55. Unravelling

While Mercurius, Salutius and Nichomachus defended Palga, two new evangels Mago and Himilco burnt the fleet that Spendius was depending upon to launch an invasion of Moru province. Mago had thick black hair and dark eyes, Himilco was bald, but had dark hair roots, the two immediately went to bribing the city of Portus of Asur. Mago, Himilco, Oxyartes, Xeniades, Cleophona, Sostratus, Cleophona, Archippe, Themison, Mago and Himilco focused on the province of Asur, the rate of bribery and freeing of slaves, initially swelling the local governments coffers only for revolt to completely destroy the Mendek administration. Asuf, Nord, Oest and Portus of Asur quickly revolted. Zhong and Raja states custom officials did wonder what was going on, wood flowed into their markets in such quantity, sometimes the God of Trade evangels had to trade their goods in Mendek markets to avoid too much suspicion. Resident evangels to the God of Farming and Water were plopped in recently successful revolts in the cities; food, water and wood began to be distributed in the cities from within them. It had not even been a day, and the evangels to the God of Trade were supplemented by Cleon, Samo and Hadrami, they immediately began undermining Mendek rule in Peria; Nova, Castra and Perun were inundated with goods and it’s slave population freed with increasing haste. The city of Portus of Peria received the increasing number of God of Trade evangels with disdain, disgusted by their untimely arrival.

“Had you fiends come earlier, maybe our city wouldn’t be charred and ruins!” An old woman badgered them.

However, she had no way of knowing that the reason there were so many evangels was partly because of the distracted Mendek armies and the ability to concentrate in one front.

Over the course of two days, all the cities revolted bar Portus of Peria, which refused to revolt out of fear for previous losses. Spendius and Hereward had killed thousands of defenders, Mercurius and Salutius not able to mitigate the losses despite their best efforts. Thirteen other evangels to the God of Trade, who had been able to unravel Mendek territories taking 5 and now nearly 6 provinces. Spendius and Hereward were beset with teleporting evangels, officers were assassinated, the camp burnt and Hereward unable to escape was riddled with knives in the back. The large group chased Spendius whose army was now attempting to storm the city.

“Mendek will conquer all!”

Spendius 25,000 man army attempted to storm the city, but instead was left leaderless in the next moment. Nichomachus and Salutius collapsing to the ground riddled with blade cuts, Spendius the ruler of Mendek defeated. The Mendek army kept fighting, but was systematically dismantled by the God of Trade evangels who took out the command, and had the soldiers disorganised and soon riddled with crossbow bolts.

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“Well met…” Mercurius said, looking at the band of people that had come to his aid, “I never would have imagined there would be quite so many of you.”

Cleophona was a tall woman, and put out her hand to Mercurius who shook her large hand while looking up at her.

“The God of Trade is wise,” Mercurius said.

“We have Asur, Peria, Uruq, and even Chenep and Hunur and of course Balna,” Cleophona said, “Mendek’s eastern conquests have been Lir, and not much else,” Symachus said, “losing their founder will hurt them.”

“Losing half their empire will hurt them a lot more I guess,” Mercurius said, “goodness me there are a lot of you.”

A lot of laughter was heard, before the 16 of them went to tell Portus of Peria of the good news. Demetrius attempted to besiege Eda, only to be swamped by 16 evangels who neutralised him, and soon had the city of Eda revolt and declare for the Republic. Utbah, Zubayr, Robert and Antiochus were left as evangels to the God of Battle, Mendek’s leadership passing to Utbah. Despite this the God of Trade evangels went on the offensive, swamping recent conquests of Utbah in Jitun, the Seat of Light and Khalar.

571 Winter, the onset of spring. Three days would pass as the God of Trade began overwhelming Utbah in Jira province. Robert and Antiochus had managed to conquer the entirety of Lir, on the doorstep of the great Raja states. Balk, Lakhmi, Karun, as well as the already conquer Lirun and and Asr were taken with relative ease. Despite the victories, the number of evangels did not increase; the God of Trade eroding the recent successes of the God of Battle. Utbah could not believe the news, and had no idea that so many evangels to the God of Trade existed.

“How could our rule of Jira be undone so quickly? What the fuck happened?” Utbah asked, having gone on campaign in Lir, hoping to invade the Raja states and increase his power.

“I don’t understand either,” Zubayr said, “Yerek was on equal footing with us, what happened?”

“Sir, Hunur, Chenep, Uruq, Balna, Asur and Peria all fell to the Republic. Their number of evangels comes from their overwhelming victories!” A messenger said.

“That cannot be…” Utbah said, “the Republic is winning?”

I just left them and they start winning? My luck is terrible. What am I doing? Why did I leave anyway?

Utbah was paralysed in thoughts, he did not know it, but he was the effective ruler of Mendek. An empire that had been totally undermined and unravelled, with each city falling, only accelerating the progress of the Republic. Utbah and Zubayr had numbered days, Mendek perhaps even less than days. Mendek only had Lir, a recently conquered province which they were squeezing gold out of, the Republic in contrast was subsiding a massive territory with an enormous amount of evangels to facilitate distribution. Mendek was no longer so scary, devoid of so much territory that could provide it gold for armies. The Republic was on the march, Yerek’s flag flying over masses of territory, and now it had no equal.