When A Mage Revolts

The Kingdom and Icor carried on with their ‘battle’ for almost 2 hours.

The content of their banter went from encouragements to major shade-throwing, where each of them started spewing out the others’ dark secrets. There was something about the Church massacring the innocent and erasing the event from the history books, or that the Queen of Icor was actually the killer of the late King of the Kingdom, but she kept on pointing fingers at everyone else…. Basically, their quarrels were intense.

Benjamin had a feeling that he was watching a turf war between the fandoms of two celebrities. Worse, the fans were equipped with megaphones.

Honestly, some of the dark secrets that were exposed in the process were quite scandalous. However, Benjamin was not foolish enough to believe everything that was said in the heat of the moment – he could consider 2 out of 10 statements as credible. Besides, these kind of quarrels could only entertain for a short period of time. It became annoying really, really fast, and it was worse because their voices were obnoxiously loud. It was blaring so much that it hurt their ears, and none of the mages wanted to hear anymore that they quickly gathered and shut the door in an attempt to block out the noises as much as possible.

Consequently, they are preparing to discuss about what they should do now.

"Why don’t we just open the door on the other side and let the mages from Icor in," Someone suggested, "All of us are mages anyway, they shouldn’t be causing trouble for us. We’ll just leave once the door is open."

Someone objected, "That’s probably unwise…. If the Gateway was really taken over by Icor, the Town of Crewe will be done for. There was a tailor back in the shop I had, and he was a good lad with no idea of anything about the Church and mages. I would feel bad if he was involved because of this."

"We can’t return the Gateway to the Kingdom either. Do you really think they would let us go once they occupy this place? We shouldn’t ever trust them." Another person piped up.

"We can’t trust Icor though! Who knows what’s happening over there…"

Different opinions surfaced all at once. Some wanted to open the door to Icor while some did not. Some even thought to stay in the Gateway and not compromise with anyone, and that both armies would eventually retreat soon enough.

Benjamin could only shake his head in disagreement.

"There were not only mages within Icor’s army. Within their logistical troops, I’ve saw quite a number of tools for digging. This means that they have made their preparation to tunnel in here, and the person shouting outside is just a distraction from the real plot." Benjamin paused, his tone dropped as he went on, "Even Icor thought of doing this. No doubt the Kingdom’s Army would also have something up their sleeves, though I haven’t seen any traces of it."

Although the two sides were busy bickering, Benjamin knew clearly that it was just a disguise for the real plan that they were carrying out in secret. They wanted to create a distraction for the enemy and seize the moment when the other is not paying attention. Those sly jerks and their little tricks, they looked honorable, but if you step on one of their traps, you would not even know what bit your head off.

Thankfully, Benjamin was aware enough for this.

"Don’t worry. It’s not easy to dig a tunnel, especially when the soil around here is quite hard as we previously mentioned. Rocks also litter the area. It will take much time to dig in here, right?" The boss lady chattered.

"There were only around 20 of you digging that time. You needed to be careful and avoid detection, which was definitely a difficult task." Benjamin shook his head. "There will be thousands of people taking turns tunneling with their troops using complete equipment. They even have magic to aid their work! It’s going to be way easier than what you experienced."

Once Benjamin finished his words, the mages glanced at each other, speechless.

Benjamin looked at them and sighed. The mages never really felt in danger before this; after all, the takeover of the Gateway was quite easy. They lived happily all this while, and when a difficult situation presented itself before them, they were not mentally prepared to handle it. They had no idea what to do now.

Life was too relaxed for them. These people needed to feel some pressure.

"Then…. We really need to get moving soon. Once any one of them manages to find a way to breach the Gateway, we will lose our advantage." Varys looked very troubled as he said.

Benjamin nodded in agreement. He who strikes first gains the advantage. That was the universal truth. Striking later was only reserved for people with absolute confidence, and they do not have such abilities that could provide that confidence now.

Benjamin suddenly said after some contemplation, "We’ll do this tonight."

"Teacher Benj- Oh, no, Sir Benjamin, you have an idea already?" The mages beside him looked astonished.

Benjamin shrugged, "Kinda."

After that, he briefly described to the mages his thoughts. They discussed it for some time after that, and no major objections surfaced. They were dismissed soon after and busied themselves with their preparations.

A few hours passed with a blink of an eye.

The mockeries quieted down after both parties ran out of things to say. They were probably tired from all the shouting too. Thus, they decided to temporarily let peace settle into the area. The first round ended in a tie. Silence returned to the Gateway, and the birds who were scared away by the noise also gradually returned to the branches nearby.

The two army bases by the Gateway became quieter as time passes, as if all of them fell asleep. Only they themselves knew what they were actually doing. Meanwhile, the Gateway never responded. It was like no one was in there.

Midnight falls.

It seemed to be an ordinary 12 o’clock, those who are supposed to be asleep were fast asleep, and the ones who were supposed to be awake were awake as well. It was serene around the Gateways with the occasional insect buzzing. This night seemed like it will pass quietly just like the other normal ones before.

It did not, though.

Right at 12 o’clock, the Crusader Gateway that was shut for more than half a month suddenly opened. With the warning horns, both the steel door near the Icor and the Kingdom army camps opened at the exact same pace. It rose slowly, and the long pathway that linked two countries slowly came into view.

Soldiers from both countries that were standing guard by the gate were dumbfounded.

"The Gateway…. The Gateway opened?"

There was no one on the pathway, and no one knew who opened the Gateway. At that split moment, the soldiers on guard from both sides could even see the surprised expression on each others’ faces. The surprise lasted only a second, however, as they snapped back into reality immediately. Within the next second, they blew their warning horns. Everyone in their bases were jolted awake by the loud and insistent ‘Voom’ of the horns.

"Wh-What’s going on?"

"What happened? The Gateway is open?"

"What? Who opened the Gateway? Where are the mages…"

The quiet night was suddenly chaotic. To be fair, the reaction time from both sides was quite good – it’s was midnight, and it would be ridiculous to expect anybody to be on high alert. Some of them were even rudely awakened from their dreams! After they jolted awake, they rushed to the Gateways as fast as possible.

Now, they were just gazing at the now wide open Gateway. Some of the people rubbed their eyes in disbelief, thinking that they might have slept too deeply and that all of this was a hallucination or their dreams. The actual waking calls for them were the orders from the officers from both sides.

"Charge! The handle is just by the pathway. Shut the Gateway on the other side, do not let them in!" The bishop squeezed through the crowd and shouted as he looked at the Gateway. His voice was unnaturally anxious.

On the other side, the Queen stood on the elevation that was built on base and shouted excitedly, "Quick, all of you, charge! As long as we shut the door on the other side, the Crusader Gateways will be ours!"

Promptly, countless soldiers from both bases dashed out and flooded the narrow pathway in the Gateways.

No one remembered to ask the important questions now: who opened the Gateway, why would the doors on both sides be opened at the same time, where did the mages in the Gateways go….. All of them casted these questions at a corner of their minds and totally forgot about them.