8 Creation of power
***
Three days past the sighting of Impheares's arrival.
More than thirteen hundred guards stationed at mining colony IV have died from the twin tailed fox calling himself Impheares, many of the slaves under the care of the guards have taken their equipment for themselves and decided to follow Impheares to show their gratitude.
"Jurik, I believe the slavers' threat has been extinguished from this section. Do you and your followers still plan to follow my movements?" He'd scan the crowd of over three thousand slaves each with varied guard equipment stolen from the dead.
"Yes we all agreed to follow your path, we've been torn away from our homelands and sent to this prison that you've freed us from. It's the least we can do." Jurik would hold a halberd with a greatsword attached at the end of the shaft, an unnecessarily brutal weapon for a brutal warrior.
"Very well, In that case I'll have you as my Lieutenant of this little army. Have them utilize whatever material to establish a form of base here, this prison will now become an encampment for now. Also have all the dead centralized at the dig site." As soon as he ended that sentence the twin tailed fox demon leapt into the air and landed on sheets of glowing light each time he ascended higher into the skies.
Impheares would find himself perched at least five kilometers in the air, observing the landscape to memorize any city or landmark close by. From his observations there were four cities, each one well past eighty kilometers away from their soon to be encampment.
'This new existence will be challenging due to my lack of knowledge of the situation. This force will provide some form of security for myself while I conduct more experiments.' Impheares looks down at the dead soldiers and slaves at the dig site 'First task, creation of loyal soldiers to help fight the battle to come. Second task, prepare for the battle. Final task, win.' Impheares leaps down towards the dead soldiers, landing on them to break his fall. He scans around looking at the vast amount of dead he can experiment with.
First he burns off all the flesh of the dead with intense light magic, leaving only bones with his precision. After that he creates tendrils of light mixed with iron in the sand below to course between all the bones. Once this was completed he created red mana cores utilizing his own core he discovered through experiments. This whole process gave birth to the monstrosity he called jackals. This creation warped the bones to create an agile attack form of a beast glistening in radiant light tendrils all looking towards Impheares.
'Guard.' Impheares gave the command, and in an instant all the jackals ran off to their respective locations around the base ensuring its protection. The forces now calling this colony their home stood back in awe and fear from the constructs rushing out to their defensive positions.
***
Gladifer Empire, Fortress Rook Five days after sighting.
The Knight Lord stood firm in front of ten thousand soldiers, and beside him were two scouts kneeling. "Soldiers of Gladifer, I call on you to ready your arms, for an unknown threat has stolen Mining Colony IV from our control, killing all the guards. We must march and take back our lands from this thieving monster! For the Empire!" The Knight Lord raises his sword in the air causing the soldiers before him to roar.
"Now then scouts, how dangerous is this threat exactly? Do we need to send in heavy ordinance?" The Lord Knight looks towards the scouts.
"Our Lord, we'd suggest some form of magical containment method along with two knights of the light." Both scouts stated.
At that moment the Lord Knight walks off to start preparations, in three days time the Empire's forces will head out to capture this creature.
***
Day two on preparation to capture the fox demon.
The forgeworks were lit ablaze in fire and magic, hammers the size of men smashing down against tempered blades spanning the entirety of forgeworks. Soon the blade was taken by a Knight of the Light, a construct of monstrous size. The construct resembled a templar knight but with few distinct changes, the helmet viewport was in the shape of a Y while the armor bits were covered in a glow of white light. The size of this construct was no more than two stories tall, shadowing the nearby buildings due to its mass. The construct makes its way to the gates to meet up with the rest of the forces. Behind them was a floating orb with forty priests chanting under it. This orb was both seen and unseen, seemingly shifting from reality the peasants seeing it immediately bowed their heads to the ground at the sight.
The Lord Knight looks at the sight outside the castle walls with pride, he knows this plan will ensure favor with the Lord Emperor. He switched his view towards the men and women in front of him and spoke. "Soldiers of the Empire, we march out to take back our lands from the savage slaves and capture this mysterious creature. When you encounter this creature ensure to follow procedures to capture it without harm. As for the revolting slaves, leave none alive for they are of no use to us. For the Empire!" He swung his sword to the air, the rest of the soldiers including the Knights of the Light constructs did the same chanting "For the Empire!" In unison x3.
***
Day three, the march.
"My Lord, we're forty kilometers from the mining colony. The companies are set for combat, I've also taken the liberty of designating a few companies to solely focus on this demon fox so our other soldiers can maximize their efficiency taking out the rebel slaves." The Captain would be saluting at the Lord Knight, decorated in a yellow uniform with some metal plating over the shoulders and kneecaps.
The Lord Knight looked at the captain and returned the salute. "Very good effort Captain, ensure no harm comes to that demon fox and I'll be forced to give you a promotion on your excellence of capturing it." He dropped the salute and walked off to continue planning. Two scout companies of two hundred soldiers each ran into the woods to prepare for ambush tactics, several companies of knights marched forward with the two constructs following closely behind. The forty priests continue to chant with the orb floating above their heads.
The rest of the companies were composed of magic rifle corps, grenadiers and soldatens armed with palisades and longswords with magical pistols on their right hips. Each pistol and rifle had a different hue designating what magical element it fires. However there were three colors that they all didn't have, that was black, white, and gold.
"Begin the operation, the Empire will show no mercy to rebels. And we shall study this demon to gain enlightenment of what happened." The Lord Knight watched from his metal carriage the soldiers marching forward to the mining colony just over the hillside, to their sides covered in trees with the scouts laying in wait. That's when he saw a glimmering light high in the sky just above the site, with a twin tailed fox looking down at them.
