With the death of the angels the greatest obstacle in his path to victory had been removed, leaving only the mass of soldiers to deal with on his way to the capital proper. A rather long and tiring slog to be sure, purely due to the sheer numbers standing between him and the city, but when compared with the lenght of the campaign, had the Echlisiarchy not listened to his 'invitation' to one last decisive battle, it was just a quick few hour, on in this case a quick few days worth of effort. So, Rex was more than willing to put in the work now for more free time later. The auction was just behind the corner after all.
The temporary lack of agression from the constructs in the near vicinity of Rex's battle with the angels had given quite a few of the defenders the chance to witness the event, causing most of them to slink even deeper in both fear and panic. Quite a number of the smarter men at the front line of the combat dropped their weapons and ran away in utter panic, some even screaming incomprehensible things. Rex, of course ulitilized the temporary advantage his display of might had caused, renewing the ferocity of his attack on the chaff of the defending army. He had to admit, he was slightly suprised, seeming just how many of said defenders continiued to stand their ground and be fed into the meatgrinder that was his incoming freshly summoned blood constructs, still being made and churned out from the spell circle that he had deployed a while ago.
Rex's excitement had also calmed down after the angels were dispatched, allowing him to once again asume a proper controll over his monster horde, even if his subconscious processing had done more than just a good job of keeping the main horde efficient, reaping a large numer of the relatively poorly equiped soldiers. His goals did not change, but a note of their strong convictions and unwavering will, for the most part, had to be marked somewhere in his memory. Even with the deserters, there were still a lot of them holding ground and trying their best to kill, or, if that fails, to at least form a containing field that somehow weakens the enemy at hand. There were even a few trully crazed warrioirs who tried to reach him personally, even after the previous display, a glint of insanity reflecting in their eyes. They were swiftly dispatched by Rex of course, once they were close enough to do so. And with basically full tank, and a rather strong desire to speed up the progress rate of this slaughterhouse, Rex once again dived into the fray, wis recently evolved blade reaping through anyone in his path, once again restarting the melody of the soul shaking cries as his blade reaped the lives of the enemies in the droves.
With each passing minute, more and more of the defenders fell, both to his blade and the constructs, with the defenders every now and then breaking one or several of his constructs in return. Unfortunately for the defending force around here, more constructs were created than the defenders could take them out, creating an endless cycle that the people defending had no way out of. They could only hang on for their dear lifes and hope that in some way or form either their god, or anyone else really, would appear and save them from the coming end. Rex had a suspicion that the leaders of the Echlisiarchy will try to exaust him by just trowing bodies his way, hoping he would eventually slip up. That was their only choice right now as well, what with their top level power houses, in the form of the angles, had already been dispatched. Maybee they should have waited longer before the angels ingaged, but who could have expected that so many of the celestial beings would be taken out with nominal damage to the enemy forces. No, the normal expectation was for said celestials to wipe the floor with the invaders faces, with maybee some light casualities on the teocracies side.
And so, with no other viable choice, the leadership of the defending force did exactly as expected, trowing their last hope on the chance of exausting the invading archons energy and then send out what remains of their elite forces in one final desperate attempt to cut off the serpents head. Its not like they knew Rex had unlimited supply of energy using drain, ensuring such a scenario could never happen as long as there are targets to drain. And with the nature of his activities, there was always something to drain.
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"Its been two days of nonstop fightning already. Can't that damn hellspawn tire out already and start making mistakes?!" In frustration exclaimed councilmember Zeke. As a member of a dead noble clan and on his way out of council, for exact same reason, he was one of the more aggrieved lords present at the table. Even if his fall coud not be avoided he wanted to drag the damn reason for his conundrum down with him as well. No matter how corrupt and despicable he was, there were still embers of the noble arrogance and haughtiness in his character.
"It is indeed vexing. No man should have such stamina without some sort of an adverse effect. Maybee a spell that delays or dissipates exaustion, or something similar?" Questioned council member Marr. yet another lord on their way out of the council, if the words of the damn archon were credible. After this war, their council would no longer be council of twelve, but council of ten, though both Marr and Zeke representatives, while seething with rage and hatred, could still see the possibility of their nation falling entirely.
And in such a case, they were more than a little interested in how the former territories of Echlisiarchy would split up, creating countless small city states that would be absorbed by the larger neighbors, providing with countless oportunities to start anew. Annoying prospect, but much better thatn the alternative of being left in the dust with nothing to their names but the clothes they are wearing. The result of a succesfull defence that sees their adversiary destroyed. Still, they harbored too much hatred, as well as understanding of the enemy at hand. Should they help him out in any way, form or shape, their end would no doubt be the same as the rest of the council- dead and six feet under, and that was if the enemy was feeling generous. No, all the two fallen nobles could do was wait and pray for mutual destruction of both Echlisiarchy and the attacking forsaken. There was a common sentiment among the councils members. And said sentiment circled around even stricter methods of forsaken extermination going forward. They would redouble their efforts, both within their own nation, as well as outside of it.
"Their army has already cut through more than a hundred thousand troops as well. Sure, they were mere peasants and the weakest of the warriors, but still we will feel the impact of this war for years to come. Both domestically and abroad. And while I understand that it is neccesary due to our circumstances, note that most of our able bodied men had been drafted in this enourmous army of ours. Too high losses might open us to the agression of our neighbors." speoke another councilmember.
"How close are the mages to the completion of their ritual?" suddenly asked counciman Bairon, comandeering the discussions and attention of the remaining eleven members the moment he opened his mouth.
"i believe they still need another day to finalize it." quickly replied one of the advisors present.
"Then we have no other choice but to continiue as we have. patience is all we have now. We cannot risk failiure at this moment. The enemy is too strong to make another grand mistake like the one with the angels." one again spoke councilman Bairon, bringing their discussion to an end.
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Rex had been working hard for two days straight now, cutting through hordes of men. Sure, each and every one of them was a weakling of absolute proportions, but he still had a job to be done, so bottling his annoyance at the pathethic opponents sent his way, he continiued on, river of blood forming in his wake. It would have been boring on its own, but there was a small silver lining in all of the repetitive, boring and alltogether uninspired slaughter he was now wading through.
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Rex had sensed a rather large amount of mana being moved and molded within the city behind the still enourmous army, clearly some sort of a trump card ment to turn the tables. Rex, unable to resist the temptation, allowed for it to continiue as it had been, at the same time amassing ludicrous amounts of blood and energy one of the spell cirles he had created that was regurgitating blood constructs every now and then. Rex could not, in good consciousness, leave the Echlisiarchy hanging, prepearing his own little somehing special in response to the mana convergence and manipulation happening behind the battlefield.
On the third day after teh fall of the angels, Rex saw the change in the ritual the enemy had been prepearing for the last few three days, signaling the next stage of their confrontation. Rex asumed the enemy was throwing their last and most desperate attempts at him now, most likely panicking after their surefire trump card of the angels failed so spectacularily. Rex, in response also wrapped up his own spell, his preperations long since done, though he had continiued to siphon the blood of the freshly slain soldiers all the same. The more blood the better and stronger his new construct would be after all. And he had collected quite the amount too, having slain almost two hundred thousand enemies with the help of his construct army, that had finally joined him, having pushed through a veribale mountain of bodies by now.
A couple of hours later, it finally started. A huge blood red mana circle expanded out from the far end of the enemy army, enveloping most of them in its bloody colour. Then, something that caused Rex jaw to drop happened. Countless scream and wails joined in a chorus, creating the atmosphere of some cirlce of hell. The defenders, one after the other, keeled over on the ground, insane pain coursing through their bodies, bringing forth even more of the painfull moans and screams. Then, with another flash of the enourmous mana circle covering the soldiers, the second change happened. The wailing soldiers suddenly stopped at the same time, a miniscule red smoke rising frome each and every one of them. Then the soldiers rose to their feet, their eyes blank, but the same red steam slowly escaped from the corners of their eyes and rose into the air.
Rex could see the muddled, trans like state the soldiers were drawn ito, as well how the spell had affected the enemy army. He could clearly see how the array was putting the army in a state of berserk, while at the same time burning up their blood and life force to elevate their power by a considerable margin. It was nothing more or less than a suicide attack that had been innitiated here, and thanks to his ravens flying high in the sky he could also see the extent of the spells range. A few hundred thousand soldiers had been affected. And after a slight pause,each and every one charged towards Rex and the nearest constructs around him.
Rex could not figure out whether to laugh or be enraged by the sheer audacity and stupidity of the enemy. They had used a rage scale blood and soul magic to turn their defebders into suicide fighters, all in hopes to break most of his army. The sheer difference in numbers finaly could be utilized by his enemy. And as effective as a strategy this was, it should be called incredibly wastefull, what with the number of ther own citizens they were sacrifising. And sure, they would all die under Rex or his construct 'blades' but that still did not excuse the absolute waste of recourses the teocracy was now making. As a blood and sould mage of quite high atainment, Rex was perfectly ware just how crude and inefficient the spell right now performed was, iritating him a great deal.
Rex could feel his eye twitching as he examined the makeup of the magical circle, noting a mistake after mistake with its creation and the concept behind its drawing, causing greater and greater disdain for whoever was the creator and executioner of teh circle he was witnessing right now.
"Grrrrrrrrrr." Angry and growling exhale escaped his throat as he could no longer stand in place as long as that abomination of a blood ritual took place, thus he raised his own hand and activated his own prepeared spell, casuing a similar red shine erupt behind him. Unlike the magical cirlce of the enemy, the one coming to life behind Rex did no expansion, though it did erupt with a powerfull light upwards on its own. then a powerfull, core shaking roar erupted from the large spell cirle behind Rex.
Using Rex magical cirlce as a gate of sorts, from the other side of that door shot out a trully massive speciment of a blood sky serpent. An enourmous, hundred meter long train sized eastern dragon errupted into the sky, releasing yet another cry one it was high in the clouds.
"Tear them apart. Leave nothing alive in your wake." Rex spoke in a cold and detached tone, though it was laced with a taste of anger. The dragon construct, even though high in the sky, who should not have heard the command, suddenly dived down towards the human berserk force, releasing a blood red breath attack, melting hundreds with the wide area attack, though it seemed to have done nothing to affect the morale of the remaining living and charging berserkers. The dragon then quickly looped around in the sky, releasing yet another devastating dragon breath crossing the incoming horde or the charging men, leaving a line of scorched earth and burnt to a crisp flesh behind, that was quickly covered up with the remaining charging men, trying to close the distance and reach Rex.
"Yet another reason to sould drain those cunts at their decision making table." Rex sneered, drew Limitless and stepped towards the charging horde, his hand bent for a wide slashing attck. The next moment he was in the midst of the raging wariors, slicing dozens apart with a single strike, at the same time moving to not get bogged down. The dragon also crash landed a decent distance away from Rex, using its monstrous body as a weapon to crush and tear his enemies apart. The rest of his blood constructs also resumed their slaughter, though now achieving a notably slower progress, credit of the insane ritual the Echlisiarchy had performed.
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"WHAT IN THE GODS NAME IS THAT??" Exclaimed Sorianna Pratis, daughter of duke Pratis and a high palading of the Echlisiarchy, as she looked towards the enourmous dragon tearing apart their berserkers. Viliam Pratis, her twin brother, another high paladin of the church, stood by her side, with a solemn and grave expression on his face as well.
"It looks like a dragon, though not a species I have ever seen or heard about." he replied calmly, but weariness clear on his voice.
"Duhh." With an eye roll Sorianna reacted to the explanation. "I am well aware of what it is. How the fuck can a single man call forth something like that? And worse, keep on going like it was not even worth mentioning? That is what I want to understand, dear brother of mine."
"Want to go over and ask?"
"Do I look stupid to you?"
"Was that a retorical question, or do you want an answer?"
"Urghhh. You are imposible." she groaned, then turned her head to a lightly armored man to the side of her, away from the duo.
"Inform the council that the target is even more powerfull than innitially asumed. We seem to be facing a peak SS or even possibly SSS class threat. Have them informed of the likely fall of both the order and the Echlisiarchy. In the name of God, go."
The lightly armored man nodded and quickly dissapered from the wall, leaving the sibling duo alone once again.
"Think we stand a chance sister?"
"Not a chance. He will slaughter us like the babes the cursed nobles are so keen on ending."
"You think the prophet was wrong, starting his crusade against the archons?" the brother asked.
"Just as wrong as the nobles in their sinfull practices. But, we are but paladins, the hand that purifies the enemies of our god. We are no priests, we do not lead the flock. We have no right to question those above us, even if we know just how wrong their actions are."
"Right you are sister. We are but the blade, cutting down whatever the hand holding us swings towards."
"Come, let us perform our last duty towards this rotten state. Our God will await us with open arms and a smile for our service." She spoke as the due turned and left the wall, walking towards one of the nearby platforms, where a squad of twelve men stood, all adorned in golden armor with sun rising over a sea, each stationed by the side of a pegasus.
"COMANDER!" the twelve men thundered with the arival of the siblings.
"Come men, our God awaits us in his kingdom, but we have one last act of service to fullfill. As the trueborn paladins before us, we too must fall in battle, and what better battle than one that threatens the end of our nation. LETS GO AND SHOW WHAT TRUE VALOR IS TO THAT BOY THERE!!"
"WRAAAAAAA!!!" a shout of unity with weapons clanginf against their shield resounded and the squad mounted their pegasus and rose in to the air, their destination clear- the kingdom of their Lord.