The scene opens in the Senser HQ Conference room, all the Sensers were there, an old, war torn man speaks first.
"216 days, we have 216 days until it starts, did we find out where the gates will open?"
"Yes, they are to open near the city of Macelao, and the city of Garaseche. Kaz and I have estimated the enemy numbers, we believe it will be double the numbers of those 10 years ago, that would be 100.000 Demons." says a woman.
"Hmm... alright, call into the Mages Guild, cancel all requests and work tabs, put every mage through Training D6, Ingvald, you have that runt under your wing, correct? What's he scale to the other mages his rank?" says the war torn man.
"Well, compared to the other mages who are in Apprentice rank, I'd say he's number 1, few can do what he can, and having 3 affinities helps a lot too." says Ingvald.
"Speaking of, you did that research on his affinities?" Says another lankier man.
"I did research, but not much has come out, I mostly focused on preparing him for the Reckoning, if we survive this one, I'll have 10 years to freely study him as much as I want." says Ingvald.
"Fair enough, Ingvald, I want you to put the runt through the Senior Apprentice Exam so he can quality for D8 Training we'll hold for men under the command of Veteran Mages and higher, understood?" Says the old war torn man.
"Sir yes sir, anything else?"
"No, now let's get moving, we have barely above 200 days to prepare. Go." Says the old war torn man.
The Sensers all quickly shuffled out of the room, and went their own ways, Ingvald went to the Training Room to meet Gesalt, who was preparing to practice his spells. Ingvald clears his throat, and with a serious expression and tone spoke.
"Gesalt, we have 200 days until it starts, I've gotten direct orders to make you take the Senior Apprentice exam, no excuses, we can't afford to waste time, got it? If you have any questions, you better tell me now, cause after you're done with practice, I'll have you get ready for the exam, which you'll take tomorrow at 6 am sharp."
Gesalt was taken aback, he didn't really know how to respond, but he nodded and said.
"Yes, I'll get right on that, a-as for questions... well, will the exam be hard?"
"I've trained you well enough, you will be able to pass the magic exam, I'll need to prepare you for the written exam instead, shouldn't be very hard, you have a great grasp at magical concepts. Now get on with your practice, you have 2 hours to do what you wanna do before I'm forcing knowledge onto you, got it?"
"Sir, yes sir!" Gesalt exclaimed, and went back to practice.
In those 2 hours, Gesalt kept training hard while Ingvald was doing a large amount of paper work, soon, when the 2 hours were up, he enters the training room, and takes Gesalt to the conference room.
Meanwhile
City of Agreboa, Perestro Region, 120 Kilometers from Macelao City.
A cloaked figure stood atop the bell tower of the Agreboa, watching the city in silence, observing, and scheming. The cloak was purely dark, and it obstructed its face.
"This city... hmm, this will become a checkpoint for our campaign soon, there is a Manastone deep in the underground of the city, what do you think, Keche?"
A second, shorter figure in the same dark cloak appeared from the shadows of the surveyer, and spoke.
"Manastone? Are you sure? If that's the case, why don't we move the Gates here so we can take it immediately?"
"It takes 10 years to cast a Gate spell, moving a Gate spell takes 3 years, we don't have the time to do so, which is why we will focus on this city to take the Manastone, after that, we'll begin the assault on Massera."
"Oh? You want to try again with that old guy? Last time, he beat you pretty hard, kehe, I guess you want to take revenge on Massera that badly that you'll send our entire forces after him."
"Shut up, you and I know that the old fool is still in his prime, he's the only man who can take out hundreds of demons in one slash of his blade, without even using magic, in-fact, he isn't capable of magic, we need to take him out as soon as we can, otherwise, we'll loose again."
"Fiiine, you do have a point, that old guy somehow can take out hundreds of demons at once, so needing a Manastone to beat him is fair, but I still think it's dumb to go and fight him directly, he'll come to fight us anyway, unless he's retired or something, but I doubt it, last time I heard of him, he was still looking to get stronger. He's what? 90 or something? Shouldn't he go into a retirement home or something?"
"Why the hell are you asking me that? How would I know why that fart is still fighting at 90 years old, look, we are here to survey targets, we have marked this town, let's move onto other cities."
"Yeah yeah, hey I wonder, maybe we can reach the capital this time, I ALWAYS wanted to visit, I heard it's so fortified and advanced compared to the other cities."
"If you want to see the capital, then get off your ass and get to work when we invade, remember what our leader said, we have 3 more attempts to take over before he comes here himself, and if he does, then he'll just destroy this planet and move onto the next one, and we don't want that."
"Fine, fine, don't need to be so uptight, learn to smile sometimes, you oaf, but yeah... let's get outta here before someone notices us, maybe we shouldn't sit here in broad daylight while wearing dark cloaks."
The two figures disappeared into the shadows of the bell, before leaving a small red crimson sigil on the bell itself, marking it for the invasion.