After having his meeting with Diane and Sylphie, he immediately returned to work. The news he received was absolutely phenomenal and left him with many questions, the biggest being why Diane was insistent on telling Hinotori and not Sylphie herself.
It also left him doubting a lot of things about what he'd been told so many times as a child, but now wasn't the time for that.
"General, the south is about to collapse.", a shadow rat delivered the news to Reiman from behind.
"General, Ulva and Arisu encountered a group of assailants on their way back from the mission you gave them."
"General, the Tyrant of the South, Zana is requesting back up. The North has been relentlessly attacking them."
What? What did they mean by the North had been relentlessly attacking them? Sure, Reiman had his suspicions that the North didn't attack the West with all their power, but for the North and East to tag team against the South? That wasn't in his calculations.
Under normal circumstances, he would have sent aid to the South, but considering the news about assailants from the East sneaking up into the West without him hearing about it, he felt like jumping in to help was the worst possible move.
Reiman had been acting cautiously considering he seeing the full picture of the opponent's side of the board, but now it was obvious that king was making a move and it had altered the game drastically. He thought he had everything under control, but he had severely underestimated his opponent's tactical ability.
The question now was who was controlling the game. Reiman had a few tricks up his sleeve, but considering he wasn't aware of who his opponent was, this was a tricky situation. Should he save the South, he could be playing right into the opponent's hands. There was also the possibility that this was simply a scare tactic to keep the West away, but Reiman couldn't be sure.
The more he thought about it, the harder the decision became. After a few more minutes of running possible scenarios, he finally settled on staying in the West and buffing up their defences. Travelling from the West to the South was no quick trip. They'd need at least 4 good days to get there, and even then, the cyclopes would have run out of food and wouldn't be in any proper condition for a fight.
The monsters in the West too wouldn't be used to fighting in the swampy area, so if anything, they'd be burdens and die for no reason. Even if the opponent was betting on the West staying away, they must have also had a fear that the West wouldn't be easy to conquer.
This way, they're destroying the relations between the West and the South. In this kind of situation, if the East and North won, they'd have an easier time convincing the South to fall under their rule than if they were to beat them while they were working with the West. However, if the West won, it'd create a certain level of enmity between the West and all the other portions of the forest, which could end up in another war for Larm.
Either way, allowing the South to be defeated was going to end badly for the West. Still, Reiman couldn't risk the lives of those in the West for the off-chance that they might actually win. Reiman was a realist and in times like these, he threw away all notions of friendship or partnership.
"Where are the assailants now?"
"In the prison."
"Alright. I'll be heading there. Call Nukeme and Taiku as well. We'll get as much out of them as possible."
Reiman headed off towards the prison cell that rested underneath Hinotori's mansion.
"Um, sir. What about the South?", the rat man that delivered the message asked. Reiman let out a heavy sigh and looked at the him.
His eyes alone said it all. The South was of no necessity to the West anymore. When the West won the war and they felt like resisting falling under Hinotori's rule, Reiman was ready to subjugate each and every single one of them.
***
While the West was wrapping up with the first phase of their fight against the North, the South found themselves in quite the situation against their opponents. First, as planned, the South intercepted the East on their way to the West. The Lizardmen group, although out of their comfort zone at the edge of the South, managed to overwhelm the East's forces thanks to the tyrant, Zana's, magic.
However, they were ambushed by the North that had been waiting for them with a staggering 30,000 monsters, with a majority of them being B ranks, something not even the tyrant can defend against. The South had been pushed back and were currently being assaulted with no rest. Most of its denizens had already switched sides and were actively fighting against Zana's forces – The copperheads and lizardmen.
Reiman had been under the presumption that the South was struggling against the North. The truth was that it was only Zana and a few stragglers. With her control over the entire South via her Fog, she had managed to slow them down, but even the fog couldn't touch some of the North's soldiers. Especially the 10 giants that were as tall as mountains. Relentlessly, the North had pushed Zana's forces so far back that there was virtually no escape, except leaving Larm entirely to the Dourean deserts further down south, but they wouldn't last even a week out there.
Zana had sent for help from the West, but even now, there was no help coming. The copperheads and lizardmen were on their last legs and were wondering if the West was a good ally now. Some were regretting not having switched sides earlier as they marched up to what appeared to be their final stance against the North.
Tensions were high, but one fact remained true. Although none wanted to admit it, the only reason all of them stayed was because of Zana. They weren't fighting this battle because of the West, but because Zana had asked them to. Her recent change in appearance was a major cause for this change. No, they weren't following her because she was suddenly beautiful. It was more like because she was beautiful, they actually took the time to talk to her to consider what she said. And even better, her suggestions had become more mature and lacked her original naivety and foulness to it.
Without her ugliness, Zana was able to show her true colours. A kind, reasonable and powerful person who was simply dealt a bad hand at the start. She had become a respectable leader to others since she stopped with her childish thoughts and now, everyone in the South was willing to fight with her to their deaths for their home.
"Haaah, the odds are looking impossible.", the new head of the Lizardmen tribe said standing just next to Zana with his spear pointed towards the sky. This leader, like Zana, was inexperienced, yet loved by his people so the two could relate.
"Indeed, but I believe we shall survive this, isn't that right, tyrant?", the copperhead leader slithered to Zana's side and hissed.
Zana remained quiet and looked at the open battlefield before them. She had cleared out the fog and it had made everything quite visible. Powerful sunlight couldn't pierce the battlefield since she had left clouds up in the air. The ground was moist and difficult for most races to move in, but to the South, this place was the best sort of territory for a fight.
"I wish we didn't have to deal with those giants. They could wipe us out by themselves.", pointing to the 10 ginormous beings that marched, albeit slowly, the leader of the lizard men complained.
Indeed, no matter how much hope they all tried to have, a fight against those giants was absolutely useless. They knew that they would all die to those giants. A simple breath from the giants was probably more than enough to kill them all.
Zana, nervous, finally spoke.
"I think I can deal with the giants.", this shocked both men. Her hands were shaking and her voice didn't come out well, but the look in her eyes was more than enough to convince them.
"Those giants look quite monstrous."
"You might not be alone to beat it."
"Wh-what are you two talking about?"
"We'll be there to help you."
"We copperheads can't let one of our own just do something so dangerous alone."
"Utterly unnecessary.", an unexpected opinion entered the discussion, causing everyone to freeze in their places. "Those giants aren't real. They are simply the result of an [Illusion magic] so strong that it's almost like [Creation Magic]. It's honestly impressive that someone other than Lord Ramiel can do such a thing."
Zana, as the master of the fog, was are of everything within its perimeters. The fact that this person snuck up into their midst had left her completely paralysed with sweat running down her forehead. The other leaders standing next to her reacted before she could, with both of them attacking behind Zana were the voice came from, but they only struck the moist ground.
"Whoever conjured up that illusion should be older than me. Maybe even far more ancient than [The Age of 9 Monarchs].", he muttered to himself. "I never expected Arcane magic to be so pathetic."
Having had enough of this oddity, Zana's body moved forward without her awareness.
"W-Who are you?", shaken to her core, the question flew out of her mouth. The mysterious man turned, revealing his odd facial features. Like a clown, his face was caked up face of white powder with black spots for eyes and red grape-coloured lipstick. The man's face was all bones with high cheekbones and a disfigured jawline.
He lifted an eyebrow at her and scanned her. "You must be Zana.", he muttered.
"Wha-?"
"Please do not be confused. I am under a contract that requires me to utterly obliterate your opponents. As long as I am here, no harm shall befall you."
With that said, the man turned his face back to incoming soldiers.
"Hey! Explain in better detail who you are.", the lizard man ordered, but the man ignored him. Rather, he raised up his arms as he walked forward. Magical runes formed around his arms, as the battlefield was instantly littered with magic circles.
Zana who had spent quite sometime learning various forms of magic couldn't help but shiver at the absolute control over runes this man displayed. Casually, he had summoned advanced level runes and created extremely dense magic circles on the battlefield. Such command over the runes was accompanied by the elemental spirits all cowering in fear of this man and obeying his every command. Zana couldn't see them, but she could sense them and as of this moment, the very air trembled in the presence of this man.
He swung his arms down and a myriad of elemental spears shot out from the ground, pierced the cloudy sky and caused a thunder boom in the sky. For a few seconds, there was nothing. However, when the spears started to rain down, the North met with a very gruesome and unfortunate end.
A rainbow shower of lethal spears so deadly not even Larm's recovery power could fix what happened that day. The giants all faded into nothing the moment the spears touched them. The ground exploded in a fiery mess of blood, dirt, magic and water. The earth shook and even Zana's fog seemed to want to avoid every single spear. In a matter of minutes the North that was 30,000 strong had been vanquished. This attack that seemed to announce itself to the entire world, left a permanent print on Larm and the minds of those who were there to witness it.
"[Kaiser Impact]."
