Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 67 (Patreon)

I checked our files on the shard my people were in to get a clue as to what was going on.

Our information network didn't say anything about this shard being an embassy of House Kethril. I wasn't surprised we missed it though. My information network was almost entirely pictures taken by ships in space, so I only knew things that could be identified by visual inspection. Banners that were easy to see from the ground were hard to identify from directly overhead. And news obvious to locals on the ground was completely impossible to hear through a telescope lens.

Things were in hand in most other cities, but I had a growing hunch that things could go very wrong in this one. I focused my attention here.

My forces were just a handful of mixed units containing knights from Camlaan and the Order of Sorcery, along with a few lower-leveled prospective applicants to the Astral Ranger program who were still awaiting the opportunity to be issued power armor.

They were a small group of forces that were intended to deal with the tiny shard we expected this to be, not an outpost of a galactic power. They needed reinforcements before the battle even began. Legate Asimi and the Nineteenth Legion were the closest, so I rerouted them as well as a ship full of Astral Rangers. Meanwhile, I told my people on the ground to hold on for reinforcements.

Even from a camera countless miles above, I could see each of them stiffen when they realized the eyes of their Emperor were on them. They followed my orders to the best of their abilities.

"Crownhill is no barbarian land, strangers. I don't know where you come from, but there's no realm on our world that compares to the lands of our glorious Emperor, long may he reign," said one of the Omykir knights.

"Does it look like I care to learn the names of your tiny backwards factions? Be gone from this place," said the sneering soldier from House Kethril.

I could hear swords being drawn from my people's scabbards.

"You'd do well to keep such words to yourself. Our homeland may be new, but those of us who bear its coat of arms are not afraid of shedding blood in its honor," the Omykir knight said threateningly.

Nearby, his comrades nodded along. I winced at the sudden turn of events. I could appreciate the enthusiasm, but my people would have been better saved by delaying conflict until reinforcements arrived to take over.

But I'd given this ambitious young crew a chance to prove themselves, and that was just what they planned to do. One of the recruits from the Order of Sorcery pulled out a rod-shaped wand, revealing he was one of the order's new mages. I could only make out the back of his hand from the camera feed I was getting, but I sensed something familiar about the weapon.

"Ha! You think your pathetic provincial magic will do anything against our wards?" the sneering House Kethril soldier continued sneering, but it was the last expression he ever made.

The off-screen mage activated his wand, which turned out to be a Rod of Annihilation. The first round from the Rod of Annihilation overwhelmed the wards on the walls protecting the sneering soldier. His expression didn't even have the chance to falter before my trooper fired it a second time, which overwhelmed the sneering soldier's personal defenses. The third shot rang through the air and blasted his flesh to smithereens.

The House Kethril troops seemed in shock for a moment. None of them had expected things to descend into such sudden and deadly violence. And the House Kethril troops likely thought the mediocre enchanted armor they were wearing would make them invincible on this newly integrated world. My soldiers had just proven them completely wrong.

My soldiers knew an opportunity when they saw one and they struck again. Two more of them pulled out Rods of Annihilation, while another tossed a Mana Bomb over the wall. Several of the mages from House Kethril had been in the middle of casting something only to find their spells disrupted and their gathered mana dispersing.

"Charge!" shouted the Omykir knight who'd been speaking for my troops.

Things suddenly turned deadly. I couldn't use examine through a camera lens, but I could tell my people were likely far lower leveled. And yet they made up for what they lacked in power with sheer battle resolve and fighting spirit.

The soldiers of House Kethril were caught entirely off-guard, and three of them were cut down in an instant. Another two were mortally wounded, and only then did they start fighting back seriously.

"Archers? Mages? We're under attack! Don't let them through the walls!" shouted a desperate House Kethril defender.

The defenders started getting organized, and the mages among them were casting defensive wards. But my people weren't about to sit back and let that happen.

"Rods, now!" shouted the Omykir knight.

Suddenly my soldiers opened fire again, overwhelming defensive wards while pressing what remained of their advantage of surprise. Given the casualties they'd managed to inflict so early on, they'd turned what should have been a decisive defeat into something far closer to even.

I was impressed. These guys would definitely be getting a promotion when all this was said and done. But the stakes for this conflict were about to get a whole lot higher.

Deep within the compound, I could sense a teleportation array flaring to life. It buzzed with power and flared a few times as a couple of C-Grades stepped out. That only lasted a few seconds before the laser beam from orbit blasted the array to bits. That flare of energy from its activation had been all I needed to target it from space and lend my people a little aid.

With that little bit of help cutting off reinforcements, I hoped that my people would have a lucky break and be able to handle this on their own. Unfortunately, luck wasn't on their side.

There was a flare of light deep within the compound, and when it faded there were three B-Grade defenders all wearing the colors of House Kethril. I'd suspected something like this might happen ever since I saw Zathalia teleport away with an item. They were expensive, but House Kethril must have a steady supply to use them so freely.

"Thank the System! The locals are attacking, and they're ferocious. It's about time we taught them a lesson!" said one of the beleaguered House Kethril defenders. Their side was practically cheering the sudden arrival of such powerful reinforcements.

My people were falling back with grim looks on their faces as they realized any of the three B-Grades could wipe all of them out in an instant. The only reason they weren't already dead was because the House Kethril B-Grades were certain they had everything under control.

"What local faction on this backwater planet would have the guts to attack an Architect house? Well, out with it?" one of the B-Grades asked my troops.

My troops glanced at one another. Their silence was yet another credit to their bravery, even though any of the defenders they'd just been fighting could tell the B-Grades they were soldiers of Crownhill.

Thankfully, the B-Grades soon had bigger problems as the reinforcements I'd called in earlier arrived in force.

Aid came first in the form of a swarm of Dragon Bolts. Nearly a hundred of them slammed into the shields of one of the B-Grades. They were weaker spells cast by several C-Grade mages. They didn't have the raw power to punch through B-Grade armor and passive defenses, but something about these Dragon Bolts spoke of extremely skilled casters.

They came one after another, each striking with ferocity and accuracy as they drilled through a singular weakpoint in the B-Grade's defenses. The enchantments on his armor faltered and failed, and one much more powerful lance of magic shot through the gap and blasted the B-Grade's heart to pieces.

The spells that followed were ruthless and well practiced, each aimed to vaporize the wounded B-Grade before he could recover. It was a maneuver that spoke of countless hours of practice and extreme skill. Only when the B-Grade was truly dead did the Nineteenth Legion unit reveal themselves.

There were eight of them in total, all C-Grade. At first glance, anyone would say three B-Grades would utterly outmatch them. But these eight C-Grades were veterans of a crusade and the constant war of an integration. I wasn't sure what kind of training House Kethril put its B-Grade guards through, but I was certain it involved more experience pearls and less life-and-death battle.

The fight that followed was all too similar to the lower-leveled battle I'd just witnessed. My people, though outmatched on paper, proved they could each punch beyond their weight class. At least when it came to dealing with the soldiers of House Kethril.

I tried to breathe a sigh of relief when it became clear the Nineteenth Legion unit would win handily. But my gut continued to churn despite what I was seeing.

I'd learned to trust my fate bloodlines since then and stood.

"Take the command deck. I'm entering the field," I told the nearest team of Astral Rangers.

I used Shadowrealm Stride to step right through the walls and descend to join in the fighting where my people were battling House Kethril over a shard.

I could sense more teleportation items flaring to life and knew this would be a tough fight. If this were any other shard, I would have pulled my people back and ignored this shard. But House Kethril was exactly the faction we were hoping to kick off-world. A good kick in the teeth now followed by having their people thrown off world might be enough to get them to consider any further investment in taking over our planet a waste of time.

Reinforcements poured in from both sides, turning what had started as a small-scale skirmish into something closer and closer to a true battle. When Sakura arrived, she smashed two House Kethril B-Grades to paste with one swing. Her follow up swing killed two more.

"The locals are too strong! We need more reinforcements!" shouted a House Kethril soldier.

"We are the reinforcements! There's no one else to call besides Lord Malik and the main family!" another replied.

"Then call him!" the first House Kethril soldier shouted back.

There was more frantic scrambling and shouting, but I lost track of it all as I turned off the video feed in my helmet from the long range cameras and switched over to my suit's sensors. All I caught was the general sense of rising panic.

I was nervous that I was about to confront Lord Malik himself, since the bright flare of energy proved that the defenders had gotten through to somebody.

The tides of battle had shifted once again, and now suddenly even Sakura and the B-Grade reservists from the Nineteenth Legion were being pushed back.

Only an A-Grade could do that, and sure enough one had arrived. But it wasn't Lord Malik, like I'd been fearing.

Instead, this was an A-Grade I'd crossed paths with once already. Her name was Zathalia, and she looked angry as she glared at my descending form with a petulant look painted across her face.

"If this was supposed to impress me, you're sorely mistaken. My father had plans for this place, and he'll be cross when he hears about the damage you've done. Your servants are impressive, but they're also disposable."

Zathalia snapped her fingers while staring at Sakura. The A-Grade magic she was conjuring had more raw power in it than a hundred B-Grades could muster. It would kill just about any B-Grade outright. Even with all the powerful defensive tools I'd given Sakura, there was no guarantee that she'd survive something like that gathering spell.

But with me here, even this spell was nothing to fear. I cast Aegis of the Void in front of where Sakura was standing. A beam of sunlight shot from Zathalia's pointed finger directly toward Sakura. It was so blindingly bright it outshone the sun for a moment. It was no doubt an incredibly powerful singular spell, but that was all there was to it.

My Aegis of the Void spell redirected the magical beam, rendering it harmless. The beam had been blocked.

"Stop that. My father won't let this go unless someone pays the price. Help me kill a few of your people and we can blame this on them. He'll overlook it then," Zathalia said.

She started charging another powerful spell, just like the beam she'd just fired at Sakura. This time she was aiming at another B-Grade of mine. It was a man who I recognized by face if not by name from the earliest days of our crusade on Ladwick. He'd been on the front lines ever since, overcoming long odds again and again. Zathalia wanted to put an end to his long journey for the petty reason of protecting herself from her father's mild irritation.

I closed the distance before she could finish casting and slapped her across the face. The blow caused the spell she was casting to crumble to nothing.

"Ow! How dare you!" Zathalia glared at me as she rubbed her cheek in indignation. She stared at me as though I'd just committed some unpardonable breach of manners.

But I was just getting started. She balled her fists and looked like she was going to attack me, but before she could I stepped forward and slapped her again across the other cheek.

"You... you dare?" Zathalia screamed hysterically as her cheeks began to redden. Her beautiful features were contorted into a mask of fury.

"You've never been in a real battle, have you, little princess?" I asked.

"I've cleared plenty of dungeons, savage. Now kneel and beg for my forgiveness!" Zathalia demanded as she pointed to the ground at her feet.

I responded with a fist to her stomach. She went flying backward and crashed into a nearby wall, smashing it to ruins.

Her A-Grade body survived the hit just fine, but as she pulled herself from the rubble much of her clothes had holes on them, and there were a few specks of blood dripping down from a cracked lip.

"I bet your father had you clearing out hordes of B-Grades for years to reach your current level. Well, a real fight is a lot different, little princess. You can't stand around threatening your enemies because they'll just use the time to kill you."

Zathalia began casting another beam of light. But before she could I rushed in again and punched her across the face.

"And casting anything that takes you that long to channel is just asking for it to get interrupted," I said.

Zathalia was looking less like a heavenly goddess now and more like a humiliated girl wearing torn rags. The imperious expression that had seemed a permanent feature was now mixed with something new. Fear.

"You'll pay for this," Zathalia cursed. Her hand went to the collar of her shirt and she triggered the same enchantment device she'd activated before. Soon, it would take her far away from here and to safety.

But I'd seen this trick once already, and by now I understood how it worked. I reached for it and a tiny mana bolt flared to life around me. It was only present for a moment, and vanished so quickly most would think it a trick of the light.

But I'd identified the extradimensional structure of the thing she was using, which was some combination of disposable talisman and enchantment. I wasn't entirely sure how it worked, but I was sure I could break it, and that was just what I did.

Zathalia vanished, but only for a moment. The teleportation spluttered and failed, and a necklace she was wearing shattered like glass.

She stared at it in surprise and shock for a moment. Then suddenly I'd grabbed her by the wrist.

"I could kill you, but I'm not. This is my peace offering to your father. Now tell him to get the hell off my planet!"

I grabbed Zathalia and with one mighty heave, threw her into orbit.

<Note>

Carter has reasons for not killing or capturing her, which will be explained in the next chapter.

Anyway, hope your guys' week is off to a good start. I have sadly been kept pretty busy and have used up that extra chapter I had saved and might have to do something other than a chapter on Wednesday. Maybe a Q&A or something?