A bright light flashed inside a hall that was adjacent to the throne room as Reign suddenly found himself inside the castle of the kingdom of Riplas. There were no guards inside the circular hall that Reign was in, and faint sounds of people talking to each other could be heard from outside the door.
Reign observed his surroundings, fully aware that he had returned to Riplas again. It wasn't hard to make the conclusion as the crest of the royal family was visible at multiple places inside the circular hall.
It was one of the halls that were prepared for guests to stay inside before being called into the throne room. Because of this, the hall, if it could be called as such thanks to its relatively small size, was decorated nicely and rarely had any guards stationed inside of it.
Suddenly the conversation from the throne room became louder, Reign could hear people shouting at each other in frustration and anger.
He slowly walked to the door and opened it, before observing the throne room. It was mostly empty, there were only about 4 guards inside, and a giant table was placed in the middle, the king, the rest of the royal family, and the top fighters and generals were currently there.
The table was quite large and was more than enough for all of them to sit on, Reign could see that a large map was placed on top of the table while the generals were arguing.
"We can't do that, we will have to sacrifice thousands of our own people!"
"We have to, we can't allow them to continue further, the consequences could be disastrous, much more than thousands!"
"What about the approaching horde, we can't leave it alone either!"
"Don't forget the army, damn it, there's too many of them." One of the generals slammed his fist on the armrest of his chair, breaking it and making splinters fly around.
"The monsters of the mountain range have been quiet for now, but there is no saying when they will attack again, even with sir Raigon's help and his killing of some of the monster leaders, we can't be certain they won't come back soon."
"Damn it, we're sparse and can't always be running from one place to another, if not for sir Lico returning two months ago, we might have not been able to even keep our territory."
"Ahem."
"Zip it, we don't have time to talk." One of the generals waved off Reign without even looking at him.
The people around the table were so concentrated on the map and its contents that they hadn't even noticed Reign.
As for the guards, they noticed him, and upon recognizing him, were wearing wide smiles on their faces.
"Ahem!" Reign coughed much louder this time, making some of the generals turn around to stare at him in anger.
"You brat, what the hell do you-" One of the generals started yelling at Reign, only to open his eyes wide open realizing who he was.
"Sir Reign!" Many of the generals rose up from their seats as they stared at Reign in shock.
Even the king, who Reign could now feel was a Tier III being had a shocked expression on his face.
"Seems like you guys are quite a pinch, I was thinking about helping, but maybe I should return later." Reign said with a smile as he scratched the back of his head.
None of the people in front of him moved.
They were frozen in shock.
It had been months since they had come under attack, and each day was spent with little time to rest or sleep.
They had been stretched out when it came to manpower, completely exhausted by the events that were taking place. Even with some of the help they had received, they still lacked more power to defend properly, only for Reign to suddenly appear.
"Reign, ah dear boy, to think you would actually show up here." The king said as he came to Reign and put his hand on his shoulder.
"Come, sit, sit." The king urged Reign as some of the generals moved to the side in order to make space for one more chair to be placed.
"What's happening, I don't mean to be rude, but all of you look like shit." Reign commented as all of them shook their heads while wry smiles appeared on their faces.
"You're not wrong about that, ah, where should we even start?" The king asked before narrating the events that had taken place for the last 3 months.
"After you had left, we managed to completely solidify our standing and were slowly increasing our strength for a couple of weeks, the new territory we possessed gave us plenty, and we were the largest kingdom in the area, to be honest, none of us expect it to last long, but only after about 3 weeks had passed, war came again."
"We told you about the other 2 powerful kingdoms, they had riled up the neighboring kingdoms, making them think of us as invaders and war-hungry." The king said with a heavy sigh.
"We were forced into yet another war we didn't wish to have, fighting at multiple fronts and doing all that we could to keep the enemy at bay."
"To be honest, it was also a good thing for us, the war made the surviving troops stronger, and the ones that were powerful continued growing, in the upcoming months, we had steadily improved our strength, gained more Tier I combatants, and were slowly pushing the enemy back, hell, me and Raigon even went inside the mountain range, we only stuck to the beginning and hunted down Tier I monsters and managed to reach Tier II after some time."
"That much power was supposed to be able to be enough for us to not only win against the enemy but to conquer the whole area if we so wished to."
"But the enemy was smart, with all of the kingdoms being focused on us, they attacked."
"They attacked the 3 smaller kingdoms from behind and devastated their armies, but improved their own strength thanks to it, their two kings had even managed to become Tier II fighters, and they were now equal to us in power."
"No, not equal, but stronger as they had more combatants compared to us." The king added after he had stopped briefly.
"We didn't have Lico, who had gone out to explore and try to break through, it was only thanks to Lios entering the mountain range after the war with the two kingdoms of Ios and Lucion started that we were able to hold our ground as he managed to become a Tier II combatant as well.
"The next couple of months passed by quite slowly I must say, many died, some were our own, some were the enemy."
"Many of our own rose through the ranks and become powerful and well-respected fighters, just like theirs."
"Even though we had more Tier II fighters, and were continuing to further improve the power of our troops with the usage of the mountain range that housed many powerful monsters, the enemy was somehow able to do the same."
"It was only when Lico finally came back two months ago that we were able to finally push the enemy back, not only did he reach Tier I, but he actually managed to reach Tier II during his time away which came as a great surprise for us, especially since Lisea had managed to do the same."
"At that time, we had me and Raigon, both peak Tier II beings, and 3 other Tier II individuals, with a couple of peak Tier I individuals amongst our ranks."
"Wars are hard, it is gruesome and many die, but it is also the best way for the troops to grow stronger."
"But the enemy was following our every footstep, each time we improved, they managed to do the same, but the sanity of their powerful warriors was seemingly not all there, they were becoming increasingly more savage and fought like maniacs, it was only a while ago that we managed to find out why."
Both the kingdoms had been taken over by demon worshippers." One of the generals suddenly said from the side as Reign widened his eyes.
"What, but how could something like that happen, aren't the demon worshippers hated everywhere?"
"Yes, but it started directly from the royal families of both kingdoms, before slowly infecting others, those that didn't join them were either killed or were possessed by the demons." The king said with a heavy heart.
"They are strong, but the worst thing about them is that they don't fear any injury, not even death."
"And then an even larger problem came, one that we would never have foreseen." The king suddenly spoke with a heavy tone as all the generals stayed quiet, even the queen and the princess showed a solemn expressions.
"Two parts of the kingdom suddenly changed, two villages, one large and one of medium length were found to be filled with demon worshippers and demons, the larger one had a couple of worshippers that had summoned the monstrosities, while the smaller one was mostly demon worshippers and the possessed, being led by one powerful individual."
"Who"? Reign asked as he saw their heavy expression, aware that it was probably someone he knew.
"The one that had gained the title of "Blood Angel" during the war, and was now called the "Fallen Rose", a person you know very well Reign, it is Lieara."
This content is taken from freewebnove(l).com