Chapter 96: Kingdom of Varania
The fall of Norona City did not merely send shockwaves through the Hudeii Desert; it violently shattered the centuries-old geopolitical script of the wastes.
Three days since the Tempest Invasion came to a close, Norona City has struggled to recover, disrupting the information network.
And preventing any information from leaking.
But Mandraxx did it’s job.
With so many evidences gotten by Alisa, she had deliberately leaked every single information regarding the invasion.
Rumors spread like wildfire that even the citizens of Yeren City were informed.
The government had no power to block such wild rumors from spreading.
For generations, Norona City had been a terrifying monument of absolute military dominance, an unyielding bastion of heavy Orc infantry, Ogre generals, and necrotic Troll priests.
It was the anvil upon which the desert’s lesser factions were broken.
But when the news of the Tempest City invasion—and the subsequent, gruesome decimation of its defensive lines—swept across the arid expanses, an unprecedented panic gripped the region.
The dynamics of the Hudeii Desert changed grandly overnight.
Norona’s military might and presence fractured into bleeding remnants, while Tempest City’s military presence and power multiplied tenfold.
With the existence of two Martial Lords and three Martial Generals under Tempest City known to the desert.
The narrative of Tempest being a fragile, fledgling settlement vanished completely, replaced by the terrifying realization that a new predatory apex had claimed the desert.
Fear turned into migration.
Tens of thousands of merchants, wandering mercenaries, and lower-class beastmen who had long suffered under oppressive regimes began packing their banners.
A massive, endless caravan of refugees and opportunists began migrating from Yeren City and the outer rim, abandoning old loyalties to seek protection and wealth within the rapidly expanding borders of Tempest City.
The name of the God of Beast was known to all.
And many who had heard his honorifics instantly prayed to him. Hoping they would be received in his city.
Tempest City welcomed the migrants with open arms. They had lots of lands, hundreds of empty buildings.
But no one to occupy them.
The name of the new Tempest City was changed to the Holy Kingdom of Varania.
With the new territory expansion project created by Roy.
It had finally earned the rights to become a Kingdom.
Three days after Varania Kingdom was established.
They released an announcement that shook the very core of the Hudeii Desert.
A official unification of all lifeforms in Hudeii Desert.
All unified under the banner of the God of Beast.
***
Meanwhile, inside Yeren City.
Deeper within the desert’s interior, the news reached the isolated fortresses of the provincial governors, plunging their private chambers into absolute chaos.
In the scorched, iron-reinforced chambers of the Southern Waste Sector, Governor Kaelen stood frozen before his grand sand-map.
When the courier delivered the scroll detailing Norona’s fall and the manifestation of a primordial sea beneath Norona.
Kaelen’s heavy, scarred hands violently slammed onto the oak table, shattering it cleanly in half.
He was trembling in excitement.
"Finally!" his laughter boomed, "That damned Troll King finally got a taste of his medicine, to think Tempest City was hiding two Martial Lords"
"Manuses truly has reached a level beyond us" Governor Kaelen inhaled deeply.
**
Within the subterranean, crystal-lit chambers of the Western Mining Domain, Governor Vane sat in a high-backed stone chair.
The golden scroll trembling slightly between his thin, jeweled fingers.
Vance was a man of coin and logistics, and the metrics before him were disastrous.
"The migration rates from Yeren have tripled in the last twenty-four hours," Vance whispered, his voice cracking with a mix of awe and profound dread.
"Our laborers are fleeing. Our mercenary guards are breaking contracts to enlist in Tempest’s auxiliary ranks." he clenched his fist.
"If we allow things to be as it won’t be long before Yeren is emptied" he inhaled deeply, "Send a diplomatic envoy to Varania Kingdom immediately.
"They need to reduce the rate at which they accept migration"
"We’ll negotiate with them"
**
In the lush, silk-draped pavilion chambers of the United Hawk-kin Enforcers headquarters.
Governor Sorsha stared out her arched window at the distant, lightning-scarred horizon.
The continuous trembling of the earth had cracked the beautiful marble fountains of her courtyard.
She did not yell; her reaction was a cold, calculated silence that terrified her attendants.
"The balance of the Hudeii is dead," Sorsha murmured, her dual-colored eyes narrowing as she tightly clutched a glass of spice-wine until the glass fractured.
"The Troll King was beyond our comprehension, yet he was solved like a simple puzzle."
"Thank goodness we are in an alliance with them" Governor Sorsha inhaled deeply, "Vance may be thinking of negotiating with Varania Kingdom"
"After all, we are losing our inhabitants faster than we could even imagine" her lips curled faintly.
"Varania huh?" she mumbled silently, "It seems they really do intend to solidify Hudeii under their authority"
"Varania would never let go of this opportunity, after all...."
"They intend to devour us all by the way"
**
Deep within the wind-scoured stone spire of the United Leopard-kin Army headquarters.
Governor Corin paced his chamber like a caged beast, his heavy metal armor clanking loudly against the floorboards.
His reports were the most grim—his scouts had witnessed the sky above Norona turn pitch-black from miles away.
"Martial Lords throwing hands and breaking cities from the inside out..." Corin growled, a bitter, self-deprecating laugh escaping his throat.
"To think the Troll King was actively collaborating with humans to commit such atrocities" he clenched his fist.
"They must pay for their crimes"
**
Meanwhile, at the absolute dark heart of the desert’s power hierarchy, Raksha City received the news with a chilling, detached gravity.
Unlike the panic-stricken provinces, the obsidian streets of the capital remained dead silent, the oppressive atmosphere heavy with the weight of ancient secrets.
Deep within the innermost sanctum of the Grand Archive, surrounded by thousands of ancient scrolls detailing the true, erased history of the Hudeii Desert.
A mysterious Violet Eagle-kin Elder sat cross-legged on a platform of pure, necrotic jade.
His long, skeletal fingers slowly unrolled the blood-stained parchment delivered by an elite shadow-scout.
The Elder’s eyes, completely devoid of pupils and glowing with a faint, hollow emerald light, scanned the lines describing Roy’s grin amidst the slaughtered troll priests and Croak’s declaration of the Primordial God.
For a long time, the Elder did not move.
The silence in the archive was absolute, broken only by the faint, rhythmic ticking of a soul-bound hourglass.
Then, a low, raspy chuckle escaped his throat—a sound like dry leaves scraping across a tombstone.
"Razarak... you fool," the Elder murmured, his voice echoing eerily off the high stone vaults.
"You thought erasing your name from the sands would save you from the ancient tide."
The elder’s lips curled into a lopsided grin "To think your ’gods of misfortune’ was outlasted by a mysterious primordial god"
"This feels good" he chuckled softly.
The Elder stood up, his long, tattered robes sweeping across the floor as he turned his gaze toward a grand, sealed mural at the back of the chamber—a mural depicting a colossal, multi-limbed beast shadow rising over a fractured desert.
"The Hudeii Desert has fallen under the absolute control of the Holy Kingdom of Varania" he exhaled a soft sigh.
"They should commence their territorial expansion already"
"I must pay the new rulers of the Desert a visit"