V4: Chapter 6:

…

There are people out there who like Goblins.

I'm here to tell you that their playstyle is garbage.

Special elite strike-team reinforcements inserted from the air if your flying city is in the region. Woop-dee-doo, I can just have two armies in the same region, and I can get the same thing.

My capital can't be taken by the enemy unless they have enough flying units in the region? Wow, that's great. It's not like I can just raze and pillage all your tiles and make that one city capable of doing nothing. Wait, I can.

All my troops are cheap and disposable at the start, but they work as tarpits later once I get my ranged units up and running? Wow, that sure is original. I can't imagine literally every other faction doing the same thing with their Tier 0 units the entire fucking game.

Seriously, the Scholars of the Skies is the faction for people who just want to be annoying, who want to park their fully-upgraded city on some unreachable tiles, and get a science victory before anyone else can do shit to them. The ones with actual balls will make game-ending units and blow up our cities and armies with lost technology, but most of their players don't do that. They just… sit around, study, do research, and fucking win.

Garbage faction for garbage people, and I'm allying with anyone who wants to kill them without a thought.

I consider ending a Scholar of the Skies player's game a moral victory.

Thankfully, though, they were proving to be actual, decent opponents that didn't crawl into hiding to research their way to victory in this life.

Well, it's a bad thing that they're actually fighting, since I had to go to war… but, overall, I liked these Scholars more than the ones in the game.

They actually had the decency to go up to you and try to stab you in the face, y'know?

…

Conquest had a frown on her face as she lowered the telescope.

"Another village ravaged and destroyed by your troops before we even arrive. Are you mocking us, King of Wisdom? Do you believe the Conquerors incapable of waging war?" The village in the distance was on the maps, but thanks to my espionage actions, most of the outer territories of the Scholar of the Skies territory was ravaged and burnt to the ground. We advanced quickly through these lands, with our supply line guarded and constant from the FOB. There were a few skirmishes by our patrols and those of the Scholars, but nothing serious. Even the captured troops all said that they volunteered to be some sort of distraction force. "Where is the battle for the prize we have been offered?"

"At the Citadel, I presume." Sirena had her arms crossed as she approached. I really wished she wore more than just tiny metal plates, gold threads, and jewels. I thought things were getting serious and she'd wear actual armor once the fighting started, but all she did differently was pull her hair up. I'm sure that long, high ponytail confers protection against stabbing, lady. "Along with the Guardians, you lot should have no trouble taking it despite all the works of the Scholars."

"The Conquerors can do more. We must do more. The prize is a Citadel after a mere year without it. Honor demands a fair price be paid." Conquest insisted with a furrowed brow. The massive wolf she rode upon was as large as a draft horse, and far stronger. She had two cavalry sabers at her hip and they were as long as I was tall. When she went into battle, everything in front of her was ripped apart by her beast, while she protected its flanks with whirlwinds of steel. She could also do the same charge that the flying Knights did, and could barrel through formations like a freight train. She could give Ilych a run for her money as an army killer for sure. "Especially as you have led us through the lands of the Scholars with so little casualties, King of Wisdom."

"The right idea and the right words solve many problems before they can become problems." I did my best to act with humility. I was doing my best whenever events popped up to mitigate casualties and have my troops ready for the bullshit that was coming our way. Like I said, you can lose your whole army if you pick all the bad event options on the way to an enemy Citadel with the enemy's lands pillaged and open war taking place. I was minimizing casualties to like 30%, getting people healed up, and reinforcements flowing constantly back from base. Just like in the game, the solution was just having enough troops and money to make the bad events fuck off. "I only wish that some of the people that we meet can see reason."

"That they do not accept your mercy is a sign of a tainted and malign soul, oh King of Wisdom." Sirena laid the flattery on quite thickly. Usually, I liked being praised, but a lot of the decisions she was praising me for involved having partisans being killed to the last, making sure no enemy scout survived, and deporting people out of a warzone… which they were in because we were conducting a war against them. Not exactly feeling good about those decisions, lady. "I pray that they return wiser in their next life."

I pray that they're reborn into another world with better circumstances than me. Maybe, with cheat powers, without any world-ending threats, and a loving family. Hell, if they just got the last one, they'd have a better start than me.

Ah, I made myself sad.

Moving on.

A messenger arrived at our location. We were moving in the center of the formation, behind hundreds of soldiers, along with a mob of people making sure we were going the right way. The formation was large enough that we needed messengers to get from front to back in a timely manner. Moving thousands of people took up a lot of space. Phones would be nice, but besides the messengers, we had a signal corps, which were common for armies even before I came along. They used drums, flags, and various wind instruments to send signals through the whole army.

All I did was expand on them and attach them to every few hundreds soldiers, so people could stay in touch better.

I really looked forward to getting phones back online, or something similar. Hell, something close to a damn pager would do.

But, I had other things for my researchers and scholars to look into besides that, which were more important due to the coming apocalypses.

Big guns to kill big monsters are a bit more important than wireless communications at the moment.

Anyway, the messenger delivered the usual news.

Something happening up ahead, people wanted me to make a decision, and lots of people will die if I didn't make the right one.

The usual.

…

Interlude: Sirena

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…

War was as cruel and terrible as I recalled.

Before the King of Wisdom, as I and Conquest flanked him, were a band of children. There were dozens and dozens of them in various states. The oldest of them held small spears, whilst the youngest held rocks and pouches… and babies. Their manner of dress was ragged, their feet were covered boots too big, or wrapped in straps of leather or cloth. Their eyes and cheeks were sunken, and even as they were surrounded by a forward patrol, I saw in them a simple urge: the desire to live through any means.

An urge that I never wished to see in the eyes of a child.

"What manner of madness is this? The Scholars have the soldiers to spare to bite at our flanks, yet they leave bands of children to wander?" Conquest growled, her voice closer to anger than I'd ever heard before, and she left her mount and reached for her hip. I thought foolishly that she was reaching for her sword, but instead her hand came away with her canteen as she barked at the nearest soldiers. "If you have an ounce of honor in your hearts, give these children whatever you food and drink you have!"

I was shamed by my thought, but I would find penance through my actions.

I dismounted from my horse and moved to command nearby Wardens the same.

Then, as always, the King of Wisdom spoke.

His voice colder than I ever thought before.

"Ayah, stop them." His foremost and always-present Champion moved, and suddenly she was ahead of us both. The speed with which she acted belied her true strength as our rival. However, even as we knew we could fight her together, the King of Wisdom spoke once more. No, this time, he yelled out a name into the air. "Ilych!"

There was a moment, a brief moment, where I froze, and the next moment there a sound like a whistling rock sent from a trebuchet coming towards us.

Ilych landed before the King of Wisdom as a mass of black plate, and with height that rivalled that of Conquest. All present knew her. One of two foremost Champions of the King of Wisdom whom he entrusted the most daring and terrible of missions. Some called her the Ebony Demon. Others the Bloodthirsty Titan. Yet, most prominent of her titles, was the Sword of Wisdom. A Champion that the King of Wisdom sent forth to kill, destroy, and murder.

There was only one reason that came to mind for why he would call her here.

To do what must be done without a hint of hesitation.

"What madness is this, King of Wisdom!?" Conquest roared and growled, drawing both her blades, and her guards came forward to her side as did her mount. They all formed a wall around the children. They discerned what was to come the moment they arrived. "These children are innocent! Not soldiers that you may ask your executioner to kill!"

I did not know what to do.

Doubt wormed into my heart, as the man I admired and wished for set upon a course my mind and soul told me to bar him from.

Yet, even if I took up my sword, I looked upon the being called Ilych and felt true, paralyzing fear.

She said not a word behind her the snarling mask of her full helm. The tattered cloak at her back flared with the wind like giant, batlike wings. The segmented armor that she wore seemed to menace and writhe as though it were alive, thirsty for blood. The King of Wisdom, who had dismounted from his horse, barely reached her navel in height, such was her stature that she was nearly taller than Conquest, and was far, far more heavily armored… and armed.

A black belt across her waist was covered in pouches and blackened daggers. A firearm much like the ones wielded by the Guardians' Undead was on her right hip, but it was of a make unlike any other I'd seen before. It had a cylinder before the barrel, and the barrel itself was obscene in size. Then, finally, there was the blood-drinking sword that she used, which drank the life of its victims and emboldened its user. She held it with one hand, yet it was a full two hands longer than she was tall, and the tales of her cutting through ogres with one swing resounded in my mind.

Would Conquest and I even be able to stagger her step?

However, as the question resounded with my mind and the titan's snarling helmet bore down upon me, the King of Wisdom spoke again.

"This land is bereft of supplies. This group of children is too large and unskilled to feed themselves and survive here for long, especially with infants." His voice was calm and collected as always, but there was an anger to it that I had never heard before. Swathed in brown traveling clothes, wearing a hood and a coat, the only sign of his station was on his lapel. A bright, glittering crest of a golden crow with its wings spread and with arrows in one claw and a scroll in the other. However, it was the Staff of Cleanse that he held in his hands, the scepter that saved so many lives on this trip already that drew my attention. "I have my suspicions, and I hope that I am wrong, but please do not approach the children until we are sure that they were not sent her with ill intent."

My blood stilled at those words.

The implication alone sent a chill through my bones.

Conquest froze as well, along with her troops, and her nose suddenly flared… and she sheathed her swords and looked to her men.

Her voice was filled with a tiredness and emptiness when she spoke again.

"My apologies. You have the right of it, King of Wisdom. The scent of disease, myriad, clings to them. I had not noticed with my blood running hot." The Conqueror Champion moved away from the children and so did many of the men who had moved to help them. The children themselves seemed confused. Perhaps, they did not know what they carried. "Save them, please."

"I shall do my best." He held no ill will to her and even gave her a nod, as he moved past her. "Ilych, set the perimeter. The rest of the troops will continue to march. Have a quartermaster set up here so we can start seeing these children sent back."

Ilych nodded in reply and sheathed her massive blade at her back and walked after him.

For a brief moment, she was in front of me as she walked to him, and I was in her shadow.

Despite all my power and might, all my senses told me to run.

Though I knew that I could return to life, my legs demanded that I flee.

All of me demanded that I supplicate and surrender.

This woman has bathed in the lives of tens of thousands of monsters and mortals. Not only that, but she was laden with artifacts and magics from head to toe and was one of the last true graduates of the Academy before it fell. Her entire life was that of warfare and destruction, whilst raised by a legendary Champion herself.

And, her loyalty was to a liege with unparalleled wisdom and guile.

A thought occurred to me as they walked forth to confront the latest of the Scholars' mad schemes.

The two that I looked upon will surely carve their legend into time itself.