Maxwell watched as Horter came through the smog wall that covered his kingdom. Horter led an army of grass serpents in a parade while atop the cloaked butterfly ship, a palpable pride coming off him in waves. Horter took the captured army towards the butterfly outpost and had them circle the outpost while Horter and his undead butterflies watched over them.
"While it seems my commander, Horter, couldn't wait for his chance to defend the realm and got an invading army before it could make it past the smog wall." Maxwell said to himself, a bit stunned at Horter's eagerness, figuring out if all his commanders, it would be Bunet that would charge outside of his domain to fight the enemy, not Horter. But it showed that his commanders were always capable of surprising him, and it was a very nice surprise, Maxwell thought, as he looked at the captured grass serpent army with the grass hydra at its center.
With Horter's victory and capture of a third army of the nine grass pixie clans, Maxwell was sure whatever governing body the nine grass pixie clans had would surely have to meet with him to make peace. Now he just had to figure out how to begin negotiations before he figured he would have to send out an envoy, but considering he now had three whole armies as leverage, he figured the grass pixies government would come to him to bargain.
Though now he had to come up with a place to receive guests from another nation. Maxwell still thought wormer would be his best bet, but now he needed a spot in his realm of smog for them to meet safely. So he best get to figuring out how to build such a structure that could welcome a delegation and not threaten them with its mere presence, which would be a bit of a difficult thing to do.
As whatever building he ended up creating for the talks would be made from necromancy or perhaps dark fey magic. Though hopefully all his current leverage would not only keep them civil but also enable him to stomach being in his new embassy in order to get their people back. So the only question Maxwell had for himself was what magic he would use in the creation of his new embassy and where he would put it.
Before Maxwell could begin the creation of his embassy, he felt the presence of his lord, the god of the monster pantheon, Phabium, within his kingdom of necrotic smog. "You have kept your word and done more than I dared hope, Maxwell. Your kingdom still stands after the nine clans of grass pixies sent all they had at you." Phabium said, his voice filled with a tone of daring optimism, as Maxwell's army's successful defense led Phabium to hope once again that perhaps there was hope for the future of at least part of his pantheon once more.
"Of course, Lord, I will always do my best to uphold my word to you. So now that I have defeated the armies of the grass pixie clans, when can I expect the leaders of the clans to come and parlay?" Maxwell said, his voice filled with pride as he responded to the god that had saved him, and then asked in curiosity, expecting his lord to know when he could expect the leaders of the nine grass pixie clans to meet with him for negotiations.
Phabium responded, though not with what Maxwell was expecting. "There won't be any negotiations as the leaders of the grass pixie clans were their elders who led the three armies that you've captured. Which means you, ruler Maxwell, have conquered the entirety of the grasslands within the pixie forest of Gregal." Phabium stated plainly to a shocked Maxwell.
Maxwell was left to ponder on that for a moment before Phabium continued. "Now that you have conquered the grasslands of the pixie forest of Gregal, you will get a new policy to go with your new domain after this conversation is done, but before I leave to manage your new lands, I'm afraid I must ask another boon of you." Phabium asked, his voice tense at having to ask more of the ruler, Maxwell, after his kingdom had gone through several great battles and after he had already done a favor earlier with the underground temple deviated to a dark fey god of his pantheon, but Phabium found himself needing to ask all the same.
"Of course, Lord Phabium, I am always willing to aid." Maxwell said with absolute certainty, to which Phabium, though unseen within his holy realm, gave the response with a small, sad smile. As he thought about how long it had been since any had been eager to serve, many of those under the monster pantheon either cursed them or outright denied their very existence. It was refreshing to have one eager and able to serve once more, which was also what made Phabium hesitant to ask for aid, as too many that had been eager to serve in better times had gotten themselves destroyed doing so.
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"I thank you, Maxwell. It is a credit to you that you are so willing to help after your kingdom fights in a war of three great clashing armies. The boon I ask of you is that I may use the power of the captured grass pixie elders grand rituals to bring power to my fellow gods of the monster pantheon." Phabium said making his request known, which was much as the power of the grand rituals was much and could be used to great effect by Maxwell in the art of necromancy with some testing.
"Of course it is yours." Maxwell said, not hesitating for a moment to give his lord Phabium the great power that had been claimed by his creations for himself. Phabium was a bit shocked for a moment, not used to such ease in attaining what he needed. Though in a few moments he got it together and responded to Maxwell's quick surrender of the power.
"Thank you, ruler Maxwell. With this power of rituals, I shall craft divine artifacts to bring strength to my weaker kin and bring them back to my realm. Now I leave you to your duties. May your rule be long and prosperous, Maxwell." Phabium says as his presence fades from Maxwell's kingdom of necrotic smog.
Maxwell sat there silently for a while. A silent skull construct in the middle of walls made out of solid smog that were patrolled by ghost leaf tornadoes before he suddenly let out a cheer. "He was happy with how I was doing my job." Maxwell said as his cheer went through his domain, causing the necrotic smog and grass elementals to act in a strange way for a moment before Maxwell got back to work.
He turned his attention over to his imprisoned grass pixie armies and saw the elders were far smaller and weaker than before. Which was a clear sign that they had been drained of all the great ritual power that once held. Maxwell looked at all his prisoners at a loss as to what to do with them, as he had accidentally conquered them but had no real idea how to go about enforcing his new rule.
That's when a purple screen appeared to show Maxwell the new policy he had gained through his conquest of the pixie grasslands. He looked it over a few times and found it to be exactly what he needed for the situation, so he went about implementing the policy he had gained.
Through the conquest of the grass pixies lands of Gregal, you have gained the following policy.
Make a fence—the separate territories you have gained will be walled off from one another with walls of solid smog. These walls will be reinforced with outposts that produce either undead zombies or undead constructs that will defend the wall as well as patrol the territory under your control.
Would you like to activate this policy y/n?
Maxwell activated the new policy to make a fence, which worked very well with his Grow Your Lawn policy. The two magical kingdom policies' effects working in tandem quickly reshaped all of Maxwell's new territory from being grass pixie clan territory into being a part of the necrotic smog kingdom. Maxwell could tell this as his senses expanded along with the control of his territory, which allowed him to see the new walls and the shifting pixie grasslands that went from pixie magic to necrotic magic in nature.
"Well, I suppose the only thing left is to break up the armies and send them back to their respective clan territories." Maxwell said with a grim tone, as he could already tell this was going to be a difficult task, but he would get it done, and then everything about the war would be done, and Maxwell could move on to testing all the things he had gained from the war.
As experimenting with necromancy and the magic of the dark fey awaited him once his kingdom affairs were all in order. So he merely had to get three separate armies back into nine clans and head back home with minimum trouble. Maxwell could already tell he was going to be having a fun time ahead.