[Current location: Holy castle]

"…..Okay…. Please, repeat this once more." – said the holy emperor as he held his head.

"The entire port city and a portion of our naval army, alongside the gryphon squadrons and army of angels…. They were all annihilated."

"And it wasn't water dragon clan or any other clan supporting that specific invasion force."

"No."

"You are telling me, that the vampires ALONE managed to did all of this?"

"And you."

"Iron Will."

"You are telling me that the reason why they had won in first place was because of some sort of giant machine that is as big as an island."

"Is that correct?"

"Y-yes." – replied nervous Iron Will.

"According to the adventures that were on the scene, a giant flying fortress plane just flew above our naval forces and bombarded all."

"One of my friends who was there also said that all of the flying units were…. Taken down with ease."

"…"

"You are telling me, that we lost entire port city and all of its forces defending it, in just one day…. ONE DAY?" – asked visible pissed off holy emperor.

"…"

"We will need to intestate that 'flying iron island' later on."

"What about the dragon forces? Did we managed to at least stop them in place?"

"Em…. Yes and no." – replied the elderly priest.

"The dragon forces of the fire, earth and light tribes were repelled, but their initial attack did ended up damaging leaving our frontlines much more damaged than we had predicted."

"If they attack us again one more time or maybe either two or three times, our defense would break and the dragons would be able to invade our lands."

"The same goes with the darkness, nature and water dragon tribes."

"Their own naval assault was repelled and unlike the army that attacked us on the land, we didn't suffered much damage."

"But there is now problem with the vampires." – spoke up suddenly a paladin.

"The organization has launched attacks from 3 different locations, with two of those locations being sea and land."

"There is quiet distance between all forces, meaning that they are aiming to force us on spilling up our own forces to counter them."

"So far? We managed to counter attack two of those attacks."

"But now that the vampires managed to break through one of our lines of the defense, they could possible travel by the sea and land to give support to their closes allies, the second dragon clans combined army."

"It would obviously make them waste a lot of time, since they would need to travels a long distance to get to their allies."

"But at the same time, we would lost a huge chunk of the territory located right next to the sea, in turn any settlements and ships that would be caught in their path."

"Or they could either go deeper into our territory, causing chaos and destruction, which in turn would cause our own forces to pay more attention to the vampires."

"We did realizing that the vampires became much stronger after the war they had with us…. But this?" – said the giant paladin in heavy armor.

"We have already talked about their abnormal growth in speed and that we need to exterminate every single one of them... And this right here only solidifies our answer."

"We will need to hunt every single one of these vampires to extinction."

With the arrival of the "Sky Metal Island", that what people call our "Sky Behemoth Ship", we were able to conquer the entire port city as well as decimate part of the empire naval forces with ease.

This was a "big" opening that the "Kid" wanted to make.

Why?

Well, multiple reasons.

First thing first, the holy empire is one of the nations that relays heavily on the "faith" stat.

The more you spread fear, terror, despair and all sort of negative feelings, the harder it will be for the "faith" based nation and army to gather up their special resource called "faith".

So, what do you think happens if the news of the holy empire army defeat spreads out?

True, this is only one defeat and everything, but there are two problems.

The first problem is that the other dragon clans failed to properly invade the empire lands, showing that the empire forces are not weak at all.

But on the other hand we had managed to squash their first army AND their main line of the defense in a single day.

This will definitely spread panic and fear amongst the believers of the "holy mother".

So, yea, the "scarier" we look, the more damage we will do to them all in more than one way.

Anyway, back to the war.

As stated before, both of the dragon clans combined forces were not able to break through the empire defenses. Which does put us in bit problematic decision.

But-

"The dragons don't want our support." – said "Kid".

"Eh? They don't want it?" – asked confused Phantasia.

"Yeb. They don't want it." – said "Kid".

"Even the darkness dragon general that was with us just said 'nope' and returned back to his own army."

"They said that they don't need us and that they will 'HANDLE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS'."

"But I can probably tell what is going on and it is beyond stupid."

"They want to 'preserve their own pride'."

"By the looks of things, these bastards are extremely pissed off since during the last war we had straight up carried them."

"…"

"True." – said Phantasia.

"We pretty much did most of the heavy lifting during the last war."

"Honestly, it does kind of makes look dragon clans appear to be quiet weak."

"I guess they want to make sure that 'THEY ARE NOT WEAK'."

"Meh. Let them act like idiots, it will still work in our favor." – said "Kid'.

"The holy empire will need to split their forces to deal with them."

"Anyway, regarding the ship. Is it ready to move?"

"Yeb. The Sky Behemoth can continue as planned."

"Good…. Then how about we continue having fun?" – asked "Kid" as he started walking away.

"…"

"What about you? Are you all having fun?" – asked Phantasia as he turned around, facing Arthur party that was abord the ship.

"Honestly, I wasn't expecting you and your party to take part in this war."

"Or were the rewards from war with the wind god that good?"

"…"

"Is this all your doing?" – asked Arthur.

"Hm?"

"I'm asking if it was all your doing."

"The guns, the tanks, the ships….. And now even this."

"Was that all your doing?"

"Well, yes." – said Phantasia as he took off his helmet mask and approached the party.

"Interesting, isn't it?"

"Combination of the modern technology with fantasy and magic."

"Yea…. Honestly, do you really think anybody would really think you have made that?" – asked Arthur.

"I don't need them to believe me, since I can make this." – replied Phantasia.

(Honestly, I'm more interested in them.) – thought Phantasia.

(Thanatos told me about what the Arthur and his party did during the last war.)

(I did heard news here and there about Arthur increasing popularity, but for him to stand out that much in that specific war…. He will become problematic.)

(And "Kid" realized his true value, so he wants to recruit him.)

(From what I've was told, Arthur is part of organization, but he ain't part of one of the factions inside the organization.)

(But honestly speaking? I doubt it will work out.)

(This guy has already paid off the debt he owns me and he ain't in hurry to ask for any new items.)

(If anything, I think Arthur may become our "enemy" in the future.)

"Anyway, it was quiet interesting to find out that this empire was your original starting location."

"And that you have the saint Morina with you. "

"Tch. Cut it out with that bloody 'saint', would you?" – asked the female human player in saint clothing.

[Player: Morina – Heretic Saint – Previously known as: One Of The Saints Of The Holy Empire]

"Hey, you can't blame me for being curious." – replied Phantasia.

"I mean, you are pretty big shot….. Which does makes me- "

"Ah, would you bloody shut up." – said Morina.

"We only came here to do our job."

"If you have problem with this, piss off."

"…"

"Heh."

"So you can bark? Nice." – said Phantasia.

"Okay, calm down you two." – said Arthur as he stepped between the two.

"Calm down. We are not doing anything." – said Phantasia as he turned around.

"We are 'friends', aren't we?"

"So don't worry about anything... But one word of advice."

"Don't do anything weird on the ship."

"I've already warn you before."

"We don't want any accidents, right?" – said Phantasia before then walking away, leaving the ship main pilot cabin.

"…"

"…"

"Keep a close eye on them. But make sure you are not exposed."

"So, you DO not trust them." – said Thanatos from Phantasia shadow.

"Yeb." – said Phantasia.

"They are definitely in the empire for some reason."

"And if possible, I would like to know what they are planning."

"…"

"Fine." – replied Thanatos.

"But I hope you understand that this may result in our relationship worsening between our two groups."

"I know." – said Phantasia.

"But honestly speaking, I don't bloody trust that bastard, as much as he doesn't trust me."