The Strength of the Enemy

In the Dread Keep's war room, David had called a meeting of his inner council.

In attendance were his generals, Jorōgumo and Rebecca. She and Mania were sat closest to David, and stood behind Mania was one of the three masked adventurers from the Shadow Tombs, Jessica.

“Mímir, what were their casualties?”

“Before the Lich King’s defeat, the Holy Legion had defeated thirty thousand undead and lost roughly one thousand men.”

“A thirty to one ratio?!” Abaddon yelled, dumbfounded. “How did they manage that?”

“Organisation, experience, equipment, clear planning and an ability to not lose their cool even when being swarmed by tens of thousands of undead.”

“Indeed. The Holy Legion is, without a shadow of a doubt, a highly skilled and organised force, one not to be taken lightly,” David said.

Mania huffed and folded her arms. “It’s good that we didn’t try and take over a bigger chunk of the empire too soon then.”

“Agreed. If we had tried to make our move when our force consisted primarily of unarmed undead, then we wouldn’t have stood a chance.”

“Perhaps that is part of the reason the Holy Legion was able to fend off the undead horde, your majesty.”

“That and about half of the undead they fought were spawned from nothing, not from corpses, meaning that they would be weaker than normal,” Mania added.

“Do not just try to justify our loss like that,” David cautioned. “Ultimately, the horde lost because our enemy’s army was just that much stronger. A kill ratio of thirty to one cannot solely be explained by our men being weaker.”

“It is as you say, your majesty. When the undead horde originally sacked Black Port, they managed to overwhelm the city watch within an hour. Not only did the Holy Legion hold out for longer against a much larger horde, but they also inflicted heavy casualties upon the undead as well.”

“So, our main army’s too weak right now then?” Abaddon groaned.

“Abaddon, how many Machai do we have now?”

“One thousand, Lord Emperor. Nowhere near enough.”

So, we’ve spawned, on average, five hundred Machai a month, David pondered. That means if I waited until as close to the end of the year as possible to launch my attack, we would have about six thousand Machai. I know they’re fairly strong, but so were those adventurers at the Shadow Tombs.

David bit his lip hard. Six thousand Machai and a hundred thousand skeletons…that could be enough. But, if we’re discovered before raising that army, then it could turn into a complete disaster. It also took twenty liches a month of nonstop work to make thirty thousand undead.

How the hell am I going to be able to raise those kinds of numbers again?!

“Lord Emperor?” Abaddon nervous voice made Mania giggle. “Have we done something to displease you?”

Mania bore her fangs. “I think you mean ‘Have I?’ done something to displease you.”

“Rich coming from you.”

“What was that?”

“You heard me. What have you done to please the Demon Emperor lately?”

Mania sneered. “The Awoken.”

“Awoken?”

“Ah? Weren’t you aware of them?” Mania asked with a wide grin on her face. “I thought that everyone on the council had been informed about them, but I guess only the useful people were informed. After all, even Rebecca and Eva knew about Jessica and her friends.”

Abaddon leapt up from his chair and slammed his palm on the table. “How dare you?!”

“…Lord Abaddon, Lady Mania, you are derailing the meeting,” Rebecca said quietly.

Instantly, both generals went to glare at her, but David dropped his hand onto the table, cutting through the tension like a knife.

The two generals lowered their heads and apologised for their actions.

“Forgive me for speaking out of turn, Lord Allaric.”

“On the contrary, I appreciate you silencing those two. Abaddon, I’ve told you to not let your anger get the best of you before. Mania, do not bait Abaddon to aggression.”

Both generals apologised again.

“However, Mania, I must admit, your Awoken have impressed me greatly.”

Both Mania and Jessica beamed happily at his words.

“Thank you, Master! I’m pleased they lived up to your expectations. Aren’t you happy, Jessica?”

The adventurer nodded and bowed deeply to David. “Dark Lord, thank you for your kind words.” Her eyes became a deep purple colour. “I’m happy that we could be of service.”

Well, not like it was my idea to begin with.

Shortly after David’s previous scolding, Mania approached him with an idea on how to increase their strength: the Awoken.

Using a mixture of torture and her succubus magic, Mania warped the minds of Jessica’s party, manipulating them into loyal servants of the Demon Emperor.

“I broke them down and made them realise how inferior their old selves were,” Mania explained. “Their old personalities are gone, but their memories will survive the process, a constant reminder of their weaker selves. They use their old memories as motivation to drive them to be better, to be what you need them to be.”

However, Mania wasn’t able to turn just anyone into an Awoken.

The process put a great deal of strain on the subject’s minds and bodies, meaning Mania needed somewhat strong test subjects to create the Awoken. The adventurers in Stonefall had been the perfect test subjects for her experiments, so she took initiative and kidnapped them while also providing fake bodies to cover up their disappearance.

Then, with David’s blessing, Mania started the awakening process, but only three survived.

Roland, Jessica’s former lover, had died but, much to David’s surprise, Jessica was rather indifferent towards the news.

“It’s a shame, but that’s just how it is,” she’d said. “Only the strong may serve the Dark Lord, after all.”

David decided to test Mania’s claims and sent Jessica’s party, in disguise, to Prince Julius’s war camp. Then, when David attacked the survivors at the tombs, the three Awoken helped him finish them off without hesitation.

David leant back on his throne and sighed quietly. “Putting the Awoken to one side, we confirmed that, at present, we aren’t strong enough to destroy the Holy Empire. The battle at Black Port proves that. I want an overwhelming victory, not a pyrrhic one.”

“Why is that, Master?” Jorōgumo asked.

“If we only won the war by the skin of our teeth, then the citizens of my new empire might get the dumb idea that we aren’t that strong and rebel. If they rebelled whilst we were trying to hold off the armies from neighbouring countries, we’d be slaughtered. However, if we defeat the Holy Empire so completely and utterly without room for them to think of standing up against me, then they’d become docile and submissive, which is what I need them to be.”

“Then, we would need more men or allies, would we not, Lord Allaric?”

David nodded. “As it stands, we don’t have anywhere near the numbers or tactical advantage for an overwhelming victory. Do we have any more leads on that?”

“I have no other leads right now, your majesty.”

“What about the Sons of Tartarus?” Rebecca asked. “As I understand it, one of their leaders has defected to our side, hasn’t he?”

Our side? David smiled a little. I’m glad you think that way, Rebecca.

“A spymaster whose network Mímir has systematically destroyed isn’t worth much.”

“It is as you say, your majesty. Because of my efforts, his network is all but gone. He has no fighting men, only a handful of spies and assassins, nothing that could help us win this war.”

“It pains me to admit, Master, that I and my brood are not strong enough to bring you victory.”

“Don’t worry about it, Jorōgumo. Both your brood and the giants will be invaluable to us in the long run. For now, we must accept the reality that the victory I want is currently unobtainable. Therefore, we shall wait until we have more allies.”

“I shall investigate every lead I can in the empire at once, your majesty.”

“And we’ll continue to spread rumours of the Great Disaster in Stonefall,” Mania added after Mímir.

“Not just that. I want to know about every single powerful monster, myth and legend that the Holy Empire has ever had,” David ordered. “I want to know what kinds of monsters there are, where they’re said to have been, when the last sighting of one was, and I want to know when and where I can speak with them. Jorōgumo, do you have any small spiders ready yet that could be used for information gathering at all?”

“I do, Master. Where shall I dispatch them to?”

“I’ll leave the finer details to Mímir, but I want to have as many eyes and ears across the empire as we can possibly manage. That means using whatever is left of this Sylvan’s information network and connections with the Sons of Tartarus as well.” Then, David paused and had a sudden hit of inspiration. “Find out what Sylvan knows of the slave auctions. See when they’re taking place, how much their slaves cost and what their security is like.”

Rebecca sharply inhaled and looked at David.

“I wonder how many slaves we could reasonably liberate from their cells to come and assist us here at the Dread Keep,” David said, putting some of Rebecca’s concerns to rest. “My council, obey your orders and continue to serve me well as we lurk in the shadows. When we are in a position of overwhelming strength, the Holy Empire will fall.

“However, as I have some other business to attend to, let’s end the meeting there.”