Building Bridges

This was the largest meeting in history, they had been forced to move out their home cities, finding their way in the old spider canyon the combined army of vampires which was well over five thousand, with the dark elves which had at least twenty thousand and the Coronian troops which was even more, forty thousand.

Sixty five thousand soldiers, a large makeshift fortress had been constructed for the event, large walls covering both ends of the canyon, within those walls the tents were set up in an orderly section, leaving an entire section cleared for training. Dark elves sparred with vampires with various weapons, archers in one area target practicing.

They wanted to be ready, two more days of training and then they would be off to Macknola, where they were sure to meet all the others. In the midst of all these tents stood a very large tent, black as the night where the leaders of the three armies united to make plans.

The interior was of Constatino’s style, he being the one of most power had designed it to his liking, and no one had complained. Polar bear furs covered the floors, keeping the coldness of the ground away. Upon the walls hung the large Coronian flag, large open mouthed cobra with a hellish fire background.

In the centre of the tent was the meeting table, made of rock it had been hard to make but with a bit of magic anything was possible. At one end of the table sat Constatino, dressed in his usual magi warrior armour he was by far the most formidable magic user at the table.

Next to him sat Dominic, not the most powerful dark elf but he knew how to rally people into doing what he wanted, and right beside him was King Okrinus himself, the biggest at the table he held so much power over his people they would probably kill themselves on his command.

At the other end of the table sat Ares, being both a representative of the Coronians and the dark elves he was the most neutral at the table, although in his mind he wasn’t on any side, he only chose a side that was most useful to his cause, if that changed he would leave as soon as he’d arrived and everyone knew it. He was a powerful asset, and they wanted him on their side.

Beside him sat Kromilius, the demon general, one of the last pure demons left on the planet. He was very powerful for a demon, being almost as old as Ares himself he had very good military tactics.

And last but not least was Jolene, not a leader herself she was extremely crucial to the operation, being of the seven hybrids and also sister of the chosen one, if they controlled her they controlled the entire show.

Beginning the meeting Constatino skipped all the introductions and skipped right to the problems, " Now here is our situation, we got a large army of sixty five thousand and no way to get to the island, it would take far too many boats to reach the island. Any suggestions here?"

Okrinus said calmly, " That is the simple part, Constatino, you have an entire magic council at your disposal so here is what I propose. Get their lazy lard asses over here and they will summon a bridge from the shore to the island itself. Can they handle that?"

Constatino smiled, not even having to answer as Ares cut in, " So we got a way there, but we need to assess our enemies here. Now we’ll have the dwarf army to deal with, they can be tough little mother fuckers, shorter than a child but as rugged as a cave troll."

" Then we have the orcs, Kulos will probably summon his entire army which leaves him with cave trolls and those damn half human half orcs which are a bitch to kill being so damn tough with the intelligence of humans. And the Royal Kingdom, they may be not but a bunch of pansies with fancy armour but they will be numerous, we will probably be greatly outnumbered here people."

He went quiet, Constatino having known him the longest knew he had a solution to this, " So what do you have in mind? How are you planning on fixing this problem? Soldiers don’t just grow out of the ground."

Ares put his hand up, " Don’t speak so fast friend, what if they could. I was dead once and then a little thing called necromancy came and brought me back, when I said ex-soldiers I meant it, all the soldiers that died in the purging, over a million died in the purging, plus we have those grass hopper lion freaks of yours."

The meeting was going as planned, surprisingly no fights had broken out yet which was usually common when so many shadowy figures of power met. Loki getting into the conversation added, " We should leave now, get that bridge built and leave for the island, all our soldiers are properly trained. And anyway, our enemies are as limited with their time as we are, they will rush over to the island as well. We are wasting time, lets go now."

Everyone was surprised when Jolene retorted, " Why rush over, if were there we’re practically fulfilling the prophecy, why not just avoid the island all together, I simply never show up and the gig’s up, the prophecy blows up in their faces."

Okrinus added, " That is a good point, but your missing the big picture here. We don’t want the world to destroy, only to change. By going there we’ll achieve that, but if we don’t go at all then we’re all dead. And if were all dead no necromancer will be able to raise is back to life because they will be dead."

The tent grew silent for a minute as they pondered this new issue, Dominic finally broke his silence, " We should go now, Loki’s right. Constatino should get his people into action now, besides, the others will have enough problems with getting to the island as well if they are going for an army as we are."

With this resolved they all left the tent, deciding to leave the next day Ares joined the Coronians in their training. All were formidable warriors, their grass hopper like legs gave them a great advantage, four weapons each they could parry and strike all at once.

However he had an announcement to make, walking to the canyon walls he found a grip for his hands and began to climb up, he would need to talk to everyone at once. The climb was risky, as the wind picked up Ares had more trouble hanging. Reaching mid way he stood upon a large cave entrance and turned to face the armies.

" Everyone stop what your doing and listen up!" His voice echoed across the canyon, everyone looking up, stopping all training they gathered in a large group, looking up. " Now that your all listening, here is the scoop!"

" We leave tomorrow, Constatino has left and is currently summoning the International Council of Wizards! They will construct a bridge that will cross the ocean and lead us to the giant Macknola island, it will be a great distance but we must travel it fast. The island blocks magic so no teleporting there!"

" But that is not why I have summoned you, we will be greatly outnumbered so I want you all to know you cannot leave, you have passed the point of no return and must see this through to the end. Any deserter will be killed without mercy, question an attack order and your dead, screw up an errand and your dead!"

" This is no game, this is war and we have to take it seriously! This war could mean lead to the whole world’s transformation, that is all." All the soldiers looked up dumbfounded for a minute, they hadn’t really thought of it but they knew they were stuck now.

Climbing down with ease he went to sleep, not that he required it but he had no other way to pass the time, in the morning the bridge would be up and they would begin their journey to the island of Macknola.

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Constatino walked through the town, the few citizens out glancing up at him with fear. He ignored them, these feeble mortals could not even appreciate his protection, always talking in the dark about how they wanted a change.

It would all change, getting to the dark castle he went down to the guild where the wizards were busy looking into their spy orbs, looking for Adonis. He yelled, " Listen up farts and tarts! We are going now, you will not question me."

He turned and walked out without waiting for them, they quickly rushed after him, ignoring their spy orbs. It would have been funny to witness in normal times, Constatino in the lead with his brisk authoritarian walk followed by old hunchbacked wizards scurrying like rats after him, getting out of breath simply to catch up.

Out of the city he turned to them, all the huffing and puffing bunch of them, pale as a corpse and said, " Spider shores, one league away from the Spider canyon, go there and construct a solid bridge in less than five hours to the island of Macknola."

Without bothering with their bickering on how that would be difficult he vanished back to the canyon, now that bit was settled he would simply need to make sure the large army would be ready to cross the bridge when they got there.

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The sun rose leaving the sky in a pink haze as the morning doves flew in the air, whistling their melodies of love and tranquillity. The wizards however were far from loving and tranquil, having worked for five intense hours on making a solid bridge from the shore to the island they were completely drained of energy.

The task had been completed however, the army quickly arrived at the bridge and Constatino came to them, " Will it hold?" Most could not answer due to exhaustion, Tunobolis being the most powerful of the bunch said tiredly, " It will hold anything you put on it, withstand any earthquake and a shield has been placed on both side in case any sea storm should arise, it is the safest bridge in the world."

Not needing them anymore Constatino faced the army and yelled, " Get a move on soldiers, we do not want them to beat us there! We can choose our side, make sure we have the advantage over them, but we’ll need to move fast!"

The army began their fast march to the island, the bridge made of the earth’s minerals proved to be as formidable as it had been proclaimed to be. The army was making good progress, if they kept this pace they would make it their in less than twelve hours.

Dominic began to laugh out loud as they traversed the bridge, Ares looking at him strangely asked, " What strange thought has just crossed your mind now, I’m almost afraid to ask but I need to know."

Dominic smiled and answered, " I gave my outlaws to Celestria, they are protecting Adonis as we speak. And now I’ll be fighting against the very people I have trained and led for over twenty years, now talk about irony."

Ares was silent for a moment and then a large grin appeared on his face as he was filled with humour, bursting in a hysterical laugh. Ever since he’d reached phase three Ares had been more prone to such emotions, he was already too far gone for sadness and pity, but love and humour were looking better and better to him.

This was going to be a big war indeed, the very thought of the blood that was going to be spilled filled Ares and most of the people with great excitement, finally the world would change. Ares was not certain if it would be for the best, but he knew it had to change sometime, mise well be earlier rather than later.