By the time Ghost caught up to the others, she found the chieftains looking at Lucius in disbelief.
~There isn't any time for this,~ she thought to herself, before stepping within range of Lucius's earth sense and increasing the amount of radiant energy circulating in her body to attract his attention.
With that, Lucius' eyes immediately shot open, before darting toward the direction that Ghost was hiding in. Ghost increased the radiant energy even more, prompting Lucius to check out what was going on.
*
~What the hell is going on?~ Lucius thought to himself. At first, he had thought that it was just Ghost being sloppy, though it was obvious now that something was wrong.
"Thank you for the lessons. Watch the others, I need to go check something out," he said to the chieftains, before quickly walking towards Ghost's location.
"He has named us… protectors of the commune?" one of the chieftains asked in disbelief.
"Ghost, what's going on? You can't be letting out that much energy, you'll attract unwanted attention-" Lucius was about to say, however, he had to stop his scolding midway once he noticed Ghost shivering.
"What's wrong?" he asked. He had never seen her this scared. Even back when they were running from boars, the leaflings never shook like this.
"The army- that army you want to go up against, we have to cancel the mission. It-its suicide," she blurted out, looking around in a paranoid manner.
"Calm down, tell me what's happened?"
"They're too strong… the necromancer- no, not the necromancer, four of it's subordinates… those four alone can destroy our entire camp. Each of them are stronger than all of us combined," she tried explaining, though her sentences came out as incoherent, like the ramblings of a madman.
"Subordinates? Just four of them? How do you know this? When did you see them?" he asked.
From what he could remember, the only subordinates worth noting were those part of the guard squad surrounding the temple. And even though they were all more or less around the same power level as him, he still had a plan to take them out of the equation.
"Radiant observation… like your unseen eyes, I copied it, made my own. Then you weren't walking in a straight line, so I thought in that general direction, I went there, and the eyes could see towards an odd structure. I was about to leave, but four of them, all of them strong, with weird sticks in their hands that look powerful…"
It took every brain cell that Lucius had to piece together what she was saying. From the sound of it, she had created a new technique similar to earth sense. Which would be good news if the last piece of information had not been attached to it.
"So you're saying that the necromancer has four units that are stronger than our strongest combined?" he asked for clarification, to which Ghost nodded her head.
"Hmm, I see. We'll continue with the operation… and don't worry, I have a plan," Lucius said in a calming voice.
"Y-You do?"
"Of course I do. This doesn't change much, the amount of power they have is irrelevant to our plan. However, I want you to go back to camp and report this to Hannibal. Tell him to use the Radiant Tree to create a wall of vines around the main camp. I'll find you all there," he continued, putting on a smile before gesturing for Ghost to leave.
~Y-yeah, I mean it's Lucius we're talking about. Of course, he has a plan,~ Ghost thought to herself, her fear disappearing the more she stared at Lucius's smile.
"I'll go as fast as I can," she said, before zipping back towards the camp.
"Four units… each of them stronger than everyone in the commune combined…" Lucius whispered to himself. The act he had put up was all a charade. A plan? How could you plan that?
"Even if I wanted to, I can't drop this operation right now. If I don't carry oot on what I promised, those chameleon warriors won't trust me again. And besides, who's to say that the necromancer won't continue making stronger men?" he whispered to himself.
"No, there's a way we can win this… it's risky, but it's our only shot," he thought to himself. There was a way to make everyone with a crux a walking god, or at least as close to one as possible... a way to defeat even the necromancer.
*
Lucius and his group finished off with their little mission after two hours, and by the time they got back to the camp, all the other groups had returned as well.
"Alpha, Pagan, with me," Lucius called out, as all the F and C groups loaded their hauls into the storage dome.
"Eleanor was calling me to ask about somethin-" Alpha was about to say.
"Her too, no... call everyone in the security department. Everyone with a name that is," he said quickly, before looking towards Pagan.
"Go get the chieftains," he ordered, before walking towards Asclepuis's lab.
*
"Ah Lucius, I was just about to report som-"
"Meeting in the main dome. Whatever you have to report, you'll report there as well," he said, before looking around the lab. It had changed since the last time he was there. It was a lot more clustered, and Asclepius herself looked like she hadn't slept in a while.
"Where's Hannibal?" Lucius asked, deciding to get her to take some proper rest after this whole issue was resolved.
"He's sleeping. He's been creating a wall for the past two hours," she replied.
"I see. Wake him up and tell him to come to the main dome," he said after some thought. As much as he wanted Hannibal to rest up, he would be an important part of the operation, so he had to hear what Lucius had to say.
As all the invited groups began pouring into the main dome, a few laevyes began whispering amongst themselves. Of course, no one could blame them. All the most powerful people in the camp were gathering, and even a few outsiders were being called in. Whatever was happening, it was big.
"Ghost, come down from there. I need you in the meeting," Lucius shouted, looking directly at a tree just outside his earth sense's range.
"How did yo- okay," she whispered to herself, before quickly making her way to Lucius's side.
"You can stay on the ceiling while we discuss. Make sure to listen carefully," he said, before heading towards the main dome.
As he walked in, he waved his hand and created chairs for everyone in the building using elmando. On one of the walls, he created a sort of whiteboard and began tracing out a map on it. Whilst he was doing that, he also created a small pinhole in the ceiling so that Ghost could see, though he doubted she needed it with the new skill she had.
"I'm sure you're all wondering why I've called you here, on such short notice at that," Lucius started off, before making a chair for himself and sitting on it. Thinking had proved to be more taxing than any amount of work he could do.
"The reason we're here today is because we're about to wage war. And unlike I would've initially wanted, everyone here will play a part in it," he said.
A few murmurs of excitement were let out at this, the only people who looked worried were the chieftains.
~The Laevyes know nothing of war, but the chieftains, I suppose they've had to fight for territory before.~
"War isn't something fun, there's a chance that some of us won't make it... no, there's a chance that none of us will make it. This isn't something you should be happy to be a part of, honored perhaps, but not happy," Lucius said, before looking towards the whiteboard.
"To put things into perspective... the enemy has 400 or more units around the same power level as me in my current state. And according to intel, there are four units in particular that are stronger than our whole attack force combined," Lucius said bluntly. More in a matter-of-fact way, than anything else.
Silence filled the room, there was disbelief in everyone's eyes. Particularly, Hannibal, and Pagan. Pagan because he could not believe that such a thing was possible, and Hannibal because he understood the detailed implications that such a thing would bring about.
"The cherry on the cake is the necromancer, who I believe is currently sitting in the center of the camp," Lucius continued, before indicating on the whiteboard map where the temple was.
"This necromancer, as most of you are aware is the creator of these creatures. And if it could create something more powerful than the entire attack force, it's safe to say that he's stronger than us by at least 10 fold," Lucius added, before looking toward his men.
"So like I said before, it's quite possible that none of us will make it out alive. So are you still in?"
