“My lord, all the messengers we sent out have answered back! All 17 noble Romans we contacted have agreed to send help! Legatus Caius will arrive in half a day with his 20,000 men. Even the Emperor will be here in two days!”

As the guard knelt down and reported, his voice was full of thrill. He couldn’t believe all the Romans would be selfless enough to rise arms against the impending threat. Not a single of them decided to sit back and let others waste their forces.

As if they have a choice. If they did that, then their conservation of troops would come at the price of losing whatever support they once had.

Jean nodded. “Go get some rest.”

As the soldier turned around, Jean suddenly reached out. Most of her Power of Death poured into the soldier’s body, wiping away his soul and brutally replacing it with her own.

But Jean wasn’t doing a full swap. She transported most of her soul into the soldier’s body, but there was still enough of her left in Decimus’s body so that if someone came in and talked to her, she could react accordingly.

This would give her actual soul a chance to go out and do something not necessarily normal for a devout Roman general.

Possessing the meat shell of a common foot soldier, Jean walked out of the camp without much fuss. She gave herself an order from “Legatus Decimus” so even if a patrol or some guards happened to stop her, she could get out in one piece.

Jean finally reached a ridge outside of Roman view. She knew neither the Equites patrols nor the watchtowers could see anything here. Seconds later, a small Alphian transport ship descended upon the sky. Its hangar door opened, revealing two Alphian foot soldiers.

Jean walked inside and stood next to the two machines.

One of the machines suddenly turned.

“Legatus Decimus.”

Jean never told Alpha-Sierra her real name, so all the Alphians referred to her with the name of her cover.

Jean glanced at the machine. She could sense the brain inside the machine was a familiar one. Why? It belonged to Lucus. But Jean wasn’t bothered. The Alphians have conquered their entire universe and several more just like theirs. Obviously, not everyone had their brains plugged into a metal suit willingly. The Alphians were more than capable of twisting their captured minds a little to earn their loyalty.

“Speak.”

“1,000 Alphians are in position, as you requested. Alpha-Sierra remains in the mothership. He will be directing the battle from there.”

“Thanks for the information, but that is none of my concern.” Jean shook her head. “This is your fight. I will neither join the battle myself, and nor will I give a hand in commanding. I am merely an observer.”

“Even if we lose, you will not interfere?”

“I have provided you more than adequete information. If you still lose despite all the advantages I have armed your people with, then the Alphians are not worth my aid.”

“Understood.”

The rest of the voyage was quiet. Jean glanced at the pilot, and realized it was a single Alphian sitting in a seat. Four wires were plugged into his metal head and connected his brain to the ship itself.

Finally, the transport landed at its destination. The door opened, and Jean walked out. The two Alphians followed her. The battle that was about to unfold needed every Alphian unit on the ground.

Jean was standing on one side of a canyon. All around her were 400 metallic Alphian units. On the other side of the canyon were 600 units. Some of them came from the village the Alphians first conquered. A large number came from Jean’s personal guards and berserkers. Others befell to this fate when Jean directed Alphian transport ships to sneak beyond the Roman lines and harvest entire Roman villages. As long as the Alphians planned their approach carefully, no one would notice the disappearance until it was too late.

A distance away, adjacent and perpendicular to the canyon, was a river. The river by itself wasn’t that wide, at least compared to those trying to cross, but its water current meant neither fully armed legionnaires nor mounted men could cross by themselves. As a result, a wooden bridge has been constructed across the piece of water, and distinctly, Jean could see an army in red marching their way across.

70,000 strong, and they belonged to the Emperor.

Jean could tell the army crossing the river was relaxed. They weren’t expecting to be attacked, and rightfully so. They have left the capital three days ago, yet they were still two full days of march away from where Jean’s forces and the fallen ship was. Throughout her reports, Jean promised that not a single Alphian made its way through her defenses.

In other words, the Emperor’s forces, as well as those of the other warlords, should feel comfortable to move their forces into position.

The Emperor trusted her on that account. He didn't expect her to craft such a blatant lie. That was a mistake.

Due to time restraints, the Alphians could only find themselves a handful of ships, but those ships were enough to transport sufficient Alphian units to the front without anyone noticing.

That lie Jean told might turn and bite her afterwards, but now, it had quite the impact. The Emperor pushed his troops to move at a rate that he knew would tire them out. Even the ring of scouts was compressed to a smaller radius. If the Emperor waited for the scouts to clear the path and its surrounding before moving his forces across, the trip would take many times longer.

The Emperor knew the risks, but he also knew the longer he left Legatus Decimus alone in the front, the more risky things could be.

The Emperor marched with 70,000 troops. Their average CAS was 100. It would take so much more than 1,000 CAS 200 Alphians to take them down, which was precisely why the Alphians chose this battlefield.

When the Alphians encountered the Shaku Riders, they were ambushed. Several Alphian fleets just finished their dimension jumps when the Shaku Riders struck. The first few fleets were immediately wiped out. More and more Alphian fleets arrived, yet most of them were picked off one by one without the chance to mount a formal defense. In the end, the entire Alphian Armada was picked apart and brought down.

Now, the Alphians hoped to return the favor on these Roman locals.

Already, a group of Romans have passed the bridge and were marching into the ridge, but the Roman lines were stretched so long that most of the Roman forces were still either on the bridge or on the other side of the river.

Inside his command ship, Alpha-Sierra started calculating.

“Calculations suggest 1,000 Alphians can overpower 12,000 Romans.”

“7,000 Romans have crossed. All units maintain your position.”

“9,000 Romans have crossed. All units maintain your position.”

“10,500 Romans have crossed. All units maintain your position.”

“12,000 Romans have crossed. All units, engage the hostiles.”

“Affirmative. Targets confirmed. Engaging now.”

Squads of Romans on their way across the bridge suddenly looked around. Their battle instincts screamed to them that something was off, but the Alphian stealth technology, coupled with the loud thunders of tens of thousands of feet hitting the ground, made it impossible to hear the incoming.

It was only when a legionnaire randomly looked up into the air when he noticed what it was.

“Incoming! Incoming!”

A distance away, 12 fighters dashed down from the sky. All of them shared the exact same features. Pointy tips. Twincannons on the side. The strange thing was there was no cockpit at the front of the fighters.

Alphighters. Alphian starfighters.

On their way down, all 12 Alphighters suddenly opened fire. 24 strings of blue energy ripped through anything and anyone still on the wooden bridge. Legionnaires. Shields. Armors. Horses and their riders were blasted into countless bits and pieces of flesh.

Some men rose their shields, but against enough firepower to rip a legionnaire into two with just a graze of the string of blasters, it simply isn't enough. Shield or not, anything that came under fire perished.

Within just seconds, the casualty rate has reached 200. Even the violent river current was briefly stained red by the bits and pieces of human remain that fell inside, but that redness was quickly washed away by the incoming current.

“Archers! Into formation!”

The Romans had no idea who the enemies were or where they came from, but they knew they couldn’t let this go on anymore. Following the command, hundreds of archers drew their arrows and took aim. In two seconds, they have sent out a wave at the Alphighters.

Three Alphighters immediately exploded into flames, but before the Romans could cheer for the death of 25% of the attackers, they realized all three burning Alphighters were falling down toward the bridge.

The bridge that still had at least a thousand Romans on top.

Before anyone could do anything, the three Alphighters collapsed on the bridge. Dozens were crushed instantly. Those under the ship protected from death by their armors screamed as they burned, but that wasn’t over. As the primary starfighters of a race as advanced as the Alphians, the Alphighters had energy shields, but they didn't use it. Why? Because the energy were diverted onto something else.

Boom! Boom! Boom!

All three Alphighters instantly exploded. Rogue energy spread across the bridge and annihilated everything within its 100 feet, but that wasn’t it. The combined blast of all three explosions were enough to shake the foundation of the bridge.

One captain on the bridge suddenly realized the dire situation.

“Get off the bridge! Go on land now!”

Yet his warning came too late. The men at either side of the bridge were moving as quickly as possible, and they might make it to safety, but for the ones at the center, like the poor captain, all was already lost.

Three more Alphighters dove down and slammed into what was left of the bridge’s foundations. With the last support beams gone, the wooden bridge collapsed. Most of the thousands of Romans on the bridge fell into the river. Unfortunately for them, it was so much worse than wetting their clothes.

The thing with Roman legionnaires was that they were heavily armored. That was good. A giant shield, a thick helmet, and a full body armor could protect them from a lot of things, but when it came to floating in the river, all of those meant one thing.

Drowning.

Some quick-thinking legionnaires have already tossed away their shields and threw away their helmets, but their armors took too long, and before they knew it, the current was washing them down the lake with a momentum too much for them to handle.

Every Roman here could be a killing machine if they were tossed against the human army back on dimension AP492, but that was because the world where the Roman Empire stood was on a higher level than dimension AP492. When put in its own world, there was nothing special about the Romans. Cut off their head and they die. Strap a rock to them and throw them into the sea, and they drown.

The archers readied for a second wave, but the Alphighters have already down their job. They quickly lifted up into the air and out of the archers’ range.

Yet the battle has just begun.

“What is going on back there?”

The 12,000 Romans who have already crossed over heard the chaos, but an army of 12,000 was enough to stretch out for miles. Those right on the riverbank could see the massacre that was taking place, but most of the Romans found themselves wondering what the hell just happened. Chaos quickly ensued. Men asked questions. Officers tried to uphold order. Horses stepped around, unsettled by the noise.

One Equite in the front wasn’t as consumed by curiosity. His soldier nature prompted him to look back at what was in front, and that was when he saw it.

Using the chaos as cover, countless silver figures have closed in on the Roman forces.

“Incoming!”

The Equite had no idea what was going on, but his instincts told him it could never hurt to draw his blade, but unfortunately for him, that was not before a blue blast punched through his chest armor and fried him alive.

The man collapsed. His helmet rolled to the side, revealing a young face.

The comrades of the fallen snapped around just in time to see the horseman being brought down by a flash of blue, but when they turned to the attackers, they hesitated for a few seconds. Before the expedition, their commanding officers told them the enemies they were facing wouldn’t be human, but it was one thing to know and a completely different one to actually see it.

The Alphians didn't hesitate. In just seconds, dozens of equites and legionnaires met their end in a wave of laser blasts.

The officers finally had a chance to react.

“Form lines! Shield wall! Archers ready!”

The Romans here didn't fail their emperor. After the initial casualties, they showed why they deserved the additional pay by their lord. A wave of shields came up. Sure, laser fire still constantly went through the gaps and shot those behind dead. Sure, a few shots to the same place could shatter a shield. Ah well, some protection was better than nothing.

A wave of archers loaded their arrows. At first, they wanted to wait for a command before firing, but when half of them were prioritize targeted by the Alphians, the rest decided to stop screwing around and just fire when ready.

A wave of arrows landed among the Alphians with a speed faster than the speed of sound. Dozens of Alphians were pinned to the ground. If it was a single arrow at the arm or the leg, the Alphians could shrug it off. But if the shot happened to be at the brain or half a dozen arrows riddled an Alphian’s body to pieces, then even the Alphian would be down for the count.

“Encountering enemy fire. Casualty count: 31. Utilize Gravity Fields.”

Twenty specialized Alphian units reached to their side pockets, took out a strange device, and attached it to their blasters. With a few light “pop”s, twenty specialized rounds landed among the Roman ranks.

A Roman legionnaire who a specialized round landed on his shield glanced at the strange projectile in confusion. The next second, the round exploded into nothingness.

The legionnaire took a step back, but nothing happened.

“Hold still!” A man behind him yelled, noticing him backing off. “We have to cover our boys in the back! They will give these monsters a show of Roman strength!”

“I…” The first legionnaire’s words barely left his mouth when he suddenly felt an irresistible force pulling him in toward where the projectile exploded. The force was so great that the legionnaire found himself on the ground in the blink of an eye.

With the corner of his eyes, he could see dozens of his comrades were pulled in the same way. Even their shields and weapons were being dragged in. The man who was telling him to hold his ground was pushed against him tightly.

“Pull!” The legionnaire screamed as he tried to resist the grip. At the back of his mind, he was concerned that, without their shields, the blasts from the enemies would easily pick them off one by one.

Little did he know the blasts were the least of his concerns.

The gravitational pull continued, and the first legionnaire realized being pulled to the ground was far from the end. His body was pressed against his armor, but the force was so great that the armor wasn’t enough to stop his body from moving. His entire body converged onto a single point. Armor, weapon, flesh, blood, and bones crushed against each other, and they showed no sign of stopping.

Surprised yelps started to turn into screams.

Romans a few lines back watched in horror as dozens of men, along with everything they carried, were sucked into a single point. Enough things to fill a small field were crunched down and down into a single point in space. The sound of things exploding covered the field. What was exploding? Take a guess.

And in the end, nothing. The gravity the projectiles generated reduced all of its unfortunate victims into a single ball too small for the human eyes to see.

The lucky Romans turned and ran in horror.

They didn't sign up for this.