When the mages came to saturn with their idea he was at first rather apprehensive about it; they wanted to pull something out of the forgotten tales of time. There was legends of a fortress, an island of sorts that they could use to structure their entire community about. It would be filled to the brim with monsters and the like because of where it resided but once in reality proper they could however clear it out step by step as the beings from beyond would be weakened outside of their home. They just needed to set up a ritual site and use mana crystals to supplement their needs. Nothing would be sacrificed they made that much clear.

It was something he was uncertain about but after talking with the vestige and echo they all came to an agreement that if the mages were capable of pulling something out of the folk tales into reality it would cement them as a powerhouse and wouldn’t be something that could just be swept away by the world. It was something that saturn understood would be a great undertaking and something that they’d have to work for.

The setting up of the ritual site, the taking down of the camp and moving to higher ground by the knights that couldn’t fly was quick. They understood that summoning something so close to a beach head would warrant problems. About fifty of the mindrache were around, ranging from guards to mages to some of the ones that were willing to fight even though they only had a little bit of training. The ritual itself would be a multi day stage event where they’d have to swap out mana crystals from time to time and use the main center crystal as the absolute catalyst.

The smaller crystals would act as a way to focus and direct the energy that was needed to tear something outside of the forgotten realm into reality. The initial set up was very generous with spacing and as lines were drawn around them using chalk and several large gouges where that wouldn’t do saturn’s attention was brought to the approaching line of people in the distance by one of the guards. A large contingent of bandits not even on the first day.

Saturn stood there, feeling his anger steeply rise and he’d order for the mindrache to stand back. Huffing a bit the knight stepped forward; he could see that there was a couple hundred men, likely many of them normally wouldn’t survive and many of them would be rich men for capturing such a treasure trove of mindrache for lady wolfenstein. Something he could not allow. Exhaling a bit the colonel’s armor manifested itself on his body; his spear called to his side. Echo stepped forward with him as did the vestige though he’d wave them both back for a moment. He’d be mumbling an incantation; one that he had learned from a book a while back. It wasn’t something you’d cast against mages of note; but it was something you could use against a force like this that was just… pathetic.

The magical seal that appeared under him was four meters in diameter with him at the central point, each cardnall direction had a two meter seal which was surrounded by smaller one meter seals. The air became charged with mana and saturn would motion with a hand; feeling the rippling effect of the intense wave passing through him the knight grimaced as a powerful beam of pure mana shot forward. Slicing through the wave of bandits like butter; nearly a hundred people fell in one swoop and he’d stagger as the reserves of his mana dried up almost instantly. It wasn’t something you could do normally; it took so much prep and mana that it was a death sentence against those that would even try. He had only read about it from one of the trainers books in spells you really shouldn’t try.

Which is why he had to try it; it had made it so that the bandit force was immediately in disarray. Allowing for saturn and his companions to fight the remaining host of bandits at their leisure. This was only the first day but they had to make a strong first impression. It was a few hours of fighting and the men couldn’t get past them in one way or another. The trainer mages had erected a barrier to keep them all fighting the trio. Something he was glad about. Near the end of the day saturn noted that the ritual was still ongoing and thankfully none of the Mindrache had been hurt. Saturn sighed a bit and sat on the ground, staring at the mound of burning bodies in front of him. One of the mages thtat wasn’t participating in the ritual had been kind enough to light it ablaze.

”We’ve got three days of this Saturn, you sure doing that on the first one was the wisest idea?”

”The spell was described by the trainer as perfect for that; I didn’t expect it to be so draining. The color of the seals wasn’t even my own either. Must have been a spell that anyone can cast if they’re foolish enough.”

Saturn sighed a bit; a bit of a mana headache running through his head and the behemoth could feel the darkness within him swelling to fill the lost mana. He had a deep reserves normally but this demonic entity would do wonders for the both of them. The next instance of assault was easier than before; far less of a force than he expected. Maybe about ten or so riders that would dismount off their horses. They looked more like mercs and knights than bandits. But they still bore the crest of Lady wolfenstein. Saturn was away of how this sort of went. Walking forward, his armor and weapon already ready. He didn’t need the companions to help him but echo was there, mumbling to himself and having his own equipment prepped for this.

The fight was brutal; beyond so. There were no words exchanged, the silence of the knights and mercs made the fight even more so concerning. They barely needed any communication and worked together very well. But they weren’t prepared for the mix of saturn and his companion. Echo was able to help saturn defend himself and saturn was able to lash out as they came. It was a fierce couple hours before saturn wore down the final combatant. Taking their head with a brutal sweep of his halberd. He hated killing; it was such a waste but they left no option for it either. He noted that there were some people at the treeline watching but when saturn stood up to try to move forward they had vanished. Likely to avoid the same fate or simply just scouting. Saturn sighed and headed back to the ritual site. The third day was nearing and that was the most important one.

The mana in the air made it hard not to stare at the crystals, made it hard not to wonder what he was looking at. His mouth fell a little bit and he was actually pretty happy to see that the mindrache had managed to fight off a small supplementary force of bandits or mercs while he was gone. They likely had snuck around to try their luck only to be killed. He could feel the veil between the forgotten realm and this one thinning and it was only a matter of time before the ritual was successful…

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