Chapter 507 - Brewing Conflict (2)

A week later...

"Dread, could you help set up the turrets there. Thank you. Ogur, carry the automatons to the side of the cliff please."

Talos' day was just as busy as it had been on the first day they started building the foundation of Alessia. Every day, new followers and believers were showing up at their doorstep. With such an influx of population in a town that was still under construction had its own issues. 

Firstly there was not enough place for every one of them to stay there. The housings they had built till then were nothing in comparison to Arnold's followers. In the end, Talos had to reallocate resources meant for building defences around the city to construct more housing. 

Thankfully, before he ended up using all of the resources Arnold had left them with, the elves themselves volunteered to procure enough resources from the forest below to help ease the burden on Talos. 

Still, the manpower they needed could only be provided by the Elite summons. Thus, even though Talos retained some resources, he still lost time in setting up necessary defences. That's why now Talos and the rest of them were working relentlessly to set up the necessary defence around the city. 

'These turrets are hand made by the master himself.' Talos thought to himself, 'He might show that he doesn't care about this city at all. But his actions speak otherwise... I should have figured it out when he decided to name the city after his mother.'

"Grock, are you still on security detail?" Talos radioed in with the Lizard-King.

"Yeah. But it is difficult... hundreds of thousands of these floosies have entered the city at once. It'll take time for me and Natasha to reassure whether these people are genuine or not." Grock's hoarse voice echoed back in. 

"Just keep at it. If you need more personnel, then seek the aid of those whom we have already cleared of suspicion."

"Got it."

"Sigh... As much as I would like to wish everything is fine, I can never be too careful." Talos whispered and went back to work. 

The time Talos had spent in the Alpha base back on earth made him think like a militaristic leader. With that in mind, he could not deny the possibility that some elves might retaliate against them, and this would have been the perfect opportunity to do so. 

They were in the middle of constructing a base on a hostile planet. Also, their leader was missing. If Talos was to attack an enemy, he would not have wasted such an opportunity. Talos also knew these elves were intelligent enough to do that as well.

That's why he had Grock and Natasha on the security detail. Their job was simple. Natasha had to peek into everyone's mind who wanted to enter the city and if they even had a tinge of hostility in them for their master, Grock was to eliminate them on the spot. 

However, this plan collapsed when too many elves started showing up there. Finally, Talos had to give the order to let them all enter the city. But even then, they were only allowed to stay within a certain area until they were cleared of any and all suspicion. 

If someone tried to leave the area without clearance, then they were shot down without hesitation. However, even with all those rules in place, the danger could not be evaded so easily...

The following moment, a series of explosions shook the city to its core. The explosion seared the air and earth in a way that left devoid of life down to the microbes. The sound of the explosion came like a terrible echo as if it were the anguished cry of God.

Everyone near the plaza where the elves were being kept was completely blown away as gigantic mushroom sized clouds rose in reach the skies. 

"GROCK!? NATASHA!? Does anyone copy?" Talos roared through the radio as soon as he realised what was going on, but there was no response, "Shit! Shit! Shit! Everyone, guard the boundaries. It just might be the start of an all-out war. Man the turrets that have been set up till now. And keep setting up as many as you can! The enemy can strike from anywhere."

The Automatons and the Iron Golems immediately went to work, while Talos and the other elite summons who weren't around the plaza immediately rushed there. By the time they got there, there was nothing left. 

Just a pit of charred land could be seen there, with severed body parts, flesh and blood scattered around everywhere. 

"Grock!" Talos immediately rushed over to the injured Lizardking, "Alice-"

"I'm on it!" Alice replied and immediately started healing Grock.

For an explosion to reduce the mighty Grock to this state... it must have been imbued with magic or something else. Something that could have probably killed him. It could be said that Grock was lucky that he did not get destroyed. However, it looked like Natasha wasn't as lucky as him. 

"Where is Natasha?" Bad-Breath asked while looking around, "Did she get blown up-"

"In your dreams, fcking brute."

Natasha's voice echoed from behind them. As they turned around they saw her body materialising. She was injured as well, but her injuries were more like scratches in comparison to Grock's. On top of that, she could heal herself as well. 

"What happened here?" Talos asked her while gently putting Grock down.

"Most of the elves that entered the city in the last few days were part of the resistance formed by the other elves." Natasha replied, "When they realised I found them, they activated the bomb. I escaped into the Astral plane to save myself but Grock was too far away from me to drag him to safety along with me."

"Wait, if they were here to eliminate us they why did they blow themselves up?" Asterios asked Natasha.

"For a diversion..." Talos mumbled, "Were you able to get where they are coming from?" 

"South," Heimdall replied with his closed eyes, "About their forces are roughly about a million."

"Damn it! That's the only place we do not have turrets set up yet." Dani chimed in, "How do they know all this?"

"One of the elves must have betrayed-"

"It doesn't matter how they know this." Talos raised his hands to silence them all, "What matters is that we are going to kill them all. Dani, Miro, you two stay with Alice while she heals Grock.. The rest of us will head to the south. Let's go!"