Chapter XII – Day 252 – The City of Death
The screams of the dying people in the plaza sounded out from around me. More people would arrive in time. Better to clear everyone out who resisted first and start fresh. The cart was pulled up to the pillars. The store was only tier 2.
That was annoying. “You didn’t even try and talk to them, I had set things up for us to take over,” Nox said.
“Pointless. I am the Ritualist, I control all before me.” I savored the feeling as one of my werewolves ripped a woman apart and began to eat her flesh. The taste was divine. My hybrids needed food. What better nourishment was there than people?
My slime hybrid followed along cleaning up the messes. Grow and grow. Soon you would engulf entire cities. I smiled at the thought.
“We need people to grind out crystals unless you can control your monsters-“
“Summons,” I corrected her.
“-summons that far.”
“No, but I will soon control the city and more importantly the store. People will work for me or starve.”
“Then I guess it is up to me to explain that? Unless you plan on doing it yourself?” Was she sassing me? I was a genius. Still, I could recognize a good point when I heard it.
“You are in charge of organizing it all. People need to bring back 100 crystals each for food and water. They can turn them into me at the plaza. Or one of my hybrids.”
“What about the sensing? Our deal?” She had been helpful, if a bit cowardly.
“Ah yes our deal.” I considered it and the silence stretched out. I was enjoying the taste of a heart as blood squirted in my mouth. I could feel energy and power course through me. “Very well. Take crystal powder and then go into negative energy. Keep repeating that over and over.” Too much and too often, your mental processes would slow down.
Were my hybrids a way around that issue? Most likely, they just got better and better. Another brilliant insight into how energy and crystals worked. “Thank you Ritualist. Now for the crystals we stole.”
“I will be keeping them all.” She paused and looked at me. “Unless you have a problem with that Nox?”
“No problem with that Ritualist.” She had a problem, but I was in charge.
“You want me to appoint a leader to manage things here?” My hybrid nodded. “Alright. You, what is your name?”
“Ali,” the man said.
“Well congratulations, you are now the new speaker for the Ritualist. His will is law. Each person gets 100 crystals, brings them back, then you will given food. Don’t get injured.”
“But the monsters, we can’t fight.”
“Weapons,” my hybrid growled. I would get the hang of speaking through it down in no time.
“Swords would work best on the monsters around the city. If you manage to earn more crystals, you can purchase a sword. I will buy five for people here initially. The rest you all have to earn. Does that work Ritualist?”
I had the hybrid wolf nod at that. “I will be leaving tomorrow morning. I should hopefully be back soon,” Nox said. Good, that way she could manage everything I needed to have managed.
“Work,” I had my summon growl out. The man scurried away as Ruth got them set up. I began to move my monsters to test out how negative energy effected the hybrids. I moved them to isolated areas of the city.
I took some of my crystal powder in liquid and began to push my energy into summoning a level 2 monster. It quickly dropped my energy to zero and the monster was summoned. The crystal powder wore off and weakness hit me.
I could sense the energy pulling towards me. I had no connection with my hybrids either. When I finally recovered, the tethers did not reappear. I quickly summoned more level 1 wolves and let them out of my base.
I quickly found the hybrids and they had gone feral. I wiped them out with my summons easily enough, only losing a few in the process. I couldn’t train with negative energy and build an army. That was good to know. I quickly got back to summoning more monsters. I had trained enough. Now it was time to build up a powerful force.
After that I would need to consider my options. What I really needed was a level 3 monster, but the upkeep would be massive and the summoning cost. It would take 1,000 energy to summon and 100 of my Regeneration to upkeep.
I needed to increase my Regeneration even more. I would gather enough level 3 monsters to kill a level 4 monster and get enough crystals to make powder to summon one. I would need at least 1,000 Regeneration, preferably more, but with something like that I would be unstoppable.
I had heard the stories of how Michael was crippled by a level 4 monster. The thing was, once I got one, I could easily get two, three, and soon an entire army. With the thicker tethers, I could send them far away and control multiple zones and cities.
Soon, I wouldn’t even need anyone except to make hybrids. I was being stupid. Why did I need Regeneration? I could just make hybrids that had no upkeep cost. I would just grow and grow and there would be no one and nothing that would be able to stop me.