– Era of the Wastes, Cycle 219, Season of the Setting Moon, Day 63 –

"Layla, what are you doing?!" Her superior gasped with horror when he realized where the mage's gate was actually connecting to. They were supposed to retreat to the next defensive line behind their barrier towers. Instead, their squad was now faced directly with the outsiders.

"What I should have done from the beginning of this battle!" growled Layla. Some of her squad re-positioned themselves with her while others carried furious expressions.

"Traitor!"

"The outsiders are going to kill us!"

"LOOK AROUND YOU!" shouted Layla at the top of her lungs. "Stop looking at the outsiders and look at the funghouls! They're right in our midst and these creatures are only concerned with the outsiders! What does that tell you?! Open your eyes, damn it! The message from heaven was right! Think for a second or the Sun will be lost!"

"Says the one betraying the Sun!"

"Layla…" The group's superior took a deep breath. "Soldier, we can't—""

"Just! Look!" Layla pleaded desperately. She shook her head with maddened eyes. "Someone is controlling the funghouls and it's not the outsiders. These creatures killed my brother and those controlling them are hidden among us! I won't fight on their side. I refuse. I won't. I simply won't." Her mana flared and it was clear she would rather fight her own comrades than follow along with their orders.

Soldiers positioned themselves in front of the deserters. A fight was inevitable.

Their leader clenched his teeth. He didn't see a way to salvage the situation. He had to make a choice.

His orders or his subordinates.

His eyes couldn't help but drift towards the surrounding battles.

A single moment of hesitation.

A single moment of clarity.

Clarity about what he was seeing.

"Stand down." The command escaped like a whisper from his lips, but it might have been a thundering explosion in the ears of his subordinates. "Layla is right. Look around." He took a deep breath, composed himself, and firmly shouted his next orders. "Kill the funghouls! Assist those doing so! Kill the cursed creatures! For the Sun!"

"""For the Sun!"""

A giant stormed through Layla's gate. The giant was protected by a mobile barrier. From the giant's back, a voice mumbled. "Alrighty then."

Jorg used a communication talisman. [Clear. Some look displeased but they're not attacking us. I'll proceed here with Deekin and join up with Verecund while Rafael can take the scenic route to clean up. If I notice anything off, I'll teleport us out."

***

High up in the sky, Terry stood immovable and with his eyes closed to better focus on the feeling of his mana touch. He warned Jorg about the single sun elf soldier moving away from the group in what could be an attempt to either ambush Jorg or join up with the cultist-loyal elves.

Terry shifted his attention to unleash a rush of spell slicers to cover Razkiel and his giants rampaging into the Sun's defensive line. He shaped finger runes to remind the giant ancestor that he was supposed to keep the pace with the moon elves to let them cover their flanks from enemy spellwork instead of relying on the giants' powerful bodies alone.

Terry felt Mia jump around via the gaps of the Sun's spatial seal pattern. Wherever she appeared, cultist-loyal commanders were losing their heads. All he had to do was point her in the right direction. Point her towards the location where her swift intervention would have the most impact.

Terry told Yorgos where to place his gate to let the moon elves join up with the Sun rebels to support Verecund's group before their constructs would fall to the funghoul assaults. Reminded him where a single spatial barrier would serve to flip the tides.

Sensing around.

Controlling the flow of battle.

To Terry, it was a miracle his communication talismans hadn't caught fire from overuse yet

Everyone else shared similar thoughts about Terry's brain.

Terry was oblivious to their thoughts. He simply felt in his element. With his limitations, he had always been forced to stretch his senses to get by.

With his single spell, he always had to rely on immovable objects or barriers when faced with too many opponents or ranged attacks. From the manaleech fireants his aunt had him face, over Harrison's lighting attacks, all the way to his battles in the folded space and the Free Factions Union.

This battlefield was nothing new.

It was no different.

No different, except for its sheer scale.

The shroomans were drumming up an endless cloud of Terry-linked mana that pumped into the regular and shadow planes simultaneously.

Terry's senses and reaction speed were stretched to their limits.

Limits that most local elves and giants receiving his constant instructions and assistance found unfathomable.

Limits that felt entirely unsatisfactory to Terry. Compared to his experience as a dungeon defender, this was still nothing. It only served to make him feel wanting.

Silent message after message left his talismans.

Finger runes shaped where talismans were lacking. In addition to the incessantly repeating words for the Sun's conflicted forces. Words to remind them of the choices in front of them. To never let them forget that they had a choice.

Terry felt Oz's situation. His message reached Patricia, who fell back to bait her opponent into believing she could press her advantage, only for a shadowy blob to unleash a lethal lance into the sun elf's back.

Terry ordered Oz forward. His slimy companion moved swiftly through the shadows at a speed that even rivaled Khaled. A speed that could not just be achieved with a simple shadow haste ability. A speed that required a teleportation of some form.

Terry couldn't say he was surprised that the oozing glutton had displayed such an ability right after Terry had promised it food for days if it matched the pace of the infiltrators.

With two planes at once, Terry observed a battlefield larger than ever.

With continuously increasing masses of linked mana, Terry perceived more details than he ever had to handle.

No different, except for its scale.

A scale that required to give his entire attention to managing it.

This felt like the opposite of his experience in the Freedom Cooperative. He had to face the Count in single combat, because none other could have held their own against the powerful vampire for their plan to work.

This felt different from his battle in the folded space, where he had coordinated the martialists, but still contributed to the fight at the frontline.

Here, Terry did not directly join the fight. They had more than enough frontline fighters. If they wanted to end this with as few lost lives as possible, then his most important contribution was not the power of his king spear or divine hammer.

In his current role, he didn't have to contribute his individual combat strength.

Terry had to contribute his perception and judgement to act as the coordinating center for the entire battle.

High up in the sky, Terry stood immovable while his mana and orders moved across the entire battlefield.

If it wasn't for his more direct link with Oz, Terry would have felt lazy. At least the shadow slime allowed him a more direct hand in what was going on. Otherwise, his active role would have been limited to the occasional contraction and acceleration of mana into a disrupting rush of spell slicers.

For the briefest moment, Terry wondered if this was what a dungeon core felt like.

Observing.

Ordering.

But never interfering directly.

Terry didn't have time to dwell on his useless thoughts. He still had other objectives to accomplish. Maintaining his concentration for the coordination of others was not the only reason he had to hold back on joining the frontlines.

In this battle, Terry had many roles to play.

Roles that would depend on how the battle proceeded.

For now, he had to conserve mana as much as possible. His allies weren't solely comprised of battle-crazed martialists whose back he had to watch at all times to ensure they didn't get themselves killed early. His allies weren't weak, either. Besides capable Guardians and Guildheads, they even had two dimensional mages on their side. Against the armies of this realm, Mia and Yorgos were much more effective than Terry could ever hope to be.

The narrative has been illicitly obtained; should you discover it on Amazon, report the violation.

So Terry could conserve his mana. More importantly, he had to. As much as possible while still fulfilling another objective.

Terry could feel Tiana and Vess cause a ruckus at their location. Tiana's lightning doubles were quite the terrifying sight. Terry had no doubt it was even more terrifying for the local elves, who were entirely unfamiliar with aspect beings.

The Moon had witnessed Tiana fight the Deadlands, but the Sun had no such direct experience, which meant it was a great way to draw attention.

Drawing attention close, but not too close. Nothing more than a cover for what was happening below.

Tiana was creating a hell of a spectacle, which was good, but Terry couldn't allow the overall attention to linger there for too long.

Tiana played her role perfectly. A flashy show to misdirect attention.

Terry had to fulfill his own role as a second layer of misdirection and as the primary bait. Another set of plans folded into one.

Terry had made a large and noticeable entrance only to disappear with cloaked mana right at the edge of the Sun's sealed space. As the person that had led the scouting ambush on the Sun's secret compound, everyone knew the cultists' senses would latch onto him.

Making noise only to fall completely silent would serve to make them paranoid. Paranoid about all the wrong things.

Terry had made enough of a nuisance of himself by splitting the Sun's forces with well-placed messages. He had left enough of an impression with his deliberately pulsing mana to practically shout it was him who was sending the messages. Both the messages that created the infighting among the Sun and the messages that coordinated the allied forces.

It was time to add another layer from their plans to the battlefield.

At the heart of the cultists, disruption fields compressed to bite into the channeling anchors of the five fungus-infested elders tending to the cursed tree.

Terry could practically feel the rage from their souls, and he gleefully continued, because he knew if they were enraged now, then they were about to really lose it with his next move.

They had ignored the disturbance of their channeling anchors, because they were all focused on protecting the tree at their center.

A moment later, the tree's own otherrealm anchor was enveloped by another disruption field, and that wasn't all. Its dead outer bark became transfixed. More disruption fields sprang up to grind into the immovable bark with unstoppable shifts.

It didn't take long for Terry to sense their increasing rage with satisfaction.

His disruption fields were not enough to cut off their connection, but they were enough to cause a disturbance and debilitate them. A debilitation on top of the Wrath they had already been cursed with.

His unstoppable shift was slow, but inevitable. An inevitable chisel piercing into the cursed tree they protected.

Both were sure to draw attention.

Terry would watch the battlefield develop. Some of the moving pieces still had to fall into place. The shadows weren't ready yet, but Khaled was getting close. He would wait until the cultists' patience had eroded further.

Until their tempers were ripe to overtake them.

Until everything was ready to let their plan unfold.

Only then would it be time to reveal himself. Reveal a target for the pseudo-avatars to latch onto.

Someone had to face their first punch.

Terry didn't believe his Immovable Object would lose out to a false god's pseudo-avatar.

What about afterwards? What if he was wrong?

Terry wasn't worried. He felt the slight weight on his back. He knew he wasn't alone. If blocking turned out impossible, they still had another way.

***

Tiana thrust the long spear in her left hand into the back of a funghoul giant's knee. Her will clamped down on the elementals inside of her until they followed her orders and furious lightning roared from her hands to follow her spear forward where it exploded the giant's leg. The funghoul giant lost its balance and fell right onto a pocket of cultist-loyal sun elves.

More lightning snaked around Tiana's second spear pole. It activated the enchantments and connected with the detached spearhead flying around the battlefield while slicing their enemies apart. The rotating blade of death sped up and returned to Tiana's spear with a sharp metallic sound.

Tiana glanced at Vess, who was covering a squad of moon elves with barriers and healing. Seeing her friend fight together with the Moon caused a range of emotions to cross Tiana's heart.

Tiana felt responsible for what had happened to Vess. It was her who had led Vess into this cursed realm. It was her who had chosen to fight in the Deadlands together with the Moon. It was her who had failed to notice sooner when the moon elves had intentionally infected her companion with the Wrath.

Tiana would have cursed herself, if not for the repeated reminder that her guilt was misplaced.

[I think they're assembling a construct down the second wall.] Terry's voice echoed in her mind.

"Oh, no they're not," muttered Tiana. Her lightning clones cracked thunderously before bypassing the enemies in their path and wreaking havoc onto the offending cultist-loyal sun elves.

Terry's voice allowed Tiana to focus her powers where they would create the most impact. She knew it wasn't just her, either. With Terry to direct the battle and the dimensional mages to mobilize everyone required instantly, they had a good chance to push through, even against a significant numbers disadvantage and with the assistance of the Moon, the giants, and the deserting sun elves, their numbers disadvantage against the funghouls wasn't that daunting anymore.

Terry's voice also reminded Tiana she shouldn't feel guilty for Vess's fate. Hearing him meant hearing herself. Hearing herself when she told him off for similar self-blaming thoughts.

Hearing Terry also reminded her of the words he had said to the Moon. Tiana's lightning involuntarily burst forward from her body while she clenched her fists. The Moon better hope that Terry had the right idea. If at the end of this battle, there wasn't a hope to cure Vess in sight, then the Moon would pay. They would hunt down those involved in infecting her.

Terry had said so and Tiana knew Terry would keep his word.

Tiana had needed to hear it. So had Vess.

It was what allowed them to fight side by side with the Moon in this battle. Seeing Vess fight, Tiana could see the best in her companion again. There was no hesitation in her healing or barrier spells. The moment someone was injured or in danger, Vess did not pause to consider that these soldiers were wearing the same death-themed armor as those that had wronged her.

It helped Tiana push aside the sight of Vess sneaking out at night in the direction of Shroomling. The Wrath. The curse and its looming death was doing something to her companion that Tiana really didn't like to see again.

Tiana had no doubt that Vess would risk her own life to save her comrades, or any innocent, in battle. Her only non-demon companion from her demon squad had undoubtedly a heroic nature at heart, but that nature had crumbled under Tiana's eyes. Crumbled under the weight of time to reflect on the cursed death awaiting Vess. Her companion's split-moment decisions were one side of her. A side that showed weakness when the moments kept coming.

Tiana did not want to see that weakness win. She would support her companion to the best of her abilities while preserving the best side of Vess until this trial had passed. She swore to herself.

"HEAVENLY WOLF SLASH!" Rafael's shout acted as the fanfare for the gigantic winged white wolf rampaging in a spiral over the battlefield. It also announced his arrival in Tiana's corner of the battlefield.

Which meant that Terry was setting the field again.

Tiana had talked the entire plan through with Terry and she was certain things would get moving soon. She didn't need outstanding mana sense to tell it was so. She could see the local numbers didn't justify sending a powerhouse like Rafael here.

Not unless Terry thought the situation was about to change, and if he didn't voice his thoughts via mental communication, then it meant it was going to plan.

The thought transmission talismans created by Rafael were extremely useful because from everything they knew, the locals had no way to intercept them. For the most critical components of their plan, though, Tiana knew Terry would avoid risking even this much.

It was alright. Tiana didn't have to literally receive his thoughts to understand his thinking. She knew the overall objectives. Tiana thought about what the likely shift could be and what it would mean for her local situation. She knew Terry had to focus on the big picture. He didn't have the leeway to make all the small decisions, nor would Tiana need him to. It was on her to judge the local situation and make the decisions for her corner of the battlefield.

Tiana considered her words and sent her instructions to Vess and the surrounding allies.

***

Terry concentrated on his mana perception while the creases on his brow deepened further and further.

Did I misjudge what they're up to?

Terry had sensed what he believed to be uncontrollable rage from the cult's pseudo-avatars. Their mana flickered erratically. Their channeling anchors radiated with more intensity. Their stained souls wobbled full of fury.

All the signs he had been looking for. All reacting to his actions to make himself a nuisance and to make it increasingly clear he was the one coordinating the battlefield in their favor.

All signs that had picked up more the more Terry pushed them.

Until the first of them moved.

Are they still hesitating or—?

Terry reacted on instinct. The humidity from the shroomans bringing rain condensed. Liquified metal emerged from the dimensional pouch in his armor. Immovable shields and blades formed in front of him.

Just in time to block the first punch of the fungus-infested cultist.

Terry darted back while throwing a divine hammer from the side. He could feel the pseudo-avatar channel powerful mana through its anchor.

Terry's disruption field wasn't enough to interfere with this level of channeling.

His divine hammer was crushed instantly.

Terry's mind was focusing on the possible fight ahead when he could feel a friendly ability envelop him. He didn't have to fight this fight to the end.

Getting it to start was already the win they had been looking for.

Terry sharply exhaled while Bugsby's void teleportation activated to distance themselves from the cultist avatar that had stepped out of turn.

The cultist ring leader that had left the side of their cursed tree.

***

The instant one of the five fungus-infested elders had stepped away, the hidden tree chamber transformed into a cascade of magic wrath uncoiling.

Mia's empowered spatial blades tore into one elder with unstoppable sharpness.

Khaled jumped out of the shadows and his disintegrating touch landed on the nape of another.

A barrage of assassination spells charged out from the surrounding space and shadows.

A small blob of shadow dropped into the opened mouth of an injured elder. As Terry surmised, a throat was just like any other tunnel to a slime. Oz's satellite slime crawled down the cultist's throat and windpipe and unleashed all of its attack abilities with suicidal abandon.

After the satellite's death, another core-less slime reformed instantly under the use of Oz's second core that remained unharmed in its main body which Oz didn't move into the chaos according to Terry's orders. Its renewed satellite slipped from shadow to shadow to seek another opening.

Spatial barriers appeared and disappeared to separate the cultists while allowing the allied assassination squads to gang up on the pseudo-avatars.

Thanks to the pre-existing debilitation of the Ungodly Angel's Wrath, two of the avatars had already fallen before they could properly fight back, which only served to fuel the rage of the remaining cultists.

Rage numbed only by temporary terror when they discovered what was really going on.

After the first fungus-infested elder had left the protective chamber for the cursed tree…

After the remaining cultists had been distracted by the violent wrath of the infiltrating allies…

The cursed tree had remained with weakened protections.

Weakened enough for William's complex spellwork to activate underneath the earth. Inevitable death was crawling up the roots towards the tree's godly anchor.

The Guildhead's strike had been perfect. In a matter of seconds the cursed tree had lost its eerie shine. It wouldn't take long for the spell to drain all life and cut off all power in the target of Wrath.

The cultist elders scrambled. They practically shouted their despair at their loyal followers to kill the offending elven mage in his moss-covered robes.

Unfortunately for the cultists, William's carefully prepared master-level spellwork was self-sustaining, and now the powerful Guildhead was joining Tiana, Rafael, Jorg, Deekin, and all the other powerful defenders, who were buying the valuable seconds they needed.

Meanwhile, the number of coordinated funghouls were rapidly diminishing. Not just because of the allied firepower, but because the otherrealm being that had handled the coordination of the cursed creatures was losing its hold on the tree that was its magic conductor.

Increasingly, the funghouls were now blindly attacking every living creature in sight, much to the dismay and lethal surprise of the remaining cultist-loyal sun elves.

***

Next chapter will be updated first on this website. Come back and continue reading tomorrow, everyone!

If you find any errors ( broken links, non-standard content, etc.. ), Please let us know < report chapter > so we can fix it as soon as possible.