“AAAAAHHHHHH” came the scream of a soldier who was captured by a goblin, his neck punctured and mana drained from his body.

Human screams as if echoing from all over the battle field. The battle had started between 50000 strong human army led by 13 ministers and 15000 strong goblin army with Brutus at the helm. The goblins had slaughtered their way through the soldiers, while soldiers were hacking away at goblins maniacally, trying to maintain some semblance of sanity of what they were fighting. Their opponents were strong humanoid sickly suicidal green goblin-esque creatures, hell bent on killing them, not caring about their own lives. Attacking them even with their lopped off head, its own life didn’t matter to the goblin, as if killing the human in front of it was air and he was asphyxiating. Every time a soldier screamed, the ten around him who could hear him died inside a little. They dreaded the fate that was to be bestowed upon them if they let up even a little. Had it been an ordinary army the soldiers would have deserted the battle field, but these were the personal guards and handpicked men of the chamber of minister, assigned to them for independent action by the monarch of the country herself. They were brutal, they were strong, they were courageous and most important of all they were strong… But all the strength and courage in the world could not prevent one sided slaughter of the army today. They were like deer in front of truck with big headlights on a highway in the middle of the night, standing there their hoping the truck would swerve off the road and they survive.

Brutus on the other hand was being held off by 14 people, the prime minister and the 13 cabinet ministers. Old people in the mature stages if their lives, loyal to a fault, holding on the vestiges of what was formerly their home. They knew they had jumped the gun on their plans to fight off the beast but something had sparked off the event. Brutus as usual had sent his goblins to invade and scare off the people of a village, coincidently, this was within the guardianship of the Prime minister. Marcus’s son Cicero on hearing this lead a contingent of 20 soldiers himself to kill off the goblins in the middle of the night, but was killed off by mistake. Marcus lost whatever was reigning him in and charged out to murder Brutus himself. On the way out he was stopped by his head of security, a loyal dog of his master. He assembled the previously planned troops of 10000 soldiers to march in to face the beast. The message was sent to the other ministers in form of an apology since Marcus had given up on the plan. The old ministers had their progenies and successors shipped off other countries and decided to join Marcus unanimously. Bringing their troops to the previously decided location off the pier. Using their pre formulated plans they managed to drag Brutus from the island he had killed Julius to the location they wanted him.

It was a set of four artificially created islands sans any flora and fauna. They were each approximately a circle of radius of a kilometre and were set on the corners of a square such that the distance between them was 400 m. In the centre of the square at the water depth of 30000 m was Mount Solaris, one of the largest volcanoes in the area. Marcus had figured out what Julius’s plan was and mobilized all the resources he had in procuring and taking care of the logistics. Supporting the national treasury along with the war preparations had taken quite the toll on his personal wealth, but now that his only son was no more, his meagre holdings no more mattered to him. After the battle, either Brutus lives or he does, there was not going to be a third option. He had no family, he would regret leaving his niece Julia alone but after a long time today he had decided to live for himself…

Armed in his zorax armour Marcus, had a tiny 1 cm radius vial around his neck secured in the neck via a black cloth string. Following an old local custom, he had done this. The people of Bhasmachal did not believe in Gods, but believed in the laws of universe. One of their beliefs was journey of souls through the Lokas. A person when he dead shoulders responsibility he did not complete in his life, binding his soul to Bhu-Loka. In order to let his soul, leave the cycle of rebirth, someone from the family ties a tiny round vial around his neck representing the responsibility the person could not complete in his life time, releasing the soul from its responsibilities and letting it ascend. The vial can be filled by blood of the dead or the ashes depending on the person who carries the responsibility. The blood vials are costlier since the blood would have to be preserved for hundreds of years. Over time people forgot the custom, seeing the condition in which Julius’s body was brought in front of Marcus had filled him with regret and he picked up the mantle to save his friend’s soul. Atleast do what he could to let him rest in peace.

The equipment required to ensure Brutus is plunged in the volcano, was consumed in bringing him here, stalling the whole process. Moreover, these were not the front line warriors for the fight against Brutus, the front line warrior were part of the Royal army contingent. Marcus arranged this way, so that if Brutus ever outright attacked Royal palace, the queen would have a fighting chance.

“Marcus, you… you were the one person who I wanted to kill the most, you plebeian fool who thinks he is better than the Gods??” came a garish voice of the 11 ft tall monstrous Brutus.

Marcus didn’t reply, or more like he couldn’t reply, the ministers were strong Docent level cultivators, top of their leagues. But all their attack could do right now was throwing Brutus around like a green tennis ball and tiring themselves out, Brutus on the other hand was powering up with time, as the goblins absorbed the mana from the soldiers. Moreover, since they weren’t damage resistant like Brutus, each of his hits were breaking their bone, tearing down their ligaments. The only reason they survived was because of their armour.

A man used his cudgel to send Brutus flying in the air, another used his broad sword to plunge him into the ground mid-air. Brutus swatted at air, aware of the fact that, he was practically an immortal in front of these people and it was only matter of time, when these old men croaked. Putting another nail in the coffin for Bhasmachal, his brother’s ideal.

On the other three islands, the goblins were having their way with the soldiers slaughtering them left and right, by mid-day only 35000 soldiers were left while goblins were still more than 13000. The fight had continued for more than 12 hrs now and it seemed it was going to be a wipe out with no hope for reinforcements from the royal capital. The soldiers used formations to tackle their inhuman opponents, but as they say nothing works in front of true power. It was throwing a sack of hay in front of truck, things were brutal.

This is when it happened…

“You bastards supported my dumbass brother in his governance schemes, helping him along the way as he ruined our ways, he tried to raise those gutter rats, they ate what we fed them, they drank the water which we gave them and still dreamed of sharing the same dining table as me!! You sycophants allowed that idiot brother of mine do what he wanted while you, saw the values we have lived on go down the drain. You were not taking the countries to new heights you were simply, hollowing out legs of our countries like termites you are…”

“Shut up you back stabbing bastard” screamed a tired drained Omnipotus. He seemed waaayyyy out of shape, but the anyone who saw the ease with which he swung his 4 ft long broad sword, would not believe he had given up on cultivation for politics.

He swung his broadsword horizontally at Brutus’s abdomen as if he wanted to split him apart, just as he was about to strike Brutus, he reached with his hands and grabbed the broad sword and tugged. Omnipotus flew through the length of the sword as his neck landed in the same hand Brutus used to grabbed the sword. Brutus then simply lifted the man off the ground with his neck. Omnipotus was not a small man, six feet and 2 inches tall, broad shoulders, huge arms, he looked like a long retired wrestler. Potbellied; his hulking figure was enough to intimidate any ordinary person, but in front of Brutus it was like a baby facing an adult. Brutus’s hand span was almost as big Omnipotus’s wide shoulders; wrapped around his thick neck the hands seemed real for the first time to Omnipotus. Brutus them brought their faces near each other and uttered the next line slowly as if talking to a child and said.

“You rat spawn, dared to call me with that foul word” Brutus’s yellow eyes filled Omnipotus with fear, as he was hanging in air at the height of 11 ft “Know your place you blood sucking parasite, latched on to what my family over generation has built like a gutter leech” he then used his hands to pull off his armour from around his chest and brought the nail of his forefinger near his chest and looked at him with sombre eyes. Omnipotus was sweating all over and his heart beat had increased. He had seen many times in the 16 hours of fight, how much it pained to be killed by Brutus, every time a person screamed howling out in pain Omnipotus wanted to crawl under his bed, but he knew his position came with a responsibility.

Noble of birth, he was an open minded person, still when Julius announced Marcus the prime minister he was perplexed at the decision. He like everybody thought Marcus was a rubber stamp to keep Cabinet of minister in line, but over the decades Marcus proved differently. He had proven himself by pulling Julius down whenever he climbed his high horses. The voice of reason and caution and when needed the strength to push country forward. No body disagreed with this assessment. Marcus was the biggest reason why Julius was so successful. Omnipotus followed him in this battle and he himself had never backed a challenge his whole life so when facing eminent death, he looked into Brutus’s eyes. Brutus did not like the expression and brought the tip of his finger’s nail right in the centre of his torso

Beginning from the point of contact of Brutus’s nail and the minister’s skin, at a very slow rate, it started... The damage of corrosion power was dependant on two things and two things only, the area of contact and time of contact. Brutus made it so the area of contact was smallest he could and Omnipotus felt it for the longest…

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Screamed the minister in pain, as his skin rotted, his muscles rotted. As they could no longer hold the fat in place, the fat from Omnipotus’s body fell to the ground in bloody mess and he continued screaming

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

His powerful arms and legs shrunk as he lost his muscles, his bones were crumbling into dust and as his ligaments couldn’t lift the weight of the right lower leg before they could corrode, his lower left leg fell off and he continued screaming a bit more hoarsely this time

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH”

Next were his lungs. As they began to corrode, Brutus pulled is hand a back giving the minister a brief few seconds of respite. “Tell me Omnipotus, do you want me to make this easier for you?” The minister could not clearly register the statement. His neck wasn’t in contact with his other hand, cause of his neck braces made out of zorax but he wished he had not worn it today. He wanted to die, but did not have the strength to nod, but everybody could see his blank eyes pleading for death.

“Is there something you want to tell me?” asked Brutus with a wide smile. The minister wanted to apologies and ask for a quick death. It was enough… he had served enough; it was okay to bend his neck one final time……………………. but he changed his mind for the last time…

“…”

Brutus brought his face nearer to trying to hear what he said and asked “What did you say?”

‘Hack spit’ came a sound and next scene was of Brutus’s red face smeared in red blood. Reigning in his anger Brutus said coldly “Just what you would expect from disloyal dogs” and he crushed his neck and the minister was no more. Right in front of everybody’s eyes their comrade just dropped to the ground in dust. All his years of service didn’t matter today, all his respect, noble birth, his work, wealth and lineage… all turned to dust.

The 12 ministers and Marcus wore horrid expressions on their faces, they were down from the beat down and scared from the screams of their compatriot.

“You know I liked how he spat in the face of this son of a bitch” said Marcus

Catching Brutus’s attention. Lineage was the one thing Brutus did like being cursed about, he stomped to Marcus to kill him when a minister from the other side stood up slowly still shaky on his legs.

“I know right!!! This motherfucker didnot even see it coming”

Brutus turned around in a fit and stomped his way to the guy who just said it when another one stood up

“This son of a whore couldn’t catch a turtle if it was hurling itself towards him. What did you expect?”

“Oi…” Brutus again turned to the one who just said this.

“Nah… expecting something from a guy finger fucked by his own mother every day. Oh the damage it must have done early on!!”

Brutus them then pointed his finger the guy who just spoke’s direction when another guy said

“Oh is that so?? Is that why this guy always seemed to be in the king’s chambers when the former king was sick? To mouth fuck his own father. Man that finger fuck sure fucked you up really good… though you must have loved it”

Every guy cursed the monster, the only opportunity they thought to get back at the monster.

Brutus had had it, he one by one started to pick the people off. He was now actively trying to killing them.

One of the spies of the queen who had seen all this sent a message to the queen before the order of retreat could reach him. He had informed the queen of the imminent death of Marcus and the entire cabinet if the queen did not take measures soon.

12 hrs had passed

Marcus and couple of his companions were the only people left standing by the final residue of strength in them. Brutus as expected didn’t have a scratch on him. This transformation of his had almost killed his agility, which was why these people could survive this long and reason why he employed the wait and tire out strategy.

“Heh… curse me now Marcus, you son of a sow!!”

“Man you sure do to yap a lot… pant… is that why you never managed to keep a woman pant… or was it the fact that you sold your dick to the same person who bought your soul pant…”

Just he finished the sentence Brutus punched him in guts, sending him flying about 100m in the air.

“Cough… cough…”

Brutus took measured steps towards the Marcus, approaching him. Fatigue was non-existent to him. By now his goblins had killed 30000 of the soldiers and had themselves been reduced to 9000. The ratio was now so skewed; the soldiers were now mere pieces of meat to the goblins.

Just as he was about kick Marcus’s skull in using, in came a loud sound of a really loud horn

‘BBBBBBBBBOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO’

It was so loud that it was audible across the four islands. It was coming from a 4 warships in front of the horizon. On the ship’s mast were the flags of Bhasmachal. Marcus too turned around and saw at the incoming ships through his blurry vision and understood who it was. New energy ran through his body like electricity as he punched the ground and ran towards his only living compatriots and picked them up. He then threw them across to another island and screamed to one of the soldiers standing there, “Take care of them and stand by cause cavalry’s coming!!”

The warships of Bhasmachal were fast and Marcus only had to hold off Brutus for a short while before from the ship jumped out a dark figure dressed in red armour cover from head to toes. In her hands was a blue scythe, which held in both her hands behind her back. Inside her helmet she had a bindi right between her brows. Her hair bundled up over her head. The scythe had a 3.5 m handle and a curved blade witch was 2 m in length. It looked fearsome in all respects and beautiful at the same time. It had golden flowers drawn on the side of its blade linked using golden lines. The handle too had golden patterns drawn on it in form of a ribbon. It hauntingly beautiful just like the owner of the scythe an adept level cultivation expert Tara.

After she landed a white mana-sphere was formed on top of the ship, it was not as big as the one Brachios had created in the previous fight with Brutus, it did not even seem as stable, with sparks of lightning coming off of it occasionally and then… the lightning was rotating on the body of the mana-sphere giving it beautiful feeling, dangerous but beautiful. Then… suddenly bolts of lightning emanated from the sphere and struck goblins who in the rear of the enemy formation, burning 16 goblins to crisp instantly. The thundering sound that followed, grabbed everybody’s attention and paused the battle a little. The ships then anchored themselves near the four islands and out came the gangway. Out of gangway walked another ethereal beauty who like the previous entrant was wearing a red armour, but from the walking posture alone one could make out that she was highly uncomfortable. Right behind her was another woman dressed in red armour from head to toe on one of her hands was a gigantic shield and the other was empty.

Following them an entire army of a total of 1000 soldiers dressed in red armour stepped out in an orderly fashion from each ship, along with their horses who were equipped steel hoofs like weapons fixed at the bottom of their feet but they were entirely flat and larger than the horses’ feet and had sharp points at the end. It seemed these horses were specially trained for a certain purpose. They were armoured from the head to hoofs in armour as well.

In the chaos of battle that had ensued for a day and a half this was the first time silence had stayed descended for a few precious moments. On Sylvie’s arm she wore a band which contained a blue emerald embedded in the centre of the golden circlet. This had been on Julius’s body when it was given to her, this had been passed down in their family for generations, passed on to the first born of each generation. It was said to have the power of over-turning any battle, but once used it would lay a curse so bad the person wouldn’t want to live, not at all hinting at what the curse was.

She surveyed the battlefield and remains of her soldiers, she turned her head and saw Marcus. She had always referred to him as Prime Minister Marcus in public but today she just gave him a cold distant gaze and said “Marcus Aurelius, you are relieved of your duties as the prime minister of Bhasmachal, now tell me how many of the former cabinet ministers are still left”

Marcus was dumbfounded for a moment and he replied with a flabbergasted expression “Norius and Calcareous are the only ones left rest are dead”

Under the helmet Sylvie eyes widened for a moment before she said “They too are fired, I am dissolving the cabinet and am relieving you of your duties and putting you under permanent house arrest after…”

She turned her head towards the giant 11 ft tall monster standing in front of her “I am done killing this rat bastard who killed my father”

“Whoa… whoa… Julie is that how you talk to your uncle after meeting him after such a long…”

As he was saying this, Sylvie’s eyes lit-up and turned white as lightning crackled in them, she raised her left hand above her head lightning emanated from it heading straight up to the heavens, the noise it caused was deafening.

Once again plunging the entire battlefield into silence and then the former princess, apple of her father’s eye, the calm and beautiful queen said one of the foulest line ever said in history “You asshat-motherfucking-shit for brains-patriciding-cunt shit-sister fucking-shit eating-piss drinking-fuck trumpet-piss flaps-shitbag-dickweed-assbadger-*********************************************************************************************************************************************************. No one alive in this world has the right to call me Julie anymore”

She lowered her hand bringing it parallel to the ground pointing towards Brutus and said “Now fuck off” another lightning sped through air turning it to plasma as the ions allowed conduction of charge through air all the way till the chest of the 11 ft monster lifting off his feet throwing him in air for about 40 m and then 5 ft inside the ground and continuing to crackle on him for 30 seconds before stopping.

By now the army had unloaded a total of 50 the special looking cannons on the three islands bringing along with them 50 bags the size of modern school bags for children. The newly developed portable mana cannons anchored on the ground. They located on the edges of the beach so that they were facing the battlefield on the three islands. The 1000 strong cavalry of new entrants were lined so that they formed the second line of the ‘L’ with the line of cannons.

Brutus harrumphed on seeing them and said “Hmph, you going to aim using cannons??”

Sylvie looked with at him through her helmet with calm eyes and gave a signal with her hands the Augustus (yes the same one from before), came out and gestured the flag bearers and out came a conch shell going ‘ooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooo oooooooooooo’

The soldiers brought out a large crystal from the each from their bag the size of a thumb and inserted it in the respective, the device activated and after small whirring of machine parts out came a sniper cross hairs. As soon as the cannon was pointed at a goblin within the cross hair, the operators lifted their hands off of the cannons

‘BOOM’ x 50 similar to the queen’s thunder sounded out at the same time and within a fraction of second 50 white rays the diameter of 20 cm crossed the distance of a few hundred meters and struck 50 goblins at the same time evaporating them at the same time. Brutus realized their potential but he did not really fear and commanded the goblin army screaming

“LET’S SHOW THESE BASTARDS HOW WE DO THINGS!!! DESTROY THEIR PRIZED CANNONS RIGHT NOW!!!”

Taking advantage of the calm battle field he screamed his command, hearing it all the goblins like crazed monsters launched themselves at the cannons all remaining 9000 of them ignoring the still remaining 20000 soldiers and 1000 new cavalry.

Augustus gave a slight nod looking at the situation and flag bearers signalled

‘ooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooo oooooooooooo oooooooooooo ooooooooooooooooooooooooo oooooooooooo oooooooooooo’

Cannons were like automatic guns as long as long as they were properly loaded. The operators kept on firing and loading them with the crystals from their bag pack non-stop. Fully aware that they would definitely not be able to run away in time and they were probably facing imminent death. So the 50 dead goblins became 100 then 200 then 500 and by the time they stopped they had eliminated about 860 goblins. Within a few seconds 860 goblins died, but like before, these beasts were the ultimate predators going after their prey despite the cost of life. But Brutus was surprised when the cannons all stopped at the same time and then got a view of the battle field as a whole and realized. The whole chaotic battlefield had been segregated now. The goblins were in the middle, on their front and back were the canons and 20000 soldier army (Author note: I am collectively referring to the entire battlefield numbers here, let’s say people have been evenly distributed on each island) and on their left completing the ‘C’ are the cavalry men arranged in two rows of 160 on each island. Brutus screamed for the goblins to stop but his voice was drowned out cacophony of the feet of armies.

Then came another signal from the armies ‘oooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo’

And the cavalry men lifted their jousts and went into motion…

The goblins initially did not understand what was happening when they were picked up the jousts dismembered by the enormous momentum it was like getting hit by a truck out of the blue getting pulverised, their skeletal framework was shaken and they were left strewn on the ground. They couldn’t move but were still dangerous since they weren’t dead, but just after being dropped to the ground in came the powerful stomps of the horses, to complete the pending job. It was like they were in grinding machine where the hoofs of the horses kept on crushing the goblins to a pulp. Some goblins got distracted cause of human attack from the command of their master and started running back to the army of 20000 soldiers only to find the front line soldiers holding 3 meters tall and 1.5 m wide tower shields in for of a wall in front the entire platoon in the form of a square all around them with space only for a single spear to come out. The goblin on not finding a human in front of them launched themselves at the wall of shield only to be struck down by spear through their thin necks. But slowly, on being unable to follow Brutus’s orders a lot of the goblins started running in the opposite direction again banging against the wall. Whatever they do they could budge it. Then another signal was given as ‘ooooooooooooooooooooooooo’ as the second row of cavalry finished rest of the work of making mashed goblin meat on the battle field.

The cannon workers continued on their work of aiming and taking care of one goblin at a time only this time, they were given soldiers to shield them from the goblins using tower shield walls. Just like that the number of goblins was reduced to close to 6000 from the former 9000.

Brutus realized the criticality of the situation and started picking up the boulders from the island and launching them at the general direction the army. Each of his boulders were killing of 20 to 30 soldiers or destroying a cannon. He single-handedly had the power to turn the tides of war and had to be stopped. Just as he launched another boulder in the air towards the three islands in came flying a lithe figure scythe in hand and just like that she cut it in half and landed in front Brutus.

“You know your opponents are here right?” came a seductive voice and just like that there were only four figures left on the fourth island, Tara, Sylvie, her guard and Brutus.