The unavoidable war

It had come to this, after all. Despite the efforts of the Royal Family and the Holy Church, Aswil had declared war on them. 

To understand how this came about, you should first learn more about the continent. There were three countries that shared this piece of earth. On the north side of the continent was a huge, insurmountable mountain range.

To the southeast was the ocean, and to the west was the great desert.

In the west, along the border of the desert, stretching from the mountains to the ocean in the south, was the largest of the three lands. Sanctura, the holy land of the moon goddess Iona. It was ruled equally by the royal family and the church. 

Despite these two opposing powers, Sanctura was a peaceful land. There had been no famine or internal conflict for decades.

To the north was the land of Aswil. This land had originally been founded by curious scientists and explorers who had managed to make the uninhabitable area fertile. 

No one outside of Aswil knew exactly how the government was organized within this land. They were very closed to the outside world and did almost no trade.

The last country, the Valoria Empire, was a trading power. Also ruled by a royal family, they were the only ones who managed to cross the vast ocean and establish trade with other continents in recent centuries. 

However, there was one more peculiarity on the continent. A strange energy traveled through the land. Traces of this energy could be found in every animal and plant.

In Sanctura, this energy was called Holy Energy or Sacred Energy and was attributed to the goddess Iona.

Aswil called it Mana and used it to power his inventions. 

This strange energy was also utilized in Valoria and used to develop a number of martial arts. In Valoria, this energy is known as Ki. 

In recent years, however, the border between Aswil and Sanctura had been the site of numerous conflicts. Aswil had repeatedly invaded the wasteland between the two lands under the guise of development. 

However, they attacked villages and burned and defaced the churches in them. After Sanctura sent the first troop of the second holy guard into the area to investigate these attacks.

It was soon discovered that the Aswil were intent on spreading their scientific advances across the continent. And the idea of religion and faith seemed to stand in the way of this plan. 

The regents of Sanctura tried several times to contact Aswil, but each time they only got back the heads of the ambassadors. 

With the head of the fourth ambassador came the official declaration of war. Soon after, Sanctura mobilized all the holy knights and brought them to the border of Aswil. The goal was to stop the advance of Aswil's troops.

But they failed. No one knew how, but all the Holy Knights from the second to the tenth guard were eliminated. A total of twenty-five thousand soldiers had died at the border. 

With no survivors, there was no information on the strength of the enemy or the influence of foreign powers. 

As a last hope, the first holy guard was dispatched. Their original mission was to protect the royal family, members of the church, and the capital. 

Although the first holy guard consisted of only a thousand holy knights, it was far more powerful than the other guards. The knights of the other guards had little holy energy and could only perform minor miracles, such as healing wounds or providing light protection.

The knights of the first guard, on the other hand, possessed a much higher amount of holy energy, allowing them to summon weapon auras and, on rare occasions, even invoke God's judgment. 

By the time the first guard arrived, Aswil's troops had advanced far inland. The knights who were sent out had some success.

Among them, the first squad was the most successful. The first squad of the first guard consisted of elite soldiers who were both the best trained and possessed the most holy energy. 

Because of their special status, they received the blessing of the Goddess Iona directly from the Pope when they joined the first squad. It was even rumored among the commoners that some of them had even seen the goddess during this blessing.

Due to their enormous power and position, the ten elite knights decided that splitting up was the best decision for victory. Each of them had taken a hundred men and left for another frontline position. 

So had Sir Jacke. Despite heavy losses, he and his hundred men had made it to the original frontier. He and the remaining thirty-nine soldiers had set up camp in the ruins of a small village. 

When they arrived, the village had been burned to the ground and all the villagers had been slaughtered. They buried the villagers in the name of Iona. As the village church had almost completely withstood the destruction, the knights took it as a sign from the Goddess that they were on the right path. 

The sun was setting on the third day since their arrival in the village. Sir Jacke sat in front of the church, his eyes lost in the red-orange colored horizon. His head was empty. The atrocities of the past weeks had left him without a thought. 

He was awakened from his trance by a loud gong. The gong sounded again. The entire camp went into an uproar. Armor rattled. Soldiers ran to get their weapons. One gong signaled the return of the scouts, while two signaled the sighting of the enemy.

But then the unthinkable happened. A third gong sounded. Sir Jack had never heard this signal before. Because it signaled demons. No one had ever seen demons, but for some reason, this signal still existed. Every knight had the same thought. If the signal existed, there was probably a reason why it had been introduced.

Sir Jacke pulled himself together and strapped on his sword, which was leaning against the wall next to him.

With a few steps he hurried to the outer defense line they had built from the rubble of the village. His eyes could not comprehend what he saw there. About two hundred men were coming up the hill. But what was behind them turned everything upside down for Sir Jack and his soldiers. 

A metal monster was stomping towards them. It was three times as tall as Sir Jack's tallest soldier. It walked on two legs and had two arms. But no hands. The left arm ended in a blade and the right arm in a kind of cannon barrel that Sir Jack only knew from the walls of the main garrison in the capital. 

The ground shook with every step the monster took. Sir Jacke realized now why the other guards had not stood a chance in the battle. He shook his head. Now was not the time to give up. Anything was still possible. 

In a loud voice he shouted: "ALL MEN TO YOUR WEAPONS."

Within seconds, all the knights were gathered in the village square. You could see the effort they had put in over the last few weeks. But none of them refused to serve. Sir Jacke stood before them and gave his final speech:

"Ahead of us is probably our last battle. The enemy is now resorting to means beyond our imagination. But we are the last hope for Sanctura. We are the holy knights of this land. WE ARE THE SWORD OF OUR GODDESS IONA."

The soldiers repeated the last sentence in unison: "WE ARE THE SWORD OF OUR GODDESS IONA!"

Sir Jack continued: "Now join me in battle one last time. For Sanctura. For Iona."

He turned and reached for his belt. There hung a horn, beautifully decorated with gold. The soldiers did the same. They blew their horns with all their might. The sound of the horns broke the silence of the falling night.

Sir Jacke drew his sword and threw away the scabbard. He would no longer need it. He grasped the sword with both hands and raised it to his face. His soldiers did the same.

As it was bound to happen, it started to rain at that very moment. From the outside, you could now see a troop of 40 men in what had once been glorious golden armor. Ready to die in defense of their country and their families. 

On the other side, a state of the art army with magical weapons and a mana-powered mecha. 

The soldiers of Sanctura had no remorse. Only when the first enemy troops were within range did Sir Jacke give the signal.

"Equip your bows."

The soldiers sheathed their swords and drew their bows. Sir Jacke raised his hand and the soldiers took aim. Then they fired.

Sir Jack raised his sword and pointed it at the arrows. He prayed in a high but firm voice:

"I call upon you, Iona. Strengthen our weapons and give them the power to strike down our enemies.

The arrows began to glow golden. The night sky was lit by the swarm of arrows. However, just as they were about to hit the enemy, they bounced off an invisible wall. Each arrow that hit this wall caused a blue flash in the sky, and after a few seconds, the sky was as dark as before. 

The last thing Sir Jack did was to give the order to draw their swords, and then chaos descended upon the soldiers.