Principality of Qua Toyne

Lotus Garden

"...and that is the conclusion of the report of the…battle between the Usean Army and Lourian Army at Ejei."

"..."

"It really is just as outrageous as their naval battle. I don't even feel the need to disbelieve it anymore, " said the defense minister.

"Did anyone see how Usea used their high-powered explosive magic? Well, they did claim it wasn't magic but I still don't believe that. Or did no one see it?" asked a general.

"Yes sir. As written in the report, Usea conducted two attacks, one from their homeland and the other from their base. Observers reported spears of light shooting from their base but could not see the attack that came from their continent, only the results."

"That's impossible! Their base was 11 kilometers from the destruction…and…and their homeland is more than 2500 kilometers away! That…that even exceeds tales of what the ancient sorcerous empire was capable of!"

The meeting erupted into chaos.

"Are you shitting me!? Usea can even exceed the ancient empire's power?"

"Wait! Tales are only tales, we don't know the full capability of the empire!"

"That's even worse!"

Prime Minister Kanata raised his hand to quiet the members of the meeting. "The Useans have given us more materials, please take a look."

Documents on high-quality paper, imported cheaply from Usea, were passed out to all of the legislators.

"A proposal to directly attack Louria's capital? It says they will launch their aircraft to destroy enemy wyverns and conduct a bombing on military installations. They will then send their ground forces to invade the city. Their objective is to capture Louria's king and military leaders for charges of 'war crimes', 'crimes against peace', and 'crimes against humanity'. They will also simultaneously launch an attack to retake Gim from the Lourians."

"This seems like it would be difficult to accomplish, but I think the Useans can do it. I believe it is acceptable. Besides, we have nothing to lose."

"No, but other countries could take this opportunity to invade."

"Did you not pay attention to the battle reports? Usea can easily repel invaders. I think they are even stronger than Mu and the Holy Mirishial Empire!"

"Well, if their plan works, we could end the war with minimal losses…"

Usea's plan was approved and their military forces began moving through Qua Toynian lands.

Kingdom of Louria, Qua Toyne subjugation army, eastern vassal army

15 kilometers east of Gim

"We can't contact the advance force?!" Lieutenant General Adem yelled at the communications team.

"A…According to my superior, sir, we've been sending out transmissions but receiving no responses."

There had been no news from the advance force since the day before. Despite only being an advance force, it was unusually large, consisting of 20,000 soldiers. There was no way it could have been wiped out without any messages.

Adem exhaled. "What about the reconnaissance team?"

Adem had sent 12 wyverns to scout Ejei.

"They should be passing over the last-known location of the advance force in a few minutes and sending us a report, sir."

Lourian wyvern scouting squadron

"It should be around here…"

The 12 wyverns were split up, each searching a different zone. Dragon rider Muura was assigned to the area where the advance force was last heard from. It was colder and more humid today, with significantly more cloud cover. Flying was a bit trickier, but the weather was comfortable.

The advance force had vanished. His mission was to verify their status.

"What?!"

He had flown dangerously close to Ejei, within six kilometers, when he saw a battlefield, or what remained of it.

"What…what is this…?!"

It was like hell had come to the surface. The ground was completely scorched, covered in giant craters, with a few small fires still burning in the middle of the charred ground. He saw melted metal plates and very few human and horse remains, almost burned to the point of being completely unrecognizable. There weren't even any of the ravens that often showed up after battles to pick at remains since there weren't any remains to speak of.

"They were…annihilated? By what demonic force?"

He brought out his manacom. "HQ! The…the advance force was completely and utterly annihilated!"

It was impossible…and terrifying…

"GRAH! GRAH!"

His wyvern roared a warning. It was looking east.

Muura looked up, seeing a dot, a grain, approaching and growing larger. He strained his eyes. Dragon riders all had extremely good vision.

He began to hear a faint whine, growing louder as the object grew closer.

"What kind of dragon is that?"

He saw a grayish thing, heavily angled. It seemed soulless and artificial, more like an object rather than a dragon. And it was approaching at unreal speeds.

"!"

He jumped onto his wyvern and kicked off into the air, intent on escaping before the thing caught up to him. Suddenly a small light shot off the object's wings, following after him. Its effective range was clearly greater than his wyvern's fire blast, maybe even a wyvern lord's blast! But such an attack only worked if he was caught by surprise. He could simply just turn and it would fly past. But it did not, changing direction as he turned.

"How?! It's following me!"

He began pulling all kinds of wild maneuvers in hopes of throwing the object off his tail, but it corrected its direction every time, no matter what he did.

"A guided light arrow is following me!" Muura yelled into his manacom. "I can't shake it!"

The missile, launched from an Su-57M, caught up to him and exploded, knocking him off into a river, and taking his wyvern with the blast. Shortly after, a few strange green-patterned men showed up and took him as their prisoner.

"Lieutenant General! Scouts have been reporting that the advance force was annihilated! However, we lost contact shortly after. Several scouts reported light arrows following them before contact was lost."

Adem turned around. "If you are bullshitting me right now, I WILL have you executed right now, you know."

General Pandor spoke. "The evidence does point to the advance force being annihilated, unfortunately. The light arrows are interesting, though. Anyways, chief-of-staff, how's the main force doing?"

"Yes, general. We have 46 wyverns on continuous patrol. The army is ready to move as you command."

"Hmm, good. But 46 wyverns seems excessive."

"On the contrary, sir, the advance force was most likely destroyed by a surprise attack. Having this many wyverns prevents-"

A messenger suddenly ran in. "General! Very bad news! The patrolling wyverns are being shot down by light arrows!"

"What? Light arrows? Does that mean that all of the earlier scouts were also shot down? This is bad!"

Adem decided that he needed to escape, so he came up with an excuse. "I will head back to request-"

He was silenced by a laser-guided bomb exploding on the command post, which decapitated the command structure of the Lourian army.

Shortly afterward, Usean ground troops moved in to recapture Gim. The remaining soldiers of the Lourian army surrendered after losing spectacularly against modern munitions.

Meanwhile, a platoon of T-14Bs pushed on to Jin Hark, Louria's capital. They were there to serve as a distraction, to draw the city's soldiers out so special forces could assault the castle.

They demolished the gate while Lourian soldiers poured out for a desperate last stand, only to be cut down by machine gun fire. Special forces infiltrated the castle, defeating the few remaining guards and taking the king captive. With that, Louria surrendered and the continent was unified, their lands being absorbed into a nation simply called "Rodenius", ironically under Qua Toynian rule.

Usea upgraded the infrastructure of Louria and established many factories in Louria due to its high population, turning the former nation into a manufacturing and commerce hub for Usean products.