“Welcome to the city of New Mecca,” Hasad said as the city came into view. We had stopped for the night and in the morning, I saw grinders hard at work quickly clearing the monsters. They looked tired but had clean clothes that were colored gray. From the store clearly. No one would wear gray clothes otherwise.

Looking at the walls, there were towers and cannons. So, this city was clearly developed. There were lots of stares from both the grinders, and soldiers as we passed them. I wasn’t overly concerned. We entered the city, and they had an actual road leading to the center. No random path of craziness, which was nice.

Everyone was clean and there wasn’t a smell in the air. No trash on the streets either. That showed the government was actually in control, unlike Meech, which was a hellhole except for the inner city. Making our way through the city, we eventually arrived at a large building at the plaza. I noted New Mecca didn’t have an inner-city wall like Purgatory or Meech did. That was interesting. There was an airship tower and only a small air-boat docked, nothing bigger.

Perhaps I could buy an airboat so we could leave this place and travel above the roads. That would be a good option. The building we were led into was only four stories tall. We were escorted to a well furnished side room and left to wait. There were no traps as far as I could tell.

Water was brought to us, but the servant didn’t say anything. Eventually a servant came after half an hour, left some water, and that was it. No food or anything else the servant left and ignored all questions.

“A bit lacking,” Fiyaz said.

I could agree with that. “Maybe they want to see if we are doing anything. Or this Leader could be outside the city,” Captain Francis made another good point.

“Well, they clearly have an upgraded city and points, with all those cannons,” I pointed out. I took the water and poured my own cup. “I also didn’t see anyone run off or any type of communication that was used either,” I mentioned. That was something that had been bothering me as well.

“My guess is that whoever handles the communication is kept concealed,” Fiyaz suggested. I nodded at that.

“No summons, and no businesses. The entire plaza is just a line of carts purchasing supplies,” Michelle added. That was another aspect that was throwing me off.

“A military city, a military state,” I said as it clicked togeather. This really was North Korea but without North Koreans. Now I was even more curious what the Leader would be like.

We waited another two hours, which made me think it wasn’t intentional. They just didn’t have protocols for visiting heads of state. Or they were trying to get a trap into position. I didn’t sense any danger and didn’t hear anything out of the ordinary.

The door finally opened and eight soldiers entered. Now these men had stats that matched up with my soldiers. High level 4, low level 5. Much more than Hasad. I noted Hasad walking to the left of a man in uniform, that was similar to his soldiers, except for the shoulder pads. His beard was a bit neater and had a touch of white. This was clearly the Leader.

I stood up and my team fell in around me. To the Leader’s right a man spoke up. “Announcing, the Leader. Defender of the Faithful. Chosen of Allah.”

I gave a look and a quick nod to Fiyaz, who spoke up. “Announcing Emperor Michael of the Empire of Purgatory. Champion of the Realm. Custodian of the Avatar. Slayer of the Divine Empress.” I could tell the man was sizing me up as well.

He had stats, but not as much as me. I would put him around 150,000 to 200,000. A sizable amount. Even enough to be a threat if he was a glass cannon. But I didn’t think that was the case. We eyed each other. He actually had a bit of height on me.

“Hello,” I finally said with a bit of a smirk. I was curious how he would respond. Would he stand on a pedestal and pretend to be mightier than me or would he recognize he was outclassed.

“Hello. My apologies for the delay. We haven’t had visitors in over a decade. A conference room has been prepared, shall we sit there and speak?” he asked.

“That is fine,” I agreed and stepped forward. I could tell the soldiers were giving me nervous looks but didn’t interfere. I inclined my head, which he returned. We left the sitting room and went to a conference room.

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I took the middle seat on one side with my team flanking me, the Leader did as well on the other. His soldiers matching our numbers with Hasad and his announcer sitting on either side of him. The remaining soldiers stood behind him.

“I am told you come from the East?” he asked me.

“Yes. My Empire controls the Eastern portion of the Systemic Lands. And your Leader’s Domain, three cities?”

“An interesting name, Systemic Lands. For this place. And you have clearly spoken with the Indians and Russians,” he replied.

“I have. They were, disappointing,” I replied, and he nodded.

“Cursed. The spawn of idiots and devils. Their madness, it is tiring. That is why the border is closed off. I apologize if Hasad offended you. My nation is very strict,” he replied.

“There was no offense given. I can understand your policies. Out killing monsters?” I asked him.

“Inspecting. Making sure things run smoothly. I am surprised an Emperor, with over 10 cities, has come this far,” he replied. That was a valid question and I smiled.

“The management of my Empire is well handled in my absence. We have had quite a bit of time to perfect things. But I am curious about the devil monster, and the sword,” I replied flexing a bit more.

“A controversial topic. My advisors would warn me to stay silent or trade the information. How many cities?” he asked. He clearly was no puppet leader. He was inquiring about my economic power and military force. The number of cities under my control directly related to how much combat pressure I could bring against him. The answer, quite a lot.

“Nineteen,” I said. There were looks of shock on the surrounding soldiers, and also despair. The Leader closed his eyes and let out a long sigh, slumping back in his chair. There was no point lying about such a thing. I could have hidden it some more, but this wasn’t that type of conversation. While I was here, I wanted to make clear I held the superior position in these discussions.

“Nineteen, that is quite a bit. Your stats are higher than mine. Your companions have quite a bit,” he replied while looking us over.

“And you are all alone out here?” I asked him.

“Yes.” He held up a hand when his announcer seemed to what to say something. “Lying will only make enemies. We cannot win against such a nation. Our advantage is separation. We could fight, we could resist, but winning would be impossible. That title, ‘Slayer of the Divine Empress’, your predecessor?”

“Another nation. The Dragon Empire, that was defeated. She was quite evil, and I don’t use that word lightly. She liked to turn people into furniture and listen to their screams,” I said.

“Ah, that is quite…evil. Well we have our own evils and are trapped in our territory. The void is to the North, West, and South. To the East is death. We have had contact with the city states to the South, but we are cut off. The airship route is perilous, long, and expensive.” He seemed tired.

“The overflow population. How do you deal with it?” he finally asked.

“We are growing our own food, and that is offsetting the problem, and we are looking to invade another nation.” I could see everyone suddenly staring at me in surprise that I would say such a thing. But if there was going to be an initial fight, might as well get it over with.

“And you are planning to take cities into your Empire?” the Leader asked with a bit of hesitation and a slight touch of fear. I shook my head.

“Like the Wild West. I plan to unleash people, but they would fight and do what they want. Like a no-man’s land,” I said. He relaxed at that.

“The cursed cities. You plan to take unleash people there. I see it. It would be good for us as well,” he responded. “But that leaves the cursed sword and the devil monster,” he said with a lot of hatred. I nodded at this.

“I was hoping you would provide some more information,” I responded. He gave me a searching look.

“A treaty is like a fart in the wind. It does not matter. And with your stats, I can’t win. I want to keep my three cities, and the boarder to the East,” he said.

“It will be the Wild West. I won’t be organizing a response against you. There needs to be an outlet. Taking more cities, just increases the issues,” I responded.

“So, you will let me defend myself like the Indians against your settlers,” he replied with a frown, and I nodded.

“I think you are better organized than that, but yes. As long as no attack, including terrorism is done against my nation, then I won’t personally intervene against you,” I replied. Getting more cities might increase my income, but that was only short term. Long term, the population crisis would become worse and that would lead to rebellion and loss of income.

It was much better to create an outlet and send people out this way. As for this Leader and his Domain, I didn’t care too much. It would be the Wild West. An artificial Wild West, but one, nonetheless. People would die by the thousands, and some of that chaos would impact the board this Leader had.

But it didn’t matter to me. We had a huge string of void zones splitting the Systemic Lands and no plan to make a road. We would set up a portal building and use that to transport people in mass to a staging city, then unleash them. No transport back the other way, except with Clarissa’s or my permission.

It would be a war zone, with people constantly flooding in. It was cruel, unfair, and horrible, but it was the only option available. We would pack in people more and more. And I had no doubt a lucky few would get enough points and crystals to buy a pass back to retire. But it was the only long term option for stability I had.

If the sword and the monster couldn’t be cleared, then I would have to take one of the Leader’s three cities, and unleash people here. It was not my first choice, but it was a choice. Let the other nations to the far West, send people out into the warzone.