RD 4 Ch 43

Our presence bolstered the Heros Clan's efforts, the extra support giving the broader group a new wave of energy. Circe’s presence in of itself seemed to make their spirits rise. 

It didn't take long for lightning to fill the sky and bolts to crash down into the demons. Zeus had joined the war effort along with us, and it quickly became apparent that the demons were scrambling to retreat. Unfortunately, many of them simply dove straight down into the water where we couldn't chase them. 

"Damn it. It's seriously cursed. I wanted to farm them for more experience. That's what the kids say these days, right?" Circe asked, turning to me. 

"Do you want to say what the kids say?" I asked, looking at her like she was stupid. 

"If it's the cool thing to say, then sometimes you just have to follow the trends, Bran. But no, I don't want to sound like a kid, I suppose." Circe answered, glancing away. 

"Well, I'm sure if you want to pretend to be one, you could accomplish that. You certainly don't look a day over a thousand." I teased with a wink.

"You say the nicest things." She cupped her cheek and laughed. "But while I would love to play and flirt with you, I do think the clan needs both of our attention." 

I nodded as she controlled the wind and moved us closer to the island. We were met by a glowing-eyed Zeus with lightning crackling around him. He descended down to the front of our little craft. 

"Bran, Circe, wonderful timing," he said, his voice booming like a clap of thunder as he floated with his arms crossed. Zeus looked younger than you’d expect of the god of thunder. He was Zeus the 2nd technically and Circe was older. He just had white hair that I was fairly sure wasn’t natural to look old and aged.

"You as well. Looks like we really managed to scare them off," I chuckled. 

Zeus waved his hand. "I don't think this was a real problem." He gestured at the forces that had disappeared almost instantly by diving into the depths. "By retreating and not showing the elites of their forces, they put us in a tight situation," Zeus grumbled. 

I looked out over the water, his words making sense to me as I re-evaluated the situation. "If you go anywhere, they could pop back up and resume attacks on the shield.”

“Precisely. What that unfortunately means is that our most powerful members can't run off into instances." Zeus said those words with a pointed look in my direction. 

"Oh don't worry. The demons are providing plenty of experience for me, though I had perhaps hoped to run that SSS ranked one at some point.” I said, trying to bait him.

“You are not alone in that one," he groused. "But you simply can't, nor can I. If we are to do any, we'll have to be incredibly quiet about that fact, as well as ensure we have some way of getting back as quickly as possible. Something similar to this was just done to the Kailash and the Wukong as well. They're trying to isolate several of the clans.”

“For what?” I thought aloud. Though my mind immediately dove into several possibilities.

"By keeping us busy, it gives them a lot more free reign," Circe said, biting her thumbnail and glancing at me as if I might have an answer to the situation.

“You’re right.” That was the most obvious answer and while I might be suspicious of the Demon Lord, the most obvious answer is often the correct one. “It won’t be a quick victory, but if we all turn into turtles then the demons can sweep the world’s resources and outgrow us by a mile.” I said.

“There’s got to be something you can do.” Circe tried to hide a smile as she practically gave me a perfect pitch. It was nice when you had a second in your act.

"Well, I can certainly use some of the materials we picked up to work on the Heros Clan barrier. If nothing else, it will give everybody more peace of mind." I offered. “It’ll hold up a lot longer so our elites can range for resources with less worry.”

"Peace of mind is always valuable," Zeus agreed. "But can it stop the Demon Lord himself?”

“I can make something that stops a lot of things once. The question for all the barriers, essentially, is how long can they stop something strong enough?" I answered.

“Better than before?” Circe asked softly.

"Believe it or not, I learned quite a bit from the instance that the Heros Clan initiates go into," I said, keeping my voice low as Circe floated us into Zeus' palace for the rest of this conversation.

"It's best that you don't talk about that so casually.” Zeus glanced about, paranoid. "However, that is good to know. I will take any reinforcement you can do and I will open our resources for you to do that as well.”

Zeus was struggling with the idea that he would have to bench himself for some of the higher rank instances I had described in my gift from the last time I was here.

I just needed to push him a little more, he wanted this to be the answer to his problems.

But before I could jump into anything more he had another question. "Do you have resources to improve the Awakening inscription?" Zeus asked, looking expectant.

"No, but while I'm here, perhaps we could use the war and the battle as an excuse to awaken any bloodlines the Heros Clan might have," I suggested, hoping to keep him happy and pliable before he had me and Circe stay here.

Zeus shook his head. "Those golden rams." He then paused, partway through his excuse. "Actually, they're no longer needed, are they? Somehow in this whole chaos I had forgotten that everyone who was of age was now initiated.

“You're right. We'll open up the instance and they may not get the full experience of running it, but I'll let you pop their bloodlines. It'll make a lot of those who fought very happy. It'll be a good way to help rebuild morale.” Zeus was already rubbing his chin, thinking about how to spin the opportunity. "While you’re here, perhaps we could use the war and the battle as an excuse." 

While I detested that part of politics, I reluctantly understood the need to lie and spin things to the populace. Individuals might be intelligent, but people were stupid and just as likely as sheep to follow each other off a cliff if you put it in front of them.

"I’d be happy to help. Too many people have been hit today. Somehow the Demon Lord has far more forces already at the ready than I expected," I said.

Zeus gave me a pained look as if he was disappointed in me. In that way he actually looked old.

"And before you point it out, I'm aware there are some," I hesitated for the right word, "major deviations from the book that I gave you. I'm currently operating off the theory that someone close to the Demon Lord has similar knowledge to me, or perhaps he has someone with precognitive abilities. All I know is he's purposely gone after the people who are supposed to kill him, as well as several other anomalies that speak to some awareness of coming events."

It was grave news, but the man didn’t seem to be all that upset.

"You have 16 hours until we'll perform the ceremony," Zeus said, glancing sideways at Merlin, who had managed to join our group, albeit a little late. He glanced out over the balcony, where Merlin's ice float was ferrying Simone about. "My understanding is you can travel quite quickly, but you have to be here. If you do not arrive on time, don't show your face in the Heros Clan again."

I nodded to him sharply, and turned to Circe. "Do you have to stay behind?" I asked, hesitating for a second.

"Unfortunately, I do. I haven't been around much, and after something like this, it's important for me to show my face to help calm any concerns," she replied.

I nodded, completely understanding. "I'm going to check in on Vein City, and if everything is fine there, I'll be back shortly to spend the night here. Toss me down to Simone?" I nodded to both of them, only for Circe's wind to scoop me up and carry me over the balcony.

***

Simone hadn't wanted to leave the injured at Heros Clan until I mentioned that the Mul Branova could be in danger. At that point, I found myself whisked away and teleported by Merlin back to the Citadel of Blood, as it had begun to be called. I only grudgingly used the name because otherwise, they wouldn't be sure which fortress I was talking about.

Thankfully, the fortress hadn't been under any threat.

I started walking the grounds, trying to ensure that all of the inscriptions that I had placed along the fortress wall were still in place. It was a quick check just to calm my mind and let Simone run around like a mother hen and check on her Mul Branova to make sure they were all there.

While the Heros Clan benefited greatly from their long past and copious resources, I was essentially working on someone else's canvas when I worked on their inscriptions. For my home base, I spared no resources and set up the best that I could, an inscription that would continue to improve based on the resources used to power it.

"I heard that you had come back in quite a rush," Carmen found me examining the inscriptions. "Now I see you're checking our defenses. Do we have anything to be worried about?" 

The leader of the Nester family stood not far away with his arms crossed behind his back. He was a big man with an imposing presence. Even though I could probably fling him over the wall with a single hand he just had a particular aura of command that surrounded him.

In my past life he’d been a mentor, one that even now I had no problem paying respect to. The Nesters had become the backbone for Vein City when everything had gone to shit the first time.

"No concern. However, there was an attack on three of the clans, one of which included forces that appear to have come from our Hell Gate." I blew out a breath, thankfully the Heros Clan didn’t know or at least recognize that yet. Otherwise there would be some paranoid rumors going around.

Carmen blinked and looked in the direction of the giant red beam. "I'm surprised forces would be pulled away from there if they were to attack anyone, shouldn’t it be us? I assume getting his hands on a second Hellgate would do far more for the Demon Lord’s campaign." He spoke with the sound of leading me to a different conclusion.

Carmen spoke with surprising logic as I looked at him, a smile blossoming on my face. "You're absolutely right. If he didn't attack us here and instead attacked me at our other fortress, then that means he probably doesn't even know that we moved the Hellgate’s location here. Doubly so if he managed to take forces from here and move them to the Heros Clan rather than build up for an assault here." 

Carmen tilted his head to the side. "That may be the case, but assuming so will only cause you problems in the long run." He cautioned.

"I agree. Eventually, the Demon Lord will learn its location and alter his strategy. My hope is by that point, we won't need to be as concerned as we are now," I murmured to myself. Every demon that came through the gate now fed my people strength. The longer he wasn’t aware of it, the stronger my grip on it got.

Clearly, the attacks had been a coordinated effort. The Demon Lord had done damage to the Kailash family with his attack on them. I assume the attack on the Wukong was largely a misdirection to make the forces seem bigger and more powerful. 

As for the attack on the Heroes Clan, perhaps it was to prevent me from getting reinforcements with their plan to kidnap me. Or perhaps in general, they were going to make moves around the Mediterranean and they needed the Heroes Clan with its head stuck back in its shell. 

"Did my words cause other concerns?" Carmen asked, watching me carefully. 

"There are a lot of moving pieces," I admitted.

The man was someone I respected, and perhaps he could be of some help. I quickly explained the number of attacks and tried to guess at our opponent's understanding. Carmen, of course, was perhaps not the master of an actual battlefield. However, at the global scale, the pieces moving weren't that different from gangs in a city. 

"If he truly does have knowledge, and from what you have shown so far, he has some, then it's the anomalies that he's trying to quash, as well as fix the problems from his last... war, which you said he ultimately lost. It sounds much like him cleaning up loose ends before making a larger move." 

"Correct, but he's killed two of the three people that were responsible for taking him out.” I added.

“He seems like a schemer. The best thing you can do for those types are to disrupt them enough that they stop using their brain and start acting emotionally.” Carmen nodded to himself. "I think the most appropriate next step is to speed up those going through the Trial of Kings. If I were in the Demon Lord’s position and was going out of my way to corrupt and possess those that foiled me in my past life, watching fate be fickle and undo all of my work might be one of the most frustrating things I could imagine." 

I nodded along with Carmen. "He's simply got too many more pieces on the board compared to the rest of us," I said after a moment trying to come up with several plans, but each one came with terrible downsides. 

"Then you need to team up," Carmen offered. "If you try and push into a bigger organization's territory, you have to keep them on the back foot while you peck away at their resources." 

I chuckled. "In this situation, who's the larger force? What you're describing is more like what the Demon Lord is doing, trying to get the Heros Clan, Shiva, and Wukong from roaming the globe. The Borrsons and the Ennead both aren't that mobile to begin with, so they are less of an issue. Many of the Borrsons would have to travel by sea and the Ennead are far too reliant on the crypts they keep in Egypt. Their power significantly diminishes the further they travel, unless, of course, they travel with a massive army, which will be far slower and easier to react to.”

“If you aren’t the larger force, then you just have to become it through alliances," Carmen said.

"Hmm" I frowned. So much of me was trying to be different than my last life, though. The direction my thoughts were going felt far too close to being the Wandering King.

No. Running around with a small force would be useless. I needed more, a way to bring the clans to my banner and push as a coordinated effort. But how to win them over?

"Seems I have struck a chord?" Carmen asked.

"Something like that. Perhaps I was trying to be too independent," I wondered aloud. Even though I wasn’t the Wandering King, had I really changed or had I just enlarged my footprint. I was still not gathering the strength of others.

For this first Demon War I needed to find a way to bring the Clans into direct conflict with the demons. They were still too comfortable. Even after the Rapture they weren’t striking out against the demons. Either they were too concerned in gathering resources or too blind to see the larger problem slowly growing beyond their vision that was too narrow and only seeing what was right in front of them.

"Knowing when to stick to your strength is a strength in of itself, one that few people possess." Carmen answered. “But there are times that you must go against your own weaknesses.”

"Thank you," I stood up from where I had finished inspecting the inscriptions. "Your words were a great help.” Several ideas were swirling on how I could pull the clans into the conflict, but I hadn’t come with a solid one just yet.

“Just keep me in mind when there are some other opportunities going around. I know I might be an old man, but I would like to get out from time to time." Carmen told me.

I chuckled. "You'll jump to the top of the list, no doubt, especially anything around here. I think I'm going to be in a hurry to go do something about the ideas bubbling up in my head."

Carmen gestured to the side and gave me a way around him.

As I moved quickly in search of Merlin, my mind was abuzz with several thoughts.

I needed a strike force ready to respond, and I needed to expand recon. On top of that, I needed to start helping those who weren't in my immediate organization. Perhaps by extending some goodwill, I could bring them into the fold in some regard, or at the very least establish communications that could be used to help us understand when a crisis was brewing in the distance.

The first step should be expanding even more. Enough that I had the rights to talk on an even level with the sects or the clans. They only respected strength.

Unfortunately, sometimes not everything could be solved simply by swinging my sword or crushing skulls. There was some finesse required when it came to people I didn't necessarily want dead.

The idea of trying to bring up several more kings had occurred to me before, but I hadn't really thought of how to accomplish that until now. I knew the other kings that would come after the First Demon War. I could have some confidence that the core of their personalities would already be formed. Thus, their success in passing the trial then relied on growing their personal strength rather than trying to change who they are.

And if training them up was the mission, I was certainly more than qualified to do that.

If I could raise up the other kings earlier and launch them at the Demon Lord, then that would take a significant amount of pressure off of me and the other clans, perhaps enough to give Shiva and the Heros Clan the flexibility they needed to continue, because being turtles in all of this was not a viable strategy. The longer any of the clans stayed put, the more they fell behind in the mad dash we were in to gain power against the demons.

I halted mid-step. No, I’d have to force them out of their shells. Show them the real danger, by putting it at their doorstep.

My mind solidified, I would find Merlin and return to the Heros Clan for now. It seemed there was nothing to be concerned about with the Citadel of Blood, though I wouldn't assume the Demon Lord would remain ignorant of us for long.

But for the moment, I had an idea forming on how to further encourage the clans while pushing forward.