"Will you go alone to attack them?" The spearhead seemed to be carried in the heat of the moment. Dude, I knew your ability was really a game changer, but you and other girls weren't strong enough to help me in the upcoming battle.
"Your role is to make these people ready to join the battle as fast as you can," I stressed over this point, "the upcoming battle is just the beginning. The real war will start once we try to enter the city."
"Ah the city," just as I said that, he hit his forehead as if he remembered something important, "there is a good news," his face beamed with a weird smile before adding, "the dragons spotted a human army marching into the city while they were scouting the area."
"A human army?" I frowned, "is it the military?"
"They didn't say," he shook his head, "and I doubt they'd recognise the military. But they spoke about a large number of them, at least ten thousand."
I looked around. For some reason the number of humans in this city and its surrounding was getting a bit higher than even New York.
Was this a mistake from the angels of this region? Or was there something else going on here that I didn't know about?
"They entered the city already?" I asked and he nodded.
"As the dragons said, they spotted three of such armies going into the city. I believe they must be reinforcements coming from all the regions around the city."
"Hmm…" I didn't voice my opinion and only motioned for him to walk back, "tell the jumper to come," I only said that before returning to think about what he just said.
Three armies… each was at least ten thousand men strong… Could angels amass such power? Or was it someone else?
I knew I wouldn't get my answers until I entered the city. For me, if such an army existed then it would defy all logic.
How could such a large number of people survive the first quest of the apocalypse? I looked at the shaking people all sitting on the ground and felt something was really off.
"Are we going to move now?" The jumper was really a smart dude, annoying most of the time, but he was smart enough to make me forget about his shortcomings.
"Just control your goddamn curse," I gave him a cold warning before stepping towards my chariot.
However, before I could take a few steps, I had to stop.
[Unknown god just sent you a private message]
[The message: War is only a one directional path of venturing forward and never looking back! Show your courage and raise your head high above all other races. Victory or defeat is just secondary to any warlord, bloody hard battles are the only interesting thing]
"What's wrong?" the jumper asked, but I couldn't help but show a silly smile of victory over my face.
My bet was right, there was really some god belonging to the war pantheon. And that god just did me a great favour right now.
What was sent to me was nothing but a hidden message that was filled with many underlying meanings.
First he told me that this message came from the pantheon of war. Of course I couldn't tell if this came from Ares himself or someone else, and I couldn't be sure of the grade of the god.
But at least I now had the privilege to choose between two pantheons, and both were really unique and strong.
Besides, both suited my class.
When I thought deeply about the fear that Nero god showed towards the war pantheon, I couldn't help but link that to my class.
My class depended upon using the souls from the enemies I killed. Which was the reason behind the affinity between my class and the death pantheon, I supposed.
But to kill I first needed to fight, right? And that was where the war pantheon would appear in the picture. So if the death pantheon suited my class thanks to the end result of my abilities, then the war pantheon also suited it thanks to the process itself.
This wasn't the only meaning I got from that message.
The clear declaration that victory or defeat didn't matter but the bloody hard battles themselves meant that I wasn't bound with that outrageous quest I got from Nero.
No sane person would burden himself with such a deadly and impossible quest! Fighting a single enemy world gate now proved to be challenging with all these changes. And thinking about controlling five at the same time was delusional!
Not to mention he asked me to go into the other world and control one castle there. Of course that seemed great and would definitely help me in the future, but first I needed to think rationally about one thing.
Could I do it? Really do it? Of course not!
I didn't forget that I was going to attack races in their own worlds! That was like standing alone in front of the endless armies of theirs, facing not only the race itself but also the apocalypse there in the form of monsters and angels.
I wouldn't survive this sh*t, not even survive one single world battle. It was obviously a trap, a death trap meant for me to lose my life or to be lost in one world without finding a way back.
Who guaranteed that the gate of the world I conquered wouldn't be reconquered? Or closed up on itself when the time ran up?
In the middle of all these variables and unclear situations, I couldn't possibly risk my neck for something that wasn't worth it.
Death pantheon was great and all, it suited me perfectly fine, but it wasn't the sole pantheon out there which could support me.
And that simple line of words I got made me heave a deep sigh of relief. I wasn't asked to control anything, but to be brave enough and attack the five gates in the city and show the might of the humans to everyone.
And I could simply do that. In fact I already planned to give it a try. If I succeeded, then I'd gain one more city under my control. If I failed, then at least I'd control one gate and use it for the heroic calling I desired.
"Let's go," I didn't explain anything to the jumper, and he just kept glaring up at my back until we arrived at the top of the chariot.
"Did you get something good from that visit?" he asked, but I didn't answer him. Instead I called forth all the warriors I had and then resummoned them again.
"Take charge of all the defensive weapons in the chariot," I gave the order, "once spotted an enemy, attack without holding back."
They roared and nodded before dispersing all over my big chariot. The soulers only stayed behind on the floor with nothing much to do, only taking the duty to tour the chariot as patrol units.
As for my Gollems, they were handling my big ballista while my dragons hovered on top of my head.
I could summon more dragons, or other units if I wanted. My current limit was twenty-three warriors. In addition to the one hundred thousand souls I gained from Anubis blessing, I also had almost twenty thousand more that came from my scattered forces back at New York city.
But that figure seemed to freeze for quite a while now, giving me the impression they finally controlled the city.
"It's time to move out," the jumper said while his eyes told me he was up to nothing good, "this time it's all on your wallet, hahaha!"
I shrugged. I already had enough stat points to run my little girl at full power for twenty hours straight at least.
However, unlike what he expected, the first thing I did was to open my channel and search for someone trustworthy.
"Sara," my eyes shone when I saw her name. She was a violent girl who loved to fight and wouldn't shrink away from any battle.
"Do you have a sealing shield?" I turned to the jumper before doing anything, "something enough to conceal the vision and sound of us."
"Easy," with a wave of his hand he took out an orb and instantly activated it. A bronzed coloured shield surrounded the two of us, creating a masking veil that covered even our bodies. "This is a bronze grade shield but it's strong enough to do what you asked for."
"Brilliant," I instantly opened the channel feed and used the ability to communicate with Sara.
[Have you controlled the entire city yet?] I said to her while controlling my chariot to rise up its central pillar.
[Hi Hye!] She waved at the air as she couldn't see me at all. [We did almost half an hour ago] she said before adding, [The entire city is now ours. Our men did a great job here, and that major was really a good choice to lead us]
I smiled in contentment. After all, in these early stages war experience was considered one of many fatal flaws in the human race.
[Have you surrounded and fortified the city?]
[We are doing that right now] she replied, [Also that major sent many small groups to scout the surrounding regions in precaution for any revengeful act from the angels]
"Great," I commended, [Tell him to amass a big army, at least a few thousands of strong men. He will lead them with you and the other elites we have. Leave few elites behind to control the city and secure the area]
[Where are we going?] she asked before adding, [Are we coming to you?]
[In a way our paths will unite at the end] I didn't give her a direct answer at first before explaining my plans to her.
She listened and also that jumper did. After I finished, she promised to do her utmost effort and execute this mission with great success.
"You are planning far ahead this time," the jumper only said these words while nodding. Hell dude, you knew nothing at all about why I was taking such a risky move now.
But without this move, my chances of success would dwindle by a large margin!
"Only the intermediate form?" The jumper watched me throw tens of thousands of stat points into the burning heart of the chariot. "Won't we need speed to attack them before they are ready?"
"I've got another thing in mind," I returned to the front of my chariot before giving the order to the dragorses to start pulling it. The speed was high enough to gallop miles in ten minutes, taking us away from the castle we conquered before.
"Go and scan the areas in between the nearest two castles," I stopped the chariot all of sudden while giving such order to my three dragons, "don't engage. Just observe from afar and come to report every five minutes."
According to the map I had, there were two castles lying close to my current spot. The world around was like usual, filled with devastation and ruins left over by the mighty battles and the swarms of monsters.
But up till now I didn't see a single monster at all. That meant the races were working with the angels to sum up all their forces as hard as they could.
"Aren't we going to hit the next castle now?" The jumper seemed to be slightly puzzled by my current arrangement.
And that made me heave a sigh of relief. After all the last warning I got from Nero while acting as my friend was related to the spying gods.
That was something I couldn't solve for now. All I could do was to keep my plans away from their eyes.. That was the reason why I asked the jumper before to surround me with a protective shield that would prevent anyone from listening to what I said to Sara.