Sacred Mountains of the Garuda Statue.
There is an old cavern within this district of the mountainous area where one could see a wide tunnel secretly connecting the Shodan Continent and the western part of the Garudia Kingdom. This area is currently bustling with activity as it is being repaired and cleared.
This passageway hadn't been in use for over four years, and could only be accessed by a few people at a time. However, because of their temporary alliance of one of the kingdoms in the Bainzen Empire, a number of imperial troops were going to be deployed in order to assist with the campaign of conquering the Wolfenstein Kingdom. This naturally led to the re-opening of the tunnel.
The Imperial troops of the Mejuzo Kingdom which were led by Adrian, the yellow-robed man who acted as a 'middleman' for these affairs, had gathered at the tunnel as they crossed the borders of the two continents. In truth, as one of the founding fathers of the 14 Night Crows organization, Adrian holds a significant amount of power and influence. So much influence that he was strong enough to deploy 150,000 imperial soldiers under the nose of the Bainzen Emperor.
Leaving behind 30,000 men, the total number of the attacking party this time amounted to 240,000 knights, including the troops from both the Mejuzo and Garudia army, and around 40,000 winged beast riders. These were all that was left from the sudden 'epidemic' that killed a lot of their winged beasts.
It has been a month since their first wave seemingly failed for an unknown reason. Eagerness could be seen on Louie's face as he pulled off a smug look. Different from the 'proud' look of their king, the other military officers within this formation were not as impressed, nor are they into this whole 'conquering' business...
Dust blew off the ground as the 40,000 winged beasts took off from Garudia's airfield. The skies dimmed as the wings of these beasts covered heavens, cold air rushed past as the aerial troops made their way into the fray of war.
The ground trembled as an army of 240,000 rhythmically marched at a steady pace towards the Wolfenstein Kingdom. Under the shade of these mighty winged beasts, the allied troops of the Garudia kingdom proudly marched towards their presumed victory.
...
A figure of a man could be seen hurriedly rushing forth towards the direction of the Wolfenstein Kingdom. Beads of sweat covered the entirety of his face as it started dripping from the gust of wind that blew past him, although, it seems that all this did not matter to him.
This man was one of the few generals of the Garudia Kingdom that had been in disagreement with all these war shenanigans from the start. A few more of the members in the Senate council and military officers were against the deployment of the troops and the temporary alliance from the Bainzen Empire. Unfortunately, it seems that the sudden disappearance of the initial troops sent their king's thoughts in the opposite direction on this issue.
Instead of actually investigating what happened, King Ivan made the decision to force things out and actually accept the ridiculous proposal of that conniving Adrian. With the war being inevitable, this had led to a covert decision made in secret. Even the higher-ups of the council agreed, including most of the elders.
Within a satchel that this general was carrying, an oddly shaped figurine could be seen...
It had been within the agreement that the Garudia Kingdom would 'surrender' by the means of giving up the only source of their military strength, the mysterious 'Garuda statue'. It did not mean that they would be surrendering the kingdom itself, but it was a way to show their sincerity in apologizing for the damage the initial attack might have caused.
The plan was crude and all over the place, yet this was the only solution they could come up with. It was either this or they would face the increasing likelihood of either having their kingdom utterly destroyed by an all-out war, or slowly being eaten away from within by the 'parasites' of the Bainzen Empire.
The man arrived at the outskirts of the western district of the Wolfenstein Kingdom.
What greeted the general was the sight of rows of towering figures that were perfectly aligned throughout the entire region. Perfectly girded within the sides of the valley as if they were guards on a highway, these mysterious looking defensive towers could bring fear to the hearts of any army that would foolishly cross this path.
The general halted in his tracks as he frantically waved his hands towards the 'entrance' of this valley that is now akin to an impenetrable fortress, This had caught the attention of the soldiers that were stationed within the First Towers area, they vigilantly approached the man who was now waving a plain white cloth.
Even without the presence of a wall or a gate that could be used to slow down enemies or act as deterrence, the sheer presence of the towers would be enough to scare many attackers away. This had boosted the confidence of the Wolfenstein Soldiers that were stationed here to approach this man that was acting in surrender immediately.
"Sir, this is a highly restricted area and it is currently under the control of the Wolfenstein Kingdom. Please leave immediately."
One of the soldiers spoke up as soon as they reached the man who was still gasping for air from all the frantic waving and jumping.
"Ah... Please... Hear me out first. I am a general from the Garudia Kingdom..."
As soon as the soldiers heard the name of this man's kingdom, they immediately tightened the grip on their weapons as they pulled out their swords, pointing it towards the man.
"No... No, please... I do not hold any hostility towards you."
The general immediately replied as he raised his hands, placing it behind his head, as he kneeled in front of the soldiers.
This act alone deserved the empathy of the soldiers as they slightly lowered their guard and had asked,
"What business do you have in here? Did you not know what your kingdom did to ours a month back?"
"Yes... I know of our misdeeds, and I am here to personally correct this mistake and ask for your king's grace. I have to something important to tell him..."
The solemn expression on the general's face and his determination to do his task made the soldiers realize that the man was telling the truth.
Unrolling an odd looking parchment, one of the soldiers enchanted a basic spell to activate the communication magic within the scroll...
...
Within the Sixteenth Tower sector, on top of a plateau of some sort, three figures could be seen having a discussion.
"Don't' you think that the number of towers built within this part of the kingdom is... a bit too much?" Feihren inquired as he scanned the western district outskirts.
"Too much? It's just thirty-two towers young lad, sixteen pairs of these things ain't too much." Old chief Mendi replied as a snow tiger playfully crawled up his beard. "Besides, this is for the safety of the Wolfenstein Kingdom. We had the surplus of materials back in our village, might as well put it to good use." Mendi continued as he carefully removed the cub that was now stuck in his beard.
"Aren't these two a little bit too playful?" Marvin interjected as one of cubs climbed atop his head, gnawing some of his hair off. "Anyways, Your Majesty, these towers would really be helpful and could serve for a prolonged period of time, even without human assistance."
"Hmmm... That's true. We should not take risks and be forced to shed more unnecessary blood from our comrades. As long as it is within our capacity, it would be best if nobody would perish in vain within the kingdom..." Feihren replied as he glanced towards Old man Mendi.
"I sincerely thank you for all this."
"It's no problem young lad. Consider it as my way of thanking you for all the things you have done for our village." Old man Mendi replied with a satisfied smile on his face.
"Although it has already been a month, these snow tiger cubs of yours do not seem to grow that much. They barely grew an inch since the first time I saw them 2 weeks ago."
Mendi changed the topic as he raised the snow tiger cub in his hand as if he was inspecting it.
"Eh? I do not know too much about how these cubs grow. I'm just making sure that they are as healthy as possible." Feihren replied while scratching his head.
"By the way Your Majesty, have you come up with their names already? It seems that these two are twins? This one is male and the other is female. You should give out their names as soon as possible. It would be better to call them that way instead of referring to them as 'annoying cubs'." Marvin jokingly inquired as he let out a laugh.
"Oh, well, I did think of names I could give them before... but I'm not sure if it would have a nice ring to it." Feihren replied as he took the female cub from old chief Mendi, "For this little angel, I'll call you, 'Glacier'."
'Congratulations on acquiring a familiar: [Snow Tiger]'
'Congratulations on acquiring: [Glacier]
'Eh? A familiar? But why did it appear now and not when I first decided to keep these two...?' Feihren thought to himself as Glacier started licking his face. 'Could it have something to do with me giving them names?' Feihren could only hypothesize for now as he proceeded towards Marvin.
The male tiger cubs were still playing on top of Marvin's head as it continued to mess up his hair. Only upon Feihren's approach did the cub stop fooling around as it leapt towards him, landing smoothly on his shoulders.
"And as for you playful one... I'll name you... Frostbite"
'Congratulations on acquiring a familiar: [Snow Tiger]'
'Congratulations on acquiring: [Frostbite]'
'Hmmm, it does seem that it has to do with the naming...' Feihren let this thought go as he started playing with the cubs.
A bright blue glow suddenly radiated from Marvin's pocket in his robes. He immediately pulled out a piece of parchment that contained a mysterious magic circle, as words started flying out from it.
[There is someone from the Garudia Kingdom asking for our king's audience.]
The amount of words that could be presented through the magic communication scroll was limited, yet it was enough to send a simple message. Feihren rubbed his chin as he thought of the possibility of this sudden proposal for a 'talk'.
"It should be within the First Tower sector," Marvin added as he inquired. "Should we go, Your Majesty?"
"Well, there's nothing to lose from a simple 'talk', right?" Feihren smiled as he proceeded to equip the Titan Slate.
