Karnak, Monarch of Death

Having been appointed the commander of the army, Batalok gathered his officers to devise a strategy for the upcoming battle.

Giyen Ren’s path of advance was rather predictable. He had continued his path west from the eastern fortress of Ment Citadel, and at the end of that path lay the imperial capital, Thea Krahan

Batalok spoke while pointing to a spot on the map. "Thus, we will face them on the Rapaol Plains."

The Rapaol Plains lay between the capital Thea Krahan and Jaksum City. It was a region well-suited for large-scale maneuver warfare. Once they decided on a location, the officers racked their brains to draft tactics and presented them to Batalok.

Batalok nodded in approval after reviewing the strategies. "Excellent. We’ll fight them as planned."

However, all of the hard-devised plans were rendered useless the very next day. It was because of new intelligence they received.

"Giyen Ren has turned south."

"What?"

Giyen Ren had captured Jaksum City and raised a new army of undead, then suddenly turned his forces southward. If they were aiming for the capital, they should have continued westward.

Batalok clicked his tongue. "Now that I think about it, he never explicitly said he was aiming for the capital."

It had simply been an assumption on the empire’s part.

"Then what is Giyen Ren after? Is it nothing more than chaos itself?"

***

The Marland Fortress, built at the mouth of the Arun River in the southeastern empire, lay about a five-day march southeast of Jaksum City. It was a military fortress armed with high walls, watchtowers, and layers of magical wards, housing a considerable garrison of 3,000 soldiers.

Inside, it was fully equipped not only with military facilities but also residences for civilians and food storage, designed to withstand a siege of ten times its number for at least a hundred days. Yet it had taken less than a single day for all of this to fall into utter ruin.

The once-solid walls were shattered like brittle biscuits, scattered in every direction, with thick smoke rising above the rubble. It was the aftermath of dragon breaths.

Most of the buildings had been reduced to ashes, and countless corpses lay across the scorched earth. Those who had barely survived were bound in chains, dragged along in misery by the hands of monsters.

"Goddesses, have mercy..."

"How could this happen..."

Amidst the despairing cries, a man in his early thirties ground his teeth. "You vile wretches!"

The man had black hair and eyes, and his priestly robes were stained with ash. However, upon close examination, a faint embroidery of the milky way could be seen on the robes. It was the mark of a priest serving Parnel, the Goddess of Stars.

"Giyen Ren! You still dare call yourself an archmage? How could you commit such monstrous sins, even though you were a hero respected by both the fae and humans?!"

He was a man of considerable spirit. Even while bound tightly by elven warriors, he glared defiantly while hurling curses. "Do you feel nothing, seeing these countless corpses? Have you truly lost all sense of guilt? To desecrate the dead and torment the living! What vile, cowardly wickedness is this?!"

Giyen Ren gave no reply to the priest. Instead, he turned his head and said curtly. "If you would."

A young knight in his twenties stepped forward.

The priest of Parnel raised his voice. "And who are you, boy? A human? Have you become a cultist at such a young age? How pitiful! To stray from the righteous path and plunge into sin so early in your—"

Emil Strauss pressed a finger lightly against the priest’s forehead, and black smoke erupted like a storm, engulfing the priest’s entire body. With a harrowing scream, the man convulsed violently, and after a moment, he slowly raised his head with a calm face.

He dusted off the ash on his robes with an amused expression. "Oh? Have I returned? I have returned, indeed. Yes, this is a living body. The heart beats, and I breathe. Well, Master Giyen Ren! It is good to see you again in this era. I was rather noisy, wasn’t I? I did tend to talk too much at this age..."

Giyen Ren thought to himself. He hasn’t changed at all, this man.

There was no longer a second-rank priest of Parnel here. There was only the fallen Pope of Stars, Leoslav, who had returned from the future.

Leoslav continued to ramble, looking himself over. "So this is how you secured a body in this era as well, Master Giyen. No matter how great an archmage you are, there’s no way to resist once we’ve grasped your hand, is there?"

Suddenly, he turned to Emil and asked, "And you, are you the Avatar of Tesranach?"

Emil replied with a light smile. "Please, just call me Emil Strauss."

Then he took something out from his robe and handed it to Leoslav. It was a pitch-black cube, an Anti-Time-Space Transcender. "Now, fulfill the duty given to you."

Leoslav accepted the cube, then closed his eyes for a moment. The body he now inhabited was from his younger, weaker days. As it was, he did not have the strength to carry out the great task bestowed by Tesranach.

He muttered a short prayer, and the dark power from the Anti-Time-Space Transcender began to seep into Leoslave. "My Lord, look upon me..."

Black currents and starlight radiance swirled around his entire body. It was a power that defied all laws of the material world, a power that ruled over death and darkness. It was a power that defied the heavens themselves.

"I am ready," said Leoslav.

***

After capturing Jaksum City, Giyen Ren’s forces continued their southward advance, reducing even Marland Fortress to ashes along the way. It meant that the empire’s subjugation force had to revise their plans drastically. At this rate, they could no longer employ tactics of intercepting the enemy by setting up defenses ahead of their march.

"We will have to pursue them." Batalok examined the map and asked, "Where are they now?"

Based on the latest reports, his adjutant pointed to a spot on the map. "They are currently marching southwest along the Kasbul Plains in the Ashan region."

Batalok gave his order. "Then we head there as well. Prepare accordingly."

The officers of the subjugation force revised their strategies and tactics according to their new order. But then, things took another turn.

Messengers from all over the empire arrived in haste. Though each had come from the south, north, and west, their reports were nearly identical. "The Cult of the Black God has risen in revolt!"

At first, Batalok found it absurd. "Who in the empire doesn’t already know that?"

The news of Giyen Ren invading the empire under the banner of the cult had long since spread. However, the messengers’ reports were of an entirely different nature.

"We do not mean Giyen Ren!"

"The cultists are rising in simultaneous revolts all over the empire!"

***

Currently, there were four factions among the forces of the Cult of the Black God causing turmoil across the Lacania Empire.

First, there was the main army of Archmage Giyen Ren, who had crossed the Pellantia Mountains to invade the empire. He was backed by the mages of the Golden Branch Society, powerful elven and dwarves warriors, legions of monsters, and even dozens of dragons. It was truly a mighty force to be reckoned with.

Maloka calmly delivered her report, an apparition of her hovering in the air by magic. "Now, in addition to this, cultist armies have simultaneously risen in the north, south, and west of the empire. Unlike Giyen Ren’s army, which is a mixed force of various races, these are typical cultist forces."

The image was projected by the light emitted from the eye of a dead crow, a communication phantom created through necromancy. It was a preferred method of communication for the Twilight Order, and it involved using corpses of birds or animals to transmit messages over long distances.

It was a method not often used by most necromancers. The technique itself was not particularly difficult, but it was far too easily detected. If a crow reeking of unholy energy was flying through the skies, no priest of the goddesses would fail to notice. Even on dark nights, it made no difference. Priests could sense foul energy without relying on sight.

However, things had changed since the emergence of the Cult of the Black God. They had developed methods to conceal the power of darkness with much greater subtlety. In other words, they could sufficiently hide the aura of undead creatures flying high above.

Karnak had spread similar techniques within the Twilight Order, greatly increasing the speed at which information could be transmitted for both sides compared to the past.

Using this phantom communication, Maloka continued her report. "The cultist forces differ in composition from Giyen Ren’s. Judging by their ferocity, it appears the cultists hidden throughout the empire are rising up now, determined to make this their final stand."

Powerful necromancers were leading massive undead armies, killing the living to swell their ranks continuously, and adhering to the typical tactics of cultist forces.

Though she did not need to breathe, Maloka paused for a moment before continuing with a grave tone. "And the leaders of these forces are people you know very well, Lord Karnak."

Valeria Veriliy, the Fallen Pope of the Sea Goddess Atima, was leading the cultists in the north. Rigail Hunt, the Fallen Pope of the Sky Goddess Saisha, and Splendia Vitus, the Fallen Pope of the Fire Goddess Katera, were leading the cultists in the west.

And in the south, there were Relfiana Invict, the Fallen Pope of the Moon Goddess Alium, and Leoslav Valter, the Fallen Pope of the Star Goddess Parnel.

Karnak nodded. "So there are five in total? Looks like Jedex couldn’t return after all."

With this, every fallen pope had now revealed themselves in this era, save for Beneville of Hatoba, Goddess of the Earth.

Karnak brought this up. "I’m not sure whether Beneville hasn’t time-shifted back yet or is just moving separately."

Maloka continued, "One thing is clear. They’re bringing people from the future back far more easily than before. I don’t know what changed."

Karnak questioned, "How’s the empire responding?"

Maloka responded, "They can’t ignore it, so it seems they’ve split their forces."

There was no doubt that the force led by archmage Giyen Ren was the most formidable foe. Thus, the main army commanded by Batalok and Diogres Kolon was still targeting Giyen Ren.

Instead, they had detached 5,000 troops each from the 30,000-strong army to dispatch across various regions. As a result, the subjugation force’s numbers had been reduced to 15,000, and the number of aura users and priests under its command had diminished considerably.

"So the empire decided to handle each region separately?" Karnak seemed to consider something before he spoke. "Then we won’t need to make any dramatic changes to our plans."

Karnak’s original plan had been to take advantage of the battle to strike a clean blow to the back of their heads, and abduct the leadership. Originally, they had crossed into the empire aiming for Giyen Ren, but with the situation changed, they now had more options.

Varos asked, "It would be better for us to target the fallen popes instead, right?"

Giyen Ren had the Golden Branch Society at his back, and he was even commanding dragons. The fallen popes were certainly easier targets in comparison. The empire would handle Giyen Ren just fine on their own.

Varos muttered, "The question is which of them we should go after..."

Karnak instantly made his decision. "For now, let’s avoid Valeria."

Leven looked puzzled. "Why?"

Karnak responded as if it were obvious. "Unlike the other fallen popes, she’s moving alone."

Leven frowned. "Wouldn’t that make her an easier target?"

"It’s the opposite." Valeria was traveling alone while the other fallen popes were moving in pairs. Why was that? Was it because she was far stronger than the others?

No, but rather, there was a more realistic deduction to be made. "Valeria is alone, right? That makes it highly likely that there’s someone accompanying her in the shadows."

It wasn’t hard to guess who her hidden companion might be. "Beltia, no doubt."

Karnak didn’t know exactly what she had been unto, but it was certain she had pledged loyalty to the Cult of the Black God. Even if Karnak’s party had grown stronger than before, Martial King Beltia was still no easy opponent.

Of course, Karnak had defeated her twice before, but with unconventional methods.

"Apparently, only inhuman trash would count something like that as a victory," Karnak muttered bitterly.

Varos let out a small laugh. "I can guess who said that."

For reference, Serati was currently guarding the camp with Drel, Lapicel, and Milia. Karnak, Varos, and Leven had stepped away to receive Maloka’s report.

In any case, this was why they were reluctant to go after Valeria in the north. That left either the west or the south to choose from.

Karnak made his decision. "The south."

Specifically, they would target Leoslav Valter, the Fallen Pope of the Star Goddess, Parnel.

Leven looked puzzled. "Is there a particular reason to go after him?"

Karnak responded, "What’s our goal here? We’re trying to uncover the secrets of Tesranach, aren’t we?"

When extracting information from the enemy through brainwashing or torture, it made the job easier if the target either offered up the information willingly or was prone to talking.

"The more talkative the target, the easier it is to get information." A confident smile formed on Karnak’s lips. "And Leoslav is just the type of man."