Defiance of the Fall

Chapter 354: Sortie

"They were a bit stronger than we expected," Zac simply said, not wanting to go into detail just how close they came to dying a few hours ago.Ogras played along, donning a lackadaisical look as he hid the fact that he couldn't put any weight on one of his legs. Zac obviously wouldn't divulge that his right arm still wasn't working either.

"I just wanted to tell you that we're fine, but that we're heading out again. We're going to

“Okay, so update me on the situation,” Zac said after the disk started to fly southward.

“Things are turning pretty chaotic in this area,” Ogras said. “I went by the Marshall Spy Agency just before now, and large changes have taken place.”

“Changes how?” Zac asked.

“For one there are dozens of hordes now, though the three initial ones are still far larger than the others,” Ogras started explaining as he took out a tablet from his Cosmos Sack. “They are traveling in irregular patterns, and no one could understand what the hell they were doing until recently.”

“And what’s that?” Zac asked.

“They’re making a mind-bogglingly huge array where the Dead Zone is just the core,” Ogras said with a shake of his head.

Zac was shocked to hear such a thing since the original Dead Zone was almost as large in area as the former United States. Such a massive piece of land was just the core? But he suddenly remembered the words of the Technocrat he interrogated the other day, and some fear gripped his heart.

“Terraforming,” Zac muttered with a frown.

“Exactly,” Ogras nodded with a serious face. “An array this large can only be used for something terrifying like destroying the whole planet. I believe they want to make this planet death-attuned. I don’t know how it works, but all the planets in the Undead Empire naturally produce Miasma rather than Cosmic Energy, and I believe this Array is the key.

“So if they manage to form the array we’re screwed?” Zac asked.

“I am not sure. I’ve asked the blue one to gather information. Such a search might draw some ire from the Undead Empire, but we’ve already passed that point. But I would personally guess that it would take some time to activate such a huge array,” Ogras shrugged. “Also, there’s some good news.”

“Oh? What’s that?” Zac asked, happy to take any good news he could get.

“We’re not the only ones worried about the Undead Empire’s actions. There have been reports of multiple alien armies arriving in the contested area, mainly from the neighboring Incursions,” Ogras said. “Most notably the insane cultists have arrived in full force. Massive battles took place yesterday where a few of the smaller Hordes were eradicated to the last zombie.”

“Makes sense, if the Undead Empire activates that Array it is probably game over for all the other invaders as well. They would have to leave the planet immediately,” Zac nodded.

“Exactly. And they’re not the only ones joining the battle. The insect people have amassed huge armies that have taken down at least three Zombie hordes as well. There are millions of them fighting like they’re possessed,” Ogras said. “They’ve marched for weeks to finally join the war.”

“What about the dominators?” Zac asked. “Are they still banking on us doing the work for them?”

“The Marshall’s are not sure,” Ogras said with a shake of his head. “Their network is quite impressive, but it can’t cover the whole area, especially not now when large parts are cut off from teleportation.”

“I don’t think the Dominators can just sit still any longer,” Kenzie added from the side. “If they don’t do anything they will lose everything as well. They need to at least stall the undead until we can battle them.”

“We just assume they are staying in the shadows though,” Ogras said. “No point on basing our plans on our enemies assisting us.”

“Sounds fair enough. So, where are we heading?” Zac asked as he glanced down at the ground moving rapidly beneath them.

Ogras pressed a few buttons and a map appeared on the tablet he was holding.

“Alea’s outpost was in this small town, Hanliun, when the area got blocked. The main army was a day’s march away, harassing one of the main hordes together with the Sino-Indian Alliance," Ogras started narrating.

“There was such a distance between the camp and the army?” Zac asked with confusion.

“Remember the Zombie horde numbered over a hundred million, and most of it is shrouded in Miasma. They didn’t want to risk the lives of the non-combatants, and having a headquarter that was constantly on the move would become a problem,” Ogras explained. "So they kept a healthy distance and communicated through crystals, though they might have become blocked as well by now."

“We cannot know for sure what happened after they lost contact, but I believe they would retreat from the area,” the demon continued. “The only path that makes sense is northwest toward the closest teleporter in Baoqui. What they don’t know is that Baoqui's teleporter is blocked as well.”

“So we head to that town to meet up with them?” Zac asked.

“Yes, though they would likely reach that place a few days before us judging by the speed we're going. We could try to anticipate their next move, but there’s no obvious direction they could take after reaching Baoqui,” Ogras sighed.

“So if we take the safe route we’ll lose time,” Zac murmured.

“At least a day,” Ogras nodded.

“But if we take a chance we might miss them completely,” Zac concluded.

A full day could make a huge difference depending on their situation. By that point they would have been fending for themselves for almost ten days. He might be able to rely on his extremely high Luck to pick the right direction, but was he willing to bet his people's lives on it?

“We’ll take the safe route for now,” Zac eventually decided. “But we might adjust as we get closer. Perhaps we can increase the altitude on this thing enough that we can see them far from the distance?”

“I am sure there are restrictions for that,” Tylia said, speaking up for the first time in a while. “I have heard that low-grade flying treasures rely on the energy from the ground. The energy is sparser in the sky, so they have built-in restrictions so they won’t fall out of the sky.”

Zac looked over at the demon, who nodded in confirmation.

“Well, we’ll see how far up it will allow us to go later then. By the way, have you ever seen anything like this?” Zac asked Ogras as he took out one of the top-grade crystals with the green shimmering lights within.

The demon stretched out his arm to take the shimmering crystal with interest, but he was preceded by the Tal-Eladar who snatched it up with shock in her eyes.

“High Purity Beast Crystals!” Tylia blurted out as her eyes widened.