113 A fortunate acciden (1/2)
Looking at the ratman and the human kneeling in front of her, Leilade was wondering if the gods were watching her or not. While others could have misunderstood the words of Oslo, she had totally understood what he meant when he asked her to stop what they were doing. After all, the gods were only interested in one thing and she had already stolen quite a few from them. Since she said she would stop for the moment, to not face whatever Heroes they could create before having a fully equipped army, she had to uphold her promise.
Meaning she couldn't just kill the two worms and just steal their souls to know all their secrets. Of course, it was only a temporary measure, none of them were willing to be restrained by the parasites lurking above the planet. So, in the absence of Meridiana, they could only resort to violence and tortures. Being lifted without even being asked one question, the two survivors of those that tried to invade their domain were feeling the herculean grip of Ymir. The Akûl sneered at their faces getting redder and redder by lack of oxygen.
However, that was not even the beginning, four liches appeared in the room and began to cast restrictions after restrictions, circling the prisoners with even a mute spell. Cornered in a remote location in the room, they were dealt as Malakov wanted, while no sound could perturb the Empress. ”Kardel, I understand the human that Ymir spared since I asked him to. But why do you brought back another ratman? Hasn't the other one proved to be quite useless in reality?”
The human was the leader of those guards and commanded the hidden forces positioned all around their base. So he was their best shot at knowing who dared to come here. However, to the surprise of everyone, Kardel did not slaughter his way out and actually spared a ratman. At first, Ymir thought it was quite smart to keep a bit of food for later and lamented he did not do the same, but it was not the case.
”Empress, this one had a smell I already knew. It was the same as the magus I fought in the desert of that Empire, Synnada. Meaning he had been in contact with him shortly before heading here. Based on this fact, I hoped you could have peeked in his memories to know how they reacted about my presence.” Nodding at those words, Leilade agreed with the duvodiad. If she could have just dealt with their souls, they could have learned everything they wanted on the situation outside of Massalia.
”Well, the procedures designed by the Demonic Empire will not fail. Malakov, when they are ready, tell us. I am expecting some news for two days.”
”Yes, Empress.” The lich bowed before her. Even if two days could be long compared to how she could be more efficient in barely a few seconds, they couldn't do that for the time being. As for the delay, it was something they couldn't shorten. If it had been a strong race on another planet, the procedure could have taken even longer, sometimes reaching an entire week. And by procedure, they meant tortures, both physical and magical all while leaving the soul completely intact.
Looking at the deformed head of the two prisoners, visibly crumbling under the pain and shouting with all their strength, it seemed that it will be even shorter. Turning around to look at the holographic globe nearby, she injected a few elements. From the ones she killed in Archet, she could shape the frontiers to be more like reality. The entire West was still blurry, with no defined locations, but the frontier with Pankow appeared a bit more concrete. Unlike the mountains between Avenio and Massalia, the only thing preventing the undead to attack the Republic was a vast river.
Because of this, it made sense that the Order of Kirov was called back quickly after the first undead was spotted. Even if nearly all the bridges were apparently destroyed by the humans, there were several locations where a group of undead could reach the other side, albeit with a few casualties. It also served previously as a way for the dwarves to trade with the Kingdom of Pankow since the source was in their mountains. As for the other end, it dived under the ground a bit before reaching Massalia and the monster land nearby.
All she knew was that by following the river, she would automatically get to the dwarves. Based on the location of Archet, she would then only need to develop toward the South and capture another city before opening a direct passage between their two people. After all, if she could have the help of the dwarves, a lot of things would become far easier. Besides trying a way to return to the Demonic Empire, they only needed a constant supply of living beings to survive.They could be war prisoners, tributes or the outlaws of their future empire.
Thinking about the fact that they had to conquer the world or a big part of it, just to survive,Leilade did not lament. After all, they had all lived centuries by sustaining their bodies with the lives of others. With that, she visited once more the Vault of Souls, to see if there were any changes. Because she could only absorb the souls and not the body at Archet, she still hadn't recovered enough to wake up someone else besides Master Agnil. Checking the condition of her main guest, she was pleased to see him in a deep slumber. The later he will wake up the better it will be.
Leaving the central room, she headed toward the newly created place in their base. Passing in front of a gigantic underground farm, she stopped a few seconds to see the disposition. The plants were under artificial light and numerous water containers were periodically leaking their contents. A few liches were guarding the place, controlling everything with magic. Only now did she wondered from where the seeds came from.
”Malakov, where did you get so many seeds so quickly?” Creating an inanimate object by using mana was already costly, even more, if the object had innate properties, like the Aether. It was because of this that while the lich could easily create a large amount of gold, just a gram of Aether was even more costly. As for living, truly living, creatures, it was definitely not worth it. That's why, seeing all of this, she could not figure how could Malakov created so many.
”Oh, it was sheer luck, Empress. A few days ago, one of my ghosts spotted an ambushed cart. Inside, there was numerous plants and seeds. So, I stole them.” Nodding, Leilade did not believe a single word. The lucky ambush was probably caused by him, especially if he found out they had what she asked. However, she was also certain that there will be no survivors to tell what happened, meaning that it could be considered as an accident.