In Rahen, the holy capital of the Echlisiarchy, enourmous activity could be sensed. Countless people were scurrying around, documents or boxes of goods in their hands. Countless agents had been amassing in the capital following the threatening message they had heard in every large city and even most villages across their nation. It had then been confirmed the barrier locking each of their territories away from the rest had indeed been somewhat dissolwed, allowing them to interact with each other on a normal basis, though that did little to stem the ever growing worry the people had. When was the last time their nation had faced such crisis? In the face of such threat, who could calmly go on with their day. What was worse was that it had was apparently lead by an archon, filled with rage over their holy mission of bettering the world. Most people of the world would argue that the echlisiarchians were nothing more than crazed zealots, no better than savages in that regard, but what can one expect from a barbarian with barely any culture.
Regardless, the possibility of the threat had to be adressed, even more so due to the fact they could not contact any of the supposedly defeated members of their nobility. Not a single respons from the lands of the counts, nor any from Zeke or Marr families. In addition to the fact their territories were still inaccesible, the worry did not lessen. That was untill a couple of days later they had one of the county territories open up for their scouts to explore.
What came back to their council meeting painted a clear picture on the gravity of their situation. The scout reports were clear. Not a single populated area had been found in their exploration efforts, and the places that just a few months ago had been bustling cities, or even the capital of said region, were nothing more than ruins, left behind after absolute devastation. Even worse still was the absence of any proper tracks of any kind of army moving in and out of city, as well as the lack of both bodies or burial sites. It was obviously impossible to avoid bloodshed, their fellow countrymen would not have fallen without a proper struggle against the invader. Even more so in said attacker was a forsaken. And yet, the discovery did not lie and they could not figure out the reasons for said oddity.
Still, with the threat real, the proof of it clearly decisive, it was in the hands of their councill to make the right decisions. A member of each duchy sat upon a seat there after all, though still there was not a unifying decision bringing them all together. Sure, they all agreed that the threat was real, but beyond that, there was a disparity in oppinions. Some clearly supported the idea to put all of their seldiers into repelling the attack on the capital,destroying the coming threat with overwhelming might, suggesting to even summon all of the aviable angels from their cities, to ensure swift and brutal victory. Othere were more suspicious, believing that the announcement was deceptive in nature, hoping to draw their armies away from their domains, leaving the mopen for an easy pillaging and looting, striking at theur supply bases and homes to lower their morality.
And then, of course, there were the few who looked at it all like a farce, even with all the evidence clearly showing otherwise, reasoning the lack of asistace from their god, implying it was nothing more than the plan of their god, thus making their people perfectly adequate to deal with the trial offered. though such overzealous and shortsighted reasoning was obviously their play for whatever reason. Still, the rather split points of view did ensure no proper arangement was reached in the immediate time.
And so on the council members went on for more than an hour, sugesting a joint operation all right, though consisting of a much smaller part of their own respective forces, or just outright letting the capitals rather sizable garrison of the paladins, hoint by their guardian angels to sweep the ground with the foolish attacker and his force. That was, untill finally, the only man whose words could sway the rest of the council spoke. Councilman Bairon, the last patriarch of the bairon family and a decorated general in his own right. The old man had taken down more than one city of their enemies in his younger days and now, now the man had plethora of knowledge and experience to perform all the better in the tasks laid in front of him.
"They will strike full force at the capital." his words solemn, yet certain. "It would seem the enemy desires one final large confrontation, winner takes all, would be my guess." he continiued.
"What makes you think so, sir?" asked one of the other council members, clear respect and a small amount of reverence in the younger mans tone.
"The little traces we have recovered from the ruins of the cities and villages in the only open county paints a clear picture. They have been at it since the barrier was placed around us, isolating and seperating our grand nation, thus allowing the enemy to conquer us one by one. And it seems said enemy is growing annoyed, or tired, or perhaps bored. Regardless, it is one huge battle he desires, and it its my strong belief we should oblige, since there will be no better chance for us to cut off the snakes head."
"How so?" questioned another.
"Just think." sneered the old lord. "When else are we going to get the chanceto unite our forces, if not when our enemy is generous enough to allow us do so. our only other option is to sit back and wit for the enemy to close the barriers once again and proceed to take us out, one by one. It seems rather clear that both Zekes and Marrs have been done in in a similar manner, and I would prefer we do not follow in their footsteps. And even if it were some sort of a trap, with our combined efforts we should have more than enough power to not only spring but also neutralize said trap. So, that is as much a win- win scenario for us as it is for them, though with home court advantage, we should be more than capable of taking care of it."
With the slow nodding of their heads in agreement, the rest slowly fell back in line, eventually agreeing to the proposal of the older man, thus, soon after, the order to molibilize anyone they could began. With only the orders in their hands, countless scouts lelf the capital minutes later, each riding their fastest mounts to complete their missions. The greatest battle for the survival of their nation, faith and ways had been confirmed, sparking a never before seen rally for their cause a surge of patriotism. Little did they know that the cause of all of this was remotely witnessing their surging faith and rise in their spirit, only to chuckle at their emotional unity. To him, it did not matter, for his goal was clear, even as he lounged on a rather comfortable sofa with a beauty on either side, enjoying the momentary lull in schedule.
For the coming month Rex did little more than relax with his women and spending quality time with Arana. As his sister, the woman was quite happy to spend time with her brother and his women, seeing as she had lost years worth of time due to Echlisiarchy and was more than willing to make up for the lost time now. Rex also had no reason not to cater to said whimm of the woman, she had been healing quite well under their care. So much so that there was barely any indication just how broken she had been when they met one another.
He had also been to a couple of the meeting with Eredar, Brogni and Victor regarding the fast aproaching auction, and he had told them he hopes to finish up his work inside the Echlisiarchy's barrier before auctions start. He had also dropped off a few of the trinkets he had quired during his looting of the now non existing cities, but nothing he provided was too eye catching. He had even managed to sneak a couple of days of dungeon delving, positively recharging his mental battery in the nostalgic grind of Blythes dungeons deep floors. As Rex himself said after he came back out of it a day later."Ahhhh, that hits the spot."
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Though there was one small errand he had to do, seeing as Mr. Han was quite literaly overloaded and thus, with the older mans instruction in hand, Rex di spend a couple days of his month long vacation to find a few like minded people, who he did not even have to try to convice, A quick read through the letter that was given to Rex by Mr. Han was all that was neccesary for the people in question to eagerly agree, smile spreading on their faces like an infectious and fatal disease.
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And so, the month trickled by unnoticed, with Rex having relaxed quite a bit, quite the opposite situation as the one in the echlisiarchy. The absolute silence on the front of the enemy had not been good for their nerves, even with their military asembly and conscriptions on full swing. Countless thousands of people had been moved to the vicinity of their holy city, each and every one ready and willing to not only repell, but vanquish the foul threat to their realm. Rex had to admit, the speed of their recruitment and deployment was increadibly wast, but then again, it was just as half assed, disregarding the value of said soldiers, treating most of them as nothing more than meat shields for their true elite.
The Echlisiarchy had pulled out all stops, having even activated and moved all of their angels here as well, causing Rex to even smile a bit and lick his lips. The feast he could have if he were to drain them all. It was positively exhilarating as he though of the coming few days. So much so that he had to return to one of the bedrooms to calm down a bit. And so, a few hours later he left the room, so much more calmer and relaxed then he entered. The ladies sprawled on the bed though were exactly the opposite. They were exausted, but with silly smiles on their faces, more than satisfied as well.
And thus, Rex left Elysion and within a couple hours he was floating in the air, a fair few killometers away from the armies of his enemy. And there was a lot of them. If Rex had to guess, over hundred thousand, and that was with a notable number of them well hidden and jept further away from the location. And then there were a few other locations as well with tens of thousands of soldiers, clearly positioned all around the capital to stem the attack of the enemy just long enough for the main force to arrive.
With blood serpent constructs retrieved after the end of Marr duchy's purge, and with much greater numbers now as well, he retreated a fair bit further away, deployed a couple of his portable gates, under a smaller local barrier to prevent being discovered too soon, and called forth his own army. He could barely contain the excitement budding in his system, the bloodline clearly calling for rivers of blood to flow, and boy did he have the capital to make it so. This, he had no doubt, would be a battle to remember for the continent they were on, even if there would be almost no one to actually speak of it. He had no desire to take prisoners. The councill of the corrupt was hiding in the city just behind the enourmous army and Rex felt that they deserved a special treat, once he got his hands on them. It had been a long time since he had drained a still living being to nothingness, and while ussually Rex was content to let his quarry had a decent enough death, leaving their souls intact and free to return to the reincarnation cycles, even if with a pinch of torture, those twelve had crossed his bottomline 'slightly' too much.
As his army poured through the gates he worked on the best stategical aproach and handle of the situation, untill he realized the sheer folly of the thought. It's not like he needed to conserve the lives of the constructs, seeing as they were quite literaly controlled puppets, easily replacable with new ones. All he had to do was to try and save as much S class serpents as he could. Those were harder to produce and depended on luck more often than not to create. So in the end, Rex decided on a rather simple frontal assault with the A class constructs, and then attacking from one flank by himself, creating absolute chaos as a reseult, and then, during said chaos send in his S class constructs from another flank. He himself would move around to firefight in any position the S class and above fighters appear. And while Rex new SS class angels will appear, he did not hold much faith in their insurmountable might as evident by the two he had already taken out, one in capital of Zeke duchy, and the other in the capital of Marr.
It took a solid few hours for his host to move through as well as move in an orderly manner as aranged by Rex himself. The chaff and the meat in in focused more in one position, while the S class constructs were seperated in multiple smaller squads, some of which were mixed in the general chaff, for more chaotic and unpredictable attack pattern, while others were meant as flank and shock force. The fact that the S class constructs did not differ all that much from the A class worked greatly in his favour in the current situation, and Rex would be a fool not to use the advantage it provided.
And so, with his army of constructs fully deployed, reaching around fifty thousand strong, Rex was ready to begin his final true assault on the Echlisiarchy. Sure, he would have to send his constructs to the rest of the cities and villages after this was done, but the civilian population left behind could hardly provide any proper resistance and thus he could leave it all to his background mental processing, thus having the time to fully focus on the auction to come. And while the fifty thousand might seem like nothing much in the face of the enemy's seven hundred thousand, give or take, the fact that his constructs needed no sleep or rest, nor were they in danger of routing, fear or other mental blocks, as well as being A class and ablove, heavily equalized the power levels. In addition, there was Rex himself. A true SSS class killing machine, both as a melee fighter as well a mage. Add to the equasion his ability to create more constructs, as long as there are freshly spilled blood, then on top of it his infinite stamina and mana due to his drain, and suddenly, one might start to consider that Echlisiarchy is heavily outpowered. And they would be right. No one on Rex side, who had even an inkling of his capabilities, though there was any chance whatsoever for the fanatical zealots to win.
As soon as the last rays of sun dissapered behind the horizon, replaced by the pale light of the moon, Rex dispelled the lesser barrier he had deployed, revealing his army to any of the scouts that just so happened to be nearby. The barrier had been constructed rather well, giving off the illusion to anyone who aproached that nothing had changed, And those that 'entered it' were lead around by the nose in an illusion, creating a false sense of perfect order with the place, leading any scouts away none the wiser about the actual state of the place hidden within.
Now however, the hiding was no longer neccesarry, and with a small mental command, his army advanced, quickly raising the speed, untill they were moving at the speed of a galoping horse, creating quite the rucus, as well as a rather large dust cloud. Their target obviously the largest congregation of enemy soldiers. Their main camp consisting of more than five hundred thousand troops by now. The other two hundred thousand were spread around to intercept and stall the enemy should they attack from other sides.
With the speed his army had taken, it took little time to cross the few killometers that seperated his forces from the 'front line' of the Echlisiarchy, allowing Rex's chaff to ram into barely prepeared and quite shaking troops, clearly not ready for such a suprise attack. For how could they be ready? The enemy army quite literaly popped out of nowhere, under their noses, and then charged straight into their camp, leaving little time for the few lucky scouts who noticed their appearance to report it back to the camp and high command, warning them of the incoming army. And with barely any time to prepeare to intercept the charge, it was perfecty normal fopr the front line to be shredded rather heavily. The fact that the soldiers at the very front were barely B class, and thus the chaff and meat shields of the Echlisiarchy, did not help them hold their positions any better. The peak A class constructs just bulldozed over the poor men, starting their rampage, with a rather simple yet brutal command at the forefront of their systems.
"CHAOS AND PANIC!"