V9: Chapter 11

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Interlude: Khalai

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Of the brave inquisition that went forth to survey the despoiled lands, only a handful returned with Sirena’s remains and a gift from the Ancients.

I raised my hands towards the heavens as they knelt before me, their wounds healed by my magic in an instant, but the scars on their souls from what they witnessed still apparent. One what were once gleaming, bright souls were gashes of baleful ebony light threatening to engulf them completely and destroy them. Months of prayer and recuperation will be needed to overcome the ravages upon their souls, but it is a worthy prize for their efforts.

I met with them at the very edges of our realm, at the small section of land that we could use the access the outside world, as Jack’s kingdom dominated half of the continent, while the Forgers were at our west.

I moved and knelt before Sirena’s ravaged form, wrapped in a cocoon of liturgies and wax seals designed to contain her power and soul, so that she could more easily be reached from Paradise. Closing my eyes, I bid her to return with a prayer, with one hand on her head and the other making a seal. There was a burst of power, the unraveling of many seals, and Sirena returned hale, whole, and resplendent with immense grace.

Our eyes met, whilst attendants garbed her in jewelry that accentuated the purity and strength of her form.

“Oh, Saintess of the Sword, the High Justiciar of the Wardens of the Caverns bid you to look beyond the realm in search of the foes that felled the world and the means to destroy them.” I clasped my hands in prayer, she knelt before me, and the gazes of all were upon us both. Those loyal to me, and those who sought to bring me low for a more perfect doctrine. A schism loomed over us. Though I hoped that this would embolden my people, I knew that they would not be swayed. “Tell me the truth of the matter in its entirety.”

Sirena’s head remained bowed, but her voice echoed for all to hear.

“The world beyond the realm crafted by the Ancients is lost. It is filled with horrors and hateful things bereft of any faith and belief in paradise. Tis a world filled with the enemies of mortal kind, that which the Wardens oppose.” Her answer was measured and careful. She was aware of the budding schism of the realm. How could she not, when her sword decided the outcome of more than a dozen such schisms before she willingly gave her life to be called back from paradise in the long future? Her fathom-long silver-steel blade carved through whole ranks of troops and filled the caverns where she tread with blood and viscera. The path of pilgrimage that traced her steps had walls covered in the mere aftermath of her strikes that scared the caves themselves. “They are wicked creatures that sup on the blood of mortals, who murder for the sake of entertainment, and consume flesh for pleasure, and they number in the millions. I plead with the High Justiciar to call for unity across the continent to slay all these wicked creatures. The path to paradise should be tread by mortals without these creatures bearing down upon them.”

She spoke as a Champion of the Wardens of the Caverns should.

She valued the lives of all mortals in their present state. The enemy surrounded us, so she wished for us to solve danger, and then proceed on the path that our ancestors laid before us. Her mind was that of a warrior of the faith. Her heart was for the people, her sword-arm itched to ravage the enemy, and her life was meant to be spent to destroy the enemies of all mortals.

Any High Justiciar, myself included, would wish to be able to do as she wishes.

Alas, I could not pursue such a path.

“The path to paradise is one that has many thorns and branches. We must do our utmost to walk forward regardless of the danger and threat.” It is the will of the people. The heart and soul of the Wardens lie in the great work. The Cathedrals are almost finished. Soon, the vast majority of our people will be able to see Paradise for themselves. Then, then they will return with minds and hearts unclouded. Purpose shall be made clear. There is only one faith. Our faith in the paradise forged by our ancestors for all mortals. “I hear your words, Saintess of the Sword, but the gates must be opened and all peoples be granted passage.”

They will oppose us.

All of them will oppose us.

But we will do what is right for all peoples of this world.

All will be shown to Paradise and those that wish to return to fight with us will become part of a great and holy war that will cleanse the world of all suffering.

“I pray that your heart be steeled for the challenges that lie ahead, but I have faith that the Ancients have left us a gift beyond to see us reach the end of our great journey.” Sirena bowed and whispered a prayer of clarity at my words. She asked for forgiveness and I granted it without a moment’s hesitation. When she rose her head, she stood, and walked to the treasure that hundreds sacrificed their lives for in order to reach us. “Now, let us unseal that gift.”

A pristine, pure-white coffin around which all the survivors knelt around. Sirena reached the base of the coffin and stood aside. It was composed of the same material as the miracles left behind by our forebears. Ever-cool to the touch, nigh-impenetrable, and this one was alive with the spark of power.

My heart raced.

I wondered if it could be possible that we found a divine entity as the King of Wisdom did. Though he called it a mere focus point of natural magics, those who were in its presence knew the truth: that under his control was a Goddess of Life. With a touch, the coffin of pure white came alive, and a hiss of frosty mist left the coffins. Lectures and scriptures of the time long ago trawled through my mind, as the power of the coffin escaped, and frost gathered at its base.

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Then, raw and primal power nearly brought me to my knees, forcing me to struggle to stay upright and peer into the coffin.

Therein lay a young woman with the ears like our own, straight black hair, in an ebony dress of brocade, velvet, and lace. Her skin was as white as bone, and only her neck and lower jaw was plain to see, with all else on her form completely covered in her finery. A veil attached to a bonnet covered the top her head and most of her face, barely allowing me to see her features through the sheerness of the lace. She slept on a bed of ebony flowers, each one carrying a scent that threatened to lull me to sleep forevermore.

My heart threatened to burst from my chest, but instead I knelt and so did all the others present.

Extending my arms outward, I let my worries fall away as I proclaimed the truth to the heavens.

“We have been blessed! The Ancients are with us! Through time itself, we have been granted the way forward onto salvation!” Simply closing my eyes in the Goddess’s presence allowed me to see Paradise. Not only that but I could move within it. I could reach out further and call upon more of our great heroes and finest minds. “Messengers! Call for the priest of our greatest Cathedral! We must see her interred properly for all our peoples and pilgrims to look upon in wonder! My brothers and sisters, we have been blessed beyond words and comprehension!”

I clasped my hands together and bowed my head in prayer, while all others save for the messengers did the same.

Though I rejoiced, I also wept.

Our current relations with our allies will surely break apart, and the King of Wisdom will not simply stand idly by and see her grow to her full strength.

The path ahead was one of pain, of agony, and wrath.

But it is a path we must tread for the good of all mortalkind.

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On one hand, it’s horrible that the Wardens managed to get the Goddess of Death.

On the other hand, the Goddess of Life pretty much hard-counters her.

It’s a whole rock-papers shtick with the three of them. War beats life, life beats death, and death beats war. Death is all about providing loads of debuffs and demerits to enemies, while giving some specific units and technologies that makes it easier to kill your enemies and destroy their morale. War gives bonuses towards enemies with health pools that are larger thanks to buffs, and anything above fifty percent health themselves. Again, there’s technology and units only available to the one who has the War Goddess in question.

The Goddess of Life provides increased health pools and regeneration to armies on the field. If you’re playing the game for the first time, she’s a godsend since she gives you more room to mess up. However, if you’ve played as much as I have, you’d appreciate being to kill your enemies faster, rather than keeping your units alive. You can keep your units alive through micro, while DPS increases need a lot investment in terms of time and money.

Stay out of the glowing circles and you’re fine, but gear score and buffs are hard to get, basically.

Anyway, the Death Goddess is great for the glass-cannon, revival style that the Wardens have. Their units have low health and damage resistance, but high attack. They’re geared towards killing their enemies quickly. With the Death Goddess’s debuffs making that DPS more effective, they’ll lose less troops in combat, get veterancy more quickly, and generally specialize into their niche more. The Goddess of Nature would just make their miniscule health pools decent, and the War Goddess’s units can’t be revived, so even with the buffs being decent, the rest of War’s kit would be wasted.

But back to the problem at hand.

I turned over to Ayah, who’s been looking grim since the news arrived from our own agents.

There’s really only one way to do this right.

“Inform Forgers, Merchants, and the Guardians of our findings. Prepare everything we have ready to activate. We must try to seize the Goddess that they have taken for ourselves. If we cannot, then we must either seal it away or destroy it.” We had actionable intel. We had assets. We can move much, much faster than them. Therefore, we should act. The Death Goddess upgraded itself with death. Death of your troops and the death of other’s troops. Lategame, she’s the best of the three, because everyone’s going to be doing a lot of dying. She could also become a faction leader, but that’s a shitshow I’d rather not have to deal with. Gods don’t make for great rulers, even with all the power that they have at their disposal. “This is our highest priority. Everything else will be on hold. The Wardens must be dealt with.”

Ayah bowed deeply at my statement. My servants were already all over the place and gathering my things to travel back. Since I could have a wardrobe in each Citadel, there wasn’t much, but it was still nice to not have to deal with it.

“Your majesty, I’ve taken the liberty of getting the reports from the scholars studying the power of the Goddess of Nature. They believe that a sufficiently powerful individual should be able to resist such an attack. The strength of the attack was also linked to the ambient power in the vicinity of the Goddess’s realm.” That made perfect sense. It was an AOE attack that go upgraded to do ludicrous damage thanks being cast in a specialized area. A Goddess of Life and Nature would naturally be able to go farther with nature and life in a place that she’s permeating with power and filled with faithful followers. Yeah, I definitely need to triple the amount of firepower I could put in that place, just in case. “We believe that groups of Iterants should be capable of evading a similar attack by the enemy Goddess.”

“I need volunteers. At least three hundred.” A unit of Iterants on the open field usually numbered that much. In the early game, if you sent out a Goddess with barely any experience, they’ll be able to fight like a Champion. A whole unit of mid-game class heavy troops with good evasion stats, high damage, and strong army should be enough to chunk a good deal of its help. Then, we can clean things up with Champions. “A vanguard force that will go ahead of the Champions. They will most likely be giving their lives for the nation by my command. Send out the missive. We need seventy-five from each Citadel, and they must be taken piecemeal. One department from the other and none in managerial positions. We have need of their minds and talents where they are.”

I glanced over at those in my retinue.

“None amongst your number. None of you have my permission to die.” I said it as a joke, but I received deep bows in return. Right, that joke fell apart really fast. All I wanted to do was make it clear that they were exempt from my command. I got a signal from one that everything was packed and ready to go, so I gave Ayah a nod. “Let’s go. Make sure that the ones left here are aware of my plans. Spring the trap and destroy them now, then sweep through the region for any remnants. We must focus on bringing the Wardens low, now.”

As much as I wanted to do something with a massive payoff over here, maybe capture some Scholar VIPs, the situation in the south demanded my attention. In-game, the Wardens were strong with the Goddess of Death. Here, it was obvious that the Goddesses needed more faith, resources, and power to get to their level 1 state. However, that can be solved with time and investment, and the fact that the Goddess of Life and Nature was already so strong without that was a sign that I didn’t want any other faction controlling a Goddess.

We move with everything that we have now, deny the enemy this keystone, and trigger the plots that we already have in motion.

With some luck, we can claim that we’ve seized the Death Goddess in order to keep it safe from the civil war engulfing the Wardens.

The theocratic civil war that we’ve put into motion.