Kalmar Union, Neues Reich…
The Kalmar Union immediately panicked upon receiving the declaration of war. The council was convened for the emergency by the president, but all the representatives were not the original representatives.
Normally, the older individuals from each family, those who truly held all the power would attend the meetings as the decisions made would be vital to their own interests. However, these individuals were currently busy with handling the dumpster-fire that their own families had turned into, with panic and fear-mongering causing chaos. Many of these original members were already preparing plans that would allow them to escape the Kalmar Union with most of their wealth and power intact, thought that was largely impossible given how deeply rooted the families were within the Union itself.
As such, those attending the emergency meeting were much younger individuals of the families, with far too little experience when it came to handling such matters, and the result was a war of insults and even actual fist-fighting amongst those at the meeting. Thankfully, nobody bothered to utilise spells so nobody was truly injured, especially considering the sun was still out and everyone rapidly healed from most small wounds and bruises within seconds.
'Sigh… These fools are not worth bothering. The real family representatives will not be coming anytime soon…' the President could only sigh, before a thought flashed past his eyes.
He could use this. This very moment of utter chaos within the Union to make forceful changes in its structure. It would be difficult, and a single moment of distraction or a single mistake could result in his immediate elimination. However, if things ended up working out, he would be able to free his nation from the clutches of the 11 families.
'Quite the hypocrite…' the president chuckled at himself; planning to destroy a very broken system while being one who was enjoying the benefits of that very system.
But he knew their nation would never be able to handle the attack of the German Reich. He was alive back then, as a child, when Armin I led his armies to burn down all the kingdoms around it, including his own.
And now, every single individual had become a mage, which had also caused many problems for the spy agencies in this nation of the Kalmar Union. Magi were individuals of high status in this nation, mainly being from the 11 main families; so they would not be willing to become spies in foreign countries.
This meant their intelligence was pathetically low in the German Reich, but it was still far higher than their magically inept ally; Hohenzollern, who only focussed on technological progress and manufacturing.
But it did not change the despairing military and especially magical might of the German Reich, which was why none of the fighting nations had dared to drag in this behemoth into the war. And now his own nation's newly created ally just casually did this, and that too against themselves.
…
And just as the president of the Union President had guessed, the war itself played out in the favour of the German Reich.
No.
There was no favour. There was only a one-sided obliteration. Yes, the enemy soldiers of the German Reich did undergo some casualties, but none of this could be confirmed by them, as neither the Union, nor Hohenzollern, and especially the United States, were able to gain any ground against the German Reich, and thus were never able to confirm any casualties to be true or not.
But even assuming all the causalities their soldiers and observers suspected to be true, which was essentially impossible since most Jerries could heal from incredibly debilitating wounds, the ratio between casualties on the German Reich's side and those confirmed casualties on their own sides, was 1 to 4.
This might not seem like much to the unlearned individual, but it even caused James to shift his focus away from his important task of establishing his trading system, towards the lopsided battlefield.
'Meh, the goal was to have a single hegemon in each era, lasting 500 years before their downfall and replacement with another hegemon. With this war, there should be a period of peace again, which would should last for a while. At least a whole generation or perhaps two before it is broken by the losing nations coming back with vengeance. Hmm, I should slow down my expansion of the trading system for a few months after the war comes to a close, until the next war begins again,' James went through multiple thoughts while making his future plans as well.
Meanwhile, the Jerries on Neues Reich were absolutely stunned at the casualty difference. A 1:4 ratio meant that on a large-scaled battlefield, assuming the numbers remained the same, while the German Reich would only lose 10% of their entire army, something that was not only expected but easily replaced at times of war, the enemies would lose a debilitating 40% of their army, causing that group of soldiers would be forced to return from the front lines in order to retrain new recruits to the point they could fight on the front lines.
This also meant that the same unit of soldiers of the German Reich, could last 4 times as long as the enemies, and could hold off at an enemy force of at least 3 times their own size.
And this single factor alone could cause the German Reich to win whatever war they went into, however, they also had more hidden cards that were already in use, but not exposed.
With all their citizens being effectively Rank 0 Mages, all logistical supply lines, no matter how weak they may seem due to the lack of soldiers protecting them, would actually be protected by a large number of Magi.
Any enemy trying to sabotage their logistics would be met with a barrage of fire or lightening spells before they could launch any attacks.
There were also a few other important factors like superior logistical might due to magical enhancements to productions and transportation, as well as improved significance of manpower due to everyone being magically perceptive.
…
But these mattered not, as the unstoppable might of the German Reich bared upon the already strained nations of Hohenzollern, Kalmar, and the United States.
Taking this offensive as a signal, the Dual Monarchy and the Tsardom also launched their own offensives, rapidly taking back the territory they had lost.
The German Reich had grown by about 10%, while the Dual Monarchy had effectively taken back all its lost land, while those politicians from the region of Hungary were now all dead. The Tsardom also took over all its lost land.
And then, all the nations paused for a month in order to digest the land they had taken, allowing them to set-up new forward posts for logistics in locations that were originally in enemy territory. They also mobilised more troops, allowing for the injured to be send back, and those who fought for too long to also get a break.
This period would have allowed the Kalmar Union, Hohenzollern, and the United States to also condense their frontlines, while also mobilising more troops, shifting focus from offense to defence.
However, this was only done by Hohenzollern, while the Kalmar Union erupted in an uprising, crippling their ability to coordinate as most of the Strongest Magi at Rank 3 were part of the group that were being overthrown. And this was only possible due to the support of all those affiliated Rank 3 Magi, who were either forced or otherwise coerced into joining the main 11 families.
Meanwhile, the United States continued trying to launch offensives on both the German Reich and the Dual Monarchy, being somewhat successful against the latter, turning an originally stalemate into a constantly shifting battle field of trenches, resulting in large casualties.
But after 2 months of consolidating their fighting power, the German Reich, in coordination with the Tsardom and the Dual Monarchy launched their final offensives against the enemies, focussing on the politically and magically unstable Kalmar Union, as well as the seemingly mentally unstable United States.
Hohenzollern had offensives launched on it by both the Dual Monarchy and the Tsardom to moderate results, but the German Reich left them alone. The reason was simply, James had sent Armin II a message, to not destroy Hohenzollern.
It was not something done casually. The purely technological nation was something he needed to exist in his world. Although nations that integrated technology and magic would be more resistant to outside enemies, and could also launch better attacks on them, James knew that the unstable factor of having a rapidly advancing nation based purely on technology would also force the others to advance on their own, or perhaps even result in a war.
James knew that without such an unstable factor, the world would rapidly reach a period of complacency lasting 500 years until the next era arrived. And he could not have that. Plus, he also wanted to see how technology would evolve over time. Especially the periods after his time period during World War 2. The others talked about the early and late 21st century, and James was quite interested in the technology and future that it would bring.
As such, he simply sent a message to Armin II that for not letting more than 50% of Hohenzollern's population die, and for preserving their technological bases, factories, and cities, he would double the points they would get on the rankings from this war.
…
The war proceeded rather swiftly from there on, as both the Union and the States fell to their enemies. Hohenzollern was then forced to surrender to the German Reich, becoming a puppet nation. The Tsardom took half of the territory of Kalmar, while the other half was split in 3, with German Reich taking on one part, the Dual Monarchy taking one part, and the last bit was allowed to hold onto independency after the surrender.
The original president was allowed to remain in control, especially considering how those who were part of the uprising he led, supported and helped all the invading forces within the lands of the Union.
The United States was also broken up, but since it did not border the Tsardom, it was left out of the discussion. The German Reich took about a fifth of the nation for itself, allowing the Dual Monarchy to take in about half of the country. The rest was once again split into 3 nations called the North-Eastern States, Southern Erderol, and Falstafor.
However, in exchange for such a large portion of the United States, the Kalmar Union forfeited all claims on Hohenzollern except for one strategic location that prevented Hohenzollern from launching another assault on the Dual Monarchy without destroying, likely to built a strategic fort for defence there.
The Tsardom also forfeited most land, but took a small section of land with vast quantities of metals and resources like coal that it would need for its own industries. The rest of Hohenzollern was absorbed by the German Reich as its own subordinate nation.
…
James waved his hand, adding three smaller Collective Energy banks under the originally large bank created from the fusing of the banks of multiple tribes. He did not destroy this fused bank of United States that he had only just created a while ago, and instead just made three smaller ones that fed into it.
Then he waved his hand and linked the bank for Hohenzollern into the one for the German Reich.
Then, he sighed before stopping the expansion of his trading system. He had only been able to reach three worlds with Spirit Races, and after a while, he decided to declare it open as a trial. The real reason was to allow these race spirits to expend all their deposited Collective Energy in trading, before becoming a source of collective energy for himself, allowing him to restart his trading system.
{AN: The Great War finally comes to an end.}
Word Count: 2013 words
{AN: sorry this chapter was double the size of a normal chapter. I just wanted to end the Arc on a round figure, and start the next arc on chapter 41. It just feels right. Anyways, hope everyone enjoyed this. Please remember, the nations themselves are effectively characters in the story, and the few named characters within the German Reich are also important. Especially the younger ones who will eventually grow up and become involved in the plot. }