Looking at the reaction of the army, Dyon smiled.
“I’ve already arranged living quarters for each of you. Foot soldiers will live four to a tent. Until the day that you’re as powerful as a demon general, don’t think of having any other arrangement. Work hard, and you will be rewarded.”
With that, Dyon turned to Arios who had been standing further behind him and Ri, observing.
A small smile played on his face as nodded in satisfaction, “Successor, where did you think of splitting the army up into groups like this? It’s ingenious. At first, I was confused, but the more and more I think about it, the greater the idea becomes.”
Dyon raised an eyebrow. He had read many martial world military books, but he had never felt the need to read about formations or even tactics. For one, it was a logical human world practice to have a top down structure like this. Secondly, he had implemented a few communication measures to adapt formations on the fly in response to enemy movements.
Although Dyon had admitted to himself that he knew nothing of military tactics previously, to him, that was only because he hadn’t meditated on war before. Dyon was confident in his ability to come up with his own tactics. After all, hadn’t someone else invented them? Why couldn’t he? Who could be better at reading a battlefield than him with his innate aurora?
But Arios didn’t seem to notice Dyon’s confusion as he continued excitedly, “And the command codes and communication arrays. Your tactics are so intricate… Where did you study?”
Ri giggled, she had immediately noticed Dyon’s confusion, ‘There he goes pretending something complicated is simple again…’
The truth was even if you could found an account for how Dyon knew of military group rankings, there was no simple answer for his tactics. Dyon even went as far as creating a new language to communicate quickly.
Essentially, Dyon’s aurora wasn’t able to sustain communication with a thousand people – that was too much at his level. And, even if his aurora grew in strength, so too would the size of his army. It just wasn’t feasible to implant a communication array into every single soldier. So, he did something different.
Dyon linked a communication array – one that happened to be a slight variation on the one he used to let Aeson know to lay low after his attempted murder – with each of the Vice Commanders and Lieutenants. His last communication array was for Ri. This made a grand total of twenty-one which was well within Dyon’s strength to sustain.
These communication arrays had a range of ten kilometers, so, on the scale a thousand-man army would work, it should have been more than enough.
Then, by using these arrays to speak to those twenty-one, they could then use their own soul strength to sustain communication to a single soldier of each of the ten squads they were in charge of. And then, those soldiers could then supply the soul strength to communicate to the other four in their squad.
To be clear, the only one doing the speaking would be Dyon. He was simply using the Vice Commanders as supplements to his soul power to spread his words. This would also avoid what the human world would call the ‘telephone effect.’
To Dyon, this was a simple matter. Electrical engineers would use this method all the time – a method he himself used for many inventions. To oversimplify it, it was essentially changing an in series circuit, to a parallel one. Except in this case, the parallel circuit was boosted again and again.
And yet, as though seeing Dyon’s thoughts, Ri couldn’t help but roll her eyes, “Using multiple cores of soul power to power what amounts to a single array is not simple Dyon… You had to design an entirely new master level array. People are going to hate you if you keep thinking like this.”
Dyon grinned, “Will you hate me too?”
Ri flicked Dyon’s forehead, “Focus.”
“Yes, yes, yes. I didn’t study anywhere in particular, it’s just that this is the way human world warfare works.”
Arios pondered for a bit, before nodding, “Martial world warfare has everyone searching for the best merits… A lot of the time campaign leaders neglect their armies entirely, just commanding where to charge and when is about it…”
Dyon’s brows furrowed, “But don’t you have specialized units? Like the fletcher family for archers, and the Grimbold family has quite a few beasts useful as makeshift cavalry.”
“Yes, but that’s about as far as the subdivisions go. When it’s time to launch arrows, all of them are launched at once. When it’s time to charge, foot soldiers go and beast users are useful for their increased maneuverability.”
A pensive look appeared on Dyon’s face, “No wonder you keep losing to innate aurora users. The advantage given to you by a high percentage aurora would be severely cut down if your armies are more organized. But, if you’re only searching for the best feats under a weak structure, those who have a better view of the battle field multiply their advantage manifold.”
After Listening to Arios’ words and thinking on it, Dyon suddenly realized that during all the time he spent researching for this campaign, nothing was said about formations or tactics… He read about Akash’s victories, the troubles of the gates, possible pitfalls, he memorized maps, locations – he even thought about possible strategies. But somehow, he only now realized that while victories were detailed, they were often explained in superlatives and expressed who contributed the most rather than how the victory happened…
Everything clicked. The martial world was different. They didn’t have set armies. In fact, even their military rankings were shaky. What did ‘campaign leader’ even mean. There were no numbers attached to it, and even the head of the Elvin Army, Akash, had vastly different numbers under her disposal as compared to the head of the Ragnor armies, or the Pakal armies, for example.
Mortals needed strategy because they weren’t as powerful… Martial experts relied on their power. Dyon was sure that somewhere, maybe even in the coming enemies, there were people who used tactics. After all, could the whole of the martial world have no thought of using formations and tactics? He doubted it. But, he’d be ready.
Suddenly Dyon grinned, “I guess it’s about time we bring a new wave of the art of war to the martial world, no?”
With that, Dyon flashed him, Ri and Arios out of the spatial world.
Soon, the three of them were near a pier at the edge of the Elvin Island. Tens of massive ships spread along the coast, filled to the brim with young elves.
Dyon’s features noticeably saddened when he noticed older elves as well. He couldn’t help but think of Little Lyla and her parents.
Dyon sighed, ‘The young see this as a way to prove themselves… The old see this as a way to survive…’
However, it seemed Dyon was oblivious to the effect his arrival had on everyone around him. They had all witnessed or heard of the boy who saved their kingdom from ruin. But, he was different now… Maybe he seemed more human when he wore sweat pants… But, now? Especially beside their princess and a warrior whose blood lust made them shiver? His presence was otherworldly.
“Arios,” Dyon called, “How did it go?”
Arios nodded, “Everything is ready for when you want to move. They’ve also learned the same command code as the main army. I’ve also distributed all of the array plate filled spatial rings to them as well. Although, I didn’t organize them the way you did.”
The array plate filled spatial rings were actually something Dyon had given to the main army as well. He was at a point where he could inscribe hundreds of peak practitioner arrays in minutes. Making hundreds of thousands of array plates to supply an army was only a matter of money to Dyon. Plus, not only did he not lack the money, those array plates made some very interesting formations possible…
Dyon shook his head, “That’s fine. They’re a much smaller unit. When the time comes, I’ll do it myself.”
“Dyon! Over here!”
Dyon looked over from Arios to find Zaltarish and his elder sister calling to him. Smiling he headed over.
“Campaign Head. Zaltarish.” Dyon greeted them amiably.
Akash smiled. Her appearance was truly domineering. Cropped black armor, a large singular shoulder guard, all brought together perfectly by the two short spears and sword on her back.
‘Double sided spear? Interesting.’ Dyon immediately realized those ‘short’ spears were meant to be connected.
“This ship here,” Akash said, pointing to a ship slightly larger than the rest, “Is where the leaders will be. We’ll have to hurry. Our scouts have reason to believe our opponents may be attacking our key towers soon…”
Suddenly Dyon thought of something, “Do universes usually not have names?”
Akash nodded, “We normally name them by the clans or sects we’re dealing with. It makes it better for understanding exactly what we’re dealing with and when. From my limited knowledge, very few universes have earned the right to have their own name.”
Akash looked around for a moment, a bit confused, “Did your army already board? Princess Alexandria told me that you wouldn’t be needing me to assign troops under your lead.”
Dyon smiled, “Since you’re the head commander, there’s no problem with telling you. My and Ri’s army are within this spatial ring,” Dyon pointed to an inconspicuous ring on his finger. No one ever noticed it, and that was the point. He had been layering it with more and more powerful concealment arrays since he got it.
Akash froze, “A ring able to hold living things?…”
The amount of possibilities that brought were endless. In fact, if a universe had access to such a thing, why would they need to negotiate? They could directly bypass the gate rules, piling their ring with high level experts, and exit the other side before releasing them.
If either universe had access to such a thing, conquering key towers would become moot.
Dyon smiled. He had once assumed this ring was at the transcendent level. But, the more he researched and learned, the less and less likely that became… he even concluded that such a ring was impossible for a clan at the level of the Celestial Deer Sect to create. Which could only mean they inherited it from something… something that might have to do with their destruction.
As such, when Dyon told Akash this, he had already discreetly placed an array within her. Should she ever want to tell anyone about this, she would not only fail, but she would also alert Dyon as well. This was a test. A test to see whether or not there were elves he could trust aside from Ri and Little Lyla. A test he thought he might as well give to Zaltarish as well.
Akash nodded, immediately understanding Dyon’s intent, “Alright. It’s best if you bring them out when we enter the ship, since this is a secret you’d like to keep.”
Although Akash had thought of the possibility of Dyon simply taking the Elves within the ring and storming to the other side of the gate, it simply didn’t make sense.
For one, to get to the other side wasn’t so simple to begin with. Someone had to bring you there, and that required more power than the Elvin younger generation had. As a second point, even if they managed to sneak there, what would happen on the other side? The negotiation protected new clans entering into a universe, but, entering one secretly obviously didn’t have that built in insurance. Would they continue to run from gate to gate? Ridiculous. They’d have to find a place to settle eventually. Living in a ring for the rest of your life didn’t sound appealing at all.
Akash was about to turn to lead them, but she stopped, remembering something, “This is the ranking tracker,” Akash handed what looked like an array plate to him, “The array transcribes itself within you to monitor you actions in battle. You can turn it off and on as you please. And, it’s always off when outside of a gate. I was told that you wanted it registered under the name Demon Sage, so, I did that for you as well.
As for what it tracks and how it tracks it, I’ll leave that up to the princess to explain. There are quite a few facets.”
Dyon nodded, accepting the plate. He didn’t like the idea of all of his actions being monitored, especially when it came to the secrets he wanted to hide. But, a master level plate would never be able to do something he didn’t want it to do.
He immediately modified the concealment array on his ring to appear completely invisible by the standards of the ranking tracker. Satisfied with that, he turned to Ri.
“Were you not going to have one?”
Ri shook her head, “Aren’t I just one of your Vice Commanders, why would I need one?”
Dyon smiled, “Just one of? If we had to describe what you were, it’d be best to say half my heart.”
Ri rolled her eyes, “Stop being so cheesy, you already have me. Save your lines for Big Sister Madeleine, something tells me your voice is exactly what she wants to hear right now.”
Arios chuckled while Zaltarish seemed to be diligently studying Dyon.
Dyon could only pout as Ri grabbed his hand, pulling him along as they walked to the ship.
Akash laughed to herself, seemingly the only one who noticed Ri trying to hold herself back from smiling.
Hours later, the Elvin ships had entered Royal God Clan waters. Although the Royal God Clan was within the center of the main martial world continent, they were essentially surrounded by a ridiculous large natural moat that spanned tens of kilometers – effectively cutting them off from the main land.
Usually, troops from other god clans would use Royal God Clan provided ships to sail to the Royal God Clan gate. However, the elves were special cases. Using teleportation arrays provided by the destroyed celestial deer sect, the elves were able to directly teleport thousands of kilometers into this natural moat.
As such, it only took a few hours of sailing to reach the teleportation arrays stationed in the middle of the ocean.
Akash looked toward Dyon. They sat in a comfortable lounging room that made Dyon remember that he should think of these ships as less than that, and more like wooden yachts. The inside was much too luxurious to be plainly noted as a ship.
“Are you prepared for what’s to come, Dyon?”
Dyon had been lazily reclining on a couch, but he looked up to answer, “What do you mean?”
Akash sighed, “There’s no hiding your identity once we enter the gates. We’ll have to immediately report, and that will require me bringing notable campaign leaders along with me – leaders that will include you.
You’ve angered the prince, and normally, that would be enough for trouble, but, from what I hear, you’ve also had run-ins with the Ragnor and Cavositas God clans… that’s not exactly good for your prospects.”
Dyon smiled, not seeming to mind. In reality, the worst they could do to him was push him to the back line, but, it was unlikely they’d do that. To them, he was a newbie and he was weak, not to mention they wanted him dead in the cleanest way possible. What would be cleaner than dying on the front lines? But, wasn’t that exactly what Dyon wanted? Free reign to charge first and dominate?
“Oh, and why’s that?”
“Although campaign heads, like myself, have free reign over attacking, when it comes to defending, the rules are a bit different. If they weren’t, it would be impossible for our gate to have lasted so long.”
Dyon nodded, this made sense. Most merits were won by conquering, but when it came to defending, the fate of the universe was at stake. Which meant pride should be put aside to work together, rather than competing for the higher ranking.
“Since the competing universe will be attacking us soon, we’ll be in a defending position… and the choices for defending are decided with votes.
Ace’s elder brother, Voron Cavositas is the head of their clan. Elof’s elder brother Vidar Ragnor is the head of their clan. Luckily, the Royal God Clan’s first prince of this generation is not here currently… but, unluckily, this means he’s left his duties to Elwing. With 3 major votes like this, it is unlikely the lesser clans will go against them. You and your army will be put in the most dangerous situations without a doubt.”
Akash took a deep breath, “And that’s not even to mention the Saeclum clan, an auxiliary branch of the Ragnor clan. We heavily rely on their soul strength to provide scouting reports and various other supportive measures. The mere fact they’re under the Ragnor clan would be enough for them to play foul…. But you also killed one of their best geniuses! They won’t let you go.”
Akash was starting to get annoyed by Dyon’s lack of worry, “Do you understand what I’m saying?!”
Dyon smiled, his eyes sharpening as he said words that made even the battle-hardened Akash stir, “Let them come.”
**
Soon, the tens of Elvin ships appeared before the largest doors Dyon had ever seen as they stood on the deck of their ship.
They stretched thousands of meters into the sky, casting a massive shadow onto the ocean’s surface. The doors themselves were a dark black with faint gold worn with years of ageing. And, to make it even more odd, it stood in the middle of the water!
Currently, the elves were directly in front of Earth’s gate, about to cross two identification pillars that would open up the doors. The Royal God Clan Island was still off in the distance, far away from the gate.
Dyon looked up in anticipation, holding tightly onto Ri’s hand, ‘I guess we’re finally here…’
And just like that, the doors opened. There were no flashing lights. No enormous black hole. No grandiose display. It simply opened them up to a new world, one that seemed not too different from theirs.
Until… you caught the whiff of blood in the air. The feeling of war hung thickly… But, the atmosphere of a warrior wasn’t something many could handle. To some, it crushed them – never allowing their full potential to shine through. But, for Dyon, his eyes flashed as he suddenly grinned for an inexplicable reason.
His blood boiled and his foot itched as he remembered some of the words his father had once said to him.
Dyon had always wondered why his father was so adamant about the military. There was nothing glorious about war. There was death. There was pain. There was suffering. And yet, in all of that, there was a rush. The feeling of domination. The primal feeling you got knowing there was little left to protect you. There was only yourself. Your comrades. And the weapon in your hand.
“Remember Dyon,” he said, “I don’t want war… I need it.
Why do I have a loving wife and a treasured son here and still insist on putting my life on the line everyday? Because war isn’t just about yourself.
I fight for you. For your mother. And for anyone else who may have a son and wife of their own.
There is no glory, there is only victory. There is no defeat, there is only death.
When the day comes that you have to step onto a battlefield for yourself. When the day comes that you smell the blood of your allies and your enemies and you smile. When the day comes that your blood boils and your eyes redden, pushing you – itching you toward the lands of hell. That’s when you’ll know you’re my son.”