The powerful whirlwind kicked up by the roaring iron wyvern nearly knocked the dwarven down. Thankfully, the Cartel Grand Lord Hammerfall reached out to steady his old friend from falling on his butt as the iron transport with its twin spinning blades rose higher and higher. Grand Lord Hammerfall grinned as he waved goodbye to the transport in the skies and laughed happily. "Free at last!"
Lord Copperstone sighed wistfully at the disappearing flying machine in the skies before he picked up a haversack of supplies and said, "Well, despite being prisoners, I had a great time!"
"Didn't we both?" Hammerfall laughed as he grabbed his own pack. "Well, now we must return to our people! The thrice cursed justice worshipers have to be stopped. Too bad, the Un An has no interest in helping us stop them..."
"It is good enough of them to release us already..." Copperstone replied as he made his way across the rocky terrain. "And they were kind enough to put us just a day walk to a town..."
"If it was not for the Protectorate, I would have liked to have an apprenticeship with their master crafters and... goblins techies..." Copperstone added sheepishly. "There are still so many things to learn!"
Hammerfall shook his head as he walked towards the direction of the town given to them by the Un An. "But our people need us now."
Copperstone nodded, "The knowledge I gained from my time with the Un An, will prove to be highly useful to our people! We must get to our foundries as fast as possible!"
"Maybe once this godforsaken war is over, we can return to the New World and make some new friends."
-----
The Old World, Capital of the Iron Kingdom
Crown Prince Herod seated on the Iron Throne, turned thunderous as he read the missive and crushed the scroll in his hands. "Have they gone mad?"
"Your Highness, my Lord demands an answer!" The pompous noble serving as the representative to Lord Sincia's faction waved a gaudy feathered hat in his hand impatiently. "Your claim to the throne is insubstantial! His Majesty, the Heavens bless his soul, did not appoint you officially as the Crown Prince!"
"My Father handed the Royal Seal to me and appointed me as Crown Prince!" Herod growled at the representative.
"And who here can attest to that?" The noble made a grand show of gesturing to the gathered ministers and nobility inside the throne room. "The brave Generals and our beloved Iron King have fallen together with the flying island! For all we know, you stole the Royal Seal!"
"Enough!" Herod shot up to his feet and pointed at the smirking noble. "My brother, Prince Najja was witness to it, including several of the nobles here and dozens of guards! Father had even sent my brother to the City of Enders to call for an alliance with the other Great Nations!"
At this moment after he finished his sentence, the doors of the throne room swung open and the fat figure of Prince Najja together with Lord Sincia entered. The Majordomo of the palace hurried after the pair, his usually calm expression was filled with chagrin as he failed to stop the pair. He straightened himself when he entered the throne room and proceeded to announce the new arrivals when Lord Sincia cut him off, "They know who we are!"
The Majordomo glanced at Herod for instructions before giving a bow and retreated out when Herod gestured him to back off. Herod turned to the new arrivals and frowned, "Brother, why are you here and not on your way to the City of Enders?"
Prince Najja did not immediately reply to his brother's question, only casting fugitive glances to his uncle beside him. In the end, Lord Sincia deemed to answer for him, "Prince Herod, you should step off the throne... It is not good to occupy the throne when your father, my brother had just passed away!"
"And since we are all family here, we will not look into the matter of you stealing and usurping the throne when your brother is the Crown Prince!" Lord Sincia's eyes glittered shrewdly.
"Preposterous!" A young low ranking noble supporting Prince Herod as a member of his staff cried out from the side. "We were all there! We heard what the late King announced!"
Lord Sincia frowned as he gave a dismissal wave at the noble's words. Yet his eyes held a hint of murder as he said, "This is why our great kingdom is failing! The young have no respect for rank and seniority!"
"When is it your place to even open your mouth when your betters are speaking?" Lord Sincia criticized the red faced noble. He turned to Prince Herod who was glaring daggers at him and smiled, before he openly declared, "Truth be said, many of the nobility here do not support you."
"Uncle, are you seriously trying to usurp the throne at this time?" Prince Herod growled. "Enemies surround us and you come here further cause dissent among us when we should be united?"
"It is precisely this matter hence I brought this up!" Lord Sincia spoke in a condescending tone. "The Iron Kingdom is facing its greatest crisis since its founding! How can we allow an inexperienced Prince to take over the reins?"
"While I might not be the best," Prince Herod's eyes narrowed as he shot back. "My Brother Najja isn't better off compared to my abilities!"
"Ahh, yes!" Lord Sincia's smile widened as he turned to the red faced Prince beside him and laughed. "That is why I am proposing this... I will take the role of Regent until... either Prince proven themselves to be worthy of the Iron Throne!"
The gathered nobility started mumbling amongst themselves. Seeing the situation turning for the worse, Prince Herod roared out, "Under what authority do you have to make such a declaration? Are you seeking to rebel, Uncle?"
"Rebel? Hahaha! You are overthinking this," Lord Sincia shook his head. "What the Iron Kingdom needs now is a capable leader and... neither of you... are capable!"
Exclamations of anger and chagrin came from Prince Herod's faction at the disrespectful remark spoken by Lord Sincia. Prince Herod gripped his fists tightly as he controlled his anger and desired to throttle his Uncle right on the spot. He swallowed his anger and kept his expression calm before he sat down on the Iron Throne and declared, "You can say all you want... But I have been appointed as Crown Prince and is the rightful heir to the Iron Throne!"
"I will treat your words as I have not heard them!" Prince Herod stated. "And since we are all family here..."
Prince Herod used the exact same words spoken by his Uncle earlier. "We will not pursue the disrespect you shown to the Crown!"
Lord Sincia gave a smiling nod to Prince Herod before he gave a perfunctory bow and said, "We shall see how capable your highness is!"
Prince Herod watched warily as his Uncle led his brother and members of his faction out of the throne room. He felt a massive headache as the throne room emptied till only a third of the numbers remained. He knew his Uncle has many connections and it was only the respect and awe of his father that had kept the majority of the nobility under control, but now with his father gone, the weak willed nobility had quickly jumped over to his Uncle when the Kingdom was in a crisis.
"Your Highness," The young noble who earlier had spoken up in defence of him, stepped forward and bowed. "Lord Sincia is getting bolder and bolder! Your Highness must deal with him immediately or it would be rearing a poisonous serpent in our midst!"
"Lord Pent, that I know," Prince Herod replied grimly. "But now, we have more pressing issues!"
"The Protectorate forces have stopped their advance and is now consolidating their gains and having their supply lines catch up to their forward troops," Prince Herod said. "And similarly, the Tri State is doing the same."
"What are those despicable Tri State scum be thinking of to be allying with the Protectorate!" The disgruntled Lord Pent stated. "And Prince Najja was supposed to broker an alliance with the rest of the Great Nations against these threats yet he did not and now he even turned around and say you have stolen the Iron Seal of the kingdom!"
"We deal with the problems plaguing our kingdom first," Prince Herod said as he walked towards the map table on one side of the throne room. He gestured to the pinned flags with various colours all over the map and said, "This is not just a mere battle... The Protectorate seemed intent on taking over the Old World..."
A scattered ragged line of red and yellow flags was pinned along with the lands of the Iron Kingdom, including the Cartel and even the lands of the Dragon Lords.
Lord Pent pointed to the yellow flags on the map and replied, "These locations have unconfirmed sightings of Protectorate forces while the red flags are locations with confirmed sightings."
"How many forces have the Protectorate amassed for such an undertaking?" Prince Herod shook his head. "There must be something forcing their hand for them to embark on such an invasion..."
"Could it be the coming of their saviour? Their god called Ramuh?" Lord Pent suggested. "They have always been preaching about the coming of the holy war to bring law and order upon the whole world."
"The Gods have died many many years ago, before even our forefather's time..." Prince Herod replied firmly. "As shown by magic disappearing from the land."
"If the cause of this war is by the number of magic crystals brought back from the New World on board the Iron Fortress..." Lord Pent frowned. "Then their reason of invasion should have ended with the depletion of all the magic crystals when the late King used it all up with the flying fortress's large scale spell casting."
"Yet, they continued the war and even attacking the Cartel and the Dragon Lords..." Prince Herod added. "Something is not right here, but I do not know what..."
"Our spies have no information on their motives for this attack..." Lord Pent said. "All they know was what they called Judgement Day for all sinners..."
"Judgement day heh?" Prince Herod's eyes slowly settled down on a location called Rashard where he parted ways with the mysterious crew of the Old Ugly and he wondered about their current situation. "Is there any news of an old and gaudy coloured merchant ship along the front?"
"No, your highness," Lord Pent shook his head as he did not recall receiving any word in regards to the strange request of the Crown Prince. "My people are still keeping a lookout for that ship... Is the ship something important?"
"No, never mind," Prince Herod sighed. "Don't waste your resources on searching for that ship anymore, we have more pressing issues now."
"Continue to reinforce the lines against the Protectorate," Prince Herod ordered. "They have overstretched themselves and their advance has lost steam... I am certain they have spent themselves pushing so deep into our lands..."
"The troops' morale has dropped since the news of the King had been defeated..." Lord Pent said. "And with Lord Sincia making trouble... I fear our troops' morale will drop even lower..."
"We need a victory to bring morale back up..." Prince Herod nodded in agreement. He suddenly thought of the strange Old Ugly once more and sighed once more. If only Captain Blake had agreed to serve under his banner, he was certain that mysterious airship would achieve a major victory for him.
"Our forces are stretched too thin for a massed attack," Prince Herod gestured to the flags representing their forces. "We need more ships..."
He turned his eyes down to the scattered region of islands at the south and declared, "We need to secure an alliance with the Loose Confederation!"