Sieges are to be avoided. Divines should be brought in to wipe forces away. Olephia, Anassa, Baalka and Irinika are all capable of causing enough devastation to breach castle walls and raze them to the ground. Without Divines, fortresses should not be sieged. Cities can be starved out through the raiding and obstruction of supply routes.

It is a radical change in warfare, but there is a simple reason. An army sieging faces inwards, to turn a city into a prison merely galvanizes the local population. They see directly who the enemy is, they can peer over the castle walls and immediately see who is responsible for turning their holds into a prison.

Most importantly. An army sieging can be counter-attacked from the rear.

There is little to be done in a situation like that, there is nowhere to retreat when the rear becomes a frontline, and the castle walls that once trapped the local population now trap you.

Principles of Siegecraft, written by Goddess Kassandora, Of War, during the Great War.

Kassandora stared up at the red bubble that protected Central Requisitions and the twenty thousand men within. The slight worry of being outnumbered was not a worry, but the last time an army of more than twenty thousand mages had been fielded was during Worldbreaking. Now, that slight tinge of worry had become a slight tinge of dread. The numbers had been wrong, simply from looking at the army through Anassa’s shield, it was more than thirty thousand, maybe more than forty.

Kassandora sighed and ignored that slight tinge of dread. Shield two was already prepared and ready. Her orchestra always played in her head, simple violins pulling quiet notes and a piano that idly played a tune of boredom. No bombastic trumpets, no grand organs, no drums, sieges only had those in books. In reality, a siege was merely a test of patience.

And so, Elassa caught Kassandora’s eye as she flew over the edge of the bubble and to inspect another of her ritual circles. The woman was smart, Kassandora had to give her that. The first day had been spent simply preparing the terrain around Central Requisitions. For ten hours, a firestorm had raged around them, devouring tree and bush and grass and leaving only ash. It had been guided by pyromancers, although the heat did not penetrate Anassa’s barriers, nor did the winds that swirled around them.

Eventually, the firestorm had left nothing but grey ash around them. And then Elassa’s mages started to terraform the ground. Veins of metals were pulled up from the ground, hard stones churned the dirt, and then flattened over it. A simple thing, but Iniri would not be able to cause any disruptions quickly if she had tear through a mile of underground stone first.

Elassa stopped in the very centre of the shield as Kassandora watched her. The Goddess of Magic was obviously not enjoying herself, her locks were unbrushed, with hairs sticking out in all directions and her blue battledress was now almost black. Napalm’s smoke was to thank for that. She raised her white staff, spun it, and a tornado appeared again. This ritual happened six times a day now, whenever the clouds started to return.

The tornado, with nothing to feed it, was a mere swirl of grey dust. It lunged up into the sky like a striking snake and beat the white clouds away, blowing the miles back with each slow wave it did. Eventually, Elassa’s staff ceased to glow and the tornado ripped itself apart. The winds settled down and Arda’s Sun once again shone over the wooden fortress of Central Requisitions. That was a good way to destroy the cloud cover of the KAL, but Kassandora wondered what it was like from the outside. Anassa’s shield only allowed light to enter so the tornado had been silent, but from outside… She doubted any of the mages got more than a few hours sleep at a time.

That was good. An army exhausted was worse than an army starving. Men could calm the pangs of starvation for a while, the drunkenness of tiredness was much harder to wash away.

The twisting of bark and wood pulled Kassandora out of her thoughts. The inside of the base was usually silent, although there was little to produce noise here. Everyone held a gun, artillery was already in position, engines cycling idly as they kept the barrels pointed upwards and ready to fire. Every now and then, there would be a song or a chant, a man would cough, someone would drop something from the platforms high up in the trees, but that was it.

Kassandora looked down from her platform. Iniri had grown this one on special request, the tallest branch of the tallest tree had expanded into a disk. A few other platforms were pulled out from the tree in order facilitate Kassandora getting up to her perch. She did have to jump from one to the other, but it wasn’t too difficult. Divines who were scared of heights had died out long ago. There were more trees forming a tight circle, a thick green canopy of bushy leaves and interwoven branches protected three of Anassa’s gemstones and blocked them from view.

Honestly, Kassandora could have gotten away with only bringing two, another could have been sent to Zalewski’s front and the newly formed armoured brigades, but it was too late now. And there was no such thing as having too many backups anyway.

Iniri was down on the red dirt, she waved up at Kassandora and Kassandora replied with a nod. Kavaa was standing on a branch that culminated in a circular disk, she stood in her full silver armour and her blade hung from a sheathe on a belt. Silver hair poured out from underneath of the woman’s helmet. “You called.” Kavaa said and Kassandora nodded.

“I did.” She said as Kavaa jumped from her branch to Kassandora’s platform. The branch then curled back and retreated to the ground. Kassandora peered over the edge at Iniri, the woman was already returning back to the safety of one the great oaks. Guards were about, everyone was preparing. “Did you bring the radio?”

Kavaa unclipped a radio from the back of her belt and handed it to Kassandora. “What is it about? We can’t get signals out.”

“Do you see the runes?” Kassandora asked. Joyeuse appeared in her hand and she pointed it at the smooth rock that made up the ground around CR. “Or not?”

“I see them.” Kavaa replied. “Will they break through? They couldn’t in the past.”

“In the past, we didn’t have armies purely of mages.” Kassandora said. She called upon her blessing and the men within Central Requisitions. They started to rise and stand up. Loaders prepared ammunition, drinks were put away, cigarettes snuffed out. Men hovered their fingers over triggers. “But this is enough to break through one of Anassa’s barriers.”

“We have a backup though.” Kavaa said and Kassandora nodded.

“It will most likely be today, or tomorrow, I want you to stay with me here.” Kavaa shrugged and looked around.

“We’re exposed.”

“That’s the point.” Kassandora said. “I don’t want Elassa to cut through Iniri’s trees with mana, if she sees us, sees me, she’ll focus an attack on me.”

“Oh.” Kavaa replied flatly.

“And you’re here because I know I can’t withstand more than one, maybe two, blasts from her.” Kassandora said flatly.

“Elassa is not Alkom, if she incinerates you, I can’t heal that.”

“I’ve blocked Elassa attack’s before.” Kassandora replied, Kavaa only sighed as her armoured palm ran over the hilt of her sword.

“If you say so…” She said. “So? How long?”

“I don’t know, but soon.”

Soon was a day from now. Kassandora and Kavaa stood on their wooden podium. Kassandora silently cycled her troops with her blessing. Men would leave their positions without saying anything, and be replaced by other troops pulled from the barracks at the base of the trees. They’d walk down stairs and climb down ladders then go to cantinas to refuel their stomachs. Meals were entirely supplied through Iniri, she a small orchard of trees and an even smaller field of vegetables were set up near the edges of the barrier, where the Goddess of Nature would work tirelessly to speed up the growth of the various plants. Large apples were picked by soldiers, or the trees would simply lower their branches and give them a shake to drop them into wheelbarrows which would be pushed straight into the kitchens.

Then men would be sent to their beds. Others would wake up, their own minds adding yet more tiny violins to replace the ones that drifted off into sleep. It was a tiny choir. A tiny choir that became a grand orchestra when Kassandora saw the first signs of movement from the outside. Elassa finished with another tornado to once again push away crowds and reveal the sky. It was turning a brilliant purple, in the west, warm oranges and vivid reds were still in the far reaches of the west, and stars were starting to come out.

Elassa’s mages started to chant, each magician joining hands with another, forming small groups that surrounded each circular rune. Kassandora bothered to learn them a long time ago, this was a simple mining array. Nothing out of the ordinary, no terrible breakthrough magic that had been discovered since after the Great War. Nothing like that. What had Elassa been doing for the past millennia? Had she actually just been teaching her mages? Shouldn’t they have been stronger? Or was it actually just all a millennia of White Pantheon politics?

Kassandora smiled to herself as she took a deep breath. This would be even easier than she thought. The various ritual circles started to glow a bright blue. Kassandora stared at it in awe. It was really a simple mining array, a spell to quickly dig a hole. That was it, naturally it was powerful. It could reach even the dwarven tunnels that penetrated deep to the centre of Arda. But there was a reason it was never used in combat. The spell stole too much power, and once it was started, it couldn’t be aimed or moved, only stopped. But then, forty thousand mages eliminated the first problem and being in a siege eliminated the second.

Kassandora looked up as beams of pure mana exploded upwards, then arced into the night sky and intertwined together, spiralling into the sky and culminating into a ball. It shot downwards, pure blue light that burned and incinerated and simply disappeared anything it touched. It should have at least. The beam reached Anassa’s shield. Blue magic spiralled out of control and darkened with flashes of lightning coming out of it. Elassa immediately flew close and cast her own beam into the mining spell.

The lightning stopped, the mining spell started to glow bright again, the mages in the ritual circles stopping panicking. And Elassa’s shield started to fill up. Slowly and slowly and slowly, a patch of pure crimson that expanded from the point where outside magic touched it. It filled and filled and filled over the course of an entire day.

Honestly, Kassandora had only brought Kavaa up here because she thought there would be more powerful magics involved, things she hadn’t seen before. She waited until Elassa’s drill started to create cracks in the clear red sphere of Anassa’s purest sorceries. She grabbed the radio as the cracks like currents of electricity running through a nervous system.

Anassa’s shield cracked. The drill cut through immediately, making a small hole through a tree and further down into the surface of Arda. Kassandora saw Elassa’s mages put up barriers as Anassa’s bubble simply shattered out of existence. Elassa spun in the air, panting and sweating, but still obviously with enough energy to start a fight. Kassandora did not care, she thought of letting her men shoot, but then realised the sound would obscure her voice as she reached for the radio. For a moment, the only sound was the humming of Elassa’s spell and Kavaa unsheathing her blade. Then a click. Kassandora flicked the switch of her radio.

“Goddess Kassandora speaking.” Kassandora said. She waited for a reply. There were small radios set up all the base. With the loss of Anassa’s shield, Kassandora’s signal sniff out it prey. A reply came through almost immediately.

“This is Headquarters, speaking. Over.” Kassandora commanded men through her blessing. A group of ten broke apart limiters attached to the first back up gemstone that powered Anassa’s shield.

“Initiate Operation Speartip.” Kassandora said. It was over. Kassandora smiled at Elassa as the woman looked at the newly raised barrier in pure rage. Victory in Kirinyaa was only a matter of time now. She added yet another instruction. “And give word to the Second Spear, the heart is exposed.”

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep