Libidine stepped through into lavish surroundings, somehow strangely familiar. She turned to mention this to Ieros only to find the rest of the room and no gate. She frowned and then took a look out the window, seeing the bustling capital of Morsad. Shock coursed through her body and finally, she cursed,
“That bastard!”
Meanwhile, Ieros was busy preparing to meet the Austerian Fleet, creating a million stone soldiers that would be led by a thousand of his commander golems. They’d each command a battalion of a thousand stone soldiers, the battalions composed of three hundred and thirty-four swordsmen, three hundred and thirty-three spearmen and three hundred and thirty-three archers. He also created ten generals, each commanding a hundred battalions. As these generals were special, he also gave them dragons of dark matter to ride on. But these dragons were diminutive when compared with the second Sentinel, although it had been commanded to hide for now.
But creating the soldiers of stone was the easy part, he also had to create artificial souls for them so that they could move independently from him, although still loyal. So he relied on the template of the artificial souls that he had made earlier, adding the genius of Azemar to the generals’ souls and giving the logical mind of Aldis to his commanders. For the army of stone, he merely reused the previous template of the artificial soul that he had used for his army of humans back at the Hollowed Pass. He could make more but his calculations have deemed that this amount was more than enough to deal with the enemy. After all, it wouldn’t be interesting at all to destroy the enemy in an instant.
When he was done, he thought of Libidine, it was unnecessary and unfortunate that she had come to meet him. He did not have the time to deal with both her and the Austerian Fleet so all he could do was to send her back. To ensure that she wouldn’t come back, he made a barrier around the entirety of the East Coast that would repel her and her spies. Now that he had seen her with his own eyes, he would be able to pierce through her powerful illusion magic which also protected her spies. So he found all of the spies that she had planted and removed them from the premises of the coast.
Now fully protected from unwanted eyes, he walked back to the tower, awaiting the arrival of the Austerian Fleet. Of course, his barrier could also block scrying so she or any other mage would not be able to spy on him from afar. He did not wish for the full extent of his powers to be known, doing so would put fear in the minds of the other mages and they may band together to destroy him. After simulating ten billion scenarios, Ieros calculated a seventeen percent chance of them succeeding in destroying his vessel. This was no small chance and thus it was something he wished to avoid, he wanted to keep this vessel for as long as possible as it was the strongest vessel that he currently possessed.
Of course, it itself would not be destroyed, although it would have to kill all the mages in order to keep its identity safe. It had no wish to tangle with the Luxian Theocracy, Light may prove to be very detrimental to his mission. Suddenly, his thoughts were disrupted by an illusion of Libidine which stood before him, arms crossed.
She angrily demanded, “What the hell did you do?”
Ieros looked at her calmly and said, “I can’t afford to deal with you, there is something far larger that demands my attention.”
He waved his hand and the illusion was dissipated, Libidine not given the chance to speak. He made sure that the barrier could now block long-distance communication magic and now, in peace, he waited.
Back at the palace, Libidine was fuming and immediately set out to meet him face to face, using magic to speed up the process to one day. But, she wasn’t the only one speeding up, the Austerian Fleet, having heard the reports of the Avem that land wasn’t too far away as well as the fact that the West was beginning to reinforce itself, commanded the Loquimi to make the sky turtles go faster. They too would arrive in about a day. Ieros was unconcerned, he had already made all of his preparations as well as analyze the strategy the enemy was going to use. This battle was not one where he was going to hold back, he wanted the Austerian Empire to fear the West, to fear him. That way he would be assured that they would not come again to tamper with his observations in Occasus.
While he thought of this, the Austerian Fleet drew closer, one of the elites communicating back with the Emperor,
“Sire, we will soon reach Occasus a day from now.”
The Emperor replied, “Oh? Was it not three days from now?”
The elite replied, “Well I and my comrades have simply gotten too impatient, besides, our scouts have seen the defenses of the West and it seems that they know of our arrival, having already amassed an army of a million to defend the coast. So we thought that it would be best to hurry before they could get more numbers.”
The Emperor nodded, “A wise decision. I look forward to hearing about your success.”
Suddenly, there was a strange sound over the communication and the Emperor said, “Well thank you for the report but there is something else that demands my attention.”
The elite bowed but the connection had already been cut. He sighed but other than that, he didn’t complain, he didn’t dare to. The Emperor was… Suddenly, the elite unsheathed his claws, there was something in the room with him. His fur was tensed and he let loose a menacing growl but of course, nothing answered him. Then he caught movement in the corner of his eye and he whirled around, now seeing a shadowy form of a human. He immediately slashed at it but of course, his claws only met thin air. The shadow then chuckled, a disembodied voice filling the room.
Stolen novel; please report.
“Foolish mortal, one cannot harm the shadows with such attacks.”
The elite growled, “Who are you?”
The shadow answered, “I am the servant of the Shard. I have come here to relay a message on his behalf.”
“The Shard?”
The shadow continued, ignoring his question, “If you do not wish to incur the wrath of the Dark One’s Chosen, you would do well to turn back. But if you do move forward, do not expect mercy. Your mighty army shall fall before the Shard of the Eternal One.”
The elite angrily retorted, “Tell your Shard this, in the name of the Emperor, he will fall and by my hand, he will die.”
The shadow chuckled, “You may succeed in killing his vessel, but his true form you cannot hope to even touch.”
The shadowy figure melted with the other shadows, the elite alone in the room once more. It was silent for a few moments more until the communication crystal burst to life, the nine other elites all speaking about a shadowy figure which had each visited their private quarters. This was hurriedly relayed to the Emperor who was shown a recording of the conversations. He mused for a moment, wondering just who it was that called itself the Shard. But as there was nothing left to be said, the Emperor dismissed the elites, telling them that their original mission still stood, to conquer the Western Continent.
The elites bowed and cut off their communication crystals. Meanwhile, the Emperor returned his attention to his concubines, although he glanced at the shadows in his throne room before laughing at himself. Still, that did not stop him from ordering his servants to bring in more lights, after all, it didn’t hurt to be careful.
A day has passed and Ieros stood on the balcony of his tower, ready to meet the enemy. As he sighted the enemy just over the horizon, he felt a disturbance at the barrier, it seems that Libidine had finally arrived. He paid her no mind, instead focused on the mighty sky turtles, eager to study them once the fighting was done. Oh, what wonders lay beneath that thick shell? Just how did those magnificent creatures stay in the air? Of course, this was a rhetorical question, he already knew that there were organs which separated hydrogen from oxygen but the question was how. He was eager to learn this mystery, for Darkness would surely be curious to see how Life evolved since his slumber.
Of course, those insignificant creatures that infested the tops of the sky turtles’ shells were also of interest but there were literally millions of them to study so they were not as important. He may have to keep a few of the sky turtles alive for study, perhaps even all of them, perhaps he may even personally map out their anatomy by walking through their veins and arteries, they were certainly large enough for him to do so. Yes… a break from war would be nice for a change. Just dedicating one’s self to analyzing unusual specimens instead of observing the ever-changing aspects of war. But first, he would have to win this battle.
His thoughts were soon disrupted by a sudden overcast, it was the shadow of the flock of Avem, their sheer numbers blocking out the sunlight. Ieros, displeased at this interruption, raised his hand and pointed at the enemy. Receiving his telepathic command, the generals commanded their archer units to fire, three hundred thirty-three thousand stone arrows flying into the sky. Ieros also decided to take part of this battle, channeling energy into the mage tower which emitted black chain lightning from the crystal that adorned its top, zapping the nearest Avem and branching out to another victim.
Soon, the Avem retreated, having sustained hundreds of thousands of losses. But that was only a fraction of their true numbers and it was not like his forces had gone without losses either, the Avem that survived the hail of arrows were able to drop broken pieces of the sky turtles’ shed scales upon his troops, the velocity destroying hundreds of his stone soldiers. But as a whole, he still had roughly nine hundred and forty thousand troops remaining, his losses weren’t too bad. So he settled down and waited for the Austerians to make their move, the mage tower sniping any Avem scouts that came near.
But the attack was not yet over, only the first wave. Soon the Crimex made their move, spreading their insect-wings and taking flight. An incessant buzzing filled the air as they rose and began to block out the sun, the sky black. Once more, arrows flew up into the air, Ieros’s tower shooting out chain lightning while the ten dragons flew through the air, breathing a dark mist which rendered any Crimex unlucky to be hit by it to fall to the ground lifeless. But the horde didn’t end and eventually was able to overcome the arrows, falling upon the infantry which set about slaughtering them.
They tried to swarm the dragons but the generals atop them kept the dragons’ wings clear. The tower remained untouched as there was an invisible perimeter around the tower which disintegrated any Crimex unfortunate to cross. But getting tired of this, it was only swarm tactics, Ieros personally took part in the battle. Yes, to destroy the enemy in an instant wasn’t interesting but neither were swarm tactics. He would force the enemy to use different strategy but to do that, he would have to get rid of these pests. So he stood on the balcony of the tower, watching the Crimex futilely trying to kill him only to disintegrate into dust once they passed the perimeter.
He then held out his right hand, a sphere of dark matter materializing beside it. He then pointed and a spear suddenly sprang from the sphere, stabbing into a Crimex. But it did not stop there, from the point which protruded from the Crimex’s back, two more spears branched out from the original point, each piercing a Crimex. It continued to branch out with tremendous speed until in twenty minutes, all Crimex were connected by some strange tree made of darkness. It was an eerie sight, the corpses of the Crimex dangling limply from the branches of a tree whose size dwarfed even that of the sky turtles. He then withdrew his hand, the Tree of Darkness seeming to reverse its sudden growth, retreating to a single sphere before that too shrank in size until it disappeared.
The corpses of the Crimex fell but as they hit the ground, they were absorbed by the shadows they cast, most being dissolved into dark matter but a few hundred being taken for study. But in order to keep up with the act that he was human and also to encourage the Austerians to continue their attack, he had sped up the aging process of his vessel, making him seem like an old man with flowing hair and beard that had been bleached silver with age. His back now had a slight arch and his skin was wrinkled. He shakily raised his hand and a stone servant moved to help him back in the tower.
Of course, this did not escape the notice of the elites which were carefully watching the battle. They saw how the Crimex were wiped out but also saw how it had taken a toll on the mage, seemingly having taken a major portion of his lifespan. They admired his dedication to defend the West, for the first time they thought that they may have underestimated these savages of the West. But they still had the Ursus and the Avem, they could still win, although they couldn’t rely on the swarm tactics of the Crimex. But that was no matter, the Crimex had completed their mission, to weaken the enemy. Now it was time for the Ursus to fight, to utterly and completely crush the enemy.