The next morning, my little camping site had turned into a full-on war encampment. After Ash had declared the need to raise an army, he and Olgierd had set off to gather the men and women that served the dry lord. On this side of the between lands, that was meant everybody that was old enough to carry a pike would soon be joining us at the front. Olgierd had argued that he was meant to guard Maria at first, but Dullahan’s verbosity, or rather, his lack of it, meant that the old innkeeper would be the one staying behind with us.

Several hours after their departure, the first group of classers had arrived. Reinforcements had come in the form of a group of six-armed skeleton giants, that would be constructing some basic forts and wooden walls near the petrified dry man. They had been sent first, because they were known as the best builders in the territory.

Afterward, pile after pile of materials had been sent over, carried on carts that were pulled by Revan’s distant cousins, bone wyverns.

As a result, the six-armed giants had quickly managed to construct the necessary amenities for the army. Overnight, the dry forest that surrounded the campsite had been harvested for materials, and a giant encampment took its place.

As daybreak arrived, the first groups of classers started to arrive. Lone undead, necromancers and their servants, dark creatures... All types of misfits, outcasts, and criminals arrived by the dozens, and their number increased exponentially as the sun rose in the sky.

These classers only shared one thing in common: they were here to fight a war, one that would result in many of their deaths. Yet, spirits in the camp ran high. There was no use hiding why we were all here, after all. Every classer here knew that their lord was about to reach tier 7, a tier that was seen as the ceiling of strength, the absolute peak among classers on this continent. Only a few tier 7’s currently existed on the continent, though I only knew about the pope of the Helios church and Ostapor’s steel emperor. Perhaps they were hoping that his advancement would mean a new beginning for them as well, or perhaps they had always been this loyal to their lord...

Olgierd and Ash were still out recruiting, but they were due any second now. Truthfully, I couldn’t wait for their arrival. As the encampment filled up and our numbers rose from several thousand to several tens of thousands of classers, fights were starting to break out and old grudges were rising to the surface. Because nobody understood Dullahan, the remainder of the classers seemed to think it fell to me, as the princess’s only guard that could talk, to sort them out.

For the rest of the day, I went from tent to tent and adjudicated between the different groups and factions. A lot of classers had reached tier 3, and several dozen were tier 4, so it wasn’t like I could use my strength to pressure them into compliance either. Every waking second of that afternoon had been spent arguing with and calming down people that really belonged in a hole somewhere. It didn’t help that they were all insane in some way.

Some hid it well, but would suddenly flip out when you touched a nerve, while others didn’t even bother. One tier 4 necromancer turned out to have some kind of system-enforced obsession with latrine pits, or toilets in general, I guess. He stood outside the camps hastily dug latrine and accosted everyone that used it by asking them to give the latrines their own judgment out of five. If they refused to comply, then he would flip out and attack the poor victim.

In the end, I managed to settle him down by putting him in charge of the latrines, giving him a scroll and magical pen, and telling him to record everything that went in and out. He started recording bugs too, so that kept him too busy to attack people.

After several more of these out-of-control situations, the real nature of the system’s ‘insanity skills’ started to dawn on me. Many of the classers with a dark affinity were people that lacked empathy or simply enjoyed murder. They were irredeemable, whether or not they were victims as well didn’t matter at that stage.

Many others, however, were more like people held hostage by some crazy obsession, or were people that had lost some other crucial part of being human. A rather common ‘insanity skill’ for example, was the loss of touch, taste, and smell. Some would feel permanent hunger or thirst on top of that. In other words, the system was constantly torturing them, driving them actually insane. I had to admit I felt some kind of camaraderie with these people, I even felt pity for some. A lot of these people had tried to deny their awakening for a long time, but failed in the end. Then, they were shunned and exiled, until they found their way here. A home for those that didn’t fit anywhere else.

Don’t get me wrong though, the overwhelming majority of the classers I met were perpetrators rather than victims. They were either too far gone to be saved, or had always been insane or cruel, even before their awakening.

Still, actually meeting the people I intended to hunt as a witch hunter put things into perspective. These had been honest, normal people at some point. Hunting them down was more like putting a haunted soul out of its misery than it was like killing a vile murderer. Actually, scratch that, it was a bit of both.

By late afternoon, Olgierd and Ash finally returned. They had contacted every settlement and convinced every outpost to join us here, though many might not travel fast enough.

Ash had mentioned that the tier evolution would take a few days at least, but now it was looking like it would take quite a lot longer still. The dry lord hadn’t changed a bit, and it seemed the abyss watcher was counting on him being late, because he still hadn’t crossed the border yet.

I joined the three generals in the command tent, where I found Maria as well. The three were hunched over a wooden table with the local map on top. White and black chess pieces had been placed on top of the map, representing the different units on both sides.

“How is the situation looking?” I asked. I wasn’t quite sure how I had gotten a spot among the leadership of the army, but I wasn’t going to refuse it. I felt better when I had at least a little control over the situation.

“Decent enough. Our forces are gathering quickly, as expected. Lord crusty back there was always preparing for a big offensive to get his daughter back, so the necessary infrastructure was in good shape to get many of our troops here in time for the major struggle.”

“Unfortunately,” Olgierd continued, “Our lord could take another week to pass his trials. In the meantime, we’ll have to hold off every single classer and creature the abyss watcher could sway to his cause. All it would take to interrupt the lord’s ascension is a single tier 1 salamander, and he knows this. This is why we, too, have recruited every awakened warrior on this side of the between lands. We have far more and larger settlements than the obsidian crags do, but have less tameable creatures on our side. The numbers should be even, in the end.”

“Hold on, do we have any way to hold off the abyss watcher? Otherwise, we’ll be crushed like ants...” I mumbled. Why were they ignoring the biggest threat?

“Hah. A pact was made between the three rulers of the between lands about a thousand years ago. They can’t step into each other’s territories while their opponent still lives. In other words, the abyss watcher can only send incarnations to fight in this war, which won’t tip the scales on its own. Not if we put our lives on the line.” Ash explained, much to my relief. That meant that, at the very least, this war was winnable.

“And... what will my role be? I appreciate you guys involving me in the leadership, but I’m not exactly strong enough to be fighting the other side’s generals...” I asked.

“Initially, you shall guard the princess against assassins. She is unlikely to be targeted at this point, but losing her would make all this meaningless. Later on, we intend to kill one of the abyss generals, whom I wounded during your escape from the abyssal fort. If we succeed, one of our loyal guards shall replace you as Maria’s guard and you shall come to the front.” Olgierd said, while drawing a finger along a line on the map that represented the border between territories.

I audibly gulped.

“To do... what, exactly?” I asked hesitantly.

“To act as a distraction. I am certain there will be quite a few guards that feel shamed by your successful escape. With your movement skills, you should be able to lessen the pressure on our own men by distracting a few opponents. We especially want you to distract the abyssal sword, a guard that chased you for quite a while last time. The one with golden armor. He’s at the edge of tier 5, and his strength is abnormal for his tier. We can’t let him wreak havoc on our side.” Olgierd explained.

“But it’s fine if he wreaks havoc on me, then?” I asked defiantly.

“You’ll survive. I think.” Ash said with a predatory grin.