Arc#5 Chapter 20: Interception

[Author's Note]

Happy holidays, to you all~!

I only just realized that my posting schedule coincidentally means that I will post a chapter on both Christmas and New Years, which is nice.

Anyway, I have safely made it to Japan. It is justifiably freezing in here. But being a tropical boy, I'm just really hyped about looking out the window and seeing a bunch of snow.

Like, there's just so much. Holy crap. It's beautiful.

Anyway, here is the chapter. There won't be any interruptions even though I'm on vacation. I wrote a backlog, anticipating how little time I'm actually going to have for writing while I'm here.

Everything is fantastic though. The people, the scenery, the everything. Maybe not so much the food, but that's a hundred percent because it just doesn't match my personal preferences. Everyone else seems to love it.

Whoops, look at me ramble. Anyway, here it is~!

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While the news Sir Xander brought was alarming and Reivan wanted to hear the whole thing out immediately, he opted to gather the part of his staff involved in military affairs before doing so.

Even when the sun hadn't risen yet.

'Good thing I still maintain a disciplined routine. Otherwise, Sir Xander would have waited until I woke up. And that would have been a potentially fatal delay.'

Well, realistically speaking, the knight would have informed someone else who would likely be awake at this time—such as Gwen or Jiji, who similarly lived with the disciplined lifestyle of a knight but weren't recently married.

"Right." Reivan looked around the meeting room and nodded. "We're all here. So if you would kindly continue your report, Sir Xander."

Said meeting room was arranged in a way much like a boardroom, except his spot was on an elevated platform away from everyone else's. His chair could have easily been mistaken for a throne too, except a lot more comfortable because of the soft cushions on it.

In his war council was Gwen, naturally. Then there was Jiji, Iselle the darkin princess, and two knights who each represented House Mercer and the Terracatta Clan. Thankfully, the final two were male, so Reivan didn't feel outnumbered by the fairer sex. Helen was also there, but rather than sitting down, she stood adjacent to his seat like some sort of guard.

"Yes, Your High—I mean, Your Excellency." Sir Xander saluted, recovering from the slip of the tongue that nobody would chastise. A lot of people weren't used to the change in addressing Reivan, after all. "As per your orders, I have been roaming Northern Arkhan and absorbing as much information as I can. Just as I was thinking of returning, I noticed large groups of imperial forces gathering and delayed my return."

"And that," Reivan interjected. "Is when you discovered that they were forming a larger army to march southward?"

"Yes, Your Excellency. I don't have the exact number, but I estimate their numbers to be at least five hundred thousand. But lower than seven hundred thousand. When I left, however, more were joining up so even my estimations may be insufficient by the time they arrive in Lageton's vicinity."

The lone darkin in the room sucked in a breath. "F-five hundred thousand...? That's..."

Gwen turned to her in assurance. "Please do not worry, Lady Iselle. This scale is actually normal for the empire. Their population and territory exceed the kingdom's by hundreds of times. Yet we have had no trouble fending them off."

Reivan nodded in agreement but was internally exasperated. This was the first large-scale battle against humans he would ever participate in and the numbers were like this? Wasn't that a little too much?

"If I may?" House Mercer's representative, a dark-haired middle-aged man named Gregory, raised a hand as he glanced in Reivan's direction. Only after the Hierarch gestured in approval did the senior knight voice his query to Sir Xander. "How much of that number is relevant? I'm sure most of them are mundane soldiers. Anyone in this room can exterminate tens of thousands within an hour if uninterrupted, so there is no need to be too alarmed by the size of the army."

'That's a fair question.'

Given enough time, Reivan could also slay a million mundane soldiers under 100 Might single-handedly. He didn't even need to use any large-scale aetherblade arts—just running around and mowing swathes of people down with his remote blades was enough. It would be slower but would cost him practically no energy to use for extended periods.

On that note, five hundred thousand may not be as daunting as it should be.

'My god... This is the world I live in, huh? I look at half a million and disregard anyone without elite strength.'

In response to the question, Sir Xander could only shake his head. "I admit that most of the soldiers I saw were at the level of ordinary people, probably conscripts handed a spear and a sword before getting sent off to war. Only around a hundred thousand were legionaries."

"Legionaries?" Vino—the representative from the Terracatta Clan—spoke up in confusion. He was yet middle-aged man, sporting the lithe but muscular physique of a predator. Just like all the normal Terracatta Clan warbeasts, he had hair the color of clay, which extended to the fur on his tail and the ears atop his head. His stubble, strangely enough, was graying a little.

Gwen had informed Reivan that Vino may have had a bit of resentment for him because the warbeast representative had numerous brothers who couldn't join the war because of the limitation Reivan implemented. Still, Reivan barely noticed any resentment so far.

In an attempt to improve rapport, Reivan smiled as he answered. "Legionaries are imperial career soldiers. They are normally equipped with guns and are delegated to commanding imperial levies. Also, they are somewhat decent in various aspects of warfare."

Vino grunted in understanding. "So they are similar to knights? Is that right?"

"Oh, no. Not in the slightest." Reivan shook his head. "Legionaries still haven't unlocked their Qi, so they are still considered mundane soldiery. They are close, though. The closest equivalent to knights in the empire are called Imperial Vanguards, which is a status that legionaries aim to be promoted to. Those are the ones we have to watch out for most, along with espers and homunculi."

"I see..." Vino dipped his head toward the Hierarch in respect. "Thank you for enlightening me, Your Excellency."

"Not at all. I'm sure you already know what espers are, right?"

"I've not seen any yet, but I and the others from my clan have learned the arts to deal with them."

"That's great. I'll be counting on you, then."

Vino offered a feral smile and nodded.

'There we go. We're playing nice.'

Quite satisfied with himself, Reivan turned his attention back to Sir Xander. "I won't even ask for an estimate of how many espers they have, given how tough they are to pick out with the naked eye. But surely, you have a count of how many homunculi were in the army? They're not exactly easy to hide, after all."

"Yes." Xander saluted. "At the time, I spotted around three hundred of them, chained up at the rear of the army."

'Three hundred... That's a fucking lot of monsters...'

Homunculi was yet another name Aizen assigned to one of the empire's forces. Similar to Espers, Reivan didn't quite agree with the term they chose. But that was only his opinion as someone more intimate with fantasy culture back in Modern Earth. The linguistic experts of the kingdom only knew homunculi as a word pertaining to an artificial lifeform made through alchemy.

If Reivan had gotten to name the monstrous creatures the kingdom called homunculi, he would have christened them under the blanket term of "abomination".

To him, when he heard the term "homunculus" he would think of an artificial human being. Alchemists in stories usually wanted to play god when they dabbled in making homunculi, so they would obviously aim to create something human-like. Alternatively, they made homunculi to act as servants or assistants, which would be more aesthetically pleasing if made in the likeness of mankind.

Of course, there were the occasional alchemist stories that made a homunculus and added their creation to the harem, but Reivan didn't want to remember those stories.

The "homunculi" in this world were never made to look like humans. They weren't even humanoid.

Hell, their appearance wasn't even uniform. Each homunculus looked subtly different from the other. The only similarities they had were their quadrupedal forms and being the size of a mansion.

Reivan had never seen one in person before, but Stella had told him that they were huge. They were also hard to control, often going after both ally and foe.

'Good thing all homunculi are mortals. Though only Senior-grade Knights can take each of them down.'

If that was the case, then he may be in a bit of a pickle if there were really three hundred homunculi. He still didn't know how many Imperial Vanguards there were in the large army marching southward, but just the number of homunculi alone closely matched his number of Senior-grade knights.

Vanguards would further complicate things. And as a general rule of thumb when battling the empire, there were always more Vanguards than there were homunculi.

Despite the unpleasant news, only Iselle seemed nervous. Though Vino may been calm mainly because of ignorance. Both the darkin and warbeasts were relatively new to the Sentorale Continent, so their knowledge needed to be filled out.

"How fast are they moving?" Jiji asked, getting the discussion back on track.

Xander answered quickly as if expecting the query. "By my estimate, they should arrive in three months."

"Oh." Vino's ears perked up. "That's a long time. But I suppose with that many people, it's understandable."

Unless one had hundreds of sky arks, mobilizing an army in the hundreds of thousands was going to be difficult. Such a large collection of people would obviously move at a snail's pace. Much less, an army lugging around giant monsters that wanted to tear apart their allies just as much as they wanted to devour their enemies.

"Though I said they were marching in Lageton's direction, their purpose isn't Lageton specifically," Xander continued calmly. His Aizenian features had entirely lost Valter's likeness after countless generations but still managed to give off a similar impression of dependability as his ancestor. "They are simply marching southward and conquering whatever they come across. That is also why they are so slow, though the size of their army is undoubtedly a factor as well."

According to Xander, some Arkhanian settlements had banded together to form their own little nations. And upon news of the large army, these nations banded together as well.

Unfortunately, they weren't enough for a concentrated imperial effort, so they fell. The people they were protecting were rounded up and sent back to the empire's mainland as slaves too, though quite a few managed to flee for some strange reason.

'Ah. Maybe it's because of them...?'

Reivan thought back to the Sons of Arkhan. The last he heard from Filth was that they were focusing on activities up north. So perhaps the mysteriously capable organization was helping evacuate people. For all their presumed hatred of foreigners, the Sons of Arkhan was a patriotic organization—and it seemed they were proving that patriotism right now.

That said, that aid didn't seem to include force, sadly. He supposed they didn't have much in terms of muscle, so to speak.

Regardless, he needn't concern himself with the Sons of Arkhan at the moment. The obvious issue was what to do with the gigantic imperial army that was trampling over the republic right now.

'A larger army that travels slowly... I guess there's only that tactic, huh?'

"Right." Reivan looked around the room. "Sir Gregory, Sir Vino, and Dame Gwen. You are to gather all the Senior-grade knights under you and join me outside the city in thirty minutes. We're going to harass the imperial force and whittle it down as much as possible. Standard tactics apply."

It was a common play for Aizen, who was historically disadvantaged in terms of numbers. Sir Gregory, as a veteran of Fort Alexander, most likely had immense experience in this regard. Vino may have had no experience in knight tactics, but his age alone told Reivan that the warbeast had been old enough to be considered a combatant when the Terracatta Clan were still landless vagabonds back in the Eastern Continent.

As for Gwen, she was coming with him just because.

Reivan then turned to Jiji. "You're in charge of preparing the forces that remain here, just in case we have to fall back and endure a siege."

"Understood." The white-haired princess bowed in her seat. "I'll also ask home for reinforcements just in case."

"Uhm!" Lady Iselle raised her voice suddenly, her hand in the air. "What about us? We can be of help in the battle as well."

"You're not a good match for this type of mission, sadly." Reivan shook his head. "The empire is accustomed to being on guard against air attacks. Avian spirit beasts are common in Arkhan, meanwhile, the kingdom has House Mercer's wind elementalists."

"But..."

"I'd much rather have the darkin stay here in case any more of those Lava Demons show up." Reivan cut her off, looking into her eyes. "I hope you do not underestimate the significance of me asking your kind to protect the place that we will all return to."

"Ah." Iselle gasped in shock for a moment before resolution filled her face. "I will absolutely make sure that Lageton stays safe, Your Excellency."

"That's what I like to hear. I'm counting on you, Lady Iselle."

Reivan stood up with a smile.

"Ladies and gentlemen, let's get to work."

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Reivan would have liked to personally say goodbye to Elsamina and even Mira, who obviously wasn't going to come with the harassment corps.

But there wasn't enough time for that, especially when he had his own preparations to make. They probably weren't even awake yet, with how early in the morning it was. A short message was all he could do. With any hope, he could return quickly enough before they worried too much.

As for Helen, Reivan hadn't addressed her in the war council because he was certain that she wouldn't allow him to leave her behind.

'Not that I would have. She's too strong a card not to use. Even though I wish I didn't have to.'

Dawn's light barely peeked out of the horizon when Reivan and around two hundred knights departed Lageton. Each and every single one was a Senior-grade knight of at least 800 Might, though most were already near the peak of human potential—hell, the warbeasts all surpassed that easily, being superior to humanity on a physical level.

One hundred from House Mercer, another hundred from the Terracatta Clan, about a dozen from the forces assigned by Aizen to him, plus Reivan, Helen, Gwen, and Xander—who was resuming duties as the replacement Guardian Knight in place of Valter.

Two hundred against at least half a million were odds even the most drunken gamblers wouldn't bet on. But their aim wasn't to eradicate the army or rout it.

They were wolves.

The knights simply intended to tear off some flesh with their fangs and claws. If the army tried to chase after them, they would retreat, possibly drawing enemy forces too far from the main force. Then they'd turn and devour those who chased too far before repeating the same tactics from the beginning.

'It's very hard to catch a knight when they just full-on flee with no intention of fighting, after all.'

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Sir Xander had estimated that the army would reach Lageton in three months, but that was not a testament to the distance between the army and the city. Large groups of people traveled slower in general, not to mention how the imperial forces intended to quash any resistance in their way.

The army itself wasn't far, all things considered. And it took Reivan's group only one week of nonstop running to catch up to it. If he couldn't produce medicine that restored stamina, they would have been delayed by the need to rest but they were able to maintain their ungodly pace thanks to him.

'That... is a big fucking army.'

Having lived in the capital of the Aizen Kingdom, Reivan was used to seeing a large amount of people concentrated in a relatively small place. But this was his first time seeing so many soldiers in one spot.

Needless to say, it was a grand sight.

Reivan and Xander left behind the others because they were quite literally the only ones who had the [Darkness] attribute, drastically lowering the chances of being discovered. It would have been great if foliage still existed for them to hide behind, but most plant life had been wiped out in Arkhan due to recent events. Luckily, night had just fallen, providing a cover of darkness for them to use as they saw fit.

Despite being practically invisible and having zero presence to detect, both Reivan and Xander were taking extra care not to be discovered by hiding amongst rubble or boulders. One could never truly be too careful.

While the two of them scouted out the enemy forces, the others took a much-needed breather after an entire week of mindless running. The Terracatta Clan helpfully created a small underground chamber for everyone to hide in while waiting for the order to strike.

Numerous tents were sprawled out across a wide plain, with countless soldiers bustling about like ants. Pillars of smoke were rising here and there, presumably produced by fires from cooking. With how hot it was, nobody would be dumb enough to make a fire for the fun of it.

'It seems Sir Xander was right about the numbers possibly increasing...'

The number of the common tents told him that there would be a minimum of seven hundred thousand people. That didn't even include those that probably housed higher-ranked combatants.

Reivan wiped the sweat forming on his forehead before turning to the most noticeable part of the army. Gathered at the back of the army were mountainous forms, all struggling under their shackles. If it weren't for the large metal muzzles keeping their maws shut, they would no doubt be filling the night air with their monstrous roars.

Given their feral nature, Reivan immediately thought of setting the rampaging beasts free. However, that was a recipe for disaster. He didn't want those homunculi running around Arkhan and potentially killing innocent people. It would be one thing if the empire did that while he wasn't around to stop it, but he wouldn't do that himself.

"Now that I have more leeway to observe..." Xander suddenly pointed out certain items jutting out throughout the camps. "See those banners, Your Excellency? They all have different crests on them."

Reivan squinted as he followed his finger. "Oh, you're right... Huh. I thought this was one massive imperial army, but maybe not?"

"Then that means they are a coalition of different groups. I apologize, I am not well-studied in imperial heraldry."

"Don't worry about it. I'm not either."

'Luckily, we don't have to.'

Taking out a dream crystal, Reivan asked Gwendolyn if she knew about the crests and got the affirmative answer that he'd expected. Apparently, some of the crests belonged to imperial clans, while most were actually from various noble households. Meaning they weren't actually a united army and were merely working together. It was, however, possible that they agreed upon a single chain of command, which meant Reivan couldn't expect to cause discord easily by taking out any random officer.

"Your Excellency,"

"Hm?"

"I believe I've found their supplies..." Xander pointed out a different spot, far away from where all the monsters were. "There. See? Carts upon carts of supplies."

Reivan, again, followed the knight's directions and smiled. "I suppose not everyone has the luxury of having a nearly limitless supply of spatial storage artifacts. Not even the empire."

Food was another requirement when waging war. Even Reivan and the others would be hard-pressed to fight on empty stomachs for months.

Luckily, Aizen's military forces had few mouths to feed. The kingdom's rate of production when it came to food could easily support it.

On the other hand, the empire didn't have it so easy. Though their expansive lands and territories ensured they also had a high rate of production, they also had a lot more people to account for. The same went for their armies. Every military campaign, such as this one, took lots of preparations.

'That's going to be one of the biggest targets to hit.'

But rather than just stealing or destroying it, Reivan's thoughts lit up with dark brilliance.

The food supply would, eventually, end up in a soldier's stomach. Didn't that provide a different sort of opportunity? Rather than making the empire retreat for fear of hunger, only to eventually return a few months down the line... Wouldn't it be better to eradicate as much of them as he could now, when the opportunity presented itself?

'Sadly, the Crimen Virus can't thrive in the current environment...'

The Crimen Virus.

A virus developed by Professor Discrimen, a royal scholar discredited by the royal academy because of his insistence on studying viruses. One of his crowning achievements, aside from the virus that took out espers, was a virus that specifically targeted Argonians. Sadly, both viruses couldn't thrive in outer temperatures of above ten degrees Celsius. Reivan would have to wait until the temperatures all across Arkhan cooled back down before he could even consider using the biological weapons that Aizen's local mad scientist invented.

Fortunately, he could produce various poisons too. Ones that didn't choose who they killed.

For a moment, Reivan hesitated to actually put such a plan into action. It would be a knot of guilt in the back of his mind for a while on top of setting a precedent in the war—that poisoning food was fine.

After deciding that the cons outweighed the pros, Reivan decided against poisoning the imperial supplies and just destroying them.

"Sir Xander," Reivan handed him a spatial storage ring. "You're in charge of sneaking in and getting rid of the supplies. Runestones are difficult to make for mortals, so we can only use the spellballs that the Tower provided. But they're more than good enough. Use more of them than what you think you need. Better to use too many than too few."

"Understood. But then the supplies would be wasted. Are you sure we can't just steal them?"

"It would complicate things and we also aren't hurting for supplies anyway. And if you steal them, then they believe they can still take it back and pursue you. But if they're set aflame or destroyed, some of them will waste time trying to salvage what they can."

"Brilliant. I will do as you command."

Reivan chuckled sheepishly. Rather than brilliance, this was all in a military manual years ago. "Still, that only pertains to food. If you spot anything useful then go ahead and steal it."

Xander nodded. "Then shall I go now?"

"Hm... Yes. But wait until I give you the go-ahead through the dream crystals before making your move. Just put yourself close to the supplies and suss out anything worth robbing."

With that, Xander disappeared into a cloud of black mist that blended into the air as it flew in the direction of the imperial camp. At this point, even Reivan couldn't detect Xander if he closed his eyes.

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After going back to the others, Reivan began handing out duties—which wasn't all that difficult. There were loads of war records available in the royal archives, and he'd studied quite a few when he was idly waiting for his wedding preparations.

In Step One, the Mercer Knights would basically be the point of the spear. They would wreak absolute chaos on one side, killing as many soldiers as they could while avoiding prolonged engagements. With the force of a hundred knights, the empire wouldn't be dumb enough to charge in an equal number of Vanguards—they would gather up way more before mounting a counterattack. But before they could, the Mercers would already be retreating.

Step Two involved luring the main forces away if they gave chase or simply continuing the retreat if they didn't. If the former happens, the Mercers would eventually turn around to fight together with the Warbeasts, who were hidden in the flanks to protect the Mercers from ever being surrounded while they were wreaking havoc in Step One.

Step Three, on the other hand, was just waiting until the imperial forces let their guards down and repeating Step One somewhere else.

As for Xander's role in destroying the supplies, that was a one-time thing that would happen between steps one and two. That way, the empire forces would have their attentions split.

With their roles assigned, the forces of Aizen—well technically, they were the forces of Samsara right now, but whatever—made their final preparations before heading off to their assigned positions. During Step One, Reivan would be joining the Mercers before going off to do his own thing. Gwen would be left behind to take over for him in case something weird happened, and Sir Gregory's experience set his mind at ease concerning the timing of when to retreat and when to resume the offense.

Reivan, wearing an undecorated suit of full plate to cover everything below the neck looked outward, gazing at the site of his first real battle against a human force. To be honest, he had thought that he would be more nervous or even afraid—not because he was scared of what may happen to him, but because he was concerned about what he could do to others.

But as his golden eyes beheld the people he would slay, as his nose caught the subtle scent of steel, and as his ears heard the drumming of his heart, Reivan realized that he felt none of the emotions he expected to feel going into this battle.

Instead, he felt excited.

Suddenly, a heavy gauntlet landed on his shoulder. "Well, would you look at that? You're one of us after all, Your Excellency."

Reivan turned to the side to see Vino, the Warbeast of the Terracatta Clan who had also donned full plate. "What does that mean?"

"I mean that you're a warbeast too." Vino grinned as he jerked his head to the people behind them. "It's in the name, Your Excellency. We were built for this. For war."

With a raised brow, Reivan glanced behind him to see almost a hundred pairs of golden eyes staring right back. Was it his imagination that their gazes seemed to carry a more intense glow than normal?

Did his own eyes carry the same glow?

Judging from the way Vino seemed to be treating him with more familiarity, that seemed likely.

"No mercy, Your Excellency." Vino once again patted his shoulder, a little stronger and more affectionately this time—like a brother in arms—before turning around to leave. "When your nature tells you to grant them kindness, try to remember if they would extend that same kindness toward you. I heard those imperials are fond of enslaving the defeated? I bet they'd love to make a slave outta you, the prince of a nation they've been in conflict with for millennia."

Reivan chuckled in response, realizing that the warbeast was right, despite the savage nature of his ethics. He spent a few moments watching the man's back recede before turning back to the battlefield and summoning a helm.

With a grin that nobody could see, he spoke.

"Let us bathe in their blood."

There was no response, no shouts and hoorah. But Reivan felt more than a hundred people unified in silent agreement.