MAZE - The Endless Quest

Once the squad of Soldiers of Strength fell, the Alliance was able to push through the rest of the human army without that much trouble. The Daemon bound warriors had used a buff when the fight began to empower the human troops. And once they were defeated, Hera’s Pool of Styx was able to press down even harder on the ones affected by it.

With the lowered attributes, very few people managed to withstand the Alliance assault. Even so, they made sure to go down swinging. Every four people the humans lost, the Alliance lost one. That was better than the projection, but not by that much. Once enough of them were defeated, and the leaders of the human army were either killed or captured, the rest of the army collapsed and gave up.

“So, what do we do now?” Hera asked while walking towards a group that was bringing some prisoners towards the back of the camp. The humans looked shell-shocked and walked almost like zombies, but their wounds had already been treated.

“Neria is still healing the people, Vash is resting, Flint and Roan should be in the front lines cleaning up the stragglers, and Skyler... I don’t know,” Vulcan sighed.

“Maybe we should go to the power plant?” Livy suggested.

“I’m not sure we can, not now, at least. And Kaela seems to be busy,” Hera looked around, she was able to recognize the Scoutmaster in the distance, but she was giving orders and helping people move around. With the actual battle over, they had to make sure the human army was properly dismantled.

‘I’m worried about the others,’ Sun sighed, the entire court was still outside. The battle might be over, but they couldn’t just rust after the titled blades. Hera wasn’t in a good condition, not to the point where she could just risk going behind enemy lines.

Instead, they continued to hang back, helping with anything they could. Mostly carrying those injured to the healers and moving rubble around to clear a path to the city. Even if the fight was over, things were not going to slow down. The members of the Alliance understood that, but their rush only made the humans living in the now occupied city more restless.

About one hour later, there was a commotion near the power plant. The humans seemed to be gathering around it. Hera tried to listen in on what was happening, but they were too far away. It didn’t take long for the noise to spread, and she understood the reason for the turmoil. The title blades were back, and with them, almost 100 members of the human army in a daze.

“What happened?” Hera rushed over, unsure of how things ended up like that. She trusted the titled blades, of course, but that was an entire battalion. Without the awakening, the buffs Twiggy and she could give, and their teamwork, she doubted the four of them could handle that many people.

“Hera!” Crimson gasped and ran towards her, giving the Empress a hug, “Are you ok?”

“I’m fine, Crim. Now what happened? How did you do this?” the Ophidianite looked around again. Nimbus and Lurize were talking with one of the commanders to pass the prisoners.

“Well, we did have some trouble getting to the power plant. We found this lost kid and helped him get to one of the bunkers, but that made the humans find us. While trying to outrun them, we reached the power plant. Spent way too long, trying to figure out the layout of the fucking place. Once we got into the vents, it became easy. Holding the control room wasn’t that much of a problem. Well.. sort of. There was this woman who kind of snapped out of the brainwashing. I think. Viper was a bit of a dick to her, but things worked out in the end. “

Hera frowned, “What do you mean snapped out of the brainwashing? Is it really that bad already?”

“I think so. She got a killer headache. I even had to try healing her,” Crimson looked back and pointed to a woman who looked haggard amongst the group they brought. Her eyes sunken and her hair without any sheen, “That’s the one. She’s a bit better now, but I really thought she was going to die.”

They watched as Lurize pointed a healer to the woman, and she was separated from the group. Nimbus and the others started to walk in Hera’s direction right after. Having passed everything along to the Alliance.

“So they are using a stronger mind control? I really hope it’s just in places like this, not everywhere,” Hera sighed.

‘I don’t think they will be using that kind of thing everywhere,’ Twiggy replied.

“Why is that?” Daskka looked up at the tiara.

‘It wouldn’t make sense. Like, if they used a powerful hypnosis spell, then the humans back on earth would all be going nuts. Imagine a spell that is strong enough to do that to someone level, what? 30? 35?’ Twiggy turned to Crimson, which was a bit odd to do while on top of Hera’s head, forcing the Ophidianite to turn around as well.

“28 actually.”

‘Oh, ok. Still, if a spell can affect someone at that level that much, imagine what it can do to a bunch of people at level 1. Not to mention children,’ Twiggy explained.

“That’s fair. If that happened, I don’t think the people back on earth would be just accepting everything if that spell or whatever they are using was turning people into zombies,” Hera nodded. She glanced back at the people that were just following the alliance soldiers without saying anything and added, “But what about them? It was another mind control thing?”

“Not really,” Crimson shook her head, “To be honest, they did that to themselves.”

“How so?” Vulcan frowned.

“Hey everyone!” Nimbus arrived with Lurize and Viper right behind him. They all stopped the conversation to greet everyone and make sure no one was injured. Once that was over, the Sentinel continued with the explanation.

“Ok, so, after we got control over the power station, people tried to come back inside the control room and stop us. At first, they tried breaking the door down, but that didn’t work since I used a few barriers on the door itself. Eventually, they gave up breaking in and tried something different.”

Lurize stepped up to continue the explanation, “They activated a trap that released a numbing gas. It’s kind of like an air borne anesthetic from what we’ve been told. But instead of just knocking you out completely, it makes you lethargic and very susceptible to orders. They flooded the vents with that in hopes of making us open the door, but we don’t need air.”

“And instead of realizing something was wrong, they just thought that we had a higher tolerance and continued pumping more and more gas. When the command room looked like a sauna, where we couldn’t even see our hand in front of our faces, the humans that were there started to collapse. Because of all that, we couldn’t watch over the controls and they kept trying to restart the barrier. In the end, we decided to open the doors to vent the place. The entire group of humans was right outside the control room and the gas caught them. Because of the high concentration, they didn’t have a chance against it, and the ones that tried something to fight back were knocked out by us. Then, all we had to do was to wait for the Alliance to show up and tell them to follow us,” Viper concluded the story.

“I see, well done,” Hera smiled at her titled blades, “Do you want to finish the quest or do you still want to be able to move more or less freely?”

“I think we should complete the quest. It’s better for us to be together now,” Nimbus replied.

Nimbus and the twins nodded in agreement. They all kneeled down in front of the Empress and took turns kissing the back of her hand, as it was necessary for the skill itself. A few people stopped to watch the scene. A large portion of the army heard about one of the members of the council who was participating in the battle. It didn’t take long for the rumor mill to expand that. Now, a lot of people thought the Ophidianite Empress was supposed to be the commander of the entire operation, but she refused the job to join the rescue team. People even heard about how she sent her most trusted adviser to take over the power plant, and about a spell that could change the tide of battle. Almost no one knew for sure what spell that was, some mentioned the Elemental Meteor, while others said it was an army wide buff that only someone with a legacy made for a ruler could use.

Seeing that scene only increased the rumors. People watched as the titled blades brought an entire battalion of humans in a daze and then went to greet the Ophidianite by kissing her hand. Any chance Hera had of going unnoticed was completely gone.

The next couple of hours were just as busy, if not more than anything else. The Alliance army had to quickly wrangle all the human armies and take it to one of the doorways that led out of the room. At the same time, they separated their own army into two groups. Those who would stay locked in this room, and those who would go back.

During that time, the Harmony Guardians gathered. Everyone was ok, even if Roan and Flint had some minor injuries. The dwarf made sure to be only helping with the demolition, and during the fight, he retreated to the second line of defense. While the beastmen was able to trigger his bestial armor and go wild against the humans. The increased defense and power that the skill gave him was more than enough to protect him during the clash. It also helped that he wasn’t close to where the Soldiers of Strength appeared. He had no illusion of being able to fight them off and get out without injuries.

Eventually, they were called to a small guardhouse by the walls that was being used as a temporary command tent. Inside, they found Kaela and Thalion.

“Hello, Harmony Guardians. I want to thank you for all the help you’ve given us today,” the elven commander wasn’t wearing armor or a shirt. He only had a jacket and pants. The reason for that was the large wound on his shoulder. Most of his upper torso was covered in blood-soaked bandages, and there was a bandage on his left eyebrow and cheek. It was clear that he almost lost the entire eye.

“What happened?” Vash asked, getting a slap on the back of the head from Skyler right away.

“Don’t ask that!”

Thalion chuckled, “That’s fine. This was the work of the Soldiers of Strength. We’ve managed to defeat them, but it wasn’t without cost,” he looked down and mumbled, “I’m not even sure if it was worth it.”

Hera’s eyes went wide, she glanced back, worried that someone heard them but noticed a familiar magic surrounding the group. Kaela had placed her own version of a soundproofing spell around them and no one outside would be able to listen to their conversation.

“Why do you say that?” Roan asked.

Thalion opened his mouth, but he couldn’t say the words. Instead, Kaela stepped in, “We lost a number of powerful individuals. Aella, Vazor, Marisha, Goshkra, and that’s just to name a few. In total, of the 78 people above level 50 that came here, only 53 are alive. The problem is… the humans only had 12 above 50, and none of them were high enough level to be able to handle all of us easily. If it wasn’t for the Soldiers of Strength, we wouldn’t have lost as many.”

“That brings me to you, Hera. You were the only person who was able to fight with not one, but two of them on your own and survive. Actually, that would be three, if we consider the prototype,” Thalion looked in the eyes of the Empress.

“Ok. I know that look. No, I’m not that strong. The only reason I could do all that is because of a skill that makes one of my titled blades get double their attributes. And we figured out that Vulcan is a counter to their power. His Daemon side can interrupt the connection and weaken the Soldiers of Strength for a few moments.”

“Why didn't you tell us that?” Kaela frowned.

“Because we figured it out during the fight and there is nothing that can be done about it. Vulcan needs to be in a specific condition where he fights against anyone, be it friend or foe. And he needs to use a skill that lasts only a few moments. What’s the point of sharing something like that if there is no way to use it? Besides from what I heard, the ones that attacked the camp were not as high a level as the ones here," Hera continued. At least one of The Soldiers of Strength that showed up here was level 60, while the ones she faced were just bait above 50.

“I see,” Kaela looked down, deep in thought.

“Still, that doesn’t change the fact that you did something that no one was able to accomplish. I want to thank you for it nonetheless,” Thalion continued, “In addition, your team will not be staying here in the room, correct?”

“Yeah,” Neria nodded.

“Then go to the doorway we took to get here. You are free to cross and wait in the next room for the rest of the army. We will be finishing up what we need to do here and leaving before the human reinforcement arrive. But don’t go away. I believe I know what your next mission will be,” Thalion finished.

The group thanked him and left the tent with mixed feelings. Like the commander had said, it was hard to call this a win. Even if they were successful in their tasks, the price they had to pay was very high. Still, this was over. The families were safe and now they could go to the other room and rest after this extremely long day.