Wild Wastes 5 -Ch31- (Patreon)

Vince had tucked the device Ryker had given him away.

After that, he’d mostly just talked about random things with the god. He found that in the end, he was actually rather easy to talk to, if a bit eccentric. Reminded him of Felix in many ways, realistically.

Methodical, planning, logical, everything in its line with a place.

“Thank you, by the way,” whispered Ynes, her hands clutched to and holding onto his wrist. The woman who had spent decades doing policing duties, military drills, and live fire exercises was acting much like a different person entirely. He found she was far more cuddly after he took care of her very abnormal-for-a-Dryad urges. “For helping me out first. I… can’t tell you how wonderful it is. Please make sure you tell me if there’s anything you want to do. Or try. Anything. Anything at all, I’ll do it.”

“I’ll keep that in mind,” Vince murmured, then glanced over his shoulder. Dionara wasn’t far away, talking with the High-Elf, Wood-Elf, and Red Dragon.

Zathira was further away and currently utilizing necromancy. The dark impossible depths to her eyes visible and her attention elsewhere. Johanna stood next to her, examining what Zathira was doing and how, but not actively contributing.

Renata was laid out on her side next to them. Dozing quietly with her belly and chest toward the sun. Enjoying every moment for its fullest and unrepentantly so.

A bit further away were the Crown’s Guard arranged in ranks. All of them standing at attention and ready for orders. Bersert and his people weren’t far off either. Standing beneath the banners of Legion, Yosemite, and the local duchy, of which Vince wasn’t familiar with.

“Do you think they’ll come out?” asked the Dryad, shifting the conversation a bit.

“You know, I’m not sure,” admitted Vince. “If he doesn’t, he looks as if he’s afraid to do so. If he does, everyone will question why they’re still behind the walls.

“Which of course will be when I have the Dragons drop pamphlets behind the walls, explaining exactly why they’re still there. After all, our terms are actually rather generous, all things considered. I’m in a hurry and I don’t want to be here, so he’s getting a chance he shouldn’t.”

“He won’t take that,” muttered Ynes. “He’ll ask everyone to die for him. To march at his command and lay themselves out in the dirt. To make a road of their bodies for his continued existence atop a broken throne.”

Vince took in a short breath, held it, then let it out in a sigh. A nod of his head was all he could offer since he agreed with her. It really did seem like it would be exactly as she’d just said.

Between his siege camp was an area that wasn’t a place anyone could cross. A no-man’s land that would quickly draw attention upon entering. Often a Nullifier would target anyone who entered the area and hit them with a blast of their power, followed immediately by small-arms fire.

Across that was the entry-gate to the city. Closed and shut up tight.

Vince suspected that that not only was it shut, but it was actually incapable of opening. That the inhabitants had likely barricaded it up completely. To the point that those doors would never open again.

Surprisingly, he noticed a rope ladder being tossed down from the walls as he looked at the gate. It was just to the side of them.

A handful of people began moving down the ladder and gathering on the ground. Even from this distance, Vince could see the Prime Minister wasn’t among them. There weren’t enough people to form his guard, nor did it look as if there was anyone over there dressed in clothes too rich for the situation.

One and all, they looked to be older men in clothes that were above the lowest class, but not beyond a mercantile or merchant’s level of wealth. There were two that stood apart, however.
Two in robes that made them feel a lot like they were Nullifiers, or some type of priest. Serving some deity that Vince would have to deal with.

“Oh look, more priests. That means there’s more deities,” Ynes murmured. “I wonder if you’ll fuck, kill, or eat these ones. Though you didn’t do any of that to the last one. Rather surprising.”

Huh.

I guess… I really didn’t do any of the old tried and true methods.

Funny, in a way.

Firsts for everything.

“Ugh, Nullifiers,” growled Johanna from Vince’s left. “Bane of my existence.”

“Why? Nullification magic is just another school of magic,” Vince murmured and turned to look at the goddess. Holding up his left hand, he generated a small Nullifier shield in his palm. He continuously directed power into it to keep it there. “It feels just like every other school of magic to me. It’s just using it all to force it to negate anything it touches.

“See? I’m using my own power to generate it though. I’m not good at magic, so I have to focus on these things way too much.”

Johanna was staring at Vince’s hand. Staring at it with wide, disbelieving eyes.

Then she reached up and stuck a finger into it. Then wriggled it around.

He could actually feel her magical powers dissipating slightly as she did so. Draining away into him.

“Cancel it?” she asked.

Vince did so.

“Summon it again?” prompted Johanna, to which Vince did as requested. “Cancel?”

Again he let the spell fail.

“It… it really is just another school of magic. What… I… that means I should be able to use it,” grumbled Johanna. “I’m the goddess of magic. It’s well within my domain.”

“As the leader of the pantheon for Yosemite, I agree with you. You’re our goddess of magic. This is just another facet of magic. Another school. Your domain,” agreed Vince.

There was a grinding and ominous noise Vince could hear. It was everywhere and nowhere.

Then a pop-like noise went off and it was gone.

Johanna blinked, nodded her head, then held up her hand. She immediately formed a Nullifier shield in her palm. It moved from an oval-like sphere, to a cube, then vanished.

“Another school of magic. Just like that,” chortled Johanna. She put her hand down to the canteen at her hip.

Vince looked ahead to the incoming group of people. He wasn’t sure who they were, but without the Prime Minister in their number, it meant the proposal was clearly already rejected. There were most certainly not coming out to negotiate terms of surrender.

“Bets on what they want?” Vince asked aloud.

“Challenge you to a duel of champions,” Renata answered quickly from behind him.

“You read someone’s mind,” accused Ynes.

“I… yes. I did. One of them isn’t shielded,” confessed the Dragon.

“Okay. Johanna, your turn to get out there and fight them. I’m tired of being the champion,” Vince interjected and sighed. “Just… murder him outright, then bring me back their heart. They’ll send out some type of Nullifier. Since it’s a school of magic you now understand, I imagine this won’t take long.”

“Ah… errr… that-no. No, it won’t take long my lord,” Johanna said with a sharp nod of her head. “It’s just another school of magic. One I now understand. I’ll make it quick, pluck out their heart, and bring it back to you,” she parroted back, almost as if to convince herself his instructions were possible.

“Perfect, thanks,” muttered Vince then he went silent. There wasn’t anything more to say until they did as Renata predicted.

Waving a white flag, they crossed the no-man’s land. Picking delicately through the charred and broken landscape they themselves had created.

When they finally reached Vince, most of them were out of breath. Apparently they weren’t in the best condition for something like this.

Lack of food, or stamina, I wonder.

One of those two.

“Greetings,” called a man in the front. He was in his later middle years and had hair that was half brown and half gray. His eyes were a dark brown color. Many of his companions had similar looks to them.

The two Nullifiers, which were now quite obvious to the naked eye, were both wearing odd hoods. He’d seen other Nullifiers wearing them and wasn’t really sure what they signified, since he’d seen many without them as well.

“Yup,” Vince mumbled with a nod of his head. There wasn’t any reason to waste words on them. They weren’t here to do anything of use anyways.

Blinking several times, the man looked to his companions before looking back to Vince.

“Ah… you’re… the lord of Yosemite?” asked the man.

“Yup,” repeated Vince. “You here to surrender or no.”

“No, we’d like to discuss terms for your army to depart and—”

“No,” interrupted Vince. “That’s not something we’ll be discussing, nor is it something even worth mentioning. You’re not surrendering so there’s nothing else to be said. Back to the siege for both of us. Go on back to your hellhole of your own making. Enjoy eating your own pets if you haven’t started doing that already.”

“Challenge! We have a challenge for you,” said one of the other men. “A champion’s battle!”

Vince waved a negligent hand at the men and then looked to Johanna.

“I changed my mind. I want you to take care of it, but draw it out. Make it showy. Break their morale,” he commanded then turned away. There was no point in staying here or bothering with this. While everyone focused on this situation, he’d put his next piece in play.

He hadn’t thought of doing it right now.

Truth of it was that he’d planned on doing this in several weeks, if the rest of his plans went sideways. Now though, he was moving it forward so that it’d get started right now. Colomnon and his team wouldn’t even get a chance to infiltrate, let alone go ahead with their plan.

If the Prime-Minister wanted to try and do something like this, and in the manner he was doing it, it meant he really didn’t care at all about anyone. To him it was all negligible as long as he kept his throne.

Vince would bet his life on the fact that, even should Johanna win, this champion duel wouldn’t be honored. The man would negate the results, claim they were fake, then push his supporters ever onward.

Even as his champion’s corpse was likely cooling in the grass.

“Of course, my lord,” Johanna said to Vince’s back even as he got lost in his own thoughts. “Reward me well!”

Reward her?

Well.

Alright. Sure.

We’ll reward her somehow.

“Sure, you got it,” Vince answered and waved a hand negligently over his shoulder, still walking toward Zathira. The Lamia was still completely engrossed in her work as far as he could tell.

Coming to a gradual stop next to her, he let out a slow breath.

“That seemed pointless to begin with,” whispered the Lamia surprisingly. “Their challenge only made it more so. I take it this is the point where you tell me to move ahead?”

“Yeah. Time to get this over and done with. As long as you can carry out that promise you made me,” Vince confirmed.

“Yes, it’s not a problem. We’ll just take the Prime Minister and get out,” Zathira murmured, then let out a soft chuckle. “I’ll wait for Johanna to start then move accordingly. It’ll be a good distraction I imagine, considering you promised her a reward. I’m sure she’ll work extra hard to make it noteworthy.

“By the way, I expect a reward as well. You can’t just reward her for her part of this, without rewarding me. Though… I’ll pass on her likely requested reward. I’m sure you’ll forgive me.”

Her reward?

Oh.

I guess she’ll probably pick something to do with that damn canteen.

I’ll need to start trying to convince her she doesn’t need it. That it’s all in her head and that it’s unneeded.

“And what would you want?” Vince asked with a frown.

“To visit some graveyards before we head north after all this,” Zathira answered with an odd smile.

***

Watching quietly, Vince couldn’t help but wonder about the situation.

It was clearly meant to be a fight to the death, but that wasn’t what was happening. Not in any way shape or form, in fact.

Truth be told, it wasn’t even a fight anymore.

This was Johanna experimenting, testing, and asking ever more questions. Only to seek new answers, and questions, from the High-Priest Nullifier that’d been sent as the champion.

“Ah, I see, I see,” murmured Johanna who then clucked her tongue. She was leaning over the Nullifier who was sprawled out on the ground. “But what happens during the instruction process? Wouldn’t any spell made with magical energy immediately fail, since it’s from the Nullifier school of magic?”

“Yes. It fails,” whimpered the Nullifier. Johanna had beaten him black and blue and knocked a number of teeth in the doing. He was a bit of a mush-mouth now. “You have to make sure they finish their patterns and lock it in place while providing enough magical energy in the initial casting to work after you cut it free.”

Oh.

That makes sense.

That’s why my shield fails. I close it, it burns up its mana, then fails. I didn’t bother to put anything into it other than what it cost to activate it.

“Yes, yes, that makes perfect sense,” agreed Johanna with a small nod of her head. “I can see how you can train Nullifiers that way as well. They likely are just told how to throw out a blast, then practice that for a considerable time.

“Likely right up until they get a handle on how much mana to use for it. Then you just get them to memorize it and do everything by equation. Is that about it?”

“Yes. That’s it,” confirmed the Nullifier.

“Splendid. Splendid! This was most educational, I appreciate your answers, and letting me experiment on you,” thanked Johanna with a delicate and beautiful smile. Not for the first time, Vince had to reassess Johanna’s looks.

She was still growing ever more attractive.

“Of course. Can I go now? Please? I just want to go back home,” asked the Nullifier.

“I’m sorry. I’m afraid I can’t do that,” Johanna apologized with a slow shake of her head. “This was a fight to the death. I have to take your life.

“Take your life, then give your heart to my lord. He feasts on everything and gains power from it. It’s why your spellwork doesn’t work against him. Why my own spells grew less powerful against him the longer I fought him.

“What I can promise you, is to make it very quick. Very clean. You won’t even realize your life has ended. You’ll just… end. Quickly, without a mess, and not even realize it. Would you like a minute to collect your thoughts?”

Taking in a slow breath, the Nullifier seemed to consider her words. Thinking on them deeply.

“I only wish I’d listened to Marie-Louise. She warned us all about fighting your lord,” lamented the man.

“Wait,” commanded Vince, levering himself out of the chair he’d been sitting in. “Marie-Louise?”

“She’s in the clergy. Was… in the clergy. She fought you, lost, and watched you devour the hearts of her comrades,” explained the man. “She was going to gather all who would follow her and lead them to join you.”

“Hm. Is that so?” inquired Vince, feeling curious about this now. He did remember who the man was likely talking about. “Fine. You may live. Go find Marie-Louise and help her. Bring to me all the Nullifiers who would join Yosemite.

“The school of Nullification magic will need to be raised from the ground up in Yosemite. To function alongside all the other schools. You can worship Johanna, as she’s the deity of magic for Yosemite. Be sure to thank her for your life.”

“Thank you, gracious lord,” whimpered the Nullifier.

Vince dismissed the man with a hand gesture and then sat back down in his chair.

The wounded Nullifier got to his feet and stumbled away. Not waiting for a single moment longer and not offering anything else to say.

Everyone began sorting themselves out again and getting to other tasks at hand. Johanna took a sip from her flask while watching the Nullifier begin shuffling away toward the distant north. She put it back to her belt and walked over to rejoin Zathira.

This time, Johanna’s eyes became the same color as Zathira’s. Clearly she was assisting now instead of only watching.

The Duke hadn’t looked like this at all.

With any luck, the enthralled Undead would bring the Prime-Minister out sometime soon, and they could be done with this. Done with Spain and moving back north to solidify their borders.

Speaking of getting everything solidified here… I wonder whatever happened to that rebel loyalist faction. The ones trying to re-install their royal line to the throne.

I wonder if I’ll need to burn them all out, too.

I won’t be welcoming them into a place of power, that’s for sure. They’ll just continue on their stupid war with me as the target, rather than the Prime-Minister.

That most certainly can’t happen.

“I’ll just pick everything out when they show up,” offered Renata, who was laid out on the ground near him. She’d swapped into her human form but was still very much sunning herself on the grass. Her rather revealing Legionnaire armor didn’t cover much after all. “Read it all, put it down, then you send a few others to go handle it. A couple of Blacks and Whites. With a Red or Yellow to help plot out more hidden places. Can cut them all down before they understand the severity of it.”

“If they’re a problem, that’s fine,” agreed Vince. “If… they’re a problem. They might not be. They might just let it all happen and then let it all go. We’re certainly not going to treat the country the same way as the previous leader did.”

“They’ll show up,” growled Renata. “They were always carrion feeders from what I can tell. Scurrying around and over for scraps that no one wants, or trying to fight for the entirety of the corpse when others weren’t looking.

“I expect they’ll do the same, even with you as the head of state. They’ll do the same, expect more concessions, or that you will give them the country. I guarantee it.”

Vince turned his head and looked to the beautiful Orange Dragon sprawled out in the grass next to him. Grinning, he took a moment to really give her a head to toe once over.

“Oh, you really do like what you see. How delightful,” murmured Renata, opening one eye to look at him. At the same time, a call went up from ahead of them.

The Prime-Minister was on his way over. Being dragged along by a band of Undead. There were a number of other Undead that were further back, fighting back a group of soldiers. They were all trying to get to their leader unsuccessfully.

“Here we go,” concluded Vince.