Chapter 11-327: Traveling Again (1/2)

The helping Purgers were delighted to get the golden fruits of their labors, of course, with the caveat that they only got to use the gold to Burn magic items into existence, and only while they stayed in China. They could keep what they made, of course, but only as long as they fought every day.

A goldweight a day to Burn away was a damn good reason to fight or be moving to fight every day.

There were plenty of Daoist Sects and strongpoints left to kill, and the Shroudzones were still everywhere. There was no end of work to do, but more and more Sixes ready to go were showing up every day.

I made my obligatory transport runs, bringing in new weapons and ammo for Chinese ready to start Shroudzone clearing and gain their Levels, Named Weapons, and some long-stewing revenge.

I did visit my erstwhile family, who had finally gotten their fill of seeing me blast through a lot of undead and cultivators over the last few days, and had revised their standards of how they should treat me accordingly. I was plainly far, far more powerful than they were, they weren’t quite sure how to treat someone at my level of ability, and more to the point, someone who was motivated at the levels I was.

My hunger for personal power was completely skewed to the need for that personal power. I had a much better idea of what was out there, and all the bad fantasy novels, games, and video games were all inspirations for some of it. I wasn’t looking to rule the world. I was just trying to prepare through the best means that I knew how.

This was especially true since I was 99% sure I wouldn’t be here to enjoy any long-term fruits of my labors. The only thing I was taking was what I was taking with me.

Thus, there was shit I had to get done before all that happened, as I didn’t know how much time we had. Getting rid of the Cultivators was only the start of it.

People got into my Allegiance because they believed in me. Once they realized what I was trying to do, the goal grew past me, because it had to. I wasn’t going to be there to save them when it came time for something to happen.

It was kind of odd being the doomed heroine, and having no fear of that fate other than a mild irritation.

I was going to be fighting against stuff that deserved to die, check.

I was going to be fighting against stuff that I was really good at fighting against, check.

I was going to be seeing a lot of new places, worlds, and realms, check.

I was going to basically be on an endless Karmic Buffet. In terms of raw power, who knew where that would lead? Check...

I was doing the work of Heaven, and inspiring a whole lot of mortal people on Good roads to greater power, which could only help Good in the long run. Check.

Would I be freeing souls from the Shroud? I looked up from the back of the Old Steed at the Haze above.

There were souls in there from other worlds that had died to the invading undead. They came with the Shroud. When the Shroud was broken here and had to relinquish its grasp, would their prison be shattered, or would they be taken away with it?

What I could discern about the Shroud was not encouraging me in this matter. If I wanted to get Elrii free of the Shroud, I would have to resort to other methods.

Happily, there was an Immortal Planetar here who could employ some very powerful other methods, even if the Shroud didn’t like it, because he wasn’t reliant on Miracles. Valence IX’s were not wimpy.

The anti-Wish power of the Shroud would stop me, but as a personal favor at the final moment, I was sure the Commander would do this.

I was now back in northern India, moving across the landscape with magical speed, every bit as fast as Sleipner on non-Veil cruise, or about 300ish kph. My Lived-Line was extending, I was cleaning up Qi-forming Shrines, occasionally wiping Buddhists who didn’t know enough to run, and spreading the word among the survivors I ran into who were either fighting back or had hidden enough to keep their free will.

I noticed the numbers of urgobs were increasing here. They were treated as little more than muscle slaves by the Buddhists, and were naturally ornery and not very susceptible to the Mantra, so they often ended up heading lots of resistance efforts. They were smart, strong, and had a definite talent for covert ops despite their size. I knew they were naturals for Special Forces teams in Europe and North America... and they also made brutal enforcers and gang lords, too.

It didn’t matter to me at this point. I passed out high-QL Weapons worthy of being Named, I gave them crystals on my speeches and the Helix Method and The Human Tongue and stuff, and continued with my killing of Cultivators as they urgently headed towards Shroudzones to begin the climb to real power.

If there were Good people, they could swear to my Banner. If not, I could pass out a few Blessings to bring them into the communication loop and coordinate with other forces nearby.

There were more than a few who had Warlord aspirations about taking over areas for themselves after all their hard work. They were going to be severely disillusioned about such things.

There were Thuggee assassins venerating Skulos and Shoul among these groups, too. Much to their dismay, I revealed their loyalties, revealed that I had a very personal beef with the latter’s Faith, and I slew the lot of them. As they tended to be among the more skilled of the survivors, this was not much appreciated, to which I told the survivors to hie their asses to the nearest Shroudzone, which I pointed out to them, and get stronger so they didn’t need murderers acting as guards and exploiting them.