Chapter 86: War Games

The first battle would have 4 participants, Scitus, Thomas, Juliet, and Cecilia. Overseeing these battles would be 4 advisors who were Hera, and expert tactician, Sia, a logistics expert, Eveline, a self-proclaimed battle expert, "I can smell it." she proclaimed to Scitus as she requested an advisory position in the games, and lastly, a last-minute addition, was Seresa whose expertise was only known to Hera.

Each participant would lead the armies and attempt to destroy all enemy castles, once a castle was captured, they could use it as a base and, in a way, gain an extra life. The Leaders would also be provided a crystal ball that projected the progression and moment of their army. As not everything would be in their field of view, the purpose of these crystal balls was to provide visibility for the leaders and allow them to more efficiently command. If a leader was captured and or eliminated, all remaining automatons would be shut down.

The advisors would simply watch and only speak when asked, as to not interfere with the leaders’ mistakes. Scitus however, did plan for them to have an important role but their purpose would become clearer over time.

Each participant would be provided 1000 soldiers plus those in their army core. The automatons would cease to function after a certain pressure limit was met; they had been calibrated to the average soldiers’ ability. The non-automatons participating were required to wear safety gear that once broken would force the participants out of the playing field. “Although I and Sia have implemented as many safety precautions as we could think of, don’t go and do dangerous things because you can and will be injured,” Scitus said shortly before beginning the first battle.

Excitement initially bubbled inside all the leaders who had hoped to impress Scitus with their incredible abilities. This emotion was short-lived as Scitus and his army easily dominated the battlefield. Scitus had first sent an army of 100 to Thomas's base, mostly comprised of archers. Thomas, being ever defense holed himself up, locked all the gates and patiently used his archers to shoot back. "Would you like my advice?" asked Hera who had a sly smile on her face at the time. "No, my goddess. This is a test for me and my comrades." Hera bowed with a tricky smile.

Leaving an army of 200 to guard the gates, the remaining 600 automatons, discounting the first 100 Scitus had sent as scouts, headed towards Juliet’s castle who at the time was still mostly holed up. “everything’s okay, you’re going to be okay,” Seresa calmly soothed Juliet who had begun to hyperventilate after bearing witness to the massive army heading towards her position. The trees shook and trembled as Scitus’s army stepped forward. under the massive weight of their steps even trees collapsed. “go!!!” Juliet shouted to her troops who Seresa wanted to advise against it but she held her tongue. Scitus had already explained to her to only provide the advice asked for and only provide the advice she was an expert in. "even if you have better judgment than the leader you're overseeing, hold your tongue because in a real battlefield you can't always seek advice about everything."

In her panic, Juliet sent her entire army forward towards the trembling trees. Scitus smiled with malicious guile, his face revealed that it had been a trap. Juliets army moved forward to find only about 100 automatons smashing against trees shaking the massive trunks to create the illusion of a massive force. Juliet didn't have time to react before she found herself surrounded by Scitus’s army, who had charged from behind. She surrendered knowing her fate. Those of her core, who had mostly moved with the automatons, were all taken aback. “we lost?” one said as she was forcibly removed from the field, “how?” she further murmured. “I panicked,” Juliet responded with a look of disappointment on her face.

“you’ve lost about 80 automatons in that skirmish.” Sia responded at Scitus’s behest. “how long will it take for the army I have stationed in my castle to get here.”

"4 minutes." Sia quietly responded contrary to her normally boisterous attitude. Unbeknownst to Scitus, her gaze had become firmly fixated on him as if everything else was unimportant. Her eyes were fiery with determination but if one stared into them, into her soul, they could perhaps see something amiss: something as terrifying as losing their freedom of will and becoming no different than a puppet.

The battle continued and with his first victory secured he moved toward Cecilia, commanding all his troops towards her position. By this point, Thomas had noticed the battlefield had become eerily quiet but he remained ever vigilant.

Cecilia, unlike the others, had moved her army towards a different base, though she didn't realize that Scitus had been following her movements very closely. Cecelia was cautious and only sent in 200 automatons, along with 100 of her best archers, out, while rest remained inside. The initial 200 headed towards Juliet's base. Cecelia had planned a siege similar to Scitus’s siege on Thomas, however, she had planned to truly eliminate Juliet with her expert marksman. Cecelia believed that she eliminate Juliet from afar but when she finally arrived she was in for a nasty surprise. Her army was circled and easily eliminated. The army hadn't expected a melee and only armed with bows, they had little choice but to be beaten senseless by the enemy army.

Cecelia gulped at how quickly her army had been beaten. She planted many more archers alongside her castle walls and moved 100 infantry to guard the castle gates. Scitus exploited her love of archery and sent in a massive 400 troops, all outfitted with shields and heavy armor. They moved very slowly but were essentially mobile tanks. “archers fire!!!” Cecelia shouted as Eveline sat in the background sharpening her nails with a small stone. “this is quite boring” she thought as she filed her nails down and then forcibly regenerated them and started again.

The troops moved slowly but Cecilia had no way of exploiting their movements and found her castle gates being quickly smashed upon and her archers easily dealt with by the swarm of heavy infantry. She surrendered. The automatons removed their heavy gear and outfitted themselves with the bows and arrows of the fallen soldiers. Like this, they quickly caught up to the heavy infantry who had been heading towards Thomas's castle. "Thomas is definitely the most difficult to take down. His defenses are superior to even what I can muster but he is like a fortress and never moves." Scitus explained to Sia who simply nodded in satisfaction. "hmm, I see. You first went after Juliet with a surprise tactic, then after Cecelia with a more direct one all so that you could muster your entire force against Thomas who you couldn't think of a method for defeating without heavy losses." Scitus nodded as he commanded 400 heavy infantry to storm the front gates as they were supported by heavy archer fire and another 100 light infantry helped the heavy infantry with quick attacks and flee tactics.

Thomas Attempted to guard the point attack as best he could but his archer support wasn’t sufficient to deal with the infantry right at their gates and with the help of Scitus’s light infantry, his heavy infantry was more easily dealt with. After a short struggle with heavy losses on both sides, the tides had begun to turn in Thomas's favor as he reorganized his troops and attempted to encircle the heavy infantry force. The two armies struggled and while Thomas was too focused on the threat in front of him, atop his main tower, he failed to see how the enemy archers were moving closer toward the city walls. Scitus archers moved in as the remaining heavy infantry protected them as they ascended the castle walls. From the castle walls began a firestorm of arrows that executed the remaining automatons and soldiers.

In the end, Scitus was victorious with a remaining army of 300, 100 infantry and 200 archers. Thomas was forced to surrender despite having 200 soldiers still on reserve as Scitus’s domination over his castle walls had sealed his fate.

The entire game took a little under an hour to complete and Scitus planned to play the game for as long as he needed to. So he did and over the course of several hours, after several cycles and changes in both advisors and leaders, the war games continued and each and every game ended in Scitus’s victory over them. it hadn’t always been overwhelming, but it was common for those watching from the outside to realize the Scitus had already claimed his victory at the very beginning of each game.

When the games ended, deep into the night, he lined the leaders up again. They were downtrodden. Their defeat had come so swiftly and so decisively that they couldn’t help feel shame. Scitus stood above them atop of flat stone which had been moved there by some ogres who had helped with the miniature castle construction.

Scitus looked upon them with warmth and kindness, but the leaders could see there was also a mild concern in his eyes. They felt as if someone had punched them straight in the stomach as Scitus calmly began to describe the faults with their strategy. "Juliet, you may be a healer and you have excellent judgment when you must retreat, but you must also take more initiative, be bolder. Thomas, you have an incredible defense, but defensive strategies don't conquer castles. Cecelia, you have excellent control over your troops, but archers are only a part of a whole army; remember to use other types of infantry. Arcana, I've noticed you have an eye for spotting when a place needs support and I understand you were limited in the number of troops you could control, but you must also remember to defend yourself; you can't always send your entire army away to take an enemy castle. Robin, your leadership ability is as incredible as always, even after many defeats your army still had the utmost belief in your commands, however, you worry too much over your army and try to prevent as many losses as possible. Losses are inevitable, " Scitus said looking at everyone but none looked him in the eye both out of shame and respect, "you are leaders and you must make a these difficult decision, it may be hard but you must remember that your solders know that they may die, but they still risk their lives for you because they know what they are protecting: Our kingdom, our homes, and our families. Lastly is you, William" William straighten up at the sound of his name, "you were able to find the best troops in your army and have them command smaller segments of your army, excellent, but remember that you are the leader William, their mistakes are yours as well. give them some freedom but not free reign." William nodded a little happy that Scitus complimented him.

Scitus released a heavy sigh, "One thing all of you failed to do is ask for advice. On the battlefield, you must be confident in your decision, but you must remember that you have knowledgeable soldiers at your disposal, you use what you can. In the first battle, I was victorious because I used Sia's logistics knowledge to my advantage, she helped organize my troops and she gave me a rough estimate of the time it would take me to reach anyone of you. In my second battle, Eveline helped me identify my strongest troops and therefore use them during key strategic moments such is in my final confrontation with William's elite guard. In the third battle, Seresa helped me convince Robin to help me attack Arcana who had Eveline as a handicap, and lastly, Hera helped me formulate strategies against all of you by thoroughly describing your mentalities to me. With her, at my side, it could be said that I knew your moves before you made them. ”

"we will continue these battles until you guys can defeat me, is that understood," Scitus commanded as he looked down on all of them. "YES, YOUR MAJESTY!!!" they shouted with more vigor than they actually possessed. “you’re all dismissed!!!” Scitus said and with that final command, the many soldiers headed towards their homes for a well-deserved rest.

"Hera," Scitus called out to his daughter who turned to him with a sly smile. "Excellent judgment with Seresa, honestly I should have noticed sooner." Hera shook her head, "but I'm sure you realized what her skill was before she became your advisor," Scitus smiled and nodded.

"More importantly, how is the plan coming along?" Hera's expression grew darker as she spoke. "some minor hiccups have delayed us. I believe its best we wait a little longer but even if we act now it wouldn't be too big a problem." Scitus nodded, "I'll heed you and wait a month or two. We've been planning this far too long for us to fail at the end." Hera nodded before fading into small particles, "I need to rest father, this form of mine is weaker than I expected," she said before finally disappearing.

That night, as Scitus rested his eyes, he had thought he heard someone enter his room but when he saw no one he shifted back and tried to rest his mind without ending his turn. Though at the time he didn’t know, what had happened that night would save his kingdom from future troubles.

Far from the kingdom of monsters and at the center of the Mern palace was Mern who with calm grace explained to his fellow subordinates his ingenious plan.

“is that really possible,” Slyan asked with an awed expression, korin nodded as if to ask the same question. "yes, in fact, it's been done once before, by Siion no less. I’ll use his old plan against him.” Mern said with eyes that burned with terrible fury and malicious discontent. "how long will it take to build?" asked Aro. “4 months” Mern said. “in 4 months, we will deal with Scitus.” Mern said with a cruel smile. Mephisto looked on with a thoughtful look. He was contemplating something but not even Mern knew what was on his mind.

The crescendo was fast approaching and what would happen next would be learned in history books, told in ballets, and fantasied in stories for eras to come.