True to Donovan’s word, the reports from the coalition about past Divine Beast encounters arrived before sunset.
The picture they painted was an ugly one.
Divine Beasts varied in combat rating greatly, but typically wouldn’t appear on the battlefield until their army had cleared and secured a path to the world spire. After they established a large enough foothold, the beast would make its way to the tower and begin a grand ritual which would destabilize the spire’s many enchantments. This mystic rite could last anywhere from an hour to a day, and during this time the Divine Beast performing it would be particularly vulnerable to attack. Its full attention needed to be on maintaining the ritual, so it relied on its followers to defend it.
If the ritual was completed, all those who resided in the tower would be violently ejected into the outside world and spewed from the top of the spire like some sort of grotesque fountain. For the few who managed to survive being flung miles upwards due to a combination of suitable arts and a sufficiently advanced constitution, the nightmare would still be far from over. There was a good chance that the qi density would be too great for them to withstand long-term, resulting in them being twisted and warped into abominations. There were apparently some counter measures that could spare a select few victims from this cruel fate, but the reports didn’t detail them. Nor did they detail the horrid aftermath of having hundreds of thousands, if not millions of corpses raining down on the surrounding area from on high.
She pushed the tall stack of papers away as she wiped the tears from her face. She couldn’t imagine how awful such a sight would be to behold, yet that didn’t stop her mind from trying. Intrusive scenes of terrified children being torn away from their parents, of confused ascendants realizing they had not grown strong enough in time…of her own family wishing they could’ve seen her one last time. Wishing she could’ve saved them.
She shut her eyes tightly in the hopes she could shut out the gory images, struggling to control her racing breath and heartbeat.
It won’t come to that. I won’t let it.
Sitting here doing nothing only fed into her anxiety, so she stood from her desk and marched back towards the war room. She flagged down a passing attendant on the way and instructed him to gather her advisors once more. Her countenance must’ve been frightening given how quickly he ran off to fulfill her orders, but she didn’t feel any guilt for intimidating him. The fate of countless lives rested on her shoulders, and she would do much worse if it meant she could protect everyone.
----------------------------------------
From her kingdom’s own pool of citizens–around 100,000 people with 15,000 of those being cultivators–around a fourth of the mortals and half of the cultivators volunteered to enlist in her militia for the duration of the war. Those that didn’t volunteer generally agreed to take more ownership over the defense of the towns, or contribute in other ways.
Although many of her citizens were willing to step up to defend their home, not all were suitable to serve for one reason or another. She also still had to pay for every volunteer’s service each year, so she set stringent standards for mental and physical fitness in order to even be considered to join. For cultivators wishing to enlist, she additionally screened them according to role utility and their willingness to take and follow orders. Luckily, due to coming from within her own kingdom, there were many higher ranked cultivators who had no issues obeying commands from a High Bronze such as herself. This meant she didn’t need to worry about them losing morale whenever she gave them instructions like she would if she hired help from outside her lands.
It took a few weeks to filter through everyone, but by the end of it her new standing army consisted of 10,000 mortals, 1,300 low coppers, 1000 mid coppers, 850 high coppers, 630 peak coppers, 425 low bronzes, 250 mid bronzes, 125 high bronzes, 85 peak bronzes, 10 low silvers, 2 mid silvers, and one high silver. This amounted to a yearly cost of 453,270 barres (leaving her with 2,854,548 left to spend) and a CR of 75,075. However, it was important to note that the cost of her original standing army–57,010 barres–had ‘already been paid’ this year, but would need to be factored into her costs if the war was extended.
At first, she was inclined to look upon her chances favorably. Even if Xiomavat’s presence was equivalent to a CR of 15,000, she could reasonably match an army with a 50,000 CR without too much more investment into her forces. She thought that surely with over 2.8 million barres left in her treasury this wouldn’t be too difficult to manage. Those hopes were quickly dashed when the reports from Donovan’s scouts started coming in earnest.
Cross-referencing the coalition’s reports and the records of her own kingdom, they estimated Xiomavat’s combat rating to be around 20,000. Furthermore, at the one-month mark when the cultists finally seemed to have all gathered in one place, it was estimated that there were roughly 50,000 members. Even with around one fifth of these people acting as mortal servants to the bonded cultivators, the army’s CR could reasonably be as high as 450,000.
If she took the approximate distribution percentages as literal, this meant she’d be facing an army consisting of 10,000 mortals, 13,500 low coppers, 10,000 mid coppers, 7,500 high coppers, 5,000 peak coppers, 2,000 low bronzes, 1,000 mid bronzes, 750 high bronzes, 250 peak bronzes, 50 low silvers, 25 mid silvers, and 10 high silvers. A force of this size would cost 2,842,400 barres for Samantha to hire–provided that many cultivators were even offering their services–which lead her to suspect that the enemy in this scenario started with the same amount of wealth as she had. She couldn’t imagine how such a gap could be surmounted for someone with less starting points otherwise.
Assuming this was the case and Xiomavat’s army operated with the same rules as her own, they would only have 465,418 barres left to spend and they likely wouldn’t be able to afford an extended conflict. Similarly to herself, expenses surrounding supplies would quickly add up as time went on and strain their finances. Even if she couldn’t completely crush them, if Samantha could hold out long enough then the army would be forced to turn back eventually. For the purposes of this scenario, that should count as their defeat and her victory. After all, if she was required to wipe out the army or kill Xiomavat to win, the main objective would’ve specified that.
There were still plenty of questions and uncertainties to contend with, but she was hopeful that ample preparation could mitigate the risks. As she sat at her usual place in the war room and awaited the arrival of her advisors, she considered how to best present her current plans. She anticipated them being unhappy with her decision, but wanted to minimize any pushback if she could.
Silas gave her an encouraging, rumbling purr as he took his place on the chair-perch and she unconsciously reached up to scratch under his chin. He usually wasn’t in the habit of attending these meetings, but had done so this time in order to support her.
The familiar knocking rhythm at the door told her Natalie was on the other side.
“My Lord, we’ve all arrived,” Natalie called out.
“Enter.”
After all of her advisors were seated, Samantha moved the meeting forward. “To start, I want to thank you all for your cooperation in getting me all the odd tidbits of information I’ve needed. I’m sure you’ve all been receiving odd looks from the archives this past month because of me.”
Roland, who was in charge of the treasury, spoke up, “We’re all glad to be of assistance, however I must confess that the lack of actual preparation up to this point worries me. Forgive me for my impertinence, but Xiomavat and their cult may begin their march soon, and it will only take a month or two for them to arrive at our border once they do. As things stand–”
Samantha held up a hand to forestall him and he obediently quieted. This wasn’t the first time he’d spoken out. She’d inducted the volunteers into their militia, created a grand training hall for her troops, arranged meetings with merchants to purchase bulk equipment and supplies, and had been in talks with multiple mercenary groups to see about hiring more soldiers… but Roland was mostly concerned about one particular thing she had yet to address. Born in one of the mountain pass towns himself, he was vocal about his desire to reinforce the defenses and preemptively deploy troops there.
“As I’ve said previously,” she explained patiently, “we don’t have enough manpower to fortify all of the towns separately. With the mercenaries I plan to hire–which, before I forget, I’ve drawn up some contracts for you all to review–it would theoretically be possible. However, even if we bought their services this afternoon it will still take time for them to arrive and integrate themselves with our militia. I’d rather take more immediate action, and having thought it over, I’ve come to a decision on how to proceed. I’ll need everyone’s help to execute my plan, however, which is why I’ve summoned you all.”
Roland’s eyes lit up at this news, and a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth. Brienne, her strategic advisor, also perked up.
Samantha brushed her hand across the top of the Envisor to bring up the models of the mountain pass towns before she continued speaking. “These three settlements are the only easy way past our protective circle of mountains. While Xiomavat’s army could hike over the mountains elsewhere, it’s highly unlikely they’d do so. At most, they could send a unit of cultivators to cross over as an advance force. To do otherwise would be a logistical nightmare with all the mortals and supplies they’d need to transport.”
The four advisors nodded along, in agreement with her assessment.
She swiped her hand across the Envisor again to focus on the largest of the towns. “Of the three, Feld will be the most likely point of passage. It is the lowest elevation, has the largest inroad due to being connected to a main trade route, and has the most open surrounding landscape. It is not as densely forested as the path to Killik, nor has the tight corridors of rock leading to Rast.”
Her audience again nodded with her words.
“To put it bluntly, trying to defend all three towns is a losing battle. Our focus will be on Feld, and we will turn the entire pass into a giant trap.”
Brienne cut in. “Such a ploy is too obvious, Ruler. They will simply alter course to Killik or Rast.”
Samantha shook her head. “That is why we’re going to make those roads completely unnavigable.”
Natalie, as concerned with Logistics as ever, interrupted this time. “I think I speak for all of us when I say this will cause as much inconvenience to us as it will to the enemy. Yes, Killik and Rast are less visited than Feld, but those roads are essential for the towns’ operations! Without a means of external trade, they’ll be completely reliant on aid from us to survive. Transport to those regions will strain our resources in more ways than one.”
Samantha inwardly grimaced. This was the part she knew that would really cause an uproar. “Transporting resources to Killik and Rast won’t be a concern. We’ll fully evacuate those towns and absorb the refugees into our populace here. In the process, we’ll completely strip the town of anything of use to be repurposed elsewhere. Once we get word that Xiomavat’s forces are on the move, we’ll block or destroy the roads to make Feld the only option left. The cultivators that were originally staying to unofficially defend Killik and Rast can choose to migrate to Feld or join us here.”
There was a split second of silence before all four advisors started speaking over each other.
This tale has been unlawfully lifted from Royal Road; report any instances of this story if found elsewhere.
“What do you mean destroy the roads? We–”
“Those are people’s homes and lives! You’ll displace–”
“--long-term consequences will be catastrophic. This is–”
“--morale will plummet! We aren’t–”
Samantha didn’t bother trying to immediately bring the room to order. She knew this was a drastic course of action, but she also believed it was the one that would save the most lives. She’d be asking a lot of all of them to make this plan work, so felt it was fair to give them the space to voice their grievances first.
It took a couple minutes for the emotional shock to pass and the shouting to quiet down. The fact that she appeared neither surprised nor distressed by their reactions also seemed to help in shifting the feeling of the room from outrage to curiosity.
Natalie was the first to ask for genuine clarification on her plan. “How is Weyran meant to take in that many refugees? Our infrastructure isn’t set up for an influx of 10,000 people.”
“It’ll be closer to 20,000 actually, since we’ll be evacuating all non-combatants out of Feld as well.” Samantha commented. She could’ve sworn Natalie’s eye twitched in response.
She gave the woman a sympathetic smile. “I know it will be challenging, but we handle a similar amount of visitors for the Spire Festival each decade. It’ll be like setting up for it a few years early, in some ways. We’ll refuse any further visitors to Weyran until the war is over, and ensure any non-citizens are gone from the lands before Xiomavat begins to march. That should free up several thousand rooms in inns and other lodging to start. If we build temporary housing on undeveloped land within the city, that will help considerably as well. If that’s still not enough, we can consider implementing more creative solutions such as giving out stipends to families who are willing to let refugees stay in their homes.”
During this explanation, Natalie and Roland both started jotting down notes and exchanging them back and forth. Samantha couldn’t clearly read what the papers said, but they had a lot of numbers on them.
Brienne was the next person to ask a question. “I can understand how you plan to cut off the road to Rast–a few rockslides should make the area impassible–but what about Killik?”
“A mountain of fallen trees across the only road up would be equally impassible, wouldn’t it?” Samantha asked.
Brienne lifted an eyebrow. “That’s miles of forest and hundreds of thousands of trees, My Lord. Not to mention those trees are old and a valuable resource.”
Samantha shrugged. “How long does it take a mortal to fell a tree given the right tools? Even if they could only do one or two a day, the job would be completed in less than a month. As for the value of the wood, they’d need to be cut down anyway if we wanted to make use of them or sell them. They shouldn’t be unusable just because they sat for a little while. With the newly deforested area, we could also work to expand the road when the war is over. Maybe it will make Killik a little more accessible for trade than before.”
Roland chimed in. “What of the people you’ll be displacing? You’ll be asking thousands of people to give up their homes and livelihoods only to presumably move back in after the war. The expanded road project is a nice thought, but clearing the mess we’ll be making will not be a fast process. The debris from the rock slides will take time to remove as well. Even if the towns are safe, these issues will inconvenience them for a long time. Who knows how long it will take for things to really go back to normal?”
She sighed, “That would be the case regardless. We’ve already established I’m not confident I’d be able to protect all three towns from the invading force effectively. This way at least there’s reasonable assurance these people can rebuild their lives as a whole community and not as fractured groups of survivors.”
Roland looked down at the table and tapped his fingers a few times. After about 10 seconds he looked back up at her. “Can we give them a stipend for their relocation?”
Samantha gestured to him. “Aren’t you in charge of my Treasury? I’m not opposed to the idea if we can afford it alongside our other expenses. Calculate what the potential costs of implementing this plan would be with the others, then come back to me with a proposal. I’ll give you my answer then.”
Donovan finally asked a question of his own. “And what about Feld? I assume you’d want to reinforce the town if you plan to force the enemy to pass through there.”
“Before we settled here, a good portion of the forest outside of Feld used to be swampland, correct?”
Donovan frowned. “...Yes.”
With a flick of her wrist, Samantha pulled up the projection of Feld’s water reservoir. The large body of water was the result of redirecting a river flowing down from the mountain into a nearby crevice that had been modified to act as a sort of dam.
“I’d like some engineers to work on a way to put the river back on its original path. Once the cult gets closer, we’ll flood the valley to make it a swamp again. For Feld itself, start deforesting the area closest to the entrance. This will give us a better line of sight for approaching enemies as well as materials for the defenses I’ve laid out in this document.” Samantha slid her defense plans over between Natalie and Brienne as she said this. Then, she slid another set of papers over to Donovan. “I’d also like for you to find alchemists capable of making these items. A lot of them.”
Donovan flipped through the handful of pages while looking increasingly confused. “I can do that, but are you sure you’ve given me the right list? Some of these requests are… atypical. Their time may be better spent making healing items or elixirs that could strengthen our forces.”
Samantha grinned and nodded. “That’s the correct list.”
“And this final item…? This spirit beast isn’t native to this part of the world. Finding a cultivator with these qualifications and specific bond will be costly.”
“More costly than hiring a High Silver or two?”
“Well… probably not…” Donovan admitted.
“Then that’s acceptable. Just let Roland know so he can factor it into the expense calculation. Did anyone have any other questions about this plan…?”
Samantha fielded questions for the next couple of hours. Her advisors weren’t shy at trying to pick apart her ideas, but for the most part she welcomed the alternate perspectives. In most cases, either her advisors were reassured by the amount of forethought she’d put into things, or a flaw in her plan was revealed and they were able to work to remedy it. With everyone collaborating to calculate risks and costs, all parties felt more comfortable with how they intended to proceed.
The meeting ended with her presenting the mercenary contracts she’d written, and her advisors either signing off on them or implementing changes there and then. An attendant was called in to mail the contracts, and then everyone adjourned for the day.
Silas gave her an exaggerated yawn as she went back to her chambers and started putting everything away in its proper place. “Just in time! I was about to fall asleep. I guess you didn’t need me there after all.”
She chuckled. “Tired, huh? Does that mean you’re skipping out on training tonight?”
Silas shed his sleepy demeanor. “And miss bullying the new recruits? Never.”
“Training,” she emphasized the word. “It would only be bullying if it wasn’t for their own good.”
“You sound more like the sadist everyday,” he teased her.
“Well, you know…” She huffed. “Every day I think I understand his perspective a little better! No strengthening without suffering, and all that.”
“Sure…” Silas dragged out the word skeptically.
They sat in silence for a few minutes as Samantha changed into a set of loose practice clothes. When she opened the oversized window to give herself a convenient exit, Silas blew past her with a gust of air and a blur of green and brown.
“First one there gets to train Randy!” he shouted joyfully into her mind.
Activating [Cloud Run], she sprinted down through the open air with a laugh. “No! Randy deserves a break. How about Michelle?”
The training center wasn’t far, so they both reached the entrance in short order. Samantha was going to beat Silas there, but he used [High Speed Dive] at the last moment to pull ahead and eke out a victory. He’d gotten good enough at controlling the ability that he could pull out from the dive before smashing into his original target, meaning she couldn’t even scold him for damaging anything. Thus, she was forced to accept the loss with minimal protests.
When she stepped through the door she was met with a round of good-natured groans.
“Aw, hell. They’re back again,” one woman complained jokingly.
“Not it! It’s your turn to spar with our esteemed General,” another man urged while pushing the cultivator standing next to him towards Samantha.
She took in the gathered cultivators with a wide grin, enjoying the sense of camaraderie and belonging.
“At least pretend to stand at attention. Show some decorum!” the sergeant yelled as he emerged from a side room. His tone was stern, but Samantha could tell that he was suppressing a smile of his own. “That’ll be Resilience training with Silas for the both of you.”
At that, the two outspoken soldiers promptly gave her a flawless military salute. She watched with amusement as Silas sauntered up to them and both tried very hard not to look down and risk meeting his eyes. With a self-satisfied snuffle he passed by them, and she inwardly cackled at the way she could tell they were immensely relieved. Catching their gaze, she returned their salute to release them back to their training activities.
Silas stopped before a giant man standing off to the side of the room, and he looked down at the small ball of fluff with obvious resignation. He glanced up to Samantha with a pleading look in his eyes, but she could only shake her head sadly at him.
“Sorry, Randy! You shouldn’t have joked about his appearance when you first met him!”
Randy let out an exasperated sigh. “I didn’t know he could understand me!” He knelt down and pressed his hands together in front of Silas, as if in prayer. “Come on… I swear, you’re super scary! The most intimidating bonded beast I’ve ever seen. You strike terror into the hearts of your foes!”
Silas stared at him blankly, unimpressed.
A small, blunted horn began forming in the center of his forehead, and Randy let out a high pitched yelp before fleeing in the opposite direction. Right before he managed to round a corner to temporary safety, the hard ball of bone shot out and smacked him in the upper thigh. He shouted a pained curse as the ball bounced off of him and dissolved into motes of light. Having experienced this particular ‘attack’ from Silas firsthand, Samantha knew it would sting badly for a few seconds and maybe leave a welt, but otherwise was relatively harmless.
Scowling at Silas, Randy threw up a rude gesture with both hands before sprinting towards the Agility course. “I take it all back! You’re the cutest!” Randy then proceeded to tear through the course at top speed in a bid to complete it–and Silas’s added ‘Resilience Training’--as quickly as possible. Onlookers both cheered for Randy and for Silas.
As much as Silas relished playing the part of ruthless villain, she knew she could trust him not to take things too far. His excellent senses and ability to understand common speech gave him a level of social awareness that was better than even some mortals. In the past he had stopped training with someone who had become genuinely distressed mid-exercise, and had also previously refused to train with someone who was fearful of him. More than building up her own trust in him, these incidents showed the soldiers that he was safe to interact with even if she wasn’t present. This had resulted in some soldiers having a closer relationship with him than with her in some aspects, which she found endearing.
“Here for the usual, General?” the sergeant asked, giving her a formal bow as he approached her. “Contrary to their bleating and whining, several people were actually hoping to spar with you tonight.”
She nodded. “Who’s up first?”
As the sergeant led the way to the sparring circles and listed her sparring partners for the day, Samantha looked around the training center with pride. She’d taken all the concepts she could from the sadist’s methods, the training area from her first quest with Tobias, and her years of experience in the rift to craft this building. There were enchanted weights for Strength training on the northern wall. Along the eastern wall was an Agility course with adjustable difficulty. The southern wall was lined with special platforms that let a person run in place with simulated resistances or gravity for Endurance training. Along the western wall were soundproofed rooms with built in medical stations and emergency alerts for Resilience training. And, in the center of it all, there were sparring circles where fighters could practice their forms and learn techniques from their peers. The state-of-the-art scriptings and accelerated construction order for this structure had cost her 50,000 barres… but it was worth it. For cultivators especially, even short periods of dedicated attribute training could pay off in big ways.
Stepping into the ring, she bowed to her first opponent–a Mid Copper–and fired up [Inspect]. Quickly picking out a flaw in their stance, she smoothly took them to the ground and pinned them down until they signaled their surrender. Helping them up, she explained what weakness she exploited and how they could potentially remedy it.
“Now, try again,” she instructed the Copper, taking up her position at the edge of the ring once more and gesturing for them to do the same.
I will give every soldier under my command the best chance of survival I can.