Homesteading in a fantasy world

Organising so many soldiers took time, something the leader of Aetherhold didn't want to give his enemies. He tried to get Rich to fight them again as he was certain that they could finally kill him, but with the three armies combined and the leaders of the two other nations there.

He simply didn't have the manpower. He had spent it on trying to kill Rich. To draw him out now without risking being surrounded would be impossible. And then, when Rich really showed up, he wasn’t certain that they could escape.

He could see the writing on the wall, and no matter how much luck or the future he could see, a straight-up battle would mean that they would lose. It was a hard thing to accept, facing your own defeat, and that helped harden his heart to what he was going to have to do.

It was going to be hard to get to this point once again, but he would have the peoples of three nations to sway to believe in his God. Sometimes hard choices needed to be made, while keeping the bigger picture in mind.

The reason why Rich didn't show up was because many healers were working night and day to fix the accumulated battle damage that was never properly fixed. Anyone who walked past that healer's tent thought that they were torturing someone, but Rich simply wasn’t willing to be put under, as otherwise, he was risking every life that had fallen for some comfort. He also felt like he deserved the pain for what he once again made people do.

It took three days for all of the armies to be deployed and ready to face each other. Rich was at the head of his army in front of the legionaries, but he didn't want to look backwards because he would see thousands of eyes that barely had a spark of life in them.

While they were hard men and women before, now they radiated an aura of danger. It was something he wished they couldn't do, but the road here was more brutal than he expected. Yet, he knew where to divert the anger he felt; it was toward that bastard of a man on the other side of the field, in front of his own army.

Rich looked over his status page and put a few more points into energy storage, as he always did before a fight, so that he would have more than whatever fortune was told would expect. He also made sure that there were enough free points so that he could instantly get access to the third tier of energy.

There were times when he was tempted to rank up, yet every time he felt it would be a bad idea. Now, when he thought about it, it still felt off, but not like it would be a disaster. That didn't make him feel better, as it meant the enemy had some sort of trump card to play.

Slowly, time ticked by until finally something major happened. The enemy soldiers started to mill around, and while they were quite a distance away, over a kilometre, Rich didn’t have any problems seeing what was going on.

Every soldier was taking out some sort of ranged weapon; there were even some who took out a sling. “Ranged defensive positions, be ready for anything,” Rich communicated through his command ability, and immediately soldiers started to move, getting into formations and putting shields above their heads.

There was a good reason why they had stood staring at each other for so long. Rich wanted the armies of Aetherhold to come towards them so they could start using their siege weaponry to devastate their numbers.

Currently, the numbers were almost 20,000 of the Triple Alliance soldiers and about 19,000 soldiers for the armies of Aetherhold. They already had better soldiers, better equipment, and better elites. This battle, while it would still be a costly one, should already be won, but he knew the enemy; they were going to try to do something that would change the formula.

It was then that a voice was heard. Rich knew that voice well; it had taunted him multiple times, but he also remembered the desperate screams when he killed his comrades one by one. “I wonder what kind of noise he will make when he dies,” Rich thought.

“Rich, you have impressed me, and I now understand that my body is too weak for what I must do, but I am not alone in my belief, and you will learn what it means to truly believe in God.”

The words were ominous, and Rich had a bad feeling. He concentrated to the fullest, watching how the black threads were pulled one by one. Yet, the holy power wasn’t channeled into the leader's body; it was channeled through the connection he had with his soldiers.

Rich could see the ranged weapons starting to glow with power. Every single one of them seemed to be forming some sort of ability for long-range attack, and he didn't see any attack that would be below rank one, and a large portion was even rank two.

If their entire army attacked with such power, their defenses wouldn't be able to hold out for long, and Rich would be surprised if 30% would survive the first attack. He started to rush but only managed to take a step before he noticed something.

That bastard probably didn't even notice, but pulling on the black threads slowly leveled him up, and I could see the moment second-rank energy was replaced by third. Not waiting for a moment, Rich immediately put his own points to also gain access to rank three energy.

He was certain that he could kill that bastard and the enemy army with enough time, but still, so many of them would be killed by the attack that he couldn’t defend against. Rich's brain quickly tried to find a solution, yet he couldn't see any way of stopping it, but there was one option. There was a low chance of it working, but even if it was a gamble, the other option was thousands and thousands of dead soldiers.

Rich started to walk alone towards the enemy army. His walk was not slow, yet it wasn't fast. He started to remove his half-broken armor, drawing even more attention by doing so. Everyone was puzzled by this action, yet the enemy leader, for the first time, was properly scared as he saw the eyes of Rich Dirt.

In them, he saw something he had never seen before and something he never expected to see. It was what he saw in his own eyes when he thought about his God and in the fanatics who would do anything for the one they believed in. Then a voice sounded; it sounded broken and desperate, yet it was so powerful, as if it was trying to reach a place not of this world.

"You have never claimed me; you are the one whom I have searched for so long, yet even when my body was frail, you didn't come. I saw how you took my friends and enemies, yet no matter how I pleaded and begged before every fight, every battle, you never came for me.”

“I hoped that in this new world, you would be more kind and let this broken thing that looks like a man finally have his rest," Rich said those words with every ounce of his being. A tear slowly fell from one of his eyes as he continued to walk and take off his armor.

At first, the enemy leader thought that Rich had finally broken, but he understood who Rich was trying to contact. It made him shiver with fright. From his God, he knew that Death was real and someone even his god respected.

There was only a brief moment of relief as he thought Rich would just die, but as he continued to speak and nothing happened, he wondered. Was it true? Was that why he couldn’t win against him? The god's chosen thought.

"This time I have business to take care of, so if you want me, you need to take me now; otherwise, leave me alone like you always do," Rich screamed so strongly that it seemed the world vibrated around the entire battlefield. The enemy leader took only a moment to understand those words. He needed to be killed right away.

In his eyes, Rich's image changed, slowly morphing into a towering monstrosity waiting to reap their souls. "Attack, everyone attack him now!" he yelled out, shaking in fear. No matter how desperate the battle between him and Rich was, and how many friends and followers he lost, he never even thought that he might die. Now, however, he was for the first time truly afraid that he might actually die.

Thousands of ranged attacks that were meant for the Triple Alliance army now flew towards Rich. Of course, even in his panic, the god's chosen didn't want everyone to attack Rich; he mostly gave that command out of fear and reflex.

But when he realized it was already too late, he smiled nevertheless. At least Rich was now about to die. He would have been afraid that Rich might escape the attack, but Rich just stood there, bare-chested, eyes closed, and with his arms stretched to his sides, waiting for his death, waiting for Death himself.

Then the deadly shower started to fall around Rich. The attacks weren’t that accurate, so in a large radius around him, the long-range attacks exploded when they landed, causing craters and making dirt fly high into the sky.

The damage continued for about 30 seconds. No one could see what had happened, but no one from either side expected Rich to be alive. The Triple Alliance soldiers respected the sacrifices, giving them a chance, while the soldiers of Aetherhold were being reprimanded for not attacking the army.

When the clouds of dust started to be blown away, the armies of Aetherhold prepared to march with the leader in front, but then everyone saw Rich still standing in the same position, completely unharmed by the thousands of attacks that had landed around him.

"You once again abandoned me, but perhaps you will rethink for the next time when I deliver the harvest I’m about to reap." The words were powerful and angry, but by then they were all focused on one man who was pale white and had already taken a step backwards.

A silent command was given by Rich, and his army started to move forward at triple speed but still keeping their lines intact. Rich, however, charged forward, and he had only one target, one person he was going to kill before he targeted another. That person had already turned around and started to push through his own soldiers, trying to escape the vision of death he saw just a moment ago.