Inheritor Of Magic: The Magi King

The battle scenes were disturbing to the witches and civilians in the room, but to the soldiers who were still waiting to be taken away to their cells, this attack seemed much more tame than normal.

The artillery had brought down the shields over the cities, but the paratroopers weren't gassing the area, and the artillery hadn't continued to shell the city. Instead, they had encircled it, and they were either eliminating the city guards, or setting up a parlay with the local leaders.

The footage didn't have any audio, and the drones were a long way from the front lines, but it was enough to at least give a general idea of how the battles were going.

There was surprisingly little chaos within the cities after the first few minutes, as they would have been in contact with each other, and realized that everywhere in the Rebel Coven group was under attack at the same time, leaving them no chance of getting reinforcements to help them.

They also had limited military assets, as most of them had either been destroyed in battle, or had been shipped back to defend against the attacks by the One World Army when they arrived.

It put them in an untenable position, and they should have realized it long before today, but realizing and accepting were different things, and the acceptance part was only now coming to them.

"It looks like the operation is going fairly smoothly." Wolfe noted as the first of the towns sent out their soldiers unarmed to hold a meeting with the attack force.

"We can only hope that they all go that smoothly. We have heard that there are some hard line sorts who won't come so easily, and that's how things got so out of control to begin with.

I obviously came later, so I didn't get firsthand details, but after I went through the records of the meetings by the Grand Dukes, it looks like they hadn't approved half of what happened in the attack on Sylvan Coven, and only started to hold meetings on it after the fact, when you started the wholesale destruction of their troops in the Frozen Wastes.

There was much talk of whether this might be retaliation, but by then, the chain of command no longer answered to them. The entire region has been under the control of corporate interests since the spring." The Guardian explained.

Cassie gave him a curious look. "Why wouldn't they just say that, and have us come sort things out for them peacefully? We could have helped them with the One World Army issue if we weren't already in conflict with each other."

"And admit that they had lost control of their nation? No, they had too much pride to admit that they were nothing more than figureheads that the corporations and military mostly ignored. The General here in the room probably had control of more territory than any of the Grand Dukes individually for most of the last year." The Guardian laughed.

The General shrugged. That was not news to him, but they did at least give lip service to them as leaders of the country, and he personally avoided directly countermanding orders and directives that they had given.

The thing was, they mostly didn't give orders. The Fleet Command Generals above him just made them up as they went, and then sent a script to the Grand Dukes to read off when there was a need for them to make an in-person appearance.

Wolfe was watching the screens carefully, and was the first to notice when things started to get strange along the west coast.

"We've got player three entering the battle for that town. Where is that? I can't trace the spell back accurately." He asked the Guardian.

"That is up on the northwest coast, near the Myrrh Coven border. What is going on there? I don't recognize those uniforms." The Demon wondered.

"We do. Those are soldiers from the Free Covens. They should be witches, but I'm not sure what they're doing here. Their territory is far to the northwest, and doesn't share a border. As far as I know, the two groups shouldn't have anything in common, or any existing contact." Wolfe replied.

They watched for a moment, then realized that the Free Covens force had been hidden by a spell, which they extended over a group of witches who fled the city.

They left everyone else behind, and the group didn't engage the incoming soldiers, which gave the impression that it was the leadership group fleeing the doomed city. It was a bit cowardly, but the important part was that they had an idea where they were going, but no idea why.

The Free Covens weren't organized, they were city states. If anything, the ones fleeing the city would just be refugees with whatever they had been able to carry.

None of the Free Covens cities had the influence to start a large-scale rebellion again, but many of them were very backwards in their traditions, which was likely what had drawn the Rebels to them.

"I will have the troops attempt to determine who among the leadership is missing, so we can put out a fugitive notice for them, but the city now looks like it is going to comply without much more resistance." The Guardian noted with pride.

His operation had gone incredibly smoothly, and there were large groups of prisoners being freed visible in the drone camera feeds.

"Well, I think we can see how this is going. Is it satisfactory to you? Somewhat in line with your intentions for the Rebel towns?" The Guardian asked.

"As long as there is an attempt to make sure they don't backslide, yes. Honestly, I probably would have gone a bit more shock and awe to get them to comply, but this has been more effective than expected."

The feathered Demon laughed. "I suppose one flying Magi Saint taking the city by brute force is more impressive than sending the army, but this should prove my sincerity as we begin our negotiations for a formal agreement between our nations."