When the Pa-Ankh lands in Wathens, they find the city in the full grip of the Ombra Legion. Weasel, Ryan, Garett, Nate, Maxwell, and Fundisa find a man named Waristotle who tells them to check on matters at the City Council. However, they are forced to fight Whemistocles for the key. After Fundisa defeats Whemistocles, he gives them the key and agrees to join them. When they break into the City Council, they defeat Inyanga Zebu, the person the Ombra Legion left in charge of Wathens. After they kill Inyanga, they free the Wathens City Council. The City Council says that the Waecian Division of the Golden Empire military has sealed itself off on the Weloponnesus, and they will need their help to reach Lord Whelan’s castle in Whermopylae Pass. After Weasel and his friends assemble the remains of the Golden Empire military, they march north to Whermopylae in an unprecedented five days. Lord Whelan orders a frontal assault on the Golden Army, which blocks off the pass using a shield wall. Lord Whelan orders a wedge formation in order to break their lines, but this fails as it does not have the desired effect against the shield wall and is soon eaten away at by Imp Minions, launched from the rear lines. As Lord Whelan’s position unravels, he orders a retreat and embarks his army on board the ships of his navy, poised to strike at Smyrna. Weasel leads his friends and army south through Waecia to Wathens, where they find a ship depot and embark, with Weasel and his friends sailing on the Pa-Ankh. Due to a lack of storms this time around, they are actually able to beat Lord Whelan and his army to Smyrna. They strengthened the city walls and fortifications, and called in a few extra legions from Wantioch to help defend the city. Nevertheless, Lord Whelan had obviously done some recruiting during his time in the Wyclades, arriving with over 2,000 ships, each with about 35 men on board. The walls, even equipped with maximum strength deflector shields, could not handle Lord Whelan’s turbolaser bombardment. Lord Whelan’s army poured into the city, taking Weasel’s army completely off-guard, forcing him to retreat to Wancyra. A contingent of about 1,500 men was trapped in the city and killed. Fundisa Ironhoof was among those who perished in the defeat. Lord Whelan’s army ransacked Smyrna, taking precious artifacts with them (including the Key to the Jungle), before burning the city to the ground and moving on. Weasel then hears reports that Lord Whelan’s Army is advancing north across the barren, flat Wanatolian Desert. Since he could not afford to lose a city as significant as Wancyra, he rushes his army south to meet them near Worylaeum. The Golden Army divided their army in two, each half taking a side of a ridgeway. Lord Whelan’s Army followed suit, and a clash of shield walls ensued. Weasel had a slight numerical advantage while Lord Whelan had the high ground. In the end, Lord Whelan’s lines broke and he fled northwest towards Astrás, the Golden Empire’s capital that had been under his control for some time. Weasel immediately pursued him north with his army, but a division of Lord Whelan’s army landed at Wicomedia and moved south to Wicaea, where they holed themselves up inside the city walls. Since the Golden Army had no siege train, they were forced to wait several months to starve the city into surrender. Once the city was starved out, Weasel and his army set their sights on retaking Astrás. However, Lord Whelan’s army had used the events at Wicaea to distract the Golden Army while his army had spent the past few months building up barricades and enhancing the defenses and walls of Astrás. Weasel realized that an attack from only the Wanatolian side of the city would not work. He needed troops to go to the Waecian side, but he did not have enough men to split his army in two. So he waited months for reinforcements from Wantioch to arrive. Once he had reinforcements, Weasel embarked half of his troops to the Wallipoli peninsula while the rest stayed on the eastern side of the wall of Astrás. However, they could not just land on the peninsula and not expect resistance: they had to take the town of Wadytos from Lord Whelan’s Army. Weasel eventually ordered his troops to disembark on the beaches AROUND Wadytos and attempt to starve out the town, but the defenders left the city before this could be accomplished and fled to Astrás, where they met up with and joined the rest of Lord Whelan’s forces. Even though they had Astrás completely surrounded, Weasel and his army had a daunting task before them: Get past double-layered walls coated with deflector and particle shields with a huge moat between the layers. Seeing no other option, Weasel ordered his army to build an extra set of double walls around the city to ensure a perfect blockade. This took quite some time and included the construction of a sea wall. The whole process took about half a year to complete, and was by no means undisturbed: Lord Whelan’s Army sent tanks out from Astrás in an attempt to disrupt production numerous times, but the Golden Army was always strong enough to rout them before they did any significant damage. When the walls were complete, Lord Whelan tried seven times to unsuccessfully break out before he was eventually killed in an artillery strike during his last attempt. With Lord Whelan’s Army’s will to fight completely gone and the city revolting, they surrendered the next day. Weasel and his army entered the city and forced Lord Whelan’s army to leave Aurea immediately. However, when they left, Lord Whelan’s Army took with them the Key to the Jungle, the artifact that Inquisitor Rhys had first come to the planet looking for. To prevent a further attack, Weasel retouched the walls of Astrás, incorporating the double walls and sea wall he built during the siege into the city’s older defenses, creating the Great Wall of Astrás. However, during the process, Weasel finds this prophecy engraved on a rock on the bottom of the sea: “The army will take. The mirror will break. The horn will call, and the skies will fall.”