Then someone in the Luminaris City felt it, a cold undead aura rolling in from the teleportation array before anyone could place it.
They then saw Death Knights. A hundred thousand of them, fully armed. The weakest at King Tier while the strongest among them was a peak Lower True God.
"Which Castle Lord fields an army like that?"
"This can only be the Nightreign Kingdom's army."
"I heard that Her Majesty Lydia Steele is close friends with Her Majesty Diane of the Aelith Kingdom."
"You know, between Aria Taylor, Diane Hayes, Lydia Steele, Isabella Rodriguez (Ice Elf Kingdom's Queen), the women in this world are doing quite well."
"Can any of them match Haru?"
"Obviously not."
"Then it doesn't matter, we men are also doing quite well."
The [Aelith Kingdom], [Silver Kingdom], [Naga Kingdom], [Ice Elf Kingdom], etc. followed. Every major force was accounted for. The thirty-eight cities were packed and loud.
…
The Great Aetherium, by contrast, was quiet.
The 200 Million Imperial Troops had assembled in the Ironvex City, less than 10,000 kilometers from Havenloch City, the nearest border settlement of the Light Empire. The two million Angels were there. So were the two war fortresses, Astral Cities among them, and nearly 700 Dwarven Airships which formed the Airship Corps.
Haru checked his morning recruitment. 14,000 top-level troops:
Elves
Dragons
Golden Beamon
Troops of Light
And 13,000 Angels, every one adult and battle-ready, ranging from Two-Winged Demigods to Sixteen-Winged Peak High Gods. The two God-Level Angel Reincarnation Pools produced six thousand True God Tier Angels daily, and Nova was already building the third. Tomorrow's yield would be nine thousand True God Tier Angels in a single cycle.
"My Lord." Celestia appeared at his side, "The Castle Faction has assembled. They are waiting for your order." A brief pause she added, "Also, a Thunder Titan from Obrys requests an audience. She claims to be Helena, the daughter of Titan Lord Varkath."
"The Titan Lord's daughter." There was a small shift in Haru's expression, "Sounds like business. I'll receive her."
"Pass down the order. Full assault on Havenloch. Don't constrain the Castle Lords' direction — let them spread across Light Empire territory as they see fit. The objective is to conquer the whole empire if possible, but I personally don't think it would fall before the Divine War begins so just try to gain as much exp as possible for the Imperial Army."
Celestia bowed, "By your will, Lord Almighty."
She withdrew, the command went out and the war started.
"My Lord descends the oracle. Attack the Light Empire."
The wilderness detonated.
Hundreds of billions of Castle Lords, troops and Rangers poured out of the thirty-eight cities at once, in columns so dense that from above they looked like rivers, all flowing toward the same border.
…
The Gods watching from the upper atmosphere had front-row seats.
"Why do they look like they're going to a festival?"
"For them, it is one. They're holding a guaranteed winning ticket and they know it."
One of the older Gods crossed his arms, "The castle forces have hundreds of billions of troops, more than the Light Empire's army. But in terms of numbers of Gods, they don't even come close, and their strongest ones are a mere handful of Intermediate Gods."
"Except for the Great Aetherium, they don't have even a single High God. Without them, Asher alone could pin the entire castle faction down. They'd never dare touch an empire on their own."
"So the Light Empire has already lost…"
"The castle faction knows it. That's why they're celebrating." A pause, "In their eyes, every native on this continent is just a 'pack of exp' waiting to be harvested."
"Including us."
Silence.
"Want to join the war then?" A God asked. Dry, flat, "His Majesty Kazehaya is a peak Supreme God. Her Holiness Celestia is one as well. She even took Varkath's arm and his hammer in a one-on-one battle. When together, unless we have a Pseudo God Monarch, nobody can stop them. But we don't have one of those, do we now?"
No one volunteered to fight for the Light Empire.
One God, quieter than the rest, said: "The empire being attacked isn't even ours. Those are the lands of that so-called 'Truth'. They displaced our 'Faith' to take that territory." Almost amused he continued, "I'm not entirely unhappy watching this."
The laughter that followed was tired, but real. Below them, thirty-eight columns kept moving. Above, the Gods stayed where they were. The wall of the Endless Continent was already loosening, the Battle of Planets was coming, which would lead to a massive Divine War. When the Abyssal Army arrived, this Imperial War would end on its own.
Everything until then was just a prologue.
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