His words managed to clear most of the bitterness left by the crow words. "Now all leave," he said, "you, you,… you, and you stay behind," he selected Sara, Amelia, the three leaders, Agnus, and Deem to stay behind.
Amanda gave him a silent glance yet he didn't explain himself to her. She nodded and left with others while he watched her back getting far while sighing.
He wasn't sure if they only planted a bomb inside her. To be safe he decided to seclude her from the crucial parts of his plan.
"What's the real plan then?" Amera asked the moment the place became void of others.
Strangely those he selected, or most of, were aware of his real intentions. "Do we have another plan?" Deem asked in surprise.
"We won't wait for a month," Arthur glanced at them, "starting from now we are at open war with them."
"We were already at an open war," Sara said, "the war never stopped."
"But it became less intense after the fight," Doaf said while stretching out his body, "I planned to take a week off, but it seems even my enemies are more eager to meet me."
"We have to act now," the crow said, "and fast, but where will we strike?"
"Everywhere," Arthur took out a grand map of the entire world here. He let the map be unfolded by Agnus over a nearby table, "starting from now we will be the supreme council of this war," Arthur said before stressing, "no one, and I mean no one, outside this group should hear a single word of what we will discuss."
They all nodded in unison while understanding how important this warning and such secrecy was.
"Starting from today you'll move inside my garden world," Arthur turned to Amelia, "the time difference will work for our benefit. In addition to that I'll scatter many portals all over the world."
"Are we going to fight everywhere?" Sara asked in doubt, "we don't have enough manpower to do so."
"We can deal with any army," Amera said in confidence, "no matter who we will destroy."
"Hold on there," Arthur stopped this useless conversation before going south, "we will play according to other rules."
"Like what?" Doaf asked.
"Like us they are limited in their manpower," Arthur said before pointing to certain places on the map, "besides they only have the support of the dark clans and academies in this world, while we have the support of others."
"And?" Amera asked, "where will we strike then?"
"It's not only about strike," Arthur shook his head, "this plan has three phases, phase one we will scatter along places we already have support there. Phase two we will start hitting their weak forts and make sure none is alive."
"And step three?" Sara asked.
"We will hit their lairs and clean this world of this filth once and for all."
They glanced at the map as Amelia asked:
"So we have around one week to each phase?"
"No, we will start phase one and two immediately," Arthur said, "I'll first roam the world and scatter portals everywhere. You need to prepare your men and armies. Deem…" he turned to his man who nodded.
"I need you to amass workers very experienced at building cities," Arthur said, "inside the garden world you'll find a huge number of citizens. You are authorized to recruit and take whoever you wish with you."
"To do what exactly?" Deem was still at a loss here.
"To build cities of course," Arthur said before adding, "places where we already have their support would be a waste to not build our cities there. It'll be your task and you need to understand you'll be asked to build a large number of cities in the shortest span of time."
Deem understood his role and he got how hard it would be. He realized why his lord asked him first to gather those with vast experience in building cities. "I won't fail you," he said and Arthur smiled.
"And we will have to hit their weak spots, right?" Amera asked.
"Indeed," Arthur nodded, "plus take any population you can get and sweep these places clean."
They all glanced at him in amazement while he said it clear, "leaving these places with potential resources to rise up again is a mistake. We will deal with our enemy as if we are biting them one piece at a time. And that bite needs to be deep and leave nothing behind."
They got his meaning and understood what this plan was built on. "What about phase three?" Amelia asked, "when will we start it?"
"When they lose their calm," Amera laughed, "after all we can't risk a direct clash with their heavily fortified forts."
"Amera is right," Arthur said, "we'll have to leave the timing of this phase to our enemies to decide."
"But…"
"Don't worry over them," Arthur tried to reassure Amelia, "they wanted their girl more than I wanted mine."
She could only sigh and trust him while he turned around to the three leaders. "You need to act swiftly, be brutal, and even unleash all forms of energy as you desire."
"But the world won't sustain it," Doaf warned.
"Well a small increase will be enough if used for a short time," Arthur said while the memory of many enemies of the higher realm using their powers all together for a short time before being trapped and imprisoned jumped into his mind.
If his weak garden world managed to sustain their pressure for this short time, then this stronger middle world here would definitely sustain it for even longer.
"Also you'll have to scout the areas first before attacking," he stressed.
"This… so we can't bring the crazy two with us, right?" the crow asked and Arthur understood his meaning.
"You can bring them with you," Arthur thought for a moment about Tina and the scorpion queen, "but unleash them when the fight starts, not before."
"We'll try our best," Amera sighed, "these two are really… crazy."
"Hahaha, they only love fighting," Arthur said, "now you know what you have to do. Keep this secret and don't tell anyone about it."
"What about me?" Agnus suddenly said.
"I want you to move as well with Amelia," Arthur answered while glancing at his girl, "isn't he part of your team?"
"He is part of everything," Amelia said with a helpless smile.
"I can help with building war machines," Agnus suddenly said, "I excel now at them and have many ideas that can be useful to accelerate any fight, especially on small scales like the ones we are going to have."
"Hmm…" Arthur paused while Doaf expressed his support:
"Let him be, after all we lack a lot of war preparations and tools here in this world."
"Alright," Arthur waved his hand, "you got what you desire."
"Yes," Agnus was excited about this.
"Go now and be fast and secretive. When I'm ready I'll send a bird's wing to you."
"What about me?" Sara asked as she was the only one here without a task.
"You?" Arthur muttered in a strange way, "you'll be the mind and heart of my empire. Keep it running and make sure to organize things at the newly established cities far off here."
"Oh," she seemed to regret asking and he laughed at her obvious discontent from her hard and boring task.
This content is taken from fr(e)ewebn(o)vel.𝓬𝓸𝓶