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“Call the elder of darkness.” One of the unit captains spoke up and one of them removed a bracelet with a purple crystal.

Communication items used teleportation crystals for long-distance communication, as it would be impossible for a single mage to have enough mana to connect over great distances.

The teleportation crystals would use the resonance with the other crystals as a signal, greatly reducing the amount of mana spent to activate them.

“Has begun?” The dark elder Louis Zahara asked as soon as the call was connected.

“Yes sir, but things are a little different than expected. What are your orders?” One of the captains asked just to confirm as they reported what the fortress looked like.

“Fascinating. Your orders are still the same, captain. Do not interfere during the battle and find the hidden leader of the undead. Destroy his body and collect his remains. You must be careful as these skeletons explode their own bodies to take their enemies with them.”

“You need to destroy its skull, the weak point of these skeletons, before it explodes.” The elder ordered and the five captains listening nodded.

“We have to think of a way to escape after recovering the corpse. It’s possible the undead will fall the moment we destroy the leader. I don’t want to have to deal with the idiots in the army.” One of the captains began to complain.

.....

“Let me check something.” The elder disappeared for a few seconds and returned shortly after with a smile. “I have good news. The order cannot detect the teleport crystal in the fortress, so it is impossible to use portals to send reinforcements to you or use them to extract them after completing the quest.”

Athos had destroyed the crystal in the fortress, so the order mistakenly thought it had been destroyed to prevent the army from teleporting and sending reinforcements.

“I think we have different definitions of good news, elder.”

“That also means it’s possible to teleport to the fortress. Do any of you have a teleport crystal with you?” The elder asked and two of the captains replied yes. The teleport crystal was a very expensive item, but it was an excellent lifesaver and many mages took them with them as an emergency measure.

The crystals that the captains had was much inferior to what Emilia had, reaching only two kilometers, but it served its purpose.

“Fine! Use teleport after you’ve eliminated the target to take the remains away. It’s impossible to reach your goals without being discovered, so suffice it to say you’re late-deployed reinforcements or something. As long as you leave the corpse plant behind, no one will complain about getting help.” The elder spoke excitedly.

He had already prepared the specific experiments he wanted to test with this very rare material.

“Good, get ready to move. The siege will start soon.” The elder spoke and ended the call.

The captains split up and reassembled with their teams, each of them moving to their previously discussed positions. The leader would likely be inside the fortress rather than the outer area of the wall, but where exactly was still a mystery.

They intended to invade and split as soon as the barrier fell.

*************

“They’re finally starting. I was getting tired of waiting.” Athos spoke with a smile, seeing the troops begin to move.

Most of the troops circled the fortress to surround them. making a long loop to stay out of the lightning range.

Light armored soldiers and mercenaries carrying ladders skirted the walls as heavy units and cavalry circled and headed for the other gate.

‘Should we raise the barrier?’ Treevor asked, but Athos shook his head.

‘It will take more than half an hour for the heavy troops to reach the other gate. Raising the barrier now would only waste energy.’ Athos spoke and continued to watch the enemy leaders.

The adventurers had joined the protection of the priests along with the church representative, but the army commander remained stationary.

“Master, the mages are assembling into five different teams, enough to fire large-scale spells. If all these mages fire large-scale spells, the barrier will fall in less than an half hour.” Emilia spoke to Athos, pointing to where the hooded soldiers were gathering.

The adventurers also came from the rear and surrounded the mages to protect them.

“It’s going to be difficult to take them down with arrows or siege weapons, so let’s try to use the storm to eliminate them. Warn the queen of hive hawks to be ready to shoot lightning the moment they come into range. Even if the priests conjure a sacred field, the lightning will move too fast to be weakened.” Athos ordered.

“The cloud is too high in the sky for the hive hawks to aim accurately. We’ll need to aim the targets for them to hit.” Astrus spoke, still looking at his brother from a distance. They had already tested it using straw dolls and found that the beehive hawks could shoot beams accurately up to 2 kilometers away, any further they would need help aiming.

“Don’t worry, they’ll draw a lot of attention to themselves. The mages will glow with mana while casting the spell, so they’ll be a tough target to miss.” Emilia spoke, noticing that the mages began to concentrate. They all entered a circular formation and raised their wands in front of their chests and conjured up massive amounts of mana.

The mages focused their energy at the center of their formation and a sphere made of pure mana began to form. Mages had different elemental affinity and the only element they all had in common was pure mana.

The sphere was small, but it was extremely concentrated and volatile. The conflicting energies tried to drive each other out and the mages needed sheer concentration to keep the whole thing from exploding.

It was one of the biggest weaknesses of large-scale spells and the reason why mages needed to slowly add energy. To make matters worse, mages from different tiers would need to feed the large-scale spell in different amounts, to compensate for the different concentrations of energy.

The weakest ones would need to put in twice as much energy, while the strongest ones would only need to put in half the usual so the others could keep up and the spell’s power would be in the middle.

Skeleton mages wouldn’t have this problem and could feed their spell with all their energy without taking any risks.

One of the mages stepped forward in each group, taking control of the concentrated mana sphere. Only one mage could control and shape the spell while the rest kept the massive amount of energy from getting out of control.

Different mages cast spells in whatever way suited them best, so only one of them would cast the spell and all the others would act as a support.

“It’s really amazing that they can conjure up that much energy. I need to start my training in coordinating spells with others soon. This is too amazing to let go.” Athos muttered ecstatically. He couldn’t feel the energy because of the distance, but he knew how much energy 50 mages would be able to conjure if they worked together.

Athos turned to the priests and saw that the energy was even more intense there. A sphere of pure light was forming above them and Athos felt a threat coming from that sphere. Even without being able to feel it, Athos felt an instinctive repulsion just to see the element of light. His face twisted into a scowl of disgust, but he noticed an oddity.

The priests in the center of the formation were not at all focused, looking at the sphere of light above their stunned heads. The adventurers around him, on the other hand, were mostly with their eyes closed, focused on something. It didn’t make sense for priests who needed to control an even greater amount of energy to be even more relaxed.

Athos smiled wickedly at this, understanding the trap. ‘Guys, those priests are fake. They are decoys to attract Treevor. The real priests are disguised as adventurers. Take a good look at their expressions and you will understand what I am trying to say.’

The skeletons followed his command and realized it was true.

“How did you notice that, master? I can barely make out their faces from each other from this distance.” Emilia asked in surprise.

“You don’t have to look at their faces, you can see their relaxation by their body expression. The ‘priests’ are with their arms close to their sides or just crossed arms while the adventurers who are supposed to be protecting them are in deep silence, totally concentrated on casting the spell.” Athos explained his thinking.

‘Now that we find out what the trap is, should I teleport and thwart your plans?’ Treevor asked, his bloodlust building as he stared at the cluster of light in disgust, before noticing his own homicidal thoughts and trying to control himself.

‘No, follow the plan and wait quietly, you will have your chance to fight. We will only use siege weapons and storm clouds in the first phase of the plan, as we decided earlier.’ Athos ordered, stranging at the sudden bloodlust Treevor displayed.

They had already discussed a strategy and everyone had agreed it was for the best, so it was strange that he wanted to move so soon.