New Enemies

As everyone stared at Fuschia’s hand, Richard gloomily got to his feet, “I checked everything, this was the only complete part I could retrieve. I burnt the rest of the remains.”

Tiramisu answered slowly, “Lady Alice... I guess at least we have seen her for the last time. Master, burn this too, she will only be reborn once her body is burnt.”

Richard nodded, grabbing the ring before having the hand float in mid-air. Specks of blue flame pounced onto the lone hand and quickly disintegrated it completely. He then started walking towards one of the caves, “Go rest up, I’ll be reorganising you tomorrow.”

Waterflower and Zangru headed to their own caves immediately, while Tiramisu decided to lie down where he was. Macy was the only one left without knowing what to do, but Richard suddenly turned and beckoned for her to follow. She hastily followed him into his cave, watching as he took off his tattered clothes and started dressing his injuries. The large wounds emitted a strange green glow similar to Tiramisu’s, making it obvious that he had been hit by the large warships as well.

“I’m sorry,” he said softly, “I lost my temper, and I shouldn’t have taken out my anger on you. I was the one who underestimated the enemy, it isn’t your fault.”

“No, I was being wilful,” Macy shook her head, “Don’t put everything on yourself, you’re not invincible.”

“Heh, no I’m not. But I am their lord, and I’m responsible for the decisions that take them to where I go. Just as I’m celebrated for their accomplishments, I’m to blame for their deaths.” He finished cleaning up his wounds as he spoke, but they were still glowing green with the stubborn poison. However, a glint of determination flashed in his eyes as he quickly brought his blue flames to bear, leaving Macy gasping in shock as he burnt his own wounds to a crisp.

By the time all of the major injuries were treated, Richard’s aura had weakened significantly. He was gasping for every breath, but the green poison was entirely gone. He turned to Macy, “Could you bring me some food?”

Macy nodded and blinked away, retrieving a full box of rations. Richard was worn to the point that he couldn’t even lift the box himself, but as she fed him his aura quickly started to recover.

......

Richard was back to full strength by nine in the morning, at which point he rearranged the teams. Macy was assigned to Tiramisu while the other saints were shuffled between him and the two assassins, and moments later a flock of messengers flew out from the valley.

The entire day was filled with battle. Killing the flesh warriors and reapers one after the other, Macy felt like she was pushing a boulder up a mountain as every enemy she destroyed was replaced with another. The exact amount of energy to use to efficiently kill these things became muscle memory, but the major fatigue was now to her mind. She only lost attention for a moment in battle before a large warship locked onto her and started a beam attack. If it weren’t for Tiramisu’s hammer blocking it, she would have died immediately.

When night fell, Macy and Tiramisu finally returned to the base with fewer injuries than before. Zangru was already there, while Waterflower had passed through reaper territory according to plan and was currently heading towards a southern base.

It was only at midnight that Richard himself returned, exhausted and riddled with wounds. Once he was finished with the same processes he had employed the night before, he took out the vial that contained the metal he had been collecting all this while.

The vial was now nearly full, and the metal within had formed a strange sort of liquid that was glowing softly in the dark. Richard felt strangely serene in its presence, as though it had a soul of its own that was conveying peace. This was definitely something he had never seen before, so resilient that even his destructive blue flames could do nothing to it. Even the broodmother had been unable to digest the drop he had sent to her, and she was currently thinking of a way to decompose it herself.

A quick calculation told him that he would only need to kill three more reaper teams before the vial was completely full. The fatigue finally took over as he started wondering what to do with it, his eyelids slowly falling shut as he entered a deep sleep.

This would be the last time he got a good rest for a long time to come.

.......

The rigour of the next day’s battle was well out of Richard’s expectations. He had already realised that the reaper army was growing in power, but no matter how many teams he destroyed single-handedly their numbers continued to skyrocket. Most of the teams completely disregarded him this time, charging straight past him towards the depths of the Iron Triangle Empire.

A large army of reapers with a handful of the large warships and dozens of the next biggest ones made a beeline for the first line of defence, but what was truly frightening were the transport ships trailing behind. There were nearly a full hundred of them, implying a force strong enough to overthrow the Frozen Throne!

As more powerhouses lost their lives and the pressure started to increase exponentially, those teams fighting in the depths of reaper territory were suddenly ordered to retreat. Although red-eyed from the loss of their brethren, they asked for no explanation and quickly fell back to a marked base that was hundreds of kilometres away before realising what had happened. Sixteen of the Iron Triangle’s cities were destroyed in the span of several hours, and the reaper army was expanding in a wing that left all the supply bases alone. The broodmother was the only one who managed to stop them, using her drones and the larval forest to hold them off.

The reapers were expanding far faster than Richard had expected. He could only alter his arrangements and transfer all of his powerhouses to the back lines, giving them a chance to rest as the armies battled it out. Unfortunately, the enemy had the advantage in both quality and quantity, using violent and relentless attacks to crush the Iron Triangle Empire in only two days. Salwyn’s newly reorganised troops were summarily crushed without a chance to respond, with the Land of Turmoil being the only area that still managed to hold off attacks. Even that needed some support from the Crimson Empire, and cost an enormous number of lives.

The reaper armies currently looked like a turbid current that had been split around the hard rock of the Land of Turmoil, one portion striking west towards the Iron Triangle while the other aimed east for the human nations there. Both then aimed southwards, wrapping around the Crimson Empire like a pair of pincers.

Richard rearranged his troops constantly even as he fought on the front lines, taking care of all the large warships and transport ships that he could. However, day after day only brought worse news, indicating defeats and broken lines on all ends. He understood that no one location holding would do much good if he couldn’t shore up the entire defensive line, but try as he might to maximise his recovery potential he still needed hours of meditation every day to get back to full ability. There seemed to be no end to the reapers, and two new warships appeared with every one he destroyed.

The ground troops were no longer limited to flesh warriors either. The reapers had started deploying a taller, stronger, and faster type of drone that walked on six feet, their upper bodies loaded with even more powerful weapons than before. These new spider warriors were butchers on the battlefield, capable of wiping out entire squadrons of knights within seconds. Thankfully there weren’t too many of them, and their defensive capabilities weren’t too great, but they had a special type of gun that could launch a hail of large bullets that did massive damage due to sheer speed. Richard had personally seen half of a saint warrior’s body being blown apart in seconds, ending his life instantly.

The battle was arduous, and the defensive lines were constantly broken through and mended, but the Crimson Empire gradually steadied its defence. Waves of powerhouses from Norland entered Faelor to earn points, and their addition bolstered the armies and allowed Richard to secure a handful of critical locations. Weeks after the initial engagement, the reapers finally retreated like a tide.