80 The Republic and the Empire
[Aetlrus, Capital City of the Republic, 8960km South West from the Machine Empire]
[IMAGES]
The seven Councilors sat comfortably on their royal thrones. The throne room was lavishly decorated with white ornaments, diamonds, various precious stones, and silk fabrics. The windows were massive in size and had large curtains in front of them to block the sun's light whenever it was the time of the day.
It was noon and the sun was at its brightest, its rays shining brightly through the windows and thus, the curtains were dropped and the windows covered. The curtains were cyan in color, though not that pleasing to the eye, it was a show of wealth and power.
The Aetlrus Republic was one of the continent's superpowers that sported a very large continental military and with the population over 488 million of humans and beastmen. With more than twenty major cities, fifty cities and hundreds of towns and villages under its territory, it was easily one of the largest countries in the continent. A territory equivalent to the Russian Federation back home.
The tall wooden doors slowly opened. The doors creaked as two knights pushed each door to the side. A tall man wearing a red cloak walked right in, his steps were loud and echoed around the throne room. The Counselors all stared at him as he walked down the white carpet.
The man reached the end of the white carpet and knelt before the councilors of the Republic. His cloak covered his head and body and only his face was slightly exposed to the outside, revealing a few scars and a thick skin. The councilor on the center raised his right hand and asked the man, "What is your business?" The councilor on the center softly asked. The man raised his head and answered, "A pleasure to meet you, Councilor Harris Gustuv, I am but a lone delegate sent by the Empire to discuss important matters to share to your highness," The man said with confidence.
The councilors' felt curious as the councilor on the center as his eyes slightly closed and he leaned back on his throne, "Show me that you are indeed from my old friend," Councilor Harris was doubtful. At once, the fifty royal paladins guarding the throne room drew their swords and encircled the red cloak man.
The man simply smiled under his cloak and revealed his palms from under his cloak.
"Hm?" Councilor Harris leaned forward from his throne. The royal paladins each took a step forward in anticipation of the worse to come.
"Ha!" Councilor Harris joyfully laughed as he saw the intricate symbolism on the man's palms.
The royal paladins quickly backed down and returned to their positions.
"You may stand now, messenger," One of the Councilor, a woman smiled at the man who at once stood up and presented himself. The man stood upright and seemed disciplined, he then proceeded to draw a magic incantation in midair.
After drawing the magic incantation, a small burst of colors took its place and a holographic image manifested itself afterward.
The image was at first blurry with colors spazzing about, it took a few seconds for it to reveal what it was trying to show.
The Councilors went silent.
"Is that, the Eastern Region?" One of the Councilor's eyes widened. The image spastically switched scenery after scenery, displaying the destruction of the eastern region in full view of the councilors. The imagery did not fail to fully convey the horrors, from the hundreds of thousands of dead men lying in, over and around the hills, the plains, the grasslands and even at the deserts. The cities were also not spared, walls were torn, women and children dead on the streets.
"What happened there?" A young looking Councilor woman looks horrified, Councilor Harris had so many questions he wanted answers to.
The council room went very loud.
"Who did this?"
"When did this happen?"
"Why were we not informed immediately?"
The messenger bowed at each question before he finally spoke.
"The Empire's Shadows noticed disturbances in the movements of the Senadate Theocracy, the Theocracy that governs as a the factor peacekeeper in the eastern region. Their Elite Papal Scripture mysteriously vanished after being called-on in a mission by the Pope who was also later killed by unknown assailants. The unknown assailants also proceeded to massacre thousands in every major cities of the Theocracy, taking out the archbishops and several other elite mages and important people of the Theocracy,"
The man paused for a second and cleared his throat.
"Furthermore, streaks of light fell from the sky as soon as these assailants disappeared from all scenes of the attacks. These streaks of light were not magical in nature, the mages confirmed it. Even so, they managed to deal massive damage to the cities, causing explosions and killing millions more,"
"Wait," Councilor Harris raised his right hand at the man.
"How does this explain the death and destruction you're showing us right now?
The man simply nodded.
"Your highness, exactly 5 weeks ago, our agents reported that the Theocracy announced a crusade against the 'Metal Demons'. At first, the agents were skeptical and they had every right to be, we have neither known or heard of any new race of demons made of metal,"
"The metal demons were real?"
"Correct,"
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
[Vedarun, Imperial City of the Empire, 7160km Northwest from the Machine Base]
[IMAGES]
One day ago.
The Emperor sat comfortably on his royal throne. The throne room was lavishly decorated with red ornaments, gold, various precious stones, and silk fabrics. The windows were massive in size and had large curtains in front of them to block the sun's light whenever it was the time of the day.
It was afternoon and the sun was at its brightest, its rays shining brightly through the windows and thus, the curtains were dropped and the windows covered. The curtains were red with a tiny bit of purple design, it shows the main color of the Empire.
The nation is one of the continent's strongest Superpowers that sported a very large continental military that rivals the United People's Republic of Aetlrus, with the population over 490 million of humans. With more than thirty major cities, forty cities and hundreds of towns and villages under its territory, it was easily one of the largest countries in the continent. A territory equivalent to Canada or China from Earth.
The history of the Empire was said to be ancient, and that its foundations were laid out by a nation as far back as two thousand years ago, going back before the Era of Forgotten and the Second Great War, making it one of the oldest nations.
It is said that the long-standing of a minor Kingdom of Velda gradually absorbed the large nations in a literal speedrun, including the lost Magic Kingdom of Damron, the Western Union of Almeria, even the old Empire of the Requiema Dynasty that ruled most parts of the Continent for thousands of years, but was now long destroyed during the Second Great War. Absorbing the now fallen Superpower, it gives birth to the New Empire known today.
Its overwhelming military power was its backbone. During the past thousand years after losing 90% of its military and economy in the Second Great War, when it is now under the reign of the uniting family of the Augustus, the Empire grew immensely powerful, squashing any signs of rebellion from the nations they had absorbed. It acted as the hegemonic power, dominating these states.
Before the message was sent to the Republic, Emperor Augustus VI also read the reports of his agents from the Theocracy.
Emperor Augustus VI looks to be in his 50s, he dozens of scars all over his body, because of his previous battles of conquering more lands and most of it was he and his imperial army try to hunt the last Requiema dynasty because it is a threat to his throne, he looks calm on the outside but his true colors was that he is an arrogant man who is selfish and cares about the throne and himself.
[IMAGES]
He is not like any other kings in the other kingdoms, nobody that knows about the Emperor dares to underestimate him. The Emperor is someone known for being ruthless towards himself and his enemies. Moreover, he was incredibly strong, while not at Demigod realm, he was one of the strongest <A+> ranks in the world, nearly strong as the Great Warrior Izrael and most members of the Papal Scriptures. In fact, many people considered him as the greatest Emperor has ever had in the Empire's history.
Right now he is finish listening the reports of his agents that returns from the Theocracy. Unlike the councilor's reaction, the Emperor's expression was calm.
"This is a dissapointed. Metal Beings? Powerful magic? This is a threat not just the Empire but the whole continent"
"Don't worry, father. We will mobilize our powerful army and destroy these weak enemies, we will show the world of our Imperial might!"
Across the throne room was his firstborn child, Prince Zardin. He has red hair and his personality is just like identical to the Emperor's young days. Like father and son, arrogant, selfish, and a fool he is, that makes him easy to manipulate.
[IMAGES]
Unlike his other children who aren't interested to the throne, the princess was a mage who loves to study magic and the 2nd son who wants to be a general when he was grown up, both of them hates Prince Zardin because of his arrogant nature and idiocy. The younger siblings were quite very intelligent than there elder brother from a mile, if they were interested taking the throne, they'll definitely win it.
"Silence, son. We need to hear another infomation from the messanger. Go back to your room and play some of your slaves," Irritated by his son behavior, he force him to leave.
"Tsk," Seeing his father shooing him away, Zardin has no choice but to follow, its his father alright.
Seeing his son leave, Emperor Augustus returns his attention on the messanger, "Messanger, is it true you stole something from this metal beings?"
"Indeed, your highness"
The man then pulled something from under his cloak. It was small at first but the man then proceeded to wave his hand around it, returning it to its small size. It was a standard-issue Battle Rifle used by the normal Android Soldier of the Machine Empire.
"This, is a weapon that does not use magic," The man showed the weapon to the Emperor who has so far been tightly glued on his chair, unable to utter any meaningful sentence but questions.
"Is this it? Are there not anything else we know or have of these metal beings?" The emperor wanted to know more about these 'metal beings' or 'metal demons' what the Theocracy called them. Throughout known history, the Theocracy, the Republic, and the Empire were best known for being the peacekeepers of the continent, making sure that the smaller nations were always in-line.
To have an unknown race suddenly appear and wreak havoc to the continent's Eastern Region was unacceptable. Mainly because of the human supremacy mindset of the nations. The beastmen countries have always had trouble establishing a stable economic, social and diplomatical foundation. More often than not, the human countries would regularly wage atrocious wars against the beastmen in the name of human supremacy.
So, these metal beings were just another addition to the continent's unwelcomed subhuman denizens.
"Sadly, only one of our agents returned. The rest were caught in the war that ensued and was killed by the metal beings. He was able to bring this weapon with him and gather the information crystals of the other agents before narrowly escaping. He has so far refused to answer further questions and is being treated,"
The Emperor's face turned uneasy. He flinched at the mere thought of the agents sent by the Empire all being killed by the new race. But it was quite possible that the agents were simply caught in the crossfire but it fails to explain why the agents would place themselves into harm's way. There could only be one explanation, they were deliberately sought out and killed by the enemy.
"Allow me to state another question, I know the agents of both countries are top-class, mages trained in stealth, combat and high-tier magic. To think that most of the agents would fall by the hands of an unknown enemy would beg the question, were they deliberately targeted?"
"The Archmages of the Empire believes this as well, the agents might have been found out by the metal beings and subsequently hunted down until only one managed to flee. It is also worth noting that the Theocracy mustered a million crusaders but the agent claimed that they were all defeated during the 'Offensive'."
The Emperor raised his right eyebrow after hearing the peculiar word.
"Offensive?" The Emperor asked.
"The agent claims that when he was fending off one of the metal beings, the demihuman actually spoke out loud "Commencing Offensive," repeatedly,"
The Emperor gently caressed the sides of his throne and thought deeply for a moment.
"Your highness, the death toll is estimated to be 498 million, nearly 94% of the population in the Theocracy, the Empire fears that these new demihumans may cause an imbalance to the status quo in the continent, or worse, create another Great World 1000 years ago,"
"Then, what does my Royal Butler Sebastain suggest we do?" The Emperor leaned forward once more and bit his lip.
"Lord Sebastian is yet to decide whether to act immediately against the metal demons or try to establish communications. His inner circle are pushing more diplomatic approah, for now, raising concerns that they were too unknown to be dealt hastily and thus need to be studied further by our scholars,"
The Emperor sighed and closed his eyes. He taps his forehead with his finger before opening his eyes and speaking again.
"What are you gonna do with the metal being's weapons?"
"The scholars studied the weapon and it appears to be similar to the Dwarve's muskets but more advaced, we are not sure exactly. The imperial dwarves are re-engineered the weapon but couldn't on how advance it was, but they knew how to use those things, currently they are still figure to re-engineered the weapon help by Sebastian's inner circle"
"Very well, I will wait for my friend's decision before I do mine. I will instruct one of my advisors to go with a battalion and travel down to the Eastern Region. They are to remain at the easternmost village in our territory closest to the Great Isthmus and remain there until further notice, and also, inform the Republic of this, this is not to be ignored, not just the Empire but the whole continent,"
After the two sides exchanged pleasantries, the messenger rode off. The emperor was confused but was not shaken, war and destruction come in many forms and this was no different from any of those forms. The Empire will stand united with the Republic, they being the only true survivors of the now Forgotten Second Great War, they stand united to prevent the same cataclysm that befell the continent 1000 years ago.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
=Inner City, Vedarun, Port Tower of Airships, Imperial City of the Empire=
The messenger went to the port of airships, he looks around and found what he was looking for, he headed towards and was inside his red Airship. Every diplomatic envoy from other states was always required to ride in one of the Empire's state-of-the-art red airship for their protection. These airship were mostly resistant to most magic attacks unless it is 7th-8th tier or higher and were highly durable against explosions and the like.
[IMAGES]
The messenger went inside the ship's decks and was now sitting comfortably on the couch. Sitting on the other couch was one of the most oldest and most powerful demigods of the Empire, Lord Lincoln. His power was very powerful that could rivals the Pope. He wore a white priestly attire to show his connection to the Empire and the Republic's State Religion, the Church of the Rising Sun.
[IMAGES]
There are once 13 Gods in this world, but after that War the world has been through a thousand years ago, there was now only a few left.
The three Deities of this world were the last remaining of them. Each of these deities has a religious faction among them around the continent.
The Church of the Golden Dawn, which was a religious faction that worships the Goddess of Fate, Genesis. The Church was originally was made in the Kingdom of Goldrose.
The Church of the Rising Sun, which was a religious faction that worships the God of the Sun, Gleam. The Church was originally was made on the Empire.
And then the Church of Carnage and Slaughter, unfortunately for them, that doesn't count as the third because those are just terrorist that only do bunch of cruel acts and only worships a false god named Monolith, the God of War and Violence.
The Church of the Sapphire Light, which was a religious faction that worships the Goddess of Pure Magic, Goddess Gliesia, also an old rival of Genesis, unfortunately for the Golden Dawn, the Church of Sapphire Light won of having the most worshippers 800 years ago, thanks to their population after that unviolent war. Unlike the other churches, this one us the most largest among them. The Fax religion was owned by the most powerful nation among all of the superpowers of the continent, which it's the Senadate Theocracy.
The Priest remained in the airship unnoticed and observed the meeting through the eyes of the messenger using magic.
"The emperor seems disgruntled," Lincoln said in a soft voice. Old age has taken its toll on the 924-year-old man.
"Yes, my lord, the emperor and Lord Rism both share the same reaction and sentiment as of late. Why is it best that we unsealed that 'thing' that was inside that maid to deal with the enemy at once?"
"Little one, you think too brashly. To combat the unknown, we must first discover the unknown. What use that thing inside the maid if we do not even know what we are going up against? Remember, little one, the world has seen relative peace for a 1000 years, it is about time something was to disturb this peace. If we were to use that thing at once, not only will it take a nightmarish amount of magical power but there will be a chance it will escape and caused another Second Great War,"
"I apologized, my lord,"
"Fret not, little one, we will stay in the Imperial city for a while until the emperor sends out the envoy and we shall follow suit and observe. Remember, our mission here is to see the enemy act on its own accord and deal with them accordingly, find the leader and evaluate the powers of said leader. However, there is something I need to do before we do it, I got a message from the Sun God himself that we should unsealed the creature, I disagree once but its our Lord and Savior, why should I disagree to our God? I have no choice. But doesn't matter. Well, shall we?"
"Right,"
"Then, off into the republic, we go,"
The Airship ascended from the ground and made its way towards the inner city to the outer districts. The streets below were less crowded as the sun began to set. The people in the capital have begun to go indoors and the street lamps were lit up. The Airships that appeared shadowing the areas in the sky began to descend as the morning star came to its slumber.
The continent has been shaken. The Machine Empire shall soon be a name that many shall fear, their feet shall tremble and their shields shall be broken.
The Age Of The Machines.
Is Nigh.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Caitlyn, do I look like a villager to you?"
"No, you look like an old man who has not showered for thirty years,"
"Perfect"
=Volume 1 ended=
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
References: Arcane & Gate
Arcane: -Capital city of the Republic
Gate: -Augustus VI = Augustus Molt -Prince Zardin = Prince Zorzal
