I became a legion lich

196 Harbinger of war

Mawala Island was less than 10 kilometers long and most of it was used as a farm for trees and magic plants, so there were few buildings on the whole island. This was a resource colony and being in the middle of the ocean, there weren’t many enemies that could threaten them and the island’s defenses were minimal.

Only a few dozen mages were on the island, with a few hundred slaves of different species for the manual labor needed to maintain the crops.

The guild masters continued to watch the landscape for a few minutes, before some shadows could be seen approaching on the horizon. The shadows quickly became visible and they realized they were ships, but they were a strange model.

The ships were extraordinarily large, nearly two hundred meters long each. The ships had no sails and were not enchanted, relying on the strength of the crew to sail. Even so, they were moving so fast that they seemed to be flying.

There were dozens of evolved Demihumans on each ship, using oars or their own limbs to move the ships. Each time their oars touched the water, they generated an explosion of water that propelled the ships forward, sometimes even sending the ship flying before slamming into the sea again.

Their movements were perfectly synchronized, further increasing the speed of the ships.

The mages on the island noticed the approaching ships and panicked, sounding an alarm and contacting the order to request reinforcements, but to no avail. They hadn’t yet been informed of the destruction of the portals, so they abandoned the small island the moment they learned they couldn’t get reinforcements fast enough.

They used the few teleportation crystals they had for emergencies and evacuated the island, leaving all the slaves behind. They were a small tribe of dark elves numbering less than a few hundred and they had no weapons, so when the demihumans boarded the island the dark elves were defenseless.

The evolved demihumans massacred all the dark elves and took over the island, before destroying the order of magic buildings. An evolved ogre hit the recording device with a club, ending the recording.

.....

Even after the recording ended, none of those present moved or said anything, their minds unable to comprehend what they had just witnessed. There wasn’t a big fight or a display of power, but the identity of the creatures was what shocked them.

“Those Demihumans... what happened to them? Why were they so powerful and their bodies so different?” Florence asked as she looked at the last scene of the ogre destroying the recording device.

The ogre appeared to be 8 meters tall even before gigantification, in addition to having three heads and three pairs of arms. It was much more powerful than a normal ogre, but he wasn’t the only one different.

Orcs with horns and red skin, Trolls over 50 feet tall, and goblins larger than humans. All demihumans seemed to have evolved in some way and their increased power reached new heights.

“The order calls them evolved demihumans. We still don’t know how, but the demihumans on the Doravon continent have evolved, mutated, or call it what you will. What matters is that they are stronger and they want war.” Kian spoke and changed the recording.

“It wasn’t just one island that was attacked. This is a recording of Nila Island.” The following recording showed a similar scene, but it was a slightly larger island with a small mountain in the center.

It was an island with a magic stone mine, a much rarer resource than magic wood and unlike Mawala Island. This island had large-scale spells and over a hundred mages, in addition to hundreds of undead.

The undead weren’t really combatants, just workers to dig the magic stones in the mines, as it would be too dangerous to let slaves take care of it. A single pickaxe strike with enough force could destroy a magic stone, causing it to detonate and generating a chain explosion that would detonate the island, so they couldn’t leave the slaves who hated them in such a vital position.

Unfortunately, all defenses were useless against the attacks of the evolved demihumans. Barriers have been broken, magic cannons smashed, undead destroyed, and all mages slain.

“This is a recording from Tamam Island,” Kian changed the recording again, but it was the same result as the previous raids.

“This is a recording-” He tried to continue, but Florence cut him off.

“We already understand your point. This is a full-scale invasion and we’re about to go to war. Do you know which route the enemy is plotting?” She summed up the situation, but Kian disagreed.

“No, you still don’t get my point. This is not a simple invasion.” Kian turned off the holograms and put the communication cube away before picking up a huge map and laying it out on the table.

It was a map of the continent of Caprio and all nearby seas. The continent of Caprio was divided into nine different regions with a different kingdom controlling each.

West, northwest, north were the human kingdoms Mirkor, Belaster and Tivan respectively. The northeast was the country of the Brumia beasts and the east was the nation of the Evergreen elves, while the extreme southeast was an uncharted sea of black forests.

The southwest was Savannah and the south was huge desert and both were demihuman territories. Lastly, the mountain ranges in the center of the continent that were marked as forbidden territory. It wasn’t marked on the map, but everyone knew that a hidden kingdom of dwarves lay among those mountains.

It was a secret that the order of magic and the church shared with the adventurers’ guild after they expanded their influence across all three kingdoms and tried to launch an expedition to the center of the continent.

“This is our mainland. And this is Mawala Island.” Kian spoke and marked a red X on a distant island, almost at the edge of the map. It was far from the mainland, but if they continued advancing in a straight line they would overrun Belaster in the northwest.

“So I’m the one on the invasion line. Bad luck.” Elish clicked her tongue at misfortune, but Kian kept talking.

“This is Nila Island.” He marked another X on a second island and this one was in the middle of the map, in a straight line towards the realm of Mirkor.

“And this is Tamam Island.” Kian marked a third island, but that island was at the end of the map towards the demi-human empire.

“Wait, they’re attacking from three routes that are so far apart? Why would they divide their forces that much? Their forces would be isolated from each other and it’s likely that communication between them would be almost non-existent.” Zulu asked confused by the enemy strategy.

“That would be true if the enemies were attacking in an organized way. These are all the islands that the order colonized that were attacked.” Kian started marking almost all the islands on the edge of the map, scaring everyone present.

“What is it?” Elish asked when Kian had finished marking all the islands and had formed an almost perfect line around the mainland. The few islands that weren’t marked were islands that hadn’t been colonized by the order, so they didn’t have information.

“The order sent me recordings of all these islands being destroyed by the evolved Demihumans. The Evolved Demihumans have not formed an attack route or strategy. They plan to invade us with a wave tactic on a continental scale.” With those words, the others finally understood the approaching danger.

“They have enough numbers to attack three sides of the continent at once, plus even greater power and somehow obtained enchanted weapons, despite the demihumans’ ineptitude for magic.” The three guild masters were already starting to despair, but the bad news continued.

“To make matters worse, these invading forces are just a vanguard force to conquer small islands and not the actual army. I was informed that an even larger army of evolved Demihumans was gathering off the coast of Doravon.” Kain explained and sighed tiredly.

The war that was approaching was far bigger than anything he had ever seen and he had no idea how he could win. Kian was confident in his own strength and had done his best to train his adventurers, but the adventurers weren’t nearly strong enough for what lay ahead.

The three kingdoms would also be defenseless against invasion. Most of the armies were common people unable to use mana, while their magic technology is still underdeveloped compared to the empires of the Adula continent.

If the realms were left as they are, they would be slaughtered without mercy. The biggest cities might hold out for a while, but the power of the demihumans and their sheer numbers would eventually overcome them. The demihumans also possessed enchanted weapons, so there were also mages on the enemy side that have yet to be seen.

Kian also suspected that the demihumans in the demihuman empire might end up allying with the invaders because of their similarities or to receive evolution like the other, further increasing the enemies’ power.

Kian knew that the church and the order of magic would offer as much support as they could, as the human Gods created both organizations to aid humanity, but it would still be a difficult war.