The OP Lich is a Returnee, Chapter 203

Chapter 203 – Preparation

Obviously, it takes a certain degree of time to arrange multinational military exercises. Even my forces, who had a fraction of the logistical concerns of normal armies, had preparations that needed to be made if they were traveling long distances from wherever they were based. Armor and weapons needed maintenance, after all, and there was only so much you could do in the field without supplies. And there was food. Yes, most of her forces did not need to worry about food, or had enchanted items that helped cover for their dietary needs, but there were still some who needed to eat, which meant keeping proper supplies laid out, or otherwise they would descend into becoming feral, and go from an asset to a liability.

And I hated having to break my own forces to keep them from becoming a liability.

Thoughts on what would happen if my army went rogue were put aside as I considered the other needs. Not counting the logistical needs of the other forces joining in the exercise, there was still the fact that, for this exercise in Bangladesh, they needed to build a proper citadel to either attack or defend. Even with magic, that was not something that could be done haphazardly.

Oh, sure, you could just whip up a couple walls as basic fortifications in a hurry, especially if you had some idea of what you were doing. But those were hasty, in-the-field, measures. Not a planned defense. Definitely not a proper test of someone’s ability.

Which is why I was here, twenty kilometers west of a town called Hangami, near the border between Bangladesh and India. I was not building the structure, itself, naturally. There were others who were better suited to that kind of work. Instead, I was standing with one of my legates, talking with the other commanders. They needed to understand the ‘why’ of the fortifications, just like their engineers needed to know the ‘how’.

“You see, when constructing a proper fort, you have to account for not just siege weapons but siege magic, as well. The magic is both simpler and harder to deal with, honestly. Simpler, because the only defense against large-scale attack magic is a shield, or some other form of barrier. More difficult, because a shield only protects what it can cover, and the larger the shield, the more power is needed to deal with it.”

Colonel Somu Nabi, the leader of the Bangladeshi Army contingent, nodded slowly. “So, it is a calculus of size and power, then. A smaller shield is less expensive, making it easier to sustain, or allowing you to increase how much damage it can withstand. A larger shield covers more ground, but ensuring that it can hold up to serious damage takes far more power.”

“Correct. And power used to maintain or strengthen a shield is power unavailable for other things. Which is why my troops do not constantly walk around with shields that can stop nuclear blasts, even though they are more than capable of creating such a shield.”

Legate Tybost, the ghoul commanding the legion I’d brought to this exercise, nodded at my side. “As my Queen says, such an act would only serve to drain resources. However, the calculus, as you put it, changes when dealing with a static fortification. Defenders who are not on the move can ration more of their energy to sustaining a shield, at least enough to keep simple attacks out. Or they can utilize warding schemes to use ambient mana to power enough of a shield to stop simple projectiles and low-powered spells. The benefit of this is not only that the low-powered shield is nearly invisible, especially from a distance, but that, when an alarm is raised, the defenders can push their personal power into the shields, raising its power, and enabling it to withstand proper siege attacks.”

He paused, and then continued, “This means that the most important part of a siege is surprise. If you can hide from the enemy’s divinations and scouts until you are within range, you have the opportunity to unleash a devastating first assault, if you hit the right target. But if that first assault does not destroy something critical, or your forces were spotted beforehand, then the only thing to do is to wear down the shield through attrition, or launch a costly assault on foot, to try and break through.”

Dae-ryeong Sang Kun-Woo, the Korean Royal Army representative, nodded once. “We are familiar with the effects of artillery, even though magic has increased the power and range of the weapons. And we at least have a working understanding of older siege weapons, like catapults. But what about the siege magic you mentioned? What should we prepare for, there?”

I knew that none of the EAA countries were so foolish as to send officers who were promoted due to connections rather than merit to work with me. They knew I had no patience for such things, and none of them wanted to insult me that way. But I still was impressed by the dae-ryeong’s question. Most people, upon hearing about siege magic, assume that means ‘bigger fireballs’. Asking the question meant that he was thinking beyond the basics.

“Siege magics come in several forms. Some are favored more upon the attack, and others on the defense, but that is just a preference. These tools are not limited to either offense or defense.”

“Like how you could try and fell a tree with a Dane axe, or try to kill a man with a woodsman’s axe, but neither are particularly suited for those roles?”

“Precisely. Now, as for specifics, siege magics are spells that can be used to overturn a siege, one way or another. As such, they’re typically high-power, cover a large area, or both. Usually both.

“For the large area spells, the most common ones typically come under the form of ‘magic jamming’ and environmental effects. Of the two, environmental effects are the simplest to explain, and the flashier. Storms, earthquakes, wildfires, acid rain, and more. An attacking army will have a rough time of it if they were expecting summer weather and a blizzard dumps two meters of snow on their heads. And someone in a fort might find it inconvenient if the earth split open under their walls, causing half their citadel to fall into the abyss.”

Ittō Rikusa Hirose Shigekazu, the same budding Pyromancer and member of the JGSDF who had approached me about these exercises, snorted once. “As you say, your Majesty. That would be a little inconvenient, to be sure. But I’m assuming there is some defense against such things, right? For every magic, there is an equal and opposite magic?”

I nodded. “Thangvald’s Third Rule of Magick. For every Magick, there is an equal and opposite Magick. The same spell, or a spell whose effects run counter to the first spell’s, can weaken the effects of a spell, even negate it entirely, if the counterspell is strong enough. Beyond that, well, we get back into wards. However, wards are limited to the area that they cover, and are locked to locations. Which means you can undermine the wards the same way one used to undermine castle walls centuries ago. Cause the substrate to break because of stresses, and the ward breaks with it.”

“But doing that would require either a lot of power, or a lot of time, right?”

“Anything is possible with the proper combination of knowledge, power, and time, Ittō Rikusa. But yes, it can be done, even by practitioners of your level. You would need ritual magics to pull it off, of course. Combining strength with your other mages, building the power over time. Not an instant spell. But it would be possible. And likely preferable, compared to the cost of assaulting a solid fortification manned by competent fighters with mortal soldiers. Even so, siege warfare is nasty business, in any world.”

Dae-ryeong Sang grimaced at that reminder of the cost of war, and changed the subject slightly. “And what of the ‘magic jamming’?”

“The concept is simple enough, and works much like radio jamming does. You create a field of intense mana, which interferes with spells of that element. Also interferes with some abilities that different types of monsters have. Fire Jamming makes Fire spells harder to use, and so on. Very effective for foes who specialize in a single mana type, since your mana isn’t actually combatting their mana, so it is an efficient spell, designed to make your enemies tire more quickly. Of course, the spell does not decide between friend or foe. Which means that, if any of your people wanted to use a fireball to respond to the enemy, they would have to fight the jamming, as well.”

“Less useful than other methods, but another tool to keep in the toolbox, as they say,” Colonel Nabi nodded. “There should be ways to coordinate lowering the jamming to volley spells out before raising it back up again after, to interfere with counterattacks, right?”

“That is the traditional way,” Legate Tybost nodded. “Though there are exceptions. If the army has mages with other elements, then the Fire mages would concentrate on Fire Jamming, while all the other mages had their full use of spells. Against a force of primarily undead, one might wish to use Death Jamming. However, that is a poor example, especially against the Queen’s legions.”

“Because it would not sap your abilities enough to matter before your forces overwhelmed ours, yes?” Nabi asked, though it was clear he already knew the answer.

“Precisely. This is no insult to you or yours, mind you. From what I have seen during your drills, your troops have done remarkably well for themselves. However, if our starting point was the shoreline, then yours was the ocean floor. That you have risen enough to see the glimmer of light shimmering from above is high praise. And the next generation will start higher, as your mana-infused bodies lead to stronger children, whose own children will start stronger till.”

“And that is why we asked for this exercise,” Ittō Rikusa Hirose nodded. “So that we can establish how far we’ve come, and where we still have to go.”

“Yes,” I nodded. “But before we move on to the safety measures needed for this exercise, I will mention the side of siege magic that I did not go into earlier, the side where you take a spell and make it overwhelmingly powerful. One of the first spells a young mage learns is some variant of the Explosion spell. The exact name depends on the element, and so forth, but the basics are always the same. Creating an explosion to damage everything in an area. At its base level, this spell is dangerous to lightly-armored foes, or those packed into tight quarters. But I can personally attest that the spell can be enhanced to the point where it can erase a mountain entirely.”

“Doldara,” Legate Tybost said, with clear reverence in his voice. He glanced at me, and I nodded. It would be good for the soldiers to hear it from a soldier’s perspective.

“It was during the last years of the Long War. One of the main entry points to the land of Haerth, where the Demon King held his court, and where most of his strength resided, was the Ydarine Pass. High mountains painstakingly warded to prevent anyone from crossing, except at that single pass. A fort at the foot was the sentinel for the true guardian of the pass, the Fortress Town of Doldara. Set into the living rock of the mountain itself, with a shield empowered by tapping directly into a ley line. The fortress town was said to be impregnable.

“The fort at the mouth of the Pass was a masterwork of fortification in and of itself. The Demon King spent twenty years building it, knowing that we would have to take the fort, and the town behind it, before we could enter his lands. But the town could not be fought until the fort was cleared.

“The siege was six days and nights of constant fighting. We killed as many as we lost, but we the risen corpses from every graveyard in half a continent on our side, and undead do not tire like mortals do. In the end, the fort fell, and the way to Doldara was open.”

He paused, as though searching for the right words. “But the shield for the Fortress Town was mighty. The town’s reputation was well earned, for many armies had broken upon it in the past, even before the Demon King rose to power. An entire army of mages could run their mana pools dry, and still, it would not cause even a dent in the shield.”

Another pause. This time, when he spoke, he was uttering the words of the ‘testament’ that the death cult who had started worshipping me out of fear somewhere in the fifth year of the war. I’d never condoned them, but I never condemned them, either. Their zealotry amongst the living was useful, at times.

“And thus did the Queen of the Damned look up at the Walls of Haerth and the unconquerable fortress of Doldara. In defiance, she raised up her hand to the sky, and called upon the Goddess of Death to witness her. All the deaths of all the lands she had conquered gathered into her hand, the souls of the fallen crying out once more as she drew them forth like an arrow upon the Goddess’s own bow. And the arrow of Death leapt forth, and mighty Doldara vanished, the wreck of its city and the mountain it sat upon scattered across the length and breadth of Haerth, a herald of the devastation that was to come.”

I chuckled slightly. “I only used about eighty-five percent of my power, then. I’m far stronger now. But, anyways, let us talk about safety measures. As you might expect, the other world had spells for exactly this kind of situation. Can’t have their armies killing each other in training, after all. The spell will block the damage of attacks, but not the pain. Once it absorbs a ‘lethal’ amount of damage, it teleports the individual to a designated ‘safe zone’. This allows people to fight to their fullest without worry.”

Ittō Rikusa Hirose took a breath. “Margin of error, your Majesty?”

I shrugged. “Maybe one in ten thousand, if I am charitable. The gap between the shield failing and the teleport initiating is less than 50 miliseconds, less than half the speed of a blink of your eyes. However, if a second strike hit in that fraction of a second? That would be incredibly unlucky. However, I do have healers on standby, just in case, and can bring back those who die as undead, if they consent to it. Still, I would say that it is safer than normal military training exercises.”