It was only a matter of time before Jason received word of the city on the edge of the Free Nation that had recently joined had disappeared and when he did he sent several envoys to scout the surrounding area and towns to discover what had happened. The scouts were not expecting what they found. Not only had the city been obliterated but an army had set up camp and established a defensive perimeter that none of the scouting parties thought was save to approach. The weapons that city had should have been enough to resist any invaders, but more than that, they reported have no enemies or even hostilities with any of their neighbors. In fact, they seemed to be on very good terms with all of their neighbors, including those from the direction that this army had to have come from. The scouting party divided apart into several smaller parties. One stayed behind to observe the camped army while the others traveled to the cities surrounding in the area. What found when arrived surprised them. All of the cities that were part of the Free Nation had begun preparing their defenses which consisted of mostly the same gear that the destroyed city had. Some had slightly better situations, but the canons that were programmed to detect and fire on threats that insured the safety of the inner core of the Free Nation had not reached out across the sea to the main continent’s cities. Each of them had been attacked by small raiding parties. The damage that the attackers did was thankfully minimized and kept mostly away from their walls, but they had all suffered damage caused by high energy cannons being fired on them and explosives being detonated nearby. Once the scouts took down all the information that they could get from the cities, a clear image of what happened and what was about to happen was formed. Afterward, they met back up with each other and returned to Jason to make their report.

Jason knew that the day when he’d have to go to war with another nation would come, but what the reports he heard concerned him. It was concerning that a city was obliterated and others showed signs of being attacked with weapons that, as far as he knew, shouldn’t existed outside of the Free Nation. Was it possible that the people that someone who had said they would join them lied so that they could gain access to weaponry developed by him and his friends? Could multiple cities have done it? It certainly was possible on Earth, but the people and culture here didn’t seem like they would do that. It wasn’t that they couldn’t or weren’t dishonest people, but they were content within territories, as long as those territories were the right size, and if none ever overlapped there’d never be fighting. Over time, the placement of settlements against each other would be iterated on and if it was the right distance it would maximize trade while keeping far enough away that territorial disputes never happened. Could it all just have been due to the lack of adequate technology to get the better of a neighbor they didn’t like? That didn’t seem likely to be the case. The only other factor that had changed was Humans, but could there be another who had the same idea so close by?

The dungeon raiding party was called to a halt. Jason needed to head back to the Free City to organize the Free Nation’s response. He knew that whatever happened, whatever he chose, would dictate the future of a vast swathe of people including himself. In war, if one side came out on top, the leader of the other side would often face a grim fate. It is something that he had to prepare for, but do all within his power to prevent. The first step was to call for all the cities to send troops to meet at the harbor city of Kordam, where they would cross and regroup across the sea to prepare for war. He’d hope for the best, but an army willing to eliminate a city without any trace left behind would not likely agree to a peace accord.

Jason carefully selected his generals from the pool of soldiers that were sent to him. For many of the soldiers, this was the first time they had been away from their homes. Fewer had worked together with other species, hives, or colonies. They would have to work together against an enemy that threatened a way of life they weren’t attached to back to back, shoulder to shoulder, with creatures that they owed no loyalty to. The best choice he came up with was to find leaders several leaders that he trusted within the ranks of the individuals species who already held high positions and allow them to take command and work it out with the other members of that species. They’d know the best way to utilize their fighting capabilities while limiting the amount of intraspecies conflict. They’d each report to and take command from a general he’d select that he had grown to trust implicitly and they would report to him while also acting as a personal guard and last resort.

As Jason and his army that was put together in a rush approached the young man’s army more soldiers joined up with him from the main continent, but before long they were less than a week’s travel from the young man’s army. Jason divided his army up. Several divisions were sent to each neighboring city to reinforce their defenses and prepare them for what was to come. With the remaining soldiers he divided them into four forces, three that would hang back and wait to reinforce the last which would travel with Jason to meet with the young man. Each of the 3 forces were to take up positions so that a direct retreat back would meet with one of the forces while the other two were stationed east and west if the main force had to retreat at an angle. Whichever the outcome, the other 2 forces would be in a position to sweep around and flank the young man’s army to subdue them with as little trouble as possible.

After setting up for the worst possible situation, Jason began the final approach to the encamped enemy. On the day before their meeting, Jason camped an hours march away from the young man’s army. Night fell. Campfires were set and lookouts were assigned. Knowing that tomorrow would mark the end of peace the men took the opportunity to tell stories about their adventures and deeds. It had become a cultural pastime that spread throughout the Free Nation. At first, it was just something that the Free City grew to love. They had their own unique story of coming together which started by story telling, but the other members that had joined the alliance were just like they had before the founding of the Free City. They’d never experienced story telling, nor doing it around a campfire. The delegates that stayed in the Free City waiting to meet with Jason had become exposed to it and enjoyed it, but when they returned home, there was no one to share that experience with. When visitors from the Free Nation arrived at their cities, the delegates remembered their time with the storytellers. They pushed the traders to tell them their stories and pushed newcomers to join. At first, the newcomers scoffed and the storytellers felt put upon, but they soon began to feel a new kinship with each other, enjoying themselves. And just like that, storytelling became a unique cultural marker.

The young man’s arm saw the campfire in the distance and sent out their own scouts. They approached through the wood, keeping quiet and attempting to get close without being seen. They didn’t know, but if they had simply walked into camp they would have been welcomed with open arms. However dangerous they felt these people were and disgusted by what they had been told happened they still didn’t want to fight. As a result, they’d look at it as an opportunity to bring them into the fold. They hadn’t yet understood horrors of war, or perhaps, given that it was only Humans that fought wars, it would be better to say the horrors of Humans. The young man’s scouts were all military veterans. It wasn’t at all unexpected if one took the time to think about it. Veterans were often discarded once they left the service in much of the world. They were not honored or taken care of and many became the unwanted homeless. If there was a group of people that many Human nations would freely give up to meet the demands of overpowering force, they’d be among the first to be rounded up and sent. Now they found themselves in the service of a new cause, not a nation which they believed in, but a god which had broken them further and reforged them into useful weapons for him.

The scouts snuck towards the campfire. Each wore the black of a modified uniform of ARMS armor. They had been outfitted with ARMS devices that had been put together by the young man and modified by his technicians all to match and to reinforce his control over them. They were to use his gifts to them, the armor of their god, and they would become invincible. Of course, the majority of them were ignorant of the ARMS devices, how they worked, or how to get them, but the young man knew a good deal and used it to his advantage. It wasn’t hard to convince broken and ignorant people that he was the cause of the armor being impenetrable by the creatures in the wild or that when he said to go to a place and collect a treasure and it happened to be there it was he who had placed it there. And those who didn’t believe were easily dealt with. His equipment was always stronger than those that opposed him. At first it was just because of his wealth that he could buy good ARMS devices before he left Gondaluke, but once he took control of the cities he just had to make it so that all devices were illegal to privately own with the excuse that they were needed for the betterment of all. Sure, it didn’t make any sense that he created them and that they were limited quantity, but when people are scared and broken, they are willing to believe even the most illogical series of beliefs held contemporaneously.

Had the scouts known that their armor was on the low end of ARMS armor, they might have attempted harder to conceal their presence from those they had been sent to spy on. Even if they had been though, Jason’s look outs would have spotted them regardless. The Free Nation’s military had also modified their equipment, but they had much better ARMS devices to work from and a larger array of skills that they could draw from thanks to constant participation in the arenas by quite a few of the citizenry who raised up the ranks, opening access to better gear for them to find and buy. Jason’s lookouts had radars that had let them track the scouts almost from the beginning of their attempts and had just waited for them to get into optimal position for them to sneak up and disable them using a simple trick they had learned. Enhance their strength and then deliver a swift punch to the gut. The impact was usually enough to knock them out, but if they persisted a blow to their unprotected faces put them out of commission. When they awoke they found themselves tied up so that they couldn’t go anywhere, but freely able to look around and eat the meal that was set next to them.