The merge, though as devastating as it was, stretched throughout a period of only thirty minutes.
Thirty minutes ago in Eldoria
"It's time. Gather the troops," a not so young man spoke in a commissioner uniform. He instructed a messenger as he looked out the window pane during the onset of the merge.
He soon walked out the room himself, and in the direction where the Syllox Force awaited his motivation.
As he made his way there, he got up the stage and said, "Great people of Eldoria."
Cheers arose from the crowd.
"As you can all see, our long awaited moment has finally arrived. We have been preparing for this time. Seekers and other demons are ravaging our land and she needs us, the Syllox Force, the defenders of Eldoria to keep her and her inhabitants safe. So this isn't a time to be scared but a time to fall back on your long and endured preparations, saving lives both young and old, wounded or unwounded, awakened or unawakened for all human life is important."
He waited for a while to let all he was saying sink in before delivering the rest of his speech.
"And also, let's not forget our secondary objective. Of course, we are all familiar with the prophesy about the Celestial King. If the myth is even in the least bit true, it means that if the merge doesn't destroy us, something greater will surely do so."
"..."
He continued some more, "So I hope you all know what I expect you to do. Organise yourselves into three divisions. One to deploy the demon threats, another to save the people and the last to gather the merge-intakes. Take note that those in the demon sector should strictly consist of only unawakened, to avoid supplementing our opponents numbers. Do I make myself clear?
The army gave a cordial response to his question, "Yes sir."
"In any case you meet a scenario where you are between the devil and the deep blue sea in saving the life of an awakened and an unawakened, I urge you to save that of the unawakened."
Murmurs clustered in the crowd, as he was speaking retrospective to his earlier statement. The most reasonable decision to have even made in such a scenerio would be to save the awakened if not both, but General Keiren had his reasons.
"Conclusively, as a bonus motivation, I, General Keiren, will personally award anyone who will slay the most demons, save the most lives and gather the most awakened a cash prize of one thousand gold coins."
The crowd roared on hearing the reward.
"Now, go, fight for our land," as he raised his hand, signalling towards the exit. They all promptly moved while arming themselves on their way out.
Keiren soon after left the stage and walked out into his office to observe the front of the battle field from his tower.
The troops did as Keiren said, they divided themselves into three groups.
One division headed towards Ashphire forest where the demons population was concentrated while the other sector dispersed themselves over the entire country. They made use of their magical creatures to get around quicker to cover more ground.
The merge-intakes assigned sector dispersed themselves over the entire country searching while the life saving sector restricted their activities to the main town where the population of the people was concentrated.
In the life-saving assigned sector, there was a young soldier, Alex. He had awakened the fire element a year back at the awakening ceremony and has honed his skill to a satiable peak of mastery.
'What am I doing here? I should be in the real battle field, against the demons not here. I honestly don't know if old age has gotten into the General's head. No awakened against the demons, that makes no sense. I'm outta here.'
He thought as he rode on his Tier 2 Mana beast. As he approached the city gate, he quickly pulled back and changed course towards Ashphire forest.
"Alex, what are you doing?", one of his fellow soldier asked.
"I am earning that cash prize," he said in a loud voice, still to low to be heard in the noise of an active battle field.
He raced through Eldoria on his mana beast.
'What was the general thinking, leaving the unawakened to the demons. They are sure to be defeated.'
And as if he knew. The ground of the forest was painted with the blood from fallen soldiers. About two-thirds that sector has fallen to the terrible beasts.
He quickly got off his mana beast, picked up his weapon and raced to lend his assistance.
As he ran towards the demons, a soldier in that soldier screamed, "Alex, what are you doing here, is everything alright in your sector?"
"Ya, everything is alright. I just came to lend my assistance."
"What! If the general hears of this, he's sure to punish you for your disobedience."
"Then I guess, you will just have to keep your mouth shut, won't you?"
Their discussion was cut short when a shade morphed into a mana beast and pounced in their direction.
They were almost done for, but Alex kept his guard up. He positioned his arms and thrusted his arms in its direction and a fireball shot out partly dissipating the shade.
The only thing that could truly end a shade was pure light, hence light wielders would be much needed in the battlefield in a time like this, and elements like fire and lightning would only do partial damage to it.
They both raced out of the battle commotion and bent beside a nearby tree to continue their talk.
"See you need me," Alex continued the argument.
"No, we don't."
"Look,the General is a very wise man and I respect that you uphold so much obedience to his instructions but you can't deny that this is the most reasonable strategy towards our victory just because it goes against the orders you were given."
The soldier saw sense in his words and gave in, " What about you, how will you face the general?"
"Don't worry about that. Whatever be the punishment, I'll take it."
They finally concluded and could get on with the battle.
By now they were only about thirty soldiers left in that sector.
Alex called out to the soldiers in a loud voice and said, "Everyone, I have got a plan and I need your aid to pull it off. Draw the demons towards the edge of the forest to avoid starting a forest fire and get ready with your weapons. I weaken them, you finish'm."
''Isn't that Alex voice?''
''I thought he was in the other sector.''
''What's going on?''
Voice ran through the forest as they complied with the instruction given.