Chapter 169: Eager Preparations – Part 3

Chapter 169: Eager Preparations – Part 3

Everyone takes a seat inside my soul space as we gather for our usual family meeting.

"Why didn't Lily ask the golems if they're happy?" Alissa immediately asks, sitting pretty and looking like a fox-shaped orange snack.

"It wouldn't matter as Master can order us to say anything," Ted prudently answers, her voice echoing across the meeting hall as she has multiplied herself so that she can be on everyone's laps at once.

"Are all Earthlings this insufferably moralistic?" glorious Queen Yunia calmly remarks from her throne of flowers high above us and also simultaneously by the table.

But Ciel piously interjects, subtly glowing as she naturally radiates kindness, "No, what they're doing is correct. Every humanoid should be like them, inquisitive and concerned with the integrity of those above them." -Then she makes a bitter smile- "I sometimes get worried that the people around us are too trusting and might allow us to do something terrible without trying to advise or stop us."

"That's fair," I magnanimously nod with my colossal and shiny draconic head.

"But you can't deny that they're being goblin dicks about it," Roxanne cheekily remarks, floating in circles around us while striking alluring poses as she doesn't feel like just staying in her seat and looking pretty.

"Yes! That!" Alissa suddenly shouts and stands up in a huff, her tail upright. "The way they frame their questions is always so negative and critical."

But I serenely explain to the agitated, cute, little orange fox, "In Earthling culture, we've explored many concepts through philosophy and novels, so we already know how bad the things that I'm doing could be in reality. It's just that, in this world, there are complex mechanisms that make things more 'palatable.'"

"Then they shouldn't be so assuming!" she stubbornly exclaims and crosses her arms as she pouts. Then she also sits on my simultaneously human and draconic lap to calm herself down.

"That's also fair," I soothingly reply and start patting her.

"I think you should tell them to suck an orc's cock more often," Hana casually suggests, naked on her throne aside from the pelts that cover nothing important.

I slowly nod. "It's because the Gods told me to work with them that I'm trying to be so conciliatory."

"You're also reverting to your old Earthling thinking, Master Wolf," Suzy chimes in, her voice echoing only from Ciel's and Lina's laps as Ted is already occupying the rest.

"Hm?" I hum, asking for clarification of her remark.

"You more strongly suppress the dragon while in their presence," Jarn complies, standing like a statue beside my immensity.

"I noticed that too," Alissa agrees with her eyes closed as she savors the caressing.

And I smile wryly, showing my huge white fangs. "To be honest, I feel like they'd call me a cringe chuuni if I let the dragon loose in front of them."

"I don't think it's right for you to suppress it so much," Hana immediately states, head resting on her fist as her round tits hang alluringly.

"It is for wereanimals," Alissa retorts and opens her slutty not-kimono more to increase the cleavage.

Yeah, we had an argument about this a long time ago. Wereanimals basically have split personalities, and though I'm a weredragon, I'm still kind of similar to them.

I scratch the floor with one of my huge, blade-like claws as I deliberate, "I feel like I'm getting tired of suppressing it, so I might as well unchain the big D since they already said they'd stop bitching."

"Fuck yeah," Hana calmly cheers with a fearsome grin and flexes her glorious, emerald wings.

The scouting is going well. The officer takes them to a wide glider that needs barely any mana to stay afloat after the initial push, so it's the best stealth plane they could ask for. The glider's cabin is too small to fit the extra Celestial Horns, but they can just hang onto the wide sail so that they won't leave traces of mana by flying with their wings.

And the silent glider successfully manages to get close to the fortress without alerting the monsters, though they do have to kill a small number of roaming Dragolites and spirit monsters. The former aren't very intelligent, so even if they spotted our scouting party, it'd take a while before they could signal the fortress. It's the latter that are more dangerous as they likely have some sort of spirit sight, allowing them to see in the dark.

Still, it seems that even the spirits haven't spotted them, for Jarn gets a good look at the fortress, and it seems to be all quiet in there. The fortress itself is as described, a cylinder about as wide as the Carrier's length, as tall as a skyscraper, and full of firing ports where the cannons can be pushed out to allow them to aim directly up or down.

The cannons themselves are more like missile launchers, and I mean the modern definition of "missile launcher." They shoot Fire-propelled javelins that spew fire into the target if they manage to hit, an extremely cheap enchanted projectile, and almost the same as something that we already encountered once with Dawn of Fire. The purpose of these cannons is to disable the lightweight, low-speed aircraft that the Chimeras employ, so they're a non-issue for anything else, barring a lucky hit.

The fortress looks mighty pretty, though, making me a bit sad that I'll be wrecking that shit, but if I think about it like I'm cumming all over a gorgeous woman's face, I feel better about it. It follows the same Gothic and overly-decorated design as the entrance, but it's made of black stone to make it harder to see its silhouette. There are lights coming from within some of the firing ports, revealing the position of the fortress, but it's still hard to make out its whole shape, and they can just snuff out the lights during battle.

But we do need to plan this carefully. This is an enchanted and reinforced fortress staffed by experienced monsters. While it's possible for the wives and me to just ram my Cock into it and slaughter our way toward the portal to the next level, the chance that there could actually be an entire empire inside this dungeon makes things a bit more complicated.

We also don't know what could be beyond the portal, and if the monsters really have altered this level, what's to say they haven't filled the area after the portal with traps? We have to be careful about exploring it. And to do that, we first need to wreck this fortress up.

So let's think about this strategically. What will happen when we attack? How will the monsters respond? They'll man the cannons, turn off the lights, and start releasing the flying monsters in no particular order. None of those things are particularly dangerous to the wives and me, but The Four are in danger of being overwhelmed by flying monsters, as they've retreated from the fortress a few times for that exact reason.

It would also take an ungodly amount of time to clear the swarm by ourselves, so it's better if we bring the Carrier in along with some Chimera support. This turns the cannons into a small headache and also means we'll need to deploy the airplanes to deal with the swarm, but I'm not willing to sacrifice even a single airplane, so we need perfect control of the battlefield.

We could use the Carrier's huger [Wind Shield] to protect the Chimera airships, and since the fortress' cannons don't all face the same direction, this would limit their effective firepower. The question is whether we can kill the swarm before either the Carrier's defenses run out of juice or we get overwhelmed by their numbers.

"What are the flying monsters that come out of the fortress?" Jarn quietly questions the officer.

But he can't see shit in this darkness, so the beaver-headed man just looks in her general direction as he answers, "Dragolites and Stone Lancers, mostly. We've identified a few leader-types with their own flying units of Hippogryph and Kite Dragon riders, but there are too few of those to actually swarm us, and their units are too smart to engage recklessly."

Suddenly, the lights of the fortress go out, and Jarn starts to hear muffled grunts coming from within. Then the cannons and monsters finally come out.

And the officer promptly states, "They've finally noticed our presence. It won't be long before they locate us, so I advise we stay outside effective cannon range."

He said effective cannon range because they could still hit even if they're very far away, though it'd be extremely unlikely.

"Prepare to take off," Oritiki warns the Horns hanging onto the sail.

This is quite the late response from the monsters, and I believe we could easily exploit this weakness by infiltrating the fortress with The Four and then raising hell within. The monsters aren't concerned with such things as they have a swarm that can eventually overwhelm anything, but this will be a tough fight, so we need to stack all the advantages we can.

Then a minute passes in silence as Jarn's [Sense Presence] slowly fills with signals... too slowly.

"The monsters have become complacent," Yunia spells it out through [Bind].

And with this, a plan starts to form in my head.

"Jarn, we'll need you to count how many firing ports there are," I order as my mind races with thoughts.

"Understood, Master Wolf," she obediently replies. Then she quickly convenes with the other golems to discuss how to fulfill my order. Now that the fortress is fully darkened, everyone can see even less shit, but she still turns her head towards the other as she impassively announces, "I need to illuminate the fortress. I can do it on my own, but it will draw attention."

"I'll keep a [Gate] open in case we delve too deep," Alcander calmly states.

"Very well. I'll join my men in battle, then," Oritiki soberly follows up.

"I can fight while I observe, so no monsters will threaten this glider," Jarn declares.

And Jarn senses Oritiki nodding. "I'll wait for you to begin."

Then Inspector Gadget Jarn unleashes a fiery hell of [Abyssal Fire] upon the fortress.

"This... this might actually damage the cannons, too," Alcander remarks in awe as he watches the black, all-consuming fire with the wariness it deserves. He's been near Aisco long enough to know to fear magical flames.

"The cannons are replaceable. They'll have new ones ready the moment we retreat," the officer retorts.

And Jarn senses Alcander frown. "Hmm... what a troublesome fortress."

It wouldn't be a fortress if it wasn't a bitch to break.

Anyway, there's no need to cover it entirely with fire, just a vertical and a horizontal line. Then, after some quick maths, we have an estimate of the number of firing ports. But then I realize that the [Abyssal Fire] might actually scare the monsters into becoming more alert since it's something new, and they could get suspicious about why we'd do such harassment, while a cautious leader would assume this is a sign of an upcoming offensive from us.

"Your master's raw soul is currently drifting towards his Fate! So do the same! You're supposedly a stunted copy of his own soul, after all," he encourages me, and I obey.

Almaria touches the flower, which then wraps its petals around her finger, as if craving the contact. "All beings who don't worship Order seek to entwine their Threads. Even monsters, as Destruction has made it their nature to seek out humanoids to kill."

A breeze touches my neck, giving me a chill and making my hair and fur stand on end. "Feel the mist shift, Alissa. Not just that which touches your skin; follow the wave back to its source. Follow the 'change.'"

"This my Life, my existence, a meta-concept that can be manipulated and quantified." And I sense something... private from Almaria touch me. No, "private" is too obscene. It isn't "intimacy," it's... "contact."

Just so that nothing blurs my senses, I'm made to wait in the darkness and silence for the longest time, but then we're suddenly overwhelmed by Arreira's enormous pressure.

"NOW YOU SEE ME!" his voice reaches us a second later.

Almaria turns to me, her face stern, and I tense up in anticipation of what's about to happen. She never gets tense unless it's something unpleasant. "You can overwhelm someone by flooding them with your Life, clogging their soul with so many 'interactions' that they lose control of their own body. Pay attention to when our Threads connect."

"NOW YOU DON'T!" Arreira shouts again.

And the Thread abruptly disconnects as the presence disappears. Now I'm left in darkness...

... making me yearn for contact again.

... almost instantly making me feel bored.

... and I cross my arms as I start to sulk.

But I sense it; I sense Mom's form wrapped in the mist. I sense his overwhelming presence, though now it seems so far away, as if the feeling of his pressure is just a distant memory. I sense her Thread suddenly connect to mine, and also her Life, which feels like a massive tank of water about to burst and drown me again.

Then the presence suddenly hits me like a fist to the face, and it's such a strong, shocking feeling that I never forget it again.

"Uuuugh..." I groan as I wake up from the brain dive.

I feel like I've been hit by a truck, and everything is spinning around me, so I immediately close my eyes, too dizzy and weak to do anything else. But then I realize that I can still open my "Stats," and when I do, I see that I've gained one point in [Sense Presence].

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