Chapter 123: Volume 3 - Prologue
- One Month Ago -
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The Son of Heaven, Angelus Apex of the Heavenly Host, Vinam Victoriam, stood atop the mountain Antenora, surrounded by resplendence befitting his station as he looked, with almost casual boredom in his blue eyes, shaded beneath flame-red hair that matched his wings, towards the battle bellow.
One legion... was that all that the infamous Duke of Heresy could afford to defend his city with? Or was he counting on a siege?
To mana-sight, the battle was a paltry affair. The legion held along the walls as the fliers warred, while below them the entrenched archers fired up - or down, if they were on one of the taller towers - upon the fighters. The real battle would be between the mages, once Vinam’s mages were finished taking down the shield wards keeping him out of the city.
The real prize was the hundreds of thousands of demons whose little lights Vinam could see beyond the walls, and the ominously familiar circle he spied near one section of the walls.
A remarkably easy turn of events, all things considered.
He was still watching the battle when a messenger arrived.
Vinam waited as his officers took the message before his seniormost general, Caror Truistiam, came to deliver the report. Vinam had appointed the man to handle the minutia of war; after the unfortunate death of Vinam’s father, Armitage Victoriam.
It was a death for which Vinam only felt annoyance at the political fallout he’d been dealing with. Vinam always said he would do what needed to be done. So why couldn’t the old fools just accept it? The answer he found was simple: None of them wanted to see the blood on their hands, whereas he held no such pretensions.
History was written in blood.