Eventually, two smaller mountains come into his view as they stop and delay any route to get to the gates. They also would cause the soldiers to spend some time in monster-infested territories of the actual natural barrier.
"Let's go men. It's just as the commander said we have the superior numbers. It doesn't matter what trap is in front of us all we have to do is destroy it! They can't stop us!"
"His second in command leads a large portion of the troops to charge in between the narrow path between the two mountains not realizing that they could at most fit five people together at once which severely limits their human wave tactics.
"You idiot if you can barely fit six people then it's a five vs the monster who destroyed the previous army. You're going to get your ass wiped out. If that devil sends his blood spears down there you can expect a huge amount of casualties! You got to pull out!"
His warning seems to have only been heard by death's ears, as the idiot just kept getting farther and farther inward. All that can be heard after are screams and the iron like the smell of blood. It is the wails and smells of the massacre. Then it just goes quiet as if the wails were a lie and all that remains is the thick smell of iron.
The newfound silence is even worse than the constant screaming, while the smell causes the weak stomachs to release their contents.
"What are we going to do? I don't think that we can go around this mountain, but if we go down there we are only walking into our deaths." The fire girl who is holding back puking asks the general visibly shaking at the thought of going into the mountain.
"Don't be stupid I won't fall for such an obvious trap. Let's have a group of people tries to scale the mountain. While they're doing that another group will try to find a way around it. There is no way it can continue for long."
"We are already on a tight schedule, thanks to all the delays, so if either route doesn't come back in a day than I'm using a magic scroll, that leader's master gave me. It is my last resort so I hope I don't have to use it."
"I'll be asking for volunteers for both of these missions. I hope everyone who has the best of luck and everyone who stays here doesn't expect it to be a relaxing wait. I'm going to be drilling into you the do and do not of siege warfare to try to at least give you guys a bit of military training."
A group of ten is chosen for each mission. It's the only recon so sending anymore would have the opposite effect.
The sky starts to darken as he finishes giving last second teaching to the civilian army.
"Do you understand now? Well, it's not like it matters if you do or not by now. Everyone get some rest I'll be on the first watch. We are attacking the moment the sun starts to rise."
"Yes, leader." He starts the long activating process, which doesn't take much on the generals part and instead takes a while to absorb mana from the surroundings.
The sun starts to awake with his soldiers as he didn't get any sleep since he had to continue the activating process of the scroll.
"If we survive this battle than I'm going to kill whoever made this long ass magic scroll!"
"Wake up already we got a war to fight. We don't have the time to be wasting away asleep. The signal to start is after the magic scroll activates. Don't go charging in right after. Wait a little bit."
He raises the fully charged scroll and read it's activation chant. "Oh, lord of fire I beseech you. I ask you to send down one of your children to burn down anything and everything in front of me, so that it may be reborn anew."
"Come forth fire phoenix burn down everything to ashes. Let the ashes become nutrients to fuel the cycle of life."
A phoenix bigger than a mountain appears and then goes flying through the mountains destroying half of each.
The Phoenix lets of such a bright light that it blinds everyone staring at it. When they manage to open their eyes again they can see the light fading away.
"Everyone charge! We are finally going to avenge our fallen comrades."
Now that there is a whole mountain worth of room their human wave tactics can work yet again. Although there isn't as much room as they would've liked.
"The now half mountains are not structurally sound, so no one stands too close to them." He warns the cannon fodder not wanting them to die too early.
"Sir how are we supposed to make you out if you're wearing the same armor as the infantry?"
A not so bright soldier asks his commander not understanding that he's trying to hide from the monsters ambushes.
"Do you think an infantry would be in the back?" The general's hand twitches as if he is debating whether or not to just kill the idiot but ends up just lecturing him instead. Seeing how he is also in the back with the general he probably has at least some uses.
"No."
"Than I will look more like a servant than a soldier. Since you know what you are looking for then it should be easy to tell that it's me."
"Now that you mention it, but what if you have to fight that armor won't protect you at all."
"You're really testing my patience here. It's the price I must pay to hide my position. Now let's get moving."
They head on forward while ensuring the extreme heat that the Phoenix left behind. Eventually, the even amount of heat suddenly increases as the Phoenix appears to be fighting a water dragon.
"Is that a dragon made of water fighting the Phoenix that I launched?"
"They have been fighting to a standstill since we got here."
"That's bad, it doesn't have unlimited energy like a real phoenix. That wasn't summoning magic that I used earlier just a cheap rip off of a scroll absorbing years of magic."
The Phoenix and the dragon both look like they're running out of energy. Some parts of the Phoenix are not regrowing.
"Tell the men not to worry and our only opponent now is the monster. The mages probably used all their magic to stop my attack."
"Why don't you tell them?"
"Didn't I just explain that a little bit ago?"
"Oh yeah, wait you want me to seem like the leader? Wouldn't that make him target me?" The stupid soldier finally realizes his position and his face turned pale white like a ghost.
"Yes he will probably attack you, it's either you die now or you have a chance of surviving if he attacks you. You choose."
The general's dictator-like rule over his soldiers finally pays off as the soldier is more terrified of him.
The cavalry charge ahead on their horses aiming to cause chaos in the enemy's ranks. They don't get far, because a wall of arrows hit them.
Horses are rare in the forest, to begin with, and people that can ride them are even rarer. The amount of men in the cavalry unit is only a pitiful two hundred. Mainly because of how many people died before even reaching the fort.
After the arrows stop flying the fort gate opens and Ghost is the only person who exits. The man the general made as his proxy coughs up some blood and then falls to the ground dead.
One has to wonder why Ghost would leave the fort considering how he has no melee capabilities, but I don't think he's in the right mind to think of that.
The army remains unfazed by his death and continues on following the hidden generals orders, who is using yet another person as his proxy.
Blood spears start to fly into the mass of men who either die by the spears or get trampled to death by their allies.
Ghost seems to haven't figured out how to do anything besides controlling blood after his mind went off the rails a bit. The spears stopped spinning and turned into liquid.
The soldiers just stare at the blood that's floating in front of them not knowing what to do about it. Then the blood changed into marble sized spheres and fly through vital spots of their victims. Some don't do a fatal blow, but the men still fall to the ground dead.
The blood that has been pouring out of its victims suddenly shoots into the air and forms a cannon. The cannon shoots blood cannonballs into the men.
The impact alone sends shock waves staggering them. Which makes one wonder why to waste the energy to turn some of the blood into useless cannons.
The gates of the fort releasing soldiers into the disgruntled and confused line of the Unknown soldiers.
This causes them to be surprised since it seemed that the only strong person in the fort was Ghost and the currently manaless mages.
The cannons transform into a group of guillotines which fall from the sky cutting even the ground beneath them. Soldiers bodies get cut in half revealing the internal structure of an unknown.
Others get lucky and just lose an arm. Blood sprays everywhere, too much blood for even my peace of mind hopefully this is going to be one of the rare few wars that I view.
I had another thing that I'd nitpick about Ghost's creations, but I don't think that's what everyone has come here to view my thoughts on a crazy kids creations.
The soldiers retreat back in their fort to rest and hide from the onslaught that Ghost was preparing to unleash. The whole turns into a giant kill zone.
The screams are probably agonizing enough to send shivers down a dragon's back. The only thing that stops the screams is the sweet quiet embrace of death.
Ghost suddenly falls to the ground in the middle of his blood armageddon. The royal guard comes out and brings him back quickly even though everyone was too scared to approach the little blood devil.
There is barely anyone left they are just a shell of what they used to be. There's barely anyone left standing with even fewer not having any injuries. The fire girl is nowhere to be seen and was completely useless during the entire fight.
"Let's go men! The monster's unconscious and the probably are mages are still out of juice. If we are going to take this fort it is now!"
The mighty general leads his remaining men into a charge for the fort that is a few feet ahead of them. Then arrows fly out of the fort and into the sky. "Shields up! These arrows won't stop us!"
The arrows bounce off the shields being too weak to pierce their defense. The gates open again and soldiers charge out to confront the Unknown.
Swords clash but nothing can stop them from victory. The general confront the royal guard in front of him, whose wearing white armor that is reflecting the sun and over his heart is a gold dragon.
"You're the real leader aren't you. You can fool an inexperienced kid but not me."
The general makes a couple hand gestures behind his back and his five most loyal men appear out of the shadows and pierce into the guard.
"Sigh I feel bad for killing him underhanded, but I don't have the time to fight him."
Five heads roll to the ground then the general's world turns dark as his head also goes flying not knowing that an airfield stalled his loyal assassins and that he wasn't fighting against just any royal guard but the captain.
"Let's go! We need to finish this before they get organized." The royal guard and the strong capable men he found remaining in the fort finished off the rest of the stragglers. The stragglers didn't stand a chance after having been completely devastated by Ghost.
"Let's go check on our little hero. He definitely saved us yet again and have a good talk with him about overexerting himself like that. He's our only hope for survival after all."
They head back to the fort, where people are celebrating and grieving in their own groups.
"Hey, can't you all celebrate later. Right now you should be respecting the people who lost their loved ones or get to work preparing for the last army. Don't tell me you think our hero will just handle it again?"
"The last army isn't even that big there should be no problem with fighting them off. Stop being such a workaholic. We deserve this celebration." A man who wasn't even in the main fighting force talks back.
"Oh, really and what did you do to deserve it?"
"I was on the front lines with you. Don't you remember? Maybe you get hit in the head too hard during your fight with their general?"
Theodore starts to name off various names. With each name called many of the grieving people to seem to become a bit happier. "So did I say his name?" He asks the people around him because he doesn't trust this little liar.
"No, you didn't."
"I named every single soul that was willing to sacrifice his or her life for you to be able to celebrate. You say you were with me yet I didn't name you. I expect to name you next time and to see you working on improving our defense. Understand?"
He tries to apologize but Theodore doesn't stop him. "Don't want to hear it. I want to see it. Now go!" He bolts out of there as fast as he can.
"Now any of you still think that you should be celebrating a victory while we are still at war. We have no clue how far behind the last army is. The hero stalled for seven days. That's seven days closer than the other army is to us."
The celebrating people become dead quiet after realizing that the other army is much closer than they have realized and that they are all still not out of the deep danger. The people who were originally grieving separate and start to get back to work carrying on their loved ones sacrifice.
"We don't know how long it will take for him to wake up, so we need to prepare for a fight without him. The enemy's strength is unknown and their numbers aren't completely known either."
"I don't want to hear don't worry they are only so many of them. Wasn't this very fort having trouble with just the front army before we got here! The army that's going to come isn't the weakest, but is actually probably the strongest!"
Time flies by as our candidate is still quietly asleep all the silent preparations have finished. It seems the sleeping savior has awoken before he was killed in his sleep.
"Ugh, what time is it?" Ghost gets out of bed while wondering if this is what it's like to have a hangover. "Where is everyone?"
He leaves the white medical room and heads towards the top of the fort's wall and sees two armies clashing with the attacking side winning the war and the defending side barely being able to hold onto their control of the gates.
"Everyone falls back we can think of a solution at this rate we will be wiped out!" Ghost tries to make them stop fighting the current losing war but his tiny child voice doesn't seem to be able to reach their adult years.
Ghost, on the other hand, seems to have regained some clarity from recent sleep or perhaps it's because his mind is still waking up that he actually has some care for the people around him. He sends out a blood firework into the sky to order the army to retreat from the losing fight.
"Ghost is awake we can win this war men!" Theodore's voice resounded throughout the battlefield. The fighting increases in vigor instead of slowing down like would have actually wanted.
Ghost pours mana into his mouth as if he's preparing to breathe fire, but fire isn't the only thing that comes out of his mouth as a much louder shout comes with it.
"Stop! At this rate, both sides will take heavy casualties. One of the men is just sitting calmly in the back. Haven't you noticed their leader hasn't even taken any action yet?"
"He's right everyone fall ba—"
"Hero! I challenge you to a duel whoever wins will win this war. If you shall let my meager army go if you win I shall do the same for yours."
The masked man's young voice resounds throughout the battlefield. He isn't even wearing any armor just everyday clothing!
Now that I look at it most of the soldiers from the Unknown side haven't been wearing armor only the more important people seem to be able to own some. Looking a bit deeper into the army there are even older men and women in their ranks.
"Deal, if this fight continues it will only end in heavy casualties for both of us."
"Agreed." He moves to quickly for Ghost's eyes to register him and then proceeds to throw Ghost off the top of the fort.
"Come on am I to fast for ya!" His voice can be heard from Ghost's original spot. As soon as Ghost hits the ground the masked man appears right above him and attempts to crush him with the momentum of the fall.
"Blood dome." A dome of blood appears around Ghost, which then shatters under the force of the crushing kick.
Thanks to the delay from the dome Ghost manages to roll over and dodge the attack. "So it's not teleportation but just you being extremely fast huh."
Ghost tries to attack him with some half-assed blood drops but the masked man moves way to fast for the blood to ever touch him much less hurt him. "If you're fast enough what's the difference between the two?"
Ghost urges the blood to become spiked armor, but before it can solidify his opponent punches it a couple times causing it to disperse. "Blood corridor." The blood forms into two walls. "If you're so confident in your speed then come at me."
"And why would I walk into my death? Nope, not going in there." He rhetorically asks Ghost behind his mask which has the design of a black dragon on the right side and a white phoenix fighting on the left.
"You sure? Then I guess I can make that armor you seemed to not want me to wear."Ghost seems to be happy that he finally managed to one-up his annoying foe.
"Blood arm—" He then proceeds to kicks Ghost right in the middle of the spine.
"I can still go around it. I think you should've put a wall behind you if you can follow my speed that is."
The walls collapse and try to drown him, but he escapes the area with his insane speed. "Seriously, you never give up, do you? I think that it would be easier on the both of us if you just died."
"You know what would make this really easy for you? Why don't you use a sword?"
"Cause I hate sharp things."
"..." He then appears in front of Ghost and starts to aim for a more vital area of the body.
Bam! Crunch! His hands start to accumulate Ghost's blood from the various wounds that are bleeding a bit too realistically for the semi-sane Ghost not to realize something not so important.
Not giving Ghost any time to ponder over his realization the masked man shakes off the blood that got on him and stares at the mangled and broken body of Ghost.
This short pause gives Ghost enough time to actually wake up from his mad ramblings and start to actually think about a real way to survive this fight.
"Just go down already. I would've broken your neck, but you're so persistent that I'm afraid that I would die with you."
"Cough! Gasp! This would have been so cough much easier if you used a weapon. You do know that cough not all of them are sharp, right?"
Ghost keeps edging him on to force him into hitting him somewhere that the blood can splatter towards a more vital area.
It seems to have worked thanks to his opponent currently hitting towards the face a bit more than during the previous beating.
Ghost is surely lucky that his opponent seems to be paying too much attention to his speed and not enough for his physical strength as none of the wounds he has are actually dangerous for him
"Question if you could choose to cough your death what would you want it to be like because I certainly don't want to be beaten to death?"
"Never thought about it. As long as it's painless and doesn't involve anything sharp. Oh, also in a fight. Die with honor you know?"
"Well, here I hope this death shall satisfy you!" He anticlimactically falls to the ground dead. Sadly thanks to the unique physique of the Unknown Ghosts limits on controlling blood is loosened.
With a bit of time and tinkering the leader's heart and brain were both ripped to shreds by his own blood. "I beat your leader if anyone else wants to fight then come out. As I promised, I shall not harm anyone who doesn't want to fight back."
"How will you kill all of us? You look like you are about to faint any second now."
"Shut up idiot there is no use fighting without the leader. Our small army could only function with his tactics. I bet we can't even handle the previous army we were fighting. The leader knew that. That's why he made that promise to him."
"You did it Ghost! I was worried that you would have died in during that fight." Royal guard captain Theodore runs up to Ghost and gives him a heavy bear hug. Which causes our already severely injured candidate.
He slowly wakes up surrounded by even more unfamiliar walls. He spends a tiny amount of his time contemplating about everything that he ended up doing and about the fact that his sister won't be coming back at the end of this journey.
Sadly while he was going through deep emotional troubles a high pitch voice wakes him up from his train of thought by saying. "Ghost are you awake? A familiar female voice asks him turning from surprised to happy and finally to sounding like she's about to cry.
"Who's there? Show yourself!" Ghost in his half-lucid state mistakes the voice of the young girl as his dead sisters, but we all know that isn't the actual case.
"Come on Ghost it's me. Don't tell me you already forgot about me? The female voice teases him, which help him realize who's there to his disappointment.
He finally abandons his hope that this is all a game and gives in to the depressing thoughts that this might just all be real.
".. Alicia it's you isn't it."
-Yeah, she is dead I'll never hear her voice again or even get to see her corpse. Alicia's voice doesn't even sound the same how did I mistake it?-
As we can see by his direct thoughts he has indeed completely given up on all hope, but it still hasn't dawned upon him that he killed so many people while throwing his fit.
"I wasn't completely here when I heard your voice. How long was I out?"
"Sir Theodore said you were out for a good week, you were healed by on sight medics and then brought back to the capital where my mother personally healed you of all your injuries."
"Luckily water magic is the second best magic for healing purposes and the best at treating long-term injuries. It's good that one of the requirements to join the royal guard is to be proficient in on actual medicine to stall for a healer."
"Speaking of magic, how have your studies been after I left? I'm sure you have already met my your goals by now right?"
"Come on Ghost it's only been a couple of months since you left."
"Well in that time period I managed to save your world, didn't I? I accomplished my goal for being here so fast. I thought I would get to see you beat your mother by the time I was able to leave this world. Everything feels so rushed."
He lets out a deep sigh while unconsciously blocking all the bad memories of the war and death he 'accomplished'.
"Well, you can still see me beat my mother if you stay here! You don't have to leave, please! Be the hero of my little world and protect it from any troubles it shall find."
"No." Ghost weakly shakes his head while realizing that it would be for the best that he leaves even sooner than he originally planned.
This crazy little girl might just manage to convince him to stay here much longer than he really should. She's the only person besides his sister that he's close to after all and peer pressure is a dangerous thing.
She grabs his hand and asks, "and why not?"
"They're too many bad memories in this world. I think I should move on and live my life the way I used to and forget about what has happened here."
"What bad memories? You may have lost someone close and dear to you, but wouldn't your world remind you of her more then here?"
She pushes onwards seeing how Ghost is still being tempted to stay not wanting to lose her only friend. To lose the only person that really gets her and also the only person who's around her age.
"It's not just her! Do you think she'd want me to leave a place where I could be fed and have shelter?! No! She'd want me to stay here for as long as you guys permit and are happy instead of being sad and gloomy in my old world. The main problem is I caused the death of so many people who just wanted to survive!"
He starts to break out into tears his mental block tears apart thanks to the persistent temptations by his friend.
She sadly doesn't understand what he is going through since in her eyes are clouded by the eyes of the victim. She can only see her people as the victim while not being able to see that the other side also had their own needs and problems.
"They were probably people like you and me. It took me till the very last fight to realize that I've been clouding my mind and pretending that everything here is fake to push onwards towards a destination that doesn't even exist. Just me being a hero will remind me of all the blood I shed then used to shed more blood."
"If you put it that way then I can see how this world might trouble you. At least take me with you!" She still being young and not realizing the major importance of the word called family begs to go with to a destination that might have no return!
"No, I cannot take you away from your family. They love you and would want to see you grow up before you leave them."
Thanks to Ghost not having any family besides his sister and losing even that he is a bit more mature about this subject and guides her away from a decision she'd probably regret her entire life.
"Fine!" She screams at Ghost and almost storms out of the room, but then stops to think for a little bit and instead of storming off she tries to find a way to get what she wants.
"Then let's make a bet! If I can recreate your return spell and come to your world, then you shall take care of me and give me three things of my choosing as a reward."
She childishly shows him three fingers while grinning like a Cheshire cat. Her face just screams that she won and there's nothing you can do to change it.
Ghost seems to be interested in this sudden proposition and decides to edge her on instead of pouring cold water onto the fire in her eyes.
"That sound interesting and it will give you yet another nearly impossible goal to accomplish. Take them." He throws two crimson red vials towards her, which she barely catches while looking at him with an almost cat-like confused expression. Her head barely tilts towards the right, but sadly nothing weird or strange happens to her eyes.
"They are vials of my blood. If you can recreate the return spell you need something to bind the two worlds together. My blood should be a good enough catalyst to forge a bridge between my world and yours."
"Also it should make you appear right in front of me. I don't think it would be a wise idea to wander around my world. Now I think it's time I speak to the king about returning to my world."
She looks at him surprised than shocked. "You will not even stay and celebrate your victory?"
"My victory that caused so much bloodshed? The sooner I get out of here the better. You would probably want to come with me to see the spell in action, so come on. Also, do you have any idea where the throne room is? This castle really isn't easy to navigate inside."
"Uh yeah, it's this way I think." She leads Ghost in the opposite direction that they should have headed towards and seeing how they're both directionally challenged I decided that I'd have better things to do than watch them be lost. Skip ahead a couple hours and they finally reach the throne room.
As they enter the throne room the king's about to leave with Sophia, but as he sees them he decides to just sit back down in his nearly empty throne room.
"Come on Alicia. It took us forever to get here!"
"Oh, so it's my fault we took the wrong turn at the very beginning!!"
"Of course it is. I asked you if you knew the way and you said yes!!!"
"I said I think so you didn't seem to know anything about the layout of the castle. I wasn't one hundred percent sure, but you surely had zero ideas about where to go and wouldn't have made it here before they left!!!!"
"Ahem!"
"Sorry for intruding my lord. This idiot wants to be sent home immediately."
"I'm sick of this place. I saved your world now send me home. I don't want to spend another second here. This whole adventure is probably going to haunt my dreams for years to come, thanks a lot."
"As Sophia and I were discussing the return spell looks to be even simpler than the summoning. Your summoning made a bridge in between our worlds and you returning via that bridge should, in theory, close it."
Ghost proceeds to walk to the middle of the circle and light immediately starts to surround him, while Sophia is still explaining about the magic mumbo-jumbo involved.
She stops talking as she is probably too shocked that the portal activated automatically without anything to use as fuel in the vicinity. The light takes Ghost's body back down the unforgettable roller-coaster of a ride back to his homeworld leaving this bad part of his life behind him and going forward to, hopefully, a much brighter future.