Thank you very much for your support!
Chapter 217
Lyra POV
(She sees a big lush valley from the overlook. It’s been a hard climb. Yet, only she and her assistants Edoard and Jules were winded since the witch girl with them, Lula, had been riding her broom. Currently the four of them are alone but extremely wary.)
Finally we reached the mountain overlook.
“Ahh, this is a wonderful spot to lookout,” Lula said first.
“Yeah it looks nice. We can see everything for miles around,” I admitted.
“There it is,” Lula said while floating and levitating on her broom near us. Her broom’s levitating ability sways gently in the breeze while she points out forward and down.
“Wait, are you sure?” Edoard said.
Jules and I are too tired to talk.
“Yeah, I’m sure. That’s it,” Lula said.
We sort of groaned inwardly.
We’ve been following Lula for weeks now non-stop through all kinds of trouble and through the wilderness, killing monsters, trying to stay alive, foraging for food and hunting. Yet despite all of this she’s obsessed and won’t stop her crazed obsessive pace.
I peered down where Lula had pointed. All of us are studying that point.
“I’m not sure what am I seeing?” I asked.
Around us we’re at the tops of a spine of a mountain range that sits overlooking the whole world. And ahead and below there’s a cluster of several large valleys that chain off this mountain range. It looks temperate with lots of timber, and looks like ideal farming area.
“To the right is the Skylight Empire from that valley that goes downwards. They’ve been trying to stay off annihilation by ogre and kobold tribes together. They aren’t expected to last through the next century but have done wonderfully in surviving to this point. Their territory is shrinking but not so quickly as to collapse all at once. They’ve even won several key engagements but have been steadily worn down through burning up all their resources in war and losing tons of people to war.’
“To the left are the nomad tribes. From there stretching out for another couple thousand miles you will find an endless stream of all kinds of horse using and tent dwelling people on a huge plain that live by hunting and gathering until you reach the Southern border of the Vyskland Empire where you came from. But this is different than the border you entered in from. Ironically because of the sheer size of the plains the nomadic tribes are doing better than the nearby civilizations because their horse culture lets them flee and retreat with skirmish tactics against the goblins,” Lula said.
“Yeah I remember coming in by ship part of the way and we’d come from the South, South West part of Vyskland by sea, rather than the East and Southeast section of the borders,” I said.
“So this is a geography lesson now? Why can’t we just keep moving?” Jules said. He sounds annoyed.
We ignored him.
This is important. If we choose badly we could be captured or killed.
“Those tribal groups sound interesting and scary at the same time. They aren’t cannibals are they?” Edouard asked.
Lula laughed. “No. No way. They call themselves the People of the Plains. They are actually a very beautiful people, more civilized than city people in some ways, and have light skin like you and me, with a beautiful intact culture system which is led by warriors and shamans together. It’s really ironic but their people and culture seem to be the only ones doing any good against all the goblin and orc invasions.”
“What? How is that possible?!” Edouard and Jules said at the same time.
“It’s simple really. For their culture everyone fights, everyone trains, with self sufficiency, and independence; and they are all equals. If there’s a defense situation they all jump in whether, old or young, child or adult. But in civilized cities, only the town guards and hired soldiers respond to threats. This is why you will always lose against orcs and goblin invasion waves. Only a small percentage of your population is allowed to fight while the others are tied down by an invisible set of rules that is wrong. To face the goblin races you have to put everyone in on the threat, not just a few people,” Lula said.
“It’s still hard to believe that a bunch of tribal people who can’t read or write are beating us,” Jules said.
“Oh? And who said they don’t have a writing system? They do have a writing system but just limited access to paper,” Lula said.
“So you are chewing us out to tell us that human supremacy is wrong?” Jules spat in the dirt.
“This isn’t about that. I’m not accusing or thinking anything like that. I just wanted to show you that there are tons of beautiful people and beautiful ways of living of people that don’t have to live in cities to be happy. And that they have a good future too. Oh where was I?” Lula turned towards the point ahead of us.
It’s actually that part that interests us the most.
“OK, fine, but what about that spire, in the distance? That’s obviously why we’re here isn’t it?” I asked.
We’re all staring at that gleaming and blindingly white spire that’s shaped like a cross between a canine tooth pointed up and what looks like a giant building tower structure; except it’s as big as one of the biggest mountains I’ve ever seen.
And around it there is a ring of similarly shaped pitch black shadow teeth like buildings that mirror it except less than a third its size. The black tooth fortress cities of the daemons seem to be a stolen tech version of the first and foremost fae city, except not quite as grand.
“That white spire is the fae fortress. Somehow we’ve got to get in. That’s where Shun and Sunghee are,” Lula concluded.
“But it’s clearly surrounded. That’s not going to be easy,” Edoard observed.
“But those black teeth buildings…I’ve got a bad feeling about them. Something doesn’t feel right about them,” I said.
“You’re right to trust your feelings. Those are the daemon siege castles. It’s an interesting design don’t you think? And look how the design is stolen from the fae and then perverted by their own mana. A lot of people debate what that means but some think it hints of a common origin between them,” Lula said.
“What? Is that true?” I said.
“Lyra, we’re in over heads,” Jules said nervously.
“Each one of those little daemon castles could theoretically hold thousands of troops. How are the fae even keeping them at bay? And why would we want to go in the sieged zone? That sounds stupid, we’d be boxed in,” Edoard said.
“That’s a good question. Can the fae keep them at bay?” I asked.
“There’s no way they could. Each of those black teeth shaped castles…” Jules complained while pacing.
It certainly does look like they are in bad straights.
But then I noticed something.
The fae larger spire castle is untouched, even though there’s a huge siege.
How could it be undamaged like that?
“And you can see how they surround that white fae spire fortress in all directions. Both sides knew the siege would last for centuries and so they just planted roots and built up their fortresses while they snipe at each other and look for opportunities to murder as they watch and wait,” Lula said.
“So the siege has been going on that long?” Edoard asked.
“That’s awful,” I said.
“It is, but that’s how daemons operate. It’s gross I know. They spend their whole time on war,” Lula explained.
“Wow, there’s like over thirty of the smaller enemy teeth shaped castles,” Jules said.
“And each of them is a whole city just by themselves. And they all want to kill the fae and anything good in this world,” Lula said.
“But there’s no break in the fences surrounding everything. How will we get across?” Edouard asked.
“That’s a good question. I’ve got to figure that part out,” Lula frowned.
“There’s no way we can cross that. The whole place is surrounded by tons of armies. Each tooth city has its own army,” Jules said as he studied the scene.
Technically he’s right. Whatever we do…this is going to be freaking dangerous as hell.
How do we get in?
Actually won’t all those little teeth castles have a bunch of scouts?
Damn.
This is not good to just be standing out here.
“Can we go home? I don’t want to do this anymore,” Jules said.
Lula glared at him. “We are not quitting now; even if I have to drag you kicking and screaming the whole way. If you quit now I will make you feel so much pain…”
“It’s OK, we’re not quitting,” I said with finality.
Still, how do we get across the shadow tooth cities of the daemons?
Just then Edoard ripped his sword out of sheathe. “We’ve been spotted. A scouting party is here! To arms!” he said.
Lula is already blasting huge mana bolts at daemons of some kind that are charging at us. The wave of her bolts is so bad and big that she’s melting part of the mountain into lava.
How do I even fight without her killing us all?
