Chapter 25: Cath’s Door

The northern region, only known as Catherine or Catherine’s Forest. Bordering both The Empire of Aerthus and the Kingdom of Ten, running from the Storm Coast, a constantly raging, endless sea, reaching the Western Desert and stretching up until the Wall of the World, an impassable mountain range that reaches up above the clouds.

 

The forest itself is not just one jungle, but has hills, flatlands, three major rivers that continue downwards, through the two giant empires below it, until reaching Calm Blue, the southern ocean. But maybe the most interesting thing it has are the thousands of ruins, ancient cities and towns that lay deep within. 

 

It wasn’t always called this, it’s name came from the last Empress who ruled the land before the Tear in the Sky. Thousands of years ago this territory was one of the richest on the known lands, home of that era’s powerhouse the House of Ein. They were ruled by one family since it’s inception and maintained almost a million strong army. As the Ein family had access to resources thanks to the northern mountains, the lush fields and deep forests, their coffers were always full with shiny gold coins and jewels, envy of the surrounding powers. 

 

When the Calamity came, the whole kingdom came falling to pieces, mostly because every neighboring country looked on, wanting to jump in after their blight was over, stealing their wealth for themselves. Only they did not know that it would be the fall of the whole northern region. At first it was only animal attacks, something that was part of the life here but soon their numbers exponentially rose and even the trees started to “rebel”, refusing to be cut down.

 

It was chaos and they started to lose territory and after only a few hundreds of years passed they were pushed downwards, out of the mountains and forests as it retake the land. The ruling family died out when the Capital of Ein, deep within the dangerous new forest fell, consuming the last Empress, Catherine. It was a literal consumption, legends state a living tree, before being burnt down released it’s seeds and they consumed every living being, taking them as nutrients, growing out new trees by the minute. Such a seed used the body of Catherine to raise a giant cherry tree in the middle of the once imperial palace, crumbling it in the process.

 

The survivors soon fled and populated the southern regions, mingling with the kingdoms and their population there as the House of Ein became a legend. It stayed that, until Aerthus came along, unifying hundreds of small kingdoms, establishing his own Empire and pushing up his borders, reaching an old fortress of Ein, that was a border guarding institution back in the days, which he named Cath’s Door, a gateway to the forest.

 

Cath’s Door was built between the Swordscar Pass and a natural, sharp mountain range that goes towards the desert, the Grindstone Mountains. Legend’s state that the mountain range was once just as big as it’s northern cousin, only, it’s constant eroding is what gave birth to the Western Desert and it’s sand comes from it, still being fed by the dying rocks. The fortress was a strategic point as Aerthus I could advance from there, taking territories temporarily, harvesting natural resources before retreating. 

 

This continued until centuries later, under the rule of Aerthus IV the fortress was attacked by a never before seen wave of beasts. The main forces were caught in the wild without warning, eliminating them, not a corpse remained and soon the fortress itself fell. 

 

The Emperor organized dozens of campaigns but it was evident, the demonfolk learned a lot in the previous centuries and kept them out even killing the Emperor in one of the fierce battles, on the walls of Cath’s Door they tried to retake it. After that no Emperor tried again, instead they built defensive lines in the plains before the forest, meeting the invading demofolks time after time as they periodically burst out. Usually they held the lines until the horde dwindled in numbers, before they pushed them back to the fortress or into the Swordscar Pass’ depth as the land was soaked in blood. 

 

Maybe in the long centuries of status quo, the demonfolk got careless just as humans do and when they invaded now, they almost left it empty, not guarding their backs. Xendar took notice and struck on the advantage, launching a surprise attack with a small, elite force, taking Cath’s Door while the main army pushed the demon folks back, catching them from two sides, eliminating them and retaking the fortress. 

 

Since then years passed and it seems the demonfolk are hell bent on not letting the Empire rest as they launch attacks almost every three months, none as big as in the time of Aerthus IV, still serious enough to keep the Empire bogged down.

 

The most concerning news is that at the side of the Kingdom of Ten where Catharine’s Forest has a more easily accessible side, guarded by a long wall mostly, called The Great Wall of Naulin that has seen constant attacks by demons, nowadays experiences less and less invasion attempts. Everybody agrees in the Empire, something big is in the making, yet they don’t know what.

 

“Finally, we are here!” stretched Ren on her horse as they arrived and she looked up to the giant, obsidian walls that rose up to 30 meters high. It was almost the same size in width while in the middle five giant gates were shut tightly, the famous Pentagate of Cath’s. 

 

On the left side the reddish, sharp and barren mountain rage went on endlessly while on the right side, the walls ended where the Swordscar Pass’ deep chasms started, proving a long, deadly drop for any guard who was not careful enough. 

 

The fortress’ main constructs were inside the giant walls or carved into the mountain side as it was more of a reinforced black dam, then a traditional fortress, only it kept back not water but the hordes of low level demonfolk. 

 

“You are late.” came a thundering voice as a flash of lightning struck before them as they came forward on the narrow passage, towards the Pentagate 

 

“Fath-” said Ren but her words stuck deep in her throat by Xendar’s gaze who was standing before them in full, military heavy armor that was decorated with scars, dents and dried blood. “General Xendar, the 1st Recon Squad is reporting for duty!” said while saluting 

 

“Named first yet arriving last. Every other squad sent by the Capital already took on missions yet here you are. Any excuses?”

 

“Yes!” nodded Ren, presenting the head of the scorpion demonfolk.

 

Xendar watched on calmly but his eyes showed a brilliant light as he watched over them, clearly radiating happiness to see his daughter again after so many years. 

 

“I see. I want a full report, come to my office Captain Ren, the rest are to head to the barrack 101 to take up residence and wait for further orders.”

 

“Sir yes sir!” answered in unison as they got accepted into the garrison, going inside the giant walls that looked like a labyrinth inside, filled with torches and on duty patrols even inside the wall.

 

Ren followed her father up the spiraling stairs, close to the top, into a spacious room that had giant tables around with maps, reports of different squads and outposts established by different squadrons in the woods. There was another familiar figure inside, who was wearing a thigh fitting military outfit, as she was organizing the parchments and smiled warmly at Ren when she stepped inside after her father.

 

“Captain of the First Recon Squad reporting for duty, Vice Commander Anya!” saluted Ren but she couldn’t scrape off her smile 

 

Anya successfully advanced to the 9th realm 2 years ago and after that, half a year ago she reached Harmony Realm just like her husband. Soon, she was ordered to help out General Xendar and became the General’s second hand quickly, to nobody's surprise. 

 

There were some resistance at first but most of the army followed the General for years and know about her involvement in the battles waged previously when they were not even married and as Anya wasn’t directly commanding units, only helping Xendar out closely, most of the louder commanders soon found themselves barking up an empty tree.

 

“You can drop the formal speech, we are family when we are alone.” laughed Xendar grabbing his daughter lifting up, showering her with kisses “Oh how i missed you, you little foxy! Come, give daddy a big kiss!” 

 

“Ahaha, Daaaad, put me down, I’m all grown up now!” laughed Ren, soon wiggling out from his embrace 

 

“Huh? Really?” perked Anya’s ears up “I knew I couldn’t leave you to Hal alone at home! You are too slippery for the oldman to police!”

 

“Eh? No, not that way!” rolled her eyes “I mean by age. Anyway! I missed you too Dad, Mom~” 

 

“I heard differently from your mother, ahaha! But tell us, what is this all about?” put down the head on the table as Ren recounted their meeting with the demonfolk.

 

“I’ll organize a plan to scout the Pass, they may have more bridges built.” stood up Anya, starting to unfold a map to organize a search party 

 

“Make it so they have someone with far seeing abilities and minimum have two Harmony experts as escort. If they have other paths of crossing and are defended by the same strength they could be wiped out without being cautious enough.”

 

“How many Harmony Realm fighters do we have?” asked Ren suddenly, intrigued since she learnt not all Harmony experts wait until the 9th body refinement realm to advance. 

 

“Here? Around a hundred.” said Xendar after gathering his thoughts “Most of them advance around the 5th and 6th realm. Only a handful reached 7th or 8th. All of them fill some kind of leader role and are important assets.” 

 

“What about you and Mom?”

 

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“Besides us only Dermitos is the one I know about who advanced in the 9th realm.”

 

“Everyone who became Emperor did so after reaching 9th realm before advancing.” added Anya “Other than that it’s hard to say. There may be some hidden experts in the Empire, under the control of the reigning Aerthus, not to mention those who were under the command of previous emperors, following them still.”

 

“Then we should be fine.” nodded Ren “If you want we can scout past the Pass and-”

 

“No. Your team has it’s orders already.” cut in Xendar, presenting a written order to her

 

“Oh? Let me see~” giggled Ren, taking it quickly, opening with an excited face, just like if she got a birthday present, making her father laugh out loud. “Huh? We are to head to the First Prince’s location?”

 

“Yup, he asked for adequate reinforcements. He is now taking place in an old ruin of a town, around 10 km to the north, researching history and meanwhile scouting the area and trying to establish a peaceful contact with the demonfolk.”

 

“Did he have success?” asked, raising her eyebrows

 

“Your guess is right.” nodded Anya “He successfully established a connection to a tribe that calls themselves Forest Fairies. By the description of Prince Feynor they are butterflies who gained intelligence. Low in fighting strength, peaceful by nature but almost half of their numbers are evolved so we view them as a threat to the Prince’s forces if it’s a trap.”

 

“More than half? How are we then the adequate force?” grimaced Ren, not believing her parents would approve something dangerous like this.

 

“Don’t worry, Feynor is at the 9th realm and he fought with them in the first meeting, he himself captured five of them.”

 

“Wha… wait…”

 

“Yup, as I said, they are low in fighting strength. They dislike fights and are peaceful by nature, easily scared and vulnerable. After defeating them and releasing them back without extortion, Feynor successfully established frequent connections with them in the past seven months. The reinforcement is because the Fairies asked for help, as they are under threat by other demon folks and want to move.”

 

“This is big Ren. This could be a breakthrough so go and help the Prince.”

 

“Will do! You can count on us!”

 

“We do. Now come, come, tell Father what were you up to in the past years! Don’t leave out anything!” laughed Xendar, picking her up again and soon Ren felt like her tongue would fall out how much she needed to speak…

 

…

….

…..

 

“Fairies? Woah, sounds exciting!” sat up Poli on his bed when hearing Ren’s explanation 

 

“Huh, I never thought one day I would go and try to talk with demons. We were always told the stories of how they ravaged everything like locusts.” added Isha

 

“The low level ones are no more than animals controlled by the stronger, evolved counterparts. So it’s not so surprising. What is surprising for me is that they are alive.” commented Leinor while munching on a dried piece of meat 

 

“True.” nodded Zern “They may have evolved quickly, explaining their low strength, just so they can survive or like butterflies they live a shorter life.”

 

“Not sure about the life expectancy, cultivating expands our lifespan as our vitality grows. Same goes for them.” 

 

“Anyway,” raised her hand Ren  “We should get a good sleep and rest, because the road will take almost all day with the rugged terrain and we will go on foot.” climbed up to the top level of her bunk bed. 

 

“I agree, I had enough sleeping on the ground, finally a soft pillow~” moaned Isha, laying down on her bed as others followed suit. 

 

“This is going to be a fun adventure!” giggled Poli, polishing his sword before going to bed 

 

“Really, you are too much alike Master.” murmured Zern while climbing up, above Poli

 

“Ahaha, Lil’ Poli is my protege, leave him alone, fufufu~” giggled Ren, sticking out her head from the top of her bed “Anyway, LeiLei, don’t you want to come up?”

 

“Mmm?” blinked Leinor as he was laying on the bottom portion, looking up at her

 

“Should we go out for… I don’t know. Five minutes? It should be enough.” smirked Isha

 

“Five? Come on, Master could go on for hours I bet!” added Poli with righteous vigor but soon he got a pillow thrown into his face with such force it exploded into million pieces showering him with white feathers 

 

“Stuff it.” snorted Leinor “Both of you. You too Ren.”

 

“Tsk. Oookaaay~”

 

“We should have a good rest and focus on the mission. We will have time to fool around when we are back home!”

 

“Just as the Vice Captain said. Let’s rest everyone.” said Zern, agreeing with Leinor and soon the small room became silent. For about half an hour.

 

“How the hell got feathers in my underwear, fuck they make me itchy!” murmured Poli and soon Isha’s and Ren’s laughter echoed in the small room followed by the chuckles of Leinor and Zern.

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