Zeke stood in the large hall on the lowest floor of the Alexandria, his back against the wall. He tried to relax, but his mind refused to settle. Hours had passed since he had discovered the true state of the inner regions, and he had not been able to stop thinking about it since.
He began to question his very presence in Rukia, what it meant to fight this war, and what he was actually hoping to achieve by being here. The longer he thought about it, the more tangled his thoughts became. The more he pondered, the less certain he felt.
Fortunately, that agonizing wait was about to end, and those intrusive thoughts would soon be washed away in the frenzy of battle.
His gaze slowly moved over the others standing close to him. Zelkara stood nearest, her eyes growing more feverish by the minute. She and the Bloodguard, as always, would form the vanguard of the assault.
Irisen and David would make up the second wave to deal with any heavy hitters. This time, however, the two Archmages were joined by Rhea. Together with the Titan, the number of opponents who could possibly pose a threat to this force was very small.
Ash, Gravitas, and the delegation from Undercity formed an independent strike force. They would be able to carry out rapid response missions or reinforce the line if any unforeseen circumstances arose.
That left Raileh, the only combat capable healer in the squad. She would be deployed wherever the fighting was hardest and most bloody. Despite her supportive Magic, she was certain to witness the worst of the battle.
All in all, the formation was not very different from previous battles. However, to Zeke, it felt entirely new. For the first time, he would not oversee the battle from the command center of the Alexandria, but stand beside them.
He, like the rest of them, would be just another part of the machine. No longer a player, but merely a piece.
Zeke did not even know exactly what their target would be. He had left the decision entirely to Akasha. Partly because he wanted her to prove her autonomy. Another part of him, however, welcomed the chance to shed the burden of planning the assault.
Finally, he heard Akasha's voice in his head. From the reactions he could observe, the others were receiving the same briefing. It was the first time they heard Akasha speak in her own voice instead of mimicking his.
"Our target is a logistics hub supplying Strattlehold and Highgrove with grain and general supplies. I expect heavy resistance and possible reinforcements. Your mission is to destroy all storage facilities. Do not waste time capturing or securing anything. Destroy on sight and move on."
That was the general overview sent to everyone. Next, the voice Zeke heard diverged from the others as it continued with his specific mission.
"Your role in this battle will be that of a mobile assassin. Strike at high value targets and inflict as much damage as possible. Your ultimate objective is to locate and eliminate the enemy commander. If that proves unfeasible, escort our heavy hitters to their location and assist in the elimination as best as possible."
Zeke accepted his orders without a word. In truth, it was exactly the mission he would have assigned himself as well. Akasha, despite gaining her independence, remained heavily shaped by his influence.
A few minutes passed in silence as everyone made their final preparations. Zeke used the time to determine his first steps after deployment. Then Zelkara began to move. Behind her, the Bloodguard filled the entire space, their serpentine bodies making an eerie scraping sound as hundreds of them moved in unison.
As if summoned by their movement, the hatch at the end of the corridor opened just as Zelkara reached it. The Pureblood did not hesitate and immediately leapt out without even checking her landing site. The Bloodguard followed in her wake.
The three heavy hitters went next, followed by the independent squad. Only then did Zeke receive his signal.
"Go."
Letting go of the breath he had been holding, Zeke sprinted toward the ramp and jumped.
Immediately, a rush of cold air assaulted him as he began to fall. His clothes were pulled tight against his body, and his hair whipped back.
However, Zeke barely noticed. The moment he left the Alexandria, he extended his perception to its limit. His Sphere of Awareness now captured the battlefield for hundreds of steps in every direction.
The flood of information was overwhelming. For an instant, Zeke felt as if his head might explode. How long had it been since he had attempted such a wide sweep on his own? It was torture. The human mind simply was not meant to receive such an amount of information. It was like a thousand pairs of eyes each delivering their sight at once.
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Fortunately, Zeke only had to hold that image for a moment before he found what he was looking for.
A perfect spot.
Before his feet could even reach the ground, his figure vanished from the open air and reappeared in a small room.
First step achieved. He had landed safely and out of sight. Taking a few slow breaths, he moved on to the next step of his mission. Focusing on his Spatial Awareness, he tried to form a clear picture of the current situation without overtaxing his mind.
But what he saw gave him a different kind of headache. It was utter chaos.
To the north, Rhea was tearing through buildings, seemingly chasing someone. Zeke also caught flickers of moving shadows alongside her, most likely David providing support.
Zelkara and the Bloodguard moved like a flood. Everyone who stood in their way was quickly killed. Meanwhile, the south had become the most chaotic part of the battlefield. Irisen had created several towering abominations that looked like a fusion of treants and her trademark butterfly seeds. Most likely, they were the result of combining her signature spell with Cassius's Growth Magic.
Zeke ignored the chaos and focused on what he was actually looking for. Supplies, valuable targets, and the enemy commander.
Soon, his mind locked onto one of the three.
In the direction Zelkara was heading, he found several large halls. Inside were mountains of grain and rations, enough to feed an army. Which, thinking about it, was exactly what they were meant to do.
Instead of acting immediately, he took a moment longer to assess the security. He could not afford to get bogged down.
Fortunately, the sizable security force was completely focused on the approaching tide of Bloodguard. They had formed a perimeter outside the buildings to meet them head-on.
Zeke smiled and began to form his spell. A moment later, he disappeared from his location and emerged inside the large warehouse he had just observed through his spatial perception.
Immediately, dozens of eyes turned toward him. Zeke looked back at them. Half elves, all of them. They were ordinary people. Their ears had not been mutilated, proving that they had never even been worth a trip to one of the prisons.
Zeke could not help but sigh, but he did not hesitate. A slight pulse from his Core caused their eyes to turn hollow and their movements to stop. They stood there like marionettes with their strings cut.
They were not dead. Zeke did not have the heart to go that far. But that did not mean he would simply let them go. A blast of concentrated Mind Mana was enough to overload their brains. How quickly they would recover depended on their abilities. It could take minutes or hours.
With a bit of luck, they would walk away from this in one piece. If not, they could only blame their misfortune.
Stepping past the crowd of paralyzed workers, Zeke reached the first silo and paused. His expression grew thoughtful. He had not fully considered how to deal with these supplies now that he had reached them. Common sense suggested burning them, but on second thought that seemed foolish against the Legion.
A single flicker of Mana from one of their Flamecallers would extinguish the fire immediately.
One moment passed, and then another.
Zeke tilted his head. Now that he thought about it, he did not possess a single spell capable of causing large scale destruction. Mind Magic would have no effect at all, while Blood Magic was limited by his body's supply. That left only Space.
But Space Magic was non destructive by nature.
Well. He would have to make it work somehow...
Zeke did not pause for long before forming a crude outline of Mana around the large silo. Any Mage trapped inside such a shabby formation would need no more than a breath of Mana to break the structure. The silo, however, was powerless to resist.
A moment later, he inspected his work with a proud smile. Then he initiated the teleportation. The destination? There was none. The moment the silo entered the void, Zeke retracted his energy.
The result was that the towering construct, holding tons of grain, simply vanished from existence.
Honestly, Zeke did not even know what would happen to anything he threw into the void. The fold between dimensions was as mysterious as it was dangerous. But one thing was certain. Anyone below the rank of Exarch would be unable to retrieve anything from there.
And what Exarch would lower themselves to retrieve grain?
Zeke dusted off his hands, quite satisfied with his work. He leisurely walked to the next silo and repeated the process, then the next, and the next.
By the fourth, he could hear the sounds of intense battle outside, but he refused to be distracted. Zelkara would be able to handle it. And if not, Akasha would instruct someone to assist.
The thought made him smile.
This venture had turned out to be more pleasant than he had expected. The simple fact that he could let go of all his worries and focus on a single task felt novel to him.
People always spoke negatively about being a small cog in a larger machine. But Zeke, who had only known the other side of that equation, found the experience surprisingly liberating. What was wrong with having a simple task and doing it well? Was that not far better than trying to solve a thousand problems at once while the lives of everyone hung in the balance?
Perhaps he would feel differently in the future, but for now, Zeke wholeheartedly relished such a role.
It only took a few more minutes to clear out the entire warehouse, with all supplies tossed into the void.
With his job finished, Zeke was just about to search for his next target when he felt something strange. It was like a whisper. He immediately raised his guard. His first thought was that a Mind Mage was targeting him.
However, even with his Mana flaring, nothing changed.
This did not feel like an external force trying to influence him. Instead, it seemed to come from within. Zeke traced the sensation and realized it spread through his entire body like a yearning. It was strongest in his heart.
Zeke frowned as he tried to determine the source of this sudden hunger.
Then he saw it.
Outside, a large battle had erupted. The Bloodguard was locked in a bloody melee with the Ehrenlegion. Neither side could gain the upper hand, largely due to the numerous healers supporting the Legion.
However, Zeke barely paid attention to the fighting. His gaze was not on the combatants at all. Instead, he looked below.
It was utterly mesmerizing.
The ground, as far as the eye could see, was slick with blood.
To Zeke, it almost looked as if a crimson carpet had been rolled out especially to welcome him. The look in his eyes changed. His heart began to beat faster and faster, like a drum building toward a crescendo.
Zeke licked his lips and took an unconscious step toward the exit.
If they were so kind as to invite him, how could he refuse to come?