The army was stood down for several days as Gyn made the repairs to the airship. Kace had been stuck with getting to know Rysa over food, long walks and the occasional drinking session. Rysa was relatively easy to get along with, but Lilly did not appreciate how much time the pair spent together.

Once Gyn got the ship up and running again, they set out right away. Rysa had was vague on where Phillip but not Phillip was and whether or not he would be helping them out during the assault. The airship flew over the desert while a giant flaming bird soared alongside it.

'There it is.' Kace's eyes narrowed as the walls of their target came into view. Unpleasant memories filled his mind of the battle he had against Constance and how she almost trapped him. This time would be different, though. Now they had aerial supremacy so they could bombard their enemies and seize this place.

Even Constance's undead would not be of much use against them this time around. Kace grinned savagely as he thought about blowing Constance into pieces with a cannon shot. 'There's just one issue. How many of the Seven Hells are here now?'

Kace glanced towards the city in the distance with an uneasy feeling. Nobody seemed to be sounding an alarm which gave the impression that they were already aware of the monsters approach.

Kace found it strange as they grew closer and was unable to see anyone on the walls. In fact, the city appeared to be deserted. Kace frowned as he looked down over the buildings. There was no reaction from the tower either like last time. 'Don't tell me they abandoned it!' Kace was furious as the airship moved into the sky above the city.

After everything they had gone through to take this place, the Heroes had just up and abandoned it! Rysa circled the city a few times before transforming into her human form and landing on the deck next to Kace.

"So much for the big battle your promised me." Rysa chuckled as she glanced down below. "I was looking forward to stretching my wings a bit."

Rysa stretched her arms overhead as she pushed her chest out. Kace sighed before ignoring her. He had become used to this sort of behaviour from her where she would fish for compliments. 'It doesn't make sense. Why would they just leave?'

Kace frowned as he considered this odd situation. "Gyn! Fly us over the rock protecting the city's rear. I want to make sure they're not waiting to ambush us!"

"Sure thing! Here we go!" Gyn happily hummed as the airship began to gain altitude.

Rysa looked bored as she studied the nearby terrain. It was good and all of Kace to be thorough, but she could not sense anything either. 'If Terrell had come with us, this would be much easier.' Rysa sighed. Unfortunately, Terrell had chosen to leave on his own and infiltrate behind enemy lines. His illusion magic was absolutely perfect for the job, so nobody could argue with him.

Meanwhile, Kace's senses told him that something was wrong even though he could not see anything. "Shadow. Take the tribe and comb the city."

"Right away!" Shadow used the other realm to appear in the streets of the city alongside the Tu'Thrag. They waited a moment to see if there would be some kind of reaction, but there was none. All of them felt tense as they searched through the buildings one by one. The inhabitants had left everything behind by the looks of it.

Clothes, food, stock for the stores. Shadow frowned. 'It's like they just disappeared rather than left.'

Shadow gazed at the tower and decided they should see what secrets it held. However, when they reached its doors, they would not budge. Lorget made the journey up to the airship to report the matter, and Rysa thought it would be worth a look. She was better suited to this anyway due to her age and experience.

When she looked at the door, she could tell that it had been sealed with magic. There were spells on it to prevent any tampering, which frustrated Rysa as she attempted to break them. 'This should be the work of someone powerful. Zornok maybe?'

Once Rysa and Shadow confirmed that the city was clear and there was nothing to worry about., Gyn bombarded an area to flatten it so that they could land the airship inside of the walls. Kace appeared nervous as he walked down the gangplank and into the city. It was almost like he did not trust what everything was telling them.

"Did anyone search underground?" Kace suddenly asked as he stared at the ground.

"Like the basements?" Shadow tilted his head in confusion. "We checked those, My Lord."

"No, I mean the earth itself. Did anyone check to see if something was buried?" Kace was not keen on the idea of getting ambushed by Constance again.

"I have. Already checked." Grugda grinned as he looked around. "There is. Nothing."

Kace sighed heavily. 'Maybe I'm too paranoid.' He shook his head as he glanced around for himself. It looked like he had to accept the evidence. 'This'll be turned into a base for more assaults later. But I guess we now have an entire nation.'

Kace let out an exhausted smile as he thought about that. This moment had been a long time in the making since the days before they had claimed Stonefall. 'Let's just get to work preparing the place, then I'll need to find an opportunity to slip away.'

The next few days saw the monsters fortifying the walls. The atmosphere became more relaxed as nothing exciting happened. As everybody started to feel at ease, the monsters began to throw boisterous parties late into the nights. Kace lay in a bed as he listened to the noise outside. His thoughts were on where he would go next and how to avoid telling the council.

'It would be best to slip off before we return to Stonefall. I could ask Shadow to continue on and find Josh. I'm sure he'll be happy to join me, and he's not exactly plugged into the politics either. He started to make his plans as he felt his bed lightly shake. 'Hm? What was that?'

As he was snapped out of his daydreams, a more violent tremor ran through the entire building! 'Oh fuck me! What's Gyn done now?' As he climbed out of bed and started to don his armour, a loud crashing noise suddenly resounded all throughout the city. Screams went up on the streets, and one of them caught Kace's attention.

"ENEMY ATTACK!"

'Shit!' Kace cursed as he quickened his pace. He barely got the armour on before the sounds of battle could be heard just outside of the window! Kace poked his head out to see what they were dealing with, but everywhere he looked were the undead. 'Constance!'

Kace leapt out of the window to help the pair of orcs below. They had been surrounded by two zombies and five skeletons. However, Kace's speed was enough for him to thrash these guys without breaking a sweat. They were only dangerous to him when they were in a massive crowd that could wear him down.

A flash of fire lit up the sky overhead as Rysa flew above the battlefield, raining fire down on the streets. Gyn was rushing for the airship while Grugda was sealing off the roads with Earth Walls. Their joint efforts quickly set up a line of defence that could stop the enemies from completely surrounding them and prevented them from being cut off from each other.

Kace raced through the streets until he passed the walls that Grugda had set up around the landing area. From here, Kace could see what had caused the earthquake earlier. The Heroes had severed through the cliff at the back of the city and dropped it on them! At least a third of the city had disappeared beneath its weight when it had come crashing down.

That same piece of rock had housed the undead who were currently washing over the city like a tidal wave. Kace frowned as that information was given to him by a nearby goblin. 'Didn't we check the earth? So how did they manage it without us realising?'

The monsters had not eased up on their patrols despite becoming more relaxed. It was all desert outside of the city, so the enemy should not have been able to sneak up on them and pull off this kind of trick. Just as Kace was considering the matter, a vast bone golem rose up above the city's roofs.

Constance was casually sitting on its shoulder with a broad grin as she glanced at the devastation. Kace's eyes narrowed as he gauged the distance between them and what path he would have to take to not be spotted. 'No matter what, I'm taking her down this time!'