I became a legion lich

242 The eve of war

Athos still clearly remembered the power the storm cloud had during the battle in the fortress and wanted to add it to his defenses.

“Once this fortress is completed, it’s going to take a full-grown dragon to bring down all those defenses.” It was Athos’ honest opinion after confirming all the layers of defenses the dwarves planned to create.

In addition to all defenses, the dwarves would build an underground shelter, but those would be plans for the future. The most that they would work underground in the near future would be the underground mine that was in the inner area of ??the first wall, behind where the fortress would be located in the future.

The cave built by the spirits and demihumans was still standing, but the dwarves had plans to further strengthen the cave walls and build support pillars to expand the tunnels even further.

Amidst so many ongoing projects, most of the skeletons were busy at the moment, unaware of the imminent invasion that would take place in just a few days.

*************

In the port city of de Nuatro in the kingdom of Mikor, a few days later.

The port city, once a prosperous place with hundreds of fishing vessels transporting materials between the mainland and the nearest islands, was now almost completely uninhabited, all citizens having been evacuated from the city, leaving the city empty.

The only ones left behind were the kingdom’s regular army and court mages, in addition to the mages sent by the order of magic. The church was absent in this particular city, although its presence was stronger elsewhere.

.....

The church and order had divided their strength and had tacitly avoided sending support to the same city, lest they over-fortify a single location and leave others unprotected. Both organizations were powerful, but employed different tactics to battle that would not always work well together, so they preferred to work separately.

Dozens of magic cannons were deployed on the pier and aimed towards the horizon, just waiting for the evolved demihumans to appear on the horizon. The order had also brought magic items that would generate barriers once the battle started, as the city itself had no walls or large-scale spells.

Magic items capable of generating barriers with the same power as a large-scale spell were extremely expensive, but the order of magic had opened their coffers on account of the emergency situation.

The mages and soldiers encamped in the city were tense and nervous about the battle to come, but they were working diligently to fortify the city. The soldiers were more or less used to it after spending almost a month camped in the city, but the mages had just arrived and weren’t used to the war climate.

It didn’t help that many mages had little battle experience and had never witnessed a battle on such a scale before. Many order mages came from famous magical bloodlines and were privileged for most of their lives.

Mages coming from humbler backgrounds would not have such a privilege, but neither would they have the necessary resources to advance quickly and lack confidence in their own strength to deal with an evolved demihuman.

Most of them were praying internally that everything was just a dream or that they could leave everything behind and run away, even if they had to leave everything they built behind.

Similar situations were happening in all the cities and forts built by the order of magic, the morale was so low that it looked like a defeated army returning, instead of waiting for the battle.

Not surprisingly, the situation was the complete opposite in places protected by the church. Morale among the paladins and priests was so high that for a moment the regular soldiers feared that church members would throw themselves into the sea to swim to the demihumans.

Church members were always indoctrinated with the idea that they were heroes of justice and that their duty was to protect humanity from a great evil, but until recently that great evil was something vague and distant, like the half-human empire in the south. or the beast people in the west.

Yet they weren’t major threats to humanity, just nuisances in humanity’s path. Evolved demi-humans invading the human realms on a continental scale on the other hand, was a real threat and the great evil they trained their whole lives to face.

The church forces could hardly wait for the battle to begin as they held a huge feast organized by the church itself. It was a tradition that church members would have a hearty meal before a big battle, commonly called the last supper.

The adventurers were the only forces not present in any of the port cities or strongholds built by the order. Now that most of the Three Kingdoms’ troops were focused on defending themselves against enemies, adventurers were needed more than ever in cities to keep monster populations in check.

It would be a big problem if the three kingdoms focused all their efforts on dealing with the evolved demihumans, only to suffer monster outbreaks due to neglecting their own territories.

Kian Avant, the supreme master and founder of the adventurer’s guild didn’t like this setup very much, but he didn’t openly complain. Someone had to stay behind and keep things in order, and even he had to admit that compared to the other two organizations, the adventurer’s guild had little war potential, even though its members were individually strong and had good teamwork.

Adventurers lacked experience in warfare, even compared to arrogant mages. Fighting monsters was completely different from fighting a demihuman and hordes of monsters couldn’t even be compared to a real army.

There wasn’t enough information to know how organized the evolved demihumans were, but if they had the minimum organization of an army, it would be almost impossible for adventurers to fight with all their might.

There were only a few hours left before the start of the invasion and information that the islands closest to the continent were occupied by evolved semi-humans reached all commanders in the field and stationed forces in case reinforcements were necessary, increasing tension even among the most stoic soldiers.

**************

In Eishin’s Divine Palace, above the capital of El Dorado.

Eishin was sitting on his throne watching several different holograms scattered throughout the throne room. The holograms tracked in real time all locations protected by church forces.

He was coldly watching the paladins and priests finishing their last supper and preparing for battle. Eishin had been standing in the same position for almost an entire day, just waiting for the half-human ships to appear on the horizon.

From time to time, he had the illusion of giants looming over the horizon and he would squeeze the throne’s arms until they broke, belatedly realizing that it was just his mind and unresolved trauma playing tricks on his mind.

The cherubim guarding the throne room were all tense, feeling Eishin’s emotions fluctuate wildly and with it the floating palace.

Suddenly, a knock on the door got everyone’s attention and the angel outside announced that the God Canan was trying to get in touch, but Eishin ignored it.

“Say I’m busy and don’t want any distractions right now.” Eishin responded to the messenger angel, but the latter seemed hesitant to obey his orders, something that would be considered sacrilege in normal times.

“...some problem?” Eishin asked as he looked at the throne room doors with questioning eyes, clearly seeing the hesitant angel behind them.

“My lord, is it really wise to continue ignoring communication with the empire and god Canan? They are our greatest allies and I believe they will not be happy to be ignored for so long.” The angel gathered all his courage and explained his fear, surprising all the cherubs.

“Someone grew balls to challenge our lord like that.” One of the younger cherubs on guard muttered, receiving an elbow from his colleague beside him to keep quiet.

“The little angel is right, Eisin. It’s rude to continue ignoring an old friend like that.” Canan’s voice sounded outside the palace and reverberated through all the palace corridors until it reached the throne room, making Eishin sigh.

“Listening to other people’s conversations too.” Eishin responded as the ceiling of the throne room opened so Canan could enter.

“I’m not spying on anyone. It just happened to be my good ears picking up the conversation as I approached. Since you always ignore my calls, I decided to come here myself.” Canan descended into the throne room as he spoke.

“Your concealment skills also seem to have improved, as you managed to approach the capital without me noticing.” Unlike the last meeting they had, Eishin did not get up from the throne, but remained seated on his throne looking at Canan from above.

“You shouldn’t be here. You should be in your empire, watching over the strongholds and cities the order is protecting.” Eshin kept looking at Canan with the same cold eyes he looked at his enemies, making the tension in the room skyrocket.