Chương 189: AF Chapter 188 – Digesting Glory

Kris' Warlord reward naturally dwarfed everyone else. She had been responsible for so much of the training, unit compositions, tactics, strategy, and had been giving deployment orders the entire time the Trembling Song was also giving everyone +4 to hit and damage, every hit that would have missed and every bit of extra bite of damage a credit to her.

Her blizzard of orders when the Shadow Vortexes had bleated for all the surviving Shaded to come save them had completely validated her strategy to clear out the Summons, as well as the research on how long it would take those Summon points to respawn in the face of vivus. From the moment we killed the first Summons and Sealed their Spawn Points, we had an hour, and then we were going to be hit with a returning avalanche of fresh Summons coming in to tear us apart from behind.

That urgency had driven all the killing, everywhere, and we'd had to pick and choose what Summon points we could kill the fastest as we rotated among the mandatory kill points to clear them. We'd made it with about ten minutes to spare, and coordination and training had been such a vital part of it. She needed it, too. Them Rantha Levels were pricey! I cleared over a billion Karma on the Isparian side, which sounded impressive, but really wasn't as you gained Levels.

The real reward for me was on the Matrix side, stuffing me full of more Karma I could use to gain Levels sideways, or to Infuse Magic. Definitely enough to break Twelve, even with all that. My goal was to hit at least Thirteen and get access to Resurrection, but that was in the future.

Master Ben Ten, his students and officers, Chief MacNaill, and his captains joined us as we made our way up out of the Burning town. Vivus was catching hold, digging deeper and deeper as it saw things to feast on which didn't have enough incoming power any longer to resist its hunger.

"How long will it Burn?," MacNaill asked directly, like so many undead finding it hard to look away from what was practically a pool of absolution in front of him.

"There's no telling," I answered the empty eye sockets swinging my way.

"It will Burn as long as there is Taint to feed upon, and the Taint spread wide and deep for many, many years, riding the ley lines away from here for miles, judging by the Summons points it corrupted.

"Days, months, years. It is all possible."

"Be wantin' t' go down an' take a final bath in it," MacNaill murmured, and many of the undead around nodded silently in agreement with him.

"Nobody is stopping you if you think it's your time, Uncle," the Mick said softly. More empty eye sockets glanced at me, then away. I'd told them that I could get to them, in time… but I had to Level. Return to life, or finally embrace death. It would take a lot of magic, and a crap ton of Diamond Golum Hearts. I'd specifically told them that they had to fight and kill the diamond golum that gave up its Heart solo.

I was using Divine magic to do this, and given the scale of what I was attempting, the gods were going to place conditions on returning to life. A basic test of worth was easy to make. If not, the gods would at the very least welcome them to the afterlife… if they were here and could hear them, which I wasn't at all sure they could yet, and my Ur-Priest instincts were telling me that they were still obfuscated by other interested parties. One of those parties had just gotten a needle in the eye, however.

"What manner of response do you expect from the shades?" Master Ben Ten inquired.

"I had wondered if I would ever see this land cleared, but clearly that would not be the will of those that follow Bael'Zharon, sane or no."

"Hostile, but unless they amass an army of their own and some great Ritual to re-profane this place, they will probably do nothing," I sniffed.

"The fact this place will Burn them away as readily as it will you will also give them pause," Kris stated firmly.

"I'm rather thinking that any one of you would consider it a wonderful way to go if you could grab one of the bastards and hold both of you down in the vivus, laughing as they screamed and died." There was a clatter and clacking of bones gently knocking, the equivalent of an agreeing mutter and sigh. It would indeed be a fine way to go!

"Your forces will retire to Mayoi, yes?" Master Ben Ten asked Kristie.

"Yes. We need to secure our ground, and there will be challenges coming. Chief Fool MacNaill, we can't relieve you from Hebian-To as yet, we've not the numbers. I apologize." The leader of the Freeholders waved it off.

"Aye, 'tis expected. There be more dead here than living still," he pointed out, and everyone nodded. We were outnumbered almost three to one, actually.

"A watch on this place, for the shades who'll be coming, then?"

"Yes, a fine thing." Master Ben Ten looked to me.

"Some basic shelter against the elements is all that we will need for our vigil. I will prevail upon the Lady Magos for some of her stonework." This novel's true home is a different platform. Support the author by finding it there.

"Of course, elder," I inclined my head.

"Decide where you want your barracks and storage facilities, and if you like, I can even erect a simple wall around this place."

"MacNaill and I will confer on our preferences, and let you know quickly," he promised, with a gesture at the freebooter that was returned in kind.

It was a long hike back to Mayoi, made easier with Mass Disks and just how fast Princess Kristie and the Mick could run. The supply wagons had already headed that way, moving at a smart clip, and actually arrived not long after we did, along with new wagons coming in from Fort Overlook. The celebration started soon afterwards. There were all kinds of tropical fruits, the rum made from them, and the cakes, cream, and other desserts that they garnished.

Steaks from reedsharks, shreth, aurochs, armoredillos, and even mattekars were there for the eating, as well as a dozen kinds of fish and sea life, not incidentally including several types of remorans and nautiloids, an acquired taste which pretty much everyone had acquired by now. Something like forty dipping sauces to choose from, too.

The undead left behind were standing guard, but they got their own reward, as Putrefied food and drink was delivered to them for their service, and they too got to enjoy at least the pleasure of eating, even if it did little for them. The atmosphere was jubilant, hopeful, and at the same time cautious. Yes, we'd done something the paramounts before the Fall had been unable to, courtesy of vivus and a lot of teamwork. Whether or not it could hold forever was a different story.

More importantly, the ground along the Sho Road to Hebian-To, all the way back to Overlook, and up the length of the Tou-Tou Peninsula, was now clear of all Summons.

The landscape was clear of that danger for the first time in the history or knowledge of anyone gathered here, and there were people who climbed the new walls around the City of Hills just to look out there and see nothing more than a few undead guards steadily surveying the area, marveling at the sight of the random monstrous threats removed from consideration. Naturally we hadn't removed ALL the Summon Points.

Specific areas had been marked, bounded, and set aside for combat practice for up and coming warriors, exactly like allocated farmlands for harvesting Karma. Those were also the areas marked out for training camps and posts along the road as we expanded into Dereth and consolidated our territory.

"Milk?" the Mick sniffed, seeing what I was sipping at as he tossed himself onto an available Disk. He had the smell of much booze imbibed upon him, courtesy of making the rounds and ensuring everyone was having a good time. I held my flagon out to him wordlessly. He gave me a look, weighing just how risky this was, and then swept it out and downed it in a daring quaff. His eyes popped open and glowed blue for about five seconds.

"No!" he protested feebly.

"Ye know how hard I had t' work t' get this buzz going?!" But it was too late as he sadly handed me my flagon back, while I waved off to the side. He took in the array of containers with a lot of nibbled fruit garnishes on them, counted them, and just sighed.

"Ye'd be flat on your face drolling inta the grass without that, wouldn't ye." I just nodded.

"Her Highness definitely wanted to see that, too." Kris was no more susceptible to alcohol than she was to fugu, so she was just enjoying everyone enjoying themselves. If more than a few couples were stealing away to tents or buildings or the like, nobody was going to say anything tonight. There hadn't been much to celebrate for the last fifteen years, so this day was likely going to go down as an annual holiday.

"Well, damn," he muttered, looking forlornly at the mug which didn't hold enough ale to get him drunk at all.

"Mayhap I should try harder all over again?" he asked brightly.

"Or you might just want to mosey over and chat up the Queen Mother, who has been keeping an eye on you." I timed it well, and he spluttered all over the place in mid-draw, his denial lost in the spray.

"Hey, now, them's dangerous words yer spoutin', lass!" he muttered under his breath, looking around to make sure no one had overheard what had caused his incident.

"I noted Oswald, Princess Fan, and King Borelean attempted to infiltrate and contribute without being noticed, too."

"Aye, proper sneaky gits, the lot o' them," the Mick confirmed he'd seen the same, and not batted an eye at it.

"Kinda hard to hide the artificial arm and all, but he tried," he noted of the King's mechanical shield-arm.

"He did, and didn't make any bones about following orders, either. Were you satisfied with the Glory Award?"

"Ach, ye should have heard the quiet bitching from the paramounts that there weren't no loot drops from the Shaded. Used to be one o' the very best areas t' scrounge up good loot, back in the day. Five'll get you ten they were waiting for some new NPC t' pop up an' give them some custom magic item fer all their trouble, so they could wave it around to prove they were there at the freeing of Tou-Tou!" he answered in a mocking tone.

"Kris has all the names and is commissioning all the medals for the participants. We don't have the money or time to make them magical ahead of time, but with the harmony from the Glory award, those who get them should be able to grow them slowly into something worthwhile using Naming Karma, if they're of a mind to keep fighting."

"Aye? What Buff?" he asked, interested.

"We're looking at Constitution on the Matrix side, Enhancement maxing at +6." He worked that numbers over in his head and in his Assay, then grinned.

"I'll be taking an' levering that up, ye kin be sure o' it!" he informed me. I gave him a salute with a hoist of my Cleansing Coconut Milk, and he returned it with a raise of his tankard. He was working up his Artificer Levels, so layering other Enchantments onto such a thing on his own time was a given. He just needed to get his hands on enough goldweight to do so.

"What next?" he asked after a moment of companionable silence, listening to Kris lead three separate groups in competitive drinking songs. The humans, lugians, and tumeroks were bellowing loudly enough to wake the dead, but not the many soldiers passed out happily drunk all over the place.

"Kris was actually very annoyed that Briggs wasn't here for the fight, now that she knows he is here. We're going to Stonehold very soon, and make no mistake on that."