“We don’t know,” he shook his head before adding, “even our paragon didn’t know. He just got the news, and when he contacted other races’ paragons, they also weren’t aware of the identity of who sent this tip to them.”

“Other paragons? Are they here?!!” It was something totally unexpected, and Nortan just nodded, making me feel more puzzled.

Damn! Things here were taking a different route than I expected!

Paragons of other races were also here? That meant they placed great importance over killing my forces. “But there are other races entangled with my forces in that illusion,” I said while hiding my uncertainty about this.

“Ah, those two archlords, right?” Nortan seemed to know about Fang and Wryly, “it’s just their race’s paragons arriving here declared them traitors.”

“Traitors?” that was bad, “are they fighting them now?”

“No, their forces are also in that big sphere,” Nortan said, making me realise the whole story.

So my forces after securing the south from Hectors, came north and joined hands with Fang. Wryly was already with them, while the jumper just joined them later on.

But when they wanted to control the entire central zone, they met with that weird human army. For a reason, they accepted them. And for another reason, they all ended up under such massive illusion, letting them all face such disaster.

If the elites of mine were able to handle many hours of constant fighting with these monsters, then my normal humans wouldn’t.

Just thinking about the losses would have made my heart drop. It wasn’t that doo, not good at all!

Ending up saving my elites was great, but losing most of my human forces that I worked so damn hard to acquire and train would leave me vulnerable.

Securing a large piece of land without having enough forces to defend these was a grave mistake. And above that, the two allies I did my best to strengthen them were now considered traitors.

I didn’t need to ask to know that their paragons weren’t the ones here. Paragons in the same race were also enemies under cover. So this declaration just came to undermine the strength of the rival paragons.

I first had to save them, or what was left of them. Then I’d evaluate the situation better. Hopefully the losses wouldn’t be too grave, or else I’d be forced to go back all the way to my capital, defend myself there and hope for another silverlining chance to thrive again.

Damn! How did things reach such rock bottom?

Just as I thought about it, I saw a dark thing looming from the distance.

At first I mistook it to be that damn paragon flying at me with his island. But soon I realised it wasn’t him, it was that illusion.

The closer I got, the bigger and wider it appeared. When I reached less than a mile from it, I could see how gigantic this thing was.

It spanned for almost thirty miles in radius, and rose up for almost half a mile. It looked slightly like the shield of Hectors I used to fight against and use later on.

But unlike that shield, this illusion was pitch black with no holes or gaps at top or anywhere. It was tightly closing at those inside, not letting anyone see what was going in there.

I was the only one able to see what was happening. I looked at the screens that I never closed. My boys were doing fine, killing fervently without pause for long straight five hours for now.

But this wasn’t indeed the case for the rest of my forces. I couldn’t see anything related to them, but I could already guess how bad it was.

“Alright… This… Is it,” Nortan said, turning to me and I just motioned for him to retreat.

“Go inside the chariot,” I said without turning, “you were all saved by Nortan. So you are spared from fighting your people.”

I knew how big this was for them. But Nortan led me here, and they were just spared on his behalf.

As they left into the lower floors, I started to test this damn illusion.

“Come out,” at first I summoned one of my dragons. “Go, try to attack the moment you are in.”

“Roar!”

My dragon roared and lunged without fear towards the illusion. From my side, I stood erect, used even the hawy eye skill, trying to see through this illusion.

But that damn thing was so thick and didn’t let me see anything. As my dragon reached it, a mighty fire breath came, clashed against that illusion, and a mighty explosion occurred.

Things might look calm from the surface, but with my skill I saw the surface of that illusion getting affected. It was like a calm lake surface got disturbed by a single rock.

Then like nothing happened, that small ripple vanished and that damn illusion regained its former shape and calmness while eating away my dragon.

“Time to test you, buddy,” I didn’t select that dragon just to try its breath. “Come back!” I used it as I was able to summon it back.

Each time I called my dragon back it took not a single moment to return. Yet this time it took a few breaths, few that left me on the edge here.

Eventually he returned, and when I summoned him, I noticed he was slightly weaker.

Damn! He didn’t stay there for a few seconds and was affected by that illusion.

He got weaker, much weaker than I expected. And it happened in just a short time to make me wonder about the condition of my forces once getting out.

Damn! So even if I saved them, they’d end up so weak to even run away!

That… Was totally bad. I never expected this illusion to have such a bonus effect.

So… I looked around and saw the massive numbers of the enemies surrounding this sphere. “I have to prepare for a big fight then,” I muttered and without any hesitation I sent a message to the one who could help me now.