The Legend of Tantus - Book 3

Chapter 1.2

    Back to Varzog in possession of the ship, Laguna was ready to continue his plans of conquest, as the country of Terrus did not know that that exact man was behind rumors of war on the other side of the world, being obliged to remain only in conjectures for while, and counting on that his next target would be the country of Rómena. The continent of Tantus would not be attacked yet, obviously because of the recent events and because they have two ships, not to mention Ragnavolk, who was in space, Ragnahawk was lost and this would complicate things when the time came. For some reason he also did not intend to attack the Lieben continent for the time being, apparently he knew something or was simply a choice. Nor would he attack the realm of wolves and shinobis in his backyard, as his warlike and elemental forces would still be threats even if he owned the ship, and he knew that they would not abandon their protections, so he strategically decided to mount a siege in their region blocking trade and external supply, making systematic attacks, and even if they were independent sooner or later they would lose some of their strength and could then be finally crushed.

    Taking an army of almost one hundred thousand soldiers, two thousand more aerodrons and two thousand armored ones, to the continent of Scyra, together with ten combat frigate and air carrier of his entire continent, the new tyrant, as he was being called by the rumors, was ready for another war. The relative distance between the countries that were and would be attacked, not in territorial terms, but in independence, made them isolated targets and unable to call for speedy help, apart from the fact that they were already able to block communications with technology, which would greatly facilitate his plans. The regent Colin Varga, from the country of Rómena, evacuated the Ratmoor Harbor in time as soon as he confirmed the arrival of the enemies and the blue colors of Saitar's armors, concentrating his forces on the kingdom, his army had a contingent of thirty thousand soldiers and bet all in the good defense of his city. Laguna came to take possession of all the villages along the way, plundering supplies and preparing his army, and just a day after his arrival at Scyra he was facing the Kingdom of Andistar, the battle was beginning. The aerial combat of the aerodrons was terrible, due to the numerical superiority the tyrant's troops bombarded the city with powerful shots of thunder, fire and light, the most efficient elements for these ships, many civilian casualties were made, but the damage was not large enough on the walls. On the ground, soldiers fought a frightening exchange of magic shots from a distance, Laguna used the element of earth to create barricades, protecting his soldiers well while the Andistar warriors had the protection of the walls. Despite the larger contingent it was not so simple to take a properly armed and prepared kingdom by assault, the battle had already lasted almost two hours with the city standing firm, but the tyrant, who was actually only giving false hope to his opponents, decided to act directly. Using the terrible heretic demon statue, which even though it was shot by the city troops, taking a lot of damage, impressively destroyed the northern walls before being destroyed, then Laguna himself shattered his magic, letting the rocks fall on dozens of soldiers, now his troops were already invading heavily and the battle was more terrible at this time. At this point the aerial combat was already defined, but still the tyrant, flying Ragnarock, ended everything with his devastating firepower, and massacring the city with his energy cannons defined the battle, only leaving the regent's palace intact. Colin, observing the total defeat of his kingdom, headed to the staircases with a sword drawn and boldly, he challenged Laguna for a man-to-man combat by pointing his weapon at the powerful ship, which slowly descended in front of him, a legendary scene, many thought the tyrant would fire his cannons and spray the regent, but to the general surprise he landed Ragnarock and left with his sword drawn, accepting the challenge and being called a coward by Colin:

- You ruin our world by destroying the peace we won a long time ago! – said Colin.

- Do not be so nervous, Varga. – said Laguna. – Life just takes its natural course.

- And what is natural about death and destruction?!

- I do not expect any of you to understand, just to bow at my feet.

- At least I will finish you off, even though it's my last act!

    The tyrant and the regent faced each other in front of the crushed city and the armies astonished. Colin proved to be a better rival than the order, his swords crossed for several minutes evenly, and to Laguna's surprise he was also a powerful elemental user, being able to bring danger to the tyrant, mastering the elements of water, ice, life and thunder, an incredible dispute of magic started, between sword blows, punches and kicks in the intervals, and the fight evolved from a simple combat to something worthy of the archives, Colin's level was high and able to resist Laguna for a long time, a magical user of those, and in those days , it was rare, so the tyrant seemed to show some respect, but at the same time he liked it better. Until their most powerful elemental dispute took place and Laguna's power proved immensely superior, but just before he was mortally hit, the regent managed to free himself and locked swords with his opponent, already clearly tired, losing hope in the face of such a powerful enemy, he was saddened by his kingdom and his people, and so he decided not to admit defeat, in a last and extraordinary effort Colin managed to push the tyrant and injure his shoulder, and when they locked arms again Laguna blew a greenish cloud, poison, into his face, element of the status. Immediately Colin faltered, the enemy's level was fatal, after staggering he still attempted a final attack, but he was defended and held by the neck, looking directly into the tyrant's eyes he seemed to see something that made his spine freeze, and fear stamped out in his face:

- You...? What are... You?

- Huhuhu...

    Colin Varga died courageously. More than ten thousand Andistar soldiers died in the battle and the rest were integrated into the tyrant's army, with the death of another regent now Laguna's terror was absolute, and spread like a plague. This time he made a great effort to stop the news from running, paralyzing trade with other continents, letting them continue with the rumors, but without allowing official information about the conquest of Rómena, and thus his next targets could not be so well prepared for an attack, which actually happened five months later. In a slightly easier battle than the previous one, this time Laguna used Ragnarock from start to finish, and the m******e of the Kingdom of Sol army in the country of Solar was certain as the arrival of winter, killing yet another regent, and four months later it was the turn of the Kingdom of Korn in the country of Scyra. This was by far the most difficult battle so far, lasting for weeks, as just as in the great wars of the past that kingdom had a lot of strength to use, but it also inevitably ended up defeated, as Laguna was also a cunning man, showing this in decisive strategies of attack the economy, and wisely continuing to prevent news outlets. Now there were two continents at his feet, although with total dominance Laguna now turned to one thing: to win the trust of his people, because fidelity for fear would never be compared to fidelity for gratitude. The tyrant was no longer the good man of yore, but he endeavored to soften his terror and win the hearts of his people, making an administration worthy of great kings he pleased the great majority of people on both continents, although prioritizing the strengthening of the army, did not allow hunger or inequality, leading them to believe in peace under his command, his influence as a speaker was incredible, convincing people to follow him in a way rarely seen before, slowly erasing the image of tyrant, rumors about the former captain of Balvera, generous and honorable, circulated again, and among the soldiers a moghran fully trusted, his name was Senkou, the white lion. Believing firmly in Laguna's search for peace, he quickly became his right hand, and soon his most faithful captain, but everything was part of his secret plans, evil he was still behind the curtains and world domination continued as an objective, he was just letting the dust sit, hoping to drop some guards, and the support he had gained was very important to extracting the full strength of his armies in the coming battles to come. Continuing as previously planned, he would not attack the continent of Tantus, as they continued to be fully alert, and in advantage by number of ships, Lieben also did not yet, since the continent more populated and with four extremely close kingdoms would need maximum strength (the real reason for choice), but this also became part of the plan, since the Tantus countries themselves would undoubtedly support them, in Lieben the decisive battle would be fought, they would be two continents at the price of one.

    For five winters he kept his armies well prepared, and this calm time was also crucial for the next steps. So he finally headed to the continent of Meira, he attacked the country of Comenos and like a lightning strike the battle invaded the Kingdom of Formenus, which naturally resisted, but fell like the others before it. Their regent was also killed and quickly taking over the other cities he wasted no time, attacking the Kingdom of Lassanna in the country of Lass, the battle was quickly won, and in the same month the Kingdom of Arfank was devastated. This one resisted more, managing to cause considerable losses to the army of Laguna, but it was also the most devastated. Now Laguna had dominion over the entire west of the planet and only rumors were able to leak from his battles.

    Four more winters of relative peace, because at this time the resistance movements in the three continents, of those that were not deceived by Laguna, started to bother more explicitly. At first they only stole supplies and even received a blind eye, but now, with the people believing in a new world order ruled by him, violent battles began to explode along the trade routes, and the people had their own peers as enemies, but despite their best efforts the resistance could not be more than a stone in the tyrant's shoe, and these four winters were used to hunt them down, many were killed or imprisoned and few continued to fight for freedom, hope seemed to be really waning with time. In the tenth winter since the capture of Balvera, Laguna attacked the continent of Zelante and its two kingdoms simultaneously, 70% of his now immense army went, under Senkou's command, to the country of Hristov, where they won strongly, and Laguna, with Ragnarock and the rest of the contingent, devastated the country of Surin. Half the way was now taken, with his impressive powers of persuasion he conquered the people of this continent too, preparing himself in the best possible way for the next steps, adding more frigates, aerodrons and armored vehicles to his arsenal, but it was soon after this that the resistance achieved the feat of increasing their strength, and began to give real work to Laguna, who was forced to maintain efforts in his four continents to stop them, so his plans were delayed, but one thing gave him headaches: where did the tiny, almost extinct resistance draw new strength from? Something was definitely coming up against him, and Senkou himself warned him that the official news of domination from these continents had finally leaked, but Laguna assured him that nothing else could stop him, it was only a matter of time for the final campaign, world peace... And so began the "World War of the Devourer".