Fort West.

Konos collapsed on the ground. His sword was snapped into two. He was still holding onto the part connected to the handle while the other end was three meters away, deep in the sand. His armor was ripped to shreds. Pieces of metal from the armor were stuck inside his body. The runes on his weapon and armor were as dark as the rest of the metal. Every drop of energy from them was exhausted.

Behind him, five Voyagers ripped their way through what was left of his garrison.

But Konos no longer had the time to worry about his men.

Blink appeared behind him and quietly rested her dagger onto his neck.

Konos whispered something.

“The Empress will avenge our death…”

Blink slit his throat before he could finish. The Commander collapsed on the ground, bleeding to death. As his thoughts faded away, he could see Jean taking the head off of the last member of his garrison.

West Fort Defense Garrison. Destroyed.

Twenty minutes ago, Commander Konos and his men reached the gate. Neither the Matrix nor the walls seemed to be breached. A fair distance away, the moving corpses on the walls convinced him everything was fine. He marched his men into the castle without a shadow of doubt.

But as the Commander got past the door, he realized something was wrong. The ground was clean, but he could still see shades of red on the muddy floor. Plus…

“It’s too quiet!” Konos raised his hand and ordered his men to halt. The fort had at least one thousand people, from soldiers to villagers seeking refuge. But why did none of them come to welcome their return? Even the local guards stayed on the walls. Not even one of his lieutenants came down here to check on them. Inside the heavily disciplined empire’s military, it could only mean something was horribly wrong.

“Everybody stop!”

The garrison was really organized. As confused as they were, they managed to come to a stop. Unfortunately, it was too late.

One of the men in the middle of the garrison suddenly felt the soldier in front of him groan. He frowned and tapped the man.

“You ok, brother?”

The man in front didn't answer. As the first man’s finger touched him, he suddenly collapsed, to both sides. Blood and guts got everywhere. A look of confusion was still in his eyes.

He was cut into two horizontally.

All of a sudden, the Matrix, previously turned off at where the gate was, was turned back on again. A layer of red immediately cut the garrison, as well as a few unfortunate soldiers, into two. Screams and chaos consumed the field as men looked around in confusion and fear.

“Now!” A cry came out of nowhere.

On the castle wall, fifteen guards stood up. All of them were carrying something.

“What the hell!” Konos was still taken by surprise. “Who turned the Matrix on? Come down here now!” Despite seeing the Voyagers bringing back the dead, Konos’s mind still wasn’t adjusted for this. Subconsciously, he thought someone made a mistake while operating the Matrix.

And then he saw the stains of blood on the men on the wall. One of them even had a piece of intestine slipping out.

And then he understood everything.

“Battle Formation! Shield wall!”

Again, way too late.

The guards on the wall tossed the objects they were carrying down. As one of the objects landed near Konos and shattered into a thousand pieces, the Commander knew what it was.

“Gasoline!”

Out of nowhere, a bullet came out and landed on the sea of gasoline. It was a flaming round. As soon as it touched the gasoline, it exploded.

Dozens were immediately consumed by the explosion. More screamed as spots of flame licked through their armor and scorched their skin. The gasoline were previously stored in the castle as defensive measures, but now they proved to be an equally good ambush tool.

“Formation! Formation!” Konos continued to scream, but only some of his men could comply. Apart from the burned and burning, at least half the garrison was still outside the Matrix. Their runes couldn’t penetrate the Matrix at all.

Only a hundred or so men were calm enough to activate their runes and pump the energy into a shield around them. That was when Ares happened.

“Die die die!” Ares jumped off from the wall and landed on the shield. His axe was bright red. The pain and suffering of all the victims of his added to the prowess of his weapon. It wasn’t an exaggeration.

Crack…

The shield held for just a second. Just as Konos thought he could hold, all the runes from the 100 or so men cracked. Even as the damage Ares did was split between one hundred men, Ares’s weapon had the support of Ares’s physical strength, an orange crystal, the energy the weapon absorbed in the onslaughts, and, oh, also, gravity. The last one was definitely the deciding factor.

The damage done was so much it destroyed all the runes on the men.

The energy input stopped. When that was gone, so was the shield.

No longer stepping on the shield, Ares landed on one of the soldiers and crushed him, along with his helmet. Several men overcame the repercussions of their runes being forcefully broken and drew their blades. Ares smirked and chopped them up one by one. If the combined strength of 100 men couldn’t stop him, then what chance did a handful have. Without drawing strength from the runes, an average soldier had a CAS around 50. Against Ares, they might as well be protoss zealots.

Konos growled and drew his weapon. From how the giant man disposed of his men, he knew, without the help of Formation, he didn't stand a chance against him. But he had no choice. This was his fort. The Empress entrusted it to him. He wasn’t going to let it go down without a fight.

Outside the Matrix, the other half of the garrison didn't have time to consider themselves lucky. As some of the men tried to break through the Matrix, three figures charged out from behind.

Without a leader, the garrison wasn’t able to set up the Formation in time. Without a Formation, the garrison didn't stand a chance against Jean, Violet, and Cassandra.

The battle was over rather quickly. Cassandra ripped through anyone that tried to flee. Jean and Violet cut/shot through the rest.

As Konos hit the ground, the last of the garrison was gone.

But the killing has just gotten started.

Days later.

The Empire of the Sun. Capital City: Crown’s City.

Crown’s City was the heart of the Empire of the Sun. It was also the political, economic, and military center. It was the home to 30,000 full-time soldiers, all armed and armored. It was the second-largest army in the empire, just next to the Border Army, which had 50,000 strong.

Adams was sitting on the second floor of a tavern.

He and three other Voyagers took the mission to pick the Empire apart from within by targeting its central command. Whether it was corrupting the Empress or helping one of her greedy underlings usurp the throne, as long as it could destabilize the Empire, the Voyagers would do it.

Adam took a sip of the liquor in front of him. It was a sweet tasting wine. The sweetness eased him up a little.

But that ease was immediately destroyed as another Voyager sat down in front of him.

“Adam.”

“Lucas.” Adam acknowledged without looking up. His dislike for his fellow Voyager was obvious.

“News came in. Three forts of the Empire came under attack. The West Fort was lost. When the Empress's Red Dragon Corps reached the Fort after a week of no contact, they found the occupants of the Fort completely wiped out. 1,000 men, including Commander Konos, were killed. The Red Dragon Corps did some more scouting and found all thirty villages under the West Fort’s protection destroyed. There is no survivor.”

Adam nodded slowly. Lucas was a psychic, and he was able to use his power to get close to a high end official in the Empire. Thanks to this, he had first hand access to military information from the Empire.

“The other teams have also made their move. The Empire of the Moon is assembling forces at the border. Spies say their Emperor suddenly had a change of opinion toward the truce. He had all the diplomats from this side arrested and banished all the officials who advocated for peace. Some of our people must have gotten to him.”

Adam shrugged. “That’s great news.” He obviously wasn’t as thrilled as he should be.

“Multiple forts reported seeing magical beasts converging in the mountains. They might be assembling for an all out invasion. None of the scouts dispatched over there ever came back. The Empress has ordered reinforcement to be dispatched that way. 15,000 strong, in fact. It took out half the forces in the city.”

“Cool.”

Lucas finally snapped.

“Look at me, Adam! Look at me!”

Adam looked up from his drink and stared into Lucas’s eyes.

“What?”

“We have been here for over ten days! I got to the Chief Military Officer and made him my puppet! Avatar got to the Chief Financial Officer! Even Hendrick got inside the Empress Guards. As soon as the time comes, we can turn this prosperous empire into a mess. Meanwhile, what have you done?”

Adam tapped his drink. Lucas smirked. He looked at Adam with disdain.

“Do you think you can claim the reward without doing a thing? Do you think the Protectors are so easily fooled?”

Adam joined the mission, which meant, as long as the mission was successful and he survived, he could get a share of the reward Captain Gregor offered. Obviously, to the Voyagers who risked their lives at the heart of their enemy, it was unfair.

On one hand, Voyagers don’t care about fairness in general. On the other, they were willing, and were capable, to use their blades to protect their interest.

This was why Lucas was really here. To either get Adam working or exterminate him.

Lucas bit his lips as he took another drink, emptying it. Lucas frowned as he rested his hand on his watch. To Voyagers, it was the first step to battle.

“I would rather die than claim a reward that’s soaked in the blood of the innocent.”

Lucas suddenly burst out laughing at Adam’s remark.

“You know, I have never seen someone as ridiculous as you. If you want to stand for justice, then why did you join this mission? Captain Gregor told us all it would be an extermination mission, but you stayed anyway. Do you think we’re stupid? Do you think you can fool us? We both know you’re just faking it so you can stay back while we bleed and fight.”

Adam was neither laughing nor ashamed. Instead, he was dead silent. A look of sadness was in his eyes. He stood up and walked to the window and looked down at the busy streets.

“We all have to fight for something.” He whispered.

Behind him, Lucas was a single thought away from teleporting his armor and his weapon onto him. Two Freeze grenades were ready to be activated. According to his experience, when someone says something like that, he was ready to turn and strike.

That was what all the movies say.

Adam turned back around.

“Tell me, would you consider me qualified to claim a portion of the reward if I assassinate the Empress? Is that enough to excuse me from all the slaughters to come?”

Lucas rose his eyebrows. The Empress had a high status in this empire. She was both the political and the spiritual leader. Take out the Empress would certainly make the empire hurt. But there was a reason none of them were hanging the Empress’s head on the city’s gate by now. All of them could sense dangerous entities inside the palace. There were presences strong enough to seriously threaten the Voyagers if they made a wrong move. None of the Voyagers in the city was reckless enough to make a go for it. Instead, they chose to latch onto the much less defended officials.

If Adam was willing to make a go for it and risk his own life, Lucas would be more than fine with it.

“If you do take out the Empress, I will explain your contribution to the others. Worst comes to worst, I will do your job for you.” Lucas offered. “You get to take a single life and keep your hands clean for the rest of the mission.”

Adam nodded slowly, but what was going on inside his head was anyone’s guess.