“Patrick, Elyse and… you two.”

I said pointing towards two of the guards.

“Escort these three to the sickbay in the back.

The two guards picked up and dragged the unconscious one away while Elyse and Patrick helped the other two.

I focused on one of the remaining guards.

“You there. Wait at the door and guide the healers asked for by the Captain.”

Although it was just a guess Maxwell asked for them, seeing the guard, who did hear it, nod without any hint of surprise made it clear I guessed correctly.

I walked back towards the desk, opened a couple of drawers and got some paper, pen and a bottle of black ink.

I began writing my orders for each individual Guild leader on separate pieces of paper, but the soldier kept shifting awkwardly and disturbing me.

Eventually, he asked.

“Lord, do you not have any orders for me?”

It was clear he was eager to serve despite his clear anxious appearance and witnessing the entire story of the survivors.

The fact he still wanted to help made me glad.

It meant that, despite the threat, these guards – taking the one in front of me as a representative of the rest – were disciplined enough to not cower in fear.

Still, he got on my nerves while I was so clearly writing plans for the city.

“Never heard of patience I see.”

I sighed.

“Grab me something to drink from the table over there, will you? And grab one yourself while you’re at it.”

I pointed absent-mindedly at one of the coffee table in front of the while still busy writing.

The soldier took the hint to make himself comfortable and filled up two glasses of whiskey-like liquor, brought one to me and then sat on one of the couches.

Although told to make himself comfortable, he sat rather stiffly and while trying to drink from his glass, his hand kept shaking, almost dropping the glass a couple of times in the process.

He was the perfect candidate to test how the guards and garrison will react after my announcement.

“What is your name, soldier.”

I asked, still looking down while writing and writing and writing.

“Lord?”

He was surprised.

“Your name.”

“It’s K-Karl, Lord.”

An everyday name for the everyday man.

The fact that he was nothing special made it even better to make him representative for all the other soldiers.

“After hearing the story, what do you think? Are you worried? Fearful? Preparing to flee or ready to fight?”

I instantly finished the glass of whiskey, not bothering to savour it.

“L-Lord, I don’t understand?”

He asked, feeling as if he was being suspected of desertion.

For a second I looked him in the eye.

“Tomorrow, an army will arrive hell-bent on destroying your family, friends, comrades and your country. Almost everyone in here is doomed to die tomorrow, just like those in the capital. Now I ask you, are you ready to fight and die, or are you ready to pack your things and run for your life?”

I never broke eye contact with him.

I had almost finished all the orders already.

Even while looking at him did I write as quick as ever, filling in page after page each for a Guild necessary for my plans.

I didn’t know for certain they if they’ll arrive the next morning, but logically, they would.

After all, it took the survivors only a day to get here, even while being wounded, and since the oncoming horde only needed the Hero to place one portal at the capital, run over here, and place one portal outside the city, it was almost a certainty they would be here by the next morning.

As I kept looking in to the soldier’s eyes while I told him what would happen, I saw a flurry of emotion running through them.

Most of it was fear, worry, concern and the like, but I was happy to see there was a certain determination hidden deep, deep within his mind.

Even though he didn’t say a word, I felt confidence that he and his comrades – if they were similar to him – would follow my orders.

Not that they have much of a choice.

If they flee they won’t have the protective walls of the city and will be trampled sooner rather than later, but still.

I was glad to see at least Karl here was ready to fight.

A couple of minutes he kept silent, finishing his glass while thinking what to do, but I interrupted his train of thoughts.

Standing up, I took a stack of paper and walked over to him.

On every piece of paper stood many short instructions on what to do, while above them all stood the name of those they were meant for.

“Take this to the Captain and ask him to help distribute them. The names are written at the top and tell the Captain he, too, has one.”

The soldier, still confused, took the stack and ran off with haste.

Although I hadn’t done much, I already felt tired, so I sat in the comfortable desk-chair and laid back a little.

A mere twenty, perhaps twenty-five, minutes had passed since the people left this office.

I had no doubt that right now, the city was filled with citizens trying to make it to one of the churches, markets or the town square.

After all, news travels fast, especially bad news and when people hear these unclear rumours, they’re already bound to go to publicly well-known places, whether order to or not.

The only thing I hoped would go well was the orders given to Maxwell.

Only his were effective immediately, the rest would wait until after the city-wide announcement.

Maxwell is tasked to do just three things:

First, order his troops to seal ALL the gates, allowing no citizens out and especially keeping away outsiders.

After all, if one of them was the Hero in disguise, the invasion would start in the middle of the city.

Secondly, order his soldiers to set up a sort of magical speaker-installations at every public place where the people would gather.

I need something to address them all at once, of course, and I don’t want to use anything special to make my voice heard everywhere.

The third one wasn’t really necessary, but I added it for good measure.

He would’ve undoubtedly already told his soldiers, let alone that they would’ve heard it from rumours, but I ordered him to tell his soldiers what had happened regardless.

It would make the news spread even faster, while also spreading to non-Guild related citizens.

This might seem hard to do, especially the first two, seeing as the city is so populous, but it’s really not.

Kasten is tightly packed together in a small area thanks to its explosive growth.

It had grown from about 40.000 to roughly 200.000 in just ten years after it became known as the ‘safest city’ in the Kingdom.

Because of this, the city needed to expand, but since it was very costly to keep expanding the wall further and further, they decided to instead make the city as densely packed as possible, even ordering the buildings to have at least four stories.

This made it a rather small city while still being the third most populous in the Kingdom – second most after the destruction of the capital.

And Maxwell is competent enough, so I had no doubt he’d be able to do as told in time.

While preparing my speech for the last half hour, I head the citizenry collecting outside.

Since the office was located above the front entrance of the mayor’s palace – with a balcony to speak from – I could clearly hear the tumultuous burghers assembling en masse.

I have to say, I felt rather anxious speaking in front of such a large crowd.

After all, I had never appeared in public as the centre of attention, except when I was publicly stoned, crucified, burned or tortured in other forms for a perverse form of public entertainment.

But that was the old world.

This is the new world, my world.

And this is a mortal life, not my always-hated, never-dying Immortal form.

Suddenly, when the moment of truth arrived, the door was blown open and the Commander walked in, rather pissed at the sudden orders and carrying a small wooden cube.

“I knew you could do it Maxwell.”

I said smilingly.

He merely grunted, placed the cube on my desk and immediately left.

If he wasn’t ordering things or reprimanding someone, the staunch man.

Grabbing the cube, I saw it was clearly inscribed with runes of Air Magic, able to carry my voice away to other runes placed inside speakers.

Basically a microphone in cube form.

I stood up, dusted of the clothes borrowed from the ex-Mayor’s dresser and walked towards the balcony door behind the desk.

Walking outside, I was temporarily blinded by the light and sound of the uncertain crowd.

While blinded, my mind was flooded with memories of executions, public stoning, crucifixion, burning at the stake and above all, the scorn of every living being in my sight as the enjoyed watching me die an agonizing death.

But when the blindness faded and my vision became clear, they disappeared as soon as they arrived.

Although doubt, worry, fear and even anger was visible on the faces of the crowd, they went silent as soon as they saw me.

None of these looks were aimed at me.

The only way they looked at me was with expectancy and trust.

Seeing this, I was filled with confidence and stood in front of all to see.

I looked over their heads, scanning the crowd before beginning my speech.

Holding up the cube to my mouth and strengthening my vocal cords with Body Enhancement, I dropped the truth on them.

“The Mayor is dead. The King is dead. The Heroes are dead. The capital has fallen and an entire host of every race is marching this way as we speak, guided by the last remaining Hero of Asra. They will arrive here tomorrow.”

The voice easily carried over every word, stunning the crowd for a moment as I bluntly said everything that had happened.

But, the silence was only for a moment.

As soon as the weight of the words was felt by those listening to it, I heard the cries of anger, fear, disbelief and despair drown out every possible other sound.

Even if a building was to explode behind them, I doubt many would’ve heard it.

I saw the people in the crowd shouting at each other in anger, embracing each other as if it was their last moment, tears streaming down their cheeks, while others still stood silent, not believing what I said.

They all knew the ferocity of the armies descending upon us.

The Summoner King had summoned the Heroes when his Kingdom was being demolished by the various races.

This city in particular was besieged and demolished by the Beastmen race.

This memory was still fresh in the mind of the civilians, and now that their Heroes were dead and one of them even defected, they didn’t see any chance of survival.

Now, for the motivational speech.

Let’s hope it works.

While the people were busy despairing, I made my voice sound even more powerful than before.

“Per Angusta ad Augusta.”

It was a language from long, long ago, but since every language always fall into certain patterns – there are only a thousand or so truly ‘different’ languages, all learned through the many Eras I’ve lived – this sentence was not unfamiliar to them.

My voice boomed out above all, drowning out their voices and forcing them to look up at me once more – or at their respective speaker, if they were not at the town square.

“A saying of the ancients, meaning through difficulties to greatness. Have we not struggled to achieve this dream of a city? Have we not been besieged before? Have we not struggled through famines? Have we not been send into despair by thugs, bandits and raiders from foreign lands?”

I took a quick glance at the faces in the crowds.

All of this was history of the city happened within the last fifty years, still remembered by the elders and endlessly repeated in their stories.

Everyone relived these horrible times and horrible tales, comparing them to the now.

“And look at us now! We are greater than ever before! Almost the most populous and definitely the richest! This city is a treasure, and its citizens its gems! I will not allow you to be plundered by a traitor and his demons!”

Seeing the good response, I began putting conviction into my words, like an actor absorbed in his role.

“Who needs a King?! Who needs Heroes?! We are the people of Kasten! We will not fall! Not to demons, not to people, not to anyone!”

Despite technically being an outsider, no one seemed to mind at that moment.

The crowd turned from the lost souls they were moments ago into zealous people, cheering loud and proud for the city they lived in.

The beginning of nationalism in this world.

I turned away from the balcony and walked back in, sighing with relief at my success.

But it was not yet over.

I exited my office and walked downstairs, seeing a full room of representatives from each Guild and other powerful people of the city, all discussing my given orders.

As I want downstairs I saw the faces of these leaders of the city.

Most of them were filled with the same zeal as the citizens, some still with fear but also determination, and the absolute top of them were looking with respect and gratitude.

After all, I stood up to the challenge while they shirked back from the responsibility.

“Gentleman, any questions about my orders? If so, do it quick. Tomorrow we’ll need to fight.”

They should have, but, perhaps because of my speech or the urgency, none of them complained.

The orders were relatively simple to understand, though hard to accomplish.

The judges, effectively being administrators, were responsible for recruitment of volunteers.

The garrison, or rather, the Captain, was responsible of maintaining the order, with which I would help.

Also, them and me will be responsible for commanding troops tomorrow and keeping up moral, the specialized city guards, about 500 of them, acting as squad leaders and the like, while the garrison, about 20.000, would be the main ground force with the militia we raising as their reserves.

The bow-makers, smiths, carpenters, builders and the like were responsible for building weapons – primarily crossbows, bolts and spears, because of their relative ease to use – for all the volunteers and soldiers, although no armour, since it would be a waste of time.

The Mages were responsible for brewing as many potions and possible, as to make the people work day and night for tomorrow’s battle without tiring, and also to strengthen them when the time for battle had come.

They also had the responsibility to, when tomorrow arrives, act as artillery and support for the fighting men and women.

The Merchants and the like were to stock, transport and distribute them appropriately to those who needed them, while the rest of the Guilds not specialized for anything needed right now helped them.

The Healers and the Church were to offer people guidance, blessings and a general peace-of-mind, while tomorrow they will be needed as Healers (obviously), Barrier Mages and casting buffs and the like as support.

While I kept the ‘how’ at a minimum in the orders given, the heads of each faction were very competent, making me basically a figurehead.

The day went by extremely quick while everyone who worked was forcibly feed potions against exhaustion.

Everything went according to plan, everyone did their work and many, many people volunteered, men as well as women.

Luckily, Kasten was famed for its ironworks, making production very efficient while also having a large stock of weapons ‘donated’ by the Merchant Guild and its warehouses.

Maxwell and I, along with the specialized city guards and a couple of veteran garrison soldiers, were busily giving them quick instructions on crossbow usage and the use of a spear.

Although giving instructions for using the spear wasn’t really necessary, since an amateur could at least know how to pierce, the instructions of the crossbow were necessary, but they learned quick.

At the end of the day we had about 60.000 militia armed with spears while 10.000 of them were also armed with crossbows, which was mostly thanks to the stocks in the warehouses of the Merchants.

The guards and garrison had standardized spear-sword-bow equipment, so the city was now relatively well armed.

When night arrived, I ordered blacksmiths and bow-makers to focus only on crossbows, making sure that another 2.000 were ready by the end of it.

All in all, it was astounding how much they, although a lot of the crossbows were pretty shoddy, seeing as they were made of wood not specifically intended for crossbow-use and the iron necessary forged as quickly as possible.

Still, the quantity was great and they worked well enough, especially since the plan was to try and enchant them with different forms of Magic during the fight itself.

Before anyone noticed it, their anticipation had carried them through the night and they stayed enthusiastic when morning arrives, burning with passion for their city.

At least, until the army arrived.

Every one of the garrison and the guard took to the walls along with every crossbow-carrying militiamen, between them about a two-thousand Mages to use their Magic and enchant their crossbows and bolts.

I stood atop the gatehouse when a single man, riding horseback, came into view.

Undoubtedly the Summoner Hero.

I looked at him, enhanced my eyesight and saw him staring back at me, pale-faced but determined to see this through.

Apparently, he did have a conscious after all the killing he’d witnessed.

A moment later, I saw flashes of white, indicating portals, appearing all over the horizon and through them came the hordes of different races.

Beastmen, Elves, Dwarves, Draconians and many, many other variants.

It was amazing to see how many races the humans had managed to antagonize.

After their arrival came flashes of gold, meaning summoning of beasts, filling up the horizon as well.

From them came all sorts of monsters, from sabre-tooth lions to dragons to monsters so imaginable, they were unable to be named.

Everyone on the city walls witnessing this sight was frozen with fear.

Even those behind the wall, armed with spears to stop anyone who managed to break through, could feel the enormous presence of Magic and their ferocity oozing from the armies.

Since I was never great at estimating the number of people present, I decided to cheat a little.

Using Energy directly, instead of using the power of Magic that limits interference with Energy, I scanned the entirety of the enemy forces.

It was much, much worse then I feared.

500.000 soldiers from the different races along with 20.000 extremely powerful summoned beasts.

Summoning Magic was always intended to be the strongest, since it required quite a bit of skill to summon even one dangerous beast.

It would require both natural talent (or rather, a lot of threads of the Summoning Magic System inside their Souls) and a bit of smarts to summon a dozen or so creatures capable of destruction.

It needs a borderline-genius with enormous power and knowledge in Summoning Magic to summon a thousand beasts.

To summon 20.000 of these things would need a mind of a genius amongst geniuses amongst geniuses along with the indomitable power of a Hero.

This was also why the Summoner Hero was allowed to let go.

Very few of Heroes with Summoner Magic had the willpower to work towards summoning even a dozen beasts, let alone more.

That a great mind would be given to a Summoner Hero is incredibly small, and thus unheard of in this kingdom, making people think that Summoning Magic even with the power of a Hero is in general pretty weak.

How wrong they were.

I specifically made it the strongest because of its high requirements.

I even included a special monster when one reaches the apex of it all, called the Worm of World’s End, capable of destroying a planet at least, a solar-system at most.

That is how powerful these people can become.

There is no way that 20.000 garrisoned forces, 500 veteran guards, 60.000 militia and approximately 2.000 Mages are able to stand up to them.

Suddenly, a giant roar came from the enemy, taunting us with their invincibility.

“There is no way…”

Even Maxwell couldn’t help but see no hope for victory, let alone all the others on the wall, who were simply frozen in their despair.

Indeed, there is no way they could win.

And honestly, seeing an army as big as this raised for the purpose of wiping away Asra, I felt very little compassion for humanity as a whole.

After all, I know their stories.

If it wasn’t for the multiple genocides committed by the Summoner King and his four Heroes, their would’ve been perhaps ten times as many races today.

As the ruler of this realm, I shouldn’t interfere.

‘None of my business’, is the ironclad rule.

Reign, never rule.

Let life do what life does.

As a God, I shouldn’t interfere.

But am I not human right now?

The Lord of the city, with all of the responsibilities it carries?

Not only that, didn’t I put a decade’s worth of time in this city?

In the grand scope of things, this is a very, very small time, but at least it was my first time as a true mortal.

They gave me my first taste of a normal life.

Aside from the few exceptions I came across, these people were the first to, as a whole, accept me.

They never hated me, never despised me.

In fact, they respected me and trusted me.

They still do.

And although I don’t have people to call friends, I don’t hate anyone here either.

As a thank you to them, I’ll interfere.

Not as a God, but as a human.

A human capable of all Magic, true, but a human nonetheless.

Although I won’t go overboard, of course.

There is a lot of bad blood between the humans and the other races, which I will not pick sides in.

But as gratitude, I’ll at least make the sides equal.

Afterwards, I’ll simply disappear and finally begin with a new, full life, everything from start to finish.

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Next time, action!