four days had passed and Mephesto had begun to find signs of Slayns army.

“Commander!!!” a older man clad in heavy armor ran towards his commanding officer in a terrible fright.

“calm yourself, you look like you’ve seen ghost” the commanding officer said as he tried to calm his subordinate. The older man was a division leader and lead a squad on his own, since he and his army were on the south side and were at greater risk of night attacks, his soldiers were walking with some distance to one another to prevent heavy losses from a surprise archer attack. The older man was near the outer rim of their circle and had only been gone an hour before quickly running back with a cold sweat.

“stone!!!” the older man shouted, “they were turned to stone!!!” the commanding officer who over saw several division leaders quickly got on his horse to investigate. He soon found the bodies of sixty men perfectly petrified, most of them wore terrorized expressions as if seeing hell itself while others wore worn face filled with utter resignation.

This was quickly reported to Korin who then reported it to Mephesto. “what’s their condition.” He asked Korin who specialized in magic ailments.

“I managed save half but surviving petrification depends on ones own will power, Most of them were mentally weak and died shortly after I undid the petrification.” Normally that should not have been possible. They had only been petrified two days and yet they succumbed. An ordinary farmer could survive petrification for up to four days but in simply a two days trained soldiers broke down and died.

“most of them were incoherent when they awoke but they managed to say, there were thousands of them.” Mephisto combed his hair with his hands as he tried to figure what had happened. The most obvious conclusion was that the men were left behind because they couldn’t keep up and then were easily slaughtered by nearby monster tribes. As he thought this he felt a shadow over head but when he looked, there was nothing there.

“It seems I’m becoming slightly nervous.” Korin smiled at his response but she two was becoming worried. For the past two nights they had been attacked, even with the night patrols, the arrow attacks continued just far enough away from the main patrol for them to easily escape. It was as if they were being followed and tracked, it was a beyond simple territorial advantage.

While Mephisto still rested in the trinity mountain territory, Slyan and his army had moved beyond the goblin and kobold territory and into the dead lands.

As the hours went by and their march continued, the men grew more tired and wary of the days events.

“I recommend that we take short break, maybe even wait for Mephisto.” Albot suggested to Slayn. But Slayn only became angry and grabbed Albot by his neck and slowly tightened his grip.

“do you really want the help of some slave?” Slayn responded in a cold tone.

“I will continue this march with or without you.” Slyan suddenly released his grip. “I honestly don’t care if the army reaches the kingdom. For I alone am enough.” Albot coughed and tried to catch his breath, “but of the red witch.” He managed to say in-between coughs.

“what of her, my king can offer her immortality, she would be a fool to refuse.” Albot smiled at such a ridiculous response.

“you are too arrogant and a too prideful to lead this army effectively.”

“shut up and continue the march.” on his orders, the army continued its march. men would on occasion drop dead, their exhaustion coupled with the constant mana depletion was slowly becoming to much for some to bear. Then they entered a dead zone which rapidly ate away their mana and several more men died but Slayn paid no mind for he still had seven thousand men.

On the front line Slayn led a group of six elite soldiers hand selected by him. these six men were the strongest soldiers behind slayn and his chosen army leaders. As they marched forward they noted and eerie presence, the one mage in the party of six activated his magic sense and saw a swirl of immense magic power being pulled into a single location. “there seems to be something in that direction general.” Slyan looked at the mage as if saying of course there is you moron. The mage backed away slightly startled by his leaders expression.

“run to Albot and Alcon and tell them to avoid that area at all costs.” Slayn had an expression that the six had never seen before, it was concern. The warrior that walked behind slyan asked, “what is over there.” Slayn’s ears twitched at the sound of his subordinates idiodic curiosity. Slyan stopped and grabbed the warrior by his steel armor and lifted him up several feet into the air.

“what’s over there?” he giggled mincingly. “I tell you what’s over there. The one god damn thing you should fear more than the red witch.” Slayn gently put down his subordinate and began to explain as they walked.

“when the true gods created us they realized that we needed guidance and so they created the celestials but before the Celestials were the Cardinals, forces of nature so terrifying that that they rivaled even Dragons some say they were many time stronger than them. that monster over there is one such creature, a being above Dragons.” the warrior froze in his tracks immediately understanding the monster that dwelled in that swamp. The cardinals were beings of legend, they were stories told to children to get then to behave and one such being had been resting in the Oasis for all that time.

All the gods surrounding the Oasis knew this, but they also knew that all the cardinals were prohibited from attacking the true gods creations and so even though immense power dwelled within them, they were prohibited from using it “or so that is what the stories say.”

As time ticked on by, the soldiers grew anxious as they grew closer to the Godless kingdom, even to those outside the Oasis, their very mention brought an image of an unstoppable force. Not all those that dwelled in the Godless kingdom were warriors but more than half certainly were and it was most likely the case that even the civilians and children were trained day an night to face the horrors of the Oasis. The Godless kingdom was mysterious in nature, no one knew how they procured their food or how they lived in-between so many powerful monsters but even so, no dared approach the kingdom unless they wished to become a citizen.

As the army marched ever forward three thousand men approached led by a single figure clad in light armor, it was Azias and beside him was an incredibly large beastly man it was Likon holding the Hell blade once wielded by a powerful demon who fell to the terrestrial plane and terrorized the people. A great hero vanquished him and took his blade, Likon was a descendent of that hero.

Likon shouted as he his black horse trotted forward. “Turn back or face our might!!!!” his shout chilled the soldiers but over half of them were curse marked and couldn’t disobey Slayn.

“half you people lost your pride and joined forces with that god!!!” Slayn mocked from atop his horse. Likon turned visibly red, he didn’t like the idea either but they couldn’t allow anyone to kll Scitus, it would bring war to the oasis the moment any god claimed a piece of land. Scitus however was perceived as weak and as such no action was being taken but if Mern or if one of the greater gods claimed a piece, war would certainly ensue especially for Scitus’s land which has still shown no signs of becoming a desert.

“only temporarily and after we your kick your ass, we’ll kill him ourselves!!!”Likon shouted with all his might which in turn caused a swell of energy to cover his entire force. All the soldiers behind him shouted as if to confirm their victory.

On the opposing side was slayn army whose fatigue and mental exhaustion from the past few nights made the Godles army appear more terrifying. A few hundred soldiers stiffened, they wanted to run but their was no where to run too, they were on enemy land and so. “AHH!!!!” they shouted and charged, they were not commanded to fight, they were to anxious to hear anything and simply charged forward, Slyan was slightly taken aback and shouted for them to stop but it was already to late for some of them as a volley of arrows fell from the sky and impaled several soldiers. Likon quickly ordered his army to take several steps back and regain some distance while the enemy army was still composing itself.

“go!!! Or we we’ll kill all of you!!!” Likon shouted trying to intimidate the enemy army. This second round of intimidation was successful and some soldiers, those that had not been cursed began to flee, in total about eight hundred men fled, leaving the once ten thousand man army to six thousand two hundred strong..

“you six come with me, and you.” He pointed to a nearby soldier, “tell Albot and Alcon that they will deal with this, if they wish to retreat so be it but us enough time to bypass them.”