Worship: Part 2

I leapt to the Darkwood and released a massive sonic damage spell, spread so thin that it probably wouldn't even kill a boar. It called all of the panthers in the area to me. Mixed among the panthers were the truly dangerous monsters that made this wood so dangerous. Purple cursors greeted me as I glanced through them. They gathered to watch what I'd do. Thousands of them. And I could see twenty purple cursors. Maybe they weren't on the same level as dragons, but they were truly vicious beasts. And the more I converted, the more would spawn in response. They would strengthen my defenses tenfold. If I had enough power to convert them. I glanced at the cursor of one, and it was level two seventy five. I couldn't destroy one, let alone twenty. Not without being in my keep. Maybe not even then. I didn't have a month to prepare again. Maybe they could reason. My skeletons were smart. Maybe these were as well. "Any of you that join me will have access to my classes. All of them, just as soon as I figure out how to give access to them. They will be allowed to roam past the edges of the Darkwood. They will be able to taste the flesh of innumerable monsters, npcs, and players alike. Any takers?" they had to dislike being stuck here forever, right? Especially the ubers. They couldn't be fine with being stuck here forever.

All of the normal beasts bowed to me, multiplying the power of my living pets by a massive margin. If I could get one uber-monster, the others would follow me much easier. I assumed. Taking over the normal beasts got easier after the first one. I really wanted a purple cursor on one of my pets. "You lack the power to teach me the classes I want." One of them growled at me. His voice was so deep I felt the ground tremble. "Return when you can, and we might change our minds." The uber-monsters turned and padded away, silent as death. The shadows enveloped them like the welcoming arms of a mother as they left the light behind. I couldn't see it at all. Uber-monsters were on a whole different scale than everything else. Damn. I'd been so close. If only I could figure out how to teach my pets the rogue and mage classes! Assuming they didn't all want to be Oracles, that would be really tricky.

The panthers joined in my mass orders and started for the pasture to become stronger than their fellows. I leapt for Melasia to start my northern conquest.

The north provided no more difficulties than the south. Ceiruria, Naieura, Madr, and finally Seidr fell without resistance. Shaltyr, though, proved a different animal altogether. The gates were closed, activating the city-wide shield. I bounced off when I leapt for their keep. I tumbled and landed gracelessly on the grass outside of the gates. A player in banal gear peeked over the black crystal crenellations to stare at me. "It worked. We stopped him! The Emperor of the Dark Elves has been repelled!" I could hear thousands of people cheering at his declaration. He stood to his full height and glared down at me. "Can't get in, Dark Elf bastard?"

 Naïve. I couldn't jump over the walls. That did not mean I couldn't get in. It just meant I'd have to get creative. I'd need to take it by force. Which meant I'd need an army. I couldn't batter down the walls by myself. Well, I could but I didn't want to. Not only would it take longer, it would be taking up time I could be building my army.

I started blasting the surrounding scorpions with pressure spells. They died without rupturing their chitin armor. I raised the corpses and was gratified to see them immediately start slaughtering more scorpions. Which I then raised. If only I could teach my pets magic! Life would be so much easier.

As I released another blast of raising magic, I noticed something had changed. I checked through my skills and noticed I had a new buff. Aura of Necromancy. I raised any dead that came within a hundred meters of me! It was weak, though. I was regularly raising monsters as common and rarely below level one eighty. It took some work, and a lot of feedback, but I finally managed to modify the base spell it used so I would raise the most powerful undead possible, the only downside was a sixty percent decrease in my maximum mp while active. Only possible because my pool was so absurd, but still. It was like an aura spell, but much more potent. I grinned as I started walking through the fields of carnage left by my army of undead scorpions. It didn't even cost mp apart from the base reduction! I could raise an infinite army like this! I loved the skill buffs! And my pets used my skills. I didn't even need to be present! I could have started dancing. My army started growing faster than I could have made them. And each undead scorpion was level two hundred. Now all I needed was a way to let all of my pets have mana. Then I wouldn't be the only one with this aura. It probably would have been active if I hadn't modified the spell, but it was so much better that it wouldn't be worth it to change back.

I turned back to the wall as I ordered my army to start attacking the walls of Shaltyr. The player that was still standing triumphant upon the wall had gone pale. "Still think I can't get in?" I raised my voice and amplified it with a spell so I could be heard in every corner of Shaltyr. "All of you are being given a choice. Those who become my vassals or swear allegiance to the Black Hole Knights will be spared as my forces overwhelm this city. Any who resist shall be slaughtered." I grinned as the crystal walls shattered under the onslaught of my pets. The player on top screamed as he fell into the rubble, probably crushed by a piece of the wall he'd pronounced was stronger than me.

The tidal wave of scorpions rushed into the city. I felt vassals enter my inventory like a hurricane after the garrison broke upon contact with my army, shattering into tiny pockets of resistance that lasted less than a minute. The fallen rose as warriors that joined the charge as I flew over the battlefield low enough that my aura could touch the ground. I didn't have a way of knowing if the players survived as my guild members or died. It was a shame that I couldn't tell what was happening. They might be in my guild, but I didn't own them, so there wasn't an inventory list of their names. I'd have to check the guild hall later. I marched straight for the bank. I knew that the governor would either die and give the title to one of my vassals by default or swear loyalty. I didn't need to take care of it personally. Whoever it was held out marvelously. It took until I stepped onto the first stair of the bank for the red light to bathe me. I grinned as I entered the bank, finally. I'd conquered the entire continent.

I stopped at the door, looking up at my sigil. I expected a rush, some exultation. It felt like an accomplishment, but an empty one. I could almost feel the other continent-sized empire preparing for a war against me. And they were united by a common enemy, not a conquering force. My empire would be limited to my creativity. My power. If I ever got complacent, I could lose. I could be torn from my throne. I'd known it since I started my plan for global conquest, but it was starting to sink in. Like Lethe said, I could have safely become a god sitting on the throne of Zezhria. I didn't need to conquer the world, but now that I was I had the whole world united in making sure I couldn't become a god at all. Too late now. I pushed open the door.

I stopped dead in the center of the main hall in the bank. I'd just realized something. If all of my pets raised any corpse they made and could accept vassals on my behalf, I didn't need to personally take any town. My pets could do all of it for me. I shifted my mass orders so that every pet with a big enough mana pool to activate my Aura of Necromancy started exploring, making any town it found into a vassal town of mine and trying to make pets for me if they could. Ironically, those with mana pools were the panthers and imps. The living ones. It would be a long time before they had enough mana to activate the aura, but they'd be the ones to do it. Undead had no mana, which was very unfortunate. I grinned as I headed into the real estate office. Automating the growth of my Empire was always a good feeling. "I want to buy all of the buildings in Shaltyr. I don't care about the cost. And I want to buy the orc and pixy crowns."

The fat banker didn't change expression as she nodded. I'd taken a continent, and she didn't even bat an eyelash. I was beginning to think that they didn't have souls at all. Not even a shred. "Is that all?" Nope. No soul in this one.

I glanced at the gear I'd gotten from the two crowns. They were amazing sets, but not as good as mine. I would keep my word and give the orc gear to Hell and the pixy gear to Lethe. "No." I turned to head out and paused before I left the building. There was a nagging feeling that I was missing something.

I'd forgotten to manage my cities. I headed to that office. The skinny one behind this desk grinned at me as I ordered all the roads to lead to Zezhria and all town roads to lead to the nearest city. I even gave instructions for new cities that fell under my banner so I wouldn't need to visit the bank every time we found a new town or founded a village. Taxes were the same across all cities apart from Zezhria. My empire should run itself. So long as the bank continued to work.

Great. Now what? I couldn't stand the idea of sitting around waiting for the central empire to invade. It just didn't feel right at all. So what could I do about it? The problem with finding ways for my Empire to manage itself was that I had nothing to do. Maybe explore? But I didn't have any real need to explore apart from finding out where the passages underground were. I'd never be able to match the exploratory power of my army of pets. I could dedicate myself to making more pets…but with my pets getting enough power they'd naturally make pets out of the neutral monsters they slaughtered. Again, I was less capable than my automated pet army. It was hard, being the ruler of a continent.