The pursuit of the cultist armies has begun. Vel sees the unfortunate results of what has been happening on his world, but hopefully, there are still people left to save.

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Chapter 20

An army of titans on the move was truly a sight to behold for Vel. There may have only been a few hundred of them, but their size more than made up for that. Even a tenth of their numbers would have been more than sufficient to conquer his world. Fortunately, this army was meant to save his people, even if it would probably be turned to conquest afterward. Considering that all of humanity was currently under attack by a group of crazed titans, Vel was not sure that most people would even want to oppose coming under their rule and, better yet, protection of a more benevolent group of titans.

Besides the incredible size of the creatures making up the army, the wide variety of creatures making up the army was also incredible. Iah’s 20 gnolls really was an unusually large number for any one race. Lanzui had brought just as many dragons along with him, but there was only one other race that had brought that many with them, a group of smaller meerkats. Most races only had three to five soldiers in the army, though having up to 10 was not that uncommon. That meant that even this small army was comprised of dozens of different races. He could only imagine how many different creatures were in all the other armies chasing down the cultists.

The displays of magic that were soon put on were also a thing of wonder. Lanzui and Oshiko had worked together to make a portal large enough for the army to walk through, which was a stunning light show all on its own. After that, they cast some other spell on the army, and Vel was caught up in that one since he was still riding in Iah’s collar. He did not even need to wait for Iah’s explanation to tell what it was. It was easy enough to feel what it did. Vel felt full of energy, so much so that he felt very restless just sitting around in Iah’s collar. It had to be some sort of stamina-enhancing spell. Iah explained that it was to help ensure everyone in the army could march for as long as possible during the day. Without it, different races had different stamina and many would have fallen behind while on the march.

When Lanzui was close enough to talk to again, Vel asked, “Why can’t we use teleportation magic to get closer to them?”

“I would like to know that as well,” Iah said.

“I’ve already tried,” Lanzui sighed.

“I assume the elder races have more ways of blocking teleportation magic besides the runes you use in some buildings,” Iah said, narrowing her eyes at the dragon.

“Of course we do,” Oshiko spoke up with a smile, “It has a wider range, but it’s much more expensive and only lasts a few days.”

“Would you care to enlighten us about how that works,” Iah asked.

The fox gave them a sly smile, and Lanzui rolled his eyes before answering, “There is a method to create runes that can block teleportation magic using gold mana powder. You must keep feeding them gold powder to keep them up, or the effect will fade. And I doubt they are leaving people behind to be picked off by our scouts.”

“You’re no fun, old dragon,” Oshiko playfully pouted.

Iah just grunted in turn. There would not be an instantaneous method of catching up to the cultists. However, with magic assisting them, the army could move more swiftly than Vel would have thought possible, even with the titan’s trying to keep a lookout for any surviving humans. The devastation that Vel saw was nothing short of heartbreaking. They had been forced to follow the herbivores instead of trying to intercept them from different portals. The carnivores did not have the portals mapped out well enough to do that. So, with them following in the wake of the cultists, they found nothing but ruins. Cities and towns had been stomped flat. And from what Vel could see, the people living in those places had not been given the opportunity to flee. This was especially disturbing for Vel since they were in the lands of Alkur, from what Vel could tell, and they were headed in the direction of the Empire.

Vel held no love for the Alkur, not with how often their people had tried to raid the frontier lands he lived upon, but they still had not deserved what had been brought upon them. Even the forests had been trampled, if somewhat more haphazardly than the cities had been. The cultists were probably making sure no one was hiding in them. Fortunately, having to destroy so much must have been slowing them down, and that left some survivors.

The army was not really slowed down trying to find survivors either. Some of the faster races were scouting ahead and did an excellent job of tracking down the handful of survivors there were. Some of them were brought back to the army for protection, and some were left where they were. Ones stuck out in the open were the ones most likely to be brought back. Some were hiding out in cave systems and small mines who were left in peace, even though their locations were marked for later.

An exception was made for one group hiding in a mine, though. People left behind in mines were not necessarily left alive by the cultists because they had not been noticed. It must have just been too time-consuming to get to them. Still, the herbivores had at least tried to beat on the mines and cause a collapse. That had worked on most occasions, and the mines left intact were so small they were easy for titans to miss. But, while one large mine had taken a beating, it had yet to collapse, though the scouts that had discovered it feared it would collapse soon enough.

The scouts had tried to coax the humans out of the mine, but they were too frightened to do so. Vel could not blame those people for that. If it had been his first time encountering titans after watching other titans crush their friends and family beneath their gigantic hooves, he would not have trusted a group of cheetahs twice the size of a whale, either. Still, they needed to find a way to get those people out of there before disaster struck, so they had rushed back to the army to see what could be done.

There was some discussion about what to do before Vel eventually spoke up, “I could go, try to talk them out.”

“You do remember that you are being targeted for capture,” Iah protested.

“I could have some of my dragons fly along as escort,” Lanzui said. The dragon was staying close to Iah during the march. It was partially to help make sure there was enough magic help around Vel to discourage Oshiko from doing anything rash. Also, while Iah was an excellent spell caster, Lanzui was over 1,000 years older and more experienced than she was. The dragon could offer him some helpful advice when needed.

Iah thought about it momentarily and said, “We have other humans now. Why not use one of them instead?”

“Because they’re all terrified of you titans and are just as likely to try and hide in the mine with the others as to try and talk them out of it,” Vel said.

Iah let out a slight growl of dissatisfaction and Vel was surprised with himself. A growl like that would have been enough to chill him to his bones not that long ago. Now, though, he was just fine with it. The growl did not mean Iah was mad with him. If anything, she was worried for him. And the way she growled caused her throat and chest to vibrate in a way that Vel found to be sort of relaxing. After that growl, Iah said, “Very well. The scouts can take Vel. Lanzui, arrange to have a proper escort for Vel.”

The titans worked quickly and efficiently after that. Vel was handed over to one of the cheetah scouts, and a few dragons soon met up with them. The cheetahs were a mid-sized race, but they were fast movers from what Vel had seen. All of this did get Vel wondering why he had not seen many of the dragons or other winged creatures using their flight to help with the scouting in the first place. So, he asked his cheetah handler, “Why am I barely seeing any winged titans flying? Seems like it would be helpful.”

The cheetah looked at him quizzically, “I thought you humans barely knew about magic. Did someone already explain flight magic to you?”

Vel was also puzzled as he asked, “What does magic have to do with flying?”

The cheetah seemed more confused than ever as he said, “What doesn’t it have to do with flying? All the winged races need magic to fly. Dragons and phoenixes can get by on using even less magic to do it than others, while dragons like Lanzui are the only race that can fly without wings.”

“That’s strange. All animals need to fly here are wings, even though not all winged things can fly. Since chickens have wings, does that mean chicken titans can fly,” Vel asked.

“Chickens don’t have wings. They are good jumpers, though. So some of those little things we’ve been seeing in the sky really were birds instead of dust and debris in the wind,” the cheetah said with a hint of disappointment in his voice, “Well, I’ve lost a bet. Now, how about you hold on.”

The cheetah placed Vel in his collar like he had seen Iah carrying Vel. Then, one of the dragons came up and cast a couple of spells on Vel. One he recognized as the spell that would help adhere him to the cheetah. The other one was a mystery to Vel, and he asked, “What was that second spell for?”

“Protection,” she said with a sly smile, “Lanzui instructed me to make sure to use this one.”

“Protection from what?”

“You’ll find out soon enough,” the dragon replied. It was a frustrating response, but Vel did not sense that it came out of a place of malice. To him, it sounded more like the type of jokes a soldier would tell to a new recruit before an especially tough or embarrassing training session.

Vel soon found out that the dragon was not kidding about the soon part of her statement. Shortly after, the dragons cast another spell on themselves and took flight, their wings all sounding like thunder as they snapped. The cheetah scouts took off at a full sprint. Vel had been in a pocket on Iah when she sprinted before, but what he felt then was completely different from what he felt when the cheetahs ran. Despite being much smaller than the gnolls, they were clearly far faster.

Vel was not sure he needed the spell to keep him adhered to the cheetah. The speed with which he moved left him plastered against the fur on the titan’s chest, which was fortunately very soft and plush. Only moments after the cheetahs started moving, an ear-splitting explosive noise made Vel think they were under attack. The only comfort he had was the fact that the cheetah did not seem the least bit concerned. He only acknowledged the noise with a slight twitch of his ears and kept running.

The speed with which the cheetah moved was frightening. Even while walking, the titans’ speed already more than matched the sprinting speed of any animal Vel had ever seen. The speed of these sprinting titans, which was fast even by the standards of titans, left the landscape speeding by in a blur to Vel. Just drawing a breath was difficult at that speed. He realized he may not have been able to breathe at all if not for the spell the dragon had cast on him, and he was suddenly very thankful for it. It was amazing to him that the cheetahs could even tell where they were going. The run lasted no more than 15 to 20 minutes, but Vel was sure they had covered a distance that would have taken a normal person days to travel.

As the cheetah came to a stop, Vel found it much easier to breathe. The dragons were also coming to a landing, their massive bodies thudding against the ground in a way that shook any nearby trees. Vel took a moment to collect himself before asking the cheetah, “What was that explosion when you first started running?”

“Nothing special,” the cheetah explained, “We just broke the sound barrier. All the swifter races can do it.”

Vel was left amazed by that casual statement of the cheetah. He had never even thought of sound having a speed and had never thought he would move faster than it. These titans truly were extraordinary. He did not have long to dwell on that fact, though. Vel could see a mountain before them and a mine built into it that the cheetahs were now walking towards, being much more careful with their steps while the dragons kept their distance. Their steps were not nearly as light as the cheetahs, and it looked like they were all concerned about the integrity of the mine.

When Vel was placed on the ground closer to the mine, he could see the cause for the concern. The side of the mountain the mine was built into looked like it had been battered. There were enough rocks at the mine entrance that it already looked partially collapsed. And it looked like it had been even worse not that long ago. Some rocks were piled up on either side of the mine, making Vel think the cheetahs had already cleared the entrance on their first visit. Suddenly, Vel felt the ground rumble and saw some dust and debris fall in the mine entrance. He looked back at the cheetahs and dragons arrayed behind him to see if it was caused by them moving around. When he saw they were all standing stock still, he did not think that was a good sign for the integrity of the mine.

Vel did not venture that far past the entrance of the mine himself, not with all the ominous noises he heard from deeper within. Instead of going further, he called out, “Hello, is anyone in here?”

After getting no response at first, he tried a few more times until he finally heard a hushed voice say, “Be quiet, fool, before more of those giant demons hear you and they kill us all.”

“They may be giants, but they aren’t demons. Just people. Really big people,” Vel said in what he hoped was a reassuring voice.

Vel heard someone snort in the shadows, “More the fool you are. You haven’t seen what I’ve seen.”

“And what did you see,” Vel asked, mostly in an attempt to keep the people in the shadows talking.

He heard different people speak after that, all trying to talk simultaneously as if it was a relief to finally vent to someone about what they had seen. It was hard to understand, but he still made out a few sentences, “Hares, ones the size of palaces that walked upright. There were three of them, and they dwarfed the beasts that had been attacking everyone for the past few weeks. Our defenses were nothing but toys to them. They seemed to delight in crushing everyone beneath those massive paws. We only survived because we managed to make it here while they were killing everyone else. But they knew we were here and tried to kick the mine in on us. Fortunately, they left before they could succeed. And then those other demons turned up.”

“I’m assuming those other demons are actually the cheetahs that brought me here,” said Vel.

“Those things brought you here!”

“Yes, they want to help you, bring you someplace safer where they can protect you,” Vel explained.

“A likely story. They probably want to eat us,” someone scoffed.

“It’s not us they are interested in eating,” Vel said, leaving out the part where the titans were just waiting for them to die of natural causes before eating them, “They are more interested in eating the hares than us. These titans are the enemies of the ones that attacked you, and they are willing to help.”

That was meant with silence at first, so Vel continued, “This mine is going to collapse and you will be buried alive. If you risk coming outside now, at least you have a chance at survival.”

There was another lengthy silence that was interrupted by the mine rumbling. Vel was about to speak up again when he heard someone else say, “He’s right. This mine isn’t going to last much longer. We need to get out of here.”

“And what about the demons,” someone else asked.

“What about them,” another person hissed, “It doesn’t matter if they are demons, gods, or monsters, so long as they want to go after those hares. Besides, it kind of seems right that a titan cheetah would want to eat a titan hare instead of measly little crumbs like us.”

That did get murmurs of reluctant agreement from the others. As Vel watched them come out of hiding, he saw that he had been looking right at one of the survivors. He had only missed noticing him because he was so covered in dust that he blended in with the rocky walls of the mine. Besides him, there were three other survivors. From how they had been talking, it sounded like they had fled a town to reach this mine. A town of hundreds, possibly thousands, and there were just these four survivors. And they seemed like they were only alive because their attackers had left them for dead. Vel did not want to dwell on the implications of that thought.

Vel escorted the people back outside and tried to brace them for the sight of the titan. The additional presence of the dragons was not exactly reassuring for them. It took some urging to keep them from fleeing back into the mine. Coaxing them into allowing themselves to be carried by one of the titans took even more convincing. It probably took longer to talk them into that than it did to make the trip out to the mine. Fortunately, the cheetahs and the dragons were patient enough and did not try to rush things. They waited until the survivors were ready to make their choice, which happened to be the smallest cheetah among the scouts. They did not say it, but the dragons were too large and intimidating for them. It looked like they were even trying to avoid looking at the dragons out of fear.

Vel rode with the larger scout who had carried him out there once more. He did hear some complaints from the survivors when one of the dragons approached them to cast a spell, but it was not like they had a choice. Once the cheetahs started running, they would appreciate what the dragon did. Whether or not they did make any complaints during the run back to the army was not something Vel could easily tell. The wind rushing past him was defining and Vel was not even sure if the sound could reach him with the smaller cheetah being a little behind the one carrying him. If they really were moving faster than sound, he wondered if he would have been able to hear anything from behind him.

Vel did not have to think about it for long. Once more, a trip that would have taken him days did not even take the cheetahs half an hour. If it was any consolation, they did sound a little winded afterward, but that also quickly faded. While the other cheetah took the refugees to where the survivors were kept, the cheetah carrying Vel and the dragons escorted him back to Iah. Even after a run like that, the cheetah looked like he was almost back to normal before they even reached the gnoll matriarch.

“You recover fast,” Vel could not help but remark to the cheetah.

“It’s the fortification spell that was cast earlier in the day, and a really good one at that,” said the cheetah, “We can normally only keep up a pace like that for about a minute. And that takes a lot of training to do even that. The average hunter can only do half that. With that spell, well, you saw how long we can go for. It also helps our stamina recover much faster.”

To Vel, that sounded like something of a marvel and a horror at the same time. That spell meant that Iah’s army could move far longer than he thought in a day. However, that also meant the cultists might be able to do the same thing if the unicorns could cast such a spell on their army. The only thing slowing the cultists down was their need to hunt down any humans they encountered. Still, if they did not tire, Vel feared how much damage they could really do in a day.

After being returned to Iah, he asked her, “Does that fortification spell that was used on everyone have a weakness?

“Of course. The harder you push yourself with that spell, the more you feel it once it wears off. It’s why I don’t have us jogging after the cultists. If that spell were to wear off at the wrong time, we might end up too exhausted to lift our weapons,” Iah explained.

Vel did not know what it would be like since he was not physically active. By the end of the day, when the spell wore off, Vel did not feel that different. All that extra energy he had simply went away and he felt a little sleepy. He could see the change among some of the titans, though. As the sun started to set, many of them began to look very sluggish. Iah had called for a stop before that moment hit and already had the army setting up camp for the night. She had been anticipating that moment and was prepared for it even though she did not seem all that tired herself.

When Vel asked her about that, she explained, “Not all carnivores are built the same. Some of us are really swift but have little endurance. Gnolls and our cousins, hyenas and aardwolves, are built for endurance. We may not be able to outrun our prey, but we can outlast them. A march like this isn’t much to me, even without the fortification spell.”

As Iah and the army settled down to sleep for the night, Vel tried not to think about what they had seen during the day. It would have been difficult to get any sleep otherwise. Iah’s army had managed to travel further than Vel could have even dreamed of. And with them following behind the cultists, that meant they had passed by numerous towns, all of them completely destroyed. They should have encountered thousands of people but had not even found a dozen survivors. That was very worrisome. It was possible that the titans had missed some people, but he did not want to underestimate the senses of such massive predators. If they were not finding anybody, chances were there was no one to find.

The next day was much the same. More destroyed towns, a handful of survivors, and more worries for Vel as they crossed over the Empire’s border. Vel was not required to help talk any survivors out of hiding on that day. A couple of the braver survivors from the previous day had stepped up and were willing to help with that after having a translation spell cast on them. If anything, they were eager to help the titans. Vel had only seen them in passing as they mostly worked with other titans, but they had at least needed to get Iah’s permission to take them out on excursions. From what he had been able to tell, their eagerness did not come entirely from a place of courage. Based on how they looked at the titans and how they talked to them, Vel was confident that they thought Iah’s army was composed of a host of gods.

Vel could not blame them for that. It was hard for him not to think of such an army in that same fashion. Perhaps that view would change once they grew more familiar with the titans, or perhaps it would solidify. Hopefully, they would all be around long enough for time to tell.

On the third day, things changed. The titans in the army sensed something well before Vel could tell something was different. Everyone’s demeanor was different, more on edge. The titans were so large that Vel could smell their heightened aggression in the air. At around noon of that day, Ryrrg returned to the army along with another scout who had been trailing the cultists since they left Cado. Vel noticed a cloud of dust on the horizon not that long after.

By the size of that cloud, the only thing that could have been kicking up something like that was an army of titans on the march. They had finally managed to catch up to the cultists. It was a good thing, too. Vel recognized the area they were in. Regulbium was not that far from here. In fact, he would not have been surprised if it was already in visual range of the cultists. In terms of population, it paled in comparison to the capital of Remeria, but it was still the largest city on the frontier both inside and outside the Empire.

With Iah’s army closing in on them, it forced them to turn around and prepare for combat. Vel could not tell what they were doing, but scouts were constantly reporting on their activity to Iah. They were in the middle of setting up barriers to defend against archers. It was absolutely essential for an army consisting primarily of herbivores to do such a thing. The superior strength of carnivores gave them a much longer range. Iah’s army could have picked them apart from a distance if they did not adequately prepare.

It was late in the day by the time Iah’s army drew close enough to the cultists for Vel to make them out from his vantage point in Iah’s collar. Iah did not let her army get within distance of their archers. In fact, she did not seem interested in attacking at all on that day. Vel could understand why. The effects of the fortification spell would be coming to an end soon and Vel was aware that meant a good portion of her army would be feeling the effects of the day’s march. Since the cultists were probably in the same position, they were not eager to press for a battle either, even though Vel could see they had a clear numbers advantage.

Both armies settled down for the day, though Iah had a small number of her archers firing shots into the herbivore camp. There were also a few carnivores that stayed up at all times and made calls toward the herbivore camp that Vel could have only classified as bone-chilling. When Vel asked Iah what those noises were, she said, “While my army mostly comes from warrior clans, we still know the hunting calls of our various peoples. And those are the noises, as you call them, that they are making. Many of the cultists know what it is like to be hunted. Between the arrows and the hunting calls, the cultists will be sleeping fitfully tonight.”

If Vel were on the other side of all this, he did not think he would be getting much sleep. The cultists were not the only ones that were not sleeping. Long after sunset, people, other humans, started making their way into Iah’s war camp. People from Regulbium were fleeing the city. Everyone in the city had thought it was doomed. Despite having a legion at their disposal, they knew they could not fight an entire army of titans. Fighting mere monsters a fraction of their size had been difficult enough.

And they all knew they had to fight those titans. A few survivors had managed to stay ahead of the cultists’ army, which was no easy feat. They had to have been hours ahead of that army to begin with, and even then, the ones that did make it to Regulbium only did so if they were on horseback. That mostly limited them to scouts from the legion. But, they were able to see what the cultists were doing to everybody they came across.

When word got back to the city, it was not long before fear gripped it. The legion decided to abandon the city, and most people fled with them. They headed away from the cultist army, but a few people tried to make their way around it. They had been able to see another army beyond them, and some recognized Iah’s gnolls. To many, this appeared to be a battle between gods, and they wanted to seek refuge with the gods who had proven to be benevolent before. Fortunately, the actions of Iah’s army were proving enough of a distraction to allow people to sneak past the cultists as long as they gave them enough space.

Vel was not sure if the people who fled or the people who came to Iah’s army for protection were smarter. Trying to sneak past the cultists seemed risky, but those who fled had no protection whatsoever. Even with the legion protecting them, if the cultists sent just two or three of their number after them, those people would be doomed. Ordinary people just could not outrun any of the titans. Then again, they might live longer than any of the people here should Iah’s army happen to lose. But that would be found out tomorrow when the true battle began.