Chapter 270 Volume IV - Chapter 117: A Conversation With an Old General
I waited a short while before opening the door I was standing in front of. It didn't take long though, and soon I reached for the door, sighing slightly.
The door opened and the first thing that hit my face was a cool breeze.
Two bunk beds on the sides of the room came into my field of vision, followed by the three dwarves sitting between them, who turned to me as I opened the door and looked at me in surprise.
"Aiden?"
I smiled, waving slightly.
"Well, hi."
Gurdas, Rulhan, and Durvan jumped to their feet at the same time.
"Hold on... did ye grow taller?"
"Haha... Well, I guess."
There were traces of surprise on all three of their faces, but it was soon replaced by smiles again.
"I hope you didn't have too much difficulty while I was away."
With these joking words, I came over to them and sat on the bunk closest to me. Durvan replied with a grin.
"Heh, ye're one to talk."
When our group of four reunited, I was first asked about what had happened. I didn't tell them anything different from what I had told Dorhud, but personally, I was more curious about their situation, so the conversation quickly turned to them.
To be honest, not much had happened while I was away. Apart from the mountain and its surroundings becoming a new battlefield, they had continued to participate in battles and fulfill their duties. There were no additional developments.
"The legacy of an ancient creature, huh..."
"Exactly."
I raised my hand, created a blue flame, and moved it around the room like a flying marble.
The three dwarves watched the blue marble with great interest. The flame was truly mesmerizing, with its blue color and perfect shape. Still, we didn't dwell on it too much.
Minutes turned into more minutes as we chatted about what had happened, what we were going to do, or random things. It was good to be reunited and have someone to talk to, but it had to come to an end.
Soon I had to leave them again, because, as I told the old general when I was with Dorhud, I needed to sketch out the rune that I was planning to apply to the battlefield. On top of that, I was going to propose a battle strategy that would win them this war.
The time had come.
So, after almost two hours with them, I left the room and went deeper into the base with a soldier who was waiting for me just outside.
*******
The room I was taken to was a simple room, the size of a normal apartment living room, where I was allowed to work as I wished. In the center of the room was a table with holographic technology that allowed me to do everything.
As soon as I sat down at the table, what I expected happened. A large screen opened in front of me and a figure, the same old dwarf as in Dorhud's room, appeared on it. This time his eyes were much sharper, though he didn't try to hide the fact that he had questions.
The old general spoke quickly, without any formality.
"I understand about the runes, Corporal Tenebra. But I'd like you to tell me about the battle strategy."
I wasn't even surprised as I knew this would happen. On the contrary, I smiled and looked into the old general's black eyes.
"First of all, let me tell you that even if we win on this battlefield, we will have a maximum of two, maybe three days to enjoy all the benefits of this place. You realize that, right?"
It would be strange if they didn't realize it. This was one of the battlefields where the South Holar were now putting a lot of emphasis and troops, after all. They knew how important that mountain was. So the moment the war started to go badly for them, they would play their trump card.
They would drive the battleship, the Caleuche, here. Who knows, maybe they had already started to move it.
"Of course we are aware."
I nodded my head in satisfaction.
"Good, then I'll get straight to what's on my mind without wasting time."
The general squinted his eyes and gave me permission to continue, so I began to tell him everything I knew and everything that was on my mind.
"The rune I want to install on the battlefield will have two simple features. The first is to destroy the enemy's entire intelligence and technology network, at least in this region. We all know that the southern soldiers, like us, have a system similar to AVRES. Of course, you have tried to hack it before and failed. Rather than interfere directly with the system, I intend to target the system's information flow, and I will do this by intercepting the runes that allow the enemy to connect to it."
The General raised one eyebrow in interest.
"And how are you going to do that?"
"I know what kind of runes the enemy uses in their system, so I can draw the most suitable runes to counter them. All I have to do is draw a rune that will have the opposite effect to these runes and then the enemy will be deprived of their artificial intelligence. Their armor will lose most of its functions and everything will be much simpler for us."
"Hmm... Go on."
"The second feature of the rune is that it will not only jam the system, but it will also redirect the signals that try to travel through it to our system so that they can be read directly. Of course, for this feature, we will need to use another device to get information from the rune, but that is not difficult. That's the purpose of the runes."
The General smiled slightly, pleased with what he had heard.
"And what about the battle strategy you speak of?"
"Well, that connects to what we were talking about in the first seconds of our conversation. As we know, the course of the battle here will bring Caleuche here. There is no doubt about that. Tomorrow, while the rune I propose is being engraved on the battlefield, I suggest we withdraw our troops slowly as if we are losing."
This time the general's brow furrowed, as if he was going to object to my idea of withdrawing the troops.
"We need to drag the enemy further into this when we have a big trump card in our hand, they must think they are winning. We can even draw them back to a point close to the base, and if they see that we're struggling, they'll believe that they're actually going to win the battle, and Caleuche might stop coming here and turn to another battlefield. That would give us more time to overpower the enemy much faster and to collect the virgonium."
The general looked up, expecting me to stop, but then he locked eyes with me and remained still.
I squinted, my expression cold. I was no longer smiling, my lips were straight. When the general saw this, he stuttered for a brief moment and I continued.
"Isn't winning the war what we want, general? As a more convincing way of doing this last point, I would like to suggest that we allow the enemy to really come at us, even if only for a moment. There will be casualties, I am sure of that, but I think the gains will far outweigh the losses. You can mine enough virgonium in that mountain to produce several of the swords you plan to use against Caleuche. That would allow us to end the actual war in a month, maybe two weeks. We could end this war that has been going on for years in two weeks."
The general paused, as if thinking, and his eyes narrowed; his gaze also grew cold.
"You're right, Corporal Tenebra. If we allow them to advance and secretly surround them, we could indeed be victorious on this battlefield in a matter of days. But... what if we fail? Do you think our losses will be such that we can make up for them if we fail?"
"We will not fail, general. That's not an option, and you know it. Besides... do you think casualties are that important? I think it's a risk worth taking for the chance of success."
I took a deep breath and closed my eyes.
"I don't want casualties either. I find this war disgusting in the first place. The thought of thousands, tens of thousands, and more dying for nothing just gets on my nerves. But if we have to do it for the sake of victory..."
I opened my eyes and gave the general the coldest look I could muster as I transferred mana to the Absolute Mind.
"Neither of us should care about this."
The old general let out a deep, really deep sigh.
"So be it, Aiden Tenebra. So be it... we will put your plan into action. The next time we meet, this battle will be over, one side will be victorious, and if that side is not us..."
He raised his hand and pointed at me with his index finger.
"Know that you will suffer the consequences of this as much as I will."
"I was the one who said we had to take a risk, general. If I have to take a punishment, I will gladly accept it."
"Then start designing your rune, I'll leave it up to you how to install it on the battlefield. You can use our soldiers any way you want. I hope that in two days there will be no Southern soldiers left on this battlefield."
"Don't worry... I, we will eradicate them all."
The call went off, the general's image disappeared and the screen faded back down to the table.
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