Claudia was controlling the flight paths of the swallows with her mind to accurately survey the entirety of Argham from above when she noticed something odd.
While using the third vision she could see the different kinds of beings even through buildings and other solid surfaces so she quickly noticed the strange happenings taking place in a far-off corner of the city.
Their vision was still able to pierce through rocky walls of the cove and pick up on several figures locked in different rooms but the number of people within one of the rooms was constantly growing.
It started with three people but all of a sudden changed to hundreds of figures all standing still. This number kept increasing and more and more people started to appear out of nowhere.
They looked just like any other person at least to her eyes because the third vision only showed her the rough outlines of each person with some distinct feature.
Some appeared young while others old. Some strong while many weak.
Within seconds there were so many that she couldn't even count them anymore. In fact, she had never seen so many people in one place in all her life.
"How is that possible…? In that… tiny 'little' room?"
Tens upon tens of thousands of figures closely packed together soon turned into hundreds of thousands before reaching the seven digits (millions).
Claudia felt like she was in a bizarre state of fugue but there was no way to snap out of it. The swallows all flew closer to the stone wall as if drawn by an unknown force but the moment the first one crossed the 500-meter boundary something even weirder happened.
All those people, millions upon millions of them, suddenly turned to face the swallow all at once and she finally saw what their redeeming feature was. The eyes. She could only see the rough silhouettes of each person but their eyes were like bright torches in a sea of darkness.
The pudgy little swallow froze in mid-air monetarily before its ethereal body disintegrated into a fine dust. Claudia's connection was forcefully interrupted which felt like someone had inserted a hot needle in her brain.
She staggered back while rubbing her forehead but since the spell was still active it automatically connected her mind with one of the other swallows.
"NO! DON'T GO THERE!" she screamed in a fit of panic but noticed they had already changed directions. Well, all but one. And that one, even though it was looking in the same direction could no longer view the same scene as before.
There was something blocking its sight and no matter how hard it tried there was no pushing through it. All it could see was static.
"Turn away!" Claudia ordered which forcefully made it turn back.
She wiped the beads of sweat off of her forehead because of the pain but thankfully it was beginning to subside as time went on. Each swallow was connected to her so the backlash of losing one was nothing to scoff at.
"I guess it's not without any drawbacks. I have to be more careful, whatever is going on there is…it feels far too strange."
All those eyes were almost burned into her retinas. Even though they were looking at the swallow somehow she felt like they were watching her.
'That's not possible…' Claudia told herself but she knew better. That feeling of being watched was unmistakable.
One by one the remaining swallows scanned every sector of the city before finally arriving at the city gates. This was where most of the action was taking place and Claudia wanted to see how it was going.
And just the first vision was enough to accurately relay the despair that they were feeling.
The city guards led by Princess Inara had joined the fight. These elite demihuman warriors acted as the infantry and support to the cultivators who were the main fighting force in the front lines.
The number of corrupted spawns had increased significantly since she first entered the city. What were just a hundred or so creatures before had now turned into a sea of claws and sharpened teeth as far as the eye could see.
The cultivators were trying their best and to their credit, it was no small feat. Each one of them was able to dispatch at least 4-5 of the corrupted things at once but it was a drop in the ocean compared to their evergrowing numbers.
Rhisiat who was still standing tall next to his Mastiff was still fighting outside the barrier alongside Fulke and a handful of others but they were slowly getting pushed back towards the city gates.
The grunts stepped on top of one another in a maddened frenzy sometimes even ripping off limbs from other grunts and using them as weapons in their shortlived bouts against the cultivators.
There was barely a place to stand let alone move about. Claudia shook her head disappointingly.
"It's really not looking good. I thought they were supposed to be these all-powerful beings but I see that was an exaggeration- Hmm?"
