City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread by Thomas F

Orwin Dunwall

“The battle had begun,” said Veyra as she stopped beside me. “It did,” I replied, hearing the thundering sounds of the cannons.

For a while, nobody spoke. We both stood in silence.

“I hate it!” She said suddenly.

“I hate to be under the undead when we should be fighting them. We have become their servants, their slaves, with our commander being nothing but their puppet.” She spat.

Her words are not enough to depict the fury in her eyes.

She isn’t the only one feeling this way; many others do too. We have become puppets of the undead.

When the commander usurped the lord, we were happy. He was one of the worst men.

Commander had said that the undead had promised him they would not interfere in the city and army, but since the first day, they have been doing it.

Now, they control the city as well as the army.

Things have gotten so bad that we are not even controlling the gates. The undead is manning three of the four gates in this battle, while we are only standing as support.

There is not a single one of us in an important position. The lich has kept us away.

“Do you know, the commander had promised the bodies of our slain in battle to the undead?” she asked, seeing my silence.

Hearing that, I whipped my head toward her.

“Where did you hear that?” I asked, shocked, dripping through my voice. “Belnar,” she replied.

The personal mage of the commander. He has a crush on her, which is why we kept our relationship a secret. He is one nasty piece of work, but he is also very powerful politically.

I took a deep breath, trying to calm the raging storm of emotions.

It is already shameful that we have become slaves of the undead, but we at least expect peace in death, but they are not even willing to give us that.

These emotions gave rise to the thought I had been trying to suppress, which kept growing until I could think of nothing else.

I looked ahead at the gate, entirely in control of the undead, with Wendel, one of the lieutenants of the lich, commanding them.

He surrounded the gate with his forces, keeping us away.

“Do you think the others will agree to storm the gate?” I asked, shocking myself.

Her eyes widened, hearing that, but I could see the spark lighting up in them. The hope of freedom and liberation covered her eyes entirely.

“Andra will agree. I don’t know about Birrows.” She replied after seconds of silence, before her eyes became intense.

All of us are Lt. Colonels. Each commanding a thousand men. There are three thousand of us here at the south gate.

Though there are twenty-five thousand undead.

“There is a high chance that we all will die,” she added. “Well, it would be better than slaves of the undead, wouldn’t it?” I asked, and she smiled.

“We alone won’t be enough. We will need the support of Greltheaven’s forces,” she said.

There is a question in her sentence as well as a fact. We will need their help, but will they give it to us? They might think it is a trap.

“It didn’t matter, we are doing this for ourselves and would be more than happy to die,” I replied.

She nodded, and I felt her casting a spell, while I activated Silent Veil, covering her with it. It’s a skill that hides the skill and spells.

I had done a few missions with the infiltration corps. It is a skill I got during that time.

It has been beneficial many times. Though this is the most important time I am using it, because if the undead know before we are ready, we won’t even have a chance.

…

Leonas Cardin

The red spear came toward me, with brown brown veins, like patterns on it, lighting up.

I could feel the pressure of the artifact and the power of the attack.

‘Taransisr,’ I activated the charm and felt the power of the death skill get completely suppressed.

I could use a third of my power, but that is not enough to fight an enemy as powerful as him.

The charm had entirely suppressed the effect of the death skill on me, giving me access to all my power—every single drop of it!

As it did, I swung my sword with the Quicksteel and activated General’s Strike. At the same time, I activated the invisible scripts covering my body.

They were painted on me before the battle in Greltheaven, but since I was on the wall. I didn’t need to use it.

Now, I did.

Clang!

The spear clashed against my blade, and I felt the vibrating attack of it.

The spear is called the Vras Alor Spear. It is a red spear with a pale red blade, with its body covered in brown veins like patterns.

Its power is vibration.

It can cut through anything and also serves as a direct attack. At its full power, this artifact could bring about an earthquake.

He couldn’t bring that level of power; nobody did in the past two thousand years.

Still, he could bring a dangerous level of power. He sent it toward me; a burst of vibration is coming toward me through my blade.

If it hits me, it will break my bones and split my skin. It reached the grip in an instant, and I activated my defensive skill.

Ironhide.

The skill does not offer as powerful a direct defensive capability as Iron Skin. Still, it is instrumental in defending against force attacks, and I hope it will also help in protecting against vibration.

Because I don’t have any other defensive method or tool.

The Armor I am wearing is enchanted, not a half-artifice. The scripts are offensive enhancements, not the defensive ones.

Though I do have hundreds of army skills covering me, so does he—the same with the enhancing and defensive spells.

He also has a more powerful class than I. He is not merely a commander, but the lord of the city as well, and since we are fighting in his city, it gives him another boost.

Not to mention, the damn artifact.

Yes, he has all the advantages, but that doesn’t mean. He will win; he has a higher chance of killing me, but it won’t be easy.

The vibration burst struck my hands, and I felt like someone was striking my hands with a hundred hammers. It is powerful and it spreads through my body.

Thankfully, the skill seemed to work. It is saving me from the worst damage the attack could give me.

Though it didn’t seem to help with pain, which is a thousand needles piercing across my body, it is especially intense across my joints, so that I nearly loosened my grip on my sword.

While it happens, the lich had also begun to launch spell after spell. They are coming at me, but I am not even looking at them.

Trusting Chief Elar to defend me against them.

He launched another attack while I was still dealing with the vibrations inside me, and I moved my sword to defend against it.

Clang!

My sword clashed against the spear, feeling even greater power than before, threatening to send me back while shooting another burst of vibration toward me.

He didn’t stop and attacked me again and again, with ferocious intensity, while all I could do was defend.

For several attacks, there was a smile on his face, before a frown began to take over.

‘He had noticed. It took him enough time,’ I thought as I defended yet another attack from him.

“You should have been bleeding from every part of your body by now,” he said, looking at me from top to bottom, with questions filling his eyes.

“I should be, shouldn’t I?” I questionedwith a smile.

I have been affected by the death skill for over a decade. The first few years after that were the worst time of my life.

Promotions passed me over, and I have been humiliated more times than I could count. For years, I gave up before pulling myself back from the despair.

I started practicing, improving myself. I trained and sparred, never stopping, even when people laughed at my juniors defeating me.

I took the assignment to this region, which came with the promotion.

Things didn’t become easier then; they became harder as Dane didn’t like me. He made my life worse, but I held on and kept training.

In the beginning, I could harness less than 10% of my strength. So, I focused on deepening my skills.

It was hard, but I was able to learn the skills to such a degree that I started to control them to a deeper level than most people do.

It didn’t increase the power I harnessed, but it increased my power.

As I level up and my class changed, I was able to claw back more of my power from the death skill and begin using it efficiently beyond anyone else.

Now I could use my skills with greater flexibility and harness more power than anyone else I have seen with their abilities.

That is why he sent the vibration through my body. I was able to use Ironhide to strengthen the parts I want. I have even started to use the skill to direct the vibration to the parts of the body I wanted.

“Whatever it is, it won’t save you, Cardin,” he roared, and the spear blazed as he attacked me with greater intensity.

I defended, not letting a single attack touch me.

Though not without cost. I may be handling the attacks better, but I’m slowly getting injured. I am also gaining a better understanding of the attacks and dealing with them more efficiently with my skills.

It has become a balancing game. If I dealt with it before it injured me heavily, I will survive; if I did not, then I will die.

We are fighting intensely, but the battle around us is being fought just as intensely.

They are throwing the undead at us without care, with humans supporting from behind. I hate to admit it, but they are very good and clearly trained for it.

It made us very slow, but Trask is pushing.

‘There is a message,’ I was fighting when a hesitant voice of Chief Elar rang out in my mind.

…

Cleon Daphus

‘You are pathetic, even with the artifact and the armour. You cannot finish a man who had been crippled for years,’ the grating voice of Lich rang through my mind.

Even his telepathic voice is grating.

I didn’t respond and focused on the bastard in front of me. He shouldn’t have been this good.

The Cardin, I know, is good at command and strategy, but not an above-average fighter. Now, he is fighting like a fiend, so different from the man I had seen him to be when we served together.

I didn’t understand, which made me angry. I need to win this battle, no matter what.

The undead are after my artifact; they have been trying to take it since I took it off the body of the old lord.

I need to kill Cardin. If I did not, they would definitely take my artifact away. I love this artifact; it is only because of it. I have confidence against the lich.

If they take it, I will truly become a puppet of theirs.

I know my people are talking about it, even my men. I cannot let it fester, or I will face the consequences, which will make me pay a price higher than I am willing to pay.

I shook those thoughts away and focused on my opponent, who was defending against my every attack.

I am already using my full strength.

I am Lv. 39 Forsworn Lord; it’s a powerful class with powerful skills, but it didn’t seem to be enough, even with the damn artifact.

Hun!

I was thinking of ways to deal with him when a surprise appeared on my face.

I saw a large part of his army splitting up. Over fifteen thousand and going toward the south; there is only one place they could go, the southern gate.

‘Daphus, your men are rebelling at the southern gate!’ the Lich roared in my mind, before I could ask what was happening at the southern gate.

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