I became a legion lich

249 Ancestral bloodlines

There were only five in total, but each of them had strength comparable to an order elder. All of them were at least above the fifteenth layer of life and possessed numerous battle or academic achievements.

They were known as Saints because of their half-angel, half-human build. They rejected their full ascension so that they could continue helping the three realms where they were born, while most of the angels served Eishin in the Adula empire.

“And you? What are the chances of the order’s cowardly mages fighting properly and resisting the invaders?” Eishin asked back, but he clearly didn’t have much hope of success.

“Elders will definitely be successful in defense, but the chances of the other strongholds being successfully defended are not that low.” Eirin spoke after a while of thinking, surprising Eishin.

“Wait, what makes you think that bunch of arrogant mages have any chance against the evolved demihumans? Up until half an hour ago, you were the one who was calling them incompetent and cowardly, saying they wanted to flee before the battle even started.” Eishin was confused by Canan’s change of heart.

“And they really are incompetent and cowardly, but no, battles are not decided by mages alone. Fortress D received less support because it had an elder to defend it, but the other cities received more than just cannons and mobile barriers as reinforcements.” Eirin explained proudly and Eishin waved her on.

“We send out warslaves and demihumans as expendable troops, as well as open up our arsenals to share powerful artifacts with mages and increase their powers.”

“We also buried alchemical items on the beaches to buy time and eliminate the weakest and shared potions of different effects to aid them, including spells that inhibited fear and increased mental clarity to ensure they didn’t run away.”

“We’ve done all that too and what makes you think they’ll succeed?” Eishin remained doubtful of her strange confidence.

.....

“The construction of our own crystal arch has already been completed in the capital Makima and another one in the order’s headquarters. There are masters of magic, elders and various troops on standby just waiting for one of the strongholds to call for reinforcements.” Eirin reinforced the fact that they alone possessed the portal technology, glaring at Eishin.

She was irritated having to constantly hear insults about the organization she had created, even though it was true.

“Well, that should be more than enough to eliminate those weak demihumans, just be careful that none of them try to teleport in the direction of the portal and cause another anomaly. It would be a shame to lose another portal arch right after building it .” Eishin noted Eirin’s offended tone and teased her, enjoying her reactions.

“It doesn’t look like another battle is going to start anytime soon, so I think it’s a good time to ask something I’ve been curious about for a while. Can you share what you know about the giants that spawned these demihumans? It might be useful to find out for what they are evolving.” Canan took control of the body to prevent Eirin from responding and starting an argument.

“We can use this information to assess how far they are from catching up with their original lineages.” Canan explained his reasons, as he himself had not witnessed the terror of the giants.

Despite having lived during the era of chaos, Canan and Eirin were born after the fall of the giants and lived safely on the Nytrer continent until they decided to leave and join Eishin with the ideal of human supremacy.

By the time they made that decision, all the giants had already been wiped out and only the demihumans were left, the weak and flawed kin that Eishin couldn’t eliminate because of Illum’s interference, so Canan and Eirin saw no reason to delve search about them.

“I can remember species similar to trolls, orcs and ogres, but goblins are a complete mystery to me. I’ve never seen or heard of any species that small, giants were called that for a reason.” Eishin agreed that sharing information was a good idea, and went out of his way to try to recognize demihuman-like giants.

“Start with the ogres, they were the strongest during the previous battle and I’m curious to know how strong they are when they reach their full potential.” Canan directly asked what was most interested.

“The ogres are descendants of the Jotun. They were a race that could reach up to 20 meters in height and had the racial ability Balance.” Eishin started to explain, but almost spit out every word.

“They were known to have a fanatical belief in the balance of the world and their ability reflected this. Jotuns were capable of absorbing excess elemental energy into world energy to make them perfectly balanced and they mortally hated any species that got in their way.”

“This included all species capable of using magic, monsters capable of absorbing specific elements, undead for their corrupted mana and angels for their holy mana.” Eishin’s expression twitched as if he was chewing on insects.

“I can only imagine how big they would become after using giganticization, I mean, balance. Maybe they would get as big as Kalesi?” Canan muttered mostly to himself, but Eishin denied it.

“Balance is not like giganticization. Gigantification absorbs the surrounding excess elements to increase the size of the ogres, but balance concentrated the elemental energy in its body, the concentrated energy increasing the power of the jotuns several times over.”

“Their powers also didn’t have the same limitations as ogres and could absorb cotinuously elemental energy for hours without tiring.” Eishin explained the differences between ogres and jotuns, but there was something odd he noticed. “But there’s something strange about these evolved ogres.”

“Jotuns only have one pair of arms and a single head like humans, but these ogres have multiple limbs. I don’t know if it’s a mutation or some kind of unique evolution, but something is different about the ogres.” Eishin explained his doubts to Canan after trying and failing to remember a jotun with multiple members.

“We’re going to collect the corpses and analyze them thoroughly, so we can find out what happened.” Canan assured him. “What about the orcs and trolls?”

“Trolls resemble an ancient species called wukong. They were like gorillas or stone apes standing nearly 100 feet tall when fully standing. Their bodies were made of flesh and earth and could absorb earth endlessly to regenerate.”

“They could also absorb the earth to gain extra mass and grow beyond their limits, although this was temporary. The wukong were the quietest giants and had the habit of sleeping for decades, often being mistaken for small mountains, but they were extremely violent when awake, becoming walking natural disasters.”

“The orcs are descended from the ancient Asuras, the more powerful warriors among the giants. They were 15 meter giants with red skin, four arms and black horns. Their racial skill Karma was extremely powerful and allowed them to strengthen their bodies whenever they felt any strong emotion .”

“It’s really scary to imagine all these giants walking around the world.” Eirin spoke and while not really a threat to someone on her level, it was definitely a catastrophe for all species.

“It’s beyond frightening. They were naturally stronger than all races except dragons, they were able to develop quickly thanks to their battle-focused lifestyle.” Eishin agreed with her opinion, having himself witnessed the terror of the giants.

“There were other races of giants and not all of them were humanoid, some looked like animals like the wukong and others like horrible creatures, but they all shared the desire for battle and hatred against the other races.” Eishin gripped the arm of the throne tightly, needing sheer willpower to contain his aura.

“The only saving grace was that the giants were few in number compared to other species and their inability to use magic greatly limited them.”

“Wait, I know demihumans are incapable of using magic, but there were several goblins or orcs using clearly enchanted weapons. How is that possible?” Canan asked doubtfully.

“They perhaps stole or forced spirits that lived on the continent to runesmithing. I also remember a species capable of a technique similar to runesmithing-” Before Eishin could finish speaking, an alarm started to sound, indicating that a new Invading fleet was sighted, this time, on an island in the kingdom of Belaster defended by the church.

The demihuman armies didn’t have any communication with each other, so the attacks happened at different times, instead of coordinated attacks. It also meant that the two could observe the different battles to leverage the information to form a response against attacks.

The divine palace deactivated the alarm and the different holograms on the ceiling, with the exception of one. The remaining hologram increased in size and occupied almost the entire ceiling, showing the view of a tropical island with hundreds of huts or buildings made of wood extracted from the island itself and dyed in different colors.

There was an army of paladins and crusaders stationed on the edge of the island, frantically watching the ships on the horizon.