"No need to be so alarmed. I just want to talk," John said. "I will go there by myself. My army will stay here. Is it okay? My throat hurts if I have to keep on yelling like this. I'm coming over, okay? Don't shoot!"
John climbed down from his kelpie and then walked over on foot.
Ezekiel was unsure how to respond. What was there to talk about? His demand was for the Themisphere army to stay back. There was nothing to discuss.
The outworlder leader truly approached by himself. Arther and Meryl stayed behind. Although John's level was rather high, at level 70, it was still much lower than Ezekiel's level. There was nothing for Ezekiel to worry about, so Ezekiel simply stayed silent as John approached slowly. And by slowly, it was extremely slow. It was as if the guy was walking in slow motion.
Ezekiel creased his forehead. 'The f*ck is this guy playing at?' He thought in his mind.
"I'm sorry. I used to be a summoner. My dexterity stat is very low," John apologized.
The ones who heard rolled their eyes. 'You think we are all kids?' They all thought. Even a low-level summoner wasn't that slow!
"What do you want?" Ezekiel said curtly once John came close enough. "As long as you humans didn't cross into Palgrost, then we have no problem. Stay back and everything will be fine!"
"Come on. Is there no room for negotiation?" John asked.
"There…"
Ezekiel stopped when John suddenly gave him the sign to stop. The guy looked elsewhere. He was as if talking in his mind.
"I'm sorry. You were saying?" John returned his attention to Ezekiel. He had just received a message from Jack, who had been out of contact for some time. Jack just came out of the mausoleum's labyrinth. John got a brief report of what was happening in Sangrod's capital. If Horatio's plan succeeded, then Horatio would be able to order Ezekiel to let Themisphere army pass.
It would be good if that happened, but John didn't like putting all his coins in one pot. There was no guarantee that Marcus would be successfully toppled. John opted to continue with his plan to cross over to Palgrost. Plus, more than half of his army had already crossed over by now. There was no sense to stop.
"I said that there is no need for a negotiation," Ezekiel answered with annoyance. "You can either stay here or go back. I care not. As long as you don't pass into Palgrost, then we have no problem."
"I see. Hey, do you know there is a rebellion going on in Vacharest? Some nobles led an army and laid a siege on your capital. Shouldn't you run back to deal with them?"
The furrow on Ezekiel's forehead returned. "If this is your attempt to trick us, then you can just forget about it. We won't move from this place!"
"Who tries to trick you? You should have a transmission device, shouldn't you? Send a message and ask about it."
Ezekiel looked back at Sierra. Sierra was the one who carried the device, but he turned back and said decisively, "If there is an urgency for us to return, the emperor would have contacted us about it. Even if what you said is true, the army in the capital and the nearby settlements will deal with these so-called rebels. There is no reason for us to move away from this place."
"Sigh… In that case, we will comply with your demand. We will not advance," John said.
"Do you want to use the same trick again?" Ezekiel said. "Don't think we will fall for the second time. You can go back, but we will stay in this place. Don't expect us to move from here."
"Who says I'm going back? I only said we would not advance. You have your order. I have mine. Without the order from my king, I can't go back, so we will stay here until you move aside."
"You can stay for ten years but we won't move unless our emperor orders us to," Ezekiel uttered.
"Fine! Then let's just stare at each other for ten years!" John said and strutted back. He stopped abruptly, turned back, and yelled, "And don't try to go anywhere near us! We will consider it an act of war and attack. Stay away from us!"
John returned to where his army was and then just sat there on the ground.
"What the hell was that about?" Sierra asked.
Ezekiel shook his head. "I've heard that outworlders are weird. We've seen it firsthand now."
"Should I send scouts to look around? Maybe they are trying something."
"No. I prefer to not get into conflict. Their enemies are the Liguritudum army, not us. I still don't understand why our emperor asks us to block them instead of letting them kill each other. As long as they stay over there, there is no need to antagonize them. Keep everyone away from them. I don't want that weird outworlder to use that as a reason for a fight. There is only one path here. We only need to guard this path."
Sierra nodded.
So, the two armies just stayed there gazing at each other. An hour passed.
"That's weird," Sierra said.
"What?" Ezekiel asked.
"The field out here is large. It is better if they come out of that cliff road and rest in this open field. Why do they keep the rest of their formation inside that narrow cliff road?"
"Hm… Well. The leader is weird. Probably he just doesn't care about his troops' comfort. You can't truly understand how a weird outworlder thinks. See? He even keeps on shuffling his formation back and forth. What's the point? That is the weirdest training drill I have ever seen."
"I guess you are right…," Sierra said.
*
A few more hours passed. The sun was almost set.
"… Sierra."
"Yes, brother?" Sierra came to Ezekiel.
"Use your Shadow Sneak and go behind that cliff and see what the human army was doing back there."
"Why? Do you suspect something?"
"The troops in the human army… I have been using my long-range vision for a while now. I've noticed a few of them look the same."
"Can't they be twins?"
"There are more than five people who look identical."
"… All right. I'll go now," Sierra said. She moved away to a place with many shadows. Thanks to the hour, it was easy to find such a place. He then merged with the shadow.
She moved through the shadows, unseen and undetected. She made her way to the cliff where the back part of the Themisphere army was. When she arrived there, she was baffled to find that the back side of the cliff was mostly empty. What was there was an army of illusionists who took turns casting Illusion Copy on a legion of regular soldiers. These new copies moved to the front while the old copies that almost ran out of their two-hour duration came behind the cliff and vanished.
