Lara felt a sudden, overwhelming sense of gratitude that she was on his side. In a world where every move felt like treading on thin ice, having a leader like William—soone who stood as firm as a mountain and saw through the fog of war—was a priceless asset.
She still didn’t understand how he expected Berry to hold back a tide that would challenge even the most legendary masters. But William’s word was law in these matters. If he said Berry was the key, then she had to place the hope of every living soul in the city on that girl.
"Spread the word!" Lara suddenly shouted, her voice booming through the command tent. "Inform the other faction leaders about the state of the three zones imdiately. And that includes Anjie—get word to her now!"
Lara knew that if three spots were suffering under this tide, the enemies wouldn’t stop there. If she were the one leading the monsters, and her three-pronged attack failed to take down the city, she wouldn’t retreat. She would launch a hundred more attacks until every wall was breached.
She began to pace around the table, her eyes scanning the map with a frantic, analytical hunger, trying to predict where the next hamr-blow would fall.
"It makes perfect sense for them to target the regions surrounding those three primary spots," she muttered to herself, her fingers hovering over the parchnt.
"But if I know William correctly, he won’t let those original three spots fall. That was why he intervened personally at the most critical junction, while leaving the others for Berry to manage..."
She stopped, her eyes widening as a new realisation struck her. "He’s trying to create a gravitational pull! He wants to suck every single enemy force in the region into those three specific funnels.
If he can draw them all there, he can neutralise the threat in one concentrated area. It makes it unlikely for the enemy to pivot and attack any other spot for the ti being—they’ll be too committed to the kill."
She moved her gaze slowly toward the outer edges of the map, examining the docunted activity of the mutated monsters. Their footprint was vast, shifting and changing over the days as the war progressed.
"Bring the old maps!" she suddenly roared, startling her aides. "Bring every single report and tactical chart from the very first day this war started! I need to see the evolution of their movents!"
The updated map stretched across the table, a chaotic tapestry of enemy movents and allied positions. Lara stared at it, the ink still fresh in places.
She found herself ntally surfacing reports she had morised over the past weeks, but she quickly shook the thought away. Relying on mory alone was a fool’s errand in a war of this scale; if she missed even a single detail, thousands would pay the price.
Choosing substance over bravado, Lara refused to bluff her way through the strategy. She took a physical step back from the table, drawing a long breath to steady her mind. She needed more ti—ti to cross-reference archived data with the chaotic influx of fresh reports.
She began the painstaking process of drawing a new map, one that didn’t just show where the monsters were, but where they had been since the very first day the banners were raised.
Her trusted masters watched her in silence. They grasped the sheer weight of the atmosphere, sensing the dire straits they were in. Not a single soul questioned her thods or doubted her delay.
Under her quiet, firm commands, they moved like clockwork, sifting through mountains of parchnt to help her chart the monsters’ historical trajectory.
As the maps took shape, the city outside began to swell. The leaders of the thirty-five disparate armies arrived in a grim procession, followed closely by their own elite masters.
As they filed into the command centre, their expressions were eerily identical—heavy, weary, and etched with the burden of command. Though no one spoke, the air grew thick with unspoken tension.
They ford a silent circle around Lara, their sharp gazes darting toward the entrance, waiting for the one person who could tip the scales.
Then, the air shifted. Berry had arrived.
"At last!" Lara’s voice broke the silence. The mont her spirit sense brushed against Berry’s familiar aura, a massive weight lifted from her chest. She exhaled a deep sigh of relief before her expression hardened into one of pure authority.
"Get ready. Secure this tent imdiately! I want a periter established—anyone below the rank of leader or sub-leader is to be cleared from the vicinity at once!"
Lara was acutely aware that this eting was the linchpin of their survival. She could almost feel the invisible weight of spying eyes and probing senses. If the enemy had truly set their sights on her city, it was a certainty that infiltrators were already among them.
Whether they had slipped in during the chaos of the breached walls or blended in with the flood of reinforcents mattered little now. All that mattered was total, impenetrable security.
"I’ll lay down the sealing arrays," Anjie announced, stepping forward the mont Berry crossed the threshold.
Berry remained silent, her presence commanding despite her stillness. By her side stood an elderly man, his face a roadmap of deep lines and ancient experience. Most of the gathered masters exchanged confused glances, having never seen the man before, but Sara’s eyes widened in recognition.
Anjie moved with practised precision, enlisting Fang’s help to weave the strongest concealnt arrays in their repertoire. While the runes began to glow at the tent’s edges, the gathered leaders turned their attention to the maps Lara had ticulously prepared.
The tables were crowded with intelligence. One map tracked the grinding progress of the front lines; another provided a terrifyingly current look at the monster tide’s shifting montum.
But it was the grand map—the one detailing every recorded sighting of the mutated monsters—that held their collective breath. Many of the leaders had been fighting in silos, unaware of the broader patterns.
Now, as they waited for the seals to be finalised, the gravity of their situation settled over them like a shroud.
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