Ten days had passed since the war that was later called the War of Revival. The meeting room within Gorgon Keep was filled with many leaders and officers of Gorgon Fortress.
Euren Chiver, the Chancellor, spoke while deeply sighing.
“Please, go ahead with your report. We’ll begin with the 1st Battalion of Carpediem.”
The Liberation army, <<Carpediem>>. The leader of the 1st Battalion stood. He was once called ‘Karlton the Stubborn’.
Karlton Javier.
He was now a fully fledged 3rd step Awakener, after being trained for 200 years by Cayman within the Tower; he was now more powerful than anyone else other than Cayman within Gorgon.
“Yes, sir. According to our remaining troops…”
“Just the casualties please.”
“Yes, sir.”
Karlton then calmly prepared and projected a hologram video in the center of the meeting room.
“We have twelve 2nd step Awakeners dead… and half the battalion was killed.”
“…I see.”
The chart on the hologram showed the number of dead and wounded. Then, the reports went on with the other battalions. The last one to report was Shin Mukeuk. He was now a 9th stage Adapter, and the leader of the 7th Battalion.
“…And that is our current situation.”
After all the reports were made, Euren was at a loss for words. He had expected it, but the number of casualties was still beyond his expectations.
‘We lost half in just ten days.’
10 days ago, there were about 300 Awakeners that departed Gorgon after receiving word from Chunghuh. Among them were 12 3rd step Awakeners and 80 of 2nd step Awakeners.
They thought they would win.
Maybe it was because they saw Cayman defeat the Pearl General. They had just seen a 3rd step Awakener defeat a Lesser General. And now they had 12 of those 3rd step Awakeners.
People thought, ‘We can do this!’
Even after fighting head on for the first time, they thought they were going to win. They had some struggles, but the first battle was a victory.
After that, for two days straight, the Liberation army successfully drove out the army from Palace of Reincarnation and successfully managed to drive them back up to the wall of Manticore Fortress.
The people of Gorgon thought they had already won.
Some even considered that they had defeated the Palace of Reincarnation already.
But that was it.
With the appearance of the Generals who had stayed behind in the Palace, things changed rapidly. Along with Sameng Garam, the three Greater Generals turned the tides.
-R-RUN!
On the fourth day of the war, Gorgon had lost a total of five 3rd step Awakeners. The might of the Greater Generals was just too overwhelming.
And by the 10th day, the forces of Palace of Reincarnation was right at the gates of Gorgon Fortress. They had lost many friends, but they weren’t even given time to mourn.
“Chancellor, we will not be able to do this any longer.”
It was Yong, the new 3rd step Awakener who had lost his left arm in previous battle. Euren turned to him and watched. He couldn’t say anything. It was Aisa Lindcroft, who spoke instead.
“…We don’t have anywhere else to go.”
<Chaos> cannot win. Everyone had realized this already.
“Maybe if we accept the Palace’s offer…”
There was an offer from Palace of Reincarnation. It was thrown at them when their forces arrived in front of Gorgon two days ago.
-Hand over your Master and the ‘Tower’ you are using. If you hand them over, we will not seek punishment for all your atrocities.
However, there were some who did not give up.
“We cannot do that.”
It was Cayman.
“We will not give up our Master,” he declared.
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“We will find a way. Don’t think your ‘Eye’ is all-powerful. Even if you can’t see it, there will be a way. Do not trust your skill too much, Aisa.”
“…But we have no chance. You know this very well.”
Aisa then turned to Euren.
“How about we ask for help from another Lord?”
“…’Another Lord’? Who are you talking about, exactly?”
“The Lord of Steel… for example.”
The ruler of the 5th region, Huhyou, the Lord of Steel.
“As far as I know, all those Generals are from the Darkness. They’re all from the 9th region.”
Euren then realized what she was trying to talk about.
“As most people know, the 5th and 9th regions are longtime enemies.”
“You want them to fight over us.”
“Yes. Besides, we have a messenger from the Lord of Steel himself.”
A messenger… Euren frowned.
“She-… is being held a prisoner in our Gorgon Keep. If you have forgotten…”
“I know. If we free her and try to talk to her…”
“It will not end that easily.”
“Huhyou is not the type of Lord to retaliate for that.”
“Master of Dryad. Let me remind you of the most important fact that you are forgetting.”
Euren glanced over at Cayman and continued, “We have killed the Pearl General, his messenger.”
“No. We did not kill him. The ones that are brought into <Chaos> by [Narrow Door] just return to their bodies when they die in <Chaos>.”
“But it doesn’t change anything. The Steel won’t be happy that the Pearl General was defeated.”
“Even then…”
“And even if the Lord of Steel has the intention to help us, we cannot ask a Lord to help us.” Euren declared, “<Chaos> can only be liberated when we do it ourselves.”
The people turned silent. They all had thought up of one man that gave them that very idea. Cayman spoke.
“The Master… is he not back yet?”
In the Healer room of Gorgon Keep, there were three people.
“You! Wake him up if you made him go to sleep!”
“….”
“What kind of hallucination makes him sleep for 10 days?!”
“…Ugh, can you stop the lecturing? Aren’t you a doctor? Why don’t YOU try waking him up then.” Sirwen replied angrily as she watched Jaehwan.
Chunghuh then shouted back. “I would have done it if I could already! You worthless-”
“Worthless? Wasn’t I the one who saved your ass back there?”
Chunghuh couldn’t object. When the building was about to be destroyed by the Greater General’s skill, Sirwen, who woke up justin time, used Warp to teleport all of them out.
‘Ugh… I mean it was a dangerous situation for sure.’
It really was Sirwen who saved their lives, but Chunghuh did not want to agree to that.
“NO WAY! It is I who saved YOU!”
“….WHAT?”
“Did you forget who protected you when you fainted?”
Sirwen flinched. She certainly did faint when the skill was broken. It would have damaged her spirit if it wasn’t for Chunghuh who protected her.
“…Well, I guess that makes us even then.”
Sirwen agreed, and Chunghuh became awkward. He then glanced back at Jaehwan and asked, “But why did you save us? Didn’t you have ties to Darkness?”