Chapter 4013: Corrupted Life Force (part 2)

Supreme Magus

The mage tower allowed the Dead King to keep the Steps open for as long as he wanted while Salanoth, the Ring of Space, enlarged them, allowing dozens of human-sized Upyrs to pass with each second.

Night had long since memorized the dimensional coordinates of the places that connected the quickest path to the Kingdom that her army could take. Soon, the mass of Upyrs came in sight of the shores of Garlen and flew high above the coastal guard posts enough to go unnoticed.

"You know what to do and where to go." Orpal said before splitting his forces into smaller groups. "Rule number one: don't get killed. Rule number two: don't get caught. Everything else you do is none of my business."

***

Meanwhile, thousands of kilometers away, Salaark purged one outlaw tribe after another of the Upyrs that hid among them after sifting through their memories for anything Orpal had said and done in their presence.

Once she was done, Salaark let the peaceful tribes stay in their current oases without demanding restitution of the magical resources they had mined. The Overlord explained the issue to the innocent members of the tribe and forced the Upyrs to reveal their corruption before executing them.

The criminal outlaw tribes, instead, received a different treatment.

Salaark kicked them out of her oases and reclaimed everything they had stolen from her and the other free tribes. Also, she freed all the slaves, Warping them to her palace where they would stay until they decided whether to join her country or return to their free life.

The members of her Nest located and captured the outlaw tribes on their own, but only the Overlord could pry the truth out of the prisoners' minds. Her presence was requested all across the Blood Desert at the same time, leaving her little time to think.

'This is a colossal waste of time.' She inwardly grunted as she bent space to cross the thousands of kilometers that separated her from the Silent Wolf tribe in one step. 'I've found at least two Upyrs in all the criminal tribes and up to three in the peaceful ones, yet none of them had received more than a drop of Meln's blood.

'They carried no weapon and knew no spell that could be a threat to my Feather. All I got for my trouble so far is a series of Meln's pep talks and a census of the outlaw tribes.'

The latest village turned out to be no different from the previous. The Upyr thralls had received Orpal's blood in exchange for information about their trading routes and the Desert's customs.

He had given them no instruction about what they were supposed to do with their powers, nor shared with them anything about his plans.

"Your Excellence! Please, stop!" Tarsias, a Crystal Phoenix and one of Salaark's generals, yelled while she turned the corpse of the last Upyr in the tribe to dust, hoping to get her attention before she Warped away.

"What's the matter, General?" Under normal circumstances, Salaark would have had no need to ask.

She would have read Tarsias' mind with her Blood Imprint bloodline ability and answered his request right away. Now, however, too many of her children called her name or tried to talk with her via the telepathic bond they shared.

It resulted in a deafening noise that prevented Salaark from understanding a single word unless she focused on a specific voice and silenced all the others.

"Our villages are under attack. All of them!" Tarsias said.

"Under attack? From who?" The Overlord's surprise turned into shock when she took her communication amulet out of her pocket dimension and discovered that many of its runes were unavailable.

All her Feathers were still alive, and those who had already defeated the Upyrs had flooded Salaark's amulet with their reports.

"Upyrs, My Liege." Tarsias replied. "The outlaw tribes were a diversion. The real threat came from the merchant guilds."

"The merchants, of course! That's why Meln needed the outlaw tribes. He used them to get in contact with the merchant guilds. Unlike the outlaws, the merchant guilds have access to my tribes and many pieces of vital information." The Overlord's eyes narrowed in fury.

She excluded all voices except for Tarsias', taking in all the reports he had received and was trying to relay to her at once.

"Meln's plague spares no one." She clicked her tongue in disgust. "I'll deal with the merchant guilds as soon as I'm done with the outlaws. Thank Balkor on my behalf for his quick thinking and decisiveness.

"Today, he saved the Blood Desert not with his strength, but with his mind. Exterminating so many merchant guilds would have left us isolated from the rest of Garlen and caused the collapse of our economy."

"By your will." The General snapped to attention.

"The Dead King has proven to be a cunning opponent. Anything else?" She asked.

"No, My Liege." Tarsias shook his head. "Many battles are still ongoing, but nothing worth mentioning."

Thanks to the chaos, Salaark paid no heed to Lith's communication rune being offline. She knew that a merchant caravan was at the Starry Lagoon village and assumed that a couple of two-bit Upyr posed no threat to her Featherlings.

Alas, she was wrong, and the interference from her Phoenixes and Feathers deafened even her breathing technique, Mother Sun. Salaark sent reinforcements to the still-struggling Feathers and moved on to the next outlaw tribe, unaware of Lith's situation.

***

City of Valeron, Royal Castle, at the same time.

King Meron signed the Royal decree after carefully revising it and ensuring that the Court had added no fine prints or loopholes after the initial draft. He looked at the document and smiled, thinking about how much the next batch of Tablets would improve the quality of life of his subjects.

'It's been a tough choice to make, but I'm glad the bill has passed. The Web of Knowledge is going to need constant monitoring and upgrades, but we can afford it thanks to the outposts in Jiera.' Meron thought.

'The literacy rate has skyrocketed in the cities where the Tablets have been introduced, and so has the number of youths who have discovered their talent for magic and love for science.

'The risk of brewing a small number of idiots spending too much time on the Web instead of working is worth the result. I'll just make harsher work regulations for those who are caught chatting and-'

The King's mind reeled from surprise when his hand reached for the next document on the pile and his fingers brushed the mahogany of his work desk. Unwilling to believe his own sense of touch, Meron raised his eyes from the decree and turned his head.

"Good gods, it really happened!" There were no more decrees to sign or documents to revise left on his desk. "I'm done for the day, and I'm not going to leave anything for tomorrow!"

"You too?" Sylpha looked around in shock. "And there's still time before dinner! We have the rest of the evening and then the whole night for ourselves. We can do anything we want!"

"Anything?" Meron asked while staring at his wife with eyes filled with joy and passion.