Chapter 1118: War of Establishment in Stasis
Over two days, Terris’ forces grew more and more in the south. Hundreds of arks flew over the coast and dozens of enormous creatures swam in the wall of water further into the sea. Such power was not something that Leon could fight against; it was simply too much. It seemed like all the power a Despot could command had been called up by Terris. Leon wouldn’t have been surprised if he’d been told that Terris emptied his territory of fighting men just to call them all here.
It enraged him, the unfairness of it. Just for being where he was, for trying to settle otherwise unclaimed land, Terris was seemingly stopping at nothing to destroy what Leon was trying to build. Not even a full year since arriving at the Nexus and Leon’s people were put so far on the back foot that now their only hope was for him to go north and scrounge up whatever resources he could find in only a month.
‘A month… to combat all of that,’ he grimly thought as he stared out at the vast fleet arraying itself against his new home. He now knew after getting a headcount that there were fewer than ten thousand people in the Artor Valley. Terris’ forces likely outnumbered his more than a hundred to one.
The Despot showed himself in the flesh several times over these couple of days. He looked none the worse for wear after the duel with Leon, though Leon only ever saw him from a distance so it was hard to be certain. He certainly didn’t see either of the two Strategoi he’d killed and injured, though, so at least some of the damage he’d done stuck.
By the morning of the third day after Nestor started work on their final play, the Diluvian fleet had enough arks to utterly drown the Artor Valley in Lancefire. The walls and towers of the valley hadn’t been completely repaired yet, let alone had their Lances reinstalled, so they were practically defenseless against such power. At any moment, Terris could order them forward and begin a bombardment that would see the entire valley leveled.
Thankfully, the Despot refrained from taking that action just yet. Leon couldn’t know why, but he was thankful for the time.
From the fleets to the south to the roof of Nestor’s lab, he turned his gaze. There, on the flat roof, the dead man, Mari, and several Raven engineers were assembling a hodgepodge of metal and glowing Lumenite. To Leon’s eyes, the thing looked like a cube-shaped mass of twisted metal, every piece of metal inscribed with runes both ancient and modern, looping around and in on itself. His eyes nearly crossed just looking at it, and he couldn’t help but wonder if Nestor was also using spatial magic on this thing, too.
Almost as eye-catching was a circular gate not far from the shield generator. The thing was three times Leon’s height in diameter, and made of rough, artless metal ripped and torn from other enchanted works, such as arks and Lances. It was at once ugly and the most beautiful thing Leon had ever seen. Not nearly as elegant as the Lumenite devices used to transport him to and from Archelion, but it was his, and that made all the difference.
This portal would function exactly twice if Nestor was to be believed. Once right after the shield went up around the Artor Valley, transporting him and a select few to the northern regions, and then once more to bring him and his group back to the valley. After that, the portal would be no more, by Nestor’s estimation. Even if the gateway itself survived, the Lumenite used in its construction would be burnt out, decayed by the magic used to activate it.