As more and more of them moved forward, the rough shape of the Alturaran army filled up.
“Shard, how many Alturarans are in that formation?” Josh looked at the three normals and ranged box formations broken up by groups of mutated Alturarans and their worms.
“Fifty thousand two hundred and four,” Shard reported from above.
Josh and the others in the room were filled with even more questions than they’d had just a few minutes ago.
“For now, we will ready our forces and watch. If we’re to put our people into the middle of that, then we’ll only take a loss. We will give land now and ensure the safety of Emerilians. Then, when we see an opportunity, we’ll wipe out Light and Dark’s forces,” Josh said.
The others in the room agreed. Things were changing too fast for them to come up with a complete plan for now. All they could do was watch and hope the fallout wasn’t as bad as they feared.
Chapter 18: Destruction of War
Induca had a dark expression on her face as she walked through Terra. Ever since the Dark Lord had opened up a portal within the headquarters’ island of the mage’s college and mage’s guild, Terra seemed to have become a darker place.
Construction was advancing faster than ever. People were giving their time so that Terra could take on the increasing flow of refugees coming from the towns and cities that lay between where Markolm had rested in the sea and the old location of the Per’ush islands.
Once the Alturarans formed up their fifty thousand strong formations, they had continued marching forward. As they continued, another formation started to be formed.
The first formation marched out of the bay and across the land. They sent their worms forward, creating a ramp out of the cliffs around the bay.
The Alturarans made it onto land. All around them, life withered, the energy being sucked up by the Alturarans who marched through Gudalo and toward Myrar.
The city had been evacuated. Now there were only Aleph scout automatons in the areas watching the Alturarans.
This morning, they had made it to the city. The Alturarans sucked the life out of anything in the area and walked through the city as if there were nothing in their path, leaving nothing but a trampled and destroyed mess in their wake. Their path led them toward Asamal.
Seeing the result of Myrar, those who had been reluctant at first were all now looking to escape the path of the Alturarans.
A second formation had been formed up and was moving to follow the first.
With the Markolm continent going into the sky, the movement had caused the seas to surge and become chaotic. The coastal villages and towns were also moving their people farther inland and to other places that they might be able to escape destruction.
There simply wasn’t enough room in the Emerilia cities for all of these people.
The proud people of the Per’ush islands seemed to have been humbled with all the help they had received and had accepted thousands of people onto their islands.
Many highly ranked mages, researchers and their families had disappeared from the islands to other places.
Other places as in other planets, Induca thought. A number of people who had been offered a place within the Initiative were now taking up the offers, wanting to find somewhere safe for them and their families.
Ice City was now larger than Terra and growing with every day. The asteroid base was largely complete. The main thoroughfare had finally been completed and three-quarters of its slips were filled with the ships that would make up twelve complete fleets.
It would take a long time for them to be completed, but with every day there were more people being woken up and joining the Initiative. There was more material being refined, more factories being built and more shipments from Sato’s people.
Their expansion had taken off in a big way, with everyone giving their all to increase the speed of production and the quality of the different items they were crafting.
Dave, Suzy, Malsour, Jung Lee, and Steve had been working constantly over the last couple of days with the Initiative. Deia was spending time with Koi. Gurren and Lox were training groups on using the Devastator armor and working with the different fighting forces that had been handed to them, to adapt them over to the new ways they would need to fight.
Induca spent her time training, working with the Terra Alliance and her family. The dragons had been needed to act multiple times to try to calm the raging seas that threatened people or to push back creatures from the event of Myths and Legends that were still attacking the Emerilian cities.
Interfaces popped up over Terra as the lumbering Markolm was revealed, headed in toward Heval. The massive island covered the sky, as it passed just a few kilometers above Heval. The island had a gravity to it that pulled people’s attention and made them stare at it in awe. Golden flickers could be seen descending from Markolm, headed out toward the lands below.
A chill ran through Induca as Light’s legion headed toward the nearby population centers. Alerts started to appear in her vision. Power could be heard pumping through Terra as teleport pads were opened, connecting Terra with the different cities around where Markolm was passing over Heval.
The different interfaces zoomed in on the angels. Between them there were people wearing robes that had runes of golden light running down them. There was a zealous look in their eyes and an inborn arrogance.
War drums sounded out, their muffled thunder joined by trumpets, rallying cries and horns.
Even the haughty Angels paused, a look of confusion flashing through their eyes.
Weren’t these people supposed to be weak, lambs to slaughter.
However instead of finding them fleeing, the people of Alliance were moving together, rising together like some terrible ancient beast telling all that this was their land and those that tried to take it from them must be prepared to die.
Induca opened her interface and linked to the feed that was coming in as she rushed toward the teleport pads.
A new feed came in showing Ares, a port city that was part of the Selhi nation. There weren’t many people left in the city; most had been driven inland to escape the destruction brought with Markolm rising into the sky.
A group of fifty angels and a platform with glowing runes came over the city.
“Follow the path of the true goddess and find joy and peace in your hearts!” one of the people on the platform proclaimed as they floated above the city.
Induca’s eyes thinned. These were priests of Light. Their job was to protect the faithful and “convert” those who needed to be guided down the path of Light.
She knew of the bloody history of Light. When her legions had rushed forward on their holy conquest, their priests had been placed in every population center that they passed. They would reward those who believed in the Lady of Light and they would turn the children and those who were weak-willed into fanatics for the order, raising mortal armies and more priests to carry on the teachings of the Lady of Light and wipe out the unbelievers and those who weren’t part of the faith.
From these priests, the angels would be given their orders, sweeping through the towns and killing those who didn’t believe or torturing those who were not seeking conversion.
In the meantime, those who actually believed in the Lady of Light or those who were too scared to do anything else would be giving their devotions to the Lady of Light and placed under the power of the priests.
People on the ground told them to leave, angry at having lost their homes and more than a few of their friends and family being killed in the massive water surges.
The priests sneered at those below. “To the faithless, the only option is death; to remove the poison that plagues Emerilia!” The priest shook his sleeves with a snort.
The angels shot forward, spells in their hands that they fired at the people on the ground.
In the past, they had been much weaker than the angels. However, after generations, the people of Emerilia had become stronger
. With the aid of the Mirror of Communication school, they had been able to develop skills that weren’t possible before. With the threats that seemed to be all around them in recent months, nearly all people on Emerilia had taken up training with at least one kind of offensive or defensive skill.
When the angels attacked, an uncaring look on their faces, the Emerilians didn’t take it. They unleashed their own spells and defensive measures. The ono in the center of the town glowed as a Mana barrier snapped into existence around the town.
The angel’s attacks hit the Mana barrier, fading into nothing, while the ranged attacks of the Emerilians, nearly a thousand different attacks, rushed to meet the angels.
They shrugged off the hits, but their Mana barriers shook from the impacts.
The priest and angels had a shocked expression on their faces as, from the ono, a portal came to life.
Ranks and ranks of archers and mages marched outward and unleashed attacks into the sky. They were much stronger than the people in the town and the cold look in the angels’ faces now turned to one of shock as they were now having to actually put effort into defending.
Those on the ground weren’t the same level as them but their training and skills were higher, as well as their numbers.
“Pull back to Terra!” a commander of the Terra Alliance forces yelled to the people in the town.
People who had been in the process of gathering up their belongings once again started packing up. Carts started to move and automated carts rushed out from the portal to assist those who were leaving.
The Terra Alliance forces made the angels and the priests move back to a safe distance, only able to watch the people who were quickly and calmly packing up their belongings—leaving nothing behind—and preparing to leave through the ono.
Induca changed the view through her interface, seeing that all of the different cities and towns were fighting the angels, some people were fighting one another—the believers against those who wanted to escape.
The Terra Alliance forces that had been on standby quickly moved in, killing those who were attacking their fellow citizens and pushing the angels and their priests into the sky where they could do nothing but yell out at the people below and give them cold looks.
The Mana barrier easily defended against their attacks and when they tried to charge inward, it turned into a shield. Three angels died by face ramming the shields already. Afterward, word seemed to have passed through the units and they stopped charging the barrier.
Induca made it to a teleport pad where forces were already moving through. There were a lot more people going through this portal than others.
On the other side of the teleport pad, tens of people were coming through, shocked looks on their faces. Automatons blared out instructions of where to go. Shard, who ran the administration duties of Terra, was already organizing them.
Induca passed through the teleport pad’s event horizon, a wry smile on her face as wings grew from her back and scales appeared on her body. She shot off into the sky, headed for the main castle that she had personally visited once in the past.
“I didn’t think that I would be back in Selhi Capital ever again,” she said to herself, looking over the city that they had been chased out of so long ago.
Now they were rushing to its aid.
She flapped her wings as she came in to land near the castle.
A few people were on the ramparts already; a number of them wore similar cloaks and leather clothing as hers. She nodded to these people. They were all part of her family. They were on the walls of the castle as it was the highest point in Selhi Capital.
She stepped off the ramparts, gliding to the ground and toward the castle that was behind the massive walls. She reached the front of the castle and was allowed in immediately. The guards all had sweat on their faces, not from the forces that were coming to fight them but rather feeling the aura given off by the people wearing the Stone Raiders symbol on their arm as they thought about how they’d chased them from this very city.
Induca flashed a bit of her aura, making them seize up in fear as she walked by. She smiled a bit to herself as she walked through and into the inner areas. Using her own sensing spells, she quickly found her mother, Denur, who was walking through the castle.
“Mom!” Induca yelled, jogging to catch up with her.
“Hello, little Induca,” Denur said with a smile, moving as soon as Induca caught up.
“What’s the plan?” Induca asked.
“We defend the city, assist any of the other locations if we can and get these people out of here. Ahead of Markolm’s progress, other cities are being evacuated. Well, all of them except the dwarven mountains. One of the priests and their angel group showed up and before they could even talk, the dwarves used a spell that killed them all,” Denur said, a happy smile on her face.
“I guess it really drives home the whole lesson you gave us about fighting dwarves,” Induca said.
“I forgot about that one! If you’re in a fight with a dwarf, make sure that it’s not somewhere they’ve been for long and never, ever offend a dwarven mountain or attack it.” Denur sighed as she thought of the lessons she had passed down to her children.
“Where are we going to put all of these people?” Induca asked.
Denur opened a private chat with Induca before she said anything. “Ice City. We don’t have the room for them here or in any of the other places on Emerilia. Actually, the offer is being put out to a great number of people in Emerilia. Not the specifics but the leaders of the Alliance all know what’s really going on and they’re getting behind it. The Alliance has wanted to move people off Emerilia to the different bases run by the Initiative for a while now. They’ve been trying to figure out the best way for it. Now we’ve got the confusion to hide the mass emigration and with them, even if our plans fail, they’ll be able to gain strength and fight against the Jukal Empire by themselves.”
“Isn’t this all a bit too soon?” Induca asked.
“It’s the best option that we have right now.”
“Just feels like everything is starting to come together but much faster and sooner than I thought.” Induca shook her head.
“That’s the way of the world—plan and prepare as much as possible, but in the end, all of that work will be used up all in an instant,” Denur said as they walked back out of the castle. Wings grew from their backs once again as they flew up to the walls.
***
Josh sat in the leadership chair of the Alliance in the command center. Every day Light’s Markolm floated over Heval, more and more of her priests and the angels worked to conquer the cities. However, the onos that had been placed in every town and city across Emerilia had magical coding that Dave and Malsour had installed, with Steve coding it.
This extra coding allowed them to make a Mana barrier around the cities and towns, stopping the powerful angel attacks, while the Terra Alliance forces could help move the people out and attack the angels who came into range.
They weren’t able to kill off that many angels, but they had got a few. More importantly, they were able to evacuate the people of these cities.
The same was happening in Gudalo, leading to a massive influx of nearly half a million people.
Josh was funneling them into the Pandora’s Box lab through a teleport pad and then they passed through the portals to Ice City.
Josh was tense, worrying about people finding out about the Initiative and scared that he would miss people. Already he’d seen some of the groups outside of the cities being hauled up to Markolm.
He wanted to send people to rescue them but he knew that it would be just sending them to their deaths. Markolm had been sealed off before; now, with Light using her full power and growing stronger every day and her angels now all champions, they were not a force that could be easily defeated.
Finally, in the sky above Selhi Capital, two of the angel legions appeared, looking down upon the city.
On t
he walls, people of the Terra Alliance looked up at them defiantly. The people of the city were pale-faced and rushed about to try to get their belongings and leave.
Josh looked to the castle that stood above the city. Upon it, there were a number of mages wearing all manner of clothing. Their bodies emitted a powerful energy that distorted the air around them as they rotated their Mana.
Interspaced around those walls, there were people all wearing a similar set of clothes and had appearances of those who were within the same family.
The priests once again extended a generous offer but to those below it was nothing but a bloody order.
With the people in the city not responding in agreement, the priests once again sent the angels forward. They rushed toward the city, unleashing their attacks that fell upon the Mana barriers of the city, making them shake with the powerful impacts.
The people on the walls were all ranged fighters. From them, dozens of multicolored lights and spells shot up into the air.
The people who presided over the castle now jumped off the castle walls. Their bodies rapidly expanded in size, becoming dragons who moved within the Mana barrier protecting the city and unleashed their attacks into the heavens.
The mages who remained on the walls brought down spells that shook the heavens and made the earth tremble.
The angels had dove forward to attack the city; in their zealous ways, they hadn’t left room for them to dodge.
All of those below focused their spells in one area. The angels were strong, some of the strongest creatures on Emerilia, but under the sheer weight of the attacks, a quarter of their fighting force was burned away. More continued to fall from the sky as the ground forces shot upward into the heavens.
The angels’ powerful and terrifying attack had now turned into a rout as they tried to move to get away from the focused attacks.
The Pantheon Moves (Emerilia Book 10) Page 27