It had been four days since The Intercessor had appeared in the skies above Al Dherjza.
King Rolynd had been confined to the throne room, but not for his own protection. In fact, it was much the opposite; He was forced to stay in the throne room for the protection of the city.
Effie had set up the throne room as a complex magical structure, allowing Rolynd’s Aegis to stretch over the entire city while still giving the King precise control of it.
The Aegis was Rolynd’s characteristic power as a Bloodstone. It was an invisible bubble that extended up to around two meters from Rolynd’s skin. His telekinetic powers existed only within the bounds of his Aegis. But in exchange, they were far stronger and more precise than those of his contemporaries. Besides that, Rolynd possessed some supernatural control over the space within his bubble, able to prevent phenomena such as teleportation.
Where the other Bloodstones may have been able to pull weapons into their hands or improve the power of a jump or punch with their telekinesis, Rolynd could lift his own body to fly or toughen the material of his body by holding the very molecules in rigidity. The precision and speed of the Aegis were so great that Rolynd could perfectly contain the explosion of a detonating plasma grenade as if it were a small, silent sun. He had used his power in the past to defuse bombs by reversing the necessary chemical reactions. Once he had even rejected an uncivilised group of Cartlanian delegates by turning the opulent clothes they wore into fine dust, leaving the group of haughty emissaries in a state of confusion and shame just seconds after they had been posturing so aggressively. The telekinetic force Rolynd was able to exert was so great that he could turn an entire building to rubble or create a small earthquake with just a thought.
His powers were precise to the molecular scale, even allowing the chimaera to forcibly heal his wounds with some effort. It was a relatively slow and painstaking process owing to the sheer sensitivity and complexity of his body. Not that he had much need to ever heal himself of physical wounds.
Because in short, Rolynd was invincible so long as his Aegis remained active.
One might think that it would only take a person or weapon protected by Universal Law to bypass Rolynd’s defences, but it was not so simple.
Much like the most skilled Gift-users and mages, Rolynd had long since learned how to use his power indirectly to things protected by Universal Law. For instance, Rolynd could accelerate an object with his Aegis to be used like a bullet fired from a gun. He could create powerful waves of pressurized air to blow attackers away or cut them apart. He could create vacuums of low pressure to redirect attacks, or even suffocate his foes by removing the air around them.
And so, with the Aegis expanded by Effie’s spell, nothing and no one could enter or leave Al Dherjza without Rolynd’s permission. The city had become the King’s absolute territory.
Based on what communications Rolynd had received from his allies, Lucina’s invasion seemed to have affected all the cities of Apolaphia. At first, some of Al Dherjza’s neighbours had asked for aid to resist the invaders in open combat, but it quickly became apparent for most that resistance on the battlefield was futile.
Rolynd himself tried to quell that idea quickly among the Apolaphian rulers, knowing that they were largely outmatched. He guiltily wondered if the heads of other cities suspected him of being the cause of their troubles, with The Intercessor hanging directly over his city like a menacing ghost.
Luckily for life on Apolaphia, it appeared that Lucina did not want an all-out planetary war at this stage. It was likely that she wished to gather more information to have a decisive victory at hand.
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In contrast to those wishing for direct resistance, some Apolaphian cities had been quite unbothered by the invasion. Or at least, they were making a show of it, eager to engage the technologically advanced Incandestine Army in trade. It was an effective form of diplomacy. But they had to stay cautious, it only took the Incandestine deciding that your existence was no longer legal for your parley to end in calamitic hellfire.
As for the matter of an organised Apolaphian resistance off the battlefield, Rolynd’s allies in Myzin, Sarigold, and Cartlan were providing Al Dherjza with supplies.
But how was there still trade if the goods couldn’t come through the city gates? It was quite simple; trade was being conducted through magical teleportation stations which were built over the Apolaphian leyline network. Usually, only sensitive goods were transported in this way, given the scarcity of magical reagents involved in teleportation.
But despite the cost, Al Dherjza’s aid had come without much debate. When people faced a common threat, it was remarkable just how much the people of such stark differences could be united.
Fortunately, Rolynd had foreseen the eventuality of Lucina’s arrival. Besides the aid he was receiving now, Al Dherjza had a large stockpile of magical reagents organised by Effie months beforehand. Effie had also taken the extra effort of expanding and reorganising Al Dherjza’s teleportation facilities so that they could handle the extra throughput of supplies.
With the support of the city’s allies, Al Dherjza may have been able to outlast an indefinite siege. But, Rolynd strongly doubted that the conflict would drag out that long… or rather, he expected powerful actors to act before then.
Tenebria Coronum was one such powerful force. It was the most infamous city in Apolaphia; The dark, floating crown that parents would tell their children of to scare them into good behaviour. Tenebria Coronum was constructed as a series of concentric rings made of midnight stone. Tall, foreboding gothic spires produced a starkly sharp, eye catching silhouette wherever the city appeared like an ill omen in Apolaphian skies. Ruin was sure to follow the city’s arrival.
The inner workings of the Coronum were not well known, save for the fact that the city was ruled by the three Lords of Night, who had risen to the peak of the cursed city’s hierarchy by climbing a mountain of corpses produced by their own hands. The Three Lords were the epitome of Tenebria Coronum’s inhabitants: ambitious, cutthroat, and morally deranged, only coexisting in an uneasy harmony to further their private interests.
Indeed, to all of Apolaphia, Tenebria Coronum was a cause for concern. A common enemy. Historically, there had been instances of nemesis nations banding together against it. As such, the Three Lords had seemingly decided to keep a low profile until the conditions for whatever machinations they inevitably held for the rest of the world fell into place.
And, as the city outcast by the rest of the world, Tenebria Coronum had become the de-facto capital of forbidden magic and technology. For one to succeed in such a place, the city cared only for two characteristics: insatiable curiousity and the willpower to act on one’s urges, as terrible as they may be. Those that were desperate enough to seek the city and its knowledge inevitably found their way there, for better or, more likely, for worse.
But, the King was well aware that he may be forced to strike a bargain with the three Lords of Night in the near future. Given their reputation, Rolynd did not consider that floating city of the damned a reliable ally in the slightest. Indeed, it was Rolynd’s cynical yet practical view that Tenebria Coronum would sooner capitulate on Al Dherjza’s weakness themselves than offering the shining city aid.
He just hoped that his hand wouldn’t be forced. There were few things that Tenebria Coronum would value enough to risk their freedom on.
Rolynd pondered all such things and the various courses of action he could take, stuck atop his throne. While his bloodstone-powered Aegis remained active and protected his city, there was little to do but prepare for as many reasonable eventualities as possible.
He was accustomed to such patterns of thinking, having had his Aegis since ‘birth’ in an Incandestine lab. Once his power had matured, it became apparent that Rolynd was physically invincible. So, it was only logical that his role in the Chimaera task force was as the strategist. He would always have the most time to think and plan.
Rolynd’s training focused on honing his mind and thought patterns. Efficiency, impact, resource management, making sacrifices, morale… such concepts and countless others he was well acquainted with, perhaps inhumanely so, given the trials he was subjected to. Cruel tasks and thought experiments to be planned, executed, and evaluated, often daily, during the formative years of his life. The fruits of such lessons were hard to unlearn. Now, the bloodstone used them as he saw fit.