Hello guys..another chap..enjoy

It has been two weeks after the greatest humiliation and incident in the Mataliit Empire, the crucifixion of generals. The prices of food and goods skyrockets and some merchants closes their shops while others go to other countries.

The most affected of all are the poor and weak citizens. They have no food or supply to satisfy their needs. They have no money to spend. They have no fighting capabilities. And they are always the ones being bullied by powerful factions either the empire or the revolution. Those two forces are just aiming to eradicate each other without thinking the consequences of their actions. The empire is in complete chaos. This really indicates that the situation in the empire is gone to worst.

There are few skirmishes between the two forces leaving hundreds to thousands of corpses in their respective borders. Most of the soldiers who perished in the battlefield died from infection. Even a slight wound from enemy's weapons is a big threat to these medieval soldiers.

Their respective factions only secure food, water and weapons supply. They have medicines or herbs but it has slow effects like a running turtle. Before they know it, the infected soldier died from infection before the medicine takes effect. There are doctors or alchemist here but their number is few because they are busy grinding gold from people. Their services and potions are also expensive but the effects are also slow.

Healing magic is also useless as these people don’t use magic. They only rely on their body and fate to survive.

Both parties see the huge amount of corpses from each side. They only have a little time to mourn because they want to end this civil war as soon as possible before the supplies hit the limits. This is war so seeing these hellish scenes is normal to them. And this is also a war for supplies.

Their battle formations and techniques are effective most of the time but when they facing high tier warriors, the normal soldiers will shiver and go desert. Leaving gaps in their formations and gaps become weakness that leads to their utter defeat. Seeing this type of battle circumstances it makes their war takes more time. The more time it takes the more supply it takes. This is also a supply battle, whoever have more supplies adds to the chance in wining this civil war.

“Commander, we are outnumbered. The ratio is 1:3. We are quite disadvantaged here. The enemy numbers are just too many and they heavily fortify that castle.”

“Relax, it is not all of them are second tier warriors and besides we already surrounded the place. Let’s just wait for the signal.”

“Signal sir?”

“Yes, a signal that will make them surrender"

An imperial commander is talking with the messenger who brought a little bit of sad news. The commander already knows that they are outnumbered but he know that he has another way to win this tiresome stalemate.

They are currently sieging a castle but it is fortified heavily and the defenders are quite capable in repelling the imperial forces. The imperial forces can take down this castle within one hour but they face some circumstances and some unexpected events occur that results in the delay of their siege.

The commander has 500 troops surrounding the castle. He cannot call for more troops as the empire is fighting in different territories leading to scatter and divide their troops. The empire must answer and repel the rebels immediately or the campaign will take much longer. Overwhelming an area with all their forces is not an option as the rebels can go back and forth to other territories and that makes this civil war go longer.

So to prevent that, the empire scatters and divides the troops to consecutively attack different territories at the same time. This way, they have a greater chance to push back the rebels and if they are lucky, the resistance will die down. Fortunately almost all imperial soldiers are second tier warriors and it means that they can take down multiple normal foes at the same time. But still, overwhelming numbers is a problem, all of them are mortals so they will exhaust and die and the empire cannot afford to lose their tight number of soldiers.

Their castles are made from hard metals and rocks and designed for defense purposes. Castles in Mataliit is different from the Medieval Castles as it can withstand strong attacks. The entrances and exits are highly fortified, easy to defend and contain a lot of traps. If this castle is built in normal materials, then the second tier warriors can easily punch through the wall and the castle is easy to capture. This is built obviously as people in this territory can easily enhance their body with ki so they need to build strong infrastructures.

“Oh, the door is opening"

A man in black armor exits and carries two packages. But when you focus your eyes in his package, he carries two heads in each of his hands. Fresh blood is still dripping from those poor faces. The soldiers on each side are bewildered in seeing this man and his package. The defenders try to talk to him and some wants to convince him to go back but the man don’t answer nor hear them. The imperial forces are also preparing to assault the open door of opportunity.

“Here are their heads. Now release my son!”

“alright, make your troops surrender before we proceed”

The defenders just follow the orders. They cannot retaliate because they are just normal warriors and they fear for their lives. They are already surrounded by second tier warriors plus their supply already reached its limit. So surrendering to the enemy troops is a better choice for them than dying knowing that they are already defeated. Or in truth they have no choice.

“Here’s your son"

“papa"

“Pelimon!”

A young wolf beastman runs towards the black armored man. The black armored man throws the heads and runs towards his son. They hug each other knowing that they are safe. The son cries for almost eternity while the castle is successfully captured by the Empire.

The empire doesn’t need to kill anymore as it needs people and manpower to continue their civil war campaign. Afterwards, the black armored man or wolfman is forced to join the imperial forces for the sake of his family. Thus one of the most important strategic points, this castle, is taken again by the empire and this castle provides support for future campaigns.

In the throne room, the emperor is laughing and smiling after hearing the good news. The ministers have smiling faces also.

“So the plan works! Hahahaha"

“ Yes your highness. I cannot believe that it works"

“When it comes to family, those idiots will surrender unconditionally"

“Even though that tactic is not honorable at least it lessens our problems"

“Honorable or not, we need to win this nonsense civil war. So what happens to other territories?”

“Yes, as expected they are killing each other after spreading the rumor about their past grudges and that leads to our successful recapture of the said territories"

“ Good.. good..all that left is to wait for the neutral ones to join us and wait for the resistance to break their own necks.”

“Indeed sir"

In just two weeks, the empire gains the upper hand in winning this civil war. The revolutionists or the rebels are not united from the start. Before they become part of the empire, they always have war and conflicts from each other. With the simple fake rumors about their past grudges, the simple men turn their attention from each other opening past wounds and the Empire recaptures their territories like walking in the park.

For the ones who have no rival enemies, the Empire uses the most shameless thing, their family. The empire assassins secretly abduct important family members of the said resistance to surrender and force to join them. Family gives strength and hope but at the same time, weakness. A shameless and dishonorable yet effective trick for almost every resistance warrior who are stubborn. The poor warriors just follow the Empire's wishes and orders for the sake of their family.

“Make sure that those people become slaves"

“Certainly sir"

“Hahaha this is a good day!”

The Mataliit Emperor is so joyful after all his plans work and all of them are successful. He even doesn’t need to dirty his hands. He just need a messenger and wait in the throne room. Afterwards, great news and successful operations flooding in his ears. To the emperor, this is truly a grateful day.

In other news, I mean in other countries.

“Your highness, great news. The Mataliit Empire is currently at civil war"

“Oh, this is the first time I heard about that. I thought that those muscle-brain idiots will behave and nap for five peaceful years. I am wrong. This is unexpected.”

“Yes, your highness. We too think about that. Our spies’ reports are full of casualties and brutalities.”

“After signing cease fire to us those idiots cannot hide their fangs for a fight.”

“Your highness it all starts when super class generals are hanged or crucified on their respective territories. Not just one but 24 of them plus the 100 more military officers.”

“Really? Those generals are hard to kill. It takes thousands of our ordinary warriors to exhaust them then the elites will follow for the kill. Just how is that possible? Did they encounter strong beasts, weredemons or perhaps a god?”

The Batia empire is in war with the Mataliit Empire for many years. They already know the capacity of super class generals. They are really a frightening force to reckon with. Many soldiers either ordinary or elite are killed before they can able to kill those battle-hotted ki warriors.

They use physical enhancing and strengthening magic or ki in Mataliit. But Mataliit denies that it’s magic and prefers to call it ki. Mataliit is known for the hatred of sorcery or magic because they cannot use it properly and their only way to get stronger is to rely on ki training. It takes decades to cultivate before a warrior become a ki warrior. Most of the people here are beastmen so they rely in physical strength.

While the Batia Empire specializes in different spells and magic because of the people here are elves or have elven blood running in their veins. They are more proficient in using magic spells yet they don’t practice strengthening magic to a greater extent instead they practice offensive spells, supporting spells and buff magics as their specialty. People here rely heavily and love using magic.

Both empires have different views, usage and perspective regarding to magic. The one prefers the physical while the other is more on magical side. All of them use magic according to their own styles, influence from environment and many more factors. And this is one of the reasons that they always keep war on each other.

Regarding the shock news of the crucified generals, the Batia emperor can think that it is a work of a powerful being or one of the gods. He himself admit that he can only take 2 to 4 super class generals by himself and yet the mysterious person or organization able to crucified more than 100 high ranking officials of Mataliit. Just who is behind this mess?

“Your highness, it is just the country of Mulier.”

The Batia emperor pauses and makes a curious and unbelievable look after he heard one of his ministers about that country.

If he remembered it right, that settlement is supposedly part of their own territory and yet unbelievable news reach to his ears. No one returns alive in that territorial battle and the scouts only report about dragons rampaging that place and his troops became ashes.

(AN: See v2- chap 1 to 2 regarding the event where Batia soldiers are burned to ashes by Ragona and her two twin sisters. )

When he heard that news, he cannot believe it and he know that the natives stand no chance against them. In terms of battle power, they have slight advantage. In armor and weapons, his troops are fully equipped and even the Mataliit empire have a hard time dealing with his normal fully equipped troops.

Yet, the Mulier surprised him when he heard that the country perfectly repels six attempted invasions of Mataliit. He opens his mouth unconsciously forming an O shape and his hair stands when he hears that the native settlement becomes a proper country. This is part of the minister's report after he states the involvement of Mulier which makes him surprise.

He now knows that Mulier possess technological advancement in short period of time. There are rumors that they have insta-kill weapons that when you hear the death sounds of that weapon you will expect that someone near you is already dead or worst, yourself.

There are also rumors that their army is invincible riding in horseless drawn carriage. There’s another rumor that their tailors are good in making clothes and everyone wears it. Their citizens live like nobilities as their living is comfortable, lived in their own big houses, food is abundant and the people don’t suffer any illnesses. And there are many rumors and rumors about that country and some are hard to believe or just the spies' fantasy or lack of knowledge.

The Batia emperor earnestly listens to the minister’s report. The information about Mulier came from the Mataliit Emperor. He intended to leak more and more information about Mulier and they add exaggerations and fantasy that makes the listener averts his all attention towards Mulier.

“How frightening. If their weapons produce no trace of magic then it’s best not to provoke them or avoid them"

“Are you showing your cowardice war minister? Just how many years we fought against our neighbors? We almost at war…..everyday.”

(AN: Yup, war ..war never changes)

In Batia, the threats are the Mataliit in the west, Demonica in the east, beardbarians in the south and like Mataliit, there are some internal threats inside the empire.

“It’s not like that your highness. I am just being cautious. If that country easily kills those super class generals then its best to have alliance with them.”

“Indeed that is the best choice. I heard that they have more natural resources around to the point that you can find gold in the street"

While showing his teeth and his usual gaze towards the sky.

“Your highness. Don’t tell me.. are you thinking reckless things again?”

The emperor just gazes in the clear blue sky. They are currently in the garden enjoying the view and the sky while discussing pressing matters.

-----------------------------

In a certain country

“You’re excellency. It looks like we can gather more meat in the civil war"

“Then gather the wereghouls and fly towards Mataliit. Those creatures are itching for fresh dead meat.”

“Yes, consider it done"

Two humans discussing about the latest events in the continent. But if you look closer in their eyes and teeth, you can feel that they emit ominous aura. A frightening aura that can be found in situations where you expect a ghost or a supernatural monster will appear.

They are the weredemons, the ruler and the aid of Demonica Empire.

They are discussing things about the latest news inside the room. The room is brightly lit and full of paintings and statues. The beautiful adorned room that will make the visitors forget to breath. There are many expensive furniture and rare stones that does add beauty to this room. The room makes you feel holy and calm as if you are in heaven. You will sure to forget that this is the castle of the weredemons.

It is so far from dark, scary and ready to crumble castle from fantasy novels.

“And send some “manananggal" in Mulier. Gather info and cause disturbance as many as possible"

“Hahaha.. those babes will be pleased your highness"

(An: manananggal, a vampire-like Philippine mythical creature, a malevolent, man-eating and bloodsucking monster. They are creatures known for their capability to severe its upper torso and sprouting huge black wings to fly. Search google for more info)

The wereghouls and manananggals flies to their respective victims or targets. People who seen this scene if alive or luckily survive called it the “midnight demons"

Back to the Mataliit territory.

“Mother we cannot do this anymore. The resistance is breaking apart and they have few allies left.”

“Shut up I am thinking here. The emperor is always quick and step above us. Just what is he made of?”

“Mother you are talking nonsense"

“Hahaha. You cannot blame me since I was a kid that emperor is swallowing other territories and countries while sitting in his throne room”

“Is he really that amazing?”

“of course, no beastman ever done that kind of thing. And can fight the Batia elven emperor"

“And who wins? The emperor?”

“ I don’t know. Some says the battle is draw. Others say that they are equal. I don’t really know. Rumors tend to exaggerate.”

“I know mother"

“ Back to the topic, the situation gone to worse than I thought. Let’s go towards Mulier and seek refuge"

“Isn't that the most dangerous choice of all?”

“It’s better than here"

After that the empire does the most inhuman act never before seen in this continent while other countries made their own moves.