The Castle in the middle of nowhere.

"I can't fucking believe they bought it!" Zeus laughed, leaning in the chair, almost pouring his drink over his clothes. "Especially you!" He pointed at Hestia and mocked her, barely holding a straight face. "That's why we turned away from you, mortals!"

"Bwahahahaha!" Zephyr couldn't hold it anymore. He was holding his stomach, but somehow he managed to calm down. "That sounded much better than we slept for millennia!"

"What?! It worked!" Hestia pouted and showed him her tongue. But she also giggled.

We were sitting in the tea room with the invigorated immortals. After yesterday's display, they noticeably gained power, which was... good? Probably.

"How much of what you told them yesterday was true?" I asked with curiosity and quickly clarified, looking at Hera in particular. "About your blessings?"

"About Josla praying to have a child? It was the truth and also once I had enough power to help mortals, but..." she shrugged. "Right now I have a few problems with that particular blessing, but once I gain more followers, I will be back in business."

I didn’t push the matter any further. Lack of mana, faith or whatever that fueled them was also my problem in the long run. However, right now I was willing to look a little more optimistic about the future. This morning I found out what Sally had been doing this entire time. She decided about two weeks ago that she was going to sub-class as a brewer. I thought we were kind of limited in the possible alcohol department to only find out how wrong I was. Her suspicious absence also explained why Warren, Jake and Bernard were all this time, well... They barely survived the taste-testing process. Maybe they didn't remember much, but the boys were simply overjoyed. Sally created flavoured vodkas out of every fruit that grows in Avalon. More than that, she created at least seven liquor flavours, several different meads, cider, wheat beer, and wheat whiskey, you name it. After tasting just three samples, I immediately promoted her to the rank of Royal Brewer.

"I am going on an adventure!" Zephyr declared, clearly drunk. "I must bring grapes for Lady Sally! We need wine!"

"Yeh... Sure buddy. Excuse us..." Zeus teleported away with Zephyr, who was barely standing on his feet, but surprisingly, he was talking absolutely normally.

"*Ekhem!*" Hestia looked at me with a very bright smile. She tried to change the subject for a long while now, but Zephyr, a bit taunted by Hera, was orbiting around yesterday's events for a while. "The people of Girsion gladly accepted you as our chosen ruler. I think we can easily convince others to support you."

I looked at her, but couldn't discern if she was joking or if she was serious right now. She drank her cider moderately, I would say on par with Amber, Irene and Luna. So I had to say she was serious and still quite sober. I sighed heavily and sipped my wheat beer. It was good, but I was going to send an expedition to find barley.

"Winning the minds and souls of these people is important, don't get me wrong, please! I am very glad you backed me, but this relatively safe solution would take too much time." I smiled at them diplomatically and I asked calmly. "Tell me what will happen to this country, and us, if you fail to convince everyone?"

"I..." Hestia hesitated.

"I don't think it would be a huge problem for you, King Theon, to rout any opposition..." Hera said silently, looking into her chocolate liquor shot glass.

"No, it wouldn't." The tone of voice was enough to assure them I was not looking forward to this idea. "Tell me, how long would it take me to subjugate this kingdom? Year? Two? Ten years?" I asked in a hushed voice as well. "And... What? Do you really believe that the neighbouring kingdoms will stay put? They wouldn't try to interfere and cut giant portions of this civil war-ridden cake that was once called Cridia?"

"But we are going to stop them!" Hestia protested.

"No. It wouldn't work. Most monarchs are not afraid of you." Irene rested her head on my shoulder, swirling the drinking mead in her glass. "And you should know that by now."

"But…!" Hera put down the glass and opened her eyes in fear. "You don't..."

"Oh, yes. I do. Everyone knows everything about their neighbours." I briefly explained. "Cridia was looked upon with a bad eye for a long time now. If civil war breaks out, it will consume this land in flames of war that will roar out of control." I put away the beer glass and waved at the butler to bring me mead as well. "That's why I am not going to bleed the Cridians dry. I must inflict a swift, decapitating strike as a visible sign to anyone around that says don't fuck with Avalon if you won't want trouble."

"Sorry everyone, I couldn't stop him. Zephyr went on an adventure to procure legendary running grapes." Zeus teleported back and sensed a very tense atmosphere in the room. "Why do I suspect that Zephyr's sudden embarking on his absurd adventure was the smartest thing to do now? What's going on?"

"I must win this land in conquest, otherwise many more people are going to die." I downed a solid sip of mead. Yeah. This was the stuff I needed in situations like this. "Whether I like it or not, many people will die, but I am going to win this war."

•••

The Cridians marched out exactly at noon of the next day after the sun returned. They headed towards Parnma in a marching column, but Galahad looked at them, more and more confused. Their marching order was questionable and their lack of scouting parties was disturbing. Their marching column looked very impressive, but lacked any elements normally employed by Avalon forces. It was early afternoon when the Cridians reached the ambush, halfway to Parnma. A few natural mounds near the waterway allowed for the better placement of archers, but with no decisive advantage. This part of the Cridian Kingdom was flat as a table, after all. Avalon forces were on standby, waiting patiently for Galahad's orders.

"What's the problem, brother?" Arani asked, visibly puzzled. "As the King used to say, they are like sheep waiting for slaughter."

"I just... Don't like this, Arani... Even the winter beasts are travelling in much more complicated formations." Galahad pointed at the map. "They are using this frozen canal as a road toward Parnma, but I can't understand why they feel so confident."

"Hmm..." Arani looked at their route. If nothing changes, they will reach the ambush point in less than one hour. "Scouts! Wait, no, they’re not needed! Do you remember the report from the time the Goblin Dungeon attacked Avalon? King Theon talked with the Guild Master in the gatehouse, while watching the goblins trying to force their way into the castle. Master Knys told him that rangers have some sort of skill that can sense the killing intent of their enemies!"

Galahad turned his head towards Arani, chiming with his armour. "That's... A possible explanation."

"The only one that makes sense!" Arani nodded and quickly added. "Better not to assume that our enemy is simply stupid."

"Yes..." Galahad was thinking very fast. "We must assume their rangers, or at least some of the archers, double as scouts... In that case, I'm changing my orders."

•••

Colonel Forak Ban was uneasy. Something wasn't right; his sixth sense was going mad, but out of one thousand scouts, not a single one reported any ill will directed towards them. Some wild animals, maybe one or two winter beasts somewhere on the borders of their perception, but nothing serious. However, his skill was convincing him that they were in danger.

"Captain! Relay the order to double up! We need to reach Parmna as fast as possible!"

"Yes, sir!" His adjutant responded, but before he could do anything, a large Eagle landed in front of them.

"Surrender." He ordered with no introduction.

"What? Are you joking?" Forak Ban asked, looking at the gigantic monster.

"This is your final warning. Surrender now and you will survive." The Eagle turned its head straight at the colonel.

"Kill him…!" Forak ordered and watched as his archers aimed at the enormous beast

The eagle screamed so loudly that every soldier in its vicinity flinched, and before they could react, the large bird was already in the air. His archers started shooting at him, but Forak knew it was too late. He suddenly noticed that some of his soldiers dropped down and before a cold and terrifying realisation settled in, the snow and ice started turning red.

"Ambush!" He yelled in panic, trying to assess where they were attacked from. "Barriers! Activate the rune barriers!"

Before the barriers were raised, a large portion of his people were dead or dying in the snow. Forak smiled when enemy arrows bounced from the barrier and tried to formulate a plan when the sudden screams from the front and back of the column once again disturbed him.

"Defensive formation! Archers and mages to the middle!"

With the sharp, unpleasant sound of compressed glass, the protective barrier shattered, leaving his position at the mercy of an unknown enemy. Forak couldn't understand what was happening. Too many of his soldiers died and waves of arrows shot by the unseen archers were still killing his people. Colonel Forak was standing frozen in fear.

"Colonel!? Colonel?! Your orders, sir?!" His adjutant was screaming at him and tried to shake him out of his stupor, but to no avail.

•••

Galahad sighed at Arani, who convinced him to give the Cridians one chance to surrender. That was the noble and honourable thing to do, but it somehow ruined the idea of ambush. He had to admit, however, that it was an action his Lord would praise. They watched as Arani's second-in-command landed proudly in the middle of the Cridian marching column where the commander was located and gave him a last chance to surrender. In naïve anticipation, they hoped the Cridians would surrender, but when enemy archers aimed at the storm eagle, Galahad sent orders to attack. Two legions were positioned on both banks of the waterway, in the long two rows formation to encompass the almost three kilometres long column of the Cridian army. The front of the enemy forces managed to actually disconnect from the main force because the soldiers hadn't noticed the Storm Eagle landing among their ranks.

It was an opening that Galahad would not waste.

"Cut them out!" Galahad ordered the already moving legions. "Archers and Fairies, fire at will!"

The formations, invisible from here, marched to close the front and back of the column. The bond that connected every soldier in the legion was almost cheating. Yes, Galahad had to use a lot of mana to maintain an overview, but that couldn't rival any other means of commanding an army this big. With some degree of professional approval, Galahad smiled for a moment when the Cridians raised a weak barrier. At the same moment, his legion maniples cut off any possible retreat option. Galahad saw ten fairies fly up into the air and, just a few moments later, they cast a combined spell that shattered the protective dome like an eggshell, revealing more of the battlefield. Already, three thousand Cridians lay dead, and Galahad frowned, very disappointed when the Cridians merely formed a very rudimentary defensive formation.

"I think you have broken their commander." Arani laughed.

"Is he dead?!" Galahad looked at his brother, stunned.

"No, no! He is just in shock, unable to give any order. It looks like his adjutant is trying to shake him back into his senses." Arani was giggling.

Fulminata and Ferrata pushed steadily against the entire front, hacking through ill-prepared soldiers. The Cridians were absolutely surrounded and had to step back every time the legions of Avalon made a step forward. Now when the Cridians finally had clear contact with the enemy, they tried to fight back, however; they were unable to form any sort of uniform formation to fight back with. Little by little they were pushed back, with only laughably small losses on the legion's sides. The archers and fairies' constant attacks decimated Cridian's lines, and they lost up to ten thousand soldiers now.

"Mhm... They’re starting to shift. It looks like their commander returned to his senses." Galahad smiled when the Cridians’ lines slowly started changing their formation. "It's quite impressive that they can change formation under our pressure. Their soldiers are extremely well disciplined."

"Humpf... Disciplined or not, they..." Arani shut up when the massive fireball hit and dissipated over the shield of one central maniple.

"You said something, brother?" Galahad sent more mental orders for archers and fairies to focus on enemy archers and mages. "Take prisoners!"