MAZE - The Endless Quest

The Alliance army arrived at the camp, the families cheered and quickly set themselves up to leave. Hera was still in the healing tent and she was feeling better, but it would take some time for her to be back in peak condition. Her court, on the other hand, was mostly ready to go. Only Crimson was still too injured to come out, which also meant that Viper was out of commission as well.

Helena was with her cousin, helping everyone get their belongings, mostly clothes, to leave. They would be going back to their home, the city that they were taken from. However, the humans did a number on the place. Some buildings had collapsed, and a few houses were ransacked. At least a few districts were spared, as the invading army wasn’t going over everything in a hurry.

Still, there would be a lot of rebuilding needed, and the Alliance had already organized the people who were supposed to stay behind once they locked the room. But that wasn’t something Hera had to worry about, she had discussed that with Helena already and the mage had no intention of staying in this room after the battle, neither did any of the Harmony Guardians.

As the team in the camp started to be absorbed by the larger army, preparing for the final push to completely take over the room, Hera looked for Kaela. The Pool of Styx was finally ready to be activated. A part of her wanted to trigger the spell right away, but being part of an army also meant following the chain of command. The last time they talked about it, the Scoutmaster asked her to come talk to her once the spell was ready not to activate it right away.

The Ophidianite knew there were a few reasons for something like that. For one, using the spell now would warn the humans that there was something going on. And having the debuff hit them during a fight would have better effects than if she were to give them time to get accustomed to their reduced attributes.

Hera finally found the Scoutmaster inside one of the tents with a few guards outside. She asked to be announced, and they quickly allowed her inside. Kaela wasn’t alone in there, Thalion, the elven leader of the entire army, was also by her side. Both looking at a holographic map on the table that showed their forces in blue and the humans in red. It seemed like almost all humans were hunkering down in their city.

“Ah, Hera. What can I do for you? Is it about the spell?” Kaela asked.

“It is, it got ready a few minutes ago. I can cast it when you say the word,” Hera replied.

“Does it have a time limit? Or can you hold it for as long as we need?” Thalion turned to the Empress, not even greeting her before starting to talk.

“As long as the snakes are still in place, I can hold on to the spell for as long as we need. So far, no one batted an eye at them. Well, a couple had to deal with monsters, but they are strong enough to send them away.”

“Then I was thinking about asking her to wait until we were actually attacking. It will make it harder for humans to find her snakes and they won’t have time to understand what is going on.” Kaela turned to the Commander.

“I agree. It’s better to have that as a surprise for them humans,” Thalion nodded.

Kaela glanced at the table, her eyes focusing on the city. She tapped a couple of times on her tablet, changing the display until it landed on the power grid of the city. One central crystal supplied most of the power that went to the various defenses, including the barrier and some arcane turrents around the walls, “Also… Hera, you mentioned your court could go on missions themselves, right?”

“One mission, it takes a skill, and that has a cooldown. But yes.”

“Do they have to be in their people's form for that?” the Scoutmaster asked.

“To activate the skill, yes, but after it, no. They can be in whatever form they want.”

“Can they handle a dirty job? It’s a stealth mission to infiltrate the city and solve one issue,” Kaela said with a smile.

“Mind if I call them? They are the ones going. It’s better to hear it from them.”

Kaela turned to Thalion, who nodded in agreement. Hera quickly called her entire court. Viper and Crimson still couldn’t show up, and Livy had some bruises, but she was more than willing to participate. The Scoutmaster quickly explained the situation. A large power plant was located in the heart of the city. In there, a gigantic mana crystal would be taking in the mana of several smaller ones to not just supply electricity to the city, but also power the defenses. Including the barrier. Everything went through the big crystal in order to maintain it completely topped up for situations just like this one. When the city was in danger and had to be protected.

Thalion and her were currently discussing who to send inside the city on their own to sneak inside the plant and deactivate the energy. That way, the army could start their siege. The alternative option would be to just continue to attack the city over and over until the mana inside the crystals was depleted, but that could take several hours, if not over a day. Which also brought another problem, the longer they took to finish this, the more likely the human were to be able to send in reinforcements.

“We also know that the barrier has a small flaw. There is a place on the east side of the city where, after a taking a big hit, the barrier will flicker for a moment. It is a small opening that a person shouldn’t be able to pass through. But if your court can become weapons,” Kaela smiled.

“How big of an opening is it?” Hera asked.

“It’s about 20 centimeters wide and 20 centimeters tall. This opening is actually down on the sewers of the city. It’s basically an overflow drain, made just in case the city’s pipes couldn’t handle the water inside their treatment plants. It’s basically a hole in the main barrier, with a secondary one placed on top of that. They made it like that to be able to use it even when the main barrier is active. But if we hit the main barrier with a strong spell that will send out a shortwave through the entire thing, that second one will open for a few seconds,” Kaela explained.

“So we will be going inside the sewers?” Nimbus frowned.

“I did say it was a dirty job,” Kaela smiled.

“Well, I’m out,” Livy sighed, getting weird stares from the rest of the court, “What? Stealth is not my style, and I can’t pass through that,” she showed the war axe. From one blade to the other were a good 80 centimeters, “And my Sea Serpent form is too big for that too.”

Hearing that, everyone turned to Lurize, the second biggest member of the court, “Why are you all looking at me? I can be a beetle,” he huffed.

“I’m out too. This is a stealth mission and I can’t guarantee I’ll be able to control the influence,” Vulcan had his arms crossed.

“So Nimbus, Lurize, and the twins, if Crimson finishes healing in time. Are you two ok with that? I can send Twiggy, or someone else, with you.”

“It’z better if you stay with them. Even if Livy iz going to be around you, itz better to have the court there too,” Lurize replied.

“Ok, so the two of you? Or maybe four, are the twins a single person?” Kaela turned to Hera.

“No, but kind of yes. Just consider either a duo, or four people if they can heal in time,” the Empress looked to her shoulder, where Daskka was resting, “Any clues how long that will take?”

“An hour, maybe two. I don’t have a good sense for that. It’s not like they were destroyed. Injuries don’t have a cooldown.”

“Yeah, we don’t know, two hours, maybe more. It’s finicky,” Hera sighed.

“That’s still a good plan A. And we should arrive there in about three hours. Hopefully, that will be enough time for them to heal,” Thalion said.

“Plan A, so you already have a plan B?”

“Yeah, we do. An aerial strike at the power plant. The problem is that the people casting the spell will be very vulnerable, and it will take a lot of mana to pierce the barrier. Also, it’s not a guarantee,” Thalion explained.

“Plan C is digging a tunnel under the city. If we go deep enough, the barrier shouldn’t be there, but that’s also has its own risks and issues. D is just bombarding the shield until it breaks,” the Scoutmaster continued.

“At least we have options, but I trust them. They should be able to get into the power plant and disconnect everything.”

“And make sure no one gets after them. In a perfect world, the damage to the plant will be minimal. We don’t want to leave people here with more problems than they already will have.”

Nimbus stepped forward, “Ok then. Do you have the plant of the plant?” he frowned, “That’s a weird thing to say. Anyway, do you have it? And a map of the city so we can plan the path?”

“Of course!” Kaela changed the map and started explaining things.

Thalion thanked Nimbus and Lurize for helping and walked out. This was the Scoutmaster’s expertise, and he had other things to do. Hera and her court spent around 30 minutes discussing the plan and to make sure there were few mistakes made during the operation, the Empress ordered her titled blades to remember the plan and the maps that were shown. It felt very uncomfortable for Nimbus and Lurize, but it was the best option for them not to get lost.

Once that meeting was over, the army was preparing to head out. Some would go back to the city under Alliance control while the rest marched towards the human bastion. When Hera left the tent, she gathered with the Harmony Guardians. It took less than a minute for them all to confirm they were going with the army to the city siege.

Helena, on the other hand, wasn’t aware of that decision. And once it was time to split up, the mage just stopped and stared at the Empress.

“Hera… why are you going with that part of the army? Don’t you think you’ve done enough? Aren’t you still hurt?”

“Yes, no, and yes. I still have a job to do, but I’ll be on the back this time. Focusing on long range and defending the mages and archers,” Hera replied.

“Then I’m going with you,” Helena frowned.

“If you want to, that’s fine, but are you going to be ok leaving Brian, Alan, and Celeste?”

Helena glanced back to her cousin, “That’s not fair.”

Hera just shook her head, “It’s a war, Lena. It’s not supposed to be fair. But everything will be ok. I promise. If I see another Soldier of Strength, I’m staying the hell away from them. I’ve done my part.”

“I have to agree with that. You killed two of them, that’s more than enough,” Skyler nodded.

Not long after, they split off, with Hera and the Harmony Guardians marching towards the human city and Helena following the group that was going to stay in the room. Even if it wasn’t that far away, it still took almost two hours to reach their destination. By then, Viper and Crimson were fully recovered, and already aware of the plan.

While still hidden by the forest on the outskirts of the settlement, Kaela found Hera and asked her to prepare for the operation. She quickly gave Nimbus, Lurize, Viper, and Crimson a Royal Quest. Each of them taking about 4 million mana from her core. That should be more than enough for them to move around that far away, and they still had their own cores to use the mana while fighting.

This was it, the battle to decide the fate of the room. Once it was over, they could leave knowing the children would be safe. It was almost time for this very long day to end. All they had to do was one more thing.