The wagon headed east of the 3rd quarter to the mountains.
The third sector was nearly the same size as large as the fourth, but it was denser with nearly twice its population.
They passed through multiple towns, small and large.
There wasn't as much as a chatter at the back of the wagon, the faces of the others were stale.
They also looked slightly underfed, their reason for joining wouldn't be too hard to guess.
Leo stared at the distance towards the light as thoughts from the day before lingered.
***
"As if I would get shocked again today" Leo's thoughts were immediately disproved.
As he looked to his right, he held his head from pain.
It was another thing that defied common sense.
The light was channeled to the ground from the sky in the form of a giant pillar, as he looked at it he had one feeling;
"I need to head for the light" Some other jumbled up words went through his head.
"That's a pretty strong reaction, does this count as shock?" Ren chuckled.
***
The ride was bumpy, it was reminiscent to the one he had with the others.
But this was a comfort when compared to that.
And this time, he wasn't being chased.
This was the first time in what felt like an eternity that he wasn't chased.
Soon enough memories of that day resurfaced.
***
"Sir, there aren't enough horses for the other two.
What do we do about them?" A soldier asked Curth.
He was referring to Leah and Marcus who laid on the ground.
"Tch, put them in the cellar, I'll give you further instructions later.
As for the other two break both of them hands." Curth ordered.
The soldier walked up to Leo.
"Sir both of his arms are useless" He was referring to the burns Leo had on his palms.
"Then go for the other.
Do I have to spell it for ya' " Curth clicked his tongue, he looked pissed off.
The soldier walked up to Marcus, his left arm was bandaged up.
He decided to go for the elbow of the right.
[Stomp!]
***
"Moore, where is he now.
is he alright?
I hope i'll be able to find him.
And even her too…" Leo worried about his friend and sister.
He had asked Ren earlier about both of them, but he seemed to have no idea where they were taken.
-
The wagon was now passing through a very large gate of a fenced area with the mountains still at the distance.
After getting a bit inside, the recruits were dropped in the enormous area.
Leo and the others were guided by soldiers to the open space where thousands stood in multiple lines.
There were one hundred and fifty rows and twelve lines of people.
In front of the lines was a very large wooden building.
It has a high podium with wide stairs at its middle.
–
Wagons went and came as they dropped off even more recruits.
Amongst the wagons, occasionally there were few carriages, the ones who dropped from those were either nobility or on a rare occasion royalty.
Hours passed and the last of the wagons finally came, they were now over six thousand standing there.
"I've never seen this many people in my life" Leo thought.
The weather was cold but he started to feel hot, he was having malaise from the situation he was in.
Anxiety was starting to kick in, then he remembered what Moore's singing sounded like;
He snickered.
"Ugh…what a weirdo." The girl at his left thought as she looked at him snickering by himself.
[Bam! Bam!! Bam!!!] The sounds of drums being hit by a soldier ar the front – it was to silent the noise in the line.
Thirteen horses rode through the gate, all eyes were on them.
At the front was the Supreme, followed by the twelve commanders.
Only three of the former twelve commanders were here, which were Ren, Lana and Ricia — the woman with blue hair, she was the one that welded the mace during the battle.
The lieutenants of the fallen had ascended to the ranks of commanders.
The crowd became noisy as they cheered the supreme on, he was a hero so it was to be expected.
Heimer climbed the stairs first and the others followed.
"He's even taller than Ren.
What a figure…" Leo thought.
[Bam! Bam!! Bam!!!] The crowd was screaming his praises, the drums were beated once more to quell their noise.
Some stopped while others were still making a lot of noise.
Heimer called one of the corporals that was standing at the foot of the wooden podium.
The coporal held a book and pen, Heimer spoke and she jotted down.
It went on for a while.
After the corporal went to the ground, she tore the paper and shared it to the other corporals in front of the line.
"What are they doing?" Leo was watching the corporals as the crowd finally went silent.
One corporal walked down each line with a marker in hand, marking the sleeves of certain people.
It took a while before they could get through them all.
After they did they went back to the foot of the podium.
Heimer finally spoke.
"The first rule of the army is following commands without a second thought.
The drums commanded you to cease all noise, some of you chose not to follow that.
All those that have been marked should exit the area with immediate effect !!!" His voice echoed through the entire area.
There was confusion, over at the lines, there was an uproar.
Many felt it was unfair.
"Did he count all of them while he was up there?
And to that degree of precision too…" Leo was left in shock by the capabilities of the supreme.
"DID I STUTTER?!" Heimer said sternly.
Those that were marked numbered about one thousand eight hundred, they left after the second utterance.
The atmosphere tensed up.
"You are way much than I expected.
I'm sorry to tell you that the resources we have at the moment can only be enough for a thousand." Heimer said.
With that the recruits knew what was coming next.
"From now till evening we're going to be slim your numbers down through tests.
Do bear with us." He said with a straight face.