The Guardians' Throne - The First Magic Swordsman

In the end, Zaos and the others decided to head toward the same direction where Drannor and his army were heading. In the worst-case scenario, they will end up finding a village, but then they will have the chance to ask the villagers where the demons were concentrated… even if they have to use force.

Since both armies didn't have the chance to cover much ground, Zaos imagined that they would meet up again pretty soon, but that never happened that day. In fact, Zaos and the others didn't find any enemy either… only vicious animals that were killed and turned into food for the army.

"It seems the group Drannor found had attacked the eastern side of the region for whatever reason…" Zaos said.

"Given the recent actions of the demons, I imagined that they would be clustered in a single place trying to prevent any interference in the ritual to bring back the demon god," Cohnal said.

"Let's ask Drannor if the ones they defeated had something with them," Nyana said. "Things like food, weapons, or tools. I don't know if the ones that transformed into demons can live without food, but the normal ones sure need it."

Zaos didn't know that either… if they were truly vicious monsters, they would feast in human flesh and blood, but they never did that… They found pleasure in killing humans, but that was probably because of their strong desire for revenge. That made Zaos realize that demons didn't become mindless beasts… after all, they could feel fear and use their heads to plan their attacks. Now that Zaos thought about it, in the scrolls of the library, there wasn't any mention of the monsters or much of the past of the demon god before he decided to use negative emotions as fuel to increase his strength. It was probably because he dealt with the monsters that threatened the fate of the world for good… maybe Zaos could use the same method he used against him.

Nevertheless, Zaos asked Drannor what the followers of the demon god had with them, and he confirmed that they had attacked and stole weapons and food from some village. They were preparing for the battle that was certain to happen…

A little later that day, Zaos received another message via the crystal that Drannor and his army had found yet another group heading in the same direction. It seemed that he had some good trackers despite the fact that the enemies should have more chances of finding such a large army… that or the followers of the demon god were too busy to notice anything.

"I suppose the fact that they don't have mages help them with that," Cohnal said once he heard about the message.

"Still, it is weird that they can't feel Drannor's presence or his sword for that matter," Aleni said. "Even I can tell that Zaos' sword has obtained a weird presence after slaying some demons."

"Really? I didn't notice that… is that presence bad or something?" Zaos asked.

"Not really," Aleni shook her head. "Besides, it is normal that you can't feel it since you are always with that sword, and the changes didn't suddenly come out of nowhere."

"Still… I think at least the ones that transformed into demons should feel the aura coming from the swords," Zaos said. "I will warn Drannor, just in case."

After doing that, Zaos and his ex lieutenants were alerted by some soldiers that they could see a village in the distance. Zaos climbed one of the tallest trees in the area and confirmed that. Still, instead of bringing a large army, Zaos and Aleni alone proceeded to check the village. In the end, even before reaching the place, Zaos confirmed that it had been abandoned. It was a habit of the people of that region to make villages around lakes. Thanks to that, Zaos found a fishing spot above the frozen lake and confirmed that the place had been abandoned recently.

"Do you think the groups that Drannor found were heading to this place?" Aleni asked.

"No… I can feel vestiges of mana heading toward the northwest," Zaos replied. "All the houses also have vestiges of mana, so they probably didn't live here."

  Instead of keeping wondering by themselves about that, they returned to their allies and told them about the findings. Once that was done, they resumed their March because everyone could tell that it wasn't a good sign.

  Even after two days, Zaos didn't find any traces of Drannor's army or of the place where Milliendra had been taken. Still, they found several other abandoned villages. Just when Zaos was getting more impatient, they reached a mountainous region where all the available paths would make things difficult for them to keep their formation.

"This doesn't bring me good memories…" Zaos said while looking toward the straight path between the mountains.

"Do you think they might be waiting around and ready to bury us with an avalanche?" Cohnal asked. "This place is  pretty good for an ambush.

"It is very likely since they used that against me before," Zaos said. "I think that I will go ahead and…"

Just when Zaos was about to finish his sentence, the whole army heard a weird sound coming from the south. They didn't see anything when they looked in that direction, but they could feel the ground trembling a little. An avalanche happened somewhere, and Zaos knew that it had targeted Drannor and his army… when Zaos tried to contact him via the crystal, he didn't get an answer. Still, Zaos could go there and check them. The goal of that expedition couldn't be ignored.

"The sun will set in a few hours," Zaos said. "We will camp here and rest properly before moving at first light."

While the soldiers were setting the camp, Zaos and Aleni decided to rest for a while because they were going to make sure that the path ahead was safe.