Lina had started her move by targeting the girl most anxious for recognition: Berry. To an outsider, Berry appeared to be the shyest and kindest of the group, a gentle soul who followed in William’s wake.
But Lina saw the truth beneath the surface. Berry harboured the deepest craving to stand out, to be seen not just as a companion, but as an equal.
Lina had approached her subtly, weaving a narrative of how Lara and Anjie were effectively "stealing the show," leaving Berry as a re footnote in William’s epic. She had carefully cast the bait, speaking in "what-ifs."
She suggested that if Berry had enough initiative, she would find her own base of operations, gather her own coalition of masters, and strike out independently.
Lina had painted a vivid picture: while William handled his front alone, Berry could lead a second front to stop the two other monster tides. She even pointed out the obvious—the specialised spears designed to stop the terrifying Scarlet Bear tide had erged from Berry’s own clan.
"You have the ans," Lina had whispered, her voice like a silken thread. "And by all rights, you have the heritage to lead this charge. Why wait for a command that might never co? Why stay in the shadows when you can be the one to save the north?"
Lina’s manipulation had been a masterclass in psychological leverage. She hadn’t stopped at encouraging Berry; she had ticulously assembled a shadow council by whispering the right nas at the right ti.
She suggested Sara, pointing out that the Academy possessed the industrial infrastructure required to mass-produce the specialised spears at an unprecedented scale. Sara had the faction, the masters, and the academic prestige to back her play.
To round out the trio, Lina had thrown in Ro’s na. Ro was the perfect candidate to mirror the role Lara currently held, utilising the strategic importance of the Scorching Lands town as a logistical hub. By the ti Lina was finished, the three girls felt as though the idea to team up was their own collective stroke of genius.
Berry hadn’t hesitated to take the bait. Even if the shy girl had harboured a flicker of suspicion regarding Lina’s true intentions, she dismissed it the mont she considered Lina’s lack of external backing.
To Berry, Lina was a girl with no family clan, no ancient academy, and no sovereign territory—she only had her faction within the guild, which was widely considered one of the smallest.
What Berry and the others failed to realise was that Lina had subjected her small faction to hellish, unorthodox training for years. Man for man, her followers were no less powerful than the elite factions of the guild.
They were a lean, lethal unit, hidden in plain sight. Only William truly understood the depth of what Lina had built, for he alone took the ti to see his companions for who they actually were, rather than the titles they held.
"Sorry, young master," Lina whispered, her eyes lingering on the horizon. Her mind drifted back to the early days—mories of when William first accepted her and her sister. He hadn’t treated them like servants or tools, but like family.
That kindness was the foundation of her loyalty. "This is as far as my current abilities go. I hope this bit of scheming is enough to help you endure this disaster."
Despite her success in mobilising the girls, Lina felt no satisfaction. She knew the scale of the threat was far beyond a simple internal rivalry.
anwhile, Lara and Anjie were not entirely oblivious to the secret etings and hushed tones of Berry, Sara, and Ro. They noticed the suspicious behaviour, the sudden huddles, and the intense focus. However, their own responsibilities were staggering.
With the weight of the war effort on their shoulders, they simply didn’t have the luxury of ti to investigate petty squabbles. They made ntal notes of the trio’s shift in attitude and returned their focus to the wider map.
The urgency of the situation reached a breaking point half a day later. Lara called for an ergency grand eting, her face pale under the flickering magical lights of the command centre.
"Are you saying more monster tides are appearing?" one of the commanders asked, his voice trembling as Lara revealed the latest intelligence.
"Not just more," Lara corrected, her finger tracing new red markers on the map. "Ten more monster tides have erged simultaneously at various points across the continent. The enemy is spreading us thin."
She tapped a spot on the updated parchnt. "The only silver lining is that these tides are scattered. They aren’t concentrated in a single spearhead yet. The closest threatening one is currently two days away from Anjie’s northern periter."
Anjie, who was leaning against a pillar, simply shrugged. Her nonchalance was a stark contrast to the panic in the room.
"I’ve already initiated mass production of the spears back at my fallen kingdom’s capital and within the new fortress," Anjie said, standing up and taking the lead from Lara.
Her voice was steady, projecting a regal authority that demanded silence. "I can handle the tide approaching my sector on my own. I won’t need to draw from the central stockpile. However..."
She paused, a heavy sigh escaping her lips as she looked at the map. "The fact that these tides are appearing so far away from our current positions is actually a nightmare. We lack the ans to reach those locations quickly.
We cannot afford to give those monsters ti to slaughter the local populations; every life they take only expands their numbers and fuels their overall powers and scale of this war."
The room fell into a grim silence. The "advantage" of the tides being scattered was actually a strategic trap. The portal network—the very thing that gave them their mobility—was designed to link major cities and strongholds.
These new tides were appearing in the "blind spots" of the network, places that would take days or even weeks to reach by traditional march.
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