2.40 In Which the Dark Lord Destroys

2.40 In Which the Dark Lord Destroys

I did not have sex with Minifrit that night, because as usual she was annoyingly right about everything. The work wasexhausting. This might be the weirdest therapy Id ever heard of and probably wouldnt fly in any doctors office on Earth, but the fact remained that it was therapy, and it was a lot more challenging than it was enjoyable. Having flashbacks and panic attacks repeatedly triggered will take it out of you; we just didnt get that far before I was too wiped out to keep going. I think it was less than an hour, in the end, before she declared that I needed to rest and take time to process everything, and slipped off back to her room. At that point I didnt have it in me to argue.

I was too keyed up to actually sleep, of course, and oddly not because Id just had an hour of intermittent foreplay that went nowhere; it wasnt that kind of keyed up. The traumatic episodes were justa lot. But on top of that, this crazy idea seemed to be working; at least, it felt like the flashes had grown less intense as we were deliberately setting them off and working through them. Maybe? It wasnt like there was an objective scale I could use to weigh them, I could only judge using the increasingly frayed emotional sensitivity that was being torn further by this very process. It felt like we were actually getting somewhere, at least.

At that point, it was late enough that when I went down to take a hot bath I had the place to myself. And afterward, I slept more easily and more deeply than I had in the longest time.

The nice thing about the morning after was that Minifrit was a consummate professional. There was no awkwardness, or any indication at all that anything of import had happened between us. Under other circumstances I might have felt insulted, but in this case it was reassuring. No, she just turned up at breakfast, exactly her usual self: politely pushing at me as hard as she could without actually challenging my authority.

Let me get this straight, I said, setting down my bowl of porridge, which Id considered trying to eat with chopsticks to make a point but discarded that idea as way too much trouble. After all that yesterday, you want me to just sit on my thumbs in this fortress all day?

Clearly not, she said with subdued exasperation. There is plenty to be done around North Watch which doesnt involve traipsing through the forest and confronting the cat tribe.

They need to be dealt with!

Very much so. Specifically, they need to be dealt with in the most effective way possibleby a Dark Lord who is well-rested and at the top of his game. You can take a day to catch your breath.Follow current novels at novelhall.com)

I dunno about that reasoning but I do agree with her ultimate conclusion, Lord Seiji, Sakin chimed in.

This is mutiny, I complained. I am being ganged up on.

Kinda the opposite, if you think about it, commented Aster, who was tucking into her own breakfast next to me. They probably have the same opinions as yesterday, but nobody was willing to push you when you were that angry. Best we could manage at the time was talking you down from getting yourself killed in the forest.

You, too, Aster?

She shrugged, smiled, and chomped another spoonful.

I confess I find myself curious, Minifrit said, barely short of open disdain as she gave Sakin a look out the corner of her eye. By what reasoning did you arrive at the same conclusion?

Why, how could I turn down such a gracious invitation? he said sweetly. Even when they agreed, these two just had to butt heads about something. But yes, Lord Seiji, youve been gone from the fortress for a while, and weve got a lot of the new faces youve gathered up here. Regardless of how your extended maneuvers out there may have tired you out, I think its an important moment to make your presence felt around North Watch.

Crack some heads and assert dominance?

I did not miss the wary glances shot my way from several nearby tables.

Wouldnt really match up with your leadership style, now would it? Sakin said airily. On the contrary, I think itd best serve to have you around so the new blood can see how positively the old blood reacts to you. Youre pretty popular among the troops for a bandit boss, Lord Seiji. Thats an asset; you should leverage it.

Hnh, I grunted, looking over at Aster. Well, go on, I suppose you agree with them too?

I cannot in good conscience weigh in on this, due to my lack of personal objectivity, she intoned. Weve been stomping around in the wilderness and/or the Gutters for weeks and I really wanna take a day to sit quietly in the castle.

No reason you cant do that while I go talk to the cats, I pointed out.

She just gave me a vintage Aster Look.

Im honestly kind of impressed how you can do that with your mouth full.

Lord Seiji. Minifrit gave me one of her own masterful looks, no-nonsense and yet gently supportive. I really needed to have her teach me how to do stuff like that with my face. The situation is stable. Take the day, rest yourself and reassure our people with your presence. Then settle the cat tribe when you are at your best.

I sighed, grudgingly, and poked at my porridge with my spoon. Creamed grains with peppers, spices, and little bits of some kind of pickled meat. It was pleasantly filling and not bland; I was actually somewhat annoyed at how much Id started to like some of the food here. Once you adapted to the sinus-blasting amount of peppers the Fflyr put in everything, it really wasnt bad.

Fine. One day.

So I took the day off.

At least, that was what it felt like to me, coming as it did when I had an immediate need to address the situation with the cat tribe and my plans closer to Gwyllthean were unfolding in my absence. All of this, though, was according to strategy, and as my advisors had pointed out, it wasnt as if there was nothing to do around North Watch.

In the early days, yeah, it had gotten downright boring out here at times. Back then it was just me, Aster, and Roccos old gang, and wed kept busy by cleaning and fixing things with the knowledge that the fortress would likely finish collapsing before our meager efforts could finish restoring it. Aster and I would be gone for a couple of days once a week on our Gwyllthean trips, andthat was it.

Somehow, since then, this had become a whole organization. There was a command structure, divisions of labor, and North Watch was always full of voices and activity. With new recruits brought in and some of my earlier ones dispersed through the khora and bandit camps near the city, the fortresss population still hovered around a hundred, though my total followers numbered close to half again that many. Surprisingly enough, considering we were ultimately a big gang of bandits building up toward an insurrection, the atmosphere around North Watch was cheerful and energetic.

Well, that beat the alternative. Best to enjoy the good times before the next disaster; I didnt allow myself to believe we were ever too far from another one.

My own role had grown and changed, and ironically I was less free than before. With a larger and less intimate core of followers, more people than I could manage to have personal relationships with, it became necessary to cultivate my image in place of that. For one thing, this meant I could no longer join in the training sessions that were a big part of everyones daily activities. Oh, I was still getting training, but in private sessions behind closed doors. I still had the martial skills of a guy from modern Japan whod been practicing for a couple months; I was going to need much better the longer this Dark Lord thing went on. Right now, most of the people we had giving lessons could kick my ass easily, and that was the problem. You couldnt have the Dark Lord plowed facefirst into the dirt a dozen times a sparring session in front of all his minions. With just a handful of us who had nobody to talk to but each other, that was funnya bonding experience, even. When we were a nascent army, it was a hazard to morale.

Which was not to say I was a conventional leader; Id never have been able to pull that off. I bet most Dark Lords, bandit bosses, or military rulers in general didnt provide the musical entertainment during lunch and dinner, but fuck it. Id compromise to the extent of not looking weak for their benefit, but these people needed to get used to me as I was, and theyd pry my guitar from my cold, dead fingers. Happily enough this seemed to improve my popularity. If anybody thought playing for the troops was unbecoming a leader, they were too scared of me to say so.

Which would suffice.

Most of what I ended up doing on my day off wastouring. I stood watch over several training sessions, was shown around areas of the castle that had recently been cleaned out or were in the process of being refurbished, inspected all the defenses. Kasser and Minifrit had been doing very well; the walls were all navigable now, with walkways and barricades of akorshil planks in place of the broken spots. They were also heavily watchedevery sentry in immediate view of at least two others at all times, as Sakin had recommended, all carrying alarm horns and with barrels containing healing slimes positioned at regular intervals, as well as bottled light slimes. The new gates still werent ready to be hungHarold was working on the hinges and fasteners, but they were large and we didnt have any other skilled ninwrights to help himso the open gateway had improvised defenses in the meantime. Spiked barricades covered the open space, light enough to be moved but sturdy enough to mess up an enemy charge, and four guards in the best armor we could scrape together stood right behind them in the gateway itself, supported by crossbow-wielding sentries above.

I guess Sakin was right about my popularity, given how a gaggle of whoever wasnt currently on duty kept following me everywhere except when I was receiving reports in private, like my detailed sessions with Minifrit and Kasser on their progress. Junko stuck by my side every minute; Aster, by contrast, barely put in an appearance all day, evidently serious about wanting a break. I guess this was the first time in a while Id been in a position where she didnt feel I needed a bodyguard. Others came and went as they had time, though of course I had my usual hangers-on.

There were a few who seemed to feel a loyalty toward me that verged on hero worship, which I found uncomfortable in the extreme, though how that manifested depended on the individual. Kastrin, for example, was quiet, focused, and generally good company; you could forget she was there, until she suddenly came out with one of those sly jokes of hers. She was my oldest fan, always hanging around me since Id first healed her back in Cat Alley. Ydleths company wasless comfortable. After I stood up for her during her embarrassing public to-do with Sicellit she seemed to have decided I was the best thing since wyddh and also hovered around, eager to please. Unfortunately, Ydleth was a littlemuch.

I didnt think I was being weird about heruh, condition. Truthfully I still didnt know what to make of that and just hoped nobody brought it up again. But no, that aside, she was just kind of unpleasant; I quickly came to see how the usually unflappable Sicellit had so dramatically lost patience with her. Ydleth was loud, pushy, seemed to respect no one and was prone to starting arguments. And unlike certain other people who could be described thus, she didnt have Dark Lord powers to back it up, nor my trademark blend of musical talent, public speaking skills, and roguish good looks. Fortunately Minifrit usually turned up to peel her away for some task before she wore down my patience too much. The handy thing about Ydleth was that she was consistently on some punishment duty or other.

Nothing was perfect, but all toldit wasnt a bad day. In the end, I had to acknowledge that Aster and Minifritand Sakin, I supposedhad been right. I felt better for having taken time to oversee my people, and they seemed happy to have had me around.

In the quiet wind-down after dinner, I decided on a pure whim to take another quick stroll along the walls, just to stretch my legs a bit before retiring for the night. We hadnt discussed it, so I didnt know whether Minifrit planned on another session that evening, though if she showed up Id already decided (somewhat regretfully) that I would have to ask for a rain check. If the whole point of taking a day of rest was to be fully charged and ready to deal with the cat tribe at my very best tomorrow, spending part of the night twisting my psyche into knots would be counter-productive. Even if it did mean getting my hands all over a particularly magnificent set of curves. Traumatic flashbacks just suck all the fun out of everything.

For what might have been the first time that day, I was alone, nobody having latched onto me as people wandered away from the mess hall after dinner. Even Junko had finally left my side, apparently reassured that I wasnt going to disappear again. Doubtless she was off pestering every sucker in my employ who loved dogs more than they feared the Dark Lord; I was pretty sure Junko had identified every soul in this place who would give her snacks in defiance of my orders.

The sentries greeted me but, to my satisfaction, didnt divert attention from their duty. Theyd had a recent reminder that they were the first line of defense against an invisible assassin; I wouldnt slack off under those circumstances, either. This job, it seemed was mostly given to the most senior crusaders, women from the first group of Cat Alley recruits, though I noted that Jadrin had also pulled this duty tonight, as well as a lanky fellow Id recently recruited from one of the bandit camps around Gwyllthean.

My steps slowed as I crossed a particular section of wall, turning to gaze out over the darkened khora forest with its multicolored fonds waving gently against the stars. This was the same spot where Id stumbled to a halt in my first minutes on Ephemera as I fled from Kasser and Harold, the place where Id seen the alien forest out there and it had sunk in just how far from home I was. Instead of a shadowed ruin of a fortress, though, this was now a well-lit stretch of wall, swept clean of rubble, with crossbow-holding soldiers sworn to me at either end of this stretch between the tower and the main building. Strange That had only been a few months ago, but already the memory seemed nostalgic. Given time, filled with experiences, perhaps even the khora could become

No, khora forests were still weird as hell. I missed trees. I guess I was a little more comfortable with it, though.

Still, my enemies were invisible, snipers hidden among the fronds while those moving forward to attack properly hadnt yet emerged from beneath their shelter. But I was well out of their range up here, if they could even see me.

I fixed my gaze on one towering khora just beyond the front gates and closest to the walls, one of those with huge spiked plates like a mooses antlers which sprouted waving fronds. Distantly, it occurred to me I probably should have tested this down there before Id climbed up here to this vantage; if it didnt work I had just wasted all that energy and abandoned my forces for nothing. But it should work. They were living things, after all.

I pointed and roared into the night.

Immolate!

Oh, it worked all right.

Orange fire rent the darkness as every bit of soft tissue in the huge khora combusted. The gently waving fronds disintegrated immediately, giving way to gouts of seething fire. Every aperture in its shell was lit up like a furnaceno, it became a furnace, a towering structure of armor plates from within which flames spewed in every direction.

My face was twisted in a grin of cruel triumph.

You want blood? Youve got it.

Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate! Immolate!

I turned in a complete circle, casting my spell of ultimate horror at every khora in a line around North Watchs walls. In seconds, we were encircled by a ring of fire, and the forest outside became a very inhospitable place to be. Then, having come back to my starting point, I began igniting more of them in a line away from the gates, creating a swath of pure hell leading straight over the path the raiders would have to take to our gates.

Attack my home? My people? Then you can all fucking BURN. And tomorrow, the rest of them would be next!

Savage vindication gave way to confusion when, suddenly, a khora at which I hadnt even aimed yet burst into flame.

What? These things were explicitly not flammable; this only worked because of goddess-granted magic. The underbrush might ignite, but other than that the flames couldnt spread. It wasnt like a forest of wood and leaves

But it did. As I watched, confused, more of them went up. It began extending out from us on all sides of the ring; one after another, khora burst alight, fronds dissolving into hungry tongues of flame. And the more it spread, the faster it spread, until my ring of fire was inexplicably racing in all directions past the edge of my vision.

And only then did my stomach plummet sickeningly as I realized what Id just done.

I remembered Aster casually explaining, on that first walk into Gwyllthean, that khora plantations could only be cultivated on islands where they grew wild; that they spread through underground root networks. Kasser, excitedly telling me that North Watch stood in what he called a tangle, an area where multiple different khora species intermixed. Hed been so happy at being able to harvest materials from so many kinds.

They werent trees; they werent like trees, except maybe aspens. Or mycelium. Each free-standing shell was only the surface part, one node of a vast organism spreading across the island beneath its surface. Of multiple such beings.

I had just sent the effects of my Immolate blazing through every one of them, and it wouldnt stop until it covered the entirety of Dount.

My fierce triumph was gone in an instant, and with it the rage, leaving me in mental freefall as I grappled with the enormity of what I had just viciously set in motion.

Dear god, the plantations. There was an unstoppable tidal wave of fire racing toward Gwylltheanright through the half-gathered harvest. Countless little villages and Clan estates stood right on the edges of khora groves, with no idea they were all about to burn. The beastfolk tribesnot just the cats attacking me, but every tribes village. My people were out there, encamped amid the khora and totally unaware of what was about to roar across them. Somewhere out there, Sato was alone in the darkness as it dissolved into fire all around him. Somewhere else, the lone, desperate dark elf whod tried to help us was the same.

Fuck, Id just remembered that those root systems ran through the goblin tunnels; the ability to extract reagents from them directly was most of why goblin alchemy was more advanced than the Fflyrs despite their relative lack of resources. And to the west, where the khora marched into a swamp that became the lake in which stood Shylverrael All that water was about to flash into steam as the khora themselves began to blaze. Right through the lizardfolk and naga colonies which answered to the Viryan city. The dark elves were going to haveopinions about this.

That was as far as I got in my mental tally of the unfolding catastrophe before I suddenly learned something new: khora had voices.

They came in at the edges of hearing, beginning to appear from beyond both the upper and lower registers of human perception. The noise reminded me simultaneously of whalesong and the subsonic vibrations of an earthquake, at once piercing and booming. I didnt even know if they normally sang and I just couldnt hear it, or if they only cried out when they were suffering. If their voices only grew intense enough to be heard when they were in the extremity of pain.

I stood on my tower, surrounded by an endless ocean of fire of my own creation, listening to the island itself wail in agony beneath me, cut through by the constant roar of fire. I could barely hear my own unbidden whisper, in English.

I am become death, the shatterer of worlds.

Then, finally, blessedly, the Wisdom perked kicked in and I was floating coldly above it, able to think clearly again.

The immediate situation wasprobably resolved. If the attackers hadnt been wiped out entirely by this, the rest would probably try to escape through the invitingly open gates of the fortress, the only place not actively on fire, only to be cut down by the massed crossbows ready and waiting for them. My plan was working and my people were safe. That was one crisis handled.

There were a whole lot more now unfolding crises I was going to have to start dealing with immediately. First off, I noted that this burn effect was already lasting far longer than Immolate usually did. Was its duration relative to the targets mass? Interesting. The first thing to

Boss.

Biribo, I observed, was glowing. This I had never seen before. A silver aura blazed around him like concentrated moonlight.

Wisdom perk unlocked, Dark Lord.

Fucking Wisdom perks, the rules of this system aggressively refused to make sense. Still, I would take what I could get.

Good. What did we get this time?

Nothing permanent. This one is more of a one-time gifta perk available only to the Champions of the Goddesses. When a Hero or Dark Lord first unleashes their power on the world in a way that cannot be ignored, they get onefreebie. An unfiltered answer drawn from magic itself, unrestricted by the limits of what a familiar can sense by themselves.

Yeahthe world would definitely notice this. My carefree days of establishing myself in anonymity were about to come crashing to an end. But if I got a free answer out of it, any answer, to any question Shit, the trouble was picking one. There was so damn much I didnt know; prospects flashed across my consciousness almost too rapidly to tally.

And how long do I have to decide on a question?

You dont pick, boss, he said apologetically. Its assigned to you. Thats the effect of the Blessing.

Effect of the Blessing, my ass. I was about to see what tidbit Virya thought would produce the most entertaining show.

For this one, Dark Lord: your enemy. She is here. It was Lady Gray who incited the cat tribe to attack, and shes with them, out there beyond the walls. Not killed by the fire, but very much vulnerable to it. And tonight, thanks to this perk, there is no artifact or spell or anything that can hide her from me.

There were so many things that were so much more objectively important than that bullshit, but in that moment? I could only agree with Viryas choice. Beneath the cold pall of the Wisdoms emotional protection, beneath the horror and the rage that surged outside this unnatural bubble of calm, there was a thread of satisfaction. I grabbed it like a lifeline.

Finally.

Damage control later; right now?

No more fucking cockroach.

Bring me to her.