I was sitting with the good doctor as the soldiers sorted out the arrivals for processing and began packing up to leave tomorrow morning. Bao Wang was being watched, but I wanted to talk to the good doctor myself and get a better sense of the war effort.
“Give it to me straight doc? Are we winning or losing?” I asked and took a sip of water. Doctor Katz let out a long sigh.
“War is brutal Michael. I was in the shit back on Earth and now I am in the shit again.” Ah, he clearly did not like being in the shit as he so bluntly put it. “Since you and Clarissa view lives as mostly disposable, we are holding on. The high level combatants are slowly increasing.”
“The hard part are skills. We don’t do well in pitched battles. So, thanks for that. They have a lot of people with beam attacks. Flanking doesn’t work well against their large armies. So we hit and run on their supply lines and try to force them to stretch them out to take various cities.”
“Are we holding them off from Purgatory?” I asked.
“It is a mess there. The war for the plaza is quite intense. But we are coming out on top. They have a hard time getting in points to get supplies, but they have numbers. My guess is they were hoping to pressure us and catch a portion of our forces off guard here. And well, things just exploded.” I nodded at this.
No one else was around. But I used my Sense stat to check anyways. “So big picture? Any strikes into the Empire?” I asked.
“Two teams have been sent, but no one has returned. But it is still early days. The information you got us helped a great deal in planning things, but we just don’t have the manpower. We need every crystal we can get. Thanks for that by the way.”
“It was only a few people,” I said.
“Those thirty eight people are core fighters. We don’t have a lot and many have skills. We can’t afford to lose them. The remaining crystals will get a lot of people back on their feet. Everything is stretched thin. People who are walking wounded are put on monster duty to get crystals to heal back up so they can keep fighting.”
“At least everyone is motivated,” I replied.
“Clarissa had the prisoners who knew English speak what it is like in the Dragon Empire. It was agreed on to fight until the bitter end. No surrender.”
“Yeah. Good think I am not the Divine Empress,” I replied jokingly.
“You say that, but I never realized any person could be so…so depraved and completely useless at leadership. Any other nation would have rebelled by now, but everyone on their side is scared to death and we don’t have the resources to take people in,” the good doctor looked forlornly at his cup of water and took a sip.
“Well, this next bit is top secret. Whatever level Clarissa has made up.”
“That would be top secret. You really have no military background?”
“No doctor, I don’t,” I replied.
“Well, you aren’t the best leader, but you aren’t the worst. So, what is this top secret thing. A super weapon or super skill?”
“I am going to be robbing the Divine Empress’s treasury of everything. Probably around ten billion points,” I said calmly. The good doctor froze as he was about to take another sip of water and gave me a long look.
“Right into the Forbidden City. I would say you are planning to sneak in, but after you single handily crushed that army, I have no idea,” the good doctor replied.
“I am going to try and impersonate the Divine Empress, sneak right in and steal everything.” I explained my idea to him laying out what I had planned. I wanted a second opinion of someone knowledgeable that I trusted. I wasn’t about to waste this chance and finding Clarissa would take too long.
“It is a risky plan. Using a monster? I know the Ritualist did something like that, but it was with himself. Getting it right and not setting off alarms, that seems like a stretch,” the good doctor said.
“Well, that is why my backup plan is to kill everything and everyone. The Envoy can kind of match me and hold me off, but he is the highest person after the Divine Empress. She is the only issue. No word about her?” I asked.
“No, we have been looking and everyone has been given her description, but she hasn’t been found. I would say she would be recuperating in her palace, but with her number two out looking and the Chief Diviner, that doesn’t seem likely.” That was my thought as well, and I was glad Doctor Katz agreed with me on this.
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“There is something else,” I said and began describing the Chief Diviner’s death and the bomb.
“Clever, but no. It wasn’t on our end. I can double check with Clarissa and the general leading this force, but I sit in on the command meetings and it hasn’t come up. You think empire rebels?”
“All the way out here to the East? That isn’t a short trek, and this is a warzone. I would have thought they would be causing chaos back home. Also the airship was moving fast, very fast, so tracking it would be impossible, at least I think so,” I explained my thoughts.
“Well, he clearly was tracked down. You just don’t find people randomly in the wilderness. The airship only turned after you spotted them they weren’t heading right for you, correct?” the good doctor asked me.
“No, it appeared they were going another direction and then spotted me. The exhaust and speed would make it a headache to observe anything easily, unless it was very obvious. I am thinking a third party. Has there been any contact?” I asked.
“No. Nothing. We haven’t gotten word from anyone or know about anyone else other than the Dragon Empire.” I frowned at this.
“They are shy and causing problems. Make sure Clarissa knows all this and to increase pressure over the next ten days. Hopefully my donation will fund some operations,” I said.
“I will let her know, don’t worry. Only came out here to help people, but I can be a messenger for all the information you have brought in.” That was exactly why the good doctor was the good doctor in my mind. He was willing to help others and not ask for any reward. “I can’t speak to any strategic decisions.”
“No research?” I asked.
“We don’t have the resources and I wasn’t about to sit around all day in meetings doing nothing. At least out here I can do some good and save some lives.” I smiled slightly at this. It was nice to know the world wasn’t completely dark. I still felt raw about Naran.
“Going right to the tower afterwards?” Doctor Katz asked me.
“Yes. At least that is the plan. The Divine Empress will be in a rage once she hears what I have done to her Forbidden City. I know I would probably burst a blood vessel at the very least,” I answered.
“I need to apologize.” I wonder what the good doctor had done. “I actually ran into her in Purgatory and pointed you out to her. I didn’t realize who she was at the time. I am sorry.”
“Ah,” I said while I processed what he had said. He let me think on what he said. “It is fine. If you denied her, you would be dead. And there would have been no escaping once I was within visual range of her. You don’t need to apologize, but apology accepted.”
“Thanks. I would have thought you would have been much angrier.”
“In the end it is the Divine Empress to blame and her ludicrous number of stat points. Doctor, I can’t beat her a straight fight. No one can. The fact she is still alive and not dead after that golden wave, is a testament to tenacity. Tell Clarissa you need to be put on weapons development.”
“Even if you rob her and get those stat points?” the good doctor asked me. I smiled sadly at this and wanted to cry.
“If you do the math she has billions and billions of points worth of stats. I might, and this is a big might, be able to escape her in person. But I doubt it. We need something, anything, that can kill her.”
“Michael…if she survived all that…I just don’t what would work. That golden wave was a super weapon. Like a nuke. She survived a nuke at ground zero. I don’t know anything that can even get close to that sort of power.”
“Then think and work on it. If we need to gather up a million crafting crystals of opposite types and sent off a massive chain reaction or something else. She can’t be killed in direct combat,” I replied.
“I will bring this up to Clarissa, but I suspect she already realizes this,” the good doctor said and I let out a sigh.
“I know it is my job to find a way to kill her. But I have no idea how. I guess I can try and catch up to her in stat points, but I lack her combat experience as weird as that sounds. I am a caster. She is a fighter. Even if my Body stat matched her, I would still struggle.”
“We might have to treat her as a natural disaster and a policy of containment long term.”
“That is what the rebels tried, but she just has to murder enough people to get to the people who will obey her. Sorry, I am just stressed out about her. I have never felt like this, where there wasn’t a way forward.”
“Just have to wait and hope an opportunity arises. I know it can be tough. But faith is always useful.”
“Doctor, I have faith in only two things. Myself and the Almighty System. I am currently lacking and the Almighty System isn’t taking any requests at the moment,” I replied.
“Fair enough. Anything else you want me to pass onto Clarissa?”
“Stay alive and keep up the fighting. I will muddle my way through somehow. No promises.” I finished off my water. I felt a bit better talking things out with Doctor Katz.
“We had a ceremony for the fallen after the city was destroyed, but do you want to hold one for Naran?” he asked. I froze up and looked at the good doctor.
“My ceremony for him will be destroyed the Forbidden City and eventually killing the Divine Empress. Revenge is my ceremony of choice.” The good doctor opened his mouth and then closed it. Silence hung in the air for a bit before he spoke again.
“I suppose that is fair. Well, just don’t die. You might not think it is a big deal, but shattering that army and healing all those people is a huge boost and will let us regain some ground.”
“What is our cause? Clarissa come up with a fancy name?” I asked.
“Actually yes. We are officially Purgatory In Exile, or PIE for short. A joke since someone managed to make some pies for the ceremony and the name just kind of stuck.”
I smiled at that. It was completely stupid. Purgatory was already a place of exile. Also, the name sounded like one of the names I would have picked to just see if people went with it. I guess people needed something to laugh about with how terrible everything was. Losing our main city, the war, and fighting an evil empire to the last person. PIE actually sounded very good right about now.