Several Days, Outside of the Goldtooth Fortress City, Demon Continent, 8th Floor of the Tower.
As soon as Samiel had accomplished everything he set out to do, he started forming the climbing party that would be used for the Journey. This was relatively uncommon on the lower floors, as most climbers started grouping together on the higher floors, where the Advancement Quests are much more difficult.
It was hence more efficient to group together and climb as a party rather than as an individual, although this also increased the intensity of the Quests. Yet, on the other hand, the rewards were too increased as a form of compensation for the harder and more challenging quest. Basically speaking, everything was increased from the rewards to the intensity of the Quests.
While Yvraine was not happy to even be in the presence of the Ork, there was nothing she could do about that because, despite her protests and hatred for the Greenskins, she could see the benefits that it could bring to them. This time her personal feelings had to go to the side and let logic prevail.
Even the Nesser Dynasty, from time to time, would ally with some of the more powerful Orks to sow the seeds of discord among the Orkish Clans and Tribes. From a certain point of view, the Orks were a really neutral faction in their twisted sense because they didn't really care whom they were fighting against as long as they were waging war.
Due to this simplemindedness, there were many factions that, from time to time, worked with Orks against some common enemy, or in the case of Orks, for the promise of glorious and brutal Waaaggghhh. Orks lacked any kind of ideology or united identity, which the majority of the species or factions in the Cosmos had; the sole thing Orks had were their belief in Waaaggghhh and some things related to Honor, which was prevalent in their culture.
"Still... working with the Greenskins... we could outright start cooperating with Drows at this point; it would be no different from that."
Samiel heard another complaint from Yvraine as they crossed the plains at Goldtooth's outskirts. It was several hours since they had left the Fortress City ruled by the Golden-Horned Demon Tribe, and this was probably the tenth time or eleventh time she complained about that.
Samiel already started being annoying at a certain point, but he mostly chose to ignore it because she was just trying to rile him up, not to mention there was nothing he could do about it. As Samiel learned at a later date when his God graced him with his visit during Samiel's dream, the cooperation with the Dharzug became a Divine Will of the Primordial Demiurge.
He knew that this was probably some scheme that was cooked up by two extremely powerful Transcendents for purposes unknown to him, and in truth, he didn't even care about that. As the representative of Azathoth's will on the material plane, he is just a divine instrument in executing his will; it was not his place to question the intentions of his God.
So he just carried orders without question. And Yvraine was very well aware of this fact but didn't forbade her of showing clearly her displeasure or provoking him. Mainly because she was doing it for fun and out of boredom.
Follow on NovᴇlEnglish.nᴇt"Should I remind you of the times of the Blackwood Tribe?"
After some time, Samiel decided to jab back at her, which caused Yvraine to quickly became silent. Considering the background of the Blackwood Tribe, it was understandable. The Blackwood Tribe was, in this day, one of the strongest Ork Tribes in the Cosmos, ranking easily in the Top 10, and the most notable thing about it was the fact that its rise was tightly tied to the existence and support of the Nesser Dynasty.
Several millennia ago, it were the Yvraine's ancestors themselves, more precisely, her grandfather, who was the previous Emperor of the Nesser Dynasty, who allied himself with the rising Ork Boss Ghaz.
Supplying the Ork Boss with steady supplies of weapons, armors and other resources needed to the quick growth in strength, especially the tremendous amount of Mana Crystals, in the hope of creating a new strong Ork Tribe. Of course, this was all happening after singing the Soul Geass under the direction of the Akashic Records themselves.
At that time, the Nesser Dynasty was fighting against the coalition of the Ork Tribes under leadership of Ork Warboss Ghizkal who initiated an entire Waaaggghhh that was invading their Principal World and for the whole centuries, the conflict was in stalemate.
The Nesser Dynasty had control over only one Principal World capable of holding the Transcendents, and this world became the target of several Orkish Gods, who wanted to take the world for themselves from the Seldarine Pantheon, leading to extremely bloody strife.
While the Nesser Dynasty was very powerful and mighty, against the collective might of several Ork Tribes and inexhaustible hordes of the greenskins, there was little they could do through conventional means. While the Nesser Dynasty had the quality, the Orks had quantity and they were not called Scourge of the Cosmos for nothing.
After Yvraine's grandfather did his stunt, several decades later, a great schism occurred among the Ork Tribes, and they immediately started fighting a war against each other for the supremacy and title of the strongest Tribe. The entire Waaaggghhh crumbled apart like a house of cards and everything returned to normal.
After the offensive on the Principal World of the Nesser Dynasty collapsed, the Orkish Gods were undecided on what to do, but after a ferocious counterattack done by the Seldarine Pantheon and the fall of several weaker Green Gods, they fell back and the war ended.
Till this day, the Nesser Dynasty had some sort of cordial relationship. The Blackwood Tribe avoided raiding and attacking the territories under the rule of the Nesser Dynasty and their vassals, and the two factions occasionally traded with each other. Their cooperation sometimes included even joined attacks on certain Ork Tribes that were troubling the Nesser Dynasty.
Samiel had a similar situation in mind, and because of that, he wanted to cultivate a relationship with the Dharzug, who could someday become an extremely powerful Ork, though he had a hunch, that becoming Holy was far from the Dharzug's true goal. Samiel could see the burning ambition in the Ork's eyes that he won't say out loud, but he knew that his true goal was to achieve Transcendence.
"Now that you have been quieted down, can we continue our journey to that dammed place?"
Samiel then questioned his companion, and seeing Yvraine nodding her head and adjusting her long platinum blond hair, they continued their journey, as they soon left the territory that was under the watch of the Goldtooth Fortress City.
After two hours, they officially entered the disputed lands, where the skirmishes and fights among the two factions on the 8th Floor were common as clouds. This was the time to be on guard all the time; thus Samiel summoned Nefertari, who appeared from his shadow and ordered her to fly through the sky.
It was time for the scouting cat to return to her duty, as Samiel gave her orders and she was already lazying around for long enough.
While the Nefertari, the scouting cat, was searching for the flying enemies, Samiel with Yvraine were slowly but steadily approaching the place that was marked as their target, which was the forward fortress of the Human Brotherhood on the Demon Continent.
'Hooman, hooman, I found it... heavily guarded and at least three to four thousand hostiles.'
Samiel heard Nefertari's voice in his head, as possibly the worst expected outcome came true. If the fortress was hosting so many soldiers, it meant only one thing. This would be one of their essential points for the future attack on the Demon Continent, and they were right now preparing for the invasion.
Meaning the final war between the two factions was just behind the doors.
"Nefertari already saw the forward fortress of the Human Brotherhood. Something in between 3 to 4 thousand hostiles, mainly the Iron-Tier to Steel-Tier ones, though with a good number of the Bronze-Tier."
Samiel stated gravely as Yvraine visibly gulped because the numbers were too much. Especially considering that these ones were all injected with that thing Samiel called "Super Soldier Serum", meaning they would have combat prowess befitting to their Tier, despite having no Class. Of course, the such power-up will always come with an appropriate price because there was nothing free in the Cosmos.
"Fortunately, I have something around 1,000 Undeads, from which almost half are various levels of the Bronze-Tier, meaning we have a very good chance to carry this out. Together with my new spells, we will achieve an easy victory."
He stated confidently because this was the time for him to shine and show why Necromancers, especially oddities like him, were strongest on the battlefield and were called one-man-armies. With the high numbers of Undeads, Samiel instantly turned the tables and negated their numerical disadvantage.
Also, he had one Silver-Tier Undead and also, with the 5th Level Spell of the Void Magic, Conjure Minor Voidborn, he could conjure a whole bunch of Silver-Tier monstrosities from the Void itself to aid them in the battle. This would prove itself extremely useful if the enemy had more than one Silver-Tier Professional, which Samiel was sure they had.
Follow on Novᴇl-Onlinᴇ.cᴏmIf not, then they would be utter fools for wanting to gain a foothold on the Demon Continent without such support. Samiel already suspected that there should be at least three to five Silver-Tier Professionals on the side of the Human Brotherhood stationed here to oversee the fortress.
"So, what will be our strategy?"
Yvraine asked as they created a small camp far outside of the forward fortress of the Human Brotherhood on the 8th Floor. Samiel then summoned Ashimer because he would be crucial in this conquest due to his personal strength and also acting as the commander of more than 500 Steel-Tier Undeads.
"We will make use of the forest around the fortress to our advantage. The first thing is to get rid of all the traps that the humans planted down in the forest, and then we will lure out some of the forces that the Human Brotherhood stationed in the fortress and fight them in the forest."
Samiel then started presenting his plan for how to raze down the fortress down. While he was not some kind of brilliant military strategist, he also wasn't any newbie and amateur in this topic. When he was on Earth, he studied this topic relatively extensively, and if there was one thing that humans were pretty good at, it was waging war against each other.
"While the fight in the forest will be going on, hopefully, we will manage to lure out at least one-half of the troops stationed there; I will lead another offensive at the fortress from two sides. One of them would attack directly at the gate, done by my Undeads which I would be controlling, while the second attack would happen from the inside of the fortress, where I would conjure Minor Voidborns."
Samiel's plan was to unleash the Minor Voidborns in the middle of the fortress; hopefully they would start going berserk and attacking everything in sight. Then he would have approximately ten minutes to start attacking the main gate, using the Minor Voidborn as a distraction and also means to take out some of their powerhouses.
After ten minutes, they would probably disperse and return back to the Void, and Samiel, together with his Undeads, would have long ago breached the main gate and entered the fortress. Then the only thing that remained was to pacify any resistance encountered there.
"This seems doable... but how can we be sure that they would send at least one-half of their forces to the forests chasing after the Ashimer and his Undeads."
Indeed, Yvraine had a good point in all of this because this could be a major hole in their plan if the enemy decided just to ignore the threat of all Undeads that were lurking around their fortress.
"Then lure them out... I don't doubt that many of them would be interested in capturing Silvermoon Elf."
Samiel proposed as Yvraine instantly grimaced at the thought of being used as living bait to lure out the soldiers of the Human Brotherhood. After several seconds, Yvraine relented to this, as she could see that this was the best chance at luring their enemies from the fortress.
"I hate you... do you know that?"
Yvraine asked as she begrudgingly accepted her role as bait for today's effort. There was still the possibility of them ignoring the Undeads if they acted as bait, and they needed to lure a significant part of the soldiers stationed there.
"I know... to be sure, try to use that illusion artifact, so it seems that there are more Silvermoon Elves than just you. We need to be sure they sent high enough numbers."
She nodded as that was indeed the most suitable course of action.