Year 2: Prelude to War - Chapter 2

(Hi guys, bit of a shorter chapter this time as I'm writing 3 stories at once now: The Children of Eris, Guardians: Those Who Stand Before the World's End and my entry for the MAL x HF 2023 contest, so please forgive me - next week's will be much, much bigger, I promise) 


All of the leaders of the Free People’s Alliance and their top officials had gathered in the war room.

Today was the day of their weekly war council and most were on edge.

“So, the attack inflicted minimal casualties?”

Princess Hiragi scoffed. “Minimal doesn’t even begin to cover it. Our losses were so insignificant it’s hilarious. That is.” She deployed her fan across her lips. “Until you start to realise what the Demon Emperor’s intentions were.”

“To think he would dispatch that many undead just to probe our defences.” King Alexander shook his head in disbelief. “Is a horde of thirty-thousand really such a small number to the tyrant?”

“We couldn’t just ignore them, could we? If they had broken through, they would’ve burnt miles and miles of land, killing Gods know how many.”

“That’s exactly how he knew you’d respond though.”

“What do you mean, Kella?”

“When the Demon Emperor was slowly infesting the Holy Empire, he destroyed the city of Black Port with an undead horde and purposefully left his forces there, all to lure Prince Julius and the Holy Legion in. He wanted to test the empire’s response time, the effectiveness of their troops and the skill of their leaders. Prince Julius’s decisive victory at the city is what probably made the Demon Emperor come up with a plan as cruel as the Sack of Themis.”

“So, he intends to do the same thing here?” Princess Hiragi asked.

“I wouldn’t be surprised, your highness.”

The princess hummed softly, then retracted her fan with a smile. “Then, he will strike at us again and again, probing our frontlines for a vulnerability.”

“Why do you sound so happy about that, Hiragi?”

“Oh, Bernaught, since when were we close enough that you could address me so casually?”

“Both of you, please,” Queen Dorothy pleaded.

“What if there was another reason for the Demon Emperor to attack the border?”

“Dante?”

“What if the attack and all that information gathering was just a big diversion for something else? Something that would easily slip under our noses? Something more valuable than anything he could’ve learnt from attacking the Yun’s defensive line?”

“Go on.”

“If there’s one thing I think we’ve all learnt about the Demon Emperor over these last few months it’s that he never does anything for just simple, surface-level reasons. He’s always got a hidden agenda or multiple motives for taking any one course of action. Take, for instance, the ‘gift’ he sent us to welcome the Summoned Heroes of Themis and Harmonia.

“He gave us a broken prince and took the shining gem of hope and purity, the princess, for himself. He gave us dead corpses and threatened us with death if we didn’t submit, perhaps to provide just cause for his forthcoming invasion or perhaps to demoralised our young heroes. Or perhaps there was another goal we didn’t see at the time.

“The other day, I happened to overhear a conversation between Dao Chen and Talon where Talon said her Divine Artifact could hide her from almost anyone in the shadows, but not from everyone. Now, we all know what that dagger of hers can do, but what if the Demon Emperor had spies or informants that could do the same thing?

“If we think about it logically, the only way the Demon Emperor could’ve stayed in the Shadows safely for so long is if he had constant, reliable sources feeding him constant strings of information for him to digest, but who were his spies and agents? Humans? Unlikely. Elves? Dwarves? Any of the other races? Maybe the vampires depending on when the blood-suckers joined him, but before that, when he first arrived in Aangapea. What if the Demon Emperor has spies that can hide themselves in the shadows like Talon?”