While the campaign ran high. Only Gabrio and a few knew that the Blinder stirred in his sleep. It would certainly boost morale, but unfortunately some are suspicious and superstitious. Over the years, a belief was starting to grow on the fleet about the idea of the Blinder and the Mission given to the Fleet.

The Blinder of Light is salvation. It’s what everyone has been led to believe. But there are others who think of something else. The blinder might be the light of salvation, but he was also a possible warning.

A warning that once again the battle between the light and the darkness has come again. An omen that warns about the enviable demise of those who were not around to be bathed in the light of the blinder.

No one was allowed in the chamber. Save for the few who were recognized by the guardians around the chamber on the tree. Guardians who are able to come out of the walls to defend the blinder and if necessary take him away before harm comes to him.

The news made Lady Rosalve hurry to the chamber. Upon closer inspection she was relieved, but still worried about the implication of his awakening. It has been hundreds of years. Three generations had passed. He’d be reassured that there are familiar faces, but still, things have changed.

The fleet has changed. And perhaps he’d be baffled by the state of how the fleet is doing. Slaughtering demikins by the thousands until none of them are left.

His pulse was steady. He hasn’t aged a bit and from what the others could tell Gabrio and what he had observed as well. Terin Gaspar has been in a state of suspended animation. He was a fuel-less lamp. A lamp that needed the sun to recover the light he shed in fighting the Baron.

Another concern about his possible awakening was his appearance in the world. Think of the world, at least the world of the elven and the blue-blooded can sense. To them Terin Gaspar is like a mighty cyclone of light. He shines brightly and staring too much was the same as placing your eyes near a burning fire. Gabrio can feel it, but only when he attunes himself to focus. He did come to realize that intense focus makes it feel like time is slow for him.

So he might have made himself known to all those who could perceive his presence. It has been years. And even Gabrio had once thought that all those monsters were coming after the Blinder. When he slept those monsters went away as if they couldn't find them.

True or not. The idea of facing those dreaded beasts made him anxious. The lighthouse fleet was now truly a flame against the dark that can be seen from distance and through every possible eye who could perceive it.

He was putting bullseyes on the fleet. Then again, the fleet was arranged so that it could protect the Blinder of Light from the terrors of the Interstice until he is delivered

Gabrio realized that the duty of the fleet had resumed. The elders of the fleet, and those who were allowed began imposing orders. The Soundless and the Jesters were now posted in the chamber while Lady Rosalve and Lady Felecia stood guard.

As for Gabrio, he checked the Blinder’s condition before hauling his doctor’s bag and bidding them farewell.

He went to the landing place where a skyship was waiting for him. The Milostiv, although the home ship of the Blinder, had never been his home the moment the Arkshelled Island was raised. He wanted to go home and assist his shipmates.

Minutes after sailing the sky, disembarking to the barge pulled by the Grand-Galleon. Gabrio went to his medical tent. Mana took over the healing and was assisted by one of the medics. Putting his bag down, he took his apron and then sat tiredly on the chair.

Gabrio had truly forgotten how long it has been since he was worried about accomplishing a mission. The Blinder of Light returning means that somehow… The elders were right to wage a campaign of annihilation on the Shatran Islands.

The first sign of land and the first thing the fleet did was to make sure that none of its inhabitants existed. The Shatran Island is of no concern. But it was full of much-needed resources that the fleet needed. It’ll take time to harvest them and one may think that it would take another century or so, then they clearly have not seen how the Elven harvest their resources.

Even as a war was being raged upon the islands. The tireless treants of the fleet have begun its harvest. The fleet could wage this campaign because they had now the ability to stock up supplies and replenish whatever they spent on the cleansing of the islands.

Testing weapons and emptying out the storages. The war can continue with far more intensity now that the Blinder had recently stirred. It wouldn’t matter. Hell, the Elders might have been vindicated by the stirring of the light’s champion.

They can now justify this campaign as a way to protect the Blinder. That this was all for the sake of the Blinder of Light. They are far smarter than that, but nonetheless that would be the main idea of whatever deplorable reason they can muster when asked why they needed to genocide the Demikins of the region.

Despise that. Gabrio acknowledged that this was how it should be. At least the fleet had regained its purpose with the possibility of the Blinder walking amongst them again.

But a walking and breathing Blinder means that enemies are going to come. He had no doubt that those demikins he had interrogated, if they were telling any truth, would come for them. Whatever monsters that won the battle for the Moonblessed will be coming for Terin Gaspar.

Gabrio didn’t like the idea, for it meant that the battle had come again. A lot of people are going to die. The fate of the Fleet would have to be in the hands of those who speak the words of power and the Hero blessed by Sunlight.

***

The Shatran Campaign’s objective was to annihilate the traces of the enemy around the islands. However, the rest of the fleet had occupied the jagged Tundrae where expendable defenses were made. Expendable in a way that if the fleet is forced to escape, then they can safely leave it behind without worries of wasting resources and equipment

Gabrio traveled with some of the soldiers to the large island where a campaign against smarter and resilience was being held. It was a major island that had been torn apart and burnt by the continuous pounding of the artillery of the ships surrounding it.

Even from a distance, the geysers of black soil and dirt flying as the artillery pounded on the defenses of the demikins could be seen as the skyship landed.

Donning his mechanical mask that acted as his Vitae as well. Gabrio wore his leather coat and was armed with two grapeshot revolvers on both sides of the waist and a forearm-length saw blade sheathed and held tightly by a leather strap.

He was wearing the mask that prevented him from inhaling the bad air. The mask also allowed him to use the glasses on the eye sockets to zoom in and act as a magnifying glass.

It was also sturdy and could protect his head from a deadly blow. Not to mention the Vitae embedded in the mask will only activate if it's worn by him.

It was far better than the beaked masks that the soldiers who are using the flame-throwers to burn some parts of the forest. Walking along the camp, there were strangely only a few who noticed his approach. His gait was quiet and he left no noise even as he carried his heavy bags around. The Soundless and Jesters were masters of stealth and years of training had been engraved in his body. He had the time to learn and use it as he sees fit.

It was helpful in not waking up patients and allowed him to walk around the Milostiv and the Arkshelled Island without being disturbed by anyone.

Gabrio set the tools he carried in a wooden box backpack and placed it on the table. He put his surgical tools around and then waited for the wounded to come. He took off his mask and watched the front where the artillery was hammering down.

Most of the soldiers were waiting behind the lines as they hammered down on the enemy. Some of the injured were being carried by the treantlers, the four-legged treants that the fleet had been using as mobile carriers.

Standing on the tent without his mask. The soldiers hurried to get themselves treated. Those who were badly wounded by the demikins were examined and treated as best as he could first. The rest gathered around the spaces around the tent where the the soldiers gathered information and passed them personally while they were being treated.

Standing hours upon hours in the tent. His bloodied and disheveled appearance was a familiar sight to the soldiers who knew him. Even at night, the lamp on his tent remained. He was suturing and cauterizing wounds. Treating infections and because of the enemy’s weapon and wrapping them up.

Gabrio didn’t stop after most of the soldiers behind the lines had been treated. He carried some of his medical supplies and roamed around the encampment, looking for stubborn fools who refuse to get their wounds treated in the medical tent.

After checking the camp, he found himself sneaking to other places where some soldiers were spotted and entered a nasty tunnel that was dug by the enemy to surprise the soldiers.

Crawling down this hole, he found one of the soldiers holding on to his leg that had been sliced by the enemy’s weapon. The soldier, who saw a figure approach, shot him, grazing him. Thankfully, he was wearing his mask reinforced with the Vitae and was able to avoid any serious wound.

After recognizing the mask, the soldier’s face visibly relaxed and paled and he thanked his God for Gabrio finding him. His friends were butchered and he was the only one left. Taking a syringe out, Gabrio injected the soldier with a concoction he had improved over the years. It was the same concoction that allowed him to survive during the time he and Mana got thrown far from the fleet.

After applying first aid, he dragged the soldier out of the hole and carried him across his shoulder. Back in the tent, he had made sure that the soldier was rested and followed a group of soldiers who were encamped farther in the line and checked on their conditions.

Seeing that they were fine, he went back and roamed the other camps. Providing medical support until he was found by one of the medics who requested him to go back to his tent where he started treating the heavily wounded that fought off a new wave of enemies trying to assault the defense lines.

After spending a week in the tent, Mana found him in a messy state. He was stronger with the Vitae, and was able to work continuously because of the mask, leading Mana to wonder if she should have given him a Vitae.

Mana stayed for three days, taking over, letting Gabrio rest, before she went back to the Arkshelled Island in a skyship after the Elders called her.

A few weeks passed, and with the soldiers luring out the monsters into the open. Gabrio saw the Armored Treants of the Company fighting this humanoid monster that had stone-like muscles and skin that are like leathery fish scales.

Normal guns didn’t work, but the cannons and the heavy artillery of the fleet did. They didn’t fire on this demikin giant. Most of the fighting was done by the Armored Treants, their blades taking down the beast and its forearm guns ripping the beast to shreds.

After that battle, the rest of the soldiers were divided into squads. Burning the insides of the demikin nest, rounding up the lesser creatures into the open where they were summarily executed by the troops.

Gabrio stood on the sidelines as always. He was a senior of the fleet and was given a sufficient rank where he was allowed to go as he pleased to do his duty. And that duty was to heal. He never was a master tactician or a fighter. He never was fond of violence unless it was needed to take care of the safety of the people around him.

Seeing the soldiers of the Milostiv burning sentient creatures alive didn’t stir any emotion on him. It made him wonder if he simply didn’t have such an empathy for the enemy or was it time diluting his sympathy to those he didn’t care about?

Imagining the soldiers being treated this way however, made Gabrio groan. The thought of it infuriated him, and yet looking back at the enemies being executed. He felt sorry, but not enough to stop his soldiers from fulfilling the tasks given to them.

Pulling away from the gruesome display of cruelty from his people, he went back to treating the wounded.