For the next 168 hours, the coalition sheltered the threatened disciples behind the temporary counter-wards, distributed emergency medicine, and prepared the pass assault. About 108 hours into that interval, Kaelen briefly spent his rebuilt alchemy reserve to prepare additional refuge supplies; sixty hours of rest followed before the vanguard assembled.
Steam rose from ten iron-banded cisterns, curling into the cold morning air above the drill grounds.
Ten thousand vanguard soldiers stood in rigid columns across the flagstones. They were the heavy spear units of Seven-Tower City, wrapped in steel plate and holding eight-foot ash pikes.
At the edge of the training field, Elder Sterling set down a jade-lined chest.
“Listen up,” Sterling barked, his voice echoing across the limestone yard. “You think you’re marching out to die against the Red-Crag blood barrier. You think the Censorate will cook your blood before you reach their gate.”
“You’re wrong,” Sterling said, resting a hand on his broadsword. “Master Ash brewed your morning tea. Drink every drop, or I will kick you off the battlements myself.”
Beside him, Sera Thorne opened the lacquered chest.
Inside rested ten pale spheres. Each one was a Tier 6 Cloud-Veined Supreme Seven-Soul Pill, smooth as river jade and traced with silver patterns.
