City of Desire [Kingdom Building]

Proofread By Thomas F

Harrison Dane

“Careful, we are close,” I said as we reached the boundary of the Lauryl Barony. Our scouts had informed us that they are close.

In a few minutes, we will be reaching them.

“Any new information or movement from Silver?” Lockridge asked. “No, our people didn’t see any army or large group of people leaving for the Baronies from his cities,” I replied.

The last time, he had outplayed us. This time, Grimvale had put considerable resources into monitoring him.

There will be no surprises this time.

“You should let me fight her. I know her abilities and would be able to kill her quickly,” said Lockridge. It isn’t the first time he has said it.

“You will handle the mercenary, I will handle her,” I replied.

I am not going to give him the glory, and through it the power. I know, he is trying to get me out of my position since I got it. I would be an idiot to give him the chance.

Leila Silver is a Spell Blade; they are tricky opponents, but I could deal with her.

“Kill her quickly. Don’t give her a chance to control the environment,” he advised. I am surprised; he had never given me advice against her before.

The advice isn’t a lie.

She is an ice elemental spell blade, and her blade spells are powerful, but she is also proficient in environmental spells, which weaken the enemy and give her an edge.

Her spell blade class had merged with her noble class. Making it very powerful.

I am glad that she had not advanced to the Great Mage, or both of us would not have been enough to deal with her.

Minutes passed, and we stepped into the large clearing and stopped. The enemies are already there with their eyes focused on us.

I looked at them before focusing on the two leaders. Leila Silver and Ruses Vandal.

Lady Silver is standing at the boundary, wearing an amber coloured spell blade armor, with an ice blue hood over her head.

Her half-artifice sword at her waist, with her hand very close to it.

Beside her is the mercenary; I have seen him a few times. He had come to the fortress many times on jobs. Sometimes as bodyguards to Silver’s whores, sometimes guarding wealthy merchants.

He is handsome, with a long scar running down his face. He, too, is wearing a half-artifice armor and a half-artifice blade.

I couldn’t help but feel envy. I had to struggle hard to get a single half-artifice blade, but here they are, each wearing two pieces.

I, too, am wearing the same. Grimvale had provided me with armor, but that didn’t make envy disappear.

Behind them is their army; I could see many familiar people. Many of them, I had sent with Cardin to Greltheaven when Darrow begged for the reinforcement.

Many of those I thought had no future had reached really high positions in Silver’s army.

I looked at each of them before dismounting and moving a few steps forward, and stopped.

“Surrender, Baroness, and I promise you, we will treat you and your army fairly,” I offered.

“Marquess Grimvale also promises you that we will not touch your territory and the territories of the barons, who made a mistake of choosing the wrong side,” I added.

I didn’t want to say it, but I had been asked to say these words by that bastard Dasir.

They laughed, and it’s not a small laugh. Especially that bastard mercenary, who started laughing, holding his stomach, seeing that I glared at him.

Grimvale has said not to kill him, but I will ask Lockridge to finish off this bastard.

“We have no intention to fight you, General Dane, but if you come at us. Make no mistake, we will,” she replied, and this time, it’s my turn to smile.

It would have been regretful if she had accepted the terms.

“Be ready to face your death and the death of your men then,” I said and unsheathed my blade, while the mercenary grinned and stepped away from her.

‘Something is wrong,’ said Lockridge. He didn’t have to say it; I could feel it, too.

I looked around, but didn’t notice anything strange, but my instinct, honed for years on the battlefield, told me something was very wrong.

I was looking for it when it revealed itself.

The ice-blue cloak covering her froze and shattered into a shower of crystal, sending a wave of icy power that began to freeze everything around her.

By the time the wave reached me, it had lost much of its power, but it still sent a chill down my spine.

A shock ran through my heart as I looked at the source of it—a crown over her head.

“Artifact,” I spoke out, before I could stop myself. This is an artifact without a doubt. It shocked me, but I quickly controlled my emotions.

She has an artifact. The question is: where did she get it?

In the last battle, she had fought against the monsters; she had not used one. That only means one thing.

‘It’s Frostpearl Diadem; it belongs to the merchants.’ Informed Lockridge. Hearing that, I became even more sure that Silver had given it to her.

Her lover may seem the obvious person, but he can’t. He can’t legally give an artifact to a citizen of the empire, much less a noble.

I looked at the artifact; it has three frost blue pearls. The big one at the top, while the smaller two are below it on either side, with the silvery metal around them, which forms an interwoven band around her head.

It’s one of the most elegant artifacts I have ever seen; it suits her very well with her silvery grey eyes.

Making her look noble.

“Come, General, if you dare. We are ready to give you another taste of humiliating defeat,” she said, placing her hand on the hilt of her blade.

‘You will handle her,’ I said to Lockridge. ‘Gladly,’ replied the bastard goadingly.

I hate it, but she has an artifact. Even with it, I could defeat her, but it will take time, which I don’t want to waste. So it is better that Lockridge deals with her.

He didn’t have to kill her and shouldn’t; just keep her occupied enough until I finish off the mercenary.

I am going to finish him quickly and move to the spell-blade. It will be my blade that will be dyed with her blood, and that artifact will be mine.

If I get the chance, I might finish Lockridge as well.

It is why I am giving him a chance. Fighting her will tire him; it might present me an opportunity to finish him off.

I cleared those thoughts and looked at her before I unsheathed my blade; it’s time to take revenge for the humiliation Silver had given me.

…

Leila Silver

“Attack!”

Dane roared and moved toward us with his army, which seemed to be everywhere.

I unsheathed my blade as I did, and icy crystals flowed through, covering the whole blade with them.

It’s hard to control this artifact; its power wants to flood into me. It was how it had killed its last owner, and he wasn’t the only one.

Remus’s minister had tried to dissuade me from choosing this artifact. He wanted me to choose among the other four.

One of them was a blade, but I had chosen this.

I had read about this artifact in the academy. It was when its last owner died to it. The professor had spent the whole lecture talking about it.

Other artifacts would have been a safer choice; they give power when one harnesses it with their will, while this one floods it into its user.

I had gotten it an hour before we left Lauryl, and the only reason I could control it was because of the witchcraft charm that had restricted its power.

Still, even that won’t be able to hold it back for long.

I could feel how this artifact is attacking that charm, wanting to destroy it. So, it could flood its power into me. It has massive power; that is why I chose it.

Many before me did it for the same reason and ended up losing their lives.

I pushed those thoughts away and focused on the enemies coming toward us. Both of them are Lv. 40+ and have a larger army than me.

It will be a challenging battle, but one we will not lose. I will be damned if I fail with this artifact.

“For the Dominion!” I roared and moved toward the enemy. Leaving behind freezing air and frosty shoe prints on the ground, I stepped on.

I am trying to protect my body, but some power is still leaking into it, which I am controlling and releasing into the air and the ground beneath my feet.

It would be terrible if I let it stay in me. That’s how all those people before me died.

I moved and saw that Dane was turning toward Vandal while Lockridge was coming toward me. It surprised me, the way he was looking at me, I thought he would come at me.

He is now looking at Vandal, like he is some meat he could cut apart.

Well, he is very mistaken if he thinks he can do that.

Baron Harrods had sparred with him many times, and not normal spars, but no-holds-barred spars, and called the man the most frustrating opponent he had ever fought.

I completely agree with that assessment.

One can be more powerful than Vandal, but it would be a mistake to assume one can kill him due to it.

His skills are enviable; they are geared toward survival, making him very hard to kill. You can cut him at every place, something which will make someone of the same level bleed out, but he will only keep fighting.

One would need to be very skilled or really powerful to kill Vandal.

So, I didn’t worry about him and turned to the man I wanted to kill for so long. I had finally been given the opportunity.

It won’t be easy. Lockridge is powerful, especially with that artifact, which suits him very well, but I also have the artifact now.

“Baroness, I wanted to kill you for so long,” he said as he appeared in front of me, with grey smoke from his blade moving toward me.

“Likewise,” I replied and swung my icy blade toward him.

…

Remus Silver

“The battle had begun,” informed Zela as I rode forward through the assembled army of one hundred and seven thousand men, belonging to the dominion and Amberhold

It is vast and spread across the bowl of hills, where we will be fighting the monsters.

We are surrounded on all three sides by a fortress with cannons, ballistae, and thousands of archers.

On the hills, there are thick towers, on the ballista are hung as well cannons and archers. They could attack both ground and aerial monsters.

Not to mention thousands of mines and traps that we had laid out through the ground.

It is a killing field for the monsters that are going to be arriving soon.

“Have they attacked on all fronts?” I asked. “Yes, all five,” she replied. Leila is leading the biggest army, but there are four more groups that are attacking.

I hope she will be able to stop them.

I have given her the artifact, which was not easy to obtain from the merchants, especially in such a short time.

I didn’t buy or trade it. I borrowed it.

One cannot simply borrow it. No, I had given merchants an artifact, the blade I had gotten from the assassin. Its value is lower than that of the Frostpearl Diadem despite all its faults.

So, I will be paying monthly rent for it. If I lost the artifact, I would owe merchants a shit load of essence, and the blade would also become theirs.

Still, despite that, it’s a fair trade, given the power and usefulness of Frostpearl Diadem, as long as it didn’t kill her.

It had killed over ten people, and that is known to the public. Since it was forged, very few people have been able to use it without dying.

We had tried to dissuade her from using it, but she was insistent. So, I hope she survives it, understands its danger, and agrees to choose another artifact.

Oksall has other elemental artifacts, from which she could have chosen, and those wouldn’t try to kill her.

I shook my head and looked at the sky; at a distance away from the range of arrows and balistas, there were aerial monsters. There are a lot of them, and more are gathering.

It won’t be long before the ground monsters arrive in their massive numbers.

It’s going to be one bloody battle, and it scares me, but also excites me. Tempest, on the other hand, is only excited that he could barely stand still.

He will be instrumental in this battle.

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