Bunet and Horter found themselves with multiple tasks after the grass pixies had fled, and so they got to doing them. This task mainly revolved around securing the village by having the angry grass catapults take up patrol through the now overgrown streets of the village with the enslaved insects flanking them, making sure they weren't ambushed.
Though one of the most unfortunate tasks the two zombie commanders found themselves dealing with was calming the naturally angry rage grass elementals. Since the defense of the village had been overwhelmed by the catapults and the enslaved insects in the first wave, the rage grass elementals hadn't gotten to participate in the battle since they were in the second wave. This, of course, made them furious, and so the zombie commanders had to calm them down before they damaged the new holdings of their kingdom.
Though eventually they had no more task to complete, and so they began to make their way back to their creator to tell him all that had happened. Though as they went, they noticed the wall of smog that had surrounded their homeland began to spread out rapidly, covering the land, turning all the grass black, and covering it in a thin layer of smog. Not long after that, smog grass elementals began to be born across the newly changed land.
Not only that, but they could clearly see their creator, his now dark black skull, sticking out just above the small wall made of solid smog. They could clearly see the hole in the southern part of the wall from when the grass pixies had attacked. The two zombie commanders made good time in the sky and were soon flying in front of their creator.
"Well, Bunet and Horter, how exactly did the campaign go?" Maxwell asked, knowing they had won but not how well they had won and wanting the exact details of what had gone on with the battle outside of his domain of sight.
Bunet and Horter looked to each other before they both turned towards their creator and began to give him their report, alternating as they told him their perspective on the battle and how it unfolded. This eventually changed when they got to the report of the grass pixies retreat, to which Horter spoke alone and took responsibility for their escape.
"So as you can see, sire, it is due to my mistake that the enemy escaped annihilation at our hands, to which I have no excuse, so I accept full punishment for this failure." Horter stood with his back straight, awaiting his punishment with dignity. Maxwell merely looked at him a moment before he spoke.
" No, Horter, I'm not punishing you. I wanted them subjugated, not annihilated to begin with, so it's a failure of mine to be more clear with my orders." Maxwell said calmly, causing his two zombie commanders to jolt in surprise, but before either could respond, he spoke again.
"Besides, I need both of you in top shape for what is to come. As I got a message that those grass pixies we had just defeated were of the third clan, which means there's a first and a second. So we must prepare for the third clan to team up with the first and second clans and then come back to strike back at us." Maxwell stated simply as both Bunet and Horter got concerned at what was now coming their way.
"So with all the new territory and with the units I have developed, we will begin splitting and expanding our forces." Maxwell stated, causing both Bunet and Horter to suddenly notice the new advanced undead of both butterflies and hornets, as they were too focused on their creator to notice before.
The two zombie commanders had a moment to get excited about the new upgraded units for their respective swarms before Maxwell brought their attention back to him. "Well, Horter, you will defend the East, and you, Burnet, will defend the West. Well, the new village is turned into a large catapult workshop to mass-produce grass catapults to defend the south." Maxwell said, giving his two commanders their orders.
The two were going to ask how they were going to do that considering the forces had both been made from a single small hive, and because of that, the size of their respective swarms wasn't all that large. Well, they were more than enough combined together, and with other curves to overwhelm a single pixie village, they were nowhere near enough to defend the rather large territories they now had.
Maxwell seeing the question on them before they could ask it, and he answered it. "I will create two nests, one for each of you that specializes in undead hornets and butterflies, respectively, so that you may grow your swarms and replenish your ranks." Maxwell said easily dealing with their concerns before saying. "Now, was there anything else?" Maxwell asked to be sure everything was covered.
"Well, we were able to slay a few of the grass pixies. There are bodies at the village. What would you like us to do with them?" Shorter asked, wondering what their ruler would like to do with his war prizes from this battle. Before Maxwell could answer, he felt the presence of Phabium, clearly showing his interest in the bodies.
Maxwell remembering that Phabium, his savior, wanted him to grow his domain, which he had done, and now he guessed these bodies were another part of whatever he was planning. "I want those bodies brought here." Maxwell ordered simply, to which both Bunet and Horter immediately bowed their heads and sent a few undead hornets and butterflies each to collect the bodies.
"Now go; your new base of operations will be waiting for you when you arrive." Maxwell told both his zombie commanders, who bowed low and then proceeded to fly off to where they were commanded. So while he was waiting on the grass pixie bodies to arrive, he got to work on the new undead hives for his commanders and his new grass catapult workshop.
He first started with the nest in the east for the butterflies. Using his control of smog, he gathered a couple dozen twigs, and then he formed them into one tall tower with several branches coming off. Once the tower of twigs was fully formed, he then had the smog that was holding the twig tower together merge with it, finalizing the building and causing the twigs to merge together totally to form a nest of undead butterflies.
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With the nest of undead butterflies out of the way, he moved on to the nest for undead hornets, which needed to be made differently. He took hundreds of twigs with hands made of smog in the west and then shredded them down until he had a brown mash. He then took the material and slowly made a dime structure with hundreds of holes in it and laid it on the ground. Once he was sure the structure was sound, he filled it with smog, making the structure into a hive for undead hornets.
Not too long after he finished, both of his zombie commanders arrived and set up their swarms around them. While they were doing that, he got on with turning the former grass pixie village into one giant grass catapult factory. Maxwell decided to have his grass elementals participate in the creation of the facility as a way to make up for being robbed of the chance in the fight to take the village.
The grass elementals, spiders, and grass elementals centipedes quickly gathered several piles of twigs and pebbles, which were combined with the buildings that made up the village to make one giant grass catapult workshop. The workshop had three exits, each one popping out a different type of grass catapult.
Which were the regular, sad, and angry grass catapults, this was quite good and the major reason Maxwell had turned the grass village into a big grass catapult workshop. As he figured that the first target of whatever alliance force the grass pixie sent his way would be retaking their former village back. So now when they tried to take it back, they would have to go through an army of catapults to do so.
With this final building task completed, the few grass pixie bodies had arrived. He had them laid down in front of him, and not too long after, Phabium spoke. "You have done well, Maxwell; you have grown your domain and expanded your list of forces to bring to bear against your enemies once again." Phabium said, causing Maxwell to swell with pride at the praising of his savior.
"Now that you have gained significant territory within the forest of Gregal. I was wondering if you could do me a favor?" Phabium asked gently, his tone filled with a small measure of hope to use to everything falling apart as the ruler of the monster pantheon. But Maxwell had proven himself to be rather adaptive and had been eager to help so far, but after having so many things fall through, Phabium found himself as a constant skeptic.
"Of course, anything, just ask Lord Phabium." Maxwell said he was eager to aid the god that had freed him from the horrors of the unending eternal void as it had been since they had first met. A small bit of happy shock went through Phabium as well; he had expected that answer. That didn't mean it wasn't a happy shock that something was going right, unlike the rest of the time for Phabium, God of Monsters.
"You see, the favor I require of you is to help restore one of the dark fey gods back to life," Phabium stated simply to Maxwell, which caused him to be shocked because while he had grown in power, he did have a decent amount of territory for a grass pixie; reviving gods seemed like out of his kingdom's level.
"Of course, Lord, but how and why do you need my help? As the god of all monsters, isn't this something you can do?" Maxwell asked Phabium, confused as to why the god of monsters would be trying to revive a dark fey god. As he figured, a fey god would be outside of his pantheon, and if it was in his pantheon, he could handle it.
"Well, you see, there are several dark fey species that are more monsters than they are fey, so their gods are within my pantheon, not within the dark fey's pantheon. Sadly, many years ago, the fey gods, both light and dark, took offense to this and launched a campaign to exterminate these dark monster fey races." Phabium said with a tired and sad tone as if multiple genocides were just part of the course.
"So what? They committed genocide on a massive scale because of association, and they succeeded?" Maxwell asked, shocked at the ludicrous statement that because you didn't want to be associated with other species, you render those species extinct.
"Yes, they did. Now only their gods exist as shadows of their former selves in my pantheon for failing to protect their people." Phabium stated sadly, clearly hurt by how he had to watch the shadows of his former compatriots as they passed him by within the pantheon.
Maxwell felt pity for the poor bastards; he couldn't really blame them. From the sound of it, the forces of good and evil had made an alliance just to wipe out their kin. Not a lot could probably stand up to that, much less species belonging to what we're probably weaker fey gods. "So how can I help?" Maxwell asked, eager to right this wrong.
"Simple Maxwell With your new space, build a temple catacomb and put the bodies of the slain grass fairies in it. I will find a dark monster fey god strong enough to take the temple catacombs and use the bodies to give birth to the god's kin in question, bringing them back into the world. So can you do it?" Phabium asked Maxwell gently one last time.
"Of course." Maxwell said then felt the plans for the temple catacombs enter his mind before Phabium left. He looked over the plans in his head. "Hmm, looks like I'll need Wormer's help on this one, and it's a good opportunity to make some order out of the chaos that is the underground of the kingdom." Maxwell said to himself, preparing to do a complete overhaul of the underground. Well, Wormer was working with his assistants underground, still unaware of the monumental task about to be put upon him.