Prologue

On the vast and boundless plains, one hundred thousand soldiers marched toward the last standing fortress of the emperor. The soldiers originated from six allied nations, and their leaders were riding in a mobile palace at the rear of the army. Far ahead of them, the emperor's immortal army stood completely still, wielding spears and shields.

Inside the mobile palace, Lord Travent, Lord Bentoli, Lord Kevlark, Lord Phlister, Lord Arimon, and Lady Went were sat around a map of the expected battlefield. On the map, they had placed markers for their battalions and the emperor's battalions. Red pieces were symbols for infantry battalions, and blue pieces were for mage battalions. On the emperor's side, there were only two blue pieces. On the alliance's side, there were twenty.

The six leaders were almost finished constructing their plan for the upcoming battle, and they repeatedly adjusted the map and its various markers to reflect their talking points.

"Mage battalions start the battle with a long bombardment, meant to reduce the enemy's number of immortal soldiers. Once the bombardment is finished, infantry battalions move up and neutralize the immortal soldiers' resurrection. While the immortal soldiers are held down by our infantry, our mages take out the emperor's mages. This should leave us with enough mages to tear down the fortress walls and enough infantry to exhaust the emperor's mana by a sizable amount."

Lord Travent smoked a pipe and blew rings of smoke while he listened to Lord Bentoli. The tobacco entered his bloodstream and calmed his nerves before the fighting began, and he ignored the loses his people would undoubtedly sustain during the battle. Of the six nations that assembled the alliance, he had made the greatest contributions of manpower and resources, and he stood the most to lose.

Lord Bentoli's contributions were lesser than Lord Travent's, but only because his nation was smaller. If they compared the size of their contributions next to the size of their nations, Lord Bentoli had given a larger percentage. Lord Bentoli wagered everything on the alliance's fight against the emperor. If the emperor wasn't defeated, Lord Travent's nation would fall first, and Lord Bentoli's would fall soon afterward.

Lord Kevlark, Lord Phlister, and Lord Arimon were deep in thought as they watched Lady Went checking the data sheets of the alliance's mage battalions. The three lords were each lesser contributors than Lord Travent or Lord Bentoli, and they had the least to gain once the emperor was killed. Lord Travent and Lord Bentoli would be taking the lands conquered from the emperor, and the other lords would only have new trade routes for prizes.

However, more important than what they could take from the emperor was what they could earn from Lady Went. Lady Went's nation had an aging king, and Lady Went had no husband. Thus, whoever married Lady Went would soon become king of her nation. For the three lords, marrying Lady Went would give them much more land and wealth than winning the war against the emperor.

But, aside from their political scheming, they were still part leaders of the final assault against the emperor's last fortress. When Lady Went finished her turn shuffling through the papers in her hands, she handed them to Lord Kevlark, and he eventually handed them to Lord Phlister, and he eventually to Lord Arimon, who then gave them back to Lord Went.

Lord Travent and Lord Bentoli had sent the largest number of infantry battalions for the alliance's army, as expected due to their size and proximity to the emperor's lands. Lord Kevlark, Lord Phlister, Lord Arimon, and Lady Went, though, had sent a much larger of a combined percentage of the alliance's mages than would be expected for their size.

In their own way, the three lords and the lady of the smaller nations were showing off their power to Lord Travent and Lord Bentoli. If they hadn't contributed at least as much, they risked having Lord Travent or Lord Bentoli attacking them once they finished with the emperor. With their current level of contributions, they had shown that they weren't nations to be messed with, and they could still fight with the best when it came to magical power.

Several miles away, in the fortress on the horizon, the Emperor of Calamity, Lord Venarius, stood in front of a glass circle that showed the inside of the alliance's mobile palace. The images in the glass cleanly showed the battle plans of the alliance and the information on the alliance's mage battalions, and the emperor's impeccable memory enabled him to memorize every detail. He laughed, and he anxiously awaited the inevitable.

The next day, the battle officially began. For the first movement, the alliance's mages followed a thin line of infantry and pulverized the emperor's line of immortal soldiers. Behind the immortal soldier's, the emperor's mage battalions raised shields and counterattacked, limiting the effectiveness of the alliance bombardment.

For the second movement, alliance infantry slowly moved across the field while stationing four soldiers with every corpse of an immortal soldier. The emperor's mages used resurrection magic to raise the immortal soldiers from the dead, but the alliance soldiers were there to put down whatever soldiers stood back up.

For the third movement, the alliance mages attacked the emperor's mages. Although the alliance mages outnumbered the emperor's mages by close to ten-to-one, the emperor's mages were each much more powerful than the alliance's individual mages. When in a large group, the emperor's mages were nearly unbeatable. However, to fight against the alliance mages, the emperor's mages needed to stop using resurrection magic on the immortal soldiers. When they stopped, the alliance infantry could move up. Gradually, the emperor's mages were placed into a worsening position, and they were eventually eliminated.

The first phase of the battle had completed in only four hours. Out of one hundred thousand infantry, sixty thousand were lost as casualties. Out of two hundred mages, less than fifty were lost as casualties. By Lord Travent's calculations, forty thousand infantry and one hundred fifty mages were enough to conduct the siege on the emperor's fortress.

The first phase had been launched at dawn, and following a short brunch, phase two began. For eight hours straight, the mage division of the alliance army blasted the fortress with all the spells in their arsenal. Explosions destroyed the fortress walls, and an endless rain fell from above, drowning out anyone who hid underneath the fortress.

Above ground, in his throne room, Emperor Venarius remained virtually unperturbed. He had come to terms with the loss of his empire even before the alliance had stepped foot into its lands. From the very beginning, he had been ready to lose it all. Changing the world came at a price, and the young boy who set his sights on the emperor's chair had came prepared to pay it.

The second movement of the second phase of the battle began, and forty thousand infantry stormed inside the emperor's fortress. Thousands of men ran toward their slaughter, and the emperor had no choice but to oblige.

As the last of the alliance infantry were killed off, the alliance mages became the emperor's next targets. But, before he could bring carnage further into the alliance's ranks, a group of six archmages circled around him. Rapidly, the six of them chanted a spell.

"Liga captionem malum aeternum vult fatum!"

Their chant finished, and the emperor felt his soul being ripped from his body. He had always been prepared to die, but in his last moment, he felt angry. He could accept dying, but the six unknown mages had chosen to imprison him instead. The six mages hadn't been a part of the plan he had seen inside the mobile palace of the alliance, and he had not prepared for a soul bind.

The six mages trapped Emperor Venarius's soul inside a crystal orb the size of an apple, and they disentigated his body. They carefully placed the crystal orb into a box, sealed the box, and sent it away.

From then on, until an eternity in the future, Venarius rested.

Venarius slowly forgot his name and purpose, and his soul naturally cleansed itself inside the flow of time. His sins were washed away, and the burden he carried gradually lifted from his mind.

Inside a white space, Venarius waited for his soul to be freed. He knew the device he was imprisoned in would eventually lose power, and his soul would finally be able to escape. Once it did, he could finally rest in peace. He only needed to wait, and his wish would come true.

But, and eternity passed, and nothing changed. His body had zero substance, and his memories were fading. With the passing of time, he was becoming a shallow husk.

Suddenly, without any warning for preparation, the walls of Venarius's soul prison began to break.

Jagged gray lines exploded in all directions. Small amounts of soul pressure escaped from the cracks, making the space of Venarius's prison become a little darker. Over the course of a few seconds, the cracks in the soul prison grew larger, and the soul pressure inside the prison completely depleted. The soul prison shattered, and Venarius escaped!