With Rex on the wall, slicing any and all oppositon to pieces, his construct army recieved slightly less of a magial pelting, what with the rather large paladin garrison stationed here as well as the numerous buffs aforementioned paladins were recieving from the oracles. Rex could see the value of a group of oracles in any large scale fight, being granted numerous spells that enhanced strenght, speed and other atributes of their allies, thus ensuring them a much greater range of choices when it came to engagement and battle. He could even see how the concentrated range firepower of the paladins managed to take down quite a few of Rex's weaker constructs, showing the rather solid might the now heavily buffed attacks could deliver onto their targets.

And even as his constructs were slowly wittled down, Rex did not change his approach. He was still hacking through any paladin who came in his range of attack. He had no need for the paladins after all, but the oracles, well, they had a much darker life ahead of them, and so, Rex used non lethal strikes on any good loking woman who came into his range to knock them unconscious. Then, he quickly changed his location, away from the knowcked out person, and while he was earning the enemys attention, a few of the better developed constructs spirited away the unconscious ladies.

Still, even with all the bombardment his construct army recieved, the infiltrator constructs that were spiriting away the unconscious oracles not including, said army reached the walls suprisingly quickly regardless. And once they were at the walls, the special body of a sky serpents gave a part of the army just enough traction to get up and over the walls, marking the true beggining of the way their fort would fall. Rex strategy was rather simple, though the overwhelming difference in power between both sides made it irrelevant. No matter how many of his constructs would be taken down, he could simply recover them during the the anihilation of other cities that were on his path to absolute victory.

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Adriana was standing in the middle of one of the largest groups of oracles, focusing on empowering the strongest of their paladin squad to ensure that no construct could trully get past the walls, and yet, even with their best efforts, there were more than one that had slipped past their blocade. There was simply too many of them coming over the wall. For whatever reason those snake like monsters could scale said wall and barrel over it and due to the sheer amount, no matter how fast their paladin squads moved, some still slipped past the kill zone on the fort walls, starting to create chaos deeper into their fortified city.

And that was the least of their problems. The true archon she had spoken to before battle was not the summoner, there was simply no way for it to be so, the sheer power and skill the man displayed with his sword, cleaving their defenders in halves with nearly each and every swing of his extremely sharp blade. And no matter how heavily their defenders got buffed and strenghtened, the man cleaved through them with the same ease. The half mad smile of the man made facing him even more daunting for any paladin who had the misfortune to cross paths with him. And the speed he displayed was equally frightening, reminding her of the absolute conviction when he spoke of their victory.

A rather nasty chill went down her spine when she noticed yet another peculiarity around the man and the carnage around him. All she could see were the corpses of the paladins, even though there were quite a few oracles within those groups at the begining of said groups entanglement with the man. And then, a few minutes later she saw the scene that sent the chill down her spine. As the man was cutting down the paladins he knocked the more beautifull oracles out cold, then moved himself a bit further away from the unconscious girl, then then it happened. As if a chameleon reversing its disguise, a rather unqiue looking serpent construct apeared next to the girl, picked her up and dissapeared one again. That reminded her of the mans goals for the oracles, and she felt bitter as her jaw clenched hard.

"WHY?" she cried out in pain. Of course she knew, but that did not make it any easier. And true, the man had survived something horrible, true that her oracles were not the best of people, what with their rather narow minded outlooks on life and hatred towards archons, but they had not benn the ones who decided his fate. So why not go after the real culprits, why release your anger on random bystanders. And as much as it enraged her, she would have to wait until the end of this savage act for more answers, asuming both would be alive once the fight ends.

And then, as she focused on spreading her reach and strenghtening towards as many of their remaining paladins as she could, two critical situations unfolded. First, one part of the wall holding back the most of the enemies monsters, collapsed after a particularily loud crash, revealing a path of almost no resistance for the horde on the other side, eancreasing the numbers of monsters that were now pouring into the city, even if their mages and wall defenders had cut down quite a few on their aproach.

The second critical turn was teh man himself appearing near instantly near their paladin commanders group. Adriana tried her best to conjure a barrier to save them, and yet, just like how she had seen before, the sword went through said barrier and the paladins fancy armor, impaling the poor soldier in the chest.

"You are doing great so far, no small thanks to the oracles." the man smirked as he spoke in a rather clear cut common tongue that Adriana picke up from where she stood. "Hope your men keep this up. I would like for them to last long enough untill any sort of assisting army arrives. It is a rather nice warm up for the real fight after all." That froze bothe her and the paladin commander in shcok for just a moment, and yet, that moment was entirely enough to provide the archon with enough of a hole in the paladins defences to end their exchange their and now. And so the life of their paladin comander came to and end.

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Rex had just dispatched the palading comander who had annoyed him back during their pre- battle talk. Now that he had done away with the fool he quickly took in both his surroundings as well as the progress of his army overall. Needless to say most of the things were going according to plan, besides the slightly larger cassuality rate among his constructs. Clearly Rex had undersold the capabilities of the oracles, thus making the slight mistake in his further planning. And regardless of the slight mistake on his part, the battle was still going in his way, most definetly so as well. Palading warriors died left and right, as his constructs roughened up the oracles assisting said paladins and dragged their unconscious bodies towards his current holding grounds for said women.

Rex could feel nothing but pride in the quality of his army. Sure, he was controlling them all. Sure they felt no paint and the like, that allowed for much more flexibility on the battlefield, both in large and in individual combat. Still, there were always ways to improve everything, his army included. As he cut through the remaining of the elite paladin squad their commander was a part of, he considered a few different forms for future construct soldiers to shore up any deficiencies to the current setup. His mind was positively buzzing with countless new ideas that were though over quite hard, all the while he kept feeding his beloved blade more and more blood as he plowed through paladins.

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Two hours. TWO FUCKING HOURS! That was all it had taken the man and his army to utterly devastate their defending paladin garrison and capture most of the oracles. Their unqiue perk of being rather beautifull, one and all, had ensured the constructs did their damn best to capture alive as many of them as possible, and now Adriana could do nothing but curse at the overwhelming might they had experienced. Sure, she knew they were strong. Sure, she had a rather powerfull sense of foreboading she had felt back when the barrier over their natiom had first formed, just like the foreboading feeling before the battle, telling they would lose. Still, she chose to side with the other oracles, believing the man woudl have failed and so she had to maintain her position, giving her more oprions to save any archon who fell in the pawas of her country.

But alas, that was not to be. The army, as well as the man himself turned out to be an unstoppable force that just swept through their fortress city. The worst part of it all? She saw the man brand countless of her sisters, herself including in a short amount of time. Now that had been harrowing experience. Not only was she and most other oracles made into soul slaves, but the man turned out to be even more terrifying than he had ever asumed.

With Vella sleeping, the man hadnt bothered keeping up any facades as he opened a portal, through which came a rather young woman, who adressed him as Rex, thus providing Adriana with a name, finally. And a name she had heard of as well. The young and insanely talanted blood mage of Blythe. But just how much off those rumors were. The man was not just talanted. No, he was damn exception . An unreasonable existance, that performed a feat that was, for all intent and purposes, impossible. The raw power of ones soul, as well as the amount of mana neccesary for such a mass enslavement ritual would take weeks to set up, months even. Not to mention the unreasonable toll it would take on the mind and soul of the one who would perform such a rite. And even more scarry was the fact the man did the whole ritual in mere moments, as if it was as easy as making a sandwitch. Whats worse, she and her oracle sisters were no F, or E ranks. No they were high B to peak A class entities, with herself being firmly in the middle of the S class, serving as a multiplyer for the power necesary. And even still, he pulled it all off regardless.

So was it any wonder then that the result of the siege was just as the man had anticipated? She reasoned that Rex was at the mid to high end SS class power levels. Some part even feared that his unique ability to enslave could put him in the mythical SSS class. Or maybee he would be given the unique X class entity designation. Super dangerous individuals with unique and unreasonable aspect to their powers. His blood magic for sure qualified. She had realized that the army was blood constructs after all. And that, that terrified her. Just how many people had been killed in the process of making the unholy creatures. And sure, the constructs only needed blood to be made, and sure, it could have been any monster blood as well, but she just felt it in her being that was not the case. No, these constructs, they were made in the wake of countless humanoid deaths, that was for sure.

And then, as she saw the other oracles escorted through a portal, she could do nothing but worry about the fates of the captured women as well the things promised by the man that loomed on the horizon for them. That was a terrifying prospect, if Rex spoke even an ounce thruth way back then. She herself, yet another soul slave of his now, was not overly worried about her own fate. The man had kept her seperate from the other oracles. Clear indication of the different clasification she had been given in Rex's mind. No, she was forced to watch as their home was destroyed, no living beings remaining behind and the corpses of the paladins and the oracles who did not pass the selection, were touched by the serpents and then their bodies scattered into the winds as mana dust moment later, leaving only their clothing and equipment behind.

That too was a scary though. That in case of her death there would be nothing but her belongings left behind, with no body for any who cared for you to bury and say goodbyes to. Yes, she was beginning to dread her would be master for the rest of her life. Yet, before she could spiral even deeper into abyss of fear and despair, she was pulled out of that state by a laugh from her new master. Master. Just how weird and at the same time natural it felt to adress him as such. Adriana immediatly recognized the power of the brand at work, though there was nothing she could do regarding that. Nothing at all.

"Would you look at that. Marr family has graced us with quite the force after all. And here I thought they would just huddle up in their capital. It seems they do care about their sweet little force multiplyer after all." Rex laughed, more than happy with the turn of the events.

"I suppose I have to thank you for that one as well. It is so much easier to destroy your armise when I dont have to siege the cities. It just takes much less time after all. Rejoice, you will have the privilage of seeing a proper carnage ow so soon after your initiation."

Rex smiled a rather bloodthirsty and happy smile towards the woman, swooped her into a princess carry and jumped, quickly landing on the palaquin where Vella was now sleeping, and with a single movement of his arm, the blood constructs moved out, presumably on the intercept rout for the human army. Adriana was even more worried now. The absolute hapiness regarding the incoming army, as well as the confidence radiating from him did not bode good news for Echlisiarchy.

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Carnage. There was no other way to describe what she was seeing right in front of her eyes. Or better yet, a massacre. Pure and unfiltered massacre. And extremely one sided too, especially after he had brought back a small group of oracles who were the very best and most skilled among their order. Then, they were told to cast a few relatively low power buffs over most of the army, and due to the sould brands there was no disobeying the orders. And so, with the slight empowerment they had deployed, the construct army tore through the incoming reinforcements like a hot knife through butter. What was worse, Rex used the numerous slain soldiers to create even more of his blood constructs, that immediatly joined the fray, slaughtering even more of the already desperate men on the opposite side.

She mourned and prayed, for every man who fell, who would fall. Not only during this current slaughter, but for the men that were to come after too. She was well aware by now, courtesy of Rex, what was to come. What had happened so far, ever since th barrier had been erected. And she was scared. Terrified even. Not only had the counties been quite literary ran through, each and every major city and even most of the villages being purged and razed, but even the duchies could not hold back against Rex power. And the barrier prevented them from banding together for one final and desperate confrontation against the anthitesis of theirs. For Rex was exacty that.

And the girl whi had joined? Her masters sister. Arana. She could tell, courtesy of her class, that the girl had gone through quite the traumatic experience, and even with the slow healing she could see happening with the young womans psyche, there was still a long road to go for full recovery. That was all and good, but what did not calm her down was the apparent method that the sibblings used to actually threat her. Rex would routinely dicert a few of the soldier towards them, split them apart and then one by one, they would engage Arana, slowly get overwhelmed, courtesy of Rex's training and the special gear she was wearing, if the girl was to be believed, and then Arana would proceed to slowly torture them to death as they lost more and more of the ground. In case Arana would have recieved any serious injury during any of the fights, an invisible barrier would take the hit for the girl, she would then be pulled away from the attacker, and would the nonce again engage anew. Once said attacker would be felled, Rex would point out the mistakes made and orders to improve said deficiencies. Then, after a small window of reflection, Arana would engage the next 'training dummy' Rex had pulled towards them.

And even worse still was the opressive mana waves Rex expelled from his body into the battlefield, making the natural mana in the surroundings supercharged and chaotic, effectively crippling all spell casting in the area. Due to that, only internal magic, or any spells sacted using only internal mana would work properly. An action that did not interfere with his army whatsoever, them being blood constructs and all, with the oracles ordered to not even recast their buffs once thes would expire. No, he had made the field of carnage a pure game field for him and his, and thus, the bloodbath did not last much longer than the siege that had felled her home fortress city.