The Great Hall

12:30 P.M.

After the pitiful display of my attempts to use Battle Aura, Crow tried to teach the ability to all of the other Dark Apostles. Melkior lightly complained that Crow’s training session was getting in the way of his strategy meeting, but he relented once he realized the importance of learning Battle Aura. Every Apostle who could already use Battle Aura was paired with someone who hadn’t yet learned the technique. Crow initially tried to pair me with Null, but I wasn’t comfortable with hitting her. After a bit of (unnecessary) mocking, Crow paired me up with Melkior.

Melkior asked to stop a few times, but he was ultimately able to use Battle Aura in fewer hits than me. After the second hit, I started attacking Melkior in different ways. I intended for my fifth hit to be a grazing hit to the cheek. When my fist connected with his cheekbone, it grazed off harmlessly.

“You could’ve killed me!” Melkior gasped with shock as he stepped back and felt his face for any damage.

“It worked, didn’t it?” I asked.

“I did it?” Melkior asked, dumbfounded. He seemed shocked that he was able to activate Battle Aura so quickly. He sighed in relief and grabbed his knees to stop himself from falling down. “Come on, hit me again,” he said with a smile.

Smiling, I stepped forward and threw a hard punch at Melkior’s head. He yelped in surprise and blocked the attack with a raised elbow. My fist deflected off his elbow with a shower of sparks. I followed this attack up with a low-kick to Melkior’s midsection. There were more sparks.

“You got it,” I said, holding up a hand for a high-five.

I felt a faint buzzing in my hand as Melkior stepped forward. He slapped my hand, and the tell-tale sparks of Battle Aura striking Battle Aura flew into the air.

We both looked at the sparks in surprise for a moment, and then we both burst into laughter. When your Strength is in the forties, even something as simple as a high-five was dangerous.

“Ahem,” a woman’s voice came from the opposite end of the Great Hall. Melkior and I turned to see that Crow was standing near the large collection of maps and visual aids that Melkior had previously set up.

The other ten Dark Apostles were standing around idly. Apparently, they had finished their Battle Aura training long before Melkior and I had.

Unauthorized content usage: if you discover this narrative on Amazon, report the violation.

“Like I said,” Crow spoke primarily to the Dark Apostles standing near her, “the cerebral types always take the longest to learn how to use Battle Aura. I’m just grateful that Melkior was able to figure it out in less than ten hits.”

A short chorus of laughter emanated from the Dark Apostles near Crow before Melkior said, “Hey, now. It wasn’t my idea to hold a training session in the middle of our strategy meeting.”

Melkior spoke with a smile. The joy of mastering Battle Aura had put him and most of the other Dark Apostles in the room into a good mood.

“Hold your strategy meeting, then,” Crow said as Melkior approached the large table in the center of the Great Hall.

As he walked, one of the sorcerers threw Melkior the large black overcoat that he had been wearing when he entered the Great Hall. Seeing the amount of blood I had lost when learning how to use Battle Aura, Melkior had decided to take his coat off during his own training. This was probably a good move, because Melkior’s white dress shirt and grey trousers were covered in blood at that point.

Melkior threaded his arms through his coat’s sleeves just as he stopped walking. He stood at the head of the table. In that moment, even Crow stood in a subordinate position.

“As most of you know, each of us has been assigned a legion of approximately ten thousand Deluvians. These legions are armed with swords, firearms, and artillery. Every individual Deluvian is powerful enough to threaten a low-level Revenant, but none of them are anywhere close to our power. The absolute strongest among the Deluvians, the Cervids, are about level 40.”

As Melkior spoke, he placed the modified shogi pieces on the map in front of him. This was the first time I had looked closely at the map, and I saw it was a map of the area in the center of Rubigo. Based on the notation at the top of the map, I knew that this was a map of the Free Cities.

“Our legions are all currently deployed in this area. Two legions have been deployed to each major city in this area, and the remaining seven legions have been deployed to the areas between the cities.” Melkior gestured to each of the marked shogi pieces in turn.

I realized quickly that each shogi piece marked the location of one of the legions. I scanned the board until I saw my own legion: 13. After a few seconds of looking, I saw that the Thirteenth Legion was located in the area between the City of Osiris and the City of New Arcadia. The shogi piece was placed right next to a settlement that had been marked as “Threshold.” The Twelfth Legion was next to my own, and the First and Sixth Legions were in the same area as mine, but those legions were closer to the major cities.

“No matter what our long-term plan is going to be, our first move will have to be meeting up with our designated legions. The Deluvians only follow us because they respect our physical strength. If left to their own devices for long enough, they will stop following our orders.” Melkior continued to speak.

“Like Klingons,” Araki interjected.

Melkior gave a wolfish smile before saying, “Precisely.”

“I don’t like it,” Kamil, the leader of the pacifist faction, said. “Why do we even need to interact with our legions at all? Leave them to their own devices, I say. If we’re not going to fight the Revenants, then we don’t need them.”

“I knew you’d say that, Kamil,” Melkior said, pointing at the other Apostle. “If you look at the map, you’ll see that your legion is right next to Fulvang. If you don’t meet up with them soon, then who knows what will happen? They’ll probably attack Fulvang in full force if left to their own devices.”

Kamil grimaced before he said, “Fine.”