Clarissa

“We have taken Esperanza, our forces have secure the road up to the level 3 zone. We have scouts positioned there, keeping an eye out for any forces moving in our direction,” I nodded at my Field General. While I had overall command, my military forces needed field commanders to adjust to changing situations.

“Chief Administrator, I suggest we push forward and take the fight to the Empire.” I considered the suggestion, carefully and looked down at the map in my command center. The East portion of the map had labels, and several colored wooden figures scattered about showing the current situation.

Heaven, the Ritualist’s old city had been purged of its nascent theocracy. It was our main supply hub, but with the recapture of Purgatory and Esperanza, I had quickly spread out our forces to the various cities and zones to increase our crystal income. I was keeping most people out of Truth, since losing the city once had lost us a lot of good people on top of losing Purgatory. We couldn’t afford any more big losses like that.

Michael had come through in a big way by shattering the Empire’s army at Esperanza and their forces beyond that. He had something planned and I knew he wanted me to act. Cutting off the crystal supplies to the Divine Empress was key.

I had done the math of how much income she could possibly have. Various captured soldiers confirmed the intelligence, and it was sickening. If Michael couldn’t beat her, then we had to adopt a strategy of asymmetric warfare. Anywhere she was, everyone would die.

Her only weakness was that she was one woman. Unkillable, vengeful, and completely overpowered. But still, only one woman. Michael was matched with the Envoy who was her second in command. That gave me the confidence to seize the initiative while the Divine Empress was missing.

“All twenty combat units under your command are to advance up the road. Deploy as you see fit. Kill these tribes. No mercy.” I looked my Field General in the eye.

“Understood Chief Administrator Clarissa,” he replied.

“They are the foundation upon which the Dragon Empire rests. The other pillar is the Divine Empress herself. We cannot target her. So, we have to target her revenue. No prisoners, no mercy, kill every single one. I will be authorizing you to take two astrolabes. Try not to lose them,” I ordered.

“Understood Chief Administrator Clarissa,” he replied.

“As for the cities, if you can take them, take them. Leave none alive. If the Divine Empress wants to rebuild, let her do it one person at a time.” That was the third pillar of her Empire. The soldiers and people who knew what her Empire was about.

Getting everything set up again would be one of the most tedious things. I had to do something similar after the Ritualist wrecked everything. For someone who was as terrible at leading as the Divine Empress, she would fail miserably. She had taken over an existing structure, she had never built anything herself.

It was also Michael’s weakness. The drive for personal power and being a good administrator weren’t exclusive, but it wasn’t easy. Both were full time jobs. Trying to do both at the same time, meant doing half as well at each of them, likely less.

My Field General saluted me and left. I moved several of the wooden figures indicating units under his command to the West part of the map. If there was no one to command, would the Dragon Empress try to hunt me down, Michael, rebuild, or something else?

I didn’t have a good enough grasp of her personality to know. My guess was she would be a roaming disaster. It would make it impossible to build up in any city. With the number of stats she had, trying to hide in buildings was just asking to be found.

Fuyuka

It was the evening before we would head towards the Forbidden City. Champion Michael was insane. Completely and utterly insane. To think that rock would fool anyone. It was like dressing a pig up in a suit and expecting people to believe it was a person.

Only the biggest dumbest most insane idiots would believe that rock was the Divine Empress. I was going to die. I knew it. I had already said my goodbyes to Ren.

It was tempting to mess things up on purpose, but I had my pride. Also no matter how insane or bad Champion Michael was, he wasn’t the Divine Empress. Even the stupid monster rock he kept calling Abs was better than her.

I didn’t get the joke, but he just smiled a bit every time he had called it that stupid name. I needed to get some sleep, since I wouldn’t get any after this. It would be non-stop travel until we reached the Forbidden City starting tomorrow.

We couldn’t risk being ambushed by the tribes at night and the Divine Empress wouldn’t stop for anything. Once we left the mistlands I had to be ready constantly.

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I had zero confidence this would work. If it really did work, then I might just die from the shock. It was a pig with makeup. Everyone will know it is a pig. When I brought this up, Champion Michael just told me to improvise and tell people how dare they insult the Divine Empress and have them killed by him.

Inside I was crying and screaming. I didn’t want to have my head stuck onto the Throne of Tortured Souls. It was taboo subject among the Rising Sun Alliance. If Champion Michael managed to get all those points he was going to rampage and wreck everything. I was going to make sure that throne was destroyed no matter what to end my companions’ suffering.

I steadied my breathing and slowly drifted off to an uneasy sleep.

Envoy Of The Divine Empress

He looked at the latest reports that had come in from the Communications Center. The battle to the East had been lost. Wuhan had now fallen to rebels. The entire Dragon Empire was unraveling. Even here in the Forbidden City there were whispers he heard that the Divine Empress had truly been lost.

He knew that was not the case along with the Master Fleshcrafter who was always glad to add more people to his experiments. Worst of all he had been killed and lost an airship to Champion Michael. He had motivated himself once his fresh body came out of the birthing pod and he had no stats.

Skinning himself twice was painful, along with removing various bodily parts, but he had failed. Worse he had died and lost the Chief Diviner. He was trying to coordinate things in the Capital to keep the far going but then Champion Michael shattered the forces he had dispatched to stabilize the war front.

Now there could be an army coming to the West! That was unthinkable. The shame of such a thing hurt him physically and mentally. He set down the reports and made his way to the Master Fleshcrafter. The Inquisitor was holed up in the palace and no use. She refused to leave, saying it was orders of the Divine Empress.

“Envoy, what brings you to my abode?” the Master Fleshcrafter asked. He was leaning over a screaming woman. Her voice was particularly shrill, otherwise I would learned to ignore it like all the others.

“The Empire is crumbling,” the Envoy stated.

“The Empire is always crumbling. You are bothering me in my work.”

“Your work will have to-“

“You dare question me!” the Master Fleshcrafter spun around. “You hold no authority over me. Or do you think you can replace the Divine Empress?”

“The Forbidden City itself is possibly under threat. We have lost Wuhan to the rebels and our armies have been smashed by Champion Michael of the East,” the Envoy explained.

“So? What does it matter if the world burns? The Forbidden City will never fall.”

“It might,” the Envoy said. The Master Fleshcrafter actually went silent at that. If the city were to fall, he would be on the hook for such a disaster. This place was his personal playground for the most part. A disaster of that magnitude would be something the Divine Empress would hold people accountable for.

“Then what are you suggesting?”

“The Envoy has already deployed soldiers to all the beam cannons. And double the patrols on the walls. But if Champion Michael comes, the Envoy won’t be able to stop him in a direct fight.”

“You think he would dare?”

“He might.” The Master Fleshcrafter thought about this for a bit before speaking up.

“You want me to ready myself for an attack? Some of these things I have…well they aren’t to be used unless the city itself is about to fall and the Divine Empress orders it.”

“This Envoy is passing on the warning. And has done all he could. This Envoy needs to go to Wuhan and reclaim the city and stabilize the situation otherwise the other Lords might think about rebelling. He trusts you to handle things in the absence of the Envoy.”

“Fine, go. I will manage the city myself, don’t worry.” The Envoy nodded and departed.

Master Fleshcrafter

“What an idiot. Attack the Forbidden City? The beam cannons would shred them and then the Black Talons would murder them.” I muttered before I turned back to the work I had been doing. The woman had died. Ruined, completely ruined. Well, I wasn’t in the mood anymore regardless. Experimentation required a clear head.

I walked about my lab looking at the various experiments in progress. The juggernaut was my pride and glory. It had taken a year of labor, but it was a mass of meat and bone. The blood sample that had been brought back had been key for infusing this thing with enough energy. It was proof of concept should her majesty wish to pursue this path of power.

The next experiment was a fused weapon. A massive sword that had been carefully fused together from various sub-components. One wrong twitch and it would unleash an annihilation effect. The trick was to launch the fragments one at a time while destabilizing them.

It had taken an incredible amount of work. I thought the beam cannons were more than enough but her majesty enjoyed seeing this weapon, since it had been inspired by the Astrologer’s own Sword of Stars. I still hadn’t picked out a name, but I was leaning towards Sword of Annihilation.

I looked at the various broken contraptions. I would need to have them removed and recycled. The UCS had been brilliant in their innovations. The astrolabe was particularly inspired. That brought me to the last device. It was only half finished.

The Bomb as I was calling it would contain massive amounts of energy. The tricky thing with annihilation effects was getting them to spread out. The Bomb would be tossed into the air, detonate, sending shards everywhere which would then destabilize and annihilate.

I looked at the large type chart I had hung up on the wall of my lab. There was more I could do, but I needed more stats and her majesty didn’t let anyone into her treasury. It was tempting to try and take some crystals, but that was asking to be motivated once she returned. I shuddered, grateful I had avoided such a fate that those other idiots were forced to endure.

Well I was hungry and I needed to think on organ grafting some more. It was such an interesting thing, trying to graft one bit of one person onto other. The energy interactions were incredibly complex.

I left my lab when a Palace Soldier ran up to me. “Master Fleshcrafter. There is an incident with the prisoner. She requires your attention.” Dammit. I immediately set off for the palace. The one person that couldn’t be killed and who was insufferable.

If she had broken out of her cell, then I would have some of the soldiers in my lab. It was always better when the slabs of human flesh came with more stats.