Chapter 20 : Kingdom of Lyssandra

What we called 'The Grand Hall' was the second largest room in the flagship, after the hangar. Because there were only 6 of us in a 1,600 meter long (5,200 ft) vessel, we never had a use for this room until now.

The hall was a large open space dotted with strange statues all around. Right in the middle was a floating platform on which a seat, that looked more like an imposing throne, overlooked the entire room.

On both sides of the hall were large windows giving a superb view of the outer space, between each of these windows different emblems were hung on the walls. This room always gave me the impression of being a sort of throne room for a galactic emperor. Nothing seemed to be luxury according to my human tastes, however, I could see that the decorative materials used were very different and precious compared to those used in the rest of the ship.

These materials gave off an aura that induced respect and forced submission. I have no idea how the ancient race society worked, but I'm sure it was a very hierarchical civilization.

When Gladia teleported me, I ended up directly next to the throne and I had a view over the entire great hall. Although this hall was impressive, I've already seen it when the flagship was still in the golden hangar so it wasn't so much the hall that surprised me ; it was what was waiting for me inside.

I calmly sat down on the throne and observed the people present in the room.

In front of me, several hundred reapers were all kneeling and facing me. From an outside perspective, it looked like they worshiped me. All these 2m tall scary beings kneeling in front of a throne floating above them gave to this scene an impression of reverence.

Behind them, thousands of drones were lined up. They were all motionless and arranged in columns, forming different groups according to their types and roles.

The most imposing of them, the quadruped battle drones, formed two columns on the sides. They were 3m tall juggernauts entirely made of exotic metal, their external armor was made of the same material as the two golems who stood guard at the golden door. Each battle drone had two medium-sized cannons above each of their shoulders.

At the end of their robotic arms, instead of their right hand, they had a kind of energy weapon unknown to me that looked like a smaller version of the cannons they were carrying on their back. As for their left arm, it ended with a metallic blade that seemed sharp enough to cut any kind of physical material.

Between them, different types of drones were also standing motionless, as if they were inanimate.

I was able to recognize those I've already seen in their pod, such as the reconnaissance drones which were metallic spheres floating one meter above the ground, the maintenance drones which looked like spiders with 4 legs and 4 mechanical arms on their upper body, the engineer drones which were tiny metal robots that could operate in the space vacuum and finally the operators drones, which are those resembling humans the most. They were bipedal robots with two mechanical arms and were responsible for operating inside the ship. They were by far the most numerous.

In front of each column were several units with different colors and specs, they were the officers commanding their class of drones and making the connection between the Ship-master, which is me now, and the whole army.

Although I have this scene right in front of me, I still couldn't believe it. Before closing my eyes I was fighting Giants Ants rifters to death, and now I find myself facing an army of several thousand ancient drones and reapers, all under my command.

Douglas and Alpha Zero both stood by my side on the platform, waiting for me to break the silence so they can make their report.

"How are you, Douglas?"

"I am fine, Leader."

"I was afraid something might have happened to you and the other members of the squad while I was unconscious. I prepared myself for the worst case scenario, and instead here we are, facing a whole ancient army ready to receive orders."

"I'm glad to have been of help, Leader. When Gladia finished charging the core and initiated a warp jump to get us out of the golden hangar, we immediately reactivated all the army inside the flagship. They are the key to fight against the other rifters and the Scyllas."

Seeing Douglas talking so much was a bit strange and I felt the same as when I woke up and heard Gladia sounding more human than usual. I don't know what happened to these two, but I feel like the furthest we can stay from the Scyllas, the better it is for all of us.

"Indeed. As for you Alpha Zero, I have to thank you for listening to my order and not killing Kat and Jerome. While they might be hostile for now, it is not their fault.

The Scyllas mind control is extremely powerful. It is very hard for us, rifters, to refuse a direct order from a Scylla. Kat and Jerome are just more vulnerable to mind control than Douglas, Alice and me, hence their betrayal."

'No. Need. To. Thank. Me. Master.'

After verifying that everything went well for them, I decided to get down to business.

"You'll have to explain to me in detail what happened. Now that the core charged and I took control of the flagship, we are not fighting alone anymore. Look at those soldiers, we have a whole army coming straight from the ancient era at our disposal. We need to be smart and use it well.

I also have a plan for the near future, but I want to hear your reports first."

Thus began my journey and my quest for revenge against the Scylla.

Today marked the start of something much bigger than just my personal grudge against the Scyllas.

This marked the advent of our squad's future, as the last humans still alive in the galaxy.

Our survival.

But never could I have known that it also marked the beginning of our destiny.

Our Reign.

___

Inside the King's palace of a huge castle, which looked more like a small fortified city than a castle due to its great size, a king and his ministers were discussing an important subject.

"Are you sure ?"

"I am, Your Highness. Although we could not verify further inside their territory, I sent our best elements to investigate at the edge of the forest close to the border and their report is formal. The duchies have also confirmed us the same information."

"I see, tell Derek to keep sending me daily reports. You can leave."

"Yes, Your Highness."

The king, his generals and his ministers, who were all seated around a long oval table strewn with papers, maps and ancient texts, all looked tired. It had been several days since they had received a disturbing report, and this report had just been confirmed by the Chief of Intelligence, One-Eyed Derek.

"Your Highness, it seems to me more judicious to take this opportunity to finally seize the crystal mines and fortify our position in the forest ! The White Tower scholars have estimated that just within Mount Hydra there are more crystals than we could ever get in the whole kingdom !"

"Minister Kedaim, do you know why my ancestors named the forest surrounding Hydra Mountains 'Forest of Truth' and considered it as a Divine Domain ?"

The king, apparently annoyed by the remark of his finance minister, got up to stretch his legs and stopped in front of the window, gazing in the distance at a gigantic mountain piercing through the clouds and at the dense forest surrounding it.

"Your Highness ?"

"When my great-great-grandfather, Sa Majesté Louis Le Grand, after pouring liters of blood and sweat founded this kingdom with the help of his companions the four Grand Dukes, they all dreamed to extend our territory from the cold prairies of the north to the summit of Mount Hydra.

After ending the bloodiest and most deadly war they ever waged, and only once the capital was stabilized His Majesty decided to organize an expedition with the four Grand Dukes. He took 10,000 troops with him from his royal guards and the duchies armies in case they had to face wild monsters or elves clans inside the forest protecting Mount Hydra, however, what they found there was nothing they could have expected."

The King paused, still looking through the window, then continued.

"What I am about to tell you is a story passed down from generation to generation within the Royal Family and the four Grand Duchies. My father told it to me before entrusting me with the throne, just as his father did before him."

Understanding the importance of what their King was about to reveal, everyone present in the room was silent and listened with attention and seriousness.

"When my ancestor, Sa Majesté Louis Le Grand, who was at the head of the expedition took the first step into the forest, all his men fell to the ground. From the regular foot soldiers to the best of his men, his own Royal Guard. All of them, unconscious. Only my ancestor and his companions the dukes remained awake.

It was too sudden for them to understand what happened, before an unknown being appeared in front of them. When he told this story to his son later, the Crown Prince, Louis Le Grand said that this being was an indescribable existence ; it was unlike anything he knew and have seen on the Continent. The first thought he had when he saw this phantasmic being was that they just met the 5th god of Lunaris."

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The King stopped speaking, as if he was lost in thoughts, until a Minister asked him.

"Your Highness, what happened to His Majesty Louis Le Grand and the Grand Dukes when they met this being ?"

Everyone in the room wanted to know this story, the truth about the Hydra Mountains and the Forest of Truth.

"Before my ancestor could speak, as if the strange being was reading his mind, he spoke first and told him that he was neither a god nor a native of this world. This ghostly being gave him a gem which he separated into 5, making each piece float to each of the men present.

After they all dumbfoundedly took this gem with their hand, the mysterious being gave them its last words, which sounded like a prophecy."

The King decided to tell this story which until then had only been handed down from father to son in his family and the duchies, he turned to his ministers who were all listening to him attentively and continued.

"The Spirit's words were :

'Children of Luna, in a far future, a child of Terra will come to your world and bring with him a lot of change to your Continent. When this day will be near, each of those gems linked to the Great Fate River will glow. Until this day come, I forbid you and all your descendants to cross this forest. This will be my domain, and none would be allowed inside without my authorization, from the great Mountain to all the lands around it. Only when the time comes, shall you enter my domain.'

Without explaining anything more, this divine being disappeared and at the same time all the soldiers who had collapsed on the ground woke up."

All the ministers present in the room were shocked by what they had just heard, their King had just revealed to them the secret of the Hydra Mountains that so many kingdoms and empires have never been able to solve.

Although this being, who was none other than the oracle when she first came to this planet, decided to warn the humans of this kingdom because she knew that they will also have a role to play in the great river of fate, she told no one else.

Because of this, for hundreds of years, neighboring kingdoms and empires often decided to conquer the Hydra Mountains for the supposed resources that were there and its strategical location, being close to the center of the Continent, but none of them succeeded.

No one came back from this forest, from the simple scout to the thousands of armored and experienced men marching to cross it. For hundreds of years, no one has been able to know the secret that was hidden in the Hydra Mountains and its forest.

The attack that came the closest to succeeding was that of an extremely powerful elven kingdom in the east, this same attack that costed the lives of several villagers from the clan which had found refuge inside the forest after having fled this same kingdom many years ago.

The surrounding kingdoms nicknamed this place 'The Forest of Death', this kingdom where the king had just revealed the truth to his ministers was the only place where the people were not afraid of this forest, and called it 'The Forest of Truth' instead.

The peasants and civilians around the forest knew that they should not enter it, however, they also believed in a legend passed down from the Founder King era and they even had a festival every year to worship the Oracle, who they called the Protector Spirit of the forest.

This festival was held on the same day of when the Founder King, Sa Majesté Louis Le Grand, met the oracle. Although he did not tell the truth to his subjects and he made his dukes swear to secrecy in front of Zenon the Wisest God, he still decided to explain this strange event to his soldiers.

If he had decided to act as if nothing had happened and just turn back, his soldiers who had all fallen unconscious at the same time would have suspected something was wrong and they could have imagined something and made false assumptions. It would have created bad rumors, and some people would probably have tried to enter the forest to verify those rumors.

That is why The Founder King decided to distort the truth ; he told all his soldiers that a Protector Spirit protected this place and that nobody could enter it. As an apology, this same spirit promised glory to his fledgling kingdom for 1,000 years.

Witnessing this supernatural event they had just experienced, the soldiers believed their King and this story spread until it turned into an annual festival, where everyone in the kingdom thanked the Protector Spirit for his benevolence and his blessing.

During the festival, everyone remained awake all night to party until the next day. They all believed that only by enjoying the night at its fullest could they show their gratitude to the Spirit who blessed their Founder King, their Kingdom, and gave them such a good place to live in. It is also renowned to declare his love or propose for marriage during the festival, so the Protector Spirit can give its blessing.

"The reason I gathered the four Grand Dukes together a week ago is the same as why I gathered you here today. The royal gem, along with the other gems from the four duchies began to glow a week ago. Each of our gemstones emitted a light so weak that it is almost invisible to the naked eye, yet even this has never happened in 250 years."

The ministers all looked at each other, then one of them asked.

"Your Highness, if the Protector Spirit still resides in the forest, why did it gives these gems to Sa Majesté the Founder King ? Didn't he specify what he wanted from us ?"

"My ancestor, Louis Le Grand, never understood why the Protector Spirit gave to him this gem but never appeared in the neighboring kingdoms and just killed them when they tried to invade the forest. That is why he always kept the truth hidden, if the Spirit didn't showed itself to the other kingdoms, it probably had its own reasons.

Until his last breath on his deathbed, my ancestor was convinced of one thing : although the Spirit had warned him and his men, it could have just killed them all instead. As it did later with those who entered the forest with bad intentions.

If that same spirit was patiently awaiting the arrival of another being from another world, then that being must be very special. My ancestor warned his son, and he told him to pass on this story and this gem to his own son as he did for him.

Before dying, his last message was for us, his sons, grandsons, grand-grandsons, and all the Kings who were his descendants : any of us who would see this otherworldly being arrive in this world during our lifetime must above all never provoke him, and never antagonize the Protector Spirit."

All the ministers were speechless. Although some of them always suspected that the royal family knew more about the Hydra Mountains than the other kingdoms since they were the only ones to hold a festival honoring a Spirit living inside this forest, none of the ministers could have guessed the truth they just heard today.

Next to the king stood the only person in the room who was not a minister or a general, his personal guard and the strongest champion of the kingdom, Matthias Enarve.

This tall knight, covered from head to toes in golden heavy armor with a lion head on each shoulder, was just as surprised by the story as the others people in the room. He couldn't help but ask his King.

"Your Highness, do the orders you previously gave to spy on the elven kingdom of Aliomeri and reinforce our army have anything to do with this legend and these gems ?"

"Still as sharp and insightful as always, Matthias.

Yes, it does."

The king returned to sit at the end of the large oval table, on his royal seat decorated with a huge golden lion sculpted in its back.

"The lasts to attempt to invade the forest were the elves of Aliomeri a few years ago. Those treacherous and foolish beings living in the large forest at the east of Mount Hydra. Reports from our spies indicate that although they suffered a crushing defeat, they were able to penetrate deeply into the forest before the Protector Spirit made them all disappear.

Even more surprising, it is the very first time that survivors escaped the forest after having attacked it, and these survivors assure that a renegade clan of elves from their own kingdom lives inside the forest."

General Alain Tenai, commander of the kingdom's regular army, could not help but exclaim.

"What does that mean ?? Did the Protector Spirit granted its blessing to a group of elves and allowed them to reside in the forest ??"

"It seems to be the case, General. What worries me is not so much those people who live in the forest, but rather why the Protector Spirit has let invaders flee when for hundreds of years he always killed everyone ? This had never happened before.

And why only a few years later, the gems that this sale spirit gave to my ancestor and the founder dukes 250 years ago began to shine ?"

The King couldn't help having these two questions running through his head repeatedly, until being deprived of sleep for an entire week.

"That is why I ordered you to reinforce our army, General. And that is also why I asked our Chief of Intelligence, Derek, to send more spies to Aliomeri during the previous meeting.

The report I received from him today confirms my doubts, Aliomeri is preparing to launch another invasion into the forest, but this time on a much larger scale and they even requested help from several beastfolk tribes living in the eastern lands with whom they are on good terms."

"How dare they !! Those damn seed-eaters and their brainless dogs !!"

"Calm down, Philippe !"

"Shut up Alain !! If you did your job correctly during the last war, I wouldn't have to get mad !!"

Before things could escalate further, the King's personal guard and best champion of the kingdom, Matthias, stepped forward and coldly warned both generals.

"Did you forget in presence of whom you stand ? Do not swear, and lower your voice in presence of His Highness, if you don't want me to cut your tongue and send it to those dogs you seem to hate so much."

Both generals looked at each other, then they bowed down in front of their monarch.

"Pardon us, Your Highness."

The one who gets angry just at the mention of the beastfolk is General Philippe Agnos, leader of the knights order. He has an endless hatred for the beastfolk, because the only duel he lost during his life and that cost him an arm was against the leader of a tribe of northern tiger-men.

It happened during the previous war between Lyssandra and several northern tribes that allied themselves to attack the kingdom's border and caused a lot of damage and casualties before getting stopped by the kingdom's army.

Although the kingdom of Lyssandra emerged victorious and forced the northern tribes' leaders to sign a decade-long ceasefire contract in front of the Zenon altar, they lost so many men and resources that nobody in the Kingdom celebrated the victory.

"Your Excellency, if Aliomeri succeeds where everyone else failed and conquers the forest surrounding Mount Hydra, we will be surrounded by enemies. We already have to keep a permanent garrison in the north to keep the beastfolk tribes at bay, the Sun Empire to the west threatens to annex us for a long time already, and now the Hydra Mountains to the east…

Resisting on two fronts is already extremely complicated, a third front opening from the Forest of Truth would sign the end of our kingdom..."

A very old man, with a beard long enough to touch the ground, warned his king of his fears.

"I am aware of this, great mage Alphus. That is why we must act as soon as possible and prepare ourselves. I have already prepared a diplomatic expedition to make contact with the Protector Spirit.

The fact that soldiers were able to survive the last assault does not bode well, I fear that the Protector Spirit, although still powerful and venerable, has recently lost some of its strength.

I have thus decided to go inside the Forest of Truth, with only a handful of my most loyal men."

"My King!! You can't, this is too dangerous !!"

"What are we going to do if the spirit decides to take Your Highness life and that of your escort !!"

"Your Highness, please reconsider !! You would be a prime target if an enemy kingdom wishes to assassinate you !!"

Each of the ministers and generals expressed their disagreement with their monarch. Their king, whom the people called Charles Le Sage thanks to his immense wisdom who saved the kingdom from destruction several times during his reign, was the pillar of the kingdom of Lyssandra.

He was a wise king who knew how to be strict against the strong and generous with the weak, he was a charismatic figure loved by both nobles and commoners.

If the actual king was to disappear, the kingdom would be plunged into a dark time and neighboring powers would not hesitate to jump on the occasion to invade its territory.

"SILENCE !!"

The king stood up, looked at each of his ministerial council members, then sighed.

He said warmly to them.

"Do not be afraid, even if something bad happens, my son the Crown Prince will take over from me. If that happens, I am counting on each of you who have been faithful to me for so many years, to swear to him the same oath of loyalty and support him as much as you supported me.

I know this decision may sound crazy to you, but it is my job as the King of Lyssandra to protect my Kingdom when I have the means to.

I am confident that those times said in the story I received from my ancestor the Founder King have finally come, and it is my duty to not betray my ancestor legacy ; I know the Protector Spirit will let us through the forest unscathed.

I have already chosen the men who will escort me, and the four dukes will also accompany me with their best men, they all have a competent male descendant to take care of their duchies in case things go wrong."

The king, who has always kept a charismatic and serious air in front of his ministers, for the first time in a long time, warmly smiled at them.

"Like my ancestor the Founder King, Sa Majesté Louis Le Grand, and the four Grand Dukes who formed the Kingdom of Lyssandra from scratch with him, it is now time for me, Charles Le Sage, actual King and Eternal Guardian of Lyssandra, to venture into the Forest of Truth."

Thus ended this important meeting, which marked a major turning point in the history of the Kingdom of Lyssandra.