I have Nine Lives

Chapter 112: Chain reaction

While Felix and the others were chatting away from the rabbit's empire, the Emperor was already getting ready for war!

The meaty rabbit emperor had called for the army after he concluded where the pills that dissolved into the blood altar came from.

He stood at the head of the army as he said majestically with a strong tone:

"Our altar has been desecrated by outsiders, the hard work of the army had been completely wasted and all the fruits of our hard labor had been enjoyed by someone else!"

The army troops immediately started to talk amongst themselves, 95% of the people in the army were all full of muscle, they had the same build and height and their only different features were either their haircuts, hair color, or the way their rabbit ears looked.

The blood altar was meant for the army and the imperial family to enjoy, it was meant to strengthen the bodies of those who made great contributions to the empire.

However, now all of the hard work of the army which went towards getting a bath in the altar was pretty much done for nothing!

The army was both protecting and expanding their territory underground while also getting rid of the disobedient people to fuel the growth of the blood altar.

Some of the army people had red eyes as they glared towards the ceiling of the underground palace.

They were all situated in front of the emperor's palace as they saluted after hearing the grave news, they were around 2 million in total and they were all mostly mad with a little bit of disappointment and hatred as well mixed in there, however, they didn't break formation nor did they let their emotions being seen on their faces as they waited for the Emperor to continue, they wanted to know who had the gall to steal from their empire! If they didn't care about the things that happened above the war with the other continents wouldn't have reached this stage this quickly.

The Emperor sighed as he put a hand over his face showing his distress and giving the impression that their enemy was very strong.

"With my continuous investigation and brave sacrifice of discharged ex-soldier Mirela I have found about the identity of the culprits, they are one of the strongest tribes of the Tarot continent, the Lion tribe!"

The troops started to talk amongst themselves, they didn't know about the lion tribe, and how could they? They lived in the underground since they were born and the news from the outside was strictly regulated by the imperial family.

"The lion tribe consists of many strong people and they have countless generals, even though we also have our own strong people you all know that it's due to the blood altar."

"We don't have the same techniques as the lion tribe but our strength is plenty, if we can't beat them with techniques we shall crush them with numbers and pure raw strength! They deserve capital punishment for doing what they have done!"

"YES!"

"YES!"

"YES!"

The army started to clap creating sounds of two rocks banging together at high speed, if the palace had any glass windows they would have surely been destroyed by now.

The Emperor waved his hand silencing everyone as he continued:

"I have already found the location of the Lion tribe's troops, they have invaded the continent on the large scale with the people from the Haron and Balton continents!"

"Normally I wouldn't have made you interfere in the fights of those on the surface as it wouldn't matter to us who controls the surface, but they have done the thing that they should have done the least!"

"It's nigh time for us to retaliate for the thing they have done to us, a batch of the troops are currently located at the woodpecker tribe's village, go there with 300,000 troops and unleash a massacre on them!"

The troops started to break as 300,000 of them left the formation saluted and started to use the tunnels around them to reach the surface.

****************

While the troops were going to attack the woodpecker village, Felix and the others had finished talking and they were ready to return to the village to finish the takeover.

Landers took out a communication stone as he transmitted towards Diorno:

"We have caught one village beyond the bridge and we will need an expert to look it over, can you send a captain-level individual from the troops left at your disposal? We are also going to leave 50,000 troops behind to protect the village and install fortifications because unlike the initial village this one is pretty barren."

Diorno's voice came out of the communication stone:

"Roger that, we shall send someone soon enough."

Landers sighed as he closed the connection between their communication stones, he looked around and saw how the woodpecker tribesmen were either looking away or down not daring to look towards the troops nor him, even though he was sure the troops didn't do anything to them while he was gone to find Felix he still found it rather strange, why were they so scared of them?

He stopped a child who was running around as his mother had lost sight of him for a second and he wasn't as scared of Landers and the others even though he had been warned by his mother multiple times.

"Hey kid, can you come here for a few seconds?"

The woodpecker child took a few steps towards Landers and asked:

"What is it Mr invader?"

"Why are all your folks so scared of us? We haven't done anything to you have we?"

The child shook his head as he said:

"Mom said that I shouldn't get close to you but she isn't here now, but she also said you guys are really bad and you came here to enslave us..."

The child didn't really know what to believe as Landers inspired a calm aura that soothed the child so he didn't feel threatened by him:

Suddenly the child seemingly remembered something important as he said:

"Oh yeah now I remember, I think mother also said that you will incur the wrath of the rabbits, and it's better to be as far away from you as possible, I'm not sure why she said that though..."

Landers's pupils shook as he heard that, how could the mother of this child know such a thing? They haven't even been at the rabbit tribe for a long while, at most 3 to 4 hours while Felix had been the one who infiltrated it longer, he had done so stealthily so there was no way he had been seen by anyone, how could that woman know that they have done something to the rabbits that would anger them?

From what Manitola told him they were recluse so that must have been common knowledge.

He frowned and decided to give a visit to the woman as he told the child to guide him to his mother...

The child was reluctant at first but Landers took a medicinal pill out of his armor's inner pockets and dangled it in front of the child, he had secretly extracted the strong medicinal energy from it and now it was akin to candy.

"If you show me where your mother is I will give you this delicious candy!"

The child didn't have candy at all before but he could smell that it was rather sweet so he nodded and grabbed Landers's hand as he took him to a nearby house.

The child entered the house and Landers followed behind, the woman at the kitchen counter was cooking and was ready to scold the child when she heard the door of the house open, it was an unwise thing to run around with all of the lion army troops being around.

However, her body started to shake as the plate she was ready to put on the counter fell from her hands the moment she saw Landers and her child with a red pill in his hand he realized that he had sold her out for a piece of candy!

Landers told him he could play outside now as he smiled at him and the door of the house closed behind him.

Then his face turned frosty as he took a few steps towards the mother who was still shaking:

"Don't be frightened mam, I'm here to inquire about a few important things for our Lion army."

The woman started to stutter:

"I... I... I..."

"The first question is, how would the rabbit tribe attack us if they are recluse?"

"I.. I..."

"Answer me!"

At this point Landers didn't exude that calming aura anymore as his power turned savage, his hand planted into the wall behind the woman, his frame was towering above hers and her woodpecker features started to naturally appear by themselves due to the fright, her mouth started to elongate into a beak as feathers started to grow out of her skin, tears started to drip out of her eyes as she said:

"I... I...."

Suddenly her face turned cold and serious, her fully formed beak was then launched directly to Landers's face ready to pierce his head!