CH620

The following morning brought them to their next location, with those around them who hadn’t yet been able to trade out for whatever brief bits of rest they’d be allowed looking the worst for it by the time they took their positions.

In the span of a day, everyone had been exposed to more violence and death than anyone should see in a lifetime and as the two took their positions to contribute to it, Ben once more provided what relief he could, pulling those it was safe to into him mind for the chance to safely unwind amidst it all, chatting with them as he did.

There wasn’t one person who didn’t know what was coming, they’d all seen it in the first wave after all, but it still wore on them as they fell back on talking about what mattered and motivated them. Family and friends who didn’t have the skill or the strength to fight or who were staying behind in their cities and villages to deal with whatever was certain to slip past the defensive fortresses that dotted the lands, all to destroy what was there as they conquered the world.

It didn’t let any of them feel a drop of peace, with many who’d been holding on to hope that things would go as well as the first wave did already felt it fading, but through it all, Ben tried to reassure them, no matter how little he believed it himself.

“We’ll get through this,” He’d say confidently to each one before releasing them from his mind. “The planet hasn’t been preparing for so long for nothing and we have the gods doing their best too. Once we overcome these trials then we’ll be able to move on and rebuild, we all just have to do our best till them.”

Hollow words but they seemed to help, with those being spoken to ending up appreciative of the effort while the work the heavens were showing gave a boost as well.

There were clouds hanging in the air around that gate too, he was sure that was going to be true of all of them, with lightning continuing to rain down on them all, lighting up the area with constant flashes as each strike downed demons, leaving their flying foes to crash down to the ground below, causing more damage to those unlucky enough to be hit from above.

As he took it all in, he spared some attention for Thera as well, slipping into her mind when it wasn’t immediately apparent what she was doing. There were no obvious attacks being fired off from her staff, but that was because she was directing her mana farther out, altering the density of the ground itself to leave demons falling through, only to cancel her effects and let the earth snap back into place, trapping swaths of them in one fell swoop and moving on to different sections of the field to cast that same attack, drowning droves of them in the dirt beneath their feet.

“You managing okay?” He asked her, neither of them looking away from the demons below as they carried out their attacks.

“For now. It’s going to be a long day.”

Ain’t that the truth.

With the heightened awareness that came with his high level of unnatural mind, he was able to take in more on the peripheries of his vision, letting him notice the occasional strikes that had to be coming from the few other awakened mages working in different locations on the field as everyone put their all into their attacks.

Like trying to drain the ocean with a bucket.

As he watched more and more demons come out of their strange gate, his feelings of impending defeat started to swell again. He didn’t know how the gods were managing to hold onto any hope for the future but seeing not a single gap in the wave to suggest any limit or break in what was to come left him trying to guess how many had already gotten past them, finding the number to be uncountable.

Hell, just trying to estimate the number getting through the gate each second-

Wait, what’s going on there?

Not a break in the wave so much as it was demons making way in the oncoming swarm, a new one came through the gate, looking no different from any other but still scratching at Ben’s mind as it looked around, not rushing out like the rest but instead simply observing, with those coming through after it doing everything they could to give the creature every bit of space they could manage, pressing into each other all of the tighter to avoid touching it.

But why do I recognise it? Ben asked himself, the answer coming fractions of a second later as his mind made connections and his blood ran cold. From craftsmans’ tower.

That demon was the same one who’d stepped out of the gate briefly during the first wave, appearing to destroy Iberu’s weapon and disappearing as soon as its task was done, with its presence filling Ben’s mind with questions.

Why’s it here and what’s it going to do? With how it moved the first time I’d assumed it had come specifically to destroy that thing given how much damage it was doing to the demons but was that not the case? Do they have some sort of observer class among them that just happens to pop through? That would explain the one that got trapped here when the gates closed early but then is it going to do anything now? Things definitely aren’t going well enough for us for it to step in if it really only did that last time given how much damage we were doing to them but I don’t really want to assume we’ll get to enjoy that level of luck.

Given the unknown risks, Ben acted to ease his worries the best he could, quickly pulling his partner into his mind and boosting the speeds of both of their thoughts to the maximum.

“Thera, major problem.”

“What?”

“The demon that broke the weapon at craftsmans’ tower? It’s here. Currently doing nothing but no way to know if it’s going to stay that way.”

She instantly remembered it, how it had thrown out earth and stone in an overwhelming attack she couldn’t even touch by incorporating the effects of magic nullification into it, leaving her magic powerless in the face of it as she was forced to wonder how badly things were about to go.

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“Okay, so what are we doing then? Any chance of a sneak attack?”

“No clue. The gods have all been pretty firm that the elite demons should only be doing anything during the third wave, for all we know this is just acting as an observer. If we do nothing it just might watch a bit and then leave.”

“I don’t think either of us are that optimistic.”