In the afternoon, a well-known person visited the humble camp. They stayed in the strategic planning quarters for a long time before coming outside. Then, the visitor was led to the raised platform in the middle of the tents.
Sanjiv was one of the generals who escorted the visitor.
Selene saw them line up behind the visitor, which upon closer inspection, turned out to be someone she knew.
The smirk on his face was too hard to ignore, especially when his eyes met with hers.
'Prince Damian?'
She momentarily panicked, but she never showed it on her face. It remained aloof and devoid of any flickers of emotion, which only made Prince Damian slightly irritated at her lack of reaction.
He opened his curvy lips and Selene braced for the incoming piece of bullshit that he might spat out to the wide-eyed knights standing in rows of lines before him.
"Greetings, valiant heroes. I am the Second Prince, Prince Damian Cole del Fuego, heir to the throne... And I come to you today to encourage you..."
He opened his arms in a welcoming manner, his face full of confidence.
"... To fight and annihilate the evildoers of the north!"
His hands turned into fists as he punched the air, stirring patriotic feelings among the soldiers. Someone in the crowd screamed his name and a few others followed.
The prince gestured for them to keep it down as he resumed his speech.
"We fight for the rights of those who have been abused! We fight for the safety of our families back home and we fight for the empire!"
His tune lowered for a bit as he took a deep breath.
"These evildoers are transforming innocent common folk into monsters, awakening them through unnatural means. Thus, disrespecting the authority of the known elements! That is not magic! Do you know what it is?"
A woman from the crowd answered. "Witchcraft!"
The prince gently shook his head.
"Not quite..."
Then Felice, who stood silently beside her, opened her mouth.
"Dark Arts."
The prince smiled. "Yes, Dark Arts. Practiced by the Zeldians who once invaded our empire and killed countless! Millions of innocent lives! But... we prevailed! We prevailed in the past and we will prevail now!"
The soldiers were once again chanting his name, the calm and collected Felice joined the fray. Everyone was fired up with the Prince's words except for a certain woman.
Selene must admit, he was quite good with boosting the morale of the soldiers. But, she knew better.
The second prince was a power-hungry man living in the shadows of the first prince. He wanted the throne for himself.
Who knows what kind of abusive acts he committed that these soldiers didn't know about?
Selene Rosseficent's journal mentioned him several times and the weird things he made her do.
She will never feel any kind of reverence towards that person.
---
After the prince's speech, the soldiers became busy, running around and putting on their battle suits. Wagons hovered all over the camp as they prepared for war. Projectiles and all sorts of weapons were distributed among the soldiers.
Many had already been deployed to the location where a massive battle is currently in place. Apparently, a base was being invaded by these so-called Dark Arts practitioners.
Selene was one of the last ones to hop on to the military carriages, together with Sanjiv and a few familiar faces.
They were enveloped in a tensed silence. Some of them failed to mask their anxiousness.
Right before the carriage could take off, a figure hopped inside and squeezed himself in the middle of two soldiers in the seat facing Selene.
It was none other than, Prince Damian himself in his stylish, archaic armor.
'He really look the part...'
She turned away, trying to avoid his offensive gaze. Sanjiv observed the two of them, but kept his mouth shut.
No one said a word in the entire ride, seemingly feeling the thick air surrounding them. The sound of detonating bombs and battle cries can be heard from outside, telling them that they are approaching the location.
One of the soldiers sitting on the farthest seat, took the initiative and pushed the locks, opening the door in the process.
A gust of wind blew from it, howling wildly in their ears.
There were several meters left before the carriage could touch the ground safely, but the soldiers didn't wait and jumped out of the vehicle themselves.
Soon, Sanjiv and Prince Damian jumped out as well, leaving Selene alone in the flying piece of wood.
When there are only two meters away before the carriage could land, she jumped out of it and landed in a roll, dispersing the impact of gravity perfectly.
She was quite proud of herself that she did it right this time and no ankle was injured like what happened the first time she attempted the action.
All those random things she did out of curiosity is finally starting to pay off now.
Spotting the similar battle suits from a distance, she ran as fast as she could to catch up to them. The others started throwing the projectiles into the enemy. Selene's heart hammered against her ribcage when a loud bang echoed above them.
A military vehicle was hit by a spell. Selene and a couple more others were in the shadow of the swiftly approaching clump of wood.
Thankfully, they were able to move out of the way in time. However, the impact ruined their formation, throwing them off before any sense of coordination could form between the group.
"Maintain formation!" Sanjiv's authoritative tone pulled them back to their senses.
Selene was running again, while spells flew through the air in all directions.
A static sound rang in her head. All the sounds around them made her ears hurt a bit.
In no time, the group clashed with the approaching mass of cloaked individuals. Dark arrows flew towards them, bouncing fruitlessly from their battle suits.
Selene's own projectiles manifested into reality and came shooting towards the first lines of Dark Arts practitioners, sending a couple of them to their immediate deaths.
Mangled bodies of both mages and dark soldiers lay lifeles on the ground, stepped on by friends and foes as the neverending clash resumed, filling the wind with the smell of blood.
Selene winced at the recoil of her own spell, but it didn't stop her from summoning new ones.
One of the enemy's soldiers brandished his sword at her in a crazed manner. His attacks were unrefined and primitive, yet Selene found herself intimidated by it. She took off the sword from her scabbard and tried to deflect the chain of attacks.
As she fought in the defensive, another cloaked individual appeared from her side, a few seconds away from slashing her body.
Her vines took the blow from the unexpected attack while she faced the crazed one head on, in a battle of skill.
Selene sparred with some of the soldiers back in camp, so she wasn't entirely going here in a blindfold. Still, when it comes to combat, she is pretty much an amateur.
The Dark Arts soldiers didn't seem like battle masters themselves, so it shouldn't be too difficult for her.
But, it is difficult. Everything is different when it is a fight with their lives on the line. It is different from how she understood and imagined the flow of movements in her head.
Focusing on the fight, no other thoughts entered her mind, except this:
'I must survive at all cost.'
Following that thought, she tried to lure the enemy into performing a predictable attack by swinging her sword a bit further, leaving herself open for a moment.
However, her opponent took that moment to breathe and create some distance between them. It was only for a second though and he was back on his crazed attack pattern again.
Selene thought feverishly. Her vines were still fighting the other dude.
However, before she could make a decent offense, the head of his enemy flew off from his neck.
From the other side, the face of a grinning man emerged.
"You look like you were having a difficult time..."
She ignored Prince Damian's remark and thrusted her sword to the stomach of her other enemy.
"Thank you very much for your help. I appreciate it."
With that, she clashed with a new dark soldier and the prince become entangled in his own fight as well.
Selene meant it. It could have been bad if the prince weren't there.
Though, that didn't mean she liked it. It was kind of infuriating...
When her third enemy was down, she threw a glance at the prince's direction.
He was fighting four opponents and yet, he managed to overwhelm each one of them. His sword appeared like it was teleporting, her eyes can't keep up with the speed of his movements.
Shifting her gaze into the incoming dark soldier, she made the bold move of ditching the sword and using a new trick instead.
A few moments later, a ball of mana formed above her head. Before the Dark Arts soldier could reach her, half of his body disappeared. The ball burned through a few bodies before disintegrating.
She almost vomited at the recoil, but she managed to hold it in.
"Woah, flashy move... "
She felt a bit better.
Meanwhile, Prince Damian's armor was suddenly engulfed in flames.
"Now, watch how a prince fights, little girl."
He didn't wait for the dark arts soldiers to come to him.
He swung his sword and a wave of energy came from it, cutting a horde of bodies from the enemy's ranks without even touching the sword. What's more, the mage soldiers were unharmed from his attack.
That was what made Selene stop and stare.
Prince Damian didn't stop there. He turned his body around and swung his sword again at the cloaked army, sending an immolating wave of flames to their direction and melting their bodies in an instant. The dead bodies lying on the ground were not spared from it either.
Seeing him in action, the mage soldiers' morale was lifted and their attacks became ferocious.
Selene found some confidence as well.
Although she hated to admit it, the prince's arrogance was not unfounded.
'That precision... he must have fought a lot.'
She kept sending her flying thorns, taking her position from the rear.
That was when Selene felt something wrong.
When she looked around, there were no dark arts soldier bodies anymore, except those that had been annihilated by the prince's flames.
It was then...
There was a huge explosion from the back of the dark arts soldiers.
Something massive slowly rose from the mass of cloaks and towered above them. The clump of darkness shoot into the sky and in the next second, a giant skeleton stared at them with its two, crimson orbs.
Selene trembled.
"Necromancy?"
Some of the mage soldiers noticed the change as well.
'So that is why their numbers did not diminish even though we killed a whole lot of them.'
She doesn't know what to feel about it. Selene thought that the enemies she destroyed were real, breathing beings. So, she stoned herself when she fought them... and killed them...
'That doesn't make any sense. They were real and had a mind of their own. Although, they seemed to be controlled by something... '
Sanjiv appeared beside her.
"Anton..."
"Oh?"
"We must retreat."
For a moment, Selene doubted her hearing.
"Why? If we combined our fo—"
"We can't drive them out. This base is lost."
She blinked.
Prince Damian approached them with a displeased expression. The usual playfulness in his eyes was temporarily extinguished.
"How are they able to make that thing? This is ridiculous!"
The flames engulfing his armour burned brighter. Selene and Sanjiv instinctually took a step away from him.
"That thing..."
He pointed at the direction of the marching, giant skeleton.
"...It appeared in the Hyperion Base and wiped everyone out in a single night."
All the other mage soldiers seemed to recognize the threat as they were running away from it.
"Retreat to the Air Base!" One of the generals screamed to the top of his lungs.
Sanjiv grabbed Selene's hand and basically dragged her with him. She felt his hands became rough.
A moment later, Sanjiv carrief her and they flew away from the doomed base, passing by the rows of empty tents.
Now that she is in a high point, she took note of the size of the base. Her estimated guess is that it should be at least a kilometer in width.
Selene is not sure if her measurement is accurate since she saw only a part of the whole area. However, one thing is for sure.
'This is such a huge loss... '