The warehouse that housed the war fires and the explosive ammo was located at the ground level of the fortress and its back wall was the outer wall facing the Verremor army. The number of explosive ammo stored inside was substantial. If all these ammo exploded at the same time, the resulting explosion would destroy the wall.
Since the explosion happened from the inside, the defensive diagram won't protect the wall. Once that happened, there would be a huge hole in the wall. One that the Verremor army could enter the fort from.
The number of defending soldiers inside the fort was not high. If the Verremor army could enter the fortress, then it would be easy for them to take down this fort.
And this was what White Death had planned for. Yellow Death and his two followers were currently standing before the war fires.
The explosive ammo was triggered by flame. It had a long wick that was usually burnt before it was thrown using the trebuchet. The ammo itself produced an explosion that dealt earth damage. Hence if someone caused one of them to explode here, it won't produce a chain explosion. It would simply knock the other ammo away.
But when Fierce Flame brought war fires into the fort and put them together with the explosive ammo, this created a golden opportunity for White Death. The war fires produced fire damage and should cause all the explosive ammo to burn at the same time. The resulting chain explosion should produce enough force to blow the wall apart. White Death couldn't resist this plan.
Hence, after making sure that the war fires were indeed inside the warehouse and studying the movement of the patrolling soldiers inside the fortress, White Death carried out his plan. This time was when this section of the fort was mostly deserted. There shouldn't be any patrol until the next few hours.
After making sure the war fires were there. The three retreated to the entrance. "Do it," Yellow Death instructed.
The Elementalist immediately cast his Fireball spell. The fireball slammed into the war fires. The war fires exploded, burning the other war fires and filling the warehouse with a raging fire. The three had taken cover beside the door. They saw the violent flame burst out from the door.
They moved further away to avoid being hit by the imminent detonation of the explosive ammo. They then waited for it to happen. It took time for the flame to eat the wooden crate that housed the explosive ammo, but they were sure that it would burn. As had been shown during the civil war, trees in this world could get burned after long exposure to flame, so wooden products were the same as well.
Yet, the explosion didn't happen.
Yellow Death looked at the time, it was more than two minutes now. The war fire's flame would die soon. Something was not right!
He ran back to the warehouse's entrance. His two companions ran with him. They arrived and saw the flame was still burning, but it was getting weaker. Yellow Death's zoom vision allowed him to see the wooden crates on the far wall. The crates had broken. But inside was not the explosive ammo. They were just round balls that looked like one if one didn't look closely. The ammo had always been brought out to use with the trebuchets in those wooden crates, so he had never thought about further checking the inside.
At that time, he received a message from the member who had been stationed to stall anyone who came.
"Yellow! Troops are coming, they – Arrgh! I am being bound…!"
A similar message came from the member that was stationed at the other end.
"It's a trap!" Yellow Death said while gritting his teeth.
"What? How do they find out…? What should we do?" His two companions asked worriedly.
"Use the guild return scroll!" Yellow Death said and took out his. However, a notification told them that they were in combat. So, they couldn't use the scrolls.
"Damn it!" Yellow Death cursed. They were in a party with the members who were stationed to stall. Since those members were assaulted, they were also considered in combat. Yellow never thought that these members would just be attacked without any question. This also meant that they had been officially removed as the ally of the army.
"What should we do?" The two companions asked again. The two were close to panic now.
Instead of answering, Yellow Death sent a message to White Death. Not long after, he vanished. His two companions were taken aback by his sudden disappearance. They looked at one another with pale faces. They had been abandoned.
*
Outside, White Death was staring at the Themisphylae fortress some distance away. Floating beside him was a shining plate. Jack would recognize that plate as a Recall Plate. The shining plate flashed and Yellow Death appeared there.
"It is a trap…," Yellow Death said dejectedly.
"To be able to predict our intention, I wondered who it is," White Death asked.
"It has to be someone from Everlasting Heavenly Legends. It was them who brought the war fires here," Yellow conjectured.
"Never mind. Let's go," White Death said. "We only have time until this war is over. Afterward, I'm sure they will come for us. We need to expedite our headquarters' transfer as soon as possible."
The two used their guild return scrolls and vanished.
*
Inside the fortress. The two who were left behind by Yellow Death could only helplessly watch the soldiers come. There was no point to resist. Even if they wore the amulet of rebirth, they will still revive inside Thereath. They would still be apprehended there. So, they just gave in to their fates. They didn't do anything to fight the coming soldiers.
When the soldiers bound the two Death Associates members using binding ropes, a figure appeared by the wall. An orc player. The two from Death Associates were taken by surprise, but the soldiers just continued as if they didn't see the orc.
The orc was Life Runner. Despite being an orc, he was registered to be on their side in this war, so the human soldiers didn't bother him. Fierce Flame, who had come with the soldiers, approached him.
"You get them on record?" Fierce Flame asked.
"Yeah, here," Life Runner replied and gave Flame a recording stone. The stone contained what had happened since Yellow Death started attacking the guard. Life Runner felt bad about the guard being sacrificed, but he couldn't do anything about it. He was just following the plan.
At first, Life Runner didn't want to come here as he didn't want to be considered an enemy by Verremor. He still wanted to be able to freely move around in that country. John persuaded him to come saying that he was not required to join any fight. As long as he didn't attack any of Verremor's soldiers, he won't be considered as opposing the Verremor nation. John required him inside the fort for another task.
The task was to be on standby every day near this warehouse and then record what transpired if any of Death Associates members came. With his Hide skill, he was able to stay invisible as long as he kept a distance of three meters from anyone. Since the corridor was mostly deserted, he had no problem doing that. He just needed to make sure to keep his distance from Yellow Death's group.
John had had his suspicion on Death Associates for a while. That's why he prepared this trap. The war fires were real. The explosive ammo, however, had been secretly secured elsewhere.
John was already suspicious of the guild ever since he heard them change allegiance from supporting the second prince to the crown prince. There should be something that triggered such a decision. No matter how he thought about it, there was no benefit to this guild supporting the crown prince in the long run. From what he had heard about White Death, that person was one who made plans for the far future instead of just chasing short-term benefits.
Hence, John concluded that the purpose of the change in allegiance was not for the benefit of the guild, but simply to create chaos in this country for some unknown reason. He couldn't be sure though. That's why he prepared this trap. If his suspicion was indeed true, White Death would look for a way to disrupt their success chance in this war.
This was also the reason why he had placed White Death in this fort while his other ally guilds were stationed at Slaughterer Plains.
Fierce Flame played the image from the recording stone with commander Ahab watching from the side.
"I will send a messenger back to the capital with this proof. We will place a bounty for these traitors," Ahab announced.
At the same time, Fierce Flame also sent a message to John informing him about the incident.
Captain Salem came running to them while Ahab was giving instructions to a soldier who will be the messenger.
"Did something happen?" Ahab asked.
"Yes," Salem said. "The Verremor troops. A majority of them has pulled back."
