Lord Shadow

In the years that followed his rebellion, Azief already started to organize his band of peasant into a fighting force.

The letter he receives that day on the first day of his rebellion in the Vast Forest was that his father has followed him to the Vast Forest.

Without any other way than following his rebellious son, he went with Azul as he went to the Vast Forest.

Azief however is not that influenced by familial ties as Azul but he also did not mistreat Azul father.

Azief put him with some of his lieutenant and ask them to look over Azul father, both as a measure of safety for him and safety for the band.

In the first year of his rebellion, Magus, Learned Ones and the Avengers, all of the churchmen try seeking Azief around that forest but are always intercepted by Azief guard

They were killed and their bodies eaten by wolves, and some bodies were left at the outskirts of the forest to serve as a warning.

Protected by tree canopy that is larger than clouds, even the flying Magus patrolling the large Vast Forest could not identify where Azief hide himself unless they put their boots on the ground.

They send expedition of course. But each expedition ended with failure. Azief is no stranger to guerrilla tactics.

In Earth 39 he was the Supreme General of the Evolver race and while he did not busy himself with military strategies since it is redundant for him, that does not mean he did not understand it.

Azief immediately organize his band to make sure everything is running smoothly. And one of the most important things is how to govern themselves.

In the old Aethens governance, the style is close to an elected council of elders that resembles the democracy of Ancient Greeks.

However Azief forego this even though he is an Aethens noble and come from a noble and old lineage of Aethenspania noble.

He knew that power had to be consolidated not divided. Too many different thought would break this new seed of rebellion.

It needs a leader, to dictate where to attack and when to defend, to avoid confusion when right now they needed unity and not opinions.

Azief choose Tyr to become his deputy while Ymir is his guard. The band moves very often in fear of the Magus detection.

Azief also knows that the only reason that the Empire did not yet send the army is because the chaos at the Border

Azief also lays down a few ground rules. As long as there is a tiny chance that the Church might identify the camp location, Azul would order a move.

In the first year of his rebellion Azief establishes this rule and he followed it with persistence.

Even if it is unpopular policy, Azief now inhabiting Azul body knows that a clear rule is the foundation of authority.

Tyr who was beside Azul in advising him in many matters especially regarding the peasantry in his band also agrees on this point.

And in the first year, Azief gain the people respect as he stick to his own rules, discriminating no one even his closest friends or his earliest followers from punishment if they did wrong and promoted and reward those that render meritorious service..

During those times the peasant still call him Lord and it sets him apart from the rest of the group.

And even though Azief forsaken all noble privilege , he did not ask people to change how they address him as it would only draw more attention to his status.

And there is no point in pretending to be a peasant Azief decided.

And there is no harm for the band of peasant to call him lord as long as he did not act like the nobles that oppressed them.

It is not like he is leading by the right of birth. Azief was of course feeling a little bit weird. A noble.

Him?

He still remembers the times before the fall in his country. While they have royalty in Malaysia and no true noble, he in his life heard of course of some people acknowledging nobility by their descent.

Some claim they come from some religious leader descendant and could only marry their kind.

When Azief heard this talk from his friend, he wanted to vomit in disgust.

In any great religion the one thing they always sought to remove is the distinction between race, and the status of one birth.

Yet people no matter what will always tries to put value on one births and not one’s ability.

Tyr and him always talk about this in their late night’s strategy talks. The problem of the Empire is that they govern by the right of birth and not merit.

Tyr believes that the world would be better if it is ruled by officials who appointed to that position by the merit of their deeds instead of their status of birth.

Azief also shares this belief as he comes from another world.

To field large armies and organize millions of people, a proper bureaucracy is needed. But unlike Azul that is overly idealistic Azief wanted to become an Emperor of this world.

He believes that he would rule better. And as long as he is in this world, he should shape it in his image of a better world.

In his journey inside the Vast Forest, as Azief encounter more bands of people, and he absorbed them into his band.

He absorbed the Orel outlaws who he encounters deep in the wilderness.

And as time passes by Azief exploits began to be retold in the Empire as the longer he lives, the larger his legend grew.

At that time Azief revolt has immediately seized the imagination of many Aethens people as they dream of the Aethenspania old days before Blood Magic was discovered.

The Orel outlaws that Azief find did not even try to fight or resist his group as they are demoralized from the death of their leader.

When they meet the famous Azul Verignon, the rebel leader from Shurley they immediately surrender and join Azief ranks of soldiers

Azief while he did not possess the ability he possess on Earth, the charisma he had quickly won their loyalty.

Azief in Earth was the supreme overlord, lording all forces of the world. Each of his word has a certain weight to it and could decide the life and death of many people.

That overlord attitude and charisma will not diminish just by changing his face and body.

And when those bands of outlaws learn of Azief skills at combat and strategic brilliance Azief place as their leader is assured.

Azief thought he would find it hard to lead such a famous outlaw group but he was mistaken.

The Orel outlaws were not a bloodthirsty and anarchic as the news and the stories lead him to believe.

These women and men in the outlaw group are just desperate peasant former peasant fleeing the Reaping or starvation.

They are also unlike Azief band who is a rebel but only trying to escape the Empire and not bring it down.

The Orel was composed of strong peasants coming from the Kingdom of Illyria which has been razed through the ground during the Empire conquest.

There were four regions conquered in this island continent of Aethenspania by the Empire. The Empire set their Capital in Ashaya, once belonging to the Kingdom of Phrenicia.

The Empire when they arrive at this bountiful island with their blood magic conquered the four kingdoms that live in peace with each other.

They were the Aethenspania which was the strongest in economy and fielded many soldiers and people, the Phrenicia which is the wealthiest because of their gold mines and natural resources, the Illyria which was composed of strong warrior and emphasizes military valor and then the kingdom of Caragond who have vats land but low population because of their long civil war against each other and warlords.

The Empire of Thul’nos came and saw all of this and they conquered one by one starting with Caragond which is the easiest because of their weaken unity and then they proceed to bring down the other three kingdoms.

Each Kingdom was reinstated as regions.

The refugees from these region bolstered Azief force.

Azief chose Tyr as his second in command.

This is one of Azief wise decision since Tyr is perfectly loved by the peasant and could easily mesh well with the other people joining him, men from Illyria, men from Caragond, men from Phrenicia.

Azief also trust him and everyone in the peasant band respect him.

Zinar on the other hand stung to be sidelined especially by a noble in the rebellion she started to build.

She herself began to distance herself with Tyr as they both seems to share no friendship and dreams like in the beginning

Tyr always suspected Zinar and Zinar would not try to defend herself but she has a lot of support from people who were saved by her in many rescue expedition on nearby villages.

Zinar relationship with Azief also cooled down but she shows no sign of insubordination.

What Azief was curious about was that he did not think that the source of Azul regret is this woman.

But if it is not that…then what is it?

This time there is no clue about the kind of regret he had to solve. It all felt like a dream, this time, a long, long dream that seems to stretch out infinitely.

All the time he felt like everything is a struggle but there are also times when he has a time of reprieve.

In those free days, he looks at the sky and contemplate what is the regret of Azul and how did he enlightened himself.

In those years inside the forest, Azief band experiences many things that could have been the end of their rebellions.

Azief even wonder how Azul manage to keep his band together long enough to stage a comeback and bring down the Empire

And then as he just stabilizes himself in the Vast Forest, in the second year of Azief rebellion still in the Great Forest, his band was contracted with sickness and disease.

Azief went down to the sick to look at them personally despite the objection from Tyr and Zinar who fear that he himself would be contracted with the disease.

But Azief wins the support of the peasant. Azief even felt like he was being like Liu Bei, winning the populace goodwill.

In those times as ration decreases, and rains and cold coming down on the forest, it is almost pushing the band into the edge of breaking.

By now, Azief band has risen to amount to a small village.

Azief knows to succeed in the end, to topple down the Empire, the problem in this forest is not about the traitor in his midst, but how to keep everyone warm and not starved.

Azief looted any Empire buildings on the town bordering the forest and then return back to the forest.

If that is not enough harassment to the Empire there is camp of peasant sending food in secret as gesture of support.

With that Azief also send his people that are becoming larger and larger to sabotage Reaping in nearby town.

There were four towns within two days of travels of the forest north region. The Reaping itself is protected only by a few Magus and Avengers of the Church.

The only protection against it was the fear the populace held for the Church and the promise that any offense against the church would be punished by Thonos itself.

In those raids, Azief also participated.

Azief himself does not believe this Thonos. Even if there is Thonos Azief also does not fear.

He knows that the Gods that people of this realm if it does exist is nothing more than just a powerful being.

Azief saw such powerful beings in his journey, and he himself could be considered God if his ability is to be included in.

He could change the weather; bring down rain or burns cities and even kingdoms and nation.

Azief also send Zinar and Tyr to the nobles of Aethens and peasant camp all around the border of the forest to persuade them to join the rebellion.

They would travel by the night to the outskirts of the aristocracy great estates and the smallhold of the city nearby the forest to promote the rebellion to both the nobles and the peasantry.

Zinar was effective in her job as she informs the people that Azief band is not some outlaws mob but the first spark of a rebellion against all the injustice of the Empire.

To the nobles Zinar spoke of the rights of the nobles in the time of Aethenspania rule. To the peasant she promised no more Reaping.

While not all of them join, some are keen to help and some join the bands, making Azief band swell and become larger and larger.

With the help of peasants and some nobles helps Azief use the money he got to smuggle horses, buy provisions and smuggle goods and herbs from the forest to the outside world.

Azief also started teaching the outlaws, and the peasantry letters and numbers.

Azief foresee a day where he needs capable minister.

Not once in his mind he visualizes that he would fail in his endeavor. If he still fails even after all of he achieved in his world, he should just kill himself.

That is how much confidence he had on himself.

Azief believes that through teaching the band of peasant to read a world of knowledge will open for them.

Azief teaches them not only the letters and mathematic but also history, theology, politics and trade.

Azief because of his modern world knowledge had a deep understanding of supply and demand.

People who visited this part of Aethens, always complain about the tariffs The Empire impose, a swinging tax each time goods cross a border, especially on luxuries items like wool, steel, silk and wheat.

But no smuggling ever happens in this large forest.

When Tyr was briefed he reaches the same conclusion like Azief. That is because this area used to belong to bandits.

They need to make their presence known and tell the merchant to smuggle here and that is what he did in most of the second year of rebellion.

In his third year of rebellion, his men swell in number from before

Now his men are experienced warriors and they have fought many people that try to sniff them out in this large forest.

His men fought Magus that uses Blood magic and they fought Avengers of Chaos.

They have grown strong and even confident enough that his band of small army started raiding the Church and the Empire structure.

But Azief forbid looting and sacking towns.

By raiding the church, the Avengers of the Church base of operation and even Empire granary and grain supply center, Azief band is now armed with weapons of forged steels, not just clubs, knives and sharpened staves, but leather armor of high quality, horses enough to form a cavalry unit that could mow down a small army and vast amount of food to keep his army well fed and motivated.

And the more Azief set up this raid; he realizes his army is changing. There is a new glint in the eyes of his band, a self confidence that wasn’t there before.

Slowly, there is a trace of an elite army in the band that Azief is leading.

Azief named his army the Crimson Army and they painted their amour dark red and his elite army is adept at night attack and guerilla tactics.

Even though the nobles around the Vast Forests send their retinue under the orders of the Empire to contain Azul Verignon, none of them returned back.

What those nobles didn’t know and expected is that most of those retinue is composed of peasant who instead of fighting Azul army who is equipped with steel armor and steel swords, they actually surrenders willingly and eager to join Azief rebellion while any that does not surrender were executed.

And that is how Azief grew his Crimson Army to thirty thousand people, enough force to threaten a city.

Azul of House Verignon name shakes the Empire upper government of the Empire in their homeland of Thul’nos.

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