Empire of the Sun. Immortal Fort.

Men rushed up and down the giant wall. Defensive measures like large rocks, logs, and gasoline were brought onto the top. Stacks of runed arrows were put into place.

Suddenly, a stream of red approached toward the inner gate. As they got closer, the guards on the walls recognized who they were.

“It's the Empress Guards!”

“Open the gates!”

“Long live the Empress!”

The Empress and 3,000 Empress Guards rode into the fort. As soon as the Empress dismounted, she wasted no time to attend to the affairs. Guards in red armor saluted at her sight. They looked at her with utter respect.

“Your grace, Adam has reached the Border Army two days ago. He has sent news that he is getting the forces into fighting shape.” General Flores, head of the Empress Guards, reported.

“Good.” The Empress adjusted her gold and red helmet. It felt terrible to fit her long hair into the helmet for whole days, but she didn't take it off. Everyone else had their helmets on and she was no exception. “And the beasts in the mountains?”

“Empress.” The General in command of the Immortal Fort, General Keys, stepped up. “They have launched multiple small-scaled attacks all across the fort. As unbelievable as it is, they seem to be testing our defenses.”

“Why is it unbelievable, general?”

“Well,” General Keys was taken by surprise by the question. “your grace. They are beasts. They don’t know tactics or strategies.”

“Let me stop you right there, General Keys. They are beasts, but now they have a leader who is as smart and experienced as we are, if not more.” Empress turned to her generals. “Remember, all of you. We are not facing an army of mindless monsters. We are facing an enemy who has conquered countless worlds. For the sake of the Empire, do not underestimate them.”

“Yes, your grace.” The generals nodded.

What they didn't see was that, in the air a distance away, a falcon was watching everything unfold. After seeing what it needed to see, the falcon turned around and flew away.

The bird flew deeper and deeper into the mountains. It went beyond trees and stones. It went over the head of armies of beasts that stayed in their place silently. Eventually, it came to a stop in front of a man in black armor.

The two communicated psychically.

The man in black armor was Druid. He was a Voyager with the ability to control animals. He had three missions under his belt. More importantly, he had dominion over 50,000 beasts. Even Violet didn't want to mess with him.

Three other Voyagers were in his company. After Druid finished talking to the falcon, one of the three Voyagers asked a simple question.

“What is it?”

“More Empire of the Sun reinforcement.” Druid waved his hand and sent the falcon back to the wall. “3,000 riders. Better than anything we have seen at the fortress. In fact, it seems like they’re the so-called Empress Guard. My falcon also saw someone that resembles the Empress herself.”

“We should’ve attacked earlier.” Another Voyager complained. “It will be more difficult to take the fort now.”

After the four Voyagers assembled a giant army of beasts, most of them suggested storming the Immortal Fort at once. At that time, there were only 8,000 guards. It would’ve been an easy slaughter. Druid stopped them. Later, 15,000 men were sent to reinforce the walls. The Voyagers felt like they missed a golden opportunity. To avoid missing another, they should attack now, but Druid stopped them again.

The other Voyagers complained several times, but Druid was the one with the army. He silenced any complaints.

“Sure. We should’ve taken down Immortal Fort and get beaten down by the entire Empire of the Sun.” Druid knew he needed to give his comrades an answer. Voyagers weren’t pawns. If they felt like they were following a lost cause, they might just bail. “We could’ve taken the Immortal Fort, but then what?”

“Unleash your army on the entire empire…”

“Then all they have to do is take back the Immortal Fort, shut all my forces inside, and then hunt them down one by one.” Druid smirked. “I would have lost all my forces for nothing.”

“Then when should we attack? We can’t stay here forever.”

“Well, if you have been maintaining contact with the other Voyagers, you would have known that over thirty of them have assembled at the Empire of the Moon. They are planning to march across the border and wage war on the Empire of the Sun very soon.”

“And as soon as that happens, we can launch the attack as well. The Empire of the Sun will be struck from two sides and be dragged thin. They can’t afford to send help here.” Another Voyager nodded. “That’s clever.”

“It’s simple tactics.” Druid replied. “But either case, we should attack now. The Empress Guards have just arrived. We should attack before they can rest and recover.”

Druid’s eyes closed as he rested his hands on his temple.

“Keep in mind, I have no intention of just taking the fort. I want to wipe out as much available forces of the Empire as possible so the follow-up invasion will encounter less resistance, and now I can.” He tapped on his watch. “Karina, are you in place?”

“Affirmative. Your animals are getting restless, by the way.”

“Then it’s a good thing they’re going to have a chance to play very soon. We’re making a move soon. You know the plan.” The leading Voyager turned off the comm and stood up. He leaped onto a giant stone before emitting a psychic wave that quickly spread out to all the beasts in the mountains.

As soon as they felt the psychic signal, the formerly dormant beasts grew aggravated. They growled and howled before finally charging forward.

Their destination was the Immortal Fort.

“Incoming!”

An ear piercing cry echoed across the wall.

The Empress didn't hesitate as she rushed to the top of the outer wall. Her generals and guards followed tightly. Across the wall, thousands got into their designated position.

A short distance away, a sea of beasts was approaching rapidly. The Empress couldn’t tell how many beasts there were, but she did know she literally couldn’t see the end of the horde. Even as the vanguard closed in on the wall, there were still more units pouring out from the mountains. It was a tide that wasn’t going to end anytime soon.

The growls of thousands of beasts made even the bravest men of the Empire shake.

At a situation like this one, the strength of individuals mattered very little. Even General Flores couldn’t survive for long if he was dropped into the middle of all the beasts.

Half the men on the wall were shaking. They have faced invading beasts, but in most cases, the invaders were disorganized. They were fighting each other as much as they were fighting the wall defenders. But this time, the beasts were organized. They only had one destination: the wall. As soon as they came out of the cover of the mountains, they wasted no time to dash forward.

Suddenly, just before the morale would drop significantly, the Empress acted. She drew her sword, which made a sharp noise that was somehow even louder than the noise made by the beasts.

All the men turned to her.

“Behind this fort,” The Empress pointed at the ground. “is the heart of the Empire! Hundreds of thousands of innocent, defenseless people live there. Fathers! Mothers! Wives! Children! If those beasts out there get past this wall, they will rip those people to shreds!”

“You are the best men of the Empire. You are paid twice as much as the other soldiers. You have been treated by everyone with respect. Your families have never known the feeling of an empty stomach! You have been treated better than anyone else, and that treatment comes with a price! Now, it’s time to pay that price!”

“I will not tell you you will survive this. That will be a lie. But what I can promise you is that I will hold this wall until my last dying breath. I am the Empress, and this is my duty!”

“Now, warriors of the Empire, fulfill your duties!”

“Raise the matrix! Archers on the wall! Swordsmen cover the rears! Ready Formation!” General Keys screamed. All the men on the walls complied with renewed courage and strength. Archers ran to the outer line of the wall and stood beside piles of runed arrows. Armored men with large swords stood behind the archers. When the beasts inevitably push through all the arrows and make their way onto the wall, it would be the job of the swordsmen to push them out.

Empress Guards gathered around the Empress. They were the best men of the Empire, and they were good at pretty much everything, including archery. At the moment, every bit of firepower helps.

In the safety of the mountains, Druid’s eyes were closed as he connected onto the eyes of the leading beast so he could see the battlefield from a first person point of view. Suddenly, he gave out an order.

“Accelerate.”

The vanguard of the beasts, already travelling at amazing speed, accelerated. Adrenaline were actively produced and pumped through their veins. Before the attack, Druid made some biological modification to his beasts. The aftermath would kill the beasts, but as the first into battle, they were going to die anyways. The only thing that mattered was getting more out of their demise.

It was meant to catch the defenders by surprise.

Suddenly, Druid’s vision went dark. Just as he switched to another beast, that one’s vision went out as well. It was when he connected to a beast in the middle of the charge when he saw what happened.

A crimson layer of shield was created fifty meters in front of where the wall was. It was burning hot. When the first beast ran into the shield unsuspectingly, its head was immediately melted. The same happened to hundreds of beasts as they plunged into their death.

“Archers, nock!”

General Keys knew he couldn’t just let the beasts grind through the shields. Every attack the shield does on the beasts costs energy, otherwise all the defenders had to do was keep the shield on and victory would be assured. Eventually the shield would go out, but the defenders needed to do some damage against the invaders to make sure that happens as late as possible.

“Loose!”

Thousands of runed arrows darted down from the wall. They quickly went through the red shield and landed among the beasts.

The beasts were so great in number that they almost covered the horizon. Even if the archers weren’t the best of the Empire, it was hard to miss. All the arrows found their target.

Thousands of beasts shrieked as they fell. Not all of them were killed instantly, but the beasts were ordered by Druid to keep moving forward, no matter the price. Those who fell, wounded, were stepped on by their comrades. When thousands of pairs of legs went over the fallen, the victims were no more than meat pies.

It was a nightmare.

But Druid forced the beasts to keep charging forward. He didn't care about casualties. There were 50,000 beasts. They outnumbered the defenders by two to one. A couple thousand of deaths didn't matter to him. Plus, the humans were using their best weapons already. Their ability to do damage would only drop from this point on.

Hundreds more beasts were burned alive at the shields. Even as they screamed, they kept pushing forward. They physically couldn’t retreat. Even if they broke through Druid’s control, they would be pushed into the flaming shield by the comrades behind them.

“Nock!”

“Loose!”

Around eight hundred more beasts fell.

“Nock!”

“Loose!”

“Nock!”

“Loose!”

“Nock!”

“Loose!”

At this point, over 5,000 beasts lay dead. The bodies almost formed a mountain on the ground. It was ‘almost’ because the charging horde has stepped on the bodies so much that the bodies have became a flat layer. Corpses of different beasts were mushed together.

Any human being would have thrown up. Even the defenders felt sick to the stomach. The attackers might not have reached the wall, but the smell of their corpses have.

Suddenly, among the beasts close to the shield, a human figure suddenly emerged. He waved his hand, and a wave of green liquid appeared out of nowhere. The liquid smashed into the red shield, causing a loud hissing sound.

Two beasts that were accidentally splattered by the green liquid growled as their bodies dissolved. Their plating did nothing.

“What is that?” The Empress immediately knew it was a Voyager. All she wanted to do now was to find out what that Voyager did.

“Empress!” The answer to her question came very soon. “The shield’s energy is being drained at a rapid rate! It could’ve held for two hours before.”

“Now?” The Empress did her best to remain calm.

The soldier’s fear in his voice could hardly be ignored.

“Five minutes.”

Five minutes until the shields fall. Five minutes until the human defenders face the invading beasts head on.