Arpious of the Planes

"How embarrassing," Homura mutters before Treyni opens her mouth once again.

"You seemed to be worried about something… What's wrong?"

"O-oh, I've just had this horrible feeling since this morning," I respond while swirling my water, almost getting hypnotized by the mini whirlpool.

"It's fine," Homura says.

"Huh?"

"You already suspect it's with Aika, right?"

"Y-yeah,"

"Then you should know that she'll never lose… Even if the entire army is wiped out… She'll never lose… Cause she's an army in itself," Homura says with a smile.

…

(Aika POV)

"*sigh*... How disappointing," I mutter after seeing every one of the dragons fall to my measly undeads' attacks.

The monsters which we were so fearful of were dragons. My soldiers were so scared that some even began to run, but I didn't blame them as I was also shaking in place, fearful of what would happen next.

I even began to think of retreating because there were hundreds of these dragon rides which, when they got close enough, flew up into the air and started to shoot fireballs from their mouths, burning my soldiers.

Hell seemed to creep and claw at our necks as the battlefield was soon turned into a fiery wasteland, and my commanders ordered an escape as we needed to preserve as many soldiers as possible for future events.

But when I was just about to retreat as well, my Slaves of Death which consisted of the previous heroes and the previous king of the Uxtan Kingdom, began to slaughter the dragons one by one with their overwhelming power.

After seeing this, I began to regain my confidence and summoned thousands of spears made from [Partial Death Manipulation] in the sky.

The dragon riders suddenly got surprised by this and decided to back up a bit, but I just directed the spears right towards them.

It was a hard and difficult process to focus on 1000 spears, and I did end up losing a few hundred, but what really mattered was that the spears hit the dragons and immediately dissipated upon contact.

ROAAAAAAAAAAAAR

The dragons roared in searing pain, immediately flinging their riders off and falling to the ground.

But by the time they fell, it was already over as most landed on their wings, so they couldn't escape.

"Commanders, are there any water users in any of your armies?" I ask as the three commanders walk up behind me.

"Yes," Richard replies.

"Then get them to put out this fire… Sacrifice," I order and then mutter the command which caused the dragon's skeletons to crawl out of their own bodies and prostrate themselves before me... Of course, after my land-born undead slaughtered them.

*snap*

After one snap, the undead disappeared, allowing room for the soldiers to regather the supplies and pick up the dead bodies, which we decided we would just cremate in the blazing fire.

It isn't really my place to decide as I turned their skeletons into mindless followers of mine, but the rest of them could at least be sent away in peace… though that's really just a shell of them... I turned their souls into my slaves.

"Okay, now that the fire is gone, everybody set up camp once again. We're staying here for the next few days, so try to get comfortable," I order.

"ALL HAIL THE QUEEN!" The soldiers shout before rummaging through the piles of supplies and setting up base.

A few hours passed, and it was currently deep in the night, but I couldn't sleep. This wasn't because I wasn't tired, but because undead actually can't sleep naturally. They can only do it by fully relaxing their body and mind…

But this is something that I've found out through myself, Slaves of Death, and Hades. It might be different for others.

"Your highness, please forgive my interruption," I hear a familiar voice say from behind me.

It was Aaron, and it seemed he couldn't sleep as well, but for a different reason.

"What is it?" I ask.

"I can't sleep because I can't figure out why there would be a traitor? What happened that told you there is a traitor?" Aaron asks.

"Hmmm… I guess I can tell you… Well, they clearly knew there was going to be a necromancer,"

"How so?" Aaron ponders once again.

"First, there were those giant monsters who trampled over us, and it seemed those were aimed to kill my undead. Some were much smaller, like the human undead, which I assume they thought I had.

And then, there's how they brought that rider who rode on the furry bird. He aimed to kill the necromancer, the source of the undead, but it seems they expected an unknown variable as well, as they brought that second wave of riders,"

"I-I still don't understand. Maybe it was just a prediction,"

"Nah, it seemed way too specific. If they knew there was going to be only another necromancer, then they would've just sent the first wave,"

"B-but aren't you another necromancer?"

"I am, but I'm also proficient in combat. Nobody would ever assume that, so they must've been tipped off," I respond before getting up and stretching a bit.

"I see… Thank you for explaining," Aaron says before jumping off the watchtower.

I guess I'll try and rest a bit. It's not like I can't get mentally fatigued…

…

(Arpious POV)

[Day 93]

"Report," I mutter as I sink deeper into the bath.

"As you wish… Mistress Aika didn't expect a second wave of attack, so she hesitated. Luckily, her Slaves of Death managed to display that they had a chance against the dragons, giving Aika the confidence to retaliate.

In the end, she managed to wipe out all the Dragon Riders with ease, but the casualties to the three armies were heavy," Yin says as she rises out of the shadow beside me.

"How heavy? You got a number?"

"U-unfortunately I do not,"

"*sigh*... Well, whatever. As long as Aika is safe and the plan succeeds. Now we just need to get the third part and fourth part of the phase to work," I mutter before sinking even further into the bath.

…

[Day 94]

Yesterday was a rest day for everybody as the mental stress was definitely building up, but as we relaxed back in the kingdom, the ones who managed to capture the towns near the Kingdom of Fire were attacked.

Yin said they didn't have much trouble defending themselves as it seems they were sending out cannon fodder to draw out all of our moves and potential attacks.

"Okay, Homura, are you ready?" I ask just as my foxy wife was about to take off with the sixth and seventh army.

"Yep, bye, bye," Homura says with such a wholesome smile that my heart almost melts.

"B-bye, bye," I responded, waving her off.

…

(Homura POV)

The trek took the entire day and night. We even did it without stopping, so the soldiers had no energy to fight off the rebelling townspeople as soon as we arrived at the small villages.

So, the commanders stepped in and wiped them out with ease. And once they had finished killing every single one, no matter if they were a newborn, toddler, child, or woman, we cremated them with my blue fire.

"*sigh*... Everybody take a rest. We are only here to defend this position, not attack yet, so I'll warn you when there are enemies," I explain to the exhausted soldiers, and upon hearing this, they all fall to the ground and slept their life away.

I as well was exhausted, but just as I crawled into the makeshift bed in the watchtower I was currently in, the loud echoing of footsteps could be heard.

tsk

"LET ME SLEEP, DAMMIT!" I shout before summoning thousands of blue fireballs that completely wiped out the army of 15000 humans.

[HP: 600/600  MP: 6/800  SP: 14/250]

Worth it.

And just before the blue fire could spread any farther, I snapped my fingers, causing the blue fire to evaporate into thin air instantly.

"Alright, the threat has been taken care of. Everybody go back to sleep!" I shout before jumping into the makeshift bed and wrapping the itchy blanket around me.

…

I woke up much later than I had anticipated, but thankfully, just when another army of 5000 humans came, I got more than enough sleep.

My mana still wasn't fully recharged, but that didn't matter as the Sixth and Seventh Armies were more than enough to slaughter the humans who were clueless as to why they had been sent to this battlefield.

"How cruel," Zoe, the Sixth Commander, says with Owen, the Seventh Commander nodding his head in agreement.

"What's so cruel?" I asked but had a slight inkling that I decided to reserve for myself.

"How they are sending soldiers as bait to try and draw out more of our attacks… And they don't even know that. I honestly feel kind of bad for them," Zoe responds.

"Yeah, they seem more like monsters than us," Owen adds.

"I guess…" I mutter before snapping my fingers, putting out the raging flames which cremated the second wave of soldiers.

Now, we just need Treyni to finish her part...