West Fort. The Empire of the Sun.

The West Fort was one of the hundreds of forts the Empire of the Sun positioned within its territories. It held an army of 1,000. As the most heavily defended location in a significant radius of land, it watched over dozens of villagers and nearly ten thousand people.

The fort was protected by 20 meter walls from all four sides.

A dozen men were on guard duty on the northern wall of the fort. They wore red armors and helmets that covered almost every inch of their skin. Leather gloves protected their hands. They held long spears in their dominant hands. Swords in sheaths were on their belts. Some had bows and arrows tied on their back. Dark red cloaks were between the bows and arrows and the armors. Anyone with some experience with fighting could tell these men were fierce warriors. They were only a dozen in numbers, but they gave off an incredible sense of confidence. It was as if their presence meant victory.

Suddenly, the highest ranking man among the guards, a lieutenant, frowned. He could see dozens of figures closing in toward the gate.

This wasn’t supposed to happen. The fort had regular personal movement, but in all of those situations, riders would be sent to warn the castle guards to avoid confusion. This was nowhere to be seen here.

“Halt!” He screamed. “Stay back or you will be treated as hostiles!”

All the guards on the walls checked their weapons. Some picked up bows and arrows while others shouted warning to the rest of the guards. Within moments, over fifty men were on the walls. All of them were fully armed and armored.

The crowd down there came to a halt, and the lieutenant frowned when he saw that the crowd mainly consisted of old men and women, as well as some younger women and children. None of the able-bodied men could be seen. The entire crowd looked terrified. Some of them had tears and blood on their face. All of them were covered in dirt.

“Sir!” One of the older men yelled from in front of the castle gate. “We’re from Treville! We were under attack from six...monsters! We had five hundred people! Now...this is all that’s left! Let us in please!”

“What the…” The lieutenant couldn’t believe his ears. “Who could’ve done such a thing? Is it a beast?” There were many powerful magical beasts lurking in the forests. It could be that one of them decided to come out and slaughter a village.

“No! It’s six people, but they have powers! One of them turned my brother into a pile of bones!” Before the first man could say anything, an older woman replied. Her brother was one of the men that held his ground. It didn't work well for him.

The lieutenant gulped.

“I need to consult the commander to open the gates.”

“There is no need.”

The lieutenant turned around and found Commander Konos walking up. Fifty guards followed him. Unlike the common soldiers, the guards had silver armors and helmets. A red feather was on the helmet of each and every one of them.

“Commander.” The lieutenant and the other soldiers on the wall saluted.

Konos nodded. As he ordered the men to open the gate and let the survivors of the onslaught through, his mind was deep in thoughts.

Just minutes ago, a heavily injured man arrived at the southern wall of the fort. He demanded to see the Commander. When he was allowed to do so, the man told Konos of six entities that massacred his entire village. They cut through the resistance mercilessly and burned the women and the children alive. The man only survived because the six figures wanted him to spread the news of their presence. The man urged Konos to lead his forces and crush these murderers before passing out from a loss of blood. Medics were tending to him, but his chances were slim. He was an old man who has just lost everything he cared about, was heavily injured, and ran for miles without stop. It was a miracle he made it this far.

At first Konos was hesitant. Just like the lieutenant, he didn't believe it, but news of villages being massacred came in from survivors from all four sides of the fort. The northern wall was the last to receive a group of survivors.

Whoever the attackers were, they moved quickly. Five villages have already fallen. Thousands, dead.

Konos gripped his fist tight. As the commander of the region, it was his duty to protect all the inhabitants around the fort. The death of thousands of innocent testified to his failure.

“Map!”

Two guards brought over a paper map. Konos found the position of all five destroyed villages. Take the time they were attacked into consideration, it wasn’t difficult to find out where the next target would be.

He just hoped he could get there in time.

“Assemble the troops!”

The West Fort entered battle position in less than ten minutes. All 1,000 men in the castle formed ten phalanxes. They were an elite army, ready for war.

Konos turned to the four lieutenants.

“Lead 200 men and stay in this castle. Turn on the Matrix after I leave. No one comes in or out.”

“And if more survivors come?” One of the lieutenants asked. Given the efficiency of the kill team, it was likely Konos’s forces couldn’t save all the villages in time.

Konos paused.

“This fort holds all the supply of this army. It is also what is keeping all the survivors from the previous villages safe. It cannot fall.”

The lieutenant nodded.

Konos took a deep breath and marched out the front door of the castle with 800 strong.

As the main chunk of the garrison departed, one of the lieutenants turned on a device at the middle of the fort. Immediately, a layer of red shield formed all around the castle. As long as the Matrix was on, nothing could get in or out.

“Faster!”

Konos demanded for the fifth time on the trip. Hearing his orders, his men picked up the pace once again.

The Commander knew he was in a race for time. Wasting one more second on the road could mean losing another village of people.

Finally, just as he got within ten minutes of his destination, two figures were in his way.

The first was a tall man with white hair. He had a cruel smile on his face. A layer of black armor was on him, but instead of the standard black face masks, he wore a demonic mask.

The second was a woman with purple hair. She was holding a whip in one hand. Her black armor had a shade of purple.

They were in the middle of the road, and they were obviously up to no good.

The two figures were Demon and Violet.

“Identify yourselves!” Konos demanded, but deep down, he knew the two were up to no good. Plus, the survivors described the attackers to be men and women in black. One of them had a whip. Apart from the change in numbers, this was a perfect match.

Both Voyagers smirked.

“Take them!” Konos was out of patience. Immediately, twenty men moved forward. As they got closer to the Voyagers, their weapons, shields, and armors started shining in red beam. Both Voyagers could see runes engraved onto the gadgets that were generating power. The red energy from the runes formed together and created a barrier of red in front of the twenty men.

Violet tilted her head. Interesting. There was a reason she was here, and it wasn’t because she wanted to fight someone. It was because she wanted to see how Voyager powers could fare against the armed forces of this world. The farmers of this world were strong, but they were still defenseless lamb against the Voyagers. But the professional soldiers might change the balance. She intended on finding out more about it.

As the twenty men moved more steps closer, Violet suddenly acted. She swung her whip forward. As the whip was in the air, it unleashed a wave of purple energy. The energy smashed into the red barrier.

Immediately, the barrier was crushed, and the twenty men flew backward. The runes on their weapons and armors were dampened. Some of the armors were shattered, but all the men were alive and fine.

Violet frowned slightly. She didn't use her full power in that attack, but the fact that the twenty men survived that still meant they, together, at least had a CAS of 80. If that was 20 men, then how deadly would 800 men be?

On the other side, Konos drew his sword and pointed it at Violet. These murderers were more powerful than he thought, and now he was ready to give it everything he’s got.

“Slaughter these monsters in the name of her Grace!”

This time, all 800 men activated their runes. Rivers and rivers of red energy formed. But instead of taking a defensive stance and forming a shield like the first twenty men, these 800 men threw all their energy into their commander. As 800 streams of red entered Konos, the commander’s power was amplified.

A larger frown found her way onto Violet’s face. The smirk on Demon was nowhere to be seen. They could both feel Konos’s power growing. If the commander started with a CAS of 100, then now his CAS is over 200.

This didn't sound like much, but at the later stage, every increase in CAS was hard to come by.

Konos attacked without hesitation. As he slashed down, a red mirage of his sword appeared in front of his real weapon and flew toward Violet. Only it wasn’t a mirage. It was a deadly strike.

Both Voyagers activated their armors and tanked the shot. Viper took the liberty to send another attack toward Konos, but it was easily deflected. She did enough damage to rip a small group of men to pieces, but when the damage was distributed to 800 strong, all of them protected by runed armors, it was hardly anything.

“His power comes from his men. If we can distract him and wipe out his army, we can take him.” Demon whispered. “You distract him while I…”

“There’s no need.” Violet shook her head as Konos charged forward with his sword up. “We got what we came here for. Fighting him is pointless. Send in the reserves and cover our retreat.”

Demon paused before nodding and giving out a psychic command.

Violet and Konos exchanged several blows, but neither accomplished anything. Konos’s attacks were mostly deflected by Violet’s power and Voyager armor. Violet’s strikes were distributed to the entire army and were canceled out.

“Who are you?” Finally, after being pushed back by Violet’s whip once again, Konos demanded. Someone who could stand her ground against him with the strength of 800 men didn't just pop out of nowhere.

Violet didn't answer. She merely gestured for the surrounding. Konos turned and glanced, but he still kept an eye on Violet. If she intended on distracting him and suddenly attacking, she has made some futile effort.

What he saw made him lose his calm.

All around the army, thousands of figures were closing in. They were men, women, and children. Young and old. Men and women. The only thing was all of them had some sort of fatal wound. Some had half a head. Some lost an arm. Others lost a leg. One of them lost his entire upper body but was still moving. They were all closing in on the 800 men.

It didn't take Konos long to realize they were all villagers. Were. Past tense.

He turned back at Violet and Demon in fury.

“What have you done?”

Violet and Demon shrugged before suddenly turning around and fleeing.

Ever since slaughtering the first village, Demon suggested he could use the corpses. One of his powers was to reanimate the dead and control them to use will. The dead were by no means powerful, but the terror they could cause and their sheer numbers made them an effective tool. Just the sight of the dead from both sides rising up against you on a battlefield could be a morale-breaker.

The army of the dead only grew after all the death and destruction. As Violet prepared to confront the Empire’s forces, she had Demon put all the dead around the area in case she needed them. It turned out to be a wise choice.

Konos’s eyes turned red. He wanted to pursue. Letting the two go now meant that countless more innocent would suffer a fate even worse than death. But the two men and women in black were fast. Within moments, they were already out of his sight.

Plus, thousands of corpses converging on his location wasn’t something to be ignored.

Turning his attention back to the battlefield, Konos unloaded on the corpses. With the help of the energy from the runes, Konos sent at least a dozen energy blades out. Each energy blade cleared out at least fifty corpses before disappearing. When he was done, hundreds of corpses were reduced to pieces of flesh that could never be reanimated.

There were still hundreds more.

“Break formation!“

Konos ordered loudly. The corpses were already too close to his men for him to take down single-handedly, and if his men kept sending energy to him, they might put themselves at risk.

The transfer of energy came to a stop. The soldiers’ runes continued to shine, but this time the energy was used on themselves.

The corpses slammed into the soldiers, and the result was one sided. Countless corpses fell within moments. A single stab or slash from the soldiers could put their enemies down while the claws and teeths or the reanimated bodies couldn’t even fracture the armors and helmets of the men.

The battle ended quickly, but as Konos glanced down at the sea of slain villagers, he felt no sense of victory.

What did they do to deserve all this?