Eldritch Creature's Guide

Nofrena Continent, Nofrena Empire, Western Area of the Midnight World, shores of the Nofrena Continent.

Right now, the entire military of the Nofrena Empire was on the highest alert after the Emperor of the Nofrena Empire, Alexander IV. Nofreanis decided to fight the Orkish invaders to death at full force.

Every able man or woman, elder or child, were armed with weapons and given orders to join either Imperial Army or local militia, deciding to honor their culture and Empire by giving the enemy hell they deserve. The culture of the Nofrena Empire was intertwined with martial honor and prowess for centuries, if not millennia.

With their advanced weaponry, for sure, they would be able to take a lot of Greenskins with them, even if they would be inevitably defeated and die. For many of them, it was enough that they could inflict damage and losses to their enemies; thus they won't be dying in vain.

Right now, in the military fortress near the shores of the ocean, which was separating the Sharrena Subcontinent and Nofrena Continent, the Emperor personally joined the defensive battles as a form of moral support.

He was no mean the greatest strategist or tactician, but just his presence here was enough to boost up the confidence of the soldiers of the Imperial Army and the citizens of their proud Empire. The moral aspect of his action was far more and greater than any number of weaponry or artillery could provide for the citizens and soldiers.

For him, it was better than waiting in the capital for the inevitable death that would come in the form of some greenskin. Ironically though, it was not only the Emperor, but most, if not all, of the nobility of the Nofrena Empire that mimicked this single action and joined the defense and the last stand of their proud Empire and culture.

"They are coming, Your Imperial Majesty."

Stated one of the Generals of the Nofrena Empire, who was already nearing his eighties, judging by his white hair and wrinkles all over his face. He had several old scars over his face, signifying that he was a veteran of many fights because all of them were from the battlefield and the remainder of the foes he killed.

"Men and Women of the Nofrena Empire, today we are fighting an enemy unlike any other. They are savage, barbaric, and powerful, far eclipsing the power that any ordinary man can achieve. But we are not bending to them, not becoming their slaves or food, their entertainment for them to torture and kill. No, we are proud warriors of the Nofrena Empire, and we will fight them to hell, and even if we die here, let it be remembered for thousands of years later that this was out finest hour! All Hail the Empire!"

The Emperor finished his speech with the traditional Imperial salute, as his words resounded not only through the entire base but through the entire Empire, through every military facility, every outpost, a fortress to civilian homes and public places.

"All Hail the Empire!"

"All Hail the Empire!"

"All Hail the Empire."

Other officers returned the salute, and many of the high-ranking generals and other military personnel were deeply aware of the fact that the President of the United Nations of Prayn Terish, with a few oligarchs, were already preparing the escape to the stars, and other nations were also, preparing for similar eventualities.

"Then start firing the artillery... we are not going down without taking as many of those dammed greenskins as possible."

Ordered the Emperor, and all other officers saluted him as they went to carry out his orders. Not even several seconds later, sounds of the artillery started sounding from the back, as the cannon and other artilleries of the Nofrena Empire started bombarding the incoming Orks who were other going here in their crude airships or ships.

Springing for the Nofreans and shockingly for the Orks, the moment the artilleries of the Nofrena Empire started bombarding the incoming fleets and air fleets of the Orks, they shot down several airships and sunk down several ships, just in the first salvo.

As it seemed, the ships and airships, crudely made from wood and metal mashed up together, with only a few defensive magic, weren't enough to completely block up all the attacks from the cannons of the Nofrena Empire.

Orks were species with the most primitive technology, and while every major species across the Cosmos had its own level of the Magetech, the one of the Orks was terrible; it was typically just mashed up together, and its only purpose was to bring Orks from place A to place B so they could wage war.

Basically, the only reason for them to construct anything was for them to wage war faster. There was no place for sophisticated machines of war or anything because most of the Orks either disdained them, seeing them as a weakness because, in their simplistic view of the world, the only strength came from crushing enemies with your sword or axe.

Ironically though, that didn't mean that some of the Orks Clans and Tribes didn't have some more advanced pieces of technology in their disposal, especially when it came to starships that were captured from the more advanced civilization that fell to the green tide. Those, the greenkins would gladly use because even they admitted that it could speed up the progress of their waaaggghhh.

But unfortunately for the defenders of the Nofrena Empire, soon enough, powerful Silver-Tier and Gold-Tier Shamans started casting some defensive spells over their vessels, protecting them from the incoming artillery barrage, and soon enough, they reached the shores of the Nofrena COntinent, which silently signified the start of the end.

***

Sarid Continent, Captial of the Sarid Republic, deep under the ground, top-secret facility of the Sarid Republic's Supernatural Research Division.

In the depths of the unknown facility of the Sarid Republic, which was known only to a few people across the entire Republic, in the deepest parts of the facility, in the locked vault, two people were standing there, looking at the object before them.

One of those two people was the President of the Sarid Republic, President Halir. He wasn't showing any emotions outside, but deep inside his very own being, he was deeply disturbed on how the situation in the world was developing and he long realized that it was beyond any salvation.

Especially with the arrival of those terrifying entities, whom their new patrons called Legendaries, who could, with their might, destroy continents or reshape them to their own will as they pleased because their might was truly above everything that individual mortal could achieve.

But the more interesting and important one was the man who was standing next to him.

He looked like a human, not a single feature different from the average human, aside from the futuristic suit he was wearing and pulsating wave of the psionic energy he was constantly radiating; not only that, but there was also something weird about his entire presence, something unnerving and powerful.

"I have completed my part of the deal; now get me out of here."

Said President Halir as he was looking at the man standing next to him.

"Indeed."

The man said, and with a wave of his right hand, a whisp of psionic energy appeared in front of him, attacking the elderly President of the Sarid Republic, disintegrating him to dust. Nothing has remained from the President of the Sarid Republic as even that dust soon dispersed across the entire room.

"Annoying trash."

After disposing of the mortal, the man looked in wonder at the object before him.

"Who would have thought that Mana-Less World would be hiding the Psion Core of an Annulled."

The man muttered in awe.

Annulled were the Transcendental of the Psion Path, those who were practically Espers or any other way of the psionics; upon reaching the Transcendence, then they would become Annulled. An average Annulled Esper was even more dangerous than an average God because they had more destructive abilities overall.

"With this, the Germinal Order will rise through the ranks of the 13 Gates with the speed of lightning."

Stated the man as he carefully moved the Psion Core into a special case; just one touch would be enough to kill him instantly, overwhelming him with tremendous levels of the Psionic Power, something that he, even as a peak Legendary, cannot handle.

Germinal Order was a faction among the 13 Gates that pursued the path of psionics and consisted mainly of Psionically gifted species like Githyanki, Githzerai, or even humans, and due to the first two species being dominant ones, the main enemy of the Germinal Order was the Mind Flyers.

Unfortunately for them, they cannot measure up to the Mind Flyers because each one of their Fleet was backed by the Annulled Entities, not to talk about their Elder Brains, which were absolutely frightening among the Transcendentals entities.

"I need to get out before the others will find out about this... those bastards from the Magisterium are already on their way for sure."

The man from the Germinal Order cursed while activating the teleportation device, which brought him out from the Midnight World, and true to his words, indeed, as he told, soon enough, several people bearing the sigils of the Magisterium arrived.

"It is gone."

Stated the man with the long white bear as he gripped his staff with anger.

"Who could have known about it aside from us?"

Questioned another, who seemed more demonic-like in appearance, signifying his Class as Warlock, formerly a human or something like that; it was very hard to tell because his facial features and racial ones were already twisted beyond recognition.

"Probably someone from the Avalon or Germinal... maybe Mind Flyers?"

Asked the thirst of one of the trio of Wizard, Sorcerer, and Warlock. Each one represents one of the major branches of the Magisterium aside from the Arcansits, who often acted as unofficial leaders of their faction, as they were mostly the strongest out of them.

"Mind Flyers are out of the question... if they were the ones, then this entire world would be long ago infested by them and turned into their slaves. Only one possible are the Avalon Kingdom and Germinal Order."

Spoke the Wizard-looking elder man, who acted as the leader of the trio, as he analyzed each of the possibilities.

The other two agreed with his conclusion as the Mind Flyer Fleet would turn this world upside down; they would release their abominations into the Midnight World, enslaving the local population and turning it into their slaves.

Especially when the Annulled Mind Flyer led the Mind Flyer Fleet or not talking about the Elder Brain, then even their presence would be impossible, as they would be caught and infested the second they approached the Midnight World.

"And this is certainly lacking the pattern of behavior of the Avalon Kingdom... those self-righteous bastards."

The Avalon Kingdom was human supremacy like factions in of the 13 Gates, and probably the sole faction created only by humans in the entirety of Cosmos on such scale. Of course, they had no foothold in the Tower, and they often clashed with the other factions.

Still, they worshipped a very powerful God, who liked humans too much and often gave them a helping hand, something not appreciated by the rest of the Transcendental Factions. If the faction that came here were the Avalonians, they would immediately start fighting Orks and absorbing the location's human population to bolster their ranks.

"Only the Germinal Order moves so sneakily around, always hidden in shadows..."

Muttered the aged Wizard as he and his compatriots looked around, quickly hacking into the Sarid Republic systems and downloading every piece of the technology that the Sarid Republic had ever developed.

While the Magisterium was primarily organized for the Magic Users, that didn't mean that they were shunned from using technology; in fact, Magisteriuzm currently had the most advanced Magetech in the entirety of the Cosmos.

Mainly due to their practice of continuous research and development, and of course, by assimilating other technologies into their own, like they are doing right now, by downloading the entire technological tree of the Midnight World's civilization.

***

Nofrena Continent, Several Days Later

After killing the Khordrath, Cardinal Zaldidraax was flying around the Nofrena Continent as he finished erecting another Spell to gather souls for the Hall of Kadath, and afterward, he decided to stretch out his wings.

For him, it was pretty boring to just stay in one place, so he went to take a look at the Orks advancing through the Nofrena Empire as they burned city after city, already massacring millions of the citizens of the Nofrena Empire.

While Zaldidraax was flying through the skies of the Nofrena Continent, he saw that the Orks were apparently assaulting the Imperial Captial of the Nofrena Empire. Of course, as mean they were, the weakest of them were attacking the capital first, so the first waves of the greenskins consisted of those of Iron-Tier and Steel-Tier.

Of course, this was also one of the Orkish tactics because disposing of the weak greenskins would give the enemies of Orks some morale boost and confidence against the greenskins, and that was what they wanted.

For the war to continue as much as possible.

Because that was for what the Orks lived.

Zaldidraax saw that the main gates of the Imperial Captial of the Nofrena Empire were being breached as he was watching the situation, and in truth, he was a bit impressed by how the soldiers of the human Empire, who were practically average mortals, albeit trained, were fighting against the Orks.

"Fascinating."

While Zaldidraax was one hell arrogant bastard, above all else, he was a warrior, and his entire life, he followed the warrior's path and lived as a warrior. So, even if those humans were just ordinary average mortals without any real power, the fact that they were fighting to the last one.

Something he personally didn't await.

During his very long life of millennia, Zaldidraax saw countless soldiers ruining the savage Orks, fighting them not caring about their own lives, as they fought to the death, honoring their pride as a martial culture of the Nofrena Empire.

"They would good for a good material for the battle legions."

Zaldidraax released his draconic aura on the whole battlefield, as instantly, not even a second later, everyone froze in their place, be it humans, on the side of the Nofrena Empire or countless greenskins, nobody dared to make a move.

"Return where you came from, green filth."

Through the entire battlefield sounded the voice of the engaged red dragon, as more weak-willed greenskins started escaping from the battlefield, together with the Orks who decided to run away, as their instincts screamed at them to get away from here.

Only a few Legendary Level Orks were watching this scene with dread before they decided to retreat, as some of them recognized the owner of that voice and the draconic aura as that of the Zaldidraax.

"Now to you, who is your leader?"

Questioned the Red Dragon Cardinal as he observed the humans beneath him, who were not moving an inch and just watched in wonder, fear, and dread how the enormous dragon stopped the fighting across the entire battlefield with a single command and forced the Orks to fall back.

"That would be me."

Siad a voice belonging to a middle-aged man, who was holding a sword and rifle in his hands; Zaldidraax could see some level of finesse and nobleness in him, despite his bloodied appearance and tattered uniforms he was wearing.