Kassandora watched the ground crack and bend as snakes underneath its surface writhed. A moment later, those snakes burst from the ground, they were massive roots and vines that Iniri had been using to tear the earth apart. Trees had sprouted to support the sides of the ravine that those roots left, and then those trees grew tall and curled to become archways. Those archways had expanded themselves to fully support the walls of the ravine Iniri had dug out, they created a tunnel of wood that Kassandora was testing out the headlights of her vehicles on.

It was one thing to enter here alone with just torches when they were on foot. Things changed even more when those on foot were a small party of Divines that all had some level of competence, which was all Kassandora could ask for. But for a convoy? Long convoys had a tendency to drop the collective intelligence of all participants by two-thirds. Kassandora didn’t know why it happened, but she didn’t need a reason for every phenomenon she came across. It was simply just another problem, and it simply just had to be dealt with.

“What are we doing?” Kavaa asked as she swung her flashlight up and down Kassandora felt another minor earthquake from deeper in.

“What obvious issues do you see?” Kassandora and Kavaa looked around.

“It’s dark?” She said and Kassandora nodded.

“Anything else?” Kassandora asked and Kavaa shook her head.

“Honestly I don’t know.” The Goddess of Health replied and Kassandora nodded. She already had a whole list of issues: the darkness was just the most obvious and it could be fixed by fitting the trucks and tanks with spotlights. The terrain was another, Iniri’s tunnel was smooth, but Kassandora would not believe it would stay that way, bulldozers would need to be brought along to push rubble away. If Tartarus had any monsters that could climb the walls, which they did in the past, then they would need… what exactly? Kassandora turned and supposed it would be Anti-Air Guns.

And she would need something for Tartarus’ larger demons too. The Goddess of War sighed and turned around. It was time to submit some orders to the engineers again.

Iliyal strolled through the camp just outside of Kaczaw. This place may have been made entirely out of cloth and hollow steel, but Iliyal was sure it was the most fortified location in the entire country. Kaczaw itself was far too large to safely operate in, with too many people. Evacuations had started but this was nothing akin to the efficiency of the Maisara-planned Kirinyaan cities where, in a mere week, the city had only a third of its population remaining.

A mobile Surface-To-Air missile launcher was being re-loaded by crane to Iliyal’s left as he walked on. The rocket itself was the size of the elf even though the carriage itself was a short stubby thing that looked like that tank without the turret. Most of the Doschian pieces were built like that, and there was obvious inspiration being taken from the Lynx blueprints. To the other side in this section of the camp, a tank was having its tread re-fitted. Some of the engineers saw Iliyal and saluted, the rest continued swearing and working.

Iliyal saw the Goddess he had been searching for. He knew she’d be here frankly, as lazy as she proclaimed herself to be, she also liked helping people. And there was precisely one field she could help in more than anything else. Fer was holding up the rear end of a truck as engineers were replacing tires which had been shredded by shrapnel. A pillar of muscle draped in a cloak of gold which was actually just the woman’s hair. “Hey.” The elf said, she was the only one who got a casual greeting here. “We’re having guests soon.”

“I want to finish this.” Fer said as Iliyal inspected the team of engineers swarming around the vehicles. One man was working with an electric screwdriver and taking the bolts off. The shredded tire fell off with a huge thud and two more men hefted a new one into the air with a groan. Two men saw Iliyal and saluted. Iliyal dismissed them with his own salute.

“Continue working.” Iliyal said as he turned to Fer. The woman wasn’t even a break as she held half of the vehicle up. “Helenna is coming, Olonia and Saksma will be here before her though.” Iliya said. “That’s why I came out to meet you. We keep up the nice attitude.”

Fer slowly lowered the vehicle as she squatted down. “You are the only person who treats being friendly as a military order.” Iliyal sniffed in humour as he watched the Goddess take out her huge phone.

“I can name a dozen other people who need to be explicitly told not to immediately resort to violence in diplomacy.” He watched Fer turn and take a picture of the truck. “What are you doing?”

“I’m taking pictures.” Fer said as if it was obvious.

“I can see that.” Iliyal said as the woman leaned down next to the vehicle. She snapped a photo of herself, smiling wide, yellow vulpine eyes wide open and making a peace sign.

“Smile!” Fer said suddenly as Iliyal watched her, and then she took a picture of the elf. Iliyal did not even try to raise the corners of his lips up, much less actually smile. Fer clicked through her phone as she blew golden strands of hair out of her face. Clicked through the images and then burst out in laughter. Before the elf could ask, she turned the photo and showed the man the picture of himself terribly unamused. Blonde hair framed green eyes on a sharp face that looked ready to kill someone. “This is an instant classic!” She howled in between laughs.

“Just come on.” Iliyal said. “Olonia, Saksma and Paida will be here soon.”

“You didn’t mention Paida before.”

“I assumed it was implied.” Iliyal said and Fer chuckled.

“I can’t read minds you know.” She said. “I come close, but I can’t read minds.”

“Neither can I, I just wasn’t thinking about those three.” Iliyal said with some exhaustion.

“You? Not thinking? Never.” Fer declared sarcastically.

“I agree, me not thinking doesn’t happen.” Iliyal said. He knew Fer was prodding him to get angry, he simply didn’t let her get on his nerves. Fer tutted as she took a step and turned to the engineers.

“Is that everything? Or do you need help with anything else?” One of the men put his tools down and turned to salute the Goddess. She lazily waved him down with a flap of her own arm.

“That’s everything Fer!” Another shouted.

“See you later then!” Fer shouted and turned as Iliyal began to walk off. Fer caught up in three steps for his six. And she didn’t even take particularly hasty ones. “So? Helenna?” Fer said quietly. Iliyal’s ears caught it though.

“She didn’t really give instructions apart from saying that she assumes we’re competent enough to not fuck it up and to support her.” Iliyal said quietly, from afar, it would look as if he was talking to himself as he didn’t even turn to direct his speech towards the Goddess. But he knew that the woman’s hearing with those ears that popped out the top of her head was more than sharp enough to listen to his heartbeat. What was speaking quietly when compared to that? Iliyal’s ears could hear hers when she was this close, although Fer was the only Goddess Iliyal could pick out like this. It was more that her heart was a grand cannon rather than his hearing being anything exceptional.

“Mmh.” Fer said. “Easy enough, right?”

“I assume so.” Iliyal replied as they turned down a road in the camp. It was organised in the same fashion that Kassandora organised her camps, the wide roads were proving their worth as trucks and jeeps were constantly ferrying men away to the frontlines, or bringing wounded back. The Epans had not asked for Clerics, so Iliyal was letting their hospitals fill up. Once Malam’s plan succeeded, Kavaa’s men could come in to heal but one needed to be part of the Empire first before they received the benefits of it.

They made their way to the command tent as Fer finally cracked under the silence. “I was looking for one of those native big cats that live in the mountains here. I found one actually, they have really cute faces, really sharp.” Iliyal nodded along as he listened to the woman talk. “Out of all the lynxes, these are the biggest ones of the species, did you know that?”

“I did.” Iliyal had read the fact somewhere sometime and he generally didn’t forget things.

“I thought you would.” Fer said. “I did too, I was just seeing what you think of them.”

“They’re not a problem.” Iliyal said.

“That’s it?”

“What more do you want?”

“A more emotional reaction rather than pretending you’re Kassie.” Iliyal almost missed a step. He had to take a deep breath to calm himself down, and he had to remind himself that Fer was a Goddess. If a soldier said that to him, the man would have been cut down on the spot.

“We become who we admire.” Iliyal replied flatly.

“You know what?” Fer asked, unamused.

“What?”

“Out of anyone else, that would have been a charming statement. I would coo and tickle your chin and say aww how cute that you have a crush.” Iliyal was baffled. He… It was Goddess Kassandora. It was the Divine who made him who he was. Kavaa in his mind was a Divine, but she was a woman too. Fer was Fer. But Goddess Kassandora? She was an ideal brought to life. She had made Iliyal into everything he was and everything he would be.

Frankly, it wasn’t offensive or teasing or annoying or stupid. It was simply a baffling statement. How could he ever consider the Goddess of War as anything but the sheer pinnacle of what could be achieved? “I don’t have a crush on the Goddess.” It wasn’t even difficult to say. It was almost… It just sounded stupid to Iliyal to even need to voice a statement that oozed so much… wrongness.

“No.” Fer agreed. “This is why I didn’t say that.” She sighed. “You are so boring!”

“I suppose so.” Iliyal said and Fer sighed.

“Do you want to hear about my day?” She asked, her tone defeated.

“Alright.” Iliyal said. Fer launched straight into it.

“I stayed up the whole night today, I went to the dam because they’ve cut the power there so the stars were really bright.” Iliyal allowed Fer to talk as he gave a vague indication he was listening here and there to make sure that she wouldn’t feel as if she was monologing for herself. She was of course, Iliyal did not care in the slightest bit that the woman had managed to find, catch and eat a rabbit for breakfast, nor did he particularly care about the fact she felt bored here. He wasn’t particularly excited either so he didn’t know what Fer was complaining about frankly. “I mean, I understand it.” Fer said as they approached the tent. “But I don’t like it. Do you know what I mean? I see Mal’s plan, but it’s just boring here.”

“We just suffer through it.” Iliyal gave his advice where he could, Fer probably didn’t need it though.

“What a Kassandora thing to say.” Fer replied flatly. The ears on top of her head twitched, Iliyal heard her thunderous heart make a strong beat of excitement and she straightened her back. “They’re here.”

“They’re fast then.” Iliyal said. He supposed he should have expected this. These National Divines looked up to him in a way that Divines should never look up to mortals in, and Fer was here too.

“All of them.”

“Helenna too?” Iliyal asked and Fer chuckled.

“Are we actually late?” She asked.

“We’re late?” This was the second time today Iliyal heard a statement that was just wrong. How could he be late? What?

Fer chuckled to herself and gently patted Iliyal on the back. Her hand was as large as his entire shoulder. “I’m honoured Iliyal.”

“Honoured about what?”

“That you found my company so pleasurable you lost track of time.” Iliyal groaned at the statement. Had he actually lost track of time? He checked the watch on his arm. Immediately, the issue solved itself.

“They’re just here early.” Fer made that horrendous hur-hur-hur of a chuckle as she craned her neck down and pulled back the dark green curtain of the tent. Iliyal quickly stepped inside as he saw the three National Goddesses around a table. All three were in their heavy plate armours, now damaged from the constant battles they had fought. Paida, with her long blonde hair and purple eyes, had her helm on the table, her shield slung across her back and her sword sheathed. Olonia had put her gear in the corner of the tent and Saksma had stabbed her greatsword into the beaten dirt of the ground to make it stand up by itself. Helenna was on the other side of the table, in the usual long black uniform. Her high cap bore the woman’s Imperial Emblem: a rose with thorns that grew into a wreath to surround the petals.

“I am Fer!” Fer exclaimed as she stepped forwards. “Apologies for being late! Iliyal was having so much fun with me we decided to take the long way around.” The elf didn’t fall for the bait, he let Fer say whatever she wanted to say frankly.

“I see you started early.” Iliyal said, he knew Helenna would catch the meaning of the words: why start early?

Helenna smiled at the elf and at Fer. “Will you believe me if I say the plane got here early?” No. Of course Iliyal would not. But how could he argue with that without exposing himself to be paranoid? Frankly, why was he even doubting Helenna. The woman had already proven her loyalty. “And since I got here, I got to see what the three Goddesses here were feeling.”

“Mmh.” Iliyal said.

Saksma stepped in to speak, her hair the colour of golden wheat, her eyes a brilliant sky-blue. It was good whenever Saksma spoke, she had all the bluntness characteristic of her nation. “We know each other from the years before…” She tapped the dented steel chest plate. “All this.”

“I assumed you do.”

“So?” Fer asked. “What is this meeting about Helenna?”

“We were actually waiting for you.” Helenna said. “But I wanted to show everyone this, one of my spies caught this from the Epan Coalition Headquarters.”

“You’re spying on us?” Saksma asked and Helenna blushed. Iliyal got closer as the Goddess of Love pulled out an audio player.

“I spy on everyone.” Helenna said. “In the same way that Fer can’t be serious with anyone.” Iliyal wondered what the plan was, although he was already playing along, pretending to be interested. Fer did too, she made a chuckle so devious it was almost comical.

“I treat everyone in the same way I’d treat a cat, very seriously indeed.” Iliyal thought for a moment, that was just a flat-out lie. The woman treated cats in a far less annoying manner than she treated people.

“Right.” Helenna said. “But you’ll be glad I’m spying on you.”

“Will I?” Saksma asked doubtfully.

“I’m not spying on you, I’m spying on your government Saksma. There’s a difference.”

“I am the incarnation of Doschia.” Saksma said. “So apologies for being slightly more invested in this than you are Helenna.”

Paida, ever diplomatic, came in to cool Saksma down. Iliyal did not even know why, Helenna and Fer and him could easily stand their ground in arguments. Especially against a child of a Goddess like Saksma. She had been around some seven-hundred years and she was the youngest in the tent. “Well let’s hear it out at least.”

“This is actually why I waited for Fer to come.” Helenna said honestly. “Because I didn’t know if you’d need someone to calm you down.”

“Let’s hear it then.” Olonia said sternly. “I want to see what the fuss is about since you pulled us off the frontlines.”

“I just want to say the audio is quiet because it was in my informants pocket. You’ll hear some rustling too, but I can’t fix that. The audio is raw, just how I got it.” Helenna said and she clicked the button.

Iliyal recognised the tone and voice immediately.

How could he not?

He had made this audio three days ago after all. It was Barbara’s voice, somehow the audio had been edited to sound distant and faint, and there was indeed rustling of cloth on cloth as if the microphone had been recording from someone’s pocket. Yet the words were easy to make out, at least those that were important.

‘No one here needs convincing…’

Followed by rustling and faint mumbling. ‘The war will be extended…’ Iliyal looked up at Helenna and saw the woman feign a stern face. ‘White Pantheon…’ Iliyal looked at Fer and the Goddess of Beasthood looked at him. Only Iliyal here knew the woman well enough to see through the façade, but just as he saw through hers, he knew she saw through his. They were both in awe at how much Helenna had done with so little. And Barbara’s voice continued. ‘…spare Epa…’ Amazing, Iliyal could not believe how well Helenna had stitched the words together. If he didn’t recognise Barabara’s voice, he would thought this was a real conversation being recorded, with the only issue being that the microphone was too weak to catch both sides.

And then the bombshell dropped. ‘…sacrificing Olonia… she is more valuable… dead than… alive.’ Helenna stopped the recording.

“That’s all of it.” The Goddess of Love said as the entire room turned to Olonia in silence. The Goddess of Lubska stood there, her blue eyes blinked, those cheeks went so pale that it made the woman’s snow-white hair look almost dull in comparison. Her mouth opened. She swayed. “This is why I sent Fer here to watch over you. I strongly suspect that Naro was supposed to kill you Olonia.”

And the Goddess of Lubska swayed. Fer moved quickly yet delicately as Olonia’s legs gave out. As quickly as a she-wolf catching her cubs, she stepped behind Olonia and stopped the woman from collapsing by hooking her arms underneath her shoulders. Olonia hung in the air, arms and legs deflated and still, as she stared at that recorder.

For a solid minute, no one said anything. Iliyal was following Helenna’s guidance, and if Helenna was letting one of the nationals speak first, then so be it. Saksma broke the silence eventually. “Apologies Helenna. I see why you’re spying on me now.”

“Not on you Saksma. On the EC.” Iliyal shook his head at the sheer beauty of that statement. It wasn’t Doschia, it wasn’t the government, it wasn’t even the Epan Coalition. Instead, it was the cold acronym of EC. Malam could have not done better.

“This is serious.” Paida said.

“You think?” Saksma asked sarcastically.

“What do we do now?” Paida turned to Iliyal and the elf realised that they were going to listen to him. His eyes gave one final sweep around the room. He made it look as if he was taking the time to think, but actually he was seeing Helenna’s expression. The slight eagerness in his eyes and the tiny nod gave it away that she was passing the initiative to him.

So that meant they were sticking with Malam’s timeframe. “We know this now.” Iliyal said. Fer gently lowered Olonia onto her feet, although the woman still could not stand by herself. Iliyal supposed that reaction made sense for Goddess who was betrayed by the very thing she was an incarnation of. “We can’t start a civil war in Epa though. Showing this off would demotivate the troops.”

“That’s true.” Saksma said. “Morale is bad enough already.”

“They wanted to kill me.” Olonia mumbled as Fer came in close and hugged the woman from behind. “They wanted to kill me.” She mumbled again.

“I keep on running the war. Tactics will change though. Fer is here, Anassa is in Rilia, I will communicate this information to Agrita and Aliana but no one else. It’s a secret between us for now.” Iliyal said.

“Why?” Saksma asked. Paida rolled her eyes and shook her head in exasperation at her friend.

“If we reveal that we know Saksma.” The Goddess of Rancais said in a horribly patronizing tone. “Then we let them react to us. If we keep our cards close to the table, then we can play our ace at any time.” Iliyal nodded along to Paida. The woman was smart, no doubt she was used to being the smartest in the room usually. Unfortunately, in this room, she did not make it into the top-three. Instead, she had just played into Iliyal’s hand.

“That, and likewise, I don’t want the troops to suddenly start losing faith in the Coalition.” Iliyal said. 

“They tried to kill me.” Olonia said again, some anger in her voice.

“There there.” Fer whispered softly from behind the Goddess as she leaned in close and brushed that golden mane against Olonia’s cheek.

Iliyal took back control of the situation. “But if I deploy Fer openly in Epa, then I will have bureaucrats at my door every day from now on. They may even try to remove me. Kill me if I don’t budge.”

“That’s not going to happen.” Saksma said, her tone hard and cold.

“You have my promise Iliyal. I’m not going to let one of us be sacrificed.” Paida said. She looked to Saksma, her tone cold. “It could be one of us next actually.”

“I’d like to see them try.” Saksma said.

“Iliyal, they tried to kill me.” Olonia said.

“When this war ends, we can start working on getting rid of this rot. If worst comes to worst, I can call upon reinforcements from Arika.” Iliyal said.

“The EC won’t like that.” Saksma said. Iliyal noticed that the woman referred to it like the acronym and not the word. Helenna had indeed made a good play.

“I don’t really care what the EC likes or not.” Iliyal said, his eyes met Fer’s from behind Olonia, and he read the woman’s face. She could smell emotions, and she was saying that they were primed. “Saksma, Paida, Olonia, I will be honest now.” He saw Paida and Saksma shift their entire attention onto him as Olonia, still looking at the table, suddenly became angry. “I do not fight this war for Epa or against the Pantheon.” Iliyal let the silence hang as Olonia cooked in rage. “Fer and I trained you. We will not let you die in something like this. I do not even fight for Doschia, Rancais or Lubska.” Iliyal took a deep breath. “I fight for you Saksma, for you Paida, and for you Olonia.” He saw Paida and Saksma gawk at him in awe. Paida’s cheeks exploded into a blush. They had probably never heard words like that. Iliyal made his coup-de-grace. “And I expect you to fight for me.”

“You have my word Iliyal.” Saksma answered the call to action immediately. She didn’t even need to think about it. “This is the sort of betrayal I will not accept.”

Paida nodded. “It is one thing to die in battle for a cause. It is another entirely for them to try and sacrifice you like this.”

“Thank you.” Iliyal said.

And finally Olonia spoke. If Paida and Saksma were the sounds of victorious battles, then Olonia’s voice was the sound of a grand campaign which had achieved all its goals and left nothing standing of the opposition. It was almost as beautiful as the sounds of War’s Orchestra. “Iliyal, I do not fight against the Pantheon to replace them with bureaucrats from the EC. They tried to kill me Iliyal. You better take this war to the end, until they hang. All of them.” She had to bite each word off to keep herself speaking. “Promise me that Iliyal. Until the end. The Pantheon and the Coalition. Both of them.”

Iliyal made the promise. “Until the end.”

“Then we fight for one another.” Olonia said.

Iliyal saw Helenna’s eyes and Fer’s eyes. Not a word had to be said between the three ancients, they all knew the emotion. They all craved it after all, because the emotion was rare even for those who had made it past a thousand years: The sweet and addictive ambrosian taste of victory.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep