Chapter 22

Adrian CMXXVIII activated a ring, creating a small image of Angie in front of her. She had a separate communication device? An image of Lady Grace appeared before her. "You need to get the civilians away from the walls. I tolerated you turning this war into a fucking festival before, but that isn't the case anymore!"

Lady Grace's image shrugged. "So those witless beasts have somehow managed to enslave large creatures, what does that matter? Why ought not the peasants see our radiant victory?" I was wrong. Not all of the powerful people would see the similarities between ogres and their third composite counterparts. "Their petty wonder and awe will grow yet deeper!"

"You think those ogres are the same as those tubs of lard you farm? Start the fucking evacuation you arrogant bitch!" Adrian CMXXVIII closed the call, wrath warring against the fear that was trying to strangle her will. Unfortunately for her, and the civilians below, she didn't keep the channel open to hear Grace's reply.

She probably would have reacted differently had she heard, "Bitch, am I? We'll see how bitchy you think I am when your palace starves. I remember selling food to Adrian CMXXVI, you ignorant child. Perhaps the next Adrian will be a farmer." from the furious woman less than twelve pedes further down the wall. The three guards that heard sure reacted. They tried to hide it, but their fear turned from the approaching enemy to the woman behind them.

Adrian CMXXVIII started another call. Before the image could properly form, it was already canceled. She immediately fled the walls. Once she was alone she activated it again. Angie was very confused, having a vision of both her view from the wall and a woman standing before her in a small stone room dressed in heavily warded armor. "Who are you?" Adrian CMXXVIII demanded.

Angie didn't know how to respond, so I did for her. "Looking for a wrinkled old wizard?" Adrian CMXXVIII spun, swinging a heavily warded cudgel in the air. She looked confused for a while, searching for who spoke. She then looked at Angie and her calm but confused appearance. "The tower has already fallen. You have only two options at this point, either die or serve."

Angie jumped a couple times, clapping as she giggled. "You already beat the wizards? I was wondering why I felt the tower. Bit more than I was expecting." She calmed down quite quickly. "Would have been nice to know what was happening." She muttered under her breath. Interesting. Goblins didn't get dissatisfied not understanding what the greater picture of my objectives were.

Adrian CMXXVIII tried to stop powering the device that linked her to Angie, but I tore through all of her magical equipment to remove her will from them, taking control. Taking the equipment from her while she was using them would have been difficult, but as soon as she relinquished active control of them all that remained was the tiniest shred of will to stop foreign wills from accessing it. Even normal wizards could probably eradicate the vestiges without hurting themselves. Angie's image flickering before holding steady once again despite her stopping the equipment really sent a spike of fear through Adrian CMXXVIII, though. "Who the fuck are you?" she definitely wasn't happy. The question was a little intriguing to Angie as well, but Adrian CMXXVIII was visibly distraught.

"You can address me as Nexus." It seemed the most correct description of what I was. Glrt referred to me as Golem, designating each of my constructs by the material they were created from and me as the entity that controlled them. As basic as it was, she actually had a fairly good grasp of my nature. She didn't know what will was, but she knew one person had multiple bodies made of different things. The humans used golem to mean something different, so that name wouldn't work. "Don't bother looking for me, my bodies are still a fair distance away. Wizards may have been able to hurt me, but you don't have the capability." I didn't think she did, anyway. With such clear lines between body and will circuitry, it would be very unlikely for any body-reinforcement practitioner to have the ability to strike at will. While their library was still impossible to penetrate, there was a lot of knowledge I'd gained from pillaging the tower. Most of it incomplete, missing references and knowledge assumed as understood by the authors, but still useful. I wasn't sure which school Adrian CMXXVIII belonged to, but either she was a genius or she'd learned her body circuitry from somewhere. Adrian's wizard tower had been focused more on evocation, so their knowledge of body-reinforcement schools was lacking, but they had the library to allow others to be remodeled using knowledge they didn't possess here. More importantly, there were no wizards that studied body-reinforcement so none had notes about it. Notes would have allowed me to understand the exact process without guessing. "Angie will show you how to surrender when you realize you've already lost."

With that, I lost interest in Adrian CMXXVIII. My ogres had gotten excited, so they started running. While they may not be as intimidating as the soldiers, being naked with no weapons, their sheer size and brutality served quite nicely to quell the enthusiasm of civilians. The force was such that even the civilians behind the walls started quieting down as the earth below them trembled and the unified bestial roar ripped through discordant jubilation.

"Do you need anything from me, Nexus?" Angie whispered too low for anyone else to hear. She hadn't restrained her voice before, so I wasn't sure what required it now. Maybe it was the fact that she was asking the particulars of her treachery instead of a more normal conversation.

I considered implementing her and my bodies within the city for a second, but I wanted to see just how effective my army was. I could probably win without using them at all, but I already understood how my bodies would attack and the resistance they would face. "No. Simply observe. See how different my ogres are from others and imagine that same variance existing between you and mere humans."

"Ready slings!" some human screamed out, echoed by other commanders. The soldiers readied their siege weaponry, bone spikes wrapped near the tip with a wide but fragile structure to catch the wind. The spikes would immediately be hit with massive rejection from the air as soon as they left the sling, but they would move fast enough to get ten pedes away from the wall before their trajectory was entirely vertical. The wide bit would make sure the point was what hit and then shatter on impact, allowing the spike to dive deeper. A very effective tool.

Unfortunately, I had a response. At fifteen pedes the charge stopped dead. My third composites grabbed the nearest ogre and launched it toward the wall as hard as they could. There was a near-audible screech as the air reacted with a degree of rejection I hadn't witnessed since I'd shaped my earth ball into an earth skull.

Some throws were better than others. The worst were the ones that slammed into the wall face-first. Two failed to grab a hold of the rampart and hit the ground in a lot of pain. Most had been thrown right onto the wall, crushing soldiers too shocked to even drop their slings, let alone dodge. They shattered enough control that those who had managed to catch hold of the ramparts were able to scramble onto the wall before anyone could break their fingers.

The last few flew over the wall entirely, landing in the civilian population behind the wall, slamming to the ground with so much force that many shoulders and limbs were shattered. My ogres were highly resilient, though. After shaking their heads a few times to reorient themselves to which direction was down, they climbed out of the mess of shattered human parts and viscera to look for things to kill. With the speed at which they repaired themselves, this level of damage wouldn't slow them down for long.

The humans hadn't even figured out how to react when the second volley of ogres was loosed into the human population. None had slammed into the wall this time, which was good. My third composites had strength that was terrifying. Throwing ogres fifty pedes was fairly easy, throwing them over a wall as tall as they were at fifteen was difficult but possible. Goblins and hobgoblins would die due to the force of their collision with the earth, but ogres were tough enough to take it and keep moving.

The siege battle the humans expected was nowhere to be seen. Instead, chaos reigned on the walls and in the city. The humans had put themselves at a huge disadvantage on the walls. One swipe from an ogre sent three over the walls, an inescapable fatal blow as the air crushed them against the earth. It was also a demerit for the ogres as a couple tripped and slammed into the ground below, but ogres could get up again after repairing the damage. Humans couldn't.

"Any willing to serve, drop to your stomach. Your life will be spared." I made sure everyone heard me as the civilians fled and the soldiers were starting to retreat. Many civilians immediately dropped to their stomachs. "All those unwilling to submit will be slaughtered." Soldiers were starting to drop to their bellies now.

Adrian CMXXVIII had killed four ogres, but even she was starting to lose heart. She looked around, no doubt seeing humans lying in the viscera of their comrades, tears in their eyes crying silently or wailing pitifully. She may have tried to run if her armor was under her control, but it wasn't. She dropped to her stomach, hatred and rage providing a nice contrast to the despair that clouded the rest of the humans.

Those that were intent on fleeing soon reached the encirclement of my bodies. Their deaths were much faster than those broken near the walls. They wouldn't be worshippers, though. They had proven unworthy.

Soon enough, Angie was the last human standing. She was caught up in hysterical laughter, I could see how deep the impression of my dominance had implanted itself within her will-core. Surprisingly, the surrounding humans reacted with greater fear toward her than the ogres that had lost interest in the fight now that it was over and had started fucking like there was no tomorrow.

At least, the males started fucking like there was no tomorrow. There was no brood construct here, so they used each other, corpses, beasts of burden, their hands, whatever they could use that would satisfy them. Few females had the lust-based will circuit, so they were still in control of themselves. Some watched, waiting to see what I'd do with the humans. Others explored the city, curious about this environment that was so foreign to them.

My bodies closed in, now nearly ten times as numerous as they'd been before, pulling all my potential worshippers toward a larger open area. The soldiers, Angie and Adrian CMXXVIII had a vantage point that allowed them to see what I was doing and go down of their own accord. A few tried to play dead and remain on the ramparts, so I killed them one by one. I'd only killed the third before the rest figured it out and rushed to join the rest.

"Build a worship rune." I ordered Angie as I started devouring the massive volume of will escaping from the battlefield. I had to help her a few times as it was far more complicated than what she was capable of doing on her own, but it was eventually built, glowing with enough mana that even civilians could see it in all its radiant glory. I widened my voice to reach all of the humans that had surrendered. "Spill your blood on the rune. Quantity is irrelevant, merely that your blood touches it." I had to repeat myself several times as many humans kept being distracted by my constructs cleaning up the battlefield. It was quite a strain to keep the rune active for so long with so many contracts bound together, but it would be easier than getting them to each make their own. Not many were as literate as Angie.

Adrian CMXXVIII was the last one to drip blood on the rune, glaring distrustfully at my ogres as she did so. With that, I activated the rune. Among those that didn't scream and collapse due to the pain were Adrian CMXXVIII, Euri, Grace, and two others that radiated at least as much mana as Euri.