I became a legion lich

272 Settling on the continent

Just like the church, the order mages were forced to retreat after a few minutes of battle, but their losses were minor. Mages with an affinity for wind or magical items that allowed flight fled through the air and took as many mages as they could with them.

The order of magic only used mages and disposable slave troops, so they could retreat much easier compared to the church, which relied on large numbers to fight.

Dozens of coastal cities and fortresses fell, this time the damage being far more serious than the previous battle. During the previous battle, the demihumans had taken over the strongholds and despite the structural damage, the focus was on killing the humans, so the repairs weren’t as extensive after the humans regained their territories.

This time, however, the story was different. The destructive power of the Mermans in the ocean was on par with natural disasters like tsunamis and they submerged entire cities, leaving only wreckage after the tide passed.

The only battles that ended with the humans winning were the places where saints and elders fought, but even those battles were difficult compared to the previous ones, an obvious bad omen for humans.

All the elders defended their respective locations alone and ended the battles completely out of mana and unable to support the other strongholds that were defeated, as they did during the first invasion.

That simple fact showed the difference in power between the first wave and the second, making all humans fear how strong were the evolved demihumans that would come during the next waves.

They also knew that at this moment, the demihumans who had reached the southwest of the continent were peacefully disembarking at the bases that the demihumans of the first wave had created, but they could only gnash their teeth helplessly.

Humans weren’t even able to properly defend their territories, it was impossible to send enough soldiers to eliminate the evolved demihumans along the entire coastline.

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This also reinforced Eishin’s thinking that he should speed up his ascension plans and once again came into contact with Samael, who forced the holy spirit to produce even more holy energy, causing the spirit even more suffering.

Samael once again warned Eishin of the dangers of accelerating further, but Eishin again ignored his warnings.

Canan and Eirin, on the other hand, were regretting their past decisions while working at their moon base. They had neglected the Caprio continent after establishing the three kingdoms, focusing their resources and armies mainly on the nearest Sytrer continent.

There were no known demigods on the Caprio continent and the world’s energy density was weaker compared to the other continents, so the continent’s own magic resources and natives grew at a slower pace compared to other continents.

Even the order of magic that was created as an organization to support the human kingdoms on the continent only kept three of its elders on the continent, the other four usually stayed in the Makima empire.

The Caprio continent has always had a low priority for the human gods, who supported the humans only in order not to lose their foothold on the continent and left the rest to the three kingdoms, supporting them only when they were in times of crisis.

None of them could have imagined that this decision would cause such a situation, but there was no use crying over spilled milk.

The order and the church along with the human kingdoms began planning how to retake the lost cities a second time, but the mood was tense and despondent throughout all the meetings.

The demonstration of the evolved mermans’ destructive power was enough to send shivers down the spine of anyone who wanted to face them. The ability to manipulate water made each merman a natural disaster when near the ocean and a catastrophe as a group.

Each could generate destructive power equal to a large-scale spell and control them with the same naturalness as a member, something a group of mages was unable to replicate.

Armies led by masters of magic might be able to defeat them after an arduous battle, but the losses would be huge. It would also be possible to only send Elders and Saints, who have already shown to be able to defeat them, but that would leave them exhausted and they wouldn’t be able to keep up the pace for long.

Many of the elders were of advanced age and despite being excellent warriors, they lacked the stamina for so many consecutive battles.

Both the Three Kingdoms and the Order of Magic’s strategists stated that it would be unfeasible to defeat the mermans while near the sea, strongly suggesting that they wait for the evolved demihumans to move away from the ocean before attempting a counteroffensive.

The church objected, stating that it was too dangerous to allow the evolved demihumans to take root on the continent, but they also did not offer an alternative option.

They were the ones who suffered the most during the invasion, along with the kingdom’s soldiers and the thousands of slaves of different races, but nobody cared about the latter. Unfortunately, there wasn’t much any of them could do and however much they thought until they almost broke their brains, they couldn’t think of a way to overcome the strength of the mermans.

The order of magic had magic items that interfered with the world’s energy and made certain elements unusable, but they were useless against mermans.

Mermans used the racial ability to control the ocean and consumed only mana, without a drop of world energy.

Mages who possessed mana bodies noticed that the mermans’ ability was very similar to how they could control natural elements that had high affinity and shared the information with the order, but this did little to resolve the situation.

As none of the strategists could come up with a strategy to suppress the merman’s ability, it was decided that they would abandon most cities and coastal strongholds, preferring to face them away from the ocean where their powers would be limited.

Mermans could still carry weapons made of water that would remain solid as long as they were holding them, but it was much better than facing them near large bodies of water that could be freely controlled.

The Belaster Islands would be a big problem, though. Half of its territory was made up of islands and the mermans would have an easy time submerging them, along with anyone foolish enough to try to defend it.

Thersec, the water elder who was left in charge of one of the coastal islands had a hard time dealing with them and was almost defeated, surviving only because of the countless artifacts he carried with him.

The church and order of magic would still organize raid parties with elders and saints, plus masters of magic and anyone else strong enough to accompany them.

It was the only way to reduce the influence of the evolved demihumans on Doravon, even if it was only a temporary measure.

The order also undertook to collect the corpses of demihumans to study them for weaknesses or countermeasures against their racial abilities.

Reinforcements would also be sent to towns closer to the coast, but it was doubtful whether that would make much of a difference. Cities that already had defenses and branches of the order would easily receive reinforcements, thanks to the teleportation crystals they had serving as a beacon for the portals.

Small towns that lacked magical defenses or rural villages, however, would have to be completely abandoned and their citizens evacuated to larger cities. It was impossible to defend all these small places, even at the loss of fertile land and resources near the cities.

The large number of refugees would cause a major problem for the kingdoms, causing unprecedented famine and overpopulation problems in cities that were not prepared for it.

The kingdoms started food rationing to try to reduce hunger and bought food from the Caria empire, which had an abundance of food and used to export, but it still put more economic pressure on the kingdoms.

Both Belaster and Mirkor were spending everything they could on equipment and resources so that their soldiers would have a minimal chance of fighting, instead of being trampled like ants by the evolved demihumans as happened in battles so far.

The only ones that were helpful were the court mages, though they paled in comparison to the order mages.

All humans could feel that they were slowly being cornered, but there was nothing they could do to reverse the situation.

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