MAZE - The Endless Quest

Once they arrived at the camp outside the doorway, everyone had to pass through a checkpoint to confirm they were who they said they were, and to deactivate the internet connection of their tablets. This wasn’t an optional thing, everyone had to do that if they were going to stay here. Communication would be done through messages or spells. In addition to a short range communicator that had a closed connection.

While talking with the guard at the checkpoint, Hera asked, “I have a friend who is supposed to have come here. Can you check if she already arrived?”

“What’s her name?” the elf asked.

“Helena Ditrro, two Rs,” Hera looked around. She was the last of her group to be checked.

The elf tapped a few keys on his tablet, “Yeah, she’s here. Working with the crafters, it seems. Go to the south until you see the forges and ask around the area,” he took Hera’s tablet from the table and deactivated the internet connection, “Here you go. Youre team has been assigned to the green street, plot 87. Head down this road, we have street sings. The crafters are on Red street, towards the lower plots.”

“Got it, thanks,” Hera took her tablet back, but the elf hold on to it looking at his own tablet for a moment, “Is anything wrong?”

“Actually… Yeah, you are being summoned to the command tent.”

“Oh? Ok, I’ll grab the others and head there.”

“Sure, but you are being summoned by name. Just you. I don’t know if the rest of your team will be able to join.”

“Why is that?”

The elf shrugged, “I don’t know. And you should go there before looking for your friend. Some of the generals don’t take like having to wait for others.”

“I’ll head there now,” Hera sighed. She didn’t expect to be called by the leadership of this force. Hopefully, it would just be something about her being an Ophidianite or a minor issue. She really didn’t want to have to leave because she was the only Ophidianite or anything like that, not without Lena.

Hera quickly talked with her team, with Skyler deciding to go along with her while the others found the lot they were assigned. Finding the command tent wasn’t hard. It was the only one with a large flag on top with a symbol in the center.

The background was made out of various shades of blue, that created the illusion of waves, with a white pair of wings shaped like a laurel. Inside that was a light gray mountain with verdant branches coming from behind it, forming the canopy of a tree. Light brown claw marks in a zig-zag were located at the foot of the mountain, as a path led toward it. That was the first time Hera saw an actual symbol for the Alliance, but this one felt right. A little bit of all species that were a part of it.

Eventually, when the Ophidianite grew in number, the Empress would have to talk with the council to add a little thing about them in that mix. Maybe the wings could have a scale pattern, if Queen Typhera would allow that kind of thing, of course.

“Since when do we have an actual symbol?” Skyler asked as they approached the tent.

“I don’t know. Maybe it was something they were working on?” Hera suggested.

“I mean, you know how people in marketing are. Everyone thinks they have a better idea than everyone else. And that is if they are all working together. Can you imagine how complicated everything should be if we are talking about five different governments?” Skyler shuddered.

“I never worked in an office, but I can imagine,” Hera chuckled as they approached the entrance. There were a couple of people standing guard who gave the incoming pair an inquisitive look, “Hi. I’m Hera Quetzaveth. They told me I was summoned.”

The guards nodded, and one of them walked inside. A moment later, he came back out and gestured for Hera to go in, but Skyler had to stay behind.

Walking inside the tent, Hera was met by a group of eight people.

“Is this her?” an elf with short gray hair and a bushy beard wearing leather armor and a green cloak asked, turning to a dwarf that Hera was able to recognize. It was Vazor, the man who was in command during the rampage in the Cinderspire Citadel.

“It is. Hello Hera. Apologies for not letting you rest, but time is of the essence,” Vazor nodded to the Empress.

“Very well, I am Thalion Skor’ide. The commanding officer of this army. Vazor here says you have a spell that can help us during the battle?”

“The one you used during the rampage,” Vazor added.

“Oh. Yeah, that can help. But it’s something that will only do anything against the weaker groups. The ones who are stronger than me won’t be affected by it,” Hera nodded.

“Allowing the bulk of the army to have an easier time would give enough room for the stronger soldiers to take care of the bigger problems,” a harpy with golden feathers and gilded talons spoke while using her wings almost like a cape, “I am Aella Skydancer. Our aerial forces are under my command. Your file says you can fly, if that’s how you are going to fight, we’ll work close together.”

A woman with large ears and a black dog nose leaned forward from her chair, “I’m Kaela Swiftclaw. In charge of reconnaissance. Before we say this will help. Can you explain the spell? Including what you can do to cast it.”

Hera nodded, “Of course. The spell is called Pool of Styx. And it basically creates an area that can debuff people inside while buffing others. The debuff is based on the difference of attribute between me and the ones being affected by it. The weaker they are, the weaker they will get. To cast in a small range, I need just a couple of seconds to create the spell circle. But for something large, I need to actually draw the spell circle. I have an item that creates a number of snakes that can draw that for me, and channel the mana through their bodies to make it work faster, but it still takes a while.”

“How long?” a triton with deep blue skin, pitch black eyes and wearing a long mage’s outfit asked.

“Depends on the size of the spell. In the Cinderspire Citadel, it took me a few days to make the spell circle work due to the shape. If I’m dealing with a mostly flat area, it’s more about the speed my snakes can move. But I need a map of the room to confirm things and prepare the spell before anything,” Hera explained.

“And how long would you need to prepare the spell? I’m Nessia Wavel by the way. Head of magic artillery.”

“Magical operations. Not just artillery,” Kaela sighed.

“In this battle, it’s basically all artillery. And defensive spells,” Nessia rolled her eyes.

“If we are talking about a flat room, just a few adjustments. If there are mountains and things, it might be trickier,” Hera replied without missing a beat. While traveling with Leo and his team, any time she got bored or tired of trying to come up with something new, she would come back to this spell and try to improve it.

“And you need to be in a specific spot, right?” Vazor asked.

“Not anymore. I can leave one of the snakes in that place and continue to move around. I just can’t leave the area of the spell. So while the spell is active, I still can help in the battle.”

“If that spell really is that strong, why would we risk sending you to battle?” a dwarf with a shaved face and short black hair asked.

“Because, Durin, we need to move quickly. I agree that it would be better to leave Hera hidden somewhere because of that spell. But she is also a powerful soldier, and I say that knowing her strength when she was around level 40. Now, I imagine she is much stronger. We need that kind of power if we are going to sweep the entire room in a single day.”

“Fair,” the dwarf nodded, “I don’t know why we are saying this, but I’m Durin in charge of the tactics we are going to use and the extra equipment.”

“She has a seat in the council, Durin,” Thalion explained.

“Then why the fuck is she here?” Durin turned to Vazor, but Hera was the one who replied.

“Because even if I’m the only one of my kind. I wasn’t going to just sit back and watch while this war is going on.”

The group gave an approving nod. Hera realized that there were still two people who didn’t introduce themselves, but they were clearly just assistants.

“How about the buff? How strong is it?” Nessia asked.

“Considering the only condition I can use to cast the spell, it will be minimal.”

“What do you mean condition?” Aella asked.

“I have to give a condition for the spell. Only one. And it can be either for who is going to get the buff, or who will get the debuff. I can say like, red monsters or young insects, get the debuff or people of the alliance get the buff. One or the other. In this case, I can only use the condition ‘Human Soldiers.’”

“Why is that? Why not use the option of buffing us?” Kaela frowned.

“Because of who it would affect. If I use anything other than ‘Human Soldiers’, or ‘Humans with a role’, it will affect all the humans,” Hera replied.

“Why is that a bad thing?” one of the assistants asked.

“Because it will affect all the humans. Without exception. Since we had children there, I’m assuming the humans also have,” Hera turned to the assistant, who nodded in response. However, the other assistant, a triton, still pressed.

“So? They killed our children. And you are just going to give them a debuff. Is this some kind ‘not be as bad as them’ crap?”

“Cadion,” Nessia turned to the man, staring daggers at him.

“For the record. No, this is not about being as bad as them. It’s about not being worse. Yes, I heard that children were killed, but they were all casualties, right? No one was dragging them to the street and executing them in cold blood, or aiming a fireball at a school,” Hera paused and turned to Thalion, “Right?”

“Right, that didn’t happen. The ones that did die were not the target of the attacks, they were just in the wrong place at the wrong time,” Thalion replied.

“Exactly. If I use this spell and let it affect the children, then all of them will drop their attributes to 1. Which means..”

“Their attributes will have a negative 90% modifier. Tripping stops being just something that happens to being a potential danger to their life,” Nessia sighed, “Yeah, I understand why you don’t want to do that.”

“Here is the map,” Kaela passed a tablet to Hera, changing the subject to avoid letting anyone dwell on that kind of thought, “It’s a topographic one. How long do you need?”

The Empress glanced at the map, the room was large, but not too large. It was just about 50 kilometers across, but they would be getting out close to the middle, “I would say somewhere around 24 hours. A lot less if I can have someone dropping off half the snakes on the other side of the room. Then maybe the time can be cut by close to half. The spell circle should be easy to make, the problem is how long it will take for the snakes to travel.”

“I think I can help with that,” Aella nodded, but just one trip. If we do more, it can attract too much attention to what we are doing."

“Ok then. Work on that, when you confirmed that the spell works, let us know,” Thalion turned to the rest of the group, “Check if everything is ready and report back to me. I’ll make the decision once you gave me your reports. You are all dismissed.”

Hera nodded and left the tent, heading out to the crafter area. She might need to prepare a spell, but her priority was something else.