Although they no longer had Ray's system to communicate between each of the members, there was something else they could use and it was one of the reasons why Lenny had been brought along.
It would take some time, but before leaving, a communication magic circle had been set up at Avrion. Now Lenny could draw a magic circle at their current location and could use it to communicate with Bliss.
In the time while they waited for Lenny to draw the circle, Monk and the Dark Guild members had already left. He promised that they wouldn't disturb the Redwings, he could do that much. However, whether he could convince a long time old foe of Avrion to fight alongside them was a different matter altogether.
Although the group now had a new goal, while waiting for Lenny to contact the main castle, the others were still wondering what on Earth had happened here. Someone had taken down a fortress belonging to the Shadow, they knew how hard it was to do that, so someone with great power must have helped them.
"I can give you my guess." Lenny said as he covered his entire index finger in an unknown white powder. He was inside the fortress grounds, drawing the circle just outside where the castle was, and everyone was either getting ready to move out again, or was packing up.
"You mean, as to who was behind this?" Martha questioned.
"I think it really can only be one group of people that are brave enough. I think it was the Empire. I know they recently had their own troubles with the Shadow, however, I also believe that perhaps once the problem had been resolved, it was the thing that finally spurred them to take some action.
"Rather than a question of who, we should be thinking about what exactly was used to destroy this place. I believe it holds nearly the same power as Van has himself." Lenny said, finally finishing the perfect circle.
——
Sylvia had received word from Bliss and had heard details of everything that had happened so far, including what happened to Ray and what Monk had said. Based on what the others were telling her, she believed them. She believed that Monk was telling the truth.
Straight away, an emergency council meeting had been called for them to discuss recent matters. Not only were the council members involved in the meeting, but Bliss and the high ranking Redwing members that had remained were present too.
"Although I think it's best if we do send help, I do have one major concern." Sylvia said. "If we send most of our forces to the Shadow continent, it leaves us wide open. We could be attacked by surrounding kingdoms or the Empire could finally make their move against us."
The more senior members continued to discuss amongst themselves and she could see they had the same concerns as well.
"If I may speak." Bliss interrupted. "We all know that this whole thing started because of my visions, but so far in all my visions, I have never had one that goes past this point. With how close we are to the current timeline, I thought that I should be able to at least see something ahead, but I cannot.
"Which to me means that this very well could be our final stand. I think it's important that we send back up."
Hearing this strengthened their resolve to send more people, but as a leader Sylvia just felt like she couldn't do it. If it was just the lives of those from the Redwings, then maybe they could have all gone. If they were to leave the place they could always come back and reclaim it at another time.
However, there were many people involved in the Redwings. The nearby towns and villages in the area had become a part of them and the city had grown in size rapidly. There were now non fighters in the city as well and leaving this place could mean sacrificing all of their lives.
Unfortunately this wasn't a problem that she could mull over for a few days, they needed to make a decision now. Then an idea popped into her head.
"Inform Queen Liz of the Alure Kingdom about what has happened, tell her we will be using all our forces to save her son, and see what her response is. Do it now." Sylvia ordered and they did so quickly.
It didn't take long for the Queen to come back with a message and they had finally gotten the answer they had been waiting for.
Back in the council room, upon hearing the good news a brief smile returned to Sylvia's face.
"The Alure kingdom has agreed to completely ally itself with the Redwings. If any of the kingdoms or Empire try to attack us, they will back us up.
"We will leave the members of the Black Rings that we obtained here, and I will remain here myself with a token army. Wilfred, I know you are a retired former Master Knight, but if you could lead the way for the army to join up with the others, that would be greatly appreciated." Slyvia requested.
It didn't take him long to have a reply. "I only took on the position of a council elder to help out you young ones, I will definitely be happy to join the battleground once more to finally get rid of the evil that has plagued our world for so long. In fact, I would have hated it if I wasn't a part of it."
The rest of the Redwing members including the high-ranking ones had now set off, leaving only Sylvia to remain behind along with her adviser and ex-elder Von.
"A lot of sacrifice will be made in this war, but we must win it. We will take back Bronzeland and it will belong to the human race once more!" Sylvia shouted with conviction.
*****
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