Kain stood near the edge of the Gallows Woods, the haunted forest that surrounded the main bulk of his nation and is both the official and unofficial border that separated Darksol proper from the rest of the Europan continent. He stood there at the edge that is both south and west and pointed in the direction of something that, by the memories of the Creator side of him, should not be there.

“Alistaira.”

“Yes?” The female Arch Necromancer asked.

“What the hell is that?”

Kain’s finger pointed towards a landmass that bordered the Gallows Woods. To make things even more bizarre for the fusion of the Creator and Creation, the large mountain range (large by Europan standards, at least.) that separated the bulging peninsula from the Gallows Woods reminded him of something. What made this all so strange was that the Creator had never dreamed up what he assumed was on the other side of this line of peaks. He did remember seeing something when he showed C’thylla his ‘Orbital Drop’ attack, but now that he was standing there and seeing the ‘addition’ to his world up close…

“My Lord, that is a mountain.”

“Yes, Alistaira, I know. But what I want to know is where the hell it came from and what is on the other side. By my recollection, that mountain range should not exist, and nothing on the other side of it should exist either. Where did it come from? It wasn’t here 1500 plus years ago, so from whence did it come?”

Alistaira blinked in confusion, but quickly regained her composure.

“Well, um… The history books, if you believe the Luminas Church’s propaganda, say that all other places besides the original landmass of the Europan continent and all the peoples from those new places were created by their Goddess.”

Kain sighed.

“Yeah, right. More of their fictitious Goddess doing all kinds of shit that alters my world without my permission… Anyways, is there anything else about that place?”

Alistaira withdrew a book from her Bag of Holding and flipped through its pages.

“Yes… Right here. The land on the other side of the mountains, called the Death’s Edge Mountains due to the border it shares with the Gallows Woods, is the newest addition to the Luminas Confederacy. The nation is called the ‘Siempre Dorado Kingdom’ and was founded after the Arbiana Sultanate was pushed out due to the actions of the Crusader King Cortez the Liberator. After his conquest/ liberation of the land, he founded the Siempre Dorado Kingdom and either exiled or executed ever non-human citizen of the land there. After this, the Siempre Dorado Kingdom went on a blah blah blah blah blah…”

Kain was speechless not because of the amazing feats and tales Alistaira spoke of as she regurgitated the entire history of the kingdom across the mountains, but because such a kingdom existed at all. Even if the Siempre Dorado/Forever Golden Kingdom had never existed, the fact that other, non-human races besides the ones The Dungeon had generated struck Kain as astounding. How much had this world evolved since the Creation side of him went dormant more than 1500 years ago? Had almost an entire planet been created from next to nothing in a few short moments, or had things just kind of changed over time?

“Hold on a moment. The Arbiana Sultanate, The Arcfiran Confederated Tribes… Both are new to me, but they are not the most pressing issue at hand. This ‘Forever Golden Kingdom’ is the closest and most immediate threat to my nation, so we’ll deal with it first.”

“Yes, my Lord. Most wise indeed.”

“Enough brownnosing Alistaira. What do you think we should do with it? It simply cannot be allowed to continue its existence as a potential backdoor for the Light Lands or ‘Luminas Confederacy’ as they call themselves, to invade. Prepare for another invasion; we’ll make this qui-.”

“Not so fast, my heart and soul.”

Alexis floated down from on high, landing beside Kain.

“Hmm? What is it you plan to unleash, my beloved?” Kain asked his loving predator of a wife.

Alexis opened a folding fan and held it in front of her lower face, barely concealing her sinister smile behind the ornate and extravagant object.

“My little pets have been dying for a meal. Do you know how long it has been since that party in Anglond? They need to get out, stretch their many, many legs and take in the sights and sounds and smells and tastes of a thriving nation. So many meals of different types for them to enjoy, and I also need to know how my little ‘kaiju’ as you call it, will do against an army of ants.”

Kain rubbed his chin with his hand, thinking over his wife’s proposal. On the one hand, it would kick off the war with the remaining parts of the Luminas Confederacy with a massive bang, but on the other hand he wasn’t sure if he was really ready to start the war just yet. Sure, he had massed his forces on the borders and the drilling of the Mortal Auxiliary had been going swimmingly, but he needed to be absolutely certain that everything would go off without a hitch.

“I will let you know when the war is about to begin, Lexi. At which point I can have Zero Noir assist in-… SHIT!”

Kain’s approval of Alexis’ plan suddenly switched to Kain cursing again and again.

“Whatever is the matter?” Alexis asked, with Alistaira following up with the question, “What just happened?”

Kain growled like a raging beast and shot a hate-filled glare out towards the distant place where the Ititlis Imperial Dominion shared a small border with the Gallows Woods.

“It has begun, and we weren’t the ones to strike first.”

…

Kevin led the rest of the Heroes and a large contingent of soldiers across the border and towards the fortress that blocked their advance. The Church had been so kind as to heal him back to perfect health, repairing the damaged the freaky fish lady had done to his family jewels as if nothing had happened. He still felt sore, even several weeks after the incident, and had wisely decided not to try his luck with The Dungeon again. He still had a bone to pick with that fish bitch though, and after he crushed the undead before him, he would lead a crusade into The Dungeon’s depths to crush that city in the underground before scourging the 10th floor of all life.

“Keep up, you useless sacks of shit!”

Kevin’s anger at his ‘companions’ was obvious. They didn’t even attempt to heal him until they dragged him back to the surface. If they had helped him like they were supposed to, he could have defeated that fish woman and destroyed the city of Underhome.

Not that such a thing was even possible, mind you, but he honestly believed that it could be done.

The column of soldiers followed the brave Hero and his less important companions in a seemingly endless line of men and material. Wagons pack to the near bursting with food, water, alcohol and other things trailed behind for miles, flanked on either side by either cavalry or lots and lots of varied types of infantry. Leading behind the Heroes were a contingent of warrior priests, both male and female. They constantly chanted spells to purify the area they walked through of the taint of undeath, but by the time the middle section of the train came through the area was already lightly saturated with dark energies once again.

Several hours of marching later, and the ‘Hero’/Super-Powered Asshole named Kevin spotted a structure in the distance. It was a fort of some kind, and it had walls quite a bit lower than a normal fort back in Ititlis. It was also shaped rather weirdly, and Kevin could just barely see that the fort had many points that jutted out in the shape of a snowflake or a star.

“Short walls and lots of flat wall sections mean that siege towers and catapults have better targets! Hey, you lot! Listen up! There is a fort that is likely held by the undead up ahead. It has short walls and lots of places for ladders and siege towers to dock cleanly. Get ready, we’re gonna siege that place down! Just be careful not to do too much damage, ‘cause I want to take that place mostly intact! Taking a fort mostly intact in my first battle will be a boon to my legend, so be careful!”

Kristof looked through the spyglass at Kevin’s ‘ideal target’ and noticed the mix of undead and living humans on the walls, along with what he assumed were…

“Cannons…. They have cannons…. And if they have those, then they at least have muskets…”

The soldiers and warrior priests cheered at the realization that they would be the first force in the Holy War to strike a blow against the Evil Empire of Darksol, but the Heroes aside from Kevin were not so enthusiastic. The fort in front of them was a star fort, and star forts were designed to take advantage of black powder weapons like cannons which the fort seemed to have in spades.

“Well, at least they don’t have mortars. Probably.” Pierre told Kristof and the others to try and calm their nerves.

…

“Hurry! Get ready! I want those cannons and mortars armed and ready for firing immediately! All Mortal Auxiliary, I want all those muskets and rifles preloaded one hour before the Luminas Church and its pawns get within range of the cannons! You all know the firing arcs, we trained for this! Stop slouching and start moving, we don’t have an eternity like the undead do!”

The fort was bustling with movement as the guns were loaded and prepped for firing. In special positions on the walls, undead siege weapons began to move and automatically generate their ammunition. The non-undead cannons were unplugged and cleaned out before being loaded while the undead infantry and cavalry rushed out of the gates and gathered in formation, ready for a field battle beneath the guns of the fort.

The commander in the fort nodded to the necromancers that manipulated the undead formations, they knew what was going to happen to the undead and the living soldiers of the confederacy that engaged them. The dead and undead could be reanimated to fight again, even if they were blown to kingdom come, but each living life taken by musket, rifle, crossbow and bow shot was a blow that the Luminas Confederacy would not easily be able to recover from.

“Whoever thought that friendly fire of such a degree would be beneficial to a military… It goes against all reason and logic.” the fort commander mused.

He looked over at the mechanism that allowed the mounted cannons to swivel and thought back the time when that Arcfiran-looking former Hero had created the parts and showed them how to put it all together. He could feel a distinct lack of innate mana from the machinery and from the breechloading cannons as well. Even the fully contained shells that the cannons fired seemed to be blank spots in the world, at least when mana was concerned. And yet, this sensation persisted even though he was by no means a mage in any degree. The lack of presence that these objects had was simply that great.

“Damn fools,” he said with disdain towards the idiots that had kicked that man from his position as a Hero, “if they only looked past the unnerving nature of these things and saw their potential, maybe we would be the ones in a bind. As things are now, however…”

The fort commander gazed out towards the enemy that was beginning to snake around the fort.

“They are like lambs to a fucking slaughter. It’s almost time for the ‘First Great God of Modern Warfare’ to show his divine presence to these idiots. Poor sods, they have no idea what they are in for…”