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Chapter 111 - But A Moment's Respite
🕑 Added 2018-11-22 16:08:28 +0000 UTC"[This place has really gone to the dogs.]" Exla comments through her strange airship's speakers when we reach the sky above Arkaim. She remained wordless throughout the journey and didn't even say anything when I picked up Senka along the way. But this is the first thing she says? "[What have you people done to this once so fertile continent?]"
"[No point asking me, I've only been born into this world... or era... two years ago or so.]" I don't actually remember exactly how long it has been; I've been to so many climate zones in short intervals that losing track of the seasons is only natural. I do know that around a year passed in Adanak though.
"[If I had some time, I'd make this place the way it used to be.]" The sheep-looking cloud girl in the cockpit says.
"[I think you do have some time. Since I don't know when they might attack again, we can only wait here for the time being.]" And while I know that Zenlith is most likely the most powerful among them when it comes to the power of imagination, there are still those like Zylos and Kanundra, whose personal imaginations have incredibly destructive applications.
Then again, if they died from being disintegrated - which is what I did to Zenlith - things would be incredibly easy.
"[So I'll be able to work this land and make Arkheim green again?]" Exla sounds excited at the prospect of turning this entire region into a gardening project. Considering she was the gamekeeper of an entire continent for a while, that may even be a step-down in scale for her.
"[Yeah, but first I'll introduce you to the others.]" I point down at the floating castle. We're still above the clouds, but I'm sure some have already spotted the airship Exla is traveling in. "[I'd prefer if you didn't land in that conspicuous thing though.]"
"[I understand.]" Grinning, the goddess of the earth seems to suck the entire airship into her body from the inside, before ending up with her human appearance sitting on a small cloud.
"[I get that reference.]" I point at her with both fingers and wink, and she returns it with a cheerful smile. "[Now, let's go.]"
We're talking in the language of Adanak - or Armeria, as it used to be called when the Old Humans still reigned there - because Tahiri is with us. Even then, she only watches us curiously and doesn't join the conversations. Maybe she doesn't understand our topics, or she's still observing Exla.
When I think about it, aren't the two of them quite similar? They both have a cloud theme, even though Tahiri's powers overlap with Zenlith's rather than Exla's. But their lax attitudes are pretty much the same, as they both lived for a long time. And they both know how powerful they are, compared to those around them.
As we approach the city, I see people pointing up at us and running away in the streets. They should know Tahiri and me, and I can't imagine why Exla's childlike appearance would cause such a panic.
We quickly reach the castle, and I land in the courtyard. The maids have finished their magic training and returned inside by now, but the Petsobek guards at the doors stare at our approach in fear, their halberds pointed at us with shaky hands. What has those two-meter tall crocodile-men so scared?
Then I turn around and find that Exla, floating on her cloud, is still a giant. Maybe she was keeping her distance from me while in that strange airship so that I couldn't judge her size, but now she can be put in relation with other objects.
"[Misleading perspective again!]" I point at her and shout out.
"Your Highness, what is..." One of the guards asks when he recognizes me.
"Sorry, that's just Exla, the Guardian of the Soil." Turning around to him, I sigh and explain, but that only serves to make him even more nervous. Yeah, I shouldn't make it sound like this isn't anything special; her name is known, even if nobody has ever seen her.
"A god?" Another asks in a shaky voice, unsure whether to even try stopping her or just run away. I praise his discipline and bravery when he chooses to stand his ground.
"[It's been such a long time since I last saw normal-sized people.]" Exla tilts her head when she regards the Petsobek guards that should appear like 1/4 figurines to her.
"[What about us?]" I gesture at Tahiri and me. Senka, whom I've taken out from my body by now, is an exception since she's child-sized.
"[I thought you were just tiny.]" Shrugging, the cloud-headed girl replies as if she's serious about it. Then she cracks up with a grin before beginning to shrink along with her cloud and descending towards the ground while still sitting on it.
"[Admit it, you just wanted to leave a big impression.]" I sigh again.
"[Just like you at Kairaki.]" Tahiri comments while drifting past me on her very own cloud chair. She's referring to the fact that at the start of the battle I turned into a giant robot that shot plasma at the enemy army to intimidate them.
"[Hey, that was different.]" There really shouldn't be any reason for me to justify my actions from back then, but I still feel the need to do so. It worked wonders to break the humans' morale, though I have to admit that it was unnecessary. Even the five enemy gods that combined into one giant could have been easily taken care of at my normal size.
"[Oh, you need to tell me all about that, senpai.]" Exla passes by me like a floating sheep while grinning mischievously.
"[I made a huge mistake...]" I mutter when I look at the two goddesses on their clouds as they enter the castle ahead of me. Tahiri wasn't much of a tease before, but it seems that something awakened in her after seeing how easily I become flustered from Senka's cheeky remarks.
Now I added another tease - one who calls me senpai in a tone that makes me wonder whether she's saying it ironically or not.
"[You're back.]" Aratio suddenly whispers next to my ear and blows into it. I suppress the urge to shudder at the sensation and turn around.
"[One of these days...]" Muttering this as I see her floating upside down next to me again, I stop myself and close my eyes. Then I open them again and look into her silver ones. "[You know what, come to my room this evening.]"
"[Oh? Are you finally willing to play with me then?]" She stares at me with a hint of surprise in her gaze, but there's an expectant glint in those ethereal eyes.
"[If by play you mean in bed, yes.]" Petting her upside down head, I comment, and she twirls her lips into a frown, though it looks like a smile since she's upside down. Did she do that knowing it would look like a smile, or is she actually frowning?
"[I hope this time you'll keep your word.]" Spinning around with her head as the pivot, she comes into an upright position and her lips curl up after all. "[You left me hanging a few times already. And you should know that I'm as fickle as the wind.]"
"[I know.]" I gaze into her eyes with a confident smile. "[But if you didn't like it, you wouldn't be coming back each time now, would you?]"
"[That boldness is what attracts me the most.]" Aratio replies with a giggle and licks her lips.
"[Are you flirting with my daughter?]" Tahiri calls out to me from inside the entrance hall, where she and Exla stopped to see why I wasn't catching up to them. She's actually grinning, signaling that she sees nothing wrong with it. I think I would be more bothered with watching somebody flirt with my daughter, though I only have twin traps for sons.
"[Yes, and she agreed to play with me tonight.]" The daughter of the storm replies first, and I twitch.
"[Care if I join?]" Unexpected, not only does her mother not blame me for seducing her, but she even looks serious when she asks whether or not I want an oyakodon - parent and child bowl, to maintain the euphemism.
"Ugh." Senka makes and rolls her eyes, before sliding out of my embrace and walking away on her own two feet.
"[My, senpai has a harem?]" Exla acts surprised and covers her mouth in a feigned gesture of exaggerated shock. "[Are you going to get me, too?]"
"[I'm not interested in little girls.]" I reply with a grin. Out of all my beloved girls, Kamii is the smallest. But this sheep-looking one is scraping too close to Senka's size, which feels like a taboo even for a demon queen - not like that means the same here as it does in those indecent stories where a demon lord sweeps across the nation to build a harem of...
"[What?!]" It seems me calling her a little girl has hit a nerve, as Exla suddenly grows in size and nearly fills out the entire entrance hall. She grabs me and lifts me in front of her face. "[You're calling this appearance a little girl?]"
Then she pulls forward the neckline of her white swimsuit and drops me into it. The fact that she couldn't do so without lifting the cloth only shows that she's too flat to have a cleavage.
But I have bigger worries, as I get sandwiched between the fabric and her nonexistent breasts. This feels like a crime!
"[There, can you still call me that?]" The giant Exla's voice is booming through her chest directly into my ear. I can hear her heartbeat and feel the smoothness of her skin rubbing against my whole body. This may be unexpectedly nice-
No, this is dangerous!
"[Nothing changed about you except for your relative size to me! Your chest relative to your body is still the same!]" I press out from between her swimsuit and her hard sternum.
"[I'm just messing around, I know that this appearance is a little girl's.]" Her voice reverberates through my whole body again before a hand comes in to pick me out of the sweet deathtrap. "[But according to the sheer numbers of anime featuring this kind of appearance in an overly sexualized role, I thought it was the norm for Japan.]"
"[Firstly, that's not the norm, but something only perverts would feel attracted to. Secondly, were you trying to lure in some Japanese with that?]" I ask while sitting on her palm.
"[It worked, didn't it, senpai?]" With a grin, she puts me back down on the ground next to Tahiri, who watched our exchange in silent curiosity. Then her body becomes smaller again. "[If you like a more boom-kyuu-boom form, I can do that, too.]"
Instead of shrinking down evenly all the way to her previous small appearance, she stops at the curves of a supermodel. And she's still wearing the white school swimsuit, which is almost bursting at the bust and hips.
But this isn't really the type I like. She's a little taller than me and looks too mature for the personality she displayed before. The cognitive dissonance causes me to shake my head.
"[I prefer something more intermediate.]" I suggest while shooting Tahiri a sideways glance. Her figure is just perfect in my eyes, though it may be because I got used to seeing her practically every single day for the past year. On the other side of me, I see Aratio's naked form under her pretty much translucent silken dress. She would be counted on the smaller side, albeit she's still better endowed than Aurelia.
"[Well, I'm just messing around anyway. I'm not interested in girls.]" Shrugging, Exla shrinks back down to her previous appearance.
"[Oh, that's a shame.]" I grin at her, and she returns it with her own while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively.
"[Maybe you can make me become interested eventually?]" She teases with an impish expression, before turning around towards the stairs, where a group of maids has gathered to watch the unfolding scene in the foyer. Among them is Nymphy.
Oh damn, over reuniting with Hestia and not meeting her all day long even during magic training, I completely forgot about her. Now I've booked Aratio for tonight too. This would be the second night in a row in which I'm standing her up, not counting the very first night in Arkaim where I decided to strategize with Senka instead.
I begin to see limits to the feasibility of maintaining a harem in the physical sense. While I don't think I could stop loving any single one of those whose positions are already cemented, once a certain number is reached, spending time with them equally will become an impossibility. My body doesn't tire, but I can still only be in one place at a time - and entertaining several at once is not an option unless they offer it themselves as Aratio and Tahiri did.
Technically, I can be in several places at a time, like I did on the Chaos Carrier, where I was both the airship and an avatar inside it. But it would feel like a betrayal if I placed down an extension cord between rooms and created bodies of myself to be with different girls at the same time.
And I promised both Aurelia and Tokomaha that I would never look and think about others when I'm with them. I don't think doing it any differently with Kamii and Hestia would be right either.
I'll have to work this out some other time, as for now I have work to do. The day is growing darker already, and there are still a lot of matters to attend to before I can even think about having fun.
"Welcome back, Your Highness." The maids bow in unison when I make my way up the stairs, flanked by Tahiri and Exla.
"I'm back." I reply in a matter of fact tone, not letting my thoughts show on my face.
It's only the second day after the devastating siege, and the city looks much more cleaned up already. The demons work fast, and some incorporate their tribal magic into rebuilding the houses and streets. An overall sense of hope has returned to the population, not only because of the victory against insurmountable odds but also because they have a new queen who promised to retake the lands and return peace to the Dominion.
They saw that I could defeat Chandra easily, even though she's counted among the strongest demons in existence by many. Few witnessed me fighting outside the walls, but those who did have spread the tale like wildfire. In other words, they understand that I can make good on my promise.
I've made the clan leaders, and maids keep the fact that I obliterated the entire city of Pontis Daemonis a secret. The people will wonder why I won't just fly to the human continent and destroy their capital cities one by one until they surrender. In their eyes, human soldiers and civilians make no difference. If killing large numbers of either ends the war, it would be a small price to pay.
That was an idea I thought about before. Kongenssoevn has around a million inhabitants, and I assume it won't be any less for Vertex Mundia, the capital of the Empire of Terminus. If by destroying those cities - and killing the heads of states and chief military staffs that will most likely be there - I can save more demon lives, it might be a viable tactic.
But that would only perpetuate the cycle of war. After all, the civilian casualties would be immense, and those who had family there would eventually breed a new leader who will be hell-bent on revenge. That's without taking the Old Humans into account. They wouldn't sit still, and Zenlith could strike where I can't see, eradicating a whole city in retaliation moments after.
It would be like a nuclear war.
Maybe destroying Pontis Daemonis was a little too hasty. There shouldn't have been any civilians, and it was a supply depot and staging ground for the human invasion. It was a legitimate target in war. I just hope Zenlith sees it the same way.
"Damn, what am I getting scared for." I scratch my head and turn away from the tower window overlooking Arkaim, where the lights from homes and street lamps create a view reminiscent of a modern city. Or in this case, an ancient city, considering I learned that this is the far future of the world where I used to live as a Japanese high school girl.
"What were you thinking about?" Hestia asks me from her seat at the table. Dregana is standing behind her, deep in thought herself. She must be mulling over everything she learned from me yesterday and today.
"About what to do in this war." These must be the kinds of problems people back in my time were facing. As a Japanese, it's in my very spirit to oppose the nuclear solution, but now I'm thinking of doing the same. Maybe if the Old Humans didn't exist, that would indeed be the best solution right now.
"You should make an example of the capitals like you did with Pontis Daemonis." Vitalis suggests. She has gathered herself again - both literally and figuratively - and has reverted to her usual self. As expected, somebody already considered this option.
"That's exactly what I don't want to do." I look across everybody gathered in the meeting room. The Great Clan leaders are here as well, and so are Aurelia, Tokomaha, and Tahiri. Aratio is nowhere to be seen, but she was never one of my inner circle like those are. "What if Zenlith or any of the other gods retaliate in the same manner?"
Vitalis flaps her mouth open and closed, but doesn't say anything and averts her gaze. It seems she thought I had already become so powerful that this wasn't a problem anymore. In a way, it wouldn't be a problem to me in the physical sense. Unlike the Old Humans, I do care about my people though. If I didn't, I could wage war on the enemy without a care in the world.
"For now, we will have to wait and see how the empire reacts to the defeat here and the loss of their supply base. The armies still in the field all have their own supply depots, so they will not run out anytime soon." Ophalen says while looking across the map of the Dominion, on which small flags and figurines have been placed to simulate the positions of the various troops of the two warring factions.
I look at Erbilan, where Korenga has gone with Chandra. That place should be the safest right now, aside from here. But there are reportedly more than a dozen detachments of human troops raiding and pillaging on the other side of the mountain pass that the fortress city defends.
The continent of Ceogath is immense. Not all of it can actually be counted as part of the Dominion, such as the savage southern tribes and the northern mountain folk. Communications with the far west are scarce as well, where another small nation of demons exists. As long as they don't attack our rear, I won't bother with them though.
At this point, almost half of the nation has fallen to the humans, or are in immediate danger of being raided. In a little over a year, they have made so much progress that it's astounding. But the Chosen Knights are in large part responsible for that. It doesn't help that the deeper inland one gets, the less powerful the demons are - except for the elites in Rodens and Gorgonai. The Ajura are near the southern borders, so they can't really be counted as inland demons either.
Good thing I returned when I did. Even if Arkaim hadn't fallen right then, the Dominion would have been overrun afterward. I would have had to put the splinter groups together at the time if there even were any. That would have complicated things.
"I think our best bet is to create a defensive line along the various passes of the Dalgan mountain range." I point at the mountains at the center of which Erbilan is located. It's the widest pass, but not the only one. The previous army was able to pass them by undetected due to a combination of Folke's cloaking ability and the usage of those passes. "Send a message to all the cities and villages beyond that line and tell them to evacuate to Arkaim as soon as possible."
"And give the land to the invaders just like that?" While Nilotec has accepted me as the new queen, this is a matter I expected he would argue against.
"Yes. Lost land can be retaken. Lost lives can't be restored." I fixate my eyes on him with an intent gaze, and he immediately falters. It's perfectly logical and makes a lot more sense than to hold onto some misguided sense of pride. Better to lose the land and rebuild elsewhere, than dying and then losing the land anyway.
"When we sign a peace treaty with the humans, they will have more land to claim." Ophalen informs me of the usual procedures for treaties, which I haven't studied at all. I won't bother to learn them now.
"This war will result in nothing less than our full victory. The humans will have nothing to claim, and I'll make sure they're grateful that they still exist after I'm done with them." Putting my hand on the table, around the place where the Empire of Terminus would be located if the map extended that far, and state in a matter of fact tone.
Everybody stares at me silently, some dumbstruck, others in awe. Nilotec lowers his gaze and doesn't say any more, and neither does Ophalen.
"For tonight, the meeting is over. We will continue this tomorrow." I won't make the final decision on the general retreat beyond the Dalgan mountain range right now. It still requires some deliberation as to the feasibility of such a large-scale migration. After all, around half the population of the Dominion is on the other side. Though I assume a lot of them have already been slaughtered by the advancing human tide.
Filing away these heavy thoughts to the back of my head, I watch as the demon clan leaders leave one after the other, until only my girls remain.
"What do you think about this?" I ask Aurelia directly. She used to be a queen, and I think she most likely knows more about strategy than I do.
"At the level you operate on, strategy and the likes are already unimportant." Exla answers before the golden girl can, as she floats in through the window on her cloud. She wasn't invited to the meeting, but I had her listen in from the outside anyway because it concerns her as well. "You gave the humans the stick, next you give them the carrot."
She refers to their massive defeat at Arkaim and the destruction of Pontis Daemonis as me giving them the stick. Considering how big that stick must have looked to the humans, it will put the carrot in disproportionate relation. They would most likely even be ready for an unconditional surrender now if the Old Humans weren't the ones pulling the strings behind the scenes.
"But knowing my brother, he won't let the humans surrender." She says with a grim expression. As before, Hestia and Tokomaha look anxious in the presence of this person. The former changed her attitude after learning that this was one of the Old Humans - and supposedly the most powerful one at that - while the latter must instinctively feel that she isn't somebody to be messed with.
"Do you know where he might be?" I doubt she does, considering she didn't leave Yagrath in forever. If only we could locate him and take him out, the whole war would most likely end. When she shakes her head, I sigh. "This puts us in a very passive position."
"If he shows up before me I won't let him run away." Exla assures me with a straightforward gaze. I told her about my confrontation with him above this city and how I was able to disintegrate his body. She only said that trying to hurt him directly won't work, but didn't give any alternatives. Maybe she wants to take things into her own hands since he's her brother.
"Then let's end it at this for today." For the second time, I dissolve the meeting and turn around one more time to look across the city below. Starting now, I won't be sleeping for a long time.
Out of the corner of my eyes, I notice Tahiri lingering while everybody else is already leaving. Her expression says it all.
Tonight, I won't be sleeping anyway.
