Book 9, Chapter 29

The Lord’s Choice

Richard was sitting in his command centre with a grave expression. Gangdor was on his way back, but even with the messenger’s speed it would take more than ten hours for his return. The brute’s injuries were severe, and without the spare protection to send priests with the rescue team there was a chance of death or lasting damage.

At this point, most of his followers had already gathered by his side. A minority were out leading troops, but they were constantly aware of their connection to him so they could execute his orders immediately. There were lines all over the map of Faelor indicating retreat, but the furthest troops in the south would take about a month to group back up.

It was about this time that a number of powerful conscients circled around the northeastern coast, the pantheon of the plane investigating these new invaders after a warning from the three goddesses. However, their senses seemed completely unable to pierce through the region, as though the entire coast was covered in smoke. The only beacon of light came from small shrines to Cerces and a random lesser deity in the Frostcliff Kingdom, but the group of paladins that were sent to investigate only saw a cloud of flying war machines with a hundred enormous transport ships behind them. The fastest to react turned around to flee, but not one managed to outrun the energy beams of the reapers.

It took roughly half an hour from that first engagement for the reapers to arrive at one of the Kingdom’s cities. The transport ships flew down to only a dozen metres off the ground before dropping in a full army of flesh warriors and mechanical beetles, the former starting their massacre even as the latter prepped the processing grounds. Half an hour longer, and the city of 40,000 had turned into a land of death. Only minutes later, the transport ships took off.

The reapers continued to spread from city to city, wiping out the entire Frostcliff Kingdom. Despite moving through the skies, they were still taking about as long to move between cities as they were to kill all of the residents. While Richard had given up on the place long ago, the gods tried in futility to amass any forces to resist.

Within hours of the northeast’s fall, the pantheon finally took action. Cerces was the first to proclaim the start of a divine war, commanding all worshippers to take up arms and fight for survival and faith. The rest of Faelor’s deities followed suit, warhorns sounding in every country on the plane. Every intelligent being, human or otherwise, started preparing for war under divine command. Even the most hesitant of nobles opened up their warehouses, allowing citizens to draw weapons from within.

Every citizen of Faelor had been conscripted to battle, something that had only occurred once before in history. That invasion had led to a change of eras for Faelor, and this one threatened to be the end.

Richard’s face was overcast from start to finish. Outside of ordering his troops to speed up their retreat, he didn’t do anything else for hours. Sitting beside him, Macy felt the stifling air and silently observed.

However, this tenuous peace was quickly interrupted by surprising news. A small detachment of reapers had passed through unoccupied territory to appear in the Iron Triangle Empire, specifically at a city that Richard had ordered defended. The force was minuscule compared to the number of soldiers defending the place, especially considering the broodmother had elite drones stationed on location as well. However, he still lost more than half of the combined forces before the aggressors were killed, and forty of the ninety thousand citizens were killed.

Already on the defensive perimeter, Salwyn rushed to the city immediately. The broodmother also deployed four cloned brains and a swarm of worker drones over, tasked with clearing all of the corpses and transmit images back to Richard.

The city had turned into hell. The reapers had established two processing centres on the fringes before even going in, and thousands upon thousands of corpses had gone through the entire process. The beetles had eventually entered the fray as the rest of the reaper soldiers were killed, but that meant a number of corpses that were only halfway dissected without any proper packaging.

Not far away, a ruined transport ship had crashed into the ground, the cargo bay damaged and leaking a huge amount of flesh and blood all over. Even the most hardened veterans couldn’t keep themselves from gagging at the gory sight, to the point that a pale Salwyn had ordered the location sealed off to keep from traumatising the rest of the Empire’s citizens. The Emperor personally entered the processing centres and organised the corpses and flesh, completely ignoring the blood soaking his body despite the fact that hundreds of humanoid drones had already been sent over to assist.

It was only near evening that the cleanup was complete, the intact corpses lined up on the ground. Their less-fortunate comrades were stacked up in several small hills, and Salwyn personally poured oil onto the flesh while his knights worked on the corpses. He made sure that he was the only one to cast the fireballs that lit all of these soldiers and citizens on fire, watching stiffly as the raging inferno sent clouds of black smoke high into the sky.

As shadows danced across his face, the Emperor waved for a cloned brain to descend from the sky, “I wish to speak to His Majesty.”

The compound eyes of the cloned brain flickered several times, with Richard’s voice eventually ringing out from its throat, “I’m here.”

“Did you see it all?”

“And more.”

Salwyn nodded, “A full division of soldiers with reinforcements from the Land of Turmoil. We killed the enemies, but all I can say is that we’ve lost. You were right, Your Majesty, this enemy truly is terrifying. It seems like there is no way to beat them.

“But…” he shook his head calmly, “I understand you can only take a small number of people back with you. Most of my citizens will remain here to face the reapers, and they will have to face their destiny in the near future. I am their emperor, I cannot abandon them.”

The puppet ruler took a deep breath, enunciating every word, “I… stay. I will be with my citizens, their lord will stand at the forefront against this vile army.”

The cloned brain went quiet for a long time before Richard finally responded, “Alright.”

Salwyn looked at the bug, but his gaze seemed to land all the way on the distant Richard as he bowed in thanks, turning around to leave.

Back in Bluewater, Richard had his followers leave and stood alone before the map of Faelor.

……

In the capital of the Sacred Tree Empire, a small group of priests braved harsh winds to arrive at an ancient chapel, knocking on the thick black gate. An old, clearly annoyed man opened it ever so slightly with a creak, caution written all over his face as he stared at the priests like they were thieves.

One of those outside the gate suddenly stepped forward, taking off his hood to reveal his face, “I am looking for Archbishop Hendrick.”

“Your Excellency!” the old priest on the other side of the door gasped, but even so he didn’t allow them in. In fact, he started to lean against the door, prepared to close it at a moment’s notice.

This attitude only changed when an old voice rang out from the courtyard, “Let them in.”

“But…” the man leaned back for a moment, clearly hesitating, but it was only after the voice repeated itself that he pulled the gate open with force. The leader on the other end had those around him wait in place, entering alone.

Archbishop Hendrick was seated near the altar of the chapel, enormous crown resting on his head while he was draped in the crimson robes reserved for cardinals. He seemed to be reading a book of holy scriptures, but closed it as he saw Martin walking in, “You should not be allowed within this place, it is my territory. Even the divine child can only be captured.”

There was a scent of bloodlust behind the threat, but Martin didn’t seem the slightest bit nervous as he continued walking forward. A cold glint flashed in Hendrick’s eyes and glowing chains suddenly materialised in thin-air, flying forward to wrap around Martin and lock him tightly. The divine child struggled hard, but the countless symbols that lit up around him could only loosen the chains a little bit.

Hendrick picked up a small dagger from the altar, immersing it in a pool of holy water before walking to the paralysed Martin’s side. Calmly placing the sharp blade on the divine child’s neck, he cut a thin red line into the skin.

However, his gaze froze as he looked at the few drops of blood that seeped out, disbelief flooding his face.

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