Chapter 114: Her Growing Shadow

Zion stared at the blue interface floating right in front of her face.

She stood in the middle of the largest village they had captured in the southern borders.

The Unchained numbered over eight hundred people now.

The camp had expanded into a unorganized sprawl of dirty tents and stolen wagons.

The system interface usually provided clear combat objectives to kill specific Exarchs or destroy specific outposts, but today the system gave her a massive headache.

[QUEST: Establish a primary supply chain for 847 units]

[QUEST: Resolve a territorial land dispute between the Miller and Thorne families]

[QUEST: Construct a temporary medical infirmary]

Zion crossed her arms over her black armor and let out a heavy breath.

She played action RPGs and she absolutely refused to play city management.

She never saw these specific quests in her first run through this world because she never left anyone alive long enough to require a functional government.

Now she had people following her and those people needed food.

The wounded soldiers from the battle at Kethyr Pass needed clean bandages to survive the night.

Two local families were currently screaming at each other in the middle of the dirt square over access to a single stone water well.

Zion walked toward the screaming families and the crowd parted immediately to give her a wide path.

The Unchained respected her power and they also feared her.

Varek stood near the well trying to mediate the loud argument between a fat man with a red face and a skinny woman holding a sharp pitchfork.

“The well is on Miller land!” the fat man yelled loudly.

“My grandfather dug that well decades ago!” the woman screamed back at him.

“We need the water for our crops right now!”

Zion stopped right between them and didn’t say a single word.

The physical presence of her high-level stats silenced both families instantly.

She looked at the stone well and then she looked at the fat man and then she looked at the skinny woman.

She raised her right hand.

ZMMM!

[SKILL ACTIVATED: VOID SLASH]

The invisible blade of compressed air shot from her fingers and hit the stone structure perfectly down the middle.

CRACK!

The solid stone split in half and sent a massive cloud of dust into the air while shattering the wooden bucket mechanism entirely.

Zion lowered her hand. “There, Now you have two wells.”

The fat man and the skinny woman stared at the ruined pile of rubble in absolute terror and they both nodded slowly.

They were completely terrified of disagreeing with the person who just sliced solid rock with a simple hand gesture.

“Problem solved,” Zion announced before turning around and walking away.

Varek sighed heavily and followed her quickly.

He caught up to her near the main command tent and his voice sounded very strained.

“Liberator.”

“Yes?”

“That was one single well of drinking water,” Varek said. “Now it is two holes filled with useless rubble and dirt.”

Zion stopped walking and looked back at the destroyed stone structure.

She processed the mistake and nodded once.

“We need a qualified engineer,” Varek said while rubbing the bridge of his nose. “We do not need a divine sword for everything.”

Zion crossed her arms and felt a rare spike of actual frustration.

“I can destroy an entire Church army alone but I cannot resolve a stupid dispute over a hole in the ground.”

Varek nodded in agreement.

“Leaders have advisors for a reason.”

He paused and looked her straight in the eyes. “Do you want to be a leader or do you want to be a weapon?”

Zion didn’t answer him at all.

She walked straight into the command tent and let the heavy canvas flap fall shut behind her.

She sat on her throne and stared at the dirt floor for a long time.

She wanted to find the Architect and finish the game and get out of this world.

The game had changed completely and the NPCs possessed real lives now.

She couldn’t just ignore them anymore because they gave her tactical advantages and provided massive amounts of experience points through faction loyalty.

A scout entered the tent a few hours later wearing a dusty gray cloak and carrying a small sealed scroll.

“Report from the capital spy,”

Zion took it and broke the wax seal.

She unrolled the parchment and read the brief message quickly.

The spy detailed the upcoming Ascension Tournament at St. Celeste.

It was a minor ecclesiastical competition and completely irrelevant to her current military campaign, but read it the very last line at the bottom of the page and stopped breathing.

“A novice triggered an unknown magical event in the East Basement. The entire academy vibrated. The Exarchs are mobilizing internal security.”

The spy provided no name attached to the event and no specific details about the magic used.

The moment Zion read the sentence her interface glitched violently.

[PULSE DETECTED. ORIGIN: UNKNOWN.]

Zion gripped the parchment tightly.

The only thing that caused her interface to glitch like that was the presence of the other Player.

The anomaly she had detected on the world map days ago was finally doing something big.

The other Player was hiding inside St. Celeste and he was activating ancient magic.

Zion stood up abruptly and dropped the scroll onto the dirt.

“Varek!” Zion yelled loudly.

Varek rushed into the tent immediately. “Liberator?”

“I need maps of the capital irrigation systems and sewer networks and supply routes,” Zion ordered.

“Find someone who can teach me how to read them right now.”

Varek blinked in surprise but nodded quickly. “Right away.”

Zion sat at a large wooden table inside the command tent that night.

She had three different maps spread out in front of her and an oil lamp illuminated the paper.

She traced the supply lines with her finger while calculating the logistics of moving an army of eight hundred people across the salt plains without alerting the Inquisition.

She memorized the choke points and the river crossings and the patrol routes.

It was tedious and boring work but she needed to reach the capital to find the other Player and she couldn’t just teleport her entire faction across the map.

Mila walked into the tent rubbing her eyes.

The little girl wore her oversized gray tunic and dragged her worn cloth doll behind her on the dirt.

Zion kept looking at the map. “It is late.”

Mila didn’t answer her.

She walked over to the chair and climbed up and curled into a small ball right on Zion’s lap.

Zion froze completely.

She stared down at the little girl.

Mila slowed her breathing and fell asleep almost instantly while resting her head against Zion’s armored stomach.

Zion didn’t push her away.

She just kept her arms hovering over the table and waited for the girl to settle.

The blue interface flickered over Mila’s head.

[NPC 2847]

[Name: Mila.]

[Age: 8.]

[Status: Malnourished.]

[Prognosis without intervention: Death in 6 months.]

Zion swiped her hand and deleted the notification from her vision.

She couldn’t delete the number from her head.

Six months.

She had destroyed the entire continent in less than six months during her very first run through this world.

She had leveled the southern borders and burned the capital and triggered the Forge to reset the game back then.

Mila wouldn’t have existed long enough to even have a name in that previous timeline.

She would have just been collateral damage in a zone-wide area of effect attack.

Zion looked at the sleeping girl and felt a heavy cold weight settle in her chest, wondering how many Milas she killed without knowing it in the past.

The interface had no answer for that question.

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