1 Prologue 1: Enemy at the gates

Shouts and screams could be heard all around, a raging fire was everywhere and the smell of burned flesh was in the air. Corpses of what looked to be soldiers clad in armor and hundreds of citizen were littered all around. From old men and women to children, corpses were everywhere, some with burnt bodies some with missing limbs that looked like it was ripped apart by sharp teeth.

Outside the city wall, a man that looked like a farmer was running from what looked like a hairless dog with slightly larger and muscular front legs, it was leaping from side to side in a zigzag pattern as it was chasing the man. It had no eyes and 80% of its face was just its mouth with large razor-like teeth. And suddenly it stopped, "GrrrrrrAAAA" the creature roared out as it jumped several feet in the air and pounced the man ripping his head clean off from his shoulder. The man didn't even have the chance to scream.

As it was about to attack another man, a man wearing heavy armor, slashed at it with a sword killing it with one hit.

"There's no end to these things." The man said tiredly.

{8 hours ago.}

Inside the city wall, near the main gate, about 150 soldiers were holding the gate as about 400 of the hairless dogs known as Growler hounds, were trying their best to break apart the soldier's formation to reach the gate and enter the city.

A man about 6'5 (ca. 2 m) was in front of the soldiers with a huge two-handed sword, "Hold the line! Don't let these filthy mutts break your will." The man shouted at the top of his lungs. The soldiers behind him shouted back, "Yes Captain!".

And then a soldier with battered armor and wounds all over rushed towards the gate, and with all the strength he had shouted from behind, "Captain Harvey! The west gate has been breached! Growlers are getting into the west part of the city!"

"What!?" Captain Harvey shouted with a surprised expression and rushed towards the wounded soldier.

"How did they even get there? The portal opened up in the north they should attack this gate with full force." Harvey said with a frustrated tone.

"And the better question is, wasn't the west gate enchanted with a level 4 repellent? These are just tier 2 beasts! You guys can't even handle that!?" Harvey said with an expression of frustration and anger.

"It wasn't like that at first, there were only one or two growlers that jumped at us, but the mages took care of them pretty quickly. We didn't pay much attention at first as we were busy evacuating the citizens but then...." as the soldier was saying this he froze up with a look of horror plastered on his face.

"Then what?! Come on! Don't freeze up now! What happened?" Harvey asked the soldier in a hurry.

"And then a man wearing a cloak appeared out of nowhere, we thought maybe he was a wandering adventurer coming to help us after watching the portal beasts, but as soon as he got close the beasts stopped growling and made way for the hooded man. We thought maybe it was some mana oppression or some fear skill that the adventurer used, and he was about to kill all the beasts in one fell swoop, but he didn't do anything, he just kept approaching the gate. At that point, we felt something was wrong and tried to ask the man who he was, but he didn't say anything, and so we opened fire, both the mages and the archers rained down arrows and [fire bolts], but he dodged them all and the fire bolts that did reach him vanished into nothingness. And then....." The soldier paused again and just as he was about to speak another soldier from the north gate approached the captain.

"Captain two-thirds of the beasts have been eliminated, and the other one-third ran into the forest, should we chase?" The soldier asked with a salute.

Harvey found it strange that the growler hounds were retreating since they had little to no intelligence.

"No. Round up half of the soldiers we are going to the west gate, and tell vice-captain Karlaya to take command to defend the north gate, and inform me if another wave comes." Said Harvey and turned to the soldier and chanted something with his hand towards the soldier, a green light enveloped the soldier and most of his wounds were healed.

"Thank you captain." Said the soldier with a little eased tone as his aching slowly faded away.

"Now tell me the rest on the way." Harvey said as he started running towards the west gate with 70 or so soldiers.

"After we saw that fire bolts weren't able to do anything to him the mages started to cast tier 3 spells, but then a strange wave erupted from his body, I don't know what it was, a fear skill or what, but soon as that wave hit us we are unable to move, and the fear we felt, the fear I felt was something... inexplicable. Even captain Nelson froze in place. And then he took out a small dagger and slashed towards the mages and archer on the wall, and a thin red streak appeared and killed almost all the mages and archers, and those that didn't die instantly were heavily injured, and had to be taken to the healers. Under captain Nelsons order, I along with 20 other swordsmen tried to rush him, but a pulse erupted from his body again, and we were blown away, almost all of us died instantly, I and three others who had used [iron skin] in time were not heavily injured or killed. After seeing that, captain Nelson ordered the soldiers to protect the citizens and hold our position, and we did as we were told. Strangely after that the man didn't even bother to attack the citizens or the soldiers, he just stood there in front of the gate, and kept making weird hand signs, and in under just a minute put a 3 meter hole in the barrier near the west gate. After seeing that 3 soldiers were ordered to inform the other guard captains of the gate breach, and me being sent to the west gate."

"What?! Under 1 minute?! That should be impossi...!"

Harvey stopped his advancement for a second as he realized what kind of being can do that kind of feat. A General. But still the last time a general appeared a year ago and attacked the major cities of the Auriel kingdom, even he needed more than 30 minutes to break the repellent barrier placed on the gates. And he was for sure one of the most powerful general among the 7 that had crossed through the portal so far. He destroyed 3 cities of the kingdom in just under 1 week. His magical prowess was estimated to be near tier 7 and his swordsmanship was estimated to be gold rank. Now he understood why the growler hounds were retreating, they were probably being commanded.

"Wait hand signs? He didn't use a rune pen?" Harvey asked surprised as what the soldier said sunk in.

"No captain. We were baffled too. How can someone break a rune codex without a rune pen? No matter how powerful a mage is that is something impossible. Also, what was more strange was that the barrier didn't shatter outright but just made a hole about 3 meters just where the gate was."

As Harvey heard that he came to another realization, 'If what he says is true then the man or whatever he was, didn't break the barrier, but rather had the password for the barriers rune codex. And the only one who knows that, is the Royal family and the Arcadians who manufactured the rune gates.'

The rune gates act as pillars for the monster repellent barrier that surrounds the city of Husa. Most of the cities that have these kinds of barriers were like this with the exception being the Royal capital.

"Those Arcadian bastards!" Harvey cursed.

"Caleb!"

Harvey shouted and a lean-looking man with a height of 5'9 came running towards Harvey from the back of the advancement.

"Yes, captain" The man answered tiredly.

"Quickly sent a message to the capital, inform the King the Arcadians have betrayed us."

"!!!"

At this revelation, both the guard from the western gate and Caleb had a surprised face look on their face.

"Captain are you sure?" Caleb asked.

"With 100% certainty. A general had appeared, and he didn't break the barrier he had the rune passcode. That is something only the Royal family and the Arcadian Warlocks and rune coders know. And I am sure as hell the king didn't give the passcode to one of the remaining 3 cities of the kingdom, for shits and giggles. " Harvey said getting more and more agitated.

Caleb without asking any more questions used [Flash step] to go the opposite way to relay the message.

'To think we helped the Arcadians with their famine 7 years ago, saving 80% of their entire population from starvation, and this is how they repay us! Those honourless dogs.'

"What's your name, soldier?" Harvey asked the soldier from the west gate.

"It's Rowan sir." The guard answered.

"So tell me Rowan do you believe in karma?"

"Yes sir, I do."

"For Phea's sake, I hope you're right." Harvey said with a sigh.