CHAPTER 122: THE MARCH OF THE PURGE

The war-march of the thousand-strong horde echoed like thunder across the jagged obsidian plains of the eastern expanse.

At the head of the column rode Caius, his dark traveler’s cloak snapping in the biting steppe winds. Beside him walked his blindfolded puppet, the towering, iron-clad husk of Krag'gath, dragging its shadowy waraxe along the cracked dirt and carving a continuous, ominous trench into the earth.

Riding a few paces behind Caius’s left flank was Shaman Vrak, an ancient Orc elder wrapped in bone-strung furs, carrying a staff topped with a chattering dire-wolf skull. The old shaman stared nervously toward the eastern horizon, where the crimson, jagged banners of the Blood-Moon Berserkers were already rising against the grey sky.

"My Lord," Shaman Vrak rasped, his voice trembling as he spurred his mount closer. "The Blood-Moon Clan numbers over three thousand seasoned berserkers, three times our vanguard. Should we not use stealth? A night raid, perhaps? Schemes and poison to weaken their warlord before we clash?"

Why am I even discussing tactics with an orc? Caius thought, a cold, detached amusement washing over him.

Subterfuge relies on the assumption that a target must play by the rules of the labyrinth. When an adversary lays a web of traps, hidden poisons, or shadow-tactics, a clever opponent looks for a way around them. Absolute power simply shatters the floor, the traps, and the architect all at once.

He had spent two years in the dark of House Vel'drin learning how to weave invisible threads, evade scrying matrices, and slip through the margins. But now, standing at the doorstep of the Orc badlands with a fully integrated Crown Core and the memory of his father's execution, he no longer needed to outmaneuver the board.

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When every path is sealed and every shadow is weaponized against you, you do not look for a loophole. You bring the storm and burn the entire game to ash.

Caius didn't even turn his head. His pale eyes remained locked on the horizon, cool and unbothered.

"Schemes are the weapons of the fragile," Caius replied, his voice ringing with cold, absolute authority. "Against true power, all schemes shatter like dry glass."

He paused, casting a single, frigid glance back at the column of nervous Orc warriors marching behind him.

"This battle is not meant to be clever, Shaman," Caius added coldly. "The weak of this army will be purged in the fire today. Only the strongest will survive to serve as the foundation of my war-march."

Vrak swallowed hard, bowing his head into his furs. He asked no more questions.

Within the hour, the terrain opened into a vast, bone-dry basin known as the Sanguine Rift.

Standing in dense, aggressive formations across the plain were three thousand Blood-Moon Berserkers. They were massive, red-skinned Orcs clad in spiked iron and bathed in war-paint made of dried blood. Their Grand Chieftain, a monstrous Orc named Borgath the Flesh-Tearer, stood atop a high rocky mound, roaring at his men as they slammed their axes against their shields in a deafening, rhythmic drum of war.

"The Iron-Skull cowards have brought a human boy to lead them!" Borgath’s voice boomed across the basin, met with a wave of mocking, feral laughter from his three thousand warriors. "Kill the human! Tear the traitors apart!"

Caius reined his mount to a halt at the edge of the ridge. He raised his hand, signaling the thousand Iron-Skull warriors to halt behind him.

He didn't order his army to form ranks. He didn't order a shield wall.

Instead, Caius reached into his crown core and extended a single thread of dark-purple lightning toward the blindfolded puppet beside him.

"Pave the road," Caius whispered.

The green emerald light inside the puppet's chest flared with violent, unholy energy. Raising its massive shadowy waraxe into the air, the blindfolded husk of Krag'gath let out an empty, soul-chilling roar that echoed across the entire valley, and leaped off the ridge, charging headfirst into the three-thousand-strong army alone.

"Charge!" Caius commanded his horde coldly. "Prove you deserve to live."

The battle for the Sanguine Rift began.