novel
| ← Ch.044 | Ch.046 → |
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From so high up the Elves below appeared like little ants. Thousands of them already gathered to march on my Pit, with there numbers continuing to swell.
'Create Ice Wall'
[You have learned Ice Wal Lv1]
"Ice wall! Ice Wall! Ice wall!..."
It was a simple spell which I used to create huge blocks of ice in mid air. Each were roughly ten meters long, three meters high and one meter thick. Although there normally wouldn't be anything threatening about an Ice Wall, I was now 20, 000 meters up in the air.
Quaaaaa Quaaa
As the blocks of ice dropped towards the ground, their incredible speed caused a certain amount of friction, causing most of them to break down into 3 chunks. Each of these weighed between 100~200 kilograms and combined with their acceleration, they packed quite the punch.
Kuooong Kung, Quazzzic
The combination of so many chunks of ice falling was similar to the destruction brought about by a meteor shower. Of course I could also cast meteor, but it consumed far more mana and had longer casting time. It was a hail storm on the level of a natural disaster.
Even if it was hard to aim, as predicting how each Ice Wall would break off and where the chunks would fall was almost impossible, it wasn't at all necessary. It had become more of a large AoE spell and it devastated the Elves' forces, squishing hundreds of them before they even arrived on my borders. The only unfortunate part was that I didn't receive any experience, perhaps it was because I only indirectly caused their deaths.
Well, the important thing was that with my victory here, the overall war should be much easier to win.
"Let's continue flying over the rest of their troops, Valenor."
"Ok, let's do that."
I persisted in casting more Ice Walls and the Elf troops were seriously dwindling. Their armies of thousands had already been cut down by half, the survivors scattered and with likely low morale.
"That should be enough for today."
"Why don't you go down and fight in person Johra?"
"The war hasn't even officially begun, I just wanted to tip the scales in our favor. Unfortunately I didn't expect that I wouldn't receive any experience, so I think it's best to stop here."
"Ok, I'll bring us back to the Pit."
After returning together, I decided to gather my armies to take stock of our fighting strength. I was finally sitting on the throne of my highly anticipated palace, Valenor sat together me and the various chiefs of my Pit forces assembled before me. At the front of them all stood Alpeon, with a cordial attitude.
"Alpeon have the traps been prepared according to my instructions?"
"Yes, everything has been completed Lord."
"Good, and are the Goblins ready?"
"Yes Lord."
Observing the Goblins before me I noticed that there were 500 of them, all waiting to be evolved.
'Let's see... we have Hobgoblin, and a Goblin King. '
Naturally I understood that having too many Goblin Kings would be counterproductive, so I selected the strongest out of them to be the King, while turning the rest into Hobgoblins.
"Lord, thank you for taking us into your care."
The Goblin King had acquired the ability for human speech. After confirming that they would follow the lead of the king, I gave them my orders.
"Good, from now on you shall be known as Chuck, take your men and crush our enemies."
"Yes Lord, I shall show you a glorious battle."
I had assigned the goblins to the outermost section of my Pit's territory.
"Lord, we are also looking forward to doing battle!"
It was Brugan from the half dragon, half human Asmodian tribe who had spoken up. They had improved significantly through the consumption of nectar and hunting of the Void Scuttles. The Asmodians were natural born warriors, so their strength would be a great asset in the upcoming war.
"You and your tribe shall defend the center. Those of you that can fly will join the vanguard to go on the offensive."
Asmodians had an innate talent for magic. I considered them as a core part of my force because of their useful skills like strengthening magic and mini Dragon Breaths.
"Yes, I will defend the position with my life.".
"What instructions did you have for us Lord?"
No. 0, the captain of the chimeras whom I had renamed as Gregory spoke up. They had been exchanging death stares with the group of orc since the beginning of the meeting.
"You shall take control of a patrol and act as scouts. Arin you will command both, but lead a contingent of airborne scouts."
"Yes Lord, as you command."
The Chimeras followed behind Arin obediently.
"Bianca!"
"Have you called for me my King?"
"Yes, take all you High-Arachnids and form a web along the top of the Pit."
"Do I really cover the whole sky? Wouldn't that inconvenience Valenor?"
"Ha ha ha! Don't worry, as if your puny web could ever impede me."
I felt the tensions rising between them so I decided to quickly move on.
"Bianca the Elves seem to be employing some birds, so quickly ready your web.
"I'm on it Lord!"
She left the throne room with her High-Arachnids in tow. The only minions remaining were Alpeon, Nymue and the Totem orcs.
"You guys will act as support. Especially the Orcs, you lack training and are too weak to directly engage the enemy. I hope you use the upcoming battle as an opportunity to improve your strength, Is it understood Grockson?"
"Thank you Lord."
The Totem orc tribe had become proficient in the human language after having consumed the World's nectar, I had elected to name their chief Grockson. Also their strengths had increased and their ranks had gone from the previous F to an E. Unfortunately they hadn't received the option to evolve as of yet so I didn't want them to throw away their lives needlessly.
Of course I also had the headache that the chimeras and the orc tribe were mortal enemies. Luckily, Valenor had a clever idea which was to organize and official duel in one year's time to settle their differences. It had settled the tension somewhat and fostered a rivalry which would be good to improve their strengths.
"Johra when an we next go out for a little ride?"
"My plan is to just wait for the actual war to start and kill some personally, it would be too much of a shame to miss out on such free experience otherwise."
"Ah, great idea."
"Then we'll just wait and take the time to relax.".
"I heard there is a bed in our palace chambers, Inor mentioned that we should sleep together...."
"That sounds like a great idea!"
"Let's go then!"
Valenor had been mostly keeping to her human form these days, she must like sitting upon my shoulders. For the moment she was still on my lap in the throne, giving me a cute little wink.
"Okay, ok."
"Lord, what about the Elves, will there be any complications?"
"Don't worry about it Alpeon, They are an easy opponent.
"Then I will update the Lord if there are any changes."
Perhaps I should have taken Alpeon's concerns more seriously, but ever since I had regained my emotions, I had become confident and even arrogant, which would often land me in trouble.
I laid back resting on the bed while the human shaped Valenor snuggled up to me. On the ceiling of my bedroom there was a large beautifully painted fresco, depicting my territory of the Pit. At the center of it all was my likeness, portrayed with the awe of a god.
"Although it is my appearance, it somehow feels wrong. Is it because of my human memories?"
For humans, undead and skulls were perfect representation of death. So although I carried the authority of a god in the painting, I thought I looked like a villain. Despite having come to terms with my undead body, I would still occasionally have these strange moments where my human emotions were conflicted.
I was now a abnormal existence with the power to possibly resurrect endlessly as an undead. Also, now that I was an ArchLich I could make a Life Vessel that could almost guarantee my immortality. Perhaps with the absence of the fear of death, I no longer enjoyed the little things in life as much. Life didn't feel as precious as it perhaps should. I had faced down annihilation more times than I could count in the last year, but I always came out on top.
I now had a Dragon for a wife, a powerful military force at my disposable and considerable lands including my Pit and the Wetheros mountains. My power could no longer be compared to that of a weak human and perhaps only a vengeful God could strike fear in me now.
When compared to my previous life where I was a nobody junior high graduate with no real future to speak of, I was satisfied with my current success.
Although the elves had arrived for war, I was confident and not once considered losing to them. In fact I was confident that i could take on any country in the World.
'Should I consider establishing an empire next?'
'Easy there Johra, don't let all this newfound power get to your head. The Elves aren't particularly special or powerful, if you think.... '
'Oh quiet you noisy Gnoss, you're ruining my dream. '
'Hmmmm'
Of course I knew Gnoss was right and that there were plenty of powerful entities out there I couldn't yet hope to match. But was it wrong for a guy to indulge in some fantasies every now and then?
"Yummy Yummy I can't eat more, I'm too full Johra."
Valenor looked too cute when she was talking in her sleep so I stroked her head.
Ehhhhhe
I quickly blocked her nose and mouth, worried that she would burn down our new chambers.
Foo Foo Foo~fuuuu
She was unconsciously struggling to let out the sneeze. As I looked at her fast asleep, I hoped this peace would last forever.
"If I'm strong enough to shoulder all future conflicts, there shouldn't be any problems."
The undead never required sleep. Although it was advantageous in certain situations, it was quite annoying because I never got to rest and be at peace with my thoughts. As a result I would never stop thinking and wouldn't experience the ups and down of a regular life like the cycle of fatigue and rest. Imagine a song that always held the same beat, without any variation.
Luckily I had my beautiful Valenor beside me. Her heart beat like a drum, bringing music and energy to my life, filling the void caused my undead curse.
"Lord, I apologize for the interruption but I bring urgent news."
"No problem, go ahead."
I was in a good mood, satisfied with my life.
"Well...."
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Glossary:
Chuck: Goblin King leading the 500 Hobgoblins.
Gregory: Captain of the Chimeras.
Grockson: Chief of the Orcs.
| ← Ch. 044 | Ch. 046 → |