Like this, no matter what the enemy did, the locusts would be greatly decreased in numbers the closer they came to my central zone.

“Doing such a thing now would trigger the alarm inside that enemy…” I could do such a thing right away, however for a moment there I couldn’t help but pause in my tracks and not do it.

Just one layer of shields with warriors was enough to cut a large number of enemies. If I added more layers, then more enemies would be kept away from the central zone.

And if I overdid it like I planned, then no locust would find their way not just to the central zone, but even to the closest layer of shields to that place.

That wasn’t going to end right to my forces here. “I have to use their help then,” I recalled something, and instantly flashed back to ground zero as I sent a message over to Lily.

Where is Angelica?

She is in one of the zones out there, why?

Send for her to come here I paused before adding, And make sure she’d leave someone capable to lead behind her zone

Are you sure? We lack generals, you know!

Just make one of the three elite soulers leading a single zone to move out and help taking over her zone

I lacked enough generals, that was a given fact. But that didn’t mean I couldn’t handle taking one general away.

Especially when that general was asked to just lead the zone and make things rolling like usual.

Fine! But can you at least tell me why?

I’m changing her position and role in this entire war I paused for a moment before adding, She will handle something pretty important. So make sure she isn’t attached to any task at all

Give me an hour then… Doing such a thing isn’t easy right now

I’ll give you five days I said while considering the next move I had to do.

That’s more than what I need

I have other stuff to do. So I won’t come back in five days

Won’t tell me what this is all about?

Not now, besides you are going to know everything soon enough

I knew she grew curious about my entire plan. But after my last hiccup, I didn’t intend on revealing anything or else the enemy would end up knowing everything.

After I closed the chat with her, I started to do my stuff.

I needed five days, or even more. I jumped to the group of shields I left at the forefront, before starting to move out.

I thought about the grand layout of the shield areas I planned to leave here and other zones.

“Half an hour is enough distance between each area and the next one,” I decided to use my flying time as a unit of measurement to determine where I’d place my shields.

I planned to create my shields in each zone first. I’d arrange them in layers, separated by an almost half an hour flight by my chariot.

As for warriors, I decided to not use these right now. And that was why I needed Angelica.

Spreading out my shields was a long task without doubt. The further I flew forward, the more area I needed to cover.

While doing this, I kept a close eye on the entire ground. I was still worrying about the appearance of the Silence race at any moment.

However after working for days, jumping in between zones, and creating an endless number of shields, I still couldn’t see a shadow of this race.

Damn those fiends! They managed to put such pressure over me without doing anything at all!

I’m back! It didn’t take five days as I expected, but around ten. That was thanks to underestimating the vast space of the lands I needed to cover up at the end parts of each zone.

At the edge of each zone, I could see how these locusts arrived at my zones. There were hard to count portals surrounding the entire zones.

From these portals, endless streams of locusts appeared. And there I finally managed to spot the Silence race members for the first time.

The ones I saw were the ones with big bodies. They stood like guards, surrounding the entrance of each portal.

Aside from these spots, there wasn’t a single Silence race seen around. And that made me realise the enemy made the Silence race to act as guards to prevent any attempt to infiltrate their ten worlds.

I couldn’t tell which world these portals led to. But it seemed all the ten worlds had locusts and Silence race members in them as I learnt.

She is already here for days now! Lily sent before adding, I’m coming and bringing her with me

I knew she was dying to know what I was planning to do. In fact I didn’t intend to explain much to Angelica even.

I just wanted to deliver something over to her, ask her to do something if a certain situation arose. In addition to that, I’d take her on a grand tour everywhere before finally setting my course towards these ten worlds.

“Why are you acting in such a way?” In less than five minutes, the two arrived, each on their own chariot.

“We are being watched,” I simply responded to Lily before turning to Angelica, “I want you to come with me.”

“To where?” Angelica asked, while her eyes showed her desire to be with me regardless of the reason.

“For what?” Lily didn’t drop her attempt to know what I wanted to do.

“To prepare for the future,” I paused before adding, “wait here and take over the entire defensive operation. Under no circumstances, don’t ever try to send troops out.”

“Tsk! We didn’t come here to sit inside your shields and not fight,” she complained, and I knew this wasn’t just her words alone.

Many if not most of my generals would object to such a passive approach. In their eyes, these locusts were a pushover enemy, one they could simply crush in direct conflicts.