Chapter 1000: Warden

Proofread by Thomas F

Leila Silver

I leaned against my sword and took deep breaths. It was too much, too hard, but I survived.

I am bloodied and broken; I have drunk the potions, but the number of potions I drank made even the essence potions work slowly.

As I tried to recover, the demon in my head filled my mind with whispers of power. The promised power was so great that it could bring even greater devastation.

I do not doubt it, but the cost of it would be my life.

It's so enticing that I want to agree, but like thousands of times before, I shut the voice down immediately.

It will come again, the moment it senses the weakness in my mind.

After a minute, I finally stood up straight and looked at the icy wreckage around me. Bodies of monsters, hundreds of them, lying frozen.

The biggest of them all is a large bird. That bastard had been hunting me for days.

It was a living hell. I barely slept more than an hour at a time. Whenever I tried, it would find me and attack me immediately. I would need to get up and run.

I nearly died several times, by monsters and even by the demon in my head, which promised the power to end the monsters.

Finally, today, I had dealt with one of those menaces, as for the demon whispering in my head. Well, the battle against it had only just begun. To defeat it, I would need far more strength than I have right now.

"Now, I can't wait to spar with him," I said, a wide grin appearing on my face.

At every spar, he had defeated me, but now I want to see how he could do that again. In the weeks here, I improved. I finally learned the aura methods and made a massive advancement in my mage craft.

I feel I am still far from defeating the knight, but other than him, I don't think anyone could stand against me from the dominion.

Especially with this demon in my head.

I was daydreaming of my future victory when a roar, filled with earthshaking power, brought me back to reality. It made me understand that there are still things that could squash me like an ant.

"Fuck!" I cursed and moved immediately.

I may have defeated the bird, but I am not a match for the bastard who just roared. I need to get out of here, return to my territory and the dominion.

…

Vulvru Garzong

"Warden."

The young human officer saluted as he stopped in front of me. He is in his early twenties, but already a captain.

Well, he has been with Greltheaven from the first battle. He fought as a volunteer before entering the army and rose through the ranks steadily.

It is why he had been given such an important responsibility.

"This is for you," he said, handing me the letter. It came from Greltheaven, from Lord Silver himself. Only he has authority over me.

We communicate with calls, but truly important orders are communicated through letters.

With the messengers being our most trusted people.

"Thank you, Captain," I replied. The man saluted and walked away, while I took out the letter. There was nothing written there; it was completely blank.

I looked at the small charm attached to the top corner of it. I pierced it with a small pin and touched it as blood came out.

"Adeor,"

I muttered the word softly, and immediately, the charm shone, and the words began to appear on it.

I read it as they did.

A few seconds after I finished, the letter burst into flames and turned into ashes. Even if someone collected the ashes, they still wouldn't be able to reconstruct the letter.

Everything is protected with a witch's spell.

The lord is extremely cautious; the letters come with blood locks and burn to ashes as I read them. I wish I could fault him for such caution, but I can not.

We can't let anyone find out about this secret. Not the enemies, not even our allies.

With that, I walked out of my office; it is a small building created by the mages in the cavern.

Around it are people. All in uniform. Each one of them was trusted, and on top of that, all of them had signed a powerful contract backed by the power of witchcraft and the legacy.

As I had said, extreme precautions.

"Is everything good?" I asked the mage appearing beside me. He didn't answer immediately, but his staff lit up.

"It is," he replied a few seconds later.

The cavern is heavily protected, but we can't be too careful; we caught some rats trying to sneak in. There were a few miners who were enticed, as well as the rogues.

We have caught them, but we have to be prepared, because truly powerful ones might come snooping.

"Today is the day," said the voice behind me. Mage Aldridge appeared beside me.

"It is," I replied.

"Do you think she will succeed?" he asked, looking toward the golems, which are still in the places where we have found them. Until now, nobody had moved them anywhere.

"She has done better than we had expected in such a short time," I replied.

To be honest, I am shocked by the progress. I, myself, tried even with all the enhancements my tribe's shaman had provided, but despite that, I had failed.

"I hope she succeeds."

I didn't say anything to that and looked around the cavern, where every inch was guarded.

It's my domain, while the forgebase is the old man's.

"Good, they have selected really good people," he replied. We have brought our most trusted people to the forgebase. 

It's a matter of pride for me that one from my tribe has been selected. There are three from Velvet Garden and seven more from the Dominion, both orcs and humans.

There had been some discussion on whether to train artisans first or those who are good with languages.

The problem with artisans was that we hadn't even chosen any. We don't know who will be good at forging golems and who will not. It will be a long process.

It's better to select those who are good with language. So, they will translate the books.

By the time we choose artisans, we will have a good number of books ready for them to study directly, without needing to learn the language.

I was talking with the man when the outer door opened.

General Azalia appeared with a small group of people. They didn't immediately step inside. Instead, they followed through the security procedure.

Even the General is not exempt from it, nor myself as The Warden.

I walked forward, stopping beside the cohort of golems, in front of the ring that was floating in front of us.

She appeared a few seconds later.

"General," I greeted.

"Warden, Administrator." She replied, before turning to the woman beside her. A human in her mid-twenties with dark hair, short, wearing a captain's uniform.

"This is Captain Delhaunt," she introduced. "Warden," the woman saluted. I nodded.

"I am sure it had already been explained to you, but you are here to try for the cohort. If you succeed, you will gain control of the whole cohort." Explained Mage Aldridge.

The woman's eyes lit up hearing that. Since she came here, she couldn't look away from them.

She is our first candidate in weeks. We have tried a few, but it's become clear that we needed a special talent. A very rare kind of talent, and it needs to be substantial enough.

She barely meets those criteria.

If it were up to us, we wouldn't have given her a chance, but it is a very rare talent, and very few people in the whole dominion have it. Those people needed to be trusted as well.

It's the reason we have not been allowed the best talent we have to try.

His talent is far greater than hers, but we do not trust him enough. That is a criterion just as important as the first.

"Do you need a rest before you try it, Captain?" asked Mage Aldridge. To that, the young woman shook her head, without taking her eyes from the golems in front of her.

"I am ready."

"Good, then put the ring above your head," he instructed.

The woman nodded and put the artifact on her head. As she did, it appeared behind her head and lit up.

For a moment, nothing happened until the woman's eyes went wide, and the next moment, blood came out of her ears and nose before she fell unconscious.

"Another failure," said Irab with a sigh.

We shook our heads; even the woman's talent couldn't bear the pressure.

"It seemed like we have no choice but him," said Mage Aldridge.

"He has yet to prove his loyalty, Administrator," replied Irab. He is still a little prickly about his failure, but he is the right candidate.

He hadn't earned the trust, but he will get the chance soon.

The healers took the girl away, while we walked toward the twin wardens.

That was just a trailer; this is the real thing. If she succeeds, the golems will leave the cavern today.

"Ready, General?" asked Mage Aldridge. General Azalia nodded and put the beautiful circlet on her head.

It lit up, and a second later, the strain appeared on her face, but unlike most of us, who shook. She didn't; she had become much better at bearing it.

It's not like we didn't try many times; we did. Including Garzong, but no one is as good as she is.

A few seconds passed, and the golems lit up and moved.

Nobody had moved a golem aside from her. Still moving is one thing; making them fight is another. She moved them around while I watched, while watching the clock.

Minutes passed and then another.

For a few minutes, she did well, but soon, the strain was apparent on her face. Despite that, she didn't remove the circlet and kept the golems moving.

She persevered, gritting her teeth to bear it, but didn't remove the circlet.

Finally, it was fifteen minutes, and I put the clock back into my pocket before turning to the woman. She had accomplished the task.

"By the authority given to me, I hand over the Twin Wardens to you, General," I stated.

The test was just a formality. There is no one better than she.

She is now the controller of the Twin Wardens; that means. Unless there is an order from above, she will be their sole controller.

"You are amazing, General. I just wish we had more time," said Mage Aldridge.

We barely have a month before the enemies arrive in the region. It's not enough time to gain enough control to use them in the battle.

That is not the purpose either.

The thing is, the controller could only take the golems away. With the enemies coming, it's too risky to keep the golems here. We need to at least get the twin wardens out.

"Thank you, Warden," she replied, and to my surprise, put the circlet back on her head and did something that made all our eyes go wide.

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