Chương 1284: 1314 - A Decade of Preparation

Consciousness returned slowly. Sleep, despite not being needed, was nice to indulge in, and waking slowly was a luxury that Leon rarely denied himself. As his awareness returned, he felt the warm body next to him, his arm around her waist, her limbs draped over him. Valeria wasn't the clingiest of his wives, but when he had her alone, she could be surprisingly affectionate. Given what was going to happen soon, she was even more so, which made her particularly aggressive in claiming time with him.

Before Leon opened his eyes, he breathed in, savoring the floral smell of her perfume as her soft silver hair brushed against his nose. He could feel her stirring just as he was, and he held her closer, pressing his lips to her head as he felt her lightly raking her fingertips along his chest. He finally opened his eyes as he felt her start to sit up, and when he beheld the sight before him, he had to stifle a gasp.

Even after all these years, the sight of Valeria without clothes never ceased to take his breath away. Her body was toned to perfection, while remaining generous where it counted. How she—and his other wives, for that matter—maintained such figures was a magic he was unfamiliar with, but he certainly appreciated the results.

Valeria was in no hurry to fully rise, stopping herself as she propped herself up on her knees and one hand, the other wandering over Leon's torso, tracing the long lines of muscle that he kept sharp with constant training. Though he was still a thirteenth-tier mage and his body had reached a certain degree of perfection, he refused to slacken in his training. Just because magic kept his muscles strong and fat practically nonexistent, it didn't mean that he was 'ready' for battle.

"Hey," he said with a loving smile.

"Hey," she replied, her own smile warm and radiant as Aeterna's sun.

"Sleep well?" he asked. She glanced at the enchanted clock in her bedroom. Leon followed her gaze, realizing from the clock hands that they'd slept for four-ish hours or so. For mages of their caliber, that was practically an eternity.

"Well enough," she said more sharply as she pushed herself further up, resting on the bed in a kneeling position, her hands folded on her thighs but her enticing body otherwise on display. Leon's smile faltered slightly despite the view, his mind focusing on what she'd said rather than what she looked like.

"You're ready for this," he assured her.

"You've been ready all your life."

"Hardly," she responded.

"I attended the Knight Academy because it was expected, and because I wanted to get some experience outside of my father's household. I didn't want to lead. If I'd wanted to lead before now, I would've asked, and knowing you, you would've given me a command."

"In a heartbeat. Without hesitation. Because I know you, and I know that you're ready for this. And I know that you know that you're ready, or you wouldn't have asked." Doubt spread across Valeria's face like the universe's vilest mold.

"Now that the day's come…" Leon took her hand as her voice faltered.

"Even when you're gone, you won't be alone. And I'll be with you if you ever need me to be. To see me and to talk to me, you'll only need to take out your comm slate." Communication across Leon's Nexus domains was easy—comm lotuses and the slates they were built into ensured that. But communication between planes was much less so—even relatively close planes had vast gulfs of Void between them that were difficult to overcome.

For the better part of a decade, a message had to be sent from the Nexus to the planar clusters he'd conquered by way of ark, with specific Void platforms acting essentially as posthouses within the clusters that would pass on any received message. It was a fairly inefficient system given what Leon was used to, and it was now in the past.

Three years ago, one of the few farmers allowed to grow comm lotuses—a retired Bison elder who enjoyed tinkering with nature magic—figured out a way to strengthen them significantly using certain magics. When Leon saw what he'd done, he authorized further experimentation with the new enchantment technique, and after adding some origin power—courtesy of his numerous star condensers spread throughout Artorion—a comm lotus was grown that, while not any larger than any other lotus, was still much more powerful.

This increased potential range, while also allowing Leon to revisit an old idea that one of the Ravens had had of making repeater lotuses that could connect with multiple other lotuses at the same time and help two slates that were otherwise outside of each other's range to connect. These repeaters would be established in the conquered clusters during the upcoming campaign, ensuring that his commanders were never out of communication with Artorion. And Valeria was going to be one of those commanders.

She'd asked Leon to lead an armada almost an entire year ago, and while he was struck with a sudden fear of losing her, he'd gotten over it quickly and accepted. If that was what Valeria wanted, then he would make it happen, even if the universe itself attempted to stop him. His words had the intended effect, and she visibly relaxed.

"We shouldn't spend the whole day in bed," she said, though the way her eyes raked over his body gave Leon ideas.

"I don't know," he replied, "I could stand to lie here a little longer, so long as I had the right company." Snickering, she responded, "Don't tempt me. Besides, Jericho is waiting for you."

"Right, right…" Leon grumbled as he summoned the titanic effort required to get him to leave the confines of Valeria's bed. Jericho had arrived nearly a full month ago, his promise of visiting to buy storm crystal finally coming to pass. He'd assured Leon that if he'd had his way, he would've come straight to Artorion after getting home from the Belicenian Games.

As it was, instability on his borders kept him out in the planes instead of visiting as he'd said he would, though messages were still relayed between him and Artorion, which allowed Leon to get their deal in writing. He was going to advance through the Great Strand of Rhea in the direction of the smaller strands that connected Rhea to the Great Strand of Ionis, where Jericho was based.

Leon would secure Rhea's side of the three bridge-like strands, his alliance with Jericho then allowing the fourteenth-tier Anax to commit more forces to reinforcing his unstable border. Jericho sweetened the deal by offering dominion over those very strands connecting the two Great Strands, promising them to Leon once Leon was in a position to properly hold them. Now, nearly ten years after the end of the Belicenian Games, Leon was just about ready to begin the conquest.

Or rather, he was just about ready to order it, given he was staying behind to rule his Kingdom while his commanders had all the fun. There would be time for him to lead campaigns later, but for the moment, he had to give his people the time to show what they could do, time to breathe away from his suffocating presence, time to prove that they were more than garrison troops who moved in to secure the territory that fell under the shadow of Leon's winds.

It was almost serendipitous that Jericho managed to come back to the Nexus just before Leon launched his campaign. The man would see with his own eyes that Leon was going to fulfill the letter of their bargain, and he'd be bringing the first shipment of storm crystal that he was officially buying back to his Nexus holdings personally.

'Two thousand tons of storm crystal, exchanged for two thousand tons of Aurichalcum and one thousand tons of Lumenite…' The price being paid was staggering, but Anakes were terrifyingly rich almost as a rule, their vast domains bringing in such wealth that men simply couldn't keep track of all of it. And to gain access to storm crystal, Jericho parted with a not-insignificant portion of his wealth.

That storm crystal would be incorporated into Jericho's arks, Leon was sure, but he didn't mind that; having a strong ally made him stronger, and dealing fairly with Jericho ensured that Jericho would help to establish him as a reliable partner. Enjoying the story? Show your support by reading it on the official site. Of course, Leon had been doing such business with other Nexus Lords ever since the Games. Even Gwarim had visited for several months, and Leon sent him away with many times his weight in the stuff.

Gwarim wasn't the sort of friend who needed such gifts, but Leon had wanted to ensure that he got it anyway, if only as a token of appreciation for his friendship. So far, despite the large quantities of storm crystal he was selling, as well as effectively using it as a monetary replacement for silver backing up the currency within his realm, no one had managed to recreate it.

His process for creating the stuff remained under lock and key; those few production facilities that created it were heavily secured and compartmentalized. No one was kidnapping any of his workers, and even if they did, they'd only get part of the creation process. All of these thoughts flitted through Leon's mind as he and Valeria prepared to face the day—these few hours in the morning were the last they'd spend together before Valeria's departure.

Five enormous armadas had been assembled, each one formed around one of the fleets that Leon had taken on his campaign to seize the Demetrion and Yun clusters. This way, each one of the armadas had a core of veterans that could show the new troops how things were done.

These 'new' troops weren't exactly green, having been extensively trained, with some of the officers being old enough to have fought in Leon's wars all the way back on Aeterna, but the formations were new, and most of the soldiers had been raised in the past decade. About twenty percent of them came from the new planes, and Leon was eager to see how they fared. When Leon and Valeria left her bedroom fully dressed, they emerged into the innermost courtyard around which he and all his wives had rooms.

The courtyard was largely made up of a garden filled with flowers, trees, and plants from the Forest of Black and White, all carefully grown to look natural. A stone path ran through it, with a small pavilion in the center, where Elise, Cristina, Asiya, and a handful of ladies-in-waiting were huddled around a new dress that Elise had recently commissioned from the Royal Tailor.

"Looks like they're having fun," Valeria noted as someone laughed loudly and Elise reeled in an exaggerated show of shock. Almost immediately after, Elise's head turned in their direction, and her face lit up with a luminous smile, alerting the others to Leon and Valeria's presence. Of the group, Leon was only relatively close to Cristina and Asiya, both of whom had come to Artorion only two years after Leon left it last.

Leon knew why they did, and he accepted them in his Kingdom with open arms, gifting them homes in Artorion and estates to support them. Since then, both managed to reach the ninth-tier, though Leon knew that Elise and Valeria had both shared ambrosia with them relatively frequently. Leon waved to them, but since Valeria was going to leave, he wanted to monopolize as much of her time as he could.

She'd spent much of the past week with her friends, anyway, so he waved to them before walking through the courtyard's peristyle rather than through the gardens. As they walked toward the guest wing where Jericho was staying, Tempest Knights fell in at a respectable distance, while adjutants and palace staff made way. The glowing murals on the wall cast Valeria in light of every hue, and Leon couldn't help but marvel at how her hair glimmered with every step.

"What is it?" she asked playfully, her voice not carrying far despite the spacious halls and her prodigious power.

"I'm going to miss you," he replied.

"I'm not dying."

"Of course not. But you'll be far from me, and that's always hard to deal with."

"You've dealt with it fine often in the past. Is this any different?"

"No. Well, yes, I shouldn't pretend like this isn't different. It's… it's not fun being on this end." Valeria laughed musically, and her light touch on his arm momentarily tightened.

"It isn't."

"It's a comfort knowing that you'll have support, but it's not as much comfort as I'd get going with you."

"You've already decided to stay behind."

"I have."

"Then trust that we'll handle anything that comes our way. Unless you don't believe any of my fellow commanders are suited to their position?" Leon stifled a snort of amusement, but the accompanying smile was too strong to ignore.

"I trust Alix with my life and frequently have. Marcus overthinks things, but I have no doubt that he'll find victory in his direction. Anzu, I'm a little more nervous about, but that's just brotherly concern. As for Menander… I'm nervous, but not for him. It's whoever gets in his way that concerns me." Five commanders, four of whom were either Leon's family or his Paladins. Menander, the strongest mage in the Lion Clan, was a concession to his Tribal vassals.

Those who were upset that he decided to support Jericho rather than immediately make for their ancestral planes nominated him for the role, and Leon diplomatically accepted. Fortunately, aside from the couple thousand Lions that Menander was bringing with him, the rest of the armada he'd be commanding were uniformed regulars. Of course, he was confident that Menander would see his task to completion; Leon was simply concerned about the cost paid by those who resisted the Lion.

The Lions, after all, weren't exactly known for their honorable and gentlemanly conduct during war. As they walked, Leon chose to take a longer route, which had them walking through open-air terraces facing south. The mountains loomed all around the valley, while the Southern Talon split the mountain range seemingly right down the middle. Past the mountains and great fortress, the sky was positively choked with arks. They numbered in the thousands and ranged from small scout corvettes to massive dreadnoughts.

There were even several dozen of the newest Trajan-class carriers, each one of them possessing the latest Nestorian Drives. All of the arks in these armadas, in fact, were of the latest designs, and some of the smaller war arks, transports for warriors and material, and command arks had been built out in the planar arkyards.

It had been almost eleven years since Leon completed the campaign that brought those planes into his Kingdom, and while there had been a few small uprisings, his garrisons had put them down quickly and with little collateral damage. The relative peace imposed on these fractious planes allowed them to become productive quickly, as evidenced by the expansion of their arkyards and the presence of their fighting men and women in the assembled army. The army encamped below the mass of arks.

Millions of men, women, and giants, all ready to seize the Great Strand of Rhea in Leon's name. Given how soon they'd be leaving, camp had long been broken, and now this great horde, this enormous mass of humanity and steel-framed giants, were loading into thousands of transports, which would be their homes for the foreseeable future.

"Don't advance too far," Leon said as his eyes flickered southward.

"This is a mighty force, but when taking planes of billions, even an army of a million can be too small."

"You did just fine with 'only' a hundred thousand," Valeria said, her tone lilting with amusement.

"I left more of the local power structures in place than I strictly wanted. Had I had it my way, I would've destroyed all of their governments in favor of ours. But I settled for mostly subjugating the locals rather than outright replacing them."

"We're carrying that strategy forward," Valeria stated, though she knew that he knew, too. There had been weekly strategy meetings for the past year, ensuring that everyone was properly organized, that supplies were being allocated, and that all was in place to support this enormous military expedition.

Given the scale, the full force couldn't even be amassed in a single place—once these five armadas left, additional fleets would follow, these largely composed of older and slower arks, though they could still fight well and carry troops to where they needed to be. The armadas couldn't constantly leave garrisons behind them as they advanced, else they'd quickly run out of troops.

So Leon couldn't just plan and provide for the five-ish million ground troops and the hundreds of thousands of ark troops; he also had to plan for those who followed, who would greatly outnumber the advancing armadas. It had been expensive, but with the addition of potentially hundreds or even thousands of planes to his Kingdom, the rewards were potentially endless.

As they walked, Leon, with his magic senses, noticed Jericho in a lower garden with several of his followers, calmly exploring the wonders of his palace. He didn't look too impressed, but he at least wasn't openly scornful, which was more than could be said for one or two in his entourage.

"There he is," he whispered as he came to a halt, with Valeria halting beside him.

"He looks plenty entertained…" Valeria glanced in the same direction, and Leon felt the pulse of her magic senses.

"You shouldn't ignore him. Not even for me."

"You're leaving today."

"That's no excuse. I'll be back before you know it."

"I'll feel every second that you're gone."

"I'll have Elise and Maia fill your bed. And Cassie, though I loathe asking her to do anything." Her words were fairly harsh for Cassandra, but her tone was light, and the smile on her face was genuine. She turned her sapphire eyes to Leon and said, "You won't be able to think about anything but them while I'm gone." Leon smiled and said nothing more.

In truth, while he had full confidence in his people, and his scouts had given them a fairly clear picture of what to expect in Rhea, there were always unknown factors; there could always be someone or something hiding out in the Void that would take umbrage with his actions here. He didn't just have a bad feeling; he outright knew that many of those he sent out on this expedition weren't going to come back. He was going to have to live with the consequences, no matter what they were.