Tales of Astora: Legacy

Chapter 96: Downfall

Chapter 96: Downfall

The pursuit at the Great Swamp was fruitless. After days of continuous searching, Edward's group had no choice but to retreat back the main camp where King Charles commanded his army. Unsurprisingly, it was as the young Deus mage Edward has expected. Even though he knew the safe way thanks to his Death Spectrum, they could not go fast enough to catch up to Morrigan who had an experienced guide to help her getting out of the swamp.

A few days later, scouts reported of a large army of different races was marching toward them. And just like Edward has predicted, Morrigan has managed to join with the Beast King Zen's army and was on her way back for revenge. Yet, this news somehow did not make the generals of Dor falter a bit. Those dwarves were too proud of their own superior technology to think that Zen would pose a threat to them. So what if there were a few dozens thousands beastmen joining the battle? Surely, their primitive fighting styles would be no match for the zeppelins and land boats.

Indeed it was true. While Valhalla had many outstanding fighters, they still could not fight evenly against the zeppelins and its cowardly method of bombardment. Furthermore, the dragons who have been sent here by the dragon council to aid Ceadric, unaware of the situation in Oros, have also joined the battle, further adding to the already many disadvantages Morrigan had.

However, something was strange. Even though it seemed that Valhalla was on the losing side, somehow their losses have been kept to the bare minimum with even a few battles with no casualties at all. Somehow, Morrigan was always able to predict Ceadric's next move and devised a strategy against it, allowing her to have a complete control of the war.

Unknown to many, this was thanks to the intelligence Mephisto, or Meto rather, has gathered from Goldbeard about all the movements of the armies of Ceadric. Every time Ceadric decided to change their tactic, Goldbeard would have to be informed first and that meant so did Meto. Once the info was obtained, all he needed to do was to inform Martel who has accompanied Morrigan and from there, a counter strategy could be made.

But what was even more suspicious was that Morrigan remained on the defensive despite all the advantages she had. With that kind of intelligence, she should have been able to find the weaknesses of her enemies and make some serious blows against Charles but instead of doing that, she stayed idle. It seemed almost like the Empress was trying to prolong the war while keeping the losses of not just her side but also Ceadric's to the strict minimum. It was as if she was waiting for something. But what?

.....

In one of the keeps situated in the northern coast of Ceadric, two soldiers were standing on the high walls, keeping watch of any intruder that might try to take advantage of the absence of the main army in the northern part of the country. Mainly, their duty was to defend against the demons of Ragna who were currently in an alliance with Valhalla. However, that was supposed to be the case but there hadn't any attack or even sighting of any demon ship wandering anywhere near Ceadric. They did not even know if the demons even had a ship to transport their troops since if there was, someone must have seen them already.