Chapter 10-308: Gamers and Thrones, Part Two (1/2)
The black crescent on white of The Jet and Silver soon had Banners rising all over the world, often on the grounds of Churches to Sylune. The many national governments quavering in their parliaments dithered and argued and talked about passing laws and doing stuff about all this, finding their electorates evaporating away underneath them, and only custom and tradition keeping them in their jobs.
The quiet movements were already beginning, as people went looking for a King or Queen, quietly urged by the Heavenly Churches, as well as certain of the Neutral ones who saw a chance to grab power if they could influence a True King. There were some people who proclaimed all this bald-faced lies meant to divide everyone and create chaos and blah blah blah.
They were told to stop speaking Human if they didn’t believe me, and go tell all the Priests of Harse that they were lying bastards deluding everyone. Surely that would go over well.
Me, I was helping save the world. The things the Daoists and Buddhists had done were now streaming freely out onto the Internet, and the Obelisks I’d made were connecting the world on an information level like a higher tech internet-connected world should have been.
I was also managing the growth of my Allegiance without ever having to be in those places, and those who joined could instantly feel my Monarch’s Mantle anywhere I was upon the whole planet.
If they couldn’t talk to me because there too damn many people and that’s what Vassal relationships were designed to take care of, they all KNEW I was aware of them, that I could identify them on sight as easily as they could me, and my job wasn’t to kiss their boo-boos and powder their noses.
They were following me because I had someplace to go and I was leading them there. If they had their own ideas on what to do and how to do it and where to go, they could kiss off.
I was The Monarch. I was in control, I had a purpose, and they could follow me or get out of the way.
That was a true Allegiance, a united goal and purpose with a strong leader showing the way. The whole world knew my purpose, and I had the strength to drive it forward... and a huge portion of that purpose was making them stronger.
Yeah, I had no problems attracting people, nor did Briggs, Sama, or Sir Pellier. The people who thought they could compete with us could only sort of cringe when they realized just how big The Jet and Silver had grown, and how far its reach had spread.
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When Sama shifted camps to start making high-QL weapons and provide more immediate leadership in India if needed, the Warlords there could only try to protest, and one made the mistake of trying to drive her out with force of arms to stop people from going to her.
She let his men live, but he died in many pieces, and she didn’t even draw Tremble to kill him. The many pieces she tore him into was an excellent way to dissuade others from following his example, and stripping his followers naked and sending them off into a Shroudzone to earn their lives back helped, too.
There were a lot of women learning to fight now. Amazons weren’t common, as those Pacts were often maxed out, but women could shoot just fine, and use spears, gain a Vajra, become a Null, and get tough as nails. Sama was totally willing to teach them and watch them Level, and if the patriarchal society they came from didn’t like it, too bad for them.
Things were changing, after all. If they came across a Powered, however untalented, there were ways to improve them, too... and minor Powered who suddenly could Do Stuff and contribute were not all that much different in mindset from people who had no Power at all.
When Sama moved her first army up to Delhi, I brought down the Dome and destroyed the two Arhats there, while she, Legion, Azaia, and Shvaughn/Windwise butchered the Anagami and the like, while Sama’s troops tore into the converted Buddhists in a screaming rage. Blooded on three different Shroudzones of undead, the Forsaken and lesser Powered with her displayed all the ferocious power and tactics of a true Warlord-led force as they cleaned up the Buddhists.
I roved the countryside, reversing Shrines, painting locations of Cultivators into the Map, and kill-teams of vengeful Forsaken moved this way and that with lethal intent. It had to be on foot, of course, but the first thing they all invested in was lightfoot and movement rate, and Nulls had no problem with endurance. Nor did those riding Disks to keep up with them.
Azaia Leveled with all of them and this activity, making quick and continual progress, albeit grabbing a lot of side Levels and doing smaller fights with Legion to keep her own Karmic gain high. She burned through a lot of Wands, but the Shards coming off them, and the spells she was Casting on her own, were once again rising in power.
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Rajkat, Ahdemabad, Jaipur, Kanpur, Nagpur, Ludhiana, Hyderabad, Karachi...
One by one, over days and weeks, the fortified centers of the Buddhists fell. Humans and goblins fell upon them one by one, and the Buddhists died to a once-Human. The fully transformed made power components and Baneskulls that helped kill more of them, and a religion thousands of years old was eradicated with a savage thoroughness that could only be called holy war. Like all such things, the purpose was holy, but the results were just brutal and merciless.
Sama organized the fighting and the recovery with aplomb and ever-rising Charisma, coordinating things with the skill and ease of a master strategist, logistician, diplomat, and bully. She was fully capable of getting all the things done, just like Briggs, and if she wasn’t my equal in several areas, I was fully capable of helping her out until she was.
She had spent months pouring Karma into her Charisma, and once she popped it, she was going to instantly make Seven, acquire more Classes, and do her Preincarnation Dive.
What was going to come out of that, I had no idea...
My own advancements were in Masteries, and they simply continued at a slow, once-a-day pace. Sure, I was investing in Einz and Clavus, I was making Energized gems in massive quantities, I was Blessing people, I was running supplies back and forth, I was Mapping the land, I was extending my Lived-Line, and I was organizing and advising.
Yeah, I was always busy, but that just kept all my thoughtstreams occupied, so it was a good thing. Occupying a supercharged brain is a necessity, or you start finding all sorts of stuff to keep you occupied.
A lot of bad things started that way...