Chapter 146: Battle of Tenar (Final)

Kyle watched Dekar punch Mornero hard for the umpteenth time, with Dekar’s knuckles already raw and Mornero’s face bloodied while he was tied to a chair.

“After everything we have done for you, you dare to kill Johan and fuck over the whole country?!” Dekar roared while Mornero just laughed happily through broken teeth, his jaw already crooked from the repeated punches.

“Still laughing?!” Dekar kicked Monero in the groin, causing Mornero to topple over. Dekar pulled him up again by the collar, but the impact had already knocked him out, making Mornero unconscious.

Before Dekar could attempt to slap him awake, Kyle grabbed Dekar’s wrist, stopping him. “Focus. Stabilise the situation first. You can interrogate him anytime.”

The state of Tenar was still in flux, with the military troops still pushing, unaware of the demise of the head of the Versian military as well as the government. Kyle and Dekar needed to take control of the entire situation and try to turn around the army.

Furthermore, Count Leon was still outside, pushing against the second defensive line. At this point, Kyle immediately enacted his second part of the plan.

“Dekar, prepare to make a speech announcing your presidency; Yona, take over command of the military temporarily. List down whichever general refuses the order – we’ll sort them out later.”

Kyle turned to the ADCON soldiers. “Cut off all supplies and observation report to Count Leon now.” He planned to turn the Versian military into allies now, pushing hard against Count Leon to force him back to Ocra. But first, he would have to rally the military again.

The loss of command wreaked havoc among the various division defending Tenar, with widespread confusion. The generals and division commanders desperately tried to contact the head of the military to no avail, only to hear a female voice on the other end of the radio when the communication finally made it through.

[All Versian military troops, prior orders to suppress revolts in the city are now revoked. All divisions to focus on holding the second defensive line.]

The confused generals and commanders attacking the government palace were astonished, with some of the smarter ones immediately realising what had happened. Not every general in the army supported Mornero, only blindly following orders, but the supporters knew that they would be purged eventually, with the government having collapsed.

The final nail in the coffin came when the public announcement system was suddenly used by Dekar, announcing to the public and causing the riots and fights across the city to pause as they listened to the speech temporarily.

[Citizens of Versia, the illegitimate government under Mornero has been toppled. The schemes of corruption have been exposed – It was Mornero who originally captured and now killed the former president, Johan!]

The revelation boosted the morale of his followers and the adherents of Nona, while the opposing side began to waver slightly.

[The industrialists and Mornero have colluded to eat the system from within, attempting to wrestle power away from you, the people, under the guise of improvement and war. They have lied to you, time and time again, of their true intentions!]

[But I am different. I am the true successor to President Johan, and I will carry his will forward and return Versia to it’s ideal state of equality and high standard of living. No longer shall the weak suffer, and no longer shall the poor tremble. All shall be supported, lifted up high and elevated beyond their station to work towards a better future together!]

[However, the fight is not over! The supporters of Mornero are still within our midst, colluding with each other to profit over fellow Versians, aiming to squash you and put you under their feet. They think of you as dumb, useless scum that does not deserve the right to determine the course of the country.]

High-pressured arctech water cannons began to douse the entire area, blasting away the flames and depriving them of oxygen. However, Count Leon’s face paled considerably as his troops were already locked in the frontal assault.

He had relied on his knights to kill off Kyle and his troops, sending the knights that he had the utmost confidence in. Count Leon had far misjudged Kyle, treating him only as a small-time gang lord who got a bit lucky. He even managed to defeat the leader of the knights – I have no chance of winning Tenar now.

“Retreat! Full retreat now! Load whatever we have into wagons and rush back to Ocra! We’ll take Ocra by storm and hold there!” Count Leon was unwilling to give up his position, but with Raktor under fire and the two flanks of the Versian military still threatening to collapse on his position, he had no choice but to retreat in order to save what he could.

The morale of the Yual Dominion soldiers plummeted as soon as they saw the line of explosions that seemed to encompass the horizon like a wall of fire, along with the subsequent command to retreat.

The various divisions formed into a line as they retreated, with the rearguard still fighting tooth and nail to suppress the Versian military and prevent them from catching up.

However, instead of chasing, Kyle sent an order down to stay put instead, letting Count Leon get away. Dekar was indignant: “Why aren’t we chasing them down? We are winning!”

However, Kyle did not feel this way. He did have a hidden motivation to keep the war going so as to maintain his smuggling economy as well as become an integrated part of the Versian economy, but he also knew that the Versian military was exhausted and would not be able to give chase after all the confusion that was happening.

“We need to regroup and reorganise the city before we push out against Count Leon as well. Don’t forget that the other Counts are on the move as well.”

Dekar realised that the other two war fronts were collapsing as well because of the original order to retreat and defend Tenar. He quickly relayed the order through messengers, informing the various waterfront commanders to turn around again.

With this, Kyle had now successfully gained control of Versia through Dekar, though he did not intend to play too much of a role in governance, unlike Desham.

Over the next few days, Tenar calmed down, allowing Dekar and his followers to assume the role of the government quickly. Dekar’s prior governmental experience made him the best candidate, allowing him to efficiently organise and manage the work needed to restore Tenar despite the war.

The change in government did not sit well with some of the richer citizens, but the poorer ones who had been badly affected by the war economy were far more supportive, cheering for Dekar as he gave speech after speech, attempting to unify the population once more.

However, rebel activities still remained the vestiges of Monero supporters who were unwilling to accept this fall from power. The city was still breaking out into intermittent fighting, with Kyle’s ADCON soldiers working to flush out the rebels.

Already some of the rebel military divisions had made it out from Tenar, having escaped from the ADCON soldier’s encirclement and fleeing to other towns with the help of industrialists on the outside, forming a counter-revolution to Dekar’s government now.

The economy began to falter as supplies dwindled rapidly, the various major industries held by the powerful businessmen refusing to supply Tenar any longer, instead hellbent on concentrating their own local power. Some even declared themselves as local authorities, further fragmenting Versia apart into different areas ruled by warlords.

Kyle knew this split was inevitable, a common occurrence in every successful revolution. He himself was a ‘warlord’ in Desham under Mornero’s government. But unlike Mornero, who had no experience in dealing with such a fragmented state, Kyle had far more experience from the Galactic Era, where he had unified the criminal organisations of the Melsura Sector himself, along with better technology.

He recalled the days when he used to act as the shadow state behind multiple D-class states, realising that Versia would constitute the first state to have fallen under his grasp. Naturally, Kyle wasn’t about to let these warlords get away scott-free, claiming essential resources critical to the war effort and threatening the collapse of Versia.

The first step to my empire of sin will be perfect!