16 The messenger of God (5)
In the western part of the Terran Continent, a gruesome war of conquest and glory rages.
Although skirmishes and other battles are going on all across the Fryll Kingdom's northern border, one particularly brutal battle is being fought on a massive scale.
On the border sits a fort of great value, this fort is named Fort Tarec.
Before the war between the Haeterra Empire and the Fryll Kingdom started, this fort was of little importance due to it being relatively far within the borders of the kingdom, however, due to the swift invasion and advance of Haeterra warriors, the borders of the kingdom have been gradually pushed back towards the fort, all the way until this once obsolete fort was now the last remaining major fort standing between the Haeterra invaders and the Capitol of the Fryll Kingdom.
Named after the uncle of the current king, Fort Tarec consisted of a castle that housed the garrison living there along with the fort town that was set up around the castle.
In the Fryll Kingdom, the military was divided into two classes of officers, the acting baron, and the peasant officers.
In the Terran Continent, there is a semi-universal designation for different levels of the standing armies, of course, the tribals of the north do not follow these designations, at least, not yet that is.
Now before you say anything, the reason there are so many universal things among the Terrans and even the other races are due to my divine interference. Using my divine power, I can influence a whole race to follow a certain thing universally, for example, when I created Sofia, I used my divine power to make sure that down the line, all Terrans would worship her as the chief of their pantheon, besides me of course.
I like the call this power... Authors Discretion!
(A/N Hey! stop breaking the fourth wall Tristan!)
Ah yes sorry oh great one.
Anyway, as I was saying earlier. the different levels of military designations are as follows (For Terrans).
- Squad, composed of 25-50 warriors, led by a Squad Leader.
- Battalion, composed of roughly 1,000 warriors, led by a Captain.
- Division, composed of roughly 10,000 warriors, led by a Commander
- Field Army, composed of roughly 50,000 warriors, led by a General
Currently at Fort Tarec, the garrison there is composed of 5 Battalions and the 5 Captains who lead them are all 4th tier warriors, along with the baron who rules over the Fort and the town around it.
Usually, a baron would rule over a small barony that holds around 1-4 villages, a baron also has an estate which consists of their home and property along with what is usually a good-sized town, and some families who have possessed the title for generations might even develop their estate into a small city.
All barons are not equal though, the barons who own an estate and also manage villages and sometimes small towns are usually those who have either made major contributions to the kingdom or empire on multiple occasions, or those whose family has ruled over their small patch of land for a long time and amassed more wealth and power.
No matter the difference, most barons start the same. The most common way a person can be granted the title of baron/baroness is through exemplary service in the army, or as a mercenary who did a great favor to the crown.
Another way for one to become a baron is by being granted some land and an old title of a person of the higher nobility, you see, when a baron is promoted to the viscount and so on by the monarch of that nation, they are not only gain the old title but also gain the privilege to grant their old and lower title to whoever they see fit, however, this privilege can be taken away if the need arises.
Unless a baron is automatically given an estate and given control over a village or two, they would most of the time be put in charge of a Fort, not unlike the baron who controls Fort Tarec.
These newly landed barons will rule over the fort along with the fort town around it but will still be required to answer to their direct liege and any indirect liege they have, like a duke or count, or maybe even the king.
And through the years the baron will develop the fort and the town with it using whatever resources they collect along with whatever their liege decides to grant them.
Once they have developed a solid mid-large sized town, then their liege will in most cases allow them to establish another village or they will be given control over an ownerless village.
Although the baron technically "owns" the village, it is an overseer and supervisor-type job, the actual day-to-day running of the village is left to the mayor to do.
The baron who controls Fort Tarec was a former Commander who served directly under the Serene Duke, Duke Kestis Halmein, ruler of the Halmein Duchy.
Back to the battlefield.
On the eve of the twenty-fourth night of fighting, the invading warriors from Haeterra were getting ready to launch another assault at the now deformed and weathered walls of Fort Tarec.
Although the Haeterra army had already made the walls crumble several times in different areas, thanks to the small 10-man mage squad and their baron who was a 5th-tier earth mage, the walls surrounding the fort and the town around it were still standing after being rebuilt using earth magic many times.
For the past three days, the invaders haven't launched a single strike against the fort, naturally, the baron and his advisors had gotten a little worried at what the Haeterans had planned.
They didn't have to wait much longer though, that night a single massive boulder came flying through the air with a whistling sound straight towards the north wall.
chunks of the boulder went flying everywhere as it made an impact on the now battered walls, one such chunk managed to fly into the walls and near the baron, when he picked up the piece of the boulder to examine it, he was shocked and gravely worried at what he found. The boulder that was flung towards the walls, was covered in mana.
This could only mean one thing, whether an extremely powerful earth mage came as reinforcements, or an elite mage squad had shown up and was going to bombard them with these magic-infused boulders.
The baron's guess was spot on, more and more boulders started hitting the walls one right after another.
Now all the remaining 3,400 men could do was hold out and hope for reinforcements from the duke to arrive quickly.
...
While a brutal defense was being waged in the north, the King of the Fryll Kingdom, King Avar Fryll had just been visited by a mysterious hooded stranger...
King Avar was currently in his study looking over reports that have come in from the various different battles being waged all across the kingdom's borders, however, one report, in particular, was worrying him.
"How the hell did those filthy Haeterrans dispatch a mage unit without me knowing!"
"What have those damn spies of mine been doing over there!" yelled Avar while banging his fist on the desk
It was then that King Avar started to reminisce about the events leading up to him taking the throne.
King Avar Fryll has only been king for 100 years now. His father the previous king had been on the throne for 430 years before the war broke out.
The previous king, King Roark ll had been a genius fighter and a one-of-a-kind aura user, but one of his major shortcomings was his ability to strategize.
King Roark ll had been a 9th-tier aura user who led every charge as the vanguard, but due to that trait of his, in the year 24,895 AC, Roark had been led into a trap by the emperor of the Haeterra Empire.
At the time of the battle, King Roark had personally led a field army to reinforce the warriors who were being led by one of his generals.
The defending field army led by the general had originally numbered about 45,000 and were defending a large-sized fort against the invaders who number around 60,000 strong and were being led by their emperor himself, Emperor Takron VII an 8th-tier mage.
Knowing that his reinforcements would most likely help the defenders overwhelm the enemy, King Roark had been careless and let his bloodthirst cloud his judgment.
Once the field army led by the king finally made it to the fort, they arrived in the middle of an attack launched by the Haeterra invaders in a last-ditch effort to overtake the castle walls of the fort city.
Seeing the opportunity to strike a nail in the emperor's coffin, King Roark ll called for a mad charge into the enemy lines to once and for all decimate this large invasion force. While it may not end the war, by taking out this large detachment of troops, the Haeterra army would be in a rough spot by losing a fourth of their current numbers.
As usual, the king led the charge into the enemies from the front and started hacking away at Haeterra warriors using his dynasty's famous aura style, Raging Inferno.
This style was created after the Telren Kingdom had been conquered by the Fryll Kingdom, in a bid to assert their rightful rule of the conquered people, the king at the time had taken a direct descendant of the Telren dynasty as his wife and he fused the then aura method with the Telren fire elemental aura method.
After a few hours of fighting had passed, King Roark ll spotted Emperor Takron VII and made a mad dash towards the mage thinking if he could reduce the distance then he could overtake the man quickly.
What he failed to realize was a huge area was being cleared up around him and right when he was 100 meters away from his target, Emperor Takron and his personal unit of 10 6th tier mages unleashed a magic-fueled blue fireball the likes of which this world had never seen before.
When King Roark finally realized he had fallen into a trap he started to panic.
Roark tried to get away from the blast radius but in doing so he would doom his whole field army to a terrible death.
So, being the hero-king he was, despite his shortcomings and foolish actions, King Roark ll chose to muster all of his remaining aura in a bid to at least spare his soldiers from a fiery death.
On that day, King Roark Fryll the second of his name sacrificed himself and acted as a shield to block the devasting spell from hitting them.
Although his final words are unknown, his final orders were heard clear as day by all of the warriors of Fryll. Amplified by his aura, King Roark ll made one final order.
"All of you, I give my final order now, fall back, abandon the Fort, as long as the warriors of Fryll survive there will always be another day to fight.!"
And so, with a smile on his face and a grand aura shield created with the full might of a 9th-tier warrior, King Roark ll went out with a smile on his face and with the feeling of regret for leaving his son in such an unfavorable situation.
"Sigh, why did he have to rush after Takron like a fool," said Avar with a tear rolling down his cheek
"Although a fool, at least he went out as a hero and saved the lives of the remaining warriors, he gave them the chance to retreat back and now they fight with a renewed vigor on the battlefields across the border," said Abraxos
"Ah! who the hell are you and how did you get in here!" yelled Avar jumping out of his seat and grabbing his sword
"Woah Woah Woah, calm down kid, I'm here to help."
"My name is Abraxos, I am the archangel of warfare and I serve directly under my lord Tristan, the God of Creation," said Abraxos while bowing
At first, Avar was dumbfounded about what he heard but then he noticed the golden energy around Abraxos as well as the 6 wings that are on his back.
"My apologies your highness, I didn't know, please forgive me," said Avar while quickly getting on one knee
Unlike the previous rulers who Tristan visited under the guise of Abraxos, King Avar was an avid follower of the Terran pantheon and Fryll was one of the few nations who recognized Tristan as the King of the Gods.
While all Terran kingdoms recognize Tristan as the creator of everything, only a few actually have him as the chief god, most of the others just have him a stand-alone god instead of being directly connected to Sofia their pantheons chief goddess, with the one exception being the tribals in the north who worship false idols.
After a few more minutes of banter, Abraxos explained why he was there and showed Avar the weapon he would be gifted.
"This is the "Spear of Conquest", this divine spear only listens to those who have your blood running through them as well as those who have an unbreakable conviction, whatever that may be."
"To wield this spear, you like I said, have to be a descendant of the founder of the Kingdom, and you have to be at least a 6th tier warrior or mage."
When Avar heard these words, he immediately fell into despair.
Due to his father having him late in life he was only 352 years old while his father was 824 at the time of his death.
Since he was young by Terran standards he also was only a 4th-tier warrior.
"Ah I know what you're thinking, my lord took that into account, so he decided to give you a blessing."
Once Abraxos said that a fiery red light enveloped Avar and washed over him flowing into his every pore and becoming a part of him.
King Avar felt an immense power within himself, and he looked up at Abraxos with a happy expression.
"Go ahead and try to conjure a fireball for me," said Abraxos smiling
In an instant Avar was able to create a fireball that was 1 meter in size.
The reason Abraxos asked that is, that when an aura user reaches the 6th-tier they gain the ability to start manifesting aura outside of their body and using it to make constructs.
But for the levels below that, the aura just emanates around the skin and doesn't go any further than that.
"You made me a 6th-tier warrior!" said Avar in delight
"Nope."
King Avar looked at Abraxos in confusion.
"I made you an 8th-tier warrior," said Abraxos smiling
And with that, Tristan disappeared and went back up to his personal dimension that holds his study.
Once Abraxos left, King Avar was left standing there speechless as he was processing what he had just heard.
Later that month, King Avar would lead his troops into battle and would officially start the counter-offensive against the Haeterra invaders.
...
Back up at the study, Tristan was seating at his desk and was doodling on the creation panel trying to create some races of monsters for the second Super Continent that has yet to be named.
Soon after, Jeremiah walked through the door to enter the study and sat down in front of Tristan.
"So, you've finally finished your little delivery to the three rulers huh."
"Yup, now we can go back to the couch and see what happened on the other continents through the 15,000 years that passed, although, from what I've heard from Sofia, it seems the other races haven't developed as quickly as the Terrans, still I hope there are some interesting stories to be seen," said Tristan with a smile
(King Avar Fryll --->)
(The Spear of Conquest --->)
(The Terran continent circa 25,000 AC, before Tristan descended as Abraxos. --->)
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Author's Note:
Phew! finally, we are done with the messenger of God mini arc. I'm going to be honest; it was rough trying to write this mini arc. There were several times I just didn't feel like writing at all but thank God we're finally moving on to see what's happened in the other continents of Saxonia! I just love world building lol.
If there is anything you think I should do in the future or if there are any tweaks, I need to make to existing chapters please point them out, constant feedback is always welcome, it motivates me to write more when I have an audience who is constantly commenting!
I would also like to so that i am very sorry for the erratic release of chapters, it has been a rough summer when it comes to making time for writing, I'm going to try my hardest to release at least 2 chapters a week from now on so look forward to it!
