Ieros stood at his mage tower, looking over the soon-to-be battlefield. His giants of stone stood still, their bodies slowly lighting up with the sunrise. He then closed his mortal eyes and stretched his influence to the shadows on the ocean floor, sensing the shadows of the coalition fleet, counting over five thousand and upon accessing the shadows within the ships, he saw that every ship possessed roughly twenty people. So a force of ten thousand was approaching, although he sensed three flagships, each led by a human of great power.
Ieros studied these three humans of power, they were objects of interest to him, perhaps finally a challenge. But, Ieros continued to spread his influence, sensing ten larger shadows. He then studied the sky turtles and the forces who were amassed upon them, seeing the Crimex, the Ursus, and the Avem. Upon returning his power to Ieros’s body, he then began to prepare for the Austerian invasion, summoning his shadow creations to defend the coast. But of course, their current forms were not ready to fight the new enemy so Ieros combined a few of his creations into one large one, such as gigantic soldiers and colossal dragons.
These would be used to counter the ten massive sky turtles which would be arriving, although their size was only a fifth of that of a sky turtle, they were still creatures to be feared. For these creatures that were made of shadow did not physically attack one’s body, rather they were able to harm one’s very life force. Not one’s soul, that is for Death to reap but the energy that allows one’s body to move. Without such energy, the body ceases to function. Of course, it takes many attacks to severely damage such energy, especially of large creatures like the sky turtle but it is an attack that cannot be defended against, even by magic.
Of course, unfair one might say but one who wields absolute power does not care about such things. If necessary, Ieros would step in, sending a tsunami of shadow which would devour any lifeforce before it, leaving only corpses without any wounds. But of course, he would rather not use it as doing so would place a great strain upon his mortal body, although it was preman, it wouldn’t be able to stand against the fragment’s full power flowing through it. It would be like twenty gigawatts of electricity flowing through graphite, the graphite would either melt or explode. This would signify the death of Ieros's body and then he would have to start anew, which was undesirable at this moment. So he would have to use his creations rather than his own power.
So with his army of stone and shadows, he awaited the arrival of the enemy, briefly wondering if he should create ships but then decided that in order to keep his act, he should avoid doing so. He had expended a lot of energy and it would be suspicious if he gave away the fact he could use more. In order to keep with his act, he made his body appear slightly pale and a bit more aged, seeming to limp as he re-entered his mage tower. But once he was out of sight, both from physical and magical, he stopped with the act, taking a seat in a simple black throne, turning his attention to the North where the atheran forces were busy conquering their third fortress.
With Azemar and seven court mages, they conquered the fortresses and swept any serisian army aside with considerable ease. Their power was terrifying to behold, the army of fifteen thousand unforgiving as they watered serisian ground with serisian blood. Ieros watched for a few moments more, watching how the Atheran Army, under the leadership of Azemar, crushed the serisians. But he soon lost interest, there was no flavor to the battles. There just wasn’t any difference, it was just to continually crush the enemy with the overwhelming power of the court mages.
Seris, of course, was rather late to respond as their own court mages had been severely wounded as they were part of the second invasion force but of course, they were repelled by Ieros’s shadows that were guarding the North. The shadows, blessed with more power than usual, defeated the mages and even got close to killing one before they were forced to retreat. Athera was unaware of this and of course, thought that Seris’s mages were too afraid to come out. But no matter what anyone thought, Seris was unable to defend against Athera’s fierce counterattack and Seris tried to gather aid, beseeching the Luxian Theocracy and Vimaris to no avail.
The Luxian Theocracy was a neutral nation, they did not go to war unless commanded by their goddess to do so. Vimaris was too wary to enter the war publicly, lest the mysterious general attacks them. Although his forces were rather small, they were of high caliber and could easily match an army twice their size. Truly a force to be reckoned with and they did not dare to face the Absolute General once more, as he was now called. But Seris’s call for aid did not go unnoticed, for two nations have made an ancient alliance and were now honoring it.
One was the nation of Vonugard promised their aid, sending an army of seven thousand to Seris’s aid, accompanied by three of Vonugard’s court mages. Vonugard was a landlocked nation so it hoped that if it helped Seris win the war, it would finally have access to the sea. But it was also cautious, it did not send too many troops for it could not overcommit, lest Seris lose the war. If Seris lost, then it would still need troops to defend themselves. Seris thought Vonugard was being rather stingy but still accepted their help nonetheless, they needed every soldier they could get.
The other nation was considerably more generous, sending a full twenty thousand to aid Seris with five court mages. This nation was Seris’s sister nation, Zeris, their names both derived from the same founding family, one taking the name of the eldest twin, Seris and the other taking the name of Zeris the younger twin. Zeris and Seris had always promised to go to another’s aid when it was needed and Zeris answered it now. Considered to be the milder of the two, Zeris was a fine nation which was smaller than Seris, due to the fact that it was not as warlike. But it still went to war when necessary, crushing its enemies before it when it did so.
So it spared a third of its standing army to help Seris, its defenses were already solid so it could do without twenty thousand. But it would take time for them to arrive, approximately three weeks but Vonugard’s army would arrive in one This would be enough time in which to aid Seris and prevent its fall. So Athera may not be able to defeat Seris, even though there were seven court mages and Azemar attacking. Ieros, knowing all of this created even more observers, he didn’t want to miss a single moment of the battles to come.
But as he was watching all of this unfold, a spy that had been watching him returned to her master, reporting what she had seen.
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She said, “Master, I have watched Ieros as you said and it seems that he has worn himself out creating his army of stone. His appearance seems to have aged slightly as well, it seems that his display of magic has been a great toll on him.”
A female voice said, “Good work, you may rest for the next two days.”
The spy bowed, “Thank you, mistress.”
So saying, the spy exited the room and the woman smiled. She then stared out her window to the East, her eyes that glittered like rainbows staring off into the distance. Her visage was alluring to behold, further enhanced by the light that filtered through the window. Of course, many women of this world—for an unknown reason—were beautiful but she was on an entirely different level. A beauty that could rival that of End’s.
Sensing some sort of presence, Ieros looked towards her direction, muttering, “Hmm, strange.”
But as Ieros extended his influence in that direction, he found absolutely nothing that produced the same sensation. Ieros was confused, he certainly sensed something but upon closer inspection, he saw nothing. So he focused on more interesting things, although he had the Sentinel watch that area, just in case. His shadows would take over the Sentinel’s job of caring for the floating garden.
Three Days Later…
“Charge men! Take the beaches!”
The pirate fleet supported from the back, firing their cannons which deformed the white sandy beach. The giants were hit as well, although they were hardly affected, only slightly chipped here and there. The giants did not focus their fire upon the approaching boarding boats, focusing on the mighty galleons which crumbled with one thrown boulder. The giants threw with such great force that once the boulder hit the ship, it shattered into pieces and if the angle was right, it would punch through three more ships, shattering them all before it lost its momentum and sank… well, like a rock.
But the fear of their pirate kings kept the pirate ships in line as they fired upon the beaches while the landing crafts finally landed. The pirates flowed out of the landing crafts but Ieros’s stone infantry blocked them, an unmoving wall of stone bodies which halted the flow of pirates. They slaughtered them on the beaches, painting the beaches red as well as the ocean. From their corpses, the stone infantry made walls making it that much harder for the pirates to get off their boats as now they had to climb up the bodies of their erstwhile comrades.
The stone infantry continued to kill them, having a greater advantage as the spearmen took their positions on the wall of corpses, their spears outranging the sabers of the pirates. Soon, the order of retreat was given and the ships retreated out of the range of the giants. Ieros had yet to exit his tower although he was still able to watch the battle. The first battle was a success but Ieros did not let the success get to him, he knew that this was only the beginning, after all, the pirate kings and their elites had yet to make a move.
As the first battle for the East came to a close, the fleet of sky turtles was three days closer, only five days away now. They sent their avem scouts which flew so high that they appeared like regular birds. They reached the East Coast in a single day, coming just in time to see another battle for the coast, although it was just the pirate ships bombarding the wall of corpses, although they were being destroyed by the giants. The pirate kings had yet to actually make a move, although they did select few elites to make some headway. But they could make no progress, the stone soldiers were immovable, although a few were destroyed by the power of the elites.
A bit tired of this standoff, Ieros stood up and emerged onto his tower’s balcony, his voice filling the entire battlefield but of course not as if he was shouting. In fact, his voice was being spoken by his shadows, as if he was talking normally.
He commanded, “Begin the counterattack.”
Immediately, the stone soldiers began to push forward, slaughtering the pirates and taking control of their landing craft. Having taken control, they began to sail back to the ships, some being sunk by cannon fire but of course, they still marched at the bottom of the sea, beginning to climb up chains of the anchors and taking over the pirate ships. As they did not know how to operate the cannons, they continued from ship to ship, leaving only dead bodies. The pirate kings and their remaining fleets drew back from the invaded ships, pulling up anchor and floating free, at a distance too far for the stone soldiers to jump. It was there that the remaining ships began to fire upon the taken ships, sinking many.
But Ieros’s voice once more rolled over the battlefield, “The counterattack has been successful, all return to the beaches.”
The stone soldiers marched through the bottom of the sea and back on the beaches, the pirates and avem witnessing them march from the sea, unharmed by the fierce cannon barrage they just withstood. Of course, it would take more than mana propelled cannonballs to destroy the soldiers of stone unless it was a direct hit. The pirate kings decided not to pursue the attack, at least not for now. They finally decided to take part in the battle for the first time, their attack would start tomorrow.
But as they reached this conclusion, Ieros’s voice spoke, “I will give you a day to retreat before I begin my second counterattack.”
The pirate kings, of course, refused his generous offer, believing it to be a mere bluff. Meanwhile, the avem returned to the sky turtles, reporting what they observed. The few Austerian elites were not worried. They were only like the Crimex in human form. But they had three million and seventy-five hundred thousand to Ieros’s four thousand. They were confident of victory, they couldn’t possibly lose. After all, they had numbers on their side as well as the Ursus and the Avem. They couldn’t possibly lose, after all, the Austerian Empire has not yet lost a battle they started.
So they couldn’t possibly lose this, if they do, the elites would lose their honor and be executed upon return, if they survived. But losing was a chance that was so infinitesimal that it didn’t even dawn on their minds.
But of course, there was something that they did not know, Ieros’s shadows which could slaughter indefinitely while they were unable to be harmed by any means. The true ultimate army with intangible bodies and attacks that cannot be defended against by any means. These were the types of beings that Darkness used to bring about the Dark Ages, although Darkness was able to create far more. The exact number that Ieros could make was seven hundred twenty-nine, rather small but considering that even one of them could destroy a single world given enough time, they were more than enough. So Ieros did just that. He had given the idea some more thought and finally decided that one would be enough, an amorphous mound of shadow which was an exact copy of the Sentinel.
The second Sentinel would be more than enough to kill the sky turtles as well as the pirate coalition. But of course, Ieros wouldn’t use it just yet, he had to give these mortals a chance after all.