Chapter 552 552 Misaligned Priorities
Chapter 552 552 Misaligned Priorities
On the night of the next full moon, there was news from the East that shocked and terrified the entire population.
[The cities of Weirach, Fisch, March, Hauberg and Kupel have been eliminated through a concerted firebombing campaign by the United World Army.]
That last name, Kupel, was a city in Kanheim, to the north of the Grand Dutchies, and as far as anyone knew, the two nations weren’t allied. But the United World Army had sent planes to firebomb a city of over two million, leaving few buildings standing, and only a fraction of the residents as survivors.
If they were just indiscriminately wiping out cities, how long would it be before they go to the other nations in the area? How long before they turned their weapons on the Fortress Cities of the Covens? The fact that they had killed millions in a formerly uninvolved nation without warning had shaken every nation on this continent.
All talks of trying to assist and reconcile with the United World Government had faded away, and the consensus was that they could not be trusted. Building up before a deadline was normal enough, even if there were some early scuffles, as the other nations viewed the battles within the Frozen Wastes mineral extraction facilities.
But millions of civilians had died last night, and that was unforgivable.
“What is our status? Has anything new appeared in the surrounding area?” Wolfe asked as he settled into a table in the Den’s dining room to get to work sorting reports and creating Inscriptions as needed by the various construction projects going on in the city.
“Nothing reported within our territory yet. It appears that they’re leaving the monsters as a filter to slow any attempts to attack them from the west while they wage war on the eastern front.” A young witch with the dusky skin of the Sylvan Coven reported.
“Where did Priya get to? It might be easier if she was here to take all these reports at the same time as I get them, since she’s responsible for security.” Wolfe asked.
The Sylvan Witch shook her head. “Miss Alice is taking over city security duties. Lieutenant Priya left two hours ago, headed back for the Sylvan Fortress City to see what the situation is and prepare them for the worst.”
Wolfe searched through the links of the Pentacles and nodded.
lightsnοvεl “You’re right, she’s most of the way there now, and Ella is still in Morgana Coven. Alright, bring me everything for the day, and see if Alice wants to share a desk. We’ve got a lot to go over today, and the artillery project is almost done.” He instructed.
He had made the Inscription to enchant the ammunition yesterday, and most of the team that was working on artillery pieces had already moved onto their next project, the anti-aircraft guns that they would be stationing in bunkers all through the Frozen Wastes.
Not necessarily near villages, but usually connected to one by a tunnel so that the gunners didn’t need to move above ground. The villages wanted the ability to shoot down enemy patrols, and randomly placed gun bunkers seemed like the best answer to their problems.
The Witches had a great idea on how to hide them by growing a tree around the guns and letting the foliage hide the emplacement better than any netting could. If it worked, the aircraft would never know what was coming for them, and the magical rounds that they were developing had a much larger explosive range than the usual ones, with the hopes that the fragments or the explosion itself could be used to thin the incoming ranks of a bombing run.
How well that would actually work was anyone’s guess, but it gave them hope, and that mattered to the villagers that were further from the Fae Forest and couldn’t count on having somewhere to retreat to if they were in danger of being overrun.
Now that both sides of the fight were involved in an ongoing aerial battle, there weren’t many safe spots left anymore.
The only bit of good news in the whole fiasco was that the number of new Cursed Talismans that they had been finding was dropping sharply, so either the United World forces were dropping them somewhere new, or they had run out of witches desperate enough to accept the offer now that word had gotten around about what it did to those who volunteered.
“Should we take the fight to them? We have the ability to get some combat aircraft online. We could attack the back lines of the United World army and do some damage while they’re distracted.” One of the witches who was relaying messages from the scouts suggested.
“I’m not sure that we should do anything that will pull them back this direction yet. They proved last night that they’re desperate and willing to go to extreme lengths, so if we catch their attention now, they might hit us harder than we can hold up a barrier against.” Wolfe replied with a frown.
The witches in the room sighed. It was undeniable that the enemy had more powerful magic users than they did, but in the minds of most, they were unlikely to pull their senior officers away from duties at home to deal with a threat here. They had already been graced with one General and attacked remotely by the Defence Minister, so they knew the capabilities of the Fae Forest, but they hadn’t come back after that.
“So, what is our plan?” The Witch asked, eager to have something to tell the scouts when she returned to the border.
“We are going to arm up and get the bunkers made for the anti-aircraft batteries, then get the artillery in place before we do anything else. Then we will make sure that they can’t advance through the Frozen Wastes.” Wolfe replied.
It was enough to keep them busy for the next few weeks, and once the whole area was militarized, then the local villages would have a lot less to fear from the battles in the East. The planes were still flying every day, delivering everything from weapons to food and clothing, enough to keep entire villages going in the case that they were attacked early before the summer crops were ready.
But that wouldn’t be enough, and the development team had one more new project that they wanted Wolfe to help with.