The Antmite General was marching through the land with his forces, and wherever his forces stepped life would die or be claimed for the Sovereign Swarm. Humans, domesticated animals, wild beasts, and monsters alike fell before the relentless advance of the Swarm. Even to a modern military the coordination of the Swarm would be a lesson in excellence when it came to efficiency.

With each conquered stretch of land, the growing horde left Workers and lesser Units behind to not only transport vital resources back to the central node in Hor. They also prepared the land for further defilement by preparing and sowing fields with toxic spores and using the powers of the Swarm to make them take root and grow. From there the invisible war over roots would begin as the plants began forming new branches of the Floral-Fungal Network.

The support Units would not go all the way back to Hor with their filled-up carts and loaded backs, oh no the Logistics-Collective had ensured that temporary resource gathering stations were put in place at each ravaged population center of note. So, the Units only had to return the acquired goods and substances to the nearest station. At which point fresher Units would take over the transportation back to Hor, while the original gatherers were free to return to the army. Logistics-Collective would send reinforcements to man the newest resource gathering station with each new settlement to keep the production speed up.

Militarily the Antmite General was finally facing his first real challenge besides the Dungeon as the main bulk of his forces reached the fortress of Count Miltor who had once been the liege of Baron Heraclius. Unlike the villages and Baron manors that Antmite had cut his way through with ease, it seemed that the Count was prepared. All of the flying insects that had been sent in as infiltrators had been burned out of the air and the same with every toxic spore cloud that had been unleashed over the castle.

Every nearby hamlet and village had been evacuated to behind the fortress walls and every eye in the Swarm could see the Count stepping out on the battlements along with a cadre of mages dressed in orange and gilded robes. They joined the apparently terrified soldiers who stood watching the massive horde stretching out on the field around the fortress.

The ancestral estate of Miltor's family the Valeans had been built on the open plains rather than with its back to a hill or something similarly defensible. It was like a stone scab on an otherwise green landscape standing in the center of a circle of yellowed grass and practically moistless earth.

The Collective did not know what to make of this odd fortress in the middle of the plains, but he sensed there was a power here and he didn't like having that element of uncertainty facing him. He had the bird Fungal Zombies unleash toxic spit down at the castle and the vile liquid evaporated before they hit the walls as if they had struck a furnace and not a pristine wall.

"Begone pests! You cannot take my fortress and you will all die rather than ever see our spirits broken!"

Antmite General pointedly ignored the posturing from the slightly corpulent Count while he shook a platinum scepter from his safe position surrounded by Bodyguards on the wall. He knew a siege when he saw one and while the magical defences of this structure were tricky he was confident he could shatter the resolve of the defenders.

"Fortifications, set them up around the fortress."

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Miltor Valean stared in barely disguised horror at the monsters assembling outside of his ancestral home. He had delivered his threat to them in a manner which his advisors had assured him was confident and authoritative, but it seemed to not fazee the creatures out there one bit as the massed beings fluently began moving.

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Beetles or a rather massive equivalent of them rather began rushing forward to dig up trenches while others took the dug-up earth and began coating it in some kind of slime as they packed it into walls. A siege camp was being assembled before the startled eyes of the defenders and the Count did not rightly have any clue how to respond to that.

Some of his Mages had taken the warning from the passing refugees and messengers seriously and scried the incoming horde of monsters. Which had given Miltor time to prepare along with his advisors for the incoming attack and get a warning to the Duke along with his nearest neighbours.

Apparently, these monsters were the slaves of some kind of evolved monster known as "The Thrall King" and it had sacked Hor along with the settlements closest to it. He had not heard anything from any of his vassals, Heraclius, Ulgor, and Ophelm were all seemingly either dead or dominated based on what his advisors could deduce. Which was a true shame as it left the Count truly alone and only with his household troops and standing forces for defense.

Or it would have only been such if it hadn't been for a curious card that he had found by his night table. It was a card with a multicolored back, and the image on the front was of a grouping of ten pentacles along with coordinates. The coordinates and a tiny blurb of text described where he could find an ancient and presumed lost heirloom of his family within the fortress. It had been in a hidden treasure room behind a bookcase in the basement.

The room had contained mostly gold and ancient tomes, but those had been of little interest to Miltor. No, that which held his interest had been the scepter. It was forged out of platinum and inlaid with more magic than he had seen outside of the Chamber of Communion at the heart of the fortress basement. His Mages had examined the artifact and determined that the core of the enchantments were focused into the three prongs on the scepter, which each ended in a gem. The centermost gem was filled with orange light, while the two remaining prong-gems were empty.

Miltor had heard the stories of his artifact and he knew the potential it held the moment he saw the scepter. It was originally called the Trident of the Elements, but after having been shattered it had been reforged into a smaller scepter instead of a full trident. The magic it held was relatively simple in concept, the scepter could summon and bind elementals to serve the one wielding it. Only the grandest of their kind could resist the pull of the scepter and what made it so extraordinarily useful compared to most artifacts of dominion, it was not reliant on having a magically competent or strong-willed wielder.

Any idiot could pick it up and use it if they knew what the scepter did. Which was a relief, but ultimately he did not fear these invading monsters for another reason. House Valean already had a protector, the feeble insects could not even push past his aura. Still, he would prefer to avoid straining the relationship more than necessary so he lifted the Scepter of Elemental Dominion up as he stood on the wall and willed it to activate.

The rightmost gem began to glow and the wind started to pick up around the castle, blowing first as a gentle and cooling breeze over the perpetually warm fortress, before it began to pick up and become a true gale. Out of the wind, a shape started to form before the castle and the Count smiled at the vaguely woman-shaped being that assembled itself in the air.

"Wipe them out!"

He pointed a trembling figure at the assembled monsters and then the wind truly started to rage.