When Creon logged back in, it was early in the morning. The air was crisp and cool, and the birds were chirping. I was almost as if thousands of people weren't going to die that day.He checked with Oz, Commander Bor, Grimlock( who had just logged in himself), and the head of the mages guild. "Is everything in order?" "Master, the things you charged us with have been completed. I must say I would never have been so meticulous. As expected of the master." "I dont like it." Interjected Bor. "I know they are tactics but it feels like trickery!" "As expected of a muscle-head, you see genius of a level which almost approaches my own, and you cant even recognize it" sneered Angelus, head of the mages guild. "WHAT?!" With the two's arguing giving him a headache, Creon intervened. "Enough brothers. We are all on the same side are we not?"

The two reluctantly calmed down. "when is the army expected to get here?" asked Creon. "about 4 hours from now. Reinforcements should arrive tomorrow morning." Creon scowled. He had known that the reinforcements would be late, but he had hoped for a miracles or something. " How many?" "around 5000 with another 3000 support" That at least was good. that should be enough to hold the city at least until the enemy decided it would be less profitable to stay.But that was only considering that they could hold out a day against over 15000.

over the next 3 hours, they went over possible battle strategies, checked on supplies and weaponry, and other miscellaneous work. During those 3 hours, all the players logged in. they spent the next hour briefing them on the plan, then getting them in to position. They all were joined into one huge warband, With Creon as the leader. After a while, a mage using [foresight] cried out: "10 minutes! they're coming!" Everyone prepared themselves, equipping their best gear, meditating, the devout amongst the Magi praying unto the great flow of mana for good luck. Creon himself had just risen out of the meditation he was required to do to activate [Deep Meditation] skill, which improved his skill damage by 50%

in a few minutes, the ground began to shake, war horns began sounding and the shouts of men were heard. The eastern fields were overrun by men clad in leather and metal. The Ezzian Empire's army had arrived. Creon addressed his followers. "MY BROTHERS AND SISTERS!!! THESE FOUL INVADERS SEEK TO TAKE EVERYTHING FROM US! OUR HOMES, OUR FRIENDS, OUR FAMILIES, AND OUR LIVES! BUT WE WILL NOT SIMPLY ALLOW THESE MISTAKEN YOUNG BROTHERS TO HAVE THERE WAY! BEFORE THIS DAY IS DONE, THEY WILL KNOW THEIR MISTAKE!" Creon turned towards the invaders."REJOICE! MEN OF EZZI! FOR TODAY YOU SHALL BE DELIVERED BACK UNTO THE FLOW OF MANA! MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER!" The Friedan solders took on the chant"MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER! MAY YOU LIVE FOREVER!"

The enemy of course did not know the significance of these words. They laughed, thinking that they were being blessed by people who had lost their minds in the face of death. Little did they know, these words only signified certain death. As the enemies laughed, Creon lifted his hand and gave the signal. "Light them up". Immediately a dozen mages shot fire into the fields. Creon had ordered the fields to be covered in scentless oil created by the alchemists. The result was instantaneous. thousands died immediately, others died trying to retreat, spreading fire to their brethren.

Creon's true target had been the siege weapons which of course had been brought to the forefront to assault the walls. Now the complex machines were just glorified firewood. Enemy mages were trying to put the fires out that had spread amongst the enemy soldiers. there was a general sense of disorder among the enemy soldiers, as if the commanders didnt know what they were doing. Creon smirked. The stealth types had did their job well. At the cost of their lives, they assassinated many of the low to mid ranked officers in the enemy army, forcing them to promote new ones. The new ones didnt have much leadership experience, and their new subordinates, who had been equals less than a week ago, did not trust in them.

The mage battalion tried to attack using a simultaneous fire ball spell. its sheer mass was impressive, but its heat, which was felt more than one hundred meters away was truly fearsome. "Counter spell! Now!" Half of his mages sent water and ice spells at the hurtling mass of flames, reducing it to mere steam.

However this was what the enemy was after. As the resulting mist hid their movements, they quickly advanced up to the walls. However, Creon had another trick tactic waiting for them. in front of the walls were huge earthen tubs filled with water. Creon shouted the order for the earth mages to break them, and as the soldiers were soaked, Creon had the Mana adepts shoot lightning at them, electrocuting them.

Having been repelled twice, the enemy army began getting worried. At that time, the worse thing possible for the Friedans happened. The king himself came forward and took command, along with his generals. Damn it! why is he even here?! Creon thought.

The morale he had worked so hard to destroy had came back with vigor. This time, enemy soldiers pulled out huge ramps and ladders, and began latching them to the wall. "Burn them down!" Creon commanded. The mana adepts tried but- "Theyre enchanted! they wont burn!" It seemed this enchantment protected whoever was on it, as the enemy rarely died after getting on them, although they were constantly fired upon.

"aim for the bases of the ladders! shoot them before the can get on! Meelee types!get to the front and prepare for battle! mage types! focus on enemy mages! counter them whenever possible! Archers! half of you focus on the base of the ladders, and the other half, focus on sniping mages. the quicker they die the better!" Creon drank two high-grade mana potions. one multiplied his mana pool by five for an hour, the other sped up his mana regeneration by 1000% percent! Its time I started fighting as well. Creon pointed his hand towards an area thick with enemy soldiers. "Magic Missile!"he shouted,and using the [chainshot] skill, 50 missiles shot out of his hand, bombarding the area, and taking up almost all his mana. Many of the soldiers in that area were wiped out, due to them taking more aoe damage from being so close together.

Seeing his success, Creon quickly left the area. he didnt need to be targeted anymore than he already was, and besides, he couldnt do anymore long-range moves due to his lack of mana. He ran over to where a ladder was attached to the wall, and brandishing his staff, entered the fray. He struck one soldier with a quick swing to the back of the head, then swung his staff around and struck the soldier so hard his armor crumpled. Enemy soldiers saw this and began eyeing him nervously,even the few enemy players. The Friedans on the other hand, let out an earth shaking war cry and began pushing the enemy back.

Creon darted from ladder to ladder repeating the process until nightfall. at the end of the day, both forces ceased combat. Creon fell against a nearby building, tired. his army had suffered around 2000 casualties, half were players. The enemy had lost around 2500, 2000 of which died due to the two tricks tactics Creon had utilized early on. but once they got up the walls, the enemy had his army outclassed, and now they knew it. Percentage-wise, they had lost around 25% of their men... but Creon had lost 32%. Both sides knew how this would end if nothing changed. The city would fall. But Creon of course had another plan, this night would not end swiftly for them.

Creon had leveled up 10 times during this battle. he put half of the points into INT and the other half into VIT. Many times he had been saved by a monk-priest that day, and he knew he needed more health. He walked over to where the inquisitors were waiting. Now then, to give them a night from hell "I assume you were all remember my previous instructions. Any questions brothers?" He was met by silence. "Deliver them unto the mana then" The inquisitors vanished. More accurately, they activated Dark magic which made them undetectable at night.

The plan was simple. They would go over the wall, plant monser bait within enemy camps as well as drop demon summoning tags made by Angelus himself. These tags were unique in that they didnt have contracts on them. This meant a demon without a contract would be summoned into a group of unsuspecting humans in the middle of the night. it didnt take a genius to figure out what would happen. The demons and monsters would wreck havoc in the enemy camp, and even after the threat was gone, they wouldnt sleep, by the time morning came, they wouldnt be able to keep their eyes open.

The inquisitors carried out their job perfectly. the Friedan soldiers slept perfectly through the screams of their enemies, it was a fine night indeed. Creon woke at the crack of dawn to the sound of marching. Reinforcements had arrived. The enemy soldiers saw this, and nearly wept. After a sleepless night, they would have to fight even more soldiers.

The general of the reinforcements acknowledged Creon, and after a brief discussion on the current situation, began distributing soldiers and resources. Creon was quite impressed at his capability. I'm not sure which city he's from, but I need to steal him he thought, laughing lightly to himself. As he prepared to engage the enemy once more, the oddest thing happened, a messenger appeared, he claimed that the emperor wished to speak to the leader of this alliance, one on one.

That was quicker than i thought. Creon shouted back "If the esteemed emperor would like to meet, he is welcome to come to the city hall, however i refuse to leave these walls, for fear of treachery amongst you.." Creon said this, half because it was true, and half because he wanted them to attack. if he could destroy that army here, and he believed he could, he could then reclaim all that they lost.

To his surprise, The emperor rode out. Creon gave the orders to open the gate, but beware trickery and quickly made his way back to the city hall. The emperor strode gallantly into his office. He had long dirty blond hair, blue-green eyes, and just slightly tanned skin. he had the kind of face that made women in the real world become stalkers. "Greetings, I am known in this world as Gabriel Skylark. I am the head of the band of the Silvercrest Knights and emperor of the Ezzian Empire." He wishes to use our in-game personas eh? well I'm a fairly good sport so i'll play along "Good morning young brother, I am Creon, master of the Magi, and lord of the free city of Frieda" Creon brought his hands together, smiled gently,and inclined his head ever so slightly.

"Lord Creon, I shall cut straight to the point! can we have terms? As it is, our armies will destroy each other, and no one would truly win after all the carnage and death. You are truly a master of tactics! but your soldiers are far inferior to my own, and even if you were to win, my secondary army would simply come and destroy whats left of you after they are done in Aquila." Creon kept his smile and responded "Certainly, what you say is true... but your highness, what about reparations? do you plan on leaving the tattered country of Reed with nothing but the small area left?" Time to salvage the situation. Damn it, I had forgot about the army raiding Aquila. I have to get as much out of this as possible.

Gabriel looked surprised for a moment, the pulled out a map of Reed. "Mark your price." Creon understood immediately and made a mark far east of the capitol . Gabriel was enraged. "Impossible!" He made a new mark near their current location. He took the bait

After a couple hours, debating everything, Creon made a new mark in the middle of the two marks, right across the capitol. "Let's compromise then shall we, you get more than half you know." Gabriel shook his head. "I need the capitol, its the symbol of this conquest. " "Then-" Creon made a curved line, which gave him more territory, but allowed the capitol to be in Gabriel's territory. Gabriel straightened the line, giving him more territory. "Agreed?" "hmmm establish Magi as the official religion of the Ezzian empire. and were agreed." Gabriel, tired of negotiations, quickly agreed and te trap has officially been sprung "We look forward to being allies with you your highness" "Likewise Lord Creon" Gabriel said, with a tired look in his eyes.

Creon and Gabriel walked out shoulder to shoulder, proclaiming that there would be peace. After the Ezzians left, the reinforcements began helping fix up the city, while many players logged out, tired. Grimlock of course stayed. Creon called his council to order. Looking into the faces of Oz, Bor, Angelus, and Grimlock, he told them blatantly what was going to happen. "We are now an independent nation. The Friedan Theocracy."

The emotions ranged from shock to indifference to pride. "Master, you do not know how proud it makes me to see you take this next step." "My Lord! I know of what you have done for the people, but shouldnt we at least try to rebuild the country of Reed?" Angelus interjected "What country of Reed you dolt? Its gone, destroyed, no more. Well I dont really care as long as I can do as i please" As the two started arguing, Grimlock approached Creon. "Hey man... do you think you really have a shot?" "At what? " Creon asked back. "At conquering this world, I know thats what you're aiming for". Creon looked at him, eyes completely serious. "Absolutely".

*Authors note* So guys this is the end of volume one, 'The First Steps" Ive been thinking about making a new series by the way, called Retribution, about Musashi, and what's going on with him. I wouldnt update this FF everyday anymore tho, so tell me what you guys want.