Chapter 64 : Leaving the Forest of Truth (1)

A day later, inside a luxurious inn near the residential area.

Surrounded by books and papers of all kinds, Alice was sitting on the wooden floor trying to decipher the last secret message she intercepted.

'If Leader knew that these retards use pigeons and other small flying beasts to carry such important messages, he would probably laugh to death.' she thought.

Surprisingly, she also felt Alpha Zero agreeing inside her shadow.

Since the day her leader sent her and Alpha Zero to the capital of Aliomeri, they gathered an insane amount of information with so little effort.

They were aware that technology wasn't advanced on Lunaris, but they at least expected the use of strange magic for secret communications, or even some kind of artifacts like the beastmen assassins were using. After some studies, Alice discovered that not only these earlobes devices were rare, but they were also greatly limited by their range.

Only the large and wealthy organizations that had branches spread out on the entire continent, and the most advanced countries of the Central Continent had long-distance communication devices.

Jun ordered Alice to join any of the powerful organizations that had great influence in Aliomeri, but unfortunately, most of them ceased their activities the moment the capital has been hit by the proton torpedo.

Because of the chaos that followed suit, the majority of foreign people who had assets in Aliomeri left the capital as fast as the wind. Only the citizens, knights, soldiers, and nobles remained. Even the money-crazy merchants left in a hurry.

There weren't a lot of foreigners in Aliomeri in the first place, as like the other elven countries, they only tolerated the Adventurer Guild and the Merchant Union for the sake of necessity. And even then, only pure-blood elves were allowed to operate freely, as the presence of any other race was strictly forbidden inside the capital.

The only exceptions were the slaves and the diplomatic envoys of other nations.

Even the beastmen, who are longtime allies of the elves and part of the same continental alliance, are forbidden to trespass onto their territory.

A few elven kingdoms are more accepting of beastmen, and some even grant them citizenship, but the royals of Aliomeri have always been traditionalist ; they have never been open-minded toward other races.

"I think we should hasten the preparation if we want to meet the deadline," Alice mumbled while reading yet another letter written in a secret elven code.

Just as she finished talking, Alpha Zero emerged from her shadow.

'Master. Asked. Us. To. Be. Careful.'

"I know, but we have to take some risks if we want to complete our mission in time," said Alice, while standing up.

Jun didn't give them any deadline, but they both knew that the faster they could do a complete report of the situation here, the better it was. Thus, they both agreed to complete their mission in less than a month.

It wasn't too short nor too long for what they had to do. It was just enough time for them to gather the most important information about Aliomeri and Lunaris in general.

They devised a plan to conduct their mission in the shadows of the capital, unbeknownst to everyone, but they needed more manpower.

The first thing they did when infiltrating the city was to kidnap an important lady from an influential loyalist household and make her mysteriously disappear for a few days... just so Alice could take her persona.

On the surface, the lady in question was the wife of a reputable count from the loyalist faction, but behind the scenes, she was one of the few officials administrating the breeding factories.

No need to say what awaited her once she got caught by Alpha Zero in the middle of her sleep...

While the wife of a count wasn't the best identity Alice could have gotten, it was already more than enough for what she planned. Since arriving in the capital, Alice has been honing her face-lifting skill to perfection.

She would act as the countess whenever she wasn't operating in the shadows ; this was the reason why Alice wasn't in her usual black outfit today.

Instead of her lustrous Dark Armor, she was wearing an elegant evening gown embroidered with a dark-green layer of silk. Her body was covered with extensive jewels, and a thin but gracious veil was covering her visage.

Her face also changed. As Jun predicted, Alice has been able to use her black matter to change her appearance to an incredible extent. Among the squad members, she was without a doubt the one with the best control over her black matter.

She copied the features of the noble lady she killed so well that even her own family didn't suspect anything.

She now had long pointy ears, pale skin with a few wrinkles that betrayed her age, as well as beautiful green eyes that seemed to shine in the dimmed light of the inn room they were staying at.

After establishing their hideout in the capital, Alice and Alpha Zero quickly realized that they wouldn't be able to infiltrate the Adventurer Guild or the Merchant Union in just a few weeks. As for the various Knights Orders and Mages Towers that have branches in the capital... it is nearly impossible to infiltrate them, even after being undercover for several months.

Therefore, they decided to use the chaos caused by the nuclear explosion to their advantage : they directly aimed at the government officials.

Because the countess they kidnapped was secretly working in the breeding factories department, they had a free pass to both the loyalist faction and the government officials.

Right now, the situation in the capital was critical and the faction loyal to the Queen was on the verge of collapsing. It was a perfect opportunity for them to infiltrate what was left of the officials, gather as much sensitive information as they can, and then leave the capital before anyone noticed.

Even in the worst-case scenario where Alice gets discovered, they already gathered enough information to please their Leader, so they could already leave the capital if needed. The loyalist faction wouldn't be able to give chase when they were in an open war against the rebel households.

After rummaging through the papers laying on the floor one last time for a few minutes, Alice finally memorized everything and burnt them all.

When she was about to leave her room to take a break, she sensed a familiar presence waiting behind the door.

'She finally arrived. It was easier than expected,' Alice thought, while she prepared to receive her guest.

'Don't. Forget, We. Need. Her. Alive.' Alpha Zero said with an indifferent voice, before returning inside her shadow.

'I know. If she truly is a friend of that sly princess, she would be of great help later on.'

The person outside hesitated for a few minutes in front of the door, before finally knocking.

"Who's there ?!" Despite already knowing the answer, Alice played her role and acted as the middle-aged noble lady she was supposed to be.

"H-hum... I am Elena Danelis. I was told to come here."

"The young daughter of the late minister of finance ? I see... You may come in."

The door opened itself, surprising Elena.

After ensuring that no one had followed her, she quickly entered the room, holding a large number of slave seals in her hand.

___

Far from the capital, inside the forest of truth, hundreds of battle-drones stood in line around the deep crater left behind by their flagship crashing into the lake.

After the King of Lyssandra left in a hurry to defend his kingdom, all the squad members settled down to recover from their previous fights.

They all spent an entire day inside the healing pods.

After treating Douglas, Jerome, and Jun's bodies, even Katarina needed some rest. It was the first time she has been so exhausted without even fighting.

Before going inside the pod, Jun called the second princess and gave her orders to follow. Although he didn't trust her, he had a use for the 500 half-blood soldiers she brought to her cause.

Thanks to Alice completing her escort mission without a problem, the second princess had a favorable impression of Jun and his squad. The days she spent near the lake observing them going in and out of the forest bathed in blood were more than enough to remove any thoughts of escaping from her mind.

While she asked for help from the King of Lyssandra, in reality, she simply submitted to the strange mercenaries clad in black who captured her. She had no other choice but to bow her head if she wanted to survive with her brother.

She was nothing more than a mere prisoner, as even her value as a hostage was null. Her mother wouldn't bat an eye if she learned about her and Palleas' captivity.

Thus, when Jun called her in and gave her the instruction of scouting the forest and clearing the monsters on the path toward Lyssandra, she was taken aback.

'Isn't he afraid of us escaping if he just let us go ?' she thought for a second, before the scene of how Jun dealt with the golden knights escorting the human King came into her mind.

'...Nevermind.' She realized that if she wanted to escape, she would be dead before even trying.

It sent a shiver down her spine.

All of these Royal Guards were at least peak 2-stars knights, and most of them were 3-stars veterans or above. Even the strongest of them, a peak 4-stars swordmaster, has been hopeless against the black ghosts that emerged from the ground.

Since then, these frightening ghosts were roaming free around the lake...

Just thinking about them petrified her, so she nodded crazily to everything Jun told her to do.

After Jun instructed them to march toward the edge of the forest and wait for him there, the second princess gathered her soldiers and left in a hurry, as though someone had set her back on fire.

'This, Gladia, is how you oblige a reluctant soul to listen to you.'

[By fear ?] Gladia was dubious about this kind of method.

'Exactly. I don't expect her to be loyal anytime soon, but she still has a use. I just have to make her terrified enough so she wouldn't dare to go against my will.'

[You know that she can still betray you, right ?]

'Yes, but then the reaper I have hidden in her shadow would slit her throat faster than the time it takes for her to say a single word.' Jun had a creepy grin under his helmet when saying these words.

[Well, I also think that she can be of use later. You may consider these elves as nuisances, but they will nevertheless be necessary if you plan to make Aliomeri our new HQ.]

'I know, and that's why I did let her and her soldiers live. However, the choice to stay alive will depend on whether she can cast her pride away and follow our instructions... or not.'

After all the natives left the lake shore, Jun also gave his orders to his drones. He had to prepare his forces to leave the forest and march on Lyssandra ; it had to be done well.

After preparing different plans with Gladia's help, he formed two distinct groups.

The first group was composed of all the non-combattant support drones such as the engineers and operators. They have been tasked to transfer all the flagship's parts inside the cave where Jun and Jerome fought the worms.

Jun has been granted permission to utilize this mountain as a temporary base in return for taking care of a single elf, as part of the arrangement he had with the mysterious owner of the reptilian eye. Whatever this mighty being's hidden agenda was, this deal was incredibly beneficial to Jun's squad.

The mission of the first group of drones was to clean up the tunnels, secure the area surrounding the mountain, and set up an advanced base deep inside the galleries dug by the worms.

To hasten the process and protect the support drones, Jun assigned the 39 surviving battle-drones from Jerome's regiment, a small unit of 20 elite-drones, and 10 reapers to the first group.

It was more than enough to make sure everything goes well.

The second group's role was to protect the healing pods until all the squad members wake up, and prepare for leaving the forest. It was composed of all the remaining forces.

Despite Jun's crew getting depleted over the years because of the numerous battle they fought, it still amounted to an impressive number.

Out of the 2500 drones present in the lance of Kar'goth when Jun found it in the golden hangar, 600 were still operational. It seemed to be a small number, but in reality, Jun has only lost a hundred of them since his battle with Legatus on the mega-structure.

The majority of the drones and reapers have been lost during the fight against Legatus, as well as during the intense space battle that took place above the megastructure. Thousands of drones have been lost when the Lance of Kar'goth's hull got penetrated by the heavy artillery of Optio Carceris' fleet.

Right now, 367 battle-drones, 153 elite-drones, and 80 support drones are operational. As for the reapers, 150 of them are ready to fight, while 50 of them are still healing inside Jun's shadow.

Gladia believed that crossing the dimensional rift affected the 50 reapers still asleep more than their brothers, and neither she nor Alpha Zero knew if these unlucky reapers would one day awaken.

In total, without counting the first group that would stay in the forest and the few drones that Jun lent to the King, a total of 318 battle-drones, 123 elite-drones, and 140 reapers were ready to march on Lyssandra.

It seemed to be few compared to the thirty-thousand-strong army of Aliomeri, yet Jun believed that his drones would be more than able to resist the elves. They didn't have the quantity, but they surely had the quality.

If what the King said was true, then each of his battle-drones is at least the equivalent of a fully-fledged knight. While Aliomeri gathered more than 30 000 soldiers, only 2000 of them were knights.

If he adds the hundreds of bloodthirsty reapers to the drone's regiments, then Jun was almost certain of his victory with a proper strategy.

From the day Jun opened his eye inside the Scylla mother-ship, he has always fought losing battles. Being outnumbered and outpowered has become a habit for him and his crew.

What mattered the most was not the number of adversaries, nor their strength ; it was to never yield to the enemy, and more importantly, to always have a solution to every possible scenario.

Fortunately, the latter was feasible thanks to Gladia's superior intellectual capabilities.

When the sun was slowly setting away over the horizon after a whole day of rare silence inside the Forest of Truth, four healing pods installed in the middle of the deep crater ejected a little puff of smoke, before opening up.

The serene lake of blue water vibrated as all the drones and reapers who previously stood guard knelt on the ground at the same time.

The Void Rifters awakened...

It is now time for war.

___