113 A fortunate acciden

Looking at the ratman and the human kneeling in front of her, Leilade was wondering if the gods were watching her or not. While others could have misunderstood the words of Oslo, she had totally understood what he meant when he asked her to stop what they were doing. After all, the gods were only interested in one thing and she had already stolen quite a few from them. Since she said she would stop for the moment, to not face whatever Heroes they could create before having a fully equipped army, she had to uphold her promise.

Meaning she couldn't just kill the two worms and just steal their souls to know all their secrets. Of course, it was only a temporary measure, none of them were willing to be restrained by the parasites lurking above the planet. So, in the absence of Meridiana, they could only resort to violence and tortures. Being lifted without even being asked one question, the two survivors of those that tried to invade their domain were feeling the herculean grip of Ymir. The Akûl sneered at their faces getting redder and redder by lack of oxygen.

However, that was not even the beginning, four liches appeared in the room and began to cast restrictions after restrictions, circling the prisoners with even a mute spell. Cornered in a remote location in the room, they were dealt as Malakov wanted, while no sound could perturb the Empress. "Kardel, I understand the human that Ymir spared since I asked him to. But why do you brought back another ratman? Hasn't the other one proved to be quite useless in reality?"

The human was the leader of those guards and commanded the hidden forces positioned all around their base. So he was their best shot at knowing who dared to come here. However, to the surprise of everyone, Kardel did not slaughter his way out and actually spared a ratman. At first, Ymir thought it was quite smart to keep a bit of food for later and lamented he did not do the same, but it was not the case.

"Empress, this one had a smell I already knew. It was the same as the magus I fought in the desert of that Empire, Synnada. Meaning he had been in contact with him shortly before heading here. Based on this fact, I hoped you could have peeked in his memories to know how they reacted about my presence." Nodding at those words, Leilade agreed with the duvodiad. If she could have just dealt with their souls, they could have learned everything they wanted on the situation outside of Massalia.

"Well, the procedures designed by the Demonic Empire will not fail. Malakov, when they are ready, tell us. I am expecting some news for two days."

"Yes, Empress." The lich bowed before her. Even if two days could be long compared to how she could be more efficient in barely a few seconds, they couldn't do that for the time being. As for the delay, it was something they couldn't shorten. If it had been a strong race on another planet, the procedure could have taken even longer, sometimes reaching an entire week. And by procedure, they meant tortures, both physical and magical all while leaving the soul completely intact.

Looking at the deformed head of the two prisoners, visibly crumbling under the pain and shouting with all their strength, it seemed that it will be even shorter. Turning around to look at the holographic globe nearby, she injected a few elements. From the ones she killed in Archet, she could shape the frontiers to be more like reality. The entire West was still blurry, with no defined locations, but the frontier with Pankow appeared a bit more concrete. Unlike the mountains between Avenio and Massalia, the only thing preventing the undead to attack the Republic was a vast river.

Because of this, it made sense that the Order of Kirov was called back quickly after the first undead was spotted. Even if nearly all the bridges were apparently destroyed by the humans, there were several locations where a group of undead could reach the other side, albeit with a few casualties. It also served previously as a way for the dwarves to trade with the Kingdom of Pankow since the source was in their mountains. As for the other end, it dived under the ground a bit before reaching Massalia and the monster land nearby.

All she knew was that by following the river, she would automatically get to the dwarves. Based on the location of Archet, she would then only need to develop toward the South and capture another city before opening a direct passage between their two people. After all, if she could have the help of the dwarves, a lot of things would become far easier. Besides trying a way to return to the Demonic Empire, they only needed a constant supply of living beings to survive.They could be war prisoners, tributes or the outlaws of their future empire.

Thinking about the fact that they had to conquer the world or a big part of it, just to survive,Leilade did not lament. After all, they had all lived centuries by sustaining their bodies with the lives of others. With that, she visited once more the Vault of Souls, to see if there were any changes. Because she could only absorb the souls and not the body at Archet, she still hadn't recovered enough to wake up someone else besides Master Agnil. Checking the condition of her main guest, she was pleased to see him in a deep slumber. The later he will wake up the better it will be.

Leaving the central room, she headed toward the newly created place in their base. Passing in front of a gigantic underground farm, she stopped a few seconds to see the disposition. The plants were under artificial light and numerous water containers were periodically leaking their contents. A few liches were guarding the place, controlling everything with magic. Only now did she wondered from where the seeds came from.

"Malakov, where did you get so many seeds so quickly?" Creating an inanimate object by using mana was already costly, even more, if the object had innate properties, like the Aether. It was because of this that while the lich could easily create a large amount of gold, just a gram of Aether was even more costly. As for living, truly living, creatures, it was definitely not worth it. That's why, seeing all of this, she could not figure how could Malakov created so many.

"Oh, it was sheer luck, Empress. A few days ago, one of my ghosts spotted an ambushed cart. Inside, there was numerous plants and seeds. So, I stole them." Nodding, Leilade did not believe a single word. The lucky ambush was probably caused by him, especially if he found out they had what she asked. However, she was also certain that there will be no survivors to tell what happened, meaning that it could be considered as an accident.

"Be careful to not let any survivors. But you did a good job to gather so quickly enough food for those trolls." Even if it had been only so few days, she could already sense that a few tubercules similar to potatoes were nearly fully grown. With a special soil infused with magic, the most optimal light changed every minute to be as efficient as possible and also magical water, it was no wonder they would manage to feed an entire tribe of trolls. It only lacked meat for now.

"Since you already found enough plants, you can begin to capture animals. You can go as much as the closest farm to steal them, but not too much. Enough to piss off the humans, but not to organize a vast search against us. I will let you modify those creatures." They were not planning on waiting hundreds of years to have the most perfect genes thanks to cross breeding and careful selections. They couldn't turn the child of a cow into a pig while it was a fetus with what they had in their hands, but they could certify the children will always be better than their parents.

Immediately after saying that, she could see numerous columns of skeletons heading toward one of the walls and beginning to dig it. She had let full control of the design of the base to Malakov, meaning that he was also the only one that knew it entirely. She could always use a bit of her mana to achieve the same result, but that was not necessary. After all, every time one of them entered the underground maze, a lich will always be there leading them to their destination. After a few hundreds of meters, she ended up in a vast natural cavern.

Or at least, that was from its appearance. She didn't know if it was Ymir or her Envoy that had the idea, but it was probably better for the wild trolls to be in such an environment. They already had to leave the open space of the mountains, so if they were confronted to a cold and fabricated habitat, their reactions could be extreme. She could see numerous floors seemingly natural, except for the uniformed stairs. On all those floors, numerous caves, and holes, big enough to shelter the trolls.

Even if they had more or less hundred of them, the vast quantities of caverns could allow at least thousands. Right now, no undead could be seen, and a fake sky had been created above. It made look like the ceiling had a very vast hole, allowing the light of the sun to reach this dark place. Seeing the very considerate arrangements, they seemed to work quite well. Even if the food was only vegetables, for now, it also had an exotic taste for the mouths used to the coldness of the high peaks.

Even if the White Hand regularly provided them with preserved meat and other conservable food, they never had the chance to lay their hands on even one apple. And while some were grumbling that it was really filling their stomachs and they still were hungry, others were happy to slap the top of their heads and make them remember they had experienced far worst. Soon after everyone had eaten, most adults left the center, only a few guarding the children.

The women and men that used to stay and keep the tribe safe while others hunted were helping gathering fruits and vegetables. In the end, a skeleton stayed an undead. Meaning that it was often clumsier than a real living being, and had a faint aura of death. This nearly imperceptible taint could worsen a bit the taste of the harvest, something even Leilade could agree on. There were countless races that were forbidden to even enter a canteen or touch the meal of others.

As for the main force of the trolls, they were actively training under the supervision of Ymir. Helped with liches that could create almost any type of enemy, the hunters were facing everything, from a wyvern to a pack of wolves. The summons of Malakov, in addition, to create skeletons, also applied some illusions on them. Meaning that for the unfortunate ones that were facing those monsters, it made them seem real. Right now, an entire group was running away in fear after a giant dragon appeared.

Even if it was not up to the standards of some simulations she experienced, it was enough for them to feel the cold grip of death numerous times. That was maybe the first rule everyone learned after joining the Demonic Empire, to never have succumbed to fear. Otherwise, one would become a corpse in some random planet. Looking at the Akûl that was shaking his head, he seemed disappointed.

"When can those fresh recruits be used?" Hearing the childish voice near him, Ymir began to ponder. She had agreed on his request because it served their interests. The fact that a race was willing to serve them and was also not mistreated. But the best way to show that was for the trolls to be visible, and what could be possibly better than making them fight? After all, trolls were never known for being artists, scholars or merchants.

"Depend. It has only been a few days since they settled in. Without meat, a huge quantity of it or an enhanced portion, it will be a lot slower. At this rate, I would say in a few months." Being the commandant of the World Eaters, he was used to training new recruits. However, they were all Akûl, like him, so he had to review the process to not kill everyone.

"Months are fine. I never expected a lot from them in the first place. As for the meat, Malakov will soon begin to raise some animals. Did you sent your demands to Master Agnil?"

"No, not yet. I first want to see how strong they can become. But I will ask him to keep a few crystals aside from me." What he meant by crystals was any of the materials of a similar rarity compared to the Aether. There was no need to use the most precious things they had for those trolls, but a few lesser composites could achieve good results at a lesser cost. Not bothering Ymir any longer, she looked one more time at the map in the control room.

"Maybe it is time to visit those dwarves after all."