***The City of Light***

***Angrod***

So this is how it is going to be.

I lean back in the command chair of my flying fortress and grind my teeth while I study the readouts from our sensors. There is no way to know how they did it, but their barrier’s energy output got stronger since the last report I got.

“Maybe they held some energy in reserve. And now that their surprise attack got beaten back so badly, they decided to go all in on their defensive strategy in hopes that they can finish the ritual,” the technician in charge of the sensors suggests.

“It’s likely,” I admit grudgingly. “Though, it doesn’t make this any easier.”

Maybe I shouldn’t have shown my ace so early in the game. I should have let them take Midhold and headed directly north. They would have known that we have a flying command-ship, but not that it’s a weapon platform with enough fire-power to punch through their city-wide barrier. Now they bunkered down and I am actually uncertain whether we are able to take down the shield.

It’s good that Ireth and Rose stayed with Aengus in Midhold. At least I don’t have to worry about my mother and the kid.

Celes didn't want me to walk into this alone, so she insisted on staying at my side. Arthur and Nicosar are also with me, while Katrine went to oversee the evacuation of the north. If things go south, we want to ensure that as many people as possible are as far away from the City of Light as it is reasonable.

The north was already emptied of most of its population to begin with, but there are always some idiots who won't leave their houses, or who believe that something that is happening a few hundred kilometres away can’t affect them.

Anyhow, what I am really worried about is how to deal with the summoning ritual. Should we just keep shooting at the city until there is nothing left except dust?

On one hand, that would be the easiest solution, and likely the smartest.

On the other, I never had a chance to actually look at the ritual. It could be one with proper safety functions, which would mean that irresponsibly destroying it wouldn’t have too bad of an outcome. Or, it could have no safety functions at all and with as much power as is stored in there, an unsupervised shut-down could result in an explosion that’s capable of causing a nuclear winter.

Even this fortress wouldn’t be adequate protection against that.

I purse my lips.

Maybe I should have put some random guy in charge of the fortress and told him to pound the City of Light into dust.

But then Celes would have surely asked why I am not going myself. I would also have had to stop all my family members from going anywhere near the north. Which means that I would have had to explain things. Yeah… Celes would surely be against taking the chance of a nuclear winter, and so would everyone else.

I sigh and turn to face Arthur. “Arthur, are the troops which will besiege the city ready to advance?”

“What do you think?” Arthur asks me sarcastically while he is taking a look at the map. “They are as ready as soldiers can be who have been besieging a city for months. One word and they will be charging the walls.”

After two days of flight, we have finally reached our destination and I am eager to test our enemies. “I am not sure if we should take the risk of destroying the ritual from afar.” I scratch my head. “There is a possibility that things can go very badly if we do that without intel.”

“Why should such a course of action be risky?” Arthur asks.

“What if the whole thing blows up? There is a serious amount of energy stored in there! What if the aftermath makes the world uninhabitable?” I spread my hands. “As long as I don’t get to look at the magical circle for the ritual, there is no way to tell.”

Arthur goes stiff. “Do you think that could happen!? How high is the risk?”

I shrug my shoulders. “I have no idea how well the summoning circle is made. It could have some safety mechanisms or it could have none. There is really no way to tell from afar.”

“Then what other options do we have?” Arthur shakes his head. “Don’t worry about the soldiers. Going in and doing things ourselves will cause gruesome losses, but nobody down there is unwilling to pay such a price if it is necessary.”

“Okay,” I affirm. “So, we break the shield and bomb everything to pieces. We don’t care about anything or anyone aside from the ritual. The building with the summoning circle is our priority when we invade and take a close look at the thing. Maybe we can cancel it safely... somehow.”

“You don't sound convinced.” Arthur looks away from the console on which he was studying the situation with one of his officers.

“That's because I have no idea what we will find. The only idiot-proof option would be to blow the whole city to smithereens, but that comes with a risk of its own. As I already explained.”

“Those Meltheim and Tulhelm fellows have already proven without a doubt that they have some screws loose. They are wielding knowledge from a source they can’t comprehend. They are like children with a magical wand. I don't want to gamble on the possibility that they did something smart, like installing safety mechanisms into their ritual!” Arthur huffs, making it clear that he would assume the worst of our enemies. “And if those mechanisms were there in the first place, with everything they have done, I think they removed them.”

I scratch my chin, thinking.

Arthur crosses his arms behind his back. “They already committed mass murder on an unimaginable scale. Even during the war we never went that far.”

Oh, Arthur. You would be surprised what people throughout the multiverse are capable of. I find what the Meltheims did relatively benign.

He shakes his head. “Those people are already with their backs against the wall. There is no option of losing for them anymore. If we get them, they are dead and they know it. So, why should they care about what happens once we win and interrupt their ritual?”

“Hm.” I nod. “I can understand your reasoning, and they have proven themselves to be without remorse. Though, I think it's not a question whether they wanted to install or uninstall a safety feature. It's questionable whether the blueprint for the circle came with it. I doubt that they understand the ritual completely. They wouldn't be able to modify it, even if they wanted to.” I lean back in my chair and study the ceiling.

“That makes me even more uncomfortable with a gamble like that! Everything you told me about this Council of yours tells me that they don’t care about our fate. We will invade by foot if necessary! That's it,” Arthur affirms.

My wife squeezes my shoulder. “I don't know Tjenemit well enough to take any guesses. We always tried to have as little contact as possible while we were his subordinates. But judging by what I know, he would be the type to hand a flawed ritual to mortals, especially since he simply doesn't care. We should try it the safe way, even if it's the bigger risk,” Celes gives her opinion. Up until now, she was standing next to me and listening silently to our conversation.

I nod and take another look at the map. “Tell our troops to start the long-range bombardment. I want the shield weakened when we arrive.”

“Yes, Sir,” one of my men confirms.

The fortress shudders as a full salvo of blue rays of energy is fired, leaving trails of heated plasma in the atmosphere.

The plasma cannons are a mixture of physics and magic. Water is superheated to several thousand degrees until its atoms are split and at the fusion point. Electromagnetic coils accellerate the plasma, then transmit it via a magically upheld electromagnetic field under high pressures. Upon impact, the field crumbles and the hell of a dying sun is set loose upon the world.

A few seconds later, the screen shows blue flashes on the horizon. “Start the drones and give the command to swarm the city as soon as the shield goes down. We will use them as the first wave.”

“We will lose many of them to our own fire, sir,” an officer reminds me.

“They are just metal, and maybe some can find valuable targets in the confusion. Set them up to clear out the area around the summoning circle. I don't want any surprises there.” I point at the locations where I want them to be.

“I will order the troops to overrun the city as soon as the shield goes down,” Arthur affirms.

“They will run into our fire,” Celes complains.

“Everyone knows what's on the line. I have picked only veterans to serve here. They all know that this could affect the world as we know it. If I tell them that they improve our chances a little by throwing themselves into a firestorm, they will do it.” Arthur doesn’t budge, his voice reprimanding his daughter for being too soft.

I nod. “I hope it will be worth the risk.”

We watch in silence as the fortress is shaken by the force of our own artillery. After another half an hour, our target finally comes into view.

Located at the world's largest mountain range, we can see the City of Light.

A white bubble spanning over the city constantly lights up and disappears while it is hit by our artillery and other strategic spells from the besieging encampments all around the city. There is a no man’s land between our forces and the city, reminding me of old and long forgotten wars.

The City of Light looks like any other city, but a few structures stand out. First, the big tower at the centre of the city, second is the dome which most likely houses the summoning circle, and third are the smaller towers around the city which are similar to the big one.

Our besieging troops start intensifying their bombardment, lighting up the whole city as a constant stream of projectiles and spells bombards its shell.

“Prepare the main cannon. The target is this tower at the edge of the city. Fire when ready.” I point out what I assume to be a weak spot and give my command. The barrier must be generated by a second ritual which surrounds the city as a whole. If I were in charge of defence, I would have used the towers as a convenient staging area to implement and protect the barrier-ritual.

“Why exactly that one?” Nicosar asks with a curious tone in his voice.

“I studied the city’s layout for quite some time and I guess it's the most likely place for one of the magic rituals which create the shield. The towers look like convenient corner points to implement the spell, which would be hard to control otherwise. The central tower most likely houses the power source which supplies the shield generators at the periphery, but it is too well protected. We will concentrate everything we have on that single tower. If we can overload the energy supply line, we can punch a hole into their defence. Once that part of the shield blows up, we will take out the big tower next, which should take the barrier down as a whole.”

“That's the plan? And what if we can't overload the supply line?” Arthur is having his doubts.

“Then we will fly the fortress above the city, climb to the highest altitude possible, evacuate everyone and cut the engine,” I answer with a sweet voice, fully intending to go through with such a plan of madness.

“Target acquired! Firing!”

A big red beam shoots out of the front of our ship and impacts the enemy's shield, where it disperses and vanishes.

But our attack doesn't stop, slowly gaining in strength as more and more power is routed to our main weapon, a spell projector which is powered by the very core I salvaged from the old fortress that was mistaken as a dungeon.

“Output continuous. Raising it to a hundred percent,” the technician who is in charge of our most beloved toy slowly takes secondary weapons and other unnecessary energy consumers offline, making more energy available for our main attack.

I watch the effects on the shield, but it seems like it isn't working. The shield is holding, despite the abuse we put it through. “Raise the output by five percent every ten seconds.”

“But... that could burn out the spell projector,” the technician complains.

“Do it! If it can't break that shield, we don't need the weapon!” Its only purpose is to take down that barrier.

The technician turns back to his console. “Raising the output to 105... 110...115... we are overheating!”

“120! Do it!” I scream. This fucking shield has to go down!

“120.”

The beam of red energy starts pulsating together with the city's shield. Just as I start fearing that even over-engineering the systems wasn’t enough, the shield flickers out and on again.

It’s enough to allow a tiny beam of energy to pass through and strike the tower, burning a hole straight through it.

Flickering again, the shield vanishes and then disappears!

The tower is hit by the full power of the beam and cut in half. At the same time, a whole section of the city’s barrier winks out of existence and the people in the room start cheering.

Our own energy beam also flickers and turns off.

“The main weapon burned out!” the man in charge of the spell projector complains, just having lost his purpose.

“Who cares! Reroute the energy and open fire! Wipe the big tower from my sight!” I start laughing like mad while our cannons pour their fire through the opening in the city’s defence at the big tower. Explosions tear the main building apart and suddenly the whole shield goes down.

With the loss of the barrier, the bombardment from our besieging troops starts ravaging the city from all sides.

Arthur activates a little communication device on his wrist. “All units, attack!”

“Clear out the area around the dome and give the command to the drones. Get ready to teleport us to the dome.” I jump out of my chair.

Some white balls of energy start rising from the city, but they are few compared to the bombardment of our besieging forces. As soon as a strategic spell rises it is torn apart by multiple impacts, not allowing our enemies any reprieve.

Our army is doing a good job in taking out the enemy's artillery, so I allow myself a moment of satisfaction to watch the one-sided slaughterfest.

“Start teleporting the troops directly to the dome!” Nicosar gives instructions to a technician.

“I guess it's time to get ready.” I nod at Celes and together, we make our way towards the weapon arsenal.

A few minutes later we are equipped with the latest magically enhanced armour and weapons, supplied directly from my own cache of weaponry. A few technicians are required to help us to correctly put on the golden armour which looks like a combination of a knight’s armour and a space suit.

I made sure that all of my friends and family who take part in the fighting have the best of the best, most of it handcrafted by myself. Not that I am of the vain opinion that I am the best crafter in existence, but I simply have knowledge others lack.

Still, I should have checked the work of my helpers who I allowed to give the equipment the finishing touch. “Why do we all have black suits combined with gold, while the regular troops are black and silver?”

“Your majesties have to uphold the right appearance! It's unthinkable to dress you in the colours of the regular troops!” a technician explains, clearly shocked at the question.

Blasted idiots! In war, the guys with the fanciest equipment are always targeted first!

“Make the equipment look just like the armour of the regular troops next time. We stand out like hell! This just screams to the heavens that we should be shot first! Well, at least the black dominates, so it should just be a problem at close ranges.” I grumble to myself.

Why do I have to do everything myself?