"You want to deal with the merfolks!?" – asked shocked Iron Will.
"Yeb. Didn't you heard a word I said?" – replied Godfrey.
"I mean, yes!? But if the king is the only unstable and dangerous ruler to us and their own people, wouldn't it be better to just replace him?" – said Iron Will.
"The princess. She is smart person and everything, she also knows when to say "No". So wouldn't she be able to control the merfolk and maintain the peace?"
"No." – replied Godfrey.
"She is way too unstable…. And feral."
"I also know that she hates the holy empire after being "enslaved" by us, even though her kingdom only exist now thanks to us."
"She is ungrateful and scheming."
"And from what I saw far?"
"It would not surprise me at all if she betrayed us."
"And merfolk? They honestly would betray us as soon as they recovered."
"I'm not dumb to not see it."
"They don't want to be in alliance with the empire since they fear us."
"So yea, before they do anything, the merfolk and their kingdom will be eliminated."
"…"
(FUCKING KNEW IT!) – thought the princess that was still in the city, but not in the building where the conversation between two men were having their secret conversation.
(Those bastards…. Even my own father does not know about my ability.)
(I can feel and hear vibrations through both water, allowing me to hear stuff from very far away…. I can also use it on the land to hear through buildings, but the range is way more limited…. But not limited enough for me to not hear your conversation you fuckers!)
(Those fucking empire bastards!)
(They never saw us as people!)
(Only as beasts that needs to obey and then be disposed off afterwords…..)
(…. Still, they are not wrong about my father….. He is beyond hope.) – thought the princess before then walking away with her escort.
"Prepare the carriage."
"Understood." – replied the merfolk knight.
(He is bowing to the empire without any resistance….. And it would really not surprise me if he sided with the Hell that originally ravaged our kingdom.)
(….)
(If our kingdom is to survive, I need to remove my own father…. But that would be not enough.)
("THAT" kingdom is good as dead. It is ravaged and it is far too close to the empire.)
(We would need to do a massive relocation…. Or destroy the empire.)
(But there is no way to destroy it right now….. Relocation would be the only choice.)
(However, how would we create an opening for my people to escape?)
"…"
(Alliance.)
(Should I request a support from them?)
(They are enemies with the empire….. And I just know the thing they would want from me.)
[Sometime later: Meeting between the {Alliance} leaders.]
"Shit…. This is not good." – said the young man with tired expression.
[New king of Liop kingdom – Gustav Wamud]
"The empire are far stronger enemies then we could had ever imagined." – said the young king as he and other kings were holding a meeting in the old "gathering room" where the previous ruler of each nation had their conversations.
"True…. But their advance has stopped, didn't it?"
[King of Yiuk kingdom – Konrad Yiuk]
"Thanks to the weapons provided to us by the vampires, we are now able to completely block off the empire advance."
"You are saying that, but it is not that easy." – said the male vampire with scar across his face.
[King Of The New Vampire Kingdom Of Ku'rod – Gravar Von Wither]
"We "CAN" but at the same time we "CAN'T" defeat the empire."
"The Great Barrier."
"One of the strongest weapons of the empire."
"As long as they have that, their main base of operation will be keep standing."
"There is also the Daughter Of Mercy."
"Out of two children of the holy emperor, she is the most problematic one, since not only her presence boost the empire soldiers morals big time, but she is also the key component related to the Great Barrier."
"It was all thanks to her that they were able to deploy that barrier so fast."
"And she also posses extremely powerful healing ability, which also includes resurrection."
"So, the only way we could possible kick out the holy empire, defeat them and then completely seal off the access to this continent would be to find a way to get rid of both Great Barrier and eliminated the Daughter Of Mercy."
"Then this war will never end, until we deal with both of our problems, yes?" – asked the middle aged man with brown beard.
[New King of Meruz – Gerald Wardion]
"But from what I know, the Daughter Of Mercy is hiding inside the city where the Great Barrier was deployed."
"That means we will have to first deal with the Great Barrier if we wish to eliminate the Daughter Of Mercy."
"We are working on it." - said Gravar.
"But it will take time."
"And even if we do secure means of bringing down that barrier, there are also empire soldiers to deal with."
"So for now, until we secure some means of dealing with the barrier, we should for now focus on thwarting any of the empire plans."
The meeting between rulers of each nation continued for some time, discussing many different problems.
Some were calm.
Some were problematic.
And some were chaotic.
….
*Sigh*
"Fuck me." – said Gravar after the meeting has ended.
"Not good, eh?" – asked "Kid" through the communication device.
"Yea….. Those empire soldiers are like cockroaches." – said Gravar.
"Burn them, blow them up or tear them apart… They are always coming back….."
"We are somehow able to hold them off thanks to the new tank designs, but they are also starting mass summoning angels."
"This does make things problematic."
"Well, I have some goods from my part." – said Phantasia through the second communication orb.
"The anty Great Barrier project is going well on my end."
"But it is not finished yet."
"…"
"Welp…. At least some good news…. Still, how long it should take theoretically for you to finish the weapon?" – asked Gravar.
"Those kings maybe our puppets, but they are getting impatience."
"…"
"It will take time." – said Phantasia.
"I finally found a way to deal with the barrier, but adjusting and transforming this thing to the point where it could damage or maybe even make a hole in their Great Barrier will take both time and resources."
"The "Drill" that I'm making is a special anty defense slash anty barrier weapon."
"It does not have enough range, so the weapon needs to be deployed near the barrier, but I will try adding at least some of the range….. And there is also the question how many drills do you want?"
"…"
"For now, make a one fully functional weapon and then we will see it." – said "Kid".
"Understood." – replied Phantasia before ending the call, before few moments later "Kid" also ended the call after talking a bit about minor details.
"…"
(If only those merfolk were out of the picture.) – thought tired Gravar.
(The winter has already came.)
(Security food supplies for the soldiers will be hard for the empire…. Or so it may seem, but thanks to the merfolk, they can transport their supply ships way faster.)
(Not only that, but the whole "Good guy" image that these bastards were keeping? They no longer care.)
(They burn down villages and steal anything they can from them IF they refuse to work with the holy empire…. This is bizarre.)
(One of their strongest and most abused points was their "GOOD GUY" image… But now they are willingly destroying it?)
(For what?)
(What is their aim goal?)
"…"
*Sigh*
(For now…. Lets just focus on the on the empire…. Or maybe merfolk?)
(Honestly, it would be ideal if we dealt with the merfolk in order to reduce the amount of support these guys here receive from their empire.)
(But how would we even get them?)
(The empire is straight up right between us and if we were to attack from the sea, we could be entering a trap.)
"…"
"If only they would just willingly surrender or just back stab the empire…. This would be perfect."
*Knock* *Knock*
"…"
"Enter." – said the vampire king before moment later a servant with two vampire knights entered the room.
"What do you want?"
"Your majesty….. Em… We received this message and this box just now…. And they are both addressed to you." – said the servant.
"We checked both of these things…. And I think you need to see this." – said the servant as he handed over a letter to the king who instantly began reading it.
"…"
"What?"
"…"
"The box?" – asked the king.
"It is secured." – said the servant.
"It was checked if it wasn't rigged or anything."
"The context of the box was also inspected."
"But it was also safe."
"It is a communication orb, a safe one."
"…"
"I understand."
[3 hours later.]
"…"
(Okay. This should be the time.) – thought Gravar as he took out the orb from the box and activated it.
"…"
"…"
"Can you hear me?" – asked the female voice from the orb.
"Yes. I can hear you loud and clear." – said Gravar.
"So…. To what do I own a pleasure?"
"Princess Azr'rao."