Apocalypse Reborn: Demon Lord 15

Apocalypse Reborn: Demon Lord 15

…

I had to give it to the Guardians of the Moon.

They lived up to the hype of being a bunch of snobby, elitist Vampires that were actually good guys.

The lands we travelled through were dark and heavily forested with plenty of hills. The Ancients probably intended for it be a lumber and mining zone. Lots of accessible resources with just basic tools. Start from the center of the continent, look around at your surroundings, and pick the least harsh environments to start agriculture, forestry, and mining. If you can find a control ring for a Citadel, use that to amplify your nation’s growth, and use it to store things and zone it for light industry.

If everything happened as the Ancients intended, we’d have won the war multiple generations ago and the planet would already be conquered.

But I’m getting lost in my thoughts.

This land wasn’t meant for long-term habitation, but the Guardians of the Moon did good work.

They cut through the forests and laid out cobble roads. They had signage, guard posts with stables, and we passed by normal people with wagons just taking things from one town to another. In a world where letting your army stand still at the end of the turn guarantees something happenings that’ll kill off thousands of men with the wrong choice, the Guardians of the Moon had a firm handle on their lands.

The villages we passed all had stone walls and surrounded bastions/castles. The gates were open enough at our passing that I could see inside. They had gutters and rudimentary sewage systems that filtered out into moats. The average age of the people we passed were in their late-twenties, which was an achievement in this world, and there were children running around or helping in the fields. Undead beasts pulled plows and skeletal familiars kept the fields safe from pests. There wasn’t much wealth, but people were safe and fed enough to reproduce.

Give the Guardians of the Moon a few hundred years with the Academy out of the picture and they’ll put the continent back together eventually.

Too bad they didn’t even have two decades.

The wagon slowed to a crawl and I looked outside for a moment to see a wrought-iron gate with a colored crest on it. It opened and we entered the ride went from slightly bumpy to completely smooth. A glance outside and I found myself looking at trimmed hedgerows and flowerbeds. There were fruiting trees that were being picked, and actual glass houses where I spotted vegetables being grown. A quick sniff of the air told me that there were cattle being raised a few miles away, along with a myriad of other farm animals, all of which were healthy and robust.

You’d think that they were this wealthy because they extracted every bit of money they could from a starving populace.

But such wasn’t the case.

They lived as long as they weren’t killed, valued culture and education, and governed their territories properly. People in their lands might not have upward mobility into the ruling class that decides laws, but they could become extremely wealthy, gain influence, and gain the ear of the nobility anyway. It was a perfected form of nobility with the Guardians of the Moon self-policing themselves in the extreme. The same traditions that prevented hundreds of Vampire lords from riding out and wrecking face with armies of Undead, making them a headache to deal with unless you’ve got enough influence and money, made them great civil servants.

I wanted them for that reason.

…

Interlude: Celia

…

We were completely unprepared to host the king who claimed all of the Academy’s lands and half of the continent.

The intention of the council had been to show him our efforts. We chose our finest holding to do so. Opening our vaults and slaughtering fattened cows, we arranged for festivities throughout the night. Music was to be played from across the many centuries. Art that would’ve otherwise been lost showcased to him. There were plans even for him to be tutored in dance, and to be shown plays lost to time.

We thought we would be enlightening and charming a powerful ruler who knew only violence.

Instead, he showed his appreciation for our work from the very beginning… and just like that I watched as the disparate clans become like eager children ready to showcase their work and efforts to a beloved parent long lost.

“This is absurd.” Catherine was beside me at the balcony. We looked into the room within, which was aglow with festivities. Wine was being poured like water, the schedule was completely gone, and we had to change the staff of the kitchen as the first set was overworked. Most of the hall was empty. All those who I had to prove myself to, who I had to impress, were flocking around the new king with smiles on their faces and cheer in their voices. “Is this truly how our people were? Exuberant children when faced with an Ancient?”

“Not children. Not exactly. Loyal retainers who see their lord returned.” Catherine stated, and I grimaced. It fit too well. The Guardians have long dreamt of returning the Ancients to their place. Across the countless centuries, we endured as others fell apart, broke, and became unrecognizable. We were attacked, stolen from, and our records compromised, but we still held on to what we had. None amongst us had ever served the Ancients now, but the oldest generation had been trained by those who did, and they remembered their valiant efforts to seal us away until the world outside was safe once more. “Don’t pretend as though you don’t feel it as well.”

“I do feel it. The urge to stand before him and rattle off all my achievements for even the faintest praise. Like he was an elder that I needed to prove myself worthy to.” I scowled and looked at my glass of wine. I drank from it and grimaced, before alluding towards it to Catherine. “I’ve drank this vintage before. It has never tasted this good. Try as I might to be in a foul mood, Catherine, I am elated. It’s as though a weight was removed from my shoulders.”

“Because it has. He removed it from all of the Guardians the moment he made his proclamation.”

I tried to frown, but all I could muster against the insipid smile that threatened to form on my face was to turn it into a thin line.

We were acknowledged the moment he walked in.

His words resounded in my mind even now.

“I have conquered. Now, I have need of the Guardians of the Moon. The only ones who have maintained their oaths through these countless years.” Rumors and whispers had abounded of his true nature. The Scholars confirmed it with us. He was an Ancient reborn with memories and education, as well as a body befitting that of an Ancient. The Academy was judged for their poor leadership and destroyed. Lands ravaged by war were tamed. Ancient monuments were called forth, warlords destroyed, and his name resounded across the land. Then, he told us that we were needed. “I have need of the Guardians of the Moon. My lands require the lawfulness and justice that I see here for what is to come. I would like to call you my people, but if you don not wish to be such, then honored allies shall do.”

Countless centuries desperately holding on, being attacked by those who feared or wanted our power, and being called weak or cowardly for not raising our blades to be conquerors.

Then, he came and praised our work and effort, acknowledging all that we have done, even though he put all others to the sword.

If there was ever a more perfect diplomatic move than this one, I knew it not.

“We will need to be careful.”

“We must. There is no other path. The council of elders will have my head if I refuse, and I don’t intend to.” He was offering us everything we desired and more. We will become peacekeepers once again. Our military might will only be used when the correct conditions were met. The laws we’ve upheld, the courts we’ve maintained, and the traditions we’ve cherished will permeate through his lands. We are to become the honored protectors of the world once again. “My only fear is what lies ahead. He mentioned that the foes of the Ancients remain beyond the continent.”

“If it is true, then many edicts will activate. The costs of fielding the strongest of us will be diminished greatly.” Catherine stated, and I nodded. Normally, to call upon even a single Vampire Knight would beggar a warlord, even if their oaths are upheld and they fought to defend the weak and the innocent. To call upon all the Vampire Lords would beggar even this new king. But if what he said is true, if the enemies of the Ancients remain, then innumerable edicts will call for them to go to war at vastly lessened cost. The foes, after all, are those who brought ruin to the entire world. “But only if what he says is true.”

I nodded, but… however…

I turned away and looked past the balcony at the lands we’ve protected and kept safe.

The lands and people we had been considering worth losing for the sake of getting our own Citadel to try and seize the future of the land with our own hands.

Now that he came here, I knew that we would aid him in securing the Citadel, while keeping so many of our people safe and secure.

But I knew in my heart that he did not lie.

A war more terrible than anything I knew loomed ahead of us all.

“I believe him. He acts with this much speed and force for a reason. If we are truly to be invaded, then his actions make all the more sense.” He was wise, intelligent, and valued what we cherished. His praise and earnestness towards our way of living and governing was unquestionable. But he has still waged multiple conflicts at breakneck speeds with immense brutality. In the context of incoming threats, of the entire world beyond the continent set to ravage our lands, everything fell into place. He was brutal and cunning, because he had to be. “I will ask the council to become part of his empire, rather than become honored allies.”

“Some of them will call that submission without fighting, even if they see him in a good light.” Catherine pointed out simply and I nodded at my ghostly teacher. “They’ll be outvoted, but it would be better to convince to join hands with us. We cannot split the Guardians. It would weaken our influence in our new lands, if he could play against us against one another.”

In the end, our path was set already.

We will accept his offer, and become part of this fledgling empire that will take over the entire continent.  None of the council will oppose this path. They will only oppose becoming his people, and not simply the closest of allies.

It was almost funny.

So many of my years were spent proving myself to them, so that I could lead them all.

In a single night, he came and swayed them all to his side with barely anything more than acknowledgement of their efforts and earnest gratitude.

I should be angry, yet I felt light and it took all that I had to think logically and not be subsumed by the enthusiasm sweeping through the land.

While all others falter, we fulfilled our duties, and the Ancient returned acknowledged that.

That was something that could not be denied.

And, it was more precious than any treasure we now held.

…

Securing the Guardians by appealing to their egos was easier than expected.

Mostly because they were shockingly, actually good people.

I kept looking for some arrogance, or some other fucked up thing, but no… they were just a bunch of people holding on for dear life for countless centuries. Without having to gamble everything that they had for their Citadel, when given the opportunity to just be involved and be given some power to ensure people have rights, they threw their lot in with me. So, within a few months of meeting them, I had a fifth Citadel control ring and a fifth Citadel under my control.

They would’ve gone through a woodchipper to get it.

The events that popped up the moment they started looking for it were a doozy. Anti-Undead cults reared their head to challenge and fight the Guardians of the Moon with all that they had. Powerful Warlords with Champions came forward to contest them. Champion thieves came along and tried to steal the control ring. People threatened the populations under the control and territory while they were away on expeditions.

If a whole faction could have a luck stat, theirs would be in the shitter… if not for me.

I guided them through the events that I recalled, and just killed anything and everything that I couldn’t deal with via words. More than a few Warlords were willing to be pain off. A bunch of thieves surrendered after being caught. The Anti-Undead cultists were the biggest headache, but strolling into their main base and killing everyone in the defense of the Guardians of the Moon solved that problem.

Without me, I had no doubt that the Guardians of the Moon would’ve gone through a horrific slog. They would’ve had to let their lands be decimated, their soldiers stretched thin and killed, and compromise on all of their ideals in order to secure the Citadel. Then, after that, they’d have to go farther in order to pacify the surrounding regions and secure it against their foes.

They would’ve had to give practically everything for the chance to take a Citadel as their own.

And, despite all of that, they had one of the best endings where literally everyone survives if they’re willing to play ball.

Almost felt bad that I didn’t go for them as allies first.

But I’ll make up for it by actually, y’know, treating them better.

“Celia.”

“My lord?”

“The Guardians of the Moon are the only ones of this land I have found worthy of my trust. Take this ring.” I took off the Citadel control ring after it registered itself to the rest of the set. Celia’s eyes were wide, as I placed it on her hand. All my senses and instincts told me… that this was a fantastic idea and that it would ensure the loyalty of the Guardians of the Moon. “I charge the Guardians of the Moon to improve and grow in these lands, and to prepare to come to arms to take the rest of the continent, and to protect it.”

Celia took to a knee at my words and bowed her head in thanks, as did all others present.

It really sucked that I only managed to do this because I’m an Ancient.

If I wasn’t, they’d have told me to fuck off.