GARAND POV
Imperial Palace, Grand Court Mage’s Study, 293 years ago
“Vermillion, your vermin. If you want to fight, you need not spy on . I’ll pay your kingdom a visit, then we fight.”
The orb in the centre shattered before the duo’s eyes. The duo being a young rman and a strange humanoid creature with golden hair.
The rman, the newly appointed Grand Court Mage, Garand imdiately yelped in fear.
“Ah! You didn’t tell you were going to spy on such a thing. I’ve never heard of anyone breaking a spell in such a way.”
She scratched his head thinking about how insane a feat he just bore witness to. The person to his side on the other hand just looked at the shattered remnants of the orb and scoffed.
“Stupid old man. Does he know how long it takes to build houses?”
After insulting him, she proceeded to swim away from the room. Garand, although still shocked by the event, managed to regain a bit of composure and grab the blonde’s wrist.
“Wait!”
He ordered her and she looked down on his hand, then at his face with her usual overbearing glare. Garand let go of her and gulped.
“Who- what was that?”
She stared at him for so ti, before finally answering.
“His na is Fafnir and he’s an Ancient God. He’s also a target for extermination.”
“What do you an “Ancient god”?”
He asked what the blonde presud to be a stupid question. She suddenly realised why he asked such a question.
“Oh, that’s right. You people down here only know of that so-called “Primordial” Sea Goddess. Whatever. He’s simply a nuisance. Now that I know where he is, I shall go deal with him.”
Upon hearing her words, Garand’s mind automatically ran several possibilities and inferences. Multiple assumptions ca out and through a process of elimination and factual evidence he had seen from her, he had arrived at certain conclusions.
Once again, he grabbed her wrist.
“What do you want this ti?”
“Y-You can’t go.”
“Why not?”
“I’m guessing you’re saying there’s more beings just as powerful as the Primordial Sea Goddess. And this Fafnir guy is one of them. If that’s the case, then you can’t go.”
“And so?”
“My point is they are crazy strong. You couldn’t hope to f-“
“Huh? Is that all?”
She cut him off with an annoyed tone. Her vermillion red eyes glowed with a certain level of boredom.
“Haven’t I said it before? No matter how many tis I tell you, you still don’t seem to get it, Garand. I don’t care how strong or fierce my opponent may be. If they want a fight, I will burn them to cinders.”
After delivering those words, she made to leave. Garand could only look at her as she walked out, with him unable to utter any other words.
Sothing told him to tell her to stay back. A certain uneasiness that were she to leave, he would never see her again. But then, as if to reassure Garand, she paused in her tracks and turned around to see him.
“Don’t worry about my life. I promise you we will cross paths again if I haven’t outlived you.”
“Vermillion…”
He whispered her na gently as she faded away. Unsurprisingly, her words managed to instil in him a certain level of confidence. He was made to believe that she would actually return.
That was the last ti Garand and Vermillion ever spoke. The next ti he would receive information about her, would be from her most trusted servant. News that brought him a brief mont of despair and a single glimpse of hope.
***
PRESENT TI
‘And you still don’t seem to get it when I say I don’t care.’
Garand’s mind went numb after hearing those words. As he gazed upon Hinotori’s figure, all he could see was the outline of his first love, Vermillion. Looking as all powerful as always.
“Vermillion… I see.”
Quickly, the figure vanished and Hinotori was staring at him weirdly.
‘Huh? What’s with this Vermillion person anyway.’
She sent a ssage directly to his brain, making him realise that she had been reading his thoughts for quite so ti now. He suddenly felt stupid for trying to conceal his thoughts in front of this person.
“Hahaha! I see, I see. If it’s you, then you might be able to beat Fafnir.”
‘Fafnir?’
“Yes. Fafnir, an Ancient God. Vermillion, your mother, once fought against him and fatally wounded him.”
‘W-W-W-WHAT?!’
_____________________________
TRAVEL LINES, NORTH-EAST AREA
Several armoured fishn and rn swam in uniform without rest. So were on giant crabs, spider crabs, shark dogs, catfishes, poerpoles. This army number 12,000. Twelve battalions of a thousand troops, all led by twelve lieutenant Colonels, with the Lieutenant General leading them on the battlefield.
Most mbers of the army had been left behind in the Exsuole Empire had been left behind as this was supposed to be a simple tactical invasion, done swiftly. This way, were they to fail, the consequences would not be nearly as grave and collateral could be ignored.
Basically, every single mber present was disposable.
“Halt!”
A loud order was sent amongst the troops and quickly resonated, bringing the loud army to an eerie silence. They all straightened up and stood in line with not a hint of mistake.
The lietenant colonels, on their poerpoles all turned around and headed towards the centre of the army, where the Lieutenant General was supposed to be. There, they could see a black film being set up. That was where the Lieutenant General would sleep. If he set it up, it ant one of two things. They were either going to take a break here and rest for the day or he simply had a mission.
One of the colonels, a crab man with an unusually big crab arm got off his poerpole and swam towards the film. The guards standing in front of it cleared a path for him to make way as he went in.
“Lieutenant General?”
He called with his clanky voice. The Lieutenant General sat across a large peal in the centre of the film that had nothing special in it, except for the strange red hue. The crab man looked at the Lieutenant General who was growling.
“Tell the n that we’ll be resting here today. We begin again when the Lumors co around.”
“Ya sure that’s a wise, erh… choice? We need ta get ta that fancy city, Yorul, in about 2 days and we lost quite the deal of ti with all the dumb problems them fancy idiots in power brought up.”
“Don’t worry about it. His plans have never gone wrong. He says we can take tonight off. However, the primary invasion unit should already be at the borders of Atlantis by now.”
The crab man rubbed his heavy black armour with his smaller claw while thinking over the statent.
“This plan, it’s beyond , but the King of Atlantis. He’s a genius! He managed to keep even Makrov at bay, although he aint as strong as him.”
“Don’t worry. His ability cos nowhere close to our leader. He’s taken into account everything and says we should proceed as such.”
“Oh well. I ain’t smart. All I’ve got is my big claw that can cut through any armour. I’ll leave the planning to you. If ya need anything, I’ll be getting myself drunk with da boyz.”
He left the film to go inform the others. The lieutenant General on the other hand only sighed. The orb was humming and blinking slowly before him. This ant he had either received a ssage from soone or there was an incoming live transmission.
From the looks of things, it was a live transmission.
He tapped on the orb twice and it projected onto the walls of the film, four different panels. In these panels were silhouetted n.
“Lieutenant General Zibal.”
“Ministers.”
He responded with arms behind his back.
“Progress report.”
“It has been a week since we last conversed. We are a day away from making contact with our target, so we have intentionally slowed down progress in order to prevent anyone from spotting us.”
“Is that so? Anything else to report?”
“My n are currently in a poor condition. Proper subjugation of Yorul will be extrely difficult. If we coul-“
“Lieutenant General Zibal, I believe we you are already aware how dire the state of our country’s resources is in? Using such valuable products on you and your ragged-”
“Er-ehm!”
A loud cough ca from another panel.
“I believe what Minister Grandari is saying is, we currently have no ans of transporting food supplies to your n at this ti.”
“So, we are supposed to fight on empty stomachs?”
“Clearly, you’ve done an outstanding job the past five days. Another two should be nothing for the great Lieutenant General Zibal.”
“If I may, Minister Grandari. Five days without a proper al spells doom for an army, no matter how great a general they have.”
“Oh please. This is hardly a challenge for soone of your… calibre.”
Zibal’s nails dug deep into his palms as he witnessed the scene. The Minister of Civil Service and Lord of Treasury, Grandari was a fiendish selfish man who cared not for the army, as he saw them as a waste of money. His goal was always to cut down the number of soldiers even though Exsuole, by nature, was a military county.
“Grandari. Is there truly no way to help them? I have been on the battlefield myself against Atlantis. I know how tough an opponent they have to fight.”
The one to plead for the army was of course, the Minister of Defence, transport and interior security, the General Altos.
“Altos, you are being too kind. You yourself have gone a month without food and still survived far worse than a simple infiltration mission to Yorul.”
Grandari barked back. He seriously was not in the mood to help the army out.
“It is because I’ve been through such an experience before that I know how bad things get when soldiers do not get food. You wish for them to start fighting amongst themselves? Feeding on scraps of uncooked at and ending up with all sorts of diseases? Having less than half the number of n sent actually capable of fighting on the actual day? I wish for you to reconsider.”
“A-Altos-“
“I believe, you should listen to him, Minister Grandari.”
“Yes. Have the mages teleport so resources to the army, Garand. You can spare just a few for them. Enough to keep them going for the next two days.”
“You all do not understand how bad things will get for us if we do such a thing. We’re walking a fine line when it cos to this. At any mont, the people will riot.”
“Oh please. If the people were going to riot, they would have done so when Makrov was in power. You know as much as we do, that the people need us.”
“So, we’ve decided?”
“Indeed.”
“B-But-“
“Minister Grandari. The council has co to a close. It is unfortunate Minister Dariel could not join us for this eting, but I believe we can make this decision without his insight, wouldn’t you say?”
That was a jab at Grandari who had once before made a proposal without Minister Dariel’s presence in the eting. A tsk could be heard from the other side, as the feed was cut off.
“Minister Grandari agrees it would seem. Expect the delivery tomorrow.”
“Very well.”
Lieutenant General Zibal bowed.
Two more panels were cut off, leaving only one panel. It was Altos.
“Is the secret unit at the expected location?”
“Yes.”
“I see. Once we send the resources to you, I will begin the mission over here. I will sneak in so teleportation stones into the packages.”
“Very well then, sir.”
“As you were soldier.”
The transmission feed cut off, leaving Zibal in the red room. He looked at the orb that was still glowing then tapped on it three tis, shutting it off.
“I just hope this goes well.”
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