Steel and Mana

Chapter 281 – Distant Whispers

The Geth Empire's invasion into Ishillian soil was a move that both parties knew would have long-lasting effects. It was so far into the past since the two empires clashed that nobody could tell who would be the ultimate winner this time around. From the beginning, Emperor Kadosa IV made it clear that this would be a campaign unlike any before it—a holy crusade. It was further spurred by bitterness in the heart of the people over the previous winter's devastation, finding the blame in Ishillia, one way or another. It aimed at reclaiming the lost favor of Gods and, of course, plundering their resources. Geth banners embellished with the Empire's distinctive white and pink colors and the image of their holy artifact, the Medallion of Life, flew proudly over miles of marching troops, whose numbers dwarfed Otto's army. Their first wave already counted more than 200,000 souls, crossing the borders en masse. Despite being strained by winter's harshness, Kadosa rallied his forces in advance, directing everyone's anger towards their neighbor throughout the difficult months while enlisting anyone who was willing to swing their weapons against Ishillia.

Before the call of a crusade, the Emperor's core army was already prepared and swelled to a frightening level. Its heart was composed of trained and disciplined soldiers equipped with proper armor and weaponry, including imperial mages, called 'Clerics' in Geth, assigned to them. Tens of thousands of foot soldiers led the charge, their spirits conditioned to be fanatical by Kadosa’s fervent speeches throughout the winter. Behind them marched legions of armored cavalry, each of their commanding officers handpicked from Geth's noble families. They were bound to the cause by both loyalty to the crown and an unshakable sense of obligation to their Goddess. Supply wagons rolled alongside the columns, slowed by the weight of provisions and war supplies and because of the muddy earth, a byproduct of the melting snow. Yet, whenever they got stuck, the willing people of the Empire were there to dig them out. They were what made Kadosa's army double in size, as regular folks, with their axes, scythes, and simple tools, were marching along the army, driven by the call of the crusade.

As the soldiers advanced through the borderlands, they crossed vast fields where crops once flourished, now barren and desolate thanks to the long winter. There was nothing to plunder. The melted snow had given way to swamp-like mud in these regions, turning their march into a grueling ordeal. Still, just like their wagons, the people were also helped by the voices of chaplains, shouting orders and hymns amongst their ranks.

“Each step,” they declared, “is a mark of our faith, a testament to our endurance!”

The border towns they passed by, unprepared for an invasion of such scale, surrendered quickly. Ishillian troops had long retreated on the order of the Eternal Emperor, and the people's resistance was sparse—only small skirmishing groups of scouts and militiamen who attempted to slow the advance remained, but they could do nothing. Kadosa's disciplined formations crushed the outnumbered defenders, capturing resisting troops and forcing survivors to swear loyalty to Geth, promising them safety if they complied. It wasn't that hard to accomplish, either. Most of the people were already rebellious, willing to switch sides. However, despite these early successes, there were warning signs that this would not be an easy campaign. As the Geth troops pushed deeper into Ishillian soil, the terrain itself became increasingly hazardous, the flatlands giving way to thick forests and tall hills. Their scouts started to disappear, no longer transmitting news back to the main army.

The dense forests were a double-edged sword; they provided the Geth troops with some cover against being discovered but also concealed Ishillian forces who raided their flanks multiple times since arriving in the deeper regions. Kadosa’s generals noted with unease that these skirmishes were steadily becoming more frequent and more coordinated. The first hints of genuine Ishillian resistance were showing themselves, and the Geth generals began to adjust their tactics, expecting to come face-to-face with the so-far eerily silent Ishillian army.

As the Geth Empire’s forces drew closer to the southern Ishillian region's capital city, Volkhir, the very landscape seemed to resist them. They reached multiple river crossings that became treacherous, their waters swollen with melted snow, and bridges were either destroyed by Ishillian forces or deliberately sabotaged to slow their advance. Every day, the Geth troops trudged further into enemy territory, and every day, they lost a few more soldiers to sporadic ambushes. Even though Kadosa was supposed to do this side by side with Ahnud, the Emperor of Sar, he could not delay it any further. Ahnud's forces should have been here, preventing Ishillia from launching these raids unless it wanted to be caught in a pincer attack. Still, there was no way he would turn back now.

In the fourth week, the Geth forces arrived at the foothills just beyond Volkhir. They had covered an impressive amount of ground, but because of their vast numbers, logistical issues began to arise. Supply routes were constantly harassed, especially at the river crossings; their temporarily built bridges were burnt down almost every time they assembled them. Then, there were foraging parties, continually reporting that the countryside had already been stripped bare by the retreating Ishillian forces. Emperor Kadosa ordered some of his elite cavalry units to probe further ahead, hoping to find a weak point in the Ishillian defenses and deliver a decisive blow that would restore momentum to his campaign.

But what they encountered was not a weak point. The cavalry scouts returned with their numbers halved: an Ishillian defensive line had been established, spanning multiple kilometers, laid down right before Volkhir. Ishillian forces had fortified natural bottlenecks, setting up entrenched positions with hardened barricades, and... An Ishillian warship opened fire on their troops the moment it noticed them. As the Geth troops finally reached this line, they saw the full might of Ishillia arrayed before them—rows upon rows of infantry, archers, and ballistae that dotted the cliffs and hills above, each group prepared to face the advancing Geth forces.

There was no turning back now, not after coming this far. It was time to fight, and because of that, the first assault was the most brutal war the Geth Empire had taken part in in the past centuries. Kadosa ordered his troops to charge the Ishillian line, hoping to overwhelm them with sheer numbers. The Geth forces surged forward, marching in loose formations to minimize losses from the Ishillian archers stationed on the hills dotting the landscape. The battlefield reverberated with the clash of metal and the screams of soldiers as wave after wave of Geth troops attempted to breach the entrenched Ishillian line. Yet, Ishillia's defenders were unyielding.

Then, the first magic spells were fired from the Ishillian side. Their bombardment was aimed at the backlines of the Geth troops, but it was countered by Geth clerics, who erected holy, golden shields to block the magical attacks. When they returned fire, summoning firey columns to come down from the skies, they were similarly thwarted by Ishillian mages under the direct command of Lucca, Pascal's disciple. Unlike Otto, who was focused on assault, Lucca specialized in defense. His goal was simple. Hold the line and let the enemy bash its head against his soldiers, slowly whittling them down to nothing. Unlike Kadosa, he knew from the start that this war would be long and prolonged... this was only the preamble.

Those Geth soldiers who could reach them in the first clash and scrambled over their barricades fell under a hail of arrows, the thrusts of pikes and swords; Ishillian commanders held their ground, directing their troops with disciplined precision. At the heart of the resistance was a contingent of Ishillian veterans, each one conditioned to fight in close quarters. As part of the Geth troops broke through the initial barricades, these veterans met them with sword and spear, halting the advance with brutal efficiency, massacring them all.

As the battle raged on, Emperor Kadosa realized that his initial plan would not be enough to break Ishillia’s defenses. He had to call the attack off and spend the following days in preparation for a second assault. He ordered his siege engines to be brought forward, intending to smash through the Ishillian line with catapults and trebuchets while his clerics were healing his soldiers and shielding his engines. But Ishillia's forces had prepared for this, too. Each time a siege engine was rolled into range, it became the target of concentrated ballista fire from the hillsides. Their physical attacks weren't something that magical shields could deflect. In the end, they managed to reduce multiple siege engines to splinters before they could unleash a single shot.

In the end, days turned into weeks, weeks into months, as spring turned into summer. The region became a blood-soaked battleground. Geth's forces attempted multiple charges, each one leaving more of their number scattered across the field. The Ishillians, though outnumbered, fought with a resolve that seemed to defy logic as if they were the very spirit of their Empire. In this battle, it was finally shown that Ishillia grew to its size, not just because of its ruling bloodline. A warmonger empire's legacy was with its soldiers, within every swing of the sword and every shot fired. These troops were the core of Ishillia's strength, gathered from its developed regions.

Supply lines became increasingly strained as reports of Ishillian guerrilla forces kept disrupting the rear flanks, no matter how many times they thought to be exterminated. Food supplies were late, and the grumbling among the ranks grew louder, especially amongst the easily swayable, untrained civilians who joined their crusade. Still, Kadosa pressed on, unwilling to retreat, hoping that after Ahnud managed to hold back the attack against his Empire, he would reinforce them.

Until then, he tried to turn towards unconventional methods. He ordered a night assault, hoping to catch the Ishillian forces off guard, but his enemies' defenses held firm. Magical spells illuminated the darkness, allowing them to fight as if it were noon. No matter what he tried, the Ishillian forces remained vigilant even under the cover of darkness.

By the tenth week of the incursion, the Geth army found itself at a complete standstill. The battlefield had become a swamp of mud and blood, with corpses littering the ground and the stench of death permeating the air, proving the genuine danger of a possible viral outbreak. The once-proud banners of Geth were also stained, slanting in the hands of weary standard-bearers. Emperor Kadosa’s dream of a swift and holy conquest had devolved into a bloody quagmire. Each day, he watched as his forces chipped away at the Ishillian line, only to see them repelled time and time again.

It was a cruel stalemate. Of course, Ishillia's defenders were not any better off. Every loss they incurred was twice as hefty, considering their fewer numbers. Reinforcements from other parts of the Empire were few and far between as a full-blown rebellion had also erupted in the old Kingdom of Scorc. Then, Barth had his own forces up north, dug in, and prepared to repel Mirian if she tried attacking the Empire. For Lucca, there were enough reinforcements to bolster his line wherever it had weakened dangerously. He could keep holding out, but there was not enough to allow him to push the Geth forces back. Both sides knew that this war would not be won quickly. With each passing day, as more soldiers succumbed to death, it became clear that the conflict between the Geth Empire and Ishillia would be a prolonged and bloody struggle—a battle of attrition that neither side could afford. Yet, neither was willing to abandon unless their leaders wanted to risk losing their crown.

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Faraway from the battlefield, up North, life was different. It was a warm, clear night, and a tiny shadow silently slipped out of the bedroom within Avalon's palace. A pair of tiny, bare feet ran along the corridors until they reached the inner garden.

"Arthur!" She called in her mind, finally noticing her brother standing outside, looking up at the starlit sky.

"Hm?" He turned around, wearing his pajamas, noticed his sister, and asked back without voice, his thoughts directly transmitting into his sister's head. "Did I wake you up?"

"Duh! You sneaked out! Again! You heard it? Again?"

"Yeah." Arthur nodded while Leyla stood next to him, looking up and trying to listen but not with her ears.

"I don't hear it."

"It seems I can't fully shut it out, unlike our parents or other people's thoughts. It sometimes slips past me." He added with a sigh, shaking his tiny head, slightly frustrated.

"What did it say now?"

"I couldn't understand." Arthur answered his sister honestly, as they never kept secrets between them. "I just woke up, feeling I am being called. That was all. But I don't hear it now either..."

"Where was it coming from? Still the same place?"

"Yes. Still the same place."

Both of them looked towards the North, directly at the massive mountains dominating the horizon. They first heard the strange calls when they were only a year old. They very quickly realized it was something unnatural, nothing like their parents' thoughts, so they hurriedly shut it out, closing off their minds. But... Whatever or whoever it was, it never gave up on contacting them. And sometimes... they managed to get through to Arthur when he was asleep.

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