"He's tenacious, I'll give him that." Valdour said with a light smile, as he reclined back comfortably on his massive chair in his newly finished command tent. "I think the better words would be pig headed, lord." Another man wearing the iconic armour of the Brimstone Knights, with long black hair interweaved with a few threads of white and skin as black as coal commented, while tossing aside the letter in his hand. Chuckling, Valdour teasingly replied "Reminds of someone I know." "I'm certain I have no idea of whom you speak, my lord." The man replied sternly, with no deviation in his tone or facial features. Bursting out in laughter, Valdour continued with the same jovial tone, with ever the slightest semblances of seriousness now woven within it "Always so humourless, Matak'Ra. You know you should really learn to relax every once in a while; for your own health, or else I fear I'm going to have to find me a new Knight's Commander in a few years time, when you've burned yourself out." "Hmph!" The Brimstone Commander snorted "Even if I was already half dead, I'd like to see which little pup you can find with a stronger metal than mine." "I suppose that's true." Valdour replied while softly shaking his head, but then his eyes caught a glimpse of the letter that his friend had just thrown aside on the table between them, so he asked out of curiosity "But it is odd for you to show such open disdain for anyone. Why did this sinking man's final struggle offend you so?" "Because my lord, he's taking us for morons!" Matak'Ra quickly answered, his fists clenched "The gall of him to even think of suggesting the formation of an alliance between us! To simply even speak of working together against the Bloody Emperor to achieve independence, for both our nations when he can't even guarantee the survival of his own country past next week is beyond ludicrous! It's clear that he just wants to use us against his nephew, because he's lost otherwise." "He's simply grasping at straws, like a drowning man desperately trying to clutch at anything that could save him from the ocean of worries he's currently strangling in." Valdour calmly said, easing his friend's wrath, before he then swivelled his eyes away from him and out the tent door, where he beheld the great walls of Appethus. Matak'Ra then joined his master in this peaceful silence for a few minutes, before he then asked "My lord... Why don't we just take the city and be done with it?" "We have our orders Matak'Ra." Valdour quickly reminded him, as he pointed to the nearby scroll that held the imperial seal upon it "We are to stay put and rest the men for a few days, until his imperial majesty appears." "Hmph! To claim our glory for his own no doubt." Matak'Ra snorted disapprovingly, before he whispered his coming words. ʀᴇᴀᴅ ʟᴀᴛᴇsᴛ ᴄʜᴀᴘᴛᴇʀs ᴀᴛ 𝖓𝖔𝖛𝖊𝖑~𝖋𝖎𝖗𝖾~𝖓𝖊𝖙 But they were still loud enough to reach Valdour's ears, as he suddenly lost the carefree look he usually carried on his face, replacing it with a stern one that froze Matak'Ra in place, before he coldly asked "Do you really think he's in need of anymore glory in this war, so much so that he would be required to rob us of ours?" Matak'Ra said nothing in reply, because there was nothing to say back in rebuttal that wouldn't leave him looking like a blind idiot or a jealous loser; for how much more honour can one claim, or even want, after drawing a match against the War Dragon himself. Compared to that, the conquest of the enemy's capital and the largest city in the east of the empire, the grand city Appethus, looked surprisingly dull in one's eyes. Matak'Ra lowered his head, half in shame, half in pondering, trying to guess why they were holding off the final strike of the war, and knowing this, Valdour who had been privy to more knowledge than him, decided to spare his friend and answer his questions "Our emperor doesn't want us to take this city by assault, because he doesn't want the battle to overly damage the city. After all, Appethus is still the most significant settlement in the east, and no one wants to spend millions of Darr repairing it." Matak'Ra blinked confusedly at this, before he remarked "But I don't see how that can be achieved. Unless he plans to let us rot here for weeks, or possibly even months on end to starve the city, how does he plan to capture this city without us having to assail it?" Shaking his head, Valdour said "He doesn't plan for us to starve this place into submission as well. After all, long sieges are also expensive, and he will need the people in that city to continue living, so that this jewel of the east and it's massive amounts of yearly taxes remain as unblemished as possible. For ultimately what is the use of owning some lifeless, motionless stone without anyone to make use of it." "So then how...?" Matak'Ra wanted to ask again, but Valdour quickly cut him off and directly answered him with a single phrase, as a wicked grin, one in Matak'Ra's eyes, that looked a great deal like the emperor's villainous smiles "Through fear." Three days then flew by with nothing of any significance happening, with the Qayan men finally being allowed their well earned rest, after the mad dash they made across the harrowing Blistering Desert, with it's boiling days and frigid nights, and then their nerve-racking trek across the dangerous Diaomedes Plains, and it's nightmarish wildlife, all in time to aid the eastern army; before then rushing to lay siege to the enemy's base in coordination with the eastern navy. But as the men of Qayan unwound in their tents and around the camp fires at night, the people of Appethus only grew in unease, like a massive pot on a low fire, the city slowly stewed in paranoia and nervousness; each day passing harder than the last, as the peoples' lips thanked the Gods for another day without bloodshed, while their hearts screamed out for a reprieve of the mounting pressure, begging the enemy to just attack them already, but they never did. Then on the fourth day, they suddenly began hearing the sound of distant thunder, something that they originally completely overlooked, on account of the storm clouds covering the sky, but then they noticed that this thunder was not heralded by it's constant companion lightning, which then simultaneously terrified and relieved them to the bone, as they thought it might be cannon fire. 'Finally the enemy is attacking us!' They all thought, but then they found that the other sounds of bloody conflict were utterly absent. This once again returned them to their utter confusion, when the ground suddenly began to slightly rumble, something they initially dismissed, their minds too occupied with other matters to also worry about a small earthquake. But the earth's grumbling did not stop as they expected, and if anything it grew stronger and stronger, as if a sleeping giant was slowly beginning to wake under their feet. On and on the slight rumble grew and grew, until it quickly became a terrifying, consistent quake that never let up, one that scared children into their mother's arms and adults into their homes, as the shuddering earth continued it's perverse phenomenon. No one knew what was happening, and many rushed to the Appethus Cathedral, begging the God of the Underworld for his clemency, believing what was currently happening was the prelude to their unspeakable penance for betraying his chosen descendant. And in a way, they were indeed ironically correct, as word quickly spread just as the sun was setting, that the emperor of the Eclipse Empire had arrived, with his enormous army in tow. And the people nearly trampled each other making their way to the city wall, despite the guards trying their hardest to stop them, where many saw something that made them wish they had listened to the soldiers, because what was before them was nothing short of an apocalyptic scene. Thousands upon thousands of black armoured men, appeared one after the other, as if the horizon itself was giving birth to them, as they began to converge upon their lonesome city, like an endless murder of crows descending upon a single carcass. For so long did they stand upon those walls, gawking at their unending enemy, that their legs began to hurt from standing up so long, all the while they advanced towards them slowly, in a petrifying display of overwhelming might. "You can't even see the ground anymore." One woman said, her voice not of wonder but of hopelessness. "Did the emperor vacate all the lands to the west and bring them all here?" Another man asked out loud, no one knowing if his question was rhetorical or not. "But why would he do that? Just a fraction of these men are needed to take this city." This time it wasn't a civilian who spoke, but a soldier, yet that made no difference, as his voice was as despondent as the rest. "That's not even the half of it." An older man none had noticed or even knew, suddenly spoke up with a strange glint in his eyes and an odd pull to his words "This city is strong, and it can be held with only a few against many." He paused for a moment, to give greater weight to his coming words "But within that army also lies monsters that no walls, or gates can hold; such as the Golden Guardian of the Eclipse Empire Abraham Durga, who is sure to not be far from his emperor's side, or the Storm Lord Sodarus Indra, who none here need an introduction to, and of course the Eclipse emperor himself, the boy genius who defeated Marcus the brother of Octavian, who is also said to be the finest aerial commander of the Luminous Empire as well Georgios the Iron wall in the previous war, and who has now in this rebellion battled the War Dragon into a draw. And that's not even mentioning the mighty Lord Hekan Heka, the Archmage of the Eclipse Empire, who could probably obliterate this city all on his own, and that's only who we know are among those below us, who knows what other demons follow them still." The people's faces turned the colour of bleached paper, their eyes slowly turning back into that black mass of approaching death, as they felt that the setting sun's glare wasn't alone in the sky anymore, as massive eyes of gargantuan giants joined it in the celestial space to look down upon them like mere ants waiting to squish them underfoot. "Someone's approaching!" A soldier suddenly called out, making everyone flinch, and quickly turn to look at that sole, but enormous figure who was approaching the walls. Making everyone momentarily forget the old man who'd without notice appeared and spoke to them a moment ago, and who had now vanished once more.