Marked Ones: Advent of the Demon Prince

Two masked individuals stood together atop a sand dune. Each had a pair of binoculars and were observing the migration of the Sand Wyrms from a safe distance. Every year they would move directly across the main roads of Alorek to the opposite edge of the desert where their breeding grounds had replenished.

The timing was great for Eroa and the Five Kings Union as it meant that the forces at Alvora would be more cautious in their approach to battle. At present, Eroa's advance lines were a mere five miles away from the city's walls. The human kingdoms had regained the entirety of their borders, but had yet to push into Alorek yet. The forces there were holding strong still.

Eroa would have offered to attack from the rear, but they were only barely able to push their lines forward. If they detracted from that force to support the humans, then they risked losing the ground they gained. Similarly, Alorek could not spare their forces to hit Eroa's rear guard, because then they would be pushed back by humans.

Essentially, though allies, the two enemies of Alorek were operating independently of each other at the moment. These two masked individuals were soldiers for Eroa and were scouting out the path leading to Alvora ensuring that reinforcements were still stalled.

They heard through their spy channels that something 'big' was happening, so they wanted to be as prepared as possible. What they were witnessing though was beyond their expectations. The descriptor of 'big' was an understatement. One of the two masked figures recognized the personage of Tierga, the Empyrean warrior slowly approaching the herds of Sand Wyrms scrambling across the desert.

Even from the vast distance between her and these watchers, they could feel the strength and mana pouring off of her, making the air feel thick. They watched slowly and with a terrified sense of awe as she drew the massive maul from her back.

Her mouth moved to call out her Art. Thankfully, the watchers could read lips. "[Hammer Arts: Thundering Impact]"

A plume of sand, dirt, debris and monster chunks spewed into the air, rivaling the heights of Alorek's tallest mountains. The shockwave blew past them as though they were next to an explosion. The wind ripped at their cloaks, threatening to tear them away.

The smaller of the two observers stabbed their sword into the sand in an effort to not be blown away. The winds caused by the shockwave lasted for a full minute before finally coming to rest. Sand was still raining from the sky and visuals were now zero.

The smaller of the two stood and addressed their partner. "So that's the strength of an Empyrean Rank… amazing."

"…"

"Hello? You going to say anything? Is something the matter?"

The smaller observer kept waving their hands in front of the face of their partner, who was still staring into the distance despite being unable to see anything. It was impossible to tell the look on their face because it was covered by fabric, but it was obvious they were in shock.

"Everything okay?"

"… she looked at me."

"Huh?"

The larger of the two turned his head slowly. "Tierga. She looked right at me when she activated the Art. She saw us."

"Should we run?"

"No point. I don't think she will pursue, otherwise she would be on top of us already… let's return to camp and inform them of what we saw."

The smaller of the two became pale as they came to the realization of being discovered and what that meant. However, there was nothing they could do but try and return to camp. If they were going to be attacked, running or walking would not matter, they just needed to hope they could return at all.

What they had witnessed was the peak of power available to mortals. With a single swing of her hammer, one person changed the landscape of a nation and wiped out an untold number of monsters. Though she was mortal like them, that amount of strength felt almost godlike.

If she could change the face of the land, what else could she do? To these observers, the answer was probably anything.

Though they were never witness to the divine, this strength was the closest thing they could imagine. They were surprised she was involved this much, but it was unlikely she would involve herself further. However, she did open up the path. When the dust settled, Alorek could continue the advance towards Alvora, so any plans they had needed to be accelerated now.

"We have to tell the Commander."

"Do we have to? The commander scares me."

"We can talk to the Vice-Commander instead?"

"Yea… she's better."

These two observers were scouts for the King's Shadow. A group of specially selected operatives and warriors under direct service to the king of Eroa. They had been tasked to watch the routes behind Alvora and monitor the migraton, but this new information changed their priorities.

Neither of them wanted to bring the bad news to their leaders, but it was necessary nonetheless. There were plans in motion to attack Alvora in the coming days and this new information could change the way that battle looked. They needed time to prepare for the fight, but that time had been cut by several days if not more than a week.

Though from what little they knew of the Commander's plan, it should be fine to execute a little early.

"Did the King really approve of the Commander's plan?"

"No, from what I heard he didn't approve anything. He simply gave the orders to take Alvora 'out of the picture' and washed his hands of everything else."

"So then, we are really going through with it?"

"It seems that way… the infiltration teams should be finished by now. Or if not, done enough to get the point across?"

"Hey do you think we will get our masks for this?"

"Oh, I hope so…"

The masks they referred to were given to the most skilled of their order. Instead of the mouth coverings, they were granted plain black face masks. The only slits were for the eyes and nose. Beyond that they had no defining features.

Only the strongest of them were given masks. Even among their unit, only the Commander had been granted a mask. There was a rumor that the Vice-Commander had one as well, though no one had seen her go on a mission, so she never really wore it. Unlike the Commander who wore it all the time.

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