"No need," but Arthur had another opinion, "I'll put the originals at use. Plus my dragon army as well."
'Ding! Are you sure?' the system seemed to agree with the golden dragon here, 'Ding! These settlements look a little weird.'
"Because they are on clouds?"
'Because they are coming towards the empire,' the golden dragon said, 'that means they have a great offensive army able to take cities from your hand in a short time.'
'Ding! They can't risk a long war there. Or else you'll come with the great army to crush them.'
'Besides,' the golden dragon added, 'they must have strong defensive abilities to help in securing cities conquered by them.'
'Ding! And most of your army is ground troops. You need flying mages like those coming from the upper realms.'
Arthur understood their points fully, but he couldn't help but hesitate. "Those high realmers are the leaders of my armies," he expressed his worries, "taking them out of the picture will render my entire forces paralyzed!"
'It's not a big loss to halt the advance of your troops,' the golden dragon said but Gege came with more bad news.
'We can't do that!' she suddenly said, 'I discovered many bases like this drawing close to our armies. I believe they are tailing them!'
"That means…" Arthur paused while his mind linked the dots, "they want us to retreat our strong forces and then they'd come to hit those weak ones."
'Ding! That's a big scheme,' the system said, 'Ding! No way they just laid it out! They must have a strong foundation somewhere else where bases like these can be built over clouds easily.'
"Do you mean…" Arthur paused while the golden dragon said:
'This kind of settlement isn't rare or unique in this world. There must be an easy way to make them.'
Arthur didn't hesitate to issue his order. "Bring Fox and Lara out! Now!"
If there was such a thing in this world, then these two must know a thing or two about it. The more Arthur thought about this the more he believed in what the system and golden dragon just said.
"What about other places?" Arthur asked while watching two portals open in front of him.
'I'm still searching, but I'm sure I'll find more.'
'Ding! I believe so!'
'This isn't a single attempt from them. This is a full out war now!'
Arthur nodded in agreement while watching Lara and Fox appear with startled faces.
The presence of such a threat and in such a bizarre way made him realize something. His enemy didn't lay back and watched him expand his empire without doing anything.
And the most important fact that Arthur missed was that despite cutting the link of the dark angel grandmaster to this part of the world, he was still able to connect to other parts just fine!
So he could still scheme and plot things against him. Just like what he was facing at the moment.
"Lord!" The two bowed in front of Arthur before being taken by the beauty of the mountain.
"Do you know of villages and towns built on clouds?" Arthur directly asked.
"Oh, you must mean the flying towns!" Lara's eyes shone brightly before Fox explained further.
"We all heard about them, but never saw one to be honest."
"So they do exist?" Arthur asked before demanding, "tell me everything you know about them. What are their strengths? What are their weaknesses? I want to know everything!"
The two looked at each other in hesitation before Fox said:
"Well… It's hard to speak about something we have never seen before."
Arthur understood his meaning and got the reason behind their hesitation. "Anything would do, even rumors."
As he said that, their features relaxed a bit.
"I heard they originated from an academy in the south," Lara started to speak freely with no pressure, "they soon expanded to reach the west where it became the center of making them."
"They said it's made by naturally present flying islands in the sky," Fox added, "they use arrays to make these islands float higher and even move. Building on it is like building on the ground. There is even equal gravity there like it's on the ground."
Arthur nodded while the two kept providing him with info, local tales, and even some legends. After half an hour of listening, Arthur had a clear view over this new weapon of his enemy.
The islands were able to fly higher, fly fast, and even cast a shield around themselves. Also they had such a deadly weapon of landing over the ground and smashing anything underneath them.
In return for that, these islands would lose their ability to fly again. But hearing this legend made Arthur realize how dangerous these islands were.
He didn't doubt such a legend. If the enemy had such a weapon under his hand, then letting him reach inside his empire was disastrous!
"Thanks, you can go back now," after the two said everything they had, Arthur made them return inside the garden world. "Be ready for a big fight soon. I'll need every single mage available to secure my empire."
His words made the two beam with joy, not stress.
"We won't disappoint the lord," the two bowed and said in unison before returning back.
"So it's much more dangerous than I initially thought," Arthur muttered to himself before adding, "but these islands have a good weakness."
'I warned you,' the golden dragon said.
'Ding! That enemy never makes an easy move at all. Never underestimate him!'
"Yeah!" Arthur sucked in a deep breath before turning around and gazed upon the faint marks of his city. Seeing such a scene made him realize how it resembled the status of his empire.
His empire seemed big and vast, mighty and alluring to the eye. But in fact it was still new and fragile, just having general lines marking it. His empire was still in the process of making, and it would need a lot of time to be a mighty empire in reality.
And his role as the emperor and its founder was to guard his new baby until it grew up and became strong enough to defend itself.
"Tell the armies to keep going forward as planned," despite all the expectations of the three beings in his mind, Arthur said such a bizarre order.
'But…' the golden dragon was about to speak and object. But Arthur interrupted him by saying:
"I'm not going to fight this war with the little forces I have here," he paused before adding, "first I'll need to establish a good plan before moving them. Plus they have many eyes over them. Making them retreat will alarm the enemy. Let him think he is taking us by surprise before making a big fool of himself."
'Ding! Then… What do you plan to do?' the system asked and Arthur's face turned so vicious and brutal at the moment.
"I'm going to shake even the heavens itself to protect my empire!"
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