Work Text:
Last Stand of Humanity
Humanity is on the brink of extinction, armies of demons, elves, dwarves, beast people and dragons allied themselves to destroy all of Humanity. Now with the last Kingdom, the City State of Scientiapolitania, a four walled hexagonal city, it will be a matter of time before humans will be totally wiped out or supposedly it should be.
Summary:
Humanity, the most populous and most powerful of the races in the world of Terrae made many achievements that contributed to the progress of the world especially in the field of magic and technology but with constant wars to each other, the other races made an opportunity to wipe them out. A coalition of Demons, elves, dwarves, beast people and dragons who called themselves, the Army of Salvation, began an attack to several Kingdoms of Humanity 20 years ago starting at the small Kingdom of Saint Lumine where they massacred all of the inhabitants.
The Army of Salvation, unleashed any weapons and spells of war they can devise, they turned human technologies like cannons and guns into something more powerful and deadly by putting magical runic spells, while enhancing their elemental spells that could unleash instant firestorm and blizzards that could decimate and entire human army and combined with the power of the dragons, an ordinary human army could virtually stood no chance. The army of salvation, with their common goal and a vast army can crush any human army that were already worn out due to their wars against each other.
As the news spread across the human lands, the wars between them were put into a halt and tried to unite to fight the invaders, but it totally failed due to lack of coordination, mistrust among each other and corruption. One by one, human nations fell and even the most powerful, the Holy Empire, just fell with the death of the Holy Sage, the most powerful magician of humanity and considered as a demigod, but in the end, one man cannot defeat an army so determined to wipe all of humans.
With the fall of the empire, humanity almost gave up but some didn’t lose hope as there is still one human Kingdom that still stood, the City State of Scientiapolitania, a centre of learning and culture and the keeper of ancient human knowledge and in its vast underground lied something that only humanity could use and to be used in times of crises as prophesized (or rather programmed).
The city of Scientiapolitania, a large four tiered walled city of 500 square km is the largest city state of humanity, it is situated near the coastline and in the most eastern part of the continent, surrounded by ragged terrain, thick forests of large trees of more than 40 ft. and taller and lastly, a land where mysterious concentration of arcane energy resides.Protected by its first wall of metal and stone, it could withstand some of heaviest artillery of the enemy, the second and third walls where the larger turreted cannons, ballistae and magic crystal towers located, are taller than the first wall as well as thicker by two times.
The fourth Wall, the tallest and the most fortified, the Sancta Mura, the thickest wall made of magical walls with engraved spells that will absorb any magical attacks in its full capacity. The Fourth wall is also where the largest cannon humanity constructed, the Doomsayer, a 1000mm calibre cannon that can fire magical projectiles at a range of 100 km. It is also where the six Towers of Artemis located, with each four large rotating robed statues (that are facing the four cardinal directions) of 20 ft. high in each tower, holding red crystal balls that shoots arcane energy in each rotation. The four walls have four gates in the cardinal directions, all made of magical metal and wood fortified with spells and guarded by the best knights and gunners and archers of the Kingdom. The East and North Wall are special as they are gates for ships and naval vessels of the city.
Inside of the walls are the residential, administrative, military, and agricultural and research centres and areas in which at the centre lies the Citadel and Castle. The castle is the official residence of the King, surrounded by a thick wall of magical nature and the citadel, the innermost part of the city, the last true refuge if all walls fell. The citadel also possessed a magical wall and like the fourth wall it possessed a small scale version of the Tower of Artemis but also guarded by armoured magical golems that can shoot beams of light from its eyes and crush enemies by its powerful punch.
In underground, a vast complex of sewage systems, with many routes are also guarded by golems in case of enemy attacking it but deeper more, there are vast complexes of water supplies and artificial gardens for food and manufacturing complexes for the defence and self sufficiency of the city. In the deepest parts, where the only members of the royal family can access, lies a very spacious metallic halls where strange machines of war located, it is where the ancient human weapons located. The largest of the weapons large carriages and tall humanoid metallic statues armed with strange guns and cannons will only come out once the time has come.
The city is currently protected by an army of 200,000 and with a naval force of 1000 ships remaining manned by 100,000 men and marines in which the largest of the ships, the ironclad ones of more than 300 feet, armed with large magical cannons from its broadsides and even larger ones turreted are capable of bombarding the enemies even at a distance of 20 km, a good supporting distance.
With only the city walls that separate humanity from the havoc of the Army of Salvation, it will be a matter of time if humanity will survive or be totally destroyed and will only become a history to be told.
Chapter I: Extramuros (Outside of the Walls)
Fifth Month of the 4065 Ascension of the Great Saint Lucia (Human Calendar); Year 18 of Salvation (Army of Salvation Calendar)
Outside of the City-State of Scientiapolitania, a vast army of demi human species of more than 1 million surrounded it and just waiting for another orders to assault it. It is impossible to think to the now members of the army to conquer and kill humanity, as they considered the humans as very powerful and numerous due to their sheer numbers and military might, but for someone to think to grab an opportunity as humans waging war to each other is another impossibility as what the majority of them thought.
Twenty years ago, the leaders of the demon, elven, dwarven, beast and dragon tribes confined at the western part of the continent, living in isolation in thick forests and mountainous areas decided to unite for a common goal to destroy humanity in their continent and wipe them out from the rest of the world. It is a good opportunity for them as humans are a great threat to their survival, as for hundreds of years, human kingdoms for territorial expansion was not quenched by diplomacy alone, thus it is time to strike on them.
With their secret alliance held at the Forbidden Forest in the Elven island nation at the westernmost of the continent, the Chieftains and Kings of the tribes agreed to create a unified army that they will dubbed as the Army of Salvation. An amalgamation of their sheer determination to destroy the humans once and for all. They agreed that the Command will be led by Princess Elva of the Water Elven Tribe, and will have 3 deputy supreme commanders that will be filled by General Fan, a demon general, Chieftain Redtooth of the Black Mountain dwarven tribe and Priestess Fiona of the Beast Cat tribe.
The alliance secretly held military drills for almost 2 years in preparation for large scale mobilization and swift war in the continent stretching of more than 10000 kilometres populated somehow by more than 400 million souls, a half belong to humanity alone. They also spread disinformation among the human nations to consider them not as a threat. In their years of preparation, they manage to mobilize an army of more than 2 million active with training of reserves of more than 4 million.
Once the leaders of the tribes deemed they had prepared enough, they began their first offensive at the small Kingdom of Saint Lumine, a bordering human Kingdom at the dwarven mountain lands northwest of the Continent. The Kingdom, a neutral but with a credible defence of 40 thousand soldiers equipped with their mythril swords and lances could be considered as one of the best in the human lands, but their soldiers will be tested in a battle that will be dubbed as the Massacre of Saint Lumine.
On the night of the Full moon of 4th day of the 6 month of the 4047 Year of the Ascension of the Great Saint Lucia, the Army of Salvation of more than 300,000 attacked the unprepared Kingdom by first unleashing a barrage of large siege magical cannons the dwarves and dark elves prepared. A cannon decorated with magical runic spells of more than 500 mm that can shoot magical cannonballs of fire and lightning magic can destroy a fortress in matter of short time was tested on the walls of the Kingdom borders garrisoned by just 10,000 men with new recruits of 20,000 along with 5000 mercenaries.
The garrison led by the General Hans, an incompetent man who was just put in the position as he was a son of a rich merchant and bought the position as a prestige and potential nobility status in the future. He was a man who ignored the warnings of the intelligence of the Kingdom and always said that the lowly demi-humans will not attack them, and he also didn’t reported to the Royal capital the reports of strange activities of the dwarves who suddenly stopped trading to them along with the other tribes.
The incompetent Hans was just observing from the garrison tower a large gathering of flame lamps and torches from the Great Plains that separate the Kingdom from the Mountainous dwarven tribes of about 3 km in stretch. From the plains emerged a large cavalry of Elves and demons armed with magical bows and arrow that began to ran into the walls and shot a large barrage of arrows followed by a large booming sound that then emerge large balls of fire that instantly killed Hans and his soldiers.
The dwarves continued to fire the cannons and then the dragons emerged and began to breathe fire to the human soldiers. The elven and demon cavalry followed by the infantry of Elven Pikemen, demon swordsmen and Dwarf crossbowmen and gunners stormed the destroy sections of the walls and they overrun the defences of the wall. At the aftermath of the battle, the Army of Salvation began their pillage, loot, plunder and murder of all of the nearby human villages and made pyramids of human heads and the corpses were fed to their wolf, griffin and other monsters they used.
On the other hand, the news of attacks reached the capital and the King began to appeal to the nearest nations for help. It was estimated that the Army of Salvation will reach the capital by a week and thus they had time to prepare. A nearby kingdom managed to send an expeditionary force of 20,000 men, and another one sent a cavalry force of 10,000 along with 5000 mercenary of gunners and crossbowmen. The Royal capital managed to prepare its own force of more than 60,000 men (included the remaining force of 30,000 active) and the siege of the Royal capital began.
The Royal capital was protected by a single tiered wall armed with cannons and ballistae which was then surrounded by a moat of 20 meters wide and 10 meters deep. The Kingdom also have the Royal mages who created a barrier and the best of the mages were ordered to cast their most powerful spells against the approaching enemies. Before the Army of Salvation reached he capital, a lone human mage casted a powerful spell dubbed as lance of light that surprised them and killed an instant of 20,000 soldiers that were incinerated from that light.
It didn’t stopped the army and just continued their march until they reached the Royal capital, surrounded by a great plain of agricultural lands and behind it were the forest through their next target, the Kingdom of Vita which is at war with the Holy Empire. As their armies in the vicinity, the Kingdom first made a diplomatic approach by offering large amounts of gold and mythril but it didn’t budged the commanders and they only demanded the destruction of the Human race.
With no choice, the Kingdom defended itself as best as it could, and with almost no chance of escape, the defenders of the Capital managed to hold as best as it could on the hope that other Kingdoms will come to help, but after almost a month of siege, with amounting casualties, mutiny within, and epidemics, no help came and with no other choice, the King made a decision to use an ancient spell that will cost all of the lives of his remaining people.
He used the Ancient book of Forbidden Spells to summon an entity to destroy the Madness of the Army of Salvation and he summoned the Angel of Catastrophe, a powerful light manifestation of human faith against the heretical demi-humans at the cost of the lives of the capital people and of himself. With all of the people dead, and turned into ashes, the angel of catastrophe did what it must, it wreaked havoc to the lines of the demi-humans and managed to kill more than 100,000 men but it was managed to be sealed away by the great archmages of the demon tribe who countered it with forbidden binding spells at also the cost of their lives.
Once it was sealed, the remaining armies stormed the capital and only saw dead and dried corpses of humans, and after that, they plundered and burned the capital. The battle of the royal capital not only made the Army of Salvation to be furious but also more determined to wipe the humans with greater ferocity. They argued if such spells could be used by humans even at the cost of their lives, then this fight for their survival is a must after all.
After the destruction of the Kingdom of Saint Lumine, nations of human nations began to fall one by one and after almost 18 years of toil and destruction, they now reached the last bastion of humanity, the mysterious, magical and great city of Scientiapolitania, boasted as the best designed city of humanity. Currently the Eleven Supreme Commander Princess Elva ( a woman in her late 40’s with fair complexion and height of 6ft) of the Water tribe is now observing the city from Mount Hotaru (a mountain west of the city) and was amazed by the four tiered walls of it and for its elaborate defences and architecture.
“Hmm, the city of Scientiapolitania, boasted as the magical city, cradle of humanity, cradle of magic and science and the strongest fort of humanity eh, we will see about that” she smirked at the thought of crushing all of the humans in the city, but with its terrifying defences of cannons, magical towers, the long range doomsayer and the most infamous of it all, the Six Towers of Artemis that can almost destroy anything in its range.
“Commander, I suggest we must emplace our newer cannons here to target the Towers of Artemis to worn it out” her deputy commander Priestess Fiona (a woman of late 40’s with black hair, cat ears and tail and with a height of 5ft and 10in) and the remaining of her deputies after the two were killed in the Holy Empire. Then the dwarven Chieftain Pinkeye (a bearded man of late 60s with bulky build and height of 4ft) uttered
“Those towers are the greatest hindrance to this siege, but don’t worry our miners will make an underground passage, and this humans will taste their last battle” the adjutants and other generals nodded. It will really be the last battle of the humans and if they successful, the humans will have no choice but to die here or at sea full of monsters and mystery. Elva then spoke
“The towers of Artemis, a weapon of Ancient Humanity that even the inhabitants of the city themselves cannot comprehend on how it was operated, it was said to be created by the gods themselves to defend the city, a marvellous weapon but its time must end. All of my commanders, we will destroy the towers and massacre the remaining humans, but there is something strange that I felt here when we set our foot in this land” her commanders agreed to her and then the Demon General Marchia (a woman of early 30’s, and a recent commander; she is a woman of 5ft 5in tall of short black hair and fair complexion and with horns like that of a bull, and wearing a black chest armour).
“Yes commander, the mages of our army surmised that it was caused by the city’s abnormal amount of magical energy and to the lands accumulation of the said energy especially at the mountain next to Mount Hotaru”
“You mean Mount Sora?” Marchia nodded
“It was said in ancient texts that is where the first god of Humans, the creator god Aten set foot and believed to create the first humans in his image and divine will. The city was considered sacred to the humans and no one lived there except the phoenixes”
“Phoenixes eh, an enemy of the dragons and guardians of humans, well they were a ferocious bird after all capable of killing the best of the dragon tribe” Marchia nodded and chief Pinkeye then spoke
“Well! I am itching to fight these humans again! I will going to avenge my brethren who were wiped out by the Imperial Golems, my boys created something that will fit for this humans” All of them agreed to him and the Supreme Commander, Princess Fiona exclaimed
“Lets commence the battle!” and with that the large horns were sounded, the dwarven cannons began to fire, elven ballistae and magical light mirrors began to also fire their projectiles, demon archers and spell casters unleashed their dark energy magic. Beast people and dwarf warriors began the scaling of the first wall, and a long battle ensued.
To be continued.