Upon exiting the palace, the group noticed that many of the servants inside the palace were now outside. There were so many that seemingly the entire palace had been cleared out. Not only that, many army men could be seen hauling what appeared to be giant red baskets, which were being filled with those very same servants.
Each basket could easily fit a hundred people, and the group was shocked as they saw over two hundred of these baskets being unfolded.
As it turned out, many of these soldiers were of the avian dinosaur persuasion. Or in other words, birds.
Despite being bipedal, the wings on their backs didn't seem to change much, if we ignore the large increase in wingspan. They would wear adjustable harnesses on their persons, attach themselves to the baskets with thick wires, then carry them as they soared through the sky.
The sight was strange to the group, seeing all those red baskets in the air; it felt very foreign as they blotted the sky, almost as if it was bleeding. Not only that, seeing all those different kinds of birds came as a pleasant surprise, as the lower-layer in general isn't nearly as interconnected.
After staring for a few moments, Queenie, who was in front of the group, turned around.
"I wish I could come with you guys, but even if I could, they wouldn't let me. I hope everyone stays safe, and when I see everyone again, I have faith that you'll all be much stronger."
Normally, Queenie would never show such heartfelt emotions, but the current circumstance everyone happened to be in called for it. It could be said to be a tactical move if I might add.
And as they said their last goodbyes, Ann and Ran gave Queenie a hug, while Bob gave her a firm two-handed handshake. Fluffy barely lifted a paw, and Queenie couldn't resist bending over to shake it for her, almost causing Fluffy to smile in contempt.
At that moment, one of the remaining soldiers, which appeared to be some kind of sparrow, walked up to Queenie.
"Alright, just follow them and they'll take you to the northern gate."
"Wait! What're you going to do now?"
"Me?"
A fire burned in Queenie's eyes.
"Don't worry about me, I'll be there to save all your asses."
…
The group followed the bird person to some relatively full baskets as the only ones left were those still being filled by the servants from the palace.
Once on, they simply waited for the rest of the baskets to fill which didn't take longer than a minute. A few soldiers, around five to ten for each basket, then put on their harnesses before attaching themselves. Once they felt secured, they loosened themselves and unfurled their wings, with each figure easily having a wingspan over twenty feet.
With pure strength alone, the many soldiers flapped their wings, forcing the last of the baskets far into the air.
Being hundreds of feet into the air, everyone was amazed at the scene presented in front of them, or rather below them. The city itself was a sight to see for most of them as they had never witnessed such a thing, making them even prouder to be a part of something much larger than themselves.
Strangely though, the city in front of them seemed to cover itself in red. In addition, murmurs could vaguely be heard along with the rushing wind.
"Bob, you hear that," Ran asked Bob, since of course he had the best hearing.
Bob, who was busy not doing anything and being as stiff as a board, looked around before closing his eyes.
"It sounds like a… rallying cry? No."
Bob himself was doubting his own conclusion, the rushing of the wind seemed to just mask the apparent voices too well. However, he was determined.
"It should be an announcement. The soldiers from earlier are requesting for volunteers to join the horde."
Ah, so the baskets from earlier were for the residents of the city. Seems like the army is already waiting at the gate.
Focusing more on the streets below, they could vaguely make out small masses of figures bundled up all over as they came forward to be filed into the baskets. This scene repeated itself all the way until they reached the northern edge of the city, where it seemed completely devoid of life. It appeared everyone had been evacuated. Even the wall which gated the city from the outside world had crumbled, leaving behind only the pillars which were enchanted to create the barrier.
When they reached the edge, however, which was about a ten to twenty minute trip, everything around them changed. It went from a sprawling city to a disheveled forest filled with scorch marks and craters from the spirit storm passing through the area. If not for the barrier, the city would be in an even worse condition than this; it would be completely destroyed.
Past the city, the group could finally make out a huge mass of figures seemingly lined up in rows and rows for at least a mile. They were of all kinds of races, but they all had one thing in common; which was their red uniforms.
Behind the soldiers were groups of baskets being "unloaded" of their cargo before they were folded and taken away by other servants. The soldiers and the other new arrivals would join the "wall" formed by flesh and blood.
Very soon after, the group and everybody else that were transported in baskets would join the wall. This increasingly pumped up the atmosphere, seemingly giving it life as even the wind churned, leaving everyone feeling slightly chilly.
However, as the minutes passed and nothing else happened, people began speaking to each other, as one does when bored. Their murmurs supplanted every other sound, including a mysterious rumbling.
It wasn't until Ran's vision redscaled that he knew something was wrong. The sky darkened and became even redder, which turned out to be a giant cloud of blood fog.
The sudden stench of blood entering his nose made him feel nauseous, but that feeling was soon replaced with fear as he saw something rain down from the cloud.
At first he thought it was rain, but very quickly it became clear what they appeared to be.
They were balls of ice engraved with runes, yet strangely enough, they had a brown core.
They fell from the sky by the hundreds, going almost completely unnoticed until the last moment.
It was at that moment that others finally noticed and alerted everyone else. In a second, over a hundred thousand pairs of eyes looked at the sky.
Everyone watched as a few of these ice balls fell ahead of the rest, hitting near the back.
Unfortunately, these happened to be where some of the weakest people were.
Caught off guard, the spheres violently exploded, sending ice shrapnel everywhere and instantly killing dozens.