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After the War Chapter 8

'Never a dull moment.' Renner practically tiptoed towards the meeting hall as Climb walked beside her with a large bag in his hands. They would soon be among the very few who had the opportunity to cross the gates to another world.

Lord Ulbert had entrusted her with overseeing the demonization of the recruits from Earth and now she was in a hurry to meet up with others who would deal with recruits of their own branches.

They still had a lot of time before the meeting starts, but the reputation of her never being late needed to be maintained. She glanced at her beloved Climb, who was carrying the bag with the demon seeds, while wearing an expression of absolute concentration, only looking at people walking past them to avoid bumping into anyone.

'My Climb is so diligent. I should reward him when we finish our task. Mmm, maybe I should increase his excitement slowly so he can let out that latent aggression of his later.'

Renner smirked as she wrapped her hand around his biceps and gently squeezed. 'His muscles are like steel. He's gotten so strong.' She could have stopped him from training so hard, but when Climb trained he didn't have time to think about much else, and thus start to become more independent.

From his meals and clothing to leisure activities and training, everything was under Renner's control. Climb was hers, and hers only. She had the full power to reshape her husband however she wished.

Climb quickly glanced in her direction, breaking into a smile. Despite everything, he loved her. In the end, she was his savior, his mistress, his everything. Renner may not have been the naive and innocent princess he once believed she was, but that didn't change his feelings for her. Her touch has always been far too exciting.

'Calm thoughts, we are in public.' He tried to quell the excitement. The usual trick of thinking about sword techniques helped but it wasn't enough. It seemed that Renner had decided to rail him up, and there was nothing he could do to stop her.

"Do not resist, darling." Renner whispered as fully wrapped her arm around his biceps and pressed against Climb's side.

"M-Mistress, we are in public." Climb whispered back.

"I told you not to call me that in public. That is only for the bedroom." She quietly hissed.

"I'm sorry, m… Renner."

"That's better."

Together they arrived at the gathering hall. To Renner's surprise, Nfirea was there already. He didn't even react to their presence as he sat in his seat and was scribbling something on the paper.

"Nfirea, what a pleasant surprise to see you." Renner said as she took her own seat with Climb standing behind her chair.

"Oh, Renner! I just thought it would be better to arrive sooner. Lord Tabula is busy with the weapons project and if I helped, I would've be late as usual." Nfirea said as he pushed the hair away from his face.

"Good to see you are starting to plan your time better." Renner responded, slightly tilting her head. "How is Enri doing?"

"She is doing fine. Thank you for asking. I recently made potions that are helping against morning sickness."

"That's good to hear. Please send my regards."

Nfirea nodded with a polite smile and returned to scribbling on the paper. He never was one for long talks. Renner motioned for Climb to show her the watch, which he immediately obliged.

"A quarter to ten. The rest should be coming any minute."

After about five minutes of silence the door to the gathering hall flung open with Zesshi coming in. She stopped in her tracks and said. "Huh, Nfirea is here already."

"Good day to you." Renner said while Nfirea just ignored her. 'The two could benefit from a friendlier relationship but considering her personality it's likely not meant to be.' Renner mused. The half-elf was not the most social or friendliest person to meet but, then again she was a good fit for her role as the Apostle of War.

"Morning." Zesshi said under her breath and sat down in her seat. She glanced around, pulled manga out of inventory, and started reading it.

'Her manners could use some work too. Such behavior from a daughter of a Goddess is unsightly, even if she is only adopted.'

Lastly, right on time arrived Shalltear and Relzanu. In terms of beauty, Shalltear, as a born daughter of a God, easily outmatched every other woman present. She was dressed in a low-cut crimson-colored dress with her head concubine matching her outfit. It was no secret that the former black scripture member had earned the honor of being the cold-hearted vampire's favorite toy, and thus served as her closest aide.

Just like everyone else in the room, Renner stood up and bowed but not before quickly glancing at her puppy. To Climb's credit, he didn't stare at Shalltear and after a quick bow resumed his position behind Renner's chair.

"Everyone present? Good. We can go." Shalltear said with a somewhat disinterested tone. Without waiting for an answer she opened a gate and walked through it, followed by Relzanu. Renner and others quickly followed, arriving at a hangar filled to the brim with people that roughly were separated into four groups most of whom were dressed in what looked like military uniforms.

Renner took a calm breath and looked around. The air was far too fresh for what she expected to face by the descriptions she had received. No one was wearing masks that apparently were common in this world. Suspecting the source of the freshness, she looked up and saw a small green crystal floating in the air. 'Lord Blue Planet's work, no doubt.'

A human with an eyepatch was approaching Shalltear. 'That must be Lord Pandora's Actor.'

Her guess proved to be a correct one as the man stopped before the floor guardian and addressed her as an equal. "Shalltear, welcome to the Earth."

"Thank you, Pandora's Actor." She responded in an equally casual manner. "Are all the recruits gathered?."

"Everyone worth expending energy on is in this building. You may start right away." Pandora said as he motioned at the crowd.

Taking it as a cue, Renner approached the group that was designated for her with Climb walking by her side, ready to defend her. Not that she needed protection from mere humans. 'My puppy is so fierce. I just love how eager he is to protect me.'

Six people stepped forward to meet her. First to speak was a balding man that was at least in his fifties, dressed in a dark gray silk suit. "Welcome to Earth, Lady Renner. I am the assistant director of USIC, Devin Reid. By your master's request, I have prepared forty-seven members from all USA intelligence agencies." He said with a bow of his head.

The next one was a woman who looked to be in her late forties and spoke with a barely noticeable accent. "I am the director of DGSE, Vivienne Delafose, it is a pleasure to make your acquaintance, Lady Renner."

Renner just replied with a polite smile and small nods as each of them introduced themselves. 'Lord Pandora's Actor has done a wonderful job getting the intelligence networks of the six largest countries of the world under his control. For now, I will just memorize their names, positions, and the types of demons they become. Before making any further plans, I need to see how many of them Lord Ulbert keeps around.'

By a quick count, there were over three hundred people who would become demons today. Climb put the bag on the table prepared for her and opened up the bag.

"Line up." Renner said to the group and then turned to Climb. "Darling, you can start giving them their gifts."

"As you command, mistress." Climb enthusiastically responded and started to give demon seeds to the people who took the gifts in a very well-organized and efficient manner, immediately stepping aside and finding a spot where to consume them.

'Again? I just told you not to do that! How many times have I told you not to call me mistress outside the bedroom you dunce!' Her irritation however ended the moment she started to observe the transformations.

Most, unsurprisingly, turned into imps and could relatively easily hide their demonic features, but others gained more monstrous appearances. When her gaze fell onto a woman who had turned into a wingless serpent, Renner smiled. 'How wonderful. I gained a new agent of my own.'

As a higher-tier demon in the same family tree, she could easily take the newcomer under her direct tutelage and gain more direct insight into the inner workings of the Earth's politics. 'I will need to report this immediately. Lord Ulbert needs to be informed that I am taking one of his agents for my own.'

Once the transformations had finished, she motioned for Climb to follow and they both approached Pandora's Actor, who was watching the whole event with almost clinical indifference. She politely bowed and said. "Our work here is done, Lord Pandora's Actor. If there is nothing else, we will return to our homeworld."

"Unless Lord Ulbert has given you additional objectives, that is all."

Renner bowed once more and then walked through the gate followed by Climb.

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'Father has entrusted me with making new servants for him. I cannot let him down.' The group in front of her was a bunch of inferior species, fit only to serve as food or entertainment, but the will of the Supreme Ones was more important than her own thoughts on the matter. They needed to be transformed into vampires, and her blood would ensure they become something more than they are.

With graceful movements, Shalltear approached the group that was waiting for her gift. Two men and a woman stepped forward from the group and bowed with one of the men starting to speak. "Welcome, Lady Shalltear. Our grou…"

'Ugh! They think they are important.' She waved her hand over them, putting them in trance, and said in a tone that betrayed her annoyance. "Step back in line!"

{ Mistress, should you dismiss them so carelessly? } Relzanu asked.

{ Father's followers can deal with them, I only need to transform them into vampires. Just start the ritual. } Shalltear messaged back.

"As you command, mistress." Relzanu quickly responded and took out a golden goblet decorated with rubies from her inventory. She kneeled before Shalltear and lifted the goblet up.

Shalltear put her right hand over the gobbled and cut her palm with her nail while addressing the crowd. "If any of you dare to waste this gift, I will personally make sure you regret ever existing!"

As blood slowly gathered in the goblet, Shalltear cut her palm again. The natural regeneration of a vampire didn't let the wound stay open longer than a few seconds. Once the goblet was filled, Relzanu stood up and turned around. "Come forth and accept the gift of immortality Lady Shalltear, the daughter of Lord Peros, the God of Murder, is giving you!" She shouted at the crowd.

One by one the humans approached and took a small sip from the goblet. Most just stepped aside and dropped to their knees as their skin paled, their eyes reddened and their fangs grew. Some, on the other hand, were not so fortunate.

'What a waste.' Shalltear remarked to herself as some of the recipients fell to the ground and shook in convulsions. About one out of five turned out to be too weak to accept her gift and died in the process.

"What are we doing with corpses?" Shalltear asked her peer.

"Don't worry. I will take care of it. Nazarick has enough corpses in storage, so there is no need to drag them back to the Great Tomb." Pandora responded. 'Oh hoW I long to be more EXPressive. This current role is so restrictiNG. What sacrifices the ACTOR has to make for the performance.'

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Zesshi's task was the relatively easiest one. All she had to do was to gather the military officers and bring them back to her world so Nazarick could use their expertise in training Nazarick's armies for the direct invasion of Earth, once all the obstacles were eliminated by the infiltration teams.

As she approached her group, a man about forty years old with short blonde hair, dressed in military uniform stepped forward and saluted. "Lady Zesshi! General Macmillan reporting for duty."

"At ease. Is everyone ready to go?" She asked, looking over the group. Every single man and woman present was dressed in various uniforms and had bags over their shoulders. At least it was easy to deal with professional soldiers, as they lived for discipline.

"Yes. We got the briefing." Macmillan said.

"Good. Let's go then." Zesshi motioned the group to walk back to the gate.

Macmillan catched up to her and said. "Permission to speak freely?"

'What does he want? I better play nice for now. Mother would be disappointed if I couldn't manage my temper.' "Permission granted."

"As you may have been informed, every single one of these soldiers were part of the Order of the Smokeless Flame." Macmillan said as they crossed the gate and arrived in the meeting room.

"So?"

"As men and women of faith, we all would like to request a bible or an equivalent religious text on the religion that worships the Gods."

{ Neia. I need a lot of copies of the scriptures you wrote. }

{ Zesshi? Huh, oh there should be at least a few thousand copies in the storage room of the Apostle wing. } Neia responded with a surprised tone.

{ Bring me few hundred copies. } Zesshi impatiently messaged back.

{ Seriously! Just ask the castle staff for directions and go get them yourself. I have better things to do than be your errand girl. } Neia responded with a clear annoyance in her voice.

'Dammit, am I coming off as too arrogant again? Mother might lecture me again about not being friendly with equals.' Wouldn't be the first time. Neia, after all, tried to be friendly with her, at least at first. As patient as the prime apostle was, even she couldn't tolerate Zesshi's attitude for long.

{ Sorry. } Zesshi swallowed her pride and messaged her fellow apostle.

{ I'm sorry too. I shouldn't snap back at you like that. Will you be able to find the books on your own? } After a moment of silence, Neia answered.

{ I think so. }

{ That's good. Contact me if there are any problems. }

"Each of you will get your own copy of the scriptures written by the Prime Apostle Neia." Zesshi said to the General.

"Thank you, Lady Zeshi."

She just nodded in response and led the group through the wide halls of the castle. Since none of them were above regular trained humans in terms of strength and no augmentation was planned, she didn't need to get herself involved with their training. The initial handling of the soldiers fell on her shoulders only because she was the Apostle of War.

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Just like with other Apostles and the daughter of a God, he too was approached by a few people from his group.

A man, about sixty years old with short white and rather messy hair, dressed in casual pants and sweater addressed him while extending his hand. "Good day to you, Lord Nfirea. My name is professor Gabriel Holland, and I am assigned to lead the research group from the Earth that will work under Nazarick."

"It's a pleasure to meet you professor Holland, I am looking forward to working with you and your team." Nfirea said and shook the man's hand.

The man then leaned to the side and watched the floating book that accompanied Nfirea with a critical look. "Pardon my forwardness, but could you explain how you are making the book fly like this?"

"It's a simple anti-gravity enchant. Oh, that reminds me." Nfirea motioned for Gabriel to step aside and cast a large magical ring around him. Few rows of glowing symbols showed up in front of him. "Hmm, the mana regeneration rate is extremely low…what is this! Just as Lord Tabula suspected."

Gabriel watched the spell with both amazement and intrigue. "Lord Nfirea?"

"There is a anti-magic matrix active, and by the looks of it, it covers the entirety of Earth. Lord Tabula speculated that it might be the case." Nfirea said, as he pulled out a notebook from his inventory and scribbled down notes at a rapid pace.

"How fascinating. No wonder our magical research was so slow. Is there any way to break it?"

"I think so, but it will likely require a ritual that only Gods can perform."

"Of course, if us mortals could do it easily the anti-magic matrix would be broken long ago." Gabriel said.

Nfirea put his notebook back in his inventory and said. "I think we are ready to go. Did you prepare all the equipment?"

When the newly acquired followers from Earth started to send the information, a glaring problem appeared right away. There was next to no handwritten data as everything was held in digital drives that needed computers to be accessible, something Nazarick didn't have.

"We did prepare for everything. We even have a few electric generators just in case."

"That's good. Nazarick's technology at the moment is magic based. I guess we can go." Nfirea said and motioned for the group to go through the gate. The first ones of course were the people pushing trolleys full of various equipment that would let Nazarick not only rapidly acquire all the knowledge that wasn't found in the library but would jumpstart the technological development of the prime world.