Chapter 150 War and the Void

At first the earthquake was a disaster, but later they saw it as an opportunity.

When you stare into the abyss, the abyss stares into you.

I wonder if those elemental mages of Icathia understood this truth when they looked down into the earthquake abyss.

But the Icathians, whose hatred of Shurima was already deep in their hearts, became fanatical when they discovered this dark and powerful force.

The Shurima Empire intimidates other countries by relying on the ascended god-warriors, but the Icathians have now discovered a force that is powerful enough to resist and even more powerful than the god-warriors!

The Icathian Council immediately blocked the news to prevent it from leaking out and reaching the Shurima people.

The skilled warrior Saijax was given the mission to escort the Icathian mages who had made their discovery.

Using torch staffs and magically generated elemental fire, they were able to contain it. Deeply troubled, Saijax escorted the mages to the Ruling Council to have them tell him what they knew in person.

These mages, who seemed fanatical and even insane, called this power "the void".

The Council immediately recognized its potential, but Sejax saw the destruction that the Void portended.

As a weapon master, he knew the dangers of using a weapon, especially one they neither fully understood nor could safely wield, and he thought back to when he had set out from Saabela and regretted not having killed the mages on the spot.

And this regret will become more serious in the days to come.

……

The audience watched the screen intently at what was happening in Icathia. It was obvious that the Icathians believed that they had gained a power that did not belong to the Shurima god-warriors.

But even if they only caught a glimpse of the things exposed from the earthquake abyss in the video, everyone vaguely sensed a sense of misfortune.

Just as Saijax said, the Icathians are still unable to control the power of the Void.

Perhaps they thought they could use this to fight against the Shurima god-warriors, but they forgot that the Ascended could control the Ascended power within their bodies.

However, except for a few people, the vast majority of Icathians have been blinded by hatred!
Confident that the Void could defeat their Shuriman overlords, the Council crowned a new Mage King, repaired the broken walls, gathered an army, and rebuilt the Kohari.

Saijax was one of the first to join the ranks.

In the early engagements, the Icathians were victorious, and Saijax even slew a vaunted Ascended in combat, watching with pride as its corpse was paraded through the streets of the liberated city of Beizek.

This was the scene Kiran saw when he returned from a diplomatic mission to other countries!

Yet the elementalist could do nothing to stop his companions, who delighted in telling Zilean of their discovery of an ancient forbidden power—a force powerful enough to ensure victory for Icathia. When Zilean learned of the power of the Void, his reaction was similar to Saijax’s.

He looked upon the wise, learned Icathians, and saw only madness in their eyes. Ziran was devastated, and would rather Icathia be suppressed than unleash this embodiment of evil upon the world.

But no matter what, there is one thing that cannot be changed.

That is the war between Shurima and Icathia!

In Icathia, statues of the sun disk were torn from rooftops and smashed by the crowds, Shuriman papers were burned, their treasures were looted, and statues of dead emperors were desecrated.

The Ekassians assembled their forces, ten thousand men and women, all in boiled leather armor, armed with axes, javelins, and spears. Two thousand claw riders were deployed on each flank, their scaly mounts stamping their clawed hooves impatiently on the ground.

A thousand archers half-knelt on the ground in front, with arrows with blue tail feathers stuck in the soft soil in front of them. Three deep and strong infantry phalanxes were the main force, like a fortress of courage. At the back of the position, the mages were casting earth and stone magic. The crackling energy made the air blurry.

The Icathians had been preparing for this rebellion for hundreds of years, and although they did not have time to arm all their soldiers, the scale of this army was unprecedented.

But they can't win the war just by this.

The Shurima army was larger than theirs; the Sun Emperor had five armies, the smallest of which was three times as numerous as theirs.

However, Icathia still has that final weapon.

Saijax brought Kohari to the designated location and stopped in front of a huge granite stepped building. Under the base of the building stood a forest of wooden stakes with Shuriman corpses stuck on them. A flock of scavenger birds circled in the sky. On top of the building, a tent was set up with scarlet and indigo silk. It was unknown what was inside. A group of priests in robes surrounded the tent, each holding a staff made of star iron and drawing complex trajectories in the air.

The sun was almost at its highest point, but an eerie atmosphere emanated from the tent, which swayed like a mirage, and the Icathian soldiers near it could hear a continuous buzzing sound, like a nest of insects trying to crawl into their brains.

This is the weapon that the Icathians use against Shurima, and the Void is in this tent.

An hour later, the Shurima army arrived.

Dust and dirt rose up, covering the sky and the earth, like a gathering storm that was about to sweep away the mortal realm. Everywhere I looked, I saw soldiers. They marched forward, a wall of people holding high a golden banner, and the totem of the sun disk gleamed in the midday sun.

Hundreds of thousands of undefeated troops, their ancestors had conquered the known world. Golden mounts and riders covered the flanks, and hundreds of floating chariots cleared the way in front of the army. The heavy carriages, as big as three-masted sailing ships, were loaded with strange war machines, and the high-speed spinning spheres were surrounded by fire beads and lightning, shaped like astrolabes for navigation. Around the machines followed a group of priests in robes holding torches and staffs, and each of them was followed by a group of blind slaves.

At the center of the army were the god-warriors.

They stood like a mountain among the soldiers under their command. Their appearance and bodies were a horrible mixture of human and animal, nothing like them had ever existed in the world, and never should exist. They were dressed in bronze and jade armor, all of them giants, incredible monsters.

(End of this chapter)