A woman flouted high in the air overlooking a giant forest with a long mountain range in the back drop.
The forest could be considered beautiful if not for the smoke that was coming from some of its parts burning.
"Finally arrived in the North. Why is this place so far away?"
The woman looked tired, it seemed as if she had ran a marathon. The woman overlooked the forest for a few seconds longer until she felt multiple people looking at her.
"I guess I should announce myself, I could get some information about that fellow. I don't think I could find him in this place without help."
The woman started to drop down from the air, she was met by several people in military uniform, with the highest rank she could see being a Captain.
"Major, welcome to the North."
The Captain asked carefully as the person in front of her was a tier 4 mage who was wearing Arin's military uniform, thus she wanted to ask about her identity without offending her.
"Captain you don't have to be nervous, my name is Major Juliet Laurier registration number SKHVBRYG36SJH46."
The Captain looked at one of her subordinates, indicating her to go check if the identity matched the person in front of her.
There was a heavy tension as Juliet's identity was being verified.
"Mam, here is the result."
The subordinate came back with a document which the Captain started to read very carefully, her face did not show any emotions as she continued her reading.
"Major Laurier, if you don't mind me asking why is someone like you doing in an active war zone?"
"That is classified information."
"Major, is that the reason why there is no formal deployment order for you to come to the north?"
The Captain had a puzzled face, she could not understand why someone like Juliet, who was the Principal of the Main Academy coming to the north with a secret mission.
'I mean she is mostly a scholar and not a combat mage, the only thing that would give her an advantage in a fight would be that she is a tier 4 mage. If this secret mission is very important, would it not make sense to at least send a combat mage.'
The Captain could not hide her suspicion from Juliet who was a tier 4 mage.
"Captain, I won't make things difficult for you, just call military command and ask them about myself, they will give you a proper reason."
Juliet did not want to give this rear guard Captain a hard time, it was her job to make sure that Arin's rear is protected.
"Thank you Major Laurier."
"Before you go, can you summon the deployment officer to come and see me."
Juliet would not forget why she came to the north, what the Captain said about her is true, she was not a combat mage thus she could not waste time in an active war zone.
Juliet could dominate all the lower tiers, but if she was matched with a tier 4 combat mage she would be in deep trouble.
It did not take long for the deployment officer to come and see Juliet, the person who came was a tall thin man who seemed to be in his forties.
The man seemed as if he had not slept in a long time, thus he had eye bags on his face.
"Mam, Mark Josef reporting."
The man saluted as he reported himself to Juliet.
"Come in Lieutenant."
The man entered the room that Juliet was given, she was seating behind a table having a serious face.
When Mark closed the door and locked it, a barrier made of pure mana materialised in the room which seemed to prevent any spying.
"Lieutenant, what I am about to talk to you about is a class 3 classified matter, however seeing that things are a little bit difficult I will have to burden you with this matter. Before we start I will have you sign this document."
Mark had his face scowl, as he understood that he was going to put in a place of heavy responsibility which was something he did not want.
"You don't have to give me that face, after you are done with our conversation, you will pack your belongings and give your responsibility to your subordinate and go and report to military command."
The scowl on his face reduced, the issue about holding secrets that he hid not have the ability to protect gave him too much stress.
At least being in military command would keep him safe as he did not have to worry about his life.
Thus he went and signed the document he was given by Juliet, as he signed, there were practically tears in his eyes as the document's content was just too evil.
Any mention about the conversation they were about to have would render him and his entire family's lives gone without questions asked.
"Now seat down."
Mark did as he was told, and sat in front of Major Juliet Laurier. Mark kept quiet as he waited for her to tell him why he was in this place.
"Now lieutenant, will you go through your records and tell me about the current location of a mage recruit called Grey Gram?"
Lieutenant Mark Josef had a look of incomprehensibility as he could not understand why a Major would have a matter about a mage recruit a class 3 classified secret.
"Don't make me wait lieutenant."
Juliet's cold voice woke the lieutenant from his stupor.
"Ah yes Major."
Lieutenant started to go through a big suitcase that he came in with, it took him a while to go through many document whilst searching for information about Grey Gram.
"Ah, here we are."
Mark Josef pulled a file that could be considered normal when viewed with the many files and started to turn the pages to the most current information.
"Grey Gram is part of Team 2 which is under Captain Hadley April, Team 2 reported to Camp Zero yesterday afternoon. I heard many teams reported to the camp yesterday because the Commander had ordered for every team to report to the camp by yesterday's evening, those who did not arrive on time would be tried for treason, thus many teams moved very quickly to get there. Many people can guess that today is the going to be the start of the fighting."
Juliet's faced scowled as she heard Mark talk about the state of the war, when he finally saw her face he knew he was a dead man.
"I apologize Major, I just got caught up."
Juliet did not say anything, she just nodded, her head was full of plans to save the fellow called Grey.
That was because immediately after Mark finished talking, her intuition was very sure that Grey's life would be in serious danger in the upcoming battle.
"Mam, you should not worry too much, this Grey seems to have some ability. The fact he survived so many battles so as to reach the final battle means he is talented."
Mark was quickly reading Grey's file with interest.
"The fellow even survived [The Battle Of The Black Tomb], even as a new mage recruit. Wow! The fellow even got recommended for Military Decoration by his lieutenant."
Mark's tired eyes were shocked, how many new mages get to get a medal in their first year of service.
Mark's continuous reading about Grey's exploits made Juliet curious.
"What is the reason he is getting a medal?"
"I cannot tell, the person who recommended this Gram fellow had the reason made into a class 2 classified secret."
"I see, give me the file."
Juliet took out her Major Rank badge and put the file down of the table, she ran her mana through the badge which made a light come out of the badge and shine on the document.
The part on the document that was hidden due to the classified nature of the information was made visible.
"Read the information for me."
Juliet had Mark read for her, he did not complain that the information was classified, he had already gotten involved in a class 3 classified matter, but mostly it was because he was interested.
Mark started to read about the full encounter of the whole battle leading to Grey saving Qila and the other two lieutenants of Team 2.
"…He summoned a pillar of fire and light right on top of our enemies way before we could see the enemies…"
"…I had been told that he could use what he called domain type spells which allow him to do all sort of effects, I had only seen him use one such spell which he called [Air Dome]…"
"…There was a big tree close to where we were fighting, I am inclined to believe that recruit Grey Gram was on that tree…"
"…The spell that he used was powerful, it incapacitated six tier 2 mages allowing us to kill them like they were seating ducks…"
"…Recruit Grey did not even celebrate killing a tier 2 mage as a tier 1 mage, he stayed calm, ready for the next threat, I like that about him…"
"…The spell he used made John nervous, I could not blame him, even I did not understand it and I did not ask him about it…"
"…From my observation of Grey and my own investigation about him from his team mates from his previous team is that he is highly talented when it comes to designing spells and I have to agree. Thus I believe that he should get celebrated…"
Mark read Qila's words about Grey for a full 30 minutes, his face of incomprehensibility was back as he read about Grey's exploits and ability as a mage.
When he looked at Juliet he could only see a resolute face.
'I have to go and get him even if I have to risk my life.'
"Lieutenant Mark, do you remember my words to you?"
"Yes Mam I do."
"Good, do as I have said."
Mark packed his suitcase and left the office, he did not even talk to the female Captain that had been waiting outside of the office.
The Captain just ignored him and entered the office and found Juliet putting her jacket that she had removed.
"Major, I had communicated with military command, and they confirmed your mission. I apologize for wasting your time."
"You were doing your job, I would have you removed if you did not follow this procedure."
Juliet said so with smile which made the Captain suck in a deep breath.
"I will not waste your time anymore."
Juliet left the camp in high speed as she flew into the air in the direction of Edward's Crevasse.
"So this is the fabled Edward's Crevasse?"
Grey asked in a deep voice.
Grey was standing together with hundreds of mages and thousands of regular human troops, they were facing the south facing walls of the mining camp, ready for battle.