Chapter 509: Waiting
Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The outcome of wars largely depended on the resources that the participating parties had available to them. Looking back at previous battles, Shansa Empire and Ellisen Empire had to act on their common interests to stop Maho Empire from overpowering them. This showed that the resources Maho Empire possessed far outranked those which the other two empires possessed.
In this battle, Yolanthe employed almost all the resources he had to fight against Scarlet. Except for the legion in the north border line, who still stayed to prevent Ellisen Empire from attempting to cross the border. Death Roaring Legion, Sacred City Palace Guards, Blackania City Border Guards, Shield of Light Legion and palace mages all came to the Cross Valley. Even bear druids and eagle druids came to help. For Ellisen Empire, even though Edward VIII tried his best, Ellisen Empire was much weaker than Maho Empire, in terms of military power.
Strategies employed in wars mainly relied upon military power and, secondarily, upon special strategies. Even though Scarlet did not fall into any traps, her military could not fight back against Maho Empire's aggression, especially when Yolanthe had special forces employed in this battle. Yolanthe immediately figured that there was something fishy going on, and asked Miorich to lead Sacred City Palace Guards in traveling north on the same night, allocating all the craftsmen to Moramatch Town in order to rebuild the underground city with dwarves and gnomes. Those craftsmen also transported a large amount of supplies to the Cross Valley as they went.
Blackania City was a military town. A large number of craftsmen and apprentices, about 8,000 in total, had been working day and night for more than ten days. When Miorich came to Moramatch Town, the underground city looked completely different.
Of course, there was no man who was perfect, nor any perfect plan. Yolanthe had heard about the underground city. He meant to ask Miorich to hide in the underground city, along with Sacred City Palace guards, so that he could escape griffin riders' reconnaissance, which would allow them to attack Scarlet in surprise. However, no one thought that the underground city could accommodate so many knights, especially when they all had horses. Horses took up more space than people. In addition, the supplies were also stocked in the underground city. Every part of the underground city was opened in order to accommodate them. The areas around the underground river were even remade into a few plains. Even so, the underground city still could only accommodate 13,000 knights, at most. Most Sacred City Palace Guards stayed in Blackania City.
Luckily, the League of Mercenaries was considered to be the resource of Maho Empire. In the original plan, Yolanthe did not want to have mercenaries from the League of Mercenaries involved. One reason for this was that Anfey and the League of Mercenaries had done so much, and made such great contributions, to Maho Empire already, so Yolanthe did not know how else he could reward Anfey. Even if Anfey did nothing at this moment, he had to give Anfey a new title that would be two steps higher than his current rank, at least. This speedy promotion shocked Yolanthe, who believed it was not good for any young man to get promoted in such rapid timing, because it could destroy him with inflated arrogance. However, fate had placed Anfey and the League of Mercenaries in this exact critical moment. They needed to take control of the exit of the Cross Valley, cut off the path which Scarlet wanted to retreat through, and chase after the Shansa Empire military.
There was a story about druids joining Yolanthe. The bear ear druid king, Bruzuryano, was a good friend of Saul, and as he knew about Yolanthe, he was firmly on Maho Empire's side. Wolf druid king Manstuly had been wanting to recover the glory of the druids. He was invited by Bruzuryano to see Yolanthe in Sacred City, but he came with sinister motives. Eagle druids king Mauso had been holding a neutral stand. He did not want to be involved in this conflict, and did not agree with Bruzuryano. At the same time, he had a clear vision for the druids. He thought the glory of elves would not be recovered, and he was against Manstuly's paranoia.
Manstuly asked the eagle druids to chase and kill Suzanna collectively. Mauso did not like Manstuly's idea. As an "observer", Mauso's intelligence was as good as his visions. He immediately saw Manstuly's real intentions, knowing that Manstuly only wanted to drag him down into the water. Back then, the reasons Manstuly had for this desire was that Anfey had been hostile toward druids—even having publicly attacked their temple and killed over ten druids there. He told Mauso that Anfey was cruel and perverted, and that he had raped beautiful elves. Manstuly even sent victims of Anfey to the eagle druids' station, hoping that would make Mauso angry.
The positive consequence of this was that Anfey saved many human slaves, and even a few elves, when he tried to save Alice. Later, Anfey sent those elves to Tiger Tawau mercenary group, asking them to seek help from Hotchbini. Those elves became Anfey's "victims". These victims described Anfey's vicious acts with a sad tone, telling stories of how Anfey had used hot iron on victims' bodies, pulling their teeth and hair out, even raping elves and sharing them with his mercenaries. Those victims showed their wounds and explained how Anfey inflicted each upon them. Mauso found that more than a few victims looked uneasy. He found an opportunity to speak with them in private. After talking to them, these victims cried out loud at first, and then told the truth to Mauso, revealing that Anfey did not actually rape them. Rather, it was Manstuly's druids who had raped them. All of these assaults were arranged by Manstuly and elf pharaohs. They were forced to lie about their virginity, as a virgin would not be Anfey's victim. At the end, they even sworn with their lives that Anfey was a good man.
Mauso did not believe in Manstuly anyway. After he heard the truth, he doubted Manstuly even more. He went to see Bruzuryano, who was furious after he heard what had happened. He scolded Manstuly for his dishonesty and transgressions. He told Mauso that Anfey had connected with Heart of Nature, becoming the new messenger for the god.
This was why Mauso agreed to help Manstuly, but secretly protected Suzanna. When he noticed Suzanna was at the verge of breaking through, he fought with Suzanna day and night to help Suzanna become a new top power.
Usually, Mauso would retreat to his tranquil life at this point, because he disliked conflict and fighting. After Suzanna survived, a few elf pharaohs came to the eagle druids' station and blamed Mauso for going against his promise, then they asked him to take all the responsibilities for their lost. Mauso became enraged. When elf empire was at its peak, druids were just vassals of elves. In fact, druids were humans who believed in the Goddess of Nature. The number of elves was not great back then. They needed humans to manage the world. Druids were the best bet. After elf empire withered, druids and elves transformed into friends from vassals. How could those few elf pharaohs have dared to curse and scold Mauso in the eagle druids' station, treating druids as their servants?
Mauso had grown very sophisticated. He never lost his temper in front of others, because he believed that actions spoke louder than words. After he agreed to the elves' requests and sent away the elf pharaohs, Mauso turned around to see Bruzuryano. They both immediately agreed to help with the battle, as the battle was about to break out.
With Mauso's help, the griffin riders were constrained. Griffin riders relied on their flexibility and flying abilities to for surveillance. Eagle druids were better in both these areas. In fact, with Mauso's help, Anfey's league became much stronger. Scarlet had sent griffin riders out to scout Cross Valley, in order to prevent Maho Empire's attacks, which gave eagle druids a perfect stage to show off their skills. Eagle druids went out together and attacked griffin riders in squads or squadrons, killing messengers and attacking small groups of soldiers. When they met a large group of soldiers, they were able to report the exact number in that group. After the valley exit was taken over, Scarlet lost communication with Edward VIII.
The soldiers who guarded the exit of the valley knew that Scarlet would try her best to fight back at any cost, especially if Scarlet discovered that her communication path was cut off. On the other hand, Baery would chase after Scarlet at any cost. This was a game of big fish eating small fish, while small fish ate shrimp. After the big fish ate the small fish, the shrimp would protect itself well with all it had.
Capable people usually took on more responsibilities. Saul was the busiest. He ran around to set up magic arrays as fast as he could. In the skirmishes, no mages had time to set up gigantic magic arrays, but in the positional warfare, magic arrays were necessary, especially when Saul could still join the battle after the magic array began. It was like having extra help from a top power.
Jacob was busy as well. He was not only the assistant to Saul, but also did research on deicide arrows and bed crossbow-like weapons. Scarlet calculated very well. She even had a plan B to enact if the whole station was taken over. There was a gigantic Blasting magic array. Once the magic array was triggered, the whole station would be submerged in lava. Very few people knew about this array. If soldiers found out about it, it would hurt Scarlet's reputation. No one wanted to be deserted. Once the magic array started, lava could not only cover the whole station, but also kill all of them. Unfortunately, the only general who knew about the magic array had become Anfey's target, so Scarlet's plan failed miserably.
Jacob had dissembled the magic array and spent most of his time on the magic weapons which Golman created. He knew how amazing people were in the ancient times via reading. But when the real objects were in front of him, it became a different story.
When Anfey discovered that the magic array Saul set up was the same Magic Array of Space Chaos that Jacob loved, Anfey became interested in it. He wanted to take the chance to learn more about the Magic Array of Space Chaos. Anfey gave up this quest for learning after hanging out with Saul for just one day. In fact, Anfey's short-term memory was very good, but short-term memory had a drawback, which was that Anfey could only remember the things he had experienced before. For example, no matter how messy the room was, newspapers, cigarette wrappers, cigarette butts, slippers, tea cups and other stuff was scattered everywhere on the floor. If Anfey took one look at them, he could tell the exact location of each object if asked about where that specific object was. It was like he had a camera in his head and took a picture of the scene. However, those objects were manmade, and Anfey had seen them or something similar to them. Magic notes were different, and very complicated. They were like a new language to Anfey, so obviously, it was not a good time for language learning at this very moment.