As Sam said, all the people in the canyon started seeing hallucinations a bit by bit, everything that they felt guilty for, is playing in front of their eyes.
One soldier felt saw the scene where he left his beast companion back so that he could escape safely. At this moment, the beast is coming at him, looking into his eye as if it is asking why he left the back then.
Even though he felt dazed, he couldn't find himself stopping from the hunger, but he stopped eating the soil at least and just looked at the beast in a daze.
Soon, the beast started coming at him with extreme anger as if to punish him for his deeds. The guilt made him not act at first, but soon he became enraged for some reason and started fighting back.
The same thing is happening with the rest. But for Sam and Kumar who are watching this, the people in the canyon are fighting each other.
"When will this nightmare end?" Kumar asked as he couldn't see this anymore. This is nothing more than pure torture for the people involved. This is way too extreme for a trap. But unfortunately, this works too well and it cannot be denied this is more effective than the other two traps.
"It will be another fifteen minutes till the final stage of trap is activated. Then, they would also get some clarity, and the people who managed to retain the clarity from that one moment and managed to escape the place will survive.
If my guess is correct from the observations I made from the start, only around ten to twenty people will survive, as, for the beasts, they might not make it."
"Damn."
Kumar said as he looked at the screen. Sam then turned to a different screen and said.
"Go and call Noah, the front city also sent the troops and there are more of them. This time, her trap is in the beginning, so her painting the picture with some destruction might work here."
Kumar walked out to call for Noah.
Meanwhile.
Water crystal city.
The half-elf merchant reached the city and he directly went to the River bay inn.
"I have some information for the Fiend tribe."
He went to the receptionist and said. The receptionist looked at him with some suspicion, the young merchant just smiled and took out some identity token. Looking at the identity of the merchant group, the receptionist relaxed and said.
"I will inform the person in charge. Please wait for a moment."
After two minutes, the receptionist was back with a Fiend and he smiled at the young merchant before saying.
"I didn't expect a visit from the young master of the Blackwood merchant group. What brings you here?"
"Oh, I have taken up a task from someone named Sam. He, Noah, and Kumar. The three-man team that is responsible for doing something for you has actually done something big. If you don't mind, we can talk in private."
With that both of them went into the room and after five minutes, they came back. The young merchant still has that smile on his face, but the fiend has an anxious expression.
"Young master. I am sorry for this. But I cannot accompany you for the time being."
"Of course, I know. Please carry on with whatever you want to do. I will be going to my room and resting a bit. I have traveled without stopping."
"Yes, let me arrange the accommodation for you."
With that, the fiend called for the receptionist and gave some instructions, before leaving the place.
He then went to the secret room immediately where Myrion is looking through some information.
Looking at the anxious manager of the inn coming like that, he frowned and asked.
"What happened?"
"Something big happened. The three-man human team. Sam, Noah, and Kumar. They captured the Mountain city. They killed all the members of the Myriad Beast sect and captured that abomination while they released his mother.
Now, the front and rear cities of the Mountain city are attacking them through the two mountain paths."
With that, he took out a bunch of recording crystals and placed them on the table.
Marion had a frown on his face as he looked through all the information and the recording crystals briefly and said.
"God damn it. They did something this big? Now I understand why they want to be independent. They are good at stirring the shit on their own without any instructions.
How did you get this information?"
"The Blackwood merchant group. The young master himself delivered the information."
"Did you say Black Wood?"
"Yes. They sent the information themselves and it seems like Sam hired him to do so."
As they were discussing another attendant ran inside and said.
"Deputy commander, the city has a new rumor. The news of Sam, Noah, and Kumar taking the Mountain city has spread and the fact that they took down the Farm town is also spreading around."
"How did the news leak out so fast? Blackwood doesn't do that. They wouldn't divulge confidential information particularly when someone hired to deliver this."
He went silent for a second and said.
"Arrange a meeting with Young master of the Blackwood group. I will speak to him myself."
After ten minutes, he is in a room with the young merchant and they are talking while drinking some special wine.
The young merchant started explaining how things went. From the initial attack on the city to deal with the guard units one by one and sacking the city by morning.
"Young master do you know why the rumors are spreading so much about Sam and his team dealing with the Farm town."
"Well, actually the conversation of Sam when he dealt with the Young Lord of the city has leaked to some low-level workers, who spread the information among the inns by accident. All the merchants knew of it and they left one by one earlier than me.
So, there is a possibility it spread because of that."
Myrion went silent for a moment and then changed the topic to some small talk.
After ten minutes, he left the room and went back to inform the Commander of the operations along with the other higher-ups, and soon they used their methods to contact the higher-ups back in the tribe.
A meeting was held within an hour and every important person of the tribe with any form of decision-making power has arrived there.
"Why did the mercenaries stay there and send this information out to the public, instead of silently getting her back here?"
One of the elders spoke in a frustrated tone.
"They might have gotten greedy over the contribution points. After all, handing over a city is indeed a large contribution. Who would want to miss that?" Another elder spoke.
"We cannot risk it though. I think it is better to send someone to inform them to just bring that woman out there. We can deal with the rest of later."
"But they are stuck in the city now. They don't have the manpower to keep the city under proper lockdown, so they released the merchants out. The news already spread and the front and rear cities would have been focusing on capturing them by now. They cannot come out and we cannot send the information in."
"Then what should we do?"
"We take this chance and attack either front or rear city take them down and take over the mountain city and bring the lady of our tribe back."
An old man who is silent since the start of the conversation spoke.
"But if we do that, we would risk exposing the war and escalating it. Currently, we are doing as much damage as in dark and if we reveal ourselves first, the rest of powers will label us as starting the war."
"It doesn't matter who started the war as long as we win it. After all, the winners take the controlling rights on writing how the history went. So, you only need to resort to this, if you are not confident in winning at all."
The incident sparked a dispute in the upper echelons of the tribe.
Meanwhile.
In the Farm town.
The Young lady, the core disciple of the Myriad Beast sect, Lana is sitting in the room along with the elder. A merchant is standing in front of them nervously.
"Is what you said true?"
"Yes, my lady. The young man who is currently occupying the mountain city is the one responsible for the destruction of the Farm city. He said it himself."
"How did you get this information?"
"Many administrators were released after the city was sacked and they witnessed the battle between the young lord and the person named Sam, in between that person spilled this information. The administrators that escaped, didn't hold back in sharing this information outside. I am one of the merchants in the city and I came here as soon as possible, knowing that you might have been looking for them."
She looked at him for a minute silently and threw a spatial ring at him.
"Thanks for the information."
