Port Mission Completion

Back at the stronghold, where it just happened that most of Ciemnosc's army was nearest by and could make a move towards it without taking too much time nor mobilization from all other outposts.

Right now, in front of Ciemnosc were all of his troops. Though most were either in a tent being treated intensively or on the ground, kneeling, lying, or holding their upper bodies with their hands on their knees. On the other hand, at the very least, there was indeed a good number of troops standing up in formation and their hands to their sides and looking at Ciemnosc on top of his commanding vehicle.

It was already past 7 AM, and his whole army that had fought was here, ready to listen to his voice as Ciemnosc wouldn't be needing to do any yelling, using his Identification Token to either be heard from the tables in each medical tent all in front of him or to those standing up with a new set of clothes and their medallion for communications attached to them on their necks, shoulders or even hair for that matter. There were many sizes, colors, and shapes ever since Ciemnosc returned, becoming quite trendy in the army since then for females and feminine long haired pretty boys mostly. Well, in one way or another.

“Now, to finalize…” Ciemnosc, who had been hearing his commanders speak a little bit of each to their own troops and to the others, especially thanking the relief forces who aided them and even more so when the southern outpost had gotten the least casualties and even the most balanced number of kills on the enemy.

Then, Ciemnosc was now ending the little event which he made not just for some last words of congratulations but also for a little surprise that would make his troops feel relaxed, ‘cared for’, perhaps, and feel quite accomplished.

“At noon, more than 2 million subordinate cultivators will arrive here. They are already being escorted here by the sect and are mostly without any accident or inconvenience. There will be a lot of hard work to do from then on, but…”

Ciemnosc made a slight pause, enough to keep most at the edge of standing up or about to stand up from the expectation, before bluntly continuing. “From now on, on the very morning of this day, I declare the port mission as complete. In…3 days, we will start taking action to secure the safety and functions of the port with the ship you have built.”

“That, in effect, means that the next 2 days will all be relaxed for you and the newly coming subordinate cultivators. Take these 2 days as the best in a long time, for the training of those more than 2 million subordinate cultivators will still be preceded by all of you. And there can’t be any mistakes in there.”

“And in the next few weeks…” The people in front of him were already making relaxed groans, thankful sighs, and tired rolls of eyes that wished to go rest already…but knew that they still had to work at their fullest today. And so, Ciemnosc finished his words right after, “There will be a counteroffensive against these people who think we can only take from them and not do anything against them, to give them back some of what they’ve put you through!”

“Wooohoo!” - “I’m gonna fuck all their boyfriends and males, I will make them pay!!” - “Way to go, Commander!” - “Yeah~!! Commander, we l-...we…we, w-...we love you commander yeaaah!” - “Our Commander is an amazing general, heck yeah!!” - “Commander Shidar is a heroic commander!!” - “Commander Ernesto is a wise commander!!”

“...” And so on and henceforth, Ciemnosc felt his little tummy feel a bit ‘hehe’ as he stepped down from his commanding vehicle, reuniting with the commanders of his outposts and the stronghold. Walking away towards them, the troops around the tents began entering them once again, to help and aid in whichever way they could. Some were a bother but mostly it was all efficient help so the medics in each tent were glad to have extra slaves around.

“...Many casualties, Commander, larger than 100,000 overall. Especially…on my part.” Shidar commented, her head was high, but her eyes which could no longer bear any tears to come out were slightly reddened and puffy still.

“You are not wrong for crying just because of being emotional,” Ciemnosc comforted her, a rare thing to do towards anybody, as he wasn’t seen doing such even to Valeria. Ciemnosc then added, his left eyebrow jumping about a little as he glanced at her sideways to his left, “Or because of being a woman, it is most normal to feel like that.”

“Thank you, so much, Commander.” Shidar rubbed under her eyes a little, her puffiness disappearing a little despite her wanting to then let it all out as he said. After a bit of silence, comfy and nerve-calming, Shidar added with a large smile of closed lips on her face, side glancing at Commander Ciemnosc to her right and a bit below. “But you are not crying, Commander.”

“Eh.” Ciemnosc didn’t nod nor ‘mn-hmed’ to Shidar. But he still seemed to somehow nod and agree with her words, yet not saying anything about it in the end, or showing a response for that matter.

“Ernesto,” Ciemnosc called out and Ernesto, who was right behind them accompanying them slightly while Makis was already within his troops and spending time with them, responded right away. “Here I am Commander! Yes, sir?”

“You’ve done incredibly well. Though you weren’t in the defensive role in this battle, you still managed a few casualties. Do try to send some of your most capable men and women to Shidar for a few days or weeks so that her new troops can acclimatize to the central outpost and so that her troops of today, her little veterans, can get some more experience and learn from your people.”

“Y-yes,” Ernesto was taken aback, while Shidar finally shredded a tear or two from the left corner of her left eye… He then spoke. It was with a voice that was low and seemingly noncommittal, but that in truth… was just…touched. “I will sir, starting in 3 days when everyone’s back at their posts, I’ll send everyone that is capable if it is necessary, Commander.”

“Oh, also…” Ciemnosc nodded, still not looking directly into their faces, while Mosto was looking around, walking right behind the Commander but with quite a few steps of; of course. “Bring any prisoner to my- err, to jail. I, and Schnell will take care of the interrogations. Do the same for the deserters, and don’t miss the execution in an hour. It would be nice for everyone else to see you condemn those little idiots to death as I do it myself.”

“We can burn to ashes our fallen ones on the Little Lake at the end of the 2nd day, in the night, where cold strikes, but the hearts of our soldiers will burn brighter.” Ciemnosc commented without much emotion, some would think that he didn’t even care about the people that died and the hearts of those who witnessed such loss, but to Ernesto and Shidar, Situ Shi, and Schnell, he was being…quite goddamn considerate, especially when prisoners and the like are simply thrown to the wild after always dying in ‘strange’ ways.

“Yes, sir!” The 3 of them, Situ Shi, Ernesto, and Shidar shouted in response, making Mosto return his gaze to Ciemnosc’s back and…become solemn.

“Oh right, and don’t forget to send the letter to the sect that we have completed the port mission and we are now testing ships’ functions and the port’s possible improvements. It will take a few weeks before gaining anything.” Said Ciemnosc, giving a few words with an ambiguous tone. It was clear that it wasn’t smooth back at ‘home’, indeed.

“Well then, ‘kay, I’ll take a rest myself after the execution, so take care of the distribution of the newcomers. Make them walk to the stronghold first, holding our fallen troops’ corpses. Even if they will have 2 days of free time barely arriving, let them understand what they got into and where they are going, understood?”

“Heard!” Responded the loyal commanders once again, Li Saer could’ve yelled too, but he left it to his sweet Shidar to do as she liked it, deserved it, and…was just for her to do in truth.

“...” Not saying anything and forcing up a bittersweet expression for just a moment, Ciemnosc nodded and sped up in his steps, walking back to his commanding vehicle after having done a little circle. His loyal direct subordinates watched his back fade into the armored car, their memories seemingly reliving this one battle that lasted so little but was so…much to take already; over and over again until the commanding vehicle swiftly made its way, in rough bumps, back towards the stronghold.

Makis, who was standing among his own troops looked on at the departing commanding vehicle, on the other hand, his face unreadable before smiling and looking down at an injured female trooper with the whole left side of her body gone, though that was mostly for her limbs and some flesh, her bones were fine. The other troopers around him joined and slowly began to treat her, while some medics and capable Craftspeople came walking with some wooden prosthetics with a hide that had an inscribed array only Ciemnosc seemed to know attached to it - such part was to connect with the female trooper’s left side of her body so that it wouldn’t fall and even somewhat grow with her still…

Unauthorized duplication: this narrative has been taken without consent. Report sightings.

. . .

Slowly, time passed, and it was a good thing since that meant that the army of Ciemnosc managed to get a good goddamn rest after such a battle.

The losses weren’t devastating, but they still lost a lot considering that there was that one tragic incident in the central outpost that took many sect disciples’ lives but also all of the subordinate cultivators from that outpost…

The one with the least amount of losses was naturally Makis’s troops, the southern outpost; outpost 3. Being on the defensive, Craftspeople just needed to come by, assess the damage to the array, which was null and just replenish it with resources that Ciemnosc barely had to give out, in terms of Inferior Powerful Stones.

In any case, no shit they dared to trick or steal from Ciemnosc after so many Craftspeople were put down with the attempts from before. They really gained a bad image not only in the incredible eyes of this general-to-be Commander; they even gained a horrible image in the eyes of the troops who gave their lives while these politician-like maggots chewed at resources.

There was even a rumor that an extra cannon and an extra armored car were made by these people, keeping it secret from anyone except themselves. Such a thing was left unresolved, but it somehow quieted down by the time that the second day of the vacation for all outposts and the stronghold. They even made tents outside the Little Lake to enjoy the little cold that would emanate from the water and keep their hot nights balanced.

But the same day of the battle, more than 2 million subordinate cultivators came. And the troops had to do just one more job before resting their well-deserved at their break time before the hour of their vacations officially came. It wasn’t really a vacation, but to be allowed to be around the Little Lake all they wanted for 2 days straight up until the morning of the 3rd day when they would be marching back to their outposts and stronghold on foot since most armored cars were damaged - that was way too good for themselves, or so they thought inside their heads.

That day, there was also quite another surprising but not so shocking - a little shock as dozens of Craftspeople, all criminals and partners in crime, were beheaded by Ciemnosc’s rusty sword of awful quality. Taking more than one hacking down to cut and break their necks off their bodies. Those who resisted were tormented by being eaten by some sect disciples’ pets and the like.

But that wasn’t all of them. Some other Craftspeople were left to become prisoners. It was already known that it was much worse than dying in such an ugly way in front of tens of thousands of pairs of eyes. But that felt right. After all, they attempted against their Commander Ciemnosc!

When it came to the distribution of subordinate cultivators, Ciemnosc’s recommendations were unhesitatingly taken and followed to the letter. Each outpost received 400,000+ subordinate cultivators, further increasing the numbers for each outpost. And hence their respective commanders already had worked at devising an expansion of their outposts.

Of course, that was after the 2 days of vacation would end. And it would also be decided in the end after communicating with the other commanders so that there would be no problems with each other’s amount of territory. After all, not only did their great Commander Ciemnosc praise their competitiveness, he even encouraged them to be like this.

And so, after some serious discussion, the 3 outposts came to an agreement, and with Shidar having her outpost expanse the most widely to the north and south, Makis having a much eastern expansion and Ernesto choosing to do an ‘ugly’ shaped northern-southern expansion to cover more of the possible empty spots on his side around the Little Lake, for better protecting their rear and the stronghold; the 3 outposts would begin formulating their own expansions once the vacations were over.

Right now, even Shidar and Li Saer were seen around the Little Lake, flirting and kissing like teenagers some of the time. Shidar didn’t have a wow body, but her so much more confident new self that has grown during these last few months was much more enticing, attractive, and tempting than a teenage girl saying she wants a new daddy.

Whenever she went around with a modest bikini, eyes turned around, and could only pitifully look at themselves on the water of the warm Little Lake, men and women alike; from young ones to slightly old ones - up to an age that had them appear to be around their middle ages.

Ernesto was like the grandpa being surrounded by so many disciples and subordinate cultivators. He would teach his brand new recruits things that were so obvious to him but alien to the new recruits. On the other hand, his old disciples snatched many young girls and innocent boys and made them true men and women the night after.

Though it seemed predatory, whether because of Ernesto’s teachings, authority, and him being their grandparental figure, or because they really learned well from how Ernesto has given them so much to grab their lives and put them up above the ‘low level’ that a person can lower themselves to - their relationship with the newbies was rather…harmonious to the least…warmest to the best of examples.

And even though Ernesto wasn’t in accordance with fishing a nice young gal or those horrible and beastly women perving after innocent boys who don’t even know the word ‘masturbation’ without considering their long forgotten instincts of dumbly looking for someone big, tall, and manly only - he was even more against denying them what they were looking for, even more so knowing they could die so fast at any other time.

Hence, Ernesto allowed for his horny troops and newest troops to be together, in a way, without going to the extreme depravities that some extremists would think of whenever they would listen to or watch something like this happening.

After all, if they dared to be violent, Ciemnosc would just throw them into the wild to become the animal’s pathway to cultivation after their deaths. There were no exceptions. There were some from Ernesto’s outpost that thought they had the ‘pass’ to do stuff. Ernesto didn’t even need to nod at Ciemnosc before the latter had already skewered them within some woods some time ago.

Let alone the other outposts, who have less authority than Ernesto could garner for himself, for the moment that is. After all, Ernesto is Ernesto, and he had such experience, prowess, and worldliness that Shidar with Li Saer and Situ Shi could also reach, but they still needed time. They also didn’t imagine themselves commanding such forces of such numbers and of such quality. Nobody did, even Commander Ciemnosc…but they didn’t need to know that.

These days were well spent, indeed. Even Ciemnosc felt relaxed on this second day’s night, still sleepless as always, and even more so lately. But relaxed nonetheless, Mosto could second the notion as he heard less dragged-on tortures from the prisoners all day, and their shriveled bodies would come out of jail sooner these days.

. . .

“Woah, they are all being moved.” - “Mn, they were preserved by Commander’s arrays. He is really an all-rounder, isn’t he?” - “Yeah…” - “...”

There were all the almost 4 million troops, both logistics-focused and sect disciples and subordinate cultivators, looking a few tens of meters away from the Little Lake where a line made everyone stand at the same distance over the entire Little Lake’s shore on their side, with many taking higher grounds to look at it when the line had gone too far away to the sides from where many fallen bodies of their comrades and those who were going to be their comrades…

Their appearances were hidden, and on top of them was a gentle looking rough cotton blanket covering them as they embarked on their huge rafts of several square hundred meters big. Each for a certain amount of fallen troops, be it their corpses…or a piece of dirt, of grass, a rock, or several broken pieces of equipment which was all that remained from them.

And at the middle of each huge raft, a 300 meters tall sign was built, with another cotton blanket, this time really smooth, having the names of those who fell in the last battle. Everyone could see them as they watched drifting away into the deeper parts of the Little Lake.

“Send them off,” a quiet, soft voice sounded, and hearing their Commander, some new subordinate cultivators took their tools into their arms tighter, and with the new invention of their Commander in arrays and technology, a wonder; they perfectly aimed at the rafts.

Psiiuu, pssiiuu, psiuuu~!...

Several dozens of flaming tongues were shot from even way behind the crowd at the shore, crossing over a few kilometers and arriving at the rafts they were each aiming for without a single miss, the collision between them in midair nor selecting the same target by accident.

Crackle, crackle, crackle~... … …crackle…

“...” Everyone, naturally, became silent; as they watched the flames engulf the rafts’ bases and the tall sign becoming illuminated by the fire, they then extended up to the signs, making their way further up. The names of those at the bottom were read with ease, and when the flames burned those words to ashes, as their bodies burned, the next set of names and aliases were illuminated, then burned, then the next set of words…as they were burned, then the next were illuminated.

“It’s so…beautiful?” - “...” - “...” - “Woah…” - “It kinda makes me feel that…if I die, I wanna be sent off like this for our purpose here, for the Commander…” - “... “ - “...” - “Goodbye…” - “..” - “...” - “Goodbye~...” - “Goodbye…” - “Bye…” - “Let’s fight together next time, too…” - “Yeah, I wouldn’t want to meet you guys again as my enemies, that’ll be awkward, sniff…yeah, awkward.” - “Yeah, sniff…weird.”

Sounding ‘let’s fight together again sometime’ and ‘I’d rather eat my arms than face you on our next try’ could be heard over and over again, in hushed tones- softened voices-...and longing eyes.

Ciemnosc, without a feeling of alienation after having commanded the burning of their bodies into ashes…followed his soldiers into bidding farewell to those, who he now knew understood; who were really fighting for him.

‘May we…fight together once more, at least. May we- not meet each other on opposite sides in any battlefield…’

Falling silent and speechless in all forms out of nowhere, Ciemnosc simply looked on at the departing rafts.

…