"Are you sure you won't bring more people? At least take me with you," Alto said apprehensively. Sonata had asked him to help the new governor protect the city, but Alto did not believe the safety of city was as important as his best friend's life.
"Can't you wait a little longer?" Dogma was equally worried. He had met a good paladin who promised to join Sonata's force later.
"I don't need to wait. I just want to investigate, and the more people we take, the more impressive it will be," Sonata replied with a straight face.
"And do you need to bring Genevieve along?" Vanay gestured to her good friend who was now standing behind Sonata. Genevieve made an innocent face at Vanay's disapproval. It seemed that the idea of following the adventurous Sonata did not come from Vanay.
"Do something with your friend. I don't want to take her with me," Sonata suggested, hoping he would find someone to help sort things out.
"That's it!" He spoke clearly, and you knew you couldn't fight. Why are you going?" Vanay was puzzled by her friend's sudden change in behavior. Genevieve had never been like this before.
"I'm probably of some use," Genevieve said slyly. "I said I wanted to go along, and at first, he didn't deny it. Don't spoil it."
"He didn't deny it, but I don't want you to go." Vanay moaned, not knowing what to do with her friend. She guessed it must be the power of first love, something she had never experienced before. Genevieve had shown for some time now that she was fascinated by the Sonata.
Seeing that he was even more intimate with Cerise, Genevieve seemed to be trying to get the Sonata's attention. She tried everything, even deliberately seducing him. She was seemingly determined to win him over with all that she could, even risking her life.
"Genevieve..." Vanay had one last opportunity to talk to Genevieve in private before the Sonata departed.
She did her best to dissuade her friend, but found herself cornered when another person only focused on her own feelings. It appeared that Sonata, the leader of a group of otherworldly soldiers, had won the hearts of her friends and had become the ruler of her hearts. Vanay spoke until she was exhausted, but she could not change her friend's mind. Eventually, she gave up and wore a discouraged expression.
"You still want to go after him. And why did you have to stop me?" Genevieve asked Vanay in a disapproving tone.
"Actually, it's not the same. And what's more, I know how to fight. That made me valuable to them. But as for you, you left because..." Vene trailed off, lowering her voice. "This isn't good. You need to be careful. That guy looks like he's going to leave soon. Don't waste your energy trying to impress him. He's not interested in you."
"If I won't try to approach him any further, how would you know?" Genevieve explained, "In the past few months, I've been studying magic. I will do it for him, and in a few years, I might be skilled enough to support him too."
"You've only just started studying, you should wait until you're proficient. I'm worried sick," Vanay scolded, concerned for her friend's safety and well-being. "Are you so infatuated with him that you're willing to risk everything for him?"
"You don't understand. Love makes you do crazy things," Genevieve replied, speaking from the heart instead of logic.
When Vanay heard this, her eyebrows twitched and anger flared up inside her. Maybe she did not know what love was, but she did not think Genevieve had any more experience than her. Although Genevieve can be a bit blunt at times, Vanay knows that her best friend is intelligent enough to make her own decisions. She thinks it is foolish to interfere with those decisions.
"That guy didn't think anything of you. Risking your life didn't make him pay attention to you."
"If he knew how much I care for him, he would be more compassionate," Genevieve insisted confidently. Ignore the warning.
**__________________________________________________________________________________________________**
The day of departure had arrived for Sonata. His first destination was the village of Ramon in the Revarent's territory. Having heard about the structure of the Revarent society, he wanted to see it with his own eyes.
Ramon looked superficially no different from a village in Atezia's subdivision, but it appeared lonely, gloomy, and filled with the foul smell of corpses. People went about their daily lives as usual, but at night, everyone stayed at home because it was the time when the Undead came out of their shelter.
"Most Undead are afraid of the sun, so they hide in the morning and only come out at night," Genevieve whispered, her hand clutching Sonata's arm as they snuck a peek at the village from afar. It was unwise to try to infiltrate the blocked village.
"This human village exists to increase the number of Undead, right?" Sonata concluded from the sight, slowly releasing the small hand that had carelessly clung onto his arm.
The Revenants left the living in their territory for the sole purpose of increasing their numbers. The people of these villages would later be transformed into Undead.
"Some of them are also for food. Vampires need their blood as well."
"It's like cattle, isn't it?" Sonata observed with a giggle. He had seen this all his life, even in the future world where he came from. Humans were not living as they should, but rather were kept alive by the Dragonians.
During the early morning, some of the Undead army had buried themselves underground. Sonata did not believe that those in the underground were the entirety of the army, as it was rumored to number in the tens of thousands or even hundreds of thousands. He was certain that the Undead had a large hiding place.
"There are rumors that Revarent has an underground city, but no one has seen or knows where it is," Genevieve commented.
"That's our duty to find."
**---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------**
Through their own eyes and the spy equipment brought by Sonata, the two scouts observed the villages. It was as Sonata had suspected - some zombie armies were hiding in the dirt and barracks.
However, the hidden armies were not just zombies. The Revarents also had many hidden armies.
"That one is probably Mordo," Genevieve pointed to the holographic screen that Sonata was using. Her hand was holding his hand, and it felt cold and dry. After letting her holding his hand for a while, Sonata began to get used to the feeling. He fixed his gaze on what Genevieve was pointing out.
The gargoyle was larger than normal, equipped with armor and a dangerous wand. "I heard it's a Dark Jester's underling," she added.
Sonata looked at Mordo with interest. At first, he only saw undead soldiers, but it seemed that Revarent had a large number of undead races among them.
"I want to try and fight," he muttered with regret. If he didn't get stuck, he would bring Genevieve with him. He was determined to take on this strange creature.
"I'm sorry for being a useless person," Genevieve apologized, but she did not let go of his hand. Her voice trembled with fear.
"I haven't accused you of anything," Sonata frowned.
"But your expression..." Genevieve looked at him in disbelief, and her hand tightened around his.
Sonata turned his attention back to the information he had gathered, rather than focusing on Genevieve's hand and her pleading words. The more he thought about it, the more he realized he could not underestimate the Revarent Army. During his travels, he had encountered a race known as Broman - half human, half savage. Although Boarmen were not as immortal as the Undead, who made up the majority of the Revarents, they still had the ability to withstand the sun.
"There're undead Boarmen too," Genevieve said as she pulled the spy camera from him to use. She had seen something in her field of vision.
She was looking at Boarmen who had been transformed into zombies or skeletons.
"This creature is basically stronger than humans, and as more of them are turned into Undead, they become increasingly dangerous," Sonata remarked, finally beginning to understand why Atezia had no hope of winning this war. While the Atezian paladin army was strong and had succeeded in defeating some Undead, the Revarents were made up of a vast array of different species and countless powerful generals.
The two had gathered a lot of information about the battle force, terrain, and people, but little information could be gathered about the capital of Revarent through spying. Sonata asked Doc to help scan the underground capital through various methods, but it did not work. The capital had magical technology that prevented external search and examination. The only way to delve into that side's information was for them to manually verify it.