Three days passed in the blink of an eye.
The atmosphere in the military camp on the outskirts of Hanlubu Forest remained as grim and murderous as ever.
After the order to prepare troops and ready for battle was issued, soldiers began moving between the camps with even greater frequency.
The scrape of armor and the sharp, clipped commands of officers intertwined above the camp, like countless fine gears accelerating into motion.
The air was thick with the sense that a storm was about to break.
And the air within the camp truly did not smell pleasant.
The army stationed here meant men eating and horses chewing, leaving the air mixed with rust, damp earth, and the faint acidic scent drifting from the distant forest.
It was the smell released by the acid mist that lingered deep in the forest year-round after it was carried over by the wind.
Inside the command tent, formed from temporary magical structures, the atmosphere was grave.
There was more confusion and repression in the air than there had been two days ago.
Several floating magical lamps used for illumination gave off a steady milky-white glow, revealing every detail of the finely drawn military map spread across the long hardwood table.
On the map, the crater lake of acid that marked the core area of Blackwing Fortress was surrounded by heavy vermilion lines and tactical symbols.
Those symbols represented an encirclement that had been completely sealed shut.
Iron Wall Algernon still stood at the head of the table, as immovable as a boulder.
His gray-blue eyes rested calmly on the map, yet beneath that calm, it seemed as though an unseen layer of ice was freezing over.
The accompanying mage, Flame Whip Freya, stood slightly behind and to his right. Her fiery red hair was