Synthetic Survivor: Machine Age

[Belrug, Capital City of the Republic]

The emperor sat comfortably on his royal throne. The throne room was lavishly decorated with purple ornaments, gold, various precious stones, and silk fabrics. The windows were massive in size and had large curtains in front of them to block the sun's light whenever it was the time of the day.

It was noon and the sun was at its brightest, its rays shining brightly through the windows and thus, the curtains were dropped and the windows covered. The curtains were purple, though not that pleasing to the eye, it was a show of wealth and power.

The Republic was one of the continent's superpowers that sported a very large continental military. With more than twenty major cities, fifty cities and hundreds of towns and villages under its territory, it was easily one of the largest countries in the continent. A territory equivalent to the Russian Federation back home.

The tall wooden doors slowly opened. The doors creaked as two knights pushed each door to the side. A tall man wearing a red cloak walked right in, his steps were loud and echoed around the throne room. The king stared at him as he walked down the red carpet.

The man reached the end of the red carpet and knelt before the king. His cloak covered his head and body and only his face was slightly exposed to the outside, revealing a few scars and a thick skin. The emperor raised his right hand and asked the man, "What is your business?" The king softly asked. The man raised his head and answered, "A p.l.e.a.s.u.r.e to meet you, Emperor Hurrus Gustus, I am but a lone delegate sent by the Empire to discuss important matters to your highness," The man said with confidence.

The emperor's eyes slightly closed and he leaned back on his throne, "Show me that you are indeed from my brother," The King was doubtful. At once, the fifty royal paladins guarding the throne room drew their swords and encircled the red cloak man.

The man simply smiled under his cloak and revealed his palms from under his cloak.

"Hm?" The emperor leaned forward from his throne. The royal paladins each took a step forward in anticipation of the worse to come.

"Ha!" The emperor joyfully laughed as he saw the intricate symbolism on the man's palms.

The royal paladins quickly backed down and returned to their positions.

"You may stand now, messenger," The emperor smiled at the man who at once stood up and presented himself. The man stood upright and seemed disciplined, he then proceeded to draw a magic incantation in midair.

After drawing the magic incantation, a small burst of colors took its place and a holographic image manifested itself afterward.

The image was at first blurry with colors spazzing about, it took a few seconds for it to reveal what it was trying to show.

The throne room fell silent.

"Is that, the southern peninsula?" The emperor's eyes widened. The image spastically switched scenery after scenery, displaying the destruction of the southern peninsula in full view of the emperor. The imagery did not fail to fully convey the horrors, from the hundreds of thousands of dead men lying in, over and around the hills, the plains, the grasslands and even at the deserts. The cities were also not spared, walls were torn, women and children dead on the streets.

"What happened there?" The emperor had so many questions he wanted answers to.

"Who did this?"

"When did this happen?"

"Why were we not informed immediately?"

The messenger bowed at each question before he finally spoke.

"The Empire's Magic Guild noticed disturbances in the movements of the Freetan Theocracy, the Theocracy we let govern as a de facto peacekeeper in the southern peninsula. Their elite Papal Scripture mysteriously vanished after being called-on in a mission by the pope who was also later killed by unknown assailants. The unknown assailants also proceeded to massacre thousands in every city of the Theocracy, taking out the archbishops and several other elite mages of the Theocracy,"

The man paused for a second and cleared his throat.

"Furthermore, streaks of light fell from the sky as soon as these assailants disappeared from all scenes of the attacks. These streaks of light were not magical in nature, the mages confirmed it. Even so, they managed to deal massive damage to the cities, causing explosions and killing thousands more,"

"Wait," The emperor raised his right hand at the man.

"How does this explain the death and destruction you're showing me right now?

The man simply nodded.

"Your highness, exactly 5 weeks ago, our agents reported that the Theocracy announced a crusade against the 'metal men'. At first, the agents were skeptical and they had every right to be, we have neither known or heard of any new race of men made of metal,"

"The metal men were real?"

"Correct," The man then pulled something from under his cloak. It was small at first but the man then proceeded to wave his hand around it, returning it to its small size. It was a standard-issue blaster rifle used by the normal soldier drone of the Machine Empire.

"This, an unknown weapon that does not use magic," The man showed the weapon to the emperor who has so far been tightly glued on his chair, unable to utter any meaningful sentence but questions.

"Is this it? are there not anything else we know or have of these metal men?" The emperor wanted to know more about these 'metal men'. Throughout known history, the Republic and the Empire were best known for being the peacekeepers of the continent, making sure that the smaller nations were always in-line.

To have an unknown race suddenly appear and wreak havoc to the continent's southern peninsula was unacceptable. Mainly because of the human supremacy mindset of the nations. The beastmen countries have always had trouble establishing a stable economic, social and diplomatical foundation. More often than not, the human countries would regularly wage atrocious wars against the beastmen in the name of human supremacy.

So, these metal men were just another addition to the continent's unwelcomed subhuman denizens.

"Sadly, only one of our agents returned. The rest were caught in the war that ensued and was killed by the metal men. He was able to bring this weapon with him and gather the information crystals of the other agents before narrowly escaping. He has so far refused to answer further questions and is being treated,"

The emperor's face turned uneasy. He flinched at the mere thought of the agents sent by the Empire all being killed by the new race. But it was quite possible that the agents were simply caught in the crossfire but it fails to explain why the agents would place themselves into harm's way. There could only be one explanation, they were deliberately sought out and killed by the enemy.

"Allow me to state another question, I know the agents of both our countries are top-class, mages trained in stealth, combat and high-tier magic. To think that most of the agents would fall by the hands of an unknown enemy would beg the question, were they deliberately targeted?"

"The archmage of the Empire believes this as well, the agents might have been found out by the metal men and subsequently hunted down until only one managed to flee. It is also worth noting that the Theocracy mustered a million crusaders but the agent claimed that they were all defeated during the 'Offensive'."

The emperor raised his right eyebrow after hearing the peculiar word.

"Offensive?" The Emperor asked.

"The agent claims that when he was fending off one of the metal men, the demihuman actually spoke out loud "Commencing Offensive," repeatedly,"

The emperor gently c.a.r.e.s.sed the sides of his throne and thought deeply for a moment.

"Your highness, the death toll is estimated to be 2 million, the biggest number after the Second Great War, the Empire fears that these new demihumans may cause an imbalance to the status quo in the continent,"

"Then, what does the Great Ceasar suggest we do?" The emperor leaned forward once more and bit his lip.

"The Great Ceasar is yet to decide whether to act immediately against the metal men or try to establish communications. The Ceasar's inner circle are pushing for a more diplomatic approach, for now, raising concerns that they were too unknown to be dealt hastily and thus need to be studied further by our scholars,"

The emperor sighed and closed his eyes. He taps his forehead with his finger before opening his eyes and speaking again.

"Very well, I will wait for the Great Ceasar's decision before I do mine. I will instruct one of my advisors to go with a battalion and travel down to the peninsula. They are to remain at the southernmost village in our territory closest to the peninsula and remain there until further notice,"

After the two sides exchanged pleasantries, the messenger rode off. The emperor was confused but was not shaken, war and destruction come in many forms and this was no different from any of those forms. The Republic will stand united with the Empire, they being the only true survivors of the now Forgotten Second Great War, they stand united to prevent the same cataclysm that befell the continent 700 years ago.

[Inner City, Belrug, Capital of the Republic]

The messenger was inside his black carriage. Every diplomatic envoy from other states was always required to ride in one of the Republic's state-of-the-art black carriages for their protection. These carriages were mostly resistant to most magic attacks and were highly durable against explosions and the like.

The messenger was sitting comfortably on the couch. Sitting on the other couch was the archmage of the Empire, Ferdinand Nunz. He wore a white priestly attire to show his connection to the Empire's State Religion of Yax. The archbishop remained in the carriage unnoticed and observed the meeting through the eyes of the messenger using magic.

"The emperor seems disgruntled," Ferdinand said in a soft and weak voice. Old age has taken its toll on the 702-year-old man.

"Yes, master, the emperor and the Great Ceasar both share the same reaction and sentiment as of late. Why is it best that we refrain from using our powerful magical artifacts to deal with the enemy at once?"

"Little one, you think too brashly. To combat the unknown, we must first discover the unknown. What use are these artifacts if we do not even know what we are going up against? remember, little one, the world has seen relative peace for a few hundred years, it is about time something was to disturb this peace. If we were to use these artifacts at once, not only will it take a nightmarish amount of magical power but would require the skills and commitment of every 8-tier caster in the empire to cast a single artifact,"

"I-I apologize, master,"

"Fret not, little one, we will stay in Belrug until the emperor sends out the envoy and we shall follow suit.  Remember, our mission here is to see the enemy act on its own accord and deal with them accordingly, find the leader and evaluate the powers of said leader,"

"Right!"

"Then, off into the unknown, we go,"

The carriage made its way around the inner city and into outer districts. The streets were less crowded as the sun began to set. The people in the capital have begun to go indoors and the street lamps were lit up. The wyverns that appeared as small dots in the sky began to descend as the morning star came to its slumber.

The continent has been shaken. The Machine Empire shall soon be a name that many shall fear, their feet shall tremble and their shields shall be broken.

The Age Of The Machines.

Is Nigh.

-

"Hailey, do I look like a villager to you?"

"No, you look like an old man who has not showered for thirty years,"

"Perfect"