Chapter 5

January 8th, 2043Falmart, Sadera

Sadera, the Capital of the Saderan Empire, most powerful country of the Falmart continent.

The impressive city was home to the most important of Saderan royalty and nobility, with palaces and decorated abodes built along the hill surrounding the Main Imperial Palace at the highest point. The lower districts were home to many Imperial citizens, while also being a home for many criminals and demi-humans in city slums district of Akusho. Several aqueducts brought the city water from the far mountains, providing the city a source of hydration for it's inhabitants.

For many years had the Empire reigned as the dominant faction on the continent. But today that position was being questioned and doubted as news of failure had reached back to the capital.

"It is indeed a tragedy!" Casel El Tiberius declared as he spoke before both the Imperial senate and the Emperor Molt Sol Augustus himself. "Two hundred thousand soldiers of the Imperial Army were lost with the fifty thousand sent through the gate. Now the nation we've attacked on the other side has emerged to take vengeance upon us. With such a great loss of life, how does his majesty plan to respond to such an opponent who has crippled our military?"

"Marquis, are you certain it should be these we should be concerned only about?" The emperor responded with a question that brought the imperial senator and senate brief confusion. "Think about is Marquis. The Empire has long since held it's ground over it's adversaries and vassal states. We've had nothing but strong confidence in our security with our army ensuring protection over our borders and territory."

"However now, in our current weakened state I fear some may rise against us to take our place as the dominant nation of Falmart." Molt explained. "Pathetic. I do hope to do well to remember this Marquis, because it's not only the other worlders we have to worry about. For it could be our neighbors at our front gates before them."

"Then what will we do about the gate?" A voice called out from within the senate as a man covered in bandages stepped forward in the center of the room. "Thirty two days ago, we sent a force of fifty thousand soldier from the Imperial Army and many lords with them. Only two thousand returned to us alive with all of their commanders killed off or missing. Since then we've held a defense of two hundred thousand soldiers and awaited for a response from the other side of the gate."

"Twenty five days later, a response did come as the other worlders sent their own army to meet ours. What happened next can't even be described as a battle. We couldn't even get close to them! Our troops marched forward in defiance of the invaders, but their weapons were unlike any sorcery I've ever witnessed." The man remembered the sounds of repeated cracking as flashes of light burst out from the enemy lines. Traces of fire flying over them and cutting down soldiers one by one, steel elephants that breathed fire from their trunks and made the ground erupt around soldiers. "I don't even know how to describe it properly. It as if they were wielding death itself!"

"We must fight back with more men!" One of the senators from the Pro-War faction declared as he stood up. "Send envoys to our vassals and tell them we need more man power and we need them right now!"

"You fool! That will only be sending more good men to die!" A member of the Pro-Peace faction argued. "If a hundred thousand men couldn't fight back, who's to say another hundred thousand will?"

"To give up and declare surrender is a coward's move!" Another senator argued. "We must show these barbarians the Empire is a force to be reckoned! We must take revenge after they made our army look like a joke!"

"It'll be another blood bath!" Another senator argued. "Their weapons of death itself will leave our troops in heaps of dead bodies! Sending another army will be wasting precious imperial lives!"

"There's got to be an alternative solution to this? Wasting more lives to the slaughter isn't going to do us any good! Perhaps we should try making diplomatic contact with these other worlders before —," The room silenced as Emperor Molt Sol Augustus raised his hands over the entire senate, ceasing their arguing as they listened to what their emperor had to say.

"Your bickering annoys me greatly. However we mustn't be ignorant when the fate of the Empire is now in jeopardy. It is because of this that we don't have the luxury of waiting." He stood up from his throne. "Send envoys to the farthest regions as far as their horses can carry them! Send them to our vassal states and tell them we need reinforcements and need them right now! As emperor of the Empire, I declare the official reunification of the Allied Kingdoms in the defense of Falmart! We must unite our forces and drive these invaders back through the gate in which they came from! For the fate of the realm!"

The senators of the Pro-War faction cheered out in victory as they believed the Empire would be take the fight with their vassals against the invaders from the other world. Meanwhile the Pro-Peace faction was left to skulk as they feared what was to come after this.

"Forgive me for doubting your choices your majesty," Casel El Tiberius spoke. "But are you certain this is the right call? I fear this may only result in once again another slaughter of good men."

In response, Molt only flashed his teeth in a grin that symbolized ill intentions. "There's more to this course of action that I have plans for."

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January 9th, 2043Itera, Ruka