The Battle for Leyta

New Era (1)

After leaving the village on the border between Lerna Sovereignty and Trenice, he travelled for a week until he reached the border between Trenice and Tech Tremor. There was a tall sandstone wall separating the two countries and there were twenty guards stationed at the gates. Ten on the ground, ten on the wall, and at least forty more inside the wall, ready to try to hold back any enemy army that might be trying to invade Tech Tremor. The guards had armour, the likes of which Dromer had never seen before. The armour was only on the legs, arms and back of their torso. The armour also made them seem taller and more menacing.

'What the hell is that armour? How can they move with such heavy equipment on? I have to get into Tech Tremor and find out as much as I can about them, otherwise, I fear my country will fall...'

As Dromer neared the gates, the five guards on the wall alerted the ones on the ground who immediately fell into formation and stood by until Dromer came up close. This was unexpected to him because he had never seen any humans act this way.

When Dromer got close enough, the furthest guard spoke up:

"Stop where you are," the guard's voice was metallic, but somehow still human, "You are about to enter Tech Tremor, the technological wonderland, state your name, race and the purpose of your visit!"

"My name is Dorian and as you can see, I'm human. The reason I'm coming to Tech Tremor is to meet with your ruler and, if possible, to establish friendly relations between Tech Tremor and my nation, known as Lerna Sovereignty," Dromer replied with confidence.

The guards stood in silence for five minutes. Then, finally, the same guard spoke up once again:

"Our ruler has accepted your request of meeting him. Welcome, to Tech Tremor, traveller!"

With that, the guards made a clear path for Dromer and the gates opened.

Dromer walked in between the guards and through the gates. When Dromer reached the other side of the gates, a guard jumped down from the wall and in front of Dromer, which startled him and he immediately pulled his sword out.

With his back still towards Dromer, the guard said: "Put your sword back, I'm not challenging you, I know I'll lose," then, he turned around, "I came down here to give you this."

It was a map of Tech Tremor. The map was so high-tech, that it showed his current location, the location of every guard and the location of the capital city as long as other cities and villages.

Dromer put his sword back and said:

"Ah, I'm so sorry for that, sir. I am way too much on edge today," then, he took the map from the guard.

The guard nodded his head and went back to his post on the wall.

'Hmm... The capital city is called Vongin,' he thought to himself as he took a closer look at all the icons on the screen, 'What's this?'

He touched the icon that looked like a compass and suddenly, a red line appeared on the screen between him and Vongin.

'Is this showing me the shortest way to the capital city? Weird, but I'll follow-,' at that moment, Dromer in the bottom-left corner saw "ETA: two hours" written.

With that, Dromer started on his path to Vongin, which he thought would take much longer, but, much to his surprise, his normal walk speed was fifty times higher than normal.

And, true to what the map said, he arrived in Vongin in measly two hours.

Vongin had a wall around it, but it was made of some kind of strong, metal composite that can't be found anywhere, but, what was the weirdest of all, there were no gates leading to the inside of the city, but there were two guards stationed outside of the wall. When Dromer walked up to one of the guards, a part of the wall started to shrink until it eventually disappeared into the ground.

"Welcome to Vongin, traveller. The ruler of this country is on the top floor of that high-rise in the distance."

Dromer thanked the guard and headed for the high-rise. He walked for twenty minutes before he got to the high-rise.

'Every building is made of some metal-type material... The sun is scorching, but the air doesn't feel hot or humid. The walls of the buildings are cool to the touch... I don't understand how is this possible...'

Dromer saw some kind of doors without any handles or hinges at the base of the high-rise. When he was close enough to the door, they started separating without any sound or people dragging them.

'The hell?! This isn't possible! But, then again, with magic, you can do everything and anything you want... I have to keep a cool head, so I can talk to this country's ruler... This is imperative to the survival of my nation and, possibly, this realm...'

A lady was sitting behind a desk inside the building. When Dromer entered it, the doors behind him closed and he walked up to the desk.

"Umm, good afternoon, miss. I'm Dorian and-"

Dromer was cut off by the receptionist:

"Good afternoon, Dorian the human, ruler of Lerna Sovereignty. He's already waiting for you, take the elevator to get to him, thank you," she said with a polite voice.

Dromer look at her in confusion and asked:

"Elevator? What's that? I've never heard of that before?"

"Oh, right, I apologize for that, sir," she stood up, "Follow me, please."

The receptionist lead Dromer to some kind of metal doors. She pressed a button, the doors opened and she entered a small, glass room.

"Come on, don't be afraid, sir," she ushered him inside the small room.

Dromer, without thinking, stepped inside the small room.

"This is an elevator," the receptionist said, "This will take us to the top-most floor," then, she pressed a button on some kind of panel, the doors closed and Dromer felt a bit nauseous for a moment. After he regained composure, he saw that they were moving upward with quite a bit of speed.

"What's happening?" Dromer asked.

"Oh, nothing dangerous," the receptionist assured him. "This is how elevators work, they bring people up and down tall buildings like this one."

"Ah, I see. Well, thanks for the explanation, though, I feel a little bit embarrassed that I didn't know this and had to ask you."

"Don't worry about it. Since you come from a place such technology doesn't exist, it's understandable that you wouldn't know what this is."

The rest of the way up, Dromer was silent. When the elevator stopped, the doors opened, both stepped out and Dromer was led to the ruler's office.

"Here you are, sir. Just enter through these doors and you'll meet our ruler."

"Thank you, miss."

With that, the receptionist went back to the elevator. Dromer opened the doors and entered the office.

Inside, there was a man in elegant clothes sitting in a black leather chair by a dark brown desk.

"Welcome, Dorian. Please, have a seat. We have much to discuss."

Dromer, still trying to process everything that has happened, accepted and sat down.