The Storm King

Chapter 776: Argos I

Argos was an old city. Not quite as ancient as some of the most venerable cities on the plane, like Occulara or Ilion, but it had a long history. The site the city had been built on had a fantastic natural port, opening right out on the Argonaut Sea while having a series of hilly islands further out protecting it from the worst weather that the sea could throw at it, each one fortified with a tower and handful of Imperial Lances.

The original city had been little more than a fortress with a town to see to its logistics. The fortress had been erected to protect against retaliation from the fleeing Sky Devils when the nascent Empires realized that they couldn’t pursue their quarry across the sea. Over time, that fortress grew, with a massive wall and series of towers protecting the town, while a secondary wall was magically built of stone out at sea. The sea wall was supplemented by additional massive towers, each capped with Imperial Lances, while the town around the fortress grew even more as the city’s port increased in size and importance. The Imperial administration even went so far as to construct a secondary port further inland, connected to the sea by a wide and heavily fortified canal, where only Imperial ships could dock. Even Heaven’s Eye had to use the primary harbor.

All in all, Argos was heavily defended, with a garrison of more than fifty thousand Imperial soldiers, mostly drawn from the Sunlit Empire, and with a powerful, if relatively small, fleet permanently stationed there to defend it. Combined with the Lances atop both of the city’s walls and the island towers, the city was commonly thought to be invincible.

As Leon and Red finally drew close enough to lay eyes on the city for themselves around midnight two days after receiving Maia’s relayed message, they found that it was anything but invincible. The Imperial fleet burned just outside the sea wall, half of the sea wall’s towers had been destroyed, along with their Lances, all of the towers on the islands had been leveled, and it was clear that the Sky Devils hadn’t paid anywhere near enough for those losses to be considered acceptable to any competent commander.

The Sky Devils were present in great numbers. Hundreds of ships of varying size, with more than fifty immense ships that carried powerful Lances of their own that ceaselessly hammered the sea wall, determined to either break through the wall’s sealed sea gates, or break through the wall itself. Above the wall, Leon could see something far more terrifying, however: arks, three of them, and each one with four Lances of their own. These Lances, unlike the Imperial Lances and those on the Sky Devils’ sea fleet, didn’t spit balls of molten stone or metal, but bolts of dark red lightning that had his hair standing on end as they rained down upon the wall. In addition, swarming over the city were riders on flying beasts, mostly pegasi, while a comparatively small number of Imperial forces attempted to fend them off.

Fortunately for the Argonauts, the Sky Devils, while having done considerably damage to the sea wall and having flown over it with their aerial forces, had yet to crack the inner wall, where Leon could see many Imperial soldiers mustering in preparation for their stand against their besiegers. The city’s civilian population was in the process of either fleeing or taking shelter.

But Leon, for the moment, had eyes only for the local Heaven’s Eye enclave—a sizable district just inside the inner wall. The district was fairly well fortified itself, with a wall surrounding the district—though not even slightly comparable to the inner wall in size, thickness, or armament. The huge square in front of the local Tower was more promising for the enclave’s defense, with seven or eight hundred Heaven’s Eye security forces assembled. Standing at their head barking orders were several mages, all eighth-tier.

The first was easily recognizable: Penelope, clearly in command. The second was also directing many security forces, so Leon assumed him to be the local Tower Lord. The third and fourth were people he vaguely recognized as being two of the Director’s Hands, though he’d never had much cause to interact with them more than the occasional polite greeting. He couldn’t even put names to their faces.

As he and Red flew toward Argos, they were spotted, though that was hardly surprising. They’d been spotted and followed several times on their flight as they made their way over ever-more populated regions of the Sunlit Empire, but their pace of movement and clear lack of hostility had, so far, prevented the Sunlit forces from trying to stop them—they were merely observed as they flew.

A reasonable precaution, in Leon’s opinion.

The Imperial forces at Argos didn’t seem to be in such a mood, however, as Leon saw several Lances on the land-facing side of Argos’ inner wall turn in his and Red’s direction.

Another reasonable precaution, as Leon could see many powerful beasts in the air fighting alongside the Sky Devils. Now that he was closer and had been able to watch the battle outside the sea walls for a longer period, he could even see a number of sea monsters either fighting alongside the Sky Devils or taking advantage of the carnage as Imperial sailors and marines were dragged below the sea’s surface by tentacles and large, terrifying fish that made sharks look toothless and docile.

Leon had been rather more conflicted over the past couple of days, but this sight was something else. The Sky Devils had come in force, and they were massacring the Imperial garrison. It was hard for Leon to watch the many beasts in the Sky Devil’s invasion force tearing human beings to pieces and remain in a ‘wait-and-see’ mindset.

At the very least, he was going to defend the Heaven’s Eye enclave, even if the Sky Devils were the descendants of his Clan’s vassals, left behind by those who’d fled in the wake of his Clan’s fall. Besides, it wasn’t reasonable at all to assume that the Sky Devils even knew who he was, let alone that they might be in any way loyal to him.

As he flew closer to the inner wall, he contemplated reaching out with his darkness magic, hoping that he might be able to speak to the local Imperial garrison mentally to tell them that he and Red were friendlies, but he quickly realized that enchantments protecting the soldiers from darkness magic seemed to be standard on their armor. The wards weren’t that strong and he thought that if he had to, he could break through them, but he knew how he’d react if unknown powerful beasts flying towards him while a city he was supposed to defend was under attack suddenly started screwing with the enchantments designed to protect his mind: he’d open up with whatever weapons he had and ask questions later.

So, he figured that since the sea wall wasn’t falling yet, it was better to present a less concerning image to the soldiers on the wall, even if it slowed him and Red down a bit.

[Slow down a little,] Leon ordered Red as they drew to within a hundred miles of the city’s inner wall. [Don’t want to spook those on the Lances on top of the wall.]

[Why? They’re weak,] Red responded.

Indeed, Leon could see that nearly all of the Lances were manned by teams of half a dozen, with a sixth-tier mage in charge of each weapon. From what he could tell, these teams were then overseen by a handful of seventh-tier mages stationed at the largest towers and gatehouses. Given the strength of wyverns compared to their human magical equivalents, he could understand why Red might be overconfident, but he wasn’t. Even just from watching the Imperial Lances firing on the sea wall he could see that they completely outclassed the Bull Kingdom’s Flame Lances in power.

[We wouldn’t win that fight, and that fight isn’t even necessary,] Leon replied. [Follow my lead and we won’t run into any trouble. Got it?]

Red made several deep chuffing sounds, but a moment later replied, [Understood.]

Together, they slowed down as they drew closer to the inner wall, but the Lance crews continued to track them. Fortunately, while Leon assumed the weapons’ ranges to be much greater than Bull Kingdom Lances, they weren’t fired upon even as they drew to within twenty miles.

Still, the Lance crews were clearly growing more and more nervous as they tracked their approach, so Leon ordered, [Down to the ground, let’s make the rest of the way on foot in human form.]

Again, Red chuffed in displeasure, but complied.

They quickly descended to the ground to the streets of the city’s suburbs, then transformed back into human form and started running to the nearest gate about twenty miles away. Soon enough, they’d entered the part of the city proper that had spilled out past the walls, and Leon considered the fact that they weren’t being shot at by Imperial Lances to be a good sign that he was right to get out of the sky. Then again, they were also pushing past hordes of fleeing civilians, so he supposed them not being shot at could be down to the soldiers not wanting to blast their own people into oblivion.

Sure enough, when they reached the city’s massive northwestern gate, he found that the soldiers stationed there had been greatly reinforced, and many powerful mages were waiting for him and Red.

It took some convincing, but with his Heaven’s Eye ID, Leon was able to get them to step aside and allow him and Red inside the city, though not without escort—four seventh-tier and a dozen sixth-tier mages peeled off the gate to bring them straight to the Heaven’s Eye enclave.

Leon was quietly impressed, considering it a powerful sign of the strength of Argos that even this great concentration of power—he remembered the war he fought in with the Talfar Kingdom, where the fact that Talfar had a single seventh-tier mage was one of the most concerning things in the war—didn’t overly diminish the rest of the soldiers at the gate aiding in the evacuation.

Neither Leon nor Red spoke much until they reached the Heaven’s Eye enclave. Leon had been trying to get in touch with Penelope—or anyone else in the enclave, for that matter—but the enclave’s wards were powerful, and his darkness magic couldn’t get through.

He was almost happy that he hadn’t been able to get in touch with Penelope, if only so he could savor the look of abject shock on her face when they came running down the road and entered the front courtyard.

“Leon?!” she shouted in shock. “Is that you?”

“Would anyone else go around with a mug this ugly?” Leon shouted back as he gestured at his own face.

Seeing their IDs essentially confirmed, the leader of Leon and Red’s escort wasted not a second in ordering his soldiers to turn around and get back to their duties as Leon and Red finally entered the enclave.

“What are you doing here?!” Penelope shouted as she ran forward to meet them.

“I was in the neighborhood,” Leon explained as he gestured toward Red. “Had to pick a friend up from Utavi in the Pegasi States. Heard something exciting was going on over here on the way back and made a detour.”

As if she were only now seeing Red, Penelope reeled back a bit.

“Red…” she said apprehensively. “Been a while.”

A quiet, dismissive glare was the only response she received.

Apparently setting Red’s presence aside for the moment, Penelope said, “You’re stepping on a lot of toes just being here, but at this point, I don’t care that much. We need all the help we can get to ensure the safety of this city.”

“We’re not going to be heading out and fighting in the streets, are we?” Leon asked.

Penelope looked like she was about to answer, but then thought better of it. “What do you think we should do?”

Leon smiled thinly and said, “We should remain in the enclave and defend it. Let the Imperials deal with the Sky Devils. If we can provide any shelter to civilians, then we should do so, but our first priority is to see to this enclave.”

“You don’t want us out and defending the port?”

Leon frowned as he glanced back out to sea and once more took in the sight of that slaughter, of the Imperial soldiers screaming as they were dragged beneath the waves by monsters, as they were burned by Devil Lances, and as they fell from the sea wall. Maybe he had the power to stop this, but that was a risk he wasn’t yet willing to take. “That’s… not our job, is it?”

Penelope gave him a skeptical look and shook her head. “I figured we’d be getting pressed into the army for this battle, but since you’re here, your authority can keep us out of it.”

“Is the authority of a Hand of the Director not enough?”

“A Hand doesn’t have the same powers of negotiation as a branch Chief does. Neither does a Tower Lord.”

“Interesting. What about the issue of Heaven’s Eye’s political neutrality?”

“There’s only one very important exception to that rule: when the mainland is being threatened by Sky Devils.”

Leon nodded, understanding what she was saying. “Quite the exception,” he muttered. “What forces do we have at our disposal? What are our defenses looking like?”

Without further ado, Penelope quickly briefed Leon on what they had. In Heaven’s Eye, they had four eighth-tier mages not including him, about two dozen seventh-tier mages not including Red, and about two thousand sixth-tier mages and below. A significant force, and more than enough to defend the enclave if they had to—but Leon could see that if they had to, then they’d be in a terrible position. If the Sky Devils made it so far into the city as to threaten the enclave, then there would be little chance that Heaven’s Eye could stop them on their own if they put the enclave to siege—especially with those Devil arks.

Now that he was seeing exactly what kind of forces he had to work with, he almost changed his mind and sent most of what he now had at his disposal to defend the inner wall. However, he still regarded that as the duty of the local soldiery. The situation wasn’t quite desperate enough for something like that. He’d only allow the Heaven’s Eye security forces to fight if the inner walls were breached.

As Penelope was giving him a breakdown on the kinds of wards that the enclave had defending it from the ramparts of the short wall, Leon saw a fairly substantial group of mages wearing Sunlit uniforms making straight for them. They were led by an eighth-tier mage, and all were quite heavily armed and armored.

“That’s Commander Arctis,” Penelope explained. “He’s the second-in-command of the local garrison. I’ve only been here for barely more than a day and he’s already come around four times demanding, pleading, and otherwise trying to get us to take a more active role in the defense of the city. He was as far from polite as he could be the first time he came, but his attitude has lightened up since then.”

“Understandable,” Leon whispered as another tower on the sea wall went up in bright yellow flames under the combined firepower of the Sky Devil’s arks. “Hard to hold onto pride and prejudices when you’re staring death in the face.”

“Lady Penelope!” Arctis shouted as he ran into the courtyard. “We need to speak!”

“Speak with him!” Penelope shouted back, getting his attention as she gestured at Leon. “He’s in charge here, now!”

Leon gave her a look of amused disbelief.

“What?” she asked. “Did you think you were just going to let me handle all this diplomatic negotiation? That’s on your shoulders now, oh great and powerful Chief of Magical Research and Development.”

‘Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Leon said in resignation as he jumped down from the wall and landed in the courtyard.

He quickly approached Arctis, who stared him down for a long moment, his expression carefully schooled, before he asked, “Might we be introduced?”

“I’m Leon, Chief of Magical Research and Development in Heaven’s Eye.”

“Pleased to make your acquaintance,” Arctis responded. “Dealing with women is always an exercise in frustration, and I hope that you’ll be more amenable to us. We require the aid of Heaven’s Eye if this city is to hold out. So far, we’ve been able to hold the sea gates, but I fear that they’ll fall in the next few hours. If those Devils get into the harbor, then we’re going to have a much harder time keeping them from hitting the rest of the city. We have to hold the harbor!”

“What kind of aid do you need?” Leon asked.

“Fighting men would be best,” Arctis frankly replied. “Any other assistance would be appreciated.”

“I need all of our fighting men and women here,” Leon replied. As Arctis’ face fell, Leon quickly added, “If we haven’t yet—forgive me, I’m still getting briefed on the situation—then I’ll open our stocks of spells and other material to your forces. We can also use this district as a safe haven for any civilians who are still trying to evacuate.”

Arctis breathed what appeared to be a sigh of relief, and he quickly said, “Thank you, Leon. It’s not all we hoped for, but more than we feared. I’ll have some groups of women and children redirected this way. Please defend them as your own kin.”

“Of course,” Leon responded, finding it mildly amusing that he was now to defend the natives of this plane from some of the remnants of his Clan.

As Arctis turned back to his people and Leon nodded to Penelope to follow through on his offer, a deafening blast was heard from the sea. Leon glanced in that direction and watched as one of the largest ships in the Sky Devil fleet cruised forward, firing off several Lances at the sea gate. As it drew closer, it didn’t slow down, and Leon almost thought its helmsman crazy until he realized that the bow of the ship had two familiar-looking weapons: flame-spewing Lances of the sort that Jormun had mounted on his ship. These Lances, however, began spitting blue fire, with fire so intense that Leon couldn’t help but stare in awe.

The ship continued onward, not stopping as the blue fire washed over the sea gate. Leon could feel the wards within the sea wall straining to hold back fire of that heat and power, and when the ship made contact with the gate, the massive steel and heavily-enchanted wood splintered and bent inward. The Sky Devil ship came to a halt, its magic engines continuing to push so hard the Leon could feel the magic runoff even in the enclave a few miles away.

The sea gate continued to strain and bend, pushing inward more and more, until finally, under pressure from the ship, and still being bathed in blue fire, they snapped. The Sky Devils had broken through. They were in the harbor.