The warriors, who had lived on battlefields for five years and traveled the Hell Realm from one end to the other, executed the order given within minutes. Their King's tent had been set up first, and Joshua was at the head of the table along with the people he brought with him.
"Let's recover our energy first. Muslo, where is your grandfather?"
The grandson of the Holy Bone Cult Leader spread his two hands to his sides and hung his head. He didn't know where the fossil, with only bones left in his body, was either. Joshua didn't insist; Hueso had fulfilled his part in today's struggle flawlessly.
"I haven't met you before, but I've heard a lot about you from your subordinates!"
The Hell Realm King extended his hand; Alator, the leader of the Elemental Ten who was thought to be dead, wasn't expecting this move. The hand of the young man in blood-red armor was in the air, and as the green-robed druid hesitated, the atmosphere grew tenser moment by moment.
"There is no need to be afraid; you won't harm me with the magic circle in your palm!"
Joshua, who could easily perceive the behavior of the person opposite him as arrogance or disrespect, preferred to empathize instead. Due to the extraordinary childhood and adolescence he had, he could understand Alator's concerns.
"Thank you for looking after my friends!"
The wind element inside the palm of Alator, who shook hands with the hand that had the green magic circle, flared for a moment but then disappeared. The druid warrior's eyes widened; it was obvious the Hell Realm King wasn't speaking just to be polite.
Then the top of the long table was filled with food; as the sun retired to rest and the moon took over its shift, only the sound of energy weapons was heard on the Hell Realm army front. When the adrenaline, heightened due to life-and-death situations, finally returned to normal a few hours later, it was time to evaluate the day.
"It was your first battle with the Lands of Light mages. How do you feel?"
Joshua spoke turning to the druids; the battle had turned completely into a struggle of magic, and today was the day the two sides attacking with almost the same method sized each other up. The battle, whose balances constantly shifted by many variables from its beginning to its end, needed to be evaluated.
"Terrible!"
Siomha was acting as the spokesperson for her other friends; she had taken on this role in Alator's absence. Joshua smiled, Alis accompanied him too, but the purpose of these smiles was only to soften the situation their friends fell into.
"We knew the Lands of Light mages had high mastery over the elements, but we couldn't think they had things that would prevent us from casting magic. Well, the Blood God had mentioned such a thing could happen, but it was very hard to believe without seeing it!"
The disappointment of the druids, who lost the source to cast magic when the Guardian Angel Will Remnants were used, was immense, and they weren't shying away from expressing this, but there was something Joshua was curious about.
"Even assuming you could access the Water Element because the time limit of the thing the Companions of Water used had expired, I noticed you also used the Wind Element in your combined attack."
The Hell King wanted to ask the reason for this, but he didn't end his words with a question tag just in case it was a personal secret. Alator was a smart druid; he could understand the connection between what he heard and what was meant to be said.
"They said the thing they got help from was the Guardian Angel Will Remnant. I think it is related to the Four Archangels protecting the Lands of Light. As for how I used magic despite the elemental energy on the battlefield being drained, I cannot share this with you yet, but if we start working tonight, I can say the Elemental Ten members will achieve this in at most two days."
Joshua didn't expect him to reveal his secret, so he wasn't disappointed, but his mood improved after Alator's last words. The Guardian Angel Will Remnant could suddenly change the balances on the battlefield; it was good news that they caught a chance to struggle against it.
"Then, let's leave you alone with your subordinates."
Joshua announced that the part of the war council for the druids was over. When Alator headed towards the door of the tent with a nod, the other nine druid warriors followed him. The tent prepared for them was right opposite them, but their leader turned in a different direction; he turned his face towards the border of the Hell Realm and the Lands of Light.
"The element density here is too low; it might not be enough to activate the magic circles starting to appear on your bodies!"
As the ten druids left the camp, no one stopped them; the warriors knowing their King's interest in them just cleared the way, and the Elemental Ten members went their own way. Leaving the camp was this easy, but infiltrating the camp was impossible; aside from the precautions the Hell Army took, Joshua had also spread his energy over a wide area.
"Did you feel it too?"
Alis might have become the father of the future Sheikh of the Holy Bone Cult and a citizen of the Hell Realm, but when they were alone, he acted as an equal while calling out to Joshua.
"Is it possible not to feel it? It's definitely an old acquaintance, but I can't say I know anyone who uses this kind of blood technique!"
Joshua and Alis looked at each other; they knew the person they felt was alone, but they still hesitated to let him enter the camp. They were worried not for themselves, but for the twenty thousand warriors, and they found the solution in greeting him personally.
"You've grown, and gotten stronger too! After the Blood God Nafız, I can say you have the most appetizing blood!"
When the visitor lifted his head, his face under the black robe was revealed. His eyes glowed blood red under the moonlight. His skin was so pale that it was possible to trace the blood flowing in his veins, and Joshua understood why this person felt familiar.
"My first teacher, Miloş, you have changed a lot too. The aura you emit is incomparably magnificent to what it was before!"
Alis continued to observe the situation. He knew who the guest was, but he had no idea what he had turned into.
"You don't need to worry about Hueso; he is trying to regenerate himself along with my kin! Even though I heard it from his mouth, being this close to the battlefield, I can better understand what happened today!"
Miloş turned his gazes upon the Death Pass; after looking for a while, he turned back to Joshua again.
"Not much time left until the deadline the Blood God gave expires; what do you plan to do tomorrow?"
When Miloş asked the crucial question, Joshua pointed to a hill opposite them with his hand, and before ten breaths passed, three people appeared there. They sat at a point overlooking the Death Pass, then the Hell Realm King began to speak.
At the same moments, some conversations were taking place in the camps behind the Death Pass too, but tensions were quite high here. The Mercenaries front had stepped aside; the two generals who lost five thousand soldiers were trying to swallow the defeat.
On the other hand, the leaders of the forces here on behalf of the Lands of Light were around the table in the shape of a five-pointed star, but the seat belonging to the Earth Element was empty.
"How can it be? Even though we used the Holy Angel Will Remnant, how can that druid continue to cast magic!"
The existence of someone casting Wind Magic despite the trump card her society gave her was driving Ventus crazy. While she was in the position of one of the future leader candidates of the society named Companions of the Wind, if even she couldn't succeed, how could a druid succeed in this?
"Ventus, I want you to calm down. This is one of our subjects, but first we need to handle what happened today as a whole!"
Franz threw his weight around with his words this time; he was the leader of one of the two powers that hadn't lost anything from their initial forces, and he could see the others were brought down a peg. His own motivation was to save the reputation of his master's son and to keep the oath of vengeance he swore years ago, but the others were harboring irrational expectations.
Now they had understood that the head of the Hell King Joshua wasn't something they could take just because they wanted to, but the price they paid for this was heavy. They needed a new plan and to reorganize.
It was a night where the forces stationed on both sides of the Death Pass would be awake until sunrise. The fuse had been lit today; the big bomb sitting in the middle would explode as soon as possible.