Neolandia can be divided into two distinct geographical regions: the great Western Desert, which constitutes about two-thirds of the territory, and the fertile Neolandian Bay, where lives most of the population. The latter, and in particular the capital Shafiz, represented the strategic objective of General Amaya, Commander-in-Chief of the Allied army.

Excluding the sea voyage, there were three viable routes left open to the Allied forces. The Durenian Road, which connected Duren to Shafiz along the northern coast, was discarded because too exposed to the raids of the enemy fleet.

It would also have been possible to reach Neolandian Bay from the south, crossing Del Bar. However, this meant going to tangle with the warring factions, and there was even a risk that some of them would ally with Neoland to prevent them from moving.

Only the Great Caravan Route remained, the road that crossed the desert stopping in the various oases that appeared from time to time among the sands.

General Amaya was aware that such a route would require a great deal of provisions, thus she postponed the advance until she was sure she could feed the army even if she did not find supplies along the way. This obviously meant a slow and exhausting advance, but Amaya was confident in the capabilities of her army. And she had good reason for it.

Although numerically inferior to the great Virenian invasion army, the allied army was impressive. Fifteen thousand Katolean infantrymen, ten thousand knights of Duren, three thousand chosen elves from Lux Aurea, as well as about thirty elven magicians from all the Xadian nations, twenty siege weapons, and then a large number of engineers, cooks and service personnel. This stunning war machine well represented the strength of the new alliance, and within a few days managed to easily take the border fortresses and the first oases.

General Amaya was anything but naive, and led the advance with all due caution, fearing that the enemy would use the territory to his advantage for guerrilla operations. However, no Neolandian soldiers appeared for the first weeks of the invasion. In their place, the Allied army had to fight against the scorching heat of the desert: even in this case, however, Amaya had been foresighted. Marching at night and rationing the water between one well and the other, the army came in sight of the oasis of Alkhir, only three days away from the edge of the desert, without practically fighting.

This time, however, the oasis was not defenseless. Skywing explorers reported seeing a hundred tents, which prompted Amaya to send a large detachment of cavalry to clear the passage to the main troop.

It was, alas, a trap. A large number of Neolandians were waiting, hidden by dark magic. The knights were greeted by a shower of arrows, and then attacked by soldiers who appeared from nowhere. Only the prompt intervention of the same general with reinforcements managed to prevent the knights from being completely annihilated. However, the bulk of the army was left without a leader.

Suddenly, with a fierce cry, from behind the dunes emerged horses and war camels. It was not dark magic this time: Ilehas had purchased with the proceeds of the raids of his ships the alliance of the warlike tribes of the desert, very skilled to camouflage between the sands. The Durenian knights charged only to be thrown from the saddle: in fact, the smell of camels is unbearable for horses, frightening them. The cavalry fell back to the Katolean infantry, disrupting their formations.

The enemy attack, however, had to stop in front of the swords and the magic of the elves: the intervention of the units of Lux Aurea from the rear, in particular, allowed Colonel Gren to reorganize his men. The Katolean counterattack was ruthless: having lost the surprise effect the enemies were repelled with heavy losses, until they retreated, vanishing into the desert as quickly as they had arrived.

The Battle of the Alkhir Oasis caused only marginal losses to the Allied army, but since then and for the next week almost every day the army had to face similar attacks, sometimes even at night. Each time the losses were minimal, but the clashes forced the army to slow down.

Eventually, however, the ferocity of the camel-tamer tribes had to surrender to the superior Allied forces: on the third day of July, after almost a month of crossing, the army came out of the desert and entered the Neolandean coast.

The flying explorers could see in the distance the white towers of Shafiz, surrounded by the most fertile fields of the kingdom, which gave two harvests a year thanks to the richness of that blessed soil. In front of the city a sea of white tents: the enemy army was determined to give battle to defend the capital.

The Neolandians were more numerous than expected: Lord Ilehas had reinforced his troops with a large number of mercenaries paid with the plunder of his fleet, to which had been added even some Katolean deserters. The skywing scouts reported gigantic war monsters, with immense and abominable protuberances on the muzzle and accumulated tusks: they were in reality only elephants, animals typical of Neolandia to the point of appearing in their banners, but completely unknown to Xadia. Most of all, howewer, Amaya was concerned about the presence of dark magicians: unmistakable in their elaborate dark tunics, they roamed the enemy camp planning who knows what wickedness.

At this point the clash was inevitable to end the war quickly: the two armies met on the sixth of June, at the first light of dawn.

We can give a detailed account of the Battle of Shafiz. Taleq himself, in fact, fought there as a magician, and later recounted the experience with great detail in the twelfth chapter of his Chronicle.

The elephants opened the fight: trained in ferocity and massacre and skillfully led with sharp goads by their trainers, they represented the secret weapon of the Neolandians, who jealously guarded the secret of their domestication.

In retrospect, we can say that that first, fateful moment was enough to decide the rest of the battle: if the pachyderms had managed to break up the allied ranks, the first enemy attack would have been enough to send the army routed. Amaya knew this well, and had prepared herself accordingly. As soon as the enemy elephants were at the right distance, at the signal of the trumpet, the Katoleans closed their formations leaving wide spaces within their array in which the elephants, launched at too high speed to change direction, slipped. At that point the Durenian knights were able to encircle the pachyderms and target them with arrows, remaining out of range thanks to their superior agility. Some of those majestic animals fled to the desert, most were killed, dragging their knights with them to death. At that point Amaya advanced the bulk of the troop, and Ilehas did the same: infantry and horsemen collided, on both sides men and elves fought and died, but for every soldier who fell immediately behind there was another ready to take his place. The Neolandians, freshly enlisted, were not well trained as the allied troops but compensated with determination: a soldier always fights with greater vigour when he is in friendly territory, because he knows that his own home and family will be in danger if he is defeated.

Meanwhile, a parallel battle was fought over the heads of the fighters: an even more frightening one. The magicians of both armies fought each other with spells and counterspells. Never since ancient Elarion had so many magicians taken part in a battle: even during the famous battle of the Storm Spire, Lord Viren had used only his power and that of his daughter Claudia. the Neolandians, however, had gathered almost all of the dark magicians of the human realms, even those-an they were the most-not usually engaged in war. Taleq's words are illuminating in this regard:

"I found myself commanding a group of three magicians. Two of them came from Duren, one from Katolis. Until a few months ago they were doctors and scholars-now they had become soldiers. We knew well that for us dark magicians there was no place in the new world that the King of Katolis was shaping: for us, it was a matter of winning or disappearing."

For their part, the elven magicians fought led by religious fury, to eradicate once and for all dark magic, the cancer that had so long polluted the world. Dark and primary magic collided as flashes of energy, explosions of fire and winds of death scourged the field, reaping countless lives.

But the use of magic has a high cost to the mind and body, and that of dark magic in particular. Exhausted by fatigue, the magicians retreated without either side having achieved tangible success, leaving the task of deciding the fate of the battle to the ordinary soldiers.

By the time the sun was setting, General Amaya thought the moment was right. At the head of fresh forces she had kept in reserve, she charged personally against the enemy left flank, which gave signs of failure. The enemies began to retreat, and soon the retreat turned into a disorderly rout.

Instead of falling back to Shafiz, most of the Neolandians ran to the hills or to the coast, where many were rescued by the fleet. Amaya could have sent his knights to slaughter the enemy, but she did not, judging that at that point Ilehas would be forced to capitulate, having lost both the army and the capital. A noble decision, but unfortunately, as we shall see, harbinger of disastrous consequences.

At the time, however, Amaya had every right to be proud: the enemy was overthrown, the battle won, and although many had perished, her army had proved to be more than worthy of his fame. Even the allies had behaved in the best way.

The next day, on the 7th of July, the allied army entered Shafiz, and Amaya was able to pass the doors of the Ivory Palace as a triumphant.

The opulent capital of the kings of Neolandia was at the mercy of the victors.