Ocean Of Broken Dreams

As Cranos was washed away by the molten fury of Cataclysm in the other two locations similar situations were occurring.

[…]

The northern gates of Ashur, another massive city, were directly blasted away. A blonde woman stood on the rubble proudly.

"Charge." – Quietly said Cornelia while cleaning her shield from dust.

Her crown shined once and immediately thousands of ghostly beings materialized around her and ran into the breach.

The bodies of these creatures became more corporeal and definite as time passed: warriors clad in grey identical armors, armed with short swords and rectangular shields. Their most interesting traits were the absence of mouth and empty eye sockets.

Grey fog followed their slaughter-march.

[…]

The ground around Gheena became unsteady and even a bit…wavy like seawater.

'[Sink]'

*SPLASH* A whole giant city disappeared, consumed by the waves. If there was someone with very good perception to observe this shocking sight, he would notice a silhouette of a ship surrounded by thousands of shadows which, like a flock of hungry piranha swam towards the sunken city.

Maw of the Sea never appeared.

Sorrow also started moving after some time. As Alex was observing the surrounding desolate view the whole ship slightly trembled.

'What's going on?' He looked around trying to find the origin of the disturbance.

"Look down." – Said an aged void. Alexander was surprised but quickly recomposed himself. – "Greetings, Lord Vice-Captain." – The old man nodded, probably satisfied by young mans' courtesy: a trait usually lacking in their environment.

Alex leaned forward just in time to see something wriggling inside the ships' shadow. – "W-what…?"

"Just wait and you will see."

After a few moments, Alex managed to distinguish some humanoid figures. He opened his eyes wide, surprised, the very next moment.

The creatures all had bird heads. – "Crows?" – Instead of hands and feet they also had something more like birds' claws.

Their bodies were covered by feathers. .

"These are minions of this ship." – 'Explained' the old man. – "You've probably already noticed that the ships of Ocean Lords are not exactly normal." – Alex nodded.

"Ocean Lords are the main military force of Broken Ocean and since there are few of them one way of compensating this numerical disadvantage, which becomes important when we invade some other words, are the minions. The creatures are linked directly to the ship and can be summoned at captains' will."

Alex had many questions but listened without interrupting.

"For example, Cataclysm has fire spirits and Maw of the Sea has a horde of monsters of the deep."

He then pointed towards the raven-like creatures beneath. Alex also noticed that even though they appeared with no clothes initially now all of them were already equipped with a set of slender armor and had spears. – "And Sorrow has its own Legion of Raven Striges."

The first batch of minions stepped from the shadow ran into the distance. – "Minions are very useful and handy to deal with weak enemies, to loot and perform some not very difficult tasks."

More and more striges were emerging, getting equipped and going in different directions. – "How many minions are there?" – Asked Alex. – "That depends only on how strong the Ocean Lord is." – That he added. – "And John is very strong."

[…]

"Your Majesty!" – A skinny-looking young esprit knocked on the door and then directly entered Sixth Princes' study. The urgency was written all over his face. – "Your Majesty!"

The same person, young grey-skinned youth, who tried to take over the city of Gemini looked towards his flustered aide. – "What's wrong? Have Ocean Lords arrived?"

"Something terrible! Ocean Lords from the Broken Ocean invad…what?" – The aide stopped mid-sentence. – "You already know?"

*Sign* "It was something predictable after my little stroll in the Upper Broken Ocean."

He tapped his finger on the desk. – "The Deep is obviously enraged, so It sent some hounds to hunt me."

*TAP*TAP*TAP*

"How is the construction of the portal going?" – He asked completely unbothered by the situation at hand.

The aide took out some papers. – "The inner circle is completed, while the outer circle is only at 75 percent of power."

Prince pondered.

'That's good enough, I guess. He will be able to compensate the remaining percentage with his own power. Now I just have to wait for my guests and then activate the formation…but this can also be difficult since they can escape if something is too amiss…'

While still in thought he sighed. – "Who told me to become a betrayer of my people. It's such a tiring job…"

"Are the fortifications ready?" – The aide nodded immediately but some doubt was clearly written on his face. – "Ye-yes, but…"

"Just speak directly." – Interrupted Prince coldly.

"I don't think we will be able to withstand the combined ȧssault of four Ocean Lords." – He immediately felt the space around him freeze. His legs began trembling uncontrollably and he nearly fell when suddenly Princes' killing intent completely vanished.

"You are absolutely right." – Calmly said His Majesty.

"S-so…" – Terrified aide tried to say something, but Prince stopped him. – "But we don't need to win. Our only task is to give them a decent fight and activate the portal after that."

The skinny esprit froze for a second. Understanding appeared on his tired face.

"…should I…Should I send all the available population towards the conversion pools?"

Prince nodded visibly satisfied. 'Having mindless slaves is very nice, yes but a capable and loyal aide is also essential.' – "Take this. When the portal will be activated, this token will be useful."

[…]

A few minutes later after Prince dismissed his subordinate nearly all the population of the capital formed orderly rows going towards a few special locations behind the innermost city walls.

On the external part of the jet to be activated portal there were several pools filled with golden liquid: a discarded product of the portal.

Every esprit had to enter the pool and stay submerged for a few minutes.

Before the conversion, they had normal ghostly bodies made from cursed energy and after the transformation process, the creatures that emerged from the pool couldn't be even called esprits.

Clusters of moving golden metal, covered with veins of cursed energy, with more or less four unspecialized limbs.

Prince tentatively called them Mutated Esprits. The best point of the new bodies was their sturdiness and extreme, shocking given their irregular body shape, speed.

The downside was that after the transformation the esprits completely lost their intelligence and could never return to their original form.

Some special esprits, who were more compatible with the golden liquid had some naturally formed runes glowing on their limbs.

[…]

The whole city had three concentric walls. The outside one, the largest, had 24 battle towers. The middle wall had 12 towers, and the last one only had 3. Every tower had some special crystals engraved in it and from time to time one could see green cursed energy circling between the towers.

The whole defensive system was controlled from the central part of the city where Sixth Prince himself resided.

Princes' aide at this moment stood before a large console covered with many small runes and symbols.

"Well…how was it…" – He pressed a few runes. – "Ok, now, activate the main core…" – He mumbled and tapped a few other runes.

"…then all the energy to the defense system…and…done."

The walls suddenly were set in motion and started slowly rotating shattering the earth around the city.

[…]

"OH HOHOHO, the little prince is prepared for our arrival." – James laughed as the four ships made finally arrived at the capital city.

Alexander from the distance saw a majestic fortress made from some sort of black rock.

"Is it…moving?" – He suddenly noticed.

"Yeah! Very impressive defensive mechanism. I once saw something similar in another world we pillaged…"

"ATTENTION." – John exited the captains' cabin. – "Let's begin."

Suddenly the top part of every external tower flew in the air. In the opening that was formed this way flew many small and swift creatures that Alex, due to distance, couldn't identify.

At the same moment as a flaming shower, fire spirits emerged from the Cataclysm and sprinted towards the city.

From another direction, a wave of fog with some armored outlines hiding inside of it rolled towards the last Princes' hiding spot.

Captain Jarnar lifted his right hand, and a huge chunk of terrain became water-like with his monsters swimming inside of it.

The most numerous Legion of Raven Striges, a pitch-black avalanche of feathers and spears, also advanced towards the target.

[…]

"Activate the energy suppressing field, and the increase the transmission viscosity 1 kilometer around the city." – Ordered Prince while observing the four ships in front of the city.

[…]

The rotation of walls accelerated slightly, and Alex saw a huge transparent dome enveloping the whole city and some of its surroundings.

The fire spirits were the first ones to cross the 1-kilometer mark and the boy saw them slowing down considerably.

"Damn…the field that slows the transmission of energy between the ships and minions." – Cursed Kleid. – "Anyway. It won't be very useful."

Two armies clashed under Alexanders' curious eyes.