Chapter 273: Trusted in Pieces

By the time Moon was done placing everything, excluding the fire starters, he happened to get caught by Alma.

They fought; she was captured and was now part of his faction.

That day, Moon prepared a hiding place for those who would take responsibility for the plan’s ignition.

He dug a small cover for two people on each side of the mountain, a place that was barely lit by the city walls but also far enough not to be seen.

He also mixed straw with firewood; each sack hung within the crevices was a mixture.

He had done too much labour by himself, and he was tired.

Yet the image he drew was too much to give up at this point.

Moon’s goal was absolute victory, flawless and devastating.

He wasn’t certain Enzo was giving up the first win; thus, he wanted it to be flawless regardless.

He wanted the troops to doubt the man leading them, to fall into a devastating defeat that they could never forget.

He wanted the tale to spread everywhere to those who didn’t know.

He also, and more importantly, wanted to save every life he could of those on his side, as retribution for his old failure or for his pride as a warrior.

He didn’t have a proper reason.

All he knew was that he needed to save as many lives as possible; if they would all survive, that would be even more worthwhile.

The chaos of the battlefield was part of his existence now, and that chaos was driving him to do things he never would have imagined possible.

He was free now from the slave mark, the normalcy of the first floor.

Now the settings of the world allowed for anything, and he wanted to see it...

A flawless victory.

Yet, he was also aware that his role was now over in his own plan; he had other things to do now.

It was time to assign roles to everyone who had special talent and could be trusted with a piece of the puzzle.

The image Moon kept drawing in his head was finally about to fall into place.

First, he found Basil.

Knock~

"Boss." Basil beamed under his mask.

Moon made a hush sign, and Basil instantly squinted, opening the door wider and closing it behind Moon swiftly.

"Would you do me a favor and take a major role in the first battle?" Moon asked straightforwardly.

Basil’s face stiffened, his eyelid twisted. "Sure, boss." He still agreed right away.

Moon began explaining the route and time he would leave the castle, the place where he would hide till morning, the place he would climb the mountain to, and what he would find there on the top.

"On the top of the mountain, you will find two strings, one white and one black." Moon started explaining the ignition process.

"You have to feed the white one your Echo, half of it, and keep it spreading all the way."

Basil began to look interested. "What do I expect, boss?" he asked.

"Explosions!" Moon said. "One side of the mountain will explode."

"Oh!" Basil’s eyes shone. "What about the other one?" he asked about the black string.

"That, you have to pull it as hard as you can; also..." Moon’s voice trailed off before he took a large sack from his bag. "Throw this down at the same time, as hard as you can."

Basil accepted the sack, looking at the fire starters once.

"Remember, never expose yourself until the battlefield clears," Moon added.

"Boss, when do I start doing this?"

"Ah, about that..."

A similar conversation went with Barrett as well, who looked more afraid of what he was doing than he was of the war itself.

But he also knew it was his chance to become useful... Not as a merchant, but as an ascender.

The instructions Moon gave both of them were the same.

Feed the white string as much Echo as you can, pull the black one as hard as you can and throw the sack.

Let the explosions settle down first before pulling the black one.

As for when to start...

It was obviously after the retreat signal.

Once the orange smoke explodes, wait, let it settle, let it disappear, and once it’s completely gone...

That’s the exact moment for everything to finally take shape, for the image to manifest into reality.

He made sure to remind them again... Never let themselves be seen before everything was clear, lest they bring themselves into harm’s way.

They worked on preparing enough water and food for as long as they needed to stay up there. Also, Moon made sure to recall the watchmen who might also be targeted, or possibly discover Basil and Barrett, causing a misunderstanding.

As well as the other roles he gave others, Orin was staying to help with the wounded, Markala saving lives, and Raiju extracting the wounded.

And Fisher, who was never given a proper role but performed his perfectly.

There was also Dorbish, who was unofficially tasked with keeping Joshua alive.

By then, Moon was tired, very tired of the long preparations, the labour he went through and everything else, including the meetings and training.

The first good night’s sleep he had had since the trial began was the one he spent on the castle walls.

Finally, his work was over, and it was time to watch how things would play out.

He wanted to do everything himself; he hadn’t known anyone for long enough, and he had never shared any life-or-death situations with them.

He truly couldn’t trust any of them with all his heart, so instead, he trusted everyone with a small piece of it.

Working at a certain angle independently with the intent of fulfilling a small task, but in reality... Only he knew the result.

Or rather, wished for it to come true... if they trusted him, that is.

Breaking the fear barrier of his troops, igniting their fighting spirit, breaking the morale of the enemies.

Moon might not have known how to properly explain these things.

Yet, he knew them too well.

He had lived through them his entire life.

It was his time to operate war the way he saw fit for the first time.

Thus, today, he stood ahead of his troops, behind the enemy lines, with their commander dead and the strongest of their side staring at him.

The shadow king stared at him, his smile gone, and all that was left was a look of challenge.

The straw and firewood mix rapidly caught on fire once the fragile tubes began to shatter, replacing the golden sky with a large shade of flames descending.

Moon ignored Enzo; he retrieved his weapons and sheathed them one after another.

He also ignored the dozen or so ascenders left alive...

He started looking around, before sitting down cross-legged on the sand.

"All your weapons are trash; nothing worth taking." He scowled, taking off his helmet.

The left side of his face was punctured by the dented helmet; he ignored it and took a bottle of water from his bag.

Washing the sand off the wounds on his hand so it would heal correctly.

He took a look at the mayhem he had built and shook his head.

He smiled and looked at Enzo with a toothy grin.

"You already gave them up; don’t look so angry."