Everyone's brains and emotions were overstimulated yesterday.

Caleb knew that such mental states weren't conducive to strategy meetings, and the chaos utterly drained them. So, they could only conduct the actual one the next day.

That they did.

Unlike yesterday, however, all sixteen party leaders were summoned today.

"Alright, let's begin." Ascalon began, scanning his eyes over everyone in the meeting shack.

The four top rankers would command four war parties each; this would be the basic structure of the Egress Army.

The army itself, though, would only be used in the invasion of the cemetery and the attack on the stone castle.

After all, the goal was for as many people to escape Limbo, and while it would certainly be easier to defeat The Five with more wretches attacking, the lower-rankers were way too fragile and lacking in raw power to make any significant contributions.

It wasn't even sure if they could pierce the five horrors' skin with their blades.

They would, at most, buy the top-rankers a moment to attack before perishing by twos or threes, maybe more.

And The Five…none of The Five would be taken out by a single attack, especially Rocante.

It was simply cruel, really, to make them join the Relic Hunt.

Hence, that responsibility will fall to the four top-rankers. Daru would be the main attacker while Ascalon, Lesha, and Gris would split the target horror's aggression to give him more chances to attack.

The three only had their sentience and swordsmanship to rely on, after all, and they couldn't even use their Soulbound Swords in their current states.

This would be the extent of the help they could offer.

Caleb shuddered whenever he looked back and thought about how optimistic they were back then.

No…they were delusional, thinking any Visitor would do. It turned out that they needed more help than they ever imagined.

Thankfully, the moment he realized this, Daru was already here, and he had completed the mission on the other side of the Underworld River with flying colors, having found the remaining three of The Five and two pages — The Ivy's and The Thorn's.

The latter read:

"The Thorn whispers honeyed lies, and many follow her into ruin. She learned early that a false word cuts deeper than steel, and so she plants barbs in every ear that listens. Yet even her brambles yield when exposed."

With this, it was quite simple to confirm that La Filosa was The Thorn.

To Daru's surprise and delight, Caleb and the others managed to obtain another page, The Sword's, and it had been so close to them all along, hidden deeply in a basement of one of the residences in the ancient settlement closest to the Reprieve.

"The Sword moves through Limbo, ever in contest, cursed to strike and be struck. Each triumph sharpens him, each fall dulls him, yet he presses on, seeking the next challenge. Deny him his small boons, and the balance tilts beyond measure."

Clearly Rocante.

But more than confirming their identities, these pages hint at how the difficulty in defeating them would decrease.

In the past few weeks, Daru managed to crawl his experience points to level sixty, and while the ten extra attribute points he obtained since that day he saw Rocante and Saphoros' battle would help, he believed he was still far outmatched in terms of physical prowess.

But at least he had a chance now. They had a chance now.

With these hints, the slim odds would ramp up to at least a relatively decent one. Still low, but workable.

Caleb and the others found it difficult to decipher The Thorn's page, but The Sword and The Ivy's were simpler.

They just had to steal the nightmarish ghoul's flowers to weaken him. That was very easy to decode, but there was also a tricky, somewhat confusing part.

Rocante's small boons were La Filosa's lies and his victory against Saphoros.

They had to take that away from him to weaken the hulking swordsman.

But this was where the sequence began to matter.

"What if you guys eliminate La Filosa first? That way, Rocante wouldn't recover, and there was a chance he would lose to Saphoros," suggested Thrad.

To which Aesyn hinted a disagreement to: "That could work, but their levels…La Filosa is level sixty-five, while Saphoros is only level sixty-one."

"Hmm… right…" Gris pondered, "Maybe that does matter more than what we give it credit for? After all, once The Ivy is defeated, we would obtain experience points, then, once we're closer to that twitchy thing's level, it would be easier to defeat her. Fighting a level sixty-five special swordspawn of the underworld with our levels would be way too dangerous, no?"

The discussion continued for a while as the leaders voiced their opinions.

In the end, they concluded that La Filosa was indeed too high-leveled to be taken out first, and it was more plausible to eliminate Saphoros first.

Furthermore, they realized they had overlooked something: The Eye.

The Thorn was The Eye's dearest.

If they took La Filosa out first, then Harlowe would move, quite possibly to avenge her.

May the gods help them take out The Ivy and The Eye together if that happens.

The possible scenarios were tackled in depth one by one, until finally, they had decided on a sequence they believed was correct:

The Ivy, an attempt at The Eye, The Thorn, The Eye, The Sword, and lastly, The Crown.

That seemed to be the most logical sequence.

Harlowe didn't seem to have any weakness, but his inaction was too strange, so they would try to poke the demonic jester a bit after eliminating Saphoros to see what would happen.

If he could be eliminated, then they would eliminate him, but if not, they would eliminate La Filosa first.

Rocante's routine would be observed once his boons were removed.

But ultimately, the plan was to take him out after he was defeated by The Crown, which was why the latter would be the last of their targets.

They still need him to weaken the hulking swordsman with a defeat, after all.

Or better yet, maybe Rocante would be killed by the ruler of the ancient stone castle, as he would be going into the battle way weaker than he normally would.

Perhaps that's what "balance tilts beyond measure" meant.

Hopefully…

After a few hours of diligent brainstorming, Egress was ready.

It was time to put their plan into action.

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