“Ten lives to summon a single demon,” Letty looked at the loremaster dismayed after hearing the words said by their companion. “That’s an absurd amount for a single first-tier demon.”
“It is,” Valerie replied after hearing the wood elf’s remarks through the far-caller. “I also never understood why it would cost that much when you can tear a hole between the infernal and the corporeal realms for a slightly higher amount of lives sacrificed.”
“Like the one that happened in Mistfield?” Osmond asked back.
“And somewhere along the road toward the mountain pass,” Regis added. “They couldn’t have marched that army all the way here without getting noticed, so they must have set up the hell breach on the road.”
“Bloody maniacs,” Osmond said as he and everyone collectively sighed. “I’d wager that’s how they started all those border attacks Quentin mentioned before. Anyway, if a single tier one demon takes ten lives, then how much would a fifth-tier archdemon cost them?”
“Thousands,” Valerie answered. “And it will also take them weeks to get everything right. It’s a whole arcane shit-show to home in on a specific demon and the higher they are on the food chain, the harder it gets to pinpoint them due to some infernal interference bullshit. That’s why they must take it slow. A single mistake can ruin the entire ritual and then it was all for nothing.”
“So depending on when they started it, we could have days or even a few weeks.” Regis summarised with an audible concern in his voice.
“That’s the most likely case, but it also makes it a lot more problematic,” they heard Osmond’s remark. “Quentin just told us that the capital is under lockdown.”
“Even if a lot of people left to seek out their friends and families after Ecragurne was declared safe, a city as big as that should still have thousands of people in it. That would be more than enough for them to be used as sacrifices.” The infernal woman pointed out the worrisome truth.
“Which means that if they can hold the walls and keep the church out of the town for a week or two, then they’ll win.”
“No wonder Bishop Emil and old man Felix seem to be in such a hurry,” the dark elf hummed. “If anyone has information on what it takes to summon a demon, it would be the church. They know that time is not on their side.”
“But you said they reassured you that everything was going according to their plan even with the small demon incursions around the border.” Letty looked at him confused.
“That’s because they believed that once they had freed and joined hands with the nobility, they would be able to conquer the capital before the summoning could be completed. They probably kept us in the dark so that we wouldn’t spread further panic by sharing this information with others like Zola.”
“The capital city of Ecragurne had been the kingdom’s seat of power for many generations now,” Osmond stated. “Its walls must have been fortified with all kinds of magic and enchantments over the years. Even if they march there with an army of tier-three warriors and mages, I doubt they could breach the walls in several days.”
“Maybe they don’t have to,” Letty remarked. “I remember history classes always mentioned that pretty much every castle had secret escape tunnels.”
“The church was present since the birth of the kingdom. They must have built several escape or smuggling tunnels since then.” Regis added.
“That could work,” Valerie agreed. “If they send in their best and open the gates from the inside, that could save them a lot of time.”
“If we can come to this conclusion then so can the Argents,” Osmond said. “They must be counting on the church trying to pull a stunt like that.”
“It’s going to be an endless headache if we keep trying to figure out who knows what and who anticipates what.” The wood elf woman said disheartened as she listened to the argument.
“I guess the best we can do is to let it play out and help if they need it. Until then, our main priority is to ensure the safety of Thornfell’s people.” The dark elf expressed his thoughts.
“Agreed.” Both Osmond and Valerie replied while Letty just nodded.
“Anyway, that’s all I wanted to ask. Sorry for derailing it like this.”
“Don’t worry about it. So what are you going to do now?” Osmond switched the subject.
“I plan on mounting the weapon I made on a spider statue I asked Mary to make for me.”
“You want to turn the statue into a golem?” Valerie asked surprised.
“That’s the plan. I also want to install a smaller domain heart on the thing along with some other barrier enchantments.”
“Sounds good to me, just make sure you get some rest as well.”
With their conversation over the dark elf ended the call while Letty stood back up.
“I should get going as well,” she said. “I promised to help Alicia with dinner.”
“Okay,” Regis nodded before giving her a goodbye kiss. “Have fun.”
“You too, just try not to blast any of your fingers off.” She remarked before leaving the manor.
The dark elf entered his workshop and spent the following three hours crafting and enchanting a human head-sized ‘domain heart’ core. Once done, he picked up the ‘domain heart’ and the divine BFG along with some other components before heading outside. Behind a manor where he previously created a small park with flowers, hedges and a gazebo that housed some benches, he now found a rather large statue in the shape of a spider.
It wasn’t too detailed, having only the basic shapes of the legs and the main body with the head, but it was exactly what he wanted. ‘I should sink the domain heart inside the back section of the body and mount the weapon on the front part just behind the head. That way it should fire where its head points since it is fixed in place.’ He thought to himself before using his earth-shaping magic to turn a part of the statue back into condensed dirt.
Regis then shifted it aside to hide the domain heart core inside, covering it up before hardening the dirt back into stone. After he mounted the weapons through a similar process, he could finally begin turning the statue into a golem. First, he sank a near fist-sized soul stone inside the main body of the statue, then he spent over three hours enchanting it, infusing it with the necessary runic diagrams to make it work before connecting it to a secondary diagram that made it fire the weapon on command.
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By the time the sun was about to go down, the golem was ready and walking about, following its creator toward the small gazebo. Regis stopped a good ten metres from the structure, looking down at the square stone paved path that led to it. He then turned toward one of the small statues that dotted the edge of the path between the hedges. It depicted a lion that was sitting on a small pedestal, its paw placed atop a head-sized kite shield.
Regis placed his hand on the shield and channelled some of his arcana and will into it. After a few seconds, a small runic circle lit up on the shield and the stone path began to shift, splitting in two before opening upward to reveal a three-meter wide staircase that led below the gazebo. It was one of the few hidden storages he created around the manor.
“Go down there and then slumber!” He ordered the golem which followed his instructions, slowly making its way downstairs.
Once it was in place, the dark elf sealed the entrance back before leaving the park and heading inside. He cleaned up his workshop and had some dinner with Dana, her daughter and Euric, he took a quick bath and fell into his bed. On the verge of the next morning, a rapid set of knocking resounded on his door, Euric’s voice sounding from the other side.
“Milord,” the butler called out to him. “Sir Quentin is here. He says that people are waiting for you at the entrance of the mountain pass.”
“Fuck.” The loremaster groaned as slowly managed to crawl out of his bed, getting dressed and bringing his blade staff down with him.
“Morning,” Quentin greeted him with a similarly tired expression. “Sorry to wake you up so early, but the guards called us, saying that people from Atraune are waiting at the gates.”
“Someone from Atraune,” the dark elf mused. “This is bad. It’s barely been a day since we’ve been there and they already sent someone over? Fuck.”
“According to the guards, it’s a group of four, escorted by Khan and his merc band.”
“That doesn’t say much besides the fact that Khan’s either been paid to lead them here or that he knows them. Come on, let’s go.”
With that the two of them walked over to the room with the loremaster’s personal gateway, teleporting over to the secret room at the mountain pass. As they came out of the guard post, the sight of Cedric, Felix and a pair of other unfamiliar faces greeted them beside Khan and his gang. They looked... tired. The duo went down to stairs and the guards opened the gate, letting them meet their visitors who just stepped out of their carriage.
“Master Felix,” Regis nodded. “Cedric. To what do we owe this visit?”
“Apologies for the sudden meeting,” the whitish-grey-haired spellcaster said as he and the rest of the group walked through the invisible anti-demon barrier. “I came here personally because things are happening faster than anticipated. Atraune’s army is going to set out to join the others the day after tomorrow.”
“Already?” The loremaster looked at Felix with an obvious surprise as he and Quentin joined them in the carriage, heading toward Thornfell.
“Not long after you left yesterday, we had our usual meeting and found out that the church managed to free seven more noble families from the demonic influence.”
“That’s great news.” Quentin said relieved as they got onto the carriage their visitors rode here.
“It is, but it only made the Exiled Court more desperate,” Cedric remarked. “They finally decided to show their true colours.”
“What happened?” Regis asked, already wary of the answer.
“According to our spies, the enemy's forces appeared in the capital out of nowhere, rounding up every civilian they could find under the decree of the king, claiming that his majesty wanted to protect the people from the invading army led by the church that was going to try to usurp the throne.”
“It’s not a far-fetched claim, given the fact that the church is leading an army toward the capital. Just for a different reason.”
“The Archbishop and the rest of the leaders believed that the court is trying to hasten the summoning ritual due to us crippling their reinforcements.” Felix explained.
“And you rode here personally to tell us why?”
“They popped up in Rust-well Keep, looking for anyone able to lead them here,” Khan explained. “We offered our help, jumped over to Escroft and rode here as fast as we could.”
“That still doesn’t explain the reason for the visit.” Quentin remarked.
“I came here to hand you this.” The man said while handing over an old scroll which the loremaster unfurled to get a look at its contents.
On the scroll he found the drawing of a large archway with loads of runic symbols on it, a description of materials and the purpose of the strange gate could be red.
“This is... a gateway to move troops?” He asked somewhat confused.
“Yes,” Felix nodded. “You’re already familiar with the gateway spell, so you know that there is a way to create a portal to be used by a large number of people at once. This is the permanent version of that.”
“I didn’t know it was possible. I mean... I had theories but the amount of arcana it would require is... massive.”
“That is why only a few of the great cities have such a gate.”
“Including Atraune?” Quentin asked.
“Yes,” Cedric confirmed. “That’s how we’ll send off our army to the meeting point.”
“But you've said that the gateways of the capital had been shut down by the king to prevent an attack or any attempts at escaping.”
“True, but the church has a gateway that had been created in a way that it can be disassembled and transported if necessary.”
“And I take it you’ve already sent this gateway somewhere close to the capital.” The dark elf theorised.
“It has already been set up at a secure location where the army decided to gather.”
“Even so, I can’t understand the reason behind you giving me this diagram. As I said before, we only have a standing army of roughly seventy guards. You can’t ask me to send them to war.”
“Saints, no,” the man shook his head. “We were hoping that you would grant aid in the form of those war golems you have guarding the gates of your mountain pass.”
“The golems?”
“I’m sure you understand that such weapons of war are extremely rare in the kingdom, even a single one being equal to a hundred regular soldiers. Although you have only mentioned two of them during your previous visits, we hoped that you could lend them to our cause. Seeing that you now have six such guardians, I feel all the more certain that their aid would be invaluable.”
“I thought that Atraune had its own golems.” Quentin interrupted the old spellcaster’s explanation behind the reason for their visit. “We had seven such golems remaining after the previous war, but someone sabotaged five of them, leaving us with only the two that stood outside the guild itself.”
“It seems that the court managed to infiltrate all of the great cities,” Cedric said. “Nearly all of the war golems had been sabotaged, leaving the assembled army with a meagre nine golems while the capital has fifteen.”