V7: Chapter 6

…

Of course, I get another bottom of the barrel Ancient Wonder.

The Seed Vault’s one of the DLC wonders. The third expansion, which revamped the religion system to more than a sub-system for culture, and added lots of new content and units and events. The updates to most of the factions were free, and if the host had the DLC everyone had it, so that the multiplayer didn’t get divided up.

Mostly, though, the DLC False Witness and True Divinity was mostly for lore and enjoying some new long form events. Most of the events came with the new ability to make National Religions, unlock religious casus belli, and generally go on holy wars against your opponents that the followers of your faith would follow you into.

Typical guy afternoon stuff, y’know?

Holy wars gave different bonuses depending on the religion, the traits you picked for it, and the Devotion rank your civilization has tied to the religion. I took in the Smiling Tyrant and gave them a district, so if I gave them official status as the national religion, I’ll max out on them instantly.

They have three ranks of Devotion, with each one conferring different benefits to units, and for the Smiling Tyrants it was Increased Movement Speed, Increased Morale, and finally Increased Evasion for all units. Top tier upgrades, but there were better religions out there which counted as Ancient Wonders, and generally the strategy is to hold off on making a National Religion until you’re sure they’re no longer available. While regular sub-faction religions gave three ranks of Devotion, the Ancient Wonder religions went up to six and their bonuses were better. Even the worst of the bunch, like the Goddess of Nature that came with the Seed Vault, was better than any sub-faction religion.

So, as bad as it was compared to the other two Ancient Wonder religions, it was better than going with the Smiling Tyrants.

Hm?

What’s that?

Oh, the Goddess of Nature is hot as hell. Literal mother-goddess of the Children of the Elm, perfected by the Ancients, who wears only leaves as clothing which hide nothing. By the third expansion, the devs were basically throwing in their fetishes, and all three Ancient Wonder religions were basically one fetish or another. Goth NEET death goddess, tomboy tanned war goddess, and basically hentai elf #3313432 nature goddess.

She’s hot.

Ridiculously hot.

However, she’s also sub-optimal.

Basically, the worst of the three and barely better than a sub-faction religion.

Then again, if lore triumphs over gameplay again, then things might turn out better.

Well, it’s not like I can restart, anyway.

…

“Ayah, what do you know about what Riegert found?”

With our pace, it was important for the army to stop, rotate troops out, and resupply. You’d think that the enemy would take the opportunity to hit us hard, but you’d be assuming that they had the initiative. Any bases they had were smashed, any group larger than the commandoes can take gets air-striked, and anything larger than that gets hacked apart by a QRF detachment from the main army with the commandoes and the air force supporting.

I was hitting the Death Lord’s forces with the closest equivalent to combined arms, while the Death Lord was still suffering form the effects of the majority of its mercenaries turning traitor, ruining a lot of shit, and turning tail to run.

In other words, we could afford to slow down, rearm, resupply, and rotate troops back, because anything past the Death Lord’s personal attack range was basically free game.

“Unfortunately, very little. Many of the vaults and secret facilities outside this continent were constructed after I was entombed.” That tracked with the Ancient Administrator lore. Ayah was made to help people get back on their feet. Before the Ancients died out, they finished sucker punching their enemies, destroyed their power bases, genetically crippled them, and set up numerous contingencies after they realized they couldn’t finish the job. The ‘Divine Constructs’ in the expansion packs were their attempts to make gods that could do that. “All I know is that there was some research regarding the creation of ancillary terminals that can manipulate matter and energy without interfacing with the systems built by the Ancients.”

In other words, the Divine Constructs were miniaturized versions of the massive, interdimensional machines that manipulated matter and energy in this setting, which facilitated magic. Those machines were free access to anyone who knew the words and methods and ‘scripts’ for the machines to execute, but the Divine Constructs were different. They had their own will and tremendous amounts of power, but required ‘belief/users’ to come into full operative capacity. That full capacity was specialized, so that they could achieve great feats even with much smaller frames than the god-machines that lingered in the extra-dimensional space created by the Ancients.

Really, can you call something a god, if it’s made by a bunch of people?

The Ancients are honestly more bullshit.

But I’m letting my mind wander.

“Search for any information you can find on that matter, then. The creature that we’ve found must be harnessed for our own ends.” The Nature Goddess was geared towards making Wide builds viable. In most games, you want to build tall. Less ground to defend, more efficient generation of resources, and overlapping defenses. I’m pretty much committed to a Wide Build with all the Citadels that I had. In the near future, I’m going to be producing more than I can support, especially with the population not growing as fast and tax income not rising with it. My economy issues might be alleviated with the Nature Goddess, until I can get the corporations I need to exist up and running. Or, until I put the Merchants to the sword and take all their wealth and talent. That works too. Maybe, I’ll do both. “However, that’ll best be for later. I want an update on our shaping operations.”

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Ayah nodded and relayed the information that I desired.

Four months have passed since our advance against the Death Lord started, and I wanted to know if we were on schedule.

“The Death Lord is now on the defensive and no longer receiving a constant stream of reinforcements and migrants.” That was thanks to routing the tunnels of the Academy’s remnants and pumping it full of poison gas. After that the various creatures trying to reach the Death Lord were put to the sword trying to get to their supposed savior. Some got through. The vast majority died. “Our mercenary forces have been routed and forced to retreat, but they have managed to achieve one of their primary objectives. They managed to poison the main grain supply and killed off the… cattle… that the Death Lord kept.”

“Give the survivors their full price. I know that they’re only meant to get it after doing all we asked, but they’ve managed the most important part.” I wanted the Death Lord’s industry crippled, a small rebellion within the creature’s borders, and for the budding nation to be starving. I’ll take Death Lord not having ‘cattle’ anymore. I hope those poor bastards that had that life forced on them had a better next life. Somewhere better than this planet, that’s for sure. “Did their leader survive?”

“Unfortunately, the leader of the mercenaries did not survive. The Scholar of the Lost was last reported holding back a spell cast by the Death Lord. We can assume that he has been turned into a powerful Undead creature.”

“Did they manage to kill one of the enemy leaders?”

“The leader of the Harpies perished along with most of her inner council and tribal chiefs.”

“Then, find his nearest next of kin and give them what we’ve promised. He’s done his part.” One possible Champion gone and out, but I hadn’t invested in him, and he did his job well. Ideally, his next of kin was going to be just as talented and capable, or at least capable of being a Champion. “One leader and faction in disarray, food supplies limited, and with us tightening the noose… it’s already started, hasn’t it?”

Ayah bowed its head in acknowledgement of my statement.

“It is as you predicted, my lord. They have begun to consume each other.” I let some pass from outside, so that they could get a taste. The outside migrants were outsiders and weak and injured. Easy prey. All my operations had villages burned and soldiers sent scrambling back to their nation. That increased the amount of food needed by the Death Lord’s people. Then, I had their food supply burned and their ‘herds’ killed off, while the mercenaries managed to kill one of their two targets along with her lieutenants. Everything was to make the first, beneficial event of the tutorial crises possible: the Cannibalistic Frenzy, where the creatures turn upon each other for food to live. Only possible when you manage to contain the Death Lord, get the right espionage actions done, and kill one of the Champions. “Should we continue to put them to siege and starve them?”

There it was.

The event question pop-up that I wanted to hear, because I knew the right answer.

“No. Call upon the alchemists who developed the poison. We need to make something worse.”

Nothing like a plague to make starvation that much more horrible.

What?

Unfair?

Yeah, it is.

I’m not walking my army in there to fight nearly a million monsters, unless those monsters are at half health and half mana and with shit equipment.

Fair is for sports and education and jobs.

Not war.

…

Interlude: Celia

…

“What am I looking at, Mallory?” My knightess was knelt beside the corpse of a large specimen of the Beast tribe. The wolf-blooded individual was a ferocious creature. Well-known for sheer strength, speed, and quick reflexes, they stood amongst the top of those with beast blood running in their veins. They bred quickly and worked well with one another, making them ferocious frontline infantry. The one I looked at, however, was broken. “What became of this mortal?”

Much of the creature’s fur had fallen off. Though it retained its height, it was emancipated and looked more like a creature of fur and bone than a warrior. Both were familiar sights to us. The Death Lord’s territory was in a stranglehold. Those that remained loyal to the Death Lord were near-starving. A constant stream of those abandoning the fledgling nation, waving flags of truce, told us of a whole region filled with people, with fields filled with half-grown crops guarded stringently, and where many were being driven to cannibalism of others.

Some of those who we received would’ve perished, if not for the King of Wisdom’s instructions on how to “re-feed” them with a light broth and the smallest pieces of bread, until their stomachs began to function once more.

Though he forced this hunger upon the enemy nation, those who surrendered were treated with dignity and given aid.

However, what we found now was not mere starvation.

Blood coated the nose and muzzle of the creature. The dulled eyes of man were a gleaming yellow. When we fought against him, he had coughed up blood, and his speed and strength were greatly weakened, and when his people called for retreat, he acted as though he hadn’t heard the call.

Mallory had some training as a medic for mortals who were not Undead, so she studied him for a time.

“…I believe that this man was sick. Incredibly so. I am unfamiliar with these symptoms. It’s almost like a combination of sicknesses. A strong fever, buildup of fluids, and the failure of a liver.” Mallory spoke for a few moments before taking a sudden breath. I came to the same realization. “My lady—

“Stop. Say not another word. Thank you for your efforts. Forget what you have seen here.”

Mallory got up and stiffly nodded, before leaving my presence.

A moment passed before Catherine made herself visible.

“The King of Wisdom has employed another horror against the Death Lord’s people. Starvation and a plague, both, whilst under siege. We may be able to use this against him.” I was tempted to call it foolish, but my heart ached as a realized that I did not deem it evil. My thoughts lay only with the possibility of this weapon spreading across the land… but no signs of it were amongst the refugees that we received. Refugees that were eating food provided by the King of Wisdom. I closed my eyes for a moment and let loose a shuddering breath. He already saw that far ahead. “My lady?”

“Whatever it does, it does not harm those who surrendered through one way or another. Not only that, but there are no signs of sickness amongst our armies. Whatever he has deployed against our foes is a weapon that is firmly in his control.” Catherine frowned and nodded at my words. “If we unveil this, then it should be out of concern only. Not as a condemnation or insult. We will be unsupported if we condemn this method of hastening the end of the war.”

“…I see, but a few of the conservative families will find this appalling. It goes against our ancient duties.” The Ancients long ago decreed the use of plague and illness as weapons by the Undead was an unforgivable offense. After all, we could wade into plague-stricken towns with little harm. Our people could deploy it fearlessly and give ourselves a decisive edge. I looked at Catherine for a long moment, and soon enough my teacher understood. “Ah. I see. It is our duty and not his.”

The King of Wisdom was not beholden to such ancient statutes.

Still…

“We will raise our concerns, still. This is a powerful weapon and one that should not be wielded lightly. It can bring too much harm.” I already saw what was to come after this battle. Plagues and poxes will be unleashed upon the enemies bearing down upon us. Unleashed upon their cities by hair, sicknesses will reign down upon them, and they will die. For every death, our armies will face one less foe. “We’ll draft a response carefully. Weapons such as these will be needed in the coming decades.”

Catherine bowed, and I knew what I was doing was correct, and that I could convince the conservative houses that the King of Wisdom was not of our people.

Still, a bitter taste clung to my tongue.

How far are you willing to go for victory, oh, King of Wisdom?