.--Holy Land---

"What is this suddenly with all of these orcs!?" Marcel cursed.

Storms were blowing over the hills. The battlefield was filled with roaring flames, burning corpses, and glaciers full of frozen orcs, ogres, and trolls. Yet, there was no end to them. The Boulder Guild with its two chosen ones had already cleaned up their section and were about to start raiding dungeons when the forces of the orc kingdom started relentlessly invading.

"I hope I'm wrong, but the only explanation I can come up with is that the other guilds have fallen or fled. Damn, if this keeps going, we might have to retreat, too! Let's fall back to the camp first." Brock said exhausted.

The sweating guild master and a team of guild members had finally made their way back to Marcel and Elza. A sudden dungeon break had separated them earlier. With some effort, they made their way back to their fortified camp, where the rest of the guild was busy defending against the orc forces.

Even Elza and Marcel, throwing around fire storms and ice blizzards, could only temporarily lower the pressure on the defenses. It was just enough for the team to get back into the camp. While they were out, the camp had already been under siege for a whole day.

"If this keeps going we really have to fall back for now. We can't take on the whole empire alone," Marcel commented.

"In that case, we will have to warn Seth and Minas Mar. If we leave here, a flood of orcs will come their way," Elza argued.

"That is, if we can even get away from here. We also don't know how Minas Mar is faring. They may have already for all we know. The hive couldn't be any weaker than the kingdom, since they held each other at bay," Brock added pessimistically

They had called all team leaders to the command tent to come up with a plan of how to continue from here on.

"Clay should know, right? Shouldn't he have returned by now?" Marcel asked, looking at Clay's team leader Roark.

"We got a message from him a day ago, that he was on his way back, but that was before we came under siege. We have not heard from him since then," Roark reported.

"Have you tried contacting him?" Brock asked.

"I did, but I couldn't get a connection. It seems like he turned off his orb."

"Yeah, otherwise I would have been caught by the orcs." a sudden voice interjected from outside. The flab of the tent was pushed aside and a disheveled Clay entered the meeting.

"Clay!... Did you wait outside to make a dramatic entrance?" Roark asked disillusioned.

"...Sorry. But I really only came just know, team leader! I had no way to get through the orcs before. It's only thanks to the guild master returning, that I got the chance to pass the army and enter the camp," he hurriedly explained himself.

"So, you probably heard our conversation. Report, how is the situation with Minas Mar?" Brock got to the point.

Clay took a moment to find his bearing before he stood up straight and described what he had seen.

"They are doing a lot better than us. Not only have they pushed back what seemed to be the full invasion force of the hive, but they are also actively on the attack right now," he gave his final verdict.

Everyone was staring at him in wonder. Especially the mention of the giant snake that attacked the massive beast brought back memories for Marcel and Brock, who once had the questionable pleasure of being a passenger inside that snake.

"Maybe we should fall back a form a united front together with Minas Mar?" Byron, one of the other team leaders suggested.

"The other guild also had chosen ones and they retreated. What makes you think we can stand up to both sides if we ally with Minas Mar? More importantly, what about our people in Delta?" Roxanne threw in.

Obviously, there was the situation at hand but there were other considerations. If the other guilds had really fallen or rather been forced to use home call, it meant that their elites had returned back to the guild in Delta, while the elites of the Boulder Guild were still stuck here.

With the communications to the outside cut off by the border storm, who knew what the other guilds were up to? Roxanne's point cast a new light on the current situation. What if the other guilds fell back on purpose to strike at their guild?

"Tsk, we just don't know enough," Brock lamented.

Now that it was mentioned, it was really suspicious that the other guilds with their forces and champions might have lost to the orcs. It was also improbable that they would give up on the benefits of the Holy Land just to go after their members in Delta.

The most likely scenario they came up with, was that their competitors had done their work, in the beginning, to lull them into a false security and retreated later so their guild would have to take the full brunt of the orc kingdom's retaliation.

Even if it came out later, who would keep up justice for them after they fell to such a scheme? Either way, they didn't know what was true, or whether any of their suspicions were true. They kept discussing but all these considerations just made making a decision much harder.

"I think we should ally with Minas Mar," Elza suddenly said. Her clear voice cut through the heated debate in the room.

"No matter what is true, we have to survive here and return. We can thwart most of these schemes by just staying alive, and as long as we stay we will become stronger. If they really did something back in Delta, we will be strong enough to take revenge once we return."

"But why would they help us?" Roxanne asked doubtfully.

"Seth is a sensible man. He will realize that he only stands to gain if he helps us," Elza answered her.

"Let me translate it for you, Roxanne. Their tower master is a troll who would help us just to anger them-Ouch. Why did you hit me, Elza?" Marcel asked wronged.

...

After Monique's Rescue, they became a little more careful. It took the ravaged 40 Faer several hours to recover their mana and appearance. Although they may resemble an army of killer machines, like in the popular movie Eradicator, even that movie star had his limits.

They decided on using guerrilla tactics with higher numbers and more protection from the members of the field teams until the average strength of the Faer rose to the point that the cannon fodder would be no hurdle for them.

Seth on the other hand returned to busy himself with equipment. The blacksmith would only step in once they reached the finale. For now, it was more important for the Faer to grow stronger. Maybe some of the others could get another blessing or become chosen, too? How were they supposed to milk the hive for all its worth, if they ended things too quickly?

Currently, he was back to working on Jonah's new mask. He found that he had a much easier time making a demonic grimace than making something beautiful, yet cold and merciless looking. Aside from the trouble with his artistic skills, he was also still lacking a fitting soul for this new mask.

The enchantment was also still up in the air. The only thing he had decided on was the forging ballad. It was one he had learned when he was looking for a ballad for his Forgeright glove. There was another demon that had a connection to crafting known as Azazel, or" the corrupter of man".

Ultimately, Seth did not choose to write a ballad for this demon, because its power went more in the direction of vanity than crafting. Still, in the process of his research, he had learned the forging ballad of demonic charm.

It was more fit for trinkets and jewelry, but it was also a perfect fit for the mask. The effect of the ballad was one that could enrapture the onlooker. Make them stare haplessly in some cases even allowing the item's wearer to give them momentary orders.

Seth knew that Jonah would hate this, but he did this for his sake.

Once he had finished the mask as far as he could, he already had his eyes set on the next item he could finally finish. The last battle had brought him an unexpected gain.