Ruthless V6Ch14-Dispossess

After a stretch of further preparations, including studying documents, choosing equipment, and creating new monsters—mainly preparations for the Victors Tournament, if James was really honest—the morning of the World Leaders’ Summit came.

“... so that’s the state of the invasion,” James said. “After a single day of battle, we restored peace, order, and security to most of Orlando, the beating heart of Central Florida. With my new powers, we will spread our kind of order to the rest of the city before I leave for the World Leaders’ Summit. Soon the rest of the former State of Florida will follow. When I return, the Fisher Empire will spread from coast to coast. And over the next few months, we will liberate the remainder of the peninsula!”

There was a loud cheer from the crowd staring up at the levitating Ruler.

James’s speech that morning, with the Battle of Orlando well and truly concluded, had been broadcast to more than just the thousands who stood before him. The entire Fisher Empire had been clued in through his powers to the state of the invasion—a stunning, unqualified success—and the new status of the Kingdom as an Empire, along with a vague idea of what that entailed. Since James wasn’t entirely clear himself on all that it would mean to be an Emperor, vagueness was all that he could honestly give them for the moment.

He didn’t know if he would be challenged more or less now that he was a bigger deal. Frankly, he didn’t know if he would begin to abuse his power, as he believed he had not thus far. The Sword of Law Skill and the Tyrant’s Might set of Skills were the sort that started to veer relatively close to the “absolute power” that was known to “corrupt absolutely.”

Speaking of which, he needed to make one more announcement and accomplish one more objective before he would be ready to depart. The System timer indicated that the group was going to be leaving in a couple of hours, and James had used all the intervening time wisely—searching for any signs of resistance, challenge, or threat in the portions of the city that were already under his control or adjacent to his territory.

There had been nothing. No one was willing to challenge him. The other Rulers here were probably equal to or weaker than those James had defeated already. That indicated that the next part of his pre-Summit plan was likely to succeed.

“As the Fisher Emperor, my powers now include the Sword of Law,” James said. “This Skill means that my word, pronounced publicly, becomes law within my territory, and the territory itself will enforce it according to its interpretation of my intent. The land itself has intelligence. That’s a Skill I’ve had for a long time, and with my territorial expansion and the time I’ve spent in this land, the Skill has slowly advanced. So, now I’m laying down the law. Everyone obey the commandments I’m about to set down, or the Earth might swallow you up or something.”

There was scattered, nervous laughter below James, but mostly, the crowd was silent and wide-eyed at this latest announcement.

Hopefully I didn’t just become a tyrant in everyone’s eyes, he thought. If I did, so be it. I’m just bringing law and order, and even if they think I’m a bad guy for a minute, they’ll understand once they see how this works in practice.

“First, all are forbidden to kill other sapient life forms who reside within my territory, unless it is in self-defense or defense of others, or if you go through a legal process. The legal process for now will be bringing up the necessity of killing to a quorum of five members of my Council and obtaining their approval. A few of them are going with me, but most are staying here and will make themselves available to anyone who needs help.

“Second, you are forbidden to steal from other residents of the Fisher Empire. Third, no violations of other residents’ bodily sovereignty are permitted. You ought to understand what that means if you are an adult. If you do not understand, please ask someone, but the gist is that you can’t do things to other people without their consent. Fourth, every able-bodied adult must earn their keep by some useful trade or work that will show some benefit to the Empire in the future. There will be limited exceptions, and you can go to me or the Council to request one. But there aren’t really a lot of non-able-bodied people left alive at this point, so I expect most requests for exceptions will be turned down. As a general rule, those who do not work will not eat. If you don’t like this, you are welcome to grow your own food and provide for yourself, or engage in hunter-gatherer style activities… or in other words, earn your food by working for it. Anyone who breaks the first three rules will be imprisoned or killed, depending on the severity of the offense. If you break the fourth rule, I guess you’ll starve.”

He successfully kept himself from chuckling at that last line, though it felt like he should. The crowd was looking up at him as if wondering if that was all.

Yes, that’s all, James thought.

“For now, I am not making additional rules enforceable by this Sword of Law Skill,” James said. “If something was illegal in Florida in the before times, you should assume I will make it illegal again, though. But anything that is not explicitly forbidden is permitted.”

There was a little whoop from somewhere in the thick of the crowd, and then a bunch of people erupted in cheers.

“Freedom!”

“Do what we want!”

“Fuck yeah! America, baby!”

“Fisher Kingdom!”

“Fisher Empire!”

All right, leave them on a high note. Hopefully I didn’t just spark the creation of a massive drug trade or something…

“Thank you all for your loyal support,” James said in a louder, more excited tone. “May all the gods bless us, and may the sun never set on the Fisher Empire!”

There was a louder, more unified cheer, and James floated down from his spot in the sky and back to where his wife and circle of advisors stood.

All those who would accompany him on the journey were there: Mina, Jeremiah Rotter, Alan and Mitzi Roget, Luna, Evangeline of the bats, Samuel the former Alligator Monarch, and Harry Luntz from Agriculture, alongside Zora, Alice, and the Panther Queen. James’s mother was actually a Ruler herself, now, after some adventures she had embarked on with Alice, so the two women and the Panther Queen were going as their own separate party.

Zora intended to become a subordinate Ruler at some point in the future, but she and James had agreed that she might as well maintain independence for the moment. It would increase their maximum number of possible Summit guests and allow them to show their strength by the fact that there were two ostensibly independent Rulers working together.

The attendees for the Fisher Empire’s side had been carefully selected by consultation between James and his Council, the one part of this process he had paid close attention to, since it was relevant to both foreign and domestic politics.

Mina was included, obviously, along with James’s mother and sister. Family was a cornerstone of the Fisher Empire, and if James, Junior was old enough to appreciate what would be happening at even a basic level, he would have been included, too. Because Junior was less than a year old, he was instead staying behind under Yulia’s care, with Leo and Hilda available in case she needed any support.

Rotter was there, because he was a very able administrator and the rest of the Council believed he could adequately keep track of and safeguard critical Fisher Empire interests. Alan and Mitzi were included because James trusted their judgment more than any non-family members’. Bringing at least one of them along was almost mandatory, and since they had been recently separated, bringing one along meant bringing both of them.

Luna was James’s first subordinate Ruler, and her long history with James and implicit faith in him would make her a strong asset in converting other Rulers into potential allies or even followers for James. The same basic reasoning held for the Panther Queen, with the additional detail that she and James would be in the Victors Tournament together—so this was their chance to scope out the competition for that event and strategize.

Samuel was the most intimidating-looking of James’s followers. He would hopefully bring a sense of the Fisher Emperor’s power just by hanging around nearby, and he had a certain boisterous charisma that most of the other former Rulers lacked.

Evangeline was actually there because she and James weren’t close yet, and he hoped to fix that. He also sensed a certain sense of inferiority—or at least a strong need to prove herself—in the bat.

Harry Luntz was a practical inclusion. Based on the Council’s data-gathering, the sector of the Fisher Empire’s economy that was booming the most at this point was agriculture. With the expertise of pre-System farmers combined with the Fisher Emperor’s magical powers, the land was bountiful, enough that they could afford to engage in commerce and export some of the surplus food. If, as they believed, this was an area where they had a comparative advantage, Luntz would be able to help figure out fair terms on which to sell.

The overall balance of participants was deliberately weighted so that both humans and monsters were represented, highlighting what seemed to be one of the unique characteristics of the Fisher Empire—how different Races of monster and humans were living in relative harmony, with neither oppressing the other.

So far, the other territories James had encountered had been controlled by one Race, with others either excluded or living as second-class citizens under the dominant species. He had not encountered other human Rulers, but he expected that they would probably be mostly the same. Humans always feared what they did not understand, and the experience of Orientation would have hammered home the usual biases.

Hopefully that meant that James would offer a unique selling point to potential allies, rather than looking like a human trying to con monsters into selling out their own kind or a traitor to the human species.

Or like an overly aggressive conqueror who had pressed all those he had conquered into service and brainwashed them into thinking of him as a benevolent Ruler.

“One last thing to do,” James muttered quietly to himself.

Dominion.

James’s ring glowed hot orange, and aura rolled off of him in all directions. He waited patiently for the first feeling of it striking something, and as soon as he felt that clash of energies, he acted.

“I’ll be back in a bit,” he said aloud.

Imperial Motion.

James disappeared and reappeared at the place where his Dominion bordered someone else’s. He touched the air where he felt the opposing power, and he activated another of his new Skills.

Dispossess.

There was a struggle, like a brief wrestling match, between the two auras, and then the larger and more powerful one—James’s—smashed the other aura and took control over the shattered remnants of what power had permeated the territory. James felt himself grow stronger, not weaker, from the application of this power.

He smiled.

Easy. Why wasn’t it always this easy? If it’s like this, I’ll take over the state of Florida in a matter of days, not months!

In another area of Orlando, James’s aura struck another Ruler’s. He used Imperial Motion again.

James repeated the same maneuver fourteen times. Not every Ruler’s aura was absorbed into his own; most of these exertions actually temporarily weakened him rather than building up his reserves of energy.

Still, for over an hour—almost the entire time that James had left before the World Leaders’ Summit—he took more territory from the other Rulers that remained in Orlando. He only stopped once he felt his aura was beginning to thin out from overuse and his Mana levels were starting to get low.

Fighting for every inch of ground in this invisible way, James quickly established a level of control over two-thirds of Orlando proper. The rest of the city, and the suburbs, would come later, as would enforcing his will on the populations that had suddenly been absorbed into his territory, but the latter process would partially take care of itself, with the Sword of Law. The important factor in his decision was that now he had made his capture of this territory a fait accompli, and one that the other Rulers could not attempt to undo until after the World Leaders’ Summit and—for the stronger ones—after the Victors Tournament.

By then, who was to say that their followers would not have become quite accustomed to the light hand of the Fisher Emperor and his administrators?

And at the World Leaders’ Summit, James would have the advantage in any negotiations with the leaders whom he had just dispossessed.

He couldn’t strip the Rulers of their Titles or Jobs as Rulers… yet. But “Ruler” would be a hollow concept for the fifteen individuals whose territory James had seized.

Yes, your territory is where, exactly? Oh, your aura is only concentrated around your own body, because a certain someone stole your land from you. Sounds rough.

It would make it difficult for them to secure allies against him, as well. Who wants to be allied to someone who can’t even defend their own land?

He used Imperial Motion and returned to where his people were. He looked around quickly—everything seemed to be basically unchanged—and began composing an announcement just for the people in the newly seized regions.

[Greetings, new prospective citizens, and congratulations! You have just been liberated by the Fisher Empire…!]