Board & Conquest 139: The Last Stretch (+ break infos)

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The roars of time echoed through Titanspace.

“Those degenerate bastards!” Kronos ranted to anyone who would listen. “I’m sure they cheated somehow!”

“You lost,” Whiro replied bluntly. While a brute, the titan at least had a capacity for humility and self-reflection, which in Apep’s mind guaranteed that he would eventually improve over time. “Get over it.”

“Never! Never! I will hold a grudge until the end of time!” A graceful loser, Kronos was not. “There has to be a rule against fusing a multi-headed dragon!” 

“I do that sometimes,” Tiamat countered. 

“But that’s not the same, you’re old and you make babies! You’re allowed some leeway by the privilege of age!”

Tiamat stared at her comrade with barely concealed contempt, while Apep weighed his options. He hadn’t expected Kronos to wipe out all nine young gods on his own—his arrogance and the enemy’s increasingly detailed knowledge of his deck and tactics put the odds against him—but the result left him unsatisfied all the same. 

Eliminating four gods was an honorable showing, no matter what Kronos said, yet the strongest and most experienced contenders—Wepwawet, Horus, and especially Sun Wukong—remained in play. Five gods with too much time and access to an advanced spacefaring civilization like the lunarians was a bad combination even for an experienced titan like Apep.

This may be the most talented new generation of Nexus gods we have faced in a very, very long time, Apep thought. I cannot let those hardy seeds blossom with confidence, nor allow more of Elphion’s burgeoning local deities to ascend upwards. 

Apep had first decided to pause his never-ending war with the Egyptian Pantheon and participate in Elphion’s destruction because he hoped to drive a wedge between Horus and Wepwawet’s supporters to tear his enemy apart from within. The situation had changed a lot since then. Not only did those two reach something of an agreement according to his spies, Apep was also now convinced this insufferable speck of dust of a planet had become a decisive battlefield in the great conflict between the Nexus and the Titanomachy. 

Apep was old, very old, as old as light and death. Kronos was ancient, but he himself was only a nephew of the night which he represented… and with age came foresight. The great and eternal war between gods and titans was not waged on worlds and boards, as many fools thought; it was fought in the very minds and hopes of the gods.

So long as the gods believed in the value of mortals and their own skills, so long as they thought they could fight off the inevitable, then they would continue this pointless struggle stretching into eternity. A new generation of gods repelling the strongest of titans would embolden the rest, while crushing them would be a heavy blow to the gods’ morale. Horus’ failure to protect his first world alone may call the Egyptian Pantheon’s succession into question, fueling strife and division that Apep could exploit to destroy more and more worlds.  

The outcome would tilt the delicate balance one way or the other. 

Apep had to crush them; to smother that incubation chamber for native deities before it allowed more upstarts like Sun Wukong or Hercules to cause trouble, and crush the confidence of the likes of Wepwawet and Horus to prevent them from taking up their fathers’ mantles. All those parties would cause trouble for the Titanomachy otherwise. 

He had no choice but to go with his nuclear option. It was a gamble, but the only one that guaranteed a better tactical position for himself. Allowing the remaining gods to further fortify their planet would cause Apep’s odds of victory to keep shrinking. 

“What will you do?” Hastur inquired, his raspy voice echoing into the nothingness.  

“Wipe them out,” Apep replied, shadows darkening across the universe in response to his proclamation. “All of them.”

—---------

The pieces of the board returned to Elphion, and its gods with them. Wepwawet felt all of his non-Champion souls flow back into the world’s mana, alongside that of all the victims of today’s battle. 

This put some balm on his heart. Ganesha’s capital might have been turned into a smoking ruin, but his followers’ souls would pass on normally thanks to their success. They would be at least spared the agony of ending up in a Titan’s stomach.

It was little consolation for his friend’s defeat, but better than nothing. 

Wepwawet and Artemis reconnected with their remaining allies’ Influences the moment they returned, gathering in the ethereal realm with their classmates. Horus, Sun Wukong, and Ishtar appeared one after another.

“Congrats! I never doubted you!” Sun Wukong greeted them with a grin, which faltered the moment he noticed someone’s absence. “Wait, where’s Ganesha?”

“He… didn’t make it,” Artemis admitted. “He took a hit for me, and his capital is in ruin.”

“A shame,” Ishtar said. “Truly a shame.”

“So it’s just the five of us against Apep now,” Horus said with a scowl, his arms crossing. “It’s… regrettable, but at least Kronos is gone. Losing four of us is a big hit though.” 

“On the bright side, all those losses means the final Incursion will hit much later,” Ishtar pointed out. “With the fly gone, we can afford to complete our Quests, bunker up, and prepare our strategy.”

Sun Wukong squinted at her in annoyance. “You just had to jinx it.”

A pulse of mana immediately confirmed Sun Wukong’s worries.

Wepwawet sensed it; a slight change in the balance of mana and Influence that overlapped with all of Elphion; a tremor in the System that bound the gods together. The all-consuming rift Kronos had summoned closed, yet the frontier between Elphion and Titanspace seemed to thin out anyway. 

Miss Athena had warned them that the titans had slipped in a clause for the final Incursion, and, as a big message showed up in front of the surviving gods, Wepwawet could tell that the enemy had invoked it. 

Apep, Lord of Chaos, has accepted the new format conditions for the fifth and final Incursion Battle. As per the rules of the format, the final Incursion date shall take place earlier than planned. 

Final Incursion Battle conditions: 

• All surviving gods will fight the final invading titan at once. 

• All winning conditions (destroy the enemy Idol, wipe out all enemy Commanders, secure the most Altars before the timer runs out) are set. 

• Each player starts with five cards in his hand and may draw a new card every fifteen minutes, at which time maintenance costs will be paid. The battle otherwise takes place in real-time.

• The invading titan may cast an Animism for free at the start of the battle. 

• The entire world of Elphion will serve as the Incursion board. 

• Should the gods prevail, a barrier will rise and prevent titans from attacking Elphion in the future; should the titan prevail, then Elphion will be destroyed and its souls consumed. 

Wepwawet’s eyes widened when he saw the penultimate clause. “The Incursion will strike all of Elphion?!”

“Real-time battle?!” Artemis choked. 

“He’ll fight all of us at once?! That snake’s got moxy!” Sun Wukong smashed his fist against his palm while whistling. “I can’t wait to trounce him!”

Ishtar nodded upon finishing reading. “Those are surprisingly advantageous terms. I struggle to see how a single deck could compensate for both our numerical and terrain advantage.”

“Are you kidding?” Horus snapped. “We’re up against Apep. He’s the most dangerous player in the entire Titanomachy.”

Wepwawet nodded grimly. “Only Dad and maybe Yahwé can beat him one-on-one. Grandpa Ra, Lord Zeus, the Jade Emperor, even Shiva… Apep bested them all at least once. He has thousands of dead worlds under his scaled belt.”

“Using all of Elphion as a board will also harm our civilizations like never before,” Horus added. “Apep’s Providence, Isfet, causes a permanent solar eclipse to hit the battlefield. Besides the catastrophic ecological damage this will do to Elphion if the Incursion lasts too long, all Darkness effects are strengthened and Light ones are weakened. We’ll need to plan accordingly.”

“Guys, guys, you’re missing the really important point,” Sun Wukong argued. “He wouldn’t accept such terrible conditions if the other options weren't even worse!”

“Yes, this reeks of fear and desperation,” Ishtar noted. “Apep must believe our victory is inevitable if we have too much time to prepare ourselves. That reptile dreads a fair confrontation in spite of all the sabotage we suffered from. This is good news.”

“She’s right, Wepy,” Artemis said, her hand moving to her boyfriend’s shoulder. “It’ll be a long and difficult hunt, but we’ll kick that snake off Elphion. For our mortals… and for Ganesha.”

“You transformed Narc into an unbreakable fortress, Comrade Wepy,” Sun Wukong added. “We’ll just have to turn this entire planet into Fortress Elphion!”

Wepwawet nodded in agreement. They were right. This would be the hardest fight of Elphion’s existence, with the titans constantly trying and failing to break them. They had pulled through in spite of all the ordeals and cheating. 

They would win this final battle too.

“Our final fight will soon be upon us, everyone,” Wepwawet declared to his fellow gods. “It has been a long journey, but I know we have it in us to see it through to the end. All of our ordeals were meant to prepare us for this.” He looked at each of his teammates. All were determined to win. “However, as Horus said, this final Incursion will unleash destruction upon all of Elphion. I believe it is time for us to build an afterlife, for those who will not live to see the peace that follows our victory.”

“I agree,” Horus said. “It is something we have been putting off for too long.”

“It’s not a bad idea,” Ishtar concurred. “It’ll give something for our followers to look forward to and increase morale for their final battle. A Valhalla package.”

“An improved reincarnation process would help,” Sun Wukong said. “But we can brainstorm that.”

A Quest notification quickly popped up in response. 

New Quest: The Hereafter

Build an Afterlife for your followers. 

Reward: Ritual Miracle. 

The game was set. 

—-----

Narc was an open grave.

Victoire returned to the capital to find it in a terrible shape, perhaps even worse than the time Whiro and his hydraslime laid waste to it. Kronos’ virus had decimated over a third of the population, leaving the survivors struggling to gather the bodies for entombment or future resurrection. The entire wereling and human side of the army had taken catastrophic losses.

A good thing we evacuated most of the civilians prior to the Incursion, or else the death toll would have been even more catastrophic, Victoire thought grimly as she surveyed the damage from the foot of her god’s Idol alongside other officers. Still… it will take years for Verglane’s army to recover from today’s losses. 

At least the golems, magmorians, and other heavy hitters had survived the conflict, though not without some issues. 

“No!” Insupportable complained. The dragon trio had split up soon after the battle, to the dismay of some of its members. 

“Come on!” Soumis all but begged him. “Just a quick fusion, five minutes top! Soumis knows you liked it!”

“It was just a one-time bonding, nothing more!” Insupportable grumbled. “I don’t want to commit!”

“But it meant something to Soumis!”

“I wouldn’t mind doing it again,” Glatisant argued. “Besides the pleasure involved, rationally, it would allow us to merge our hoards together and gather our minions under one set of claws. Imagine what we could save on money and logistics alone!”

Victoire ignored those three overgrown children’s argument as Lord Wepwawet’s spirit materialized next to them. “This has been a long, hard day, everyone, but we’ve pulled through,” he said, his voice echoing with the wind. “How are things looking so far?” 

“Basically all humanoid troops except for the magmorians and wererats were wiped out,” Goreville complained. “It will take us years to recover.”

“On a more positive front, we have seized Kronos’ land Dreadnought intact,” General Peridot said. “Our crafters are confident they can repurpose it. We are also recovering scraps from his various machines.”

“Having more golems will help compensate for the loss of workers for the harvest and help us avoid starvation…” Mistouffe scratched the back of her head. “The loss of so many trading partners will hit us hard too.”

“I see.” Lord Wepwawet crossed his arms. “My friend Ganesha might have left us, but I will meet with him soon to ensure a peaceful transition of power for his civilization. I will need some of you to travel and claim Altars to repair our teleportation network, so we can accelerate the movement of refugees and repairs.” 

The battle had been hard enough, and dealing with the aftermath sounded just as daunting. 

“I know you’re all exhausted,” Wepwawet said, “But I want you to know that I’m proud of you all. You have saved this world from annihilation once again.”

“Yes, we did,” Insupportable added, and he would not let anyone forget it. “For the princesses.”

“At a grim cost,” Goreville admitted. “I won’t lie, Lord Wepwawet, another victory like this and Verglane might collapse.”

“Lord Wepwawet warned us earlier that the next Incursion will be the last,” Victoire reminded him. One way or another. “With the Hive all but destroyed and the Lunarians defeated, we can focus on reconstruction for now.” 

“Victoire is right, the end is finally in sight,” Lord Wepwawet said. “For now, we shall tend to the dead and mourn them, then celebrate the living. Your courage has earned us all a welcome respite. Let us rest while we can.”

Victoire nodded, then waited for her god to dismiss his Champions to speak with him in private. “There’s something you’re not telling us.”

“That can wait for later,” her god replied with a sigh. “We should rejoice in our successes before we worry about the future.” 

“How are you holding up?” she asked with concern. “I know you and Lord Ganesha were close. You have my condolences.”

“It is true I would rather have him at my side for what will come next, but he is not gone,” Lord Wepwawet replied, his eyes surveying Narc. “It is our people I truly mourn. Those I could not save. I felt the deaths of every single one of my followers through our bond.”

Victoire winced. “That must be horrendous.”

“It is… but I think it helped me sympathize with you,” Wepwawet said. “Maybe that was the goal, to teach us gods the value of life. I can raise your fellow Champions, but so many will not return. I feel that loss sharply.”

Victoire raised an eyebrow, then smiled. “You’ve changed.”

“How so?”

“When we met, you helped us because that was your job and duty,” she pointed out. “Your words used to be empty platitudes rather than sincere. Now you truly care for us. You almost sound wise.”

“Almost?” Wepwawet returned her smile, his eyes wistfully looking at the sky. “But thank you, Victoire. Can’t believe it’s been a mere two years since I first arrived on this planet. It’s the blink of an eye for a god, but I’ve learned more here than in centuries back home thanks to you and the others.”

“I can’t imagine this world without you in it either,” Victoire admitted. “Will the next Incursion truly be the last one?”

“Yes indeed. If we win, then Elphion will be free to grow without the titans constantly threatening it.” Wepwawet met her gaze. “I hope to be there when it happens.”

“Same.” She raised her fist. “Whatever happens… promise me we will meet here again, my god. One way or another.”

Wepwawet waited a moment, then nodded and hit her fist with his spectral hand. “I promise.”

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A/N: alright, so as warned earlier, this will be the last chapter for some time; both to deal with some fatigue and logistics (got a lot to outline + TPR work getting in the way). As you can read in the chapter, next arc is gonna conclude the trilogy (perhaps besides a ceremonial duel a la Yu-Gi-Oh), so I'll focus on outlining all the loose ends before the conclusion.

Since B&C will be on break for a few weeks (maybe until March) but I can't pause individual tiers (only the whole patreon, and that would lock it for over a month), I've temporarily lowered the B&C payment amount from 5 to 1 (the minimum possible) for its duration for those who want to stay/keep access for its duration; you should have received a mail on that front or receive it soon. Dracolich is still set at 10 since it grants access to the free ebooks, so I would suggest moving to Overlord for its duration if you would rather continue reading HR or avoid extra pricing.

In any case, I'll post an update as soon as I resume publishing. Thank you for supporting this story and I'll see you in the final arc ;)