While Jack was going through the procedurally generated maze dungeon under the royal mausoleum, John was leading the army through the mountainous terrains of the Jagara region.
When he was back in Thereath mapping the route for the army to take, he had mapped a second route for backup. He was now using this backup route.
The first route was a wide path with the least concentration of monsters. Hence, most natives who had ventured out into the wilderness should know this route as well. It was the most common route to take if one wanted to go through the Jagara region quickly. This also made the path the easiest to intercept if someone wanted to stop their advance.
He expected his mother to have prepared some kind of an obstacle for him on this path. He just didn't expect it to be a Sangrod army.
The alternate path he currently used was least known. It was because the army had to go through several narrow valleys as well as some areas where strong monsters were known to roam. He had no choice, though. It's either this or having a clash with the Sangrod army. Even if it was unavoidable, he mapped this path to make sure they went through as minimal of these problematic areas as possible.
The march using the first route would have taken them roughly four days to arrive in Palgrost. This alternate trek cost them around two extra days of travel. Aside from the longer travel time, the alternate route also included the risk of losing some soldiers to the monsters. Low-level monsters ran once they saw the huge army. High-level monsters were more daring.
John picked high-level soldiers to form a battalion as the vanguard. Arther led this vanguard. John rode together with them to gain exp from the monsters that came to their path.
With Arther spearheading, the vanguard troops had no problem clearing the way. However, the monsters didn't only come from the front. The army was forced to form a very long line due to the narrow path. This caused the army to take a very long time before they vacated an area.
Sometimes the monsters weren't there when the vanguard troops passed. But after a while, they came when the army was halfway or nearly passed through. This caused the mid-section and the rear to receive assaults from the monsters.
With a large number of soldiers, these monsters were not their match, but the assault at the mid and rear sections resulted in casualties. John knew this couldn't be helped. He could only try to minimize the loss as much as possible.
John had the illusionists cast Illusion Copy at an interval. He then instructed these copies to form several regiments and had them run in different directions. He knew the Sangrod army wouldn't just give up and go home. That vampire army must be actively searching for them even now, hence the need to constantly create distractions to lead them on a wild goose chase.
These distractions had indeed cost Ezekiel many headaches. As he made his way to where the Jagara region bordered the Palgrost, he received reports several times of the human army sightings. When he got the first report, he led the main army to where the sighting was. Only to find no trace of any army passing through there. They ended up having to fight the monsters in the area.
He then received a second report where the sighting was at a completely different and faraway place, which meant it was not possible for this sighting to be the same army as the first sighting. He knew then that these sightings were mere copies created by the illusionists.
Since then, he only sent a regiment to check out the next sightings while his main army continued toward the border between the Jagara and Palgrost. He would lay a blockade there and wait for the Themisphere army.
John was aware of such a scenario. He knew the Sangrod army was sure to barricade the entry toward Palgrost. The problem was that the lands between Jagara and Palgrost were separated by a huge chasm. There were only a few spots where the chasm shrank and allowed the two lands to touch one another. These were mostly at untraversable places. The only decent land connection was at the end of the original first route, where a wide natural earth bridge covered the chasm.
This was the place Ezekiel was preparing his barricade.
With Ezekiel using the original route and John using the alternate route, it was not possible for John to beat the Sangrod army to that spot. If Themisphere army couldn't arrive at that place before the Sangrod army, then it didn't matter if they managed to elude capture from the Sangrod army. They would still get blocked before entering Palgrost, making their situation exactly the same as before.
John was aware of this fact. However, his destination was not that spot. His destination was some distance away from the natural earth bridge. At this destination, the chasm shrank to a gap of around twenty meters. There was a very old wooden bridge there, built by the ancient people.
Most everyone had forgotten about this bridge. Mostly because the area of this bridge was infested by many high-level monsters. John knew about it because he had Hope's knowledge.
The wooden bridge was small, though. The width only allowed four to five people to walk side-by-side. This meant it would take a huge army a long time to cross that small bridge.
Even so, this was their best option. Of course, John hoped that Jack could create a miracle and work everything out with the Sangrod Empire so they stop blocking their way. In this case, they could return to the first route and proceed normally. But relying on a miracle was not his style, that's why he proceeded with this backup plan.
The last communication John had with Jack was that he had established contact with one of Marcus' heirs. They were planning a rebellion against Marcus. Jack was staying there to help with the rebellion. He had struck a deal if Marcus was overthrown, the Sangrod Empire would back Themisphere in its war against Liguritudum.
If that truly happened, then everything would be for the best. But hoping for the best to get realized was similar to a miracle. They rarely or almost never happened. Yet, in some way, John still thought that might happen. This was because Jack had proven to create miracles on several occasions. He hoped that Jack didn't disappoint this time.
