Chapter 358 Operation Red Moon
The Fire Orc Army was in an uneasy state with the change of plans when the new orders out were given out by the respective orc officers. Their commander, Green Fire's absence and the rumours that he had derelict his duty made everyone wondered if he was doing the right thing to run away from this crazy plan of their King.
Some believed Green Fire was killed, but there were still reports of random abandoned villages that were incinerated were due to his handicraft. Though Fire Orc Mages did have the capability to summon such fiery ferocity, their magic only contained a slight trace of Shaitan powers in them. Thus, the investigation team had no reason to doubt any Fire Orc Mages as suspects due to the high amount and intensity of Shaitan powers being detected in those charred ruins.
This was because how the Fire Orc mages worked their magic was by syphoning residue mana from the Shaitan plane in order to cast their spells. Since they belonged to Fire Orc tribes, they were more tuned to absorbing the residue mana of Ifrit to cast their magic, which was why their magic was fire based. But unlike the Avatar of Ifrit, Green Fire's source of power was directly from Ifrit himself and hence possessed a large amount of Shaitan powers.
Then one might ask what was the difference between the powers of Fire Orc mages and Green Fire's? The destruction it caused. To put it simply, an Avatar of Ifrit casting a fireball had the same destruction capability to a team of Fire Orc mages casting Firestorm. The intensity might vary depending on the amount of mana placed, but that was the whole gist of it. That was why the avatars of the Shaitan Nobles were placed as commanders of various armies because of their destructive power.
Therefore, being desperate to know the whereabouts of their commander before the start of the most massive operation in orc's history, the Fire Orc Mages did try to scry for Green Fire's location by asking Ifrit about the whereabouts of his Avatar. Unfortunately, Ifrit did not entertain them and only said his powers were still alive in that world.
That was because Ifrit was amused by the workings of his new descendant, Flame Ripper. The newly appointed goblin was doing what he could to confuse the Orc investigation team as instructed by Colonel Ayse via Jin. The hide and seek somehow gave the spectating Ifrit a bit of thrill seeing his new descendent playing the fool against the orcs searching for Green Fire.
This was in lieu with the work the team of goblin assassins lead by Dagger General Ignis. While Flameripper was distracting the orcs, Ignis had been activating multiple waypoint locations across the Orc mainland. He was shocked when he learnt that his son managed to achieve the powers of Ifrit but because time was essential since the death of Green Fire, Ignis promised to give a surprise to his son when everything was over.
The Dagger General also utilised Flame Ripper's magic to burn down any evidence they could have left while hiding the waypoints in plain sight. (Most of the waypoints were in the basements of taverns and the orcs did not bother to see through the entire wreckage of each village.) With more waypoints activated, the goblin assassins increasingly used them to perform assassination missions in order to weaken and mislead the orcs and their investigation team.
Not just that, they had been stealing from the supplies bases which were poorly guarded and yet resource rich for their own use — food supplies, gold, natural resources etc. After which, Flame Ripper utilised the waypoints to return to the capital and gifted everything to the Capital. Ignis attributed the lack of security in these supply bases due to the full focus on their current operation which made stealing so much simpler.
Similar to Wyrstriker, Jin wanted to give Flame Ripper a storage ring but because he was the descendant and chosen avatar, Ifrit had given him abilities to transfer items to the Shaitan plane where he could keep an unlimited amount of items, which was more advantageous than a storage ring could handle. However, whether that power could be used in Jin's world or other worlds, Flame Ripper had no idea.
With the increased waypoints being activated once again in those old abandoned villages, it was now possible to bring in an army to fight against the King in his own backyard if they wanted to. All they need now was just the right time to strike back against the Orcs.
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Orc King Hamu had finally arrived at the most extensive base which so happened to be located farthest to the Orc Capital where the bulk of the Fire Orc Army was currently stationed. Along with him was Yellow Ice, his Right Hand man, Oku and Colonel Ayse in a more distinct officer uniform than her usual researcher coat. Colonel Ayse immediately started her work by commanding the humanoid slave researchers to start up the lost tech artefact portals which numbered to the dozens.
The plan was to storm the capital by force while the Northern and Western Diversion diverted the bulk of the goblin army's attention. After a few comments from the researchers, Colonel Ayse concluded that most of the lost tech artefacts were still functioning and proudly stated that they were able to proceed to phase two of the Red Moon Operation.
But when the humanoid slaves were booting up the lost tech artefact portals, Ayse purposely asked them to attach a new piece of equipment on the main generator that was powering the lost tech portal devices. Right Hand Oku found it weird and asked what was that equipment for.
"It's to increase the output of the portals, making it easier for multiple Fire Orcs warriors to rush in as quickly as possible, taking full advantage of the element of surprise. It's an invention I spent countless nights creating." Colonel Ayse said with grace as King Hamu walked towards them. Oku found it a little fishy especially since most of the equipment had gone through a quality check to ensure everything operated smoothly.
"By adding something at the very last minute will only increase the risk of our Fire Orc troops, will it not? Isn't this something you should not do at such a critical stage of the Red Moon Operation?" Oku demanded an answer which Colonel Ayse had something at the tip of her tongue to counter him, but King Hamu stopped her. Contrary to Oku's expectation, King Hamu instead praised her for a job well done.
"But Your Majesty!" Oku wanted to reason, and he was ignored by the King once more. Seeing the entire commotion, the humanoid slaves immediately acknowledged Colonel Ayse's new command and began to attach the latest piece of contraption on the power generator.
The generator whizzed for a while before moving faster than normal and suddenly the entry portals that appeared certainly became two times bigger. It meant more troops could enter the other side once the coordinates had been found by the lost tech linking device. As of now, the entry portals were still red in colour indicating that the lost artefacts that were placed had not been synced up yet.
With the aid of a linking device that the humanoid slave researchers were busy dabbling with, it would capture the signal of the lost tech exit portal artefacts and provide the coordinates for the entry portals. It would then synchronise with the exit portals and the entry portals turn blue, indicating that the Fire Orc Army could finally charge into the Goblin's capital. Hence while everyone was waiting for the portals, King Hamu began giving a speech as he stood on a podium that was specially prepared for him for this occasion.
"Gentlemen, you might have heard of rumours or unofficial reports of your commander, the Avatar of Ifrit being missing for days. Rest assured. Appropriate investigations would be carried out before we pass any judgement. In replacement of your commander, I will be taking over his role and of Red Hurricane's too," King Hamu said with a voice being amplified by magic. When he officially announced him taking over, there were disgruntled whispers in the crowd before the respective orc leaders on the ground demanded silence from their troops.
"Yes, I will be the interim commander for both the Fire Orc Army and remaining of the Wind Orc Army which would be arriving shortly." The King spoke as he unleashed his Shaitan powers in front of the Fire Orcs to see. The only language orcs ever knew was Power. That was why when a giant silhouette of Diabolos appeared right above King Hamu's shoulders with his six wings all spread out, the Fire Orc Army went entirely mute.
Not just that, a slight faint silhouette of Garuda also appeared underneath the wings of Diabolos too and everyone who was at the base realised that their King was blessed with the powers of two Shaitan Nobles. A feat no Orc had ever done before nor heard before.
Yet they did not know that was the ability of Diabolos, the Shaitan Messenger. As long King Hamu had absorbed the powers of other Shaitan Nobles once, Diabolos would be able to replicate an extent of the absorbed powers. "Hmmph! Ayse's suggestion was right after all. By absorbing Red Hurricane Shaitan's powers, I imposed a stronger aura than ever before." King Hamu nearly had a grin escaping his expressionless face as he continued to talk to the masses.
"I understand some might be unsatisfied with the current arrangement but because of the commencement of our most complex operation in our entire Orc history, the Red Moon Operation, there can be no room for mistakes. We must improvise if we need to. Else, weeks or even months of training and preparation would be for nought." King Hamu said.
"This operation would determine not just the fate of our kingdom, but to show those inferior beings a lesson they would never forget. A mark of history that would be ingrained deeply into their books and race forever!" Hamu said in such a deathly tone that every orc felt something was choking their necks and it was not going away anytime soon. Even Ayse who was behind the scenes had that particular sensation and realised that it was the doing of Diabolos under the influence of the ascension of the Red Moon.
Yellow Ice was able to withstand the 'suffocation' because he had the protection of Shiva with him. This particular move which King Hamu did, reinforced Yellow Ice's motivations to kill the king even if it felt like a lost cause. Nevertheless, Yellow Ice was a cynic as he kept thinking when would be the most optimal to attack him. Perhaps when Sol, the Goblin King managed to weakened Hamu?
"Hahaha, but that's the best case scenario. There is no way fate would be that kind to a betrayer…" Yellow Ice thought to himself as he checked on Cross which he had hid within his shadows, a unique magical skill Yellow Ice taught Cross considering he was the previously the Royal Spymaster.
The portals finally turned blue, just right before the full peak of the Red Moon. The Orc King smiled as he had waited for this moment for a very long time. All these desires for power went way back when Hamu remembered how he overheard that his insane father was going to sacrifice him in order to retrieve a fragment of Diabolos. It prompted Hamu to kill his own father to achieve a similar result but instead of a fragment of Diabolos, he received the acknowledgement of Diabolos. At that moment, he realised he was going to achieve greatness. With the aid of Colonel Ayse, he managed to find the lost tech island because of the prophecy given by Diabolos and that was when the gears of war started all over again.
"Charge." The King gave just one single order which made the entire Fire Orc fire army to move instantly. The suffocation the orcs suffered was not only a show of power but a command leash to make sure no one would have the idea of abandoning this twisted cause of his. Ayse had an inkling what it was as she had the sensation to move too, but she was able to resist the command of King Hamu. She later figured that its powers were incomparable to the 'leash' the System had placed her in.
King Hamu, on the other hand, was quite surprised that Yellow Ice, Ayse and Oku were still sane despite the command leash spell he had placed on all the orcs and humanoid slaves. "Yellow Ice, I had nothing to say to you but for the other two? " King Hamu said with a tinge of sarcasm which Oku replied he was able to resist because of his absolute duty was to protect the King.
"I am probably too occupied with other things to be commanded especially when my slaves are all gone now." Ayse casually gave an excuse and pretended to take a look at the machines that were operating before she had her back turned towards King Hamu and smiled.
The attachment she previously asked the humanoids slave researchers to placed on the power generators was not any simple device. It was something created by the System after it had analysed the lost tech artefacts thoroughly.
The System had disguised the unique attachment into a portal enhancer while hiding the actual functions of the device. Its primary purpose was to decrypt the real coordinates of the lost portals artefacts and masked them. Even though it was attached to the power generator, the attachment was able to transmit its signal and adjust the linking device accordingly. Since they were slaves, the humanoids operating the linking device and power generator were fearful for their lives and would do what it takes to prevent any mishaps from happening.
Hence, they took great pains to sift through the many lost tech artefacts given to the orc raiders. When the linking device displayed a different coordinate that was not close to the actual coordinates of the capital, the slave researchers would ignore those lost tech portal artefacts. But what if all the lost artefacts were to show foreign coordinates? They would then have to report to their higher ups including Ayse in consideration for Plan B which was a mass transportation spell.
Initially, if such an incident were to occur and it would, mainly because the lost tech artefacts were already transported to the Volcano Island for Operation Pompeii by Jin and his monsters, Ayse wanted to resolve it by herself and did not want any help. However, Jin felt that it would still be too dangerous since it might lead to further suspicions. If there were factors that were within their abilities to control, they would do their best to achieve so that their operation would have a lesser possibility of any hiccups.
Hence, with the System's attachment, all the lost artefacts 'properly' indicated the coordinates were close to the Goblin capital in the linking device. There was no reason for the humanoid slaves to suspect any foul play since they were probably the only ones aside from Ayse who could decipher them.
However, with the Diabolo's command leash, those humanoid slaves had already blindly proceeded into the battlefield without the ability to properly verify the coordinates. This was a lucky break for Ayse while she continued to pretend to observe the readings on the linking device to ensure everything was working as per 'usual'.
Seeing how Ayse was handling the portal device with ease, King Hamu sighed a breath of relief. He did not expect the command leash's spell to be widespread and affected the humanoid slaves too. His only possible explanation was the power he obtained from the ascension of the Red Moon.
Even by just standing at the podium, he could already feel power seeping into him as the Red Moon glowed brightly. Hence, he decided to have a seat at the makeshift throne that was prepared on the podium for him while he casually enjoyed examining his orcs obediently marching forward into the portals. "We shall capture the Goblin Capital and make King Sol bleed." King Hamu thought to himself but then Diabolos softly whispered him a reminder.
"Do not forget that King Sol is mine to partake." Diabolos said in a deep voice which King Hamu sneered a little before remembering the bargain he did with Diabolos. He could only agree with a nod since he was still at the mercy of Diabolos. But deep under, he was also hatching a plan to overturn the Diabolos in him and obtain the power of light for himself.
"This world would eventually be mine to conquer." King Hamu disillusioned himself once more while he bided his time to enter the Goblin Capital.