Chapter 15: 9 Years Of Anticipation
the main army of the Eastern Immortals have finally arrived 9 years later. Many people have always asked why is the Kingdom of Lavant not making a decisive push? Well it was because they were waiting for the Eastern Immortals’ main army to arrive which was indeed taking too long.
It was only recently that people found out about what truly happened on why they arrived only now, the ships both sea and air have been in fact being relentlessly harried by the Western Beast Kin. The Merfolk, Giant Squids, Leviathans, Wyverns ,Dragon Newts, and various branches of the Ancient Dragons heed the call of the people from the Continental Isle.
The negotiations were led by the King of the Elves Adun who traveled secretly to the Western Continent to formally ask for help, he also strongly insinuated that should the Continental Isle fall it would only be a matter of time before the Western Continent falls victim again on the Eastern Immortals invasion to harvest the Beast Kin.
Although stubborn the facts of the matter cannot be ignored and although reluctant to plunge themselves in another war it was a war of survival and unlike the mortals the Beast Kin enjoyed a naturally empowered bodies since birth and long life spans, with the help of the cultivation methods they have invented for themselves in the recent centuries they only became more powerful.
It could be said that their only weakness is that their low fertility and maturity rate and after 500 years they still have not recovered from the past war and yet here they are again forced in another war for survival.
Luckily for them this time they are not alone and would be assisted the various races of the Continental Isle. King Adun Proposed to intercept the main army of the Eastern Immortals at the sea while the Dwarves Airship armada would make up for their numbers on the skies.
The sea creatures led the assault from under water, considering how deep an ocean can go it might as well look like the entire sky but instead it is underwater.
On the skies above were the Beast Kin’s fliers they spit corrosive biles, the dragons rained elemental breaths while the Dwarven air ships provided covering fire from their enchanted artillery.
The sea and air engagements took years of gruesome battle and although the Dwarves could repair their broken airships they inevitably used up all of their ammunition and were forced to retreat. Although the Dwarves are not strangers to magic they are more proficient in enchantments rather than pure spells being cast around.
The Elves have very few mounts that can fly to begin with making their air force meagre at best their presence was in fact negligible during that time. The Elves however made an impact on the back lines where they provided healing magic to those injured in combat.
It was the Beast Kin who truly took the brunt of the assault more than half of their sea and air forces were lost in battle and if it were not for the Elves healing support more could have easily been lost.
Comparatively the Eastern Immortals fleet however only lost less than 1/4 of their army, unlike in the past war where they were caught unaware of the Beast Kin’s ferocity in battle. Right now on the other hand they are more prepared for them in combat.
Originally the travel time from the Eastern Continent to the Continental Isle would only costed them 3 years if unhindered but due the constant battles they had to also constantly maneuver their fleet every time the enemies engaged them in combat which took a lot of their time.
The Beast Kin suffered heavy losses, the Dwarves air fleet has used up all of their ammunition and the Elves flying mounts were few to begin with to make any meaningful impact on the current battlefield. With this losses they were forced to make a retreat and prepare to face the Eastern Immortals on the beaches.
The various chieftains of the Beast Kin unanimously agreed that they would no longer send their forces to battle alongside the people of the Continental Isle, their forces took a serious blow that even a thousand years of peace would not be enough to recover their strength.
Although shameful and against their customs the Beast Kin also agreed to support the armies of the Continental Isle by delivering them supplies for war they have also agreed to give the corpses of their fallen to be of use in the war effort.
But the Beast Kin emphasized that they would no longer send them any form of fighting force. Should the allied armies of the Continental Isle fail the Beast Kin have already chosen to fight on their home territories where most of their forces are on the land.
The Elves and Dwarves used as much delaying tactics they could have done, from here on out it would be a battle of attrition in which they are at a disadvantage of.
Meanwhile in these years Sera Hawke mostly stayed cooped up in her underground laboratory. The golem army she made only grew bigger and the bigger they become the less space she had to stash them, therefore every 6 months she would send a 1,000 punitive force of golems made mostly of the Skeleton Granite Golem spell model to help in the war effort which mostly attacked roving patrols of Lavant soldiers and bandits taking the opportunities of war.
Monsters on the other hand made themselves scarce, because of the war food supplies were more noticeably fewer every year and the monsters were hunted for their meat to be fed for the refugees. Of course the low quality ones were given to the refugees unless they enlisted to the army while the higher quality meat went to the more important people
With the obvious inequality of lifestyles of both low class and the high class dissension was only a matter of time. Unfortunately for them the high class has more power compared to them and with a little propaganda that they are spies of Lavant Kingdom who came here to cause trouble it was like pouring oil in fire and the trouble makers were instantly sent to death rows as warning to the others.
Sera Hawke had a secret deal with the prison warden. In exchange for death row inmates is a large sum of gold of course along with his silence, and considering Lady Sera Hawke’s influence the prison warden did not even think of talking about the missing death row inmates.
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During these years Sera managed to finally create an artificial “cultivator” or “immortal” all thanks to the human test subjects that were made of the death row prisoners.
In the first 5 years of her experiments Sera would manage to strengthen their bones and muscles but they would all have a block of some sort as if the test subjects would hit the limits of their bodies, after a few more trials and she gave up on strengthening the bodies and considered it a dead end.
The other path Sera took was the unknown “organ” that grew on the first test subject dubbed test subject 00. the unknown “organ” was a solid ball made of unknown crystal which houses a large amount of mana signature. This small ball crystal just on top of the navel area could contained more mana than the entire human body which was an extremely interesting discovery for her.
If only she can somehow recreate the phenomenon that allowed it to naturally form. And thus began Sera Hawke’ next 3 years of brutal journey to consuming all inmates inside the prisons, the story of the disappearing prisoners became such a big deal city wide that all criminals stopped their activities and lived honest lives which ended up troubling some factions…. now who would still carry their dirty jobs for them?.
In the 3 years of voracious human experimentation eventually test subjects became a scarce resource. In the end Sera Hawke had to move out personally by bringing along the Sentinels Ashura, Riot, Vulcan, Banshee, Torch Light and Medusa each holding a control staff taking command of a thousand Golems each totaling in six thousand Skeleton Granite Golems.
She swept the whole Kaladia Region from any and all bandits she could get her hand on not to mention the Lavant Soldiers who had the unfortunate moment in their lives when Sera Hawke decided to “keep enemy prisoners”.
She could not remove the smirk on her face every time she remembers the phrase “there is no better laboratory than the blood soaked battlefield” It was a phrase back on earth during the dark ages when doctors dig graves or abduct people for study.
It really rings true almost nobody cares to strangers during war time. On the 8th year of the war test subject 00 finally died although the body is still being kept alive by the machines, when Sera made an investigation on how did this happened it would seem like a soul power like ability was triggered that finally claimed her life but it was only a suspicion but then again this world is truly magical and anything is really possible.
With test subject 00 dead the spatial pouch could finally be opened after 8 long years, like a little kid opening presents she emptied the entire contents of the pouch. And to her surprise its contents were enormous to say the least.
Based on a quick inventory there are several thousand magical artifacts in the spatial pouch most of which are puppets made out of monster corpses that still radiated power as if they are still alive. The puppets alone count for over a thousand pieces each are really well made most of them are made out of magical monsters and there are only a few hundred that are made out of what Sera assumed to be corpses of the Cultivators.
The human puppets after a series of scans and DNA testing proved that they really were humans but with more diverse DNA similar to test subject 00 some of them have hints of monster DNA on them which Sera found peculiar.
After some research on the matter she later found out that Eastern Immortals are indeed humans that liked to mix their DNA to other powerful species, this led to the conclusion by many scholars on why the Beast Kin of the Western Continent was the target 800 years ago.
On the pile of artifacts there were several books found some old some more in pristine condition but obviously due to the limitations of this Era the books are all hand written. they are not pretty to look at but thankfully they are at least readable.
After months of fanatical research on what Sera believes to be the Eastern Immortals’ cultivation technique which no outsider was ever to even got a whiff of its existence now lies in her hands several in fact.
The few fateful prisoners were forced to cultivate the strange and unknown methods Sera has given them or face punishments. Since the prisoners were generously rewarded for obedience they usually have no problem listening to her orders no matter how strange they have become.
Most prisoners now test subjects were confined in small groups so that when a “batch” would undergo experiments and die the other prisoners would not cause panic or riot due to their disappearance.
After a series of training regiment the test subject endured they finally exhibited sudden increase in strength and magic powers which had similar energy signatures to that of an Eastern Immortal, and after a series of full body scans she discovered that all successful test subjects have a crystal marble in their abdomens just on top of their navel.
Sera was amazed and delighted at the discovery, and now for the final test Sera put one of each puppet to each test subject and have them move the puppets with the techniques they have recently learned. And as expected they barely moved the puppets but they did make it twitch a little, following this she gave them more “juice” as in literally gave them more mana stones to overcharge themselves and try again.
And finally the results she wanted to see. Puppets moving as if alive and even releasing primal roars. After Sera was satisfied she then let the test subjects practice on the puppets and leave them to their own devices…. for now.
For Sera Hawke has a more nefarious plan for these test subjects. In her hand is a manual one of test subject 00’s property on how to make puppets out of monsters and humans alike and at a closer look this manual is simply a more complicated version of a flesh golem, but the human puppets according to the manual could eventually gain sentience as a spirit artifact unlike Golems they are only as smart as you can make them.
The puppets of the Eastern Immortals on the other hand could tentatively “gain sentience” which intrigued Sera Hawke very much. But there are more things important and currently is that they are losing the war.
The Lavant soldiers suddenly gained a significant boost in strength, ordinary soldiers suddenly could give Magic Knights some trouble before being killed and then senior Magic Knight from Lavant Kingdom where suddenly overpowering their counter parts giving the allied forces significant losses.
The front line castle has long been conquered and survivors from the 50,000 army only numbered in the few thousands, the Dwarven Stronghold on the previously abandoned mine managed to hold on only due to the expenditure of ammunition which has been estimated to not last for long.
This war is going sideways very very fast and as the days go by thing are getting out of hand it has been concluded that the Lavant Kingdom got their hands of the Eastern Immortals cultivation techniques, that made them an ally of the cultivators and sold out the entire Continental Isle.
But it’s not like the allied forces did not have secret weapons the Dwarves unleashed their 1,000,000 army of steel golems that wreaked havoc on the battlefield and despite the Lavant Soldiers sudden increase in strength they are still people and with that came with fear and apprehension at the sudden appearance of such a mighty force.
The Elves did no slack off either, because of their few numbers they opted for a more subtle approach they unleashed their own brand of golems which came from wood golems but doused with the aura of the Yggdrasil tree they became sentient and become Treants.
The Treants gathered at the place where they invading force would be marching to set up an ambush and as the old saying goes “to hide a tree hide it in a forest” during that night 100,000 Treants smashed 300,000 Lavant soldiers mixed with the reinforcements of the Eastern Immortals.
On the other hand the human alliance were not even barely united they moved about their on own forcing the other human Kingdoms to adopt the human wave tactics which is simply to throw as much bodies at the enemies until they got sick of fighting or they down at the corpses and blood.
By this time Sera Hawke is cultivating and studying the ways of the Eastern Immortals and she has achieved a level that they called 9th layer of Qi refining.
“one more step and I’ll enter the Foundation level” she thought to herself as she stabilized her mind in her recent achievements. Now she no longer needed the artifacts to be able to walk or move unhindered by her own fragility which gave Sera extreme joy but could not celebrate to to the deteriorating situation of the Continental Isle.
With the cultivation methods of the Eastern Immortals Sera Hawke could now hold mana in her “core” around her abdomen area alongside with the use of the “Mystic Puppet Sect” methods of controlling the puppets she now no longer fear for her safety as much as before.
But first she now has to dig out the flying fortress the made underground all these years and try to leave this City the moment it showed any sign of defeat, until then she would send waves after waves after waves of what seemed like unending tides of Skeleton Granite Golem which coincidentally matched the human wave tactics the human Kingdoms have been using to drown and mitigate the sudden increase of the enemies powers.
As days go by the City of Kaladia is bombarded with earthquakes that threaten to break the lands. It was in fact just aftershocks from the clashes of the Wizards, Magic Knights, Nascent souls and the Spirit Severing fighting nearby the City of Kaladia.
What happened to the Dwarven fortress nearby? It has long used up its ammunition making it like a tightly coiled dragon without fangs and claws it’s still mighty it’s just not going to attack as long as you stay back.
The Elves are the one taking the worst of it their natural abilities have also become a target by the Eastern Immortals like they did to the Beast Kin of the Western Continent. Fortunately the Elves controls magic as easily as if breathing air without the need to hold mana in their bodies or at their “core” giving them a slight advantage in a war of attrition.
By this time unfortunately Kaladia City is now on its last legs with the entire City under siege aside from the allied forces that have been injured, refugees and the garrison forces the City of Kaladia have been isolated similar to what happened to the castle at the front lines.
9 years of preparation 9 years of experimentation 9 years of war 9 years of anticipation their lives now hangs on a single thread.