Dawn of War

The Kings Armored Infantry have just received a new batch of armors and weapons. The newly conscripted soldiers are unloading carriages that contains the latest shipment into the armory grounds.

"Easy on those armors, we wouldn't want the King to think were sending used equipment because of dents and scratches during transport!" a young man man said as he was recording the number of items being unloaded on a scroll.

"You should try to ease up yourself, Zheng Ping... I don't think the King would frown about a little bump here and there. The soldiers wouldn't mind it at all." The armory keeper was patting Zheng Ping's shoulder as he said this.

"Sorry, Captain Orbus, I just don't want to mess up this delivery. You do know that even if there had been a lot of shipments for these stuff lately, we shipping groups have been at each other's necks on a bidding war for these jobs." Zheng Ping said

"I heard your shipping group is part of the guild that had been dominating the different fields of businesses in the Kingdom of Sylvannas for the past year?" Captain Orbus asked

"Where did you get that information? Our shipping group only has ties to some the larger group... Where I am from, we call it as "sister companies" or you can think of it as a business group owned by like-minded people." Zheng Ping answered

"Well, that does seem to sound very different, before your groups appeared here in Sylvannas, the King owns the majority of businessess and only a few groups of wandering merchants passess by and pays taxes for sales and services, but when your lot started appearing. It was a bit more easier for the Kingdom to flourish and progress forward." Captain Orbus stated.

"Well, where I'm from, Guilds, Groups, the people and Business Owners have a say when it comes to the direction and policies of our Kingdoms." Zheng Ping added

"I see, you might better keep that language to yourself, I think our King and the nobles are not that ready for these kinds of thoughts." Captain Orbus said

"After this, let's have a round of drinks at the pub, what say you?" Zheng Ping asked

"Now you're speaking my kind of language! Ha Ha Ha Ha!" Captian Orbus nodded in glee as he heard his invite.

As the two were chatting on the armory grounds, Queen Mirlana is overlooking the armory grounds at one of the Castle Wings as she spoke to her lady in waiting.

"Elyana, while I was away, how many shipments from the blacksmiths guild have been delivered?"

"You majesty, including this batch, we have now procured 9,754 armor sets and assorted weaponry." Elyana answered as she looked at the parchment in her hands.

"That's good, that should be more than enough to arm our 10,000 additional soldiers." Queen Mirlana

The Kingdom of Mirlana currently has a total manpower of 24,000+ active soldiers that are scattered all through out the kingdom. If we would need to add the other kingdoms on their call for arms against the royal demonkind.

They should have a manpower of 840,000+ soldiers that could provide assistance plus around 200,000+ from the 3 immortal foreigners kingdoms, that would already include the players and the original armies.

"Your majesty... If I may ask, do you trust the immortal foreigners?" Elyana asked

"Not really, however, If they don't, then any resources would end up with the royal demonkind. We just need to ensure that they are kept in check... Although I am worried for our future generation and my son's lineage." Queen Mirlana stated.

"My Queen, Aren't you worried that they'll use this opportunity to wipe out all kingdoms in the process?" Elyana asked further

"They wouldn't do that just yet, aside from their much needed "crystal cores" to ensure that their bodies can be reused. Besides, they may have yet to find out that it would be far more beneficial for them to assist in fighting the royal demons due to their higher tier "crystal cores"." Queen Mirlana added.

"Are you still dabbling on the forbidden arts my Queen?" Elyana asked repectfully

"Yes, I'm still trying to find a way to ensure that what I have started, would provide another way for our people to escape an inevitable fate from the hands of the immortal foreigners... Besides, its by my knowledge that gave them the ability to harness the cores, I believe I should be able to create another one that could ensure that it would keep them out permanently..." Queen Mirlana answered in a resolute tone while looking coldly at Zheng Ping.

"By the way, how is it going with the seige weapons and catapults that we have requested from the Crafters guild?" The Queen asked

"We should be expecting it the day after next my Queen." Elyana answered.

"I just hope our preparations this time would be enough... I only hope, they have enough perseverance like us and learn from experience, only by tasting defeat first hand, that the immortal foreigners would understand why we fear the royal demonkind so much." Queen Mirlana prattled off as she signaled Elyana to follow her as they move to another area of the castle.

.....

In a far off ocean cove, the sea was slowly churning against the rocks and sand. A group of well-armed and armored red skinned demons are looking at the waters.

In front, their leader seemed to be holding a shining blue crystal orb the size of a fist.

Their leader seemd to chant a few words and then glowed in a purple aura as it channeled it to the orb. Once the aura engulfed the orb. It slowly turned red.

After which, the orb floated in the air and then started zooming out to the sea, where ever it passed through, the sea started to part and leave behind a large gap where no water could pass. The sea creatures that it ended passing through were killed. The Orb continued to move at a fast and ever increasing speed.

After this scene, the demons started to make camp at the borders of the Ocean cove seemingly waiting for something.

This whole event has been observed by a group of ten human scouts as they slowly retreated. The scout leader whispered as he addressed his team.

"The nine of us will head towards the nearest kingdom to provide this information, Luran, you shall stay here and act as our backup plan in case anything goes wrong."

The young man named Luran nodded as he said "Captain Urdana, May the Gods of the old world guide you..."

"Luran, you should try to keep up with modern times, the Gods have long forgotten us since the first of the Royal Demonkind stepped foot on our Elkadi Empire, they did not even bless us during the arrival of the immortal foreigners... We can only persevere and keep surviving through the times." Captain Urdana stated

"If not by faith, what else do we hang on to in these dark times?" Luran asked

Captain Urdana sighed and then told everyone to retreat as they left Luran in their hiding place.

After a few feet from mounting their Malacks they galloped into the wilderness, suddenly a yellow beam of light shoot through the sky northeast from where they were.

The leader of the scouts, Captain Urdana then shouted.

"Scatter like the wind, Inform the Kingdom Alliance that the Royal Demonkind is coming!" after saying this the leader headed back to the cove in hopes of distracting the Royal Demonkind

Meanwhile, the other scouts started running off to different directions in hopes of avoiding an impending doom. Their information would provide invaluable information to the Kingdom Alliance.

In less than a few breaths though, they saw an armored Royal Demonkind in each of their individual paths. Each scout started to engage by galloping forward to their inevitable deaths. After they started charging though, the armored Royal Demonkinds in frot of them, disappeared.

Their Malacks have yet to move a few feet forward when they saw their Malacks beheaded and their visions of falling off from their steed.

The last image they saw were the headless Malachs while their bodies were still mounted as their upper bodies dropped to the ground. It seemed the Royal Demonkind cut through them including their mounts.

When Luran saw the yellow beam of light, he knew that he was the only one left. There were supposedly 10 mounts, however due to his carelessness, his mount ended up falling into a ravine as they made their way to the cove.

He thought it may be a bad omen back then, But it seemed to be more of a blessing now, as it ended up with no possible traces that would indicate there were actually ten scouts instead of nine that just left. He knew it was to early to act and he thought to pass the time, he still had a few rations left in his pack and he decided to pass the day and wait until dusk.

Though he knew that darkness does not really help in the eyes of the Royal Demonkind, at the very least it could offer him comfort during his escape and evasion.

As the dusk set, Luran started crawling out of the hiding place and started his slow progress of leaving the area. It seemed that the Ancient Gods are still providing him assistance as he moved in the undergrowth. Although he moved slowly, it didn't seem that he would be discovered at all.

It took Luran a total of three days to crawl his way out of the wilderness until he reached the plains. From there, he started his slow trek towards the nearest Kingdom. He carefully rationed his supply while he would scavenge for fruits if he encountered them and hunt small game if he met some using his bow and arrow.

On the fifth day, Luran was glad that he stumbled upon a Caravan on camp and approached them for assistance. He gave them a few Selas in exchange for a ride.

It took the caravan three days before they reached the nearest city under the Kingdom of Ethralia. He went to the Royal Palace to provide information before asking for assistance on getting back to the alliance.

In less than seven days at the main city of the Kingdom of Ethralia. A meeting had been held in the War room.

"Your Majesty-"

"I believe that I already mentioned that I don't like being addressed as that... Just call me the way my other subordinates do."

"Y-yes, G-general Mu Zheng... Just as you came from La Hazar Kingdom, a scout came by to inform us about sightings of the Royal Demonkind and-"

"Demasi, I have been informed by my men since the guy dropped by on that day. Tell me something I don't know... what about the status of our Army?"

"I-I'm sorry General, I forgot that your race has the ability to communicate when sleeping... The Army of Ethralia has been fully equipped as per your initial commands. They are waiting for deployment..." Demasi replied

"Good. What's the final count of the Ethralian army?" General Mu Zheng asked

"Our last count is 37,543 armored soldiers, 5420, ballista and 8320 catapults, From your race, we have confirmed a total of 127,843 mercenaries that are ready for deployment." Demasi added

"I see, we will depart as soon as possible, ready the men... I'll already asked a few mercenary guilds to scout seven days ago and be the vanguard. Our mercenaries will be at the front and just keep the royal army at the back, we'll leave behind around 10,000 armored soldiers... Although I haven't fought the Royal Demonkind yet, I want to ensure that at least all the citizens could be evacuated in case the worst possible outcome happens... Your men would have to listen to Captain Mirkos, I'll leave him and his units here to provide updates on the battle field." General Mu Zheng ordered

"Yes General! I wish for your success!" Demasi replied as he bowed and exit

After Demasi left, only the General was left with his Majors.

"General, do you think with that much manpower, we still wouldn't win against the royal demons?" a woman asked.

"Serlinas, you should try to read the lore a bit more... The ancient books of the Elkadi Empire indicated that they had millions of soldiers before... and yet they were still pushed back up to the Kingdom of Sylvannas' Desert before they found a way to defeat the Ratu Al Draka... And those were only fodder for the royal demonkind..." a man answered

"I agree with Davis, from the last information that we gathered from the Sylvannas Kingdom, the last Ratu Al Draka were killed by the "Avalanche Duo", and this was a dying one who gave birth. Although were not sure if that young Ratu Al Draka has lived on or waseventually killed by the two. The Game Masters had reported that the player named Zhang Shan, has exhibited uncanny regeneration abilities that was similar to what the ancient Ratu Al Draka are capable of and he's already using a Royal Demon as an Avatar..." another woman answered

"Leslie, do you mean to say that the Royal Demonkind may be more powerful than expected?" Serlinas asked

"Possibly, all I'm saying is, If Zhang Shan can fight and survive against 9 Gods of the Pantheon, think about how strong and outmatched we might be even with all the upgrades we have received from the Genes of "Royal One"." Leslie Answered

"What about you Davis, what do you think could happen?" General Mu Zheng asked

"From the Ancient books, it did indicate that the Royal Demonkind first brought the Ratu Al Draka to destroy the Kingdoms but seemed to have settled in the ruined kingdoms instead of pushing forward. It was the Ratu Al Draka that went further due to their nature. The Ancient books seemed to have removed the details of what happened to the ruined Kingdoms but it indicated that they did fight back with the help of their champions..."

"It was only after a century long war when they were able to push back the Royal Demonkind back to the seas... It was also the first mention about the assistance of the "Time Mages" It was said that the "Grand Time Mage" was the one that fought off with the Leader of the Royal Demonkind which caused the war to enter it's last phase..."

"I'm thinking we may be fighting a long bitter war if that's the case, If we had the "Time Mage", we can possibly identify how defeat the Royal Demonkind, the problem is... as per the Game Masters, the last of it's lineage was also discovered by a player, unfortunately that mage ended up being an ally of Zhang Shan... I was told it was in fact the Snow Queen was actually the "Time Mage"... Unless we can seek Zhang Shan and the "Time Mage's" assistance, we may be forced to retreat a little further into the center of the continent..." Davis finished his assumptions

"I see, then most likely we still have a shot as long as we can find and capture Zhang Shan and the Time Mage?" General Mu Zheng asked as he contemplated

"Yes, isn't that why you sent Scarlette and her unit to ensure his capture?" Davis asked

"I initially only wanted them captured as requested by Vice-chief Liu, I didn't really know it could also possibly turn the tide of war..." General Mu Zheng said

"In that case, if we do lose this war, then should we put our efforts in finding the two?" Serlinas asked

Suddenly the doors of the War Room opened

"General Mu Zheng, Sir, I have important news from the forums coming from the Advance scout parties..." the armored man saluted as he stepped in

"Report, Major Valdez ." General Mu Zheng answered

"First members of the Floating Palace guild had located the cove and found the encampment of the Royal Demonkind..." Major Valdez answered

"That's good... and?" General Mu Zheng asked

Major Valdez paused and then continued "When they saw it they were attacked from the back and were completely wiped out...."