Chapter 47: The Gears of War

The award ceremony that night was brief and uneventful. Hundreds of prizes of various qualities were handed out. Thanks to the numerous deaths of competitors both during the main competition and the ranking matches, a great many factions managed to step into higher positions and receive rewards beyond their capability to earn.

The ranking matches were mostly just for the purposes of filling all the positions from 1st to 26th, which were the only individuals to receive any compensation for their efforts in this trial. That’s not to say that everyone else received nothing. They were granted the opportunity to be awed by James’ magnificent visage, which he believed would be more than enough reward for them.

The top 26 contestants all received various prizes varying from martial techniques, to weapons, to trade opportunities. It wouldn’t be wrong to say that the top twenty-six prizes were very well received and everyone believed them to be of inordinate worth.

Naturally, the top three prizes were the most lusted after. However, two of them, the Brotherhoods assistance and the Velocity, both remained firmly in the hands of the guild. This was because in the ranking matches, Sword Girl overcame Betto’s powerful space magic and took second place.

Thanks to this, apart from the small spatial ring that was the third prize, the only other prize that James had any concern over was the 4th place, which happened to be his promise to custom make a weapon for said contender.

It just so happened that contender was Pigtails, whom James had flattened with a single strike in the semi-finals. After a huge party that spanned three nights and two days, Tech City gradually started to calm itself down again.

Or at least it calmed down slightly more than during the War of the Worlds. As a parting gift, each of the contenders that stepped into the top 50 received a golden ticket to become Seed members in the next War of the Worlds.

A week after the competition finished, James was receiving reports of small skirmishes happening between the borders of Soel and Hastoel. James wouldn’t let a chance to stir trouble slip by and set some infiltrators out to these areas to help raise tensions.

After having received reports from all of his minions ... err ... companions, efforts out in the field, James started putting a few more plans into action and laughing deviously for hours while he did so.

Imogine, the Pigtails girl from the Red Hearings faction, which even Jasmine had no knowledge of, had a strange expression on her face when she’d witnessed James just suddenly burst out into sinister laughter now and then.

She’d come to try and discuss something important with James only to rebuffed every time she brought up something unrelated to the artefact she wanted. Over the course of a week, James had sat down with her regularly to take her thoughts on what type of artefact she wanted.

Other than the occasional disturbing laughter and the spirit artefact, he didn’t seem interested at all in her origins. James was, of course, interested in the girl’s origins, after all for her to reach the heights she had in cultivation, naturally he was curious where she was from.

The whole time he’d been rebuffing her attempts to discuss other things with him, he’d actually been waiting for Jasmine to find out something about her background. At least then he’d have something concrete and have a better idea what her deal was. After all, the girl was a complete stranger and turned up out of apparently nowhere.

It was only when he was nearly completed her weapon, which was modelled as a chain sickle, did Jasmine finally locate information regarding the Red Hearings. James wasn’t surprised to find out that they were a Guild from the Gastalous Continent and they specialised in operations in and around the sea.

According to Jasmine, they had a rather interesting spirit artefact in the form of an ancient Galley, moored at a rather prosperous port city in the United Islands. With this in mind, a few rockets were launched from Tech City and quickly found their way over the coasts of Gastalous.

Although Jasmine had been doing some initial probing and mapping of Gastalous, this was the first time the Brotherhood had made any real effort to begin exploring the continent. As the Rockets fell to earth near the shores of Gastalous, everyone simply mistook them for meteors.

In actual fact, these few rockets were filled to the brim with drones. Inside were three types. The first being the standard flying Mk IV Drone that was now like a symbol of Tech City and could be found every 30 kilometres in Atsunari.

The second was a new prototype drone called the Cluster. It was actually more akin to thousands of little drones the size of flies, all stacked together inside a floating ball like hive cluster. These were the best for close reconnaissance and intelligence gathering in and around cities and towns.

The third drone type was the Mole. This drone is almost as common in Atsunari as the standard type. The only difference is that no one even knows that they exist in Atsunari. This drone spends all of its time digging around in the ground and probing for interesting minerals and other rare resources.

The most frightening part about all these drones is that, under the guidance of Jasmine, they’re basically fully self-sufficient. Within 3 months they’ll have created at least 3 ‘hives’ to reproduce more drones. By the time James even arrives in Gastalous, Jasmine will probably have mapped out the entire continent and have notes on every interesting secret from coast to coast.

As this was happening, another new drone prototype was silently being deployed into the oceans on Atsunari. James was well aware that only a small portion of the world is up here on the surface. All the most useful and interesting resources are most likely buried away deep under the earth or at the bottoms of oceans.

With this in mind, James would, without a doubt, begin exploring these places using drones. By the time James had completed Imogine’s chain sickle, all of these new drones had been deployed and were busy propagating and spreading as they fed back massive amounts of data to Jasmine, who strangely didn’t even seem to notice this huge increase in workload.

Also by this time, the port city that was home to Red Hearing guild had long since been infiltrated by an infestation of little metal flies.

-Guild HQ-

James sat opposite Imogine at his round table as he presented to her the finished product of the chain sickle he’d been working on for her. It was, in her opinion, a masterpiece in its own right. Even Imogine, who had met people far above her in cultivation, had never seen such a mystical spirit weapon.

This was James’ first product since he’d understood the mysteries of the folding fan and so it was filled with a great deal of effort on his part. The sickle blade was sharp enough to cut through damn near anything, and the chain had a simple cudgel style handle that could suddenly become as heavy as a mountain.

The most mystical part was the chain. Through trial and error, James had discovered a means to allow the chain to extend or retract infinitely. In its primary form, the chain sickle didn’t even appear to have a chain and simply looked like a sickle with a long handle.

Also, its ability to magnify water based skills was almost demonic, and at times it displayed truly bizarre properties when it magnified water attribute spirit energy. Often creating an unstoppable wave and other times a tiny jet stream powerful enough to slice through an entire city.

That was only the tip of the iceberg. James was rather proud of this artefact and was almost regretful that he had to give it away. He knew, however, that this was barely the beginning. Now that he’d experimented with new forging methods he had to consolidate his experience and master the new skills he’d learnt.

When that time came, his mastery of artefact crafting would reach a whole new level. Beyond anything the piddling little continent of Atsunari had ever witnessed.

After some brief comment and introductions to her new weapon, James sat down and looked at her expectantly.

Imogine was slightly startled when she realised that James was looking at her like a wolf preparing to devour a fat sheep. She frowned lightly and tightly gripped her brand new sickle, thinking that he was going to extort something from her despite this being a prize for her efforts in the competition.

“City Master James. Many thanks to you for your efforts in the creation of this weapon. I promise to take good care of it in my travels.”

This was more or less her way of saying, ‘It’s too late to take it back now. Mine!’.

James had a confused expression for a moment before he leant forward slightly and rested his chin on his hands.

“Miss Imogine. I’ve no interest in taking advantage of you over some trifling spirit artefact. I think it’s about time, you tell me why you came here.”

Imogine was momentarily surprised at his mention of such a powerful weapon as being trifling, but quickly regained her calm. She looked at James suspiciously for a moment, curious as to why he rebuffed all her attempts to discuss this before now only to suddenly bring it up at the end.

“It’s clear as day that I didn’t come here for your competition. City Master James, you’ve built yourself a rather powerful little guild here on Atsunari, but I’m sure that with your position you’ve come to realise that your powerful guild here is woefully incomparable to everywhere else in this world.

“I came here to recruit you. My Red Hearing’s Guild is the only one capable of crossing the vast ocean. It will most likely come as a shock to you, but my guild is actually from Gastalous.”

At this point, Imogine paused to watch the shocked reaction James had when he discovered he was being recruited by a Guild from one of the most powerful continents on the planet. However, the one to end up shocked was Imogine, when she realised that James hadn’t reacted at all.

‘He mustn’t be as profound as Senior Brother thought he was. He isn’t even aware of my continent or the difference in power. What a country bumpkin. It’s true what they say, you can teach away ignorance, but there’s no cure for stupidity.’

Thinking this far, Imogine went into a long explanation about Gastalous and all its virtues. She didn’t even need to play it up and exaggerate it because Gastalous really was a haven for cultivators in comparison to Atsunari.

After almost half an hour, she refocused her gaze onto James only to realise he wasn’t even slightly shocked or moved by her speech and was busily pouring himself some tea. It was like he wasn’t paying attention to her at all.

“City Master James! I’m not sure you realise the gravity of this situation. This continent is...”

James finally broke her long winded speech with a wave of the hand and a chuckle.

“Miss Imogine. I’ve been polite and cordial and let you ramble on and waste my time for almost an hour. My time is precious. Do not take me for a fool or some random lout. I am not ignorant of this world’s geography. Nor am I ignorant of the inherent differences between places like Atsunari and Gastalous. In fact, I would go so far as to say my understanding far surpasses yours.”

James sat back at the table with his cup of tea and in a very regal manner took a sip. Before Imogine’s embarrassment at being talked to in such a fashion could become anger, James continued.

“You may have been so polite as to act humble and gracious while you were here. But the total indifference and lack of sincerity are as obvious to me as the pages of a book. I can tell, that even though I beat your pretty little ass into a patty cake in the arena, you still look down on me as a lesser being because your background is so lofty and ideal while mine is non-existent.”

When he said this, shock registered in her eyes. James smiled like the devil as he calmly stirred his tea.

“Oh yes, Miss Imogine. I’m well aware of who you are and where you’re from. I also know that your purpose here isn’t just to recruit me. Your real purpose here is to try and pressure me into becoming a branch of your guild so that you have a new base of operations in Atsunari. I’m even so well informed that I know exactly what such a mighty and prestigious guild of the Gastalous continent wants in my backyard.

“Unfortunately, you can only act covertly like this, and come here to make promises and whisper me sweet nothings, so I’ll join you. If anyone above the palace realm leaves your ship, your competition will become suspicious. They’ll know that someone is trying to break the ancient treaty and is planning on stepping onto Atsunari once more.”

By this point, Imogine was shaking slightly. Her anger was rising like the tide, and her embarrassment was fuelling it to rise faster. The only thing keeping it in check at the moment was the memory of being smashed by James and flattened in a single strike. As well as the fear that he would start telling people what their true intentions were before they’d even started the initial steps of their plans.

“How do you know all this?” She couldn’t help but rasp out with a dry throat.

James’ smile grew wider, and he glanced over at her. “I know a great deal Miss Imogine. I suggest you go back and get on your boat. Atsunari is mine, and I’ll not let anyone trounce over here from another continent and start poking their nose in where it doesn’t belong.”

After saying this, James stood up and began to leave. Just before he walked out the door to the office, he turned back with a disgusting smile on his face, to see a thoroughly infuriated Imogine.

“Imogine. There is one last thing. If your Father can manage to survive the anger of my reply to your invitation nearly killing him, let him know I have a counter offer. If he offers you up to me on a silver platter, I’ll allow him to join my faction and become the first foreign offshoot of the Dark Brotherhood. In addition, no one will ever know that he had been setting up such a devious scheme.”

James then disappeared out the door. Just as he reached the elevator to head down to the lab, he heard the enraged scream of a wild young women coming from his office. He couldn’t stop himself from chuckling merrily.

-Port Charlton- Great Galley of the Red Hearing -

BOOM! BOOM!

The fierce sounds of huge blasts rang out in the port town and many bystanders watched on as parts of the giant Galley, moored offshore from the port, were blasted away. The loud incoherent ravings of someone echoed across the water and shook the windows and rattled the doors until they shattered from the force of the shockwaves.

It seemed the madness of the raving lunatic was directly affecting the atmosphere. Storm clouds started brewing overhead, and the waves of the ocean started violently seething in rhythm to the man’s rantings.

“The fucking punk! Fucking hick from the backwoods! Fucking...”

And so continued the rantings for a good hour. By the time his voice trailed off, lightning was cascading through the sky and rain was washing over the island in an endless violent torrent.

The waves from the ocean were so brutal that half the cities port had been washed away, resulting in thousands dead. The harbour had an ominous red tinge to the waters and was littered with corpses being rolled along in the waves like deadwood.

In the huge Galley ship, a large man built like a bull, with a barrel-like chest and bulging muscles, stalked back and forth in his captain’s quarters. Seated at the captain’s table were three men and a girl. Each of the men were dressed in the uniform of ranked captains, and the bulging muscled man was tightly squeezed into an admiral’s attire.

The girl was naturally Imogine, and in case it was difficult to guess, the admiral was her father, and the head of the Red Hearings. Of the three men, one was young, one was middle-aged and one was old.

Imogine sat in silence at the table, with her head lowered in embarrassment. The youngest captain seethed with anger while the middle-aged and oldest captain remained slightly more composed than the rest. Although it was easy to see that even they were frowning slightly at the dilemma they were in.

As he paced back and forth with a face filled with anger, the Admiral finally broke the tense silence of the cabin.

“How did he find out? I want to know exactly who leaked this information to him.”

As he said this, he swatted an annoying fly away and continued pacing back and forth. Due to his anger, the fly was disintegrated by the force of his blow. In response to this attack, another fly buzzed over and started flying around him.

Finally, the Admiral paused after swatting another fly. “Prepare the Raiders. We can’t let our intentions be leaked. Have them march to this free city and raze it to the ground. Bring me that boy’s head. Samson, I’ll leave this to you.”

The youngest of the three captains stood and made a salute. His face had a sinister smile plastered across it as he imagined slaughtering this stranger’s entire city. More so than that, he had longed after Imogine since childhood. For some swine from the lesser continents to demand her hand in marriage, he would never allow it.

“Admiral Shirl. You needn’t worry. Such a pathetic little backwater country. Even if this free city was filled with tower realm cultivators, they could never hope to oppose our raiders.”

The Admiral gave a curt nod, then sent Samson out to prepare his troops. He then looked to the eldest of the three captains.

“Sonsam. It’s impossible for anyone above palace realm to leave the ship, but that doesn’t mean our hands are tied. I want you to take the Maroona class frigate and return to the Guild. If this attack on the city fails for some unforeseeable reason, then we will invite him back to Gastalous and...”

BOOM! BOOM! BOOM!

Before his thoughts could be finished, huge explosions started to ring out and the ship began to shudder and shake violently. In a matter of seconds, 8 massive flaming holes had appeared all over the ship.

This Galley was a spirit artefact refined by masters in forging. Not only that, but it was covered in array formations from head to toe protecting it and making it into a fortified floating castle. For something to deal enough damage to create a hole in the ship, let alone a hole nearly 100 metres in diameter it would need power equal to or even greater than a core realm practitioner.

James was actually rather surprised as he watched this in his spirit realm. He’d expected those 8 drones he sent in for suicide to create a great deal more damage than that. It just goes to show how powerful the Gastalous continent is.

Especially considering that the Red Hearing’s Guild is really just a small fry in Gastalous. It’s the equivalent of a guild created by true spirit realm and barrier realm cultivators in Atsunari. As attested by the fact that the Admiral is only a core realm practitioner himself.

James was greatly enjoying the show in his spirit realm as he watched the people from the ship running all over the place like panicked ants as they tried to stop the flooding of the ship and searching the horizon for their enemies.

The Admiral’s face was a sight to see as he received reports from the deck crew regarding the damage. When he heard that the majority of the explosions were focused on the Raiders that were preparing to depart the ship, a tight feeling enveloped his chest.

-Hastoel/Soel Border-

“Bring your arms to bear! Keep in formation! Arcane Cannon ... FIRE!”

KABOOM!

“Charge the cannon. Cavalry to the fore!”

On the border between the Soel and Hastoel nations, hundreds of thousands of lives were in a vicious struggle for life and death. Palace realm cultivators were locked in battle, releasing powerful techniques that churned the earth and split the sky.

Blood flooded the battlefield and coagulated into a sticky mess, slowly the march of the Soel forces.

Standing on a platform floating in the air was an Archbishop donned in the regal robes of the Order of Sun’s. The power of his peak tower realm cultivation carried his voice across the battlefield to every ear.

Down below hordes of spirit realm practitioners moved like a well organised machine in various formations. Cavalry donned in shining golden armour charged through the fields of blackened, charred earth and bloody mud.

Every wave of their swords brought forth death as the glorious three Sun’s light washed over them through the brewing storm clouds.

The Hastoelians were pushed back with every movement from the well-formed and disciplined armies of the church. The few Palace Realm generals that stood at the walls of a giant fort not far from the battlefield were too busy fighting and trying to one up each other for their orders to properly galvanise their men.

It was a one sided slaughter. This was just one of many incursions that had come without precursor or warning. More than 10 such battles were being waged across the western border of Hastoel.

Making everything worse was that the more people they conscripted to be marched to the border to their death, the more riled up and agitated the populous became. Due to the constant leaking of vicious acts and dirty secrets of the leaders and upper classes, the lower classes of Hastoel were already showing signs of an uprising.

As powerful as a cultivator at tower realm or palace realm is, they can’t escape the inevitable death that will follow if they’re swarmed by millions or billions of ordinary commoners. Making things even worse is that an underground resistance has been stirring in the shadows of the nation for months. They’ve been feeding endless propaganda to the civilians and worse still, equipping the entire nation with cultivation methods.

If it takes millions of commoners to kill a palace realm cultivator, then it would only take 10,000 barrier realms to achieve the same effect. Worse still, the cultivation techniques being fed to the masses are powerful and fast. In a matter of weeks, it’s possible for a regular nobody to reach True Spirit realm.

While the entirety of Soel was a well-oiled machine, with the church and populace working in harmony to achieve a single goal, Hastoel was a single incident away from civil war. The upper echelons were at each other’s throats, and the populace was verging on riots.

The only thing they had going for them in this sudden war, is that Soel doesn’t have the resources to maintain their armies. Half their casualties are just from starvation alone. Even a Palace realm cultivator can’t survive without any food forever. In fact, although cultivation can lower the bodies needs such as sleeping and eating. It can’t eliminate it entirely.

Perhaps the only cultivators that can escape those needs are the legendary immortals told of in fairy tales.

Soel has been starved almost half a year now. Although a palace realm can survive without sustenance for a few months, they aren’t gods. Worse still, only a few thousand of their army was actual even in the palace realm.

As this border war was kicking off, hundreds of thousands of civilians and cultivators were being enlisted by the Emperor of Yori. Everyone in their army passed through Tech City like an automated factory line.

Walk in one end an ordinary cultivator in daoist robes and humble bearing. Walk out the other side of the city decked to the nines in Mk2 Combat Armour, Mk3 Arc Cannon, Mk2 Arc Pistol, various protective talismans and other assorted items.

There were even regiments of armed combatants riding in vehicles with tacked tank like constructs sporting huge cannons and railguns. Hundreds of Imperial soldiers left the city on air boards and tens of thousands piled into Mk3 Big Berta’s being piloted by Brotherhood guild members.

These Big Berta’s were bristling with rail guns and had the endless hum of a powerful shielding array. There even managed to be 3 Velocity Gunships crews. Although these ships and their crew were only on loan to the Empire, they instilled fear and awe in anyone who witnessed them.

Among them, was two Gunships of a different design. This Gunship was smaller than the velocity but maintained a similar shape. One had the symbol of a skull with a scythe on it and was painted pitch black. The other was white as white can be and had a Knight on a golden steed wielding a lance.

All these forces were equipped and sent out to the borders of Yori Empire over the span of a month. They didn’t do anything. But they sat there looking like an ominous threat towards anyone stupid enough to attack the empire.

Seeing this action, Hastoel and Soel both began to have a strange feeling deep in their gut. Being led by tower realm practitioners, they had with them the wisdom of thousands of years of experience. By the time they realised there was something suspicious going on in Yori, it was already too late.

-City of Light- Yori Camp -

James ran for his life. He rapidly sprinted through the empty command camp as sweat poured from his brows. His face was locked in a tense scowl, and his blue robes were in tattered disrepair. The light of various torches scattered around the camp flickered in his worried eyes.

A horn sounded in the distance, and the rumbling of hundreds of pairs of feet stamping the ground echoed out from every direction.

James froze for a second and assessed his surroundings. In a wooden spotting tower off in the distance he saw the glare of the moonlight from of a pair of binoculars peering back at him over the railing of the tower.

“Tsk! Those bastards! Who’s been teaching them all these tricks?”

James started running again. Another horn sounded out and shadows flickered in every direction. Behind him nearly a hundred meters away, torches were blown out by a mysterious wind bathing the camp in darkness.

James glanced back and grimaced. “Jasmine, how far is it?”

“400 Hundred Meters James. It appears you’re in a bit of a bind this time.”

“Like hell! If they catch me, even if I regret every day for the rest of my life, it’ll never be enough regret.”

James broke into a sprint. Shadows on every side flickered, and torches went out in every direction. As he rounded a tent, he saw the command tent only a few hundred meters away. Without delay, he sprinted for his life.