That man was scary!
King Leonard was still trying to recover from what had happened in the booth. He'd been worried when the high priest attacked the servant. The lady in blue had scared the shit out of him before but this guy was even worse! What level of space magic did he reach to be able to teleport?
Thankfully, they had been able to leave without any further complications. King Leonard looked down at his hands now wearing the gauntlets he had sacrificed so much for. It had been worth it!
What followed were hours upon hours of meetings with the kingdom's treasurer and other ministers to sort out the kingdom's financial situation. The bad news only arrived in the evening when a messenger burst into the evening hall.
"Your Majesty, something terrible has happened!"
Some of the ministers were about to flare up, they were been in a rather bad mood after all, but king Leonard motioned for them to remain seated and keep their angry thought to themselves. For a messenger to dare interrupt this meeting something quite grave must have happened.
"You may speak."
"Yes, your Majesty. An army of the Galli kingdom has crossed the border and started to besiege two of our cities. The towns on the way were most likely burned."
"So they are putting it all on one card, huh. Ministers, start organizing our defenses and see if any of our other neighbors are on the move."
King Leonard had hoped that him possessing an epic grade item would restore the power balance and keep the other kingdoms at bay but he seemed to have underestimated the ambitions of prince Adrian's father.
The meeting was dispersed and king Leonard went to find his wife. He was still young but this may be his last chance to father an heir to the throne. A futile effort at this point but he would nonetheless try.
A day later the situation hadn't improved a bit. One of the two cities at the border had been taken by the Galli kingdom and the other one was still under siege. Saital kingdom had assembled an army and a group of adventurers and was ready to meet the main force of the Galli kingdom.
King Leonard personally led this army both to boost troop morale and to finish this as fast as possible. The Galli forces were led by the eldest Prince Hadrian who was known to be a rising prodigy in war tactics and a strong fighter too.
The two forces were camped in the plains close to the besieged city. Both sides numbered around twenty thousand. A large scale battle was soon to begin.
King Leonard was currently watching the high priest of Eclesias go through a complicated ritual. Not only had the oracle been lost, but Eclesias had also been unresponsive to prayers and the priests' powers had weakened by a significant amount.
Left with no other choice the high priest would now attempt to create a forceful connection to Eclesias. They needed to know what was going on!
The ritual was complete and after ending his long chant the high priest placed a bowl of mysterious liquid to his lips and drank deeply. His eyes then turned milky white and he dropped to one knee.
"Great God Eclesias, forgive this unbecoming intrusion but we were worried since you have not graced us with your supreme blessings for a while."
A moment of silence then the priest looked up and recoiled in shock. He started stammering like a senile old fool and didn't respond when the other priests called out to him. Worried, king Leonard placed a hand on the high priest's shoulder.
Immediately the sight before his eyes changed into a magnificent marble throne room. Following the high priest's gaze, he looked at the empty throne. Then a weak glow attracted his sight to the side of the throne where a figure wrapped in light was sitting on the floor.
The figure was hugging its knees and low muttering could be heard. The muttering wasn't coherent but the fear in it was clearly audible.
"Is that Eclesias?"
King Leonard hardly dared to ask. Was this pathetic mess of an existence really the god worshipped by the majority of this kingdom's population?
At the mention of his name, Eclesias looked up with a confused look. For the first time, he seemed to notice the two men looking at him from a distance.
"Who are you?"
"Oh, great Eclesias, I am your high priest. Your proxy in the mortal world!"
The confused look in Eclesias' eyes slowly cleared but then his pupils rapidly constricted.
"No, you made a connection to the outside world! He can find me! The darkness will come to claim me! I must stop him, I must hide! Begone!"
Gesticulating like a madman, Eclesias stood up and staggered away from the throne. He waved at us and we were sent out of his realm. He then tore open space and stumbled into the tear.
King Leonard and the high priest had been thrown out of the divine realm and their eyes cleared. Just then a series of deep horns sounded. The Galli army was advancing!
15'000 Galli infantrymen had formed three units of 5000 and marched towards the enemy lines with about 50 meters between the individual units.
King Leonard answered by sending his 12'000 soldiers along with 1000 adventurers forming a large front to meet the enemy units. Simultaneously, he sent his 4000 men strong cavalry to attack the left most units flank. The remaining 3000 were paladins, priests, and strategists as well as the royal guard protecting the king.
King Leonard knew the tactic he had chosen would result in more casualties than necessary but he couldn't afford to waste time in a drawn-out battle. He would even join the fighting himself once the battle was underway to minimize the time they lost here.
Who knew how long it would take for other countries to get interested in taking advantage of their bad situation. He certainly doubted that they would just stand by and watch.