Chapter 15: Chapter 14

Ilos: Ennervae: Aqruila's Quarters

Lady General Aqruila is one of the renowned great human generals of the Los Magian.

 At the age of 34, she became the first female general in Ilos 

She is also known as the 'The Queen of Ice' because of her stunning beauty, cold attitude, mastery of the art of war, and a great affinity to Ice Magic. For every battle she goes she strikes fear in her enemies and leaves a cold mist in her wake.

She has personally led countless battles against the undead, monsters, and other kingdoms allowing her to mark her name to Ilos History

Currently, she is in her room doing paperwork.

She was bored from reading papers about monster attacks and other annual reports.

Her door suddenly opened and her mother entered.

"Aqruila! How are you, deary? I brought you breakfast" her mother said

Surprised, she relaxed a bit and faced her mother

"Thank you mother but I have a lot of work today so can you put it at the table" Aqruila said as she faced her mother

Her mother complied and left for the door but stop midway "Aqruila… I was wondering can you grant your mother a wish?" Her mother said

"What is it, mother?" Aqruila stopped  her work to listen to her mother

"Well, you see you are about to turn 35 and you haven't met a man to love. You know I wanted to be a grandmother" her mother said with a smile.

Aqruila blushed "Mother you know I am busy with work; besides I will only marry a man who can beat me in 1 on 1 fight"

She reminisced about the time when she was in love and then immediately got heartbroken. This event in her has scarred her deeply in life resulting in her cold attitude especially to men.

"But Aqruila can you grant your mother this wish" her mother begged

She can only smile and cover her face with papers.

"You know Aqruila you really should give your mother her wish," a voice of a man said

Recognizing the man's voice she and her mother immediately stood "Archmage. Forgive me for not noticing you" 

"Do not worry I should be the one apologizing for suddenly intruding" Magos said

"Anyways, you remember that I had tasked you with greeting the remaining kings when they arrive?" the Magos asked while pacing around the room

"Yes My Lord, Are they already here? They are earlier than expected" she said

"No, but I assigned another general to greet them and I will have to give you another task," the archmage said

Confused about his decision she asked, "What is, My Lord?"

"Have you heard of the reports of supposed 'Soldiers from Another World'?" Magos asked, stopping in front of her.

"Those strange men that rode on those metal beasts? Yes, I have heard of them. One of my knights, Delia, claims that she was saved by them" She said

"Yes, they have saved my daughter and the other royals. I'll order you to give these other worlders a tour in our city, and once the other delegates arrive  bring them to the grand hallsTo question them" Magos said

(1 Hour Later)

Aqruila was facing the leader of these strange men. She was pissed but she kept a poker face on.

She was supposed to greet the other kingdom's delegates, not babysit these hooligans.

For all she knew these people might’ve been up to something no good but since the Archmage personally ordered her she agreed to it.

When Aqruila arrived at the tavern she saw a man trying to kill a waitress with his sword, and she was surprised at how fast these men responded.

She also ordered one of her knights who is capable of healing magic to heal one of their soldiers, wounded by a strike of the adventurer, and bring him to a hospital

"Are you their leader?" Aqruila asked Anderson, since he seemed to be in charge of the group earlier.

"No Maam," Anderson said

"I think I'm the one you're looking for" Maxwell suddenly interrupted

"You are?" Aqruila asked

"I'm Brigadier General Maxwell of the United States of America" Maxwell introduced himself. He doesn't hold his arm again now knowing handshakes do not exist in this world.

She inspected him while walking around him. She noted that he seems to be a normal guy, except for his clothes.

"I see; I'm General Aqruila of the Los Magian Empire" she introduced herself to her fellow general.

"The Archmage is a busy man but he personally asked me to give you people a tour of the city as a  sign of gratitude for saving Misstress Eliza. We'll be waiting outside for you and continue our talk while we are on the way" she said to Maxwell before turning around and leaving.

Anderson approached Maxwell with his arms wrapped around his body "Is it just me or has the room temperature suddenly dropped?" 

"Now that you sayit," he said just realizing it now

"Anyways, dress up. We can't make the lady wait" Maxwell added

Earth: Washington D.C: Pentagon

5 Days after the Disappearance of Fort Able

The President of America was pacing around the room.

Inside was him along with the Secretary of Defence and High Ranking Military Officials. They were discussing the sudden disappearance of Fort Able which left them stumped.

"How are we supposed to explain this to the public?!" President Ron said trying to calm himself

No one dared to answer not because of fear but because they have no genuine answer or reasonable explanation for it.

"Fort Able houses almost a hundred thousand personnel of our own boys and foreign soldiers and is one of the biggest and most well-armed forts to be built. Now it disappeared along with its occupants with no trace, not even rubble remains. Heck even the underground complex located below the fort was replaced with dirt" Ron continued

The others present in the room stayed quiet.  The war was finally over and they thought they could finally relax for a bit but now they have a new problem to face. 

"Sir?" a man with a NASA pin attached to his t-shirt broke the silence. He was at least 6 foot and had black hair with a laptop in hand.

"Sir we have a satellite recording of the events that occurred before the fort disappeared," the man said

"So you waited for 5 days before revealing that NASA has that" Ron yelled, his anger now fuming because of the secret that NASA kept.

"Well, Sir, we don't know what to think of it. Our in-house scientist can't explain it either. S-see it for yourself" the man said trying to keep his composure.

He placed his laptop and connected it to the big screen located in the room. The large T.V. suddenly opened, revealing the recording of the events that happened on that particular night. 

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They watched the soldiers having a party after the Chinese surrendered; then witnessed a sudden appearance of a translucent light blue glow around the fort. They also observed that the soldiers panicked and armed themselves before the blue glow became brighter and brighter covering the whole fort.

The recording then stops with the words "DISCONNECTED" written on the screen.

"Can you explain, What the F*ck did I watch?" Ron said, now sitting on his chair

"Well, sir, our meteorologists tried to explain the blue light but ended up with nothing. We also tried reconnecting with satellite 38, the one right above the fort but also end up disappearing" the man said

"Are we sure that it's not a nuclear device that destroyed the fort?" a military official said

"No radiation and destruction similar to a nuclear blast can be seen," another official said reading from a stack of reports.

The room fell into silence again after the NASA employee finished his explanation. Ron grabbed a bottle of whisky and poured himself a glass.

He chugged the whole glass and said "Continue the investigation, we need to get to the bottom of this. We can't keep the public from knowing this. You are dismissed"

 

Ilos: Los Magian Territory: Fort Nest

The howls of pain and death echoed around the fort in the dark of night. Los Magian grunts and knights tried to fend themselves from the undead horde. They tried to send messengers to any nearby forts and cities for help but were always intercepted.

The corpse of the dead defenders littered the fort. They were either held and hanged in pikes or were cannibalized by zombies and ghouls. While some were spared only to be subjected to horrific acts. 

"Fort Nest has now fallen to the Undead hands," a corrupted Knight said while sitting on the chair once owned by the overseer of the fort. 

In his hands was the decapitated head of a once proud knight.

"My lord, the other Undead Assault Groups has successfully taken the other forts and now are marching towards Ennervae. As planned we will be ignoring other cities in order to take Ennervae by surprise. Our Master has also confirmed the arrival of the rest of the Royals in the city" A ghoul said while feasting on a corpse.

"Finally tomorrow Ennervae will fall. Go order the troops to march for the capital" the corrupted knight said eager for more bloodshed.

He turned around to witness the carnage his forces did to the Los Magian Soldiers. 

 

Ilos: Ennervae: Grand Hall

Maxwell was standing in front of the current kings of different empires and kingdoms of Ilos. They were sitting at a large round table similar to the United Nations table during a conference but this time a lot larger. He also saw Sisilica, Delia, Cecil, Mathilda, and the royals that they saved standing in a corner. He was nervous but he was used to it. Besides after many nerve-wracking operations, he went through and commanded he felt it to be natural and somewhat grown resistant to the anxiety he felt.

Behind him were Anderson and Lanrey standing with him while the other SFs were either outside or had returned to the plaza. Beside him was Aqruila, she brought him here in the guise of a tour but in reality, this was all planned. 

Maxwell leaned toward Aqruila "So is this part of the tour or am I about to be interrogated?" he jokingly said

Aqruila looked at him and was somehow impressed and intrigued by the fact that he was able to joke around even in his situation. She smiled, which was not ordinary for her and her attitude considering she was cold towards everyone and especially to men.

"Is there a problem? May I remind you, you are an uninvited guest who brought five metal beasts and displayed extraordinary firepower in front of Mistress Eliza" Aqruila said, still amused at Maxwell's behavior. 

"I understand, besides if you were the one who is transported to our world, let's say things could go south very very fast. Especially if they learn magic is real countries in our world could go to war just to get their hands on you" Maxwell explained slightly exaggerating

"You are Brigadier General Maxwell," the archmage said observing the man with his every step.

"Yes, your highness, with me is Major Anderson and Captain Lanrey from the United States Army," Maxwell said, also remembering what Eliza said about how to address a royal. Although he is familiar with it because of different media back on Earth, he was just not used to saying it. 

"We came from another world, we call Earth. We don't know how and why but when we... woke up were here" Maxwell

Maxwell heard snickering and suppressed laughter from the royals in front of him. 

"Sorry, but it's hard to--" a royal said but was cut off

"Believe that we are from another world and or that we are soldiers. It may be either one or maybe both. But one thing is for sure we ain't lying" Maxwell said firmly.

Maxwell's interruption angered the man and yelled "Truth or not but no one dares disrespect the King of Haseth"

"Please settle down now. We must be civil about this" Archmage Magos said

"Anyways, General Maxwell, we have reports and testimonies about you having erected a fort in the Guan-Tuan Plateau" Magos asked

"Yes, but the fort was built in our world specifically in the country of Unified Korea. It was transported along with us in this world" Maxwell said

"If that is the case, then how many men are in that fort you speak of?" King Arthus this time asked

"Well, I'm not sure, I have lost count. Anderson, hand me the Hologram Device" Maxwell said. The royals look on with curiosity at what the man has in store for them.

Anderson reached for a triangular device that was attached to his hips and gave it to Maxwell. Now the device in hand he placed it on the table for everyone to see.

"Hey Elsa, Anna you there?" Maxwell asked the device

"Is he brain dead?" a knight asked seeing how ridiculous what he was witnessing

Suddenly the device glowed green and then appeared 2 small women. Everybody in the room was astonished at the sudden appearance of the two.

"You call for us Maxwell?" Elsa said

Although he can use his radio to contact HQ or ask Anderson and Lanrey, he instead uses the A.I.s to amuse the people inside the room.

"Yes, How many active personnel do we have?" Maxwell asked the two A.I.s

"Fort Able houses around a hundred thousand personnel but under certain conditions, it can house 150 thousand, and because of the Chinese war we managed to house 160 thousand. After the Chinese surrendered some of the forces housed were either relocated or sent back home leaving us with an estimated amount of 90 thousand Military Personnel and 10 thousand Logistic and Non-Combat Personnel. Meanwhile, our Combat Droids are at 20 thousand units, and Non-Combat Robots are 30 thousand units" Anna explained

"Thank you, Anna, One last thing can you explain to these fine gentlemen how all of this first started," Maxwell said

"Gladly," Elsa said before snapping her finger. Suddenly a large holographic map of the Earth appeared floating right on top of the device. It was large enough for everyone to see.

While the two A.I.s were explaining, everybody was listening carefully. Anderson asks if they should show video clips during the war but dismisses the idea. He doesn’t want the people here to be intimidated by the firepower they can bring in a war. He also doesn’t want to force his tired men to fight unknown enemies especially when magic, and other wonders this world can offer. 

"In November 2072, Chinese forces have taken 60% of the Unified Korean Territory but were stopped at YeonCheon County resulting in its city defense which was called by the Koreans the Modern Battle of Yultong   where 80% of the Filipino Forces met their demise" Elsa continued narrating the events of the war on Earth.

"Sucks to be them," a royal commented, earning a laugh from the people in the room.

Hearing this Maxwell was pissed and rebutted "They may have suffered the most in the Korean defense but if it weren't for their sacrifices, Chinese forces could have taken Korea whole. Let me remind you of the situation: their enemies have the numerical advantage and they were severely undersupplied because Chinese Forces have Air Superiority and were raining down on them. Heck, I'm also surprised they even managed to stand long enough for us to come. So if I were to choose an  ally to go to war with I'll bet my life the Filipinos will have my back"

 Meanwhile, at the plaza, the Filipino SFs were hanging around at the Blackhawks with the pilots.

"AH-CHOO"

"Ah, Pota, giniginaw ako" First Sergeant Madrigal said after sneezing

"You're not accustomed to the snow are you?" an Apache Pilot said

"Yea, the Philippines is a tropical country we're better suited in hot and moist environments," he said while shivering