Chương 372: AF Chapter 371 – Ring that Bellas

The aged Bellenesse Matriarch and the aging Knight-Captain of the remaining Viamontian fighters were soon present and engaged with their unexpected and numerous guests. Wines and foods the Viamontians hadn't seen in years were soon pulled out, and rolls of the sweetest cream pastries were passed out by the dozens to hand off to the nervous inhabitants of the keep, who hadn't had anything like them for years.

"Had to use all that milk for something," I told the Mick, who was listening with half an ear to what was going on, but mostly making sure all the Knights and Roaches didn't say anything stupid and were maintaining their gear. There were a lot of nicks and scratches, so the two support mages, Thera and Tsu Nippo, were busy with Mending up any mishaps and minor damage to armor and attire anyone had.

"Thesh bef rilly gerd," he winked back, stuffing one of them into his mouth for emphasis. QL 30, enough to sit on a Celestial's table, if not dominate it. Kris and I had quite a bit of fun whipping them up.

"They are," I agreed, nibbling at mine. Everyone else had at least two of them, except for the group sitting around a Disk-table and enjoying at least a partial diplomatic feast, with proper meats and fish and salads and all the good stuff there, multiple wines, multiple glasses for those wines, seven pieces of silverware each, and so on. The Viamontians looked nearly ready to cry at the much-missed pageantry.

"Whash the plan?" the Mick asked around his slow and expressive chewing of the cream pastry.

"Evacuate all of the Viamontians who want to get out of here. I think they've got them marked for Baishi. It's forested, hilly, and fairly similar to what Silyun used to be."

"What about the NPC shopkeep?" the Mick asked reasonably, always with an eye toward freeing those caught by the system.

"Well, we're not stupid, but Master Oswald should have told us first. I would have put up some storerooms with Preservation spells on them so we could make up a huge reserve of food and the like.

"We'll spend a lot of coins with him, just because we can, but this time to build up a food reserve. We should be able to get enough food out of him to feed the entire population of Freeholders for a year without too much problem."

"That be a lot of food," the Mick admitted after a slow and careful swallowing, even looking a bit forlorn as he cast about for another of the delectable things, and found some savagely unconcerned rogues had pillaged their way through the last of them!

"Not having to worry about the food situation while having so many people under arms is extremely valuable. We'll release the fellow soon enough, have no fear. We're going to dump a lot of it on the Hea survivors, too. It should take care of a lot of their worries for the coming year."

"Ye're going to be making a crapton o' Tapestries, then," he reasoned.

"Yes. One stack of MMD's worth of pyreal, in lots. There's going to be a lot of cabbages and chickens and eggs getting purchased, among other things. Free new cookpots, frying pans, and baking pans to everyone, too, if what Adso related is true."

"More meat than what chickens exist on Dereth today?" he reasoned with an arched eyebrow.

"And auroch steaks, too."

"Tis money wisely spent!" the Mick announced enthusiastically.

"It's hideously overpriced in real terms. You don't pay twenty-two pyreal for a steak, but we don't care."

"To fine dining an' eatin'!" he saluted me, and I laughed with him as we tunked bottles of milk and chugged them down after our pastries.

There was a lot of negotiating over the next day or two, and then a lot of spellcasting. All of the families with children were packed up and carried off via Teleports, Mass Reduce Person making them small enough that I could sweep up dozens of them and bring them away to Baishi. If I had to spend some time putting up houses for them once they got there, well that was fine, too.

In a short time, all that was left of the refugees from Silyun were the older knights who agreed to maintain the fortress, and the Isparian supply company Briggs brought in to be taught the tasks of doing so. More particularly, those hardened old knights of Silyun expressed great desire to learn Matrix Classes and end the menace of the Eaters once and for all. They had a LOT of experience in slaughtering Eaters and working the landscape around the fortress for the resources needed to trade to their Shopkeeper.

I also deduced that Kris and Briggs knew all of them by name the moment they saw them, and indeed, knew pretty much the entire older generation of Viamontians. I knew Kris was boiling with fury inside at seeing the fate of Eleonora's clan, but Silyun survivors who were part of Freehold's forces were also moving to Baishi to attempt to rebuild the storied and valiant clan. If you spot this story on Amazon, know that it has been stolen. Report the violation.

For their part, the Viamontians were mystified and impressed by how intimately the two Isparians knew their customs, training methods, and styles of combat, and how quickly they adapted the Viamontians to a new paradigm. Also, the potential of the vivic fire...

"It's green…" Knight-Captain Tyric du Pellonesse stared with the rest of the remaining Viamontians over the ground below the fortress, where I had slowly and methodically slaughtered an entire horde of Eaters, Burning them down ruthlessly and feeding them to the Land the night before. As normal, when the Land was fed, it bloomed. Greenery quite out of the late season had bloomed all around the base of the fortress after thousands of Eaters fed into it there.

The same was likely occurring along the shoreline where we'd fought the other horde, but that might also be getting scoured clean again by other Eaters looking for more food.

"Do you realize what this means, Highness?" Finding out that Kristie Rantha-Briggs was an Imperial Princess whose parents had raged across Viamont and put the Corcosi bloodline to the sword had totally overawed the men, especially when I verified the tales as the last people known to have come from Ispar in years. Very conscious of social status, there was no stopping the appellation, and the fact that it had been the title of her to them in her last life among them meant she didn't even try to fight it.

"Captain?" she asked him calmly.

"If we can keep killing the Eaters, we can make the island bloom again!" he said in a shaky voice, staring at the ravaged stone, sands, and dirt where the toughest shrubs and blooms had been devoured by the insatiable appetites of countless Eaters.

"Interesting…" Kris looked at me with an arched eyebrow.

"The Captain is correct. It is not feasible now, but it certainly can be done. The Eaters basically serve as a method to convert the energy invested in Summons into vivus, which can restore the very landscape they've eaten alive.

"The problem with this is the sheer scale of the devastation and the number of Eater hordes that are out there. We'll have to actually slaughter Eaters in selective areas to restore the landscape, and then protect that increasingly larger area as the Eaters are attracted to the living expanses.

"At the same time, we won't be able to clear off the landscape spawns, since they'll be needed to fuel new Eaters.

"The three western Hlaetian islands are all accessible to one another, so spillover from the islands is going to make this entire process an organic, intermixed, violent nightmare of strategy as we manage the incoming hordes, constantly adjust the area being protected, section off the living areas from others so the hordes can't just strip them again… we'll basically be carving all of the islands up into little battlefields that can bloom behind us."

"That is certainly a long-term commitment," Princess Kristie agreed, studying the grounds below.

"Think you can get that greenery walled off before another Eater horde munches it down and wastes the work, Magos?"

"Yes, Your Highness," I obliged calmly.

"Captain, how did the fortress survive the Fire and Thunder? I understand the two aurochs can decimate entire hordes of Eaters by themselves."

"Very simply, Highness," he assured her.

"We hide inside the fortress and reveal no sign of ourselves so that they see no reason to unleash their magic on us, or to attack the base of the fortress. They can be seen from miles off in these barren hills, day or night, so there is no difficulty in going dark in front of their advance."

"How big are they now?" Kris asked him with professional interest. He had to pause to consider the question.

"I believe that they measure over thrice the height of a man at the shoulder now, Highness." I blinked, picturing that. I had no idea what they actually looked like, and even Master Oswald had said that they were mutating and didn't appear like they once had, especially the Red Bull.

"Anything that size will utterly trash any fortifications that aren't basically small mountains," Kris stated coldly.

"We'll have to kill them before anything can be done about the Eaters."

"The Eaters are basically the only thing the two of them have to eat now. The Eaters have even eaten through the shallows, which often leads them to being lured out to sea and becoming food for the things of the sea there. The Aurochs have waded across the waters to the Vanguard Isle and the Isle of Ruin, and the things of the sea don't dare to attack them."

"So the Deep aren't the only ones keeping the numbers down, but that's not very reassuring," Kris sighed. There was less a sound than a rippling wave of him putting his foot down and letting everyone know he was coming. Briggs came up onto the roof and battlements, and we all waited as he came walking up with his naturally ominously steady stride. He'd had no difficulties exerting his authority over the very impressed Viamontians.

"Purchases all planned out for tomorrow?" I asked him. We'd allocated one more day just for foodstuff purchases, and would be repeating them until we had satisfactory amounts of Tapestried or Itemized Purchases built up. He made a show of handing me over the list, although I already had it in Visual File. I scanned it automatically and just nodded. Baishi and the Hea weren't going to have any food problems for the coming year, and the food purchases for the military were going to be largely satisfied…

which wouldn't please some of the farmers, but would mean more food available for everyone else.

"We could probably fly right over the landscape below and avoid the Eaters, but that wouldn't be any fun," the looming Ancient said.

"Instead, we're going to cut right across the landscape, vivifying Summon points, and if we run into Eater hordes, we're going to kill them all on the way for some extra Karma and vivus for the land," Briggs stated.

"Captain, the Lady Magos here can basically create all the fortifications we need on demand, and keep us alive through the entire process.

"You want to start on the Matrix path? We're going to give you a big shot in the arm to do so." The middle-aged, graying Viamontian looked only pleased at the possibilities.

"I would dearly like to make this 'Seven' status in the Matrix as soon as possible, and then go Deep and Wide afterwards, Your Grace!" he nodded, Briggs' status as the ruler of Stonehold being seized upon to give him status equal to a Lord-Mayor.

"Not a bad plan, and the Eaters are certainly enough to do the job for us," Briggs assured him.

"Morning, two days from now, we'll be leaving for the Fiun Outpost first, and then the prison of Sir Bellas."