"You're setting out with the Allied Forces?"
When the Imperial Military Affairs Department officials learned Annan intended to go to the Great Wall in the North, they looked startled.
"I watched them grow from Youth into seasoned soldiers... I can't just leave them at the Great Wall and walk away."
Behind Annan, the young warriors—most a head taller than he was, resolute and fierce—suddenly found their eyes stinging.
The officials nodded, assuming these men were everything Annan had.
"Hmm... You may accompany them, but we'll need to report it to the Palace."
"Of course."
Annan had Blom and Femi form up the troops, then followed the officials to the center of the camp.
Several Epic Mages stabilized an enormous arched Portal in the open ground. Ripples shimmered across its surface like waves on a lake.
The Tartun Empire's Blackwatch Legion entered the Portal first.
From a distance, Annan watched the ruthless, battle-hungry Legion with envy.
The Blackwatch Legion was one of the Empire's eight Royal Guard Legions and numbered five thousand. Unlike the five thousand men Annan had assembled in a few months to fill the ranks, every one of them was a Professional—including four thousand elite rank-and-file Soldiers...
And five hundred officers of Master Level or higher, plus a massive Mage Corps of five hundred.
Such was the strength of one of the Thirteen High Kings. A single Legion could nearly wipe out the Rikaner Kingdom as it stood.
The only consolation Annan could find was that the first wave of the Allied Forces numbered fifty thousand, with his troops and the Empire's each making up a tenth.
Whatever else happened, the stronger the Empire was, the less likely this disaster was to reach Middle Earth.
To his surprise, Annan's force departed second.
The order seemed to be based