Seeing Charles make headway on the mithril slag to fill in the tectonic damage heartens me slightly, though I’m still a bit wary. I make note of other Draconiac crafters working on various tools, and thankfully there are more than just harvesting tools, there’s crafting tools as well. It looks like they’ll be supplying rotary tools and the like to the craftsworks room. Smiling at the volunteers, I take my leave of them, returning to my party.

Lu, Te, Lucky, Veril, Farzee, and I head swiftly to the location we’ll be meeting up with everyone else to sit in on some discussion by the strategists-eight. It’s odd to think that I was literally picking their brains just yesterday. I think it was yesterday. It seems so long ago now already, when we were trying to save Prinrin by abusing the myconid form’s hivemind sporebrain and the orb time. Anyway, we arrive before Lil, Kinzul, or Iylynila, despite how much I’d let myself get distracted this morning. I almost feel like I should recall the Spellknight Twins from the field, where I have them observing Indy to make sure he’s okay, so that they could sit in on this.

I loose a contented sigh. It worked. Mercy worked. Four amazing, earnest individuals who value family joined ours. Hell, four powerful individuals, in a time of war. Not only that, they’re bringing new life into the family on top of that already! Children on the way with Boetah and Atter! Plus the hundreds and hundreds of kobolds from Atter’s domain, that, well, I’m hoping we’ve vetted well enough. I think Atter would be heartbroken if any of her kinsmen lashed out, or endangered the safety of what we’ve built up here.

I have to always keep trying to keep being the me I want to be, despite how much it can hurt, despite how much regret I carry, and how many wrongs I feel I’ve committed. I try to do right by those closest to me first, and then do right by those who can’t stand up for themselves second, and then the most right for the most people third. All I can do is try. I’m no hero, I’m no leader, I’m no philosopher. I’m just a cryptozoologist, remember? Hah. You’re a dork Reggie, but you love it. Yeah, yeah I do.

Sighing contentedly again, I smile and shake my head incredulously at myself and my own inner monologue. Te shoulder-bashes me to get me out of my own head, so I bump her back, and we trade playful, light bashes until we’re both dizzy and giggling. We’re still, as we have been for the last couple days, working through things in Te’s mindscape in the background of everything else we’re doing. I’m glad we can maintain positivity and levity while we do so.

I set my gaze on Luni and Lucky, and I’m surprised when I find Lucky is armored up. He’s experimenting with his scarf-hands, taking off and putting on pieces of armor, and putting them into the dimensional storage within his scarf. That—. Well, that solves one issue. Good gods our son is smart. At times, he seems so simple, so much like a regular hound, or even perhaps a child, but then he’ll use critical thinking and solve problems on his own, or surprise me in other ways. His existence is so baffling to me. Though, hah, I’m not exactly one to talk. My own existence defies a lot of logic as well. How can I be *part* digital? Why were “ofbloods” a thing on Can’Z’aas? Come on Reggie, be in the present. Oh, true, right.

There’s Elshon, looking as flamboyant as ever, with another oddly framed pair of overly-large sunglasses. Everyone else is sitting, but not Elshon. He’s still standing, yeah, right next to Prent. Yeah, looking better than he ever did before, confident, assured somehow. It seems he’s truly prepared to survive this war, that he’s accepted that somehow we’re going to win, despite us still facing overwhelming odds, and new wrinkles popping up. Has Kinzul informed them about the new hole in the Worldstorm? I wish I could aid Errissa somehow in getting the information and getting it back to us swiftly and safely.

It might be just Luni and Lucky having to take down some ultra-powerful stronghold that holds the key to turning the tide of battle, if Kinzul can’t send anyone with dragonforces to end that particular threat. I think I’d risk it myself though. I wouldn’t care if every dragon from here to the center of Terrorzin’s domain felt me flying over their regions. Let them come after me, leaving all their ground troops behind. It would complicate the stronghold raid, depending on which sorts of dragons follow me, but it might very well give me a boost in power overall, despite taking resources and risking injury.

Plus, most domain leaders aren’t going to just leave their entire fortress behind themselves to chase down one or two dragonforces flying over the Worldstorm. They’ll probably only send a lieutenant, or elite squad. Huff. I can see more and more why I’d be the knife edge of the Order’s offensive onslaught. I’m willing, and able, to assess and take those sorts of risks, and I understand exactly what I’d be up against. I can even portion things out, luring out more lieutenants and elite squads, until leaders do decide they need to chase me down themselves.

Hell, if I throw enough of a wrench into the works of various regions, the ground troops might be rudderless, and end up completely cut off, not being able to muster. I could even sneak in some rests here and there, especially with my new stonemelding runic ability from that anti-petrification clip, and a few other tricks I’ve got up my sleeves now. Hm. It isn’t quite time yet to go that far all-out on soloing the entire rest of the dragon apocalypse though Reggie. Yeah, true. We need more information, and the less time I have to spend solo adventuring, the better. Besides, Teuila could do quite similarly to me, luring out the most powerful. We don’t need these offensives to be complete routs, though Kinzul has been treating that as necessary. I understand why, especially for these domains closest to Mounts Solace and Solitude. The further we range though, the more we only have to take out their highly-mobile threats.

Though, if they have some sort of ace, like troop teleportation, or an underground railway network, or some other method of translocating large numbers of ground forces, it could end up being a big mistake to leave them in disarray even if we do destroy their leadership. Hm. Again, more information is needed. Genre savvy senses are saying it’s lowball odds that they have something like that, around fifteen percent. Doesn’t mean that I should plan as if they don’t have it though. Expect the worst, and all that.

Let’s see, there were approximately eighty strongholds, assume anywhere from one to fifteen adult to ancient dragons as leadership, elite squad, or lieutenants, in any given one of them. We’ve taken out the combined forces of Olashax, Astridus, Xinthoz, and Vanathar’s regional stronghold, as well as Shiztinth, and technically Attraxiaz the Loud. We’ve taken out Heironymous Guldstrum’s stronghold, and Laotzxhi citadel. Five domains, seventy five left. We’ve technically left Mydraig Hareslayer’s domain rudderless, leaderless. That’ll come back to haunt us later if we don’t finish off or convert their ground forces, so we’ll have to deal with it sooner rather than later. That one is close enough that we’ll need to rout his ground forces, lieutenants and the like, when they realize their lord hadn’t returned from entreating with us. I wish we could trust Ka’thuul to put some sort of effort into defending the region, and send *her* and hers at easy targets like that. As far as I’m aware though, ours is an uneasy alliance in which she basically only vows non aggression so long as we turn a blind eye to her little scheming and stealing about the regions looting “in the name of the alliance.”

I truly think we need to deal with her and hers before it’s too late. She’s near enough, and there’s enough interplay between our foothills, and hers, that various kobolds and Draconiacs can walk from one to the next, chat, trade stories, and pass on too much information that I don’t want Ka’thuul having access to. We all *know* she’s going to stab us in the back at some point. More overtly than these little resource grabs she’s been doing. Grr. It wouldn’t be very forgiving, merciful, or just, or righteous, to head over there and slaughter her and hers though, just on the expectation of the treachery to come. Friggin’ hell Reggie. Yeah, I know. That one is going to bite us in the ass hard at some point. Kinzul my love, I hope you know what you’re doing with Ka’thuul.

The tale has been illicitly lifted; should you spot it on Amazon, report the violation.

Anyway, back to the math. I’m sure we have access to more concrete numbers, and the strategists-eight will be able to fill me in on them, but let’s just try to plot out a course mentally. Let’s see, go worst case scenario, with fifteen powerful enough entities at each fortress, domain, or region, to give even me pause. That’s eleven hundred twenty five. Supposing it takes me two spells per kill, say one defensive and one offensive, that’s ninety S P if both are quickened, now that we’re advanced in our abilities by quite a bit. Over a hundred thousand S P. That’s over three months if I attempt to do everything alone, and can’t manage to kill some of them without spells. Now the good thing is, I know that the majority of adult dragons, I can kill in melee combat, and that of the fifteen powerful figures in most of those regions, most of them are usually adult, or young adult, rather than ancient. If we say most is just over half, then drop the fifteen down to seven, making it, let’s see. Five hundred twenty five ancients on the board, possibly, of varying power levels. Though some of them might also simply be powerful Draconiac sorcerers and the like. Still over forty-seven thousand S P, over a month and a half if I were to push myself to the absolute limit, every day.

With Lil at my back, I can take down more targets without going heavy on resource use, and I know Teuila can murder the everliving hell out of our enemy’s forces. Still, if they start taking injuries, they’re possibly out of commission, whereas I’ve baked in my new regeneration, and several combat forms. Oh, also, as my Honoris Causa grows in power, I might be able to literally defeat foes as if I were also an ancient dragon tearing through their forces. Hm. Teuila as well, if she continues to grown in Honoris Causa Calibers, or dragon-ranks.

Yeah, these numbers are doable, even assuming that somehow the land forces get moved towards Mount Solace to lay siege on Solace after we take out their leadership. With the entire rest of the Order of the Onyx Dawn back at home, mostly rested up, outfitted and fed by our infinite sustainability, they’ll have no trouble laying waste to entire armies worth of siege that attempt to infiltrate. We will have to pull back some of the residents from some of the foothills, and close them off though. It doesn’t make sense to have to guard fifty entrances. We should likely begin doing that as early as tonight, in preparation. Thankfully, Lucky has done amazing work at creating tons and tons of space between Mount Solace and Mount Verdimenn. Atter’s people are settling in, and there’s still room to evacuate our own people into the same areas. Then, any siege only has to be fought on up to two fronts. The long tunnel that most of the foothills tunnels connect to, which can be watched by my security projects, even if they try to re-open tunnels that we stone-shape closed. That, and the aerie. It’s unlikely anyone will be stupid enough to try to attack from the aerie, since it means shrinking down to fall essentially right into the waiting jaws of one of our Queens.

It’s also incredibly unlikely for the ground forces to be able to make it over here to the valley leading to Mounts Solace and Solitude en masse, or even at all. But, yeah, start prepping as if we’re going to lose momentum. There shouldn’t even be too much of a morale hit with the prep, since we’re actually going to be bolstering people’s rations and such, and gifting equipment, and even spirits and liquor and alcohol and so on. Even those that have to temporarily relocate shouldn’t end up feeling too bad, as they’ll actually end up being incredibly close to the resource warrens, the shops, and so on, making it all the easier to not just recover, but enhance their lives with whatever desires they’ve got.

Oh, wait, how long has Nietru been staring at me? Her expression is almost one of—, hm, it’s one of awe. Gulp. Ah, and now I’ve embarrassed her. I chuckle with chagrin as I scratch the back of my head and cast my eyes downwards, blushing. At least I wasn’t thinking about how I was going to kiss the everliving hell out of her for her shop stall’s expanded inventory. Argh. I facepalm, and lightly thunk my head into the nearest wall repeatedly. Poor Nietru is beet red beneath her scales at this point. Teuila waggles her brows at me, but I just roll my eyes at her, not taking the bait for the tease. These people have their own complex relationship drama that I want no part of Te, and I’m sure she’s mortified at the implications.

Mumbling my apology, I turn towards Nietru to explain, “Sorry about my brain. I’ve accomplished some major things for my projects in Mount Verdimenn towards infinite sustainability, and protecting that sustainability. One of the greatest assets, one of the most important things that I could possibly acquire in order to be able to return from a catastrophic scenario, was in your shop stall. I know that likely seems odd, since you weren’t down there for me to check out your inventory. Even without you there, due to my strange nature, I was able to purchase from it.”

Thankfully, Nietru recovers quickly, as she’s more interested in picking my brain about anything and everything, than she is about any sort of flustering that might occur as a potential person of romantic slash kissing interest that I’m not actually chasing. As the strategists-eight begin to field questions to me, about my projects, and their ramifications, I do my best to both summarize what I’ve accomplished this morning. I also try to explain the long term goals and impacts.

While filling in the strategists-eight, I remind them that they’re technically all sorcerers now, with limited use daily magical abilities that are all quite potent. They’ve got the stony skin ability thrice daily, the conical blasts of frost thrice daily, the slowing magic, the minuscule meteor conjuration and flinging, the summoning of a high tier monstrous mana construct, and several others, such as the low tier shadowy evocations and shadowy conjurations. I want them to remember, and be ready to deploy their new powers in case they’re in danger, or in case they feel like supporting the front lines of siege defense, should it come to that.

Poor Lil, I wish I had gotten him and Lu in on the abilities that were shared. They were so injured though, I wasn’t sure how that would affect the hivemind, and wasn’t even sure any of it would work at all. I feel bad for leaving him out though, especially since Lu said he feels the way he does, and is trying so hard to catch up to me so that everything doesn’t fall in my lap. I think—. I think I can do some dragon-training. I’m going to need Nala’s help, and Teuila’s. I might have just come up with an idea to share power with Lil. It harkens back to our early days on Can’Z’aas, when we first learned about energy tethers for evolutions and supporting mana and so on. Luni won’t necessarily need to be there for the training, since, as far as I’m aware, she doesn’t have an Honoris Causa, or any dragon-forms, but she’ll be able to boost Lil’s output in the field if they’re together, if this will work how I think it will.

It’s actually going to end up being Teuila and Lil this time, that share and expand each other’s powers. I can’t afford to use my Honoris Causa to do it, since mine depletes over time. Natural dragons, and normal Honoris Causas regenerate over time, hell, natural ones even grow over time. So normally, even performing heavy expenditures like high level dragonfright, isn’t a devastating loss. Mine loses out on the regeneration because I’m burning through it just to stay alive, fighting off my mana residue sickness. Also, possibly because of my void nature perhaps draining some of it away as well.

Anyway, hm. Te’s going to need to awaken at least her second dragon-rank stage, or second Caliber of her Honoris Causa. That means she’s going to need something like her fifth or sixth dragonforce absorbed overall. I’m also going to need to craft and empower a focus for her. If my suspicions about the cause of the hole in the Worldstorm are anywhere near true, we might be able to utilize what’s there to awaken the bond I want to form between Te and Lil.

I glance towards Lil with love, gratitude, and sorrow in my eyes, as he arrives with Kinzul. My best buddy, for all of my lives. I want to alleviate his worries, and take away any pain he feels at any sort of thought of letting me down. He’s never let me down, and he never will. If he wants to be more powerful though, to feel like he’s contributing more, and helping take the load off of me, then I’ll help him get there. Te? Yeah, I thought so, My Wings. I knew I could count on you.