“This arrogant little-!” Ichabot Longbottom cursed at the announcement that just echoed across the city, He knew it. He knew Minas Mar were just a bunch of power-hungry tyrants. He never liked their conceited leader.

“Quick, activate Iego! Strike both parties down!” he declared. Under the influence of Chrona's new representative he had managed to claw his way back into a position of power, now he was part of the council in charge of governing Delta.

“Iego is for defense against external enemies... They are already within the city parameters,” another member said, obviously tired of Ichabot's stupid ideas and antics. Project Iego was a defense system based on the floating peaks surrounding Delta. It had no inward-facing attack or defense qualities.

“And anyway, all we can do now is hope Minas Mar wins, at least they wouldn't kill us,” another member commented.

“what are you even saying!? Do you hear yourself talk, man? We are the chosen representatives of the people! We can't give up! We need to defend Delta from these invaders!” Ichabot insisted that they had to do something. However, his emotional speech only caused wry and sarcastic smiles.

“You mean the same way you groveled before Merkraut Sar to get a seat in this council?” some asked, his voice oozing with acid.

“Enough!”

Ichabot became red as a tomato and was about to scream at the man when the oldest in the council told them to shut up.

“Ichabot is right in one thing. We can't just wait for someone to win and hand over the city to the victor. We have to mobilize the special forces to interfere,” he spoke his mind. “ In the meantime, we should seek shelter in the complex below the parliament. At least until reinforcement from Spatia arrives,” he added.

For a moment he seemed like he meant well, but in the end, he was no different from them. Throw out the special forces as a pretense and hide until the storm passes.

...

Seth was a little surprised to find a horde of demons swarming Delta. It seemed like everyone had the same idea about acting a little more aggressively. Since Chrona announced their retreat from Delta, only leaving a minimum number of personnel to keep the city safe until Spatia came, it felt like an invitation to take the city.

They expected there to be few people, but nobody expected that “minimum personal” meant that they even pulled out the security technicians and deactivated building security. This was suspicious, but none of Seth's worries, for now.

Support the author by searching for the original publication of this novel.

He glared at the horde of demons who stopped at his announcement but didn't retreat. A massively obese-looking demon slowly floated to the front of the demons in the sky. The beast was easily five meters in height and width.

“We are the Army of Bragmomal! We don't back down from a fight!” he answered smugly, looking down at the army of knights and golems. There were easily thrice as many demons as people on Minas Mar's side.

“Are you sure you want this?” Seth asked with a dangerous edge in his words. They had come to Delta by teleporting to Minas Mar which was why there were only Oathguards and golems making up their ground forces.

Both groups had grown quite a bit. Because of the expansion of Minas Mar, the Oathguard now numbered roughly 3500 men, of which 2000 were here. Apart from them, there were the over 5000 golem made of orcs from Kozdams, as well as the various Golem Knights and Faer. On the surface, the demons really seemed like they had an advantage. However, Minas Mar had arrived prepared for a battle.

“Haha! Bragmomal would skin us alive if he heard we retreated without a fight! Attack!” the fat demon commanded, not listening to Seth. His command to attack was overshadowed by an ear-shattering crack in the sky.

“You asked for it,” Seth shrugged, as hell broke loose.

Thunder and lightning roared in the clouds above. The strikes of light illuminating the city with every roar also revealed a massive creature weaving in and out of the tumultuous cloud cover. The next moment beam of heat and light descended from the sky, burning holes in the rows of Demon.

At the same moment, storms of lightning, ice, and fire rained down on them. The demon army fell into chaos, as the herd was suddenly thinned. Up in the clouds, Puffles and Tatzel were farming experience remotely, making sure not to destroy the city below the demons.

The sky filled with scenes straight from apocalypse movies, illuminated the city below, where the Army of Minas Mar engaged the demons in brutal combat. What looked like an overwhelming victory to the demonic forces, quickly revealed itself as a one-sided massacre as Minas Mar's relic-rated weapons cut through the demons like a hot knife through butter.

Golems swarmed the streets on the hunt for demons, while the Oathguards put priority on evacuating the survivors of Delta under Minas Mar's shield which covered almost a fifth of the city. The defenses set up by Chrona were gone, but this also meant nothing blocked the Tower of Minas Mar from showing its power.

...

“Look, what are those beasts in the sky?” one of the assemblymen who was observing the situation outside exclaimed. At his exclamation, several more men came to take a look, shocked by the sight of the massive silhouettes in the clouds.

The shadows of a giant flying centipede and a smaller dragon-like creature reigning above the clouds were eerily familiar. however, it took someone tone-deaf like Ichabott to speak out about what everyone was thinking.

“It's the pets of the Tower Master!”

But unlike everyone else who was concerned by the sight and the danger these creatures exuded, the former chancellor seemed almost excited. The rotund man waddled back to the bench of the council.

“This is our chance! These creatures have invaded the air space of Delta. I formally request for the deployment of the Iego System! Let's make an example of his pets and shoot them from the sky. Without them, Minas Mar and the Demons will whittle each other away. I'm convinced our special forces and our city guards are enough to take care of what is left then,” he spoke quickly in a single breath.

Although Ichabott spoke like a nutcase, a disconcerting craze in his eyes, the councilmen were pondering. The oldest of them, given the highest rank by Merkraut Sar, finally nodded after they convened for a moment. Dealing a hit to Minas Mar before they could overrun the city was not the worst idea.

Excitedly, Ichabott went along with the preparations to deploy Project Iego. Originally planned as a continuous defense system, at the suggestion of the representative of Chrona, they had decided to only activate it in emergencies to save energy.

With the magic seals of all five councilmen, they activated Project Iego, the defense system using the floating peaks surrounding Delta in the sky. tensed they waited for the magic of the system to activate and the throes of pain and death of the creatures in the sky. Well, mostly Ichabott waited for it.

However, nothing happened.

“It didn't activate!” one of the assemblymen at the window confirmed their suspicion. They tried again. And again. And again, but it didn't work.

“Did it break?” Ichabott asked in dismay. Did the reduced maintenance lead to this?

None of them knew that this was their lucky day. Minas Mar had long since used the backdoor originally implemented by Al'Zalsar to take back control of Project Iego. Who knew what would have happened to them, if they managed to actually harm either Tatzel or Puffles?