Chapter 155: A Ladder and Shield

 

Arias sat down on a nearby piece of debris and he wearily took off his helmet. He dumped the helmet at his feet unceremoniously and with a complete disregard for protocol. Honestly, he was too tired to care. After the Maleficence Fiends retreated back underground the Vampires teleported in another mass of undead right into the fortress. This was another surprise attack and after defeating that one the Vampires sent another one and then another and another.

After the fourth attack the magic barrier came up and the Vampires could no longer send in any  more undead surprises. Arias couldn’t help but admire the shrewdness of the Vampires. The logic for this turn of events was rather straightforward. If you left the barrier down your soldiers won’t be getting any sleep. No matter how good your soldiers were if they were completely and utterly exhausted they wouldn't do much good in a fight.

So the Zariman Count had two choices: he could burn his remaining ether reserves just to let his soldiers sleep or preserve his ether stores and greatly reduce the effectiveness of his army. Honestly, it was a rather clever move using nothing but chaff to force the defenders to expend one of their precious resources.

Arias himself had just finished his shift of dragging the corpses into piles so that they can be burned and he was honestly exhausted. He could barely feel his arms and from what he could tell he needed to speak to a black smith to get his sword replaced after the chaos of the battle. Another annoying thing about the undead was that you couldn’t go for vitals so you needed to cleave through bone. This ruined blades over time which was just another way for the Vampires to win in their battle of attrition.

Then Arias spotted a water skin in his cone of vision. He looked up to see a blue-scaled lizardkin male. 

“Here drink up.” the lizardkin said.

“Thanks, Skavi right?” Arias said as he took the water skin and took a grateful swig. He never thought he would ever be too tired to take a drink when he was deathly thirsty.

“Yes, you mentioned your name was Arias.” Skavi said as he took a seat next to Arias.

“Yeah, nice fighting by the way. That last raid was really messy. The vampires seemed to know that we were about to close the barrier so they decided to take one last swing at us.” Arias said wearily.

“That trick just now, it saved my skin. Could you always do that?” Skavi asked as he referenced this ability he suddenly got in the middle of a fight. Arias thought back to the moment where Skavi was about to get hacked to pieces by a pair of zombies when Arias suddenly got this nagging feeling in the back of his mind. He instinctively swung his blade and a red flame that was tinged black consumed his blade. With a single swing of his blade he reduced one of the zombies to ash and another quick swing later the other zombie was dust in the wind.

“No, I just somehow knew how to do it at the moment.” Arias frowned as he looked down at his sword. Funnily enough his sword wasn’t damaged at all from the flames, all the damage came from the flesh and bone of the zombies.

“Huh, that must be the adventurer thing.” Skavi said as he referred to how adventurers sometimes learned spells and abilities on the fly in life or death situations.

“You think so?” Arias asked.

“Probably, I mean zombies definitely count as monsters.” Skavi replied with a shrug.

“I guess.” Arias said with a nod and furrowed brow. Still that red and black flame unnerved him slightly. That power seemed strange, it gave him this explicable sense of dread when he used it. 

 

Those who walks with death, lives with it

 

A serene voice suddenly said. The pair of them turned around to see a Istland Knight Enchanter staring at them. Next to the was none other than Arias’s Captain, Knight Enchanter Alexa. The Knight Enchanter that spoke however had the markings of a Praetor, which was a much higher rank than the rank of Captain. The rank of Praetor was the second highest rank within the Istland Knight Enchanters, they were second only to the Lord Knight Enchanter. The Praetor was a man in his later thirties, with a head of curly brown hair and eyes black like obsidian. If it wasn’t for his garb he would look just like a well built Elysian. His features were about as plain as they get, he would blend seamlessly into a crowd.

There was only one Praetor in the advanced party, and that man was Praetor Nasher Giovan. He was also coincidentally the commander of his Regiment.

“Praetor Nasher.” Arias said as he scrambled to his feet and gave him a crisp salute.

“This is the one?” Praetor Nasher asked calmly, his eyes cold and calculating.

“Yes Praetor.” Captain Alexa responded with a curt nod.

“Come Corporal Arias, I need a word.” Praetor Nasher said and Arias mutely saluted. Arias gave Skavi one last nod before scooping up his helmet and following after Praetor Nasher.

“From what I heard you know about the adventurer process?” Praetor Nasher said his gravelly voice echoing out into the eerily calm night. 

“Yes sir. I know some of it, I got to know some adventurers during the long camp on the border.” Arias replied as they walked towards the citadel.

“What you said was the gist of it. The specifics is the way that ether interacts with living creatures. Our bodies are sponges and the environment around us influence the way we develop our abilities. There are differences in natural abilities but the adventurers are on average more powerful than your average line soldier. This lends to the belief that nurture matters more than nature.” Praetor Nasher said as the pair began to ascend the stairs towards the towering citadel.

“Within everyone is an ether core, every person and every race has different sized ether cores. Think of your core as a container that stores ether. Some are born with a cup and others are born with oceans.” Praetor Nasher said.

“Like the ancients.” Arias replied and Praetor Nasher gave him a subtle nod in response.

“Exactly, but ether is not a stable thing. It can be tinged by the environment or by individuals. The very same ether can be turned into a ball of water or a fireball and each creation changes the ether around the formation. That is how the ancients managed to change the entire biome of the region. Did you know the Azur Sea was the site of a great battle? One of the ancient devourers fought their last battle there and the aftermath of that battle carved a gash into the continent. Not only that, the attack left the water tainted with its ancient magic.” Praetor Nash said and Arias furrowed his brows at the revelation.

“Is that even possible?” Arias asked.

“There is a reason why the older literature refers to them as the Old Gods.” Praetor Nasher replied calmly.

“On the topic of reasons why. If I may, sir, what did you want to speak about?” Arias asked just as they reached the top of the stairs and he noticed that there was a small collection of soldiers milling about.

“You have next to no combat experience before today from what I heard. You merely managed to survive thanks to dumb luck during the first clash with the Hive.” Praetor Nasher stated, ignoring Arias’s question.

“More or less.” Arias admitted, no shame in running from the Great Beasts hive, everyone knew that. 

“So why did you get selected for this unit?” Praetor Nasher asked and Arias paused at those words. He knew the official reason, the whole familiarity with terror and also how combat experience against humans doesn't mean much against zombies. But yet something about that explanation seemed a bit too simple to Arias.

“The Empress has a mind like a maze and she wanted to see if we could induce new abilities in soldiers. There is that and… other theories.” Praetor Nasher said as the two of them finally reached the Citadel’s courtyard.

“Other theories?” Arias asked as they finally stopped at the group.

“Tell me Corporal, isn't it easier to paint with a blank canvas?” Praetor Nasher said and it was then that Arias realised two dozen or so soldiers here all looked young and inexperienced.

“Adventurers have a class system for a reason, once an individual starts down a path they tend to stick to it mostly. This especially true for the kind of abilities that appear naturally as compared to those that are trained in. 

So what if…” Praetor Nasher said but Arias realised what he was trying to say.

“You can control this natural path… natural abilities are also called unique abilities. They are more powerful than the run of the mill ones you learn from manuals and tomes.” Arias said as it started to click.

“Huh, you know far more than I expected.” Praetor Nasher said with a wry grin.

“But yes that is essentially the idea. So first things first get in line.” Praetor Nasher said. Just as he finished saying that the other Regiment’s commander, a Warden barked the harshest order to form up he had ever heard. 

Arias instantly ran forward and the rest of the soldiers instantly began lining up in a single file. At that moment Arias was once again reminded of how much military training can make you move without thinking.

 

PRESENT ARMS!

 

The Warden shouted, his voice bouncing off the walls of the citadel producing a slight echo. Instantly the entire line drew their weapons. Arias could see more than a little discomfort at the state of their weapons. They had just ended the battle and he would bet his right arm none of them had the time to fix up their ruined swords. In training a poorly maintained blade meant latrine duty and their weekend passes being revoked.

“Now, all of you should be able to manifest the ability you just obtained in the wake of the battle. I want you to channel those abilities.” the Warden commanded and Arias tapped turned his mind eye inwards and tried to remember the feeling he felt when he first produced those dark flames.

It didn’t take long before his blade ignited with that same black tinged red flame. Arias looked around him and saw some of them were having trouble manifesting their abilities but most of the soldiers managed to do it.

All of them had an ability that enchanted their weapon somehow. But from what Arias has heard this was normal, a basic enchantment was the most common type of starting ability. 

Funnily enough although the abilities were different there was a clear difference dividing them into two groups. Some were like him with dark looking abilities while others had radiant gold coloured abilities.

Then he saw the remaining soldiers activate their abilities after some trouble. The rest of them all followed the same pattern of some being dark and some being gold.

“Now divide yourself, those with the dark coloured abilities on my left and those with gold on my right.” Praetor Nasher commanded and instantly there was this awkward shuffle as all the soldiers moved to organise themselves.

“Now then, a simple question. Who here is a devout follower of the Church or Order? Raise your hands if you are.” Praetor Nasher asked and then Arias noticed that all the ones that raised their hands had golden abilities. Yet some of those with gold abilities did not raise their hands.

“Now who fully believes in the teachings of the Church to be correct.” Praetor Nasher asked and this time the hands raised were spread amongst the group. Arias didn’t raise his hand since although he did think that the teachings of the Church had merit, he did not believe everything it said was right. Although this time everyone in the gold group raised their hands with some in the dark group.

“Now then who has lost people close to them or felt the sting of betrayal? This event must have greatly affected you and changed your life dramatically.” Praetor Nasher said and this time everyone raised their hands. Arias saw the Praetor Nasher smile.

“There it is, from suffering tints the soul just like anything else.” Praetor Nasher said.

“I am sure all of you are wondering why we are asking this question. It is simply academic curiosity but it also tests all of you. Not many of you know this but adventurer squads tend to become more powerful when they lose teammates. 

You can say this is the law of this world. Suffering and failure is the mother of strength. Comfort breeds weakness. That is the way of the world and it manifests even here.” Praetor Nasher said as he scanned the group.

“Your loss makes you strong, and so we have a proposition for you.” Praetor Nasher said and by now he had everyone’s rapt attention.

“The Empress knows that sallow mortal flesh is not enough to resist the horrors of this world. The average soldiers will soon become nothing but chaff before the wind. Or at least that is what will happen if we do nothing.

All of you remember the war that was fought not so long ago between Tralis and Elysia. Who won? Do you remember?” Praetor Nasher asked as she narrowed her eyes.

“Elysia?” one of the soldiers said nervously.

“NO!” Praetor Nasher shouted and the entire line flinched.

“Not exactly.” Praetor Nasher said much more calmly and the entire line relaxed.

“Elysia didn’t win the war, Elysia got handed favourable terms of the new peace that was won by the Great Beast.” Praetor Nasher said as he started to pace the line.

Arias watched him out of the corner of his eyes and he saw him walk the line until he finally stopped right in front of him.

“What do you think a military does when something like this happens?” Praetor Nasher said with an even look.

Arias ran the possibilities through his mind and he came to a single conclusion. It would be exactly what he would do.

“You tried to find a way to fight the Hive. As a contingency plan.” Arias replied.

“Exactly, so the top leaders and researchers in Istland worked with the Wardens to form a special committee. We scoured the archives to find a way that we could reliably counter the power of the hive. However, despite our best efforts we found ourselves barely more prepared than when we started.

Then just when we were about to attempt to look abroad for additional information we were all called the Empress’s throne room. We thought the jig was up and we were all about to be executed for treason. We debated if we should flee but that would leave our troops open to potential persecution. So we decided to answer the summons to attempt to shoulder the blame. But when we arrived we saw something rather peculiar.” Praetor Nasher said as he turned away from Arias and walked away from the line. He walked over to the other two Regiment Commanders before crisply turning to face the line.

“The Empress was smiling, the Great Beast was smiling as well. They both looked… pleased… very pleased…” Praetor Nasher said thoughtfully as he looked up to the pitch black sky.

“The first words that were said to us were simple ‘well done’. The Empress was pleased with us, very pleased. She told us she was glad we were not blind sheep and that sheep had no place at the head of what will one day be the greatest army in the world.

In hindsight our actions were so thoroughly predictable it’s almost embarrassing. But either way the Empress knew our every move from the moment we started out. 

Do you know what she did next? She gave us ancient books and tomes, books older than anything I have ever seen. These were exactly the things we needed to come up with a plan to resist the Hives. There were even past strategies that were effective against Hives.” Praetor Nasher said with a wry smile.

“Then the Great Beast spoke, he told us that if we wanted to come for his head then we better make that first strike count. Because if it ever comes to that, its winner takes all.” Praetor Nasher said as he shook his head.

“He wanted wolves, not sheep. So he offered us fangs…” Praetor Nasher said, his gaze far away and filled with introspection. 

“So I offer all of you the same thing. As you are, you cannot defend anything. There are many forgotten horrors in the world. After reading the tomes were were given we simply scrapped the idea of resisting the Great Beast. As you have witnessed today, the Great Beast does not easily reveal his cards. Those creatures you saw that decimated those skeletal wyverns are probably not even the strongest beasts that the Great Beast has at his disposal.” Praetor Nasher said. 

At those words suddenly Arias saw past the giant archway of the citadel and saw the exterior of the wall suddenly light up with an orange glow. They must finally be burning the piled up bodies beyond the wall. The fortress suddenly looked like it was surrounded by a halo of orange flame.

“We are offering all of you a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to be more than you ever could be on your own. If you should accept our offer, then you will be trained to be part of an elite unit. In two years you will be more powerful than most adventurers. But be warned this road is not an easy one to tread. 

With this training, you will be able to play a greater role in defending all that you hold dear. The world is becoming more dangerous with each passing day. 

Soon our empire will share a border with the Ancient Elves and the Daemon kin in Umbara. The Naga roil in the seas, they have turned their blades towards Ostaya and now the Ostayans are facing extinction. The north has been torn apart in a war between the Syndicate and the forces of Heaven. Daemonic presence has risen all across the world and intelligence reports indicate Succubi have been spotted in Divonia. 

I do not know what the future will bring but I doubt it will be peaceful. If you wish to make a world where your children will be safe and happy then this is your chance.” Praetor Nasher said and Arias noticed that all the soldiers were getting rather fired up. 

“You can play a pivotal role in creating the greatest empire this world has ever seen. The Empress has high hopes for those who accept. She has made it very clear what her stance is. 

Let any nation or race know, whether it wishes us good or ill, that we shall pay any price, bear any burden that would be required of us. All of this we shall do to secure the success and prosperity of our people.

For those that wish to grasp their fate with their own hands. For those that will willingly grasp the fire so that they may shield those behind them from the searing heat, step forward. But before you do remember this. The Great Beast left a word of warning at our last meeting…” Praetor Nasher said as his gaze turned to steel.

 

If you wish to build a new world it will be worth its weight in corpses

Mountains of corpses…

Rivers of blood…