The victims of war: Mortis' sad legacy

Leonie and the other women had not traveled far to the capital of Tyrol when they noticed that the spirits were getting restless and did not know what to do. On the one hand, they were anxious to obey and protect the women, the soldiers and the treasures, but on the other hand, they were distracted and kept turning their heads to the southeast. Leonie decided to stop the troop and contact Sarah to find out what was going on.

Sarah explained succinctly, "The Master is facing an army, and since we are with you, he cannot call any more servants to him." The women and soldiers were confused and asked why the Master was putting himself in such danger if they could not help him. Sarah just shrugged her shoulders and seemed relaxed.

Leonie looked around and saw the other women worried and wondering what to do. The adventurers and soldiers were not prepared to go to war, even if it was a large army of around 30,000 soldiers. They did not feel capable of leading them into battle. But suddenly captains and advisors of counts of Erfurt and Eisenach came up from behind and said, "Young lady, if the lord from Bamberg is in danger, we will go to war. We owe it to him, besides, this way we can show that we stand behind our heroes. If these spirits know where Mr. Mortis is, they will lead us there. We have sent soldiers who can travel loosely through this area without fear of losing a life here. We have dispatched our best men, so we should use them."

Leonie was moved by the advisors and knights, but there was another problem: how were they going to cover the distance in such a short time? However, Valeria patted Leonie on the shoulder and said, "Leave it to me." Valeria took out a black bead from her ring and whispered into it, "Father, I would need your help. Please, help us." Within seconds, shadows formed a gate from which a man emerged and hugged Valeria tightly. Valeria didn't particularly like that Tenebris hugged her in front of the others, but she let him since she had called him.

When it became too much for Valeria, she pushed Tenebris away and said, "It's okay, now make us a portal for this army to pass through. You know what's going on." Tenebris replied, somewhat sulkily, "Of course I know, and it was obvious that you'd only call your old man when it came to this man instead of seeing your beloved father." Then he snapped, and a huge gate of shadows formed in front of the troops, showing a slope on the other side. There, two armies faced each other, and in the middle was a larger troop, shrouded in mist.

"Thank you, Father," Valeria said, giving him a kiss on the cheek before setting off to ride through the gate with the others.

The moment Mortis' women pushed through the gate, the battle began. Margrave Barbaros lost patience and charged at Mortis along with Count Rashil, while the others shot at him with magic and arrows. But with simple movements, Mortis dodged the ranged attacks and faced the margraves and counts. The two were confident of victory, but their laughter quickly faded as Mortis struck twice and they both barely held their shields. They became nervous, and the count roared, "What are you idiots doing? Let the weapons do the talking! He's alone, with sheer numbers we can beat him. Sound the charge!"

Mortis played with his enemies, deftly dodging or blocking their attacks. But when all 20,000 men suddenly charged at him at once, his gaze turned ice cold. Everyone in the mist sensed that something was wrong. Suddenly, he disappeared before the eyes of his opponents and appeared next to the count. "I always knew that someone like you with no backbone could only be a rat. Now die and pray you make a better choice in the next life," Mortis said.

With his scythe he executed the scythe whirl, hitting many soldiers, and finally the count. Although the latter raised his shield to block the attack, Mortis' scythe cut through the shield and pulverized the count and several others who got caught in the scythe. Blood splattered for meters, leaving barely anything of the Count's body, startling many and sending them into a state of shock.

However, Mortis was still on the attack. He used the ability Scythe Dance of Aeternus along with Scythe Whirl and mowed through the small army that was about to give up, when suddenly some soldiers from the Margrave's side, along with nobles, set out to protect the Margrave and overthrow the Queen. Thus, almost all the soldiers of about 80,000 men joined them.

On the other hand, the queen was not idle with Elara. She mobilized her army and sounded the attack horn while charging forward with her soldiers as well. Mortis could hardly believe it. Why had the stupid nobles started this war? All that was missing was a few thousand, and the head of Margrave Barbaros, and this battle would have been over. But what astonished him and others the most was another army storming down a hill with 30,000 soldiers. Spirits of various shapes and sizes accompanied them, and even the Cyclops charged into the battle in front.

Leonie summoned Woodära from hell and rode off with him in front. She asked Sarah which side was the good and which the enemy. Sarah replied, "The Lord's nearest women are from the right, so those will be the allies." Leonie was puzzled and asked what she had said. Sarah smiled and explained that she was a spirit and therefore had the ability to see such things. Leonie took note of the answer and called everyone to take care of the enemies in front of them first.

Mortis, on the other hand, gave his all to kill everyone quickly before the armies clashed. However, the Margrave proved to be a nimble fighter, deftly dodging Mortis' attacks and even striking back. Although Mortis was sure he had killed the Margrave before, the latter always seemed to be one step ahead of him. Mortis followed him and fought the other enemies at the same time.

"Don't keep running away, you coward, and at least die a dignified death! You coward!" roared Mortis and took a wide swing to cut off the Margrave's head. But the latter repelled the attack and declared that he would rather live a cowardly life than be dead and be nothing but a pile of shit and filth. He was not worthy to die like that, he said, but would rather stay alive. Even if he was branded a coward, Mortis would not be able to finish him off today. The margrave then took out a silver feather, whispered something and disappeared before Mortis' eyes.

Mortis was about to get angry when the nobles with the soldiers rushed at him and threw everything they could at him. But Mortis deftly managed to dodge, counter, or block their attacks. He roared, "Your cowardly margrave has fled! Lay down your weapons, the battle is over! Do not be foolish and turn back. There is still time to apologize and take a better path. But if you continue to fight, you leave me no choice but to kill you and make widows of your wives, deprive your children of their fathers! Come on, lay down your weapons!"

Mortis' words reached the ears of the nobles, but most did not believe him and were determined to fight on. A few who had a spark of reason in them hesitated, but it was too late; they had already become too far entangled in the conflict. The nobles also drove their men further into battle, heedless of Mortis' pleas.

Mortis was worried about how to fight without fighting the nobles or the new soldiers blindly following. However, the chaos of the battle was perfect and left him little choice. He decided to eliminate his opponents as quickly and effectively as possible to end the bloodshed.

The battle was in full swing, and Mortis fought with all determination to save the lives of as many innocent men as he could. But the unruly nobles and their fanatical followers were not making it easy for him, and the situation was threatening to spiral out of control. Mortis fervently wished that they had heard his words and realized that there was still a way to prevent further suffering. But now he had no choice but to continue to give his all to avert the threat and save the country from a bloody civil war.

As Mortis made his way from east to west, taking the lives of more and more nobles, he suddenly heard the cries of soldiers shouting, "We must run! Those from the north have ghosts, cyclops, and even a white dragon!" When Mortis heard this, he sped up. Edna, his dwarf wife and druid, could turn into a dragon, so he sprinted to see what was going on.

When he arrived in front of a small dragon, he approached Edna and said, "Honey, you look wonderful even in this form, but what are you doing here?" He was surprised to see that almost all of his wives except Lumina were involved in the battle, along with Elysia. Mortis had guessed that the soldiers would come from the north, after all, his spirits were there, but he never thought that his wives would be fighting on the front lines.

Before he could say anything, however, drums and horns sounded, abruptly ending the battle. No one but Mortis had won, but he couldn't be happy about it at all this time. Not even about the 60,000 souls and the 2 levels he had made.

Finally, everyone dropped their weapons, and the last surviving nobles who had joined the Margrave surrendered. The battle was over, and the silence that fell over the battlefield was almost oppressive. Mortis felt a mixture of relief and sadness at the terrible scale of the destruction and the loss of so many lives.

Now it was time to heal the wounds and deal with the consequences of the battle. Mortis knew that there was still much to be done to unite the country and create a lasting peace. But at that moment, he was simply exhausted and saddened by the cruelty of war and the sacrifices he had had to make.