The Luminas Confederacy was in dire straits. In the Siempre Dorado Kingdom there were monsters, cultists and vampires running rampant, slowly consolidating their power and tightening their new reign over the people while in the People’s Union of Rusk the forces of the Greater Teutonian Union State and Neo Albion were driving hard towards the major metropolitan centers, marching in the frozen wake of the now undead ‘Living Ice Age’. There seemed to be only one surefire way to turn the tide, and that way was to assault and take the capital city of the Greater Darksol Empire, thus shattering its control over its satellite states.

Despite losses being taken on all other fronts, the Confederacy went all-in for this one major siege. Troops had been taken from their home nations and waited in the Ititlis Imperial Dominion for just this moment. A way was open through the nightmarish Gallows Woods, and so the Luminas Church and the Luminas Confederacy poured everything it could muster through that narrow channel. After a few days the entire area around the city of Necrograd was filled practically to bursting with men and material from all over the remainder of the Confederacy.

Even those who fled the destruction of their nations and the regimes that overtook them had joined in. This was their only chance to break the yoke that Darksol had forced onto their homelands. If they could not win this battle, then all hope of ever freeing their mother/fatherland faded away to nothingness.

Siege weapons and trenches were constructed, slowly being pushed closer and closer to the first set of walls surrounding the city in which the Abominable King ruled with terror and cruelty. If any living souls were within those ebon walls, they were either too far gone to save or too evil to be left alive, thus no one would be spared the purge that was to take place. This city and its master had risen again, but this would be the time where they truly razed this city to the ground and sent the evil master of the undead to his final death.

Catapults were wheeled closer and closer to the shortest of the three walls that surrounded the fel city. They inched forward, bit by bit, in an attempt to judge where the weapons on the walls were and what their maximum range was. Of course, if they knew what they were looking for they would have seen the weapons on the wall even from where they were, but they had not seen a cannon in their lifetimes, excluding the Heroes of course.

But said Heroes were farther back, waiting for the catapults and archers to fire and the siege towers to begin moving forward. They were to only enter the conflict when Kevin said so. He was the leader of this invasion force, after all, and if you did not follow his words a terrible fate was all that awaited you. So, they waited as the catapults and archers inched closer to the walls, followed closely by the siege towers.

…

Alistaira kneeled to Kain as she stopped in front of him as he sat upon his throne.

“Cease your supplications. We don’t have time for such things, and I don’t care to see you trip over your cloak again when you rise. If you want to show deference, then bow.”

Kain barely looked at Alistaira as he fiddled with the ‘Kingdom Management Tool’. He was far too busy directing the growth of the many, many places under his control to deal with Alistaira’s show of submission. Besides, he was currently setting a few things in order as the enemy forces moved into position.

“As you wish, my Lord. If I may ask one thing, though.”

Kain sighed. “Go ahead. What is it you want to know?”

“Is the ‘Sky Eye’ ready for mass production?”

Kain stopped fiddling with the screen and glanced over at Alistaira. He knew what she wanted with the ‘Sky Eye’. It was difficult enough to control an army of undead. It was more difficult than that to control five armies of undead. It was even harder still to control those five armies in a strategic and tactical fashion. The ‘Sky Eye’ was designed to help alleviate some of the issues. It would allow an entire battlefield to be monitored like a battle in a Total War game, with the only issues being it couldn’t travel too far from its user. It would allow for a Necromancer or other commander to get a better grasp of their surroundings and position of their troops. Better still, it had a range of operation roughly the size of New York City on Earth if you included the suburbs.

And while yes, the ‘Sky Eyes’ were ready for use, they were not ready for mass production. Kain only had a few of them, and he wasn’t sure it would be a good idea to link one with Alistaira when he had no idea what the side effects of gaining such a view would be. He and his wife, Alexis, were linked to one each, but how would it work with a baseline human? He just did not want to risk an asset like Alistaira going mad or dying due to the ‘Sky Eye’ doing something to her.

“The ‘Sky Eyes’ are not ready for mass production, but I do have a handful.” Kain said. “However, I cannot link one with you until we are aware of the side effects it could have on a normal human.”

“Better now than never.” Alistaira countered.

“Not ‘never’, just not until we find out if it has any adverse reactions to normal humans. You will have to control them the old-fashioned way. I know it is a pain, but I am full confident that you are up to the task. Now, please get ready to defend the Southern Walls. I can arrange for Pluton to fly you over there if you need to move quickly, which you do.”

“So be it, my Lord. I have faith that you will keep to your word.”

“Believe me when I say that I most certainly want to give you a ‘Sky Eye’. However neither of us can risk you potentially going mad, dying or worse due to the device not syncing with your senses properly. You are simply too valuable for me to take such a massive risk.”

Alistaira blushed, and with a quick bow she left the throne room. Kain then went back to messing with the ‘Kingdom Management Tool’. He had just a few more things to do before he was content to deal with the approaching siege implements and archers. First things first, he needed to ‘build’ the last minefield.

[Selective Shoebox Minefield: Build Time = 60 Minutes]

[Commence Construction: Yes/ No]

Kain grumbled at the long timer, but what could he do about it? The ‘K.M.T.’ was an annoying little thing sometimes, but he understood why it would take so long. In fact, this timer would be a lot longer if it used the time it would take without the ‘build’ function. What took the K.M.T. merely an hour would take days of round-the-clock work to do in real life. Pressing the ‘Yes’ button, Kain dismissed the screen and got up from his comfy chair.

Pluton the Zombie Dragon had already whisked Alistaira off to the south side of the city, leaving Kain to fly over to the north side without his mount. This was no problem for him, as he could break the sound barrier quite easily, but there was something to be said about riding a giant undead dragon around like the king of evil. Although, by now no one would be able to tell that Pluton was undead. The procedure to repair all of the damage his body had taken was completed, and the massive beast was now even more massive and far more intimidating than he had been in life.

As Kain touched down at the north section of the third/ innermost wall, he spotted the first signs that his little ‘building spree’ had paid off. Roughly a few miles out from the first and shortest of the three walls, he saw a small explosion shred one of the wheels of a catapult. Anti-Armor Landmines only react when under a certain amount of pressure, and the heavy wooden catapult was not light enough to avoid triggering the little surprise that Kain had made the K.M.T. place all over the various approaches to the city.

The sight of an explosive ripping one of the catapults wheels to scrap wood was the signal for the rest of the siege weapons to cease moving and open fire. The archers, for their part, had been exceedingly lucky and had miraculously avoided all of the mines. They quickly put up wooden barriers covered in animal hides that they had carried with them and hid behind those barriers as they drew their bows to full before popping out to loose their arrows.

Kain merely gave a short yet sinister laugh as he watched the siege weapons and archers try and suppress the forces on the wall. The fools did not know what they were getting into. The goal was to let them get on the walls and then draw out the fighting as long as possible. If they were pushed back before they managed to get on the walls, there would be a chance that they could simply flee and deny Darksol its great victory.

Kain raised his hand and the Skeleton Archers drew their bows. The tips of their arrows were covered in spectral flame, a result of Kain using the ‘K.M.T.’ to upgrade his Skeleton Archers with ‘flaming shot’ as well as ‘cursed shot’. While he had not expected the two to fuse after researching them, he was pleasantly surprised by the result. The boosts to their range and accuracy were other things he had researched, and now was the time to see the fruits of his labors.

Lowering his hand swiftly, Kain spoke one word and the Skeleton Archers released a volley at the catapults. Volley after volley of arrows flew towards and away from the wall, and after a decent number of volleys the Skeleton Archers withdrew, their task completed. In their place, Skeleton Spearmen and Skeleton Warriors took up positions on the wall.

The Luminas Confederacy’s archers and siege towers had not been dealt with, nor had the siege ladders that were being carried across the field been targeted. This was intentional. The catapults had to go, but once the enemy docked on the walls, they would have the incentive to keep pushing that ‘breach’ until they were through. The siege was proceeding as Kain had planned, and it was almost time for the next stage of the conflict to begin.