How do I get into these sorts of situations?

"-and he just ignores my Order's potential!"

Is there some sign on me, or do I just naturally attract oddity and strangeness?

"We're trained knights! We should be out righting wrongs, protecting people! But no, it's always honor guard duty!"

Because I had assumed Pina was coming over to my manor to have one of those 'sister talks' she claims we need to have. They always devolve into talks about 'handsome boys' or some trite about one thing or another that I guess she thinks kids my age care about? Maybe they do, but I'm hardly 'my age' myself.

"I feel he just has us there as a showpiece most of the time! 'Emissaries far and wide, low and behold my warrior women. Aren't they the strangest things you have ever seen? Don't worry, they don't actually fight.' That's what it feels like and It's insulting!"

Granted, she does more of the talking than I do, but this feels like she's confusing me with her damned therapist. Wonder what happened to warrant the venom spewing today? Someone go through the whole 'horrible woman' speech, or did someone ask her if her armor was real again?

"We became knights to protect the weak and defend the innocent. How can we possibly do that when we are always on-"

"Pina!" I cut her off from going down the circular arguments she's been prattling about for the last twenty minutes in my sitting room. It's surprising the floor hasn't given out where she's been pacing back and forth for all that time.

Her page in particular was off to the side looking quite dizzy from watching all the pacing, while the girl to her side looked more embarrassed for Pina's sake than anything else.

'Wha- Oh, I'm sorry," finally realizing what she had been doing, she blushed in embarrassment. "Look at me, just going on and on about my problems when I came here to see how you were doing."

"No, it's just… you get a little too into it that I just can't keep up," I let out an awkward laugh as I roll my eyes. She might be older and wiser than she used to be, but Pina is still painfully sheltered about the world. Not naïve, she's at least worked her way out of that with age, but she is quite ignorant of certain attitudes. While hardly a dullard, she still didn't really understand why warrior women were such a bizarre concept to a patriarchal society, or the fact that the only reason she got this far was because her father was the emperor.

Maybe it had to do with the fact that she still thinks that knights are not merely mounted troops who break enemy lines with the momentum of their charge, but as 'heroes' who protect the weak and defend the innocent.

"Oh, before I forget," Pina spoke up, clearly moving on from her prior rant, "I wanted to ask about that standard by the front gate. Is it yours?"

Oh, that. "Yeah, it's mine," I nodded. "Just some banner I came up with. Any thoughts?"

"Well, don't you think it's a little… menacing?" she let out a nervous laugh.

"Menacing?" I just recolored the design already present. I'm hardly creative enough to make a whole new flag or standard.

Besides, who in their right mind thought purple on purple was a good color scheme? Granted, purple is a color of wealth and nobility (even if the damn color is quite plentiful in this world, thereby rendering the scarcity that made the color mean wealth irrelevant) but there are better ways to incorporate purple than to just plaster your national flag with varying shades of it.

"What I mean is that black and red are somewhat aggressive colors," she chose her words carefully for whatever reason. "Not commonly associated with royalty, I mean."

"Your rose banner has almost the same shade of red as mine does," I cocked an eyebrow, trying to understand where she was going with this. The whole thing was just a Saradran flag with the colors of the Germanian Empire.

"Fine, fine, I'll drop it," she held up her hands in a mock surrender, not wanting to go any further in this discussion. Yet Pina still smiled, "You know, if you became a knight, you could make it your-"

"No," I didn't even let her finish. She wasn't being serious of course. The last time she had, genuinely, asked me to join her order was years ago. Since then, it's evolved into something of a 'joke' for her to ask if I want to join her knights, I refuse, then she goes on about how she'll get me 'next time' or some variation of the phrase.

She let out a laugh, "Oh well. Guess I'll have to try again another time."

Is this a normal sibling relationship or am I just reading too deeply into these sorts of things?

"On a more serious note, why'd you make it? Thinking of starting a retinue and wanted to make them a standard?"

"Nothing so grand," I wave off the assumption I was creating some militarized force. "Gaius was saying it was about time I made a coat of arms, so I made one in under ten minutes.

The princess hummed in agreement, "While your eunuch is right, there's no need to make your own. Father would have allowed you to use the Imperial standard if you asked him."

"I doubt that," I rolled my eyes.

"Oh please, you have the most powerful man in the world wrapped around your finger and you don't even realize it."

"You are greatly overstating my influence," I shook my head.

"If you say so," that tone of hers made it clear she did not believe me.

"Speaking of father, what did he do to get you all riled up like that?" I immediately kicked myself for accidentally pulling the pin off her grenade of emotions. Thankfully, either from catching herself or genuinely moving on, she did not retread old ground.

"How did you know it was him?" Pina questioned.

"You just told me," I replied. "So?"

"It's just a Senate meeting I stood as honor guard for this morning," sighing, Pina rubbed her temple. "After it I told him he could use my knights to supplement patrols along the region, but he refused. Even with so many troops massing to go through the portal, he still coddles me and my-"

"I'm sorry, did you just say our troops are massing to go through a portal?" Did I hear that right?

"Oh yeah, there's a portal to another world upon Alnus Hill," she replied as if commenting on the weather.

"….what?" What did she just say? A portal… to another world?!

"At least, that's how Father described it." Pina shrugged, "The mages went on and on about the particulars of the whole thing. You would have probably understood it, but all that stuff went over my head. Something about the Gods opening a doorway to another world. That's all I can reasonably say I understand about it."

"I'm sorry but… 'portal to another world'? Like where is this portal again?" It was ludicrous. Even with magic such a thing should be impossible. It was only theorized that magic could be used to teleport people in Germania by the late nineteenth century, and even then it was believed it required so much mana and such intricate calculations that it was practically impossible. And that was to teleport one person across the length of a classroom. To open a hole in space, maintain it, and use it for travel toher whole other planets was just absurd!

It simply wasn't scientifically-

Wait.

She said the 'Gods' do this…

…

Oh dear.

Oh fuck…

"What? Oh right, as I said it's on Alnus Hill and was discovered a little over a month ago, according to Father. He plans to send the legions through a claim to the lands beyond for the Empire."

"And we know that there's anything there because?" If this was a genuine portal to another world, and not just to another point on this one, there are a million and one ways of how it could go wrong. Like walking into the hard vacuum of space with only the finest medieval armor to protect themselves!

It feels like something Being X would do to prove a point.

"Because scouts went through to the other side of course," Pina acted as if the explanation of people crossing over to another world by magic was something mundane. "They claim the other side was surreal; metal animals, metal carriages, glass towers that touch the sky, that kind of stuff."

"But how- I don't… if that is…" I could barely formulate my question; a dozen little variables, factors, and HIS influence on all of this.

"Apologies, your highnesses," the young page made her presence known and interrupted my question. "But the meeting with the Smith's Guild is in an hour. I'm sorry, but we have to leave."

Pina tsked, "Right. Thank you, Hamilton. I'm sorry, Tanya, but I have to leave right now. I've been trying to get the Guild Master to supply the Rose Knights with new armor but they've been so busy with orders as of late. I actually had to use my status to cut the line and get this meeting. Again, I am so sorry, but I have to go."

I don't even recall what I said to her on the way out, I barely even registered the maid who came by and refill my drink. My mind was too preoccupied with the information I had just learned. Specifically, its implications.

Now, Occam's Razor would be that I am overthinking this and I should just calm down. That these fantastical accounts Pina listed off were just that, point for point accounts of what is beyond this otherworldly portal. Metallic animals prowling around simple towers of glass.

However….

Someone with no concept of a car could, if pressed, describe an automobile as a 'horseless metal carriage'. They could even say that any high-rise building would be a tower of glass. But metal animals? Maybe this is high fantasy, as opposed to this world's low fantasy, and the animals are metallic. Or they are just describing machinery that looks and acts in such a way that they had no way to classify them except calling them 'metal animals'.

And if the latter is true, that would imply, at least, an industrial society. Either in the beginning of harnessing the power of steam and coal, or having transitioned to a consumption-based economy. Either society would have access to, again at the bare minimum, firearms; be they muskets, flintlocks, breach loaded, bolt action, or even semi-automatic. Not just that, but all the other instruments of warfare common in industrialized armies. Machine guns and artillery at least, up to combined arms and precision guided munitions at worst.

And the Emperor wants to send legionaries to conquer the lands beyond; with literal bows and arrows and wooden spears.

But if this portal is opened by these so called 'Gods', who would be so reckless as to-

It took a fraction of a second to answer my own question.

Oh fuck…

I could barely contain my anxiety as I started to hyperventilate. Wringing my hands, my mind raced through all the worst possible outcomes to this disaster in the making.

Knowing HIM, the other side is probably going to lead the world's equivalent of a communist state that just loves to execute nobles. The propagandist in me could hardly think of a better way to deflect the issues of the people towards a great 'other' in the form of the Empire. After all, what better war could there be then one against a primitive slaving empire that has no possibility of actually defeating you in a pitched battle?

And after everything is said and done, and they cross over to here…

I mean, I am technically a minor so I might not get lined up against a wall and shot.

No, that was just wishful thinking. Being a minor didn't save the Tsar's children in either timeline, so I doubt it would save me. Well, maybe not killed. Being X is more likely to make it so that I am captured and forced into some reeducation facility than being shot. After all, I can't 'repent' if I'm dead now can I?

Damn…

Damn.

Damn.

Damn!

Damn you Being X!

---
---

Molt had learned much of his life.

One of the more important lessons his father instilled into him prior to Molt's ascension was that conquest was more than just marching over the dead and declaring victory. One required the means and ability to hold what they take.

Take his failure of a son. Zorzal went into the east, lost most of his forces, broke his foes and sacked their lands, left to prance about his failure at home, and in the meantime the whole region turned into an ungovernable quagmire. The legions he sent were doing their best to impose a semblance of order, but with the constant raids by vengeful bunny warriors and continuous raids by a now unified nomadic horde stretched his forces to their breaking point.

Whenever Molt looked at that part of the map, he felt as if it was just a bottomless pit that just swallowed all the gold and men he threw at it.

It almost seemed ridiculous. His armies were nearly three million strong, not counting the auxiliaries and mercenaries under his employ, and yet even that monumental number was but a fraction of what was needed to simply maintain the Empire as is, let alone expand in any meaningful direction.

To the west were barbarian kingdoms by the dozens, northmen raided along the northern shores, the south was in a perpetual standoff with the Korinthean League, horse tribes harassed any advance to the east, and the colonies were constantly beset by hulking lizard people wielding man sized clubs of bone and obsidian. Perhaps the greatest threats came from within his domain. Traitors, serviles, ambitious senators, maverick generals, all were threats to his rule.

And he needed every legionary on hand to keep them in their place. With all that, three million was a very small number indeed.

The Empire's sheer size was its undoing.

But, as if by providence, the key to his woes appeared.

The portal on Alnus Hill. Found by some ruffians, his own scouts would later confirm their fantastical claims of what laid beyond.

And what laid beyond was simply too tempting to ignore.

After all, why press his forces into the interior of the jungles that cover the colonial islands, or press deeper into the eastern steppe, when he can launch a campaign of conquest from the safety of the Empire's interior? Why deal with such long supply trains, when he can march his forces through Italica into this new frontier without stepping out of imperial territory?

"I'm not questioning the costs," Molt reiterated to the assembled wizards and mages in his private solar, the crowd flanked on both sides by his guards, "I am asking can it be done?"

After announcing his intentions to go forth and conquer lands in this new world, Molt was left in the position to facilitate this desire. Legends tell that the portal between worlds opens irregularly, and always slams shut after a length of time by the will of the Gods. His conquests would be rather short lived if the gateway closed and stranded his forces in another plane of existence.

Thankfully, he had options. He had brought forth mages from across the Empire, the brightest of their respective fields, to figure out a way to keep it open.

Though not all the news around this miraculous event was positive. Some senators hiked up their skirts and demanded he find a way to seal the portal rather than utilize it. Questions of what creatures they might let in if it remained open, of the Gods wraith for interfering in their unknowable plans, of the diseases that could spill over into Falmart.

Hell, even his own daughter was trying to change his course. Though she masked her language in more stoic rationales such as unacceptable losses weakening the Legions and unknown variables such as foreign magics, he could tell Tanya was simply scared. She hid it well enough, but he could tell that she was deathly terrified of what might be beyond, and what might come through.

Truthfully, it was humorous to see his youngest actually act her age for once, rather than try to be the overly mature persona she kept on like a mask. He wondered if it said more about her that she asked the same questions as the senators many times her age, or did it imply that the senators who voiced their concerns were akin to little girls!

Well, he did his best to put her fears to rest. He sat her down and explained to her how everything was going to be fine. He was preparing the largest concentration of force seen in the Empire since the end of the Northern Wars. Led by the Empire's greatest generals, nothing would be able to stop their indomitable advance.

What went unspoken, and probably over the head of his daughter, was that this was not going to be a disaster like Zorzal's 'campaign' against the Bunny Warrior kingdom. This would end in victory in the truest sense.

The mages looked to one another and conversed softly with themselves on the matter for half a minute. As Molt's patience wore thin, Arch Wizard Fandrel broke ranks from his fellows and spoke. "Yes, Your Majesty. It will be a colossal undertaking, the materials and reagents astronomically expensive, but it can be done."

"Then by all means, explain," he gestured for him to continue.

"We propose the creation of an anchor, a magical construct to control the phenomenon upon the hill," the wizard gestured for one of his colleagues to unfold a parchment displaying a rudimentary design. "An archway, a Gate, to be the physical embodiment of the portal. Though I must warn, Your Majesty, that we cannot control it beyond that, nor could we should try to, lest the Gods send an apostle to chastise us for our hubris."

"Not so, Your Majesty," a robed mage interrupted Fandrel, and walking out of the crowd of wizards was a man many decades younger than his fellows. "There is a way to keep the Gate beyond the machinations of the Gods!"

"Know your place," Fandrel immediately hissed at the man, the others nodded in agreement with the Arch Wizard. "You are here only due to your family's connections, under the condition you were to be seen and not heard. You do not know of what you speak."

"And who are you to curate who I may and may not hear from, Wizard?" Molt confronted Master Fandrel, subtly motioning to his guard to not remove the young man who spoke out of turn.

"Y-Your majesty," the arch wizard looked like a gasping fish as he realized what he had done. "I… A-A thousand pardons, Your Majesty, but this child- boy is here for reasons beyond my control. Were I capable, I would never have let him even before you and I-"

"Then I shall hear, and dismiss, his childish wisdom myself," he waved off the arch wizard, showing he would brook no further discussion on the issue. Looking to the mage in question, Molt gestured for the boy to approach his dais. "What is your name?"

"Arius, Your Majesty," the young man bows deeply for his sovereign.

"Well then, Arius, tell me why you think the portal can be made to stay open indefinitely," he was genuinely curious to hear the young man's reply.

"In my research, I have found that Arch Mage Maccabee's treatise on divine sustainment proves that divine power can be slaved to mortal hands or," Arius stated. "In certain circumstances, it can be cut off entirely through prepared ritual and runecraft. Such means can be utilized in the construction of this Gate to keep it open for as long as we wish."

"You speak of heresy boy!" Again, Fandrel spoke up and stormed to Arius's side. "The fact you even have copies of Arch Heresiarch's works are-"

"Is he right, Master Fandrel?" Molt questioned, trying to keep the discussion on point.

Fandrel answered the Emperor with a question of his own, "Your Majesty, have you ever read of the Great Fire of Rondel?"

"I'm well-read enough to know of the Great Fire that befell the Library," Molt rolled his eyes at the assumption he had never read a history text before. "That said, the significance of this man eludes me. I presume that this heretic of yours was the arsonist in question?"

"The very same," others nodded in agreement to Fandrel's words. "Maccabee was a deviant, a heretic, a blasphemer, one who held the words of the Jealous God above all others! His dark ministrations resulted in the blood that flowed through our streets and the fire that burned out Great Library to rubble. Untold archives of works, many sanctioned by the Gods themselves, turned to ash within hours."

"And yet he managed to elude Ral's apostle for hours by…" Molt urged the wizard to get to the part of this tale that actually mattered, the truly outrageous part that some to this day took as an exaggeration of the event. A mortal man overpowering an apostle.

"He weaved a spell that spanned the length of the city that denied the apostle her divine gifts," Arius spoke up, visibly giddy to continue the tale. "On that night, the apostle was as mortal as you or I. She had to fight through waves of Maccabee's followers without the aid of her divine patron. If she would have died within reach of the spell, she would have stayed dead."

"That has never been proven," Fandrel interjected. "But it is irrelevant. Our esteemed order discovered the incantation and broke it. Restored of her Gods given strength, Lady Morgan slew the heresiarch and his remaining followers with a single spell. Ending that most horrid of nights, the heretics' works burned, his legacy disgraced. Or so we thought…"

"You can deny the magnitude of his works all you wish, my lord, but you cannot deny their very existence or the fact they worked!" Arius ignored the glares he was receiving from his fellow wizards. "Your Majesty, give me two months, and I shall give you a Gate that even the Gods themselves will not be able to close!"

"Two months you say?" Now this intrigued him. Two months and the fruits of an entire world would be at his fingertips. Could be a lie. Could be true. Decisions, decisions.

"Your Majesty, please reconsider your-"

"Thank you for your wise counsel, Master Fandrel," Molt had made his decision. "You and your fellowship may leave. I shall have instructions for you before the week's end. If you would remain Master Arius, we have much to discuss."

Red faced, yet holding in his anger, the older mage bowed before Molt and exited the chamber with his fellow mages. Arius, his smile threatening to split his face in two, approached the Emperor and awaited his instructions.

As he conversed with the young man, another thought came to him. Given Alnus's location, and the speed in which he wished this conquest to proceed, there was simply no other way to gather the sheer scale of forces necessary to attack this new land without pulling forces back along the southern borders of the Empire. Which would necessitate pulling forces from the disputed border between the Empire and the Korinthean League.

What would happen should they attack while his forces were beyond the Gate? Or what if they attacked preemptively in the misguided belief he was building up forces to invade the League proper? He would obviously be able to beat it back, but the time wasted was something he grimaced at.

It would seem to him that the only way to ensure the Korintheans did not use this weakness as a chance to seize some disputed lands was to make sure they were too preoccupied with more pressing matters at home.

Perhaps a succession crisis is in order?

But how to go about it? The current Hegemon was elected to his position no more than a decade ago, and was as hale as they come in terms of health. He was well loved by his people, and rightly feared by his foes. No obvious claimants to back in a secession conflict. Perhaps a less beloved candidate? He would be more indebted to the Empire should he succeed. If not, then the conflict served its purpose enough to distract the League.

Molt supposed he'll have to resort to the most tired and tested methods in removing a man from his seat of power to facilitate another's rise.

By the gentlest of persuasions, and subtlest of poisons.

---
---

Maki didn't know how long it had been since all of… this started.

A week?

A month?

More?

The days seemed to just meld into one another after a point. Each day progressed like any other without fanfare. What she did know was that her kidnappers spent two more days grabbing people from Tokyo before loading their captives onto wagons and riding off. Sometimes they would stop and a girl would be taken, other times they just kept riding along.

On that agonizingly slow ride, she got to know a bit of the other girls. But of all of them, Noriko, a girl who recently graduated high school and was waiting to take the entrance exam to her first college of choice, was the one she got to know the most.

Each one told a similar story to how they ended up in this mess; they saw someone wandering about in Ginza and were dragged back to wherever here was kicking and screaming.

And while not as good as Noriko, Maki even managed to pick up on some of the words the men were speaking. Bitch. Whore. Slave. While very little of it was pleasant, she did learn some less vile phrases.

Eventually, after more and more of them were dragged off somewhere, only five of them were left. The last 'pure' women left from the looks of it. They were carted into some massive city and herded into a dark cellar/sex dungeon thing with a vicious looking man staring at them like they were fresh pieces of meat. A genuine bunny woman stood beside him, a collar around her neck and bruises across her scantily clad body.

She had read enough dojinshi to know where this was going.

Maki almost pissed herself as the man grabbed her chin and looked her in the eye. Soon enough, he let go of her and grabbed Noriko to her side. Dragging the girl away, he bellowed some order to his goons who dragged Maki in a separate direction. Soon enough, she was thrown into yet another wagon to be taken elsewhere.

Being escorted out alone did bring up a few horrific scenarios in her head. For the whole rest of the cart ride, she tried to keep herself calm.

The first thing she noticed was the recolored banner she was used to seeing. Rather than a light purple dragon-thing on a darker purple background, this one was a black dragon on a crimson red background. Not that she knew the color change had any significance.

Rushing to the wagon was an older looking woman who sported a maid outfit. She and the man conversed with one another in such fast quips that Maki couldn't keep track. She wished she knew what they were saying.

"Is she a mute, why isn't she replying to me?"

"Not mute, just dumb. Doesn't understand a lick of Saderan. A barbarian through and through."

Maki really wished she could understand what they were saying.

"Then what tongue does she speak?"

"Don't know, the others spoke some nonsensical moonspeak. Anyway, she's your problem now," he pushed her into the woman, though rather than let her fall, the maid caught her.

"Wait just a moment!" Despite the raised voice, Maki could tell she wasn't the one being scolded. Actually, the tone reminded the teen of her old homeroom teacher when she found out some boys were cheating on their tests. "You can't just come to a royal's estate, unannounced might I add, and just toss a random slave at my feet and leave it at that. Ignoring her highnesses own aversion to the trade, there are safety concerns to take into account for brining a random slave into the service of a royal."

"She's docile enough. Watch." Maki reflexively flinched into the woman as the man raised his hand to hit her, though the blow never came. "See? Docile. If she does act out, just give her a few wallops and that should be enough. Work well enough for the others."

"Others? How many others are there? Are more coming to the estate?"

"Look lady, I'm just a messenger. I'm not privy to Prince Zorzal's inventory," he sounded exasperated as he got back on his wagon. "As for others, I don't know. A dozen? More? All I know is that most of the ones from her group are already on the market. His highness kept a bunch for himself and is kicking one over to her highness. If her highness wants to know more, she can take it up with the prince."

With a crack of the reins, the wagon sped back to the city, leaving the teen with just the maid.

After muttering something to herself, the maid led Maki into the estate by her hand.

The place looked really fancy. Maki was pretty sure the living room was larger than some apartments in Tokyo, not that such a feat was hard…

Still, as she was led around, the first maid calling over another pair to tell them something, probably about her arrival, Maki looked out one of the stained windows. Outside, under the shade of what looked like a gazebo, was a bunch of kids.

A blonde, a red head, a brunette with twin tails, and a darker skinned girl with slightly tipped ears, were all sat around a table covered in all manner of snacks and desserts. Off in the distance was a white-haired rabbit girl who looked like a younger version of the one from before, seemingly doing her best to ignore the other three.

None of them looked that old, twelve or thirteen thereabout, the exception being the bunny-eared girl who appeared to be a year younger than Maki herself.

Was this place some kind of… clubhouse for noble girls? The answer seemed to be yes, as she was led down to a basement to see what sort of maid outfit would fit her.

As a new pair of girls talked and playfully bickered amongst one another over different maid outfits (one of whom had wolf ears) she realized that this place has none of the vileness of that other guy's sex dungeon. Honestly, ignoring the language barrier and centuries behind technology, this almost feels like the time Maki took a part time job at a maid café and her coworkers were trying to figure out which outfit suited her the most. Of course, ignoring the collar around her throat.

But, as she felt the pair press an outfit into her frame and moved the mirror over to see her reflection in the clothes, Maki supposed this wasn't the worst outcome for the time being.

As opposed to being a sex slave, being a maid was absolutely something Maki could deal with for now.

----
----

"It's time."

General Pertus Zu Kobalt sighed to breathe out some of the nervous energy swirling in his belly. Arms held up, he waited as the servants to finish assisting him in donning his armor. A suit of armor that was enchanted with protective wards to such an extreme extent that Pertus doubted even a dragon could bite through it. Beyond expensive though, horrifically so.

Yet one cannot naysay the results. In his last tour in the colonies, he took the full brunt of a lizardman's bone club, a weapon ribbed with teeth capable of ripping apart plate like a hot knife through butter, with only the faintest of scratches to show for it. Bolts bounced off and blades broke against it. More times that he can count has his armor protected him. Gods be good, it'll keep him safe in this new land.

While the mages and magicians busied themselves with building the thing, he passed his time with organizing his forces and preparing for every contingency.

The hill was now ringed by a dozen bastions with interlocking walls connecting one to another. Siege engines of all sorts; ballista, scorpions, catapults, of all shapes and sizes were maintained and readied for use at a moment's notice. A venerable tent city sprawled out from beyond the bastion's curtain walls. Not his preferred choice, but once the first legions were through, there should be room enough for the forces left behind to guard the hill in the bastions.

The force entrusted to him by the Emperor was beyond comparison. Ten legions, over a dozen axillary units, scores of wyvern riders, cataphracts, knights and other mounted forces, an entire cohort of battle mages. With so much power, he could lay waste to a barbarian horde of a million men!

Out of the corner of his eye, he spied the last thing to be constructed. A single stone road, leading directly to the newly finished Gate. Said structure hummed with activity as mages of all sorts channeled their energies into it to give the doorway power. To anchor the portal to it so his forces may march forth and conquer.

"Prepared to make history, General?" Appearing to his side, Count Colt Formal had a stride usually found in those decades his junior. The count of Italica, flanked by his retinue, was adorned in his own finest armor. While a far cry from the General's own, it was still a piece of master crafted metalwork.

"As much as one can be, my Lord," Pertus replied. "Are your forces ready to march?"

"Ready as they can be," the Count laughed at the reputation of the phrase. "Though I do admit that some of my shaking is not from old age."

"Fair enough," he laughed in turn, a tap on the shoulder by the mage beside him cut his conversation short. "Apologies my Lord, but I must see to the men and ready them for the day ahead."

"Don't let me keep you then General," with a stern nod, the count wandered off with his retinue.

The mage to his side led him up an elevated platform. Before him stood the three legions who would accompany him through the Gate as the vanguard. The 41st, the 42nd, and the 49th were all veterans of one conflict or another, be it a Korinthean raid, servile revolts, or even an attempted rebellion. Their standards stood tall, their banners fluttering in the wind. The demi-human auxiliaries stood off to the side, as befitted their station.

"Now," Pertus ordered the mage beside him. Nodding, the wizard cast a spell over him and the area around him. Raising one hand, Pertus waited for the voices to simmer down.

Now was the time to fan the flames in their hearts and exalt the righteousness of their cause.

"Today, you make history!" The mage's magic projected his voice far and wide, even the tents and bastions that lay beyond could hear him. "Today, you noble sons of Sadera shall go forth and conquer a new land. This has been done a thousand times before, and shall be done thousands of times after you!"

A deafening cheer roared from the men, they bayed and cawed for war.

"The barbarians we shall soon face will be taught the truth that has long been taught to the tribes of Falmart," he continued over their calls for blood, growing louder by the second. "Should they ignore this simple truth, we shall be the teachers they so clearly need. With sword, fire, and whip we shall explain this truth to them again and again. As many times as it needs to be said until they know no other truth but ours. The truth that the Empire is supreme above all others!"

As the energy of the legionaries grew more ravenous, a subtle nod from the mage beside him was cue he needed to know that the Gate was now fully functional.

In one fluid motion, he swung his sword to the Gate that now sat atop Alnus Hill. "Now, go forth brave sons of Sadera, go forth and conquer! And the name of the all Gods, and the glorious Emperor we all swear fealty to, go forth and bring these virgin lands to heel!"

With a single rapturous cry, his forces began their march. Lines of troops, cavalry, wyvern riders, demi-humans, all walked the stone path to the Gate. Cheers echoed from the bastions and camps around them, wishing their brothers and fellows well in the battle to come.

His task done, Pertus mounted his own steed to join the columns. His mount, whose brown coat took on a red hue in the sunlight, was joined by the Count's own white mare and the assorted steeds of their retinues.

"I envy you, General," the Count confided, riding beside him.

"How so?"

"We're about to go further than any man before us has ever gone and you look as calm as a pool of water."

Pertus snorted at the comment, "I'm certainly glad I look so."

Crossing the threshold of the great Gate, the bright sunlight giving way to only torchlight, he made a silent vow to all the Gods.

Either he would take these lands in the name of the Empire, or these lands would take him.

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"And when he had opened the second seal, I heard the second beast say, Come and see.

"And there went out another horse that was red: and power was given to him that sat thereon to take peace from the earth, and that they should kill one another…"

Book of Revelations, Second Seal of the Apocalypse