8 Negotiations

Roland, Steven, Nightingale, and Anna returned to the castle. Roland received the emissaries from the church in his office. The office had was prepared with God's Stone of Retaliation to try to protect against Zero's ability. Although it probably wouldn't be effective if Zero brought Isabella, there was a chance that she didn't.

Two women walked in: a lady with blond hair, followed by a lady with white hair. The lady with blond hair spoke. "I am Zero, the pope of the church". She motioned to the women behind her and said, "This is Isabella, my assistant."

Steven's eyes narrowed when he saw their attempt at deception, though no one else noticed his reaction.

"So you have decided that want to work with the church, but why should we care about you at all", said the blond witch. "What makes you think a young boy like you knows better than the church which has stood for hundreds of years."

Roland spoke. "This world has remained stagnant for hundreds of years. You all have hardly advanced from the end of the last war. I have brought advancement, I will change the world and accomplish things that you cannot even dream of.

"Such arrogant words", the blond witch said. "What backing do you have to make such outlandish claims."

"Take a look around Neverwinter", answered Roland. "This is a city like no other and I will show you all that I have done here and what will be done in the future. I guarantee that you will never see the world the same again."

"Well then. Show me what you have got. Though be warned - there is very little that can surprise me", said the blond witch.

"I will arrange for you two to be given a room. I will have something to show you tonight", said Roland.

"Let's go, Isabella", said the blond witch. The two women left the room.

After the two had left, Steven turned to speak to Roland. "They switched", Steven said. "Isabella is pretending to be Zero and Zero is pretending to be Isabella."

"Oh", Roland raised an eyebrow. "Well isn't that interesting".

That night, Roland took Isabella and Zero outside. Rather than seeing darkness, they were greeted by streets lit with electric lights. Zero and Isabella gasped in shock. How could Roland afford to light up a whole city like this every night? If he used magic stones the cost would be insane.

"Behold, the power of electricity" announced Roland in a authoritative voice. "What you see here is one of the most basic uses of such power. The power of electricity will revolutionize the world and even massive machines will run off electricity."

The two witches were confused by what this "electricity" is and neither of them said anything.

"I have bottled up lightning and unleashed it to do my bidding", said Roland. "What's more, this is all the work of one witch, one with a seemingly useless ability of magnetism."

Zero was mystified by how magnetism had anything to do with lightning, and how it had turned into this - a whole city lit up by light. She asked Roland, "So this one witch will be responsible for your advancement?"

"No, answered Roland. "She is mainly a shortcut. Given enough time and resources I can generate electricity with nothing but the work of men. But witches have helped speed up the development greatly. Even though I could replicate this all given enough time, time is something we do not have."

The next day, Roland received a report from his spies. The fight for King's City will begin. He told Zero and Isabella, "If you come with us, you shall see our weapons in action."

When the gunship approached King's City, they were met with a blockade. The ship continued full speed ahead, ramming the ships and destroying them. The attempt at boarding was shut down by the machine guns. Zero watched as the ship obliterated the opposition.

Roland knew ahead of time that Timothy would trap the pier with gunpowder mines so he didn't even need Sylvie this time to warn him. He ordered the cannons to fire at the gunpowder cache.

Zero was standing on the deck, watching to see how Roland will land his forces. Suddenly, she heard a loud boom come from a giant metal tube. A few seconds later, a massive explosion was seen in the distance. The mass of orange-red flames rose into the sky. "What power…", Zero thought. "The claims of Roland were no boast, his cannons have the power to destroy armies.

When the ground forces finally landed, it was a massacre. The cannons obliterated the gates and the machine guns killed scores of men. The battle was soon over and Timothy was captured. Roland has now secured the title of King of Graycastle.

Zero and Isabella talked with each other after the battle. "So it is true", Zero said. "Roland does have the power to make these terrifying weapons. I fear that even with our God's Punishment Warriors, we might not be able to defeat him."

"So, what will we do", asked Isabella. "Are we going to agree to his demands?"

Zero thought for a moment before speaking. "Perhaps pill warriors are not the way to go. If we were to obtain these weapons as well, our combat strength would increase manyfold. However, reversing the church's policy on witches will be difficult."

"So how are we going to negotiate with them?", asked Isabella.

"Continue to pretend to be me", Zero told her. "I will try to explore Neverwinter to find out their weaknesses so that we have more leverage."