Apocalypse Reborn: Apocalypse: 4

Apocalypse Reborn: Apocalypse: 4

…

Surprise, surprise.
The Children of the Elm got absolutely bodied on the open field by the Conquerors and their territory is now under siege.  Now, the Children of the Elm deserve to get absolutely demolished, and the Conquerors are actually one of the few Factions that’ll do what needs to be done and wipe the elves off the face of the planet.

The problem was that it was taking the Conquerors too long.

I’d ascertained a long time ago that we were on the hardest game mode. Everyone was employing tactics you’d only see in the hardest settings of the game. Micro-management on the unit-level was crazy. Research times were long. Population took realistic amounts of time to boom. Yadda, yadda.

The crux of the matter is that the Conquerors are taking too long.

In the early game, fights like this should be fast, deadly, and decisive. Grinding battles of attrition meant you’re losing out on building the structures you need, finding artifacts, and getting your faction’s event quests done. In other words, going out to conquer a Citadel is a good idea, but only if you can do it with a set amount of opportunity cost in mind.

Eight turns should be the goal, if you’ve found yourself at war in the early game.

Ten turns, if you can manage all the events that pop up perfectly.

Twelve, if you’re going to raid the shit out of the surrounding countryside and don’t care about how unhappy your newly-conquered populace will be.

Three years max.

The Conqueror’s war was hitting its third year, and they weren’t even in enemy territory and forcing engagements yet.

Hell, it didn’t look like they were going to be able to take the enemy’s capital in two years, let alone one.

In the end, both sides were wasting time, resources, and population on a worthless war, when all of that can be invested in assets, farmland, towns, military bases, and more.

It was time to intervene and end the fighting.

Even if the end result was the Conquerors destroying all the Children of the Elm, and taking their Citadel, they’ll be too crippled and too weak to withstand the first crisis. They were going to win, that was for sure, but they’ll win the war only to lose to the ‘peace’ that followed after.

Overall, there was only one thing to do from my end:

Bother Alistair and appeal to his ego.

I’ll have this war end by having the Academy and its new armies show up to bring settle the issue in its entirety. We were going to declare ourselves the ruler of the continent, and attract a lot of negative attention, but it was better than all the factions weakening each other to the point where they couldn’t fight later.

I wanted the elves dead and gone, but I didn’t want to exchange the Conquerors for them.

Or, y’know, freaking die with two whole regions ruined.

…

I really needed a better way to get around.

Month-long travel times are cancer, and the only way around the fact was via flying horse, which took years for training and skill to ride.

Thankfully, Ayah was able to pick up on skills quickly, and the Academy had an established air wing.

Still, though, I needed more if I wanted the armies of the Academy to get anywhere in a timely manner.

Anyway, we neared the spot where we were set to meet with the Conquerors’s leader: the Deliverer.

We weren’t allowed into their city, but they did allow us to meet with them in a place outside of it.

Naturally, they made sure that spot was suitably menacing.

“I see over fifty Conquerors down there. All heavily armed.” We descended slowly. Ayah followed after my guards, which were composed heavily-armed and armored flying knights. They were in full plate, but the old, heavy steel was replaced by plates created by the Citadel, and they were the Academy’s sigil over it all. They looked like knights clad in pure white armor on their winged steeds, as they descended before us. “I recommend leaving. This is too threatening to consider a meeting.”

“The Conquerors are too honorable for such things. Descend.” I bid Ayah to continue, and the ancient Golem did as I bid. “This needs to be done.

Air flowed past us, while I clung tight to Ayah. Over the last few days, I’d spent hours doing it, and it lost any novelty that it had the first day. We followed my guards into the den of massive warriors. On closer inspection, I realized that they were all veterans, sporting numerous puncture wounds that turned into scars. Not only that, but they had Citadel materials as armor, too. They were just covered up in dyes and paints to camouflage them.

We landed in a clearing surrounded by the multitudes of warriors, and I disembarked on unsteady feet. I felt bruised and beat up from the travel, but I endured it and walked forward to face the Deliverer. Removing my helmet and giving the leader of the Conquerors a nod, I spoke to him with Ayah ready over my shoulder.

The Ancient Administrator was probably thinking about ways to get out of this with the two of us alive, and by the way it was staring at the Deliverer, I was sure that holding him hostage was its first idea.

If I remembered him correctly, that wouldn’t work.

He’d rather die than be used against his people.

Anyway, I met the mountain of a Conqueror’s gaze and ignored the general coming forward to speak in his stead.

It was Crusher, and Crusher was cool, but I needed to make an impact.

“You think of yourselves too highly, Conquerors. Do you believe yourselves capable of intimidating the Academy, especially when you can’t best the Children of the Elm?” I knew my role in this negotiation. It was as the representative of the regional power, so I acted like it. This whole entourage waiting for us was meant to intimidate, therefore I turned it into a mistake on their end. “Would you like to see how your forces fare against an army fifty times larger than the Children’s? See how well your soldiers do against enemies that rule the skies without any of your own?”

An Orc warrior, just behind Crusher, came forward but was held back. The woman in question was swathed in the hides of monsters and carried numerous weapons.

A Champion of theirs, most likely.

Angry at me for ignoring one of the leaders of her people, too.

Sorry, lady, but acting like a good, honest person right now would fuck me over.

It took the Deliverer a moment to speak, but when he did it was more similar to listening to a low, rumbling earthquake forming words than a person.

"The might of the Academy is known to us, but so are its malign practices. We know of your transgressions, of how you turn the wheel and grind those outside your lands into dust. When news of your coming arrived, we prepared, because we know otherwise you would’ve slain us for your own cause.”

The Deliverer glared me down, and all I could do was give him as wide and manic smile as I could.

“Good, you’ve got a decent head between your shoulders. We can talk this out.” That got a rise out of the orcs, some were confused but others misconstrued my words as an insult, when it was the exact opposite. I took a seat right on the ground, in front of the Deliverer, and gave him my fair shake. “I want the Children of the Elm dead. I can reform the Academy and put them towards building nations instead of crushing them, but the Children are genocidal freaks who shouldn’t have a Citadel under their belt… the problem is that I can’t convince Headmaster Alistair that the Conquerors should have two Citadels.”

The female Orc came forward filled with vitriol.

“We have no need of your approval—

“Yes. You do, because I alone command ten times the number of people than your people have. I, alone, can set all your fields on fire and force most of you to go comatose and slit your throats in your sleep. It would take everything I have, but in exchange for a Citadel, it’ll be worth it.” I laid out the facts and mixed in some lies. I did command ten times their army in numbers, but a lot of my payroll was logistical troops and other things necessary to get my people around quicker. Wagons, protected convoys, and that sort of thing. However, I wasn’t lying about what I could do to them. “Now, step back, and let the people with actual power talk.”

The Conqueror in question bristled and looked ready to speak, but she was pulled back by one of the Deliverer’s generals.

“You speak with reason, unlike most meat, and declare your intentions to reshape the brutal practices of the Academy. Hm. Then, I assume that the stories are true. The Academy’s Heir has truly pierced the veil of the past and found the right of things.” The Deliverer stayed seated and looking at me from his immense throne. He could kill me in moments by just getting up and giving me the people’s elbow. Honestly, it’d be a sick way to die, but I wasn’t interested. “That you would intercede now, as we prepare for a siege, means that there is something on the horizon that even the Academy fears. Something that you would make use of us for, instead of allowing us to die.”

Hm, this guy puts most of the professors back in the Academy to share.

“Yep. That’s right. If you work with us, we’re willing to tell you what it is, but for now… we’d rather you pull away from the Children of the Elm and let us sweep them away.” Alistair had barely listened to my proposals to do anything decent with the Conquerors, like recognize them as a nation, or even open up a formal diplomatic line. No, Alistair had his head too far up his ass to give anyone a chance. So, I had improved, and what I got now was pretty decent. Get the Conqueror’s out of the way, while we went ahead and killed the Children of the Elm and took their starting location as our own. “You can try to outspeed us, take their Citadel away from them, but it won’t work. We’re already moving to take it. The race is over… all that’s being decided here is whether your people will be roughed up in the process.”

Beneath the shadowy hood of the Deliverer, I was sure that the Faction Leader was glaring at me, but I stayed seated cross-legged on the floor.

Once again, when he spoke, I was impressed.

“What are you willing to offer us for us to withdraw?’

Yeah, that’s right.

The Academy won’t give you shit, but I will.

Good use of your leverage, buddy!

“I have as many people who can sow seeds and plant orchards as I do soldiers. Withdraw your forces, and these lands around your Citadels will have farms… and your people will have farmers, instead of just soldiers and warriors.” Infrastructural assistance. In essence, I was selling a booster to Conqueror’s production rate and food supplies by teaching their people and improving some of the empty tiles around the city. It’ll also make up for what they lost in this war without getting another region and Citadel in the process. “The cost of taking the Citadel of the Children is too much now. Even if you take it, you’ll be so week that… we’ll just take both if you do.”

“A promise and threat in the same breath.” The Deliverer rumbled. I could tell my words were getting the onlookers riled up, but after the Deliverer’s casual display of control earlier, I wasn’t afraid. Everything that was happening now was within expectations. “You think us beasts that can be offered pleasure and punishment and domesticated, child of the Academy?”

“No. Not at all. I’ll have it written and with my seal, whichever path you take.” I looked over my shoulder to Ayah, and she produced the papers necessary. “One will have me support your nation, while we end the Children of the Elm, and consider you all a non-threat. The other promises that we will come for you and seize everything that you have.”

“If we share these words with the Children of the Elm, they will retreat and perhaps all with us against a greater threat.”

“Will you tell me that the moon will mend and the Ancients will return tomorrow, too? Both are as likely as you and your fellows allying with the Children.” I refuted his counter to my words with a shrug of my shoulders. The simmering hostility from the crowd was high. It felt kind of intoxicating to be so earnestly hated, honestly. “Which path do you choose to take, Deliverer? Do you wish to begin normalizing relations with the Academy, and allow the Children of the Elm to perish? Or would you fight against the Children of the Elm knowing that we are waiting until your victory to strike? You may win the battle, but the Academy shall win the war.”

The Deliverer was silent for a long time, before he spoke once again.

“See tents raised for our guests and our hospitality to be shared with them.” Running away to get some time to think, huh? Guess he expected this to be a more brutal and less nuanced meeting. Nope. Sorry, but I’ve got too little at my disposal to do that. Being underhanded, sneaky, and cunning with what I’ve got is the only way I can hit hard in the political heavy division. “There is another path forward. One that will not have us meekly surrender to the whims of the Academy, nor be forced into a conflict that we cannot win. I will find it, and you shall agree to it, Heir of the Academy.”

“Hm. I’ll give you the benefit of the doubt, then. Present me with a decent compromise, and I’ll do what I can with it.” I got up and dusted the dirt from my trousers and turned away from the Deliverer to address my companions. “Send up the signal and have everyone else come down. We’re guests now.”

At my command, a burst of magic came up, and from the skies descended the rest of my guards on their winged steeds and gleaming armor.

Over a hundred of the Academy’s finest riders on winged horseback.

That earned me a chuckle from the Deliverer, as his platform was raised by his guards and the rest of the Conquerors stared.

“It seems that the Academy will not sit idly by while others claim the Citadels.” The Deliverer said in passing.

“No. No we won’t.” I confirmed simply. “Prepare yourself for that, Deliverer, or you will lose.”

That was as friendly as I could get with these guys.

In the end, as long as Alistair was in charge, allying with any of the Factions is out of the question.

We either kill them and take what they have, or use them and take what they have later.

Typical actions of a typical superpower.