Apocalypse Reborn: Demon Lord 24

 Apocalypse Reborn: Demon Lord 24

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Interlude: Khanrow

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Living metal beasts from ancient times toiled at our king’s command, creating more of themselves with resources forged by the Citadels, while gathered crowds watched.

Our king watched over them as they worked, fresh from defeating the Forgers and returning from the skies, and now standing as lord over machines that the Ancients once commanded.

Could they even be called Ancients now that one was with us?

“These constructs have information and education from ancient times. The Academy’s leadership only took enough to retain their positions. That will not be the case here. It will be spread far, wide, and to all who can listen.” He addressed me, noticing my gaze on him without even needing to turn my way, and I bowed me head out of instinct. The toil of the machines was constant in the great square. When they had first arrived, there had been a dozen of them. Now, there were twenty. The rate of their replication will only increase as more are constructed. How long until he had an army of the Ancients at his call. “They are builders first and foremost. Using them for war and not to educate and create will waste them. But they give us gifts.”

He gestured to those gifts made by the ancient machines on the table.

A pure white blade that cut through any armor with ease.

A firearm that spat out a bolt of light and blew apart flesh and armor with ease.

The first did not to be resharpened or maintained, as well as easily used for cutting apart wood as much as flesh. The firearm had no need for munitions. It only needed to bask in sunlight for a day before being able to unleash destruction over two hundred times at once.

He was right.

Why risk the builders of these wonders when we had so many people who could be trained to wield the weapons they made?

“It shall be as you will, my lord. I will ensure their safety and protection.” I raised my bowed head and found him looking at me from the corner of my eye. Suddenly, I feared if I had done wrong, until he reached for his side and threw something my way. I caught it. A small device with a latch that could attach to one’s belt. “What is this?”

“The greatest gift. Press the button and you may speak to me from across the continent in entirety.” I felt my stomach drop and my legs suddenly felt weak. This was a wonder amongst wonders. A means to communicate and reach one another instantly? It was beyond magic and bordered on miracle. “Each device is paired. It can only speak to its counterpart. I will surmount this limitation by creating buildings full of them working as relays with one another. Bridging pairs together by people if needed. Some magic may be of use to make it better.”

I could only nod at his assertion.

Making the works of the Ancients better would have never crossed my mind. I would have simply used the gift as it was intended to be used.

“I will have you sweep through our new lands as the head of a new agency. You will specialize in intelligence and espionage. Ensure that all within realm is under our control in full.” I listened and heeded his words. The looming Ancient could wage war endlessly, but that was not the point. The goal was control and to use that control to make use of the surrounding lands. “I am entrusting you with much. You will be second only to your granddaughter.”

Some would snort derisively at such words, but my granddaughter had been entrusted with so much after meeting with the King of the Ancients. She was his right hand and she spoke with his authority. With that authority, she secured the southern portion of the continent for him. Now, she tamed all that was left of the wilderness with an army at her back.

“I understand. I’ll make use of these gifts, my lord. I will need support, however.”

“Compose what you need and send it my way. I will see what you require fulfilled.” He spoke and that was the end of the matter. Though I tried to look back at the machines that captivated the people, my focus now was on ensuring our supremacy. “Be merciless and eradicate all threats. When the time comes, there must be as little wasted on internal affairs as possible. Do you understand?”

“I understand, my liege. It will be as you will.”

He was right.

There was more beyond our borders, past the faltering defenses laid down by the Ancients. The rest of the world was under the control of those who the Ancients could not defeat, so they cursed them, broke them, and set them against one another. Those were our true foes now. While the Citadels could produce nigh-endless armies of faceless Guardians, who could do much harm to them, they could not defeat them completely.

They will retreat, they will destroy those we send in, and even study and make use of the materials we inadvertently provide. We need to adapt, to change, and reach the pinnacle of the Ancients as swiftly as possible, while the Guardians crippled their frontier with us and created a physical, deadly barrier against any armies that came our way.

They will do immense amounts of damage, as an endless lethal army could, but our enemies will adapt, overcome, and come our way with rage in their hearts.

So, we had to do more.

We had to spread knowledge, find scholars, and innovate ourselves. Our cities must grow, factories must rise up, and we must work to ensure that the Citadels will only be used for what we could not make.

Such was already the case.

The foundation was already there.

He had planned for this all along and I could only bow my head in thanks that he was with us.

No one else could have hoped to have began this war properly.

…

So, let’s talk genocide.

Nuclear was out of the question, since it would alert any possible alien force looking our way. Though with the Citadels under our control, we’ll have the home field advantage, there’s no way that anyone coming here after seeing nukes wouldn’t come with their own. They were just too good to ignore. The amount of firepower they offered for their weight class was only eclipsed by the weapon I planned to produce.

Or, rather, the four weapons I wanted to produce.

Four sets of custom-made plagues for each of the crisis. With my early start and acquisition of all the Citadels, beelining towards custom plagues was viable. Not only that, but with research, they could be turned off or my people could simply be inoculated against them. With material fabricators that can manipulate on the atomic scale, I could theoretically pick prime numbers, make different sets of plagues for each of the crisis factions, and just sit back and relax.

But that was all theoretical, since I didn’t have the computers needed to program the Citadel Fabricators.

But if I could make an interface, if I could do more than just select from the catalogue and make what I needed, then I wipe each crisis out without any problem.

But I needed to hold on until I got to that point.

“Ayah.”

“Yes, my lord?” Ayah played the part of princess held by a barbarian king. Usually, she moved about in bands of silk and gold. In truth, she was my line of defense. As soft as she looked, like a model plucked off a lingerie show’s runway, she was in fact a shapeshifting golem whose skin could bounce of anything short of anti-material rounds. She was also a dedicated advisor for rebuilding civilization. “What is your will?”

“Use your clerks and assemble an expedition for the brightest minds we can find and who can be replaced in their current fields. They will be educated, form the core of a university, teach more, and become our research wing.” With control established over the continent, it was time to pull it all together and consolidate everything into a cohesive, efficient organization. There was no shortage of resources any longer. The only shortage that we had was time. “I intend to attempt to create at least one plague that will devastate one of my future foes. Preferably the Demons. The best way to do that will be to access what lies beyond what my ancestors permit the Citadels to create.”

“As you wish, my lord. However, with the securities in place, even after interfacing with a recreated terminal, it may take time before such a thing could be made.” Ayah stated and I listened. The plague idea seemed like it was just taken out of my hands. “However, there are a myriad of plagues that can be weaponized within a clean environment. It will require test subjects from the Demons, however.”

A thought occurred to me.

A plague that will hit the people of this continent would also hit the enslaved/laborer caste of the crisis.

If I didn’t have the time that I already had, unleashing such a plague would be sufficiently crippling.

But I did have time.

“The next expedition will retrieve living subjects to be experimented upon, then. Search the lands for sufficiently strong and contagious diseases amongst larger animals. We will make them leap onto them.” It was a rough compromise, but it was better than nothing. Taking out one of the crises for a few years with an epidemic would be amazing, especially if they didn’t have the ability to respond to it. “We will go with your suggestion, Ayah.”

“Thank you, my lord. I will conduct the trials myself, if needed.” Seems like she was getting some vengeance out of her system. Normally, I’d be worried about an AI wanted to experiment on living beings and developing biological weapons against them. However, the Ancient Administrator was traumatized. If anything, traumatized was describing her situation too lightly. She watched everything be destroyed and was retrieved to try and save the world after being put into stasis. If she got out of hand, I could deal with her, so I let her have this. “Shall all the other plans go ahead?”

“Yes, I will focus on developing the military and ensuring the nation’s stability. Infrastructure and economy, I leave to you if the goals I have set are met.”

With that, I was finished speaking with Ayah.

Now, it was about how to move onward with the potential events that loomed ahead.

The famine that was to come was most likely due to the Citadels sapping power from whatever ‘magic’ was keeping everything fertile. Since the famine would end within a few turns, I could only assume that the Citadels recharged the fertility of the land in that turn, especially since there was no longer any more famines after that one. The famine was supposed be the first time all factions could work together to overcome the issue, but with me at the head of all factions, it was simply about policy and ensuring everything that I wanted to happen… happened.

They feared me now, but now I had to give them a reason to stay and do as I ask without the threat of death.

Naturally, I was going to elevate people into higher strata of society for the time being. People who have more talent and potential need to be found and turned into Champions and administrators to maximize my nation’s output. Those who I needed will get provided more wealth, thus incentivizing the population to work as hard as they could. Meanwhile, I was going make sure that the masses reproduced and expanded our numbers as much as possible. Beast tribes and their ability to have litters came to mind, but I wanted high numbers for everyone.

So, basic healthcare, housing, and rations along with a school/child care system would be best, so that people could just have kids and not worry. That would also give me the ability to just teach the next generation what I wanted them to learn. The schooling system that I had in my previous life would suffice, though I was going to add more physical exercise and training, as well as house children in dorms after a certain age. I was sure that most families would accept sending their kids sooner to the dorms with the right propaganda and societal shaping campaigns.

The increase in population is needed because I required both a massive army and a workforce that could support it and keep our economy growing even during wartime.

The workforce wasn’t going to be difficult to handle. Industry was going to grow with the help of the Citadels. There were many civilian and military needs that had to be met. No matter how many people came out of my schools, there was going to be a job for them. Even if it was just mining out ore, or moving cargo through my territories, people were going to be paid what they needed to get what they wanted.

The bigger problem was getting my troops experienced enough to fight.

With no wars ongoing, I’ll need to set something up. Blue force and red force modern training across multiple environments would be costly to produce, but barring expeditions in force into the rest of the world, there was no better way to get experience for my soldiers. Multiple battlegrounds all over the continent, which they have to march to and train at, would be the best. I’ll be able to test my logistical systems, get a reading on how fast my armies could march, and get them all trained up. Each battleground will have a host army, while visiting armies will rotate through them, and complete circuits that let them experience fighting everywhere.

The defending armies will also learn how to defend and sustain themselves against constant waves of fresh troops that get more experienced over time.

The system sounded too good to work within my expectations of it, but it was my best shot.

Besides the famine and the coming build up, there was also the tutorial faction to consider. With most of the neutral enemies being hunted down and killed, the Death Lord was unlikely to spawn. It was a terrible and powerful creature that would be good for providing armies for my troops to kill, but the potential that it to take a Citadel and create a monster faction was unacceptable. In the end, though it could provide plenty of training for my armies, I gave the order to destroy the possibility of it forming.

If needed, I’ll lead the purges myself and send swarms of Citadel Guardians to kill the rest of the neutral mobs.

Now wasn’t the time to take risks.

It was time to build a civilization that can take on the rest of the world and win.