RD 4 Ch 47

I arrived back at Vein City with Merlin and Simone in tow. The small group included Cao, the drunk monk and a few of his top performers, who had all shaved their heads to imitate him.

I was fairly certain the old man was naturally bald or his drinking had knocked out all his hair. His group had begun dressing like him too. Coincidentally, they all had classes with some poison utility, taking the monk's way of training and following it themselves to become powerful embodiments of poison. 

"This is a nice place you have here," the lead drunk slurped from his gourd. Cao was pleased with himself.

"I'm glad you like it, and I'm glad to give you and your close group a bit of a break from the front lines.” I told him.

“In this instance, you think we'll be okay?" He asked, squinting at me as if I was leading him into a trap. 

"You'll be fine. It has resources that I need. It's also filled with poison slimes. Terribly ineffective for most people to fight their way through. They're resistant to poison and physical attacks. However," I said, glancing at him and his group, "you should all have no problem despite the otherwise high difficulty if you take a few elemental weapons. I want you to go run it. All of you soak up that experience and gold, as well as the poison. It's a perfect training ground for you." I crossed my arms, frowning slightly, not at them, but at the fact that the Mul Branova all seemed to be flitting away as if avoiding me. 

Simone must have noticed, too. She had a giant pout on her face.

Gloria strutted over to us, looking at the group. "Drunks" She nodded at them in acknowledgement and kept walking until she got to my side. "Bran." She pressed herself to me. "I hope you're not going to leave me behind the next time you go somewhere." 

"Depends what's next," I shrugged. My plans weren't completely out of control. But I was simply juggling too many. "Seems like something's changed here," I glanced about. 

"Oh, if you're talking about the Mul Branova, they're worried that you're going to disapprove of them." She shrugged.

"Oh?" I asked, raising an eyebrow and expecting for it to continue. 

"They reinvented slavery," Gloria said. 

"You can't reinvent slavery. It's always been a thing. People just love to give it different names and different ownership concepts. What did these people do?" I prodded.

"Raiders. They attacked the citadel." She told me.

"Did anyone die?" I looked around.

"Not on our end." Gloria replied.

"Okay then. Make sure they're all aware that they have a heavy strike hanging above their head. Don't do anything so brutal as to physically mark them. Perhaps put it in a ledger for the Mul Branova and the Nestor leadership. They step out of line again, and prove to us that they cannot reintegrate into society, then get rid of them. Otherwise, let them live somewhat normally. But don't worry about providing any opportunities for them.” That felt relatively fair to me.

We needed the hands around the city and if we didn’t provide them the kind of opportunities that we were giving our people then they’d never really be a threat.

“So what, just make them day laborers and ignore what they were doing?” Gloria pressed.

“Pretty much. To not give them a second chance is a disservice, especially when none of ours were lost. Survival can make people cross lines they otherwise would not, but they can either learn from that mistake or forfeit their life. And we need hands working the fields. It takes a lot more manpower than you'd ever think to not only provide food, but extra food. Food enough to feed an army. So I won't turn down the help, for now, and give them another chance.”

As I finished speaking, I turned my head to the side where a Mul Branova was hiding behind the wall, listening in. "Did you catch that?" 

She squeaked and jumped out. "I didn't mean to eavesdrop." She bowed low.

I held up a hand to stop more apologies. Really, it was time consuming and unnecessary. "Please, share this with the others. I don't want to see these people in shackles or chains, nor do I wish to see them branded. Unless, of course, we have repeat offenders. Everyone deserves a second chance and a true second chance at that. Don't destroy it by marking them as offenders."

The woman nodded rapidly. She pecked her head like a chicken before disappearing. 

"Anything else?" I asked Gloria.

"We brought the raider’s prisoners in and a lot of them are settling in as non-combatants," Gloria reported.

"Good. Civilization needs more than spears and shields. We need people to make shit if we're to last very long.” I sighed and turned back to Simone. "As for my ruling here, please pass the message along to the rest of the Mul Branova locations. I'd hate to have to repeat the lesson, and we simply do need more people working in each of our little fortresses that are slowly becoming small towns. Eventually they’ll bloom into city-states hopefully."

Simone nodded but didn't immediately do anything. After all, we had some plans of our own for the rest of the evening.

"We'll get back to it in the morning. Let's rest our bodies this evening and focus on getting an update of the situation," I spoke to those who had followed me. "After that, we'll talk about next steps."

The war we had started with the demons in the east had turned into two more conflicts, both smaller than the first. The attacks felt more like the demons probing our reaction time than actually fully committing forces. It was also possible they were poking at us to keep us tied up defending.

The very last thing we could do was sit still, and we had simply exhausted all of the instances surrounding that fortress. Thus, it was time to begin rotating troops in and out of the various Mul Branova strongholds that Simone had so wonderfully created

I moved swiftly through the citadel, only for my father's ever-present thump to echo down the halls.

There were two smaller footfalls in between every one of his steps, and I turned to find both my mother and father ready to greet me.

"Hello, both of you," I said, checking over my father's stats that had swelled once again. It was possible he could start to give Vidar a run for his money soon.

Apparently, staying at the citadel and doing nothing but killing demons and clearing the higher-level instances that the Mul Branova were too weak to handle alone was dramatically increasing his strength. I was almost a little jealous that I simply couldn't take a break from all of my responsibilities and do the same. My mother was similarly improving at lightning speed, though her foundations were simply not as comparable.

"Welcome back, son.” My father spoke.

“How long will you be staying this time?" My mother jumped in quickly.

"Not too long I'm afraid. We're doing our best to rotate people around. Merlin has her days busy. Without her, I'm not entirely sure how we'd get any of this done." I answered honestly.

"Travel's always been a problem," Thorin boomed, rubbing at his chin. "There used to be an artifact in the Borrson clan that could at least send people one way. Perhaps if you had Merlin move that around, you could shunt people off far more easily."

I shook my head knowing exactly what he was talking about. "Sorry, but I'm fairly certain that's no longer working. Some person or demon sabotaged it years ago."

"Really?" Thorin asked with a raised eyebrow. "That's strange. That shouldn't be news to me. I understand why the clan would want to keep it quiet, but they shouldn't have been able to keep it this quiet."

"Well, Vidar has become the face and he's running around with his ability to move quite easily."

Even as I said the words, my brows pinched down and I couldn't help but marvel at how things were continuously falling into Vidar's favor. With that artifact gone, his ability would be able to take over considerable external influence for the clan. The idea that he would destroy or disable such a powerful artifact however was mind-boggling. It was a level of cunning and greed that went beyond what I was able to truly understand.

"Anyway," I said, ignoring that line of thought because it would not serve me at that moment. "Speaking of Vidar, I had a run-in  with him a while ago. He really seems to have it out for me."

"He's an ambitious one," Thorin nodded. "He takes after his father that way.”

“I don't see the appeal." I grumbled.

Thorin shrugged, clearly completely unbothered about the fact that he had lost his position in the clan to deceit or perhaps he had long since come to peace with reality. "If you want my advice, you should take him head-on if you can, rather than trying to sidestep the issue."

"I'll add it to the list," I grumbled, nodding at him. "Anything else I can help you two with?"

"Join us for a family dinner." My mother gave me the kind of motherly smile that told me it was more of an order than a request.

"Um, sure," I said after a moment, wondering how despite my age, my mother could still compel me as if she had used some sort of ability. "If it's a family dinner, would you like me to bring the ladies?" 

My mother's stern face cracked into a more amicable smile. "Of course. I'd love it if Simone and the others joined us."

Thorin and I looked at each other, sharing the kind of instinctual body language conversation that only two men could have. My mother was planning something.

The look he gave me told me he did not know what she was planning, but I had best dress up nice and be on time.

I grunted as we broke our quick, silent communication.

"We'll be there tonight, or do you need some time to prepare?" I gave her a way out.

"Tonight, before you leave again," she said, turning sharply. "Come on, Thorin, it seems we need to scavenge the fortress for groceries. Our son is finally coming home for dinner."

Thorin and I shared one last moment. He looked amused at the whole situation, giving me a look that wished me luck.

I made a gesture, hoping he could get her to relax a little, maybe fill her with wine.

But based on the smile he gave me back, I was going to get to fight whatever battle was coming on my own.

I sighed and shook my head, muttering under my breath, "To think I saved her life and altered the course of history." I now needed to work through a few of my tasks more quickly, making sure I did not miss dinner.

Turning, I headed over to the tower that held our hell gate. Many Mul Branova, were lined up outside the doors, looking like they were preparing to charge in and begin killing demons for experience.

"At ease," I said as many of them began to dip their heads in prayer. "Are you all about to go in?"

"Yes, Lord Bran," one of them lifted their head, giving me a starry-eyed expression. "We have to sweep the floor for loot. It can get a little tricky, especially if anyone gets a little too loot-focused and forgets that they're amidst a never-ending wave of demons." She looked at one of her fellow Mul Branova, who had the sense to look down in shame.

"That's fine," I rolled my shoulder as blood pooled out of my hand, dripping down into a Bloodiron Blade. "I needed to do some thinking, so I thought I would come to keep my body busy. I always find moving through my fighting flows relaxing."

The Mul Branova looked at me with stunned awe. "To do some thinking," one of them repeated as if to confirm.

"Open the doors," I said, striding forward and twirling the blade in my hand. The second the doors were wide enough for me to step through, I kicked off the ground explosively, launching myself into the room with a wide sweep of my Bloodiron Blade. A crimson crescent dripped off the tip, splashing off and sweeping through the crowd of demons. Easily a dozen demons were instantly sliced in half, their bodies falling and being reabsorbed by the system, immediately leaving small, glimmering piles.

My entrance had caused the demons to all snap to attention and focus on me. But I wasn't really giving them much of my own attention.

Instead, my mind was already hard at work, trying to figure out which of my projects needed my attention most, so I could focus my plan for the next day. At this point, I was having to take it all day by day. We had successfully stalled the demonic invasion, but there was more at play now as I maneuvered around an unknown opponent that had some awareness of future events.

I paused, trying to contemplate further as half a dozen gremlin demons leapt into the air to attack me. With a flick of my wrist, they were all cut in two. My mind swirled, trying to identify the common thread that I was missing.

The Demon Lord had control of the Heavenly Fist Sect, though information from there was currently quite scarce.

Information in general simply wasn't flowing, dropping by the week. At this point, the internet was slowly becoming a graveyard of unanswered messages. Whatever servers ran the more complex things were long gone. The simple things that survived the early days might still exist, however, the number of users only continued to fall. Every time someone broke a phone, for example, they didn't have a replacement. Slowly but surely, the digital age would completely crumble. 

Was the Demon Lord waiting for that? Waiting for humanity to become so divided he could act without being tracked?

I frowned. That was a possibility. The other was that there was something I didn't know about happening in the background. After all, even in my first timeline, the Demon Lord did not become active right away. In fact, he became active with the attacks in the UK and Ukraine far too early this time. Though in both of those he’d devastated the human population, why wasn’t he pushing harder?

I ran through a few possibilities. The Demon Lord could be dealing with some third force, or perhaps consolidating its generals and its forces, building them up before launching a real attack. Another possibility was that the Demon Lord was waiting for the barrier to weaken enough for forces of a certain strength to join him? The last two seemed like the more likely options. 

Going on the offensive and taking the Demon Lord and the Heavenly Fist Sect on myself was not currently possible. In the same breath, the Demon Lord was now well-known, and a large threat. The Five Clans could come together and suppress him. That would be ideal if I went against the Demon Lord on my own, even after preparing I was going to come out weaker for it. My forces would become easy pickings for others then as the War for Supremacy came about.

There had to be a way for me to show great strength while also allying the clans against the Demon Lord. That way would put me in the best position for future struggles.

I rubbed my chin as my blade moved almost without thought, slicing through demon after demon. No, the Demon Lord was likely growing its forces while trying to stay off the clan radars. That was the most likely reason he wasn’t becoming too active. If the clans all worked together right now they could probably crush him.

It was a delicate dance where all the people involved had their own plans, I needed to force their hands. 

Thus, if I wanted to foil the Demon Lord's plans, I would have to make more obvious strikes, perhaps force them out into the open, especially where down to the lowest members of the clans understood the threat and put pressure on the upper echelon to act.

My brain tickled at that, but I couldn’t think of a solution at the moment. So, I let my mind wander as my body moved, flowing through the sword forms. Like I was at practice, each flick of my blade caused Sanguine Slashes to ripple off, tearing through the demons around me.

Practicing my sword form was always meditative and a good way to think. And this time was no different. 

The Demon Lord was certainly one of my problems, but it was not the only one. Vidar and his takeover of the Borrson clan was another massive problem that was likely to rear its head. And I wanted to control when that occurred.

And now I had the added headache of the upper echelon of the Wukong clan. Those with the Monkey King bloodline had been possessed prior to its activation, and when we least expected it, they could strike back at humanity and deal a crippling blow.

There had to be something that could force these issues to pause and then come to a head publicly where I could control the narrative. 

I moved through my next motion, my brain once again settling on my need to get stronger. I needed to prepare for the Trial of Kings and find a way to fill the power void that would be left by the death of two of the first three kings.

That meant I needed to force a calm before the storm as well.

My thoughts swirled and formed a plan as I killed the last demon present before the Hell Gate. I had a giant grin on my face as I figured out my next move.

AN - Book is done at 61 chapters and an epilogue.