A miserable march

There was a tangible tension amongst the troops of Endora as the air ascended carried everyone high above the forces of Life.

The humans beneath had no way of reaching the ascended above, not even using their bows, so all they could do was look up and hurl insults at Endora’s army.

They knew Soren brought them there as sacrifices, with only the purpose of sapping the energy of the armies of Endora, but they accepted their fate long ago.

High King Soren was either feared or worshiped by the people of Life, so most of the soldiers there either believed in their purpose of sacrificing their lives to stop Endora or feared Soren’s retribution more than death itself.

“Murderers.”

“Invaders.”

“Beasts of the South.”

The insults screamed by the armies of Life reached the ears of the ascended, even with the significant distance between the two, but no one reacted much.

Seth’s face remained just as indifferent, looking over the sea of humans underneath, their insults doing nothing to dismay him.

<They are looking to lower the ascended’s morale.>

Seth’s eyes turned towards the notification that appeared in his vision before ignoring it right after. He knew what the enemy was doing, and he also knew that it would eventually work.

He was not leading an army, molded in battles and wars, but a bunch of overpowered children who never had a life-and-death fight.

The fact that they were indeed the invaders left Endora’s army with no desire to start swearing back. They knew there was a greater goal behind this war, Seth having told them that, but they didn’t know how much of that was the truth, and even if everything Seth said was true, it still didn’t matter.

The goal behind everything made no difference to the poor humans of Life that just sought to protect their homes and loved ones.

The day passed, and it wasn’t long before the darkness of the night engulfed the two armies.

With no light, the tension in Endora’s camp also increased. The air ascended raised their focus, listening for any movement the enemy might make.

Halfway through the night, several destruction energy signatures were felt by Seth beneath them.

“Be careful.” Seth warned, the air ascended by his side delivering his words to every other ascended in the back.

Six waves of destruction appeared all at once, spread amongst the army underneath, flying straight towards Endora’s ascended, or more precisely, six of the air ascended that were keeping everyone afloat.

Seth and the three sixth shell destruction ascended in the army attacked the waves right away with their energy, as did a large number of the destruction ascended on board, but that’s when the lack of experience, coordination, and trust Seth’s army suffered from showed its face.

Attacks thrown from the platform began hitting against one another, some directly canceling each other, but that was not the most significant issue.

Two of the targeted air ascended panicked at the sight of the destruction waves coming their way, failing to notice their own ascended sent support and gathered their energy in an attempt to defend themselves.

Gaps formed in the air platform keeping everyone afloat with the retraction of the air energy, and about 200 ascended lost their support, plunging straight down towards the ground.

Since the system no longer had access to the records, it could not warn Seth about it, and by the time he noticed himself, it was too late to do anything anymore.

The ascended that plunged into the enemy army covered themselves in energy and survived the fall but were immediately swarmed by the enemy humans.

The troubles didn’t end there. A few air ascended, including the two responsible for their fall, dove down to rescue their fallen comrades, leaving themselves vulnerable to the second wave of attacks coming from Life’s destruction ascended.

Seth looked at the whole situation and immediately gave an order.

“Air Ascended! No one is to descend anymore. Form another layer of air energy underneath. Only respond to attacks of your energy type.”

“NOW!” yelled Seth, seeing that the ascended appeared to be hesitating.

With his second command, a secondary layer of air energy appeared under the flying platform, and the army continued forward.

Everyone on the platform watched the fallen ascended fighting into a colorful show against the armies of Life. The energy traces disappeared soon after, a clear mark of their demise.

Seth closed his eyes with a sigh, turning to look back towards the front while addressing everyone with the help of the air ascended.

“Air ascended; you are responsible for keeping everyone afloat and scanning the enemy army for intelligence. Trust in your companions to protect you. Acting on your own will only get more people needlessly killed.”

Seth knew from the start that the ascended had no battle experience, so while losing over 200 ascended was quite a shame, it was still a small price to pay for a lesson.

Unfortunately for him, the rest of the army was not of the same opinion, the morale of the troops growing even weaker after Seth’s ruthless abandonment of the others.

The armies of Endora suffered from three more attacks until the morning. Still, due to Seth only focusing on giving orders and trying his best to prevent a repeat of the last incident, there were no more casualties.

“Are you alright?” asked Pearl when she noticed Seth frowning at the rising of the morning sun.

“I am.” Replied Seth, turning his head and looking at the ascended straight behind him as they were heaving sighs of relief, “...but I doubt we’ll make it to Life with even half the people we started at this rate.”

Pearl looked back and frowned as she asked: “What are they doing? Do they think this is over?”

“They probably do.” said Seth with a sigh, asking the air ascended to project his voice towards the back once more.

“I want everyone to remain on guard. The enemy might choose to attack during the day as well. They didn’t attack the first day to make us lower our guard; now that we are prone to lowering our guard again, the chances of enemy attacks are even higher.”

———————————————————————————————————

For the next two weeks, the armies of Life kept attacking day and night, their attacks coming at entirely random intervals, giving Endora’s ascended no time to relax at all.

In the first week, the situation was still under control, but after one week, with everyone’s nerves stretched thin, victims appeared in the ranks of Endora once more, increasing by the day.

By the end of the second week, almost 1 000 ascended had perished in total, making some of the ascended already begin to doubt the odds of the war’s success.

Noticing the restlessness of the army, with even some voices calling for their return to Endora appearing here and there, Pearl asked in worry: “I think we should start attacking back. We need some victory, something to raise their morale, or we’re not going to make it.”

If Pearl noticed the growing discord amongst the ranks, so did Seth, but he had no plans to do anything yet.

Grabbing the worried Pearl’s hand, Seth shook his head and said: “It will be fine. We need to hold on a bit more.”

Pearl cupped his hand with hers and looked over the troops, frowning even harder when she noticed ascended pointing towards her and Seth.

“I fear we might not have that much time… no matter how strong the ascended are, they are still basically children, not an army.” Pearl finished her words with a wry smile to the air ascended that had been relaying Seth’s words, hoping he won’t be offended.

“If only I still had my other sources…” said Seth with a sigh.

“Why don’t we try something else…” said Pearl after thinking for a moment.

Seth turned towards her with a raised eyebrow, waiting for her to continue.

“Let me attack. I can easily wipe out a path for us.”

Seth frowned at her words, wondering how Pearl planned on dealing with so many troops on her own, not to mention her energy not precisely being a battle-oriented one.

Pearl didn’t get the chance to answer him as Seth’s thought about something.

“Did I share that with you?” asked Seth in astonishment, never having imagined he would share such knowledge with anyone.

Pearl nodded and created a small-sized yellowish-green core above her hand.

“Yes, you sent me a few books before your disappearance, telling me never to use the knowledge inside without your permission. You never exactly told me how it works, just that it had the power to destroy an entire city. I can make thousands of these, so I should be able to clean a path for us, right?”

Seth quickly covered her orb in destruction energy, removing it from existence, before saying: “Don’t play around with that thing. Also, thousands? Do you want the entire world to get destroyed by your hands?”

With Pearl looking confused at her now empty palm, Seth continued: “I’m sure I didn’t want you to panic when I gave you those numbers, but just the amount you created just now is enough to vaporize everything in a 60 miles radius from the core, with severe damage extending to up to 300 miles radius.”

“In my original timeline, the humans only got to use that weapon once, but it was strong enough to kill an entire ascended city, filled with ascended ranging from the first shell to the seventh. The only survivors were the eight shell ascended, but even their sources got seriously damaged.”

“Even if the ascended did not take a human attack seriously, the strength of that thing is inconceivable.”

Pearl gulped and closed her palm, turning her eyes to Seth and asking: “So, do we use it?”

Seth was about to decline when the system intervened.

<I know you never considered using it because of its effect on the world, but you’re already way past caring about it. It is a great way to increase the ascended’s morale and instill fear into the enemy.>

Seth remained in deep thought for a long time, passing his eyes over the ascended at the back a few times before eventually making up his mind.

“It’s not exactly as I had planned, but seeing they are late, I guess we can shoot a few warning shots.”

Turning his eyes on the air ascended looking at Pearl’s empty hand with sweat dripping down his forehead, Seth said: “Tell the people we’re striking back. Ask for two space ascended that can portal to a distance of at least 500 miles to come here.”

The air ascended came back to his senses and gulped loudly before relaying Seth’s exact words.

The idea of finally taking a bite of the enemy troops reinvigorated everyone, and not long after, two space ascended appeared right next to Seth.

After having the system take care of some calculations, Seth instructed the two ascended where to open the portals so they won’t be affected.

One portal was 500 miles southwest of their position, while the other was 500 miles northwest. That made sure their path would not be affected by the attack.

With the portals opened, Seth looked at Pearl and said: “Make two orbs identical to the first one. Do you know how to detonate them?”

After Pearl nodded and created two more orbs, Seth looked toward the two space ascended with a severe expression.

“I need you two to close your portals the moment the orbs pass through. Be very careful; we’re all dead if you’re even half a second late.”

The two space ascended nodded with equally serious expressions.

Seth looked at the two orbs held in Pearl’s hand and heaved a long sigh.

“Alright. Let’s do it.”