."
And my worry was simple.
The attack from beneath the earth could happen at any moment — down below, there was no day. Up here, the clouded sky still gave us a margin of safety. But it was temporary. Because the day was ending.
"Do you think we're going to be attacked too?"
"Yes. If the Tyrin are intelligent, they know that fighting beneath the earth is a disadvantage for them now. But, if they dominate this side of the wall, they'll have everything in their hands. I feel that today we're going to have to fight with everything."
My theory was simple.
Now that the enemy had discovered the prize it had been searching for so long, there was no longer any reason to keep playing around. While a war happened down below, over the nest, up here we wouldn't be in a better situation. The night that was coming would be different from all the previous ones.
"Where's Eris?"
While I thought, I remembered the girl who had fled to the surface.
And, as I imagined, she was nowhere. She had probably understood, better than anyone, that that was the worst place in the world to be at that moment.
"I think she fled."
"It doesn't matter. Let's prepare — today, we'll fight for our lives. Zeus, give me a summary of our forces."
[ FORCE SUMMARY — SPARTA ]
Birman Sword — 30 units
Brutal Birman Sword — 23 units
Orghaal Shield — 12 units
Fire Fairy — 100 units
Lesser Wolf — 50 units
Mages — 160 units
Archers — 150 units
Griffins — 3 units
Urskra — 4 units
Cockatrice — 1 unit
Heavy Cavalry — 100 units
Yokais — 50 units
Fortunately, I hadn't spent those days just fighting.
I took the chance to take the vast majority of the idle workers and transform them into archers and mages. And, with Eris's help — and the supplies she brought daily — I managed to get two simple spells for my mages: fire and ice. Nothing spectacular. But they were two abilities that caused area damage and reduced the enemy's rate — exactly what I needed against a horde.
Another thing that helped was Arachne.
Even in the little time she had, she still managed to lay some eggs — not enough to become weak, but enough to increase our ranks by twelve units. And there were, still, the griffins: thanks to the Griffin Nest, finally completed, and the young couple that had begun to mate, I had two eggs being cared for by the Incubator — the Ammit statue working, silent, to transform the future into strength.
I looked at the horizon, where the little daylight was already beginning to die.
Somewhere down below, two titans disputed a god's treasure. Somewhere, two colossi marched to join the party. And up here, behind my walls, a patched-together army of five races prepared for the longest night of our lives.
The question was whether all that strength would be enough.
Or not.