Gael Jag wanted to visit his friends. However, he realized that the town he had lived for long was subdued by the Alician Forces. He felt anger inside him, boiling, and hot enough to melt his heart. However, the runic tattoo engraved to him calmed him down. He took the high ground and looked at his town from above. The citizens were unharmed, but he noticed cages that imprisoned his allies. The small walls were undamaged and only the fields of fruits were broken up into twigs, branches, and leaves that scattered the dirt road leading to the town.

"Calm down," he said to himself. "Everything is only as it is, if I lash out now, and get angry, would that help me? Is this situation within my control? No, it isn't, and I shouldn't be angry."

The runic tattoo's soothing effect had calmed him down. The words that were left on his arm had managed his emotions. He took another look and saw that there was no need to angry for. The Alician Forces were not so unreasonable to take down enemy forces that have already surrendered. As long as they do not rest then the Alician Forces weren't going to hurt him.

"I hope they don't," he said to himself. "I don't want them to be slaughtered."

He thought back to the memories of his comrades being shot down by the Alician. He barely got out of alive and he was only here because he was able to escape and reached a steamship that anchored.

"I need to move,” he thought. There were movements around the orchards and he thought about the words of the strange man in that steamship. The Alician forces should not be underestimated, he thought.

***

He had relocated to a part of the forest where he could stay undetected. He created a shelter by digging underground and creating a chamber where he does his scheming. The chamber he made was made of dug earth. The ceiling was supported by logs and branches weaved to hold the earth up. He also made a stove that has a chimney that redirects the smoke to a location where it won’t create a zigzag line of smoke.

He had made a bed from twines and the cloth that he recovered while scouring around the area. There was a hearth near the bed and he had made a table from the fallen logs scattered around the area. He had also created a brazier made from clay that he gathered around the area. The ventilation from the small tunnel he made allowed him to light the brazier without worrying about being detected by the Alician Forces patrolling the vicinity. Sometimes he used earthenware bowls with a wick draped in the oil sticking up on one side to light the hideout he made for himself.

For food and water, the forest was all he needed. He could get water from the nearby waterfall that flows down naturally to the town. He could get food from the berries and the games around the forest. Ever since then he had been fed enough to carefully watch the movements of the Alician Forces.

The Alician Forces were thorough and there were times where he was almost caught just because of the droppings of blood that he left around the trail he was hiking. They were also making use of their patrols to survey the area constantly, planting defenses, and traps that can be activated through a single snap of a magician’s fingers. They also deployed half-trucks around the perimeter that has crank-operated Gatling gun attached to it. The Alician Forces also deployed artillery around the center of the town and their test firing created a loud noise that drove all the birds on the trees around that time. Their scouts were also measuring the landscape and there around five gun emplacements around the outskirts of the town. Not to mention that the flying machines of the Alician Forces kept a huge shadow around the town.

Gael Jag saw how his little town turned into a fortress within a few weeks. He had thought that he would be able to do something to them that would allow him to neutralize some of them. But every force had been moving in a group of five and when they march their movements were conditioned to keep their head low and their body ready to roll away the moment they detect any attack.

Gael Jag felt a tinge of despair as he watches the Alician Forces that have come to invade his nation. He thought of the words of the strange man with a wrinkled left arm in that ship. He thought it was foolish for them to fight the Alician. And seeing all of this made him believe his words.

“How do I fight a thorough enemy that has equipment, training, and firepower that could even break monsters?” he asked while dazedly looking down from a hill inside a thick foliage.

If he had been foolish then his life would have been nothing but a whimper. He thought that he could do something but yet looking at the situation he felt his mind turned heavy as a stone, and the thoughts of being able to win were crushed by the reality that had seen for the past few weeks.

The Alician Forces were ready and they didn’t go to war in a whim. They were armed and ready to fight the Ancients of the past that could match the War Maiden. Gael Jag couldn’t help but curse the person who thought awakening the sleeping monsters were a good idea. The Empire Forces were around as well and the Alician forces acting as an additional reinforces was nothing but a death sentence to those who still dare defy them.

They had shown great mercy. They had shown overwhelming firepower and strength. They had shown that the Slayers of Monsters that has adapted the Bleak Walker’s Doctrine was not the kind of foes that you would anger. Gael Jag felt all the dreams and delusions he had was broken.

“Is this within my control?” He asked.