A Tale of Destruction

[zilfallon]

That day...It was the beginning. It was the sign of a massacre, of a battle which will never end. A link was the beginning. An angel was the weapon, its feather was the catalyst.

"Just another day" , thought Xarph, as he was flying to raid. He commanded a stack of 12 Hellflame Dwagons, each mounted by his personal Bezekiwa knights. The flight darkened the skies.
No...not darkened. The dwagons were blazing as bright as lava, leaving trails of flame with their wings, mounted by the Bezekiwa knights in black armor, commanded by the Chief Warlord of Avewnus, Xarph himself. Their target was Offalmound, a small city of Tanaw.

The Tanaw were their eternal enemies. They had fought with them for as long as Xarph can remember. And he had been around for a few thousand turns..."Such a long time", thought Xarph. The raid to Offalmound was just a diversion. Xarph's stack was strong. High level dwagons and knights, led by a level 9 warlord. It seemed like the main force.
But the main force was a ground column, led by a Pit Fiend.

"A Pit Fiend!", thought Xarph. Pit Fiends were the Pit Commander's personal guards. They were the strongest devil Avewnus had, even better than their mighty dwagons.

Xarph didn't know the reason behind this attack. The main column even had an Abyssal Igniter. An enormous cannon, bigger than largest of dwagons. Its escorts were a small stack of Cownugons, led by a Pit Fiend, about 30 Bwone Devils, 30 dwakes, 50 bezekiwa and 50 ewinyes. Avewnus's foolamancer accompanied that column,too.
The column's main target was Twelfetres. A level 4 city of Tanaw. Twelfetres had a strong garrison.

That city was defended by a few hundred dwetches, and about 150 Mawiliths. "150 mawiliths!?!" thought Xarph.

Mawiliths were the Tanaw's best ground unit, almost as strong as Avewnus's cownugons. How could they possibly hope to defeat 150 of them? He didn't even know the Tanaw had so many mawiliths. He didn't know, and he didn't care. It was his duty to take Offalmound. He couldn't doubt his leader, he could only do his duty, and nothing more.

Xarph shouted..."Engage!" Offalmound had no spell defences. It was protected by a hundred of Vwocks, melee fliers capable of dance-fighting. But they had no one to lead them there. There was no way those Vwocks could croak a unit in Xarph's stack, not when he is wielding the Void Spear.
The Void Spear was a pitch-black polearm. It increased the attack of every spear-wielding troop in its wielder's stack by the wielder's level, including the wielder himself.

It started, their little raid. They slaughtered Vwocks without much trouble. Now he had to stay in this city."Why?" thought Xarph, once more.

The main column was veiled. Twelfetres was in sight-range now. Avewnus ended turn. But it wasn't Tanaw's turn now.
The Pit Fiend laughed when he saw a flight of winged humanoids flying to Twelftres.

It had just begun...

Avewnus was a level 5 city. It was in a small island in middle of a huge lava lake. It had 4 natural stone bridges connecting Avewnus to the mainland. Those bridges were narrow, making Avewnus very hard to attack with ground units. Also, Hellflame Dwagons and Dwakes possessed the ability to swim in lava-lakes. They could act as "water" units in a lava lake, or as fliers. A river of lava which flowed through the region ended in this lake. Dwakes and dwagons gained
extra move and bonus to their defence while swimming in lava.
The Last siege at Avewnus was a few hundred turns ago, when the Tanaw gained the upper hand in war and took most of Avewnus' cities.
But that siege was a mistake, and it turned the tide of the battle. The invading Tanaw forces were slaughtered by Pit Commander and his Fiends with ease. And those Fiends...Scary foes. They were fliers, physically stronger than their dwagons. In addition, they all had leadership. At level 3, they gained the Shockamancy special. There were 7 Pit Fiends in Avewnus, 3 of them at level 3, 2 of them at level 4, and 2 at level 5. They rarely left Avewnus. Most of time, they were stacked with Pit Commander himself.

*pop*

Agrach woke up, and saw his rations pop. It was beginning of a new day, a new turn. He didn't get much action these days. He was only managing Avewnus and not doing much fighting. Xarph and Vis were always out raiding. Agrach wished that he was a flier. Avewnus's favored tactic was lots of small raids to multiple targets with fast fliers. Ground forces were mostly used for defence, and for big sieges, which were quite rare.

He was curious...Why did he have to manage the city? Aesa could have done it too, she was useless in combat anyway. But even she was out raiding somewhere. Agrach wanted to join the main column. But Xarph said it was unnecessary. If it was unnecessary, why did a Pit Fiend march? Agrach guessed that they needed a strong ground column. But since the column had no air, a Pit Fiend had been selected because of its wings to lead. It still seemed pointless to him. But well, Agrach knew the reason. He just didn't want to admit it. He didn't want to admit his failure.

After finishing his meal, he went out to manage the city. It was his duty, after all. He saw dwakes swimming in lava. There were an unusual number of Ewinyes on the walls.

While he was fighting within his thoughts, walking through the city, he saw Vis take off from the tower and head south-west, taking fifty dwakes along.

Avewnus possessed a good number of casters, the worst of them mid-level. They had a Changemancer, Thinkamancer, Turnamancer, Dirtamancer and a Foolamancer, who was busy veiling their ground column which was marching to Twelftres. "Why?" thought Agrach, once more. He was going to get crazy thinking about it. But then he gave up thinking. He could never understand the Pit Commander's plans anyway.
He noticed the number of Ewinyes on the walls again. It was about...a thousand, probably. He didn't even know they had so many archers. They were being prepared for something, for some reason he didn't know. The dwagons took off from lava lake along with remaining dwakes, and took position in Avewnus' airspace.

"Pf..." said Agrach. "Why shoul- "

"What the...? Why did we end turn?" was another question in his head.
A while later, he saw the reason their archers had gathered. From south, a massive ground column was coming.

"Oh...Just when I was missing action."

[zilfallon]

Riluan was leading the column. It was a very big column.

250 Celestial Gwiffons
947 Holy Hounds
473 Holy Lions
350 Cwusaders (mounted on Lions and gwiffons)
134 Shiny Spiwits
4 Beam Shooters
Tali, Level 3 Warlord
Lightbringer Riluan, Level 5 Warlord of Celestia.

Avewnus was a very tough city. Riluan knew it would be a hard battle. But they had hopes. They left those fiends alone for such a long time.

Avewnus's main defensive force, their Pit Fiends, were away from the capital. According to information they received, they all were marching to Twelftres. Celestia forces would have taken Twelftres from Tanaw, before the Pit council arrives, and would prepare a nice little ambush to them. Twelftres was an important city to Tanaw, and Avewnus's column was really strong, indeed.

But still, Riluan was afraid. She didn't trust the information they had. Avewnus was careful with their borders. It wasn't easy to scout them. But one of their scouts managed to get some information, which surprised the entire Celestia: Avewnus' Pit Council was marching to Tanaw lands. Apparently, they didn't know about truce between Celestia and Rauvins, so they left their capital a bit defenseless and sent most of their forces, including the council, to invade Tanaw. They were probably heading for Twelfetres, which was in the middle of 3 factions. Chief warlord Rilutar has made a plan. The column heading for Twelfetres was all ground units. Only fliers were the Pit Fiends. The column had only a few cannons.

"Why so few siege?" was the first question to be asked when the warlords of Celestia met.

They didn't know, but Rilutar believed it was because Avewnus was attacking at different cities at the same time. So their other troops, including their cannons, were marching to another Tanaw city. If so, their capital was pretty defenceless, but if not, it had cannons, dwakes, dwagons and igniters, possibly.
So, Rilutar has decided to make a fast raid to Twelfetres with his angels, using it to defend against Avewnus's attackers, and destroy the Pit Fiends. They didn't like the idea of laying a trap in a city, using the angels, but no other unit, not even their gwiffons were fast enough to make it to Twelfetres in 1 turn. Also, Rilutar didn't want to miss this chance.

"Avewnus will not be so vulnerable again. We must act."
said Rilutar in the meeting in Celestia.

These meetings were common in Celestia. Before any big decision, Archangel, the Chief Warlord and the 2 highest ranked warlords gathered and discussed strategy. Archangel would rarely interfere, only watch and let his chief warlord make the decisions. Unlike most other factions, there was a small hierarchy between warlords.

Archangel, above all. Chief Warlord below him. And below the Chief Warlord, were 2 warlords with "Lightbringer" title. They were below chief warlord, but above all other warlords and casters. Although this title just meant being called into strategy meetings.

Rilutar didn't like this system much, because it resembled the fiendish hierarchy Avewnus had. In Avewnus, any warlord was superior to those who are lower level than themselves. But Archangel used this "Lightbringer" title to make sure the Chief Warlord listens to other experienced commanders' opinions. Apparently, the chief warlord before Rilutar was a bit arrogant and has led Archangel to make such a decision.

"You may be right, Chief Warlord Rilutar, but Avewnus never had such an opening before, we must not act hasty."

"Why are you getting paranoid, Lightbringer Riluan? Do you think Avewnus misled our scouts? Nonsense. Those fiends are ignorant. They are so busy fighting each other that they won't even notice we are back before our forces are at their doors."

said Lightbringer Saevel.

"What's wrong with these people?" thought Riluan. "Why is the Archangel silent?" thought she once more.

"Lightbringer Riluan, you will lead a ground force to conquer Avewnus. Lightbringer Saevel, you will take half of our shiny spiwits, light bulbs and about fifty cwusaders and garrison at Holy Chandelier. Lightbringer Riluan, take all remaining Shiny Spiwits, half of remaining cwusaders, holy lions and holy dogs, along with our celestial gwiffins. Warlord Tali will accompany you, and you will take 4 Beam Shooters with you."

"This is...what are you thinking, Rilutar?"

"Chief Warlord Rilutar thinks that this opportunity is too good to be ignored, Lightbringer Riluan." said Saevel, with a cold tone in his voice.

"Archangel, requesting permission to deploy our dittomancer to the ground force."

Even if it was the Chief, he must always seek permission to deploy casters to such big assaults. And most of the time, the response would be,

"Denied.", except it was followed by a "Chief Warlord Rilutar's plan is approved. Meeting is over" this time.

Riluan thought that this opportunity was just to good to be true, but their Chief didn't listen. He wanted to end these fiends once and for all, and was getting impatient.
Yes...maybe this impatience was the sign of their doom, or maybe the sign of their victory. She didn't know. In times like this, she wished they had a signamancer. But they didn't. And she was in front of Avewnus anyway.

The city was tough, but their plan was simple. Beam Shooters were the key to this battle. Avewnus's advantage in defence was narrow bridges, making it hard for ground units, and impossible to use siege towers effectively. That was why they brought 4 Beam Shooters. These were artillery-like siege units, capable of attacking walls from a distance. Those shooters were Celestia's true strength. Not even Avewnus' enormous Igniter's were stronger than them.
But still, she was afraid...But she had a duty. A thinkagram came from Rilutar:

"Riluan, I know you have doubts about this plan, but worry not! We shall end this evil this turn, which taints our lands with their disgusting armies and cities. Soon, their Pit Council will fall to our angels, and Avewnus will be destroyed. Start the siege!"

"I know, Rilutar. I'm sorry, I shouldn't be afraid in such a glorious turn!"

Rilutar smiled, and the connection was cut. Riluan shouted, "Let us remove this taint! Charge!"

[zilfallon]

Celestia was a strong faction. They had many cities. Celestia was so big that even most of their warlords didn't see all cities. They were neighbours with Tanaw and Avewnus. These 3 sides were always engaged in a 3 sided battle. But in last thousand turns, Celestia didn't fight, because they were having trouble with
their south-eastern neighbours, Rauvins. The Rauvins decided to advance on Celestia's lands for a reason unknown to them. After that, Celestia just stopped their skirmishes against fiends to the north-west.
Neither Avewnus nor Tanaw engaged Celestia after they pulled out of battle, because they were too busy fighting themselves to attack Celestia.

Their war with Rauvins lasted for thousand turns, resulting in a draw.

"A draw? All those efforts to remove this evil...all in vain. What a pointless waste of time!" thought Riluan, when she was informed of the truce. But the Archangel has decided so. She didn't have the option to doubt her ruler. But she was really sad that they gave up fighting Rauvins. She was sitting in the garden of a house, looking at the flowers and trying to enjoy this little free time. It wasn't long before they'd return to fight the fiends.

Out of all warlords and all units in Celestia, Riluan was the most beautiful of them all. In times of peace, she'd wear her white raiment which had golden linings, just like her long golden hair. In war, she'd wear her shiny armor and cape, swinging her holy sword. In a battle, she would shine as bright as sun, and her beauty and strength would dominate the battlefield.

"She truly deserved "Lightbringer" title, unlike that scum Saevel." thought Verin. He didn't really like Saevel. Actually he hated him. Saevel was his exact opposite. He was impatient, arrogant and he always looked for war.

He approached her, then he sat next to her without saying anything, just smiling. Verin was another warlord in service of Celestia. They've known each other for a long time. Whenever Riluan was sad, she'd come to this little garden. Verin would always find her here and he would always comfort her, doing nothing but sitting next to her, holding her hand, looking at her beautiful face and smiling. Maybe this was why Riluan always came to this place when she was depressed. Then, they'd leave, having some chat on the way.

"Why are you depressed this time, Riluan?"

"I...I don't know."

Verin frowned.
"This is the second time you are lying to me. And the first was because of a stupid thing. So why not be honest? At least be honest with yourself."

Second time she lied. She did it, even when she knew Verin was immune to natural foolamancy. Well, those which came from Riluan, at least.

"I don't like how we suddenly had a truce with Rauvins. I'm happy that we will be able to fight those fiends once more, but still..."

Verin stopped.

"Didn't you want peace?"

"Is this peace? This is not peace. As long as Rauvins exist, they will always cause battles. But at least we will walk the path of true peace from now on."

"Do you realize that what we seek is just another battle?"

This was where they were different. Verin hated any kind of battle. He found all of them pointless. That's why the Archangel decided to make him a regent and a diplomatic advisor, instead of sending him to fight. But Riluan, believed that peace could be obtained by war.

"What? This war is different! We have a reason other than simple conquest! Our cause is holy, and you know that. You cannot doubt it. Celestia exists to prevent those fiends from spreading to the rest of Erfworld. We are their borders, and their evil will not spread as long as we stand and fight. And we will eradicate them, to make sure they NEVER get a chance to expand."

Riluan was actually right about something. Celestia was the only thing that prevented those fiends from going on a rampage and swarming the Erfworld. Those fiends enjoyed war and slaughter. They were so violent that they couldn't stand each other. Avewnus thought Tanaw is too unorganized to be called an "army", and Tanaw thought Avewnus's devils lacked the spirit to fight.

Tanaw and Avewnus were surrounded by impassable mountains on all sides, and Celestia controlled the only 3 mountain passes. The terrain was mostly a volcanic wasteland, like a plateau. A part of these 3 passes, Twelfetres, actually fell to Tanaw a few hundred turns ago. But it was a long pass, and Twelfetres was the northern end of that pass. The southern end, Shaddanon, was still in control of Celestia.

"Okay okay, let's not fight over this again. I'm sorry, I shouldn't have said such things, even when I knew they would offend you."

"It's okay, at least we both want peace in long term." said Riluan and smiled.

[zilfallon]

"What a trouble..." thought Ralnor, Avewnus's Changemancer, as he was going to meet a predictamancer to spend his rands on a prophecy. He found predictamancy interesting and he'd visit a predictamancer once in a while to take a look into his future. Of course, those predictions would be so clouded that he'd not understand anything most of times. But this time was different. He wasn't doing this because he wanted. He was doing this because the Pit Commander ordered him to do so. He didn't know why. His ruler was never interested in this kind of stuff. He knew all about magic, but he didn't interfere with his casters' free-time in Magic Kingdom.

"A bearer of light, no longer shining
A creature of beauty, defeated.
Just a trigger, to change all you know.
A mere reagent, to change your home.
Bring it to the heart of doom"

was what he got from this predictamancer this time. What was this nonsense?

It didn't even sound cool. Hell, it was the worst prophecy he got. But he couldn't complain.

He had no idea about its meaning. But well, he had lots of time to think about it. He went back to Avewnus, and told this predictamancy to his ruler. The Pit Commander laughed. He didn't know why. Maybe he understood the meaning, or maybe he thought it was worthless. Either way, he thought he disappointed his ruler. And the Pit Commander ended turn. Ralnor was even more confused now.



Aesa's target was around Smagard, a Tanaw city near the northernmost mountain range. According to their information, Tanaw started popping their natural allies, stone spiwits in that city. Those units were strong when they fought on mountain terrain, but they were very weak on normal terrain. After a good number of these popped, apparently, Tanaw has decided to move Smagard's former garrison to south. This force consisted of a dozen vwocks and a few dozens of gogs and hell hounds.
Gogs were basic tanaw ranged units. They were physically weak, but the little fireballs they shot were effective if they were protected by, for example, hell hounds.

Even so, Aesa's force had 50 hellcats and ewinyes. Ewinyes were slow, so they were always mounted on hellcats when raiding. And those hellcats...Aesa thought they were strange. They looked exactly like a lion, but they had no flesh or bone. They were of pure light, shining so bright, yet they could still be mounted. They had natural foolamancy, giving their attackers a small chance to miss, because of the dazzling light.

Aesa thought that they were too cute and beautiful to be called "devils". But looks were deceiving, they were as cruel as other fiends, maybe even more. Hellcats were fast and tough. She didn't like their appearance much, but she couldn't deny that they were useful. She ordered her ewinyes' to shoot. They all shot those vwocks, and then the battle started. After a while, a few hellcats and some ewinyes' were croaked, either burned by fireballs or bitten by dogs. But Aesa was victorious.
A while later, she was ordered to move to the nearby hills. Then, she felt the turn end.

It seemed like a good day.

"Poor Agrach, he's probably walking around the city, doing nothing but whining." thought Aesa. Most of time, Agrach and Aesa fought together. But after he took Larm, Avewnus's former-regent, together with him and lost a battle, he was ordered to manage the city himself.

She felt unsafe somehow, in those hills. She felt like she would be attacked any time now. But that was the reason she was there. To engage Tanaw in field and croak them. Tanaw probably noticed Avewnus's interest in Smagard and would most likely send reinforcements there. She was ordered to show their interest to Tanaw and make them reinforce and croak as much troops as she can. Then, a bigger column would catch with her and capture Smagard. She didn't know why she had to go first, though. Were the troops needed elsewhere? She didn't know. A while later, she was attacked by a Tanaw force.

"Oh...great." said Aesa in fear after seeing the attackers. Several color demons about fifty thorn demons and a warlord. Thorn demons were dance-fighting light infantry, and color demons were heavies who possessed some shockamancy. Even with the defensive bonus from hills...

"Engage!" yelled the Tanaw warlord. The warlord looked like a... bezekiwa. He wore crimson armor, wielding a greatsword. "Could it be...?" No, there was no way. She had to focus on the battle.

"Shoot these shiny demons!" ordered Aesa. Arrows rained, but color demons were tough. 1 of them croaked and another was wounded a bit. Tanaw warlord laughed. Aesa was angry. She tried to stay calm and shot together with her ewinyes, while the hellcats charged to thorn demons. A while later, color demons shined, and most of Aesa's remaining ewinyes and some hellcats were dazed, including her mount. The Tanaw targeted hellcats. They knew the ewinyes would be no match for thorn demons in melee without their mounts. She fell down, and watched as the Tanaw warlord sliced her cat in half without much effort. Somehow, she felt she was lucky that she fell down and evaded being sliced in half together with a hellcat. She tried to get up, but gave up doing so after she saw rest of her troops croak. The warlord was unwounded. Only 2 color demons and about twenty thorn demons were croaked.

"Capture that warlord." ordered the Tanaw warlord to a color demon. She was now a prisoner.

Apparently, it wasn't a good day.

[zilfallon]

Vis flew. He flapped his wings, and his dwakes did the same. They were flying as one. They were marching south-west, to Lamp. Avewnus and Tanaw were seperated from Celestia by 3 mountain passes. Each pass had 2 cities, 1 on each side. Lamp was one of the cities in the southern pass. Other was Holy Chandelier. Celestia controlled both sides of the pass. Xarph has decided to have Vis capture Lamp. Dwakes were Avewnus's fastest unit. Lamp was far, but Vis was the only one who could make it there in 1 turn. And a longer march would enable Lamp to get reinforcements. So he flew, along with fifty dwakes. But Xarph had a hard time convincing Vis that this was a good plan, at start of their previous turn.

"What's the point, Chief? Holy Chandelier will retake Lamp the turn after I capture it, and you know the dwakes are no good at defending against those light bulbs."

"Vis, are you trying my patience? You know I can just order you there. But well, i want you to volunteer, instead of being forced."

"Then enlighten me, Chief."

"Dwakes are fast. You will have some move left after taking Lamp. There will be a lava-lake to the north-west within your range even after taking Lamp. We can't bring any decent forces there in 1 turn, so our main strike force will follow you in a few turns."

"So what's the point?"

Xarph thought Vis was a good commander, but he sometimes pissed him off...

"DO NOT interrupt me, dwake. Now, if Holy Chandelier moves to retake Lamp after you leave, we will hunt those troops next turn. If we manage to do this for a few turns, Holy Chandelier will be weakened enough to be taken. It is a strong level 5, we need to lower the amount of defenders to have a chance against it. Do you understand now? You will tag the city and go for the lava-lake. They can't defeat your dwakes when you are in lava, and they don't even know about that place, probably. If they don't take the bait, it is fine. We win either way. If they do, Holy Chandelier will be weakened. If they don't, we will gain another city."

"Hmm...And why should I wait another turn in Avewnus?"

"You are allowed to fly this turn, if you want to wait until next turn in the open."

"Ah, so you want me to capture Lamp on a specific turn? Interesting, Chief."

And sometimes, Vis's insight surprised him, just like now. His deduction was correct. But even Xarph didn't know the details.

"You do not need to know more, Vis. You know everything you need to know."

Vis laughed. Things were getting interesting. He did as ordered, and marched to Lamp at next turn.


Lamp had a garrison of 30 light bulbs, 20 cwusaders and Aerin, a level 1 warlord.

"Commander, fliers inbound!" told a cwusader to Aerin, while he was standing in the courtyard.

Fliers? How? He didn't think he'd be attacked so soon after being popped. Apparently it was a force of dwakes. He heard about these creatures from Verin last turn. He didn't want to fight them. And he was even more scared after seeing them closer. Something was wrong, those dwakes...had no commander. But they stopped in the city's airspace. Light bulbs were waiting for Aerin's orders to shoot, but Aerin was curious. And a while later, one of the dwakes flew a bit closer to the ground,
and landed on top of a huge stone statue,

"Hello, you little worms of Celestia, i am the mighty dwake commander, Vis. You have 2 choices now. Surrender, or croak."

Aerin screamed in fear. He heard other dwakes laugh at him and talk about him. Those beasts...they could speak, and lead?

"Fire!!" shouted Aerin in fear.

Light bulbs shined, and shot small beams of light to dwakes. Oh, Vis didn't forget how this attack hurted. That's why he offered them to surrender, but well... He kinda knew he wasn't a good diplomat.

Dwakes laughed when the bulbs shined. But they got serious after 4 of them were croaked.

Battle had started. Dwakes seperated and charged to light bulbs on walls. It took a dwake one bite to stop a bulb from shining, forever. Some of them, including Vis, flew below to handle the ground forces.

Cwusaders and Aerin tried to retaliate against their attackers. Vis was completely tearing them off. One claw and a bite, and a cwusader was mutilated. Aerin felt so afraid. What was he supposed to do? Other dwakes were strong too, but his cwusaders could fend them off. But that commander was different... How could he fight such a monster?

Vis laughed. "Is this all you have, Warlord? You are truly boring."
He dodged a few cwusaders and flew straight towards Aerin, with a huge grin on his face. He charged, pushed the poor warlord a few meters, and crushed him between his head and a stone wall.

"You...fiend..."

"Hah! Don't waste your last breath, pitiful creature." The warlord survived Vis's headbutt. He was surprised, but well, no time to play around.

He pulled back, opened his jaw...

Aerin screamed, "DON'T MOCK ME!" , lifted his sword, and lunged at Vis with his remaining strength, stabbing him in chest.

Vis screamed in pain. That was unexpected.

Vis grabbed Aerin's sword with his claw, and shattered it in two.

"You pitiful human! DIE!"

Then, he croaked the warlord, opening a hole in his chest with his bite.

"Was fun, human. But it is our win. Let's go! We shouldn't waste more time!"

He tried to take the piece of sword in his chest out, but it would melt soon anyway.

They killed the remaining troops and left Lamp, heading to the lava-lake to the north west. When they arrived, Vis jumped straight to lava. His dwakes did the same. His wound closed a bit upon bathing in lava. It was their blood, and being fully immensed in lava cured a few hits.

What a day it was. He was still surprised that that warlord managed to wound him. He felt the turn end as he tried to relax.

[zilfallon]

Lightbringer Saevel and his force, 150 shiny spiwits, 50 cwusaders and about 200 light bulbs, entered Holy Chandelier, a level 5. It was the southernmost of the 3 mountain passes which seperated fiends and Celestia. The pass was long, each side protected by 1 city. Lamp at north, Holy Chandelier at south. These 2 cities were so close to each other that even the slowest unit could travel within 1 turn. A few turns before the war with Rauvins finished, Rauvins managed to capture both of these cities. Fortunately, Celestia was able to retake them before Avewnus noticed the opening. The turn after they took the pass back, their war with Rauvins ended. The cities had very weak defences and no remaining warlords. Celestia sent a recently popped warlord to Lamp, as a temporary commander for Lamp's defence, because all of their other warlords, except the regent of Celestia, Chief Warlord Rilutar and 2 Lightbringers, were around Rauvins's borders. When Rauvins captured the pass, Rilutar was surprised. But Saevel was furious. He told Rilutar that they shouldn't consider the pass safe, but he didn't listen. Saevel disliked Rilutar, and that other Lightbringer, Riluan. They were too young and they didn't have the patience to lead. He didn't know why the Archangel promoted Rilutar instead of himself.

He actually knew the reason. It was because of his reputation in Celestia. Almost no one liked him or his views. He was different from them. They all were obsessed by "purging the evil" and "preventing the fiends from tainting Erfworld". He didn't care. They were naive to believe that Erfworld is untainted. They were naive to believe that this world would someday achieve peace. He thought that this world existed only for one purpose: War. Survival was possible obeying the "world". You couldn't hope to survive and win by denying the Erfworld's reason of existence.

That's what he thought, but almost no one in his side believed him. Most of them called him hearthless, impatient, tainted, fallen, evil and many more. Even Hippiemancers in the Magic Kingdom knew about his thoughts about war. Their casters talked about what Hippiemancers said about Saevel sometimes. Most even believed that he'd one day betray Celestia. But they were wrong. He wasn't fanatically loyal to Archangel, but he was very loyal to his faction. He wanted to fight, he wanted to lead, he wanted war. But he found victory pointless if it was achieved by switching to a winning side. He had to be such a good commander that he'd never see his side fall, that he'd never need to betray to survive. Even though they disliked him, they couldn't deny his strength. He was stronger than all warlords in Celestia, both mentally and physically.

Well, at least he managed to get rid of Celestia's greatest weakness: Rilutar. Rilutar, being an angel and a fanatic idiot, had a very good reputation, despite his inability to lead. But he was surprised that Riluan managed to see the flaw in Rilutar's plan.
Saevel approved the plan, because that plan guaranteed destruction. Of Rilutar and Riluan.

But he still didn't understand why Archangel never interfered. Celestia was about to lose almost half of its army, and Avewnus had turned their attention on them. He was sure he'd be the next chief warlord, as the highest level and most experienced of all warlords in Celestia, despite his reputation. He was actually unsure about letting Rilutar and his angels, along with Riluan and a third of Celestia's forces croak. He thought a lot about it, but then he decided he could keep the side alive until they could rebuild. It would put them in a very bad situation, but having Rilutar as Chief Warlord was far worse, in long term.


Holy Chandelier was a city of light. The city popped shiny spiwits and light bulbs, mostly. Apparently, if those units were popped by Holy Chandelier, they started with a small advantage in experience. He took a quick look at the city. Fortunately, it was the same as before Rauvins's attack.

As he was walking to the castle, he saw a stack of about dozen gwiffons, each mounted by a cwusader. Apparently, the level 1 warlord they put to Holy Chandelier had returned. But from where? He was supposed to be stationed in the city. Saevel was going to the castle to meet him. Gwiffons landed, and after their riders dismounted, they took off and started circling around one of the towers.

"Lightbringer Saevel? I'm honored to see you here, my lord, and also surprised."

"I'm surprised too, kid."

"Surprised? Why, my lord?"

"Surprised to see that you decided to fly around a bit."

"Oh... Well, as you know, I am a new warlord and my curiousity got the better of me. I've gone to Lamp to check if Aerin was doing good."

"So that is why you left Holy Chandelier and risked your life along with the few gwiffons here?"

"Well, but i learned that Lamp isn't one of our cities now." smiled the new warlord, thinking that he was about to surprise the Lightbringer with these news.

"Really? How useful of you. Maybe you should lead Celestia. Thanks for enlightening me."

The young warlord felt so happy, he actually did something good enough to be praised by Lightbringer Saevel himself.
But then,

"You idiot!" yelled Saevel. "We have a lookamancer and a thinkamancer in Celestia, remember? Anyway, I'm in charge of Holy Chandelier's defences now."

"Oh, i totally forgot about casters, sorry sir. I didn't know those cowards were useful. It is great that you are here to guide me now. What do you want me to do, my lord?" said the new warlord, feeling disappointed.

"Go manage the city if you want to be really useful."

"Oh okay sir, so should i start with - "

"Just get lost."

What an idiot, that new warlord. Saevel hated those idiots. And Lamp was lost. Apparently, Vis and his dwakes captured the city and left. Avewnus had done a similliar gambit, about five hundred turns ago. They had striked Lamp with small but fast forces, and forced Celestia to retake it and reinforce using troops in Holy Chandelier. Then, a big siege column came and took Lamp. They had almost captured Holy Chandelier if Saevel had not arrived. He was shocked to see how stupid their warlords could get. And he had even warned them about such a strategy... It was really a mess. He almost had to retreat. But thanks to his Beam Sword, he had managed to defeat Xarph and repel the invading Avewnus forces, destroying more than a half of Xarph's dwagons and knights, and forcing Xarph and remaining troops to flee to Avewnus.

But he was happy that Avewnus tried the same plan. It meant that they didn't know how weak Holy Chandelier was. He hoped that Rilutar croaked before he could learn about Lamp and order Saevel to reinforce it.

He really hoped that, because their force in Holy Chandelier was not even enough to defend 1 city against a full scale Avewnus attack.

[zilfallon]

"The beginning of a glorious day" thought Rilutar.

Rilutar was a level 8 angel, also the Chief Warlord of Celestia. Angels were strong flyers. Some of them were able to use Healomancy. They were as strong as Avewnus's dwagons. Rilutar himself was able to use limited thinkamancy, able to cast 1 thinkagram per turn.

And most angels of Celestia were attacking Twelftres now. To capture the city before Pit Council arrives, and set an ambush.
But...something was wrong. Rilutar noticed that Twelftres was actually protected by a good force, after ending the thinkagram to Riluan.

"Mawiliths...Oh no..."

It wasn't a force they couldn't defeat, but that would weaken them a lot. Would they be able to fight the pit council after taking this city?
That was totally unexpected. He didn't expect Twelfetres to have such a strong garrison. His stack had no move left. They could only enter the city, or move 1 hex away from it. Maybe he should let the fiends fight each other and then... But no, Rilutar would never resort to such honorless tricks. That was something those fiends would do. Those fiends... He hated them so much. He wanted to croak them all with his blade.

Rilutar was angry.
"You damn fiends... Do you think you are better than us?!" shouted he.

"CHARGE! We shall destroy these mawiliths, the Pit Council, Tanaw and Avewnus this turn! TO GLORY!"

The angels charged.

Sword to sword. Mawiliths were half-snake half-women, with 6 arms, a sword in each hand.

"Such disgusting creatures..." thought Rilutar. They were strong, but no better than his mighty angels. The angels charged at mawiliths with their greatswords.

A long battle was fought. All of the mawiliths were croaked. Rilutar was wounded, and only 13 of his angels were lef. The information they got was really false...He now had to fight the pit council with this force.

But if their scouts were misled, did the pit fiends ever leave Avewnus?

"So be it..." said the chief warlord. It was his hate, his impatience which led them to this path. There was nothing to do now. They didn't have any move left. They had been fooled. And if the council was in Avewnus, then his angels may be able to defend Twelfetres until he could request reinforcements. He didn't really know,
he wasn't sure anymore.

He hated those fiends so much...


Riluan began her assault. Beam Shooters started burning the walls down. Gwiffons started swarming Avewnus's airspace, while the Holy Hounds, Holy Lions , Cwusaders, Shiny Spiwits and Riluan herself charged from ground. They surrounded the city in 4 sides, swarming 4 narrow bridges while the beam shooters were working on walls.

The gwiffons and cwusaders, led by Tali, engaged dwagons and dwakes. Luckily, ewinyes were busy fending off ground forces, so it was a pretty even fight. Avewnus' ground forces were strong. They had lots of bezekiwa, bwone devils and cownugons. Celestia's ground forces were a diversion to pull archer's attacks
away from gwiffons. If the archers targeted gwiffons, walls would fall, if the archers shot at ground, airspace would be Celestia's.
Riluan was no longer afraid. They got them really good. It was a hard battle, but the outcome was cle-

"Oh no..." thought Riluan. She saw a huge explosion in the sky. 6 Pit Fiends engaged Celestial Gwiffons.

"TALI! What's going on here...Why is the council here?" screamed Riluan, but her scream didn't change the situation at all.
It was a trap. The Pit Council never left Avewnus. Their information was wrong. Their scouts had been fooled. Walls were damaged a lot, but it didn't matter anymore. In a short time, most gwiffons were croaked. She was mad... at Rilutar, Avewnus and her fate...

She wanted to win. But it didn't happen. She thought about Celestia. She thought about Verin.

"Forgive me, Archangel..."

A few seconds later, she came to her senses as Agrach was charging at her. She barely managed to deflect his spear.

"You fiend! I will show you that you are no match for me, Lightbringer Riluan of Celestia!"

She lifted her sword and attacked Agrach. The bezekiwa managed to evade her attack and lunged at Riluan. The spear hit Riluan a bit. She was so angry now.

"Why do you fight, Lightbringer? This battle is lost. Even if you croak me, the outcome will not change."

"At least I'd have croaked trying, fiend!"

They clashed for a while. Agrach took a step back and smiled:
"I know about Celestia's little hierarchy, which is a primitive version of ours. Do you know anything about ours?"

"Why should I care, fiend? I will just croak you." replied the lightbringer.

"Well, basically, every warlord is ranked higher than lower level warlords. But there is a point where it gets complicated."

Riluan decided to listen to Agrach. Ignoring words was Rilutar's speciality.

"That point is, our chief warlords are always selected from ranks of bezekiwa. Because the bezekiwa are versatile. Unlike our other infantry, they can actually mount
dwagons and hellcats. Also, the chief warlord has to appoint another bezekiwa as his second in command and regardless of level, this "second in command" is superior to all other warlords."

"What are you getting at, devil?"

Agrach smiled. "And these 2 highest ranking warlords are each given a stack of elite bezekiwa knights, all wielding magical spears and armor. Xarph's knights are with him now."

"I've had enough of your nonsense. So where are your "knights" ? Don't tell me fiend, i don't care. I will croak you!" yelled Riluan, but:

"You should care where they are,"

Riluan was about to attack Agrach, but she felt a sudden pain. She looked behind, and saw 2 bezekiwa which impaled Riluan in both of her legs."

"since they are right behind you, Lightbringer!" Agrach laughed.

How did she fall for this...She shouldn't have listened to him. Rilutar would have ignored his words and charged. She understood how Rilutar felt...
"Forgive me, Archangel. I've really failed you..."
Her thoughts were put to an end by Agrach's spear, while the rest of Celestia's forces were getting slaughtered.

"Hah!" shouted Agrach, "What was that? I really didn't expect to see a direct attack to this city."

A Pit Fiend laughed in joy and shouted, "Good job, warlord! Soon, their Chief Warlord will fall. Including Chief's angels and this column, Celestia lost almost half of it's army."

"So that is why i've been kept in Avewnus?"

"Exactly. Boring turns were your punishment, and this is your comeback."

"Glad to hear it, fiend. It was something I missed, croaking a warlord who doesn't even know what's happening!"

Celestia ended turn, there was nothing else to do.

It was a glorious day, indeed.

[zilfallon]

*pop*

A new day begun. Xarph started eating his rations. Apparently, Celestia sent a massive column to Avewnus, but were repelled easly. He understood the reason behind his attack on Offalmound and a pit fiend leaving Avewnus. But there were still pieces unclear. They misled their scouts, thanks to Arok, and made them believe Avewnus had weak defences. This seemed like the primary goal at first, but a pit fiend leading a ground column to Twelfetres, where Rilutar's angels were expected to be... And he thought about Vis and Lamp. He succeeded, but he didn't know if they could trick Celestia again using the same tactic they had used 500 turns ago. He really hoped that Saevel wasn't at Holy Chandelier.

"That bastard..." thought Xarph. Saevel was the person who made Celestia as strong as it is now, despite Rilutar. He was unsure about croaking Rilutar. He told that to Pit Commander too, but he didn't listen. If Rilutar croaked, there was a very high chance for Lightbringer Saevel to be appointed as the new chief warlord of Celestia. And he didn't want that to happen. That would mean nothing but trouble. Saevel was the only person Xarph didn't want to be involved, not because Xarph knew about how strong Saevel was, but because Saevel knew exactly how strong and intelligent Xarph was.

And apparently Aesa was defeated and captured during her raid at Smagard. He had enough move to go rescue her, or croak Rilutar. That was a hard choice. Aesa, despite her level, was a good commander. He knew the Tanaw had a turnamancer, so he didn't want to risk another Avewnus warlord fall into Tanaw hands.

On the other hand, that pit fiend on field had enough forces to croak Rilutar and his remaining angels, but even with Rilutar's losses after taking Twelfetres, it would be a risky battle. A pit fiend and their foolamancer were there, who was level 8. The pit fiend was smart, so he would probably not engage Rilutar. If Xarph croaked Rilutar, Saevel would be promoted to Chief Warlord and Aesa would be turned. If he didn't, then their foolamancer Arok's life would be at risk. And his force wasn't strong enough to split and go to 2 different ways.

"I hate tough decisions like this. Damn...did he send me out here because of this?" thought Xarph.

"Oh wait..." he remembered something important, very important.

Shatterstone.

A level 3 city of Tanaw, which was of great importance to them, used as a "relief station". The only unit which could overpower Aesa's archers mounted on hellcats, thorn demons, received movement bonuses on tunnels. Shatterstone produced these demons mainly, and moved them to other cities, using some kind of dirtamancy link to create temporary tunnels between cities. He wasn't sure if it was a link with 2 casters or 3, but what he knew for sure was that they moved thorn demons from Shatterstone to Smagard using these tunnels. Now everything made sense in his mind. There were no units in field when he sent Aesa out there. But if the thorn demons moved to Smagard through a tunnel, they would have enough move left to attack Aesa and go back to the city. And that would also mean that at least 2 casters, their dirtamancer and thinkamancer, were in Shatterstone now. They probably had no juice left after opening such a long tunnel. Also, mawiliths were gathered at Twelfetres. So Shatterstone probably had vwocks, some dwetches, archers, and possibly a few color demons.

Xarph smiled. He was happy he kept his rune. When Avewnus had a lookamancer, he had created runes written on stone tablets, one given to each warlord. Those runes, when activated, allowed the warlord activating them to compare a target hex, anywhere on the map if the user had been to that hex before, to the user's hex. The rune was not able to calculate battle outcomes, or give detailed information on troop types and numbers. It compared total hit points in 2 hexes. All other warlords used theirs long ago, but Xarph saved his rune for later. If that lookamancer stayed alive for one more turn, he could have created more, but still, Xarph was happy he kept this rune. He knew the troop types in Shatterstone roughly, and he knew all units of Tanaw. So a hit point comparison would help him make a more accurate guess.

He touched the runed sided of the tablet with his palm, closed his eyes. 2 colors appeared: blue and red. Blue started pushing red back, and started pulsing. A while later, the vision was gone, along with the rune, making the tablet just a regular stone. Blue represented his hex, and red was the target hex, Shatterstone. He felt lucky, since Shatterstone had less hits in total than his force.

It would be a great risk, but that was a good chance. He planned to capture these casters, and trade them for Aesa. But 2 casters for 1 warlord would be unfair for Avewnus, so he'd require Tanaw to crush Rilutar's angels and recapture Twelfetres. After taking the casters as hostage, his dwagons would have enough move left to move past Offalmount, a bit close to Smagard, making it impossible for any threatening Tanaw force to engage him in one turn. And Tanaw wouldn't be able to use Arok on their "trade" since they didn't know Arok was together with their ground column.

That way, both Aesa and Arok would have been saved, and Tanaw would suffer losses retaking Twelfetres from Rilutar's angels. Only thing he didn't like about this plan was that it also helped Saevel become chief warlord, but this was Xarph's best option.

"Take off! To Shatterstone!"

His knights mounted on dwagons. Dwagons screeched, spitting fire and molten pieces of rock, then flew.

He now understood the true purpose behind his attack to Offalmound.

[zilfallon]

They arrived at Shatterstone. Xarph was right. The city didn't have much troops left. But still, he had to be careful. He'd probably lose a few dwagons and knights, but there was no other way around.

The most dangerous unit in Shatterstone was Tanaw's color demon. There were only 4 of them, but their shockamancy meant nothing but trouble. He had to rush to these color demons and croak them before they could use shockamancy.

"Let's go!"

Dwagons flew into the city. Archers took position and started shooting at dwagons. Vwocks gathered and started drawing circles in the airspace. They were preparing to dance-fight. It meant they had a vwock warlord.

"Hurry, before those vwocks engage"

Color demons were waiting for them in the courtyard. The mighty hellflame dwagons charged, breathing lava while carrying their riders into battle. After a dive, Xarph and his knights dismounted dwagons and charged to color demons, after ordering the dwagons to croak vwocks.

Xarph lunged at the demon who were wounded by dwagon flame, stabbing it in chest. Even if they were tough, there was no way it could survive being burned by a hellflame dwagon and getting stabbed in chest by the Void Spear.

His knights took one down too, but before they charged at the remaining 2, the demons used their shockamancy. 4 knights were dazed. Xarph considered himself lucky. He looked above to check his dwagons. They were cooking vwocks and archers, but were injured. A few seconds later, he saw a dwagon fall. That vwock commander was good enough to croak a few dwagons, but not good enough to win.

"I should focus on these color demons...." thought Xarph, but a few seconds later, he saw a bezekiwa knight crushed to a wall.

"Enough screwing around! Let's croak these demons, fast!" yelled Xarph to his knights. They all rushed at color demons, and impaled one of them.

Just as the last color demon was about to hit Xarph from behind, a knight, who was no longer dazed, stabbed it. Other's did the same too, and the last of them went down.

"Sorry to pass out in battle, my lord." said one of the knights who were targeted by shockamancy.

"It's not important, let's go, to the tower."

Just as they entered the tower, another dwagon got croaked. But the vwock commander was also croaked.

"You 3, come with me, we'll go to throne room. Rest of you, split in 2 groups, check dungeon and the lower levels of the tower. We are looking for a dirtamancer and thinkamancer, but be prepared for surprises. Casters are to be captured, anything else should be croaked."

A stack of 3 knights started running inside the castle, while the stack of 4 ran to the dungeon. This city had no portals, fortunately. But it had tunnels and a big dungeon. It would be hard to look for casters here, but orders were absolute.

"Let's split. Staying close together is not a good idea when looking for a dirtamancer in tunnels."

They did so. A while later, a tunnel was collapsed, and 2 knights were croaked.

"Dammit!" said a knight in the other group in tunnels. "Let's go!"

They ran a few minutes, then heard something:

"Wish I had juice..."

"If you had juice, they wouldn't have attacked."

"True but how did they know that we used our juice last turn?"

"I don't know. It seems a few of them are coming this way. I hope their leader would meet Tu'er in the tower. Now, stop whining and help me search for some scrolls to save ourselves."

The knights kicked the door, and charged at the casters, hitting their knees with backs of their spears.

"Do not resist. We have no intention to croak you. Let's tie them up."

"Damn...bezekiwa knights...So your chief warlord is here? Hah, too bad he's about to croak."

"Shut up, prisoner." said a knight while binding the thinkamancer.


Xarph and his 3 knights ran to the top of the tower. They kicked the door open, and charged inside.

"Chief Warlord of Avewnus, Xarph, and his knights. I'm honored."

"Oh no...a balow?" gasped one of the knights.

"Exactly. I'm Tu'er, a balow currently in charge of Shatterstone." said the balow. He stood up, and drew his sword. He was big, around 10 feets in height. He opened his huge wings and flapped them twice, causing a gust of wind in the room. But he was wounded. Xarph smiled.

"You're pretty torn up, demon. I'm amazed at your idiocy which made you believe you could croak me in that condition."

"I don't need to be uninjured to fight a weakling like you, bezekiwa."

Xarph laughed. His knights looked at him, confused.

"Stop acting tough, demon! You're implying that you knew I'd come here, and that you ambushed me."

Xarph was right. There was no way he could croak a balow alone, but he had a very good chance of victory since Tu'er was wounded.

The demon's eyes turned serious:

"So what if you ambushed us and catched me wounded? You'll still croak here!" said Tu'er and charged at Xarph, swinging his sword as he flapped his wings to close
the distance between them in less than a second.

"Don't make me laugh, demon!" said Xarph, serious this time. He managed to block balow's sword with his spear. That demon was really strong. If he had a normal spear, instead of the Void Spear, that attack would have sliced him through the spear.

His knights attacked. Tu'er deflected a spear with his wings, but couldn't dodge the other 2 completely. He took a step back, but then he saw Xarph charging. He barely deflected Xarph's spear with his sword. The spear cracked Tu'er's sword a bit.

The demon took another step back, lifted his sword high, and swinged it down, this time targeting a knight. It happened so fast that the knight couldn't block it and was almost sliced in half.

Xarph was angry, because he had lost another knight.

One of the remaining knights attacked Tu'er. The demon tried to deflect with his wings again, but this time, the spear pierced his wing and scratched him a bit. The other knight attacked him, but blocked by Tu'er's sword.

The demon gasped as he saw Xarph taking a few steps back. Xarph lifted his spear, and threw it to the balow, impaling him in his head.

He looked out of the window. Another dwagon was croaked, but the city was theirs now. He removed his spear from the demon's head. A while later, his other knights returned, along with 2 casters.

Xarph smiled. It was hard. This battle costed him 3 dwagons and 4 knights, but it was worth it.

"We're done here. Let's go."