*thud thud*

"Tell me you bring good news"

"In a couple of days, Ardamira will send a delegation under the pretext of strengthening ties with us, but their true purpose is to assess the current state of the kingdom. Their army is waiting for the order to invade, and they are not the only ones; Aurevallis and Valloria will do the same"

"Like umbrahyas lurking, waiting for us to show weakness, huh?"

“...”

Seventy years ago, on the other side of the world, one of the bloodiest wars this world has ever seen took place. The cause? Greed and power.

It is said that it all began one night, when a terrible roar shook the world. It was as if a beast from legends had awakened from its slumber, warning the inhabitants that the ruler of this place had awakened. The earth moved like a pendulum and great cracks appeared, destroying entire cities and changing the geography of the world.

According to the people who lived through such an event, the event only lasted a few minutes, but that night no one was able to sleep. Not a single country was spared from the calamity. The thunderous roar along with the image of seeing their relatives and acquaintances being crushed by the rubble of what were once their homes, imprinted a deep fear in their hearts that still persists to this day.

But the nightmare was far from over, and the next day, while the world was engulfed in chaos, a land made of gold was discovered, a place where any of your wishes could come true.

The catastrophe from the previous night had destroyed the fields; hunting forests were much more dangerous than before and had even moved elsewhere. Besides, it was unfeasible to depend on them alone to feed the world's population. Resources were indispensable to overcome the tragedy. Sure, crops could be replanted, but that would take a long time and the population, which was already scarce, could drop to near extinction levels.

This new fertile land, with vast expanses of crops and abundant animals to hunt, was a beacon of hope, a sign from the heavens that there was still a future for humanity; at least that's how common people saw it. However, the so-called nobility saw it as a symbol of wealth and power. Whoever could rule over this new land at this critical moment would undoubtedly gain significant power over the world in the future.

With the help of the natural wealth that the new land offered, they would have been able to overcome the bad times, but only if they united, which did not happen. And thus began what people later called the Blutreich War.

The great countries of the time, not caring about the lamentable state of their people, with promises of a better future, gathered all those who were capable of wielding a weapon and set out to claim what they believed belonged to them. Thus, seven countries marched with their improvised armies composed of ordinary citizens and exhausted, hungry peasants whose only motive that kept them going were the false promises of those who led them.

The war was a carnage where those who survived were not the most capable, but the most deranged. The battlefield was a mess of blood and wailing without any order. At some point, soldiers from the same army began killing each other. Amidst the chaos, a person, a peasant, stepped forward to bring order to the carnage, regardless of whether they were from the same army or enemy countries, they moved across the battlefield gathering allies.

Which wasn't difficult since many fighters were exhausted. Food was not lacking as there were many bodies on the battlefield. However, they knew that these things were changing them, so the appearance of this man was a lifesaver.

His old friend, seeing the man's determination, decided to support him and joined him as his right-hand man. Despite being peasants, the two men stood out amidst the massacre and more and more people began to join them, to the point where they managed to form the eighth army within the conflict. An army whose purpose was to stop the terrible carnage they were being subjected to.

The author's content has been appropriated; report any instances of this story on Amazon.

Maybe there was a divine hand moving the strings behind the scenes, or maybe it was one of those miracles only heard about in legends, but either way, at the end of the war, with the support of his comrades, the man went from peasant to king. The land that everyone desired was claimed by a stranger, and the commanders and kings were left with nothing; in fact, several of those nobles lost their lives in the midst of the chaos.

When the new country was established, the man was proclaimed king. As a gesture of gratitude, the new ruler offered lands and titles to those who had supported him from the beginning. But for his friend, who had been his right-hand man in battle, that was no longer sufficient. Ambition had awakened within him, and he desired to be his own king.

The young man had saved many lives on the battlefield, so he was highly respected. There were many people who supported him, they were loyal to him and if the man's wish was to become king, they were willing to fight the newly crowned king for the title.

But there was no discord between the two men. In fact, their friendship was a bond that went back many generations, so the man did not want his fervor to cause an irretrievable rift. However, both knew that things could be different in the future. The dilemma existed. Tension between them was escalating day by day, and the moment when their friendship would end and they would become enemies was approaching.

But nevertheless, the two men continued to meet frequently to talk, drink and try to discern each other's thoughts. One night, while they were drinking, in the midst of the drunkenness, the king shared information about a new land that would soon appear on the other side of the world, similar to the one they were in. It was a drunken talk, so nothing was certain, but the young man did not question it and decided to hold on to those words, marching in search of the place his friend had told him about.

He felt ambition growing inside him, he began to see his lifelong friend as a rival, so he decided to exile himself before staining his hands with his brother's blood. He planned to leave the city quietly, but there were more people who trusted him than he believed, and on the day of his departure, several families who wished to travel with him were waiting for him outside the city; those were the founders of Havengard.

"Do you think we'll be able to defend ourselves?"

"It won't be a problem to repel them."

"And launch a counterattack?"

"That would be impossible; we would have to invade all three places at once or at the moment the army marches. The city could be taken by either of the other two countries remaining"

"What state is the army in?"

"It is still united, we will be able to fight the next battle without having deserters, but it cannot be expected to be like this in the near future"

"So the problem is the same, huh?"

"Unfortunately"

The promised land offered the newcomers enough wealth to establish a city, but it had a significant problem, a huge problem that even now has not been solved. It is barren land, a dead land where not even weeds grow. But the new king argued that this was just the gateway to the land of gold, and the citizens believed in their ruler. Besides, at that time food could be acquired from nearby villages, so it wasn't considered very important either.

At that time, there was the possibility of invading those villages and taking over arable land, which was the most logical thing to do. If you think about it, that would have solved all the current problems.

But the king was concerned about having too much land to manage, and by the time the land of gold appeared, he feared lacking enough personnel to occupy it. A decision that, by the time he regretted it, it was too late. The easily conquerable villages had already become kingdoms that thriving with the support of other kingdoms and the gold that Havengard itself provided.

Although, it is also true that by that time they themselves were barely enough to be a village, and the wealth that this land devoid of life offered them was not something easy to obtain. In fact, in their march to find this place, the villages through which they passed warned them of danger, but it was precisely because of these warnings that they managed to arrive, since that danger was the gold they sought.

Nebul Creatures.

Every certain period of time, these fierce beasts emerged from the white wall. Maybe for the villages, they were merely dangerous pests since consuming the meat of these animals was impossible, but for the newcomers, they were nothing less than walking gold. They had gone through a bloody battle where many of them either by mistake or deliberately killed their relatives, friends and had eaten flesh from the corpses to survive, so they were not well mentally, had experience in fighting and were not afraid of the beasts.

Although the animals cannot be eaten, their bodies contain nebulaether, so their carcasses have many uses, whether it be crafting, researching, or for training and improving skills, among other things.

The so-called weavers are the people who pay the most for these animals. In short, it's strange that this place had not yet been taken, but whether it's due to luck, because the countries were still rebuilding their cities, or because the news hadn't reached their ears, it didn't matter. The only thing certain is that it was a source of income that had to be secured at all costs.