Sydney was close, so we were going there first.
Scrying Exchanges had notified Australia that I was coming, to which the reply was quite mixed. That was because of the existence of the old Anglican Church, and what it had become.
Imprus had made heavy inroads in societies that had a feudal hierarchy heritage and a history of discrimination. Redirecting that discrimination against non-humans was extremely effective, and blaming those who didn’t obey as working against the good of everyone was an extremely useful tactic.
On the flip side, Australia had been settled by penal victims, and had an independent streak a mile long, plus a history with the native Aborigines that was anything but equitable.
In short, Australia had problems, and the Imprusar had been quite successful in downplaying the excesses of their fellows in America. They had a powerful following in the country, almost as much as in England itself... but at the same time, had some bitterly opposed rivals, especially among the natives and the rarer non-humans.
The Japanese fleet that had fled their home islands had settled in Darwin, and had naturally built the area up immensely after they did so. They were a very hierarchical culture, and got on fairly well with the Aussies once things like loyalty and proper dues and all that were ironed out. They were basically the last of their people, and so greatly motivated to preserve their culture and traditions. Since the whole population had been military people or their families, they were organized and very disciplined in developing the area.
However, they’d had a problem in that there were far too few Japanese women remaining, and they had little to no respect for the natives and their traditions. Taking women from the native tribes was basically considered saving them from savagery, and just furthered the divide between these new outsiders and the native population.
Unfortunately for the colonists, the Aborigines were just as likely to have Powered as they were, with a major focus on the Shamanic, Shifter, Ranger, and Sorcerer Traditions that didn’t need much schooling. Although outnumbered by the colonists, they took their people into the outback, helping them survive and freeing them from the grasp of the colonists, while bedeviling searchers with the dangers of the wild. Pretty much all the Landbound of Australia were among them, too, contesting hotly with Lawbound blessed by the Imprusar.
The biggest change from Terra-Luna was that Australia did not have anywhere near the ranching presence it once had, as the natives had combined their efforts to systematically steal from the herds, dry up water sources, encourage the spread of pestilence and poisonous grasses, and unleash dingos and other predators upon the sheep and cattle.
Likewise, the mining that had been the foundation of Australia’s growth and wealth had petered out. The lack of available labor and the constant harassment from the native population meant that all the mineral wealth in the world could be sitting out there, and could barely be developed without having to pay heavy costs.
Topping this all off was the aquatic threat, with the addition of the eel-men, crab-men, fish-men, and slave races of the kraken that dominated the Indian Ocean. They were all perfectly happy to pick off humans at sea, decimating the fishing fleets and those making a living near the ocean. Once the ideal lands to settle on, the shores were now places of danger and unease, never knowing when a tribe of undersea dwellers would swarm ashore for slaves or food or just carnage at the command of their dark-dwelling gods.
Internal enemies and external foes. It was a really bad situation to be in, and the hard lines of the Imprusar, and the corresponding response from the Shaman Druids who led the natives from the trackless depths of the outback, didn’t make it any easier for anyone.
---------
The Sydney Shroudzone wasn’t that big as far as such things went, mainly because of the lower population of the city and surrounding area. It still had a ten-mile radius, was still a brooding dark blot in the grey of the Haze, and still didn’t belong on this world.
Both sides blamed the other for it, and even tied up prisoners and left them in the Shroudzone so their souls would be tortured and imprisoned by the undead there, a tit-for-tat relationship that had killed hundreds, if not thousands, of people over the years, especially Powered who had offended the other side.
The Shroudzone itself wasn’t a threat to me at all, and I could probably have cleared its population of undead in a few hours, the biggest problem being how spread out they were and how long it would take all the undead to reach the Shroudlord once I isolated it.
Mmm, scratch that. The Druids were very fond of sending off Imprusar to the Shroud to enjoy a very rigid hierarchy, indeed, which meant it was now full of necropolitans. If the Shroudlord was cut off from its March, the Imprusar and Druid necropolitans would rip the March apart between them, and promptly go to war for the new vacant position.
That would accomplish the same goal of concentrating the undead, only in more areas as they proceeded to start fighting one another.
You might be reading a stolen copy. Visit Royal Road for the authentic version.
The main problem was that Druidic powers did not carry into undeath normally. The only way they did... was as Blighters.
The undead didn’t use Druidic magic often while isolated in the Shroudzone and not fighting. Once they did start fighting, they’d use the Shroud itself as a Blighting focus, and start sucking the power out of the land in all directions at once, turning the areas around it into one massive Cursed stain on the land that would take years of Ritual Hallows to clear off. Even vivus wouldn’t restore Sydney and the area around it before it was Cleansed!
-How bad?- Master Fred /asked.
-The entire Shroudzone is a Blight,- I /sighed, shaking my head at how damn easy it was to taint the Land. -Plus nine hundred meters around its perimeter. The last advance was several days ago, so they aren’t pulling power out often, and only grabbing a few meters when they do, given the total area... but it’s still growing, and if they start fighting, it’ll start growing by a hundred meters a day or more.-
-Those dumb shits,- he /stated softly, looking at and feeling the ocean around us.
There was almost nothing here.
The Blight extended in a radius, and Sydney was a port city. That meant it extended out into the ocean.
The seaweed, the plankton, the coral and reefs... they were all dead out here. Without the plant life that formed the foundation, life couldn’t persist here, and what animal life could flee had done so.
Beneath us was a lifeless underwater desert not even sharks would roam, and it was getting bigger.
-Could you mend it?- Master Fred /asked, rather rhetorically.
I just squirted him the math about how many months I did not want to be sitting around here Casting Hallow repeatedly to fix somebody else’s damn problem. He frowned and considered the problem.
-Would the Landbound help?- he had to /ask, as Sleipner, clearly uncomfortable in this area, resumed motion across the waters, heading for the shore and Canberra, the national capital set safely back from the shore... but not too far away from Sydney, which was just over the horizon with its Shroudzone, looming and threatening, reminding others that the undead were there, and of the hate between the living.
Leaders of Good churches and factions were already coming from Brisbane and Melbourne to meet with me. I had no interest in meeting with the national government that had allowed this state of affairs to persist, especially considering how riddled it was with Imprusar and racists. I’d also asked the Clerics to at least invite a representative of the Druids to attend, and given that it was the national capital, there should have been at least one mouthpiece sitting around.
Did I expect it to go smoothly? Not really. There was a lot of anger and resentment here, even across the Good Churches. Lack of communication, lack of understanding, lack of unity. They were a melting-pot nation that never got the real opportunity to melt together like they should have with the multiple generations, instead being caught by enemies within and without.
Well, I could only do what I could do. Not everybody could be saved. I couldn’t force people to do the right thing.
But I certainly could force upon them the consequences for their actions!
-No. Landbound cannot Hallow anything and break the Blight. Even Channeling the Land’s power in a Blighted area of that size is going to be a painful process.- He just nodded and we shot away over the waters, while I planned what to say and do.
---------------
There was a loud commotion outside, voices rising louder and louder in opposition and power. I let my words about the Forsaken and how the common folk of the land also had options to gain power trail off as I looked at the doors leading out, and waved off the Holo as everyone else turned to look at the doors too.
The doors were flung open in grandiose fashion, and a cohort of armed and armored men pushed past the guards outside imperiously, striding into the great Hall of Aru as if they owned the place.
The Light filled the air. The men just had enough time to gape at the sheer number of Shards rising up before they plunged forth.
Dozens of men were unceremoniously blasted back the way they’d come, Chained streaks flowing past to the unwanted guests outside. Abrupt screams stopped as they crashed and tumbled, and suddenly there was an eerie, creaking silence.
The balding man at the head of the formation was frozen, staring at me with very wide eyes. He started to turn away, and my eyes opened just a fraction; he became abruptly aware he was about to make a very large mistake.
“What,” I asked the guard there, “is the meaning of this intrusion?”
The air temperature fell twenty degrees. The Aruan Templar there saluted reflexively, swallowing hard. “L-Lady Traveler, these Imprusar forced their way into the building, claiming they had an official remit to close these proceedings...”
I stepped down from the dais slowly, my eyes turning back to the middle-aged man bearing the crowned symbol of an Imprusar Priest. “I see. And who is this supplicant?”
There was a crunch as his knees hit the ground hard enough to crack the tile. He gasped as he stared at me. He started to speak, but no sound came out as my eyes continued on to Luminous Chalker, the High Priest of the Homage of Light, the Temple we were gathered in here.
The Aruan spoke up calmly, his eyes flashing with both schadenfreude and some alarm, “This weasel is Oscar Brevington. He’s an underpriest working for Sceptered Colossmos, the Senator and Imprusar Priest who leads their faction in Parliament.”
“He displays no mark of Allegiance or Oath of Fealty. He is merely a pretentious Six operating on his own cognizance in defiance of the Doctrine Accords, which makes this a Church action against the Temple of Aru. What is the normal punishment for an armed intrusion by a rival Faith onto the grounds of your Temple, Luminous?”
The white-haired, bronze-skinned Aruan sat back thoughtfully, staring at the ashen-faced younger man who was trying to say something and failing. “Hmm. Has anyone been harmed, Captain Jones?” he inquired.
“Only a little roughed up, Luminous. No blood has been drawn,” the templar from before reported quickly, looking at all the unconscious Imprusar laid out in awkward positions.
“Then, I should defer to the wisdom of Tiirith in such circumstances, and say, something entertaining.”
I arched an eyebrow at him. “Indeed?” I turned around. “Master Fred?” He stepped forward with his normal expressionless face and nonesuch eyes that really unnerved everyone else here, as did his Hellscars. “Please assist the local templars in stripping every intruder to their underwear, deposit all their belongings and vehicles in a central location, and then flame it all to ash.”