With the death of the lich, the swamp was left with the silence of the dead and the soft whimpering of the dying. However, moments later, the humans cheered loudly at their first victory.

As soon as his boat made it to the other side of the swamp, Agrianos leapt out onto dry ground. He wiped the sweat off his forehead which had turned into a waterfall before assessing the situation. While he was happy that he was alive, he was still uncomfortable with what just transpired.

“You said that we weren’t supposed to meet the enemy until later?” Exarchi asked as he approached the twitchy archpriest.

“There must be a mistake! The undead shouldn’t have been able to penetrate this far unless they’ve broken through the southern parts of the Kojan Walls!” Agrianos exclaimed as a priest tended to his bloodied hand.

“What do you mean?” Exarchi asked.

“Between the lands of the undead and the Kojan Forests, there should’ve been a number of nations and fortresses standing in their way. If any of them had fallen, word should’ve started spreading,” Agrianos explained.

“The undead could have just snuck in, you know?”

“What do you mean? You can’t sneak an army undetected!”

Exarchi shrugged then said, “Perhaps humans can’t.”

The drone’s answer had left Agrianos speechless. He knitted his brows together until his eyes went wide with shock. “By Humanos…”

“Yes?”

“It’s been generations since we servants of Humanos had fought the undead. It seems we have to learn how to fight them all over again,” Agrianos clicked his tongue as he got up to gather his men.

After assessing the battle, the humans had figured out that the undead they had just faced was just a small ambush party. Whether it was for the purpose of whittling down their numbers, slowing them down, or testing them was something they wouldn’t be able to determine.

“Men, we have to be cautious! It seems that we have reached hostile territories!” Agrianos announced to his army. “We are chosen by Humanos! Will we let Humanos down?”

“Nay, nay!” his army shouted back.

“Then we march!” Agrianos shouted.

From a distance, decaying gray balls of meat with wings watched Agrianos’ army from afar. The multi-eyed creatures scanned the human army before their sights landed at the back of the army—the drone army.

Once they were done studying the drone army, they flew away from the human army and towards a dark forest. In the middle of the forest, they landed on the ground, merged into one large mass of gray meat, then waited patiently. After a while, a large pale man wearing a bear pelt emerged from the forest foliage.

“What did you find?” the man spoke to the creature.

Though the creature spoke, it sounded like whispers from a crowd of people. “The humans have the assistance of beings of great power. We must be wary of them.”

“The Greatians?”

“No. Something else. Something new. Something… better.”

“No matter who they are, they shall learn the might of our faith,” the man declared. He raised his hands and slowly balled it into a fist. Black mist started coming out of his hand, slowly flooding the forest floor. At first a skeleton raised itself from the ground, then ten came up. Within minutes, the forest was filled with skeletons of every kind of animals.

Deep within Mount Varangia, at the Great City of Tilapola, a number of high troglodytes had gathered inside the throne room. Important lords and leaders from every corner of the troglodyte territories had come for the usual meeting with the highest authority in the land; from priests of the largest temple cities to the hardy commanders of the frontier posts, they all came to pay respect to not only the High Priest, but also to the great city.

“That ends our discussion for the construction of the new temple,” Tenokotle, the High Priest of Tilapola, presided over the meeting and concluded one of the discussions. “As for the allocation of resources to the western forts…”

A large high troglodyte with a crescent-shaped horn raised his hand and interrupted, “Lord, forgive me, but are the iron demons really gone?”

A number of the troglodytes sitting in the room whispered agreements and nodded their heads, their faces filled with anxiety and fear. For all they knew, their communities could be the next target of the demons!

“Yes. We had defeated them with our strength and faith. The demons ran and had not been seen for a few months now,” Tenokotle answered.

“If that is true, then why are our armies still idling at the demon frontiers? My apologies to the high priest, but my stockpile isn’t exactly a charity to be given out to the army!”

“We need to remain vigilant just to be sure that the demons had been driven out for good… or at least until we finish fortifying the demon frontier,” Tenokotle explained to the crowd that was slowly losing confidence. With a sigh, he kneaded his head then said with a low, tired tone, “Let us take a break for now. Once we return, we shall discuss the issue with the western forts.”

Tenokotle got up and started heading towards one of his study rooms. Following behind him was the famed War Priest Huatotle. They didn’t speak a word to each other until they reached Tenokotle’s study room.

“High Priest, an entire Gotter village disappearing hasn’t exactly raised hopes, you know?” Huatotle said. “Without a doubt, this is the work of the iron demons.”

“I know, Huatotle… but can we do? We will need to disband the great army soon. We should just maintain a garrison along the forts to keep watch. As you reported before, there is no clear path into the demon territories.”

“I can find a way! I just need more time!” Huatotle shouted as he balls his fist.

“Time isn’t something we have, Huatotle!” Tenokotle replied harshly which silenced the war priest. Despite being almost twice his size, Huatotle looked down towards the ground, not daring to look the high priest directly at his eyes. “Huatotle, we are disbanding the army and that is final-”

Before he could finish his sentence, Tenokotle was interrupted when a temple guard entered the room abruptly. “Forgive my intrusion, High Priest! This is extremely urgent! Tilapolan armies are attacking the fringes!”

“What?! Who dares to rebel against the will of Tilapola?!”

“We do not know, High Priest! But they’re trying to attack the garrisons at various Gotter villages so it could be the Gotters!”

Tenokotle frowned, but remained mostly calm. After all, it wasn’t the first time the lower castes had rebelled. On the other hand, Huatotle was raring to go taste the air of battle after a long time of idle downtime.

“War Priest, dispatch a few groups to quell the rebellion. We do not need the entire army just to handle some peasants,” Tenokotle ordered.

“As you command, High Priest.” Huatotle bowed then left hastily.

At the far reaches of the troglodyte territories, Custodian’s troglodytes marched against their former masters’ armies. Split into different smaller groups, they simultaneously attacked from different tunnels dug by the drones.

“Brothers! We must keep pushing! We must free our fellow kin!” Razugotter ordered as he led one of the troglodyte armies. In front of him, a line of low troglodytes held up a round metal shield that looked too big to be used by them and pushed back the enemy assault.

“Kill! Kill! Kill!” Razugotter’s officers croaked loudly as they forced their low troglodytes forward.

The enemy couldn’t believe what they were seeing. Not only were the Gotters armed and armored with metal, their low troglodytes were also much more stronger and more disciplined. Despite how cramped the tunnels were, Custodian’s troglodytes formed a wall of shields with spears protruding outwards which bolstered both their offensive and defensive capabilities. Though there were still some troglodytes who were breaking the formation, they were usually quickly pulled back by the officers.

At such a sight, the enemy high troglodytes broke and started retreating from the battle. They simply didn’t have enough men or courage to fight against such a foe, so all they could hope was retreat and come back with a bigger army.

With the Inners’ garrison defeated, Razugotter and his army cheered as they liberated a Gotter village. The villagers didn’t need much convincing to join Razugotter once they heard the descriptions of the overworld and promises of food, so the liberation went smoothly.

“Razugotter, this village has about thirty tilapolas. We will have to build new homes for them once we return,” a troglodye officer reported.

“That is fine! More servants for the Iron Lords!” Razugotter laughed with glee as he led the Gotter villagers back to the surface. “Let us hope the other groups succeed as well!”

From afar, Custodian watched the chaos. It realized that the high troglodytes grew too slowly to fulfill its expected demands, so it ordered the troglodytes to go underground to capture more of their kind. Given only scraps of metal and some directions on where to go, it didn’t really expect the troglodytes to go for a full assault.

[One notification: Large enemy force detected (1)]

Custodian quickly switched view and saw that the enemy troglodytes had begun to make their move. While it wanted to see how efficient the troglodytes could work on their own, it still wanted to make sure most of its high troglodytes made it out. After all, high troglodytes could be replaced but only slowly.

‘Attention Strike Force U-Alpha. Move to intercept the largest enemy army and only the largest army. Leave the other forces to the auxiliaries,’ Custodian ordered.

At one of the hidden underground entrances facing the troglodyte territories, the gates opened to reveal a large horned drone surrounded by a retinue of huskarl drones. The large drone flashed its eyes and made a loud noise which sounded like a box of glass breaking.

‘Minos reporting, Strike Force U-Alpha leader. Moving out.’