Voices from the collective consciousness reached out to me all at once.
No, we haven’t lost. We’ll definitely get back at them for this. In order to do that, we need to bury Frantz as quickly as possible. Mark my words, Nyrnal: once we’re done with this despicable country, you’ll be next.
♱
“Prepare for landing! I repeat, prepare for landing!”
A military battalion from Nyrnal was crossing the Themel River, located on the border between the old Kingdom of Maluk and the Empire of Nyrnal. Their catapults had destroyed the walls built along the river, after which the troops had begun crossing the river in rowboats.
“To think that we can now cross the Themel so easily...” murmured Emperor Maximillian, watching the soldiers crossing the river and charging into Maluk’s territories from his vantage point on a nearby hill. He, too, was clad in Nyrnal’s military uniform.
At this very moment, he was watching an operation unfold which would later be called the “Deceptive Deployment.” He had made it appear as though Nyrnal were intending to invade Frantz, when in fact he had planned all along to send his men across the Themel and into Maluk’s old territories.
“With this, Maluk is effectively ours, Your Majesty. It was well worth the wait. We owe it all to those bugs; we ought to thank them.”
“That’s right. We truly can’t thank the Arachnea enough for eliminating the Kingdom of Maluk. Let them rampage as much as they want and throw this world’s equilibrium out of balance. We will only reap the benefits.”
The Empire of Nyrnal had chosen to capitalize on the threat of the Arachnea. Now that the armies of the world were either scorched or scattered, Nyrnal could conquer other countries with ease.
Frantz’s current situation was one such example. The Arachnea’s invasion had left the Popedom in shambles, which meant the Empire was guaranteed to get at least some of its land by attacking it now.
Emperor Maximillian’s grand ambition was to see Nyrnal’s banner—a dragon brandishing a sword—flying high over every single country on the continent. And soon enough, his dream would be realized. He knew the Arachnea couldn’t drop everything and leave Frantz at this point; doing so would only invite a counterattack. Besides, the Arachnea was otherwise poised to deliver the killing blow.
Frantz’s pathetic army as it was now would easily be crushed by Nyrnal’s forces, and then the Empire could creep up on the Arachnea and strike it from behind. Put simply, the current state of affairs presented a golden opportunity for Nyrnal.
“The Popedom of Frantz has been dealt some much-deserved divine retribution, I’d say,” Maximillian continued. “The headquarters of that arrogant Church of Holy Light will be wiped out by the power of a true god. Well, perhaps their fate is nothing quite so poetic. They’ll simply be devoured alive by bugs.”
Bertholdt von Bülow, the Empire’s Chief Cabinet Secretary, was listening intently to his lord’s words. Not a single utterance that left the emperor’s lips was to be missed. Doing so would incur the emperor’s wrath, and that would end with Bertholdt being torn apart. Among all the emperors in Nyrnal’s history, Maximillian was one of the most coldhearted and merciless.
“Your Majesty! The first landing force has engaged the insects in battle! Their resistance is weak!” one general reported.
“Hmph. The so-called queen of the Arachnea disappoints me. She likely didn’t expect we’d cross the Themel River.” Maximillian shrugged. “Now, advance. I want Maluk’s territories under our control within the next month. After that, we march on Schtraut. We can only take a small portion of Frantz’s land at the moment, but we need only focus on defending it. Once we offer the other allied nations protection from the Arachnea, the entire continent will be ours.”
They were already applying diplomatic pressure to the countries in the alliance. The allied nations were given the choice of being overrun by the insects or coming under Nyrnal’s protection. Most countries were showing signs of cracking under the pressure; it was only a matter of time until they caved.
“That only leaves the Eastern Trade Union and the Nabreej archipelago,” Maximillian said, turning his gaze to Bertholdt.
“Yes. Worry not, Your Majesty; the investigation is already underway. However, I believe both merchant nations will likely reject an alliance with us.”
Bertholdt’s intelligence network had already sent feelers out to these countries. The Eastern Trade Union’s relations with Nyrnal were poor to begin with. Its relationship with the Popedom was rather frigid as well, but ever since Nyrnal had started aggressively expanding and uniting the southern countries under its rule, the Eastern Trade Union had treated the Empire with outright hostility. The merchants likely feared the prospect of becoming Nyrnal’s next conquest.
“Those fools... Now they’re trapped between us and the Arachnea, and they’ll be unable to move. Well, no matter. We can get rid of them however we wish later on. For now, we’ll allow them to act freely. By the way, let’s have our Dragon Roosts increase their activity. I hear the insects have taken to using some unusual tactics, so wyverns alone may prove insufficient.”
Maximillian turned his gaze back to the troops crossing the river. They were just human soldiers, but the wyverns soaring in the sky above were different. This life-form was not found anywhere else on the continent. They were too obedient to be monsters but too ferocious to be animals. These creatures only existed in the Nyrnal Empire.
The existence of the wyverns was mysterious and incomprehensible. The only ones who knew the truth behind it all were Emperor Maximillian and Bertholdt von Bülow.
No... there was one more who knew. A devil frolicking in the darkness as she chanted away in manic verse.
♱
We had to take down the Popedom of Frantz as quickly as possible. Objectives often changed or updated in single-player mode, but never before had I been blindsided like this. The Swarm’s strength must have lulled me into a false sense of security and made me overconfident.
I needed to reflect on this experience. I’d learned the painful lesson that there were things even we couldn’t do.
“The enemy soldiers aren’t approaching Baumfetter,” I said quietly, observing the village through the collective consciousness. “That’s good. And we’ve managed to produce those Genocide Swarms in time, so they won’t be completely defenseless.”
Baumfetter, sandwiched between the Kingdom of Maluk and the Empire of Nyrnal, had been exposed to danger ever since our arrival. If we were to leave it unprotected, it would eventually be discovered, and the elves would all be killed for not worshiping the God of Light.