When the Duke had passed through the border between Grellekia and Arcadia, Arkhan had called an emergency session of the leaders of the Gaian Alliance. He made them aware of his plans and informed them of the words spoken by the knight captain, whose words were not the least bit surprising to the Elven, Dwarven and Beastman Kings. They had already begun preparations for war when the Uncharted Lands Dungeon had ben conquered by Arkhan, but now that the Alliance was almost certainly going to be attacked they had to further accelerate their nations' war machine.

By the time the Duke was captured, almost every transportation craft in Arcadia was being used to ferry troops and supplies to the closest military base near the border with Grellek. This base was one of six; it was a flying island that had been equipped with thrusters and jets taken from numerous vehicles and was designed serve as a mobile FOB. The base itself was about 35 miles in diameter and was mostly designed to be used as a mobile barracks and airfield. It had no battleship-level weapons, unlike the more fantasy-esque Uber-Maginot inspired floating island fortresses that dotted the Commonwealth.

…

It was about 1 month after the arrival of the piggy duke that a messenger from the Grellekian Kingdom arrived at the border, bearing a message from the king that demanded the return of Duke Headington. The message stated that if the Duke were not returned intact and unharmed, then the full force of Humanity would wage a holy crusade to right this wrong and bring 'salvation' to the offending nation.

It was obvious to Arkhan that the timing was off. Gaining the full acceptance of all Human nations to go to war over a single Duke was implausible. Instead, what was more likely was that the sending of the Duke in question was planned so that he would provoke Arcadia and thus create ‘just cause’ for war. Arkhan had been outplayed, albeit only partially. What the Human nations didn’t know was the strength and overall capabilities of Arcadia, let alone the sheer numerical and technological advantage Arkhan and his allies possessed.

With the time spent between the conquest of the Uncharted Lands and now, Arkhan had not just been building and expanding his area of control. He had spent that time spamming MSGs and sending them out to hunt monsters and gather materials in the north and south, both tasks which required his MSGs to work far harder than they had before. Unlike the battle for the Dungeon, they now were seriously taking losses. While not crippling in terms of numerical losses, out of the countless MSGs he had deployed to hunt monsters and gather materials only about 85% survived.

While not as bad as the nearly 50% mortality rate from the first ever engagement, but still an unimaginable number of losses. Arkhan’s ‘Zero Cost’ MSGs numbered in the millions during the battle for the Dungeon Core, but afterwards the number had ballooned to several hundred million of each ‘Zero Cost’ MSG, thus suffering roughly 15% casualties nearly across the board would have been an unimaginable loss of life had they been actual flesh and blood. Arkhan honestly believed that the losses suffered would lower the loyalty of his troops, but in fact it did the opposite. Rather than cursing their creator for such dangerous assignments, they instead viewed them as a sign that their creator expected greatness from them and view they had great potential. If they lived then they were chosen by their almighty creator for greatness; if not, then they were obviously not worthy of serving Arkhan in the future due to them being unable to succeed in the task given to them by their creator. Despite all the monster hunting, Arkhan had only gained a few levels, but the level of his skills had skyrocketed. He now was at the end of the tech from the One-Year-War and was reaching towards the beginning of Zeta Gundam era tech. He now had the capacity to field numerous MSGs and ships that he could have never dreamed of just a few months ago. To make thing even better in terms of the potential of his MSGs, even the normal sized Golems could now use an ability that would heavily damage them after its usage but grant them an incredible temporary increase in fighting power, [Real Mode].

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While heavily worried about how his troops were willing to throw the lives of their comrades away over such perceived weakness, the fact that he wanted as many to survive as possible was somehow twisted in the eyes of the MSGs into him only wanting the best to survive. Thankfully, this view only was being applied to the MSGs and not to his flesh-and-blood citizens. Arkhan hated the very idea of eugenics being carried out on any sapient beings, and thus wrote down in law that people should be allowed to love and marry who they wished. He had also taken the liberty of editing the Holy Arcadian Bible, so as to strike out anything too dangerous that found its way in by the hands of overly zealous Golems. In particular, he had to worry about the parts written by Gihren Zabi, which usually contained a mix of uber-nationalism, approval of eugenics, hate-speech and various other things that Arkhan would rather not be attributed to him.

…

The messenger returned to the capital of the Kingdom of Grellek and made an elegant bow before the Kings of the Human Lands, the Holy Crux Emperor, the Pope of the Theocracy, and an assortment of various nobles and clergymen from the Human nations. Before the messenger had returned the assemblage of people had wondered whether the barbarians who were on the other side of the wall would bow to their betters or would foolishly try to fight. The betting war was intense, with most betting that the barbarians would realize the futility of a war with the whole of Humanity. When the messenger began to speak, the eyes of the various Nobles, Royalty and Clergy lit up with both surprise and joy. The messenger had unfurled an Elven-made scroll, whose contents were written in Dwarven runic writing and had the distinctive smell of Beastman-made ink. The scroll had a gold-foil covered wax seal to hold it shut and had a purple silk ribbon to help tie it up.

The only thing that they all heard from the messenger was that the Duke had violated the law and that the barbarians were wiling to return him after a ransom had been payed, but ultimately they were only paying attention to the amount of wealth that had been poured into a single disposable scroll and the connections that the makers must have had to the three Sub-Human ‘Kingdoms’. They now believed that they should most certainly declare a Crusade. If not to finally put an end to the Sub-Human filth, then to acquire the wealth of this barbarian nation for themselves.

Thus, the wheels of war were now in motion and would stop for no-one. The ‘End War’ that the Theocracy had preached for ages about was about to become reality, but not in the way they expected. The event that would come to be known as 'The Great War' was now set in motion, and there was nothing anyone could do to stop it. If those in power in the Human Nations had known what would come of their Crusade, they may have simply decided to let the percieved slight go. But no one in their lands held that level of foresight or futuresight, and thus the preparations for war began.