“Alice!”
“Your majesty!”
Alice stared at the empress who rode her horse right into the palace with astonishment. The empress then dismounted and walked into the conference chamber with big strides. Leaves and tree branches were still stuck to her. Her beautiful shiny long black hair was messy while her clothes were muddy and had grass stuck on them. Her steed drop to its knees and vomited not foam, but blood.
The empress placed her hand firmly on her sword handle. Her intense murderous and majestic aura made everybody back away from her. She swept her ice-cold gaze across the retainers in the room. Everybody knelt down and trembled to welcome the empress as she walked to her throne.
*BANG!!*
The empress snapped the table made of jade at the centre with a single kick, creating a loud and heavy cracking sound as it smashed into the ground. After the dust settled, the empress pulled the map hanging on the wall down and tossed it to her left side. She slammed her hand down on the table and shouted: “Form an army within two weeks. I want twelve platoons. Prepare more firepower! We will invade the elven imperial capital within two months! Do not spare any elves you encounter in the villages on the way there! Kill the male elves, and you can do as you please with the female elves! Decapitate all the children and toss their heads into the city when you attack the imperial capital. Whenever you take control of an area, burn the forest down, understood?!”
The fury of the empress made it feel like the entire chamber was going to collapse. Everybody was trembling before her domineering aura; some even let out muffled sobs. The empress’s roar made Alice lower her head. Alice saw her shaky hands when she lowered her head. She had always been with the empress so she had seen the empress angry before, but this time, her fury was like it was going to set everything ablaze. That was the fury of a sovereign. Blood was going to spill and run for thousands of miles, with hundreds of thousands of corpses. Previous battles were conquests, this time, it was destruction.
She wanted to annihilate the entire elven race.
The empress took out her dagger on her waist, aimed at the map and threw her dagger at it. The dagger pierced the elven imperial capital on the map. The general officer trembled as he looked at the shaking dagger before him. He raised his head and quivered as he stuttered: “Y-Your majesty… umm… forming an army in two weeks… that is……”
“You go and form the army. Two weeks. I can only wait two weeks. I will be at the border in two weeks. For every man you are short, I will kill one of your kids. If you’re short a single platoon, I’ll kill your entire family. Therefore, you won’t need to return home in these two weeks. The Valkyries will watch over your family. You just focus on your work.”
The empress walked up to his side and kicked his head causing him to shudder from head to toe as he sobbed while kneeling on the ground.
“Finance ministers, purchase weapons.”
“Everyone listen up. You are ministers of the empire, so the prosperity and survival of the empire lies on your shoulders. By my orders, all males who are sixteen years of age and older must enlist in the army. If they are an only-child, they may be exempt. Households with a woman must donate one hundred gold empire coins towards military funds or cannons. Two weeks. In two weeks’ time, I want to see your soldiers or your weaponry. Now be gone!”
“Remember, I don’t want land! I want annihilation! Annihilation! Kill all their males, steal their women and turn their children into slaves. Pour their blood into the rivers and clog their wells with their corpses. Burn their forests, and destroy their habitats. I want this world to be complete rid of elves!”
“Understood!”
Mom revealed a helpless smile. She stroked her son’s head, smiled and said: “Do you think I was really insane? Do you think I was really cruel? Do you feel that I was bloodthirsty? That’s how mommy’s army was. The war was one that spilt blood like none other before, one that was crueller than any other before, but the reason for the start of the war was that ridiculous. It was a war that started because two women wanted to be called ‘mom’ by you. If you could call me ‘mommy’ like you do now… Hehe, I think that woman would’ve passed down the same order at the time. Your kindness is a gift from the gods, but you do not know how much blood your past was covered in.”
The war for their son started that day ten years ago. The human soldiers took to the front lines under the orders of the empress. They never asked why they needed to fight. They took up their arms, gun powder and mounted their steeds and marched towards their target without question like machines.
If you asked them why they were fighting, they would casually reply: “Because her majesty ordered us to.”
The empress was like a goddess in the hearts of the human soldiers. Why you ask? That’s simple. That was because regardless of when, even when the gods had forsaken them, the empress would not. No matter how intense the battle was or how dire their situation was, the empress’s roar and the reflection of her sword were always there.
The soldiers never suspected their comrades.
At the same time, the elven soldiers stood at the plaza of the military god. Every one of them held a fire torch, brightening up the entire plaza. They gazed at the military god’s statue with admiration as they listened to the emerald silhouette of someone standing beneath the military god’s statue.
Vyvyan looked at her soldiers, opened her arms and shouted: “My warriors, children of the gods, my elves! We have not fought with the humans for fifty years. However, the human empress out of her own selfish desires wants to steal your lands, your family and your lives. We are the children of the gods. When we lived during the period of the chaos theory, we selflessly helped them, yet they returned the favour with hatred and murder. We elves are physically smaller than them. However, our swords are not weaker than theirs. We have fewer numbers than them. However, all of our warriors are capable of fighting ten warriors alone. Soldiers, warriors, take up your bows and arrows, and polish your swords. I am your queen. This is the will of the gods. I shall pray for you all beneath the military guard’s statue today. Tomorrow, I shall strike together with you on the frontlines! Everyone! For our forests, for the elves, and for the goddess, Clementia!”
“For the queen!”
The roar of the elves shook the neighbouring forest. They were elves, a race that loved peace. However, they were also experts at battle. Peaceful as they may be, when an enemy invades, they too will kill.
*****************************************************************************
Two weeks later at the elven border.
The sunlight shone through the forest, lighting up the vast land and the sunlight reflected off the bits of metal. The soldiers stationed tightly together looked at the deep forest before them silently. Their army and spears glimmered. An army of tens of thousands. Not one man spoke. The birds in the forest didn’t notice them and continued to sing.
The cavalry were mounted on their steeds. A night had past and not a single person had let his spine sag. Their sabres were strapped to their sides, and the war horses had their heads down.
Before them was a white silhouette atop a black steed that looked at them.
Elizabeth tapped her steed with her feet and her steed ran past the soldiers. All of the soldiers affixed their gazes on their empress. All of their eyes were filled with admiration and respect.
“Everybody, we are at war once again.”
Elizabeth walked back to the front of the army and looked at the tens of thousands of people. She shouted: “We are at war again. The same war. The same you and I. Our goal this time is to sweep this forest and kill of the elves inside it. Do not ask me what they did wrong. Their existence itself is their biggest mistake! You are not fighting for the gods. You are fighting for me. The gods will abandon you, but I shall never abandon you. I shall be by your side as always. Make me feel honoured. I need not say much because the existence of the enemy is thousands of times more motivating than words. Warriors! March!!”
“Long live your majesty!!”
“Long live your majesty!!”
The humans roared in unison, scaring off all of the birds in the forest. The ground itself trembled as well. The birds cried as they flew through the sky. There were so many of them they virtually blocked out the sun. The army turned in unison. The cannons were loaded. The soldiers faced the forest and gripped their rifles tightly.
“FIRE!!”
The flames of the bloodiest, cruellest, and scariest war on the continent lit up after the empress of humanity’s order.
The soldiers on both sides had no idea why they had to fight the war. They just happened to be supporting their own respective leaders.
However, their empress and queen were fighting for the child sound asleep.
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