—FLOATING CITY OF ARMAPOLIS—
A small rowboat could be seen cutting through the waves towards the floating city of Armapolis, hurriedly leaving the boat once he docked, not even bothering to tie it down. He pushed his way through the crowd and towards the center of the city. He reached the Town Hall, flashing a badge at the guards who stepped aside to let him through. Upon entering, he immediately headed towards the main chamber where the Council of Thirteen.
Upon entering, he immediately fell to one knee and reported, “I bring word from our spies on land, the orcs have indeed gone into civil war. Also, the Orc King has not yet returned and it seems that he has no intention of doing so.”
“Thank you agent, you may go.” one of the elders dismissed.
The man left and an Elder spoke, “What are we to do about the civil war?”
The Seventh Elder slammed his fist into the table.
“The civil war will be the perfect chance to retake the lands we lost, we must not lose it!”
The Third Elder spoke, “But it will also greatly weaken us, we have a small population, can we truly afford to retake the lands of our ancestors?”
The Fourth Elder said, “You forget, we elves can ask the ancient forests to help us-”
“But it’s been so long, will they still help you after all this time?” interjected the Twelfth Elder.
She continued, “I say that we wait just a bit longer until the civil war actually begins. And perhaps we can reach out to others, like the Austerians or perhaps even the Librarian. If we fail in this endeavor, we may face our own extinction.”
The Seventh Elder countered, “But if we do not take such a gamble, we will only rot here! I say that we must at least try,” his voice fell to a more mild tone, “ for it we do not... Then we may regret it forever.”
The First Elder then spoke, “Your words are passionate but the Twelfth Elder is right, we must be careful. One mistake and the last free race on Occasus will disappear forever. Gone shall be the hope of men and elves, for if we do not free them, no one else will. We cannot act so rashly, Seventh Elder. But I do agree on one thing, that we must take action. A chance like this may never come again and if we do not seize it, we may very well lose our only chance of freeing our fellows in slavery.”
Upon this, all the other Elders agreed, action needed to happen but the question was what?
Finally, after a few moments of arguing, the Sixth Elder finally spoke, “I say we should go to the Librarian and ask him on what to do. He will surely know the answer but the question is what can we trade to gain that knowledge.”
At his words, the other Elders fell silent, they had entertained this option but had decided that it was far too risky and hadn’t dared to mention it.
But now that the Sixth Elder had brought it up, they began to seriously debate on this matter, the Fifth Elder saying, “Can we be sure he can be trusted? He has been sitting back and watching for all this time, not caring about us. Why would he change his attitude now?”
The Sixth Elder replied, “You forget Fifth Elder that he trades items of equal value for his knowledge, we just need to have something that is valuable enough to be traded in for the knowledge of how to regain the lands of our ancestors.”
The Fourth Elder said, “But can we truly afford to pay such a price? What we seek is the salvation of our entire race, what do we possess that is equal to that?”
“Did you already forget our divine artifacts Fourth Elder?” the Sixth Elder asked.
The Fourth Elder shook his head.
“Impossible, those are far too valuable to be used. They are what keep us safe, they are the pillars which support the Alliance. If we lose them, then there will be nothing to defend us from the orcs should we fail. It is too big of a risk, I agree that we should ask the Librarian for help but if his price is our divine artifacts, then we cannot accept.”
His words made sense, they couldn’t tread lightly in this matter, the fate of their respective races hung in the balance. Their actions would decide the survival or extinction of humans and elves.
Finally, the Eleventh Elder spoke for the first time, saying, “For now, let us move those who cannot fight to Otium, I believe that we have received permission to do so. Most of those who can fight will stay here in order to take action should it prove necessary. There we can ask for the aid of Auster should it prove necessary and as Otium is open to all, our families will have access to its services. I believe that this is the best course of action for now and it will do well to raise the people’s moral.”
The First Elder agreed, “Yes, I agree with your proposal. Are there any who think otherwise?”
Seeing the lack of response, he said, “Then let us begin, let’s begin rounding up volunteers for our first proper invasion to reconquer our lands.”
———
Meanwhile, on Occasus, the Ulgar Army had left their home and met with the Skull Lord’s main force, receiving the promised equipment from their deal. This was immediately distributed to the most powerful warriors of the Ulgar Clan, good equipment could only be useful by equally good wielders. After that, there wasn’t as much excitement as the orcs had hoped, although civil war was in the air, it had not yet begun. None of the five Orc Lords wished to fight one another for as soon as one of them did, the other three would swoop in to attack them while they were weak.
Right now was the time for making alliances, various orc messengers traveling from city to city, relaying offers of alliances between the Orc Lords. However, war was soon going to happen, the orcs were restless and hungered for battle. There were some exceptions to this, one of them being Yargul who held his troops in check, saying that if they dared to cause trouble he would kill them on the spot. This kept his orcs in line but in turn earned him the ire of both his and other orcs, these orcs calling him a coward behind his back.
Yargul didn’t mind however, they were the cowards for not confronting him about it and besides, he knew that to cause trouble right now was an easy way to die. After all, should one of the five Orc Lord armies begin to harass the others, the other four will immediately crush them. Of course, mere orcs could not see these unless it was pointed out to them and Yargul was too lazy to teach these orcs about the gravity of their situation. It was far easier just to wait until the war actually began because explaining something to an orc is just about as easy as teaching a chicken to fly.
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But as a result, rumors began to spread to the other orcs under the Skull Lord that Yargul was not as strong as the stories made him out to be. The number of his challengers swelled to an all-time high and Yargul practically had no rest for the past two weeks, constantly defeating enemies over and over, using the power of Agleon to recharge his stamina. He had yet to use any of his other abilities however, he didn’t want to reveal such a powerful trump card yet. The most anyone would know about his powers is that it was related to Agleon and not much else.
Even though fighting with a handicap was a bit of a pain, Yargul was glad for it because it presented the best chance to familiarize himself with his new weapon. He couldn’t just swing it around like a club, there was a bit more finesse required to use an axe. One still swung it around but they also had to mind the direction which the head faced because with the axe he could more easily kill multiple orcs in a single strike as it cut through enemies rather than crush them. Well, tear through is a more accurate description because of the sheer weight and strength of the axe combined to make a force which obliterated anything unlucky enough to be in its way.
Soon enough the orcs got the message that although he was acting cowardly, Yargul was certainly no pushover. However, they were just as quick to forget, should Yargul show any form of weakness, orcs were sure to challenge him yet again. That was the curse of one in power, there was no limit to enemies who wished to pull them down. But even though he had proven his strength, it did nothing to silence the gossip about the cowardly “Invincible.” But Yargul just sat tight, waiting for the day when they would go to battle.
That day came nine days later when some unruly orcs from the Western Orc Lord came to cause trouble in the city of the Skull Lord. Yargul and some of his orcs happened to be the first orcs that these troublemakers met and this time, Yargul did not reign back his orcs, calmly drinking the rest of his ale while his orcs brutally beat the troublemakers, unleashing all of their pent-up thirst for combat. This was taken as an offense to the Ulgar Tribe and without consulting the Skull Lord, Yargul rounded up his orcs to take his grievances to the chieftain of this particular tribe.
The tribe in question was the Urak Tribe, a clan that wasn’t particularly powerful and were drunk on the power they possessed because of their orc lord’s authority. But they messed with the wrong orcs, the authority of a higher power only got you so far. So while they were laying around drunk from the booze they had taken from weaker orcs, the Ulgar Orcs fell upon them, slaughtering all without mercy. Yargul was at the front this time, not afraid to show that it was he who had annihilated the warriors of the Urak Clan. He had no reason to be afraid, they were the ones who sought trouble, he was just paying them back in full.
However, Yargul was not yet done. He pinned the blame for all this trouble on Orzal, the Orc Lord who had recruited the Urak Clan. A bit of a stretch but Yargul was doing this to get some peace and quiet, he had enough of challengers who weren’t even worth his time. And so he took his orcs and marched to the City of Orzal, his orcs walking right in through the open city gates and immediately slaughtering every orc who bore the sigil of Orzal. It didn’t take too long for the orcs to raise the alarm but by then it was too late, much of the orc garrison lay dead and the others were unprepared to meet the bloodthirsty Ulgar orcs. Orzal couldn’t remain still in all this chaos and soon charged to defend his city, calling up his elites to drive off the invaders.
Upon seeing Yargul, he roared, “Who dares cause trouble in my city!”
Yargul shouted in reply, “I am Yargul, the Invincible and I have come for your head!”
Orzal was silent, his face turning red with anger. “Then try and take it!”
The two charged to meet one another, Orzal nearly blinded with rage at the antics of this orc. How dare he show up in his city and kill his orcs! He wouldn’t just kill him, he would make sure that Yargul would suffer the greatest of pain before he finally died. Suddenly, he saw the ground grow larger and larger until his face met the stone road, bouncing and rolling until it came to a stop. Wait, bouncing? Rolling? What had happened? Before he could come to the logical conclusion of those questions, Orzal’s life ended right then and there, Yargul looking regretfully at his axe. He had forgotten for a moment just how powerful his new toy was.
But he wasn’t one to linger on the past and immediately shouted, “I have slain Orzal, I am now the Orc Lord of this city! Submit or die!”
Needless to say, the orcs submitted to him and Yargul took control of Orzal’s possessions, sending a warrior to tell the Skull Lord that Orzal was dead. Even though Yargul had never shown it, he too was beginning to get tired of not fighting and just as he had decided to take action, Luck had smiled upon him and given him this chance. Now all he had to do was sit back and wait. He settled himself into Orzal’s previous bedchamber and was about to take a nap when he heard a whimper. He went to check it out, entering a chamber which he had previously not noticed, seeing five females of different races huddled in a corner.
They must have been Orzal’s previous harem and Yargul had to admit, Orzal had some pretty good taste. Come to think of it, a good fuck after a fight wasn’t so bad and Yargul grinned, a little indulgence wasn’t so bad.
Yargul undressed, his armor falling to the ground as he advanced towards them, saying, “I think you know what to do.”
As Yargul enjoyed himself, the Surveyor meanwhile was perusing the Library of Auster, taking his time doing so. Accompanying him was the Emperor of Auster who would occasionally recommend a book to the Librarian. The Librarian would thank him in turn, promising to repay him in full once he had finished. Although the price could be considered done when the Austerian ambassador had spoken with him back on Otium, the Librarian knew that the combined knowledge of Satoria and Auster were worth more than a talk with Ieros and some of his personal books.
But one could not speak about such terms with a mere ambassador, it was with the Emperor he should speak with, the only one capable of fully utilizing the knowledge that the Librarian would give in return for access to his libraries. There had been several new additions during its absence, mostly records of demons that Auster had encountered, some of which the Surveyor did not fully know as even its observers were not able to see everything. It carefully memorized these books especially, replicating them perfectly in its own library. It even fixed the images them, accessing the imprints the artist had left in the drawings to perfect the image of what the artist wanted to convey.
Even the greatest of artists are not able to perfectly replicate what they see but they are able to imprint what they wanted to inside their art. The Surveyor was able to access this imprint and thus know what it was that the artist truly wished to depict. Often times the depiction was not too far off from reality but as the artist did not fully understand what it was that he was drawing, it was inevitable that his art was full of flaws. But this was not of huge concern to the Surveyor, it knew that sooner or later it would encounter these demons again and when that happened, it would be ready. But that did not matter for now, right now it was learning and it could not learn what it could not observe.
———
The Orc King resided deep in a forgotten dwarven city, waiting for his spies to report. He had decided not to participate into the Civil War right now because he had grown tired of the Orc Lords, he had been meaning to kill them but if he were to do so, the other four would unite against him. Even though he would eventually triumph in the end, he would lose too many of his elites in doing so. It simply wasn’t worth it at all but if they were to kill themselves off, that was an entirely different matter.
This civil war would solve so much of his problems, eliminating future rivals and solidifying his power. And it was through this civil war that he could see potential orc warriors for his elite army. Truly, this civil war must be a blessing of Korbus, the Orc King promising himself that he would sacrifice a dragon in Korbus’s name.
As he waited, an elf clad in black appeared, one of his many spies. He obviously couldn’t use orcs to spy for him, they’d make the most terrible spies so instead, he turned to his slaves. His slaves would never betray him and were ignored by orcs everywhere which made them the perfect spies. This particular one was one of his favorites, he always got the job done no matter how difficult it was and the Orc King expected much from him. And his expectations were met as his spy’s report was detailed and as up-to-date as possible, the Orc King surprised to hear about the recent killing of Orzal by some orc named Yargul.
He initially wasn’t too interested but he perked up when his spy described Yargul to possess earth magic. The Orc King didn’t possess many who could use earth magic and so he was extremely interested in Yargul, it would be a great boon for him if he were able to get Yargul on his side. Unfortunately, Yargul was already in the hands of the Skull Lord but the Orc King wasn’t worried. All he would have to do was wait, an orc as powerful as Yargul would never remain in the service of another for long. When he became free, that was when the Orc King would swoop in.