Just like hundreds of times before, Isaac opened the connection to his puppet—to the giant worm lying before him. Usually, the commands he gave it were simple. Destroy this. Kill that. Move onward. Stop. Stuff like that. Nothing that his minion couldn’t understand.

  This time, though…

  Well, while the next order also wouldn’t be too complicated, he just hoped that the beast grasped every part of it. If it didn’t, they would waste precious time and a good chunk of Harry’s power.

  All right, Isaac thought, his focus fully on the connection. At my command, you’re going to burrow as fast as you can. Go deep, too. Deep enough that no one will be able to feel you moving beneath them.

  The link pulsed, acknowledging his words. How well the creature understood the instruction… they were going to find out real soon. He turned to Harry and gave him a short nod.

  At once, the man crouched and pressed a hand to the ground. A moment later, he muttered, “Do it, friend.”

  Isaac’s attention snapped back to the worm.

  Now!

  The earth beneath his feet shook lightly, yet despite that, the worm didn’t budge. Hell, its flesh didn’t even twitch. Or so it seemed at least.

  Through the connection, Isaac could feel the massive beast shift. Bit by bit, its presence sank below the surface, burrowing deeper and deeper just as he had commanded.

  Still, his eyes saw none of that. To them, the worm remained exactly where it was before. Anyone who hadn’t been part of the earlier conversation would have no idea what was happening right now.

  He smiled.

  All part of the plan.

  At last, the entirety of the worm’s presence disappeared below the ground. That was when the image before him began to finally change.

  As Isaac had seen hundreds of times by now, a golden light swallowed the entire form of the beast that wasn’t really there. A heartbeat later, it blinked out of existence, leaving behind a long and empty patch of earth.

  “Well done,” Carmela said, offering Harry a hand.

  He took it, wobbling slightly as she pulled him upright. As he had warned them, this little illusion had drained a fair amount of his power. And unfortunately for him, his work was far from finished for today.

  This was only the beginning of yet another insane idea. One that started with tricking all distant observers into believing the worm was gone forever.

  “Our turn,” Isaac said, his gaze lingering on Harry. “You sure you don’t want to rest first? I know we are kinda in a hurry, but we can spare a few minutes.”

  The man flashed him a bright smile. “I’m fine, friend. Hiding the three of us is nothing compared to the show I just performed. Believe in me, the same way I believe in you.”

  Isaac chose to ignore the last line—and the look Harry gave him while saying it. He simply nodded.

  “Follow me, then.”

  With that, the three of them moved back toward the army resting at the border of the yellow and green territories. Hoods pulled up and faces hidden, they slipped into the crowd and continued onward until they reached the dense jungle. There, they stopped and transformed into their Legacies.

  Before they could fly out, though, Harry spoke.

  “Remember, my dear fellow Pioneers. My illusions may have grown much stronger these past few weeks, but unless we stay close to each other, I can’t guarantee no one will detect us.”

  “Understood,” Carmela said. “We will match your pace. Tell us when you’re ready.”

  Harry’s ray-fish-like form dipped in something akin to a nod. “It’s done.”

  And just like that, the man-turned-flying-fish shot into the sky, with Isaac and Carmela following close behind. They climbed higher and higher until the people on the ground looked no bigger than ants. Afterward, their path was clear.

  Forward, toward the Zerian Safe Zone.

  As they flew, Isaac always kept his connection to the worm active. With simple commands, he guided the beast along their route, while constantly reminding it to stay burrowed to avoid detection. This was also when he noticed something… concerning.

  He wasn’t sure whether it was the distance between them or the fact that the worm was traveling underground now, but the drain on his Viron continued to grow at quite an alarming rate. He did his best to limit the flow, but at this pace, he would have maybe half a day of control left at best.

  You could be reading stolen content. Head to Royal Road for the genuine story.

  Enough for the current plan. Not nearly enough for the rest of the war.

  Whatever, Isaac thought. Not like I expected it to stay with me that long anyway.

  The distance between the border of the green zone and the Safe Zone it housed was never big. An experienced Host at level twenty or higher could cross it in four to five hours. Isaac, with all the power he had gathered lately, could make the trip in two, maybe less if he pushed himself really hard.

  Today, however, they had to go slower.

  Aside from keeping pace with Harry, a major part of this plan was based on scouting ahead and observing how the Zerians reacted to the advancing human army. And what a sight it was.

  After one hour of flying in a straight line, the aliens began to pop up everywhere. At first, they just spotted some scattered groups. Most were retreating toward the Safe Zone.

  A few others, though…

  Those were definitely the scouts the human army had been noticing lately. A part of Isaac wanted to swoop down and destroy them before they could gather more information on his people. But he stopped himself. This wasn’t the plan. Not yet.

  So he kept flying.

  Not even half an hour away from the Zerian Safe Zone, the scenery changed again. Squads of hundreds or even thousands of aliens dotted the ground, with more and more constantly arriving. These groups never merged into a single massive force, but they didn’t need to. They were close enough that, if a battle broke out, they could join up within seconds or minutes for those in the back.

  Worse, Isaac saw plenty of smaller groups vanish into the ruins of Broken Hopes. It didn’t take a genius to figure out what they were doing there.

  Setting up ambushes.

  Too bad none of them would work. Not with all the intel Isaac and his teammates kept sending back to the other commanders of the slowly advancing human army.

  Now, some would say that this was a good moment to turn back. They had scouted ahead and learned some of what the Zerians were planning. That should be enough to give humanity another advantage.

  Wrong.

  Yes, scouting was one of the reasons they flew ahead. But if that were the only goal, they would have sent Harry alone. Carmela, Isaac, or his worm weren’t needed for that.

  Yet, here they were, still circling above the ever-growing horde of Zerians.

  Just a little further.

  As expected, more and more Zerians kept arriving from the direction of the Safe Zone. None advanced past the groups already positioned out front, choosing instead to hang back or spread out to cover even more ground. Whatever the reason was, though, Isaac didn’t care, not when their actions played perfectly into his plan.

  Instead of flying closer to the Safe Zone itself, he led his teammates to land atop one of the half-collapsed skyscrapers in the area. From here, they had a clear view of the rear of the Zerian forces.

  “There are more of them,” Carmela said, crouching beside Isaac. They both peered through a hole in the wall. “Mobilized faster than I expected.”

  Isaac hummed. In contrast, he had expected exactly this from a civilization built around war. At least, the Zerians weren’t acting as a single unified force. On that front, humanity actually had the advantage.

  “We can win,” he muttered at last. “We’re stronger.”

  Carmela grimaced. “It will be a slaughter. On both sides.”

  Isaac swallowed. She was right, and he hated it. Hated knowing that what happened in the battle against the Minotaur would likely happen again today if his plan didn’t work.

  And if it did?

  People would still die, but maybe not as many as if the two armies clashed as they were now.

  “You worry, friends,” Harry spoke suddenly. He approached them and looked out through another gap in the wall. “You really shouldn’t. Not now. The people who followed us here. They know the risk. If they die, they die fighting for the glory and survival of Earth. And we, the Pioneers, shall make sure their sacrifice isn’t in vain.”

  For a moment, Isaac and Carmela just stared at him. Then they exchanged a look and nodded. Even if his delivery was… questionable, Harry wasn’t wrong. Besides, worries and guilt could wait until after they won the war.

  Back to work then.

  Time passed as Isaac and his team hid inside the skyscraper. For the most part, he used the break to guide the sandworm around the entire Zerian horde. Even burrowed, he didn’t want to risk detection by having it travel directly beneath the aliens.

  Once that was done, he settled against the wall and tried to clear his head. To some extent, it worked, and he even managed to reduce the drain on his reserves from Red Puppeteer. If the worm somehow survived the battle to come, it might stay under his control for another day.

  Wishful think—

  He was cut off when the group chat with all the leaders of the army lit up in his mind. His eyes snapped open.

  “It’s time.”

  Without a single word, all three Pioneers looked outside, past the Zerian Horde.

  And there it was.

  The human army.

  As the message announced, the army had stopped about half a mile away from the alien forces. Only an empty stretch of ruined land separated the two sides. Neither had attacked yet, but the Zerians were a hive of activity.

  They were preparing to strike.

  Yeah, no.

  Isaac turned to his fellow Pioneers and found them already in their Legacies. He transformed as well and reached for the link to the sandworm.

  Come out, he ordered. Spare no Zerian. Kill them all.

  Meanwhile, he spread his wings and launched himself straight through the wall in front of him. The others followed behind, and together, they descended on the rear of the Zerian horde.

  Freedom mode. Crimson Fury. Blood Moon.

  He cawed just as the earth beneath several Zerian groups collapsed, revealing the monstrous, massacred maw of the worm. Dozens, maybe hundreds, died in the next few seconds.

  Isaac didn’t spare them a glance.

  With the panicked screams of the horde playing in his ears, he released the reins on his power and attacked.

  Forgive us.

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