Chapter 402 - Something Wicked This Way Comes

Notes :

I couldn't resist, I wanted to do at least some reaction and some geopolitical shenanigans. Setting the stage, so to speak.

Happy halloween ! Probably won't be a special this year, because honestly...I have no real idea what to write for it.

Reminds me that I never put the 2024 christmas special up on RR. Damn it.

Chapter 402

Eris Empire, Capital City of Starcore

Imperial Palace, Briefing Room

Oris Lumière, Empress of the Eris Empire paused the hologram, as everyone stared at the chaos upon it.

"I don't believe I need to tell anyone how dire the situation is." She turned towards her cabinet and advisors.

"Indeed. The adventurers guild's treachery-" Started the minister of the interior.

"I don't care about the guild!" Snapped the Empress, and silence descended upon the room.

The Empress did not have 'outbursts'. Not with more than two pairs of eyes present, and certainly not during cabinet meetings or government briefings.

"The situation is indeed dire." Smoothly said Cassissa, and everyone's heads pivoted to her.

Oris' gaze met hers, and she saw her sister cool off. Despite her training and years of rule, her temper had never left her.

Cassissa wasn't immune to her wrath, but she was a lot less likely to get hit with it than anyone else here.

From disgraced princess considered a brainless idiot, kept under lock and key via house arrest, to invited to briefing to the ministerial cabinet and the Empress' closest advisors.

My my, how the times had changed.

If anyone knew what she had done, or how she'd been spending her time in the last two years, no one spoke a word. Given the fact that she was rapidly becoming the second in command of the Agency's director and was the greatest source of insights into the mind of the second or third most powerful woman in the world, no one was likely to.

"Allya has, within the span of two years, founded a city whose prosperity, though not size, rivals some of our own regional capitals, created an Empire second only in power to ours, and toppled an organization so old its founding members met the God of Fire." She leaned back into her seat. "Her power and resources appear to be growing at an exponential rate, and are likely to continue doing so in the immediate future. That is not even mentioning her alliance with and now incorporation of the most dangerous dungeon to have ever lived."

She saw in the faces of the advisors that some of them thought that last part was an exaggeration. And perhaps from their perspective, it was just that, an exaggeration to hammer the point home.

She knew better. She had delved deep into the mysteries of the talisman Allya had sent to her. A talisman made by the dungeon core, Crystal.

No arcana known to her or the World Mage Court had been infused into it. As far as she could tell, it had an entirely novel way of doing teleportation...one that would bypass any known countermeasure.

Sapphire Arkhan had amassed the resources to seek and colonize the entire continent that now bore his name via his invention and development of teleportation.

And that was only one of the many impossible things Crystal had achieved so far.

"Thank you for this cogent summary." Said Oris, and the Empress' gaze swept the room, briefly stopping on the advisor who she'd interrupted. "Especially for those of us unaware of our primary concern."

The poor man swallowed heavily, and nodded. Well. That advisor might not be in the next meeting.

"The question, is what can we do?" Miltor, the Empire's Chancellor shifted his considerable bulk forward, his jowls jiggling as he did. Despite his unprocessing appearance, there was a keen intelligence in his eyes. He may be a bureaucrat and a pureblooded bon vivant, but he hadn't gotten to this position by being an idiot. Beware the ones that looked harmless in a government as cutthroat as this one. "The good admiral has been deployed there, but surely a military solution is not desirable."

Nor feasible. Crystal's mesa fortress would eat the fleet deployed in Arkhan for breakfast. But no one was going to mention that, especially not to the Empress' face.

And there really wasn't anything they could afford to send. They'd already been stretched thin, almost to the breaking point, before the dungeons started trying to kill each other!

"It is not." Confirmed the Empress. "Sarcher. You've been arms deep in this mess from the get go. What is your appraisal?"

Sarcher Duvide, minister of foreign affairs, old enough in his post for it to have meant 'minister of determining who we are going to conquer next and who we will save for later', sighed.

"I have been distracted by...a great deal many affairs, but I tried to keep a few fingers on the region's pulse as best I could." 'Distracted' was the understatement of the century, since he'd spent the last few months keeping various protectorates and Imperial client states from attacking the UDC, and then propped up the failing WMC via a truly herculean effort. Were he a mage, and the Empress not likely to execute him if he even contemplated accepting, the Court would have made him a High Prosecutor for that. "To put it simply: unless we want to put our hands in the gears, not really, no."

The Empress' eyebrow rose. Dangerously.

"Your appraisal is that we can do nothing?"

"Not exactly, your imperial majesty, my appraisal is that our options are limited and that using some of them may cause unexpected consequences, not to mention cause us to get stuck in the continent's extremely volatile situation."

Well, that was a diplomatic way of putting it.

"...I see. Cassie?"

A few people blinked, until they remembered that the cold steeled sociopath they called a monarch did, in fact, have people she called by nicknames and considered family.

The princess took a deep breath.

"I agree with minister Sarcher's appraisal, your imperial majesty. The director's opinion is the same as well." The elf hadn't been able to attend. Actually, it would be more accurate to say that she had more or less tossed Cassissa at the obligation, considering it a good field test of her newfound star subordinate. Fortunately, though she was far from first on the line of succession, thank the Gods, she did have a fair bit of training in these kind of interactions. "Even if we wished to take action...through whom? With what objective? Viable proxies are becoming scarce, and all attempts to stymie Allya and Crystal so far have only caused them to become stronger and more aggressive."

"We hardly need fear their retaliation." Scoffed an advisor, and Cassissa smiled.

"I disagree. In fact, I believe that the Aurorean Empire coming into conflict with us is a strategic certainty."

Silence descended upon the room.

"You think...they're going to attack?" Said the Chancellor.

"Not soon. Certainly not this year. But in due time, why not?" She shrugged. "Our forces are overstretched, and have almost zero experience in large scale warfare now after so long at peace. Furthermore, it has been many centuries since we have faced a technological peer, let alone one who could bring an equivalent force to the field of battle."

Even the UDC, when they had faced it, had been seriously lagging behind, and though they had made considerable efforts in bridging that gap since, they'd never quite succeeded.

"We span half the world! She cannot possibly bring any 'equivalent force' to bear against our might!" Exclaimed an advisor.

"No. We contain half of the world's population and industrial output." She flicked a glance at the Empress, who was leaning forward, her hands steepled in front of her mouth. Cassissa knew her well enough to know that it was an encouraging sign, and kept going. "But that also means that we have to spend a considerable amount of our forces protecting our assets. Or does anyone wish to see what happens if we let the dungeon cores in that little civil war go at each other without our armies in the way?" She waited for a few seconds, but no one spoke up. "Thought not. Meanwhile, Allya has four hardened, veteran militaries at her fingertips, each of them having gone through many recent conflicts, some of them which are, in fact, still ongoing." Though 'overwhelming and total victory' was more or less a given by that point. "And though golems cannot gain experience, Crystal's troops are by definition perfectly drilled, highly disposable and completely motivated. We may be able to bring a larger force to bear. We, without doubt, have a greater and better skyfleet. But we will not overpower the Aurorean Empire easily. Any numerical and industrial advantage that we do manage to bring to bear will be offset by their own strengths."

"So, they will eventually be a threat to us." Said the Empress.

"Yes. Mostly because we will be a threat to them. The very fact that we're having this discussion, with the assumption that we need to destroy them to preserve our own hegemony, proves that considering us their enemies would be a wise precaution on their part, wouldn't it?"

The sisters' gaze met, and the Empress nodded.

"Does the Agency have a recommended course of action then?"

"Yes. Let them fight each other, and buy us time build ourselves up for what is coming. Because once that avalanche comes for us we need to be ready."

And, with a little luck, it would buy her enough room to negotiate with Allya and prevent a bloodbath for the ages.

Because if the dungeon core could make a talisman like that when she was still struggling against some Old World automata, there was no telling what she could do now that she was toppling guilds and conquering nations.

*****

There was a long silence as both sides stared at each other. Official meetings between dungeons, let alone isolationists, and surface dwellers were few and far between.

And usually, they were under the auspices or guarantees of the WMC and the adventurers guild.

In theory this one was as well.

But both organizations were toothless now, and everyone knew it.

So, both parties were gathered on a snowy hill, pretending like neither had a platoon of elite infantry tucked out of sight, ready to whisk away their people and kill the other's at the slightest hint of treachery.

"It is a pleasure to meet you, lord Glarvistar, lady Mytaran." Said Ulvi, Archmage of Life and, though nominally minister of the interior of the Sapphire Kingdom, in effect its prime minister. "And an honor."

She bowed, and the other seven Archmages that, for all intents and purposes, ruled the Kingdom followed suit. If a few had slower and shallower bows than the others, no one saw fit to comment on it.

"The honor is all mine." Said Glarvistar, his porcelain mask shifting into a pleasant smile as his insect like body stepped forward, returning the bow.

"And mine." Mytaran's avatar was...bizarre. Far from the dungeon core to critique his younger counterpart and host, but for an isolationist she sure liked to imitate the surface dwellers, with a human shaped assembly of colorful crystals, like a magestorm spell frozen solid.

She bowed as well, but far more shallowly than he did, clearly considering herself the greater party here.

Ulvi smiled.

"Polite of you to say." She cleared her throat. "I'm sure you know why we have requested this meeting."

"There are a great deal many matters that concerns us both." Said Glarvistar, diplomatically. "Even more so now than when the request was made."

Little things like the adventurers guild actively imploding, which had brought dungeon delves and thus income down to practically zero as governments around the world scrambled to rip apart the guild and assume control of its assets and responsibilities.

"Indeed. Please, let us take this to more comfortable surroundings." Ulvi gestured at a pavilion set up on the hilltop, the source of the glittering shield currently guaranteeing their privacy...and that no one would be able to just bomb the hilltop.

A week ago, Glarvistar would have considered it unlikely, but after what Crystal had done in Rebirth...if she was willing to bomb her own dungeon town, she wouldn't blink at an enemy meeting.

"I would be much obliged." He said, and Mytaran simply nodded. "There is much to discuss. And very little time."