Side Story: Myriad Preparing for the invasion

Author's note

Side story time! I had intended to get it out yesterday but this month hasn't been great for my scheduling so sorry about that. Instead you guys get to enjoy a packed two days as I squeeze it between your regularly scheduled chapters. Hope you enjoy!

“I’m so tired,” Myriad sighed, even if he didn’t let it affect his work. He was going over the shared information being spread amongst the countless gods of the world as each gave their input for the coming invasion.

From how mortals were allocating their resources and if there were any areas they thought they should step in, to deciding how the assets of their churches would be split in such a time of need, to the most contentious of all, how they’d be spending their faith.

The most limited resource of all, it was something that most gods wanted to hold tight for as long as they could, only giving it up when it mattered, but they were in a time where none could be greedy. No matter how much it might hurt some, they knew that in the next few years they’d each be giving almost all they had, it was only a question of when.

With the answer to that being largely in the second and third waves it seems.

It wasn’t shocking. The first wave was always going to be the easiest so the help they would be giving there would be the most limited, if only to save their strength for when it would really matter.

It came down to desperation and trust, the first because each god knew how much weaker they were compared to when they’d lost their original homes, and the second was down to the fact that they had to believe that the millennia of planning and preparing the mortals under them had been working towards wasn’t for nothing. They needed to believe that they could handle that much at least so that those they gave their faith could act when it mattered most.

“We’re all tired,” Helori spoke from atop him. “Don’t complain, you should be able to manage your exhaustion as well as the rest of us.”

“Even if I can, it’s no substitute for a proper break,” He grumbled.

“Take a page from your apostle and rest when you’re dead. Speaking of, how are things on that front?”

“Pff, you know he’s going off to get himself killed,” Myriad complained some more. “He could be waiting in Stonewall, but no! He has to be right at one of the invasion points, the awful, stressful boy.”

“I’m more than aware of the stress he’s causing you,” She laughed despite the workload. “I was more referring to the rest of your faith since it’s actually managed to grow a fair bit by this point.”

It was a good question and one that made him freeze as Helori looked at him through narrowed eyes.

“You have spoken with your core believers, haven’t you?”

More silence, but it was enough to act as an answer to her question. He’d been dealing with his work and talking to Ben who was giving him no end of stress, but it had led to different areas of neglect he really couldn’t afford. Sure, he was probably still making more time for his believers than the average god by far, but he had been trying to keep things light, both for them as well as himself. Now though it was feeling blatantly obvious that he’d let that go on for too long.

Helori let out a sigh before hopping off of him. “Okay, I’ll be heading back to my realm for a bit so you need to actually finish this up. I’ll be by later so if you aren’t done by then your believers are just going to have to deal with seeing their god being used as a chair, alright?”

Before he could comment she shot him a small smile and vanished, leaving him alone before he’d need to start calling up people to talk with.

“You could just make a real chair when you visit, you know?” He sighed at no one, a final comment before mentally preparing to get to work.

---

“Ahem, so Sachel, what exactly are your plans for the coming war?” Myriad asked his oracle after pulling her up, hoping for something slightly less suicidal than his apostle seemed to be getting into and being all but gifted instant relief from her answer.

“Well, originally I was planning on protecting Stonewall with the other adventurers in town but as your oracle, I understand if you want me trying to take a more meaningful role somewhere-”

“No! No no, no. What you’re planning is perfect,” Myriad was quick to say before she could get any dangerous ideas in her head. “Everyone needs to do the best they can but at a certain point doing more than that just becomes suicide. I think you’ll do excellently focusing on protecting your home, that’s more than enough to shine so just focus on keeping yourself and the people you love safe, understand?”

“If you’re sure then I’ll do my best,” She told him with a bow as they moved to chat on lighter topics just a little long before she left, letting Myriad breathe a little easier.

“One down, two to go,” He muttered. It was a load off his mind for things to go so smoothly on at least one front, he could only hope it would keep up as he brought his next believer forth, Valaria.

While not having an official role in the faith yet, she’d been doing more than enough as one of his believers while at the same time being well-regarded by most of his others regardless of race, meaning she was an excellent person to talk to in case she saw anything he might have been missing.

Though it does feel a little ridiculous that she’s so much better to ask about this than either my apostle or oracle. Really do need to figure out how I’m going to convince her to become my head priestess one of these days.

“Valaria, how are you?” He asked warmly. “Not overworking yourself I hope?”

“Things have begun slowing down a bit with brace production so this is the calmest things have been for me in weeks,” She said as she bowed, sounding more relaxed than she’d been in a while. “I have nothing to complain about.”

“Well, it’s good to hear you’re finally getting more of a break.” He told her before moving to the main topic. “But that isn’t what I brought you up here to discuss today. How are you feeling about the future? As well as any of the other believers you might have spoken to?”

She didn’t need to ask what future he was referring to, it was something on the minds of every person on the planet. Still, she seemed to be handling things better than most.

“There’s not much to feel about it, is there?” She asked. “What’s going to come will come. Of course, plenty of the others have their worries, but that’s not really avoidable, is it? I think it’s true of the majority of the people on the planet.”

Well, she’s at least handling things about as well as could be hoped it looks like.

“And do you have any plans for it? Will you be actively participating in any way?”

“Would you… like me to?”

He felt the pressure rise in her mind and he moved to immediately put her at ease.

“I’m not asking you to do anything,” He told her calmly yet firmly, wanting it to be clear. “I’m just trying to understand the state of everyone right now, that’s all.”

The answer seemed to relieve her just a little, even if inside she still found herself questioning if what she had planned on was enough.

“I won’t actively be doing much, since I have my dark magic I’ll be acting to help relieve the pain of some of the patients brought to the city while they’re waiting to be healed, but that’s really the most of what I can do.”

“That’s more than enough. I think it’s an excellent choice.”

More than excellent. Doing a little bit of good in one of the safest places in the world? Why can’t the rest of my believers be like that?

Her answer couldn’t help but leave him relieved knowing that she at least would be safe in the event anything happened to Ben and Sachel, even if it did leave him to consider what she said about the rest.

Of course they're worried, but if it’s the normal amount then there isn’t much that can be done, is there? Hmm, maybe I’ll bring the lot of them up here for a sermon. I could get Ben… scratch that, Sachel to lead it. Ben wouldn’t care enough and would just leave everyone more worried with his indifference. I guess that means I’ll bring her up again later to discuss the prospect.

Still, it left him with a direction to go with by the time their conversation was done, leaving him with one final person to talk with as the demidemon Taltho was brought to his realm last.

He would speak with all of his kind, the same way he would with anyone who gave him their faith, but given that Taltho acted as their leader, it was simplest to direct questions that concerned the community as a whole to him specifically.

His people had already been informed of the dire state of the world, there was no need to try and catch them up, all that mattered for the time being was how they felt about it.

“We want to fight,” Toltho spoke confidently, having no idea the stress he was putting Myriad through with the statement. “Now that we know, how could we not?”

Behind the words was a misplaced sense of guilt that only made things even more complicated. For better or worse, the demidemons knew what they were. They knew they’d been created from the same monsters that would be invading the world and they knew that their genesis had also led to the demons gaining the benefits of the system. Regardless of the fact that they had played no part in their own creation, nor the consequences of such an event, they couldn’t shake the guilt that came with it, leaving Myriad to rush to figure out how he was going to deal with it.

Getting them to any invasion point would only cause more issues, not to mention how others might react if they see them. They really don’t look too demonic, it could be solved by getting them to wear pants and a shirt with long sleeves, but it’s still high enough of a risk for misunderstandings that I really don’t want to have to deal with it.

It was a problem they would have to face eventually, but one he wanted to push to a more distant part of the future as he figured out how to put it off in a way that could leave everyone happy.

“Getting you to an invasion point wouldn’t be easy,” Myriad started. “A lot of the planning for that has already been done, not to mention the issues it would cause the village. How many would go? It’s not like you could bring the children so you’d still need someone who could look after the young, but then there’s hunting and farming and ensuring everyone stays safe. A community can break down if it loses too much support.”

Toltho stayed silent, feeling the rejection and trying to accept it as his god went on.

“Of course, that’s not to say you couldn’t do anything,” Myriad told him, extending a branch to alleviate some of the misplaced guilt that he and the others felt over their own existence. “The deep woods were always going to be one of the harder places to work on for thinning out the demons that escaped there, what do you think of taking over the role? Form hunting parties to take on any groups you can? It would honestly be a lot of help.”

There were only so many demidemons so one might question how much of an impact they could really have, but every bit would help. It was doubtless that a huge number of the invaders would make their way to the untamed lands while everyone else was focusing on protecting the invasion points along with the many towns and cities of the world, doing this would at least be something to help ease the burden, even if just a little, and it was a request that Taltho seemed thrilled to take.

“We’ll do it,” He said confidently, proud to have been given any sort of role. “I’ll talk with the others, but I doubt anyone would disagree. We will make you proud.”

“You don’t need to earn my pride, you already have it, but make sure you keep me up to date once things start. Don’t put your desire to act beyond your survival, understand?”

“Of course,” Toltho said as he bowed. “But we will still do our best.”

Probably the most I could hope for.

His desire for those who gave him their faith to live in peace was unrealistic but it was a desire he wouldn’t suppress, which meant he had no choice but to try and balance his responsibilities towards both his believers and the world as a whole.

And hope not too many die by the end of things.