Lord Of Puppets

<<We waited and waited for the enemy to come.>>

<<We knew that the enemy may not had given up.>>

<<That this whole freaking retreat may had been a trap or something like that.>>

<<We didn’t let down our guard or anything like that... We waited for days... Until finally, the empire forces arrived.>>

<<This was... Unexpected?>>

<<Both me and Porai found ourselves in somewhat... Weird situation.>>

<<The enemy seems to really had ran away? They completely abandoned their mission?>>

"Well... That means the enemy wasn’t really a suicidal group and what now." – said Porai as the banners of the empire were closing in towards the dungeon.

(The empire arrived just right on the time... And if the enemy were to try attacking the dungeon again, then they would end up coming face to face with them.) – thought Porai.

(Thank fucking god we had that poison that made them fucking run away in fear.)

(...Still... Now here comes the real fucking problem.)

(The empire.)

<<With the arrival of the empire forces at the dungeon, it was over.>>

<<The invasion has been completely repelled and we had won.>>

<<...But still.>>

<<It was messy.>>

<<A good number of my golems were destroyed.>>

<<But still, the dungeon was straight up unharmed.>>

<<There may had been several villages that got destroyed in the process, but I had not been using them at all.>>

<<However... The fact remains that the enemy still had ran away.>>

<<They had several casualties, but most of them had managed to escape.>>

<<Still, there was no attack whatsoever and even when the empire forces arrived.>>

<<The empire helped us secure the Mevon territory, conducing the search and checking if everything was alright.>>

<<It was... Perfect per say?>>

<<Everything was fine.>>

<<There was no hidden troops or any special surprises like bombs laying around.>>

<<Speaking of bombs, they found something.>>

<<They found the remains of the bombs that these invaders had used. They used these to create that distraction fire.>>

<<Not only that, we also found out several remains of the golems in villages.>>

<<We were idiots.>>

<<We now knew how enemy managed to get inside of our territory and be so unnoticed.>>

<<They just destroyed the golems.>>

<<They must had realized that I’m not alarmed or informed when the golems are destroyed, so they quickly destroyed and any golem golems... But still.>>

<<We had alarm and detection type securities in place.>>

<<How did neither worked?>>

<<WE SHOULD HAD FOUND OUT ABOUT WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED! I MEAN! MY GOLEMS MUST HAD ENCOUNTERED THEM IF THEY ENDED UP BEING DESTORYED! IT IS THAT SIMPLE!>>>

<<...I’ve asked Porai how was that possible?>>

<<How the hell enemy gotten us THAT stupid way, which shouldn’t had worked?>>

"...Blind spot." – said Porai as she and Thauma inspected the destroyed golem remains.

"We fucking forgotten about most basic freaking thing, but the enemy didn’t."

"Golems aren’t people."

"They don’t think on their own, and so they didn’t realized that anything was wrong when some golems went missing."

"Something extremely simple... Something that anybody could notice... Even a freaking idiot."

"And yet, we didn’t considered that freaking blind spot in our defenses."

{"What about the alarm golem?"}

"They must had some kind of countermeasure to deal with it prepared... They realized that we may have some kind of alarm or detection ability bearing golem... And they had something to counter those golems."

"Fuck."

"They really got us."

<<The enemy used the blind spot of the golems, the lack of the intelligent.>>

<<That how they managed to outsmart us... We didn’t realize that there was as simple problem like that.>>

<<The enemy knew about the problem and they quickly eliminated the golems as soon as possible in order to not make too much of a mess, allowing them to stay hidden while we thought that the village was secured, since no alarms were raised.>>

<<Still, we know that they hid right under our noses and I’ve didn’t noticed something as simple as THAT!>>

<<The enemy... They got us perfectly in our blind spot without me catching on and realizing the truth.>>

<<If I didn’t ordered all of my golems to retreat and form the defensive formation, then the enemy could had really played us.>>

<<I think that if we would stick to the search, the enemy would quietly conquer one by one the villages while making sure that the alarm wasn’t raised, before coming close enough to launch their raid.>>

<<Honestly, I don’t think that plan would work against me... But then again, considering what we had found out, it seems it freaking did.>>

<<Fuck me.>>

<<...>>

<<...As for the investigation, it continued for some time, with the empire soldiers even setting up their temporarily bases inside of Mevon territory in order to boost the territory defenses, while also investing the neighboring the territories in order to see if there were any tracks left around by the enemy.>>

<<Obviously we ended up explaining to the whole story to the empire, what exactly happened and why the enemy may had given up.>>

<<According to Porai, they didn’t really took the whole story well... Not like they didn’t trusted us, but more like... They were worried and scared once the emperor and the vampire leader heard what just happened.>>

<<We also... Well... I didn’t wanted to give them.>>

<<The corpses of the invaders.>>

<<Honestly every single one of them were extremely strong, so I could had recover at least some of the used-up miasma... However, for the investigation purposes, all of the corpses were handed over to the empire, including also their equipment.>>

<<...I... I get that it is for the best and everything... But still.>>

<<I’ve kind of lost a lot and did not gained anything from that in the end.>>

<<...Motherfuckers.>>

<<Is this really like this?>>

<<Just me losing and not gaining anything?>>

<<...And it isn’t over.>>

<<Nah.>>

<<Porai said that what just happened was not something that the empire can ignore.>>

<<If anything, this incident may end up being a trigger.>>

<<For something far worse to come.>>

<<Maybe even a war.>>

[Location: Garmfon empire – Capital City – Empiric Castle]

The rampage of the wyverns has been dealt with.

The forces of the empire managed to hunt down, isolate, trap and exterminate the entire rampaging army of wyverns.

The losses and damage were cataphoric though, as the feral wyverns did not shown any mercy whatsoever as they hunted for their food.

However, these wyverns were without question a man made.

Somebody had brough them to the empire in order to attack them.

But it wasn’t to destroy the empire.

No.

It was to distract the empire as a small elite army of soldiers infiltrated the empire and aim for the Mevon territory.

The enemy tried to exterminate the golem dungeon, a dungeon which is allied with the Garmfon empire and is producing a soldiers over time for the empire.

Their attempt failed, but still, this could not go unanswered.

After days went by, confirming that there were no wyverns left nor any hidden forces to exterminate the dungeon were present, the emperor of the Garmfon empire instantly called to meeting in order to deal with this sudden development.

"WE CANNOT STAND FOR THIS!" – shouted the dwarven nobleman with brown beard.

"I agree with this with duke Gundunu on this." – said dwarven nobleman with glasses.

"What just happened was clear act of freaking terrorism."

"A declaration of war."

"This isn’t all." – said the elderly human nobleman.

"Honestly, none of us trusted the golem dungeon, that is true."

"However, it behaved itself and not only that, it provided us with soldiers."

"..."

"Yeah. I admitted to it as well." – said the brown bearded dwarven nobleman named duke Gundunu.

"I didn’t trusted the dungeon either... But it has proven itself useful."

"However, what the hell just happened!?"

"..."

"Honestly, it is clear what happened." – said duke Arthur.

"The enemy knew was wary of our military potential growth too much, especially with the golem dungeon working with us."

"Remember, we are not only getting free soldiers, but those soldiers can be also used to get some materials."

"The enemy knew that the longer the dungeon is active, the more our military strength would keep increasing."

"Their goal was simple."

"They wanted to desperately prevent the dungeon from producing monsters, before its grows too much and start giving us even large number of soldiers over time."

"..."

"Terrorist attack." – said the dwarven nobleman named Girund, the dwarven nobleman with glasses.

"True. Mevon territory may no longer belong to us."

"But what just happened cannot be called some kind of accident."

"We know what happened! We all do!"

The nobles didn’t trusted dungeon nor Thauma.

They were monsters.

They slaughtered their people and destroyed their land.

Even now to this day, their trust towards the dungeon is questionable.

But there was a problem.

Usefulness.

Despise many of the nobles gathered still not trusting the dungeon, they couldn’t really deny the power that it provides to the empire.

It was the truth.

They started liking the dungeon now that it started being useful, but they also didn’t fully trusted it.

However, despise their distrust towards the dungeon, many of them considered them the dungeon as THEIR weapon.

So obviously the empire elites were somewhat shocked and pissed off as they found out what just happened.

Everybody in that room knew the truth.

That the attack on that dungeon was a straight up attack on the empire itself.

Somebody just tried to stab the empire.

And that cannot go unpunished.

"It’s those Warmur bastards!" – shouted the dwarven duke Gundunu as the entire room was filled with people now raising their own concern and worries.

"..."

"He is right." – said the emperor Gustav Warmin The Third as he raised his hand in order to get attention of the nobles.

"These wyverns came from the Warmur kingdom." – said the vampire duke and the leader of the vampire faction of the Garmfon empire, Korwan Von Kurwiad.

"We had gathered information and confirmed that these wyverns were originally a feral wyverns that took over the mountain inside of the Warmur kingdom territory."

"They were consider a dangerous monsters for the extermination by the kingdom."

"However, the way these wyverns went for so far from their nest to attack does not make any sense."

"We suspect that the Warmur kingdom possessed some means of somewhat making monsters go on rampage and sending them out in specific direction."

"They have means of controlling monster stampede?" – asked worried female human noblewoman with short brown hair.

"Again, this is just speculation... But based on what happened with the wyvern attack and attack on the Mevon territory... It honestly speaks for itself." – replied Korwan.

"...Still... Was it truly Warmur kingdom though?" – asked the noblewoman with short brown hair.

"Considering the current discoveries, it is obvious to assume that they are the culprits."

"But isn’t that too obvious?"

"Well, we are already making an investigation in this, we should have a proper results soon." – said Korwan.

(Ariava is doing it directly, and there is no way she won’t be able to undercover the truth.) – thought the vampire.

"...Still... This is a fucking declaration of the war, mind I remind you." – said the brown bearded dwarf as everybody in the war was agreeing with the dwarf.

"..."

(He isn’t... No. None of them are wrong.) – thought worried emperor.

(Honestly, nobody trusted the dungeon, but over time, they realized how useful it is.)

(They don’t fully trust it yet, if anything, many of them are still skeptical about the dungeon and what not... But again, what just happened was just fucked.)

(The empire has somewhat stabilized, but then we had a terrorist problem to deal with, which from what we found out, they were fake terrorist that were being supported by our neighbors.)

(Not only that, but the way enemy now played straight up says that they don’t want us to get stronger....)

(They fucking attacked us.)

(Like not some kind of fucking sabotage or anything like that.)

(No.)

(That was a real ass fucking attack.)

(They are straight up spitting on us... And that is something we cannot ignore.) – thought the emperor as he clenched his fists in anger and noticed how the nobles in the room were also beyond pissed off about the situation.

It wasn’t the attack on the dungeon alone, just as the emperor thought.

No.

It was attack against the whole empire.

(And the way they did that also speaks for another thing.)

(They still want a war.)

(There is no fucking way they can think that after what just happened it won’t end up with freaking blades soaked in blood.)

(They want war and they don’t care about anything else.)

(But it is still early.)

(The empire may had somewhat stabilized, but if the war were to happen NOW, it could damage our fucking progress. The fucking work we did to make sure that the empire could properly last will freaking... No... This maybe their aim too. They don’t want our empire solidify no matter what. That is why they are also taking such risky moves.)

(This isn’t good. I really don’t want war to happened.)

(But again, we cannot let this go unpunished, after what we just witnessed.)

"..."

"Should we make a deal with the dungeon master?" – asked duke Arthur.

"?"

"What do you mean?" – asked the emperor.

"Beside being forced to provide us overtime with soldiers, we are able to make some deals with the dungeon." – sad duke Arthur.

"Isn’t that correct?"

"Honestly speaking, I will say it bluntly."

"All of us want war."

"We want to deal with the bastards that just attacked us."

"They are clearly asking for it and they are definitely planning on declaring war on us."

"However at the same time, our empire does not want war."

"We all know what our nation is right now."

"..."

"You are proposing that we would buy any golems that the dungeon produces and assimilate them into our army?" – asked the emperor.

"...Honestly, it maybe the only way we can go about this." – said the dwarf with glasses.

"Agree." – said the woman with short hair.

"We need more power."

"But there is also another problem."

"How many enemies are we dealing with?"

"One nation? Maybe two?"

"Or maybe even three?"

"We don’t know."

"That is why we need to strengthen our military army further!"

"Hm... Honestly I’m against it." – said the dwarf with glasses.

"True, the dungeon is useful and it has shown itself loyal."

"But we are showing too much trust right now and if we rely on the power of a single dungeon like that, it could result in the people view us in poor light."

"We cannot depend on that dungeon."

"We need to be strong all on us own."

"Heck! It can be something like 10% or maybe 15% of our military strength coming from the dungeon! But any more of that could really cause some solid problems for us!"

"...I get it too man." – said the brown bearded dwarven nobleman.

"However, we need power! No matter what!"

"But we cannot just increase our military forces like that either!" – said the human nobleman with black hair.

"I agree. This could possibly give excuse to our enemies to mobilize their armies, saying that we are the ones preparing for the war." – said the vampire nobleman with brown hair.

"Exactly! Or maybe other shit!" – said the human nobleman with black hair.

"We maybe fucking playing into the enemy hands!" – said the human nobleman as the heated arguments between the nobles started, with each side raising their own concerns and points while at the same time shouting at each other.

"..."

*Sigh*

(Yeb... This is a giant fucking mess.) – thought already extremely tired emperor while the nobles screamed had filled up the entire room.

(Fuck me....)

(And things finally started looking good for us too.)