Chapter 30 - First Great War (3) (Patreon)

Psijic Order Codex: Holy Magic and White Order

White Order is one of many Orders of the Psijic Order of Artaeum, and it's devoted to the study and mastery of the Holy Magic. 

The Holy Magic belongs to the category of Fundamental Forces of the Cosmos, because the Holy Magic itself is derived from the Light. One of the six Fundamental Forces, and thus its power is often ranked above the strongest in terms of raw power, while also having an unprecedented degree of versatility.

The Light... also known as the Holy Light, Holy Light of Creation, and Light of Creation, is an endless, shimmering sea of energy situated outside the barriers of reality and one of the two most fundamental forces in the Cosmos, along with the Void, which was born from the absence of the former.

The two cannot exist without the other. The Light is the source of all life in the cosmos, but not necessarily "good"; it is a primal force with its morality characterized by how it is wielded. 

It has been noted that the Pure Light cannot exist within the physical universe, but shades of it coéuld manifest in the physical Cosmos. There are two primary forms of Pure Light as we categorize them right now.

Holy Magic and Holy Arts.

Initially they were called the one and the same, but after the First Great War of Dark Portal, the distintion was made to differentiate the Holy Magic which was priamriyl used by Priests and Clerics in very reminiscenting way of Mages and Spellcasters contrary to the Holy Arts used by Paladins and Templar Knights which were on the other hand very simialr to Martial Arts and Warrior Arts used in the close combat.

Obviously, the White Order focuses more on the Holy Magic than on the Holy Arts, yet it couldn't be said that the Order isn't knowledgeable about the Holy Arts either. But it's indeed true that compared to the Holy Templar Order of the Secret Fire, the understanding of Holy Arts by the Psijic Order is relatively shallow.

Our Order doesn't have the worship... stance... toward the Light like the rest of the Eastern Kingdom, and even the worship of the Light within the wider Empire isn't something common.

Most scholars attribute it to the fact that Light is inherently just a Fundamental Force and not a God or any higher being. Though it is unanimously agreed that Light is sentient to a certain degree... 

Many believe that it has a Will or that it made deliberate choices, or that it was "good", while the Void was "evil". This is something that I personally refuse, because such concepts do not apply to the Light and the Void; they are simply primal forces with their morality characterized by how they are wielded.

Holy Magic is extremely versatile.

Far more than any other type of Magic and in the same level as the Shadow Magic... not only the Holy Magic could be shaped into almost any Spell for a plenthora of purposes, but with the Infusion Technique, one can "infuse" the Holy Attributes of Light into other Spells, like for exampel the famous Holy Flames of the Templars of Secret Fire.

The powers of the Light allow its practitioners to heal wounds, mend broken bones, dispel mind control, and even restore life to the dead. Priests and Clerics can smite their enemies, shield from damage, levitate themselves off the ground, cure ills and magical curses, and remove beneficial magical effects from their enemies. Paladins can augment their own martial prowess and those of their allies with their blessings and auras, but also stun, debilitate, and silence their foes.

White Order is relatively sizable among the Orders of the Psijic Order and also has the greatest number of External Members in the form of Templar Knights, who often come to the White Order to learn about the Holy Magic from a more scientific viewpoint.

The Light and its manifestation of Holy Magic are also a source of technological development. Lately, there have been many attempts to fuse the Light into the Orbal Technology, giving them more variants of the Orbal Tech that were attuned to or working on the Light.

- Orders of the Psijic written by Loremaster Aethas Sunreaver

***

Luring the enemies into the trap has proved to be even easier than anyone has anticipated.

The orcs were a little too eager to attack them and take revenge for the ambush at the 5th Naval Fleet. Even General Liver himself was very surprised by the development, because truthfully, he didn't expect the enemies to be so dumb as to rush into some very obvious trap.

Well, at least in his opinion, this was a beyond-obvious trap.

So he had two theories about their invaders.

The first one was that they were beyond utterly stupid, and their commander was absolutely dumb or inexperienced in matters of warfare.

The second theory was that they belonged to either a highly warlike species or were just pretty barbaric. Perhaps they had something in their culture that would consider charging ahead and attacking at any cost as an honorable thing to do, which was pretty common in the warrior-like societies.

Unbeknownst to Liver, the second was true, but even the first one had something in it.

At the same time, this was great, because they didn't really need to play cat and mouse... dragging the opponents into the traps was always a troublesome thing, especially if their commander had a good head on their shoulders.

So seeing the enemy blindly rushing to their death was certainly refreshing as he observed the ships of the Fire Nation dropping sea mines into the water and then escaping away... not before he used his Waterbending, boosted by the Teigu, Water Dragon Possession: Black Marlin, to hide the mines a bit.

The sea mines or naval mine was a self-contained explosive weapon placed in water to damage or destroy surface ships or submarines. Similar to anti-personnel and other land mines, and unlike purpose-launched naval depth charges, they are deposited and left to wait until, depending on their fuzing, they are triggered by the approach of or contact with any vessel.

These were among the many wonders of the Orbal Technology... sometimes Liver wondered how much they had come with all the advancements. He could still remember when the Partas Tribe was fighting against the Northern Water Tribes on Earth, where they were hunting beasts only with their Bending skills and steel weapons.

It was a much simpler time...

Yet...

He marvelled at how much they had come. 

To the point where one of their own was now Queen of the entire Kingdom, they were in another world and were one of the superpowers of the said world. The Partas Tribe was no longer the very same group that was scrambling for the resources and for the lives of their people.

Now they were among the Great Principal Clans that ruled the entire Kingdom and were respected protectors of the kingdom. It has been a long time since the war was brought to the shores of the Fire Nation.

Liver found it rather interesting... even though the Sacred Phoenix Kingdom existed for more than seventeen years now, it still referred to itself as the Fire Nation for most of the part. 

Even though the Fire Nation retained a lot of its military and warrior-like culture, nobody actually wanted to wage war on the Fire Islands themselves anymore. Even during the Great War, when they were still on Earth, fighting on the main homeland of the Fire Nation was rare.

And it was also something akin to humiliation for the people of the Kingdom, because it meant that they were weak to the point where they were being attacked.

Something that they certainly didn't like.

General Liver stood on the deck of the Flagship Devastation Flame as the hostile fleet was approaching their location.

"Commence the plan."

Admiral Yueya stated that as everyone went to do their task, several tens of Waterbenders, including General Liver himself, were all coordinating in one enormous attack that would wipe out most of the enemy's fleet.

Faster than anyone could blink, all Waterbenders across the entire 5th Naval Fleet executed the very same stance, and in the distance, only huge explosions could be seen from the Naval Mines detonating all at the same time.

Their strategy was actually simple.

As they were dropping the mines into the sea, the Waterbenders would put them much deeper in case the enemy discovered them and attempted to avoid them. When they would be above the location of the sea mines, the Waterbenders would act and bring the mines up with their Waterbending, causing a tremendous amount of destruction to the enemy.

Obviously, this was the end of the ambush, because the moment the naval mines exploded, Admiral Yueya ordered full-scale bombardment from the ships toward the enemy, as all cannons on all ships roared to life and began bombarding the greenskins with everything they had.

While taking prisoners was important so they could get more information about the invaders, the security of the island was of paramount priority. Not to mention, it was confirmed that more than enough of these creatures had already disembarked at the shores of the Freljord.

Amidst all the chaos, General Liver signalled to the members of the Khaos Brigade under his command to come near. With a wave of his hand, he created several solidified waves of Water on which no person could even stand as they were all heading toward the main ship of the enemy. 

Liver, with his acute senses, knew that the Warlock who was leading these creatures was still very much alive and even managed to keep his own ship and several other ones intact through his foul Magic.

At the same time, it wasn't without an equivalent price, because he expended a lot of Magic, like a great deal, and suffered a great degree of injuries. The members of the Khaos Brigade would deal with the Warlock and the main ship. 

Colonel Daidara gripped his Teigu, Double-Bladed Axe: Belvaac, as he was eager for some good fight already. Even if Daidara wasn't a Bender, he was one hell of a powerful Chi Master, and his physical strength was no joke; he would rank among the upper ranks of the entire Sacred Phoenix Kingdom's Armed Forces.

"Remember. Kill anything that moves, don't let anyone surrender, or do anything. We are fighting an unknown enemy who employs Warlocks and other kinds of foul Magics. Constant vigilance and look after each other."

General Liver addressed the men and women under his command, giving them one final warning before they were near the enemy's main naval ship. He noted that, on closer inspection, this place looked even more disgusting than the others. 

The thing in front of his eyes couldn't even be called a naval ship, more like some shabby boat or barge that was hastily put together. It was crude, unrefined, and completely impractical for everything.

This confirmed his suspicion that the enemies they were fighting were indeed primitive societies and the ones that could fight only on land. They were not used to fighting on the seas, much less in the skies.

'Waterbending Partas-Style: The Ultimate Water.'

He used the secret technique of the Waterbending Partas-Style, which gave him ultimate control over the Water Element for a short span of time at the price of very fast Chi Depletion, and at the same time, he activated his Teigu.

'Water Dragon Possession: Black Marlin - Secret Technique: Water Dragons Divine Conquest Tsunami.'

Suddenly, out of nowhere, the water levels started rising and creating enormous dragon-shaped tsunamis that were headed directly toward the few surviving greenskins's ships.

***

While everything was going according to the plan for the Sacred Phoenix Kingdom, nothing was going according to the plan of the Bleeding Hollow Clan. 

Grillok, who was left with the command over the part of their fleet that was to clash with the fleet of the defenders, has been effectively destroyed. The Orcish Warlock was enraged beyond belief because approximately 80% of their forces were utterly destroyed in the trap.

Another 10% or 15% were lost to the subsequent bombardment from those weird weapons that the weaklings were using, not even daring to fight them head-on like proper warriors.

He was rather lucky, as he managed to use his powers to shield their ship and several others from the ambush, even if the cost was too high. Grillok was rather smart for an Orc, which wasn't really the greatest standart of measuring intelligence, on the side note, and knew that these enemies were different.

Even though he hated their cowardly waves, as he was a proud warrior of the Bleeding Hollow Clan, he was also a Warlock. And he knew where to retreat if the fight was lost, even before it started, and it seemed that this was the case.

Their ships were decimated, and in fact, he didn't really doubt that the clansmen who landed on the island itself would find themselves in the very same fate as they found on the seas.

Just as he was about to give an order to retreat, he suddenly noticed that several enormous tsunamis of water crashed into three or four ships next to his own as they were directly sunk under the overwhelming power of the waves.

Even though the Warlocks were certainly powerful after having acess ot the Fel, the energies of Fel were not the most suitable ones around to be used for defensive purposes. Fel Magic was mainly used to cause massive destruction by its wielders, not to defend against incoming Magic.

Because of that, Grillok could barely use Fel to destroy the tsunamis that were coming for his own ship and let the rest be destroyed by the raging water, much to his rage. Though, he also knew that these tsunamis were something that was created by supernatural phenomena and wasn't natural.

Meaning that the enemy was already here.

With loud sound and tremor passing through the ship, several black-clad figures landed on the ship. Grillok noticed that they belonged to the same species that the Orcs were already enslaving and killing in those jungles, but these ones were different.

From every single one of them, he could sense power and a very intense killing aura...

Suddenly, one of them stepped forward and brandished his weapon, which appeared to be a sword, but much thinner. He even wanted to dismiss the weapon as a toothpick, because there was no way that he would be able to injure him with such a thing.

Then the elderly man said something, and Grillok barely had the time to react when the man appeared near him, slashing toward his head with his weapon.

For the Warlock, Grillok was also pretty skilled in close combat, because he was an Orc. 

Orcs breached the general rule that the spellcasters were weak in the close quarter combat, because Orcs, due ot their inherently monstrous physical capabilities, were very strong in the close combat.

Even the Warlocks or previously Shamans could easily match human knights in a one-on-one fight with their fists. And even most probably emerge victorious in such a bout, due to their inherent advantage in strength, vitality, and regeneration.

That was something that humans cannot really match unless they train their Chi to a very high degree. Grillok dodged to the side, as he counterattacked the man with his staff, but the opponent just jumped high in the air and landed right behind him.

Something in that the Orcish shaman already anticipated, as he immediately hit him with his staff, sending the man crashing into the nearby Orcs. In that moment, Grillok looked around him as the ship was turned into the battlefield.

The black armored soldiers were bolting through the battlefield and killing every single orc that they could find with lethal speed and precision. Which, in fact, shocked the Grillok to the core, because they thought that the species known as Humans were weak.

Which in fact...

It was really true.

But at the same time, it also wasn't.

It seemed that the Humans were not like Orcs.

Orcs, regardless of their age and gender, were inherently strong, but humans were not.

At the same time, it seemed they had underestimated them a lot... as he prepared to use the Life Drain Spell to finish the job, the man he had previously sent crashing suddenly appeared in front of him.

With his sword coated with water of all things, he slashed toward Grillok with newfound ferocity. Obviously, the Warlock and second-in-command of the Bleeding Hollow Clan won't be going down that easily because they were all proud fighters of their clan, so they fought till the end. 

In a split second, before Grillok could finish casting the spell he was preparing, several tens of Water Blades appeared around his opponents and shot towards him at lightning speed.

They were so fast that he could barely dodge them, as some of the ones that missed him certainly missed the orcs behind him, as they were cleaved in half. There were a lot of Orcs on the ship, but they were falling like flies to those blades that were killing them without any resistance until they dispersed or crashed into the ocean.

The power behind those Water Blades was no joke, as they even tore deep into the ship.

Suddenly, green lines spread across Grillok's body as he drew upon the powers of the Fel in a way like never before. He knew that he needed to fight with ius all, perhaps even above his limits, or otherwise he would be killed by the man in front of him.

Infusion with fel magic, also called fel corruption, can manifest through physical transformation, which normally ensues, such as a change to an individual's eyes or skin color, or heavy genetic mutations, such as the growth of demonic traits like spikes, scales, and horns.

Negative corruption tends to lead to physical or mental deterioration, which could be ratehr severe in most cases.

Either way, corruption gives the individual increased strength, more magical potential, and can lead to transformation into a demon. Fel seems to tend to cloud one's judgment, or at least heavily amplify their negative traits, such as violence and impatience, while snuffing out positive ones, such as empathy, allowing one to make decisions they never would've made before.

This was something that Grillok was deeply aware of, because he was always one of the more cautious Warlocks. The Bleeding Hollow Clan was a highly superstitious Orc Clan, but at the same time, they couldn't ignore the powers of the Fel.

Yet, their Warlorkcs were pretty cautious about it, because of the dangers that Fel represented.

Unfortunately, in situations like this, there was no time for hesitation as Grillok let the Fel completely take over his body as his orcish form started mutating into something that wasn't even Orc anymore.

All for the sake of victory and killing the person in front of him.

***

General Liver looked at the Orcish Warlock in front of him as his lips curled into a slight smile... 

It seemed that the Orcish Warlock did exactly what he wanted him to do. Use the full power of the Fel Magic on himself, because this way, he would have a much easier time dealing with him than under normal circumstances.

Yes, the Warlocks have grown immensely powerful, reaching even the proper Levels of the Champion Level, yet...

It was done through Fel.

There was so much Fel in the creature's body that it was staggering.

He saw how the Warlock's body demonized in real time, when the horns sprouted from his head, and his eyes started glowing with an ominous green color that was characteristic of the Fel.

The power that the Warlock obtained through the Fel Corruption was really staggering, and even Liver himself was rather surprised by the sudden development. Yet, at the same time, he had access to some classified information of the Kingdom that was gathered over the years.

As he looked at the Warlock or the creature that he had become, he took out a small Orbal device from the back pocket of his coat. Then he pushed three buttons on the Orbal Device in a specific sequence and threw the device toward the Warlock.

The Warlock finished the Demonic Transformation as he became a fully Demonized Warlock, and it was even more evident that any traces of sanity and reason were apparently lost during the transition. At the exact moment the creature looked at Liver, the Orbal Device released its contents.

The entire area was illuminated by blinding beams of Holy Light, which targeted the beings contaminated with Fel, because Holy Light had very strong purging effects toward the Fel.

Light had purification effects on the Fel or beings corrupted by the Fel.

For the Orcish Warlock who was entirely demonized due to the Fel, its effects were even more heightened as the Warlock-Demion Creature screamed in utter pain, as the Holy Light was disintegrating part of his body at staggering speed.

Even General Liver marvelled at the sight of the weapon that the eggheads had developed.

Over the years, he noticed that more and more of the state budget was going into the research and development of the technology. He himself didn't really understand those things that much, as he was a rather old-school type of warrior.

He just needed his rapier and Waterbending.

Still, he couldn't deny the usefulness and power of the technology, which was...

Undeniable.

And just as the Demonized Warlock was getting purified by the Holy Light, General Liver unleashed the full power of his Teigu. In a split second, the flowing water around his rapier solidified as he appeared in front of the Demonized Warlock and severed the hand that was holding the staff.

The next blow that General Liver sent toward the Warlock was the deathly one as well as the final one, because it was a blade strike that slit the Warlock's throat in one precise strike. 

Unfortunately for the creature, the Holy Light had already woken it to the point where it couldn't properly react for the time being against Liver's overwhelming speed and power, as the Warlock was killed.

It was relatively anticlimactic, but the creed of the Partas Tribe was "Hunter must always Hunt". This creed also included the usage of traps and various methods to weaken the prey before finishing it, without much effort.

***

Freljord, Some Time Later

Killrogg Deadeye, the Chieftain of the Bleeding Hollow Clan, looked around in panic and distress.

Tens of thousands of his clansmen lay dead in the freezing lands of this damned island.

The initial landing went rather smoothly, as a large part of their fleet managed to land at the shores of their destination, and approximately 350,000 of their forces safely landed at the shore and disembarked from the ships.

The quality of the Bleeding Hollow Clan's warriors was superior to most of the Clans within the Horde, as they immediately organized themselves and started advancing somewhere, toward the civilization.

Unfortunately for the orcs, they lacked any maps or information on the terrain, not like most cared for things like that. Many were of the opinion that if they walked for long enough, eventually they would find an enemy that they would fight and kill.

As simple as that.

Most orcs were rahter simple-minded, and they didn't like to think about complicated matters.

When the Orcs reached deeper into the island, they had the honor to meet with the first species of fauna that roamed the frozen wastelands of the place. 

Kilrogg Deadeye looked in terror as thousands of his warriors were trampled to death, because unbeknownst to him, they encountered the herd of Balestriders that somehow appeared outside of their usual habitat.

Balestriders, also known as the Wanderers, are a Freljoridan legend. A dark omen, these giant beasts are said to roam the Arctic areas around the north of the Freljord. Having body shapes similar to giraffes, their striking features are their giant, True ice-like horns, their cycloptic, blue, glowing eyes, and humanoid arm-like protrusions scattered across their bodies like fur. 

Each Balestrider was physically powerful enough to easily trample even Hero Level beings to death, but fortunately, these creatures were rather tame by nature and were pretty reclusive. 

Preferring to live outside of civilization and keep to themselves.

Yet, when these magical creatures were provoked...

They were extremely dangerous and deadly.

Their physical strength was astonishing, and they could also innately manipulate frost and ice to their wishes... which now led to the current situation. 

Because of the ambush, it was rather unfortunate, but a lot of supplies were remaining with the ships that were either sunk or were now fighting on the seas. Not to mention, even with that included, the Orcs didn't really bring a lot of things with them, and now, they were in high need of food.

So when they noticed those huge creatures walking there and eating something, the Orcs decided to hunt them for meat.

Which was their gravest mistake.

The beasts proved to be extremely powerful as they rampaged across the Orcish troops and killed hundreds every single time that they moved. Even more problematic was that Ice Armor covered their bodies, because it provided them with very solid protection against the Magic.

And when the armor was on the verge of being overrun by the Magic of Fel, they would summon some kind of icy mist to protect their bodies, recover from injuries, and freeze all attackers to the death.

Even though the losses were piling up rather fast, Kilrogg knew that he had to do something, and he also knew that fighting with the beasts was no use. Thus, he ordered the retreat, while the Warlocks were ordered to use their Fel Magic to create obstacles so the beast couldn't follow them effectively.

Fortunately enough, the strategy was somewhat successful, and the Bleeding Hollow Clan managed to escape. Yet, Kilrogg Deadeye was furious beyond belief that this little encounter had left more than thirty thousand orcs.

This meant that almost 10% perished at the enraged creatures. Yet it was understandable, because each one of them was enormously tall, more than one hundred meters. Fortunately, the magical beasts were pretty slow and had problems dealing with fast-moving opponents, so for the orcs that were rather fast, escaping wasn't really a problem.

The problem came from their arrogance, which led them to think that they were peaceful creatures that would be killed in a few poisoned Fel Arrows. The effect on the towering creature was null, and it only got engaged.

Though Kilrogg knew that they needed to obtain some food, because feeding three hundred thousand warriors is going to be problematic. When the Bleeding Hollow Clan decided to attack the nearby islands, they predicted that the enemy would be quickly defeated by the might of Horde, and then, they would just plunder their food and resources.

This was their initial plan.

Unfortunately, it failed compeltely when they realized that this island was just a frozen wasteland.

Aside from some extremely ferocious beasts, there was nothing. 

At least, the last piece of good news that he obtained around half an hour ago was that they discovered a herd of some hairy animals that they butchered with minimal losses and obtained at least something.

Much to his dismay.

He knew that they needed to find something, or else they would have very serious problems with the supplies. What was also bothering the Chieftain of the Bleeding Hollow Clan was the freezing cold around them.

Generally speaking, Orcs didn't have a problem withstanding various types of enviroment, including that of freezing cold. But right now, even he, the strongest of the Bleeding Hollow Clan and one of the top-ranking Champions of the Horde, was feeling the frost affecting him.

He looked into the distance, trying to find the way, as his eye turned to one particular direction.

***

Near the Orc March, Freljord

"It seemed that the plan was successful, Your Majesty."

One of the officers said to Esdeath as they were all overseeing the Orcs marching toward the Holwing Abyss. Despite everything, they somehow managed to find the correct direction and head towards the Provincial Capital of the Freljord.

The plan using the Balestriders against the Orcs proved to be successful, albeit on a smaller scale than Esdeath initially hoped for. Still, being able to kill approximately 37,000 Orcish warriors was already pretty good enough. 

Manipulating the Balestriders was an arduous task that only the best Beast Tamers of the Partas Tribe could achieve. Even then, they could only nudge the beasts toward a specific direction, and it was still extremely dangerous because of the power of the beasts.

Due to their size and physical attributes, they could even squash a Hero Level individual to meatpaste with a single move. Overall, the Balestriders were not only the most dangerous magical beasts on the Freljord but most probably even in the entirety of the Sacred Phoenix Kingdom.

"Prepare the first line of traps. We need to lower their number to at least half of what it is now, before the final confrontation."

Even though Esdeath personally preferred fighting enemies head-on, when it came to warfare, she didn't have such an intention at all. She would drain them of their manpower as much as possible with countless ambushes and traps, before finally finishing them with one final devastating blow.

"Per Your order, General."

The officers behind her stated that all of them returned to the Howling Abyss as the orcs of the Bleeding Hollow Clan were there for a very crushing defeat.

They had already received word that the Great Bastion was also under attack by the Greenskins, but the situation there was different: nothing short of a Demigod could breach its defenses.