Chapter 30.East
The degraded cannibal city hadn't been particularly useful, but it had cemented Glrt in her position. Not as a leader, but as the best shaman. Interestingly, she used her acclaim as the best shaman to increase her leadership ability. Specifically, she insisted that anyone that wanted to learn with her would have the proper state of mind. It wasn't discipline like Angie or ferocity like Trgl, Glrt insisted that they revel in the pain of failure. As she taught it, every failure was meant to be painful, to destroy the bit that failed. "Pain is just weakness leaving the body." was a mantra she repeated constantly. To expect growth without pain was worse than merely naïve, to force growth without pain was to grow misshapen and warped as the weakness stuffed itself with everything that ought to be fed to strength.
She had a point, as without the curiosity every single worshipper was getting from me I doubted any form of research would advance at the pace they were. Different forces tempered themselves in different ways, but the best of every force ensured that they dealt with bad habits before they became a problem. Apart from the rare few that were driven to explore long before they'd become my worshippers. The most obvious example of this effect was in those that had never lived outside of my forces, in them the effects were amplified. Those born in my brood constructs tended to be much less driven in every regard. Lagt was unique not only in her own force, but in all of my forces. A large benefit for her was Samantha going out of commission and leaving her in a position of leadership, but there were many I could see offering everyone else up fist before taking that particular mantle.
In their natural state, Glrt's philosophy was probably the makings of a truly effective goblin leader. Perhaps even the most effective of goblin leaders. The goblin was important, in that regard. Being an effective human leader seemed to require a different mindset. Hers was a difficult philosophy for most of the humans in her force to understand, but it seemed to resonate with the goblins. The few humans that did resonate with her message resonated hard, though. The entire trajectory of their purpose could have changed. One was a priest devoted to the brood construct. After a week of listening to Glrt, she abandoned the brood construct entirely, though it was in favor of one of Glrt's version so the difference may not have been that large.
There seemed to be an intrinsic difference between those that resonated and those that didn't. As if they understood what she meant intrinsically but needed to hear it spoken to remember whereas the others heard mere words. It also resonated with the black horses, while the white horses seemed to find it disgusting and started to actively avoid Glrt and her followers. It was as if she'd touched on a principle that the hidden manipulators of species paid attention to.
The cost to maintain her force increased by a massive margin, but I didn't mind. Her own explosive growth was testament enough to make it worth it. Even if she wasn't speaking in a way that resonated with otherwise wasted potential, she'd earned plenty of leeway in my eyes to fulfill whatever pet project she wanted. It was merely doubly beneficial that her pet project was one that was having a very positive influence over her force. To such an extent that I was considering letting her words echo into every goblin force. There was always the possibility that other goblin forces would find their own leaders that resonated in a different way, however. Propping up Glrt's philosophy could have a chilling effect on other leaders, potential leaders that never rose because Glrt was good enough. Many of my forces were commanded by goblins and food goblins that were irritated with the softening of the goblins in their forces. Maybe that irritation would grant them an epiphany as Glrt's had hers.
The reaction of the black horses was especially novel. Every other force with horses was struggling to find a real niche for them to fill. The white horses were still hard to fit into the workings of the force, but finally the black ones had found something they could excel at. So much so that they finally wished to advance in class. I was hoping some of them would advance on their own, but horses seemed perfectly willing to stay weak. Maybe I was solving too many of the problems my forces faced personally, holding them back from their full potential.
The third class was a strange one for the black horses, as they developed a lot of new circuits that hadn't even been hinted at while they were class two. Their hooves burst into flames, leaving patches of persistent fire that burned for a day before they went out. Black fire that didn't burn flesh, but will. It didn't seem to act like fire, only matching in appearance. The light from the black fire didn't even seem to illuminate the area properly, merely seeming to cause nearby things that were brightly colored to glow. Their mouths filled with similar runes, allowing them to blast that black fire from their mouths.
Apart from their strange will-fire, there didn't seem to be much of a change. That merely led the horses to request another advancement. An advancement that turned out to make them very dangerous as a part of my army. Their black flames started to release sparks that dissolved into the air, covering a much larger area with a less corrosive but still highly dangerous effect. Luckily, at that point their burning footprints and the corrosive aura were active effects at class four. Otherwise they'd have needed to become their own army or risk dissolving the will of every member of the army.
There were a few inconsequential changes, like the manes and tails dissolving into black fire that they could use in a much more versatile way than their breath and hooves. Not the least of which was using the mane as fuel to turn their breath weapon into a massive cone that matched the size of the hellhound fire abilities. A far more deadly weapon than the simple fire, but similar in appearance and range. Another surprise was that they gained intrinsic knowledge of themselves, enough to know their species was called bicorn.
More useful to me was the circuit they learned, meant to create platforms in the air for them to be able to run vertically. They weren't that useful as intended. The suppression from the air increased the farther they were from the ground, meaning the higher they went the more difficult it was to move at all while the platforms were under increasing levels of stress. Where they were very useful was in allowing quail to create platforms to jump off of to change their direction quickly. None could use it effectively, but the idea was there.
Seeing the bicorns advance in class caused jealousy in some of the white horses that demanded similar treatment. Continuing the trend, the white horses were the exact opposite of the bicorns. The white flames that engulfed their hooves and erupted from their noses with every snort were very beneficial for will. In principle, at least. The effects were limited in an army of my worshippers.
They also had their own oddity as far as illumination was concerned, illuminating only the horse that created them. This self-illumination stretched a bit over their bodies, but as there was nothing above them it didn't have an effect. It did widen the range of illumination provided during the night, however. That was something.
The class four version also saw the mane and tail turning to flames while their footprints spread the effect of their fire wider. Their pillar of self-illumination also got bigger, but it was still hardly noticeable during the day. Dubbing themselves unicorns, they glanced with disdain and self-satisfaction at the bicorns who had to retract their flames as they pranced around to spread their white fire wider. Fortunately for them, they were unaware that the bicorns had provided more useful runes to my repertoire than them. Bicorns were immune to the black fire of other bicorns, the circuits that provided this benefit were very useful for a creature of will, such as myself.
The bicorns hadn't noticed either, though. They insisted that more advanced classes would be more useful to me than unicorns prancing through the army. Without a real reason to refuse, I accepted their proposal to advance them to the maximum limit of their species. A rare request, as most that had further levels to advance were cautious about abruptly gaining power they didn't know how to control. Fortunately for the bicorns, the horse runes amplified their physical prowess very little. Plotting their future growth, a class eight bicorn would be weaker than the class four ogres. Physically. As such, they'd have the lowest learning curve. There were benefits to not being so unbelievably strong that the world struggled to keep up.
Class five erased that benefit like it wasn't there to begin with. The bicorns grew to almost double their former size, filling the extra space with physical reinforcement circuitry while cloaking the entirety of their body in the black flames. Their hooves, mouths, manes, and tails were still obviously larger sources of fire, but there was a layer of flame coating them entirely. Any damage they took would result in a backlash, regardless of where the wound was made. More surprising was that their eyes evaporated. The first three dimensional circuit in an inherent plan was revealed in their place, providing them with vision that was far better than what the eyes could manage. The socket was filled with mist to hide the circuitry, but didn't succeed entirely. The dense mist in the eyes became iridescent purple, cloaking the exact circuitry but revealing that there was circuitry to see if you knew what you were looking for.
Class six didn't have them growing again, luckily for their future prospects. Instead it started adding elements of mana crystallization to the entirety of the creature. The most notable effect was in the bones, as they were fully crystallized. Unlike my form of mana crystallization, however, the method the bicorns used incorporated the will-fire into the very structure of the mana crystals. As a result, everything they did was infused with their will-fire. Including their core intimidation circuit. Their horns glowing with that black light without being cloaked in fire was quite beautiful. It also amplified the effect enough that I noticed it was consuming nearby light. Even during the day it was night near a class six bicorn. Even without the black dust cloud that was starting to form around the bicorns due to the suppression from the sky increasing. Except for the glowing targets invading the bicorns' domain.
Class seven finished the crystallization process. A process that made them equal to my avatars, in terms of mana storage. Apparently I wasn't the only one to have the idea of becoming the most powerful conduit for mana possible. I was the only one to think of means to avoid the black cloud, though. Bicorns instead incorporated it into their power. Hidden within the black dust, their eyes became necessary. They could see as if unobstructed, but they were hidden at the center of a cloud for most of everything else at seventh class. On top of that, the light near the cloud was absorbed.
Class eight was visually underwhelming. No real physical changes were apparent, but the crowning of each of their circuits boosted their abilities across the board to a ridiculous degree. Each of their steps sent tremors through the earth, kicking up an even bigger cloud of dust. If it was paired with their burning footprints…just coming within the domain of the bicorn would be devastating. Chickens and dragons were feared as calamities, but if bicorns were able to grow to the same level they'd be much worse than chickens. Chickens had a lot of inherent abilities that made them devastating, but bicorns were amplified in will and mana as well as being perfectly capable of shattering city walls. They didn't create circuits by instinct, they were given the knowledge to utilize them properly. The only circuits they understood intrinsically were will-related, but any bicorn that naturally grew to class eight would have a wealth of experience. They even had their eyes to use as an example of true circuitry.
The jealous unicorns were given the same treatment, advancing to class eight without issues. Once again the white side of the horse coin, right down to the only color being the golden iridescent mist coming from their empty eye sockets. The most notable element of their transformation was the effect their self-illumination revealed at higher classes. Instead of consuming the light, the effect their light spread to the area was crystallization of the earth. Instead of becoming invisible by reducing light, the unicorns became invisible by scrambling it. The crystallized dust caused the light from the unicorn to become blinding and confusing as beams of multicolored light shot in every direction. Unlike other chaos, this could be considered beautiful.
Like everything else, the unicorns were the direct opposite of bicorns in how they could be threatening. Hidden within the strengthening of will was an element of worship. By strengthening their will, the unicorn incorporated elements of themselves into the will of whatever was strengthened. Solidifying the unicorn as valuable into the wills strengthened. Given their intellect, it wouldn't be hard to imagine finding a unicorn at the center of a horde. A horde of monsters stronger and smarter than normal, all subservient to the unicorn. A unicorn that was every bit as capable of tearing down walls, learning true and combat circuitry, and thinking their way into a stronghold they couldn't break into as bicorns were.
Their bane would probably be quail. If quail could advance that far without my interference. Horse circuitry was stable enough that they could have become class seven fairly easily. If they'd been able to get enough mana into their system to promote them to class one. Maybe that was intentional, a flaw in their design meant to keep them from overtaking the whole world. Bicorns were dangerous, but the sort of dangerous that drew challenge. Unicorns were the kind of dangerous I was; insidious and capable of doing a lot more damage than merely eviscerating a city. I didn't think it was coincidence that bicorns were carnivores after class one and unicorns were herbivores all the way to class eight. Even now, they could starve. They probably would, without my support. Unlike other circuit-based digestive systems, horses consumed nutrients and converted them to mana that was the sustenance of the creature. Given how mana-starved plants were in general, feeding a class eight unicorn would be nearly impossible unless it was inside the mist near an ocean. Even then, class six was probably the limit without my fixing their circuitry. Maybe seven, but they were far slower at repairing damage than physically threatening creatures.
As parts of the army and my worshippers, however, both species were hindered from becoming their best selves. As everyone they strengthened was already my worshipper, the unicorns couldn't take control. The majority of the benefit gained was gained via the worship elements. Seeing as how everyone already worshipped me, incorporating the worship element in their fire may as well not have happened. They didn't even increase their standing in the eyes of other worshippers.
Bicorns were hampered even more, as they had to actively keep their flames suppressed. Lone wolves didn't have much of a place in the middle of an army. Both were also reduced to soldiers by my removal of the suppression. The effects were very good for them, but clouds in the middle of an army weren't ideal. The unicorns were still blindingly bright and the bicorns in their own shadows, but without their clouds they were much less myth-inspiring in how they appeared. Even more so since they were quite small for their class. Quail, cannibals, spawn, and banshees were the only ones that would end up smaller.
Apart from the insects, anyway. Horses were bigger than all of the insect races. I still hadn't managed to develop them in meaningful ways. I was missing something. Something that was driving Grace rabid in her zeal to figure it out. Her euphoria at watching the horses advance was short-lived, as it merely shone a spotlight on the continued lack of use for the insects. For her purpose to be maximized, everything we found needed to become valuable. In her mind, at least. I'd mostly given up trying to find a use for the insects until I learned what the subtle force was that informed creatures how to grow was and how it worked.
They weren't totally useless, some of their circuits were very interesting, but amplifying their power the way I did for everything else caused them to be suicidal. Developing exoskeletal runes was also something I was working on alone. No other force had a Grace, always seeking a use for even things that were useless now. Insects were merely vermin, to be exterminated and added to the exoskeletal construct, so far as every other force was concerned. It showed how little advancement I made on my own without the multitude of perspectives and thought processes humans added. Books weren't the only reason my growth now was incomparably faster than when I was underground. I still had yet to spend more time above the earth than I'd spent trying to figure out how to get out of it. I'd spent more time above ground than it had taken for the room I was created in to collapse completely, let alone the time I'd spent trying to learn how to leave.
Maybe that's what the necromancer saying meant. Before I'd been able to see, time had passed in units of events. Days were a much shorter period of time. Without the sun as a guide, days would become meaningless and humans would be forced to see time like I had. Not as strongly, they still required sleep…as basic humans. Without the sun rotating…how long would a class three human take before it needed to sleep again? Several months, assuming they had no exhaustion-mitigation circuits. And so, "Years become days and days become years when the sun is over the horizon." There could be any number of ways the conversion between days and sleep periods could have been wrong for the choker necromancers trying to make sense of druid records.
Regardless, the army had found the broken city that had been the source of the city Glrt tested Gravequake on. So much time had passed that the walls were half consumed by the earth. Almost all the buildings apart from the wizard tower had been completely consumed. Even as it was, there was value to it. The walls were better than the leather approximation called walls in the daughter city.
It had been claimed by goblins, regardless of what initially drove them out. It could have been another easy victory, but I decided it was a good place to run a test. Wasting the potential of unicorns and bicorns seemed like a crime. I had intimidation and enfeeblement in my avatars. If my avatars ever broke down, the lack of intimidation or enfeeblement would be the least of the problems my force would face.
I sent a unicorn and bicorn to the city, cloaked in their scintillating and oppressive clouds. Immediately after leaving the army, they split to attack the city from either side. It was only goblins, only two ogres that had taken residence in the broken tower. Even if one waltzed in alone it wouldn't be a threatening confrontation.
On the unicorn side, the goblins were asleep and being converted before they even knew to raise the alarm. Even when the unicorns battered down the wall, nothing within the city reacted. I watched the process with great interest. I could surmise the effects, but there was always room for surprises. And my attention was rewarded. The unicorn had gained his own cloud of proponents orbiting his bodily will-core. Not technically, the link was based around fascination and servitude instead of self and purpose. A weak form of worship, exceedingly weak. With how it worked, though, each unicorn could draw more from the will-cores of goblins. Every unicorn in their herd would make the bond stronger as the fascination was drawn by each of them in turn until there had been enough to draw all of it out. Then there would be no means for the goblins to be interested in anything but unicorns, or accept orders from anything but a unicorn. With a large enough herd, that weak bond would become nearly as unbreakable as mine. The unicorns also fed off of the energy. They generated more of their own will instead of faith, but that process also increased the faith they produced around my will-core by a massive margin.
The bicorn had an equally difficult victory. Each goblin was frozen in terror until their wills had been completely consumed. She trotted blithely through the city, leaving the killing of goblins to her intimidation circuit. Unlike my original supposition, however, the will wasn't corroded into nothing. It was shredded and returned to working order in a new form. It took fifty goblin wills to create a single one of the entity created by the black fire, but by the time the city fell the bicorn had twenty of the strange creatures prancing around it.
She called them nightmares, these ethereal horses. Looking at them as a mana creature they appeared like a class four bicorn except without the horns and red flames instead of black, but they were invisible to a creature that couldn't see with their will. Even I wouldn't have been able to notice them until they were touching my will if I didn't have access to her eyes. The flames didn't merely corrode will, they reformed it. And, like the dark side of the unicorn coin, the wills orbited the bodily will-core of the bicorn. Amplifying her faith output while feeding her more will. Until she sent them to possess the fifty strongest bodies. Then they left her side and filled the body to create intimidation-immune golems. As they were essentially faith-based more than will-based, she didn't need to maintain any connection to keep them in control. Their entirety belonged to her.
The euphoria racing through both the unicorn and the bicorn also convinced me that I was indeed gimping them by having them within my armies. They were adequate soldiers, but Lagt would say they were being stifled by their effort to conform to what they thought I wanted instead of becoming as useful to me as they could be in and of themselves. Even the will-nourishment was being wasted because the vast majority of the benefit offered was added via worship and my armies didn't worship the unicorns. I wasn't hurting in the population department, so I didn't mind the horses leaving and establishing their own herds. So long as they worshipped me, there was no threat of them turning on me.
Apparently, it had been a huge deal for them. Every horse I freed from the armies advanced into priesthood, regardless of whether they'd been a zealot or proponent before. Lagt's philosophy had more to it than I'd given her credit for. Her and Glrt. Lagt was bogged down in overcoming the limitations of goblin-kind, but Glrt noticed the horses leave her force. She also noticed the effect she was having on the goblins, how they were reacting to her philosophy and becoming better at fulfilling the roles I wanted them for through her leadership than previously. I hadn't anticipated her being my third cardinal, but she had surprised me in many ways. Including the fact that she looked directly toward Angie and Aughil's forces in turn. She was even more aware than they were, able to actually trace their position in my faith maelstrom to a place on the earth. Or perhaps she could trace them through my will, locating the bits of my will that remained attached to them instead of tracing the connection between the faith-core and the body-core of their wills. Either way, she managed to impress me continuously.