Emperor Forged
An Empire Reforged: Book 1
K.D. Robertson
Copyright © 2019 by K.D. Robertson
Cover by Bad Moon Art Studio (www.badmoonart.com)
All rights reserved.
No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage and retrieval systems, without written permission from the author, except for the use of brief quotations in a book review.
Contents
Chapter 1
Chapter 2
Chapter 3
Chapter 4
Chapter 5
Chapter 6
Chapter 7
Chapter 8
Chapter 9
Chapter 10
Chapter 11
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
Chapter 17
Chapter 18
Chapter 19
Chapter 20
Chapter 21
Chapter 22
Chapter 23
Chapter 24
Chapter 25
Chapter 26
Chapter 27
Chapter 28
Chapter 29
Chapter 30
Chapter 31
Chapter 32
Chapter 33
Chapter 34
Chapter 35
Chapter 36
Chapter 37
Chapter 38
Chapter 39
Chapter 40
Thanks for reading!
Chapter 1
A hundred soldiers bellowed death threats and called me a traitor from the far side of the courtyard. A week ago, they had fought under me. Now, cornered like rats outside the keep, they awaited death by my hand. Their comrades had shut them out and now cowered behind the inner walls of the fortress. They hoped in vain that my wrath could not reach them.
Those still loyal to me clustered nearby. They chatted as arrows and spells shattered against the glittering barriers of light that protected us. A handful of mages stood on the walls behind me, brows knitted in concentration and circles of magic glowing beneath their feet. They focused their efforts on projecting the barrier that protected all of us from harm.
It looked like a standoff, but a trained eye would know it was an execution. I was waiting for the signal from the rest of my men before making my next move. Barriers were a wonder of magic, but they were also immobile on a large scale. If I moved too soon, I would take unnecessary losses. Arrows and spells would rain down from the walls.
I had an empire to crush and reform. Wasting the lives of those loyal to me was the worst mistake I could make right now.
The roar of combat drifted in from both sides of the courtyard. I could hear yells and the distant clatter of steel on steel. A green burst of light exploded high in the air to my left. Shortly after, another exploded farther to my right. Magic flares.
I raised my plated gauntlet into the air. The chatter ceased.
“Captain Mayer, cover us please,” I shouted up at the walls behind me. Ilsa, my mage captain, would hear me and react as necessary. My arm snapped down in a chopping motion the next moment and a flurry of activity followed it. Above me, a green flare burst in the air. My assault was fully in motion now.
The previously idle soldiers hefted their shields and weapons and formed up into formation. Two separate columns would fan across the courtyard, slam into the cornered loyalists and cut them down.
I felt the snap of magic behind me. Dozens of lances of light soared through the cloudy sky. They left a silver trail in the air behind them, distracting onlookers for a few moments. The lances exploded on impact but did nothing to the barriers protecting the loyalists. Even so, they cowered. The soldiers tripped over each other to get away. Each spell could punch holes right through them and end their lives in an instant.
“Forward,” I ordered.
We surged forward across the cobblestones and dirt of the courtyard. The volleys of arrows from the enemy increased in intensity but our helmets and shields batted them aside. No magic came our way, though. Their mages were too tied up protecting their men from our mages to be able to bombard us. The smart move would be to recognize a lost cause and do as much damage to us as possible. Evidently, their mages had some empathy left in them, if not enough to open the gates and let the soldiers in.
A battle cry rose up from within our ranks as we closed our charge, and the loyalists packed in even more tightly against the walls in complete panic. Spears and shields greeted us when we slammed into a wall of frightened men and women. My greatsword sliced through steel, bone, and flesh alike as I led the charge on the left flank. Our magical weapons cleaved through the armor and weapons of the loyalists like knives through butter.
This was butcher’s work. We slaughtered a hundred soldiers who swore loyalty to an empire that had rotted to the core. Fire briefly washed over my head as a mage from above slammed a fireball into me. I glanced up, my vision already clear from the inferno. The flames were ineffective against my runic plate armor.
“Can’t waste much time here,” I said. The mage who had attacked me fled from sight.
“No, General,” one of my knights, Terry, said from next to me. He pulled his axe free from the chest of the foe. “You bringing Ilsa forward to crack the barriers on the gate for us?”
I looked at the thick wooden gate that barred our way forward. It was covered in blood now. The loyalists had cowered against it in hope it might open at the last moment.
This fortress had stood for decades under my protection, so I knew the defenses on the gatehouse very well. Every piece of the structure was heavily warded and reinforced with magic. The building was an order of magnitude more resilient than the materials it was composed of. One couldn’t simply batter his way through, hence the need for powerful magical siege weapons in this day and age.
“As I said, can’t waste much time. The other detachments will be encircling the keep as we speak,” I said, approaching the gate.
The knights began to cluster around me. They raised their shields against the furious bombardment from above, although the worst thing they were probably feeling were the insults from any former friends.
“Stand back,” I said. The knights did exactly that, leaving me plenty of space in the gatehouse proper.
I raised my greatsword in a chopping stance. I focused and tapped into the power deep within me. This was the raw strength necessary to cast what we knew to be magic. There were no chants, dances, or fancy gestures. Magic was a matter of will. I used magic by controlling the energy within the world with nothing but my mind. Everything else was simply a trick. Something to convince my mind it could order the world to do my bidding. I had some very good tricks up my sleeve, however.
A rune, one of thirteen along its length, lit up on my greatsword. In an instant, I forced all the magical energy I had summoned into that rune.
I snapped my sword down at the gate, and it exploded into thousands of pieces of wood and steel. A deafening whirlwind of force consumed the gatehouse in front of me as I unleashed my power through a rune. Blood and gore—the remains of loyalists who had reinforced the gate with their bodies on the other side—filled my vision.
Sound began to return, and I heard the panicked screams of retreat around me. The inner courtyard had been breached. The loyalists knew they were not safe from me and had begun to flee. Now was the true butcher’s work. I didn’t have space or food for those who were disloyal to me.
My knights surged through the gatehouse. Their cheers and hollers contrasted with the bloody scene around them. I bounded after them, leaping over the debris.
A
ragged formation of loyalists met us on the other side. Orders were barked all across the inner courtyard behind them, contradictions in each command. Chaos overwhelmed the inexperienced loyalist officers as their impending doom began to settle into their nerves.
I saw the fear in the eyes of the loyalists in front of me. These were animals who had forgotten everything except raw instinct. But without experience, their instinct was no better than that of a rat’s. They should surrender but didn’t know how.
I slashed with my greatsword as I slammed into their pathetic attempt at a spear wall. The raw magical force of my blow severed a dozen spears. My return swing cleaved through a half dozen loyalists. Screaming began to rise up from within their defensive lines. Terry shield-charged right through the hole I had opened up and bowled over more loyalists. He snapped out with his axe and took an enemy in the back of the head.
Within moments, the spear wall collapsed. Our momentum hardly faltered. We simply ran right over the corpses we had created in our charge. With that, we were in the inner courtyard, the keep looming over us.
The situation was becoming chaotic, so I let the knights chase down the fleeing loyalists on their own. The inner courtyard surrounded me. This was the centerpiece of Tornfrost Watch, with a keep in the center and walls on all sides. On the far side was the ridge the fortress was built on.
I watched as knights, mages, and all manner of soldiers loyal to me piled in from all directions. Fleeing loyalists were chased across the dirt training grounds and cobblestone paths. Then I frowned.
The enemy was in disarray, but each soldier was fleeing in the same direction, toward the keep. Its five-meter tall doors stood wide open, with panicking soldiers running through them. This was an opportunity.
The keep was the most heavily fortified section of any frontier fortress of the Rogistran Empire. Tornfrost Watch was no exception. A general or lord could barricade himself inside with supplies and hold out for an entire season. Demons or oni could rail against the walls all they liked. Eventually, the Empire would arrive with reinforcements to save those inside.
Tornfrost Watch’s keep was a four-story monstrosity. The wards and magical reinforcement made it ten times stronger than the walls around it. If the loyalists shut me out, I’d need to spend a week preparing a spell to knock the door down.
I had plans for next week.
“Ladies and gentlemen,” I said with a raised voice, “we’re taking the keep now.”
A roar of approval rose from the ranks of my soldiers even as the panic doubled from the loyalists. My enemies began to trip over themselves, trampling one another in their panic. Soon, those inside would shut the stragglers out. They had done it with the outer courtyard.
This was where I came in. I tensed my muscles, taking up a position as if I was going to leap toward the foe. Focusing inward, I drew on my magical power and pushed it throughout my body. My legs received the majority. My body felt hot, almost as though it was burning from the inside. My muscles weren’t built to be empowered to these superhuman levels.
“General Arium,” a female voice shouted from behind me. I turned slowly. I had to be careful not to disturb the magic within the tense lower half of my body. It was Ilsa, my mage captain, jogging toward me from the ruined gatehouse. Her brown ponytail was bouncing back and forth behind her, along with her battle robes. “They’re going to close the keep’s door any second now. Should I give the order to bombard them?”
“Focus on the mages and archers still on the walls around us, Captain Mayer,” I told her, turning back to the keep. “I’ll deal with the keep. Consider it a personal matter.” Very personal, given that this was my fortress. I’d even designed the thing, back when I first came to the north.
Before Ilsa could respond, I uncoiled like a spring and shot into the air. Stone cracked beneath my feet from the force of my leap. I hurtled over the clashes between my knights and the few loyalists playing at being rearguard. As I flew, the steps leading to the keep rapidly filled my view. Then the steps were replaced with soldiers. I slammed to a crashing halt, hearing screams of pain and steel plate clattering on stone.
I rolled onto my feet and shifted my focus to my magical senses. There were several people nearby and two upright immediately in front of me. I rose and lashed out with my sword. This pair went down but more people were already inside the keep.
An ominous noise groaned out from the keep. Creaking. Like that out of poorly oiled hinges and aged wood slowly moving. The doors were being closed.
Roaring, I leaped forward. Every sense screamed that I had only seconds. I saw the doors about to close in front of me. If they did, the wards of the keep would activate, making all of this a waste of my time and effort.
My gauntlets slammed into the door with so much force that I liked to imagine they imprinted their shape into the magically reinforced wood. With a great heave and magical focus, I pushed back against the mechanism closing the door. Shouts of loyalists met my ears from the other side. I heard them ramming into the door, pushing futilely to close it against me. One even stuck a spear through the gap in an attempt to gut me, only for the weapon to shatter on my armor.
I roared again. At my urging, even more magical energy flooded my body. My plate armor creaked under the strain of my strength. A snap came from somewhere within the keep and the doors slammed open. People were sent flying. Screams echoed throughout the entranceway. It sounded like I had broken the mechanism. Those who cowered farther back went to turn and run. Once again, they found themselves cornered. The doors that separated the entranceway from the grand hall of the keep had been shut.
I walked toward the next set of doors at a calm pace, ignoring the cowering loyalists around me. Terry and his knights poured in after me and covered them. It was now time to start taking prisoners. The battle had reached the point where resistance was obviously pointless and survival took priority over loyalties.
I still needed to get into that grand hall, however.
“Closed us out again, huh?” Terry said. He eyed the reinforced door barring our way. “Let me guess, no time to wait for Ilsa to remove the wards?”
“You’re beginning to get the picture,” I said. I raised one foot and kicked the door. Magic blasted out from the impact and into the door itself.
Wood and steel were blown into splinters and dust. There weren’t any loyalists standing on the other side, judging from the lack of blood. They were learning, it seemed. It was just too little, too late.
I stepped into the grand hall. Surrounded by stairwells, this was a two-story nexus of stone that acted as the heart of Tornfrost Watch. There was a dais and a throne at the far end. Any prince or even the emperor himself could have easily commanded the front from here while remaining secure against invasion. The mage tower jutting from the top of the keep supplied communications ability with the magical devices built into it.
As impressive as the keep was, I had to cast my memories back far, far too long to find a time when someone worthy of it had been here. Right now it was a den of cowardly loyalists who cared more for a corrupted empire than for those who had devoted their lives to it.
In the middle of nearly a hundred such cowards stood three mages, all lost in focus in a joint ritual. Beneath each glowed a summoning circle connected by lines. I recognized it as a summoning circle for a pure elemental, one of the most powerful beings on the continent. Should they succeed in summoning one of these truly legendary elementals, such as Salamander or Gnome, then even I would be tested.
A smart plan, but one that was all too easy to stop. A good thing I hadn’t given them a week to finish casting this thing.
The defenders were tired and surprised. It took only seconds to end this. I surged past them and cut the three mages down with short strokes of my blade. My knights rushed behind me and shouted commands at the stupefied loyalists. In the space of a minute, the summoning circle was broken and the remaining loyalists were disarmed and forced onto the ground. Keeping one
of the mages alive might have been wise. On the other hand, they were powerful enough to be dangerous no matter what I did with them.
I left the clean-up to my soldiers and walked over to the throne at the rear of the hall. Decades of dust coated every inch of this place, and my finger turned black merely from touching the throne. Cleaning this hall was never a priority, simply because nobody used it. This fortress had been designed to accommodate royalty, but the grand hall lay unused. The keep was used for supplies, barracks, and administration now. A shell of its intended self.
Tornfrost Watch was the greatest bastion against the oni, the relentless barbarian threat that spilled in through the Nahaum Pass every summer. I had designed it to be the nerve center of what was now known as the Arium Bulwark.
The name hadn’t been my decision; the Empire had a knack for naming things after people. Tornfrost was the magister-general of the Nahaum Pass when I designed Tornfrost Watch. Nahaum had been the great sorcerer who created the Nahaum mountain range, which separated the Empire from the demonic badlands to the east. So it was that the defensive line I had designed was named after me, Mykah Arium, and it became the Arium Bulwark.
“Feeling nostalgic, General?” Ilsa asked me.
I turned from where I had been running a finger along the throne. Both she and my armsmaster were standing at attention.
“At ease,” I said. “Armsmaster Saruse, what are our losses?”
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