Chapter Thirty Four: Discussion and Pre-Preparation

The next day, Eris starts her preparations for the upcoming battle. She gets Serena and her commanders to assemble in the conference hall to discuss what they're going to do. The atmosphere of the room is serious. This will be the first large-scale battle since waking up in this strange new world. Some of her commanders, like Lucina, have a smug expression on their faces while others, like Hadrian, are stiff and serious.

"I assume that I don't have to explain why I called everyone here today, correct?" Eris asks.

"Of course not, Empress," Hadrian answers.

"Good. Now let's get a look at the army that the theocracy is assembling," she says waving her hand over the round table.

On Eris' motion, multiple screens appear that seem to show a large force, standing in front of a beautiful white castle. One screen shows that three quarters of the army are knights wearing bright, silver armor, full face helmets, and white capes. The knights are divided into 3 groups, one group wields swords and shields, one wields long spears, and the last carries bows and arrows. The final portion of the army seems to be mages dressed in white robes with golden, decorative patterns. Another screen shows the enemy's aerial units from the side. These aerial units seem to be a mix of mages and knights riding either gryphons, wyverns, or pegasi. The final screen shows a variety of beasts that travels in front of the army that includes strange-looking titans, lizard monsters, seraphs, and various other types of summoned beasts.

"My my," says Raven with a smile, "They seem to be coming in force."

"They obviously don't want to take any chances that Serena will cause anymore trouble for their plans. All in all their army numbers around five to six thousand soldiers," Eris explains.

"Serena, do you know if this is their main army?" Lucina asks.

She shakes her head and says solemnly, "No way. The Theocracy of Reogradia is supposed to have the strongest military force in the continent. Their main army has millions of knights and hundreds of thousands of mages. This is only a small portion of their real force."

"Interesting. Those summoned monsters seem pretty strong as well, this might actually be pretty fun," says a girl with dark skin, pointed ears, and red eyes, wearing thick, leather armor and wielding a bow and arrow as her primary weapons.

"Actually, Nisha, I don't plan on getting you or the soldiers involved in this. Serena and I are going to take care of them ourselves," Eris answers with a confident smile.

"Huh?!" the smaller vampire asks with widened eyes.

"You heard me. I told you yesterday that I'll help you to avenge your parents' death, and that's a promise I intend to keep. You and I are going to wipe out their entire army."

A nervous sweat drips down Seren's face, "Um… but, I'm nowhere near as strong as you, Eris."

"You don't have to be. The army is going to move slowly. They'll be here in around a week and a half or maybe two weeks. That gives us a week and a half to increase your power."

"Do you think that will be enough time to prepare the girl, Empress?" Goliath asks.

"It is if we get started right away. Plus I also have a few items that can also give a boost to her powers."

"Even so…" says Titanor.

"I've wiped out much larger armies by myself with a single spell. These men will not be much trouble for me or Serena, once she increases her strength a bit," Eris answers with a smile, "Does that sound alright to you?"

"I'm just nervous. An army of over five thousand humans against just the two of us sounds like a little much," she says doubtfully.

"Do you trust me?" Eris asks with a stern tone.

"Oh… of course!"

"Then you'll be fine. We're going to wipe out their entire army. But right now, we need to get you trained. Start making preparations right away."

"Yes, Empress," they all respond at the same time.

"I want a stone wall erected around the ruins as well as watchtowers, catapults, and tretchubets. Have the worker shades start immediately."

"It will be as you wish, your highness," Hadrian answers.

"Good. Serena, you're coming with me. We'll be training in the underground coliseum should you need us."

Eris and Serena both stand and walk to each other. Eris takes the young vampire's hand and teleports away, leaving her commanders to their work. Serena and Eris now stand in Eris' room. Like Serena's the floor is made of hardwood, and has much of the same furniture, but the walls are crimson red and the ceiling is white. Eris' room is also a lot bigger than Serena's with an elegant chandelier lighting it, and a massive bed with purple covers and a white pillow. There's also a door at the left side of the room that leads to Eris' personal changing area.

"Um Eris, what are we doing here? I thought that we were going to the coliseum?" Serena asks with a confused expression.

"Before that, we need to get you into clothes that are good for fighting," after saying that, Eris starts to examine the clothes that Serena is currently wearing, "Hm… I should have a few pieces that fit you and your style," a distortion in space appears next to Eris and she reaches in and pulls out several different pieces of clothing and armor, and hands them to Serena, "Try these on in the other room."

Eris opens the door for the younger vampire, and she walks in with her outfits. It takes around 45 minutes, but Serena chooses an outfit and walks out to show it to Eris. Serena now wears a black, frilly, short-sleeve blouse with a black skirt that goes down to her knees. She wears dark silver gauntlets with a sharp point at the end of each finger, and that go almost to her elbows, and metallic greaves of the same color that almost go up to her knees. Her blood red hair is tied in a ponytail with a black ribbon. She also wears a silver necklace with a beautiful, saphire like jewel on it.

"That looks good on you," Eris says.

"I feel stronger by wearing this for some reason," Serena responds with a confused expression.

"That's because the outfit you're wearing does increase your power while also boosting your defense."

"So they're enchanted items?"

"I guess you could say that. That particular outfit you're wearing is almost as powerful as the one I'm wearing. The gauntlets increase your strength and defense with your greaves increase your speed and defense. That necklace increases the rate at which you regenerate. The ribbon increases your resistance to long range, non-magical attacks. And the rest of your outfit just increases your physical and magical defense."

"How much does it increase?"

"Hm… you remember the fireball that the priest tried to attack me with?"

"Yes… I would definitely die from that."

"Well, if you're attacked like that, you should be able to survive and keep fighting. It would hurt like hell, but you wouldn't die, and you'd have the chance to recover," Eris explains.

"Wow. That sounds pretty cool."

"Good. Now that that's settled, let's get to the arena," says Eris as she puts her hand on the young vampire's shoulder and uses her teleportation.

Eris and Serena arrive in the center of the arena. The craters in the floors and walls as well as the cracks in the dome-like, invisible barrier surrounding the arena have all been repaired, as if nothing happened. There's also the addition of a large rack containing multiple different weapons including swords, axes, bows and arrows, and many more.

"Take your pick of the weapons on that rack," Eris orders. Serena looks over the weapons while Eris asks, "Do you know what types of magic you're capable of using?"

"I've been able to use wind, fire, and I've even shown an aptitude for spirit magic," Serena answers.

"Spirit magic huh? Have you made a contract with a spirit yet?"

"No. Not yet. I didn't think I was strong enough yet."

"Even if that's the case, a spirit will definitely help you in the upcoming fight. So we'll add that to the to-do list." Serena picks up a wrapped-up whip with sharp blades similar to that of barbed wire, "That whip is called Storm Bringer and is good for wind magic users. A nice choice," the vampire says with a smile.

Serena cracks the whip and an invisible force is sent out from the whip and hits the other side of the wall. The strength of the force is powerful enough to leave a scar in the wall, and Serena gazes at the carnage with awe.

"It produces wind blades?"

"That's right. So even if the whip itself doesn't make contact with the target, there's the chance that the wind blade will. And the best part is that it doesn't use any of your magic energy, so you'll be able to fire those wind blades as many times as you like," Eris explains.

"This is really cool. Thanks," Serena answers with a wide smile.

"You're welcome. I'm assuming that you have some skill with the whip?"

"That's right."

"Good. Then let's start with the spirit summoning."

"Huh?! Already?!" the little vampire asks with a worried expression.

"That's right. There's a technique in spirit magic called spirit fusion. Spirit fusion allows the user to merge with their contracted spirit, down to their very souls. This combines the power of the user and the spirit into one, and this makes spirit fusions especially powerful. The merge, however, only lasts for ten minutes."

"I have to admit that that does sound incredible. But, I'm not sure if I'll find a spirit for me."

"Since your spirit magic is probably weaker than mine, I'll be the one to do the summoning. I'll try to summon a wind spirit but I've read that higher spirits require the one trying to make a contract them face a trial. I'm not sure what it'll ask you to do so be prepared for anything. Are you ready?"

"Wait, what if I'm not strong enough?!"

"Then we'll try again after your training. But you'll have to get used to the feeling of merging with your spirit. Plus the more you grow, the more your contracted spirit grows with you, so it's better to go ahead with it."

Serena nods her head, and the two of them move towards the center of the arena. Using her sword, Nightmare, Eris draws a circle on the ground with a five-pointed star and a large number of symbols and glyphs. Eris then extends her hand, and in response to her magic energy, the circle starts to glow with an eerie red color.

"Summon; ultimate wind spirit!"