It was hardly a surprise really, hundreds of thousands of minds joined together to unleash the gathered power of a people as inherently magical as demons and elementals, all woven expertly by the knowledge of a powerful Witch? Not even an old legend of the sea like the Draug and an undead horde could withstand having the very ocean currents turned into razors and the equivalent of a storm above the surface, all around them.
One could say it was far more surprising how the initial assault by the Adventurers of Argoush as they clashed with the armies of the Thrall-King. As a monster was sent in to explode among their ranks the Adventurers were sent flying, their formation broken and the horde descended on them like a swarm of locusts. And yet there were shockingly few casualties as the surrounded Adventurers managed to fight their way back to the safety of the walls.
"The problem was resources, clearly."
Logistics-Collective concluded as they helped review the initial battle along with other interested parties in the Swarm. Collectives and Avatars alike had been experiencing and watching from an overview the battle and coming with their own interpretation of the data available.
"Magical gear is an unfair advantage really. One can turn even incompetent or half-assed bronze and silver-rank Adventurers into threats capable of holding off dozens of our standard Units. Clearly, I will need more peepz to farm our Dungeon."
Waverly casually spoke where one could almost "see" her mentally recline like a languid cat and watching the rest of the impromptu council. Every Adventurer had seemingly had a plethora of magical gear that they used liberally to
"Unacceptable, you already possess more than enough resources to make adequate gains from the Dungeon. Ïnfrastructure and warfare are the foremost concerns of the supreme governing entity at this time. The enemy can continue to throw gold and mana at us, Antmite General possesses more than enough resources to drown out whatever this lone city can bring to the table."
Logistics-Collective scoffed as they broadcasted their unified displeasure at the more individual junior-collective. The Antmite General poked a mental construct of a map and gestured to one of the least of the gathered numbers.
"I want you to pay particular attention to what we learn here Fortress as you will be the first true stronghold of our kind and your knowledge will serve as the basis for future defensive settlements."
The Fortress collective had not yet truly uttered a word so little was his mind compared to the titans surrounding him, but he was enough to manage the day-to-day affairs of the former baron's manor. It was an irrationality but Antmite General viewed him along with Waverly as his "siblings" or children among the Collectives, either due to similarity of purpose or that they had been pieces of himself.
"Your initial testing of the blood-thorn vampires was successful though. They fought better than some teams that my selves have witnessed in action."
Waverly opined to get the discussion back on track. As it happens the group of three vampiric Subjects counted for most of the casualties among the Adventurers as even out geared they were more than a match for even the best of the foes that had been sent out to test the Swarm. They had even captured one of the lesser Adventurers and were "converting" him to become one of their number.
"Resource intensive to make, but they make for especially good field commanders. I will have them serve in vanguards of Fungal Champions, the innate aura abilities of that Unit being enhanced even further by them will push our Units to far greater heights of battle proficiency."
Antmite General promised with an eager wave of a proverbial feeler. The discussions continued into the night and to the morning as the various aspects of Mar planned the next step of that particular operation and an assault on the city. Elsewhere...things were happening that Mar could only dimly sense at best, however.
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Envy watched her lord and mistress receive yet another foot rub from the masked version of her brother kneeling before her as she sat on the throne of her mother in Almura. After the Draug had been driven off the large pseudo-collective had celebrated for hours with mockery of the various individuals kept as slaves to their masks, orgies, mock dances and feasts, and other forms of simple merriment as Ørjya watched it all and experienced it all at the same time.
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She had to constantly reinforce the spells and rituals that held her imitation of the Sovereign's Network up and functional, Envy could sense the large quantities of magical power being siphoned off from the gathered leigh to help with that effort, and it would have been enough power to even make an Archmage raise a brow.
"Way...way...there it goes, How much must be contained in your toes."
Envy pondered morosely as she felt the vast quantities of power held in every part of the body of the leigh. Compared to fish and other such animals they seemed to glow like miniature suns to their proverbial candles. Before she could muse further she felt a vice around her thoughts.
"Now, now Envy don't be perverse. My power is greater than most and my kind has more magic than blood flooding through our veins."
Ørjya giggled as she reached out to casually stroke the slimy skin of her familiar. She was drunk on the intoxicating feeling of power and the victory that she had claimed so casually. Perspective and dominion intermarried was hers to command and she did so without much care about potential consequences as she opened her mind to let Envy see what all of her "selves" experienced.
It was through this perverse connection that Envy felt it. A presence like a cold hand with the force of a hydraulic press behind it seemed to stretch out over the city. Something oppressive and heavy like the weight of a king's ire enveloped Almura and Envy felt it in her skin as much as in her soul as Ørjya groaned and exclaimed in fright.
"Mother."
And just as quickly as the word was uttered she stood in the center of the Almuran throne room. Tall and powerfully built she looked completely like the stately matron that Envy had heard described. Her hair flowed like a crimson river seemingly completely unaffected by the ocean surrounding her, and her long pointed ears stood out and helped give an intimidating air to the coal black eyes of Queen Tyrama of Almura.
"Daughter...you are out past your curfew."
Her voice was harsh like a stern authoritarian yet there was a resignation to that statement, speaking to the long experiences of a world-weary parent used to dealing with an insubordinate child. Ørjya on her end flinched her primary body out of the throne-chair like it had been lit aflame and floated down before her mother with obvious tremors already coming into her body language. Like a mice who had discovered that the house cat had come back into the barn while they had been dancing on the table.
"M-m-mother, what a surprise. I didn't feel you...-"
"Silence, I need to see what you have been up to here daughter."
Tyrama didn't even resort to waving with her hand or some other gesture to silence her errant child, she ordered it and Ørjya could not speak...nor could any of her masked fellows so final was the command. Her mother took the time to ponderously spin and look around the throne room at the hundreds of masked leigh filling it up.
Envy felt Tyrama effortlessly seeing both the masks in the physical sense, at the same time as she saw on the different levels of perspective that allowed the complex magic to work. A physical mask to contain and hold a spiritual one, masking everyone as Highblooded Ørjya, the Witch of Almura.
"You have been playing a costume game daughter, you should be too old for such frivolities. But...I must admit that it is an adequate scheme by your standards. Enslaving the entire city to your will using your authority as a daughter of the throne, enforcing your view on them so completely that they in essence became you. All the while letting yourself out and driving away the invading undead."
Tyrama turned and reached out with her hand...and somehow the world moved so Ørjya went from being several meters away from her to being in the grip of her hand, the fingers of the Queen pinching in on her cheeks. Her face darkened. and her voice seemed to contain the very darkness of the ocean depths as she continued.
"But talented with magic as you are there is no way you could have done this with your innate power alone. I feel..."
The Queen seemingly looked past Ørjya while looking straight into her eyes and her gaze naturally moved to Envy, who had been equally petrified by the sudden arrival. A fake smile that was such a transparent fabrication that it didn't even reach past her mouth let alone her eyes, filled the face of the stern mother.
"My oh my what have you there? We will get to that in a moment, but first...playtime is over."
Tyrama reached out and made a grasping motion with her left arm...pulling at something invisible and as one all the thousands of coral masks fell to the seafloor and shattered as the magic keeping them together was snuffed out. Envy felt it happen as if someone pinched close the tap leaking water, suddenly leaving the flow of power very much dry.
"Leave."
Her order was simple and it seemed to hold sway over the assembled people but time as well. The hundreds of former victims left or rather evacuated the throne room like they were speeding through time as well water, emptying the room in an instant with the exception.
Tyrama looked at her daughter and then let her go with a dismissive wave that sent her sprawling to the polished stone floor. Her eyes were darkening beyond the coal colour they had before she seemingly warped the throne room itself to appear before Envy like a towering sentinel of authority.
"I need to speak to the one whom my daughter have been borrowing power from little familiar."
"I...I....I don't"
This time Tyrama did silence someone with a wave of the hand but she followed it up soon enough.
"I wasn't asking and you aren't the one I am speaking to. Come and let me have a conversation."
Her voice was so sharp that it felt like it could cut through glass and Envy felt some great force burrow into her very being and into the fragment connecting her faintly to the rest of the Swarm.
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Mar was going through a report on the new settlement plans being concocted by the Logistics-Collective while watching the first storming attempt on Argoush being prepared through the new "screen viewing" method that Estiella had helped them come up with, when it happened. A fist suddenly appeared in their divine domain and grasped Mar by the throat before pulling them out and the Swarm for the first time since it had appeared in this world was without the guiding voice of the whole...and every collective with it were silenced as the artifical bindings keeping them together slackened....and the headless Swarm went berserk.