Eventually the rest time was over.

"About time", Kaden muttered as he prepared to move.

Kaden made sure to stay just behind some other people. He felt it was likely that Sacronan would have prepared something along the way as they escaped. He made sure to be lookout for traps or anything else.

Emina was also nearby. She was acting again and speaking the way she usually. She had also played some music during the rest and asked about stuff. Kaden guessed that was the way she had been able to hear things. Someone pretending to be a warrior bard or something could easily ask dubious questions. She was also a rather curious person. Kaden still decided not to bring into question her true identity. It should be pretty high. Yet, it mattered not to Kaden and therefore value of such information wasn't high.

There were some explosions. It seemed Sacronan had left a minefield of formations. Kaden wasn't very concerned. He was able to sense them from distance away. They were not that high grade that they would be cloaked or something. They had been made in haste too.

"Sacronan is just running", Kaden determined. "As long as they don't get reinforcements, they won't get to do anything big and will only stop at the remnant where saints have troops too. We only gave them a short time to prepare tricks. This all should be fine."

As time passed, all sorts of traps became more scarce until they stopped altogether. It apparently was considered pointless to continue wasting time and effort to produce such minor obstacles.

It also became clear they were progressing well into the uninhabited area. This was the edge of the area where mana storms raged regularly while the great remnant was not accessible. There were less and less living things and the few living things that existed were everything from things with interesting ways to be resilient such as common grass that dug underground when it sensed danger to outright completely mutated things that none could say what they were supposed to be.

This was the outer edges and it was still longway deeper into the continent of Murika. After several days inside the so called outer areas, all those supposedly resilient creatures disapeared too. As far as Kaden could see, it was all dead wasteland. Only variation in the wasteland was different kinds of rocks, minerals and crystals.

The mana storms that swept across the area and more dense mana was optimal to produce such things. This was what the population on the shores lived on. They would send people to collect valuable materials and then bring back when the storms died down a bit. Then sell them back across sea one way or another. Some amounts through the temple of Stefinos, but without support of the church, whatever teleportation they used was too expensive. There were also ships, but that was extremely dangerous even with proper preparations to hide the ships from sea beasts. Yet, due to the value of the materials, those who were strong and brave could make good money from it.

Kaden expected to see the people after all the materials along the way now that the great remnant was opening, but he noticed none. They were most likely avoiding the troops from the empires. They would only come out once whatever troops had passed.

In the horizon Kaden could see sky glowing with strange colors. The air was shimmering and similarly colored clouds floated about. Sometimes a bolt of energy was released from one of such flickering clouds.

"Thats likely directly above the remnant", Kaden thought to himself. It seemed the troops were almost at the location. "Not exactly mana storm, but nearly. Usually it probably sends forth much larger ones that float around the area and even cover large areas."

Ambient mana was getting extremely dense at the distance and would likely keep doing so the entire way. It was likely too weak people would die one way or another if they came this close and stayed too long unprotected. They would be unable to regulate the mana.

Normally with the more dense mana and constant mana storms would likely kill anyone under Condensation stage over a period of time. Those strong enough might be able to approach, but a bubble of mana formed from constant stream of mana could stop even Archmagus from going in.

"Well... unsurprisingly at least a god can enter", Kaden muttered to himself.

The remnant itself was a some kind of a bunker embedded into a mountain side. Not much else was visible outside of the actual remnant. If it was a shelter of some kind, it made sense to dig underground.

Not long after Kaden's thoughts were interrupted as new commands were given.

"We will circle around a bit and join rest of the army stationed near the remnant! The mana levels are almost low enough for the great remnant to become accessible. Once that happens, we will have to fight Sacronan as we all enter. Our mission is to stop Sacronan while exploring and acquiring whatever valuables you can find! Information! Items! Treasures! Considering the difficulties, despite it being open many times, the remnant is yet to be fully explored!"

What wasn't included was the actual mission what the True Magi were going to do. This was nothing unexpected. Everyone else were just expendable explorers and treasure seekers.

It was kind of surprising for Kaden to see Saint Empire and Sacronan basically side by side, but not attacking each other. They had greater concerns than mindless butchering. Nor would they attack the approaching troops Kaden was part of. If they sent portion to attack, saints would attack then much weaker group. It made no sense to have troops die pointlessly before they could go in.

The killing would begin once the remnant truly opened up. Until then everyone merely stood just far enough that whatever remaining bolts of energy came down wouldn't hit them. Then, once they stop completely, everyone will rush into the remnant and a massacre would begin.

Very soon the troops joined with rest of the saint forces. Kaden even spotted a few True Magi floating in the sky, seemingly ready to go at any time. He wondered, if they would be already able to enter with the reduced power from the remnant, but they did not do so. Perhaps extra chaos was beneficial to them, even if they were able to do so.

Kaden then ignored them. Whatever they did was beyond his ability to influence.

He concentrated on other matters. Such as that there was relatively high amount of church personel. He knew very well now why that was. He made sure his mask was better in place. The way things were, some of them could be... fanatical.

Anyone they decided to fit into the so called prohecy, would likely be target of their fanatical zeal.

"Gods...", Kaden cursed in his mind. "Disgusting beings. I wonder if they can be killed. Can I kill... concepts?"

He sighed. Removing parts of existence like that was likely impossible.

Despite already wasting so much time, he had to waste some more. Being among the military was becoming a problem. Kaden decided he would get rid of them as soon as possible. He was done with them. Even if he would be able to gain some benefits once he was done advancing, it would not be worth it.

He knew enough that he could personally continue studying formations. He didn't need contribution points anymore. Metals, magic theory or other things he would be able to get elsewhere. When he joined the military, he was not strong enough to take things for himself. Now he was.

They were useless to him now. Mostly at least. At least for the time being he could hang along and get inside the great remnant.

There were people to kill.

He had already let that Juren live for far too long. Kaden expected to be able to kill him by now. What about that monk, Marwen. Even Juren followed his orders, but that made sense if the monk was church's so called attack dog.

Unfortunately that had to wait. Just a bit longer. He only needed to survive the great remnant. Kaden expected to be fully capable of doing it since he was well aware of that fact. Rest of the soldiers likely only followed orders. Smarter ones might notice it too and had higher chance of survival. Not everyone died. At least not at the remnant. Church might hunt down the rest afterwards so their deaths do not count to be among the ones in remnant.

Kaden had no plans of working with the churches. He would be well capable of living outside of human territories. Weaker beasts in his past had always seemed to consider him a beast and not simply see him as human, as nutritious food.

"I don't know of the higher beasts, Cari", Kaden thought. "That insane boar at least didn't kill me, but who knows if thats due to insanity or that it sees me as a beast. This has to be confirmed later. If not, I must look some distant hiding place where I can grow even stronger. Brit can be my first choice... possibly Murika, if I get far enough from the remnant. There is southern Murika too. I don't know anything of that area. Perhaps beasts live there?"

There was little point to choose at the time. He wasn't even aware what options he had when time to escape came. Nor could he hide forever. People needed to die.

"Unless I discover some spell that I can use to kill from great distance, I cannot hide forever...", he continued.

Then Kaden could almost hear laughter. Actually, not almost, but for real as he looked around and noticed its source... high above him.

One of the True Magi was glowing and generating some kind of orbs around him. Soon after the others started to power up too! Also on Sacronan's side.

The True Magi were ready to fight. It seems they had determined the magic around the remnant was weak enough!

Kaden also stood up and prepared to rush towards the remnant. That ended up being a bad idea. As soon as he did so, the True Magi clashed with immense speed. A bursts of energy was released from their fight and that caused blast wave one after another. Kaden was knocked flying from the force. Not that he was only one. Those who had not braced for them were now preparing to do so.

Mere ordinary mortals should not wander near True Magi. Mere after effects of their basic attacks could be deadly.

Luckily that didn't last long. Once they had hindered their opponents enough, they rushed towards the remnant. There was some glow as the mana bubble was penetrated by the True Magi. There was no time to observe for long.

"Everyone! Move!" Orders were annouced. "We too must go in! The mana blocking the way should quickly weaken! We must be the first. Kill those from Sacronan! Collect everything you can find!"

Emina quietly appeared from where she had been waiting. She would follow. This was good.

What started as ordered forms of military, thing soon decended into chaos as the armies clashed. The True Magi at least had already all went inside.

As far as Kaden cared, the weaklings could pummel each other to death outside. Kaden intended to go in as soon as possible so he only had to rip and tear a path forward in front of him. He cared about nothing else. Whatever random attacks came to his way, he was able to shrug off. Very few people could take time to attack properly someone not directly in front of them.

Eventually Kaden found himself at a spot where there seemed to be a force preventing him going forward. It wasn't like a wall, but as if soft mass. Once he attempted to push in, the harder it seemed to become. Kaden exerted more power and pushed in harder. In front of him he could see something that was basically a door. It was open and seemed as if it had been torn open a long time ago. He pushed towards that direction.

Behind him, he could see more people coming in, but outside seemed like looking through water or glass. No attacks seemed to penetrate in so he stopped worrying about those still outside.

It was at limits of his strength, but he was able to reach the door. Now that he was closer, it seemed to be large enough to even pass through with even some vehicle. As soon as he go to the doorway, the obstructive force seemed to disapear! Kaden nearly stumbled, but quickly regained his balance.

Insides were...... unusual. The pathways forward seemed like a kaleidoscope. The room itself was a place where something relatively large was stored after bringing it in. Broken machinery and such too. Kaden assumed this was some vehicle storage. Anything on the other side was messed up. Pathways, stairs, corridors. Turn your head a little and the everything moves. Some paths seemed to extend to infinity. Some paths seemed to twist so that it seemed floor was somehow the ceiling.

"Space here is messed up. No point trying to choose the way", Kaden determined.

A few more people got in. Each of them stopped to look at the sight. It seemed everyone were part of the saints. Perhaps Sacronan was losing or they had another path.

Emina appeared too. At least the problem of how she would come together into the corridors with Kaden was solved.

"Lets not waste time", Kaden told Emina. "You can gawk at the sight as we go in."

Kaden didn't give Emina time to say anything as he rushed forward. Emina followed without saying anything.

There was still problem of how to return in Kaden's mind, but that disapeared as he looked behind. It seemed towards outside the spatial distortion was gone and existed only if you went towards inside.