Chapter 147: Shadow over the Sands

Count Uxtual gazed over the wall of his fortress. His forces have been bolstered with whatever remaining Zariman troops he could scrounge up. As far as he knows almost every available soldier has been called up to the front. Most cities were just left with a skeleton crew of guards to protect it. Count Uxtual was now the leader of the council of four which now held the power of rule over the Zariman desert. From what he has been told the other two splinter states of Zarima have handed over sovereignty to Varakrima. There was no more Varakrima, no more Zurkrima, no more Karukrima, now there was only Zarima. 

His own false emperor was dragged out of bed by the warrior priests and beheaded. The coup was clean and mostly bloodless. The only blood that was shed was royal blood, the royal house was exterminated, no one was spared. From the elders to the babies, eggs were smashed, all their heraldry was burned and the names of the bloodline are soon to be burned from the pages of history.

This was called The Scouring, a fate reserved only for traitor bloodlines and a fate that can only be given by the House of War or the Goddess Mahaila herself. In this case both desired a Scouring, so it was determined that this one will be extra thorough. In Zariman law there were several kinds of traitors. There was the unwilling traitor, someone who was forced to betray. The next was the unknowing traitor, someone who was tricked into betrayal. Then there was the willing traitor, someone who knew exactly what they were doing and chose to become a traitor anyway. The final and most vile were the Traitor Bloodlines. The final title was granted to families who consorted to betray the homeland. It was deemed by both the goddess and the warrior priests that the actions of the royal house thus far have shown a blatant disregard for the good of Zarima. Thus it was determined that all that bears royal blood must be eliminated. 

At this very moment the House of Shadows has begun to hunt down the remnants of the royal bloodline. Their assassins scour the sands hunting distant relatives, bastard children and all of their descendants. This taint will be burned from Zarima, there will be no upstarts trying to seize back their false crown. The dragon has awoken and under the guiding hand of their goddess Zarima will rise again. 

Count Uxtual has sent word to the Averlonian Empire requesting aid and granting them safe passage through Zarima. The warrior priests have also sent word to their temples to ensure that the cities and towns afford the Imperial Army every available courtesy. 

Now as Count Uxtual looks over the soldiers drilling he doesn’t see the desperation of condemned men. He sees soldiers that believe that they can win. The Empire has sent word that they are marching towards the front at this very moment. Some reports have come in that the monsters in the Empire’s army made the army extremely fast. They should be here in a few days. The only problem was that the scouts predicted that the dead would reach them first. So Count Uxtual would need to delay the dead alone until the reinforcements arrived.

With moral high and additional reinforcements from Zarima he should be able to hold until the Empire arrives. Although the vampire forces moved slower than the Empire’s army they didn’t need to stop for rest, they could just keep going day and night. The dead do not tire, they do not rest so they just march forward and ever onward. 

So it falls to him to steady the troops and prepare for the onslaught. According to historical records the vampires preferred to attack in waves to slowly grind down the enemy. A large concerted all out assault made their armies vulnerable to offensive magic, so they preferred to drag the battles out. It should make holding out easier. The only worry he has was that if the Vampires somehow manage to raise the monsters of the hive in their service. If that was possible then this war may just end up as a slugging match between ancient creatures. If that happened many of his kin were going to die. A hive has never battled the vampires as far as he knew, so he was about to see something he has never seen before…

As if fate was mocking him to show him something he has never seen before, he suddenly saw the ground in the training ground below him open up a small hole. The entire training yard froze as they watched a white humanoid creature emerge from the hole. Instantly the more veteran soldiers charged towards the hole and surrounded the creature.

“HOLD!” Count Uxtual roared and the soldiers froze as they held their encirclement around the creature. It carried all the tell tale signs of the Great Beast’s hive. A body as white as ivory and in its maw filled with serrated teeth clearly designed to tear flesh. It had a roughly humanoid shape with four arms. The smooth and elongated domed head showed a sensor dome with ample room underneath for brain matter. This was a highly intelligent creature. If biology wasn’t a clear enough indicator, then there was a wide smile on its face.

“Are you a messenger from the Great Beast?” Count Uxtual asked and the beast simply widened its smile.

“This little body is a puppet. I did not send a minion, you are speaking to the master.” the Great Beast replied through the lips of the body. This caught Count Uxtual off guard, of all the abilities he has read about using a proxy body was not one he has heard of. 

“So you are the Great Beast?” Count Uxtual asked cautiously.

“In the borrowed flesh.” the Great Beast replied with a chuckle.

“I assume you are here to speak?” Count Uxtual asked.

“Why yes, shall we?” the Great Beast replied.

“Follow me.” Count Uxtual said curtly and the Great Beast just laughed in response.

“Whats wrong? Let’s just talk here.” the Great Beast said with a wide malicious smile.

“I would rather not, the chain of command demands that information be disseminated in a controlled manner.” Count Uxtual replied evenly.

“As you wish.” the Great Beast replied with a shrug. Count Uxtual narrowed his eyes as he looked at the Great Beast and he couldn’t help but feel he was being tested.

“Not bad, not bad at all.” the Great Beast said as he approached Count Uxtual. The soldiers surrounding him raised their weapons but the Great Beast just kept walking forward. The soldiers following their training raised their spears and blocked his path. The spear points reached the Great Beast’s white body and the points just slid off the smooth surface. 

“Stop, let him through.” Count Uxtual said and one of his soldiers turned to look at him but he was still in the Great Beast’s path.

“You are in the way.” the Great Beast said and with a flick of his wrist the poor soldier was sent flying off the side thanks to some quick silent magic. He went tumbling head over heels into the dirt.

“He will live, I have gotten quite good at ensuring I don’t break one of you by accident.” the Great Beast said and Count Uxtual couldn’t help but feel a thrill of fear go up his spine.

It wasn’t the Great Beast’s strength that disturbed him. Yes his power was concerning, only a fool wouldn’t be bothered by the power of the ancients. What he was disturbed by was what was called the Ancient’s View. It was said that immortality and a long life will twist one’s view of the world. A well known example of this was the affliction that struck the High Elves known as the White Death which was also called the Bleaching. The High Elves were an extremely spiritual people, thus with their long lives they often retreated into their own minds towards the later part of their lives. In reality the High Elves were immortal but still died natural deaths due to the White Death. The retreat into their minds would cause a sedentary lifestyle which would eventually cause them to waste away. 

Some scholars theorise that the body was filled with ether circuits, that was how one could channel magic using their limbs. It was a well known fact that if one lost their right arm, one couldn’t channel magic where the missing arm used to be. Thus they theorise that the long period of that sedentary lifestyle caused the circuits to degrade over time. Since the Elves were a race that was highly dependent on magic this led to their body atrophying. Their body would lose muscle mass, their skin would go so pale it would become almost translucent and their gold hair would turn ghostly white. Hence the name the White Death and the Bleaching.

The years are not kind to humanoids, there was an old saying that time washes humanity from the mind. However, for something like the Great Beast the years create something very different. It creates a view that short term consequences matter little since they have all the time in the world. It wasn’t uncommon for the ancients to just wait for their humanoid rival to grow old before moving in for the kill. Afterall it was extremely cruel and effective, the mortals would waste their short lives hunting only to be killed when they could do nothing. 

The concerning part of the Ancient View was that if short term consequences did not matter, what if the death of a humanoid was under that category? This eventually makes the Ancients view the lesser races as no different from trees or rocks. This analogy was not completely unfounded as well, it was actually a quote from an ancient dragon. The dragon said to a High Elf that she was “as pertinent to him as a tree or a rock but at least trees and rocks were not annoying”.

The way the Great Beast spoke of his soldier betrayed this Ancient View. He said he has gotten quite good at not breaking any of them. A person was injured or killed, you do not break a person, you break objects. 

“So where would it be private enough for your purposes?” the Great Beast said as another creature shimmered into existence and handed the Great Beast a roll of parchment.

Count Uxtual narrowed his eyes at the sight and felt the mocking gaze from the Great Beast. The message was clear, there was no privacy with the Great Beast.

“Why so glum? Do you truly think your secrets were ever safe? Where do you think your little House of Shadows even came from? Why were they created? The reason is simple: their job is to spy and remove unsavoury individuals. No different from my own intelligence forces. You are all always being watched, the only question is by who.” the Great Beast said with a laugh.

“Now then shall we head to your little private place?” the Great Beast asked with a grin.

Count Uxtual gave the Great Beast a look then he turned to look at the soldier that had just been tossed who was groaning on the floor. Some of his men were helping him up and it looks like the toss broke one of his arms. Thankfully a healer should be able to fix it easily. With a small sigh he headed for his command room.

When Count Uxtual reached the command room he turned to see the Great Beast glancing at the map.

Things were not looking good, the border outposts were denoted by the triangles. The black ones were ruins, abandoned due to lack of funds and manpower. The other triangles were still active outposts, in the past these served as external forts but now they just served as bases for scouting. The three main border bastions facing what was known as Gold Wastes in the west. Since there were so many threats to the west, population centres were a great risk to set up.

The two crosses denote that these outposts have fallen. Well fallen was not exactly right, the soldiers spotted the incoming crusade and followed their orders to retreat immediately. They sent a raven ahead of them so Count Uxtual knew the dead were coming.

“Nice map you got there, the dead are here right now.” the Great Beast said as he pointed at a spot on the map and to Count Uxtual’s dismay it appears the dead were making good time towards this bastion.

“Right now my hives are harassing the undead host while we try to slow them down, should buy you the time you need.” the Great Beast said as he held out the piece of parchment.

Count Uxtual unsealed and looked in to see the Empress’s seal on it. Vassalation was a bitter pill to swallow but it was plainly obvious this was prearranged. Usually these talks take months, especially with the kind of terms the council proposed. They were basically only making minor concessions in exchange for the protection of the Empire. The council would hold the powers of an Archduke which would grant Zarima almost complete autonomy. The only catch was some financial and organisational restructuring. But there was this clause that was strange, it stated that both the Empire and Zarima would help each other in any wars. So this entire vassalisation process was just a partial merger of economic practices and a very strong military alliance. 

“Welcome to the Empire. I trust you know what is happening?” the Great Beast said and Count Uxtual gave him a nod as a response.

“We will discuss the finer details once the Empress arrives. For now you should know that the vampires are moving at full speed, they will probably reach you before the Empire's army does. So you will need to hold out until then.” the Great Beast said with a grin.

“And what of your hive? Are they just going to sit and watch?” Count Uxtual asked.

“Well we are not, but you see I don’t just want to beat the Black Crusade back…” the Great Beast said as he leered at Count Uxtual.

I want to make this the last Black Crusade…