Imperial Capital of Aethyr Empire 361 A.E. (Two years before Ren's summoning)
Suu's POV
After many moments of silence we realized that this was going nowhere, basically we got the silent treatment until we all knelled.
It worked exceptionally well.
Now all 33 of us where on our knees and only then did the “Emperor” speak.
“I welcome you all into this world called Elanor. My name is Luther, Emperor Luther Endwing of the holy Aethyr Empire I know you all have questions but hold them till the end of this speech.
Firstly If you have not noticed, you are not at your world anymore.”
“WHA--?” (A random student)
“Please be silent till I finish.” (Emperor)
“The reason we brought you here is to defeat humanity's live long enemies, the demons, you are to lead our armies into battle until you obliterate these unholy entities.
You might be incapable to do it now but fear not, we will train and nurture you until you are ready.
Lastly, I sincerely apologize but there is no way back to your world.”
“STOP KIDDING WITH US.” Surprisingly, it was Kanzaki that exclaimed her frustration firstly.
“You first bring us here with no way back and then you ask us to take part in a war that basically has nothing to do with us?”
“Right “ (random student)
“Are you stupid or something, what made you think that even if you brought us here we would even agree” (Random student)
At this line, the Emperor got an evil look on his face accompanied with a smug grin.
“You are free to live, go explore this world, live peaceful lives do whatever you want to do.... Not like you will be able to get too far anyways.”
'Damn, I know where this is going … '
I stood up and addressed the whole class that where rightfully agitated.
“HEY !”
Now everyone in the room turned at me … Fuck … I hate speeches.
“I know this sounds egoistical but I believe we must stick together and just do it. Before you say anything, think about it, we are stuck in another world with nothing. No money, no food and just by looking around, you can tell that we clearly are not in Japan anymore.”
“I am not sure about the other world part but I am not taking my chances going solo anywhere”
“Suu has a point everyone and if I am judging correctly, was that magic we saw back there ?” (Taichi)
“Absolutely correct” (Emperor)
Now everyone knew with certainty, we clearly where not in Japan, not even on earth for that matter.
In the end we all decided to stick together, if you ask me, it was clearly the best option.
After some more small talk about this world, they showed us to our rooms which where needlessly luxurious.
Basically, this world was never mapped as a whole, so the only information we got was about this continent, but still judging from the map, it would not be weird to call it a super continent just by its size.
So, just to brief you in, there are all sort of races living on these lands like humans,naturally, elves, beast kin, fae, demons and many more. But more importantly its worth to be mentioned that there are only two powers in charge and these are in constant conflict.
The first is the Holy Empire of Aethyr, the one that we where summoned at and by the Emperor's word, a utopia like non other, a safe haven for the humans inhabiting this world. The other is the Demonic Empire of Freyr, a dreadfull place filled with demonic entities that worship the Evil Gods such a Sol, God of sun and chaos and use vile unholy magic that twists the mind and destroys the heart.
Basically our enemies.
The Emperor asked us if we where familiar with the term demon and we all explained our perspective on the matter.
Others mentioned the classic Japanese Yukai, others spoke of the demons you hear about in the christian religion while others like me just envisioned vile sadistic creatures with a human figure, leathery wings, long pointy tails and horns on top of their heads.
We where all wrong.
The Emperor explained to us that demons where actually more like monsters that take the form of humans to confuse their enemies and destroy their spirit, but this is nothing more than an illusion and it should not concern us at the moment for, dubbing him “The hearts of the pure that follow the teachings of our merciful God Lun shall not perish at the fangs of these barbaric creatures.”
The next day, our training began early in the morning.
Imperial Capital of Aethyr Empire 362 A.E. (One year before Ren's summoning)
It has been exactly one year from the day we where summoned, the training has become astronomically many more times harder since the time we began.
Every morning, before the sun rises we begin our day by running around 50 Km at full speed.
It sound a lot and it is, even with our magically enhanced bodies, running such a distance in full speed still causes severe fatigue.
I can't really complain thought, I gained some nice muscle and have already passed the natural human limits.
After we are done we head straight for the arena and begin to spar with each other, among the class, there are many weapons of choice from two handed axes, dual wielding short swords, spears, short bows/ longbows and of course in honor of our Japanese heritage even katanas that where special ordered, still the weapon smithing in this world is not advanced enough so all we got were cheap replicas made of iron.
Mine, Ami's and Taichi's weapon of choice where a shield with a classic spear and a short sword strapped at our side.
You where expecting something flashy right ?
Sorry to break it to you but even in a magical world, when it comes to combat, things do not change much and in a practical full scale conflict, be it war, a duel or just a minor skirmish, the shield is a vital piece of equipment, it can be used to defend and attack while the spear provides the extra range with the short sword to back you up on closer distances.
In this one year, we never got to explore the capital or visit any other cities, we rarely go outside the Palace Grounds and when we do we follow the main road to the noble district with guards accompanying us.
Imperial Capital of Aethyr Empire 363 A.E.
Two years passed in a flash as the only thing we did was brutal training day after day with a day to relax once a moth, the only day we are allowed to go outside, my favorite day even if guards are on my tail.
Many stuff happened this past year, the distance we are running every morning has doubled but this is not important.
Our sparring sessions where replaced with death matches against many monsters that where enslaved and then thrown into the arena.
Be it hordes of goblins, arachnids or either demon prisoners we fought and fought to survive, killing became a daily necessity that we had to quickly get used to.
The look of innocence in our eyes vanished, only to be replaced by the look of a seasoned warrior.
The other noticeable thing that changed, was the addition of magical studies, till now, alchemical elixirs and concoction were provided to us to strengthen our bodies many more times the natural human limit, now these where replaced by meditation to clear our minds and get closer to the divine energy, gifted to mortals by the God.
Magic in this world works completely differently than what we see in movies, there are no internal mana pools, elemental affinities or forbidden spells to never be casted.
Magic is about contracting a God or a minor deity and using the divine energy the God provides you as a fuel to bring forth a spell.
Spells basically are the concentration of ones divine energy and through a ancient language which is a mix of linear writing system and hieroglyphs, you can create a magic ethereal circle that will then create an effect.
The more grand the spell, the more complex the circle, so you can understand, great concentration is needed in order for someone to be able to cast magic, another technique to help casting is murmuring the process or calling out the spells name if you are already familiar and have memorized it to perfection.
In the end all of us made a contract with the Ancient God Lun , God of the moon order and stillness but not all of us can use the divine energy for doing more than strengthening our bodies.
This narrative has been purloined without the author's approval. Report any appearances on Amazon.
I too, am one of those, the same goes for Ami and Taichi.
Some are able to channel the divine energy onto their weapon giving them some additional effects, while even fewer became full fledged spell casters, but still they can't do much more than throw a fireball around or cast group buffs.
Group buffs are basically the act of giving your own divine energy and guide it to a certain part of your teammates bodies, like legs for more speed or arms for more strength.
The reason they do not channel it to the whole body is more about the fact of the great concentration needed.
No complains with that thought, it is still very useful.
Enough of that for now, lets get to the present.
We are all currently marching through the Elven forest, which is more like a jungle with 50 guards accompanying us.
This is the first time we saw the outside world in these two years and to be honest I am hyped.
The reason for this outing thought is a different matter, since we are headed straight to Freyr Empire's Capital, demon capital for short, the reason for that, they will soon cast a summoning ritual to summon heroes of their own.
Our task is to either disrupt the ritual or kill the summoned, we had our doubts when the word summoned was used but we were rest assured that it will surely be other wordily entities that came from the depths of the underworld and nothing close to us.
Going to the demon capital is close to a suicide mission, not only for the fact we are headed to the heart of the enemy's territory but its also the course we follow to reach there undetected till the moment we act.
The super continent is basically split into two halves by a series of mountain ranges right in the middle, these mountain ranges are usually inhabited by beast kin which is a nomadic race but they are also full of beasts.
Truly, the only reason fights till annihilation of either side are not commenced, is mostly for the geographical fact that makes it hard to move big masses of troops.
The mountain ranges extend fully towards the east till they reach the sea while on the west the Elven Jungle
And here we are right now walking through it like bosses in a small group not to raise unwanted attention.
We walked and walked heading north for a whole week, nothing major happened thought except the regular monster attack and soon we united with the main force that awaited at the north of the capital.
This force of a thousand troops was slowly amassed for a whole month sending each group at irregular intervals deep into enemy territory, hidden by the asphyxiating greenery of the forest.
We rested at the main camp, basically, a cave that used to belong to some goblins for the day and took a well deserved rest, for tomorrow it will be time to act.
Its the middle of the night but everyone is already up and ready, our group separated from the main force and headed back south, where from there, we moved blending with the darkness passing stealthily and unnoticed from the outposts headed straight towards the Demon Capital.
We soon reached the outskirts of a small abandoned farming community near the walls where there we used the abandoned houses to rest as the sun started rising.
End of POV
Captain Kerd's POV
The young heroes soon left to get into position as soon as they left we too started getting ready.
Soon all the troops had removed their armors, and threw them away with their swords, spears and shields in a nearby deep river. We all wore black cloaks, equipped a quiver with 20 arrows, a short bow and a flask full of flammable oil.
We split into groups of ten, spread out and started to move as stealthily as possible headed to the Demonic Capital.
The sun started rising and all the groups laid low in the plains, we covered ourselves with a big blanket, green in color with leaves, bushes and branches stuck on top of it and laid without moving a muscle in the wide plain between the jungle and the capital.
The plan is simple really, we will make a fuss to draw their attention at the northwest part of the wall and while they will all be busy dealing with us, the heroes will move in unnoticed from the southwest taking advantage of the chaos.
What they don't know thought, is that we are not going back with them. The Emperor specifically told us not to mention it to the heroes or they might not agree.
Truly these young men and women are to kindhearted to even be considerable of lowly humans like us.
The sun soon started setting and considering we are all still alive, no teams must have been noticed.
As soon as the sun set behind the eastern edge of the mountain range , we started to move once again, it was time.
The walls of the city got closer and closer, torches where lit a top and the figures of sentries where visible.
I got the flask of oil out of my pouch with my right hand and slowly but steadily started gathering divine energy.
I through the flask with all my strength at the wall and it crushed on it with a loud bang, then I stretched my hand out and threw a fireball, igniting the oil. Soon 6 more followed my lead and the small fire escalated into an inferno.
Panic ensued as we used the rest of the oil and fired flaming arrows.
Without me noticing I already started mumbling a song, out loud enough for all my team to hear and soon they too started singing louder than I.
“For the grace, for the might of our lord,
for the home of the holy, for the faith, for
they way of the sword, giving our lives so boldly,
For the grace for the might of our lord, in the name of
his glory, for the faith, for the way of the sword,
come and tell our story .
Dying for salvation, with dedication, no capitulation,
annihilation, Imperial Commendation, reincarnation,
Lun's plains our destination
IN THE NAME OF GOD!”
(from Sabaton's new album last stand, name of the track: the last stand)
Hundreds of arrows flew from within the flames and darkness soon claimed us.
End of POV
Some words from the Author:
2600 words and by morning there should be one more chapter.
Some readers might be frustrated and confused with the turn around, but I wanted to use it for some world building.
I don't know what you will think about this tactic I used in the story, I might not be a strategic genius with a billion golden metals but I think it was a plausible tactic (As a suicide mission)
And before anyone says something like,” if the could get a thousand troops that close without anyone noticing, how come they haven't won this war yet?”
Easy answer, they can get close as groups of tens without their heavy armor or other equipment, but they can't group.
Even if they could group, they would still get annihilated, without even 1 enemy soldier stepping outside the walls.
Even in the miraculous event they don't get shot down, they still have no means of breaching the defense the wall provides.
As for the story, I am not a fan of godly information give out, you will know the same info as the characters do.
( Maybe sometimes , something might “accidentally” slip out for the reader's convenience)
And for that is the heavy use of POVs .
I hope I cleared out some confusion the last chapter has caused, if not, you are free to bash me in the comment section, free rakes and torches will be administrated for the great Author hunt, by the Author.