Chapter 1002: Conquering the Fae Union
[Today I had only a few minutes of internet - some issues with electricity. Therefore, I couldn't edit. All I could barely do was copy-paste the chapters to upload something before my internet collapsed. Remind me to edit it again or endure the unedited chapter, please. Sorry for the inconvenience. Please don't kill me :( ]
The Fae Union crumbled quickly after the death of the five Divine Lifeforms. They were also the Lords of five out of more than a dozen Lords gathering their forces to attack and conquer the Untamed Jungle. Thus, the biggest forces of the Fae Union dispersed the first day the Untamed Armies retaliated. The lands belonging to the Divine Lords in the Untamed Jungle were retrieved, and the subjects were either killed or forced into signing Links of Loyalties with the Primordial Tree Spirit or Michael.
It was still unknown how the Primordial Tree Spirit lost control of the three DIvine Lords since they'd established Links of Loyalty with the Tree Spirit before, but the Primordial Tree Spirit reassured something like that would never happen again. The Untamed Armies needed to be sure about that, but they gave the Primordial Tree Spirit the benefit of the doubt. Michael was too busy to sign millions of Links of Loyalty either way. Thus, Michael did so through the Primordial Tree Spirit, which connected the Links of Loyalty to the Nature Divinity, which he was actively draining. That was efficient enough to work with.
The Fae Union was more troublesome to deal with than the Desert Rebels because there were too many members of the Fae Union. Dozens of Lords were afraid of Michael and thought the only logical answer was to kill him. Most of them couldn't accept Michael's decision to ignore them. They considered themselves as too important to be ignored. The Lords were certain Michael was preparing for a large-scale attack against them because he regarded them as a significant threat. They couldn't accept the bitter truth; Michael couldn't even remember most of them. The Lords of the Fae Union were extra characters to Michael. He couldn't even tell what race they belonged to. Michael never attacked them either. He left the job for the Super Awakened, jungle monsters, and Untamed Armies to complete. The jungle monsters cleared the settlements and claimed the territories in the Untamed Jungle with the help of a dozen Super Awakened, whereas the forces of the Untamed Jungle were thrown at the Lords residing outside the Untamed Jungle.
They didn't attack everyone but chose to show no mercy to the members of the Fae Union. The Fae Union had decided to move against them. Therefore, they had already planned to embark on a ruthless battle that could only end in their death or the death of their enemies. Since that had already been decided, the Untamed Armies didn't hesitate to go all-out. Dozens of armies, each consisting of more than 100,000 combatants, charged outside the Untamed Jungle from various spots. They rushed out of the densely grown jungle and overwhelmed the border settlements within days.
It took only a few days to conquer the border settlements, raid the treasuries, and kill all Awakened combatants who attempted to either flee or pass the Untamed Armies' defenses to backstab them.
Siegfried Dragoon led the Sacred Knight Temple's forces into the battle head-first. Close to a hundred thousand Knights joined the struggle with their tremendous prowess. Summons may be known to grow slower than Awakened, and they were generally weaker due to their lackluster Tier, but Siegfried, the Sacred Knights, the Holy Knights, and the Blessed Squires were quite powerful. They were stronger than the norm and could fight several enemies at the same rank and with the same equipment easily. But the Sacred Knight Temple's forces were equipped with different means than other forces. The Sacred Knight Temple's forces were much better equipped. Over the years, the method to forge Spirit Armaments has been researched, improved, and perfected. Spirit Armaments were still, by far, the best devices to increase the combat prowess of Summons through external means. They were similar to Artifacts, but the sole difference was that their effects were slightly weaker. In exchange, they didn't have to be bound to the War Rune, which was essential for Summons because they didn't possess a War Rune in the first place.
A Summon could usually wield two Spirit Armaments of the same Tier without any major issues. Some Summons were strong enough to wield three Spirit Armaments or two Armaments of a higher rank, but they had all one thing in common. The Summons equipped with Spirit Armaments were much stronger than everyone else. Their equipment was the best of the best, evident in battle.
Siegfried Dragoon and his Knights stormed the first border settlement. They blocked the incoming bombardment of projectiles, including dragon bolts - massive crossbow bolts released by a Titan Crossbow - with their Holy Powers, climbed the walls, or used the Awakened's powers and the Golden Stinger Wasps to block the settlement walls. The Holy Knights and Sacred Knights were terrifying. Their power threshold reached the peak of their Tier owed to their Spirit Armaments and combat experience. It came to no surprise when one of the Fae Union's fell victim to the Sacred Knight Temple.
Another temple was burned to a cinder by the Elemental Empress and the Red Dragon. They combined their forces and demonstrated both the Untamed Armies and the Fae Union how powerful they were. Nobody underestimated their combat prowess, but the Fae Union's Awakened had only a few means to counter them. Unfortunately, most ballistae and other large-scale weaponry was destroyed by the Minor Typhoon Rocs.
There were also other troubles, but the Forest Archers, reinforced by Elementals, and the bombardment of various projectiles from Noble Elementals and Superior Elementals solved most problems.
One of the most interesting interaction was between the Golden Queen Bee and Sun Demos. Sun Demos and his underlings were thrown around by the Golden Queen Bee after Sun Demos underwent his second evolution. The Monkey King was stronger than he used to be after gaining resistance to magical attacks and certain physical blows. His rapid regeneration healed him whenever a magic missile or hard blow struck and penetrated his natural resistances. That was enough to transform him into a terror to the Guards of the border settlements.
However, even worse were the Demonic Monkeys, the Nightshade Assassins, and the wide variety of other Blood Oath Demon Monkeys.
The Golden Stinger Wasps teleported the nasty monkeys inside the border settlement, where the agile and dexterous creatures charged into the buildings. They avoided fighting the Guards and Awakened by using the civilians as hostages. At least, that was what it looked like to the Awakened who had Soultraits with high area of effect powers.
The monkeys cared little about that. They ignored most civilians, except those attacking them, and hunted the Guards and Awakened in narrow alleys or from dead angles.
Their strategic combat was flawless, though slow. It took more than 48 hours before Sun Demos and his unterlings, aided by two Super Awakened, conquered the border settlement.
But it worked out. They made it happen!