The great beast that moved through the lands roared with every move it took, the land shook under its might, it loomed mightily over all it passed, bringing fear, admiration and respect into all who looked upon it.
The great beast did not move itself though. No it did not.
It was willingly pulled by a thousand chains that dragged it across the landscape. A thousand orcs and ogres pulled the great beast with all their might.
This beast was the mount of the dark god, the god of Damnation.
The wooden and metallic frame looked majestic and the great legion that surrounded it, only served to amplify the feeling of dread it brought.
I sat upon the golden black throne that was situated on its back, which allowed me to see all around me.
It was truly incredible to witness what I was currently witnessing.
I stared as the beast was pulled slowly across the landscape, the orcs and ogres looked far from tired and had a look of reverence and duty plastered upon their face. They pulled it with all their might and their might did move my steed.
What bothered me was that Ghum’bil had ordered the construction of such a beast without my permission and without my knowledge. Neither had anyone else bothered to inform me that a decently large amount of my resources were spent upon the construction of a war machine.
Maybe they assumed Ghum’bil had already informed me, maybe they simply feared telling me.
Whatever it was, I was both ashamed and angry that I did not realise I had such a mighty construction belonging to me until it was already finished.
This was the steed that was supposed to be used for my conquest of the world.
A large machine that stood dozens of metres above that of my legion.
Orcs had little engineering knowledge, and none of the other races should have the knowledge to build such a thing.
Even the human engineers who had submitted to me would not have been able to design such a thing, but seeing as how the machine moved simply on manpower instead of any other form of power or energy, it wasn't all that surprising.
But requiring a thousand of the people who served me to pull my steed? That was far too much.
Whoever designed this would have to be both punished and rewarded. It was a great machine but it was far too large and wide.
Several metres high, and at least a dozen or two wide.
It was a moving fortress.
It weighed who knows how many hundreds of thousands of tons and no matter how powerful orcs and ogres were, moving such a thing with manpower alone for hundreds of kilometres was no easy feat.
I hoped those under me would consider the state of things before they did what they did.
Especially Ghum’bil, the fool who ordered this constructed.
Why would I even need such a beast as a steed? It wasted so much manpower and all for what? My image? Useless is what it was no matter how mighty.
It literally slowed down my legions march and I couldn’t be late in my aid to Yulia otherwise I might have to face two human armies instead of one.
But I really did like it. It had an intimidating aura with how it seemed to loom over all, it was covered in spikes, spears and skulls, and I hoped the skulls were that of people long dead otherwise it would be… awkward.
I tried to order them to remove the skulls but they thought I wanted fresh skulls and began to try to kill to each other so I left it as it is.
The spikes and spears varied in range but they were all intimidatingly sharp. A single misstep and you’d fall off and die brutally which I learned has happened multiple times in the construction of this beast.
They asked me to honour them and their creation by giving it a name worthy of a god.
So I racked my head for a very long time as I thought of a name fitting for such a thing.
I named it Golgotha.
I thought it a fitting name for what it was.
The constructors and the like were thrilled at its name and immediately began chanting and screaming about the completion of their Gods Steed, Golgotha.
I humoured them and let them go wild for a while but then I silenced them and had them begin the march, which brings us back to where I am right now.
Sitting upon Golgotha while being pulled by over a thousand people who gladly did so.
Or maybe it was out of fear.
But they all scrambled to be chosen as the ones to pull Golgotha and they cried in joy and happiness when they were chosen for the duty.
Golgotha and its carriers left a bitter taste in my mouth but I let them do as they wish if it allowed us to continue marching, which it did.
In the short time since I had become proclaimed as the God of Damnation, thousands of people flocked to me.
This tale has been pilfered from Royal Road. If found on Amazon, kindly file a report.
Every day I had gotten larger and larger.
All of the small clans and groups from all races flocked to and joined me.
Even many from the larger clans and groups, but far less when compared to others.
In such a short time, I had a population of over 300,000.
A humongous populous is what it was.
And of that population, 50,000 had turned out to be warriors.
So I had an army that large.
Together with me marched 25,000. A large number, but less than the combined human forces.
Yulia had an expected force of 50,000, but only 30,000 had been mobilised. I knew this because of Ghum’bil and his unique skill.
Lithium had roughly 35,000 soldiers and Kalmira had a staggering 40,000.
But both of those kingdoms could only utilise roughly 20,000 or so troops each because of all their fortresses in Thecillia.
Of my 50,000 soldiers, 10,000 marched with Kaiser and a further 15,000 remained back at my Capital.
I left those forces their so that they could defend our lands if anything particular happened, like a minor rebellion or the like.
I also left a note for Kaiser to take 5,000 more troops and then march on towards the Human kingdoms.
I began to think about the knowledge Ghum’bil had sent to me and it saddened me.
So much blood was going to be shed and all for what?
I caressed my forehead as I asked myself that question every day.
If I had never been, had never existed in this world, would things have been the same?
Would there currently be a land wide war?
Would people be panicked and sleep with the fear that they may die the next day?
What did I bring but death and fear?
Well that was only towards a particular group of nations but still.
I had changed so much in such a little frame of a time.
It made me wonder if I was doing all of this of my own volition or that of another.
It made me think deeply.
But I could never come to an answer.
But I did know one thing.
And that was that Thecillia was not a very large land and that outside of this mountain and great lake was far more than we could ever imagine.
Even within Thecillia there was too much I didn’t know
Such as Garghaza and how he gained so much power?
What was the being that had killed Garghaza?
What was beyond the passage south of Humanity?
How come orcs had no history in this land?
How come the beastmen god was dead? How come the other gods did nothing in return?
Who was this father of mine that Jiatya had mentioned?
What was beyond the lake?
How come Dwarven architecture was far more advanced when compared to the other races?
All of these questions and so little for answers.
This land was as mysterious as it was bothersome.
Why did so many races share such a small land?
Was it out of greed, or was it out of need?
The more I thought, the more conspiracies I created within my own mind.
I sighed and focused back on the task at hand.
Kaiser would meet me the Border Fortress if he moved fast enough so that we could move on towards Kalmira and Lithium and hopefully end this war quick enough for there to be little bloodshed.
I had to stop Ghum’bil from corrupting the human kingdoms too much.
If I left it too him they would be too far gone from humanity to ever return.
Would it create a new race I wonder? Well, let us hope we don’t find out.
On a different note, I had received word from the scouts that were observing the dwarves and their reports were always interesting.
I think I may promote them after the war since they always managed to bring a smile to my face.
But even then, the smile I had on my face slowly drifted away as I once again stared at my legion slowly marching towards humanity.
I bitterly laughed as I thought that this was similar to a fantasy story.
If a hero somehow appeared and then marched to fight me, would I tell him my tragic back story before he killed me?
It would be an interesting twist.
But no matter, we’ll find out how things will end soon enough.
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Ak here,
And this is the second chapter for today. I hope you all enjoy it.
Also, just a little note, I've decided that I'll either be releasing the 1 guaranteed weekly chapter on Monday or Friday. Haven't chosen which day as of yet.
That aside, I hope you all enjoy yourselves!
Love and Peace,
-AK, the Slow Asshole