SockySake

  The sky began to tinge red as the battle wound down. The wraiths emerging from the healing center's ruins slowed to a trickle. Only a couple at a time would emerge, not a problem for the battle-hardened group.

  No one dared to wander out as the sky began to darken. The st thing they needed was to fight wraiths cloaked in darkness. The city was poputed with rune nters, but they had remained dormant so far.

  One bright thing to note from all the death and destruction was that there were no further deaths after the ape-wraith's death. A couple of people suffered serious injuries, but nothing that emergency healing could not fix.

  The ck of deaths was rgely due to the tier 6 Ms. Sanderson creating illusory shields against skills she deemed 'extra dangerous'. Her years of experience were a godsend. Damian didn't know how old she was, and he wasn't going to dare ask around.

  Overall, the casualties amongst the makeshift army weren't too severe. They say that the winning army during a war should expect to lose between 10 and 15 percent of its forces in a single battle. The losing army is expected to lose between 20 and 30 percent, but that figure could reach up to 50%.

  Most of the losses came during the retreat. When one army broke the shield wall and created a rout, the soldiers' fnks and backs would be wide open. If it weren't for Ms. Sanderson lifting the entire front line over the wall, things would have taken a very different turn.

  "Ok! Well done, everyone! I'll be taking a team to recover the bodies and scout the immediate area around the tower!" An illusory Higgins decred.

  The reason Damian knew that it was Ms. Sanderson puppeteering the clone was that the real Higgins was asleep on the floor just behind him, mingling amongst his party.

  "I'm going to volunteer; you guys should rest up," Damian told his party. During the battle, He had just been resting while everyone else fired their skills and spells.

  Most of his party were barely keeping awake around a campfire Donna hastily put together. Only Fergus responded to his comment with a nod while maintaining his slit-like eyes open(?).

  Damian made his way over to Ms. Elf to make sure he was picked to join the recovery and scouting party.

  "Hi there, Ms. E... Sanderson. I want to volunteer for the scouting party."

  Her eyes squinted in his direction. "You should ask Corporal Higgins about enlistment." She gestured toward her puppet.

  Was she really going to force me to talk to her through one of her illusions?

  "It's important to keep up appearances. It doesn't do well that one of the heroes of the battle is sleeping away when things have yet to conclude."

  "Ah, yes! I'll do so!"

  Was she really propping Higgins up to be the competent leader of the Spire defense? She did convince Higgins that she was now in her debt... Yeah, let's not think about this.

  Damian arrived before the illusion, shouting orders. "Officer Higgins! I want to volunteer for the scouting mission!"

  The illusion looked over in his direction. "How are you supposed to be of any use without your left arm and no sword?! You've done enough when you took down the tier 6 wraith!"

  A vein throbbed on Damian's forehead. Is she serious? Why did she send me over here if she was going to reject me?! Ok, I'll py her game...

  "I'm fast on my feet, ma'am! I don't need to fight to scout!" Damian wanted to see if anything had changed at the royal castle.

  Nothing was stopping him from simply walking out and taking a look around himself, but before he was pced on this side quest, he thought that it would be slightly better to do so in an official capacity. That way, he could be the first to hear any further revetions about their situation from people with actual scouting skills.

  "Very good! The one-armed little hero of the moment is a brave one who knows no rest! Who else will join us?!"

  "... ..." It was taking every fiber of Damian's being not to turn around and stare at Ms. Elf. What the hell is that woman saying? Is she trying to help Higgins with those lines, or not?!

  "Woa!! Little Giant Syer!" Some people in the crowd started to cheer from the back.

  "Giant Syer Damian!"

  "I saw him cut out its eyes!" Another roared.

  "Eye Gouger Damian!!"

  "He dodged that lightning as if he were one with the wind!" Someone followed.

  "Wind Walker Damian!!!"

  Damian's brain was working at full capacity, trying to make sense of what was happening. Huh?

  Using all of the senses that Frey and Fergus had buffed, he stared at the people leading the cheer.

  Several of those faces are repeated in the crowd... They aren't real.

  Damian's head snapped to the elf assistant. She was smirking, but then her smirk vanished like it was an illusion.

  She got me... Higgins was right. You don't try to py Betty Sanderson's games...

  The illusory Higgins crouched down and picked up Damian so that he was sitting on her shoulder. He barely fit and probably looked comical to the growing audience.

  "Let's cheer for the hero of the moment, Wind Walker Damian!!!"

  It seemed that the elf had settled on Damian's nickname after sounding out some others.

  "Woo!!! Yeah!!! We Did It!!!" The crowd was starting to cheer, driven by the momentum of the illusions.

  Damian was catatonic. His brain shut down. In one st desperate hope, he looked to his party. They were all still knocked out, other than Fergus. He stared at him with a slight smile, then looked away. Traitor!!!

  Damian was then quickly set down, and the not-Higgins started pointing out people in the crowd who were cheering.

  "Franklin, Luke, Vicky, and Holden, I'm going to need your eyes for scouting again." She proceeded to pick out several adventurers that had scouting-based skills, some muscle to carry crates and bodies, and ranged fighters to guard the wall temporarily.

  "Everyone else! Rest up, you've earned it!"

  ***

  The scouting party of 20 stood before the Spire archway. Ms. Elf was standing by the illusory Higgins. Most likely, she couldn't control her illusions from within the tower.

  Whatever dimensional mystery made up the tower severed any connection one might have with their mana constructs. You could send a fireball through the doorway, but you wouldn't be able to control its direction once it passed the threshold.

  As they stepped through the archway, Damian could see a couple of bodies strewn around the ground between the wall and the Spire. These were the unlucky ones who lost their lives in the retreat.

  Looking at the wall, Damian expected to see some bodies spread up there, too, but there weren't any. The hastily crafted defence did a better job than he had imagined.

  With plenty of people wielding defensive skills, no one took a fatal hit, at least up until they had to flee. If given enough time, there would have surely been deaths, and his party could have been among them.

  The scouts in the party moved forward and around the tower, checking to make sure there weren't any immediate threats.

  "Two slower wraiths still on the other side of the wall! One more incoming from the healing center!"

  Ms. Sanderson had immediately pulled out her communicator to make a call. Damian was just a couple of paces ahead, walking far enough away and around the Earthen Spire to get a glimpse of the royal castle. It was getting dark, but there was still enough light to see in the distance.

  Everything was painted in an orange hue, especially the white castle as it came into view.

  It no longer looked like a castle, but a throne for a behemoth creature. Damian just stood there, unmoving. The sight before him was too unbelievable to comprehend.

  The other scouts next to him were in much the same state of shock. Everyone stood still, holding their breaths, unwilling to move and possibly grab the behemoth's attention.

  The creature, like all wraiths, was jet bck. This one, however, was far more humanoid. Much closer to a rge man who had built up a lot of muscle underneath rolling fat.

  One rge horn was growing from the side of its head; it curved toward the front and then shot upward toward the sky. There was the base of a simir horn on the other side of the head, but it had been cleanly cut off.

  The face, what features Damian could make out, didn't look human, more like a scrunched-up face that only a mother could love.

  Staring at the creature, Damian finally noticed that it had not moved at all since he started the staring contest. He tapped on the scout's shoulder in front of him.

  "!!!" The scout jumped.

  "Sorry!"

  "Ah... It's fine."

  "Um, so is that thing alive? It hasn't moved... yet."

  "!! Hey Vicky, what does your skill say?!" The scout was shaking Vicky's shoulder, rousing her from her dazed state.

  "!!! Ah! It's a–a tier 7 wraith. It's dead... more dead."

  Oh goddesses... Damian was feeling lightheaded and began to stumble back. Half in relief that the behemoth was dead, and half in worry. Where did they get a tier 7 to turn into a wraith?

  Damian thought back to the four bodies they found hidden in the P'Ure group's wagon. There were clear marks that they were in sve chains.

  We've got to secure those bodies... It could be evidence that the Fire Empire wasn't directly involved... or it could prove they were. I don't know. Internal strife? Pusible deniability? Who the hell knows! Just one thing at a time! That's the only way I'll stay sane!

  As Damian turned around, he could see that most of the scouting party was star-struck at the sight. It's not every day you'd get to see the royal castle being used as a chair.

  Ms. Elf's eyes were as rge as saucers as she held her communicator to her head. It didn't seem like she had made contact with anyone yet.

  Nothing's going to change by staring at it. Damian marched past all of the stunned scouts and walked up to the four tied-up bodies. It doesn't look like they took too much damage from the fight—just a little trampling from some wraiths running over them.

  He decided not to untie them. If anyone involved were to see their tattoo markings, they might try to destroy them. As it was, they were nothing more than wrapped-up bodies who had their rites committed a little too zealously. Who could bme them in the middle of a disaster?

  Damian grabbed the tier 6 body and started dragging it back into the Spire. This was the only thing on his mind. He'd let Higgins's knockoff manage gathering the supplies and tying up the rest of the bodies.

  As he entered, several resting souls looked up at him, surprised that he was back so soon, and probably even more curious as to why he was dragging a corpse back.

  *cough* *cough*

  "Um, I'm just bringing this inside for evidence against the P'Ure Group. Thought that it'd be good to make sure it doesn't get destroyed. It's probably best that we seal him up so the smell doesn't bother anyone. Ah, could I get an earth shaper's help making a sealed box? We could probably shave some dirt from one of the towers."

  Damian paused for a moment as everyone stared at him.

  "Ah! There's also quite a sight outside at the royal castle. I'd recommend that you take a look. It's probably a once-in-a-lifetime view. And don't worry, the thing's dead. Better to go quickly before the sun gets too low."

  SockySake