The next morning came without much fanfare.

Elion hit the ground running and continued along his route at a steady pace. What he did not expect, however, was that a few hours later, he would run into yet another small camp of demons.

Of course...

He efficiently annihilated that group just like the one before, and they were gone without a trace.

At this point, he had already decided on what he would say when the others inevitably asked where he had been for the past month. He couldn’t exactly recount what had actually happened, even if someone believed him.

He would simply tell them that he had gone on an impromptu espionage mission to gather information... and that he had taken out a few demon camps along the way.

Technically not a lie.

They would definitely be suspicious of his intentions after he disappeared for so long, and he didn’t expect them to believe him, but he would let his efforts do the talking instead and clear his name of whatever conclusion they had cooked up to justify his disappearance.

If he were in their shoes, he would assume that if he hadn’t been captured and killed, then he had probably defected to the enemy.

He put that matter aside and focused on the matter at hand. Once he came across the second... then the third group, he started to notice a pattern.

Unlike what he had initially thought when he first saw the demons on the battlefield, they were not completely disorganised.

They were just poorly organised into crude and messy camps that served as checkpoints of some sort.

Unlike the singular, structured coalition camp that Elion had briefly stayed in, the demons were spread out into multiple small camps, placed at somewhat regular intervals throughout the forest.

Honestly, it was stupid. Just look at what he was doing to them. He was wiping them out one by one, and they had no way of supporting each other.

’Whoever came up with this structure is a fool,’ he thought. Sure, it made sense in some ways.

It allowed them to cover more ground, especially in a forest this large, and given that their forces were clearly stretched thin, it was probably the only way they could maintain a presence across multiple fronts.

But still...

What he was doing right now was proof enough of its many irredeemable flaws.

To be fair, they would have never expected an enemy to be moving within their own defensive lines, so he couldn’t blame them too much.

Now, he was standing in the blazing brilliance of the last burning camp he had just finished annihilating, the flames licking at the remains of tents and bodies alike.

The crackling fire cast long, dancing shadows across the forest floor even in broad daylight. He watched the scene for a brief moment as the last of the bodies were consumed by the flames.

Then, with a small gesture of his hand, he extinguished the fire, the roaring blaze dying down into faint embers before going completely still.

Without another glance, he turned and promptly left the scene, continuing on his way.

He didn’t run into any other small camps after that, allowing him to cover some ground without having to stop.

He covered quite a large distance, and soon, he saw large volumes of billowing smoke rising up into the sky, and he headed that way.

It wasn’t long before he ran into a large company of demons who seemed to be retreating from battle, but there were simply too many, and there were a dozen or so presences among them that had unfathomable auras.

Though it would have been better to attack them while they were worn out, he didn’t have enough information to warrant that action, and he wanted to get back to camp as soon as possible.

So he steered clear of the group, changing his path just enough to avoid them, but not so much that he would veer off course.

After that, he didn’t see any other demons at all, but then he came across a large stretch of scorched ground that extended for at least ten kilometres. In this area, he frequently came across freshly dead bodies and mutilated remains of demons and humans alike.

"This is where the battle happened," he said aloud.

He even ran into a few people and demons who were still alive, but quite close to death, with missing limbs, eyes, and sometimes, even missing an entire lower half.

The scene was quite horrific, and any weak-minded person would have felt bile rising in their throat. Watching it did make Elion feel slightly disgusted and uncomfortable. Without enhanced cognition to filter it all out for him, it wasn’t as easy to ignore it without batting an eyelid.

He swiftly brushed past the area with only a glance and kept running until he began to feel distant booms and tremors through the ground.

"It seems the battle is not entirely finished..." he thought.

The booms were coming from the east, but they were very distant; it was probably a fight between powerful individuals, and not armies, so he didn’t think too much of it. And there was nothing he could do about it, so he moved on.

Eventually, he came across a familiar battleground. It was the same general area where he had unleashed a massacre on that army of demons.

There was a large host of humans, dwarves, and elves in the general area.

The gist of it was simple: healers and clerics were doing what they could, tending to the wounded who still had a chance, while in other corners, there were grim scenes of those who could not be saved being quietly put out of their misery.

Elion sighed.

"War is quite tragic..." he said out loud, his voice low as he concealed his presence and blended in with the rest of those who were retreating into the backline.

He didn’t make any effort to start a conversation with those walking back, and neither did anyone else.

It was very quiet.

From what he could see, the vast majority of mages in this war were young, men and women in their twenties, maybe early thirties, with only a handful of more experienced individuals in their forties scattered among them.

Seeing the aftermath of battles like this, it certainly took a toll on their mental health, especially on those at the front lines like these.

Only a few could be seen speaking in hushed tones, while the majority remained silent, their expressions heavy, their steps slow, and their eyes distant.

No doubt they had lost comrades, friends, and maybe even family. What was worse was that they weren’t even sure if they themselves would make it through the next day.

His thoughts drifted back to the others in the trial with him. Of course, he was only really concerned about Zenovia.

He chuckled lightly.

’I do hope she forgot about the incident at the river...’ he thought. That was very unlikely, despite the length of time that had passed. 𝐟𝐫𝕖𝗲𝘄𝚎𝗯𝕟𝐨𝕧𝐞𝚕.𝕔𝕠𝐦

The questions would be inevitable, given his sudden and lengthy disappearance. But he found himself hoping they were all doing well.

He didn’t know what would happen if any of them died in the trial, but given how he had been threatened with death as a penalty for failing the first objective, it painted a vivid picture of what was at stake in this trial.

Their very lives were on the line. But he hoped that Aeron, Maya, and Zenovia were all alive and well.

Of course, it was no surprise that Elion would be worried about the two beauties, and Aeron seemed like a generally good guy.

’I wonder when this damn first trial will end.’ He thought. It was hard to come to terms with the fact that he still had two more to go after this one.

Minutes passed by quickly, and the retreating troops had walked quite a distance, though their pace was slow and heavy; it couldn’t be helped since they were deadbeat. Elion soon realised that he was starting to get a few strange looks.

’Hmm... is there something on my face?’ he thought. He looked down at himself to see if something was off.

’Oh.’

He had made a terrible mistake.

Every single person around him was ragged, wounded, or covered in blood. Their armour was dented, their robes torn, and their bodies showing clear signs of battle.

And then there was him, who looked crisp and clean.

Sure, he had a bit of grime and dirt from his long travel and the annihilation runs he had just carried out, but compared to the others, his appearance stood out badly.

"Shit..." he muttered under his breath.

There was nothing he could do about it now, so he kept walking and hoped that no one would bother to call him out on it.

He lowered his head slightly and adjusted his pace to match the others, letting his shoulders slump just enough to sell the image that he was fatigued.

Luckily, it turned out just as he had hoped. No one spoke to him. They were all visibly too tired to care that someone looked like they hadn’t fought at all.

Maybe...

They just assumed he had been at the very rear the whole time.

He walked on with them, keeping his pace steady, blending into the exhausted flow of retreating soldiers as they passed by the familiar clearing.

And then he saw a familiar hulking beast of a man riding a flaming stag, leading the group of mages and warriors.

The creature’s hooves left faint embers with every step, its presence alone commanding attention. A massive shield and a broadsword were secured on either side of the mount.

Of course, Elion recognised him immediately.

Tristan.

The commander in charge of the camp.

His eyes lingered on him for a moment as he considered approaching, but then he dismissed the thought just as quickly.

That would draw too much attention.

’I’ll speak to him when we get back to camp,’ he thought.

This was actually convenient.

Tristan was exactly the kind of person he needed to talk to. He was the one who would have answers, even if that also meant he would be the one placing Elion under the most scrutiny.

Elion exhaled slowly through his nose, his eyes scanning ahead as the outline of the main camp finally started to come into view in the distance.

Soon, they arrived in the camp.

It looked a bit rougher than he remembered.

Tents were slightly out of place, some half-damaged, others hastily reinforced, and the general atmosphere was less lively, and there seemed to be fewer people.

It looked like the daily losses were taking their toll, and reinforcements were not being assigned immediately.

Elion watched as Tristan barked out instructions to a small group of mages, his voice carrying authority as they quickly moved to follow his orders, before he finally retreated with a couple of his captains toward the large tent that served as the command centre.

Elion waited a moment until the area around the command tent cleared just enough...

Then he approached the tent stealthily afterward.