NOVEL NEXT V10: Chapter 14
V10: Chapter 14
…
Another Council of Kings to address the Demonic threat sounded good on paper, but from my experience in-game and in reality, I knew that it was just going to be a waste of time.
Council of Kings was automatic and didn't take time when you played in the game. They start happening every couple of turns, and everyone can work together on a countermeasure for the current crisis. Free trade agreements that upgrade everyone's income for a couple of turns. Cross-agency espionage collaboration that lowers the success rate of espionage missions. A ten percent increase to EXP gain thanks to all armies working with one another.
Sounds good on paper, but in practice the bonuses are too small to matter. They would've been great if you could've gotten them years before the crisis started. Ten percent compounding growth every year is great… at the start of the game. Now, with the dangers at our door, the Council of Kings would only provide benefits if they were tripled. Not only that, but in-game, there's no cost to attending the Council of Kings.
You click the diplomacy screen, and there you are.
Here?
Everyone needed to be on good terms with one another.
Everyone needed to put money together to present themselves as strong.
Everyone was more hell-bent on their own interests rather than anyone else's.
The possible gains from another Council of Kings were just too small for me to consider. If someone else called for it, if there was some unified call to work together, I'd join in. However, with the Forgers and Merchants fighting, and the Guardians selling them weapons? It was unlikely that was going to happen.
The time for building alliances, diplomacy, and expansion has passed.
Now, it was time to kill or be killed while desperately holding onto all the territory that I now possessed… while keeping an eye on all the other Citadels.
If they were about to fall, then I'd need to go in and take it before it falls.
Usually, one Crisis getting one Citadel would just make the game harder, but with four end-game factions converging on us?
That would be the end of it.
I really hoped that once things got dire enough, if enemy armies were in spitting distance of their Citadels, they'd ask me for help or just surrender.
But I haven't gotten this far by being an optimist.
If I smell blood in the water, I'm going in with full force to deny the enemy a Citadel and take another one for myself.
It was time to stop holding back, go full throttle, and not care about how the other factions saw me.
Now it was time to be aggressive.
…
There were a lot of changes to the Goddess of Life's temple since my last visit. Some would say that's an understatement since the clergy got murdered the last time I came around, but those guys weren't just replaced. The whole feel of the place at first was like a secluded vault to keep people out. Multiple gates, tall but narrow halls, and plenty of corners for defenders to use. If you looked at the temple as a diagram, you'd see it as a meat grinder for any intruders first, before realizing that it was actually a place of worship at the center.
Whoever took up the new position basically made a new temple, set aside the first one as a storehouse after putting in more doors, and now the new temple was actually a place of worship.
Almost too much worship.
Hundreds of Children of the Elm were in secluded halls looking through into the garden. They knelt with heads bowed and prayed. They wore little more than loincloths or bands across the chest, with no jewelry in sight, so as to adhere to ascetic principles. The halls were circular and wide with tall ceilings bare of any design, as well as composed of wood shaped through magic. The constant prayer-chanting created a choral echo through the complex that coalesced into the garden. A constant breeze swept through the halls, and through flowing, vine-like grates, they looked at the garden where the Goddess of Life slept.
In the garden there was one singular tree that provided shade, but fields of grass and flowers flourished without needing any tending. Flowers of every color grew, perished, and shed their petals to flow through the grates. Each petal was carefully dried and kept by those it fell upon. If they did not fall upon someone, they simply vanished. Typically, if a petal landed upon a Children of the Elm, they would cast aside all their work and devote themselves to the Goddess of Life's clergy.
A clergy that largely gave food to the hungry, provided healing services, and helped crops grow.
Tests on the chosen also showed that they had higher rates of regeneration, could cast healing spells more easily, and were predisposed towards magic that manipulated plants.
Since the rate at which these clergy were appearing finally reached around one a month and hasn't risen since, I assumed that the Goddess of Life was finally ready.
Though, I could've told you that just by looking at her.
Sometimes, when the world is so shitty, fanservice shines so brightly that you just can't help but be absolutely floored when you look at it. I think a few posters on the game forums said it the best:
>tfw when you're surrounded, millions are dead, and behind tech, but you have big-titty elf mommy on your side.
>tfw when you strap in because you can't let mommy down.
>win
The narrative has been taken without permission. Report any sightings.
I salute all those degenerates, especially since posting with that formatting gets the poster banned.
Anyway, the Goddess of Life had the ridiculous figure that she was supposed to have now. Asleep in the crook of a tree, beneath its shade, the Goddess of Light fit her earliest stage art. If everything went right, she'd just stay here while the temple around her flourished and I funneled faith her way. She'd just yawn, maybe stretch a bit, and look ludicrous just with a few pieces of cloth on her person along with some leaves and vines.
How ludicrous?
Imagine a model that has flawless, healthy skin, then give her waist-length, straight blonde hair and a healthy slenderness. Give that model a kind, caring, and compassionate personality, but one who also knows how to add 'punishment' to 'divine' when needed. A caring and compassionate beautiful lady who wishes for the descendants of the Ancients to grow strong and powerful and who wields what power she can to strengthen her chosen people. Put her in bits of white cloth to just drape over her body along with some vines and leaves.
Alluring, beautiful, and sensual, right?
Borderline hedonistic, right?
Yeah, for normal people.
This game was made for degenerates by Eastern Europeans who've been bitten hard by the anime bug.
And they're independent and don't have any shareholders.
So, to that borderline hedonistic image? Add on thick thighs, wide hips, and breasts bigger than her head.
How big?
If she holds her hands behind her back, her breasts will hide her shoulders and arms.
That big.
Alright.
That's enough staring.
It's time to put the Goddess of Life and Nature to work for my war machine.
Standing before her sleeping form, I undid the glove covering the two marks on my hand and clenched my hand into a fist. I took hold of the magic inside myself and channeled it as best as I was able towards the crest.
It came alive with light, and the constant chanting from the circular halls ceased, the constant cool breeze stopped, and all plants went still.
Then, blue eyes opened, and a smile spread across the Goddess of Life's face.
I was ready for something to go wrong, since the Death Goddess was so different from what she was meant to be. The deaths of the former clergy were still too easy to remember in the presence of the Goddess of Life.
Yeah, it's not easy to forget seeing multiple people get turned into trees with those trees growing out of every orifice that they have.
Anyway, I was ready for everything to go wrong, so I was pleasantly surprised by what came to be.
"Ah, my beloved, you have finally awakened me." So far, so good. The breathy 'mommy' voice was higher in fidelity, but still the same as I remember. A breeze flew by, and petals along with a breeze made strands of her hair flutter. Her VA had a nice accent, and that carried through here. Couldn't tell you where the accent was from, though. Or who the VA was. I'm a fan of games and indie game companies. Not people. What was I doing again? Right, contracting with a Divine Engine. "How may I serve you?"
There were three dialogue options to answer her question.
'Your power is not mine, but the people's. Give to them the bounties of nature. Protect them from their foes. In exchange for their faith and their worship, grant them blessings to overcome the curses that have ravaged them.'
The first dialogue option unlocked the first Nature Perk, "Health and Plenty," which doubled all the yields of food output, as well as doubled the rates of population growth. Improved food tiles with farms at this stage at mid-game gave four units, but the perk turned it into eight. It was a great perk, since the double applied after all the flat, percentage, and tech-based bonuses the player had and rounded up. A single endgame food tile with all the building bonuses and techs, along with a Champion, could give out twenty units of food. Turning that into forty units was frankly absurd, even with the doubled population growth.
But population growth and food weren't something I was looking for. If I needed more bodies, I just needed to wait a turn, and every Iterant could give me two more as long as I stayed on their good side. Not only that, but they didn't need food to support their population growth and were stronger, tougher, and worked harder. That's why I was doing everything in my power to prevent their rebellion question chain.
So, the first option was not worthwhile.
The second dialogue option went:
'Heed my words, I am your master. By my will, you will grant my armies the strength and power to crush my enemies. The faith I have given you has been costly. It will be repaid, or you will not receive more."
The second dialogue option gave the first perk to the Primordial Strength Perk line: "Blessed Strength." It provided mediocre improvements to attack and defense but gave a regeneration boost to all combat troops and even to city health while under siege. The regeneration boost was like 1% of troop health every ten seconds. So, in a thousand seconds, someone can go from near-dead at 1 HP to perfectly fine. It also reduced the number of deaths that occurred in battle, turning them into recovering casualties that will return to the fight after the battle is done.
Again, a great perk, but I made sure to have combat medics available that can staunch bleeding and get people out of the line of fire and gave my troops armor. Not to mention the fact that I was giving them every unlocked tech that I had that upgraded their stats, so they're all turning into supersoldiers. Anything that a combat medic can't staunch or overcomes the armor or bodies of my troops will kill them outright. Therefore, that was a waste for a 'free' first perk choice, since casualties are far less likely than outright deaths.
That left the final option for me.
"Oh, Goddess of Life, I offer you sanctuary in my lands. I grant you this place and the people here as your faithful attendants, and the lands they tend to are now yours. May this become your paradise." This was always the plan, really. That's why I gathered the Children of the Elm here, set it all up for them, and got them to take care of it while keeping my hands off of it. In-game, if you did this, the Goddess of Life will take the region that produces the most food and has the least production. That region no longer contributes to your coffers, along with any population and villages you had in it. Finally, it started giving points towards starting the Usurpation questline, which could have me replaced as a ruler. Sounds pricey, right? Yeah, but it was the only way to get the free Perk point in the third, last Perk Tree that the Goddess of Life had. "My sole desire is to see the works of the Ancients completed. Look to me as an ally in your just cause."
I held the hand with my crest over my heart and gave a small nod after finishing my statement.
That should've been all of it.
Hopefully, I haven't flubbed any lines. I did my best to recall them, and then I practiced on my own time for weeks before coming here.
A silence hung in the air for a moment while the Divine Engine considered my words.
If she asked for the whole empire, I'd say yes, then bomb this place to rubble before calling on the Goddess of Death to finish her off.
Thankfully, it did not come to that.
"I accept this alliance, my beloved. I shall be stalwart and true to you, as you are to me." Great, that was the reply that I was looking for. Now, the Goddess of Life should recline back into her tree and go back to sleep until I get enough faith for the next perk. Instead… she stood up, and vines crawled up her while leaves formed clothes. Pure, white silk cloths that barely covered anything draped themselves over her, and suddenly… she was standing before me in her fourth stage. I knew this because a staff of pure white came forth from the ground at her left, while another white oak created a white crown at her left. I was ready to scream at the sight of the crown, thinking that she was going to usurp the empire right away by crowning herself and killing me, but I realized that the crown was too small for a two-and-a-half-meter Elven Goddess. The staff floated by her side while she took the crown of white oak with both hands and knelt before me. "May your reign be blessed forevermore by my strength, and may we see this world reborn anew."
I bowed my head in reflex while she placed the crown of entwining white branches on my head.
When she stood up again, white oak wings settled on her shoulders, and she floated off the ground with her bare feet.
Yep.
That's the final ascension portrait with all the additions and fetishes heaped on.
I… I guess that I pumped in more Faith than I thought!
Oh.
Does that mean I'm getting all the perks from all three lines at once!?
I need to warn everyone that we're about to go from low fantasy to high fantasy at ludicrous speeds!