Damien's current destination was the border principality, Aeria. The Aeria Principality was one of the first to fall into a state of chaos when the Divine Order started openly moving against Void Palace.
It was a point of interest, so they focused many of their forces there and slowly took territory after territory until Aeria was surrounded by enemy forces on all sides.
There was a reason 12 Elders were stationed there.
Aeria was the location of one of the Southern Region's greatest traveler's hubs. It was a place most people would pass through if they were entering the south from the west, including members of Void Palace.
The timing was terrible.
Originally, there were only three elders stationed in Aeria. They were heads of commerce and had been staying in the city to facilitate trade agreements between Void Palace, the Dragon Clan, and the Holy Empire.
However, in recent times, a few more had gone to join them.
Some were just using Aeria as a springboard to reach another location, while others were doing jobs in the area, but the point was that all of them were in the principality when the surrounding areas were conquered.
They couldn't act against the powerful combat force of the Divine Order on their own, so they chose a defensive stance, keeping at least Aeria safe from war.
The borders of the principality had been challenged several times. The stalemate that wasn't really a stalemate was all the Elders could create, because stopping the Divine Order entirely was impossible for them.
Luckily, they'd held out quite well. The borders had moved several million miles inward, but the Aeria Principality was, for the most part, still in one piece.
This was the situation Damien arrived at.
On one side of Aeria was the border to the Divine Order's Southwestern Region.
To the left was the Bristeria Principality, to the right was the Reistone Principality, and blocking the path deeper into the Southern Region was the Liensia Principality.
'From the moment Liensia was conquered, the Divine Order had a complete advantage. If they wanted to, they could continue pushing into the Southern Region, but they instead chose to focus on conquering Aeria.'
Unlike the surrounding principalities without much reputation, conquering Aeria would deal a serious blow to Void Palace in various ways.
'The Elders are also lucky. If the Divine Order wasn't focusing on multiple things at once…'
If they weren't making similar plays across the border and reserving the majority of their troops for other purposes…
'...Aeria would've been a wasteland by now.'
The stalemate had been ongoing for more than five years. The fact that the Elders had been able to hold out for so long was already extremely impressive. Damien was certain that 90% of people would've crumbled long ago if they were put in the same situation.
It had reached a point where Damien was concerned whether his interference would mean anything or not.
'But I'm not in a position to question that. It'll be difficult if there are Gods there, but if it's just Demigods…'
This was about to either be an extremely taxing or an extremely easy endeavor.
And as Damien had just arrived in the vicinity of the war zone, he would soon find out.
***
Somewhere near the border of the Aeria Principality facing Liensia, in a stronghold that was clearly on its last leg, a meeting of war generals was taking place.
"It doesn't look hopeless, but unless the clan sends aid, we likely will not be able to hold the border for longer than another month."
The speaker was named Perseus Vanheim. He was the 36th Elder of Void Palace, a loyal follower of the palace who'd always stood on its side.
Beside him were two others of similar stature, the 38th and 40th Elders, Monique Destero and Fidora Price.
They, the 12 Void Clan Elders present in the principality, had split into four groups to take charge of each border. They'd been communicating amongst themselves and using said communication to properly distribute their forces, but they were starting to run thin.
"What does the enemy number look like?" Monique asked.
"It's still increasing. Unlike us, they have a consistent source of support from nearby. Luckily, it doesn't seem like they've called experts in yet," Fidora replied.
"However, our strongholds won't last much longer, and the troops are beginning to struggle. It hasn't been easy since the supply lines were cut."
The three of them collectively sighed.
Practitioners at the level of those participating in the war didn't have the need to eat or drink to sustain themselves. Pure mana was enough to cover for such processes.
However, it wasn't the same for everyone.
The territory's population was majorly common people who hadn't trained at all and people under 4th class. For them, 5 years without any supplies was extremely difficult.
They'd been surviving mostly off the crops farmed in the principality itself, but due to the harsh weather conditions that had recently assailed the area, it was difficult to produce enough food to sustain the entire population.
And even with food, water was a greater problem.
"Those damn Divine Order scum!"
Perseus became infuriated just thinking about it.
One of the first moves they made was to pollute every aqueduct and water source in the principality with poison, making it undrinkable.
It was extremely unfortunate. The Aeria Principality had one interconnected waterway that ran through the entire territory.
While it normally wouldn't have been a problem, the Divine Order used mysterious means to run their poisons through the entire water system spanning billions of kilometers in less than a week, something everyone thought impossible until that point.
If the people died, there was no principality to save. The land had no value without them.
And those people were the families and friends of those participating in the war. If anything happened to them, the army's morale would plummet, and defeat would become even more inevitable.
"We can try our best, but it looks like retreat is absolutely impossible in our current circumstances," Perseus continued, summing up every problem and potential solution they'd encountered thus far.
"The only viable option is to keep defending to the best of our abilities and hope for a miracle."
They didn't believe it would come, but they had to believe, otherwise they'd lose hope before their armies even had a chance.
The situation was dire to say the least. The 12 Elders were doing everything they possibly could with the resources they had, but they simply didn't have enough power to attain victory against this foe.
Disregarding everything else, the Demigods leading the enemy force were at the absolute peak, just a step away from Godhood.
Elders who stood from the 30s-50s in the hierarchy weren't equipped to deal with them.
It was an entirely disadvantageous situation.
Perhaps if the 4th and 5th Swords hadn't disappeared…
It was too late to be having such thoughts.
The Elders could only focus on the dire situation in front of them.
However, their dire situation wasn't as dire as they believed.
Because someone with the power they lacked was coming.
Their "miracle" would be arriving soon.
