Chapter 101: Victorious

Aro traveled down the minor path. The path was rocky and un-tread; it was as if it had been eons since it was last walked upon. The majority of the army was hidden behind them. the mages made sure that not even their breaths could be heard.

The consequence was an eerie and overwhelming silence

The minor path was also a narrow valley, even more narrow than the main path. Only a few dozen men could fit at a time, however, to avoid to scrunched like sardines, the men formed organized groups of 15. The minor path was longer and curved, making it impossible to know what was around the bend.

Attacks could come from above at any moment; but with shields in hand, those men didn't fear what a paltry peasant army could accomplish.

Aro led them well despite never being a true general. His original profession was a butler. The fall of the old kingdom had forced him into the profession. His promotion led to a firey passionate fervor for knowledge. He had spent countless hours, days, nights, studying the art of leading. there was an innate charisma and he certainly had that, he was the head butler after all.

That day would be his first official in command of an army. His aura wasn't as strong as Korin's. His strength lied in his perceptive nature, in his ability to gain his subordinates' trust. The men he led were well-disciplined, trained at a young age. However, he did know the underbelly of the nation, the underbelly that had been hidden from him and Mern, and from anyone who followed Mern. Among the crowd of seemingly obedient soldiers hid vipers and snakes patiently waiting to make a single venomous strike.

Mern had ignored the little aspects of his country for too long; his sorrow and his wrath led him to blind himself to the troubles of his nation, to the corrupt weeds that sprouted from noble to noble. And those nobles did not need to hide their deceit.

The journey through that valley was silent, a silence that was intermittently disturbed by the soft pitter-patter of dewdrops from the trees above, trees which hid the sun like thousands of tiny little hands, darkening their path.

After a long hour, the reached the valley's mouth. The mouth revealed a grassy landscape with larges forests in the far distance. The warm sun, lit the rocky path as they had reached heavens gates. there was something odd but the scene. It was beautiful, and its beauty formed a primal terror. it was strange, silent, dead.

There were men to meet them, no peasants to fight, no marvelous victory awaited them. The snakes silently jeered and were like was disappointed that they would not have the opportunity to the peasant folk in their rightful place, at the bottom of the social ladder.

Aro called upon a group of scouts to inform him of their peculiar situation. The half dozen scouts sent out their tendril-like mana, their senses, and spread them in a radius that reached far from their location. These scouts were not powerful, but when working conjunction, their spells were inferior to Korin and her group; and perhaps, in their minds, together they surpassed Korin herself. Nothing escaped their vision, squirrels, insects, the worms that crawled beneath their feet. In their search, they discovered a magical barrier of sorts. Its nature was unknown to them knew it wasn't an illusion, it was very much real.

"AH!!" one scout jumped, startling the other men; men who then asked what had startled him? The scout's voice shivered as if he didn't believe what he had just seen. "one moment, nothing, the next a woman appeared." The other scouts nodded, they saw her too. Far in distance, just over a large hill, there was a woman with kind eyes and delicate skin. Her skin was so fair that it was as if the sun itself wouldn't dare paint skin. And although they had perceived her at a distance, her skin looked softer more tender than even a newborn.

They had already been informed of her existence, the woman known as the Everon princess, the woman spotted at the lake region border. "a split soul?" some of the men thought. The split souls were rare existences in that world, they were children born identical to one another. In some nations, they were revered, while in others, one would have to die. That was the initial assumption, but Aro thought differently, he believed her to magic clone, an artificial duplicate. Both theories were incorrect., but his plans were short-lived because the woman suddenly evaporated and rematerialized in front of them.

The scouts informed Aro of her presence and further implied that she seemed to be staring at them, despite the great distance. By that point, nearly half the army had escaped the narrow valley. Aro had planned to move his army two and move around the strange woman

"Hello." Her voice intoxicating, mind-melting to the touch. her voice made their hairs stand on end and it tickled their spine; its dazzling power was only reinforced by the odd silence that only some of the wiser folk in the army began to notice, Aro being of one them.

It wasn't a magical effect, the mages attested to that. They couldn't know, couldn't fathom what Hera was. A golem was the closest thing they could ever imagine, but they could know her ability to change her voice, to change it to different frequencies, to elicit different emotions. Like music, she could suggest emotions with only her voice, fear, joy, sadness. Its effect wasn't all-powerful but short of suppressing their sense of sound, her power was undefendable by even the mightiest heroes. that feature was often used in riot control, it wasn't always effective but it would often reduce the destruction with peaceful means.

Aro was stronger willed than most and didn't allow her voice to affect him the same it did others.

Aro deepened his voice, infusing a little intimation magic into it, and said.

"Make way." Hera didn't immediately respond; she acted as if he hadn't spoken. Her eyes were instead drawn to the soldiers, she peered into them as if she had a window into their soul. Her eyes flashed as if making thousands of calculations. That behavior did not go unnoticed, Aro pulled out his blade and placed it against her silk skin.

Hera was unperturbed, with a single finger, she moved the sharpened end of the blade away from her neck, without dropping an ounce of blood. The difference between them was clearly stated by that simple gesture. She was not weak.

Her angelic voice once more resonated with their souls, "The human," her voice gave jitters and almost uncomfortable, it was if something was scarping at the back of their mind, and the worst part was, they liked it. "The human mind is not easily controlled." Hera exposed a wide smile, it was beautiful and the same time, it was artificial fake, eerie.

"It is an irony though, the larger the group, the more easily they are manipulated."

her implication was lost on them, but Aro seemed to have a small grasp at what she intended.

"I'll allow you to pass, but a few of you must stay with me."

Her eyes peered into Aro's soul, waiting for his answer. Aro, to his surprise, momentarily considered her proposition, her was enchanting but he didn't let it control him, nor was it possible to control him, but he did not that. He turned to his subordinates who he saw in a daze as if hypnotized by some power. He was alone, that was the prevalent feeling his heart, he was alone and his army was under her spell. But not a single magic spell had cast upon, not a single ounce of mana spilled from her and onto them.

Aro turned to back Hera, He swung his mighty greatsword and bisected down the middle, starting from her head. She did not bleed, she did not collapse, she did not die. Her voice slowly contorted as if a worm was crawling in the very fabric of sound, "Is that your final answer?" the frequency suddenly changed. It was no longer intoxicating, hypnotizing, mind-melding; no, it had become eerie, terrible, frightening. Her visage only remained beautiful for a moment, across her skin, something crawled underneath, begging to escape. Aro's heart trembled but he quickly regained his resolve. He bisected her again, this time at her waist. Now she was split in 4 but she still did not die, her upper body floated an inch from her lower body, it was as if she was a vengeful phantom.

"GET OUT OF THE VALLEY!!!" Aro commanded in haste.

The startled men quickly tried to leave the valley, but it was a slow agonizing process and all while, the angel-like Hera was transforming into something out of their worst nightmares.

A crack echoed throughout the valley, as the angel's limbs broke in two, as her back snapped into an impossible position, sprouting hairy spiderlike legs from the shattered wounds of her body. Her mouth and nose vanished and her eyes grew 3 sizes and turned dark pitch black. Her eyes were like an endless inescapable void. Her spine exposed itself, growing and moving serpent, carrying her upper body like a ghost. Her arms elongated, stretched further, than even the length of an ordinary human.

One soldier softly muttered, "Holy fuck..." His trembling legs almost betrayed him but ha managed to stand firm. Aro couldn't wrap his head around what he was facing, she was no monster he had ever seen or read about, and he had read every book, every tome of every class of monster. The answer should have been simple, she was an illusion, a horrible frightening illusion. But the mages had already informed him, that the mage sight revealed no magic, it was only that small film of mana, that dome-like spell that covered them. It was ever-present but the mages declared it was only an ambiance suppresser, it was the reason the world seemed so eerily quiet. The spell was created to reinforce the fear she was trying to instill in their hearts.

"courage!!!" The mages began to shout and began to infect the army with a powerful fervor.

"ATTACK!!!" The command was obeyed and to some of these men, they thought to themselves, "Of course I'm going to attack!!!" countless spells flew from every direction, wind, lightning, fire. The swordsmen charged forward and attacked with their blades; their powerful attacks warped the world around them and sent out a powerful streak of sharp wind towards the horrifying creature. The creature wailed and screeched in a sound that those men had never heard in their lives, a sound they were sure only existed hell for the most heinous of men.

The horrible creature's fingers stretched at impossible speeds, penetrating through the misfortunate soldiers' armor. these men screamed as those fingers lifted them high and the spit them apart as if they were easily torn worms.

Their only respite was the fact that they were injuring the monster, but their men were dying at a much faster pace. Aro noticed the strange series of dying men. these men were people who he greatly trusted, men who he felt held the same ideals as himself. People who valued honor discipline, these were the men, the monstrous creature was targeting. And that was the moment, like a huge mountain crushing him, the realization came to him. "humans are more manipulated in large groups." her angelic voice echoed in his mind. "She's getting rid of the ones who aren't easily manipulated." Aro gulped in terror, but that terror wasn't the same as the one before, it wasn't because of a powerful monster was tearing them apart, but because an intelligent and sinister design was being drawn right before him, and he was helpless to stop it.

"Hello" the angelic voice chilled Aro to his core, Hera stood behind, not the hideous monster, but rather her beautiful human form. Hera cupped his mouth, Aro wanted to ask so many questions and Hera seemingly read his mind, "All in do time..." she whispered into his ear as she slowly dragged him beneath the earth.

That was a reality but the others saw Aro being lifted to the skies and then being split apart to four pieces. He screamed something terrible as if even his soul was suffering from a horrible primal terror.

They didn't know that Hera had them in her palm from the beginning. The spell dome around them was not just to instill a subconscious terror from the unnatural quiet, it also served to hide her body, her nanites. every one of her nanites held a tiny aspect of her soul and they were powered by minuscule amounts nearly imperceptible mana. She had guided these small parts of her and covered the armies eyes, allowing her to create powerful illusions that served to enhance her ability to morph her body into anything she wished

No one knew of the ruse she pulled, not even as her monstrous illusion died by the countless onslaught attacks. those men were proud they had defeated a monster, so proud they had defeated nothing at all.

In the end, little over half the original force remained. The men were initially confused when suddenly Mern spoke to them, and appointed who he believed at the time, was the most fit to lead. He would come to regret that decision.

"The objective remains the same, take Everon." the newly minted commander, a snake, smiled and nodded his head.

As the snake led the army towards Everon, Mern contemplated what had happened to Aro. "He is alive, but I can't contact him, nor can I locate him." He understood his enemy was using a form of blocking magic but for what purpose? That was what Mern could not understand, "why capture him?"