Chapter 551 - Book 5, Chapter 56 (1/2)

Book 5, Chapter 56 – There You Are

From the outset of conflict to now, only half an hour had passed

In that tiuard had produced incredible results Not only had they accomplished what they'd set out to do, their attack had also punched a hole in Sanctuary's formidable defenses What's more, with just a small crew Cloudhawk had cut his way to the heart of the fortress, a fact which has served to greatly demoralize the enemy

They'd already surpassed all expectations

The area Ha was blessedly distant froed the proverbial bullet In fact, his soldiers had yet to even encounter the enemy Up to now they'd only watched first-hand as Cloudhawk sumhold

Wastelanders of truly iress Indifferent to the threat of death, they launched a fierce attack on Skycloud's elite, including a whole Corps of de crushed beneath the heels of these noble warriors, the wastelanders actually round

Archbishop Zoren Leclair was slain in the process Knight-Coround

Countless twisted freaks raed across the battlefield, under coh Elysian defenders for freedom, for survival, in defiance What sort of battle was this? In the thousand years since the Great War, the Elysians had never been faced with such a threat

Before the fight, Elysians ca to participate as a joke Wastelanders didn't have the power to threaten their realhable to think they did Fro, the wastelanders were simply no comparison Skycloud was and would always be superior

Hoas it that powers in the Northern Barrens got so strong? Frankly it was only because of Elysian traitors who taught the One of the illustrious Master De Cloude – abandoned his people and becaht with him a hundred deacy from the darkness In the end the wasteland alliance was the fruit of that labor However, if this so-called wasteland alliance had no Elysians backing it would be nothing at all It would be nothing but an obnoxious afterthought, if there were naught but the piddling wasteland leaders to command them

What was happening now, though, was different This was a living nightrown up in a peaceful utopia – were just noitnessing the horrors of war first hand

“Who the hell is that demon?!”

“How do monsters like this even exist!”

“Gods above! These fiends deserve to burn for eternity in hell!”

New recruits trembled in their boots All they could do was curse and spit to try and expel the fear from their hearts

Cloudhaas a recognizable nah fe the precise events of six years ago He was now once again at the forefront of their lives, see entirely different Ninety-nine percent of the soldiers had no idea who he was The incredible display of power added an extra layer of mystery to him as well

If someone were to call Cloudhawk a de they had trouble believing was the scope of his strength It was nothing short of astounding

In fact, astounding was just the beginning To , or worse To them it seemed he could crush Skycloud with a flick of his wrist, if he so pleased After all, they'd watched a et dropped on their fortress from a couple thousand meters overhead

What if he'd chosen to drop it froht would be ten tiht, the harder the fall

If he reached great enough heights, he could probably summon whole planets to rain down on them Hundreds of thousands would die… this was not the sort of power an ordinary person could begin to comprehend Why wouldn't they be scared?

Whispers of fear and uncertainty rippled through the new recruits

Meanwhile Haht hand he had his sheathed sword caught in a white-knuckle grip He darted his eyes one way and then another in open disbelief How did it come to this?

This was the same Cloudhawk that had saved the lives of thousands of soldiers in the Blisterpeaks The man who had risked life and limb to battle Majhima and save the innocents of Skylcloud from destructionThey sent him to the Northern Barrens, where he successfully foiled the dark plots of the wasteland alliance How had the kind but oft misunderstood Cloudhawk turned into this man?

More and more, Hammont Seacret realized he understood so little of the world and its people

From the perspective of an Elysian, Cloudhawk's sins were heinous and unforgivable He was a demon whose foul deeds undermined the holy and just world they'd built However, to wastelanders he was the onlytheainst the tyranny of Skycloud and had the power to change their fate

What one was right? What one rong? Were was the border between righteousness and evil? Who defined the standard? Who ultimately determined the code?

Hammont had spent these last months at the beck and call of his Governor In that tie and deepened his wisdohtened, the more he learned theas universal justice in this world of theirs It was a construct built by humans which they used to deceive themselves and others A tool for constraint and collectivism

As he wrestled with these truths dark clouds roiled in from above

From the ti tide, and yet arrived very quickly Darkness hung over the stronghold as though caught within a teht fled, Skycloud's warriors looked upon the scene with solemn stoicism

Without question, this marked the arrival of the wasteland's main force

The first to arrive were clouds of bloodthirstyin the tens of thousands At such a scope it was more than just a wave of les; burrowing up fro fro most of the wasteland's wild inhabitants

Interspersed a them were beastriders It was common to see wastelanders travel astride creatures of the earth and sky Their semi-feral mounts were also equipped with arility and ferocity of the monsters around them

The wasteland's humanoid army came aboard a hundred airshi+ps of various sizes Each one was unique fro eapons that were sometiuns, h-tech weapons were also visible, such as lasers and energy weapons

At the rear of the fleet were three hulking roups Each one was a highly sophisticated vehicle which drew heavily on the secrets of a bygone age The incredible destructive power they wielded roups more than formidable The darkness that descended on Sanctuary was a threat to this shi+ning, holy jewel