The next morning, I went to inspect the arrived troops. I was especially interested in the newest addition, the Irish troops under Fionn. I approached him when he was eating with his knights, so I joined them.
-"Hey, Eno, we were talking about you."-Fionn made a place for me to sit.
-"What's the matter?"-I asked.
-"We were discussing if your angelic features were some illusion."-Fionn looked behind me.
-"They are true, here take a look."-I used my magic to move them slightly.
Everyone surrounded me, some even tried to touch my wings, but their hands phased through them.
-"Strange."-Diarmuid commented as he touched my halo and quickly took his hand back as if electrocuted, the slight blue glow on his finger showing what hurt him.-"This one can be touched?"
-"Wings can also normally, but I learned how to make them like that so they don't annoy me."-I shrugged my shoulders.
-"So, are you truly an angel?"-Fionn asked the question everyone wanted to ask.
-"It depends on how you define an angel. If we talk about the servitude to a god, then no, I have my own free will. But I'm now a spirit, so this fits what angels are. You can consider me an angel connected to the world, not a God."
-"I see."-Fionn seemed relieved by my words.-"I can't stand the Church."
-"Oh? There must be an interesting story here, mind sharing?"-I asked.
-"Sure, but it's not that interesting. You should know that the Church in Ireland is not new, but that can't yet meddle in the country's decisions. But they definitely try to do so."-He shook his head.-"Since my knight order became officially the highest force in Ireland, they send no less than a hundred priests to 'assist' us. Even my lord is receiving constant suggestions from them, each one trying to gain more control over the country."
-"Typical. If not for Vortigern being linked with 'pagan' practices and the Anglo-Saxons being 'barbarians' that followed their faith, then Britain would long ago be filled by priests and templars."
-"Well, Ireland already is full of monasteries and devout idiots. Even the glorious nobles now kneel and repent before those bishops. While not major, the Church is already a force that my lord needs to be wary of."
-"The times of Roman domination are slowly ending, next we will either have ages of strife between kingdoms, or one guided by the Holy Church. Neither is good for our islands."
-"True. That's why we are here. So that we can unite in the face of hard times to come."-Fionn raised his cup to me.
-"Since the moment you took your spears against Vortigern, we are brothers in arms."-I also raised my cup.-"We might serve different Kings, but we are the same knights."
Everyone present joined our toast, be it Irish, Picts, or Britons; all here were proud knights.
-"I can only envy the new king for having a knight like you."-Fionn looked at his knights.-"No offense, guys, but you should learn how to speak and present yourself, even if your strength can't catch up to Eno, at least you would look presentable in the future."
-"But Lord, won't your position be threatened then?"-Diarmuid feigned shock.-"We can't outshine you."
Some knights snickered.
-"See, that's what I'm talking about. True knight knows how to look best, but never better than his lord."-Fionn shook his head, trying to appear disappointed.
-"That's hard, Lord... Can we change it to some other task? Maybe looking for that Grail? Or slaying some dragon? Let's be more realistic."
-"How about trying to beat Fou?"-I suggested, amused by their banter.-"But this might be harder than what you proposed."
Everyone looked at the strange squirrel, not knowing what to say.
-"I take that back. None of us will ever be able to match your ability in speaking."-Fionn spoke after a while.-"I never heard anything more offensive than you suggesting we can't defeat a squirrel, yet I can't even be angry."
-"Fou?"-Fou looked around, wondering why everyone looked at them, no ferocity, just cuteness.
Knights who heard everything nodded.
I just smiled.
-"Well, Lord, at least now your position won't be threatened by us."-Diarmuid tried to liven up the conversation again.-"Though that squirrel might."
-"Indeed. I'll be watching my back."-Fionn nodded seriously, looking at Fou as if seeing some great enemy.
We continued talking until it was time to move. I decided to join them in training today, so I saw how well trained they were. I must say, they were impressive. The core 100 Knights of Fianna that came here from Ireland could easily beat twice, if not thrice, their numbers of normal knights. Diarmuid alone could beat ten or so; even I had to fight him seriously to not show any weakness.
The more people I met in this world, the more I felt that I had neglected training my body, focusing solely on techniques and magic. But the problem was, could I even train my body now? Until now, all attempts to strengthen my body have proved unsuccessful, so I was quite troubled by it. I needed to find a method specifically developed for spirits, but I had no idea where to look for it.
For a moment, I thought about the last item I received from Gaia. Morgan tried everything she could to research that small orb, but it all proved futile. The only thing she could confirm was that it didn't carry any will with itself, meaning no matter what it was, it was a dead object without the ability to replace itself. Adding Gaia's assurance that it wasn't harmful, I began to seriously consider using it. But that needed to wait for matters at hand to resolve first.
Four days passed without much issue; the only matter that was worth mentioning happened on the second day. On that day, the patrol of Shaman happened again, and this time, he didn't return to the castle thanks to our actions. This alerted the enemy to our presence, forcing them to mobilize defenses, though they didn't send any force to attack us, remaining passive.
On the fifth day since the main force's arrival, I ordered the start of the siege, beginning the battle with a salvo from the trebuchets. The solid walls strengthened by runic barriers were able to survive the bombardment, but the fire that covered the majority of the exposed space proved even more troublesome than the direct damage.
Despite this fortress being built mostly from stone, there were still many wooden elements, and now each of them was a glaring weakness. First to suffer were the stables, full of wooden elements and fresh hay everywhere. One spark and in matters of minutes I watched from the air how of over five hundred horses, only fifty or so were saved.
Next were the barracks. When one jar impacted them directly, the fire was able to enter through a few stone windows and create hell inside. The firefighting that followed lasted hours, but even after that, I could see that half of the building was torched, inhabitable. Now, aside from exhaustion from the siege, they needed to house all the people in half the room available.
The longer the siege lasted, the more advantageous the situation was for us, so we long ago decided to wear out our opponents before attempting any raid. But we couldn't just wait indefinitely. While receiving reinforcements would take a long time, they will definitely arrive. Agravain estimated that we had a month before the reinforced unit could arrive, but to prevent any unnecessary losses, we needed to take over the fortress and prepare to repel reinforcements before they arrived. So our plan of action was to finish everything in two weeks, giving us another two weeks to prepare for our defense.
As such, I now played a high-stakes game of balancing, blind betting, and estimating. I needed to decide when to stop destroying the fortress, as we needed to use it later, but the more damaged it was, the easier it would be to conquer. I needed to allocate time between this battle, repair and rest, and finally the next battle with the reinforcements. All that while I had limited knowledge of the internal state of the fortress, being able only to estimate the situation from what I could see as I floated high above.
I watched the siege continue; each jar impacting the walls was tilting the scales of the battle in our favor. People inside were rushing around, always taking cover so as not to be accidentally burned, but even so, their losses already passed the hundred mark. I was in deep thought when a change finally occurred.
I suddenly heard a loud cry of a bird of prey. Looking i that direction, I saw a ten or so gigantic beards flying in my direction. On every one of them, there was a person aiming their weapons at me. Recognizing them as contracted beasts, I connected them to the Shaman still present in the fortress. At the same time, I took a closer look at the people riding them, and by the armor they were wearing alone, I knew they were an elite force.
Battle was imminent, so I directly rushed toward them, Crystal Spear already in my hands. Of my opponents, six used bows, while the remaining four wielded polearms akin to halberds. Seeing me approach, they instantly split, the four enemies with halberds flying to meet me, while the remaining six tried to surround me.
They wanted to use their advantage in numbers, especially as I not only needed to watch out for riders, but also the birds' talons and beaks. But to utilize their advantage, they needed to keep me I check as, due to my smaller size and better control, I held an advantage in aerial movement. Of course, I also held an absolute advantage with my magic, as even if the Shaman was present with them, they wouldn't be able to compete with me on that field.
I dodged their attacks and flew under one of the wings, thrusting my spear into the side of the bird, wounding it, but not enough to kill. Pulling it out, launched myself toward to next target. This time, I struck the bird head-on, putting my spear cleanly into its eye; this time, one attack was enough. But this position left me exposed, and with my spear now lodged, I needed to leave it there. Mobilizing my magic power, I covered myself with Glintstone haze, disappearing from enemies' eyes.
A second later, I reappeared, but not where I was, but on the back of one of the archers. Sword in my hand, I delivered a swift slash, decapitating the rider, while my left hand pointed at the bird's head, a Glintstone comet forming in my palm. After I flew into the air again, two giant birds were falling to the ground.
The remaining three halberd-wielders instantly rushed toward me, giving time for archers to make more distance and continue to harass me. I started to move, dodging attacks while looking for an opportunity to attack. After losing two teammates, they began to fight more carefully, not giving me a chance to counterattack, at the cost of not being able to launch a good attack.
But this wasn't an issue for me. Using the time I had because they kept their safe distance, I took out my Royal Scepter and focused on casting a spell. Soon, a dark cloud shimmering with starlight appeared all around, quickly expanding and covering us all. Noticing something was off, the bird riders tried to retreat, but before they could fly from the cloud, the stars started to rain in their direction.
A minute later, the cloud disappeared, allowing all those watching from the ground to see what had happened. I floated calmly like before, watching the situation from above, and around me, eight corpses were falling to the ground, each riddled with holes. Seconds later, a booming cheer erupted from my army; the first direct fight of this siege ended in our complete victory.
While I was fighting in the air, each of our trebuchets was also attacked; those battles lasted longer than mine, but thanks to the quick response from Fionn and Gawain, we avoided serious losses. Sadly, of twelve trebuchets, two were destroyed, while another three were damaged and needed repairs. But that try to break the siege was too little and too late; in the end, they only threw their remaining elites into a fight they had no chance to win.
Their fortress was already in shambles, soldiers and knights exhausted, injured, with no morale to speak of. If they had tried this in the first two days, they might have gained something, but now, after a week, it was useless. And now, it was time to deal with what remained of their resistance.
I contacted Fionn and Gawain and made them organize the army for attack. At the same time, I asked Fou to go where they buried the items I gave them, and leave one end of a fuse there. Fou moved quickly, and an hour later, the other end of a fuse was waiting near our units.
Looking at that cable, I couldn't help but think back to my childhood friend who taught me all that useless knowledge about ammunition and explosives, because in her words: 'It's fun!'. A small smile appeared on my face as I internally thanked that red-haired angel for forcing me to play with her.
Shaking my head, I returned to reality and let out a small electric charge from my hand, sending it along the cable. Counting in my head to five, I felt how the earth under my feet shook as three distinct detonations echoed around. The first explosion occurred directly under already damaged walls, bringing a chunk of them down. The second and third occurred on the mountain slopes around the castle, starting a landslide on the other side of the fortress.
The next few minutes were pure chaos, not to mention our opponents, even our soldiers and knights were disoriented and barely followed the order to charge. Only after the sound of falling rocks ended and the dust started to settle could one see all the destruction that had taken place. My army was already in the castle, clearing out still shell-shocked enemies. Those who were able to act left their weapons behind and tried to run, attempting to leave the fortress and disappear into the forest on the other side. But when they left the fortress walls, they were met with rubble of rocks, mud, and trees.
Before some could even attempt to pass that mess, I landed before them, Royal Scepter still in hand. When the deserting enemies saw me, they instantly surrendered, calling me a monster and a devil. I only smiled; there was no need to waste words or time on the losers.