End of the Demon War VI

This isn't like handing over MANPADS to a middle eastern society to protect against China or Russia; at least with those countries, they understood what electricity or a combustion engine was.

"Because it's mine. Period. My people get to have access to new stuff as civilization advances. You are not my people. If you want, you might be able to buy what my subjects are producing, but nothing that I have which is military-grade. Have your traders take a look, offer up contracts for surplus melee weapons from the blacksmith guild."

"Maybe we should just go in and take it…" Wrox grumbled out. The tent was dead silent as Vernal made an audible gasp. The empress slowly, and mechanically turned her head towards him and blinked, her face made of stone with her Hud giving a complete scan of him to send to a dossier. The other chieftains stared at him. He had potentially dashed all attempts at building relations between their people for the first time in centuries.

How is he so stupid?! Seriously! Now I know why he is named Wrox! Dumber than a box of Wrox! You don't threaten to steal modern weapons when you are wielding an axe!

"You don't want to do that, Chieftain Wrox. You would be destroyed in an instant and dash the relations we just tried to build for the past four hours" Yunor interjected before the dev could say anything. Wrox simply huffed, eyeing her as if she didn't look like much of a threat. The honor guard, on the other hand, were what he had forgotten about, and hadn't even seen the rest of her army. Yunor had a very chilling tale to report back to Polaw, which was dispersed to the others over the past week. They were completely outmatched. The war chief thought otherwise. His bravado seemed to override his sense of reason, his judgment in how to deal with her.

"Try it, see what happens in response. Just for the record, you start something, you better be ready for us to end it… frighteningly quickly." Her eyes flitted from face to face away from the Black Hand ruler. "Anyone who joins him will learn very fast I have no qualms about obliterating enemies to my empire." With that, she stood up and straightened her dress suit and took a deep breath. "You have the papers in front of you, translated to the languages you need. Sign them or don't, they aren't changing anymore, I'm not here to hand out candy and say I'm sorry for the humans of Caerel taking what you used to own. I came here in good faith to convene with all of you, acquiesced to quite a few requests. This isn't one of them."

The dev walked towards the flaps and informed her ambassador she'd be outside. Selene waited a good half an hour, watching the snow falling and drinking a cup of coffee with a drone umbrella hovering over her. The cold didn't really have an effect beyond the snowflakes wetting her clothes; she just wanted to test the drone for use by VIPs visiting her empire. Oddly, her resistances didn't stop her skin from pruning or potentially getting a rash if it stayed wet for too long, more than likely an effect to allow her to bathe and get clean. Both her biomimetic barrier and shields allowed the falling snow to pass through due to a setting that could be quickly toggled as well as temporary willing her barrier to let the frozen water pass.

What, did they think I was just handing out free stuff? I'm not here to bend over and take it, apologize for the people who built Caerel City. I'm here to build up trade for the people who want to expand their horizons with cultural exchange, art, items, and job opportunities. My merchants will want to get their hands on minotaur produced wares just as much as they want to get their hands on mithril and other materials. Military is a fucking no-no, the U.S. pulled too much crap giving out weapons to insurgents, and that turned around and bit them in the ass more times than the history books were allowed to explain to students. This is a mess I don't want to make for myself in the future.

"Ma'am, sorry to bother you during the summit, but something big just happened on the other side of the globe," Grey reported.

"What did you find?" The director seemed to exhale on the other side, preparing to warn her.

"Twenty-five meteors were detected appearing from nowhere and heading in a diagonal line to smash into the northern border above Georgia in the middle east, from the edge of the Sea of Azov to the Caspian Sea. We have reason to believe they are magical in nature. On top of that, multiple fissures are being opened at the same points of contact."

A player. It has to be. Twenty-five though? That's a whole lot of mana. The whole thing is in a diagonal stretch. Multiple players? Maybe minions with that spell tier?

"They used a Metamagic feat [Delay Magic]… maybe modified even further… probably also [Widen Magic]. They had to. No way to get that many off in such a well-planned maneuver."

"Do you want us to intercept the meteors? The fissures are another matter, as we don't have available forces in the area to magically fix them," Grey asked. Dominic was brought into the channel to handle targeting with the orbital weapons satellites. There were no automatons outside of the continent or beyond the waters around it yet. Selene had very little force projection anywhere else in the world, excluding satellites.

What is their aim? Multiple meteor strikes are going to kick up a lot of ash and dirt into the air. It'll kill everything for untold miles in any direction… while it won't cause global issues, this is altering the terrain by raw power.

"Whoever they are, it's to stop something, or someone, from coming down… or up."

"Multiple large armies are marching towards the northern border of Georgia. Perhaps they are attempting a crusade?"

"Possibly. If we destroy those meteors before they hit, it might cause more harm than good. That might be a defensive point that's being held." Selene exhaled and took a sip of her coffee while thinking. The damage to the environment was going to be bad in that area, though even at its most powerful, the spell [Meteor Fall] wouldn't cause a catastrophic effect on the world or even that part of it. The northern border of what they called Georgia, at least until they could figure out the name the locals used, would become no man's land without some sort of terraforming… or druids. Of course, if they did decide to go through with intercepting the shots, the army heading down might be more of a problem to whoever was defending… or being rescued.

"Don't shoot them down. Let them hit."

"Are you sure?" Dominic questioned. He would go through with whatever orders she gave; obviously, he just wanted to make certain her choice was what she really wanted.

"I'm sure. There's a reason for that many to be dropped onto that army and specially targeted to the northern border of that territory. Keep an eye out for any power spikes in that area from now on. It's possible that was a fluke event planned for quite some time, and the people responsible are long since gone, but I'd like to still keep track regardless."

"Yes, ma'am." Both of them ended the call just as the chieftains stepped outside, walking out into the cold. They held up their hands to keep snow from getting into their eyes, watching the empress as she simply stood there with a mug in her hand and an umbrella hovering over her. This much smaller human was ignoring the brunt of the weather that even with their fur, they were still cold. Each had put on thick layers of clothing and leather to protect against the wind, with winter being especially bad in that region for this year. Her red hair flailed behind in a braided ponytail, her blue eyes tracking where they went as the group headed off with their escorts, trudging through the snow that started to pile up and heading to their camp. They'd leave by the next morning.

"Ambassador, did they sign the agreements?"

"Almost all of them ma'am, excluding war chief Wrox. All the documents were signed with my witness. Secondary signatures were also placed by other chieftains for tribe specific agreements. Wrox does not want to be a part of this and will not acknowledge our borders." Two helibots sat two hundred feet from the tent, powering up even with the snow falling. The shields flared and knocked off any extra weight, with the ROROs dropping. Multiple civilian model automatons walked out to take out any furniture inside the tent, move the heaters and pack up everything. Polaw and Yunor turned around, gazing at her one more time. They were barely within earshot to yell.

"You will abide by our agreements, just as we will abide by yours, yes?" Polaw shouted out with his hands cupped to his muzzle.

"Yes, we will." Her voice carried much farther with an amplifying spell used. The chieftain nodded, accepting the response. Both Minotaurs looked at each other and nodded again, then looked at the receding form of Wrox.

"He's going to do something eventually that might cause us to be pulled into—" Yunor started to say.

"We will not support any aggressive action from him or his tribe. They will stand alone if they try and fight those who do not wish to battle us, though they will soon find that they cannot win. His people will abandon any cause once they see his actions as foolhardy, just trying to gain glory and false honor. They will gain a new chieftain soon enough with his overconfidence eventually becoming the death of him."

"It is sad that we cannot gain access to what the empress has for her people to use. Have you heard the rumor of the tribe far to the east, beyond the ocean? There is a story of a leader there that attempted to create an item called… a 'refrigerator.' Perhaps they have those here, in their borders?"

"If they do, humans will not share it. I am certain the ones who took Caerel do not have this technology. At least we have hope, though. This may be our final assault on that city, to once and for all take it back. Then, we can focus on trade, to improve the lives of our people… assuming we are not killed by the lich to the east."

"Have you heard the tales, chieftain? The ones about he being once an old human man?"

"Hmmm, yes, I have. Whoever gave him that power to defeat death and become an undead… must be quite powerful, indeed; beyond our gods, I believe. Then again… this empress… she hides far more strength than she would like others to see. We need to be wary of her. What she had negotiated with us… it was not for her, it was for her people."

"She is caring for her empire, just as if any ruler should—"

"You do not understand, Yunor. She has received trade routes so her people's economy can flourish. I can already see that none of what we agreed upon has any effect on her or the government she rules. We should be careful. Those who have a need for nothing may get bored with current events, eventually stirring up chaos we do not want to be a part of. Even the gods would not want to mess with her."

Both men continued on towards their own campsite, as the empress climbed back into her transportation. "I expect their traders to try and steal what tech they can from the cities they visit. It's not as if it can be blocked given there is always trickle down from just what is observed. Still, all they'll get is what my subjects use, or cheap knock offs. What's next on the to-do list… what the…" she growled in annoyance as there was a request for a ball to be held by Duncan to an administrative automaton sent to the imperial palace, also now known as "The White Palace." Apparently, the name was used by many kings, long before even Teiyan was born. The invites were sent early, without her acknowledgment.

"Fuuuck. Why."

"Show them the face of their new ruler, show off a little, and they'll realize to keep any underhanded actions in check. That's probably the reason; however, isn't he sending them out a week in advance from what you wanted?" Gala commented through coms.

"They're already planning to start a shadow war under my nose. Yes, I know all about that. I don't see why I should agree to this, I've still got a meeting with the Sultan of Tal Salunbal, now that Prince Tariq and Aldemir are back in their homeland. Then after that, the Seong Neow Republic, then the islands offshore, maybe the ones Hrist and her sisters are heading towards… my schedule is all full up. This is the reason I wanted it further out than what he has planned. God damn it, now I have to have new invites sent out to replace the old ones or cancel."

"A slot just opened. After Tal Salunbal, go. I've got your dress all designed and ready. No need to wear their ugly crown, get the tiara if you want, but you're going… ma'am. The extra week can be altered with an updated memorandum sent out, it'll give them all a chance to get ready with new gowns and suits." The Secretary of State had just ordered her to go through with this, just for her sake.

"And if I refuse?" Gala let out an annoyed sigh of frustration.

"Then we'll just have to figure out another avenue to explain to all of those wealthy nobles to change their ways, without bloodshed hopefully. If you really don't want to go…" Selene grumbled something about the whole situation and leaned back, tapping the back of her head against the side of the helibot multiple times.

"Fine, mom, I'll go. I just really hate talking to any of them."

"You hate speaking to them because they're so used to stepping on anyone below them to get what they want, due to the previous regime allowing them to do so. New laws, the new government, new restrictions are now in place. Set the bar, expect them to rise to it. If they don't… do what you need to do as their ruler."

"Yeah," the dev breathed out, checking the time. It was almost 1 pm, enough time to send a request to meet with the Sultan, Gazi Haref Arun, the next day. "What slot did you open by the way?"

"She gave your pet project to us, empress" Nikola responded, added into the channel.

"Wait, you what?! But… I…"

"We'll take care of it, I already have a team of scientists working on how to reverse engineer the device. The soulstone is not being experimented with, it is just being scanned for anomalies. Let us do this, empress. This is all for you. Rest and wait for our report." She hung her head. The dev really wanted to just figure out everything by herself on that, feeling as if her previous accomplishments before gaining access to steampunk would continue. Now, it was as if all she needed was to wave a hand, and one of her automatons would deal with it. Selene didn't want to be a lazy ruler, sitting on a throne getting fat while everyone else did the work. There was too much to discover on this new world, too much to see off of it now that she wasn't restricted to the same rules as a regular human on Earth.

"Fine…"

"You've done more than you think you have. Now, you should head back to Majesty's Grace."

"Yes, mother."

"You know we do this because we love you."

"Yeah yeah. Did Mia get the present we sent?"

"She did. It's amazing that simply breaking the sword allowed all the souls to be released. There was no restriction, implying that the whole thing was a far more crude container than a soulstone. Afterward, it was easy enough to use Lazurus Systems to bring them back to the land of the living," Robert responded.

"Good. I wish that would work on the stone, but it's already been stated that it isn't an option. I hope she likes her friends being around again, might help keep some of those illegal goods out of the hands of the nobles and help her run the city." The transports finished being loaded and lifted off, spraying snow in all directions as they headed back to the mobile air fortress that 1st Air Fleet had become. The next stop was Tal Salunbal, to speak with its ruler. If she managed to pull this off and cleaned up relations with the Seong Neow Republic after, then and only then would she get the chance to finally focus on advancing her subjects to a new future. Until then, there was quite a bit of work to do.

Meanwhile

An elven woman storms down a hallway, past her guards as she makes her way down through a spiraling and twisted building, more maze than a castle. Her blonde hair with pink tips flowed freely as she turned a corner, a face stuck in a frustrated grimace. As she reached her destination, two death knights were the only thing between herself and the room behind them, with two of her own treants staring them down. They were about equal in strength, both capable of protecting against an attack from their opposite, life and undeath in the same area allowed somehow to coexist without all-out war.

The doors were pushed open quickly as the elf walked in, glaring into the rest of the room. "You didn't tell me what you had planned. How could you destroy so much fertile land, just to keep them at bay? Was there no other way?" she asked, staring at one filled seat in particular. There was a rapping noise of fingers on the armrest while she waited for a response. "Well, I guess it worked anyway. That was a bit overboard, so don't do it again. Our business is concluded." Both of their kingdoms were safe… for now.

The form sitting in the chair leaned forward into the light, the hood revealing a skull under it. Red eyes lit up in the sockets as the being watched her carefully. "Unless you provide an alternative, that was the best solution. Now… about our deal…" the woman sat down, watching the two other pairs of eyes sitting nearby the guest. She couldn't quite tell if he was a player or not. That was an ability that wasn't gifted to her when she arrived in this world. At least she could sense his strength was equal to hers, though, with his guild members, he had quite a bit more help than she did. A pair of dark elves walked out from the shadows, one of them looking to be skittish in nature while the other just smirked with long blonde hair. Both had heterochromia.

"Alright… you'll have what we agreed to."

"Wonderful" Ainz responded, stopping his fingers on the armrest and placing a document to be signed on the table between them. There would be another strike to be launched at a later time, and their enemy would have no choice but to hold back from their advance into his kingdom and that of another further to the east. It would be mutually beneficial to deter what was coming. Though he was physically in front of the elven woman, two large kingdoms agreeing to some as yet unknown contract, his attention was somewhat elsewhere. He had detected that his artifact was destroyed over a week ago, by what means was unknown. It interested him greatly, though he didn't share his curiosity with the rest of his guild.

Hmm, that was not the defect I remember when I created that… it should have held together for at least another two weeks... someone, or something, overcharged it somehow. I'd like to find out how, though that will have to come later. If there is one thing I've learned now, it is to be patient when I'm now immortal.

"It's done. Remember, this does not make us allies, and you are not to put any of your soldiers in my territory, understood? We have a common enemy, that is all. A non-aggression pact is now between our kingdoms, don't betray us."

"An enemy that has so far been unpredictable. You may regret ignoring my offers," he replied, no facial features letting her know what he was thinking. The only thing he did was turn ever so slightly his head… straight towards the continent to the northwest. It was one of two continents he hadn't had scouted yet, dealing with so much else nearby. In time, there would be a plan written up on how to deal with whoever was living there, hopefully getting them on his side… or the enemy might get there first. If that happened, without a doubt, he'd be doomed. The only saving grace that they had at the moment was that neither side was in a position to send an expedition just yet.