The process of rebuilding a nation from the depths of a war (be it civil or not) is a long and arduous one. It is a task that can be monumental in scope and seemingly insurmountable in difficulty, yet it is one that any good nation will take to with fervor and enthusiasm. For in that great effort, the rebuilding of infrastructure and the repairing of livelihoods, in the public works and reestablishment of order and justice there is a kind of hard work that few seldom understand or feel willing to take upon themselves. The process of organizing all of it, from repair to restructuring, can take years, if not decades, if not longer to complete.

Or, if you are a certain Abominable King, you can use the cheat provided to you by the chair you routinely plant your butt in and make all the work of not just rebuilding and improving roads, settlements, and other such physical constructs, but also lowering ethnic and regional tensions incredibly fast and without all that much fuss or muss. Of course, there were still things that the menu did not do, but that was where contractors and, if needed, the military came in.

With the non-aggression pact signed, Kain now had far more time to do things such as those listed above and others that may or may not need to be mentioned. Everything should have been looking up, so what exactly was it that was hanging over Kain like an ominous cloud? The answer could be found where the newest conquests of the Arcfiran Confederated Tribes met the newly vassalized Arbianan Federal Protectorate. In this massive line that divided the two areas, flora that was both incredibly resilient and oftentimes horribly destructive was fighting a never-ending battle against the defenses that Kain had to have placed in order to hold off the encroaching vegetation.

There were sacrifices that were being made at that very moment, such as the destruction of the natural beauty of certain areas via the installation of certain buildings that on the menu would be able to make. Where these massive braziers stood, the land itself seemed to die and or be corrupted, falling under the sway of Kain and his kin. It was these buildings that stopped the majority of the vegetation, but some still had to be fought off the old-fashioned way, with fire and herbicides. And, if that wasn’t bad enough, there were occasionally incidents when people, both human-sized and larger, made entirely of trees and other pieces of wood, somehow crossed the waterways and made direct assaults on the defenses in Arbiana.

Kain, after hearing about the final inconvenience, was heard to have asked if the tree-people spoke some kind of unknown language, such a Vietnamese, Germanic, Gaelic, Celtic, or Finnish. Nobody was sure why these tree-men would speak such languages, but the question did cause Kain’s son and daughter to snicker, so everyone thought it was some kind of inside joke. Regardless of the native language of the walking, sentient, and apparently very angry trees, Kain was soon finding his hands full just trying to direct the menu-led construction of fortifications. He was not good at designing fortresses at all but help from others was pulling him in the right direction. Plus, he could shift the defenses at will from the comfort of his throne, which hopefully made things even more difficult for the mostly bipedal, overly violent tree-people that totally weren’t Tolkien’s Ents or Warhammer Fantasy’s Tree-men due to reasons that I cannot confirm or deny have to do with copyright and/ or legal teams.

A case of theft: this story is not rightfully on Amazon; if you spot it, report the violation.

After about a month or so of the tree-men trying to take the coast, their attacks began to diminish, only to have the giant, flammable wooden people replaced by what could only be described as what would happen if almost every variant of Elf from traditional RPGs, Anime and more all gathered together under a single, militant hippie banner. Kain did not believe what he was witnessing, even though the scene was being shown directly to him by those undead whom he had sent to help defend the walls down there.

There were Elves with long, golden hair, pale, Caucasian skin, and brilliant green eyes, with some even having large butterfly wings expanding from their backs. He saw Drow fighting side by side with the standard Japanese version of a Dark Elves as well as what he assumed were clearly cheap knockoffs of the Warcraft Night Elves and Warhammer Fantasy Druchii. And, if that wasn’t enough, he could swear that he saw Elves that looked an awful lot like even more potential lawsuit fuel from the realms of Tabletop and Tolkien alike.

If you listed off nearly every generic type of elf from a high, low, and grimdark fantasy setting, there was a good chance that among those who were attempting to siege the defenses that an elf with similar features was there. Kain swore he could see someone that looked like a certain giant, butterfly-winged, blue-skinned elf woman with teal-ish hair fluttering around the battlefield as though she wasn’t a massive target, which made him question exactly what kind of weird shit was going on in Arcfira.

Thankfully, the elves, despite their diversity in appearance, lacked much in the way of cohesion and all wore armor consisting mostly of wood, leather, bone, and fabrics. And while they were nimble as all hell and could usually dodge any arrow or bolt loosed from a bow or crossbow, once Kain’s undead busted out the ol’ boomsticks the elves began to second guess their continued assaults.

They were already getting winded from dodging the endless rain of arrows and bolts but adding something like firearms to the mix made things even more dangerous for them. Finally, they retreated and used their weird little boats to ferry themselves back across the Nyel River. As much as Kain wished to punish them for their offensive, he felt his nation was not ready to immediately jump into another war just after exiting a prior one. He would need to make sure that his hand was perfect when the time came to play his cards, and with the sheer volume of undead that were being churned out now that he was back and in control, Kain figured that when the war finally came (which he was certain would happen eventually) he would be prepared to drown Arcfira in a tide of unliving bodies.