After Velinda took over for Ash, Maria followed the latter to a nearby tent and was immediately briefed on the situation. Ash skipped all of the things that Elizabeth had already told Maria and focused only on the things that had happened in the Underworld since the entrance was first discovered.
Maria nodded in approval after hearing all of the countermeasures that Ash, Elizabeth, and all of the other higher-ups of her Empire had taken to keep information about the Underworld Entrance a secret and what they did about the monsters that were coming out of the entrance.
Ash made a good decision to directly enter the entrance and start clearing out the monsters on the other side in order to establish a buffer zone between the entrance and the rest of the Underworld. It was safer and less attention-grabbing to fight the monsters down in the Underworld rather than fighting them on the surface where the sounds of battle would inevitably attract unwanted attention.
Fighting the monsters in the Underworld where they had the home ground advantage was definitely tough, but it was a good call. All of Maria’s soldiers struggled to fight against the powerful monster, but they held their ground firmly without giving way for the monsters. However, despite their efforts, there were bound to be some mishaps and casualties did happen while a few monsters managed to get past the defense line and they managed to get to the surface though they were quickly dealt with by the team of soldiers that were posted at the dungeon.
When Maria received the damage report, her face darkened after seeing that there were so many casualties and injuries among her army. The damage to her personal battalion was less compared to the Imperial Army’s other battalions, but with the casualty numbers being so high, it didn’t matter which of the battalions took less damage compared to the others because it was still an overall loss on her part.
With this event, Maria was made painfully aware that her soldiers were under-leveled and under-trained. They were strong enough to intimidate the players a little bit, but they weren’t strong enough to become an absolute deterrent to them or any of the monsters on Vanhal, especially since her armies were already losing to said monsters. This was unacceptable and Maria couldn’t help but voice her displeasure, “Tsk, our warriors are too weak compared to the monsters…”
“...”
The generals and captains who were dispatched to the Underworld were currently too busy fighting the monsters and leading their troops, so no one else was in the tent besides Ash, Maria, Elizabeth, and a handful of others. If any of those generals or captains were in the tent, Maria would definitely have yelled at them because while their soldiers were outside fighting, they were ‘comfortably’ resting there in the tent, so they made the right call to remain on the battlefield instead of coming here.
The people present kept their silence as they couldn’t refute Maria’s words. It isn’t a stretch to say that everyone in the army had grown a little bit complacent, especially after Maria had conquered the entirety of the Dreyra continent and was smoothly on her way to conquering Vanargand. They had become the apex predators on the planet and no force could stand against them. Since they were at the top, many believed that there was no need to get any stronger because no one could harm them.
There were still some of those that trained, but even these people trained with a little less intensity as compared to before when they were still fighting against the continent's Blood Faction. That little bit of complacency was what caused the current situation. As regrettable as it was, Maria also had a small part to play in that complacency.
Ever since she had finally conquered the Dreyra continent, she too had become quite lax when dealing with her subordinates and stopped pushing them so hard. She did push them to do better, but not as much as she did before. She had started focusing on herself more and continued improve herself and her personal power, like her Dark Army.
Since they were always moving around with her, she could summon them anywhere and at any time, so it was quite easy to train them. It couldn't be said the same for her Imperial Army and her Personal Army. It wasn't easy to deploy them whenever she wanted, so it couldn't be helped, but they were still her responsibility and she neglected them.
Once Maria realized her own folly, her anger became even more visible on her face as she started to seethe, but not at anyone else, only to herself. Her mood was still a little volatile because she had encountered her nemesis, Hecate, not too long ago. She didn’t understand it herself, but for some reason, that woman easily triggered her. She couldn’t explain it in words or voice out her feelings properly, but the likeliest explanation was because she and Hecate were the same type of person–not something she was very keen on acknowledging. It was impossible for them to get along as one side would definitely try to dominate and subconsciously lord over the other even if they didn’t mean to do it.
Support the creativity of authors by visiting Royal Road for this novel and more.
With her anger showing, the others in the tent immediately started to stiffen up because they knew that they had screwed up big time, since their Empress was visibly showing her anger though it wasn't actually directed at them.
After realizing that her emotions were showing, Maria quickly calmed herself down and stopped her rage. She then turned to Ash and said, “Ash, I need you to train them up again. As painful as it is for me to say, our armies are far too weak.”
“Yes, I will naturally do so, Your Majesty.”
“They may be strong enough to intimidate some of the players and monsters on the two continents, but I want our armies to become absolute deterrents so that no one can ever look down on our nation! Got it?!”
“Yes, Your Majesty!”
Maria was satisfied as she heard Ash and everyone else’s reply. She nodded in satisfaction and continued, “Train the soldiers in the Underworld. Do it in batches so that those on the surface won't notice their sudden absence. It may be dangerous, but it’s the perfect place to train our troops.”
Ash nodded in agreement before asking, “If we train in the Underworld, Your Majesty, there will inevitably be casualties like today. What can we do to prevent that? I don’t want to lose any more of our soldiers’ lives…”
“The Dark Army will provide support as they’re already used to fighting in the Underworld and it’s evidently enough that they’re much stronger than my two other armies.”
Ash turned his attention outside of the tent and could see that Maria was right. Once her Dark Army had joined the fray, the Empire Army’s two battalions that had been struggling to deal with the Underworld’s powerful monsters began to struggle less and less as the burden on their backs had been lifted. With the Dark Army's support, the soldiers began to fight even more fervently than before, quickly taking down monster after monster. The generals and captains were watching how the Dark Army fought against the Underworld monsters and quickly learned from them.
Maria saw all of it from a distance and it was quite clear from the look on her face that she appreciated how quick-witted and intelligent her army’s commanders were.
“As you can see, Ash. My Dark Army will keep the other soldiers alive and they can learn from them as well. I won’t tolerate anyone leaving the army just because they ‘died’,” Maria declared. “In fact, even if they do die, I won’t let them off easy!”
Maria stood up and walked out of the tent. She closed her eyes and sensed the deathly energy around her before she raised her arm and activated her [Raise Dead] skill, targeting all the available corpses in the area.
"[Raise Dead]!"
Once the skill activated, an extremely large chunk of her Divine Energy was lost as a black-colored mist seeped out of her outstretched arm and moved into the bodies of the fallen soldiers. The fallen soldiers immediately started to stand up one by one as their flesh began to fall off their bodies until only their skeletons remained, but they still had their armor on and were holding their weapons.
They didn’t move and only turned to look at Maria, awaiting her next order. Maria opened her eyes and coldly looked at the monsters before gesturing with her head for the newly reanimated skeleton soldiers to join their undead brothers at the frontlines.
Maria then calmly said to the towering Undead King that was currently wreaking havoc in the frontlines of the battlefield, “Morte, take care of them. They’re under your command now.”
“Yes, my Master…” Morte replied from across the battlefield.
Even when they were so far apart and she only said it in a soft voice, Morte was able to hear her despite all of the noise. It was quite impressive and what was even more impressive was Maria’s feat of raising so many of the fallen soldiers all at once. This was the first time for most of those around to see her actually use her necromancy, since it was usually Morte, Calen, and Velinda who did any of the raising since they returned from the unknown planet that Maria destroyed last time.
“Alright, we’re done here. Ash, continue doing what you were doing, but don’t let any more of our soldiers die.”
“Yes, Your Majesty.”
“Elizabeth, let’s head back. We have to resume the meeting.”
“Of course, Your Majesty. Please, after you,” Elizabeth replied with a bow.
“When we get back, tell them to send more craftsmen down here from Heltania Undercity. I want an outpost built here as quickly as possible.”
“I will convey your orders post-haste, Your Majesty.”