You figure Warrick deserves something for all his hard work and loyalty, besides you’re still a little hesitant to go flying off into the sky.

“Warrick, I also saw Elam a few days ago too. He told me that by the end of this week, it should be ready for flight as well as combat. Originally I was going to take the first official flight on it, but would you like to do the honors?” you ask.

Warrick looks like he can’t believe his ears.

“Are you serious?”
“Completely. I know you’re probably bored at times doing this job, trust me I sympathize. The day-to-day task of ruling isn’t exactly as exciting as being hip deep in the corpses of your enemies. So I’m giving you this chance to be on the frontlines for a while. I mean I assume you’ve got someone here that can take over for you while you’re gone for a little while right?”
“Sure! I’m got more than few very qualified Eyes that can do the job.” Warrick says.
“Okay, well it’s settled, you’ll report to Elam’s factory in Arat in about four days. Just tell him I sent you, I’m sure there won’t be any problems.”
“Thank you for this opportunity and this position Emperor. I won’t let it go to waste. Oh, what’s the name of this new vessel?”
“Name? Actually I don’t think it has been named yet. Or at least Elam didn’t give it one. Hrm…call it the Storm. I mean you’ll be floating through the sky raining death down upon your enemies in a spectacular fashion. Plus you’re an Eye. I mean Eye of the Storm. Play on words, I dunno, sounds clever to me.”
“Heh, sounds good to me too.” Warrick agrees.

With Warrick obviously in better spirits, you leave the Eye headquarter and make your own preparations for heading out to the western front. You might not be riding on an airship to do it, but you’ll still be engaging in battle in some capacity.

In a couple days you meet up with Ackerson’s company in one of the small towns that has recently been converted into army encampment. The new Empire “citizens” don’t look very happy about their recent occupation and change to their way of life, but they don’t have much choice in the matter and in time they’ll either get used to it, or they won’t and will have to be put down. No matter to you either way.

General Ackerson himself looks very tired. Like he hasn’t been sleeping for days. In fact many of the soldiers have a weary looking appearance. While this is somewhat expected with long drawn out conflicts, you can’t imagine that they’ve had so much trouble that would cause them this much stress. Decena’s command has had more conflict activity, but she hasn’t given any reports of problems. (Though it’s possible that she’s not reporting such things, but given her idolization, you doubt if she’d lie, and even if she wasn’t telling, you’re pretty sure Galen would send you a complaining letter of sub standard conditions.)

“What the hell is wrong with this camp Ackerson? Every man and woman here looks like they’re hung over due to partying for weeks on end, or they’ve been under going months of a siege. I don’t see any castles around here, so it better not be the former.” you demand.
“I…I don’t know my Emperor. Everything was fine until recently. I mean as fine as it could be with groups of sneaking beast people attempting to bushwhack our patrols every so often. Now it’s like most of us can’t get a restful sleep and a lot of us are just never fully awake anymore. Just a tired feeling even if we haven’t been doing much during a particular day. Some have even reported odd or bad dreams.”

While you can’t be certain of what would cause such a thing, you feel you’re pretty safe in assuming one possibility.

“Sounds like magic. Or some form of it. Why haven’t you had your mages check it out?” you ask.
“I would have, but they’re all dead my Emperor. If it isn’t the blasted centaurs with their deadly accuracy, it’s the damn satyrs with their own wild magic. It’s like they target our mages even if they lose more than half of their own numbers in the process.”
“That can’t be a coincidence. Seems like it’s the goat wizards doing this to your command. Better double your efforts and hunt them all down within the vicinity.”
“Well, I have since I thought that might be the case, but I don’t think it’s the Torites doing this. Their mages seem to focus on earth based or elemental magic, nothing to do with the mind or similar witchery. I think they’d be more likely to summon a tornado at us, which thankfully they haven’t done yet.” Ackerson explains.
“Perhaps, this is just a taste of their what their mages can also do, still if you don’t believe its them, who else? The people here don’t look happy about the Empire taking charge of this place. You sure there isn’t a hidden mage here?”
“No, don’t think so. The people of this town have also complained about feeling tired also. In fact that’s probably why they’re pissed at us. To them, we brought this curse as they call it to their town.”
“Okay, what about that new kingdom you said you made contact with? What’s the name of it?”
“Oh them. The Broki Kingdom. I’m not even sure they have any mages. The whole place is backwards. Its chaotic nature reminds me of Rask before the Empire enforced order to it. It’s barely even a kingdom and certainly not like the one the Felkans had. A single king runs the kingdom this is true, but he’s not a strong one. The only reason why he hasn’t been overthrown is because the rest of the barons are all too busy scheming against each other.”
“That sounds like a rather inefficient way to run a government.” You say.
“From what I can tell it is. Practically nothing gets accomplished other than minor civil wars over land by the barons. Some of the barons have seen our arrival as an opportunity to make a mighty friend for their own power grab. The king on the other hand has apparently been making speeches warning his subjects that they all need to put up a united front lest they all be swallowed up by the Empire.”
“Hmm. Sounds like this king isn’t an unintelligent fellow despite the fact that it’ll be a futile task to stop us even if he does manage to keep his kingdom united.”
“We haven’t made any major moves against the Broki yet since we’ve been still focusing on the Torites, then this wave of fatigue that’s been plaguing my command and that’s made things more difficult as well.”

Just as you’re about to answer what the next move should be, a messenger who is panting heavily and ragged looking interrupts you.

“(Gasp) Message…(pant) for the Emperor! Very (pant) important…” he says handing you a letter.
“Why are you out of so much breath, boy? Surely you rode a horse here?” Ackerson asks.
“Half way, (pant) horse died. Rode too hard (gasp) Ran rest of the way. Message from Sightmaster Warrick. (pant) Very important.”
“Shit, well I guess I better open it then. And someone get this boy some water before he collapses.” You say opening the letter.

Emperor,

As always I hate to be the bearer of troubling news, but it is best you know.

While boarding the Storm, I took a little tour of the ship before it took flight. It is quite impressive and I’m sure it will be a mighty weapon in the service of the Empire when it has been inspected again.

I say again, because unfortunately I found one of the crew was a saboteur. It was fairly subtle. He didn’t place a bomb on the ship, but instead had rigged the prototype repeater so that it would explode when used. The explosion would’ve caused much damage and most likely would’ve resulted in setting part of the ship aflame, which then would’ve caused an even bigger explosion by proxy and ultimately caused it to crash to the ground.

I had a list of every member who was working under Elam and all of them save for this saboteur had been an Empire citizen from birth. This one apparently just showed up one day and proved he had engineering skills, so Elam hired him. I would’ve interrogated him, but he committed suicide by slitting his own throat with his dagger as soon as I had discovered the sabotage. Curious that he did not just simply try to quietly sneak off, but I can only assume he did not believe that he was going to get away with it since he was the main one who had last fired the prototype repeater during the weapon testing. Either that or he is working for an unforgiving master who would’ve killed him anyway for his failure.

I’ve already questioned Elam and the rest of his staff, but I believe they genuinely didn’t know, though I wonder about Elam’s judgment skills. I highly recommend that he not screen any further employees he requires, at least not without an Eye present.

I will return to my post as I now have wonder if there is some sort of conspiracy or possibly leaks in our security system. As much as I would’ve liked to have taken that ride to the western front and kill some Torites, the internal safety of the Empire comes first. I’m sure you would agree.

Long Live the Empire,

Sightmaster Warrick

“Problems, Emperor?” Ackerson asks.
“As always, but Warrick’s got it under control for now. In the meantime we still need to solve your problem. I want your most skilled soldiers reporting to me tomorrow. Have you done a thorough check of that large nearby forest area? Don’t the goats prefer them over other terrain.”
“Somewhat, but its very vast my Emperor.”
“Well, I’m going to go over it again. Something is being missed. Maybe I should call in those new kobold commando units too. It’s possible the goats are hiding somewhere right underneath us and if there are, the kobolds can tunnel underground faster than any of us can and find out immediately.”

While you’re taking charge of things, you tell Ackerson to go get some rest. You aren’t normally used to casting magic for beneficial reasons, quite frankly other than healing magic it wasn’t ever really part of your training. Still, you know enough to block out the affects of the Torite spell at least temporarily and it’s a welcome relief to your troops who manage to get well rested for once.

You don’t waste time and begin your search of forest area immediately. It’s not an easy task and you’re attacked multiple times by satyrs along with their minotaur muscle. Your first encounter with them is exhilarating. It’s probably the first proper bit of personal combat you’ve had in years.

The goats don’t put up that much of challenge for you, but the bulls, now there’s a suitable challenge. During your first encounter with Torite forces, a pair of the bovine monsters attack you with huge axes that a human would now doubt have to hold in one two hands, but for them the weapons are swung around easily with one.

As you’re dodging their attacks and landing hits when you can, you can’t help but think the whole time that you hope you can at least tame some of these beasts somehow as they would make an excellent addition to your forces.

Whether you eventually will or not doesn’t matter though, since these two in particular eventually fall to your blade after an extended battle.

“Are you okay my Emperor?” one of your soldiers asks.
“Okay? Are you joking? I missed this shit. This is the best I’ve felt in a long time!” you exclaim.

You spend another few days searching the forests and have a few more encounters with Torites, some of the groups even contain the goat wizards, but even with their elimination you don’t sense that the magic is gone. In fact the whole time you’re in the forest you get the feeling of being continually watched the entire time and you get the impression it isn’t just the average Torite lurking about.

You aren’t the only one who feels that way.

“There’s something out there…and it ain’t no man.” One of your soldiers says to you while you’re staring up at the trees.
“Of course it isn’t, it’s probably something fairly inhuman.” You respond.
“Well that too, but I meant literally that it’s female.”
“Oh, not this elven fairy tale shit again.” Another soldier remarks rolling his eyes.

You probably didn’t notice due to the helmet and armor and the fact that you didn’t inspect every single soldier Ackerson sent with you, but the first soldier who addressed you isn’t actually human. He’s an elf. This is certainly a rarity since as far as you knew there weren’t any elves in the army or at least it isn’t a profession most of them choose. Assuming that they’re free of course.

“Quiet. I want to hear this. What’s your name corporal?” you ask.
“Flevas, Emperor.” The elf answers.
“Surprised Ackerson didn’t point you out immediately, might’ve been nice to know I had someone with an affinity to forests and shit in my command.”
“The general…let’s just say doesn’t care for my kind very much and prefers to ignore my potential talents. I suppose even he couldn’t ignore my battle prowess though. So I was quietly slipped in. ”
“Okay, so what do you know?”
“Honestly? Probably nothing. I don’t even know why I spoke. After years of being in an army that barely tolerates my presence I don’t normally bother to speak at all.”
“Alright, alright, cut the oppressed elven routine, if you’ve got something important to say then just say it.”
“Very well Emperor.” Flevas remarks.

“I can’t be certain and contrary to popular belief we sveld don’t have some magical all encompassing knowledge to nature. If we did, we most likely wouldn’t be in the current situation we are now. However, I suppose we do tend to have instinct and we do have lots of old stories. One of these stories is of dryads. They’re being that make their homes among the trees or within the trees. The stories aren’t really clear if they’re flesh and blood beings that tend to remain invisible or they’re some sort of spirit. Though from the stories they always appear in female form when they actually appear at all. They also never directly attack and rely on manipulating denizens of the forest and their magic. As I said I think there’s one in this forest, maybe even several. I don’t really know. What I do know is they do have access to magic that can affect the mind.” Flevas explains.
“And you didn’t think this was important enough to tell anyone until now?”
“As I said, my opinions are not highly regarded by the general or anyone else for that matter. I did mention it to him long before you arrived and it was dismissed as old elven nonsense.”
“Then the general is an idiot for dismissing the possibility given all the wonders in this world that have been seen and yet to be seen. But I’ll deal with that later, so in these stories how does one go about killing one of these dryads?”
“Killing? Heh, well in the sveld stories, dryads aren’t killed, they’re revered as protectors of nature. The only ones actively trying to kill them in stories are the svelk and as you might imagine they always fail in the stories.”
“Okay so how did the svelk try to kill them?”
“Oh usually by futilely attempting to destroy an entire forest. This can range from the predictable firestorm magic attempts to hilarious efforts of trying to cut down every tree.”
“Fire doesn’t work?”
“It works, but not fast enough. I mean even a fire takes time to destroy an entire normal forest assuming it doesn’t burn itself out. Dryads as you can imagine are a little more pro-active on saving their homes. Along with their magic, it would seem that the Torites are willing allies which would mean they’d probably help put out any fire we set. Assuming there are more in the forest.”
“Hrm, maybe the svelk in those stories just weren’t persistent enough.” You say.
“I dunno, svelk are pretty tenacious when it comes to killing.”

Flevas has given you something to think about and it all involves destroying the forest. The fastest way would be to start building a few more catapults to fling flaming debris, and send for a few more mages to assist you in creating a larger firestorm. You have to believe that it would be more than enough to incinerate the forest within a matter of days.

Of course the better way to ignite that forest is a way the svelk didn’t have, namely an airship that can drop firebombs from the sky. Of course given recent events, the Storm is going through yet another safety inspection then it has to get here, all of which is going to take time. Time which might cause the Torites to increase their defenses and who knows what else.
> You attack with the Storm
Whatever defenses the Torites are going to muster within the time you come back with the Storm as far as you’re concerned aren’t going to be enough to save them. Better you should come back prepared and your soliders better rested as well.

“I think it’s time to leave. In fact I think it’ll be best if the entire army moves away from this area.” You say.
“We’re retreating?” Flevas asks.
“Call it a tactical withdraw. I’m not done with this place though. Not done with you either, your input on this was very useful.”
“Um, thank you Emperor.” Flevas says unsure of how to take the fact that he’s called attention to himself to the ruler of the Empire.

When you return, you give Ackerson an earful of his failure to use his resources wisely and not even informing you of the potential of certain soldiers who could come in useful. You also explain that the only reason why he isn’t being demoted is that he had the intelligence to at least see Flevas’ combat abilities and send him with you in the first place.

You have the army relocate to one of the towns closer to the Empire for resupplying and reinforcements. There is a bit of downtime, but there is also some routine patrolling which allows you to engage in battle against a group of those centaur creatures. Tedious foes. Constantly galloping away while firing their arrows. You appreciated the bull creatures’ attempts at caving your skull in with their axes a lot more.

Eventually you get the message you’ve been waiting for and that’s when you make your way back to the vicinity of the forest. When you arrive, you and the back up mages begin to prepare for your assault on the entire forest.

You call Flevas over, who you see nearby.

“So what do you think to this plan? Be honest.”
“Well Emperor, as I said the svelk in the stories attempted something like this as well and while I know that you certainly have powerful magic at your command, I’m not certain that the rest of your mages having your same abilities.”
“I see. So you don’t believe Empire mages are up to the challenge of setting one measly forest on fire and completely burning it to the ground.”
“I didn’t say that…”
“Oh, well you must’ve also implied that even if our mages fail that I would not have the capacity to pick up their slack.”
“I definitely did not mean…”

You start laughing.

“Relax elf, I’m fucking with you. Beside this isn’t the entire plan, the rest of it is over there in the near distance.” You say and point over at the airship slowing making its way towards your position. Most of the army is looking in that direction too.

“I heard the rumors, but is that the ship that can fly?” Flevas asks.
“That is indeed the Empire’s new pride in the skies. The Storm. And that’s exactly what it’s going to do over that forest. Those dryads might be expecting us to attempt a magic firestorm, but I guarantee they’re not going to be expecting one that involves a lot of explosions.”

The Storm is indeed an impressive sight and you can imagine how it will terrify your future enemies. For right now though, you’re content on it just killing them.

Along with the airship and your magic, you also have a row of catapults continually barrage the forest with flaming material. You and the army periodically move and keep on the outskirts of forest while the Storm works its assault within the center of the forest. Between the two, the decimation of the forest is certain even if it does take a few days.

Forest creatures, but more importantly Torites eventually come running out of the forests, some manage to get away, others attempt to fight your army in an attempt to kill you and the other mages, but they naturally fail.

You actually do lose a few of the weaker mages who can’t keep up their energy and collapse completely drained of life. Hardly matters since you accomplish your task with vicious efficiency. Eventually the forest goes from being an inferno to a blacked wasteland with only burnt tree husks and stumps left. Whatever is still alive, is going to be easy to find.

You order a search and participate in it yourself, as you are eager to see if there might be some sort of evidence of this mysterious dryad or dryads. It might be that you just burned down an entire forest for no reason, but then it is one less area for the Torites to hide in.

You do sense a faint bit of magic though. Very weak, but there none the less. You immediately follow the trail until it leads you to your goal.

And there you see a naked, heavily burned female creature. Its limbs are slightly longer and thinner than even the average elf. It has a very delicate appearance and might even be considered pretty looking if it wasn’t covered in burns and struggling for life.

It pathetically lays on the ground semi-curled up near a stump that is nearly completely burnt. It looks at you with its big eyes and then over nearby at some other bodies you didn’t even notice. They look like more dryads though, all dead.

The dryad shakes and clutches tighter to the stump as you approach. It even begins making a few sounds, which causes you to immediately raise a force shield, expecting some sort of last attack.

“She isn’t casting a spell Emperor. She’s whispering some sort of prayer. I think.” Flevas remarks.
“About what and how do you know what she’s saying?”
“I…don’t know! It’s like she’s in my head all of a sudden and I can understand some of her language. Something about…back to earth…child of nature…unnatural force of death…she’s very sad.”
“I would imagine so.” You reply.
“Yeah, but it’s not for herself, it’s for me.” Flevas says.

Flevas at this point walks past you and over to the dying dryad. She looks up at him sorrowfully and stops whatever it was that she speaking about. He kneels down beside her and for a brief moment he looks at her sadly as well, but then his face then turns to one of anger and he ends her suffering with a knife to her neck. She gurgles a bit and then dies.

“Another victory for the Empire.” Flevas says and walks past you.

You stare at the dead dryad for a moment and survey the surrounding desolation.

“Well, I guess we know they’re flesh and blood creatures now.” You remark and tell the rest of nearby soldiers to start heading back to the camp.

When you get back, General Ackerson tells you that they’re holding a courier from the Broki Kingdom. The courier works for one of the opportunistic barons. Baron Divilak

Apparently this Baron Divilak has heard much about the Empire and sees no reason to resist your inevitable annexation. He claims that he can make things simpler for you by giving out information of major strong points, security secrets, that sort of thing as well as providing his own military support. Of course he wants to meet in person before all this so that you may hammer out any other stipulations and agreements, but basically what he asks in return is to govern over the new Empire province and that he get to execute King Tiklov himself.

It certainly would be easier with inside help and you were originally toying with the idea of taking advantage of the disorganized nature of the Broki Kingdom by having one or two of the barons side with you in the first place. Of course you never know with those scheming types after all if they’re willing to sell out everything for their own personal gain now, what’s stopping them from doing something similar to the Empire in the future? At the very least, the amount of corruption might tend to be higher than what is acceptable.

With the recent display of power by the Storm, you’re wondering if you shouldn’t just make a gross display of force and cow them all into submission and dispense with any pretense of a “friendly” take over. Of course the problem with this plan, is you might actually unite the kingdom due to your brutality and it might take longer to conquer the place.
> You deal with the baron
The whole point of conquest is to not completely destroy the land you’re attempting to take over. Why decimate perfectly good territory when a better way presents itself? Besides its probably best to use a weapon like the Storm sparingly. The threat of it should be enough.

“Tell your baron that I’ll meet him, but it’s going to have be at some sort of neutral ground and I’m not coming by myself. If he thinks I’m going to go walking into his land by myself he better just forget this meeting entirely and prepare his armies.” You tell the courier.
“Ah, yes I believe the Baron did expect that you’d say something like that, so he is fully prepared to make arrangements to meet you halfway at an abandoned inn by a crossroads a few miles south from here rather than having to go to him.” The courier replies.
“Hrm. Sounds like he really wants my help. Fine, but if I see an army marching with him, well you can guess what’s going to happen.”
“Oh no, that won’t happen mighty Emperor. He might arrive with some personal servants, but nothing more than that I assure you.”
“He better not. Alright then, off with you.” You say and wave away the courier who bows and takes his leave.

With the courier gone you turn back to Ackerson.

“I want you and the rest of the army to stay here until I get back. The troops could probably use the rest after this whole ordeal with the dryads. Obviously if I don’t get back within a day then I want you to annihilate the Broki Kingdom.” You say.
“My Emperor, aren’t you going to take some people with you? Surely you’ll want back up just in case.”
“Well of course, that’s why Flevas is going with me.”
“While I now see the error of not recognizing his potential sooner, I must insist that you take a few more. Not all the troops are so tired that they can’t help their Emperor!”
“Well I can honestly say I’m not particularly worried about anything this baron can throw at me even if it is a trap, I suppose it never hurts to have more people. Fine then, pick out ten for me and I’ll get going.”

After the ten are picked, you all make your way south. Really you’re sort of wondering where the hell a road is even located, because all you’ve seen is mostly wilderness and long untamed grassy fields. Eventually though Flevas’ tracking skills come in handy and he locates the very faint remnants of one.

The “road” hasn’t been upkept in years, probably decades. Only portions of stone in a semi straight line are evidence that one even existed. Still, it at least proves you’re going in the right direction and eventually a dilapidated building stands before you in the distance.

“Must be the inn. Don’t see any signs of the baron or an army yet.” You say.
“Maybe they’re inside.” Flevas says.
“Well maybe the baron is, but I doubt if even he could fit an army in there.”
“Maybe not an army, but it only takes a few assassins to kill a man.”
“Glad to see you’re so suspicious Flevas, were you volunteering to scout out the place first?”
“If that is what you wish Emperor.”
“If you’re going to scout it out then don’t go alone, take some people with you….sheesh I sound like Ackerson.”

Flevas and three of your other troops ride away towards the inn and you wait. Twenty minutes pass and you see one of your soldiers riding back towards you.

“Well?”
“He’s dead my Emperor.”
“What?! Who?!”
“The baron. I mean at least we think its him, never having seen him before and all. He’s dressed pretty fancy. Doesn’t look like anyone else is around, but whether it’s the baron or not there’s still a dead man in there. Flevas is still doing some checking, he said he’d prefer it if you were there to see this for yourself.”
“(Sigh) Why can’t anything be simple? I knew I should’ve just used the Storm…” you say exasperated as you all ride off towards the inn.

When you arrive you enter the inn and see your other two soldiers and on the floor you don’t see the baron or an unknown dead man, what you see is Flevas and before you can react, you feel a couple crossbow bolts hit you in the face. One just below one of your eyes and another into your cheek. A couple more hit you in your right arm and leg. You crumple to the floor on one knee groaning in pain.

“SHIT, I missed his brain! Somebody get him quick before he starts casting magic!” you hear a voice say and several people tackle you forward to the ground. You attempt to get up, but several people are putting their entire weight on your back making it impossible. You attempt to cast a spell, but someone quickly gets the bright idea to repeatedly stomp on one of your hands with their foot while someone else just chops off the other one with an axe blow.

“Hey asshole! You nearly hit me!” a soldier shouts.
“Fuck…ing traitors, I’ll kill all…” you start to utter and then a boot kicks you in the face sinking the bolt under your eye deeper. You begin to feel disoriented and unable to see properly.

“Stop playing with the fool, just kill him! Like this!” you hear a familiar voice shout.

Is that Eldolith?

You’ll never know for sure as a well-placed bolt pierces your skull.


Whatever defenses the Torites are going to muster within the time you come back with the Storm as far as you’re concerned aren’t going to be enough to save them. Better you should come back prepared and your soliders better rested as well.

“I think it’s time to leave. In fact I think it’ll be best if the entire army moves away from this area.” You say.
“We’re retreating?” Flevas asks.
“Call it a tactical withdraw. I’m not done with this place though. Not done with you either, your input on this was very useful.”
“Um, thank you Emperor.” Flevas says unsure of how to take the fact that he’s called attention to himself to the ruler of the Empire.

When you return, you give Ackerson an earful of his failure to use his resources wisely and not even informing you of the potential of certain soldiers who could come in useful. You also explain that the only reason why he isn’t being demoted is that he had the intelligence to at least see Flevas’ combat abilities and send him with you in the first place.

You have the army relocate to one of the towns closer to the Empire for resupplying and reinforcements. There is a bit of downtime, but there is also some routine patrolling which allows you to engage in battle against a group of those centaur creatures. Tedious foes. Constantly galloping away while firing their arrows. You appreciated the bull creatures’ attempts at caving your skull in with their axes a lot more.

Eventually you get the message you’ve been waiting for and that’s when you make your way back to the vicinity of the forest. When you arrive, you and the back up mages begin to prepare for your assault on the entire forest.

You call Flevas over, who you see nearby.

“So what do you think to this plan? Be honest.”
“Well Emperor, as I said the svelk in the stories attempted something like this as well and while I know that you certainly have powerful magic at your command, I’m not certain that the rest of your mages having your same abilities.”
“I see. So you don’t believe Empire mages are up to the challenge of setting one measly forest on fire and completely burning it to the ground.”
“I didn’t say that…”
“Oh, well you must’ve also implied that even if our mages fail that I would not have the capacity to pick up their slack.”
“I definitely did not mean…”

You start laughing.

“Relax elf, I’m fucking with you. Beside this isn’t the entire plan, the rest of it is over there in the near distance.” You say and point over at the airship slowing making its way towards your position. Most of the army is looking in that direction too.

“I heard the rumors, but is that the ship that can fly?” Flevas asks.
“That is indeed the Empire’s new pride in the skies. The Storm. And that’s exactly what it’s going to do over that forest. Those dryads might be expecting us to attempt a magic firestorm, but I guarantee they’re not going to be expecting one that involves a lot of explosions.”

The Storm is indeed an impressive sight and you can imagine how it will terrify your future enemies. For right now though, you’re content on it just killing them.

Along with the airship and your magic, you also have a row of catapults continually barrage the forest with flaming material. You and the army periodically move and keep on the outskirts of forest while the Storm works its assault within the center of the forest. Between the two, the decimation of the forest is certain even if it does take a few days.

Forest creatures, but more importantly Torites eventually come running out of the forests, some manage to get away, others attempt to fight your army in an attempt to kill you and the other mages, but they naturally fail.

You actually do lose a few of the weaker mages who can’t keep up their energy and collapse completely drained of life. Hardly matters since you accomplish your task with vicious efficiency. Eventually the forest goes from being an inferno to a blacked wasteland with only burnt tree husks and stumps left. Whatever is still alive, is going to be easy to find.

You order a search and participate in it yourself, as you are eager to see if there might be some sort of evidence of this mysterious dryad or dryads. It might be that you just burned down an entire forest for no reason, but then it is one less area for the Torites to hide in.

You do sense a faint bit of magic though. Very weak, but there none the less. You immediately follow the trail until it leads you to your goal.

And there you see a naked, heavily burned female creature. Its limbs are slightly longer and thinner than even the average elf. It has a very delicate appearance and might even be considered pretty looking if it wasn’t covered in burns and struggling for life.

It pathetically lays on the ground semi-curled up near a stump that is nearly completely burnt. It looks at you with its big eyes and then over nearby at some other bodies you didn’t even notice. They look like more dryads though, all dead.

The dryad shakes and clutches tighter to the stump as you approach. It even begins making a few sounds, which causes you to immediately raise a force shield, expecting some sort of last attack.

“She isn’t casting a spell Emperor. She’s whispering some sort of prayer. I think.” Flevas remarks.
“About what and how do you know what she’s saying?”
“I…don’t know! It’s like she’s in my head all of a sudden and I can understand some of her language. Something about…back to earth…child of nature…unnatural force of death…she’s very sad.”
“I would imagine so.” You reply.
“Yeah, but it’s not for herself, it’s for me.” Flevas says.

Flevas at this point walks past you and over to the dying dryad. She looks up at him sorrowfully and stops whatever it was that she speaking about. He kneels down beside her and for a brief moment he looks at her sadly as well, but then his face then turns to one of anger and he ends her suffering with a knife to her neck. She gurgles a bit and then dies.

“Another victory for the Empire.” Flevas says and walks past you.

You stare at the dead dryad for a moment and survey the surrounding desolation.

“Well, I guess we know they’re flesh and blood creatures now.” You remark and tell the rest of nearby soldiers to start heading back to the camp.

When you get back, General Ackerson tells you that they’re holding a courier from the Broki Kingdom. The courier works for one of the opportunistic barons. Baron Divilak

Apparently this Baron Divilak has heard much about the Empire and sees no reason to resist your inevitable annexation. He claims that he can make things simpler for you by giving out information of major strong points, security secrets, that sort of thing as well as providing his own military support. Of course he wants to meet in person before all this so that you may hammer out any other stipulations and agreements, but basically what he asks in return is to govern over the new Empire province and that he get to execute King Tiklov himself.

It certainly would be easier with inside help and you were originally toying with the idea of taking advantage of the disorganized nature of the Broki Kingdom by having one or two of the barons side with you in the first place. Of course you never know with those scheming types after all if they’re willing to sell out everything for their own personal gain now, what’s stopping them from doing something similar to the Empire in the future? At the very least, the amount of corruption might tend to be higher than what is acceptable.

With the recent display of power by the Storm, you’re wondering if you shouldn’t just make a gross display of force and cow them all into submission and dispense with any pretense of a “friendly” take over. Of course the problem with this plan, is you might actually unite the kingdom due to your brutality and it might take longer to conquer the place.
> You use the Storm
Negotiating has never been what the Empire has been about. You go in; you crush your enemies under heel and then sort out the details later.

Without another word, you draw your sword and sever the head of the hapless courier. Blood splatters on the onlookers nearby as the head bounces once on the ground near your feet. You give it a small kick towards one of the soldiers.

“Have that courier’s head sent back to the baron in a bag. That will be our answer to his proposals. Well actually the Storm will be the real answer, but for now his courier’s head will do.” You remark.
“Oh. The flying machine? Won’t that need time to resupply from bombing the dryad forest?” Ackerson asks.
“Yes, but it’ll be fine. Let them wait and sweat it out. When he receives his messenger’s head I’m sure he’ll mobilize all his little soldiers, ready for an attack. Won’t do him any good though when the Storm is laying waste to his castle. Then the rest of us will come in and clean up. After we’ve annihilated nearly everything within the baron’s territory, THEN we will give our own demands to the remainder of the Broki Kingdom. In the meantime, tell everyone to keep alert as usual and enjoy this little respite in what is going to be the shortest conflict of this western campaign.”

You retire to your tent where you go through a couple of more traditional letters you’ve received since you were away destroying the dryads. Two of them are from Decena. One talks about how she’s confirmed the rumors of the winged Torites or harpies as they’re known. She explains that they’re even more tedious foe than the centaurs due to their flight ability. The standard practice is to fill the skies with arrows and bullets whenever possible. Galen has been pulling his weight, but as you’ve come to expect the Torites have been systematically targeting mages, he’s barely escaped death several times and is one of the few wizards Decena has left. Fortunately she doesn’t report anything close to the dryad activity Ackerson experienced, but you’ll have to send her a message back warning her about them.

Her second letter is something you’re hesitant to open, since you know it’s going to be of a more personal nature. You sort of thought that maybe her time away from you and her apparent enjoyment of battle would slowly erode her feelings for you, but that hasn’t happened.

In any case, you put aside the letter for later and turn your attention to another letter which is from Warrick giving you an update on his findings. He mentions that he’s uncovered nothing that would suggest an internal conspiracy yet, but just says that the elven population has been complaining more than usual as of late. So far there is no evidence that they’re planning anything from the ones he’s brought in, but that doesn’t mean that they aren’t.
This gets you wondering about something that occurred earlier and you have Felvas brought to you.

“So…that was quite the show back there with the dryads.” You say.
“I’m afraid I don’t quite understand sir.” Flevas answers.
“Oh come on. You don’t need to hide it. You were upset to see dryads get killed. Hell, you probably were upset to see the forest burn to the ground.”
“It was necessary.”
“Of course it was necessary, but the point is you REALLY didn’t like it. Not only did you not like it, you were personally offended. Why something like could cause a man to habor ill feelings that fester underneath the skin and come out in ill advised ways.”

Flevas is silent as you study his reaction to what you’re implying.

“Emperor, I am not a traitor to Empire. I would never…”
“Yes, yes, yes, I know. You would never betray an Empire that oppresses your people…well if your people’s complaints are anything to go by.”
“But I finished off the dryad without your orders!”
“So? You’ve probably done a lot of things you don’t like doing. Hell, it was a mercy kill anyway. One might even think that you did it just for my benefit. Believing that you were the good loyal elf. Tell me, is that what your people are doing? Are they emulating the shadows and just biding their time?”
“What?! I don’t know! I mean no! Emperor, I…”
“Silence!” you shout and backhand Flevas to the face causing him to stagger.

“Now then, you’ve got two options. One is bad, and one is to start telling me the truth.”

Flevas rubs his face and then composes himself. He doesn’t display anger like he did with the dryad, but he does do that elf thing with his eyes, like they’re looking right through you and that you’re nothing at all. Semra was really good at it.

“So what do you want me to say? Yes! I HATE the fucking Empire! Yes! I HATE every fucking human I have to work with and put up with their shit! I HATE the fact that my people are the lowest rung of society even though that includes fucking kobolds now! FUCKING KOBOLDS!”
“Kobolds are very loyal and eager to serve.” You respond.
“And they’re damn idiots! So are the brainless orcs and look at what you did to them! They’re nearly extinct because you have them soak up all the major fighting during the Felkan War!”
“They enjoyed the fighting. Besides, they’re building up their numbers now.”
“Yeah, so you can use them in the next big ass war! Well I’m fucking sorry we sveld don’t feel that way! We don’t enjoy conflict and bloodshed! We cherish freedom! Freedom we haven’t had for centuries! If it wasn’t the orcs hunting us down it was the accursed svelk massacring and torturing us!”
“Exactly, and you’d think that you’d be grateful for the Empire for saving you from such things like the orcs and svelk.”
“Right. Because humans are so much better? Humans fucking enslaved us.”
“Actually there are probably just as many human slaves than there are elven ones right now.”
“Yeah and all the human ones are criminals! And even if when the sveld aren’t outright slaves, they’re so destitute or desperate that they’re worked like slaves. It’s a fucking sorry existence, yet as much as we bitch and bitch and BITCH about our plight, we’ve got nobody to blame but ourselves.”
“You believe that?” you ask a little surprised at his claim
“Honestly? Yeah, I do. I believe the sveld have been kicked around so long by everyone and cowed into submission that we love playing the fucking victim. It’s actually gotten to the point where it’s more enjoyable than actually trying to DO something.”
“I dunno about that. There have been sveld rebellions in the past and a lot of them border on being dissidents to this day.” You say.
“The full blown rebellions consisting of nothing but sveld are a rarity and considering how badly we’ve been treated why there haven’t been more just confirms my belief that sveld prefer playing the victim. In fact the Empire has had more problems keeping humans in line. As for dissidents, I know the Empire frowns upon anyone who dares to look at it wrong, but I guarantee the main ones bitching probably aren’t doing anything other than just that, bitching.”
“Sort of like you are now?”
“Yes, damn it. Exactly like how I am right now! You asked me to tell you the truth, well that’s what I’m doing as ordered! Why? Because I’m that good loyal sveld!

You stay silent and continue to listen to Flevas rant, other soldiers have entered your tent believing something amiss, but you wave them away signifying that everything is fine.

“You know why I ultimately killed that dryad? It wasn’t out of mercy. It was out of anger that such a creature that attempted to know my thoughts and feelings and dared to feel sorry for me. Fuck that, we have enough of that shit going on in the sveld community. Even some of the so-called kind humans will occasionally do the same and it’s sickening every time. In the scheme of things, I’m not an old sveld, but I feel like I know a hell of a lot more how to deal with this shitty life I’ve been handed. Don’t complain and try to just do your job. The best way to do this is in the military. You never have a choice here; it’s kill or be killed. It’s follow orders and don’t think.”
“So is that why you joined the military?” you ask.
“I joined because I wasn’t going to have my wife blowing disgusting humans for coin or have my children begging on the street like paupers. I wasn’t going to clean privy holes for some human piece of shit who probably can’t even read, yet thinks that they’re somehow better just because they’re not sveld. I wasn’t going to fucking whine about my position in life and get my ass whisked away in the middle of the night by the Eyes or just killed on the spot. I was going to at least TRY to make the best of things even if I hate every damn moment of it.”

Flevas’ at this point isn’t doing that elf eye thing anymore; he’s long since lost his calm demeanor and looking far more emotional. You get the impression that he’s probably wanted to say this to SOMEBODY for a very long time. And now he has the advantage of telling it directly to the Emperor. You know that has to feel good for him somewhere.

“And with any luck… I’d get to kill some humans in the process. That’s why I joined. ” Flevas says ending his rant which causes a nod from you.

“Well you’ll get your chance soon in the Broki Kingdom.”
“I thought you were using that flying ship.”
“I am, but it can’t do all the work can it? Besides, it’s just going to be there for added terror for the most part. As usual the regular army is going to do the clean up work. It’ll be grim business. Despite the civilian population, we aren’t going to be leaving much alive in this particular battle, but as you probably can guess, it’s necessary.”

Flevas nods and continues to stand at attention unsure of what to expect next.

“You’re dimissed.” You say.
“That’s it?” Flevas asks.
“For now at least. If anything else comes up that I think I need to talk to you about, you’ll be the first to know. Oh actually there is one more question. Is there anything that you do like about the Empire?”

Flevas doesn’t think about it too long.

“There was a law instituted to have svelk killed on sight.”
“Heh, yeah that is a good one.” You say and Flevas takes his leave.

You make a mental note, that Flevas should be promoted in the future. His attitude and views are clear, but he’s no traitor. As you’ve always believed, you don’t need people to like you, you just need them to be loyal.

In a couple of days the assault is in full force on the Broki Kingdom, or at least Baron Divilak’s land. You specifically tell your troops that only Divilak’s land and people are to be attacked. Of course if he gets any help from neighboring barons or the king himself then the order is to show them no mercy.

Divilak doesn’t receive any help though, or if he was, his allies lost courage when they saw the Storm raining fire down upon Divilak’s castle. You can imagine that the Broki have never seen such a thing before and probably hope to never see something like that hovering above them.

To their credit, Divilak’s soldiers hold their ground initially, but in the end your army scatters them. You imagine that Divilak probably had one of the stronger militaries in this dysfunctional kingdom given that they didn’t run immediately when they saw the Storm. Of course now, that has been reduced to nothing.

While your first plan was going to be to utterly wipe out everyone within Divilak’s territory as a message of sorts to the rest of the Broki population to fall in line lest they suffer the same fate, you decide to hold back and the civilian population slaughter and come up with another plan.

“Flevas, there you are. Got an important job for you.” You say stepping over several bodies on the battlefield.

“Emperor.” He reports.
“You’re going to get to do something very important for your people. Hell, you may even go down in history as a hero to them. Would certainly be a more worthwhile story than about some tree hugging dryads. I want you to round up the remainder of the civilian population with this territory. For every one you bring in, you free one elf from his slave chains. We’ll work out the details later, but for now take whoever you think would be best to help you for this mission and if you get any trouble say this is a direct order from the Emperor. I’d also advise you to limit the casualties, but I imagine you already know that.”
“Yes, my Emperor.” Flevas says and instantly runs off to perform the task.

With any luck, this is the sort of thing that MIGHT cause the elves to stop complaining so much. Maybe they’ll all start following Flevas’ example and not only accept their lot in life, but to stop complaining about it. In time maybe they won’t even be your “problem citizens” anymore.

Of course the Divilak’s people aren’t going to enjoy their new designation, but then they’re not suppose to. You’re still sending a message to the rest of the Broki. Submit or this is what will happen. Your armies scattered, your buildings destroyed, and your citizens enslaved.

Soon after the razing of the barony, you are visited by a very frightened Broki courier. He is escorted by your soldiers and nervously gives a message to you. It’s from the king and apparently he’s sending you this message even though his advisors have told him not to. He says for the good of his people and he hopes in your mercy that you will cease your attack as he is formally surrendering the Broki Kingdom to the Empire.

A few days later you meet with King Tiklov who makes a formal showing in front of his people that the Broki Kingdom is now no more and that it now will be the Broki province of the Empire. Tiklov will still remain in power, but only as a figurehead and to be involved in the day to day governing, assisted by some of your own administrators of course.

The annexation goes more or less smoothly, but you come to find out a disturbing discovery. You come to find out that some of the barons had secret dealings with svelk advisors. In fact Divilak was one of them. Certainly explains why the kingdom was involved in civil wars before you arrived. Hell, Divilak’s offer to meet with you might’ve been an attempt on your life.

These svelk advisors of course have all fled to who knows where by now, but you definitely think you know who tried to have you killed aboard the Storm. You also know that it has to be Semra masterminding all this, wherever she is. You’ll have to keep alert, but then you always are.

You have the barons that had such dealings with svelk executed. It wasn’t like they were necessary any longer anyway.
>
Year 42

While you doubt this is going to be your last battle with the Torites, you’re at least hoping it’s going to be the one to break their spirit to the point where they become less of a problem.

Still, the fact that they’ve finally unified their forces into armies shows you that they realize you aren’t going to just go away and their hit and run tactics and attempts to win through attrition aren’t going to succeed. It shows you that this is a concentrated effort to get rid of you once and for all. It won’t work either and really works to your benefit. It allows you the opportunity to kill a bunch of them in one large grouping now.

Maybe there will always be pockets of Torites lurking in the untamed wilderness but one thing is certain. The territory WILL be the Empire’s and the Torites can either submit and see the light like the kobolds eventually did or slowly be driven into extinction like the gnolls.

But that’s in the future, right now you’re drawing up the plans for this impeding battle. Considering how large the Torite horde is, you’ve combined your available forces with Decena’s army. It was quite the happy day for her seeing as she hasn’t seen you for five years. You still aren’t quite sure how you exactly feel about her, but she’s definitely been winning you over as far as her victories have been concerned. She remains professional always in front of everyone, but the first time she got you alone, she literally jumped on you and wrapped her legs around your waist, planting a kiss on you.

But again, you can sort out your possible complications with Decena later. Now is the time to make sure the both of you come out of this alive.

“We should have the second airship here before we begin our assault. Hopefully that will take some of the pressure off of the Storm to deal with the harpies.” You remark.
“Its isn’t just the bird bitches that flap about though. Don’t forget, there are still those manticores and those chimeras.” General Ackerson remarks.
“Yes, I’m well aware of both, Ackerson. Thank you for pointing out the obvious. However, I’m more inclined to believe the Torites will be relying on those beasts to attack our people on the ground. The beasts aren’t the most graceful of fliers and would most likely just be big target, which they will be for us anyway, but they’ll still do more damage to a group of soldiers on foot and horseback rather than a flying fortress before going down.” You remark.
“Those chimera things don’t even fly very high. The wings are almost so small that they’re just for show. Never had one swoop down on us.” Decena adds.
“Wouldn’t be best to have us mages together so that we can join our energy and create a shield for the majority of the army?” Galen remarks. He isn’t complaining, but he’s definitely trying to find a loop hole to possibly make himself safer and not have to do as much work.”
“Galen, you know that the Torites attempt to target spell slingers as soon as possible. If they actually get you in a group and strike lucky, well there goes a powerful chunk of our fighting force. It’ll make things harder for them if you’re all spread out. Besides, you’re personally going to be hiding behind a small contingent of golems and backed up by Captain Flevas’ men. You couldn’t be any safer.”
“Huh. So my backup lies in the hands of an elf? Might as well kill me now and get it over with.” Galen remarks. You just shake your head and ignore his last comment; he’s too valuable to punish right now.

After hammering out the plan, you and the rest start setting things in motion and preparing everyone. You know the Torite horde is on the move not too far from your location. But they aren’t here yet and won’t be for at least a half-day’s time. It gives you a bit of time to at least get some rest since you’ve been running around attempting to take care of everything and haven’t slept. You didn’t even realize how tired you were until you lie down on your sleeping bag.

Just as you lie down and close your eyes, someone enters your tent and you instinctively grab your sword.

“No point in that, I’m not really here you know.” You hear a familiar voice whisper.

You sit up and see Semra standing before you, or rather the image of her. She’s no doubt using the same kind of magic she did when she tried to convince you to kill Casimir. She’s probably nearby somewhere though.

“I thought you said we weren’t going to see each other again.” You say.
“I didn’t think we would. I truly believed you would die on Mortos. I suppose I underestimated your ability to survive even there. Quite impressive and it’s no surprise that you assumed Casimir’s throne soon after. Everything worked out for you, but tell me how did you accomplish such a feat?”
“Just luck I guess. Look, if you came here to kill me, you’ll need to get behind the long line of Torites marching towards this place.” You say while lying back down and shutting your eyes.
“My, you’re quite confident to stay in such a vulnerable position if you really believe I’m here to kill you.” Semra says.
“No, I know this is just grand standing. If you were really going to kill me you’d have your underlings conspiring with little plots in the shadows.”
“Yes, I’m aware of the troubles you’ve been having lately and while I’m flattered you believe it to me, I’m actually here to clear my good name.”
“Hah!” you snort.
“Okay so just my name. In any event. I’m here to tell you that it isn’t me, though you do have enemies of the svelk persuasion.”
“I’ve got enemies of every persuasion and that’s not a very convincing argument that you’re somehow innocent.”
“Okay how about this then? It’s not me because I’ve been keeping an eye on you and so far you haven’t warranted anything that needs me to stop you yet. My daughter on the other hand disagrees. She claims that my…past with you is clouding my judgment.”
“We never had a past Semra. I don’t know what YOU think it is, but WE were and never will be an item.”
“Oh yes, that’s right. You’ve got that vicious little young thing on your dick now. Decena is her name? She is quite the warrior. Lot of those moves are familiar, they’re all the ones I taught you. Hey have you taught her any of my other moves when you’re bedding her?”

At this point you sit back up, annoyed with Semra’s remark.

“Is this going anywhere because I have a shitload of beast men to slaughter tomorrow and you’re keeping me awake!” You snap.
“Oooh! Struck a nerve did I? Haven’t been able to do that for quite awhile, I really missed it. Tell me though; is it very serious with this one like it was with Alison? Didn’t think you’d get over her so quickly. Really though I don’t know why you pick any of these females. This new one is just likely to wind up dead, if not by the sword then by age. Her youthful appearance with eventually wither and fade like it does with all of those lesser born.”

At this point you lie back down and close your eyes again. You’re not playing this game.

“You done already? Disappointed, you used to be so much more fun. Very well, just listen then Eternal. I know you have a hard time with that, but maybe you’ll actually heed what I have to say for once. I am not your enemy. As I have said, my daughter is your enemy and she makes her base of operations in a city-state called Ryglik and lies south of the former Broki Kingdom. Of course that whole area consists of several city-states and she may very well move around, but that’s the main one she’s operating from.

You remain silent while Semra continues to talk.

“Well I’ll take your silence that you’re at least taking it under consideration. Oh and while you’re at it, you still might want to consider giving up all this foolish nonsense. Perhaps you’re a better Emperor than Casimir ever was, but you’re still mindlessly following a path that you think has been laid out for you. It’s almost like Casimir is still barking orders at you.”
“I guarantee Casimir’s not saying much of anything anymore.” You answer.
“Be that as it may, I’d hate to see you follow in his horribly misguided footsteps and make the same mistakes he did.”
“Well, I don’t have you as an advisor, I’d say that already puts me ahead of the game.”
“Pfft, you’d be lucky to have me by your side. Not my fault you can’t see and accept the truth. Anyway, I’ll take my leave now. Perhaps we’ll see each other, perhaps we won’t. Perhaps we’ll even see each other in the flesh again, wouldn’t that be fun?”
“Sure would, I could give you your dagger back.” You remark.
“Mmmm, I bet you would. Well if that day ever comes, you make sure you give me a long hard kiss as you’re sticking it in me. Oh one last thing, your General Ackerson is planning to betray you at some point during tomorrow’s battle. Not sure when and how, but he’s got quite a few soldiers willing to work with him on it. More of my daughter’s work no doubt.”

With those final words, you cease hearing Semra’s voice. You briefly open your eyes and find that her image is gone as well.

“Fucking bitch.” You mutter, as now you’re never going to be able to sleep with this last bit of information she just gave you.

The big problem is she may very well be telling the truth, because for the most part Semra has never really lied to you. You didn’t believe her at the time, but she told you the complete truth about Casimir and his intentions. She didn’t have Alison killed either. As usual in her own fucked up way that you still don’t understand she has attempted to help you.

Of course that was in the past, she could be lying about everything right now. While she has confirmed your own beliefs that it’s been the svelk working against you, she’s also trying to put the blame all on her daughter. Granted you know they probably don’t get along, but still.

There also has never been any evidence that Ackerson has shown signs of being a potential traitor. Doesn’t even make sense, but then again you can’t trust anyone nowadays.

Now you have to play a guessing game to as whether or not someone on your own side is going to kill you in the middle of battle. You miss the days when all you ever concerned yourself with were the people on the other side trying to kill you.
> You deal with Ackerson
“Shit.” You grumble and get up.

After getting dressed, you march out of your tent with sword in hand. Multiple soldiers on duty ask if you’re okay, but you just ignore them and head directly to where Ackerson’s camp located.

When you arrive, you tell the soldiers on duty that you want to see Ackerson immediately. The general is of course still asleep and when he gets out of his tent he’s still slightly groggy.

“Apologies my Emperor, but what can…” he begins to say and then you cleave his head in with your sword. His face displays a mixture of shock and confusion as the blood trickles down from his head.

You pull the sword out with a sickly sound following it and strike again, this time practically chopping the general’s head in two. At this point the weight of Ackerson’s now lifeless body pulls downward off of your sword and you wipe your sword off in front of the astonished onlookers.

“Alright, listen up because I’m only going to say this once. This man was a fucking traitor. He was planning to betray me at some point during tomorrow’s battle. Don’t ask me how I know, the important thing is I know because I’m the fucking Emperor and I know ALL.”

You continue.

“That being said, I also know he had some of you in on this plan because he was too damn cowardly to face me like a man. I KNOW who you all are and consider this your reprieve from your benevolent Emperor. Help bring us victory tomorrow against the beast folk scum and I’ll forget all about this. However, if I ever get the slightest hint that ANY of you are planning to assassinate me, betray me or be involved in any other type of treason, I WILL make sure that you do not suffer the quick death like I so graciously handed out to the late general here. Do I make myself clear?”

“YES EMPEROR!” everyone shouts.

“Good. Colonel Sini, you’re in charge of Ackerson’s command now. Have someone remove this traitor’s corpse from this camp. I don’t want the aura of his failure and cowardice to rub off on anyone else longer than necessary.”

You take your leave and head back to your tent. You know what you did might not have been necessary since Semra very well might’ve been lying, however you’re fairly confident that you handled it in such a way that it doesn’t matter. You put so much fear into the rest of them that if they didn’t think you were all knowing before they certainly do now.

If it is true though, it is sort of disturbing to you that Eldolith managed to somehow convince some of your own military to try to kill you. That’s the group you rely on the most and feel you have the most identification with, though perhaps you’re taking it for granted that most of them LIKE the military and battles like you do. A lot of them probably joined just to feed their families. Some of them were even conscripted. You can only imagine that she offered a shitload of gold as it doesn’t seem likely that she’d have anything else worthwhile to offer.

You’ll be glad when the orcs have finally raised their numbers back up and the new Eternals are of age to fight.

Despite everything that went on last night, you miraculously actually manage to get a little sleep before the arrival of the Torites. You’re still a little tired, but you think when you get into the thick of battle the thrill of it will kick in and you’ll be invigorated. You usually are.

It seems word of what happened spread fairly quickly to the rest of the camps, even to Decena’s army. You imagine that will at least have to put Galen in a good mood, maybe he’ll whine less now.

When the Torites arrive they certainly look like a chaotic rabble, but it’s no mistake that they mean business. The number of harpies fills the sky to the point where you hope that the Storm can take care of such a flock. The second airship is in far distance behind you. Hopefully by the time it gets to engage in battle it won’t be replacing the Storm so much that it’ll be supporting the Storm.

The cannons and rifles fire as soon as the Torites are within range. Their centaurs return fire with their accurate arrows. The saytr wizards up the ante by casting their elemental magic which rips solid chunks of rock and earth out of the ground and goes flying at your army. It can’t be said that the Torites are any less dangerous just because they’re less technologically advanced.

High above you the Storm takes on the harpy warriors. Even from here, it looks like a swarm of locusts descending on a single blade of wheat. Looks pretty damn grim for the Storm, you just hope if the crew does get overwhelmed they can keep the ship from crashing near your location.

The bull creatures lead the charge along side their horse beast brethren. Another volley of shots takes out some, but they remain relentless in their charge. The satyr rank and file advance steadily behind. They WILL arrive and there will certainly be enough of them left to give your army a good fight.

Your own cavalry meets them and while they have the best training, they can’t overcome the sheer savagery of the minotaurs and as for the centaurs, their very bodies are half horse. They already have the advantage over your own cavalry as far as maneuverability.

Breaks in the Torite army form as they allow their war beasts participate in the charge. Several manticores and chimera of the largest size make their way straight towards you. At their pace, they’re going to be the first ones your people will have to fight. A cannon blast rips through one of the chimera and fireball from one of your mages brings down another, but before you know it, a manticore is shredding apart your front line with its talons and impaling others with its spike tail.

What comes next is utter mayhem. Swords and axes cutting and stabbing. Fangs and claws tearing and biting. Magic on both sides destroying several lives in the blink of an eye. It’s all very glorious.

Decena’s army is holding its own on her front, but then you never had any doubt about that. The only problem they do have is the blasted satyr magic manages to turn the golems against them. Hopefully, Flevas managed to get Galen’s ass out of there before they crushed him. The newly appointed General Sini seems to be doing well on his end. You’re glad to see that the reinforced fear in their ruler has motivated them.

Still, the battle is far from over yet. The fact that you’re simultaneously facing down three bullheads by yourself and a chimera closing in is a great reminder.

You cast a lightning blast at the bulls, which fells two of them, but the third fights through the pain of having his body fried from the inside out. You dodge his axe and follow up with your own sword swing to his meaty leg. The beast roars, but is still undeterred. Two nearby soldiers attempt to help, but are mauled by the chimera which has finally arrived.

The minotaur swings again, but this time you cast a force shield to block the blow. This one has to be some sort of leader or hero or some great warrior to his people because when you swing your sword again to strike, the creature catches its blade and snaps it off leaving you with a broken sword.

“Okay. I get it. A challenge.” You say and step backwards from the minotaur who ignores his deeply cut hand to solidly grip his axe once more.

The bull will have to wait though since the chimera has finally gotten around to attack you. The clumsy beast attempts to pounce, but you leap out of its way and blast one of the its misshaped animal heads with a bolt of fire. Roaring in pain and anger, the creature desperately tries to put out the flames by rubbing the flaming head into the dirt. It hardly stops it from continuing to attack with its scorpion tail. While it misses with its tail, one of its other goat like heads spits a cloud of gas at you. You didn’t even know they could do such a thing, but then these chimeras are rather random beasts.

The gas is certainly poisonous enough to kill the average person, but then you aren’t average. Unfortunately it’s still potent enough to make you feel sick and you gag and wheeze when you inhale a good bit of the stuff.

A paw smashes into your side and you go crashing to the ground. You barely get out of the way of the stinger tail again. Then your old bull friend is there to help with his axe as usual, fortunately someone distracts the bull by attacking him from behind causing him to drop his axe. Unfortunately they fail to kill him and he turns around and breaks their neck with his bare hands, still it’s given you a temporary respite on what to do next.
> You pick up the axe and strike back
Despite being woozy from the gas attack, you grab the minotaur’s axe. The weapon is incredibly heavy, in fact a little heavier than you were expecting. The minotaur advances on you and you clumsily swing at it, but miss completely and you feel the smashing fist of the minotaur across your face which has quite likely broken your jaw.

Sprawled to the ground, you attempt to cast a cone of frost, but the minotaur has already followed up its attack and picked you up off the ground with both hands. Then with one quick move he slams your back over his knee breaking it and throws you in front of the chimera, which has successfully put out the flames you bestowed upon its face earlier.

Your last moments are the chimera’s lion head sinking its fangs into your throat.