Everyone that was capable of fighting had been gathered into a great chamber under the largest town of the beast worshippers, all Emerald Heralds were present, all DIvine Dancing Priestesses were present as well, all warriors were in attendance.
This meeting could not have been called at a most opportune time, in the few hours separating the decision to hold it, and the actual meeting, plenty of information and incredibly important pieces of information had been learned.
The new invading soldiers were causing problems, they were spreading out and the amount of them per group was increasing steadily, each of the different sorts of them were mixing together as well, so fighting them was becoming more and more dangerous as telling them apart from one another was nearly impossible, despite the great diversity in their skill sets and styles of combat, they could always work together seamlessly.
Thankfully, due to only having one gate available to flood into the Emerald Realm, they had only managed to establish a foothold in the north of the realm, the barrier erected was gigantic, so the people of the realm not only occupied the center, but also the east in their entirety, leaving only the west for the soldiers in white to have a chance at reaching the south, but naturally, that wasn't a allowed and an ample amount of forces were in charge of stopping that from happening.
So currently, the threat was confined to coming from only one direction, all of their flying beasts never made it far, and so did their subterranean creatures, the invading forces were extremely limited in how they could approach.
But Molc and the sun worshippers had been able to notice them hard at work, creating siege weaponry and other constructs that no one could really identify the purposes of, as well as trying to corrupted emerald beasts through a variety of means, fortunately, they were rarely successful in the latter, the wildlife here was beyond resilient, most of their attempts ended in abject failures, and the rest weren't much better.
Still, the arrival of so many enemy troops was a concern, they had managed to establish camps out in the open, with such overwhelming numbers guarding them that going out of the barrier to face them seemed counter productive, especially due to the elites they had brought in.
"Me and Merno fought a knight in full plate armour wearing a white cloak, although the guy was a regular knight without any special ability, he was still pretty strong and his body was rigged with an explosive of some sort as well" explained Hoffnu, currently holding the blind mage's hand like he might disappear if she let go.
"Their new soldiers use powers and abilities that no one here has ever seen before, so we can't formulate any plans to counter them without more information…" Antieeld said afterward, although small groups of them might not be that complicated to deal with, the moment they either got more numerous, or there was a mix of troops in the midst, the danger simply shot through the roof.
"Hum… If I may, I was able to get a good description after much trying on at least one of these new kinds of soldiers" Toby raised his hand, Ooaluz currently on his back.
"Go ahead, that should be good to know" Artazun, the leonin-looking priestess slightly turned and spoke up, her bestial tone resonating through the otherworlder's bones, he had substantially increased in strength throughout the years, but Artazun still made him feel small and insignificant.
"Don't worry, that was her nice tone, she's cool with you" whispered Ooaluz in his ear.
Toby felt sorry for the poor one who would have to get hit by the disapproving version of that voice, that might actually be capable of causing heart failure on the spot.
"Aherm… The 'rock mages' as we have begun calling them…" he made a lengthy explanation, due to the fact that once he had managed to get past the strange protection that shielded them against inspection, his system had just regurgitated lengthy paragraphs, most of which was completely irrelevant unless one was an historian "...But I am not sure how could use this to our advantage, as those areas are vital points already"
"It is always best to know more about our enemies regardless" commented Artazim, clicking her beak.
"Personally, I say that we strike first and wipe them out" Iliz proposed.
"I agree, they are preparing something, and I have an inkling that it could be troublesome, although they have higher numbers and they brought in elites, we still have the advantage of pure power, it might deal damage to the realm, but we, heralds and priestesses, could all come together to wipe out their main camp from the face of the realm" Ioleznta agreed, and no one seemed to be vehemently against the idea.
"To add to this point… Just before I was told to come here, I came across a soldier in white whose dialect I could actually understand perfectly" Abraham casually chimed in, not at all rattled as all attention turned to him.
"You could said that from the beginning"
"Always waiting for the 'right' moment, huh?"
His death hunters colleagues, minus Échalas, had their own comments to slip in.
'No respect for the elderly…'
"Well, I am honestly still a bit confused as some of what she said sounded insane, but in summary, she called herself Alici, a member of the Soror, and a daughter of 'that guy', then she explained that we were being graciously extended the option to surrender right now, and that resisting was useless as our end was near, also, 'that guy' was going to show up personally" he recounted with a tone that lacked the severity that should accompany such words.
"Loimos is coming in person?!"
"Milo! Don't say his name aloud! He might actually be able to hear you…" Filiusorci, the champion of earth, put his hand up on Milo's shoulder.
"My bad… But if true, this is terrible, even if terribly weakened, that guy could still turn the entire realm upside down"
"Don't be so pessimistic, the Emerald Realm is powerful in its own rights, and the rules governing it can counter death, he may be a force superior to anything we can imagine, but he should remain vassal to death itself" Rummy spoke from a distance away.
"He will definitely bring a good dose of death's influence with him though, if he can set foot here without being turned into spirit life, it will already be bad"
"So I guess that striking first is the right choice then? If we could just find where they have hidden their portal… That should eliminate all issues, right? We have managed to permanently seal one of them recently, if we do the same with all others, opening another should be near, if not completely impossible" Zilania said.
"What are we waiting for then? Let's go!" Irlitimiz bared her fangs, and no one had any objections.
'If all portals are shut, I'll probably succumb to old age before I get another chance at facing him, but…' Milo thought about his children.
'...They are more important than any revenge'