Chapter 557: Behind enemy lines

Far to the east of Higrove, as one approached closer to the Empire's territory, the green grass gradually died down. Life turned barren, the air became dry under the scorching heat of the blazing sun. A seemingly endless desert replaced the green plains. 

Behind the cover of a fierce, baleful sand storm, large masses of shadows appeared on the distant horizon. The roaring wind covered the heavy stomp of footsteps, giving the best natural cover to the approaching invasion army.

Standing at the front, surrounded by the elite guard, Dorian, the appointed commander by the emperor himself, the leader and general of this massive force, pulled the reins of his steed and gave the signal to halt the constant march they have been on for the last 12 hours.

They were still quite a distance away before the high walls of the first city would have appeared over the distant horizon.

He turned towards the thin, bookworm-looking, lanky guy, his aide, and strategist.

"Let's set up camp here and wait for this storm to pass. Though we covered great grounds in this last half a day, we are not in that much of a hurry."

Hearing his Master's statement, the thin man revealed a troubled expression.

"But, Master what if the others are already-"

Before he could finish, Dorian raised his arms, putting an abrupt stop to his question.

"I don't care about what my brothers are doing, or how far they have advanced." Dorian responded. "I don't care about the emperor's announcement, or who will bring most of the merit." 

He turned around his stern, dark eyes scanned over the sea of men busying themselves setting up the tents and hastily rebuilding the tent city for the remainder of the day. 

"I only care about the state of my men, Feran." He sighed, taking almost a full minute as he was lost in the scene. Eventually, he sighed again and gave the order whilst his gaze was still plastered on the soldiers in front of him. "Send word for Captain Syfy, I want him to send out a group to scout ahead."

He turned around gazing in the direction of the city they were heading for. 

"Make sure to send some of his best spies as well. We need to know what's the situation in the city. We have to be sure that the time is right and we wouldn't be walking into the bustling beehive."

"At once Commander!" The thin man, Feran saluted at the command, quickly rushing towards one of the emerging tents, his figure vanishing in the midst of the soldiers in a few seconds."

Dorian kept his stern, cold gaze on the distant horizon, looking at it with such intensity, one would think he was searching for something or someone.

"We have to make sure… Even if I don't like it, we can only follow father's command." He sighed, emotions he was trying to push down and keep tucked away resurfaced. "If nothing else, I want to make sure there are no unnecessary casualties… That's the best I can do, I'm sorry." 

—

The head of a massive war axe sailed across the air, bursting apart the 'head' of a quadrupedal creature that looked to be a strange, unholy fusion of the body of an oversized, massive scorpion with the size of the average bear, but with the head replaced by a strange fungus, the massive eerie red hat of a mushroom. Hundreds of small black dots, most likely the hideous creature's visual receptors glared menacingly at the smudge-covered blonde amazon as it struck down.

The powerful strike cleaved the strange fungi directly in half, sliding through the insides of the creature's upper half of its body as if it held absolutely no resistance. A high-pitched scream was all the massive creature could release as it cried out in pain, yet a second later its body lifelessly sprawled out on the hot golden sand dune. Its black, thick, oily blood quickly gathered into a continuously growing pool under its carcass.

Its large, head-sized pincers kicked off a sizable amount of the sand, turning into a cloud of dust, just like how its horrific tail as the life left the creature's body.

"God d*mn… What are these things?! Everything looks absolutely horrible in this world!" Naybeah exclaimed, although her face was plastered into a wide, satisfied smile, betraying her words. 

Despite the nightmarish fiends they met and consequently fought with, she was happy, satisfied. This place was incredible, her thirst for powerful opponents was quenched in this unholy realm. There was no doubt about that.

As the beast died, marking the end of their drawn-out battle, she turned her attention towards the north once again.

"Do you think that He is having just as much fun as we do?" She asked from the girls standing behind her, following the line of her gaze.

The black haired, fair-skinned beauty, Galina hummed thoughtfully at her question. Closing her eyes in the next second, she tried to get a feel for his Young Master's state through the connection they shared. 

"He is fine, seems to be… resting, I guess? I'm not completely sure, to be honest, but he is okay at the very least."

"What do you mean, sis?" Hearing her strange response, the blonde girl, Lily standing at her right asked with a worried look on her face.

"Ehrm… Hard to say… I can feel that he is troubled by something… He seems to be… sad?" She pondered, not entirely sure of what she was feeling. Though she could sense her Young Master's state through the System's connection, it was merely a vague sensation, a faint feel of the other's emotions. For someone, like Galina, who wasn't too experienced in the matter of the heart yet, it was hard to name what she was experiencing.

Most of what she felt throughout her previous life as a meager goblin, considered as a monster and a trash of the world was the overwhelming despair, the vast helplessness of her own life.

She was nothing more than a creature born as a sacrifice, a slave for those stronger than her and her people. Before the Young Master barged into their home uninvited and changed their destiny, they were barely above the beasts they were thought of as. Their low life expectancy, relatively high reproduction, and the ability to match with almost any race, being able to give birth to their offspring regardless of the mate, made sure that barely any female survived into adulthood.

Yet, that was the past, now it was different. With the Young Master, his people have forever been changed. 

Thus, she was slowly introduced to the wider spectrum of life, and whilst she understood more and more of the matters of the heart, it was still pretty challenging to distinctly be able to call them out.

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