~ The Adventurer Chronicle 22 ~
"... over the mountain they saw a most terrorizing surprise.
- This is Mithrel? What is going on here?! - asked Selina with a ghostly expression.
- They... they are going... to war!! - stuttered Cid trying to scan how many people were there.
- What?! That can't be, with such an army they can take both of the south kingdoms, then there will be few kingdoms that can stop them.
- Not to mention the mass murder that will take place. - intervened Artanis.
- Thousands will be killed if we don't do so...
- There is about two hundred thousand warriors just in the from preparation, I bet there is much more inside and around. There is nothing we can do.
- There has t...
- There is something wrong here. - said Maelstron.
- What?
- I have no idea, but I feel weird, Cid check the history of the kingdom.
Down the mountain near a forest a bit to the east, stood the great helm of Mithrel Putinis, with its majestic castle. Near the center of the plains was a tall tower surrounded by a fort, probably the shield generator. A bit to side there could be seen a huge rectangular building, the world known Maze Cage of the Stars, a place know the have its own dimension, where great long mazes appeared for no reason, where monsters never seen before roamed freely, where tells the legend there is a treasure of unimaginable power at the end, if there is an end of course. Many played there, but most gave up after finding monsters too strong for them and some died trying to find the fabled prize.
They stood there, lost, with no idea what to do next, their plan could not go forward with this. Some venture to say this was a truly beautiful sight, but most agree it was more scary. Two hundred thousand people working together, preparing, training, building, planing and getting ready for war. An army unusually organized, so many people with weapons, and no ordinary weapons, with vehicles, mounts and many strange machinery and beasts roaming in their plains. If they were as good in a fight as they seem organized they surely would slaughter countless people.
- Come on Cid, before we get spotted here.
- What, oh sure, it says here that this kingdom was always in peace with the other two, their main business was the market and the cage which kept attracting people to the kingdom and lastly the never had a big army, but seemed to have a very successful market creating powerful magical weapons and equipment.
- So there's no reason for them to build a massive army and take down other kingdoms?
- None.
- Wait. - said Artanis - they may just be organizing their defenses against the other.
- No! - said Diterok calmly raising his head and looking seriously int Maelstron's eyes. - I've had a glimpse of a not so distant past... they've been here!
Most of the group seemed a bit confused, or maybe just in doubt, but they stood there in silence. Maelstron and Cid look at each other concern was taking over, this made things worse if their suspicion was right.
- Are you sure of what you saw right? Because you know this means they stop being just a bunch of powerful enemies with some masochistic desire to see the world destroy itself, and now become the same powerful enemies with desires, but now with a massive army almost ready to spread carnage through the world.
- I'm afraid I'm certain, though I have no idea on to what extent they are involved in this, I just said they came here some time ago.
- You mean those guys we fought are behind this army?!
- Now this is promising. We got beaten up when it was just them, but I KNOW you don't expect us to go against and army this big.
- No we won't, we are strong, but no nearly as powerful to take an army. I would say under other circumstances that we could organize our own army, but...
- Since most kingdoms are either ON war, or simply trying to defend their own people, we would have no success in gathering people to fight. It is hopeless.
They all looked concerned to each other, they felt the little hope they had fade. After some time of silence Diterok said:
- We should investigate, know what is going on here, and how did they build such an army in so little time.
- While we are at it, we may find some pretty good equipment for us. - said Maelstron with the usual grin.
- Ok so here..."

~ End of Part 22 ~