Selena and Thalassa see entire formations of soldiers and beasts from the empire crossing the portal. Suddenly, approaching the portal, an countless number of fire-spitting Wyverns, controlled by Wyvern knights, emerge through the portal.
"Wow, the empire is even using the mighty Wyvern squads to subjugate this new world," said Selena.
The platoon they were part of was getting ready to cross the portal; a little over half of the 200,000 soldiers gathered around the portal had entered. As they approached the portal, Selena observed the men in front of her entering. With her turn approaching, she began to have a whirlwind of thoughts about whether this portal really works, or if she will just die the moment she steps into it.
She didn't have much time to think afterward; as soon as the first part of her body touched the portal, she was sucked inside instantly. It didn't even last a second, and she had already crossed over. Right behind her came Thalassa. The change in environment they both felt was instantaneous. The first thing they noticed was the ground they were standing on, from a muddy place to a hard, firm ground, some kind of almost dark gray stone, clearly not natural. Thalassa kneels down and touches this ground with the palm of her hand, trying to recognize the material.
"This is some kind of road," Thalassa said after standing up.
"How can you be sure of that?" asked Selena.
"I'm not, but I presume it is, just look around," Thalassa replied.
Selena listened to her friend and looked around, noticing huge buildings different from anything she had ever seen. "We're in some kind of city," Thalassa affirmed, sensing the confusion in her friend's mind.
"If this is a city, the people who inhabit it must be very wealthy," said Selena.
As Thalassa was about to respond, a knight from the royal guard approached, calling out to the two.
"Hey, you two!" the man shouted as he approached.
Both looked at him; he wasn't alone, but accompanied by another royal guard.
"You're adventurers, right?" the man asked after he got close enough.
"We are," Thalassa replied.
"I'll be direct. This unknown realm has some very strange people; they scatter away from us like cockroaches. We, from the royal guard, need helpers to carry the things we plunder in this realm," stated the guard.
"And you want the two of us to help you?" Selena asked, her tone serious.
"Yes. Of course, we will give you as a reward 30% of everything we plunder here," said the other guard.
Indeed, it's a good offer and there's no reason for both of them to refuse. So, they accept the proposal from the royal guards.
--- One hour after the invasion ---
Selena and the guards regrouped with the rest of Thalassa's group, now in greater numbers they can plunder more of these strange houses. On the way, Selena saw hundreds of these strange humans dead on the ground. She wonders if such brutality is necessary.
One of the guards notices Selena's unease and says, "You don't need to feel bad for these barbarians; this is the only language they understand. When we're done here, all the other barbaric realms in this new world will know they must fear us."
Selena says nothing to the guard's assertions, only nodding and returning her attention to the road.
---
Inside one of the strange houses of this new world, she looks at these odd objects. She doesn't know what to plunder; it's hard to decide what among so many strange things is valuable.
Thalassa is with her, in front of a sort of shelf she sees her friend observing something. As she approaches to see, she observes a strange painting with people painted on it. However, the paintings on it are extremely well-detailed. "I believe this is a portrait of the family that lived in this house, well, lived...," Thalassa said after taking the strange painting into her hands.
"The painter of this portrait must be very skilled, don't you think?" said Selena.
"Indeed, the details are impressive, and this painting is quite small, not to mention the canvas is protected by this glass."
They decide to take it, as besides the painting being impressive, glass is extremely expensive in their world. Going to the next room, they come across a sort of bedroom. The bed was small, as if it were made for a child, but what caught both of their attention was a huge mirror attached to the wall. This undoubtedly made them think about how rich the family of this house is.
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"Probably this is a city of the local nobility," says Selena.
"This means that the people beyond the portal are not barbarians as previously thought," says Thalassa with a serious expression.
As the mirror was very large and attached to the wall, the two decided to just leave it there.
Leaving the house, both of them see a gigantic formation of soldiers wearing silver armor marching through the streets. The formation is being accompanied by goblins, ogres, and trolls, along with earth dragons that are being used to transport supplies.
"Hey, it looks like you've found a lot of stuff," said one of the guards after spotting the two.
They hand over the sack with the loot for him to inspect. "Indeed, these things from this realm are strange," the man closes the sack and says, "good find, let's continue plundering later, for now, let's join the formation because we have to take some kind of crossroad that is resisting a few meters from here."
Before joining the formation, Selena looks up at the sky and sees 10 Wyverns flying in slow formation alongside the soldiers on the ground.
As she marches with the rest of the soldiers, she observes these strange iron carriages parked on the street, some with dead people inside, others simply abandoned. But none of them seem to have horses to pull them. All of this makes her have a bad feeling about this place.
As they get closer, she begins to hear these constant strange sounds of explosions, some louder than others. Thalassa, due to her superior hearing, feels quite uncomfortable with the noise. They continue to march, but suddenly a soldier marching in front of them falls abruptly, and blood starts to fill around him. Everyone forms a shield wall formation, and she hears one of the officers shout, "Enemy soldiers ahead!"
She is still startled by the way that soldier fell so suddenly, and the intensity of these explosions increases.
"This isn't magic," Thalassa said, looking at the dead soldier "I don't sense any magical power around here."
Selena already knew that this world had no magic because of the Dungeon Master, but then what explains the death of this soldier?
More and more soldiers from the formation start falling dead even as they try to protect themselves with their shields. Both come to the conclusion that this is some kind of weapon that has the ability to penetrate metal shields. Selena and Thalassa decide to hide behind one of those iron carriages.
Selena peeks over the carriage and sees a group of enemy soldiers wearing gray clothes (the color of police uniforms) taking cover behind their own carriages a few meters away. They are firing with these strange things in hand, some sort of staff. Any soldier who tries to approach is killed instantly. She then sees a huge ogre emerging from the formation and running toward the strange enemy soldiers. The soldiers' staves have no effect on the ogre, who destroys the barrier made with carriages. The enemy soldiers are killed shortly afterward, some manage to escape.
After that, they step out from behind the carriage and see that there were about 50 to 60 soldiers from the empire dead on the ground. They look at the dead enemy soldiers and realize they are only 10. How can non-magical men kill so many knights from a distance?
An officer decides to split the formation and orders a monster tamer to guide the creatures to advance at the forefront with a detachment of imperial soldiers.
The rest of the soldiers would continue advancing through another path, and Selena and Thalassa are in this group, along with their other group mates.
"I have a bad feeling about this place," said one of the adventurers in the group.
Even though this adventurer is a bit away, Thalassa can hear him. She doesn't admit it, but she has the same feeling, that something is not right in this place.
--- Two hours after the invasion ---
Selena and Thalassa are in the rear maintaining a position along with the rest of their group of adventurers.
"Why did they put us here? I want to fight, not hide in the rear," one adventurer says to another. The spirits were quite high, and everyone was full of expectations. Thalassa, due to her keen hearing, can hear what everyone is saying, but the sound produced by the enemy soldiers' staves continues to bother her.
"Are you okay?" Selena asks, noticing her friend's discomfort.
"I am, actually, but this sound bothers me," she said, rubbing her ear.
"I wish I could help, but I'm just a human, so I can offer you my company."
Thalassa looks at her friend and smiles. A large imperial cavalry passes by them; there must be more than 200 knights in this combat unit. All the soldiers present look in awe as these splendid knights pass by with their horses toward the frontline.
--- 20 minutes later ---
Selena is sitting on an imperial helmet sharpening her sword when she hears a scream that catches her attention.
"There's a knight coming!" She gets up and looks in the direction everyone is staring. She sees a lone imperial knight riding towards the rear; he looks very injured. He stops his horse as he approaches the soldiers. He looks for a moment and then falls off his horse; his face is covered in blood, and he has a large wound on his abdomen. Quickly, some soldiers rush to his aid.
Thalassa appears and asks Selena what happened.
"I don't know, he came from the direction where the knights went and fell; he seems to be badly hurt," says Selena as she sheathes her sword.
A very loud sound, almost like the ones those soldiers from this world launched at them, can be heard again. They look in the direction the knight came from and see hundreds of knights riding desperately towards the rear; some horses are without riders. Seeing the feared imperial knights flee was a disturbing sight. What made them flee like that?
It didn't take long for this question to be answered. Turning the corner from the same direction as the fleeing knights emerges a giant metal monster. It looked lifeless, made entirely of metal. As soon as it turned the corner, it began to spew fire against the knights, much higher and more destructive; it simply tore everything in its path apart.
No knight or horse managed to reach the group where both of them were. Thalassa and Selena momentarily saw, before throwing themselves to the ground for protection, a group of what appeared to be soldiers emerging from behind this metal creature; they wore green clothes and carried these unknown staves that spewed fire and destruction. In seconds, they saw dozens of their comrades fall dead or agonize in pain on the ground. Both didn't have much time to think; Thalassa got up and pulled her friend, both running away, narrowly escaping being caught by these strange weapons. They see an ogre running towards the enemy, but suddenly he is killed due to an explosion launched by a different and much bulkier cylindrical staff that one of these soldiers carried.