The chamber goes quiet as the sound of heavy-duty boots marches across the marble floors in the Schloss Wienestierast. The minister who had just broadcasted the speech raises his hand alongside all of the people in the room. After the royal backing from Fukviyu, the country of Wien was its own absolute monarchy. The emperor, with his black leather coat made from the fur of a slain Lusian beast, Alaric von Eisenherz, had days prior declared martial law across the entire country and enabled the mass conscription act.
His pitch-black, flowy hair that was neatly combed, combined with his piercing gaze and sharp masculine features, made him stand out from the rest of the royals. The emperor was sitting and waiting for his guests to arrive in his meeting room adorned in jewels.
He adjusted the badges and stars on his chest and on his military cap. He then heard the three knocks signaling that the guests had arrived.
"Welcome to Wien, my dear cousins," he raised his hand towards the open seats around the table.
"The pleasure is mine, Alaric," Viego replied.
Eterna grabbed the ends of her skirt and bowed at the Emperor. Servants stood behind their chairs and pulled them back for them to sit.
"Viego, have you acquired the support of the nobles in your kingdom?"
"Do I seem like a man who can't keep my word?"
Alaric chuckled a bit before saying that he never doubted the royal family.
"But I see you are dealing with quite the tenacious cockroach," Viego said smugly.
"Generalleutnant Erich von Stapel. Before the nationalists retook the country, he was one of my fellow colleagues in the military. I say this with no exaggeration, there's no one better than him when it comes to rallying people to fight for his cause."
"You speak highly of an enemy," Viego grinned.
"One of the most important aspects of an emperor is to be able to gauge the enemy."
After a long discussion amongst the royals, Viego and Eterna left the conference room with a glint of excitement in their eyes. As they were making their way to their rooms, Eterna asked Viego if it was truly necessary to put a mongrel on the throne of Wien.
"Who else knows best than the animals themselves?" Viego responded.
Eterna rolled her eyes just thinking about the fact that her grandfather had slept with a Wienian, diluting their pure royal blood.
"Anywho, we have no option but to use him to militarize our kingdom against the Luvian Empire."
Eterna and Viego skimmed through the battle reports ever since the war started.
"I know they are incompetent, but even with royal blood he fails to defeat these weak rebels," Eterna growled while sorting through the battle logs.
"Eterna, have you ever been on a battlefield?" Viego casually asked her.
"Not particularly," she answered without empathy.
Viego approached his sister and took the battle logs from her hand with force.
"You can't judge a king's ability to lead if you have never been in that position yourself. Remember, you are merely a spectator. Humble yourself."
With a pouting expression, Eterna went to sit down, staring at her brother's back as he continued to analyze the battlefield's situation.
Early the next morning, the entire capital of Wien had been extra fortified with hundreds of thousands of soldiers on standby if anything were to happen. The emperor and Viego had foreseen an Umstürzler ambush on the capital, but they didn't know when they would start the offensive. The entire east side of the capital was protected by the massive river running through it. The north and south were heavily manned, with the west coast being covered by harsh mountainous terrain. Wien was practically an unsiegable city that was a military general's nightmare to break through.
In the conference room, all of the military generals alongside Alaric von Eisenherz sat, awaiting the Umstürzlers' first move, ready to adapt to any attacks they attempted.
8:57 in the morning, the first announcement from the south gate was delivered to military commanders. The Umstürzlers had begun their siege of Wien.
The generals wanted to immediately reroute soldiers from the north gate to help support the south, but Alaric stopped them, saying that they had most likely split up their army into divisions. He said to hold defensive positions until the enemy fully committed. The generals sent out their orders for the soldiers to continue holding entrenched positions until further notice.
At the south gate of Wien
Selina pulled out several blue lox stones and channeled her loxes through them until they burst. Behind Selina, a 12.5 meter tall and 50 cm diameter cannon made entirely out of crystals was formed. 8 of them were lined up and pointing at the south gate of Wien. The soldiers immediately opened fire on the cannons, yelling to quickly take out the lox user. But Erich's experienced soldiers returned artillery fire to cover for Selina.
She clutched the silver necklace Erich had given her and smiled as the last one of the crystalline cannons was made.
"Your gift was magnificent, Erich, as a member of the Fivindus family you have my deepest gratitude," she raised her hand up into the air and swiftly swung her hand down, signaling for the bombardment.
With a loud explosive blast, crystal bombs completely decimated the enemy fortifications. The Königsteuer couldn't respond due to the constant volley of highly destructive lox bombs.
"My Emperor, the south gate has been utterly destroyed." One of the generals reported back to Alaric.
Selina glanced at the clock on her wrist, and as the clock struck 9:05, the cannons ran out of steam and shattered into thousands of glass fragments before turning into dust.
The south gate was in rubble after the 8 brutal minutes of intense volleys. 236 crystalline bombs were fired, 2700 Königsteuers dead, 3000 injured, and the city now exposed from the south. Selina immediately ordered the follow-up offensive, and the army that had been assigned to her all thanked her for this opportunity before screaming:
"LONG LIVE WIEN!" Thousands of soldiers began flooding the southern city, completely overwhelming the defenses that had been set up.
Generals pleaded to Alaric to allow reinforcements to relieve the south army. Viego then objected and said that he himself and his royal reinforcements would take care of it.
As Viego left the conference room with his sword in his hand and the Aeon of Ember igniting onto his cheek, another report came in. The north gate was now being ambushed by Erich von Stapel himself.
Finally, Alaric reacted and sat up, throwing his coat over his entire body and saying that he himself would lead the battle against Erich.
"But Emperor, you cannot just leave! You must oversee military command!"
The Emperor's piercing gaze froze the generals in place as Alaric repeated once again that he would take on this battle against Erich. He told the generals to take command for him and walked off.