Chapter 29: Pandemonium
Note:
Overlordwarhammer2019: Any politicians suggest using the demons of chaos as some kind of soldier will be lynched by the religious fundamentalism mob. It is political suicide. Holocaust survivors will ally with Hiller before that happens.
The Empire is not the Nazi, how do you justify recruiting baby-eating demon to your rank ? They are more like the late 19th century British Empire with the zealot of the Japanese Empire, but not the rape, and the religious fundamentalism of Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan, with much more revealing outfits.
Try to recruit the chaos demons to fight the Empire will backfire hard, you will lose support at home and unleash a wave of jihad from both Earth's and Falmart's fundamentalists, on the scale of which the world have never seen.
The spell to separate the seawater is incorporated in the hysteria swarm. It isn't a large scale or complex spell. On the contrary it a very simple spell powered by solar power. The problem is there are too many of them, just imagine the plankton. Microwaves can destroy them but not the most effective way to do it.
Rory acts like she knows everything because that is her job's requirement. The 13 Apostles aren't choose because of their fighting prowess, they are choose because they are political savy. They are politicians first and warriors second. Their allegiance is to the Church. There's a reason why none of them look older than 30. Children are easily brainwashed.
V : What I mean when I say magic is those technologies you mention are basically Clarketech- advanced technology that is indistinguishable from magic.
The Precursor and Forerunners are milions to billions of year old. You want 2030s human to develope god-tech !?
Perpetual motion violates the first law of thermodynamics, I want something more hard sci-fi.
Zero point energy sound like god-tech.
Banks of the Phlegethon River, The Eye of Terror
A massive military convoy, with the command car waving a massive demonic flag bringing up the rear, was slowly but surely moving to the East. At the edge of the blood-colored sky, the pitch-black Phlegethon river at the edge of the Pit of Terror slowly revealed its silhouette.
A countless number of black tents set up by the vanguard covered the wide plain.
Boom.
Boom.
The earth trembled from the thunderous war drums played by the army of Giant Demons.
At the end of the line, Beelzebub looked silently from the roof of his command car — as though they were countless blood cells pumped by a giant heart, the attack unit slowly expanded into the final formation.
It wasn't the way Abigor had described in the last report he had made before his disgrace and desertion. He'd spoken of the human forces lining up behind ridges, ready to hurl their mage-fire bolts into an attacking enemy.
That wasn't how these humans were deploying at all. They were spread out, small strong-points forming, each built around eight of their iron chariots. There were tens of thousands of those little forts, arranged in staggered rows with great distances between them, stretching back as far as his flies could see.
The iron chariots were surrounded by earthworks, the red soil of netherworld piled up in great banks so that only the curious round structures on top of the chariots peered over the crest. Another thing that didn't make sense, didn't that provide dead ground close in to each little fortress? Beelzebub thought that over carefully.
"The day of glory draws closer master." Chiknathragothem spoke deferentially to the great demon he served, Abaddon's favorite and nearest-thing-to-trusted General. "Soon we shall lead the great charge that will tear these humans apart."
"I think not." Beelzebub was still mulling over the sight before him.
"Sire?" That had been an unexpected retort and Chiknathragothem didn't quite know what to make of it.
"Abigor made a wild charge at the enemy and look where it got him. Defeated and disgraced. We must try to be a little more cunning. Where is Asmodeus's and Dagon's army?"
"A day's march out Sire. Coming up from the south. Four hundred and eighty six thousand legions including fifty four thousand of cavalry and twenty seven thousand of fliers. All they had save for the ten legions Asmodeus took down to the Pit."
So in total he had 729,000 legions including 81,000 legions of cavalry, 81,000 legions of dark art user and 81,000 legions of fliers not counting many other auxiliary units. Nearly seven and a third billion demons strong, that was a great army for sure, definitely bigger than the Army of Man of no more than 20 million men.
"Where they did him little good eh Chiknathragothem?" The death of Asmodeus was still causing shock-waves throughout the Eye of Terror. The other Great Dukes had descended on his estates and property with unparalleled avarice, hoping to divide the spoils between themselves. And what spoils there were for Asmodeus had been a rich and powerful Duke, to absorb even a portion of his holdings would enhance the power and status of any noble demon.
That was what had made the next step so inexplicable. Normally Abaddon encouraged infighting and maneuvering amongst his entourage on the very sensible basis that when they were conspiring against each other, they would not be conspiring against him.
But this time Abaddon had stilled the struggle with a single booming command that had echoed throughout the streets of Dis. Rather like the strange flying chariots of the humans that made no noise when coming but went overhead with a dreadful crash and left a deafening scream behind them.
Abaddon had gathered his court and harangued them all for their disloyalty and treachery, asking them why they fought each other when the humans needed destroying. Only his loyal vassals Beelzebub and Belial were standing by him, he said, while others looked only to their own gain.
As a result, the holdings of Asmodeus would be distributed by Abaddon when the war against the humans was over and the extent of the rewards would be measured by the service the recipients had provided. And so far, Abaddon had concluded darkly, only Belial had qualified.
The thought that Belial might inherit the whole of Asmodeus's vast holdings had horrified the demon hierarchy. All too many remembered the slights and humiliations they had visited upon him when to do so won them favor in Abaddon's eyes. The destruction of 20 cities of man had added very real fear to the horror, was it not possible that Belial might take his vengeance by doing the same to them? And there were his gorgons to consider; Euryale was well-known for her large collection of cherished and carefully-maintained grudges.
"Chiknathragothem, see here where the Phlegethon bends? It turns towards us here, then turns back to its original course for about 40 leagues, then turns away from us before one more returning to its original course."
Chiknathragothem looked at the parchment with the line of the river drawn on it. The course of the river was primarily a 3000 leagues long straight line but here, near Dis, there were 3 great bulges, 100 leagues apart, towards the Great Infernal City.
"The humans have set up their defenses there, fortifying those bulges. It is obvious they intend to use them as a launch point for their attack on Dis itself. So we must strike first, to destroy those positions."
Beelzebub thought for a few seconds. "Abigor told us that the humans like to encircle their enemies, so that none can get away when they start to destroy them. Perhaps we should do the same."
"But Sire, if an enemy has no means of retreat, will he not fight harder?"
"Chiknathragothem, Abigor took about 600 million troops with him, 60,000 Legions. The Army of Man wiped them out, almost to the last. One demon in ten thousand returned.
Do you seriously think the humans can fight any harder than already have? No, I think not. You will take Asmodeus's Army and move it here, where the river turns away from Dis.
Then I will command the dark sorcerer legions to use their dark arts to straighten the great river and then turn them into acid, flooding the enemy's defenses with the torrent of death, trapping hundreds of their legions on this side of the river Phlegethon at here, here and here.
While the enemy is in chaos, your army will thrust across the streambed here, here and here and move into the rears of the defense army along the Phlegethon to encircle then destroy them. I will assign you three thousand additional legions of fliers for the assault.
And Belial is sending us 60 legions of wyvern rider that he has trained to attack forces on the ground. We will see how the humans cope with fire from the sky.
The enemy's main line of defense will have 3 large gaps, from where I will launch my attack. My main thrust will be at the upstream bend of those great bulges, bypass your encirclements and I will also move into their rear. While you move inward I will outward to prevent enemy breakthrough.
By then, the enemy defenses will be cut into seven sections, my cavalry will galloping to Hellgate to cut off any enemy reinforcement. With the human army trapped against the river and no where to run we will destroy them one by one, section by section.
Our enemy only have one supply line, the Hellgate, it will be their chokepoint. We will unleash the apocalyptic beast Pandemonium on their side of Hellgate to disrupte their supply line."
"Pandemonium! The legendary berserker of the Netherworld, Weapons of the Chaos Gods and the Demon Lord of the Nine Hell, Pandemonium," Chiknathragothem was in absolute horror. "My lord, the beast of apocalypse does not obey anyone, the nation-killer will rampage and make carnage until there is nothing left. He is very strong but has an insatiable blood lust (even for a demon) and thus had to be locked up because he kept killing anything that got near him. How can we release that walking apocalypse!"
"That is why he is the perfect weapon in this case, even those accursed apostles can not defeat him. Set him free and he will block the Hellgate for us. Think on this Chiknathragothem, had things gone as originally planned, we would be fighting on Falmart, far from sight and where the news of our victories would be sung by Heralds. But now, we will win the fight within Abaddon's sight, under his own walls. Much will be our glory and great our rewards."
Belial's Study, Adamantine Fastness of Tartarus, The Eye of Terror
Belial's study was a large room with two door, one in the front and one on the right side. Belial, of course never sat with his back to a door. No demon made it past squad leader without learning such basic common sense. Thus when Euryale entered she was immediately met by the count's calculating stare.
She made no sign of having noticed it though, instead concentrating on bringing the food she had prepared for him to his table. She'd made certain that the tray held everything he liked and nothing that he did not, that wasn't just being seductive, that was simple self-preservation.
Once Belial's meal was laid out, she sat quietly on the couch beside him, saying nothing. Belial was very familiar with this game, but still drunk on success he was in the mood to let it play out. He continued to stare at the meal laid out on the table, aware that the Euryale's tailhad curved around his leg and its tip was caressing the back of his thigh.
"Lord Abaddon is pleased at my success. He has named me as one who stands beside him and is in his favor."
"My Lord. The Baroness Yulupki is in position with her chorus. The second attack, on the mortal cities, will commence when you give the word." Her voice was quiet and respectful but her tail continued to move suggestively up his leg, its tip now reaching his knee.
The torchlight was glittering off her smooth bronze scales. Conniving little harpy. Belial thought, though the constantly-moving tip of tail curling around his lower leg was rather distracting. Still as comely as ever though.
"And then Abaddon will indeed reward me and grant me back the power I once had. Which raises the question of what to do with you, Euryale. Your display tonight was unforgivable." Mentally, Belial gulped, the top of her tail had now reached his groin and thinking straight was becoming every more difficult. "You must be punished for your insubordination.
"I am in great fear of your punishment Belial." Euryale put a distinct tremor into her voice, one that was either lust or fear and there was no way of telling which was which.
In fact, of course, the answer was neither but that didn't really matter. She twitched the tip of her tail and saw Belial jump slightly. You ignorant oaf, half your court want to rebel against you, the other half just want to assassinate you.
The only thing stopping them is they don't regard Tartarus as being worth the risk. As soon as you have something worth usurping, they'll be at your throat. If it didn't suit me to have you on the throne… the tip of her tail had reached up and now was circling Belial's penis.
Any hope Belial had of thinking straight had long gone. Ah well, may as well go with the flow was the one thought that was running through his mind. He lurched upwards, getting to his feet and dragging Euryale up with him at the same time.
Then, he pulled the demoness off the couch, and slung her over his shoulder before he carried her through an archway and flung her onto a sleeping pallet. Euryale landed heavily on her back, splayed out on the matted fungus.
The briefest flicker of fear crossed her face before her features melted into a look of unbridled lust. Belial couldn't tell if she was faking that or not, but his matching expression was certainly genuine.
Outside, the listening chaos orcs heard the intense screams and were indeed convinced that a most horrible tortures were being inflicted. By the time the story had been elaborated and repeated, it was enough to chill the blood of even the most ruthless of Belial's minions.
Half an hour later, Belial was back in his study, staring dreamily through the window (or rather, trident firing loophole). This owed less to the massage Euryale was giving him than to the drugged dart she'd managed to administer while the count was quite thoroughly distracted by her claws raking his back. It was a tactic she used most sparingly, due to the likely horrible consequences of him realizing what she was doing, but in this case she'd considered it justified.
"Yes, such a shame really, losing brave Lasee-urk-nasee."
Euryale sighed mentally. "Actually Lakheenahuknaasi survived. She made contact with me just an hour ago, of course I came to see you immediately. She says that she was intercepted by a human sky chariot in the sky of Tibet and gravely wounded, when tried to escapse she teleported herself to a place called UK. Lakheenahuknaasi thinks we must minimize the time between sending the pathfinder and the strike itself. If we do that, her sisters will have a much better chance of survival.."
"Of course. Your handmaiden is alive? I expect you will want to retrieve her then?"
"Actually I convinced her to stay for a while. She said that she it may be possible to build a small cult of humans and that from them she can learn much of value to you."
The idea of any of his subjects having a private cult didn't sit easily with Belial, but then again they were only humans. After the immense effort it had taken to find the first twenty targets, the prospect of his own intelligence network on earth was tantalizing, however modest its beginnings.
"Most pleasing, Euryale. What has she discovered so far."
"Alas she is still evading human pursuit and has not had time to gather much yet. But think on this my Lord, we both know how much influence Deumos gains just from her legion of succubi – yet she could not warn us of the human magery. My handmaiden has shown that given the chance, we gorgons can provide you with a superior spy network. How much would that be worth at Abaddon's court?"
The offer would have been tempting anyway, had she managed to get the count to hear it out, but in his current state it was irresistible.
"Very well. We attack the enemy immediately and we use a psyker as close to the target as possible. The search must begin immediately, to be sure of finding one who can travel there in time."
Suddenly energized, Belial stormed out of his chambers, bellowing for servants and messengers as he made his way to the great hall. Euryale followed behind, savoring a smug grin before she had to begin her performance for the nobles.
Command HQ, Camp Hell-Alpha, The Eye of Terror
The war council began at six in the evening with a rather strained atmosphere due to the spirit exuded from Apostle of Zufmuut, Mabel Fornm and Apostle of Emroy, Rory Mercury, who was recently cock blocked by the newly arrived demi-goddess.
After briefly introducing herself, Mabel threw herself onto a chair prepared on the front row.
"…Mabel-sama."
Snatching the cup of water a Japanese aide-de-camp offered, she drained the cold, sweet and sour liquid in a single gulp. Taking in a deep breath, she somehow managed to move on.
—Still.
This cursed place creeped her out, even the air was irritated with the smell of the unclean. It should be burned with holy fire.
Mabel was then introduced to the commanding generals of UEADF in this operation.
The Big Five were: The Supreme Commander of the Allies Force in Falmart, Liam Nuttall. Marshal Ivan Semenovich Dorokhov of the Russian Arm Force. Marshal Zhong Xina of the Chinese People's Liberation Army. General Charles A. Flynn of the US Army. Field Marshal Yogendra Dimri of the Indian Army.
Them aside, General Qasem Soleimani, with the alias of «The Shadow Commander» of the Arab Coalition, and Field Marshal Georges Catroux, a surprisingly young man, of EU Army.
The remaining twelve were four-star generals from other nations military like UK, Brazil, Japan, ect
"Got them." The intelligence officer had the 64K resolution (61440 × 34560 pixel) photos in his mailbox. More photos were still coming over but these were the critical ones, the pictures of the enemy main army itself. The MQ-1 RBAs had landed a few minutes before and the digitally-recorded pictures had been sent over by laser.
General Nuttall looked at the photos with a smart table. "It's a huge army, no doubt about it. An army bigger than anything the world have ever seen. 729,000 legions strong or about SEVEN POINT THREE BILLION DEMONS."
"Yeah, size ain't a problem for this thing. Take a look at these enlargements Sir. Shows what's going on down there."
Nuttall looked at the enlargements and then shook his head. "We knew it was bad in there, not this bad. Looks like Abigor was right in his description of Beelzebub. Beelzebub wasn't a fool, he learned fast, his army were digging defensive trenches, foxhole with sandbags, wooden frames and sometimes roofs to shelter them from artillery. They want a war of attrition, slowly wearing down the Coalition Army."
"Four thousand kilometers long of trenches along the riverbank, 750 kilometers thick with thousands of overlapping defenses lines, one after another. This is a WW1 nightmare but a thousand times worse," Exclaimed Marshal Zhong Xina. "We will have to advance through 750 kilometers of trenches before getting to the other side. That's more than the operating range of our tanks. We'll need every heavy truck we can get to keep the front line forces fighting."
"Try to flank the enemy will be tough, consider how thick and wide their main body is," Field Marshal Yogendra Dimri commented on their dire situation. "Attempting to encircle them will stretch thin our forces. They are trying to use their numerical advantage to encircle us."
"Due to the recent attacks on Earth, we will be short on anti-aircraft guns, which is horrible for the next battle," General Charles A. Flynn raised a quite concerning problem. "Especially when we're going to be facing more than 800 million harpies. They have more fliers than we have troops. We're flying tens of thousands of jet fighters against an enemy that have hundreds of millions of harpies. We need a tens of thousand-to-one kill ratio or we'll go down."
The room was silent, most civilians were out there rejoicing at the quick and easy victory over Abigor's Force, or at least the victory that had seemed quick and easy. Some were even calling it the Curb-Stomp War. The true experts in this room knew better.
Like every task performed by true experts, the war had just seemed easy but in reality it had been a desperately close thing. The count-down clock to when the human army would run out of ammunition and fuel had been getting perilously near to zero-hour when the surrender had come in and it wasn't that much better now.
Commander Nuttall knew that the people who had made the difference in those last hours hadn't been American, Russian or Chinese but the Holy Order of Eden. If the Darwinian Orthodox Church hadn't kept flooding out supplies of both Eastern- and Western-standard munitions for them, the war might still have gone the other way.
"The good thing is they are coming directly to us," Marshal Ivan Semenovich Dorokhov tried to light up the mood. "As long as we fight a defensive war, the kill ratio will be in our favor."
"No matter how many bastards there are, they will be meaningless against the firepower of our artillery. We will lurk them into V-shaped defenses lines, where a "slaughter pen" could be formed and send them all to God." Field Marshal Georges Catroux, a hardcore Christian, proudly claimed.
"Quantity has a Quality of its own," General Qassem Soleimani gently reminded his colleagues. "They outnumber us 364 to 1, that is more than in the movie "Rome, Sweet Rome" where a Marine Expeditionary Unit (MEU) of 2,200 men facing the entire Roman Empire legions of nearly 330,000 men. You know who win in the end of that movie."
"So when will the Incomparable Army of Light of your can arrive, we need every help we can get, Your Holiness Rory!" Nuttall raised his eyebrows at Rory, who was unusually silent for the pass hour.
"Assembling such an army would take some time, but they should be ready by now," Rory sipped a cup of tea before looking at Mabel. "Have you heard anything, Mabel?"
The Apostle of Light just shrugged her shoulders indifferently. "You know Giselle, despite being the fastest of us she can be quite slothful sometime."
"Yeah..." Rory raised her eyebrows to the side, looking unamused.
Suddenly an intelligence officer interrupted their conversation. "Sir, an UFO is moving towards Hellgate at Mach 25. What is your order ?"
"Mach 25 ?!
Everyone in the room was shocked by the mysterious object's speed, rivaled only by the best UEADF hypersonic scramjet, except for two people.
"That has to be her."
"What a show off."
"Don't worry, Commander, that is our reinforcement coming," Rory and Mabel then said in unison. "We should go welcome her."
"That girl better not making any mess when landing, or I swear in the name of Emroy, I will spank that lizard-loving poser."
"Are you coming, Commander?" Invited Rory and Mabel before they walked out of the conference room and headed to the airport.
XXXXXXXXXXX
The Apostle of the Underworld Goddess Hardy, Giselle Jizeru, darted through the sunless sky of Netherworld like a blue shooting star. Being a Draconian Princess and a demi-goddess made her, the apostle of the underworld, ironically master of the sky. Among the 13 Apostles, her flying speed was rivalled by none.
Giselle's speed was so fast, she split clouds wherever she flew and ignited sulfur in the air through friction alone, which made her guest very uncomfortable.
"Slow the fucking down, Giselle. There are bugs in my mouth," Complained the guest. "We're almost there, slow down."
"My wings, my rules." Giselle fired back, she was the master of the sky and no one could tell her how to fly.
Flying among the highest clouds, Giselle saw a glimmer of light on the pitch-black ground of Netherworld.
As she ascend further, Giselle focused her eyes. There were more than a single light. Though irregularly arranged, they extended on as far as she could see along the riverbank.
Those were campfires.
It was a giant camp site. The vanguards for the forces of darkness were lying in wait in great numbers right before her eyes. Awaiting the moment to attack.
"So many…"
Giselle hoarsely muttered once more.
She turned about immediately after. The Apostle of the Underworld thought she would be swallowed by uneasiness and cut down by a single enemy line if she continued staring into the legions of camp fires.
Even so, she held confidence she could slaughter one or two million of their infantry if they consisted of low rank demons. However, it would not be as simple if there were legions of chaos ogre archers or dark arts users in the enemy line.
Even if the Apostles could match a million, that power came solely from each of them. They wouldn't come out unscathed if the large scale dark arts attacks focused on them beyond where their weapons and divine arts could reach and even minor wounds could weaken them when accumulated.
Shaking away her futile thoughts with a sigh, Giselle started to descend.
The open land in the middle of the UEADF army's camp site was vastly vacated. Seeing as there was a gigantic warehouse beside it, that was unmistakably the landing field for aircaft.
The guest leapt down onto the runway as Giselle descended in an arc, Giselle turned her long wings towards the tent with her two talons barely touching the dirt.
A familiar voice rang through the landing field before she could turn back.
"You're Late, Giselle !"
"Oh, hello Bookworm, I see you're still as irritable as ever."
Slipping around in front of her was the Apostle of Light, Mabel Fornm. Despite being in a camp, there was not even a speck on her undulating ash blue hair.
"Looks like you have been well, Aleister." Rory said with a friendly smile.
Aleister Cromwell, The Apostle of the God of Revenge Palapon was overcome with emotion, ignoring all the etiquette rules of an Apostle. He jumped in and hugged Rory like a teddy bear. "Big Sister Rory, It has been so long!"
From afar, Commander Nuttall was watching the two newly arrived Apostles with keen interest.
The one on the right, Giselle Jizeru was a tall Draconian woman, physically looked to be around 20 years old and had gold-pupil eyes, sharpened teeth, horn-like ears, short white hair like silver and barefoot. Her deep blue skin was covered in tribal tattoos. Her most notable feature was her large well decorated dragon wings. She wore a very revealing sleeveless white gothic priestess outfit with frills that was very similar to Rory's in terms of design but it was tattered and couldn't cover her in many other ways. Around her arms and legs, she wore gothic lace bracelets with white flowers.
The one on the left, Aleister Cromwell was an androgynous male vampire that appeared to be a 12-year-old boy with alabaster-white skin and long dark scarlet hair that went beyond his bare feet while his bangs cover his left eye. As a vampire, he had red eyes, fangs, and pointed ears. He wore a sleeveless open-back dress including a collar with gold beads covering his throat. The chest piece was black while the rest of the dress was white, and the gown splits open at his outer thighs which frees his legs for better movement. He also wore black sleeves separated from the gown that reach his mid-upper arms and come down to his middle fingers, where each sleeve was attached to a ring.
Rory stroked Aleister's long hair with her right hand then said. "Let me introduce you two to Liam Nuttall, the Supreme Commander of the Allies Force in Falmart. He is the Big one here."
"Please to meet you, Commander," the vampire boy pointed at himself. "I am Aleister Cromwell, Apostle of the God of Vengeance Palapon and the dragon lady here is Giselle Jizeru, Apostle of the Underworld Goddess Hardy."
"Welcome to Camp Hell-Alpha, Grandmaster Giselle, Grandmaster Aleister," Nuttall shook their hands in a friendly manner. "I wish we could meet in a better time and place."
"So do we, Commander." There was a hint of regret in their voices, but both knew regretting the past didn't do any help, and they had a mission to accomplish.
"Have you got everything ready yet?" Mabel Fornm asked impatiently.
"Yes, we have, but it takes all four of us to combine our strength." Giselle cautiously replied.
The summoning incantation they were about to cast was far beyond anything they had done before, it required a tremendous amount of mana that would push the Apostles to their absolute limit.
"Okay, let's get started."
"Commander, please tell everyone to get out off here."
Nuttall nodded, signalling to all military personal at the airport to evacuate before evacuating himself.
Rory bent down to pick up a handful of hellish dirt. "It's time to light up this dark world." As soon as she finished the sentence, the Apostle of War leaped up hundreds of meters into the pitch-black sky.
Her divine halberd emits golden lightning energy that illuminates the entire scene, as she fell back to earth like a meteor, Rory swung the divine halberd to the ground with the force of a heavy bomb. The explosion shook the ground as her magic dispersed and spread continuously forming a giant magic circle with four smaller circles at the corners.
The Four Apostles immediately jumped into those smaller circles to prepare to cast a synchronized mass summoning spell.
Gathering all their energies, the four Apostles started to perform a complex spell that had god-like power.
Paan! The Apostles slapped their hands together then spread them wide. Blue flecks of light were brought forth on the fingers of both of their hands with a faint, audible pulse—ten of them.
While maintaining a total of ten blue energy balls on their hands, the Apostles began to convert them into sacred elements.
«Aqueous»
«Aerial»
«Cryogenic»
«Electro»
«Terra»
«Luminous»
«Metallic»
«Thermal»
«Umbral»
«Crystalline»
Continuing their summoning ceremony, the four Apostles chanted the command to shape the sacred elements at an exceedingly quick pace and swung their right and left hands towards the dark sky.
Cutting through the air, the sacred elements collide in midair creating a spectacular show of light. As the light faded, 10 shimmering magic circles appeared in their places, one on top of the other.
«Seven Paths of Celestial. Gate of Valhalla»
From afar, Commander Nuttall was watching the sacred ritual. "This is truly a phantasy world, such power…. just unbelievable," Before finishing his compliment, a peculiar phenomenon entered his vision.
Against the blood-red sunless sky, mysterious objects began to fall from high in the sky.
Blue lines. Not just One, Tens… Hundreds of Thousands.
No, millions.
The lines seemed to consist of tiny dots, linked together. Squinting his eyes, Nuttall saw that each dot was either a number, or a letter from the English alphabet.
These mysterious bunches of lines poured silently down onto their side of the river, roughly one or two kilometers east of their camp.
Slowly, not just Nuttall, but also other generals, and even the officers and soldier of the UEADF, all ceased their actions to watch this bizarre event.
The first blue line that jabbed into the cracked earth became a small pile and shook —
It took only a few seconds to turn into a human form.
— What are those?
With a odd thundering, countless blue lines tumbled from the dark sky. They swelled up upon touching the ground, and rapidly molded into human shapes.
Warriors appeared before them, their bodies secured completely in heavy armor of bright colors, equipped with all type of late medieval weapons: long swords, short swords, sabers, battle axes, spears, longbow, crossbow, ect.
Although its color was different, the shape of their armor was very similar to that of the Zeroth Division. At a glance, they seemed to be the Holy Order's divinely summoned reinforcements.
These newly summoned infantrymen seem to have extreme sense of discipline and regulation. It was not unlike the Knights trained under the fame Zeroth Division. All of them were standing still waiting for orders.
The most striking thing was — their number.
After the peculiar rain of light stopped, the legion appearing on the ground had swelled to an unbelievable size. Nuttall estimated that they numbered far beyond three million, five million… It looked like ten million people.
These heavily armored soldiers were the true might of the Orthodox Church, the Incomparable Army of Light. If the Zeroth Division was a dagger then the Incomparable Army of Light was the Holy Order's sledgehammer.
Nuttall had taken a good look at the current situation. The power of the Incomparable Army of Light was truly amazing, but the real feat here was the Mass Summoning Incantation performed by the Apostles. Summoning 10 million troops from hundreds of different locations around the world to a single location in another dimension was not something could be easily accomplished even for a god.
What will it be ? A miracle from God? A curse from Satan ?
Nuttall didn't have an answer but he knew they would be really troublesome enemies. He smiled faintly, realizing the potential danger of his new 'allies'. But first thing first, we had a common enemy that need to be destroyed and he needed their help.
Cardinal Zhukov, Deputy Commander of the Incomparable Army of Light knelt reverently before his absolute leaders, the Apostles. The man was one of the most decorated generals in the Order Militant.
The cardinal spoke with a warm southern accent. "Your Holiness, Incomparable Army of Light is at your service," Zhukov looked up before continuing. "What is our order, Your Holiness ?"
"Good! We don't have time to waste. I want you to take your men and start digging," Rory took a sip of tea before continuing, using that much magical energy really exhausted her, she could barely move her fingers, and the other three apostles were no better. "I want a 3000 kilometers long defensive line along the Phlegethon River with extensive and interconnected bunker complexes for thousands of men. I want the line to be seven kilometers in depth and each three kilometers of the line to have at least 140 main forts, 350 casemates, 75 shelters, 7 observatories and around 5,000 blockhouses for us and the UEADF…."
Free Hell, Banks of the River Styx, Fifth Circle, The Eye of Terror
You Are Now Entering Free Hell
The sign meant that they'd done it. For the first time in its history, there was an area of the Eye of Terror where man ruled. After the assassination of Asmodeus, the Chaos demons had stopped their advance and dug in.
A de-facto border now existed, on one side of it the Chaos demons continued their network of fortifications, on the other, man had established their own administration.
An uneasy truce existed between them, one that could be summarized from the mankind point of view as "don't put your hoof over the border and we won't blow it off". It seemed like a small, practical agreement but in an insurgency there was no such thing as a small agreement between the government and the insurgents.
Any agreement at all reflected a level of equality between insurgents and authorities and that made it an epoch-defining defeat for the Chaos demons. They'd been forced to deal with the dead people as equals and concede ground to them.
"Friend, if I could speak with thee for a moment. I have a request for thine attention."
The archaic language snapped Captain (deceased) Kim Ngân's attention back to the reality of Free Hell. For a moment, she thought that it was one of the recovered dead, but the breathing mask showed it was a volunteer from the Holy Order, one who had come to help with the task of finding the victims of this place and rescuing them.
Behind him she could see another one of the crosses being hauled out of the swamp and figures starting to work, freeing the poor soul attached to it. Ngan remembered her own time nailed to a cross and drowning in sewage and she shuddered.
"There's a problem?"
"There is friend. Many have been rescued from the swamps and have recovered enough to travel. Some wish to stay here with thee to fight." The speaker's voice showed his dislike of that concept. "Others, they wish to leave this place. Can thou contact Earth and arrange a way out for them?"
Kim Ngân relaxed, this had been anticipated. "Some don't like our company huh? They know they can't survive on Earth, right?"
"They have been told this, yes. And they understand but still wish to leave."
"Well, they can. The plan is we'll portal them back to Earth and then they'll be relayed straight back to an area of Netherworld that's under man control." To her amusement, her companion looked around in alarm.
"No, not like this one. We're holding a pretty big area between the Phlegethon River and the sea, its called the Martial Plain of Dysprosium. There's refugee camps being set up in there for the people we rescue. They'll be looked after until we've won. I have no idea what will happen then, I don't think anybody has. The catch is, I can't contact out, DIMO(N) has to contact me. We have a schedule for that. Next contact is in a few hours, get the evacuees ready to move then."
"Thou are kind. Thank you."
Their talk were interrupted by a long rolling thunder, one that was very far away yet they could still feel the vibrations through their feet. Her companion was standing politely beside her, waiting for her to speak again, but the sound made him glance up.
"I did not know that there were thunderstorms in this place."
"There are not." Kim Ngan spoke absently. "That's artillery fire."
Third Platoon, Second Company, Third Battalion, Fourth Regiment, 247th Motor Rifle Division, Phlegethon River Front, The Eye of Terror
"Brothers, many times we have said that the spirits of our ancestors look down upon us but this time, it is true. They are there, Brothers, there beyond the river.
There, the heroes who defended the Bagration fleches, who fought to hold Port Arthur, who defended the Rodina against the Germans, they wait for us. There our gallant comrades who held the ruins of Stalingrad, who broke the fascist beast on the fields of Kursk and who chased him all the way back to his lair in Berlin, they wait for us.
Everything we have we owe to them, everything we are, is because they sacrificed everything for us. Now it our turn to fight and make whatever sacrifices we must in order to repay our debt to them. Now it is our turn to break the armies of hell on our armor and send them scurrying away under the lash of our guns.
Brothers, the Americans won a great victory in the field of Lemuria fighting these same enemies. Can we show ourselves to be less than them? I say no! I say we should show the Americans how the Great Russian Army fights! I say we should score such a victory today that the world will be in awe of our power and the enemy shall tremble at the thought of fighting us again!"
Lieutenant Anatolii Ivanovich Pas'kov, standing on the back of the BMP-3 armored personnel carrier, looked down at the cheering men in his little command. Three BMP-3s, one Tungaska air defense system. Not so much as things went but one of hundreds of dug-in strong points that defended the front. Miles deep, each strongpoint covering the others so not one inch of ground was left unswept by heavy automatic weapons.
The BMPs had been modified, they each had two AGS-50 grenade machine guns mounted on their rear decking to provide that extra bit of close-in firepower. Outside the earth banks, the ground was covered with wire entanglements and under them were the mines, hundreds of thousands of them.
As a final thought, the river banks were criss-crossed with trenches, each carefully calculated to be deep enough and wide enough to catch a rhino-lobster's hooves and send it sprawling on to the ground.
And far to the rear was the Final Argument. Artillery. Guns were lined up in a density unheard of since Zhukov and Koniev had raced to capture Berlin. Guns, 122mm and upwards, salvo rocket launchers and the short range ballistic missiles that could deliver their own special kind of hell.
Further behind them were the aircraft, British, American, Russian, Israeli, Indian, Chinese, other nations too many to remember. All brought together to do one thing. To turn this stretch of the river into a killing ground the like of which had never been seen before.
Command HQ, Camp Hell-One, Hellgate
Understanding the important of an uninterrupted supply line for the entire operation, Allied Commander Liam Nuttall ordered that the effort to protect Hellgate and Camp Hell-One would be taken over by two of the most elite field armies in the UEADF. The U.S. 3rd Army under Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy and the East Asian 11th Army under General Yōji Itami. The combined strength of the two armies was just under 200,000 men but some feared that was not enough.
The day was bright and even cheerful at Camp Hell-One. The stark contrast between the moods of man and nature couldn't be more transparent. Birds were chirping happily and the small brook babbled peacefully while man were busy with all their mundane concerns.
Itami wanted to use the peace to meditate but he didn't have the luxury of free time. He stood behind his desk as he looked out the window to his office. He watched as trains upon trains of men, machines, and supplies continued to file into the base and from there to the frontline.
Tracks and engines rumbled as armored vehicles were ground guided to various motor pools both American and some Japanese. Flatbed haulers and heavy armored trucks screeched to a halt as men hurried to offload their precious cargo.
Behind them Itami could see new forms begin to take shape as air assets of UEAADF began to get trucked in piece by piece. Some had already made their way to the airfield and had long been assembled, flying overhead with both rotor and screeching jet engine.
Itami saw all this knowing things would eventually reach this point.
Total War.
The initial push into The Eye of Terror had revealed one very important thing, scope. Not just of their demonic enemy, but of the sunless realm itself. Scientists on the other side continued to rack their brains over just how large this pocket dimension was.
So far, they have only come to more shocking and disturbing conclusions.
The Eye of Terror was six times the size of Earth. The thought of that alone was enough to make the scientific community's head spin, and according to Rory there were millions of this kind of pocket dimension. Humanity began to see a bigger picture and it caused them great deal of concern.
If the afterlife was real then where would they go after death, what would happened to the atheist ?
The evolving situation with the Vatican could potentially be troublesome. The recently speech by the Pope already unleashed a wave of Christian fundamentalism the world have never seen. Many fear that secular governments around the world could collapse and pave the way for theocracy.
Itami rubbed his head in frustration, the sheer scope of everything was enough to make any military leader stressed. The coalition wasn't leaving anytime soon that was for sure and as he went to his desk to look over a logistics report he could see exactly why. They were sinking 20 million tons of supplies into that fucking Hole every day.
Maybe he should do some steamy stress relief with Rory. He really missed her 'tight' body.
His train of thought was interrupted as a loud knock came from outside his door. Setting the papers down and fixing his uniform Itami turned the music off before allowing the unknown visitor permission to enter. When the door finally opened Itami had been surprised to see it was Lieutenant General Tommy Kennedy.
"Hello Boss. You seem to be doing well." Tommy Kennedy greeted in a joking tone.
"Stop that Tom," Itami turned red with embarrassment. "I have enough problem already."
The American general simply made his way over to the window Itami had been looking out of, with a stoic face he watched as the coalition fortification began to truly take shape outside the building.
"So, the war has finally begun hasn't it?"
Itami let out a sigh and stood next to the Tommy. He knew what he had meant, he just hadn't been expecting that statement. Or the question that came next.
"You ever think we just bit off more than we can chew? First we fight an Empire of titans then the demons from Hell. What is next, Nazi from the dark side of the moon!?"
"It's too late for that," he sighed. "Not after the nukes they dropped on our cities and especially after the latest speech from the Pope, any politician wanting to withdraw will be lynched. It's neither us or them now."
"Yeah! They would crucify us if we run away."
Itami chuckled, but didn't remove his gaze from the scene outside. Both the men watched as a squadron of Tu-688 took off from the airfield and off into the distance.
"How are they doing," asked Itami.
"!? -"
"The Holy Order militant I mean."
"Well, they've adapted quite well," busted into laughing, he added. "Do you know those guys salting the ground where they sleep. They also knelt and prayed fanatically to their gods every six hours, mostly to Emroy though."
"Well, it's wise to pray to the God of War before going to war."
"Those warrior priests are really terrify. They were ordered to turn the Phlegethon riverbank into an impregnable Phlegethon Wall with the 10 million titan labourers being brought in, amounting to 3.600-3.800 labourers per kilometre of the Wall.
"Roughly two thirds of them was involved in preparatory work like rock crushing, cutting rebar, felling trees, making forms and otherwise getting the necessary materials in ready condition and moved.
"The remaining third was doing the actual construction work. In eight days about 1200-1400 workers manage to build nearly 13 square kilometres of twin concrete lined trenches, spaced 400 metres apart and connected by lateral communication trenches.
"These trenches were supplemented by large forts, bomb shelters, blockhouses, casemates, observatories tower, light pillboxes for machine guns or archers, and heavier pillboxes for our artillery varying from 180 mm anti-tank guns to 800 mm guns.
"Those people could build twenty smaller or ten larger emplacements every hour. The fortifications of the Phlegethon Wall was projected to be completed in two days with trenches, dugouts and 600-800 bunkers in every 13 square kilometres."
Shivering, he added. "You can imagine if we were to fight those guys."
"Then consider us to be the lucky ones." Itami said sarcastically.
"For now, yes." he mumbled.
Tommy suddenly changed the subject. "Hey Yōji, do you remember the time we were in college."
"Yeah! after you finish your tour in Afghanistan instead of studying, you focused more on booze and boobs. I had to bail you for drunken fights."
"Hey man, don't be a fun killer, you live only once." Tommy shrugged off the accusation.
"Remember, without me, a nerd like you wouldn't be able to sleep with Jessica."
"Oh yeah, Jessica Thornbury." Itami reminisced back to the day.
Tommy suddenly said in a serious voice. "Yōji, we are friend right?"
Caught off guard by the sudden change in Tommy's tone he immediatly repiled. "Of course we're friends. Why are you asking?"
"Then answer me. Did you put your pee in that 3000-year-old woman's holes?" Looking Itami straight in the eye, he asked.
After looking around, with some hesitance, he replied with a tiny voice like whisper. "Yes, I have."
Itami knew sooner or later the cat would come out of the bag but he didn't think it would be so soon.
Looking shocked, Tommy paused for a moment, trying to process the information.
"Why you didn't tell me." He whined.
Suddenly changing to a softer voice, Tommy asked. "So, is she good?"
"The best I've ever had." He replied.
"Damn bro, Three-letter Agencies gonna kill you when they finds out." Tommy said in a half serious voice.
"In all serious though, you know the risk right ?" Placing his hand on Itami's shoulder, he asked. "Can I count on you ?"
"My allegiance is to Japan." Itami replied firmly.
"Good-"
Their conversation was interrupted by a dreadful thunder. An eerie feeling ran down their spines.
"What is that," both of the man looked out of the window. From there they saw the previously bright sky suddenly turned red, the clouds twisted together to formed a vortex.
From the ominous dark clouds that gathered overhead, an extremely powerful bolt of lightning descended on the ground. From there, they saw it.
Pandemonium, the Beast of Apocalypse.
At the bottom of the crater, a ten feet tall demon emerged. The Beast was coverd in menacing red scales and dark aura. It had two long horns and a firery crown on it head. Four of its wicked eyes stare directly at the base with with boundless bloodlust. It looked like a unholy fusion between Hellboy and Trigon.
RAWHHHH!
The devil made a roared so powerful it shattered the window and disorientated thousand of troops nearby.
"What the fuck is that thing?!" Screamed Tommy as he recovering from the shockwave.
"Doesn't matter," standing up from the floor, Itami barked order through his radio. "Attention all units, this is Ruler-One, engage the target now."
On the ground, Lieutenant Ho Van Hai of the 3rd Tank Platoon was the first to act. "What are you maggots doing, shoot that damn thing!"
Under his command, four Type-92 Chamberlain heavy tanks aimed their 152mm guns dicrectly at the Beast.
"Identified, range 500 meters!"
"Up!"
"Fire!"
Type-92 Chamberlain tank using 152mm 60 caliber barrel to shoot the huge 30 kg Vacuum-3 APFSDS super-sabot round at 1,980 m/s. At the distance of 500 meters the 800 mm mithril penetrator would be able to pierce through 1200 mm of steel.
Four 800 mm mithril penetrators, each carried 25 MJ of kinetic energy, slammed directly into Pandemonium chest. But at one milimeter from the Beast's skin, the penetrators met an indestructible barrier. Like shooting water at a hard surface, the four penetrators were vaporized without a trace, causing absolutely no damage to the Beast.
Smirked.
Laying his wicked gazes toward the tanks. Pandemonium launched himself toward them, closing the distance in less than a tenth of a second with his hypersonic speed. A vicious smile was spreading across the Beast's face before he unleashed a powerful punch at the commander's tank.
"Chaos released: Gravitational Strike."
Since the speed of the punch exceeds the speed of sound in steel, the steel acted more or less like a cloud of free particles at which point the matter from the surrounding steel plate simply acted like an exploding cloud of gas. The interesting things was whilst the material might be very hot the penetration effect was purely kinetic from the liner jet pushing material out the way. All that said hot fragments of the steel plate did provide a secondary incendiary effect post-penetration. In short, the super heavy tank turned into a ball of plasma.
Lieutenant Ho Van Hai and his tank crew were killed even before the sonic boom from Pandemonium jump reached them. It was painless because the signal couldn't even leave their eyeballs before their prefrontal cortex liquefied by the shockwave.
Following Itami's order, at the distance of 12 km, four J-100 fighter-bomers released their payload. Eight hypersonic Kh-47M2 Kinzhal rush towards the target at Mach 12 (14,701 km/h–9,134 mph).
At that speed, the ALBMs hit their target in less than 4 seconds. The hypersonic speed also increases the damage of the missile: a 3 ton rocket when descending at a speed of 4 km/s would have a huge kinetic energy (about 25 billion joules), equivalent to the energy of 6 tons of TNT, enough to break a large aircraft carrier in half without the warhead exploding.
Each Kinzhal also carried 500 kg of HEAD (high explosive anti demon) fragmentation warhead to increase their effect. The combined 24,000 kilogram of steel, mithril and high explosive detonated an instant, rocking the base.
As the dust settled, to the horror of the defenders, the Beast came through all of those perils unscathed. What follows was a nightmare. Raising his right hand to the sky, Pandemonium muttered.
"Heavy Rain: Feast of The Demon Kings"
Pandemonium released a beam of pure Darkness Energy up into the atmosphere. The energy formed countless meteor-like maws that then rained down the base.
"Jesus Christ!"
Overwhelming despair consumed the base as everyone run for cover.
Then suddenly a peculiar phenomenon covered the sky.
"Palapon Style: Blood Field."
As a vampire prince and an apostle, Aleister Cromwell was able to transform the surrounding air into a blood-like liquid. A huge dome of blood covered the entire base shielding everyone from the meteor's attack. The black meteorite collided with the dome creating many loud explosions but ultimately failed to penetrate the blood dome.
"Looks like we made it in time." said Giselle Jizeru, looking around to check on the situation.
"It seem so." The vampire apostle cautiously said.
"Are you okay, Yōji?" Rory asked while hugging him. She came as fast as she could. Because she knew, based on mana level, with the exception of the apostles, no one in the base could defeat the new threat, who was literally a walking weapon of mass destruction.
Itami, after regaining his senses, hugged Rory tightly. They would be all dead by now, if not for Rory and other apostles.
"Rory, thanks God you are here!" Regain his composure, he said. "We need to lure that monster far away from this base."
This was a nightmare, the only supply route for 20 million UEADF troops attacked by an undefeatable monster. If they lose Camp Hell-One, they would lose the war. Even a small slow down in the flow of supply could spell disater.
We know..." Giselle said. "That's why we're here." Aleister finished Giselle's sentence.
"Dear Sister, is he what I think he is ?" Giselle point her index finger at the Crimson Beast
Closely examined the Beast. "Long white hair, four deep black eyes with white pupils...two gigantic black buffalo-shaped horns and a crown of fire on top..." Rory mumbled before finally replied. "Yeah! It apparently is him."
Aleister hissed. "Shit! that is not good."
Seeing the worried expressions of the Apostles, Tommy decided to ask. "What is that thing ?"
"Pandemonium. The legendary berserker of the Netherworld, the Demon Lord of the Nine Hell and a relic from the Celestial War. Rumor has it that many eons ago, Netherworld was left half-destroyed by Pandemonium before disappearing. Mistress Hardy has told me about him." Giselle replied succinctly with a gloomy voice.
"Dear Sister, with all your respect, that Beast is stronger than you." Giselle said bluntly. There was no point to underplay their dire situation.
Reluctantly, Rory agreed. "That is true."
Her answered confirmed the dire situation they were in. A Beast stronger than Rory mean they were in deep shit. "That thing is stronger than each of us. But—" Rory suddenly smiled confidently, "...not all of us combined."
Smirking, Aleister palmed his fist into his hand confidently. "That's right, with the power of the three of us that SOAB would regret even showing that ugly face in this place."
Turned back to Itami, Rory said in a commanding tone. "Pulled your men out of there, we will handle this."
"We can't give up on this place, this base is the link to all the supplies in the frontline." Itami protested.
"We are not asking you to, just go to your bomb shelters." said Giselle.
"You want us to hide in shelter when you three fighting that thing!" Tommy replied angrily.
"General, Please understand, a battle between us and the Beast will reshape the terrain of this place. He's too fast and durable for your weapons to work. We can't fighting and shielding your troops at the same time. Don't let your people die for nothing. I'm begging you." Aleister sincerely pleads. His puppy-like eyes and angelic face combine with child-like voice finally convinced Tommy to backdown.
"Is there anything we can do to help ?" Itami wasn't fond of the ideal of hiding in the basement while doing nothing. They were soldiers not children.
"General, revenge is a dish best served cold." A sinister smile appeared on Aleister's angelic face. "Collect all your ranged weapons and wait for the opportunity to open to kick that SOAB when it's down. We will shred that POS pieces by pieces until nothing left." A dark aura surrounded the young ( boy !?) as he said.
How could an innocent-looking ( boy !?) like him could be so damn intimidating. As the heat of the moment started to die down, Itami suddenly realized the absurdity of Aleister's garments.
That the fuck was that outfit !? A sleeveless open-back dress with collar !? A gown splits open at his outer thighs !? black sleeves separated from the gown that reach his mid-upper arms and come down to his middle fingers, where each sleeve was attached to a ring !? Barefoot !? Long anti-gravity hair that went beyond his feet !?
He looked like a fucking male prostitute.
Worse, A Child Prostitute.
WHY IS HE DRESSING LIKE THAT !?
WHAT'S WRONG WITH THOSE GODS !?
He looked like fucking 12 year-old boy for god's sake. Itami was pretty sure that the Gods of Falmart were all perverts now.
Sensing Itami disturbance thought, Rory said threateningly. "Not a single word."
What !?
"Aleister is a kind of person you called Yandere. You don't want to pissed him off." Rory spoke to him using telepathy to avoid Aleister's detection. She then added.
"You're right about one thing, Aleister used to be a prostitute. Before becoming an apostle, Aleister Cromwell was a vampire prince, whose father was overthrow by his uncle. The Empire was in a civil war at the time so they couldn't help.
The uncle kept him as a trophy, locked him in a dungeon while using him as a sex slave for thirty years straight. He was forced to dress like that while serving hundred of customers, both men and women. Sometime they forced the boy to mate with the animals or even eating feces. They even force him to mate with his little sister to entertain the guest.
Once day, the God of Revenge Palapon offered him a chance to take revenge on those who had wronged him. He massacred every single one of them the next morning.
Even after becoming an Apostle, he still wearing the same clothes to remind himself about that time."
Command Post, Northern Front, Phlegethon River 1st Bulge, The Eye of Terror
"My Lord, this is going against all our traditions."
"And the enemy we are fighting is not? If they defeated Abigor, then they are adversaries worthy of note. Abigor's description of the great battle was quite clear, the Beast charge at the start of the fighting was a disaster for his cavalry. We must learn from those mistakes. Even if we can never admit the source of our learning."
Lapradanultrox looked out across the array of forces now moving down on the northern flank of the 1st great bulge in the Phlegethon river. The sight was a strange one to demonic eyes, the great square blocks of the legions divided into much smaller groups. Even more oddly, the cavalry legions had been completely broken up, dispersed amongst the infantry.
Nine Great Beasts, each carry an armored rider and a dark sorcerer, supporting each group of 54 foot-soldiers. Behind the hills that ranged along the river, a great flock of harpies, one of the nine, almost 90 millions of them were waiting to launch their attack. This was also unprecedented, the mores of demonic warfare were clearly established. The Harpies reconnoitered to find the enemy, the Beasts charged to crack a hole in the enemy defenses, the infantry closed to destroy the broken army.
That was the way it had always been and that was the way Abigor had fought. And his army had been destroyed in the most catastrophic defeat ever inflicted on demonic arms. Not even the Holy Order had ever done the damage the humans had inflicted on Abigor.
Lapradanultrox appreciated Beelzebub's desire not to repeat the same experience on an even more cataclysmic scale but to cast away every basic principle of warfare? Beelzebub's decisions were courageous in more ways than one. Such a break with the past would be heroic, if he won. It could easily be considered treason if he lost.
"But where is our great blow? How shall we defeat the enemy without the one massive strike to break his will? How can we crush their defense without the concentrated blow of the Beasts?" Lapradanultrox looked again at the strange formation.
"Look at the humans and their allies, Lapradanultrox, look at them. Where is the defense for us to breach? They have not drawn a line, not even one behind a ridgeline as Abigor described. Instead there is a field of death ahead of us, as deep as we can see.
Our cavalry cannot charge through it, they will lose speed and momentum before they get far enough to matter and they will be destroyed. We cannot charge through the defense the enemy have constructed, we mush chew our way through it before the main thrust launched their attack.
New demon platoons, 54 infantrymen protected by 9 dark sorcerers with their combined magic shield, who are carried by Beasts to improve their mobility. The Beast's riders will carry thick shields to protect the sorcerers. Those platoons in turn will be supported by dark sorcerers legions with their long range attacks to suppress the enemy firepower. They will attack those small defense positions and we will chew our way through."
"This will be a bloody day." Lapradanultrox adjusted his vision for long range and scanned the human defenses that were waiting, silently, mercilessly.
"Bloody day? I think not. This battle will not be over in a day. It will go on for days until the mortals army has been crushed. Like it or not, Lapradanultrox, the days when a battle would be decided honorably in a single day are gone. The mortals have won the first battle of all, we now fight on their terms and no matter what happens, things in the Eye of Terror will never be the same again. Now, sound the advance to contact."
Below them, the great Army of Beelzebub started to move forward. Word was being passed to the assembled harpies, to swarm into the air and commence their assault on the humans. That was Beelzebub's plan, to hit the humans with his infantrymen, sorcerers, harpies and Beasts all together so that the humans would be overwhelmed.
Then, far away behind the human lines, beyond the region where the dust-laden atmosphere closed out vision, Beelzebub saw something strange and inexplicable. A sheet of flickering light, like the bolts thrown by the tridents of his foot soldiers and nagas, but covering the horizon in great sheets, reflecting off the clouds overhead.
"Enemy magery!" Lapradanultrox's voice rose into a scream. "The enemy mages have started their work. The battle is joined."