GOD V3C8: The First Arrow Starts the Battle

GOD —The Beginning of the End— Volume 3: The End Begins

Original novel in Chinese by: 御 我 (Yu Wo)

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Chapter 8: The First Arrow Starts the Battle—translated by lucathia (proofread by Xuan & elisa)

Shooting Star and Saiximili had no idea that they had just missed Alan by a hair. They were in a rush to return to White Feather Nation. However, on their way back, Saiximili abruptly paused and looked into the distance behind him.

Shooting Star kept running for a bit before he noticed that Saiximili had not followed him. He could only turn back to retrieve him. He glared at Saiximili. If this fellow dared to tell him that he wanted to rest or anything along those lines, he would render His Majesty unconscious with a single punch and then drag the other back by the hand. In any case, the only important thing about this guy was his hands. Every other place on him could be dragged across the ground with no problem whatsoever!

“The Sinner of Pride has been born.” Saiximili’s gaze was distant as he looked far away.

Huh? Shooting Star scrutinized Saiximili’s very vacant expression. His voice was enigmatic too. Could this be the real starseer mode?

The Stone of Pride has also appeared? Pride sounds difficult… Thinking of that, Shooting Star’s expression suddenly turned a bit strange. “Wait a minute! Don’t tell me that the Sinner of Pride you’re talking about is Alan?”

Saiximili woke up from starseer mode and nodded. “It is exactly that blue star.”

“Ahhhh, it really is Alan! We’re in deep trouble!” Shooting Star wailed, “That guy’s lightning magic was already off the charts, and now he even has a Stone of Sin. Sob, sob, sob! He’s gonna put me on a tight leash. This won’t do!”

Shooting Star lifted Saiximili’s collar and growled, “Hey! Saimi, there are seven stones, while there are only two guides. Going by the principle that ‘things that are rare are more precious,’ the guides should be stronger, right? I must have some kind of treasure I can use too, right? Let’s find it quickly!”

Saiximili did not know whether to laugh or cry as he responded, “Your starseer and sinners are your treasures. The starseer is the prophet who will illuminate the path of the guide, while the sinners are the guards who will protect the guide. What need do you have of other treasures?”

Shooting Star loudly complained, “Protect me? Alan will electrocute me to death!”

Is he really that scary? Saiximili began to worry. He would also need to associate with the Sinner of Pride! Saiximili could only suggest for a way to solve this, “You could have the other sinners restrain him?”

Shooting Star angrily puffed his cheeks out and complained, “When Alan zapped me with lightning the last time I was disobedient, Xiao Bai’s expression was all ‘thankfully you’re here to zap him.’ Do you think that guy would help me?”

Then you should be more obedient! Saiximili did not dare to give voice to this. However, the Sinner of Pride did not sound like an unreasonable person and was only disciplining Shooting Star. This relieved Saiximili.

Shooting Star’s expression abruptly changed. He shoved Saiximili away and dodged to the side at the same time. As he landed, the blood red whip was already gripped in his hand.

In the place where they had just been standing, protruded an arrow.

“Saimi, get behind me,” Shooting Star barked.

Having not expected anything, Saiximili had been pushed straight to the ground. He cut a sorry figure as he crawled back up, immediately running behind Shooting Star and staring ahead with slight fear. Even though he was strong, neither his position as a king nor a starseer had given him any chances for practice in battle. If a fight truly were to break out, he did not have much fighting ability.

The ground rumbled consistently and slowly, the time intervals about the same as a person’s footsteps, just on a much larger scale.

Saiximili frantically asked, “S-Shooting Star, this seems to be an army?”

“It’s not ‘seems.’ This is an army!” An odd expression came over Shooting Star. He asked, “Saimi, if we don’t fly too high, can you fly?”

In the distance, billowing dust from the marching was already visible. The dust reached so far that he actually could not see the end…

“Y-Yes, but I haven’t flown in so long.” Saiximili’s face fell. As a king, he rarely even left the palace.

As he made out the banner, adrenaline shot through Shooting Star. In a single motion, he grabbed Saiximili, who was a whole head taller than him, and lifted him up in a bridal carry. As if the bride’s father was chasing behind him, Shooting Star ran for his life.

“Ahhhh!” Shooting Star yelled as he ran. He utilized the fastest speed of his life, giving it his all, to the point that veins popped out on his face. His two legs crossed back and forth at such a quick speed that they resembled a fan. It was a speed that even the army panther beastmen, who were speed specialists, had to praise.

“Ahhhh!” Saiximili, who was being carried, yelled and flicked Shooting Star’s blood red whip at the same time, knocking away the many arrows being shot at them.

Fortunately, the army behind them did not know that the king of White Feather was among the duo. After all, there truly were very few kings who would randomly stroll outside on the eve of war. If they knew that the avian before them was actually the king, they would have long followed suit in yelling as they gave chase. Even if they could not catch up, they would shower them with arrows to kill them.

As it was, the army was only playing cat and mouse, trying to chase these two people straight to the city walls to assert their dominance in front of the avians.

In this manner, Shooting Star and Saiximili screamed in their wild run all the way up to White Feather’s towering walls.

Under the commander’s orders, the entire beast army halted their chase and stood uniformly in order to prevent falling into a trap. After all, it was very odd for these two to appear. It would not be strange for them to be bait.

Following the commander’s orders, all of the beasts began laughing their heads off, treating the two fleeing people in front of them as laughingstock.

By this time, the walls of White Feather were beginning to stir. Many of the avians had already made out that their king was actually one of the two fleeing figures. Their faces immediately paled so much that they were almost whiter than their wings.

Shooting Star and Saiximili were finally able to pounce on the steel door in the wall, pounding on it heavily and shouting at the top of their lungs to quickly open the door and save them!

Several avians flew down and respectfully said, “Your Majesty, this door has already been welded shut. Please let us fly you up!”

Saiximili’s face twisted. He was afraid of heights.

“You can close your eyes, Your Majesty.”

It was evident that the avians all knew that their king had an “incurable disease.”

“It is still frightening even with my eyes closed.” Saiximili’s face was sullen as he let one of the avians lift him up. In the process, he tightly closed his eyes.

Seeing an avian having to get flown up by another avian, the beast army laughed even more heartily. Even the commander of the army could not suppress a smile. However, if he were to learn that he had actually let the enemy faction’s king escape back to the city when he had been no more than five hundred meters away from his army, he most likely would not be sporting this expression.

“They arrived so quickly. This is even earlier than anticipated.”

Dan stood on top of the wall, his expression rather serious. He mumbled in bewilderment, “It seems that the Fischer Merchant Guild will be giving these beasts a lot more compensation than I originally thought. If they only wished to acquire avian slaves, isn’t this cost way too high?”

“The Fischer Merchant Guild?” Bai Saya turned his head. Merchant guilds actually participate in wars?

“It’s a merchant guild that ranks among the top three in the Western Continent. They’re much larger in scale than our Goldenstyle Merchant Guild.”

At this time, several avians flew Shooting Star and Saiximili up to the top of the wall. The two of them were both in a sorry state. One of them had exhausted his energy in a burst of power, while the other was suffering from his fear of heights. Even after the avian that had flown him up told him several times, “Your Majesty, we have already arrived,” Saiximili refused to let go of the other avian.

“Shooting Star, you weren’t able to find Alan?” Bai Saya was greatly taken aback that there were only the two of them. Even though Shooting Star usually liked to fool around, when it came to his companions, he was extremely serious. Whatever he said, there was a great chance that he would be able to do it.

After climbing down from the avian, Shooting Star directly plopped himself onto the floor. Hearing Bai Saya’s question, he huffed and shook his head. Then, he thought of something and opened his mouth to say, “Dan, their commander is a human.”

Dan was shocked. He doubtfully asked, “Could it be a human from the Southern Continent who has lived among the beasts since childhood?”

These kinds of humans were not uncommon, but Shooting Star should know this fact. Purposely pointing it out probably indicated that something was not quite right.

As expected, Shooting Star firmly shook his head. He detailed, “He’s a regular soldier, and he looks to be a knight. His riding position on the horse is proper, and his expression arrogant. He looks like a noble.”

Dan’s face fell further at that.

Unable to make sense of it, Bai Saya questioned, “Why, is there something wrong with having it be a human?”

“A merchant guild, in the end, consists of merchants.” Dan gazed at the beast army below them. This is probably just the vanguard. A larger army will likely arrive after them.

“A merchant will indeed use war to make money. For the sake of profit, a merchant will often fan the flames of war to make them break out faster and even expand in scale or prolong in length. None of that is strange. But this time…”

Dan frowned. Many misgivings came to mind. He stopped abruptly to consider them and did not continue to explain.

Shooting Star stood up with great effort and continued where Dan had left off. “A beast army of this size couldn’t have resulted without earlier preparation. There must be a human of higher standing behind them pulling the strings. The fact that they have a human commander proves that it was very likely that humans recruited and formed this army through careful planning. What we thought earlier about the humans merely forming the army on the spot was wrong.”

In this war, the beasts were no different from mercenaries, while the true mastermind behind the war was the Fischer Merchant Guild!

Shooting Star and Dan exchanged a glance. The two could tell they had the same misgivings.

The Fischer Merchant Guild had traveled across continents all the way here to the Shaosi Continent to start a war, all for the sake of capturing avians as slaves?

I highly doubt it! Shooting Star and Dan both saw this belief in each other’s gaze at the same time.

There was suddenly movement among the army. With a wave of the banner, the entire army uniformly yelled, “Hear us out, avian nation. Hand over five thousand slaves, and this battle can be stopped!”

“What?” Saiximili growled angrily, “My nation only consists of a little more than seventeen thousand avians. You want me to hand over nearly a third of our citizens? Over my dead body!”

Dan calmly explained, “This was an impossible condition from the start. He does not want you to fulfill it.”

Hearing that, Saiximili was still full of anger. Thinking of the tragedy of five thousand of his citizens becoming slaves, the king’s heart nearly shattered.

Shooting Star worriedly asked, “Will they start laying siege to the city today?”

Dan nodded and said with certainty, “Yes, but it should just be a feint.”

“A feint?” Bai Saya quickly asked in confusion, “Why won’t they attack for real?”

Dan shook his head and answered, “The walls of White Feather are ridiculously tall and strong. There are no city gates either. Even catapults can’t launch anything inside, let alone bows and arrows. They won’t be able to use siege towers either. It’s much too difficult for them to construct a siege tower as tall as this wall. Besides, the nation they’re trying to attack is a nation of avians. All the avians have to do is pour oil on the siege towers from high up and set them on fire. They can easily destroy the towers in such a way. No matter what, it is an unwise move to directly attack this city.”

Dan gave it some more thought. He had originally been thinking that since their opponents were beasts, who were more naïve, then they might need to spend some effort guarding the skies. However, their opponents’ commanding officer was actually a human who specialized in crafty warfare and would likely not commit such a mistake and would directly give up on siege towers.

“Their only ways of breaking through are to break the city walls or to dig an underground tunnel. However, in order to break the wall, they would need sufficient mages, or else it is nearly impossible to destroy this wall head on. Meanwhile, a battering ram is used to break down gates. It won’t be too effective against this wall either.”

Dan was truly impressed by many years of dedication from the avians. The thickness of these walls and the sturdiness of the materials were practically unheard of. It was no wonder that although the avians fetched a high price as slaves, no beast tribe had dared to attack White Feather, a nation full of avians.

However, only the avians were capable of carrying out such a tactic. After all, having no city gate was overkill. No race that could not fly would waste their effort on doing something like that. No matter how tall or sturdy a wall was, having a city gate meant having a weak point.

Shooting Star frowned and crossed his arms. “The Shaosi Continent is a land of beasts. Mages are rare creatures here. The beasts don’t specialize in magic, so I think it’s way more likely for them to dig a tunnel. You said they’ll come at us with a feint. Is it to hide that they’re secretly digging a tunnel?”

Dan nodded, looking at Shooting Star in a new light. He could not help but admit that Shooting Star might actually be a lot more dependable than Bai Saya in critical moments.

“Then, what should we do?” Saiximili asked frantically. This was his nation, his citizens!

“Obstruct their construction and drag things out.” Dan said without any hesitation, “Such a massive army requires a large amount of food. Most beasts are unskilled at farming. Many are nomadic hunters. Even if the Fischer Merchant Guild is providing them money, it is impossible to continuously purchase sufficient food for such a large army on the Southern Continent! They would more likely than not have to transport food from the Western Continent. The Fischer Merchant Guild would definitely be unable to support such massive food consumption once too many days pass by.”

Bai Saya understood what was shared and cheered, “The avians are completely self-sufficient. In that case, there should be no problems, right?”

Dan nodded. There were still problems, such as how the city did not produce salt. Although the avians had accumulated a good amount of salt, it would probably still not be enough to last for long. However, the avians’ capability of flight provided too great of an advantage. They could send out ten to twenty avians at the same time. Even if a few of them got shot down, there would still definitely be someone able to successfully bring back salt.

Still, it was best not to explain this in too much detail to Bai Saya.

“Drag things out? Sounds super boring!” Shooting Star gave a tsk. He had thought that he would get to see a great battle.

Boring? Dan smiled bitterly. He could only hope that this war would be boring from start to finish. However, with how the Fischer Merchant Guild stirred up this war with no regards to the cost behind it, could it truly end so simply?

“Ahhh! I’m so bored! It is so utterly boring!”

Shooting Star plastered himself against the table, looking as if he was going to die of boredom. He muttered in annoyance, “What war! How can a war be this boring…”

“You don’t know how to use a bow, and you don’t know offensive magic either, or else you could at least follow them out for sneak attacks.”

Saiximili leisurely peeled an apple to the side.

Shooting Star lay on the table in silence for a good long while before he abruptly leaped up and flipped the table with a scream.

“Hey! Don’t you feel like you’re too idle? Your Majesty, king of White Feather, your nation is currently under attack! Yet, here you are, peeling an apple!”

The king froze for a moment before he continued to peel the apple. He indifferently said, “I do not understand warfare. I am of no help at all, so I am here, peeling an apple.”

Shooting Star rolled his eyes and pointed at the king’s nose as he said, “I really don’t understand just what kind of king you are. You actually handed off fighting the war to outsiders. Aren’t you afraid that Dan will snatch your position from you?”

Saiximili finished peeling the apple. He gracefully picked up a piece to eat, yet he very ungracefully spoke as he ate, “What is there to be afraid of? He is not an avian. It is impossible for him to become king.”

“Then, aren’t you afraid of him stealing your authority? Or making you into a figurehead?”

Shooting Star, who was bored out of his mind, wanted to help add some variables into this super boring war. Weren’t there always stories of commanders getting too big for their boots, making the king suspicious of mutiny, thus leading to sabotage or a take back of military power?

Saiximili swallowed the apple and asked full of hope, “Do you feel Dan really will be willing to steal my authority? If that is the case, that would be wonderful. Truthfully, I have never been good at being a king. If he is willing to steal my authority, then I am willing to be a figurehead.”

“…”

Shooting Star snapped, “And you dare to say that I’m a lousy Guide of Doom. I bet that you’re a defective starseer that GOD accidentally made with a slip of the hand!”

“Blasphemy! I am an exceptional starseer!” Saiximili solemnly denied that he was a defective starseer. At most, he was a defective king.

Shooting Star seriously replied, “Yeah, I’m sure you’re solidly ranked number two among starseers!”

“Indeed, you finally understand how amazing I am…”

As he spoke, Saiximili realized something was not quite right. Aren’t there only two starseers?

“I’m not number two, I’m definitely number…”

Saiximili planned on arguing back with great effort, but an explosion cut him off, followed by violent shaking. The two of them exchanged glances. After ascertaining that the explosion had nothing to do with each other, they immediately ran in the direction of the city walls.

“Oh no, oh no, it’s all because you kept saying it was boring. Now, they really have fought their way in!”

As he ran, Saiximili was so worried that he tripped over his words. He was deeply afraid that his nation would get conquered, and his citizens would all get forced into slavery.

Shooting Star snapped, “You’re blaming me? Do you think the army outside is here to entertain me or what? Cut the crap. Run faster!”

The two of them ran straight to the walls. Only then did they discover that Dan and Bai Saya were located in a different place than before. In the past few days, they had always stood on the outer wall, the wall that was farther out, to observe the battle. However, they had now retreated to the inner curtain wall, which was the second defensive wall.

There was a narrow area between the two walls called the “bailey.” Therefore, even if Shooting Star were to climb up the inner curtain wall, he would not be able to see what was happening outside.

At this time, a few explosions coincidentally sounded again.

“What in the world happened?” Saiximili hurriedly asked.

Even though he knew not how to navigate government affairs and was a failure of a king, White Feather was a small nation with a small population, so there was not much he had to handle. Only then had he been able to barely manage. Despite this, Saiximili’s greatest strength was that he was a king who truly loved his nation.

“Mages,” Bai Saya turned and explained to them. He had never seen such destructive magic before. His face paled because of it. He was a bit frightened.

“Is it a large scale spell cast by several people working together?” Shooting Star was much more familiar with magic. He was actually fairly knowledgeable about offensive magic; he just did not have a knack for it. Plus, learning how to fight had already taken him a lot of time, so he was not in a hurry to learn offensive magic and instead spent his time learning a bunch of miscellaneous, useful stuff.

Dan merely nodded.

“How do you plan on dealing with that?” Shooting Star glanced at Dan’s expression. Even though this fellow’s reaction was rather calm, his expression did not look good. It was clear that he was not truly unbothered.

Not having mages was their biggest weakness from the start. It was just that they had originally thought that the enemy faction would not have any either, so it would not have been too big of a problem. However, now that the opponents had master mages able to cast cooperative spells, they were in deep trouble.

Even though most mages were so feeble that the wind could blow them over, they were truly rather suitable for destroying an unmoving wall that would not retaliate.

Dan replied, “I have already sent out a few squads of avians to attack the mages. Even though there are many guards specially protecting them, I have ordered the avians to throw rocks at them from high up in the air. Although this kind of attack has low accuracy, it is also difficult to defend against. The avians that will be attacking will also be flying high up, so there is a low possibility for the enemies to shoot them down. They will be unable to land a hit so high up.”

The force of a rock falling from high up in the sky might be even scarier than magic! Shooting Star tilted his head in thought. How can I miss such an amusing sight? He snickered for a bit and jumped down from the inner curtain wall, tossing behind only the words, “I’m gonna head to the outer curtain wall for a look.”

“Shooting Star, it’s dangerous!” Bai Saya worriedly called out, but Shooting Star was already long gone. He could only quickly follow after him.

Seeing that, Dan had wanted to open his mouth and stop Saya from heading over, but he gave it some more thought. Ever since he had sent out the avians, the number of magic attacks had lessened greatly. Considering the sturdiness of the wall, it was far from being destroyed. There was no need to worry too much. Bai Saya was not some weak baby.

Besides, going to the outer curtain wall meant that they could see the situation of the battle better. Dan only hesitated for a moment. He decided not to stop them from heading over.

With a “tap, tap, tap,” Shooting Star hastily climbed up the steps of the outer curtain wall. The moment he reached the top, he saw several files of avian soldiers flying above the wall. The avians near the outer edge held bows and had their gazes fixed below the wall. The moment any enemies dared to take a step toward the wall, they would immediately let loose the arrows in hand without any mercy.

However, the mages were currently using powerful magic to attack the wall. No beast soldiers were approaching, so the archer squad was currently useless and could only stay vigilant.

On the inner edge of the wall, avians awaiting orders held rocks around the size of a human head in their hands. They solemnly stared at the skies before them, waiting for their captain’s next order. Once given, they would fly out immediately and take the place of their returning comrades who had already thrown their rocks… Or, they would take the place of their comrades who would never return, following the same fate of having their bodies plummet.

Shooting Star leaped toward an empty spot on top of the wall. Then, he use both hands to hold onto the wall as he stuck his head out, eager to see if a real war was as eye-opening as his imagination…

Nearby the city wall, a few hundred avians were currently circling in the air, a sight to behold. Shooting Star could not help but cry out, “Wow! It finally looks like a war!”

Even though it was a rather spectacular sight to see avians uniformly throw several dozens to several hundreds of rocks, their accuracy was low due to how high the avians flew. Even if the rocks landed in the correct spot by chance, the mages would often get pulled aside by the beasts guarding them before the rocks could land, thus escaping the danger of getting smashed into a meat patty.

Although the rocks were very successful at disrupting the casting of magic, no mages were actually killed by the attack. At most, the rocks had pummeled a few unsuspecting beasts in the head.

Some of the avians in the air were a bit disgruntled. Unwilling to accept this, they flew a bit lower. Lower, and lower…

“Fly higher! You’re too low!”

Dan, who stood on the inner curtain wall, paled. He quickly commanded Markham, who was next to him, to fly over and warn those avians who were launching an attack.

Markham nodded the moment he received the order. He extended his wings and flew over to warn his fellow avians.

On the wall, Shooting Star excitedly pulled Bai Saya over when he noticed the avians’ action. He pointed at the avians in the air and shouted, “Look, Xiao Bai! Those avians seem like they want to fly lower to launch an attack!”

At first, Bai Saya had wanted to scold Shooting Star for running off, but when he heard that, he immediately gazed up into the air with worry. Like Shooting Star had pointed out, dozens of avians uniformly glided toward the location of the mages, as if they had discussed this in advance. From the trajectory of their flight, by the time they flew above the mages’ location, they would be lower than twenty meters above the ground.

How can that be? Dan clearly ordered them to maintain a height of at least fifty meters. Bai Saya paled, an uneasy feeling coming over him.

The group of avians formed the shape of a V and quickly glided above the mages. The rocks in their hands were thrown down one after another. By now, they only held a height of fifteen meters or so. A dozen rocks were thrown down, leaving the beasts below no time to react. They dodged one by one, and some even abandoned the mages they were protecting, lifting their shield to protect their own heads first.

For a moment, the enemy army was in complete disarray. Even though none of the mages had been directly hit by the rocks, many of them had been knocked to the ground by the beasts. Some had even gotten their staves knocked out of their hands, and the staves had then been stomped into smithereens by the beasts’ giant feet right on the spot.

“Wow! Amazing!” Shooting Star excitedly gestured at the battle nearby. He turned and asked, “Xiao Bai, Xiao Bai, did you see that?”

“I have. Thankfully nothing went wrong.” Bai Saya, on the other hand, did not feel any excitement, only relief.

“They plan on doing it again!” Shooting Star saw that another squad had formed a V shape. They planned on copying the previous squad, giving the army below them a head on attack.

At this time, Markham had almost reached them. However, he saw that the squad of avians in a V formation had already started to glide downwards, about to launch the second attack. “No, come back!”

Shooting Star had originally been cheering them on, but he glimpsed the glow of magic from the enemy mages below. He cried out, “Shoot, the mages are gonna retaliate with magic! Quick, stop them!”

Unfortunately, Shooting Star’s voice did not reach the avians at all. Encouraged by the success of the previous attack, the avians flew even lower, pretty much only twelve meters off the ground. Their hands loosened, about to throw the rocks down…

A gigantic pillar of fire soared into the air, immediately engulfing a dozen avians right above it, instantly turning them into ash before the handful of avians could even cry out in pain.

Even though the back of the squad did not get hit head on by the flames, they were unable to dodge in time either. Several avians flew right into the flames. The temperature was no longer high enough to burn them to ashes, so they were still able to emerge on the other side of the flames. However, their entire bodies were on fire by then, causing them to painfully flip around in circles in the air, eventually burning to ashes and falling.

An avian in the very back was able to dodge the flames just in time, but a portion of their wings got burned and they dropped from the air powerlessly. Soon after, the beast soldiers surrounded them. The battle had started several days ago, yet no blood had been spilled. The war-hungry beasts had long forgotten that they were there to capture slaves. The moment they saw the avian fall down, they swung the weapons in their hands without a second thought.

In the end, when the beasts split to chase another avian that had fallen, there was only a lump of unidentifiable flesh and bloody feathers left on the ground.

Seeing such a scene, Bai Saya’s face lost all color. He even reflexively covered Shooting Star’s eyes.

Shooting Star had been clamoring about watching the battle earlier, but he now silently allowed Bai Saya to cover his eyes and did not struggle or complain that he wanted to see.

Even though Bai Saya used his hands to cover Shooting Star’s eyes, he himself did not break his gaze and watched the ugliness of war play out before him.

He was the one who had been persistent about joining this war, but up until now, Dan had been the one who had contributed the most. All Bai Saya had been able to do was complete trivial tasks Dan had assigned him.

Therefore, Bai Saya felt that he must at least witness the battle from start to finish. No matter if they succeeded or failed, no matter how ugly or bloody, he would deeply engrave everything into his mind. He was the one who had decided to participate in the war, so no matter how ugly it became, he must keep on watching and take responsibility for his decision.

All of a sudden, a strange feeling burrowed into his heart. In the encampment at the very back of the army, there was… a thing? No, not just one. There were two!

Bai Saya clearly felt that there was something there. They were so clear, like they were shining. But in actuality, he knew that they were not really shining. At least, it was nothing that could be seen with the naked eye. The light was something he sensed with his heart.

What you sense are two other stones, stones that already have owners. Roth informed his own master.

What? Bai Saya cried out, “Shooting Star, there are two Stones of Sin in the enemy army!”

Hearing that, Shooting Star jolted. Even though his sight was obscured by Bai Saya, he suddenly felt enlightened. Before, he and Dan had both been suspicious about why the Fischer Merchant Guild would spend so much effort to form the beast army to attack White Feather. Could it really only be for the sake of avian slaves?

Now, with holders of the stones, “sinners,” appearing among the beast army, Shooting Star finally knew the answer.

The opponents’ true objective was not avian slaves. Aside from avians, White Feather had something else, the avians’ king, Saiximili, the starseer of the Guide of Doom!