Chapter 862 Perseus's Last Stand
?862 Perseus's Last Stand
Alexander's slight concern about Lord Theony was naturally poked at by Perseus's son during his speech.
Upon hearing Lord Theony's bold, unconcerned laughter, he had addressed Alexander,
"Pasha of Zanzan, are you really comfortable having such a traitor by your side? Do you think it is wise? Will he not betray you when the opportune moment comes just like he did to my father?"
But although slightly concerned, Alexander also made sure to remind the other party that they were no innocent fawn either and that Lord Theony had a real reason behind his betrayal.
"Lord Theony only betrayed you because he was betrayed first- by your father and his court. Don't tell me you forgot how you tried to pin the blame of losing Thesalie to him instead of the actual lord of the city, Lord Ponticus?"
"Why? Just to save a dead man's reputation. Just because he was part of the royal family."
The quick response was something that quite pleased Lord Theony.
While actually behind closed doors, Alexander did consider the offer more thoroughly, sitting with some of his council members to try and think of the best outcome.
Because if possible, the best steward to rule Tibias would undoubtedly be Perseus.
However, the consensus reached in that meeting was that Lord Theony and his family were too important for the immediate future to be exchanged for the terms offered and the only way Alexander could agree was ifPerseus were to abdicate and surrender the whole of Tibias.
And even then it would only be Lord Theony being placed under house arrest.
Such a lukewarm offer was ultimately not acceptable to Perseus and thus with negotiations broken down, both sides prepared for battle.
Alexander's side, now 40,000 strong started their march for Lilybee once the men were gathered and given some basic training.
This took around twenty days, and the entire journey was pretty eventless.
Given Alexander's army size and reputation by now, no city foolishly tried to defend itself till the very last breath.
But all accepted Alexander with open arms, letting him into their city and making available the best accommodations they had to offer so that he did sack their settlements.
Some cities even extended their hospitality to the point they sent carts full of food ahead of the marching army, hoping that this way the huge number of armed men would not go out foraging for food and destroy the surrounding crop fields, but instead quickly leave.
Alexander was of course all too happy to accept all this.
Along the way, he also got to see the countryside scenery of Tibias, and although the scenery here was much like the scenery anywhere else around the country, he did find it very beautiful.
Meandering earthen pathways with forests and woods on either side, Alexander found nature unfolding at its finest- in a symphony of sights, sounds, and scents
Then he first and foremost ordered,
"Send messengers to the walls. Tell them that if they open the gates, no one will touch even their hair. But if they decide to resist, they will be killed to the every last man."
The messenger would indeed recite this, as well as the condition Alexander had given Perseus prior, i.e.- abdicate to save his and his family's life and live a cushy life in Zanzan.
*Shoo*
But to this, Perseus's only response was shooting an arrow at the herald's feet as from the top of the wall, the king shouted his response regally, addressing himself with the royal 'We'.
" 'We' have been handed the duty to defend Tibias from 'Our' father, who received it from 'Their' father."
"Entrusted in this fidelity by the sacred ancestral spirits, 'We' have been the bulwark of Tibias for countless generations, repelling countless invaders just like you."
"So how can 'We' accept simply abandoning our duty now just because things have gotten bad?"
"Win or loss! That is in the hands of the fate."
"But me Perseus- the first of his name will never surrender!"
"True Tibias never surrender!"
Perseus swung his armored fist high into the air as he shouted this and the speech was way more than just a reply to Alexander.
It was also a way to galvanize his 35,000 men who, upon seeing the well armed and numerically superior enemy had begun to lose courage.
And so hearing Perseus's very charismatic speech caused many shouts such as,
"Whoooo..."
"Yeahhhh..."
"Fight to the death...," enabling them to recover their morale.
And then knowing that defending against Alexander was futile, Perseus began to march out of the gates, deciding to throw everything at this one last roll.
Some of his generals had instead urged the king to defend, reasoning that other powers might send even more reinforcements if they could hold on a bit longer.
But even if Perseus was not highly skeptical of such a claim, even if he wanted to defend, the walls of the city appeared too inadequate, being only 3 meters high and about 2 meters thick.
Which were not shabby, but given Alexander's access to catapults, Perseus had no confidence in being able to withstand the attacks.
Hence the decision for a pitched battle.
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