V6: Chapter 6

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Interlude: Celia

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Endless.

I thought I understood that word before the battles against the Death Lord began, but now I truly understood what the word meant.

The battles against the Death Lord's forces may end, but the war did not ever stop.

My war table was filled with a hundred records of engagements against the enemy's forces… and it was only from the current week.

"The more I look, the more untenable our position seems." My command tent was bereft of my officers and even my Champions. My only companion was my teacher and she hovered nearby. Her concern was apparent on her dignified features. "Catherine, we need advantageous positions. No. We need as many advantages as we can muster."

"We are moving as fast as we are able, but there is not much that can be done without giving ground as the King of Wisdom did." News had spread quickly about the King of Wisdom's strategy in this conflict. He pulled away from all the smaller settlements and hamlets he established to exploit his section of the Academy's region. Then, when the evacuation was completed, he burnt all that could not be harvested and carried back to safe lands. The Conquerors and Wardens had followed suit, even as the Forgers and Merchants jeered at them both for conceding lands that they could keep with effort. Our silence and continued defense had been our own retort. Now, all three of us were stretched thin. "And, as we are already embroiled in constant conflict, we cannot extract as much of our assets as he did. The cost will be higher."

"We cannot afford the cost of keeping the lands." We took more of the Academy's lands than any other, as we had the numbers to do so. Our held territory was thrice the size that held by the King of Wisdom and another singular nation. The food we harvested, the mineral wealth we extracted, and the artifacts we gained from continuous scavenging had been essential for our growth. This place fueled our building back home. Now, I had to face the fact that we had to be without it. No, it is much worse. I would have to destroy it to prevent it from invigorating our enemies. "Yet, we can also not shoulder the cost of leaving them."

Catherine nodded.

"It is a dilemma, indeed. I wish that could provide a better answer, but there is truly none." Catherine did not mince words. "At least, not without conceding to others."

"They know that we need their help." Catherine nodded at my statement, while my fists clenched and I braced myself over the large map of the territory that I held. Four months ago, I held it with pride. It was providing me the same number of resources as two Citadels after refining and processing and trade. Through the exploitation of this land, my people were flourishing and we could set our sights on fighting against the Merchants or the Forgers for their Citadels. Four months ago, I had hoped that I would one day control three Citadels and be able to court the Wardens away from Jack, until we finally stood shoulder-to-shoulder. Now, those dreams were ash. "They will ask for too much."

"The Forgers and the Merchants, yes. However, the Wardens are a firm option… as is the King of Wisdom, despite your personal misgivings."

I shook my head at Catherine's chastising words.

"Catherine, I would rather pay the extortionate prices of either the Forgers and Merchants than owe a favor to the King of Wisdom. All he's ever aided and helped fall in lockstep with him." The Conquerors were now his, and the Wardens were all but under his control. He wielded generosity and kindness like a weapon. I could not deny the virtue and righteousness of his actions, but I could say for certain that we would lose ourselves to him if we accepted all that he offered. "We would lose any chance to choose our own path forward, if we open ourselves to him."

"But what is more important? The people of the nation or what the nation stands for and pursues, Lady Adil?" Catherine questioned, and I answered steadily after raising my gaze from the map filled with so many markers for foes and so few friends.

"The nation is its people, and the people are the nation. If they cry out for the King of Wisdom, for him to save them from my tyranny and from all that they fear, I will abdicate in an instant. However, they have done no such thing." To those words, Catherine had no retort in favor of bending the knee to the King of Wisdom. If there was anything I could be truly proud of, it was the fact that my people lauded me. They carried out celebrations in my name, took pride in my achievements, and believed in our just cause. "Catherine, you know why we seized the Citadel. You know how much we sacrificed to take our Citadel. It is that sacrifice and effort and our belief in ourselves that has unified us. Without that, we are just a myriad of clans that will splinter and break apart once again."

Catherine took a moment, but my teacher sighed and nodded enough at my words.

"The true cost of the King of Wisdom's aid is our shared identity then. Yes, I see that. I see that quite well, in fact." Catherine admitted it carefully and scowled like she was suffering through the most bitter of brews, but she managed to share her thoughts on the matter completely. She shook her head and returned to the topic at hand. "The Wardens, then? We can ask them for aid, surely. They hate the Death Lord."

"The price will still be steep, but our people are… not quite receptive to their culture." Khalai, the High Justiciar, curried favor through diplomacy, trade, and cultural spread. Only the King of Wisdom's nation could complete and they worked hand-in-hand with the cult of the Smiling Tyrant to conduct numerous plays and festivals throughout their lands. Jack could only keep his massive nation from falling to the Warden's pervasive culture by expending treasure at rates only he could manage. Meanwhile, the Merchants and Forgers were trading more and more heavily with the Wardens and movement between the three territories was free. They were losing the hearts of their people. "We can offer them open trade and movement through our lands for their people in exchange for their help. However, we should still make contact with the Forgers and Merchants, perhaps their price won't be as steep as we believe."

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Catherine nodded at my words, getting ready to carry out my commands, but she paused after a moment and looked outside.

She went completely invisible, as a messenger came forth from outside the command tent, with a letter in hand.

The same letter that I received long ago at the start of a famine.

Not even half of a decade had passed since then, yet the Council of Kings still seemed fresh in my memory.

"Messenger from one of the black riders of the King of Wisdom, Lady Adil!" The messenger was out of breath. We had no landing locations in our camp, so the young man must have ran here from the camp's entrance, which was quite a distance away. "It has the King of Wisdom's seal!"

"Thank you, lad, give it here." I took it from the young man and he hesitated before leaving. I did not bid him to stay.

Catherine returned to being visible as I opened the letter and read it through.

"A unified front, like the famine. I see. The Death Lord and its forces are indeed closer to a disaster that everyone must face together." Catherine stated and I could only nod. Why had this path not occurred to me? It circumvented my concerns and placed everyone as equals on the same table. No. I could not lie to myself. I knew why I hadn't called for this. I could not. The reputation, the influence, and the power… none of it were mine. "Is something wrong, Celia?"

I had to take a long, measured breath before I spoke.

"If I were in his place, I wouldn't have done this." Jack held the position of superiority. His lands in the Academy were a passing investment. He had four Citadels interlinked and their surrounding lands at his disposal. Half the continent was his, and all this place provided him was farmland. If I were in his place, then… I would have seen Death Lord ravage my foes before acting. "He places himself as our equals, as someone who has something to lose, and he will be forced to march and fight when he needn't do so… he could watch us all bleed and wait for us to plead with him for aid, but here he is."

I couldn't muster the strength to look for a seat and just elected to sit on the tarp covering the dirt of our command tent.

That single move alone made me recall our campaign together, where he commanded from a replica of his office in a manor made overnight filled with servants.

This is why I couldn't ask him for help and accept what he offered.

Already, from memories alone, I felt inadequate as a leader.

How would I feel if I actively sought his aid and he gave it freely?

Would I not fall into the same trap that the Conquerors fell into?

…

For the love of god, don't leave me on read, we have a literal calamity on our hands.

A calamity that can wreck so much shit that we'll have no chance at winning later!

"I sent out our best messengers, right? They all know that my black riders are there to stay until they respond, right?" I muttered, and Ayah chuckled beside me. We were at a newly-built fortress made through a combination of a magic earthworks and prebuilt equipment. It had a moat, four walls, and four towers. The towers were for artillery and anti-air efforts. We weren't at the level where we could deploy castles instantly on the field, but we were on our way there. "Why aren't they here yet?"

"It has been a day. Your declaration will take time to process. Also, unlike Lady Adil and High Justiciar Khalai, the leaders of the Forgers and Merchants have yet to reach the front." Ayah served me tea, while I sat at one of the towers emplacement locations. We now had Conquerors who could handle the cannons that could handle the 'small arms' produced by the Citadels. Four Conquerors per tower utilizing the massive, bolt-actions weapons was an intimidating prospect. The fortress was designed to support the efforts of eighty all along the walls with humans mostly working to ferry ammo from the center storehouse within. In truth, it was less of a fortress and more of an anti-air battery that could be turned onto ground targets. "We will have to wait a fair amount of time."

"The more time that we use, the stronger the Death Lord gets." I was tempted to bite my thumb, to stomp my feet, and growl in frustration. However, instead, I just relied on talking calmly and expressing myself as clearly as I was capable. The King of Wisdom can't be the kind of person who breaks keyboards or rages about inconveniences. "We're going to need to act. You said that they're sourcing most of their monsters from the Ancient's underground pathways?"

"The monsters travel through those places, yes. They use service exits and stations and old structures to reach the Death Lord." Ayah relayed information and I listened. It was like listening to a wiki read aloud. Factual and dry, but informative. The Ancient Administrator earned a lot of looks for its delivery, since it was covered up completely in pure-white armor without any markings. No one knew it in its current disguise, so they were surprised to see someone speak to me so casually. "If we wish to intercept from reaching the Death Lord, we must wage war beneath the tunnels before they reach the exits into the territory of the Death Lord."

I knew better than to ask if we could collapse those structures.

First, we needed them later to move our troops at a decent speed across the continent.

Second, it was made of the same material as the Citadels, meaning that specialized equipment would have to be brought over like the Conqueror's siege engine meant to take down Citadel gates.

And, that machine was built to batter open a gate.

Not a solid piece of Ancient material forming a tunnel system whose thickness we had no way of knowing.

That left me with only one real option.

Poison.

I'd hoped that I wouldn't have to use it this early, but it was safer to use in the tunnel systems than above it.

"Send a message back to our capital and contact the Alchemist guild. Tell our auxiliaries to begin boarding up the entrances of the tunnels under our control, too." Ayah seemed to grow still at my words. The golem knew what I intended to do, however, whatever brutal form of calculus it used to quantify what needed to be done kicked in. This move made perfect sense with that in mind. "Call up our division of Iterants in training, as well. This will be the perfect battlefield for them."

"Your will shall be done, my Lord."

In-game, Iterants were immune to poison and that made them perfect troops for whoever was using Poison area of effects.

Generally speaking, if a player who rolled the Iterants didn't quit, you could assume they were going to use Poison.

As for me, I'd started production of the first tier of Poison even before I got the Iterants, because it was just too strong to ignore and I needed any advantage I could get.

So, now, I was going to leverage that advantage to fill the tunnels leading into the Death Lord's lands with thick clouds of gas designed to ruin lungs.

It was time to see if my bet on poison was going to pay off.

Let's see how strong it is without being limited by the devs.