Judicious looked at the oil lamp that burned in front of him, he hadn't moved since the guests left, next to him were the maps of Ricardos and Jacobs kingdoms. To think that there would be a day that he would be given such an honor.
By handing him the maps of their kingdoms Jacob and Ricardo had shown that they trusted him. The two men had given him the means of destroying everything they had built.
He just needed to give the order and Rome would claim everything. The soldier's machines, medicines, and weapons. The secret of the knights of how they became so powerful and the ways that they created their swords and armor, but most of all Rome would have the knight's wealth for itself.
The flame moved, he would have compared himself to it. If Rome was the oil that gave the flame light, then this alliance was the flame itself, one needed the other to continue, but for how long would this alliance last?
The oil would eventually run out and would need to be replaced and the flame that kept the darkness away would have to be put out so that it could be light once again.
He was Roman by birth, but his time in this world had changed him, he no longer struck a slave that walked in front of him, it didn't matter if they hadn't seen him they had dirtied the ground that he would step on.
He had every right to do that, he ruled over this part of the world and yet he didn't. Something, he didn't know what but something inside of him had changed and he no longer treated slaves as what they were, slaves.
The sound of his children playing with their hands as infants do, further drove the dagger into his will, they had only known this world and Judicious was well aware that despite coming from a Roman mother and father, the people would treat them as outsiders.
He frowned how could he be so stupid, he had made his decision long ago and he had been too retarded to see it.
He grabbed a sheet of parchment and began to list the things that the men would need the easiest things were the weapons, but the skins needed for the shields were more difficult. His work became even harder when he began to think about the food that his men would eat.
The shelter for the noncombatants and marking those who would not be fighting as every available man would have to help keep the cities alive. He couldn't afford to forget about the priests who would secure the souls of those who died so that they wouldn't fall prey to something that could target them.
Hunting and guard dogs, horses, slaves, and pleasure girls to help the men remember that there would be something worth fighting.
He would need to negotiate with the fort that was on the other side of the portal and get them to agree to help in case all of his preparations weren't enough.
The defense of the kingdoms needed to be rehearsed over and over again, until the men felt so frustrated with the repeated action that they went insane.
He talked with merchants, blacksmiths, alchemist explorers, and people who he never considered speaking to, it was all so frustrating, and it was all so slow.
He watched as fortifications were built only to be destroyed when a group of soldiers managed to breach it with ease. Those same soldiers helped his men rebuild the defenses so that they wouldn't fall so easily.
When it was the knight's turn to attack they were forced to fight for every inch of ground and while they did manage to reach his men, they had done so slowly.
He watched as the caravans began to arrive, men who had heard about a land filled with monsters where they would have their names marked in the halls of heroes were the first to arrive. Next were the slaves and then everything and everyone else.
Those resources needed to be split between the kingdoms and trained for what was to come. The people and animals that were sick either had to be cured of their illnesses or put down so that whatever they had didn't spread.
Nefertari finally made herself useful and began to use her people's knowledge to help the men relax relieving the tension that had accumulated. The fights that were threatening to occur and his men were forced to stop had calmed and stopped being a distraction for him and his men.
Finally, when the places where the elderly, women, and children were to hide during the fighting were finished, he spoke one last time to Ricardo and Jacob who listened to his worries and insecurities before sharing their own.
The two men had taken the information that he had given them about the defenses of his kingdom and used their secrets to reinforce the walls as best as they could.
He watched as the women and children ran to the reinforced buildings before hiding in the tunnels that were dug beneath them.
Bells began to ring through every city announcing that those who had failed to enter the buildings would have to keep themselves alive. When the bells finally stopped and everything became silent a single horn could be heard throughout the kingdoms.
Judicious watched as Jacob and his men opened the northern gate before heading to the forest and started to cut the trees close to it. He listened to the sound of the horn whenever an hour passed.
Further and further away Jacob and his men go, each of them cutting the trees in front of them, until they reach the area where the trees are so thick that it's impossible to see the knights.
The sound of the horn only made the tension grow, but the discipline of his men kept them from acting until he no longer heard the horn.
The sound of something crashing into the northern gate makes those who had come seeking glory charge but they stop when they see something their stories only spoke of.
A massive elephant whose body was made of something blacker than a night without a moon and a head that was protected by pale white bone that had a pair of red eyes filled with hate.
Judicious could see the men trembling with a mixture of fear and excitement from where he stood. The stories that they heard were real and they were now in one.
"Fire!" Judicious heard Ricardo yell before his soldiers used their strange weapons that shot iron at the creatures outside. Judicious watched as thousands of arrows were fired into the forest, whether they were aimed at something or were just shot hoping to hit something he didn't know.
The sound of something running reached him before the ground began to shake and it was when the puts inside the houses fell and broke that the cannons and trebuchets began to fire their contents at the monsters outside.
Boiling oil was dropped and light as more and more created gathered, despite the chaos outside Judicious could still hear Jacob and his knights fighting desperately with the horde that was even now overwhelming them.
The walls shook as men ran back and forth while they dropped puts full of explosives onto the monsters, but it wasn't enough as more and more creatures climbed over their dead and reached the top of the walls.
Judicious ordered his men to prepare their shields and spears as the walls shook, he could see that the monsters were about to break the walls by their sheer numbers.
The walls finally break and like a tidal wave, the creatures spill into the city.