SSS Awakening: Starting With Infinite Soul Copy

There were quite a number of ideas, but still, White decided to start from the simplest.

"Can we try to negotiate with them?"

He asked Juntar, who was quick to shut the idea down.

"That’s impossible. The Hellwraths do not invade kingdoms to take their resources or add to their territories."

"They do so purely for the entertainment of dominance. They enjoy the slaughter, craving it just as a human craves happiness."

"Not even negotiating while putting a blade to each of our own necks would be a good offer for them."

He spoke.

"Well, if negotiation is out, and we’re clearly outmatched, then why don’t we just try to evacuate the kingdom?"

"Leave before the enemy comes knocking on the gate."

"We can hide away and, when the time comes, come back for revenge or wait for the Hellwraths to get destroyed by some other kingdom."

"The Hellwraths don’t take territories, so we’ll be able to easily come back once they’re done."

He proposed, and Juntar hummed deeply, pulling out a map.

"That does indeed sound like a good plan, perhaps the safest option. To simply leave and wait it out in some other safe place, but..."

He paused with troubled eyes, and the sight of it unnerved White.

"But what?"

"Where is the safe place we’ll go to?"

He asked, and White paused before replying.

"Anywhere?"

"Do you know how many people are in the kingdom, my Lord?"

He asked rhetorically before continuing.

"Sixty thousand civilians! And how many days do we have before we’re invaded?"

"Three days."

White mused and he watched Juntar point to the map.

"Facing us on all three sides are parts of other kingdoms. They’ve ignored us until now, deeming us insignificant, but if we dare cross into their territory, we’ll be doomed."

"They wouldn’t care to hear of our problems. Cities in their own territories have been destroyed, after all, and they couldn’t do much about it."

"They’ll never help us."

He said.

"Then we take this path."

White said showing a place on the map that was unmapped.

"It’s the only path."

Juntar said.

"But right now, it’s a desolate land blanketed in snow, and the temperatures are beyond extreme. It’s why no kingdom has ever been established there."

"No human is capable of surviving such extreme temperatures, and it lasts for eight months of the year."

"The only time it will thaw and become comfortable is around two months from now. Then it might be somewhat livable."

"But we don’t have two months... just three days."

White mused as Juntar fell silent.

Besides, while Juntar had only mentioned the snow, White knew there were other problems such as food, shelter, and distance.

Without those, they’d starve to death, and if they were still pursued by the Hellwrath Kingdom, then there was also the distance they’d have to run.

Most of the elderly and children would have to be left behind.

In short, evacuation was a slow massacre.

"And we can’t surrender."

White mused.

"The Hellwraith Kingdom has a terrifying reputation for carnage."

Juntar said.

"They butcher entire towns, have the women skinned, and the children cooked, while the men are fed to their beasts."

"Surrendering only makes it easier and solidifies the guarantee of death."

"Then we ask the Seven Kingdoms!"

"If all seven kingdoms come together as one, surely they’ll be able to take down a single kingdom of barbarians."

"No, my Lord."

"Why not? Isn’t it clear that if the Hellwraths are not put to a stop, it will only spread to them all with time?"

"Fighting as one is the right thing."

"We’re insignificant."

Juntar cut in.

"The Seven Kingdoms do not help simply because something is right. They help only when something benefits them."

"And our Igasus Kingdom has been deemed an insignificant territory. There’s nothing of ours that can make even one of the Seven Kingdoms interested in facing the Hellwrath Kingdom with us, talk less of all seven."

At this point, White was starting to run out of ideas, yet as he stared at the map spread across the table, strange thoughts began creeping into his mind.

Thoughts that felt... wrong.

Ones he normally would’ve dismissed immediately, yet with the hopelessness of the situation, and knowing he had promised a solution by dawn, he found himself speaking them aloud.

"Where is the Hellwrath Kingdom’s territory?"

He began, looking at the map, and Juntar pointed into the distance.

It was substantially far away from the Igasus Kingdom.

"That looks far away from us, and there’s no kingdom on their path."

White mentioned.

"Yes, my Lord. In fact, it should take them about four days. Just the number of days given to us."

Juntar mumbled.

"But that also means one thing."

White deduced.

"What’s that, my Lord?"

"They don’t have enough resources to sustain themselves."

He spoke, and Juntar’s eyes shrank.

"I don’t know how many Hellwraths are coming."

"But if even a quarter, just like you said, are coming, then it’s obvious they won’t have enough food and water for that many of them."

"Not when there’s no other kingdom on the way that they can invade, meaning..."

He paused, and Juntar continued.

"All they’ll take is enough to last them for four days of travel."

"With no kingdom on their path due to the Igasus Kingdom’s location, they’ll be out of resources when they reach our gate and definitely hoping to refill their supplies when they finally invade us."

He said, moving his finger across the map.

"The outer circles of the kingdom will be the best place for that. There’s water, there are crops, and our defensive walls are not there."

"They won’t have to fight us and can refill themselves properly before choosing to engage in battle."

"Then we destroy the outer circles."

White said coldly, and Juntar froze.

"Bring all the civilians in the outer circles within the walls."

"Then afterward, destroy the crops. Let them find nothing to eat and starve. In the absence of food, they’ll be desperate for water, so we poison the wells too."

"They’ll come expecting to be able to drink and eat, and refill themselves before battle. But all they’ll find are burnt fields and poisoned wells."

"We’ll make them fight this war while they’re dying of hunger and thirst."

"But, my Lord, the outer crops are the hard work of the noble civilians of the kingdom, and they’re just a month away from a good harvest."

"If we burn it all down, not only will their hard work for the past six months go to waste, half the kingdom’s population will starve, and the water supply will barely be enough for survival."

There was a silence that stretched for about twenty seconds before White spoke once more.

"Will the water in the inner kingdom be enough to satisfy everyone, even when those from the outer circles are brought in?"

He asked.

"The food won’t be enough, but the water will."

Juntar said, noticing the commander’s eyes close before opening once more.

"Then do it."

A very long silence followed before Juntar asked:

"All of it?"

White stared at the map one more time before deciding.

"All of it!"

Even he knew how cold that was.

Destroying crops that had cost months of hard work and poisoning wells.

Shifting civilians from their homes and cramping them into a space where the food was not enough to go around.

It was cold...very cold, but this was a war they were not supposed to win, and what awaited them for not winning was certain death.

Which was the worse decision?

The hunger of a couple thousand, or the death of tens of thousands?

The logic, however cold, was obvious.

If the enemy couldn’t eat... the invasion would slow.

But that wasn’t enough.

Desperate enough, the Hellwraths could still break through the walls and get what they wanted.

After all, that’s the only thing standing in their way.

If anything, it would make them more desperate and brutal than ever.

There needed to be more than just a wall waiting for them.

At that moment, Juntar also spoke.

"But that only slows them down, not stop them. In the end, they still outnumber us and can overpower us easily."

He said, and White asked:

"Let’s not say a quarter. Let’s say half the population of the Hellwraths are coming. What would their estimate be?"

"Around ten thousand of them. The Hellwrath barbarians are not many, but they make up for it in raw power."

Juntar replied.

"If it takes five men to certainly defeat one barbarian, then how many men would be needed to prevail against such an enemy?"

White asked.

"At least fifty thousand men, my Lord."

"And how many men do we have in our army?"

White asked.

"Around twenty-two thousand are in the army. Not up to half of what is necessary, my Lord."

"We need more men."

White said, a natural conclusion.

He turned to Juntar, who replied with narrowed eyes.

"We can’t train that many and officially add them to the army in just three days."

"The only choice is..."

He paused.

"What is it?"

"Forced conscription."