Chapter 217: Prep For War; Departure

"Alright then, I'll leave it up to you from now on." I say these words to Kaylin, she has a bright new focused sheen of determination in her eyes. And I trust that more than anything. 

I'd gone ahead to meet with her after retrieving the Diviner and deciding on what and how to proselytize my power to the people, I meant to tell her all this and deal with her shock and awe but rather than that, it seemed she couldn't quite care any less about what insanity Anselm and I are up to.

Instead she meets me with her own finally found resolve and I know in the moment of seeing her that she wouldn't buckle to my will and whims any longer. But as always, it's right in track with what I've planned and promised. 

As I was just coming back from preaching to a bunch of elves the value of believing and following Kaylin rather than myself, it's masterful that Kaylin is just as passionate about leading said elves as I made her out to be.

The next steps to be taken were obviously to swallow up the other three villages that lie in the March, the other three villages that still pay tithe and tax to the Synagogue and Kingdom.

My original line of thinking was that Kaylin, the only other Mage I had, would go shake up the villages while I handled more concerning matters like the Cultists thirsting after me, doing something especially about that hibernating Beta Warrior in the ruins of Carbina and reaffirming my hold over the city of Frozia; I've been gone quite some time without contact, I sure do hope Matthias and Leon haven't gotten any bright ideas.

But Kaylin turns up with something brilliant instead, something that could actually spare me and her so much hassle yet at the same time give us both the reigns we need to kick our budding empire into full gear. 

And that just happens to be simply using the militia.

I cringe at my limiting mind when I think of this but my intentions for the militia were simply to gather as many soldiers as I could and train them up for the deciding day. But it seems that Kaylin realizes more than I that to train an army, you need to go to war.

So rather than through my biggest hitter at the problem to spare the little ones the trouble, it's best to make our weakest links less...weak.

And so she proposed that three hundred out of the thousand collective we have head out and knock as gently as possible on the doors of these villages.

She put Aren forward as the diplomatic envoy and frankly, I can't much argue with her on the choice even though the man looks wholly uncomfortable with the idea of martial intervention against supposed 'peacefully living villages'

Kaylin simply chuckled and maintained that the reason we're doing this is so they don't have said peace disrupted, after all, it would be terrible to be on the receiving end of an undead scourge passing through the land.

I'm not completely certain of what her time ruling the city was like but I already see some positive lights in those words. 

I agree to her plan but carry out a little adjustments, after all we can't have Aren dying in their territory and he'd be meeting with Mages, C-rank and higher. As such I went ahead and carried out the ritual I kept getting distracted from. 

It's a bit...wrenching? Yes, a bit wrenching to perform the spell on live, vulnerable humans, even if they were my enemies. But I get over it pretty quickly, if the spell list I look at is correct then there will be more and more live sacrifices to feed off of in the future. 

The ritual is a success but this time, doing it on so many with so much mana I'm left a bit drained and tired, even though the mana I used was only channeled through me. There's also that itching feeling in the back of my mind, something that frightens me quite a bit. Whatever Daemon of Reais is channeling their power through the ritual, its getting closer with each use. 

I specially assign three of the newly created intelligent undead to protect and obey Aren, I leave their naming up to him and warn that they might not be up to certain tasks.

It's my hope however, that they will be able to protect Aren long enough for him to escape to the waiting three hundred military force he arrives with. 

This much is barely enough to convince him for the moment and he requests for a ring, and enchantment, something on his person that will aid him when the time comes. To that I can't refute and tell him to meet Alric, the Mayor of Demme for some help. 

And so here I am, standing in snowy grounds with Shack round my neck, Panda panting beside me and Anselm floating close by. 

"Take care of Aste will you? I'll try and keep in touch but..." 

She nods, understanding, beside her are Hastra on her left and Juri on her right, "You can trust me, I'll get our plans in motion, the city will be disciplined, that revolution...it will never happen again, I know what I need to do now." 

"And the expansion?" 

"I'll try whatever and all means including praying to your Wolf Deity to contact you should Serue or the Marquess make any sudden or unexpected moves. But even if they do, trust that I will handle it all." 

I chuckle at this, she's so confident now, "Don bite off more than you can chew. Remember what to do with the Mayors of the villages?" 

"If they are slightly trustworthy let them rule, if they aren't, usurp them with someone else and have them join the militia instead, we need another Frontline Mage after all." 

While Hunters and their magically enchanted weapons can brew up a lot of trouble for a Mage or just anyone in general, said enchantments can only be replenished and used so many times in battle. And while I've made provisions for Red and Quen to turn the peasants in the militia into hardcore Hunter rated fighters, it wouldn't hurt to have more Mages on our side. 

And the only place with Mages ready for the snatching happens to be territory...also reddy for the snatching. 

She manages a smile on her face as she speaks, "Just keep the Cultists off of us and get stronger with your Necromancy, we'll hold out here in Aste and Demme and our future holdings." 

Her smile turns out to be contagious because before I know it, we're all grinning widely at each other. 

"Alright then, we should go." Anselm says, his hands joint together in praying position.

"Right, let's go." 

His joint hands begin to glow a bright, light blue colour that's quick to cause squinting. Kaylin, Hastra and Juri take a step back and soon the light is enveloping just us. 

When it dims down and I can open my eyes again, the sight that greets me is just the one I mean to see. 

"Frozia." 

"Everyone in one piece?" Anselm pants, exhausted with his feet touching the floor. 

"Riiss!" is Panda's excited confirmation. 

"I am whole." is Shaco's

"Great, everyone's alright, how about you Anselm?" I ask, patting his back. 

He pants some more, catching his breath, "I'm fine it's just...using her spell like that, her power flowing...its...overwhelming." 

The power of a Goddess, I'm sure it would be overwhelming. But hearing it doesn't motivate much hope in me for defeating her and retrieving his soul.

If only Lotar would let me use it... 

I clap my hands, rubbing them together, it's noticeably colder in Frozia than it is in Aste and for obvious reasons I'd say. The Goddess' presence is much stronger here. 

"Good first try though, and a successful one too. At least we know she wasn't lying about being able to teleport us." 

His lips part to say something but he thinks better of it. I'm certain what he meant to say has something to do with how his Goddess would never do such, but spending enough time with me seems to have knocked in some sense. 

"Let's head in then, I'm sure Matthias and Leon would love the surprise visit." 

He frowns at the mention of their names and I realize, "Right, you were up in her Deific Planes while I was subjugating them down here. Matthias is the Mayor of the city, a young, greedy man who happens to be a close relative of Leriva, and Leon is the righteous Marshall that stands by his side, I'm sure you'll get along splendidly with him."

Anselm's mouth hangs open and I can only chuckle, "This ought to be a fun reunion, I left in a hurry the last time I was here. I think I'll be getting extra comfortable this time."