General Ekkerson looked to the west as he saw silhouettes emerge from the horizon. Uriamel had returned, even after the defeat of its titan, they were back for more. Goddess Kassandora had said they would though so it had only been a matter of time. Great figures were floating in the waters, slowly coming closer and soon the giant beasts that crawled along the ocean floor started to rear their ugly heads out of the water.

General Ekkerson readjusted the black cap on top of his head and stood up out of his chair. Reports had said this would be the first point of contact, a small town south of Nanbasa. It had been the first one back in the first wave too. He turned to look through the window on the other side of the bunker.

The Kirinyaa Wall, as it came to be known, was awakening for the first time. Fortress after fortress, bunker after bunker, each one bearing a great siege cannon designed that Ekkerson was sure could topple mountains. Interspersed around them were pillboxes and trenches, trucks that had been speeding to this location had their brakes screeching as they came to a halt and deposited a dozen men each. Those rushed to the trenches and the various bunkers as guns in the horizon turned upwards as if they were tall trees sprouting from the ground. Ekkerson heard his command team call in the second armoured brigade from Nanbasa and KAF reinforcements.

Ekkerson turned back to the army coming from the waters. A giant crab was emerging from the water, a cannon on its back. Ekkerson shook his head at the attempt. The first time, it was Divinity that had defeated them. This time, humanity itself would give them such a bloody nose that they would go crawling back to whatever stinking holes they came from and never rear their ugly heads again.

Kassandora wasn’t here but the sound of cannons behind him was an orchestra in itself.

Arascus sat on a rock overlooking Central Requisitions as a helicopter came in from the east. It was obviously Malam, only Divines used that specific model out of crisis zones, although that huge cargo helicopter, made to carry military vehicles, was the best mode of transport for a being that would collapse the suspension in most cars. A golden circle of large golden spheres appeared beside Arascus, the sort he would draw swords from. Although no blade came, instead the God only made them large for the helicopter pilot to see him.

The helicopter made a sharp turn, its terribly loud blades slicing through the air although it was too high to kick up any noticeable amount of dust. Far from the mountain, CR sprawled around the great oaks Iniri had forced to hastily grow in order to have a supply point for the first invasion of Kirinyaa. Train tracks had finally been laid by the base. It was four large lines, all heading south before they veered off to the join the main East-West line. A line of trucks was coming and going too, all aimed south west to supply Kassandora’s Underground Expeditionary Legion. Tanks and rapid-fire AA guns were being sent off too. Arascus let Kassandora take what she wished, he knew that she wasn’t sending things to waste, and it was her expedition at the end of the day, not his.

Instead, Arascus looked up at the helicopter. The night sky above the thing shone with stars and Arascus saw the side doors slide open. The woman who leaped out of it was like a cat. Where Fer would simply drop, reliant on her own enormous resilience to overpower whatever damage such a drop could do, Malam leapt like a whirlwind. The woman’s hair, white and blinding as a blizzard, trailed after her like the tail of a comet. She fell to the ground so smoothy that the only thing Arascus heard was the rustle of cloth on cloth. She turned the fall into a roll, then a hop upwards, the momentum being reversed through the woman’s natural spring in her muscles as if she was a coil of flexible metal. Malam finished with a short hop and a flashy pirouette.

Arascus smiled at her as she did. The girl liked to show off, and he knew that there was no one she liked to show off more to than him. She had come dressed in simple clothes, no doubt Arascus had ripped her straight from wherever she had been working to come here: a skirt and a dark, off-blue shirt. Only a single button was keeping the thing shut. Malam had always been like that, she felt most comfortable in her own skin. At lot like Fer in that regard, but at least Malam knew when a situation called for dress and didn’t need clothes to be stuffed into her hands. “You called!” Malam said joyously as Arascus moved up on the rock he was sitting on. This was one of the collapsed mountains after Elassa had been defeated at CR. It had shattered into several dozen giant plates of stone rather than millions of tiny pebbles.

“I have something to discuss.” Arascus said as Malam came in close and put his arm around her shoulder. She leaned in close to listen to his heartbeat.

“It must be important then.” Malam said. “Or did you just miss me that badly?”

Arascus didn’t answer, he took out Fortia’s letter from his pocket and passed it to Malam. “Anassa hasn’t read it, she just sent it straight to us.” He rubbed Malam’s arm with his hand, as always, she had that semi-sickly coldness to her.

“Ah.” Malam said. “I’m disappointed.” Her tone was sly, but Arascus played along anyway.

“Should I ask why?”

“Are you not curious?” Malam asked in a tone that said she was playing a trick, but Arascus had known her long enough to know it was going to be something with an innuendo tied to it.

“Should I be?” He knew she liked these word chases.

“Should you not be?” Malam asked as the helicopter that dropped her enough finally got far away for the sound of its blades to be a low rumble in the distance, towards the massive set of trees that were lit-up with spotlights.

“That depends on what it is.” Arascus replied.

“I’m sure you’ll find it interesting.”

“You’ll have to tell me then.” Arascus said, confident that he had won this verbal sparring.

Malam had other plans. “So you are curious then.”

“You want to say it though.” Arascus decided to let her make the joke eventually. Frankly, these back-and-forth’s could go on for hours. He knew from experience.

“Maybe I do, maybe I don’t?” Malam mused. “That depends.”

“It depends on whether I’m as curious as how much you want to say it?” Malam smiled up at him.

“Deal then? You’re curious and I want to?”

“I can agree to that.” Arascus said. “So why are you disappointed?”

Malam squeezed in tight to him, speaking in a downright devilish tone. “Because here’s work and I thought you just couldn’t get enough of your favourite.” Arascus made a loud, heavy sigh and Malam giggled at his flat reaction. He overemphasized it on purpose for her, rubbed her shoulder and then laughed himself.

“You are so predictable.”

“Predictable isn’t bad.” Malam said. “You know what’s predictable?”

“What?” Arascus asked.

“Alcohol.” Arascus rolled his eyes at that answer.

“Classic.” He replied. If Malam were a mortal, she would have long drank herself to death. There were times in the past when the woman would go for a year without feeling sobriety, and there were times when she would go for a year without tasting a drop of drink. But Arascus himself drank too, he wasn’t going to moralize to the woman about needing to cut down her habit. She did that to herself enough already.

“I’ve never had a bottle I’ve been disappointed in.” Malam said. “Every time, I open it, I give it a smell, and I know exactly what it’s going to do to me.”

“I’ve heard the same about smoking.” Arascus said.

“That’s true too, I’ve never had a cigarette I’ve been disappointed in either.” Malam said. “Every time, I light up, I finish it, I know exactly what it’s done, and it’s the same every time.” Finding a Divine who was actually addicted to tobacco was difficult, although finding one who had never tried it was even rarer. It wasn’t a question of willpowers or rationality or logic, the reason was much simpler than that: a cigarette for mortals was smaller than a toothpick for a Divine. Even the largest cigar was smaller than a smoke. It wasn’t that they were good people, it was that the world had simply denied them the tools to ruin themselves with.

“Mmh.” Arascus said. “Have you finished reading this?” He tapped the piece of paper in the woman’s hands.

“I have.”

“How far are you from finishing the EC?”

“At the current rate…” Malam thought for a moment. “Two months would be certain. It would be enough for Anarchia’s fire to spread.”

“How is your situation right now?” Arascus asked.

“Olonia, Paida and Saksma are primed. Agrita and Aliana should follow too, but I’m not definite on them.”

“Aliana may not, but Allia will simply to end the war. Their island is starving.”

“I was actually more certain on Agrita because Rilia is weaker than Rancais and Doschia so it should follow.” Malam said. “If you think that Allia is secured, then the nations are primed. Three out of five Goddesses are certain either way, and we both lean positively on the other two.” Malam moved in close to Arascus, almost putting her leg over his. The God gently stroked her hair and cheek. Cold, not freezing, she obviously had blood flowing, but cold nonetheless.

“The foundation for the coup is there then.” Arascus said. He tapped the letter. “What is the utterly fastest time you can pull a coup off in?”

“That depends how clean we want it.”

“If what Fortia says is correct and Allasaria is calling Paradeisius, then we have no time to waste.” Malam sat there for a moment after Arascus finished. She kicked her legs in the air, she laughed to herself. Arascus usually let the Goddess run things her own way but he knew when she would get stuck. Usually, it was when a suboptimal way was visible, but that didn’t mean it was optimal. “No matter how dirty the coup is now, we can clean up the mess later.”

“It’s twice as much work.” Malam said flatly as she stared off into the distance. She put her head on his side. “I thought of it, I just don’t know how else to make it clean.”

“Two weeks?”

“I would have asked for three.” Malam said. “Fifteen days at least, and we’ll need priority weapons shipments instead of Kassie.” She took a pause. “KAF reserves too, Raptor One and Raptor Two.” Arascus silently adjusted his own plans in his head as the woman talked. She had priority now. Victory in Arika was only a matter of time.

“I’ll give you as much time as I can with Fortia, but I have my own plans for her.” Arascus said, he tapped the letter again. “This is a good entry point for me, I can delay as long as possible, but Fortia has two armies at her back now. Offending her will make things twice as bad for us when Paradeisius enters the war.” He finished and took a sigh.

Malam giggled for moment. “This is very much like us.”

“Is it?”

“Even Kassie doesn’t try to bite off as much as we do.” Malam said. “Fortia, Epa, Arika, Paladins and Guardians all at the same time? There’s only two people in the whole world stupid enough to rise up to that challenge.”

“Then the world must have bad luck that it’s the two most competent people within it.” Arascus squeezed her and Malam cooed into his shoulder. They sat like that for a moment. “Anything else?”

“Everything else I can get myself.” Malam said. “Have you met Anarchia?”

“I have not.” Arascus said.

“She seems like a Fortia type.” Malam said. “I don’t know how smart she is though.”

“I can’t tell you. Helenna will probably know more. Kavaa once told me privately that she’s too weak a warlord for the Pantheon to actually be able to make a move against her.”

“She hands out blessings.” Malam said. “So she’s either like Kassie or she’s actually a genius and just withholding her power.”

Arascus chuckled in humour. “Anyone normal would say it’s the former.”

“But we’re not normal, are we?” Malam said coyly as she leaned into his side.

“Prepare for the worst and nothing can surprise you.” Arascus said Kassandora’s line. It was true though. And it was much harder done than said. Anarchia’s powers, until confirmed, would either be overwhelming or non-existent in every plan until they managed to figure out what the woman actually did.

“Exactly.” Malam agreed. “But I can’t assume she’ll be able to beat Olephia.”

“If she was that strong, there would have been an overthrow of the Pantheon already.”

“Unless she actually has grand aspirations like us.” Malam said. “If she’s realised that the Pantheon won’t go after her as long as she keeps herself weak, then she could purposefully be hiding her powers.”

Arascus saw the line of logic. “And she’d realise because of the Godkiller incident.” Some three hundred years ago a deity had appeared in the UNN. It was a God designed to hunt Gods, born out of mankind’s sudden rise in power and independence thanks to the advance of thought. Unfortunately for the Godkiller, faith had prevailed. Allasaria, Elassa, Fortia, Maisara and Leona had gone and killed it. “But if she realises that, it means she can’t be overwhelming.”

“Mmh.” Malam said. “Good call actually, I was starting to go down the worst paths.”

“We could be talking ourselves into a hole.” Arascus said as Malam squeezed into him.

“Then it’s a hole I enjoy falling into.” Malam said and Arascus rubbed her shoulder. “How is the Arika situation going? I’ve been too busy to pay attention to it.”

Arascus moved his hand from Malam’s shoulder and to her back. He knew she liked that sensation of pressure applied to her spine. “Tomorrow, Abakwa will publicize the creation of the Ausan Territorial Control Force.” Officially, it was an expansion of police forces in order to safeguard the new land that Ausa reclaimed after the carving up of Arika. In reality, it had been decided that the TCF would become the Imperial Ausan Police Force after the country joined the Empire. “Three days from now, Domkat and Sokolowski will give a joint statement on us supplying them arms.”

Malam shuddered as Arascus traced her spine and purred. “I can see where this is going already.” She said.

“The first shipment will be lost in transit. Officially, it will be by independence fighters. Unofficially, a shipment will never exist. We’ll just blow up a series of empty trucks enroute. Traces of independence rebels will be found at the location. A week from now, there’ll be a terror attack on one of Abakwa’s men. We’re still deciding who and whether they should die or not.”

“They should.” Malam said quickly.

“Abakwa is hesitant about it.” Arascus said. “But that’s the justification. Abakwa calls upon Kirinyaa for peacekeeping. The independence referendums are cancelled before they happen. Sokolowski’s and Zalewski’s armies shut them down.”

“Mmh.” Malam said. “That’s a good plan.”

“Not the cleanest.” Arascus admitted. “But it’s fast and the whole thing relies on getting out foot in the door. Once we’re in, we’re not going out.” Arascus and Malam sat together for a few moments, and then the woman spoke up again.

“I’ll need your help then.” Malam said.

“On what?”

“Allia is sending a diplomatic visit to Arcadia to ask for Floromancers, I was going to go myself but this change of plans will keep me busy. You’ll need to go instead. I don’t want it to go through, but we both know that if I say that to Elassa, she’ll go and fuck up relations with the entire Coalition. It needs a more, let’s say delicate, rejection.”

“I had nothing to do anyway.” Arascus said as he leaned his head on top of Malam’s. They sat there in silence for a more. The stars twinkled above them. CR gently buzzed with activity. The highways heading south were lit up like great veins of light. Arascus felt Malam’s warm breath on him and put his coat around the girl to keep her warm. Honestly, he should have thought of it earlier, but Kavaa should be asked to inspect whether Malam had some condition or not. All in due time though, Malam had always been cold. She wouldn’t drop dead tomorrow.

“I love you.” Malam said.

“I love you too.”

Neneria took a deep breath and closed her eyes. She unbuttoned her coat and let out a relieved sigh. Those words had taken a lot out of her, she made it seem easy, but she had to say it. It wasn’t for herself after all. Kavaa needed to hear them, not for herself but for little Kassie’s sake.

Source: Webnovel.com, updated by NovelKeep