The Way of the Future: Age of Machines(Completed)

Escape

The lord waved his rapier and grinned before sticking it on the floor beneath.

"You had nerves trying to steal from me, don't you know who I am!?" He boasted his position of being the Lord of the Fortress City of Tawk. He was brimming with anger as he threw threat upon threat against the two intruders.

His soldiers have surrounded the two with their swords drawn and shields raised. In such a tight space, they could not risk using their magic to the fullest or they may do more damage than what is acceptable. If they make too much of a fuss, they'll bring much suspicion towards them and the newly emergent Machine Empire.

It's only been a month ever since the crusade started, news of it had spread across the peninsula through travelers, messengers, merchants and the like. Rumors of an unknown power suddenly emerging from the forest spread like wildfire and many came to the conclusion that the new power was of demonic origin, hence the crusade.

The support for the crusade within the Theocracy itself was high, almost nobody opposed it. If the citizens were asked, they would reply with the same odd and vague answers.

"To avenge the Pope!"

"To vanquish the demons!"

"It is by the grace of the church that.."

Meanwhile, the other peoples were not fond of the surprise crusade. Not only did It seemed rush but it felt as if the Theocracy had lost its discipline, its way. Many argued that the Theocracy was reckless. If there was indeed a new power emerging from the forest and it was a large enough threat for the state to launch a crusade, why didn't they ask the other countries for help?

Why has there been no information shared ever since? Why have the number of merchants, travelers, and visitors from the Theocracy rapidly decreased? Was the Theocracy forcing even the citizens of other nations to join their crusade? Maybe.

A few weeks ago, the Dioz Kingdom to the south sent an envoy to the Theocracy in the hopes of getting a clear answer of what this threat really was, the envoy never returned nor was it ever seen again.

And when the aftermath of the army composed of 60,000 men reached the general peasant, fear had already begun to take hold. It took them a while to verify that a black storm was brewing, and yes it was. The sky over the forest was covered by a blanket of smoke and ash that came from the Theocracy's strategy of burning the forest.

The smoke began to travel south and the Dioz Kingdom was not liking it one bit, the northern plains of the Dioz Kingdom were mainly composed of farmland and small villages with the nearest City being a few tens of kilometers away. The locals feared that the smoke would choke their harvest and leave them starving in the winter that was to come in just a few months.

Although Artemis was aware of the existence of the Dioz Kingdom, he paid little attention to it. He claimed that the kingdom posed no threat for now but admitted that they'd need to have surveillance set up to counter a potential military backing from it.

Evaluating from the extracted memories of the humans, the Dioz Kingdom was considered a peninsula power with territory vaster than any of the nations in the peninsula and a military much greater than even that of the Theocracy, the only aspect they lacked were mages that were in short supply,