They descend the rest of Mount Asuras, the remainder of the descent easy for Trodius as he basically just sat on the trailing robe of the towering Lokius. Landing on the base of the mountain, they traverse through another hour of the whispering deadlands – an expanse of flat, gray deserted lands – before they hear voices not their own. Far off in the distance sounds cries of roars, blows of fists, and a shower of dust that obscures the view. "Commander Gargantuous," points out Trodius, now sitting atop Lokius' shoulder. "Hah, yes, that's Gargan alright." chuckles Lokius.

"Yaa! Com-'' 

Smash 

"Commander Gargantuous, leave my foot alone, Sir." shouts a demon who was actively being thrown away. "Never! We, the Asuran army, win by any means necessary." Rumbles a booming voice. A loud booming sound echoes around right after, and the showering dust begins to settle. 

A form slowly emerges from the bellowing dust. Two red furred, massively disproportioned, arms swing back and forth as they hit on an off white–unfurred–chest. With a towering height just shy of Commander Lokius's and a gerth that exponentially surpasses his, stands tall Commander Gangantuous. Lokius calls his name and he turns, showcasing his round ape-like face, complete with ape-like ears and jutting out black spikes that border his round face. He waves at them but wastes not another glance at them, returning to the battle at hand. 

"Yaaaa!" the opposing demon leaps out of the hazy smog, hoping to take the Commander by surprise, but the Commander is the Commander for a reason. Gargantuous begins to unwind his wound-up feet and shifts his stance to ready a kick. He raises up one of his massive tree trunk sized legs into the air in anticipation of the body flying at it, and his mid-air opponent, with only a few seconds to spare, tries his hardest to alter the trajectory of his hurtling body but fails to do so. The following hit hits so hard that a shockwave follows in its wake. And obviously the customary dust flies all over, but it flies not long and settles down quickly enough to allow the spectators a splendid view of the battlefield.

A wide ring of bones decorated a massive ring, and right in the center of that ring lay the end result of an arduous five-day long battle. Commander Gargantuous stood tall, with his opponent splayed on the ground. Eliminating the distance between the two, Commander Gargantuous offers his opponent his hand, and following along his good sportsmanship, his opponent takes his hand and flings himself upon his feet, immediately bending to his side and cupping his sore side with his opposite hand. 

"Congratulations Commander, you have finally defeated me in the only field I had somewhat of a confidence in." says Alanxian, one of the best hand-to-hand combat experts amongst the Sixteen Armies, and the second in the chain of command right after the Battle Commander himself. 

"Don't worry Al, you suck just as much as you did before," shouts Galactia, a four armed, four eyed, muscled demon. "Hah, your elegant words hurt just as much as the Commander's kicks, Galac." winces Alan. 

"Nah, don't beat yourself up kid. It took this Multi-Millennial, war hardened fighter more than ten five-day fights to defeat you. And more than that, it was exactly because of your refined skills that I chose you as my sparring partner. If nothing, have pride in that." Clapping his defeated opponent on the back, Gargantuous walks towards his old friend, Lokius. 

"Aha, I see you still resharpen your toolset, you old damn muscle head," says Lokius. Trodius jumps out of Lokius's shoulder as Gargantuous grabs Lokius by the head and claps it underneath his grime mixed armpit, and rubs it vigorously with his hand. 

"And I see you still have a sharp little head, my sly-tongued friend," says Gargantuous as he booms with laughter, and his slimy friend squirms underneath his vice-like grip, trying and failing to slither out of it. His trailing eyes land on the loitering Trodius and he slackens his grip with surprise. Lokius takes this opening to pinch at his bare-chested nips and it works. Gargantuous yelps in pain as he grabs at his thumping chest. "We win by any means necessary," says Lokius, a wide grin plastered across his green scaled face.

A small laugh croaks out of Trodius at the scene ahead, and both the Commander's faces swish at him. All of them break into laughter, one of the rarest scenes in this land of the perpetual dead and living. Once calm, Gargantuous addresses his rarely seen guest, "Trodius, my loyal little friend, what brings you down here?"

Clearing his throat for a louder voice in this vast expanse, Trodius repeats himself, "Sire has instructed me to escort both you and Commander Lokius to the Throne Room." Gargantuous scratches his chin a little at this, looking over at Lokius. 

"You resemble a great thinking Ape, my friend," snarks Lokius. Gargan smirks at this, and scratches his head, "Nah, it's nothing like that, it's just very sudden is all. But it'll be good to see him again after all this while," says Gargan. He then turns and provides the audience, his direct chain of command sub-commanders, with orders to follow in his absence. And with that taken care of, all three of them begin their ascent up Mount Asura. It only takes them a few minutes to leap-climb up the side of the Mount, and once at the peak, Gargan too marvels – for the gazillionth time – at the legendary view layden in front of him. 

Seeing this, Lokius speaks up, the gushing wind flapping his robes violently. "Ah, my friend, I suggest you ask for a base closer to the peak like I have. I see this magnificence every day.”

"Nah, I'll get bored of it if I see it everyday, I'd rather see this view once a decade so that It hits me with this much awe," replies Gargan as he follows close behind Lokius as they both enter through the Throne Room gates. Trodius follows them, after taking the case report he requested from the Surveillance Corps.   

Emerging into the throne room, Trodius sees Lokius and Gargantuous taking a knee at the dais. Seconds trickle down into minutes and the both of them remain in their kneeled position without a hint of a complaint. Trodius swells with pride and joy at their loyalty. In a land where demons would kill each other over the most minor disagreements and discontentment, having the complete loyalty of another truly was a priceless commodity. Trodius keeps looking on with joy as a body from the rear end of the throne room pushes past him, heading straight for the dais. The body kneels down on the dais with the two Commanders, cozily taking the knee between them. Gargan grunts in uncomfortable annoyance but doesn't move. 

"So, who exactly are we kneeling to, mate?" asks a familiar voice. Both the Commanders turn towards the sound, their faces painted with vivid annoyance, that is until they see who it is that's jammed in between them. 

"Asoka!" Shouts Gargan. That's the real name of the one they call Asura, "you sneaky bastard." Gargan yells again as he hugs his friend vehemently, Lokius bellows with laughter from Asoka's side, which is something he does rarely. The three friends stand up after Gargan and Asoka break apart, and Lokius takes this chance to offer a robed hand to Asoka but he gets yanked into a hug. "It's been so long, my friend." says Asoka as a grin stretches across his face, all his worries instantly evaporating into thin air in the presence of his companions. 

"It's been a little over a decade, old friend." Lokius says as they break away from the hug, but Asoka holds him at arm's length a little longer as he examines his friend up and down. With that done, he turns his head, and examines Gargan who's standing behind him with his hands on his hips.

"And you two haven't changed at all." Asoka says, seemingly happy with the fact. He then ushers the both of them to take seats. They all sit together three way style on the ground with velvet cushions placed beneath their asses, while the exquisite sofas lay abandoned to their side. 

Trodius brings them refreshments. Even though demons don't need to eat to survive, they still feel the profound crave of hunger. With chalices of wine firmly grasped with hands of different sizes, they begin their meeting. 

"Look Westwards," says Asoka. Gargan tilts his head, he's having a hard time telling if anything is out of the ordinary, but Lokius–being a Grandmaster Bowman too–had a vision powerful enough to match the title. Add that to the fact that he was an exceptional observer who observed the Land of the Passages every morning from his high up base, enabled him to spot the differences almost immediately. So while Gargan scratched his spiky head in mild confusion Lokius let out a hiss in horror. 

"Asoka, don't tell me, is that really what I think it is?" Asks Lokius. Asoka doesn't answer for a while. Trodius discreetly slides in the intel lists he received into the empty space between their three-way seating set up. With the scene seen, they all turn back towards each other, and Gargan, seeing the list of numbers before him, dives into deeper confusion, but before he begins to ask, Asoka speaks up.

"A little while back, while I was testing the limits of the Eye of Darkness," both the Commanders perk up at this name, but Asoka hushes down their premature outburst, signaling that he'll explain it all, "the eye retaliated in an attempt to reverse the control, and in my attempts to re-establish my dominance, I unleashed a tenth of my backup reserves."

"Impossible, I would have felt it. Heck, Lokius here is closer to you, he would have felt something before I did." Says Gargan. Lokius looks at Gargan wide eyed, astonished at how intelligent his dumb friend has grown over the years. But he objects with a theory of his own. "Yes, I would have,” says Lokius. “Only that I probably was in the Void Map when it happened. I had my monthly duel with one of the Sixteen Army Strategists.”

"Still doesn't explain why I, with my heightened battle sense, didn't feel it," says Gargan, offering his rebuttal. Asoka claps Gargan on the back, clearly he too is impressed by his friend's hard earned wisdom. Back in the day, Gargan would have just blindly nodded along to whatever Lokius said. So Asoka too now looks at Lokius, passing on the responsibility of explaining to him. Shrugging at Asoka, Lokius sighs.  

"Asoka has already briefed us on this, but it was very long ago, so it's okay that you don't remember," says Lokius. Gargan subconsciously scoots over a little closer. “When Asoka is in this room, this Throne Room and its owner, Asoka’s, internal core become tightly connected to the gates. So, when his core began shaking with an outpour of his reserves, the gates started reacting to it, or rather, shaking with it. And because of the Throne Room's absorptive capabilities, it absorbed most–if not all–of the escaped energy, so you did not feel anything even with your maxed out senses."

Satisfied with the explanation, Gargan settles back comfortably into his cushioned pillow. "Asoka, these numbers are staggering," says Lokius, his voice trembling a little. Concerned, both Asoka and Gargan look down at the list in front of them. 

[ Disaster Report ]

Number of passages broken : 2

1) Tellurian Gate:

Low Tier: 700 000

Mid Tier: 7

High Tier: 3

Supreme Tier: 1

2) Munandane Gate: 

Low Tier: 300 000

Mid Tier: 3

High Tier: 2

Supreme Tier: 0