Far away from the captured city.
On the sea. One of the carriers is floating slowly on the water and Philip is standing on top of it as he took in the view.
Jack came running and reported.
“The city exploded. The token just went off.”
Philip frowned as he looked at the dim token.
“Already? They are much faster than we thought.”
“Of course, they are. Such greedy swine. What else can you expect from them.”
“So, what are we waiting for. We need to activate the puppet there and let it do its job.”
“I already did that. The activator puppet just left the carrier.”
“Great. Now, let’s just sit back and go to our next destination. The next surprise for the Mari clan wouldn’t take long.”
As they are talking a small bird puppet is flying over the sea towards the shore.
It flew for a few hours before it finally landed on a tree. After it landed, it raised its head and a small antenna popped out of its mouth sending some kind of signal.
The signal activated something and around a hundred meters away, within a small rocky crevice, another bird puppet got activated. It flew out of the rocks and quickly flew towards the captured city.
After it flew for a few hours, it also landed on a tree and did the same as the first bird. Another bird activated a few meters away and started flying continuing the journey.
This chain went on for three more birds and finally fifth bird reached the vicinities of the captured city. The bird hovered over the large-scale crater that appeared in the place of the city and gave out the signal.
A few hundred meters away, there are a bunch of bird puppets all bunched together and hidden in a valley.
The puppets activated and then started carving the surrounding rocks at a rapid pace.
After a few hours, they are done with what they needed to do and all of them together carried a large stone plaque.
They brought it to the centre of the crater and planted it right beside the skeletons.
On the stone plaque, the three words were carved.
“DUSK HAS ARRIVED.”
After leaving the plaque there, the birds flew away before they blew up in the air leaving nothing behind.
While this is happening, back in the Mari clan. The clan leader is pacing left and right in his chamber.
There is a clear streak of nervousness on his face.
He only stopped when he heard someone coming in without even asking.
“What happened, husband? Why did you call me here?”
A woman who seemed to be in her early thirties came inside gracefully as she took a seat.
“I need your advice.”
“I already told you, I will not be involved in this whole clan war and politics.”
“I don’t need you to make strategies for me. I just need a new perspective. An honest one.”
“What is it? Tell me.”
“I sent the Bald man to the captured city to gather evidence and find a trail of the three brats that escaped.”
“The three brats? The ones that Sivan stressed on not doing anything against?”
“Yes. When I found out how powerful their equipment is, I couldn’t control myself and sent the Bald man. But later I found out that the Grand elder is also missing from the clan. He must have gone there.”
“So, what? Bald man is strong. I am pretty sure, he is stronger than that old bag of bones.”
“Yes, he is. That is what I thought. The most that would happen is the grand elder escaping. But things didn’t go like that.
I lost the soul link I had with the Bald man a few hours ago.
The lady finally showed a change in her facial expressions. All this while, he is calm, and confident and there is a hint of elegance and grace even in her face.
But when he heard the news, she felt like something horrifying has happened.
“What the hell do you mean, by you lost the soul link?”
“I literally mean just that. I lost the link with him.”
“That means, he died.”
“I don’t know that.”
“What is there for you to know? Only death can make your soul link disappear.”
“But I don’t think we should confirm it before we see any evidence.”
“You bloody bastard in denial. He is dead. That is all there is to it. Accept that and find the old grand elder who went after him.
Go and interrogate him to find out any news from him.”
“I thought of that too, but there is no news about the Grand elder. In fact, even the wife of Grand elder is extremely busy and frantic. I got some info from one of their subordinates and he spilt that the Jade life token of the Grand elder broke.”
The expression of the woman completely changed and she stood up abruptly.
“You lost a grand elder and your most trusted right-hand man and you are asking your wife for advice leisurely?
What the fuck is wrong with you? You are at a war with the Gaja clan. The GAJA clan. You cannot lose people of that strength just like that?
A junior is working his ass off to strengthen the clan so much. The divine league has partnered with you to destroy the enemy that has been on your throat for a century and you lost two of your elites.
Particularly one of them who will literally lay his life for you.
What the fuck? Are you so dumb?”
She scolded him left and right until she could calm down.
“What do you want me to do?”
“Go and check the status. Find what exactly happened in the area. Don’t let the news leak out to others before you know what the further status is.
Keep Sivan busy with whatever he is doing. Give him free rein on attacking the Gaja clan if you have to. Don’t let him feel any leisure whatsoever.”
The clan leader nodded continuously and immediately went out to do as he was told.
He sent someone to check the captured city.
After that, he went to meet Sivan.
“Sivan, you don’t need to worry about getting approvals and demonstrations for the grand elders. If you find that one of the weapons is going to make hell for the Gaja clan. Go and do it.”
Sivan frowned and asked.
“Why are you being so generous all of a sudden?”
“I don’t want to let the Gaja clan have a breathing space because of our stupid internal decisions. Go with all you got.”
Sivan was still a bit suspicious, but he didn’t care about it too much.
He just went off and issued a bunch of commands immediately.
“Take all of the undead creatures we collected and land them on the Gaja clan’s territory.”
“But they are not going to help us at all.”
The subordinate said with confusion.
“Of course, they are going. They are going to emit enough dead energy in the surrounding land to assist our future attacks. Go ahead and do it now.
Also, equip them all with all of our cursed objects. Don’t leave them at all. If by any chance, any scout falls into these undead creatures, he should at least be hit by a few cursed weapons before dying.
Send thunder eagle puppet regiment too. They need to attack the domes at regular intervals and escape as soon as they do.
Tell them to practice all of the formations they were trained in.
I don’t care if they can really do any damage. But the dome should be swarmed with the attacks.
I don’t believe whatever energy source the Gaja clan has will help them last through all of this and I don’t believe that Sam can maintain this formation for so long.”
While Sivan is sending out orders and massive equipment is moving from the Mari clan’s territory, the person that was sent by the Mari clan’s leader reached the captured city and he was shocked by what he saw.
The large scale crater looked like a valley as it spanned to the area of the city.
It looked so big and large that it made him feel terrified to even go to the middle of it.
But he noticed the stone plaque and he didn’t have a choice other than to check it.
After seeing the plaque, he was stunned.
The three words stuck in his mind and he came back to the Mari clan to report the whole thing to his boss.
Meanwhile, Philip, Watt and Jack already reached their next destination.
They didn’t go to any city or village, instead, they are floating around in the sea and they could see the shore through a telescope.
There is a beach and a port which is completely full of people.
Several people are fishing on the fishing boats.
Behind the port and the beach, there is a large town that is bustling with people.
“Our next target. Here we are.”
