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The invincible warrior
Chapter 11: The Maccabean revolt

Chapter 11: The Maccabean revolt

The demon wars didn't end with the Khazar victory and conquest of the western parts of the Gokturk Khaganate, there were skirmishes between the Khazars and the Komi elven kingdom that kept ending with a Khazar defeat.

Now, the Gokturk centaurs could have won if the Persians or the Vampire Scarlet empire, decided to help them but both were busy in their internal matters.

Scarlet Empire, January 436:

After conquering the entirety of the Orc's empire and exterminating the Avar clan, the vampire's empire extended from Germania to the Baltics and Carpathian lands and the Slavic lands till the Khazar borders, lord Alistar Von Vanderreich felt too ill and old as he reached the age of two hundred years old.

After several days in the hospital, Alistar died on January the twelfth in the morning.

Scarlet Empire, Berlin, January 436:

The imperial council met in the Berlin palace to elect a new emperor, Each faction of the Vanderreich clan and other vampire clans desired to have their candidate elected as the new emperor.

the discussions continued for several hours and even for three days as a power struggle started and it ended when the council decided to select a neutral candidate and agreed

to follow his will and give him the same constitutional power that Alistar had when he was alive.

After several discussions, it was decided that Wilhelm Von Vanderreich would be the new Emperor with the majority of the factions voting for him and signing an agreement that they would support him.

Wilhelm decided to give a speech to the council members to explain his intentions and let them know who he was: "Hello everyone, my name is Wilhelm von Vanderreich, you probably know about it but here it is something you don't know about, I trained with Alex back in the divine world and I can use the same magic that he uses and I train in the border regions with Rome and I intend to keep this habit, now for state matters, I must make sure to keep this empire safe and far away from war as possible, because all would be at risk if we attack the madman of Rome."

The ruling factions agreed with him not because they loved the Romans but because they hated risking their wealth and strength, one of the first orders of the new Emperor was to fortify the borders with the Khazars and prepare for defenses in case the demons decided to attack, and his second order is to host a proper coronation ceremony to confirm the outcome of the elections then he decided to leave to train in the border regions.

The border regions between Rome and the Scarlet Empire:

In Rome, Alex was extremely bored as he finally decided to allow the senators to propose laws that they think are beneficial and gave them limited legislative autonomy.

He told Kahn to go check on the laws and see if they were good and sign them while discarding the bad ones while he left for the border regions to train.

After he entered the border regions, he began practicing his skills in magic by throwing infernal fire or learning to control the hands of Hades and summoning the undead.

Hades appeared in front of him and rewarded him with a divine weapon, it was a black sword forged from the iron and fire of hell and Alex was grateful for the gift: "well aren't you going to teach me how to use this weapon?"

Hades laughed: "Hahaha, No but you will encounter someone who is from an enemy state of yours that knows how to use it very well and he can teach you how to use it”

Hades was right when he saw someone coming toward him, and it was a vampire.

Alex decided to advance toward him and check who he was, he greeted him and noticed from his clothes that he was a nobleman: "May I ask who you are?"

Wilhelm, who was training with his magic and weapon, turned around to see who the guy was talking to and he even sensed that he had the same magic as him and told him that he was the Emperor of the Scarlet Empire.

Surprisingly, the Roman Emperor wasn't scared and told him who he was and both greeted each other.

"Well, it seems this is Roman territory I'm training on" Wilhelm laughed but Alex assured him that the monsters of the border regions would not bother him, then they talked about state matters and Alex sought advice on how to use a divine weapon.

Wilhelm began teaching the Roman emperor, he began teaching him about the basics of divine weapons such as how they could be used to manipulate the Earth and summon undead troops.

They also began sparring with their swords, in each match Alex kept getting defeated a lot but he never gave up as he kept learning until he won.

As both Warriors kept fighting, Wilhelm noticed that his sparring partner's magic killed everything around it.

"May I ask how you get such corrupted magic? Unless you caused the deaths of a lot of people, this wouldn't happen". Wilhelm asked with curiosity but the answer would shock him:" Yes I did cause the deaths of a lot of people, I fought a great war with your predecessor and the Persians, I fought the Persians and republicans rebels and I brought the demons to this world which caused a massive slaughter and surprisingly a war that ended in a ceasefire not a decisive victory".

Wilhelm knew that he made the right choice to get close to the Roman Emperor, but he realized that he was unhinged and terrible at diplomacy. He kept training the Roman Emperor and together they forged a very good friendship

That might be useful to both sides, this training was very useful because Alex needed to train on how to fight and Wilhelm made a strong ally.

Roman Empire the war fronts, February 436:

Ever since the Emperor's genocidal decree, the Semetian people suffered from Slavery, displacement, and even torture by Roman soldiers.

Their women and children were raped and killed brutally while in prison.

The men were worked to death in camps, and finally, on the fifteenth of February, there were rumors about a liberator called Judas Maccebeus who would liberate them from oppression.

This rumor was encouraged by the anti-Roman faction led by Maccabeus, who used the tunnel networks that were dug by Shahenshah Shapur I of Eranshahr and this caused massive riots as Slaves revolted and started killing their masters en masse.

The local Levantine government immediately dispatched one thousand troops but were ambushed in Joppa and were all killed, the revolt started everywhere in Roman Levant and not only in Semetia as not only the Semetians were oppressed including the Nabateans who also revolted and joined Judas Maccabeus in his rebellion against Roman Rule.

Finally, the Man of the Hour appeared as he ambushed a local Roman army going to reconquer Gesa, Ashkelon, and Caesarea while capturing Jericho, Jerusalem, and Petra.

To make matters worse for the Romans, Shapur decided to invade and finish off the Levantine garrisons in a matter of two weeks due to his quick offensives and massive amount of troops.

The Roman Elites were in panic and even Kahn didn't know what to do, the entire Roman system was in a state of shock due to the surprise as the Levant province fell with ease, and reports that the Persians were attacking Sinai made it even worse.

Sinai fell with ease, and the Persians split their armies into two army groups, one was defending their gains and the second army went toward Anatolia.

All while the emperor was training with his vampire friend in the border regions, Kahn decided to go to his friend and bring him back to Rome.

Meanwhile, the Persians decided against further attacks and consolidated their gains.

Border regions between Roman and Scarlet Empire, February 436:

Kahn used a teleportation circle that he built in Germania Minor when he was the emperor of Gallia and came straight to where Alex was training, he immediately called him: "Alex, the Persians are at it again, Maccabeus revolted and fortunately they stopped".

"They should have pressed on while they had the momentum and how did this happen? weren't we prepared for this kind of war" Alex spoke calmly.

Kahn told his emperor everything about the Anti- magic artifact while the Scarlet Vampire emperor heard everything and immediately left back to his realm while Alex went to Rome.

Rome, Imperial Palace in March 436:

Alex and Kahn finally returned and the first question he asked was how the intelligence network failed to detect the attack and Samantha who just came to greet her emperor cried hard.

He immediately knew what was going on as he sensed the souls of the spy agents going to the underworld, a new report came to the Roman capital that Cilicia had fallen and the Persians were advancing in the southern part of Anatolia but were halted at Atalea city.

After hearing all the reports, Alex ordered to dispatch of an army of a hundred thousand with him and he told everyone his plan:" Alright this war will be divided into three fronts, first I will personally lead this army and I will aim to expel the Persians from Anatolia, Kahn will lead the army of Africa and reclaim Egypt and Samantha will be in charge of the administration of this empire and as to why only the two of us alongside our army centurions and commanders, it is because if i' am correct the enemy can't disable my magic".

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

Meanwhile, Shapur chose to stay in Cilicia and ordered his general Rostam to advance straight to Nicomedia but was stuck besieging Nicea

while Alex's forces finally reached Byzantium and were preparing to cross over Anatolia.

After the Earth mages prepared the Pontoon bridges, the massive forces of the Roman emperor started to embark on a trip to Anatolia.

After several hours, the army finally arrived in Anatolia and kept advancing to Nicea. Alex sent a letter to the Nicean garrison instructing them to hold as much as possible till he arrived with his forces.

Nicea, April 436:

The siege by the Sassanid forces started to take its toll on the city, Learning from Alex's favorite tactics, the Persian forces used intense firepower with mages firing nonstop at the shield that protected the walls of the city.

Meanwhile, the Roman mages kept reinforcing the shield with more energy but their mana was ground by the intense fire magic of the Persian Sassanids.

Finally, after several days, both the shields and the walls were destroyed and the Persians attacked in mass but what was expected to be a decisive victory for the Persian invaders would turn into a grinding battle of attrition as thousands of Sassanid troops were fighting house for house combat with Roman mages while the Roman legionaries kept striking them from their flanks and this battle became a brutal stalemate due to the ingenious strategy of general Publius Varrus of coordinating between the Roman mage units and Roman infantrymen and that held the Persians from conquering the city and wasted precious time that could have been used to march on Europe.

Finally, Alex's two hundred thousand troops were mostly filled by Undead and Orcs as shock units while the human soldiers were at the rear of the army, once he reached Nicea, he ordered the nonhuman units to go and launch an attack on the enemy rear expecting the attack to relieve the city.

Unfortunately for the Roman Emperor, Rostam predicted this and left forty thousand soldiers of the Arab division to protect the flanks while he entered with sixty thousand and was stuck in Nicea.

The battle was extremely fierce and it led to a decisive defeat of the human units of the Roman army as the undead were utterly destroyed and the Orcs were routed, all this happened while Alexander was watching and then he ordered a full-on offensive on the Persian troops that started by mage bombardment on the Persian rear that shattered their morals and then once the full force of the Roman army arrived in battle, the battle turned to slaughter as the entire Persian rear guard were killed except one survivor who fled to inform Rostam of the situation.

The Romans chose to enter the city and finish off the Persians who were now encircled inside Nicea, and the battle became even more violent as corpses kept piling on mass and it was truly an attrition war.

Finally, the Sassanid army was defeated and forced to flee while the Roman soldiers who wanted to pursue them were prevented from doing it by their emperor who wanted to stay to absorb the massive dark magic in the city and rest at the same time.

Meanwhile, Kahn reported that he retook Jerusalem from the Sassanid forces and began his reconquest campaign of the Levant, he also reported that he executed every semantic rebel and killed Judas Maccabeus after raising their cities to the ground and destroying their temples.

"Good boy, now I am so happy now to tell Kahn this; do not dare advance beyond the borders of the Roman province of Levant and do not dare to enter Persian lands" Alex spoke with a smile after the messenger finished reading the report.

The messenger was unaware of why he warned Kahn against entering Persian lands but he ignored it and left toward his master.

Levant front, March to April 436:

After the stunning victories that Kahn had against Shahrbaraz, the Roman commander thought that he could win with ease so he ordered a new offensive into the Persian-held Nabatea region.

Unfortunately, those stunning victories over the Persians and the Maccabean rebels were just the Sassanid general's plan to lure the Romans into Nabatea and Arabia.

His plans succeeded as Kahn kept following the Persians into Arabia, suddenly the Earth opened up and swallowed thousands of soldiers.

"AMBUSH, EVERYONE RETREAT!" Screamed Kahn but it was late as the moment the Roman soldiers fled, the Nabateans started hunting the fleeing soldiers and only thirty thousand Roman soldiers remained and retreated to Sinai abandoning all the gains made in the Semetia front.

Kahn was utterly shocked because the magic used had a trace of divinity and he almost got killed by it, so he decided to report this matter to his friend Alex.

Anatolia, April 436:

Earlier in the morning, Kahn arrived at his emperor's camp injured and exhausted.

Alex understood what happened: "So you got defeated so badly that you came here to tell me about it" he spoke calmly.

Kahn bowed and said: "They have someone who can use divine magic and we were lured into Nabatea and then we got ambushed".

The Roman emperor looked at Kahn and told him that his defeat might have cost the empire victory but he told him that he wasn't the one to blame and then he told everyone to leave them alone in the camp.

Everyone left their camp and once they left, Alex said:" Kahn, if this is true then this changes our plans, and it's nasty".

The commander and Alex's friend sensed Alex's doubts and told him exactly what happened and how he got injured and got surprised while sensing divine tier magic.

The Emperor looked at him and spoke calmly: "I believe you, it's just that this is massive news and it might be a very good idea to pay the Olympians a visit but not now, we need to secure a temporary armistice".

Kahn was about to oppose the idea but Alex ignored him and wrote a message requesting a five-year truce and sent a messenger to Ctesiphon to look for the Shah of Persia while being unaware of what was happening due to the loss of his spy network.

Olympus:

Alex teleported to Olympus and this time requested permission to enter the Palace of the Gods, once he got it he went straight toward the registration of divine magic users office.

Once he arrived, he asked Hermes if he knew about any Persian with divine magic.

"Why do you want to know?" Asked Hermes with curiosity

"To know who I am dealing with and not act recklessly". Alex answered calmly.

Hermes immediately went to consult the register and after several hours, he arrived running toward Hades' Disciple: "There are three divine magic tier users and they are; Narseh I, Khosrow I, and Peroz I of the Sassanid clan, I only told you this because the Gods intend for you all to meet in a certain place after a certain event and I believe you met Wilhelm Von Vanderreich, he will be important".

Alex ignored him and quickly left back to Rome, to inform his friend Kahn and formulate a plan to deal with this issue.

Persia, May 436:

After his victory against the Romans, Shah Shapur came to Ctesiphon and declared it his second capital.

He stayed in his palace and declared that he would start victory celebrations while being unaware of the rebellious mood that is in the governors of some Sassanid provinces and the Satrapy of Armenia and the Indus Satrapy.

After three days the victory celebrations began with nobles and generals of different clans of Eranshahr drinking and Eating at the banquet. They were happy because their victory against the evil Roman Emperor had been difficult but they found it completely strange that their enemy gave up without committing atrocities left and right.

After the celebration, everyone including the Shah left the palace and went back to Ecbatana.

Persia, Ecbatana May 436:

Shapur Sassan arrived earlier in front of his palace but was blocked by soldiers and General Bahram Chobin who stabbed him five times till he died.

He then assembled his supporters who were already in the palace telling them to declare that the Parthian Empire had been restored and that the rightful rulers of the Great nation Persia were back.

Meanwhile, the three brothers; Narseh, Khosrow, and Peroz, and their family including their sister Shahrazad, fled the city to Ctesiphon to prepare for a rebellion against the rule of Bahram the Usurper.

Persia, May 436:

On May the fifteenth, the news of the coup d'état finally reached the people of Persia and its province's governors.

The Satrapy of Armenia immediately declared independence, and the governors of Media Atropine Province, Mesopotamia, and Eastern Arabia declared their support for the three Sassanid brothers while the rest of the empire declared their loyalty to Bahram and the province of Sakhastan and Kushanshar, rebelled and declared independence.

This signaled the start of an Era that would radically change the world, the Anarchy Era of the Persian Empire as every side kept preparing for civil war.

Rome, June 436:

News of the incoming civil war would reach the Ears of the emperor while he was touring the city and checking the merchant guilds in the city.

When he heard this, he was literally ecstatic because this means that one of the factions will definitely need his support and that he wants to support the three Sassanian factions, due to the fact that they are divine magic tier users.

He quickly left for his palace to see if a messenger had arrived asking for his support in the upcoming civil war.

The imperial palace, June 436:

After arriving, he found two people waiting for him and Samantha informed him about who they were.

He then looked at them: "So you are Narseh and Shahrazad, may I ask what you need and what can you offer in return?"

Narseh answered: "For the restoration of our beloved homeland, we will offer the occupied Levantine lands back to the Romans, and since I see you are married I offer my sister as your concubine".

The Roman Emperor felt completely awkward considering his commoner background and went to Samantha somewhere private and asked her about it.

She laughed and said:" You are an emperor now, which means stop thinking like a normal man because you are now royalty and you can marry another woman and you should do it."

Alex returned to the Throne Hall and told both Narseh and Shahrazad that he would accept their offer and would fight by their side, he even offered to restore Armenia under their control as his empire was too large and didn't need further expansion.

Both Persian Royals were ecstatic when they heard the Roman Emperor's answer while being unaware of the true reason behind this sudden support thinking it was just an opportunity to recover lost lands, and they left back to Ctesiphon.

Once they left, the Roman Emperor started dancing happily at the news and he even hugged Samantha telling her that this was the best opportunity to recover the lost lands.

She was also happy for her husband and wished that her father was by her side and saw her husband's achievements but this joy was interrupted when a demon messenger handed an open letter to the emperor.

He began reading it:" Dear Emperor Alex.

I would like to inform you that I declared war on the eleven kingdoms of the Far East, the Gokturks of central Asia, and the Rus Empire, and I would like to inform you that I would like to take over the entirety of Siberia and I might have some clashes with the Qin empire, well I' am informing you that all cause it is needless to ask you for permission.

yours truly, Lucifer". Alex read and then he started laughing because he also liked this news and that the demons finally did something useful and smart.

Samantha and Kahn both warned him that there would be chaos and Anarchy in the East and that might impact Rome but he didn't care because he told them:" Well my dear wife and queen, the only ones who will be truly in danger due to the anarchy in the East is our neighbors who control the other half of Europe and i’ am betting that they are prepared for the event”.