Imperious, Chapter 028 - Devil in the Details (Patreon)

Anna stared at the body of the devil for a while, the noxious scent of the yellow flames slowly fading as its source was extinguished. She felt the notifications buzzing in the back of her head before letting out a sigh. She let her head fall back for a moment and just savored the moment. She’d struggled her way through the dungeon and threw herself into studying and building herself up just to get to this point. It was validating. The heat in her veins died down from is roaring inferno, returning to the steady heat that coursed throughout her body. It had really taken on a mind of its own during the fight. 

Not that she was opposed to it, she realized. It couldn’t directly control her actions but it certainly expressed its disapproval or approval. Embracing it felt liberating, right, like she’d been holding herself back her entire life and now finally she was able to be who she deserved to be. Who she’d born to be.

“Rook,” She said, her arms hanging at her side, “Go grab the bodies so I can loot them.”

The golem marched off without a word and she opened her eyes again, looking down at the bisected head of the devil. Her nose wrinkled and she pulled up her notifications. The first few were the alerts that she’d leveled up a lot during the fight. She wasn’t sure how the system figured out how much experience she gained but she was pleased to see that fighting the invaders was the best source of experience she could get. She’d raced all the way to level twelve, matching her profession level. There was also that notification for picking a new skill for her caster class which she should have expected, it was a class after all, still it was a little surprising. 

“I’ll do that in a minute,” She muttered and concentrated on what followed.

Quest Complete!

The Vayagar Devils

Vayagar Devils defeated (5/5)
Vayagar Chainmaster Defeated (1/1)

Rewards: Experience, 1000 Iron Coins, Access to the Local Area Conquest Quest

Anna frowned at the rewards, not of the experience or coins. One thousand was a solid amount compared to her other quests though she still didn’t have a basic idea how much it was worth. No, it was the ‘Access to the Local Area Conquest Quest’ that confused her. She already had a quest like that, the tutorial quest. She tilted her head, curious about what the difference-

New Quest Alert!

Local Area Conquest

Across a newly integrating world, factions have scattered their forces to claim territory and resources before the natives return. Isolated, you must create strong beachheads for your people in order to take your first steps towards the conquest of this world. 

You have established yourself as a new faction in this Local Area Conquest. The other factions have been notified that a new force has entered the contest and that another has fallen.

Claim the Local Area Node (0/1)
Eliminate the competing groups in your Local Area (2/7)

Rewards: Experience, Title, Rewards based on Performance

Anna’s nose wrinkled and her eyebrow rose, “It’s the same fucking quest!” Anna blurted, throwing her hands out in confusion, “What the fuck?” 

She read it again, “Wait no, this is the invaders version of the quest. Am I an invader now? No, the system thinks I’m an invader,” She mumbled as she finally focused on the second part of the quest description. Her eyes narrowed as she read the two sentences once, twice, three times before covering her face. “Fuck, they know I’m here.”

She sighed and rubbed her neck, rolling her shoulders a little, “Okay, so, surprise attacks like this one are going to be a hell of a lot harder, at least I’ll be getting double rewards when this is over.” She consoled herself and moved on to the next notification.

As per the terms of the contest of single battle, all possessions and currency owned by your opponent have been surrendered. 

You have received 100,000 Iron Coins
You have received 40 Slaves of various races.
You have received Azol of Rubid’s Unlocked Personal Storage Ring

Anna’s eye twitched, “One. Hundred. THOUSAND?!” She threw her hands up into the air, “What the fucking fuck! Wait!” She held up her hands, “Wait wait wait,” She pinched her nose as Rook walked mutely past her, dragging bodies, “What about the Skeleton Champion, did he have a ton of shit on him too that I could have gotten from a duel?” She let out something between a growl and frustrated scream as she scrabbled her fingers through her hair and stomped in a circle, “Fucking fuck, fuckity, fuck fuck! Damn it!” 

She let out a whine and flopped down onto the ground, sitting cross legged as she searched her own inventory. Sure enough there was a crapton more coins, forty slips of creepy looking paper, and a gold ring. She pulled out the ring and glared at it, “Checking this thing is going to make me mad, isn’t it?” She grumbled, braced herself, and with a small push of mana connected to the ring. Immediately she saw the interior. There were mountains of foodstuffs, elegant furniture, accouterments for a full residence, literal racks of armor, weapons and other gear with minor enchantments on them, and what looked like a set of tokens with a design she’d not seen before.

She pulled one of the tokens out and scowled at it.

Prefabricated Structure Token, Longhouse (Uncommon-Grade)
These tokens are used by an expanding force to condense a pre-built structure into a pocket space to be transported over long distances and assist in creating a foothold. This particular token can be crushed before being converted into a longhouse suitable for up to ten residents living comfortably.

Anna read the description with ever increasing disgust. Then why in the hell did they bring slaves with them? It looks like the walls were hand made and they were living out of tents? What is this cheap bullshit? Were they torturing these people just… because? She glanced down at the corpse with the title ‘chainmaster’. Right. Of course they would. Why did I think any differently? Silly me. I must be the only fucker in the multiverse capable of rational goddamn thought!

She put the token away angrily and hung her head, rubbing her temples as she tried to calm herself down. Her blood was boiling again in the face of what she saw as incompetence. Maybe the devils thought it was just the right way to do things, but for her it was just the height of stupidity. They had all these buildings ready to go and chose to force a bunch of frail, spiritless people to build… garbage? She shot a glare in the direction of the growing crowd of slaves that had approached her in the past few moments, they seemed to be keeping a very specific distance.

She pursed her lips and frowned, “Oh, right,” She grumbled and turned the volume down on her presence to low but not muted. That seemed to do a great deal of good for their stricken faces. She looked away from them in disgust. She’d already made her position clear on helping them, she had no desire to waste the time needed to build herself up to fight the other factions on them. A few feet away, Rook crunched to a stop and stood at attention, the rattle of the chain hanging from one hand alerting her to its completed task. She glanced towards it and found that the chainmaster and his team of five had all been gathered, even the first one. Caustia? Eh, she was dead, it didn’t matter anymore.

Anna pushed herself to her feet and walked over, crouching next to each of them. Just like the Skeleton Champion, instead of finding a storage ring or money on their person, only a few of the items they wore were of any value and none of them were useful to her in particular. They had enchantments on them that she could study and then eventually disenchant for essence but that was really about it. She rubbed her neck as she finally got to the chainmaster himself. She reached for the chains around his arms only for them to dissolve instantaneously. 

This item is soulbound, deconstructing.

She clicked her tongue, “Fair enough, figures that would happen,” She sighed and checked his shirt and slacks, “Nothing impressive,” she mumbled, “Boots? No. No gloves, idiot. Necklace?” She stopped over the simple shiny black chain that hung from his neck. It had the symbol of an interlocking and winding chain on it. The chains looked like they formed the vague shape of a woman who looked down upon the viewer.

Holy Symbol of Saietta
A holy symbol of the minor goddess Saietta of the Court of Order. As this symbol has not been blessed by the goddess and is merely a keepsake, it does not possess the ability to channel divine magic.

“Huh, gods,” She frowned, surprised about how unbothered she was with the proof of the devils worshiping something or someone, “Figured they’d worship the king of hell or something,” She squinted, “What’s a court?” She chuckled, “Maybe this goddess has a boss or something?”

“Um!” A voice rang out behind her.

She groaned, “Oh great, they come with dialogue,” She muttered and turned, “What?”

To her surprise it was the elf she’d knocked out in the tent in the forest. How the hell did she make it all the way here on her own? She pursed her lips as she looked at the girl’s startled expression. The girl looked down at her feet and Anna felt a pang of guilt override her instinctive disgust. She rubbed her neck, “Fucking hell,” She grumbled, “Yes? What did you have to say?”

The elf quickly bowed, “Forgive me for-”

“Get on with it,” Anna waved her hand. She didn’t have the patience for the groveling at the moment. The sting of realizing how much she’d lost from the fight with the Skeleton Champion still very much chafing at her mood.

“T-the Court of Order rules over Hell, My Lady. Th-the divine being above Saietta of Oppression is Pillian, God of Slavery, he then answers to the Master of the Court and true ruler of Hell, Gomaz, the Prime God of Order,” The elf quickly said, “Th-this is common knowledge in the multiverse so it is something My Lady should be made aware of as the Gods are quite active in the affairs of the multiverse.”

Anna stared at the elf, Huh. Okay. That’s informative actually. Now I feel like an asshole. She rubbed her neck, “Uh… right. Thank you?” She managed, glancing down at the holy symbol with significantly more discomfort. That symbol represented a deity that emphasized torturing and oppressing people for no other reason than it being her doctrine. No wonder they treated the slaves so badly. She squinted at the woman again and remembered something. “I have a question.”

“Anything you desire is yours, My Lady.”

Don’t hate that, but let’s move on please. Anna thought as her heritage purred in response to the continuous deference.

“What’s the difference between an elf and an aelf? Did I say that right?” Anna asked, “I saw-” She paused as she saw a stricken and even hurt look on the woman’s face. Her head turning away and her arms reaching up to wrap around herself. Anna frowned, “Okay seriously, what? Just tell me, I’m completely fucking ignorant.”

“E-Elf is a slur, a shortening and befoulment of our racial name, even using the word Aelf is a bit contrarian as we have our own distinct ethnic groups that we would prefer to be called by, if anything. It’s at least preferable, though.” The woman said.

Anna opened her mouth, realized a pretty significant comparison from Earth and shut her goddamn mouth so fast her teeth clacked, Fuck me sideways. She reached up and rubbed the bridge of her nose. Sure, she was figuring out magic and how the system worked, but there was a whole multiverse of cultures out there that she didn’t even have the first idea about. She really didn’t have the patience for all this but it was obvious she couldn’t do this alone. She had enough golem cores for a small army but they were as dumb as bricks except for Rook and he was as silent as a tomb. I guess… I really do need people. She thought with a great deal of regret while her heritage glowed in her veins. Fine, I was wrong.

Anna let out a heavy breath, “Okay, what are you and what’s your name?”

The woman tensed then bowed, “I am Viletta, an Alytar.”

Anna nodded before glancing up at Rook, “Hey bud, I got what I wanted, can you get rid of those or something? I dunno, incinerate them? I don’t want to smell them.” Rook jerked to attention in response and began dragging the stripped bodies away while Anna returned her focus to Viletta, “Alright, Viletta the Alytar. Cool. If I wanted to free you guys because the idea of owning slaves makes me viscerally ill in countless ways, how would I do that?”

Viletta blinked, “Um… just destroying the contracts that bind us would render the power reinforcing the collars void, but what would we-”

Anna checked her inventory and pulled out the forty documents, “Well, your options are stick around and help me out as my people or fuck off and try your luck with the other factions,” Anna said with a grunt, glancing towards the other slaves who had gathered. “Your choice,” She said and ripped the papers apart without any ceremony and tossed them to the wind, “Done.”

Viletta stared at her with bald faced confusion as the collar around her neck crumbled into dust. She dropped to her knees, her eyes practically spinning in her head. “I… I don’t understand.”

“Don’t have to, I don’t have the patience to make every decision for you and I’m not gonna manage you, I’ll give you an idea what to do and you do it. I’ve got a shitload of food in chain-boys storage ring as well as all the prefab structures he clearly didn’t tell you poor shits he had,” Anna said bluntly, “There’s a plot of land between my old house and the forest where the dungeon I own is. We’ll set up somewhere less…” She glanced around at the miserable remains of the playground turned slave camp, “Depressing. That work for you?”

The freed slaves looked at one another and then back at her, still lost. She frowned at them, “I’m not gonna help you figure out how to be free. That’s the point of being free. You figure out your own fucking life. If it makes it easier for you to take orders, fine,” She growled, “You can live in my territory, because I’m going to crush the other factions just like these idiots and make this my land,” She said and got to her feet, slinging her mace over her shoulder as Rook approached and stood behind her. “I’m not a nice person, not going to pretend to be nice, but at least I’m giving you a choice.”

She tilted her head as a bit of light actually blossomed in a few of their eyes, “So what’s it gonna be?”