Nero stood in the air, carried by the black cloud.
He watched as his army, the Polykenas, just massacred the last units of warriors from the planet Sourge. They tore down the houses, walls, and churches, reducing everything to rubble, as it was in their nature.
The battle was short and not particularly difficult.
His units stormed the gates of the wall with ease and attacked the enemies from all sides. In addition, there was absolute superiority in the strength of the Polykenas. Although there were mages among the humans too, they were not worth mentioning and were quickly killed.
Nero himself did not have to lift a single finger and was quite happy that everything had gone so easily so far, but he couldn't shake the feeling that his winning streak wouldn't last much longer.
"It's time I searched for the stone," he said, muttering.
Slowly he began to fly over the surface of the earth and had his eyes closed in concentration.
Nero had the ability to sense the stones from very far away, but it was still a tedious task to search for them since a planet was naturally quite huge and he also had to concentrate fully on the aura of the stones. He flew first in the direction of the north, then slowly back in the direction of the southwest.
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Almost 3 days passed, and he still had not found a trace of the shard.
He sighed briefly and then unwrapped the stone with the symbol with which he was able to communicate with the other armies,
"Ramor, Shire, what is the situation? "
After a short wait, he could hear Shire's voice answering in his mind,
"My army has now arrived at the last major city. There was brief resistance, but with Fril's army, we overran them with ease, and are now destroying the last resources. I can feel the magic of chaos growing stronger. But by and large, we are done with this side of the world. "
"Ramor, what about you?"
"All is well with me, my Duce. We are just on the way to the last big city. In not even 3 hours we'll be there, after that there are only a few small villages, then we'll be done in this part of the world as well."
"Very nice."
Satisfied, Nero nodded,
"Xersies!" he spoke through the stone, directly to Xersies.
"Yes, my Duce? How can I serve you?"
"I'm going back to the castle for now, I want you in my absence..."
Nero abruptly interrupted his sentence and froze. Black smoke rose from his entire body and began to envelop him,
"My Duce? Is everything all right?"
But Nero did not answer him, instead, he looked around.
A shiver ran down his spine and his pupils were contracted, but the strangest thing was this feeling he felt. It was like someone, or something was watching him. It was powerful, much more powerful than Nero, and yet it felt to Nero like it was far away. Very far away, but something was still wrong, something he could not determine. He was sure he had this feeling before, but he didn't remember when or where.
He searched for this thing that made him feel this kind of panic, but he couldn't find anything. And then, as quickly as the feeling had come, it had disappeared again.
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"My Duce?"
Nero shook away the remnants of the feeling and pulled his magic back into himself,
"I'll be right back." was all Nero said, and he deactivated the symbol because at that very moment he had felt it, the crystal.
He looked in that direction and started flying towards the feeling and it got stronger and stronger. Then he stopped and looked down. It was actually a normal little valley that stretched below him, with a small pond some trees, and so on, nothing noticeable.
It was at the end of a mountain, surrounded by a dense forest. Nero slowly flew down, and the feeling grew stronger. A few above the ground he stopped and looked at it. The crystal was only a few feet below the surface.
Nero raised his hand and huge black waves erupted from it, breaking the ground and drilling a huge hole in the surface. After a few seconds, it stopped. Where the valley had been, a hole several meters deep now gaped.
Nero flew in and took a good look around until he finally spotted the pitch-black stones just lying on the ground, completely undamaged by his magic. A strong aura emerged from the crystals, even slightly surprising Nero,
'With this aura, it must be even stronger than the last ones. It will be much harder to absorb it, but my power will also increase significantly afterward. '
He picked up the stone and put it in his pocket,
"Xersies. I finally have found the crystal, and I will return to the castle now. I want you to take care of the situation here and I want a full casualty report later and a status update on the situation in the hatchery camp.."
"As you command, my Duce. We'll meet later."
With that, Nero turned and flew back to the portal.
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Three days later, Nero and the 5 generals were sitting in their consultation room. It was a large room in the big tower in the center of the fortress. It was only accessible to Nero and his generals and otherwise off-limits to everyone. After Nero returned, he immediately retreated to his small meditation room and absorbed the stone and its power. It took him almost 6 hours, and he had to rest for 2 days afterward, but it gave him a tremendous boost in power.
Even his generals were momentarily surprised at the power boost when they first felt his new aura. For comparison, before the crystal, you could say that he could fight about 2 of his generals at a time and win, but three would be a problem. Now he could probably fight around 4 people or polykenas on the level of his generals simultaneously and would still win with ease. It was a huge boost in his power.
"What is the current situation? Xersies, you start."
"As you wish, my Duce. After the end of the battle yesterday, I took stock of the situation. It seems that a little more than five million Polykenas were lost. However, we have produced about two hundred thousand new Polykenas. Besides that, the production rate has increased by another 23%, and this month about 1.3 million new Polykenas will join us. But still, we always make more losses than we gain new ones, and if it goes on like this, we will be completely wiped out someday."
Nero nodded, but his expression did not change,
"Don't worry, I've already decided that: We're only going to attack and take over one more planet, and then pause to reproduce. "
"A good plan my Duce." said Xersies with satisfaction.
Approving nods and murmurs came from the other generals,
"Very well," Nero said after a while, "Ester, later we'll have to talk again. But until then, let's send Lors to the new world."
"As you wish, my Duce." said Ester, and with that, they stood up together.
Quickly they walked out of the fortress, towards the main gate. Nero gave the signal and the big gate opened.
The six of them stepped through the gate onto the long staircase leading to the keep. Above them was a huge stone platform that led from the portal to the tower that stood in the center of the fortress. This bridge was used for the Polykenas to return to their homeland, and deliver the chaos magic. But now there were no Polykenas on the bridge, so Nero nodded to a nearby white-skinned Polykenas, who waved his claw and lowered the bridge back into the ground.
The messenger, Lors, was already waiting at the entrance of the portal and bowed at the sight of them,
"My Duce."
"Are you ready to take on an errand again, Lors?" asked Ramor in his terrible voice,
"Yes, High Ramor."
"Very nice." said Nero, "Then get ready!"
With that, he lifted the small stone, which gave off a faint blue glow. The crack in front of them began to collapse in on itself, only to open up again. Nero concentrated on keeping the crack as small as possible so that it would be harder to see. Before them spread a vast landscape shrouded in night, full of vegetation. A large river passed through the dense forest and some animals could be seen moving in the darkness,
"Very well. You know what you have to do anyway. Observe the strength and way of life of the local beings and bring it to us. Take this stone."
Nero handed him a small bright stone, from which a slight warmth emanated,
"This stone will lose its warmth in two weeks. Until then, I want you to wait in this place again. I will open the portal three times, every day from 0 o'clock to 4 o'clock, from then on I will have to take care of the problem myself, so I demand punctuality!"
"Yes, my Duce."
"Let's go then!"
The little Polykenas bowed and then disappeared through the crack. Immediately, Nero closed the crack again,
"And now we wait."