War: Part 2

The will of the army broke after my opponent fell. All started flying away, fleeing the power of my undead army. I repeated my pressure spell to make more flying snakes for my humanoid pets to ride and ordered them to patrol the new territory of Zezhria. This wouldn't be enough, though. Undead were weak in Heaven, and they had no defenses. I'd made a few hundred of the flying worms into pets, but they were pasture beasts. They'd be annihilated as soon as they tried to leave the pasture. 

A problem for another day. They fell into my blanket orders, so they started hunting their own kind. Their assault and our battle, as well as a little more hunting on my part, ensured I had a few thousand of the living snakes as pets before I thought of returning to Zezhria, but they were still pasture creatures. It would take forever for them to be threats in Heaven. They'd probably go to the surface, searching for easier prey than anything that existed in Heaven. First I needed to flood Upper Zezhria with undead and Dark Elves, then I could worry about vertical warfare.

One spell ripped the ground into the correct shapes, another lifted them into an arch. A third created a mimic in the town square below. I bored a spell of teleportation directly into the stone and connected the two, making an easy way to go from Lower Zezhria to Upper Zezhria. The stone would crumble eventually, but it wasn't an issue I had to worry about for a while. Stone held spells quite well, though I needed to figure out how to infuse them with magic to make this portal as durable as the town portals across the world. 

The army already in Heaven could populate the defense force, for now. The flying snake undead would have to serve as the anti-air weapon for Upper Zezhria. I weighed the risk of pulling Bonehead up here, but I needed him on the surface. I didn't like the idea of losing him to anti-undead Heaven. Maybe the living dragons. They would definitely level faster up here than back on the surface. Perfect. I sent the order for them to enter the gate I'd just finished as I ported back to my room in the Keep. Then I thought better of it and ported to my Steward. He squawked and almost flew out of his skin at my sudden appearance. "You need to send settlers up into Heaven through the gate I just finished. I want a fully operational city up there in a month. Including the population. Undead can't do everything." I could order my vassals, but this seemed like more fun. Giving them a choice was always interesting. Ordering the result only had one effect. Npcs might only have shards of souls, but they'd surprised me a few times in the short time I'd been ruling. Mostly Delfina, but there was always a chance for others to show themselves her equal. Vyktor was a prime example. The utter coward I called Steward stuttered his acceptance and I ported back into my room.

Lethe was waiting for me. "What's got you buzzing around like a teleporting bee?" I considered laying out the whole situation for her, but thought better of it. I didn't even understand what I was doing sometimes. Maybe Ryne was controlling me. Or I was acting on an instinct from something else…come to think of it…why was I so bent on being a ruler? I'd never been the ambitious sort. From what I could remember, my dream was to live away from my mother, alone and with just enough money to keep the game system running. I shoved that thought out of my mind, I couldn't afford the distraction right now. It wasn't easy, being Emperor.

"Heaven wants a war, I need to give it one. Undead won't work, though. I need an npc army good enough to bring down Heaven, so I'm working on getting that done." I was going to go more in depth, but seeing Vyktor at my door made me pause. "What's urgent this time?"

"You have a visitor." Vyktor was rigid. He stepped aside for a suit of armor just like the mist fighter I'd killed above. "He killed three of your guards on the way in before he found me. I believed you were in no real danger and my life was more valuable than a few minutes to stall this creature, as I'm not familiar with a method to kill it." He bowed and left. He'd made the right call. I could tell that this was not the same caliber as the one I'd killed. It would make short work of all the pets I had in the Keep. Vyktor was more valuable than all of them combined, so I was happy he'd made the right choice. I definitely couldn't run his operation if he died. I wasn't even sure I knew how it all worked. I knew the basics, but I was also sure that there was a ton of stuff he did that I had no idea about. He was a familiar, so I didn't doubt his loyalty, but it was definitely something that occasionally irked me. What would happen if Vyktor were to die tomorrow? Would my empire begin to fall? Was he really that necessary? Was I okay with an empire that fragile?

"You killed my friend. Gods come in pairs, though I was out recruiting at the time of your assault. One cannot kill the first and abandon the second." He was Shakespeare's friend? He didn't talk like it. "Despite the glaringly unlikely result of your death, I am honor-bound to attempt it at swiftest opportunity." I'd never met a suicidal monster before. This was interesting.

I wove a spell of binding into the air. The suit of armor went rigid, the edges misting where they made contact with the spell. He puffed into mist and swept to the side, but the spell caught him, having been amplified by my presence in my keep. "What good does suicide do either of you? One would think a vow of vengeance would have you building another army, not coming at me alone in my keep while I'm obviously wide awake."

"The building of an army would require calm calculation. I find myself incapable of such at the death of my companion. Normally, I would agree with you. Unfortunately, we come as a pair. To kill one is to battle the other. Immediately, not upon further consideration and calculation." He didn't talk like Shakespeare, but he didn't talk normal either. What was with these guys? I'd never met one like him in the beta, or even read about a monster that could shift into mist. Now that I looked closer…he was an npc. Odd. "It appears I am truly bested. Now, if you would be so kind as to end me so this torment may finally conclude…" he nodded to me. He really was suicidal.

An interesting opportunity. I didn't need to kill him immediately, despite the fact that it was obviously what he wanted. In fact, because he wanted it I found myself…hesitating. I grabbed his helm and pulled it off, revealing nothing but mist. The helmet was rare, though. I tore it in half, noticing the mist-man wince, but not die. Interesting. I leaned forward and took a breath of his…body? It smelled like normal mist. Very cold mist, but still mist. Lethe leaned forward to mimic me. "Strange. I thought he'd smell like…something. Anything, really." She murmured to herself. I'd been thinking the same thing.

"I've decided…not to kill you. For one, it's what you want. I hate giving my enemies what they want. And second…you're too strange. I need to know how you work. So, you'll become a lab rat. Do you mind?" he replied with a wordless screech of rage and pain. I grinned as I ordered a skeleton to bring him down to the cells below my Keep. That spell would bind the…thing…in his little cage as long as I was the owner of the keep. I didn't even need to be in Zezhria. He continued to scream as the skeleton dragged him down the hallway. "Interesting. Didn't know monsters could be suicidal."

Oblivion sauntered into view. "Pops! Hold up a second!" he sprinted to me, stopping closer than I was comfortable with. It was like looking in a mirror, if I didn't have my armor on. "Best sculptor in the world, so what's next?" he bowed like some court dandy from a videogame. Who taught him that personality? The copy of Lethe that followed him didn't speak. "Something badass, right? Super scary evil stuff or what?"

"Make statues of races that don't exist. I want two swimming, flying, and burrowing races. Statues of a male and female will do fine. After that…do whatever you want. So long as you kill stuff I don't really care. What's your max-out buff?" he cocked his head and looked at me quizzically. Was it that hard to figure out? "What's the buff you get for maxing out the sculpture skill?"

"Oh, that…right. I can make sculptures come to life as pets. I have to have a model, though. I can't just make random sculptures out of nothing into pets. Those need lots of other stuff to come alive. Like what you're thinking, right? Right? Why two of the races, though? Wouldn't one be better? No racism or shit like that. All harmonious like." He didn't understand evil at all if he thought my goal was harmony. He thought like…a good guy. Damn it.

"Harmony leads to peace which is the basis for weakness and stagnation. For power, one must have something to compete with. Competition is the basis of growth, which is the core of remaining on top." Oblivion shook his head like I was a toddler that just spouted utter nonsense. I stifled a blast of rage at the lack of respect. "Example: my empire grew faster in a month after I knew I was competing against Camelot than it did the entire time before that, or since. I've gotten comfortable, and now my empire has reached a plateau. Getting to a point where I can rise again is difficult without a worthy adversary." Maybe if Camelot was actually invading. The waiting phase was beginning to look like an eternal stalemate.

"I wasn't shaking my head that you were wrong." Oblivion snapped, a response I had to stifle more rage upon hearing. "I was shaking my head because you're going about this whole thing wrong! Competition only makes conflict worse! We should be working with Camelot, not against them!" I barely stopped myself from killing the disgrace of a son. My armor started glowing with all the spells hidden in my staff trying to break free. So anger would make my spells activate…good to know.

Lethe and Edge weren't as successful. Lethe had him by the throat, lifted against the wall before he could blink. Edge had a blade at his throat, a toothy snarl on her face. "Apologize to your father!" Lethe hissed. Edge nodded. I hoped it was just her being shy or a personality quirk, and not proof that she was mute.

I called for two of my skeletons as I touched Lethe's arm. I'd made the mistake of giving him a task like sculpture first. I should have foreseen that someone raised on art wouldn't understand war the way a warrior should. Lethe didn't want to let him go, though. I had to force her to let him down, though it happened smooth enough that nobody noticed just how hard I had to push her arm down. Edge may have noticed the slight trembling, though. Rogues were supposed to be good at noticing stuff. "The apology is unnecessary." The two women whirled to face me, Lethe's mask unreadable and Edge's face showing nothing but disbelief. "I wouldn't believe it anyway." Since I didn't have to restrain myself for Lethe's sake, forgiveness was not an option. The two skeletons grabbed him by the shoulders. "He'll be set up next to our misty friend. Nobody said he had to carve the statues willingly."

Oblivion gaped at me like I'd just grown horns. "You'd send me to the slammer for calling you out?" his eyes bugged in incredulity. "For what, ten words?" Four words were the core of my reign; I will be supreme.

"My rule is built on perfect solidity. My upper ranks are religiously devoted to my cause. Having a son, as high a position as it gets, publicly or privately attempt to sow dissent would undermine my power. And as for you being my son…I've got another. And yet another possibility for the future. Even then, I'm immortal. I don't intend to die, ever, so I don't need lineage. It makes me an easier ruler to follow, seeing that even the god of this world has progeny makes me seem more…human to the players. Future generations and current ones alike find it easier to follow someone they think of as similar to themselves. That is all for the sake of convenience, however. I don't need them to want to follow me. Just like you are going to do my bidding, despite the fact that it will lead to so much widespread death that we don't know a number big enough to count all the dead it will eventually create. Morals are beautiful, but even they bend or shatter upon contact with enough pain. Or even the promise of enough pain." He didn't seem to believe me. His eyes were still bugged out and his mouth open. Such a lack of dignity. How could this be my son? "You don't believe me?"

"I'll never make those sculptures. I promise you that. Never." He was pouting? This could not be my son. He even stuck his tongue out at me! "I'm your kid, I won't break. Nope." I was beginning to think he might be wrong in that regard. He looked like a carbon copy, but maybe he was Lethe's? No, that wasn't fair. And…no other player was as identical to me as Oblivion. An illusion? No, he was in my keep. My skeletons would have noticed an intruder. And he'd have had to kill the real Oblivion. I didn't think this pacifist had it in him. "I might not have gotten the evil genes, but I got the willpower that made you rise into the monster you are now."

"Not all pain is physical, boy. Everyone has a breaking point, you just need to know where to push. Have you ever seen a living person dismembered while they're still alive? Have you known that the person is only there because you need to see it? How many innocents need to die before that will breaks? Maybe 'innocent' isn't enough, and I need to make you think they're your friends first. Will it even come to that? How much pain have you felt, boy? Bones broken, organs replaced with burrowing rodents, skin removed? You'd be amazed what you can do to a person when you've got magic to bring them back afterwards." His eyes widened even further. Would they come out? It wasn't physically possible for a human to open their own eyes enough that they came out…but this was a better world. I hoped they'd pop right out, it would be hilarious. "And that brings us back to magic. Do you know that the Cultist has a massive array of spells that have absolutely no combat relevance? It was very frustrating to a lot of players in the beta. They didn't like how the names of the spells were so cool, but they just weren't good for battle. Some just take too long to activate. Take this one," I drew a spell in the air. The spiky runes didn't make it look pleasant. It definitely wasn't. "called Realm of Terror. It takes a week to remove the ability to move from the target. No uses in combat, but in a torture situation…the effect is beautiful. Can you imagine that spell amplified by the Keep's influence on my magic? And you being a level one? If I wasn't careful, I doubt you'd live through it." Oblivion shrieked like a little girl as the skeletons dragged him off. I couldn't help the snigger that boiled to the surface.

"Who'd have thought we could make one like that?" Lethe didn't find the situation funny. Her voice was quivering all over the place, she was so furious. She was still glaring at the last corner Oblivion had been visible before being pulled around a minute after he was gone. "Once the statues are done, you should kill him. If word got around that we'd made...that…thing…there's no telling what could happen. Hell will definitely turn. With his new influence over the orcs, he might bring Jennifer with him. I hate to think what would happen if Camelot caught wind of that weakness. And he's close enough to Shyndyn…no. She would never betray you." I wasn't even sure if she could betray me. It was what allowed me to keep trusting Vyktor, despite how ridiculously integrated he was into the running of my empire in all the corners I couldn't see. Spymaster and Oracle, both were capable of doing devastating damage to me without me knowing for absolutely certain that they were loyal.

"Of course. The statues are the only reason I needed a sculptor. Though…sculpting dragons could be very handy. Especially if they worked like undead, starting at a level based on the skill of the maker, and not grounded at the beginning. I'll have him teach my skeletons, then die. Sound good?" Lethe nodded, rage still making the eyes of her mask blaze. "Edge!" I draped an arm around her shoulders and had the comfort of her immediately burrowing into my embrace. The immediacy of her reaction to Oblivion was heartwarming. She believed in my cause as much as Lethe. If not more. She was weak, in comparison, so her reaction must have been faster. Perhaps rehearsed…but I put that possibility out of my mind. She looked up at me, her face unreadable. "I must say, I was proud of your reaction speed." I wouldn't have known she was tense if she hadn't relaxed. Why would she be tense? Never mind. A question that could have any number of answers based on nothing. I considered what to do with her. The Sculptor was a failure, the other two were barely trained, and the last two were still unborn. "Did you know that when a powerful monster dies, anyone close enough to the corpse gains the benefits?" she shook her head. This could be a very useful tool. A plan was beginning to form, but I wouldn't want to start until I had all of my offspring. "Train with the skeletons. I'll have some…work for you soon."

She nodded and ghosted into the hallway. Lethe slipped close, dropping her voice to a whisper. "She was tense when you touched her. She fears you. Perhaps both were corrupted. Maybe the first two are similarly flawed."

"Let's not jump to conclusions. Perhaps she was tensed in excitement. Like mother like daughter, as they say." Lethe tensed, eyes blazing back to life as she turned to look after her departing daughter. I still didn't know her well enough to say with certainty that she wouldn't kill her own daughter out of jealousy with no evidence. "Relax. There are any number of possible reasons for being tense. I'll know the loyalty of my children soon enough." She pulled back enough that she could see my helmet clearly. A gesture from a time when one's face was visible. "They'll be loyal, or dead. Whichever comes first. Don't worry, love, I will know their minds better than they do before I let the world see them."

"Speaking of which." Lethe's armor vanished again as she grinned at me, predatory light in her eyes. All those books that claimed women didn't have as much lust in them as men obviously hadn't met Lethe. The only reason she stopped was because she didn't want too much of an age gap, and even then she barely paused long enough to start getting pregnant before insisting we start up again. I would have forced Htaed back inside her if we hadn't been doing anal when he shot through my legs. I'd barely registered that she'd had them before Htaed was sent off to be a warrior and Phyx to be a mage with Vyktor making sure they were taught to be ruthless as well. Not that I was complaining until she finally exhausted herself again and fell asleep. I wasn't sure what kind of repression led her to have such a ridiculous libido, but it was definitely a bonus for me.