Irwyn followed Aurelio, still holding the unconscious Elizabeth in his arms. He was not expecting her to wake up anytime soon, perhaps she would remain like that until the very end of the trial. Passing out of exhaustion would usually take hours to recover, and the trial didn’t appear very likely to last that much longer.

Although he followed the giant, he naturally could not keep up. At some point, Irwyn lost the sight of Aurelio, and just followed the large +footsteps which eventually lead him to the top of a small hill. As soon as Irwyn reached there a grand sight appeared in front of him: Just a few hundred metres below that hill stood an army, each and every soldier gowned in gold from head to toe. From armour to their weapons, everything was gilded. And that gold glittered brilliantly beneath the sun. It was almost a familiar sight. Irwyn could vaguely remember the time he faced Aurelio in the real world, the view not unlike what he saw in front of him.

Aurelio’s army back then was far larger than anything the marshal could muster now, and so was his elite core who gave the entire army its name: The Gilded guard. Back then, they were all veterans who had stood by Aurelio since the very beginning, the gold of their armour all came from melting the coins of the countless cities they had raided. As Aurelio’s empire fell they were the last to stand by his side, despite the overwhelming odds they stood, outnumbered 10 to 1 by warriors equal in strength they stood resolutely, and miraculously Aurelio managed to achieve victory in those impossible circumstances. They were the most loyal and determined soldier’s that Irwyn could recall. Even when Irwyn had rained death from above they valiantly defended themselves. Even when they were presented Aurelio’s scorched corpse not a single one of them surrendered. They futilely persisted until there was no one left who even could renounce their loyalty. Compared to that valiant force, the current gilded soldiers no longer appeared as magnanimous. They were in the end just a replica, a slightly firmer illusion of what once was.

Despite what the man himself had said, Aurelio most likely despised Irwyn to his very core. In front of him had stood a man who had incinerated the empire for which he fought 50 long years to establish, as well as the person who had murdered everyone that he once cared for, yet when that person appeared in front of him he could not vent that rage. Irwyn was not naive enough to truly believe that being granted access to this domain was enough to make up for all that Irwyn took from Aurelio. Yet Aurelio was forced to show a smile, compelled to appear joyous in front of the being he hated the most the very same moment he had realised his identity. As soon as Irwyn left, that compulsion would too, and Aurelio would once again regret not taking his revenge. In the far distant past Irwyn might have felt pity, however, those days had passed long before Aurelio was even born.

Suddenly movement appeared on the horizon. Contrary to what one would expect from cavalry unit called the Crimson parade, the enemy was not approaching on horseback. In fact they were not using the ground to travel in the first place. Instead Irwyn saw hundreds upon hundreds of vermillion dots traverse the sky in the distance. It looked a bit like a raging swarm of red wasps or perhaps a flock of small fish fleeing from predators. As they drew closer they became more distinct, and Irwyn could finally clearly distinguish that each of those dots was a rider and a mount. They were wearing heavy scarlet armour which completely covered any traces of skin. A large protrusion on their helmets was probably the only clear sign of their Elven origin, had Irwyn not know the origin of the Forsaken legion beforehand he would have had a hard time guessing that part. Each of those knights were also carrying a staff in one hand and a tower shield in the other, standard equipment for the Elven mage knights of old. Before the banishment of the High elves from the prime material plane these tremendously powerful casters rained death down from above, spreading fear through every battlefield on which they had appeared. The fear was not only caused by their magic, but also by their mounts: Red scaled wyverns. Most monsters were impossible to tame due their lack of soul and intelligence, however, wyverns were a rare exception. They were not pure-blooded monsters, instead they were bastard children with a remnant of draconic blood, thus they were not among the original monsters created by the aspect of challenge. Thanks to that they lacked the inborn ferocious hatred of all things living that most monsters possessed and thus could be tamed if groomed from a hatchling. In adulthood they would often reach the 4th tier, creating a terrifying duet when combined with their riders.

The only disadvantage of these aerial knights were their extremely low numbers, further dwindled by the Elven insistence that only those of noble birth may even be allowed to attempt the difficult training. Had they let go of that useless pride, Halamar’s desperate last stand might have instead become the turning point of their retaliation. Afterall, he needed only 1000 of them to stop 3 great armies in their track, history might have flown differently if he had 2 or 3 times that at his disposal.

A few minutes had passed as the distant aerial knights drew closer. It became quite obvious that all of them were completely identical, Irwyn could not spot even the slightest difference between them. Soon enough they approached just close enough to be a few metres outside the range of Gilded guard's magic, however, just as the aerial mages were about to initiate their magic barrage, Aurelio’s army struck first. Or perhaps rather than struck they cast first as a mist suddenly spread from where the Gilded guard previously stood. In an instant they were completely hidden by that spreading cloud. Unafraid of any consequences the mages of Crimson parade rushed directly into the mist. Irwyn had put Elizabeth down next to him and lied prone at this point on the not distant hilltop as he observed, attempting to not attract any attention. It did take long before Irwyn felt particularly distinct surges of mana from within the already mana oozing mist. That likely meant that the aerial mages had started to bombard the positions when they had last seen the Gilded guard. From what Irwyn could tell there was no counterattack initiated by Aurelio’s men so far. He could only see the mist spreading wider and wider as one knight after another charged inside, while others encircled the cloud, perhaps expecting the enemies to rush out of the mist. It took only about 30 seconds for about half of the knights to enter. At that time Irwyn felt the release of magic decrease instead of increasing, he had a couple of guesses about what could be going on.

“And if I am right...” he chuckled to himself. As those words left his mouth the battlefield shifted in an instant. The gilded guard which was supposedly stuck within the mist suddenly appeared a decent distance away from the mist. Within an instant, golden spears were already coursing through the air, targeting the individual mages which had encircled the mist, meanwhile a volley of pyroblasts was following close behind the the thrown weaponry, "...the victor is already determined," Irwyn finished his sentence just as the spears mutilated the few separated aerial mages. On the other hand, the pyroblasts did not land a single hit, in fact, they appeared to miss on purpose. The reason for that was revealed as soon as the magic touched the mist.

BOOM, a gargantuan explosion shook the earth as the mist turned into a raging inferno. The ground around it was blown high into the air, creating a rain of dirt and pebbles which obstructed vision, meanwhile the air around the pulsating sun-like epicentre was distorted from the extreme heat. Most members of the Crimson parade had managed to raise a shield just before they were swept away by the shockwaves, however, their formation was now completely broken and their reserves of mana definitely took a large hit. To make matters worse, the fate of those who had entered the mist was likely not great.

The Gilded guard did not even hesitate when they saw the distorted enemies, it was as though they were prepared for exactly this situation wren they quickly took out javelins before quickly throwing them at the closest foes they could see. Although the javelins lacked the piercing power of the spears, their enemies were blown closer and were also more separated. Just the sheer number of javelins was enough to shred a few of them before they could regain their bearings.

A few fallen wyverns later, the Crimson parade finally managed to regroup under the constant harassment which now also included concentrated fire of flame magic. Contrary to logic they did not withdraw but instead faced their foes head-on. The reason for that was likely that the Golden horde's numbers had also diminished by more than half. It was a likely assumption that quite a few of them were sacrificed to make the earlier ambush possible.

A fatal mistake because as soon as the uniform mage knights charged at the Gilded guard, they were bombarded from behind. Looking over, Irwyn spotted the rest of the Gilded guard standing there, including Aurelio who did not even need to personally act. They were mostly archers or mages of elements other than flame, either way, ranged specialists. Before the arterial mages managed to put up a good enough defence on their back they suffered even more losses. Moreover, they were now being pounded from 2 sides leaving them no ability to counter-attack. By the time they had managed to retreat their losses already reached a terrifying number of around 80%. As soon as they were out of range a deafening voice boomed.

"AURELIO!" rage even thicker than what Irwyn had heard last time shook the air. A single new dot appeared from beyond the horizon and quickly grew nearer. In a flash it passed by the retreating remnants of Crimson parade and Irwyn could finally recognise what it was: It was another mage knight on a wyvern, however, this one was clearly different. He wore no helmet over his head, instead, he let his long blond hair flutter in the wind, his long pointed ears clearly distinguished him as an elf if the unnatural handsomeness wasn't enough. His mount was also different from the others: his wyvern was far larger and appeared significantly more menacing. Irwyn noted that it was a wyvern alpha, in other words a wyvern born with extraordinarily thick draconic heritage. That made it more powerful, but also more wild, thus far harder to tame. Looking at its size, it might have stepped into the monster equivalent of awakening in while alive, although its power in this domain was merely in the 4th tier.

Halamar charged directly at where Aurelio stood with the golden cage on his head. Numerous spells and physical projectiles flew at him, but they seemingly moved out of the way on their own volition, not even slowing the elf down. Halamar's eyes were fully focused on Aurelio who stood there with a mocking grin beneath that golden cage, it was clear that the elf considered the enemy leader the only threat. Moreover, he was apparently intending to snatch a desperate win by cutting off the serpent's head. It must have thus been a great surprise for him when instead of a great battle between him and Aurelio the cutting of heads happened much faster. And also not to Aurelio.

Halamar only saw Aurelio's mocking eyes before his consciousness was swallowed by oblivion. The previous Aurelio which stood among the troops quickly vanished like a puff of smoke. Now the only Aurelio left on the field was the one holding Halamar's severed head.

"Fucking amateur," Aurelio scoffed in disgust as he spat on Halamar's falling headless corpse. The wyvern seemed to be completely paralysed after the death of its master as it just duly stared to the front.

[Main objective completed]

[Initiating transportation to the reward area]

These two lines quickly flashed and the world around Irwyn began to disintegrate in his eyes before it completely fell apart and was gradually replaced by endless blackness. The last thing Irwyn saw was Aurelio's face which had been looking in his direction suddenly distort. Then he could only wait for his and Elizabeth's arrival at the next destination.