The current emperor of the Red Sun Empire took the piece of paper and red it. He grinned cruelly and folded it.

‘ How dare they.’ what he read made him furious, everything in this empire belonged to his family.

To learn there was an entire city made of glass, one that contained more wealth than the entire empire and it didn’t even belong to them angered him to no end.

He stood up and flew to a distant mountain, deep inside the mountain he found an old man with a short white beard and long grey hair.

The emperor went on one knee, ” Ancestor, this humble child seeks your council.” The old man grunted in response.

The emperor continued, ” I’ve been informed by the shadow of fools who seek to defy us, they hoard what belongs to us and do not put us in their eyes.

I wish to lead out armies across the desert and deliver justice upon such fools.” He waited quietly after.

The old man said nothing for a few minutes, the emperor grew agitated the his ancestors answered in an ancient voice.

” So, what do you want from me?” He asked in a bored tone. The emperor gulped, he feared asking what he was about to ask.

” We…we beg you to guide us across the desert.” He knelt even lower not daring to look his ancestor on the eyes.

The temperature inside the cave seemed to rise. ” You want me to face that monster of the desert? Tell me, how valuable is what you fighting for?”

The question gave him hope, so he gave the piece of paper to the ancestor who burnt it to ashes after reading it.

” Do you think that old geezer of the tower knows?” The ancestor asked.

” Yes ancestor, one of our spies there said a lot of people disappeared from their territory over night.

Mages quit working for the tower just a week before, we suspect they were taken there as labour or for something else.”

” Mmm.” The ancestor nodded, ” So you’re saying citizens of the empire were taken as slaves to build that city of glass?”

The emperor was confused and was about to say they went voluntary then realised what the ancestor meant.

He grinned cruelly, ” Indeed ancestor, they’ve been subjected to such injustice, it’s the duty of the royal family to rescue it citizens.”

The two of them sat quietly after that, then the ancestor spoke. ” Prepare, we move a week from now.”

As the day went by people noticed something was wrong, the empirical army was running around.

Sand lizards were bought in bulk and the smiths were forced to bring out all the weapons in their shops.

Everybody could see the enpire the imperial family was preparing for war but as fast as they knew.

The only force that can challenge them is the Strix Tower of Magic, unless they are setting out to fight one of the desert lords.

When the news reached the council of the Strix Tower, those not in secret dealings with the imperial family got agitated.

Merlin in his office sighed and picked up the radio com. ” Hello.” He called out, there was static and a reply came a few seconds later.

He told the person on the other side that the empire had discovered them and was preparing for war.

When Khali received the knew and informed others, Viona grew excited instead of being worried.

She was tired of sitting around, as the chief commander of the military and head of the defence force.

She rarely had to do anything, the monsters they fought every night can be easily taken care of by guns.

There was no need to even strategize but it was different this time. They were facing humans.

Unfortunately they didn’t have a satellite directly above the empire as that was dangerous.

While their ancestor rarely left his cave, there was still a chance he would discover them like Merlin did.

They still used them to scout out the possible paths the army might take and this is where Viona shined.

Her mind was too suited for war, after looking at the map for a while she figured the path they were mostly like to take.

Isabella frowned, ” Why though, that route passes right through the territory of the draval.

Their queen resides there, wouldn’t it be safer if they got around, through here?” She pointed at another route.

That one had a lot of mountains which also meant there were high chances of human life there.

As she had said, it would certainly be safer but even Khali realised why it would not be ideal.

Viona explained,” True but the army, on top of not being able to travel fast they can only move by night.

While that path would be safer it would be longer, much longer infact. If they take this route they can reach us in about two weeks.

However if that takes this one, it will take them two months. Knowing the greed of the royal family.

They will not be willing to waste so many resources, of course I could be wrong but I doubt it.”

Everybody looked at her with admiration, Arthur looked proud as if he had come up with the idea himself.

” So what’s your plan?” Khali asked, he had his own Ideas but he wasn’t the chief commander of the army, she was.

” Landmines.” She said that casually with a shrug. Khali smiled, he had expected this battle maniac to want to fight them directly.

He was glad she wasn’t that stupid, they were severely outnumbered on top of being outgunned in terms of high level combatants.

With the plan in place, a aircraft took to the skies under the cover of the night sky. It reached the territory of the draval.

Soldiers went down with ropes, in their hands they carried 30 cm tall cylinders the colour of that sand.

They landed gently and placed this cylinders and did it again in another spot a few kilometres away.

They could see the sand moving but they were pulled back up before the draval could reach them.

It was time to plant the landmines but that would create high vibrations that the draval can easily detect.

The cylinders were called desert whispers, after activating them they would send pulses through the sand.

This drew the attention of the draval and also masked any vibrations the soldiers made.

While the draval were drawn by the sand whispers the soldiers climbed down and planted the landmines.

Kilometres of the desert were planted with them. To make sure the draval wouldn’t accidentally trigger them.

They made the sand whispers move, they were being controlled remotely to avoid the dravals.

Drawing them away from the landmines while also keeping them close enough.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep