Casually sitting cross-legged whilst chewing on some grass, a beast follower bearing the winding horns, ears and beard of a goat, or rather, of whatever creatures what its equivalent in the Emerald Realm, grabbing a hold with his bear hands of a neary conglomerate of nettle, biting and eating them without problem whilst watching over the strange structure that had been constructed by one of their guests.
It had been a while since any of the three sealed portals had posed any problem, they would sometimes shake a bit or emit a rumble of some kind, but never had they even been damaged, Liebeln would often come by to check on his defensive architecture.
The beast followed thought the architect was pretty neat, he had believed that being a talent holder simply meant that one would make great strides in the particular area they were talented in, but it truly seems like there was a more unseen effect to it as well, like their hands were guided by an invisible being that could help them imbue their specific craft with something that transcended the regular application.
Because the constructions made to seal the portals were rather odd, basically being box filled with water, which itself was inside another box filled with water, which was inside a pyramid filled water, and somehow, this all rendered the effects of emerald light stronger and allowed them to last much longer in time? The goat-like beast worshipper did not see how that made sense without attributing it to something greater.
One of his ears twitched, his eyes stopped shifting patterns for a moment, pupils and irises moulding themself into a triangular shape as he glanced to the side, he wasn't the only one who had noticed something, the other folks around had also felt that slight rumble.
It had always been nothing every single time before, but they all made some distance from the sealed portal anyways, the seal was shaking.
For split instants, the follower could feel the presence of unknown beast manifested before being crushed inside the box, seemingly much too large to possibly fit, and the seal proved too tough for them to break through, they just split to pieces and were swiftly taken apart into spirit life, a portion of it going directly to the structure, repairing any possible damage that could have been dealt.
This was made in an effort to prevent the undead from simply piling things or beings through the portal to wear out the seals over time, as such, a singular object or creature had to be capable of breaking through in a single go, none had even come close so far.
Pulling upon a piece of nettle stuck in between his teeth, the beast followed and cracked his knuckles, the rumble and shaking was getting stronger every single time.
"Go and inform the others that the seal will probably break soon" calmly, he instructed a winged beast worshipper nearby to go and carry a message, which content the goat-like man had absolutely no proof of, but he wasn't an idiot, the undeads were clearly testing to see how much the seals could handle, the instant they figured out something capable of breaking through, it was only natural to expect them to unleash the same onto the other seals without wait.
"Take more steps back" he didn't need to say it as everyone had been moving away already, both beast and sun worshippers could get a grasp of just what was going on inside, and clearly, the undeads were just throwing massive beasts into the portal, sizes so great that the beast worshippers felts strongly intrigued, as the largest beast species they knew was the ahltaizth.
Still, everyone took their fair distance as if something broke the seal, it was deemed to be outrageously large.
His ear twitched again, there was the sound of stone cracking, all damage was mended, but the next rumble created deeper and longer cracks…
"Mmmh… Where in damnation are they getting these beasts from?"
'Did they line them up from smallest to biggest and are just pushing them in one by one?' he wasn't too worried for now, with a message like that sent, a Divine Dancing Priestess or Emerald Herald would arrive eventually, there was nothing to fear with one of them on the battlefield alongside you.
Another rumble, the cracks ran far and wide, but the box did not give in just yet, another one, and miraculously, it once again resisted.
The one after that broke through, but it wasn't a problem just yet, the seal had three layers after all, Liebeln hadn't slacked off on these architectures, when a layer was broken through, the next one, which was already much tougher than the previous, would be further augmented, if the rate at which things were going stayed the same, it should at least take multiple more minutes until the seal was completely shattered.
"How long has it been since their first attempt at an invasion?" he asked aloud.
"A year or so" responded a nearby green sun battlemonk.
'Huh… They have managed to hide a portal, are they currently sending troops through it? If they wanted to free their other portals, wouldn't it have been better to stage a sudden and immense invasion from their hidden gate, and then break through these ones as attention is directed elsewhere?' the beast follower attempted to find some sort of logic whilst waiting for the seemingly inevitable fight.
Soon enough, the second box was broken into countless pieces, starting to countdown to the confrontation, the hollow pyramid, filled with naught but water, trembled with each poor creature that was forced into its confined space, shudders that were transmitted to the soil below, reverberating through the bones of the emeraldfolks.
The first cracks appeared- Soon.
The worshippers felt reassured, it seemed like the kind sun was not too worried as they couldn't feel its burning gaze.
'Now… Will they unleash those people in white, beasts… Or those explosive things?' they stood around the portal that had unleashed an infernal hail when it had last been used as a conduit to attack by the undead.
Naturally, if they did the same thing now, there was little they would be able to do about it.
At last, a long crack spread across the surface of the pyramid, running from one side to the other, it was split in half and water poured out.
They had gotten lucky, the vast creature that had caused it had also perished and couldn't expand to its full size.
And instead of pouring out creatures, unfamiliar white figures emerged as the portal surged like a flame, they were dressed in the same manner as the previous soldiers, nearly completely in white, a bag over their heads and a cloak upon their shoulders, only that they had been somewhat similar to the refugees.
The forces that emerged were all tall and bulky, sporting additional arms or tails, shouting and hollering incomprehensible word as they bared heavy maces around, seemed was only weapon those guys were granted, a weapon that could fully help them express their brutish tendencies without requiring much thinking at all.
One of them barreled toward the beast follower and looked down on him, swinging all four of his maces right at him.