1060. Maybe, but you stoked it
"I would have liked for a longer meeting, but I will have to return early," the regal Arch Lich said his farewells to Seth and the others after Larish and Larosh informed them of the situation in former Gamma. He had to return to lead the locked-out armies in battle to free the locked-in forces and reclaim Gamma.
Comparing the undead before him to the first time, Seth met Al'Zalsar, it was hard to believe they were the same kind of order of undead. He...lacked presence compared to her. Would they really be okay if this was their leader?
While the first day was the stage for solo artists, the second day was meant to be the battle of the Bands, disregarding their style or makeup. However, the mood was slightly overshadowed by the news from Arget Nore, at least for the people in Minas Mar's VIP booth.
Nobody would have expected such a large-scale attack at this time. The news the two dark elves shared with them revealed that almost 80% of the undead empire's territory in Gamma was occupied by a dark sludge, that incessantly spat out enemy units. The only good news was that most of the golems caught up in the mess managed to survive.
It would have been a harsh loss for them… Arget Nore if those were gone. Not saying that the empire had not already suffered a harsh loss. Almost all their lower-ranking undead and citizens had been reaped by the surprise attack. They were lucky that an undead army had little to no need for a supply chain.
What worried some of them was the nature of the attack. A dark goopy shadow spreading along the ground, would their barrier and the guardian tree be able to stop that kind of attack?
"Don't worry, I'm sure the attack only reached this kind of scale because it is happening at Arget Nore," Evee gave her guess on the matter.
"What makes you think so?" the forever loser of musical chairs asked, still slightly grumpy about the singing leg. Evee was the chosen of Persephone and a powerful necromancer. Seth was also interested in her opinion since she was the only professional on the matter currently present.
"Because of the Land of Death that Arget Nore spread in Gamma. Didn't they assume that a heliopolian Artefact was used and the creatures look like mummified beast warriors? It's probably an artifact of a god of death or the underworld.
Since undead and death magic gains a huge power upon the Land of Death. The power of the troops and the steady replenishment, I bet that's why they chose Arget Nore. After all, why wouldn't they hit us first, if it was that powerful? Why hit undead with undead?"
Evee's argument was sound. If whatever they used was that powerful, they should have attacked Little Gamma directly. Seth doubted they would have gotten the address confused and went to former instead of little Gamma.
Still, it was no guarantee that the perpetrator wouldn't appear here or somewhere else in Minas Mar next. If it could get past their usual defenses, even a smaller scale could be threatening, especially to the civilians. The average level of Urthans had risen, but there were still many, that would not be able to fight such a force.
Despite their worries inside the booth, the Pythian Games continued.
...
Her eyes were fixed on the screen above. As contestants, they had come more than an hour before the start of the competition, to get everything really and synchronize with the organizers. She had never thought there could be this many preparations for a simple performance. Maybe they had overestimated themselves?
"Welcome to the second day! Today I'm presenting you the band battles!" the presenter, Umi, announced excitedly. "Today we thirty groups of musicians in all kinds of constellations. From Acapella groups to rock bands, we have it all! Our thirty bands will be contending in tournament-style brackets with five bands each. You the audience will have a chance to vote on your favorites. Your scores and the score of the judges will then decide their fate!... Whether they get to the next round, of course," the presenter explained the rules jokingly.
It seemed that it was finally time for Urth to shine in this one round. Looking around most of the entries were from Urth. She had heard that on the Voracious Cloud Continent, talented people usually their instrument solo and sang solo, playing in an ensemble was not very popular.
Shaking her head at that thought, she had more understanding for the people from the system world. There, musicians of lower levels were often wandering minstrels or part of an adventurer party. There existed some bands or orchestras, but most of them were contracted to the nobility. Since the tournament restricted the contestant to be below lv.90, there wouldn't be any powerful figures from System Worlds, apart from the judges.
Urth on the other hand had a sprawling music industry before the fall. At least this was what she heard. The legends of their musicians were, well, legendary. Even the apocalypse had a hard time wiping out party-hardened musicians, leading to almost two-thirds of the entries being popular hit bands coming from Urth. She could imagine Seth rubbing his hands as their audience quota among Urthans was guaranteed.
But their numerical advantage wouldn't help them, since they were up against a formidable foe. The majority of the rest were demonic bards. Ember saw no need to be humbled in this matter. Unlike players, Demons were much more attuned to battle music in general. Unlike some cretins, they also knew for the power of a combined play.
Even if she was not too confident in her own victory, Ember was convinced one of the 7 demonic bands would win this. Even if her band didn't win, they just had to make sure one of the other two from the new Bard College in TS10 got the title.
It would be too shameful if they allowed the traitors that had stayed in Urth to score higher than them, or worse, win. Although this was not a battle to the death, all of them were very serious. This was a matter of pride.
"Would you stop burning holes into the back of my head?" the demon youth asked her annoyed. Unwittingly, she had stared dagger at one of the remaining students at Delta's Bard College. Bragmomal's underlings had also sent two teams to compete.
"He, what's with that look? Are you trying to intimidate me, because you know that you can't win in a fair match of pure skill?" he mocked her, combing his hand through his poisonous green hair, and giving her a toothy grin. "or is it that you fell more me?"
"As much as I despise you, I would feel bad to compete in a match of pure skill with you. After all…you would be unarmed," she countered unbothered.
"What you!" the demon youth stuttered, trying to come up with a counter, however-
"And what gave you such self-confidence? With an ox nose like yours, not even a bog toad would look your way. You are lucky your hand can't say no, or you would never get any action at all," she added, exposing her sharp teeth in a big grin.
"T-That's not true! I-I-"
"What isn't true? Don't tell me even your hand refuses to touch your nether regions? You are even more pitiful than I thought. Stupid and handicapped," she said with a sudden change in voice. Her words were oozing with pity, as she went as far as to pat his shoulder to cheer him up.
"Don't worry, I heard that Urth has machines for this special kind of need. Even if your hand does not dare to touch, these machines-"
"Stop it already!" the youth screeched, slapping her hand away he took flight.
Somebody behind her clicked their tongue.
"Tsk, you know that you just started a war, right?" the lead singer of their band asked Ember.
"I didn't start the fire. It was always burning…"
"Maybe, but you stoked it."
"But I didn't light it."
"…You also didn't try to fight it."
They kept bickering for a while as they returned to their band members and got ready.