Chapter 73: Side Story 3.1

His name was Guudra from the human country, Kingdom of Appallia. At age 15, he joined the army and began climbing up the ranks from a mere foot soldier to a platoon commander. This was no easy feat as he worked tirelessly day and night fighting against the armed forces of Grusia Empire in the northern theatre.

At age 23, he was promoted to the captain of the newly formed armored division.

"Finally, I have been recognized by His Majesty! All hail the Hero King!" He exhaled upon receiving his promotion.

At this ceremonial event, he wasn't the only one who was promoted. The country wasn't short on talents and geniuses. Those who had proven themselves worthy were given ranks, titles, wealth. The country was at its core, meritocracy. The Hero King who towered above others was no exception despite his countless shady dealings. Though, commoners had no way to comprehend the depth of his loyalty to the country. It was loyalty indeed, but a twisted one that was unforgiving.

The reason for the mass promotion event was in preparation for the next wave of clash against the Grusia Empire. With their main forces tied up in a stalemate with the Federation of Josken in the north, the Hero King intended to eliminate the empire's southern kingdom in one clean swoop.

At the time of the promotion event, a sizeable battle was raging at the Kingdom of Jod, a western kingdom within the Grusia Empire adjacent to the Kingdom of Teir and the Kingdom Faf of which the latter had just fallen. Although the Kingdom of Faf was called a kingdom, it merely had a winged beast populace in the thousands. Those from the Kingdom of Jod failed to understand the significance of the destruction of one small kingdom and looked down upon the humans. Therefore, they were caught off guard in a direct confrontation. In this battle, only a handful managed to escape from the one sided slaughter.

Why did the human populace support a one sided genocide? Well, not all humans supported this. Within the human populace, there were many small factions moving behind the scene, of which, two were similar in ideology. One such faction was a group of resistances secretly plotting to overthrow the current Hero King and replace with a new hero. Working with this faction was another faction that wished to eliminate the Hero King and its role permanently. To say the least, their progress was painstakingly slow due to the opposition they constantly faced with every movement.

Just prior to the previous Hero King passing away, Jaco Spiriard had already amassed countless supporters through his deeds. He spearheaded universal free education, revamped the old medical system, strengthened diplomatic and business relationship with their northern neighbour, the reptilians. In addition, after learning about the secrets of heroes from a mysterious source, he began forming a new faith or religion in the country to worship the Hero King. Many of his feats were due to his family's enormous financial supports. However, as he gained more supporters, his connections and backings only strengthened his movement to new heights with each passing day.

Within fifty years, the current Hero King was able to have the entire country fully within his grasp, only with minor exceptions. After all, victor decided how history should be written. To that effect, everything about the Hero King was glorified. Those that did not were erased. Artifacts, ancient literatures were destroy. Free speech was only for those who agreed with the teachings of the Hero King.

In the new teaching, humans were descendent of the gods. Those who had mixed blood were considered blasphemy and prosecuted. Eventually, this extended for those of other races including the beast and winged beast races. The reason was simple, they were deemed the results of intermingling between humans and beasts. What was strange was that reptilians were not part of this because they did not believe humans and lizards could mix. The belief was that reptilians were fallen gods because of their extensive knowledge of ancient knowledge.

Elves were deemed only as part of nature and therefore left to their own devices. After all, the Mist Forest wasn't a place humans could enter and live in. Moreover, elves couldn't evolve into demons therefore they were disregarded and ignored by the upper echelon.

Finally, there were the fey beings. They were unpredictable. In ancient times, they often evolved into demons capable of stirring chaos and fear. Their belief was that the devil would insert its essence into wildlife and incite the newly formed fey beings into demonic creatures that would eventually serve as the devil's hands and feet. As for the part where fey beings could also evolve into heroes and guardians, those were left out. Whether those pertinent information were excluded from the teachings of the Hero King intentionally or not was anyone's guess.

Now, back to the commander named Guudra. He grew up within the education system set up by the Hero King just as his parents did. They were fully indoctrinated by the new religion that worshipped the Hero King. Although they weren't fanatics, they were without a shadow of doubt loyal and faithful. There was no room to argue.

With the resistance groups becoming silent as days went by, the Hero King decided it was time to begin the next phase of operation. The underground tunnels that spanned hundreds of kilometers below ground had recently reached its primary destination, the Kingdom of Teir.

Guudra attended the war rally. Here the Hero King addressed the attendees, "My fellow proud citizens and warriors, the time of reckoning has come upon us once again." And he went on to preach. The message was simple: cleanse this world of the filth.

After listening to the Hero King's speech, the crowd cheered in thundering fervor.

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My Lord, your wish is my command! The world shall be purged of all filth and the land returned to their rightful owners! All hail the Hero King for he is Our Lord and Savior! Guudra prayed in his heart.

Little did the populace know that the humans were being manipulated by a force unseen, and too powerful to repel. To this end, even the Hero King wasn't fully aware of all the facts.

Weeks later, the human military in coalition with the reptilian military mounted a coordinated invasion on the the weakly defended city of Vera. It was meant to be a fatal blow like toppling a row of dominos, one city after another. However, the flow of events in a war wasn't unpredictable, to say the least.

There was a complete radio silence with their local headquarter.

"What's going on?" Guudra growled at one of his subordinate, "Give me a situation update!"

Guudra's group was part of the frontline tank battalion that proudly entered the city of Vera. The losses they suffered were minor thanks to the solid defenses provided by the steel plated tanks.

A few soldiers did have to bail out early due to enemy traps and defenses but those were expected. Yet, a while after they entered the city, one after another, the tanks mysteriously lost all of their power.

"Sir, we suddenly lost all communications with our local headquarter and nearby groups." One of his subordinate sitting in front of him within a heavy armored tank replied.

"Impossible. The barrier is down, and they have no way to jam communication signals. Give it." Guudra, frustrated with the current progress of battle, snatched the handheld portion of the communication device from his subordinate. "This is Captain Guudra Vrail to local headquarter, I request immediate backup on the surface operation. I repeat, this is Captain Guudra Vrail to local headquarter, I request immediate backup on the surface operation."

No matter how long he waited, there was only silence.

Little did he know that nothing had went according to their initial plans. From the air battle to the underground battle, there was only defeat. Their underground headquarter was completely wiped with only dozens of survivors on the retreat. The reptilian air force met unexpected resistance despite receiving intelligence that the city of Vera's main force was diverted to the northern theatre. Their chance to settle old scores was once again crushed to pieces.

He opened the hatch above to re-evaluate the situation, fully aware that enemy archers were still hidden in some buildings. He felt that as a military commander and as a leader, it was his duty to risk his life for his country just as all other soldiers who stood before him. Everyone was equal under the Hero King.

What is that sorcery? Don't tell me it's a devil! He cried out within the depth of his heart since he was afraid of affecting the morale of those around him.

A shadowy silhouette lurked within the city, and dashing nimbly between buildings. Each time it stopped briefly, a tank stopped in its tracks. There was no contact but he was convinced that it had to be a devil. Only a devil was capable of such a devious feat.

Not all hope was lost. Still, they held a trump card, or so he believed.

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