Chương 40: The Hidden Reckoning

The rain had finally eased as we reached the hilly location not far from the outpost. Jabare Magkosi stood there waiting for us, his tall athletic frame still wet from the downpour. He was sitting on the ground, his distinctive black, silver, and grey hairstyle plastered against his head. His Chaddorian attire clung heavily to his body, still bearing the marks of battle.

"It is good you came," he said, his voice carrying that confident tone I remembered from the Run of Glory. We explained everything that had happened to us since we separated at the mine: the heat stroke on the cliff, my overload and the accidental activation of the something that i could not recall, the desperate escape through the mines with the Gandolore beast, the rotten village, the old man's tearful request, and our infiltration into Muzape.

Jabare listened carefully, his expression growing more serious with every detail. Then he shared his own story. He told us how he had created more mazes of sand to confuse the pursuers. During a short but brutal scuffle with Ugabsa he had been hit hard. He lifted his tunic to show us the lower stomach area, where a dark black spot now marred his dark skin. The pain still lingered visibly on his face. After receiving the wound he had initiated the maze to collapse.

He had been running hard, the sound of Ugabsa's heavy footsteps growing dangerously closer with every second. The man was relentless, closing the distance fast. In that desperate moment, Jabare employed his trusted Maze strategy... raising walls of swirling sand and twisting paths to lose his pursuer. But Ugabsa broke through the stronger maze without even using Vestuto, smashing through the sand barriers with raw power. Once he made it deep inside, in that exact moment.

Jabare activated his Desert Soul Sovereign Vestuto, fighting with everything he had, but even that wasn't enough to secure victory. Ugabsa's overwhelming strength and speed pushed him to the brink of defeat. In a final quick-thinking motion, Jabare dove under the collapsing maze sand, stopped breathing, and hid completely. Ugabsa, unable to see him anymore in the darkness, created a small shockwave in disappointment of having not finished his target and left.

Jabare had waited in silence, and then a letter vulture arrived commanding his battalion of 2, 900 was calling him to come to them within one day's time. In the capital of Chaddore, Ngazargamu, the great city rose proud and strong under the night sky. Its buildings were crafted from clay and mud mixed with lime, glowing in warm bronze tones that reflected the torch lights across the sprawling roads.

Home to 220, 000 souls, Ngazargamu stood as the beating heart of the nation, its wide avenues lined with sturdy structures and bustling markets that remained active even in the late hours. That same night, the sand wave carrying Jabare's hidden message arrived at Station Archive after nine hours of travel. In the morning shift at 06: 00, the man on duty, Hanfpo, sat munching on some coca beans to start his day.

A puzzled look crossed his face as the sand wave settled into the drawer shelf, which had 34 holes in total reserved for different agents. It landed precisely on Jabare's dusted old shelf. Hanfpo took it out in confusion. Jabare was no longer on information missions. He was a battalion leader now, was he not? He opened the parchment and read the contents, then ran with everything he had to the upper sergeant. Sweating, the sergeant burst into the breakfast chamber where King Hawwapa sat eating.

The 43-year-old sun-charged man with a bald head and long beard wore rich style robes of fine embroidered cloth, layered and flowing with dignity and authority in his city.

"Excuse me, my liege," the sergeant said, "but this is of the highest importance. It is from Battalion Lead Guwam 24, Jabare Magkosi." Lying on the ground to present the parchment properly, the king cleansed his palate and motioned to a nearby servant to read it aloud while he continued drinking. As the news grew from worse to worst, the king's face turned red with pure rage. He slammed his fist on the table, stood up, and walked toward his throne room with the others following close behind.

Servants wielding palm fronds cooled the air in all corners of the palace. Once seated on his throne, the king rested his hand on his forehead, regathering his voice. He asked his General of Warfare, Mwamha, for the situation regarding the contents once more. The general confirmed that Jabare Magkosi was a trustworthy soldier who had once served as an information gatherer and forager and was now a respected battalion leader of Guwam 24.

He had been on vacation in Tabraca until recently, when he saw a newspaper about the Run to Glory II, recalling his past victory as champion and now second place finish. The king asked again why Jabare had gone to that area in the first place. General Mwamha explained that Jabare had been tasked with a trade deal in the free city-state Mahraga. The king then remembered the mission and muttered, "It is true.

These little rats have grown too free in their little world," the king growled, "munching the cheese without giving a bit to the Snake, thinking they can ignore the snake." He leaned forward on his throne, eyes burning with fury.

"Well, let us show them how we, the Earth Monopolian Nation of Warriors, have sustained our nation from enemies like them for five hundred years. They will regret it. I will send no envoy and let the Tharajian state gain time for mercenaries." The general warned cautiously, "The other smaller nations will always side with the underdog, my liege." The king replied firmly, rising from his seat, "Then let them. We will defend while we attack at the same time. I want full force attention. Go to war today.

No second longer while I sit in our humiliation." He stood up and walked to the great tower window of his palace, looking out over the vast population below. With a resounding holler that carried across the entire city, he declared:"The Treaty of Tharaj has been broken! They have made more coin on the side and spat at our nation's spirit, giving us nothing from it as the treaty demanded. Either give Chaddore 12% of your produce from the acquired new area for the non-aggression pact, or do not work on it at all.

Yet on the low they dared ignore our contract. They look at me and you with disgust, thinking we are stupid and worth less than a worm. With an iron fist in our sand, let us crush such behavior, so all in Hespericum know: if you betray our trust, be ready for the consequences that follow!" More than 200, 000 voices rose in a thunderous, earth-shaking cheer that reverberated through the very stones of Ngazargamu. The roar was primal filled with centuries of pride, long-suppressed rage, and unbreakable loyalty.

Warriors slammed their spears against shields, citizens raised their fists to the sky, and the collective cry of a nation awakened echoed like the birth of a storm. Drums began to thunder in response, horns blared across the rooftops, and the city itself seemed to tremble with renewed fire and purpose. War had begun anew. We were back in the present. Galer and I looked at Jabare.

"Where is your army then and could tell us how did you find us?" I asked. Galer, however, stayed silent for a moment, his single visible eye distant as he fell deep into thought. He was still processing everything Jabare had just told us, the brutal scuffle with Ugabsa, the dark black wound on his stomach, the desperate strategy, and how even his full Vestuto had not been enough to secure victory. The image kept replaying in his mind: Ugabsa's raw power versus himself.

He wondered what would have happened, if he had been the one facing Ugabsa instead. Would his Prism Sovereign Vestuto have fared better? Or would he too have been forced to retreat… Jabare and I noticed his silence and waited. After a few heavy seconds, Galer blinked and returned to the present, shaking off the heavy thoughts. To answer my burning question, Jabare started speaking with a confident grin.

"You see these soul sand particles?" He moved his hand in a slow circle, and tiny grains of sand swirled around him like a light, minuscule veil, shimmering faintly in the air.

"I can spread them across a wide area. They act like my eyes and ears. They don't give me perfect vision, but they let me sense movement, footsteps, and even breathing if I concentrate hard enough. That's how I found you both, I took these soul sand particles from your armor. You didn't even realize you had them on you after the fight in the mines. Your footsteps left traces in the sand, and your presence stood out clearly once I got close to this area."

After the surprising revelation, he laughed lightly and pointed at the ground. With a sudden pop, a soldier burst up from the underground.

"Battalion Leader Jabare! Soldier Rapzja is here to follow command. Vice Leader Furape is ready to scout ahead."

"At ease," Jabare replied.

"I will give new information. These two warriors already went inside." He told the soldier everything we had shared about the outpost: its structure, the soldiers, their Animo levels, and the white scholar we needed for ourselves as promised. The soldier disappeared back below to inform the vice leader and the other 2, 000+ men.

While Jabare filled us in further, he explained that Chaddore had only earth-attribute users, and one of his battalion the vice leader could dig through the sand below and make way for underground attacks. It was very useful. Jabare wanted to help us clear the debt in support of the children, and since he was already at war with Tharaj anyway, he saw this as the perfect opportunity to strike an outpost from within.

"There is a target of you, they are also a target of mine," he said, his voice low and resolute.

"Let's make them pay a once in a life time visit, that they wont forget any time soon." In full agreement we jumped into the tight hole that opened into a bigger tunnel and ran toward a preemptive attack. The cool, damp earth surrounded us as we moved swiftly through the underground passage. Galer's single eye gleamed with focus beneath his eye patch, his Prism Sovereign Vestuto ready if needed. Jabare moved with us, the black spot on his stomach still painful but the green herb already beginning its work.

Above us, the outpost of Muzape slept under the early morning of 23 May 1023, unaware that a battalion from Ngazargamu was already deep in Tharajian territory and that death was now rising from beneath its own foundations. With earth-attribute warriors at our side and the tunnels guiding our steps, we charged forward into the heart of the enemy barracks for a surprise assault that would shake Tharaj's hold on these lands.