When I left the city, the general lines of a plan were already formed in my mind. The plan was more aggressive than I would have liked, but what I had learned from Oeyne, particularly about Titania’s capture, hastened my plans.
I needed to find a way to reach the base of the Eternals as soon as possible.
An intimidating target, but luckily, not particularly impossible. The city was already teeming with the Eternal agents, unaware that they had been discovered, which gave me a lot of targets to follow once things started to heat up … and the civil war made it far easier to trigger the chaos.
A civil war that my fake identity was already involved, thanks to the annoying habit of the princes trying to turn everything into a resource for their battle for the throne.
All I needed was to decide the size of the chaos I wanted to trigger. I could act tame, sneak into the capital, and start making small and suspicious moves from my base. It was not a bad plan.
It would have been one I would have picked if it wasn’t for the latest power-up I had received thanks to the necrotic god I had dealt with, more than doubling all my stats in the process. With the security blanket it provided, I had the option to be more daring.
Especially since I had already removed Oeyne from her room and moved her down the base I had created under the base, trying to get familiar with her new Divine Domain. It didn’t take her to decide to set up a base under the Capital, finding the tradeoff of limited movement underground a fair trade for improvement.
And, now, she was happily forging me an army of intricate armors that I could animate with magic, far more intricate and effective than I had used to trick the Necrotic god.
As she established her domain, I received my own rewards. A burst of new forging insights through our connection … and Stats.
[+9 Precision]
Eternals were not aware of that strategic development, as I created a fake body to stay at the surface and trick the Eternals.
I even allowed that fake body to level up to make sure the trickery would hold against some basic magical probes. Now that I had access to Darkness mana through my connection with Mariel, I could put the fake body trick of the Princess to good strategic use.
Oeyne was safe … but they still thought that they had leverage against me after all the trouble I had gone to communicate with her secretly.
It was time for the civil war to have a third competitor, one that would put the Eternals on high alert.
For that, I moved to the hill, one that had the ruins of the fourth prince’s residence, where I had joined for a party. It was deserted, and already in ruins, but I didn’t care about the quality. What I cared about was it gave me an excuse to appear after such a long absence … and close enough to be visible.
“I AM FREE! NOW, THE ROYAL FAMILY WILL PAY FOR THEIR BETRAYAL!”
What I let out was a magically enhanced shout, one that was the inferior version of the trick I had used when I was trying to summon elves back into the capital. A shout that echoed Divine Spark slightly.
Naturally, the Divine Spark I chose to use was light.
They wanted Mariel. And I wanted to give them a clue about her, one that would be enough for them to focus on. I let a surge of mana follow that initial burst, made of pure light, turning into a sky beam that would be enough to get the attention of everyone in the capital.
And, while my enemies could start deciding what to do, I decided to start working.
Experimenting was fun, I decided even as I raised a hammer made of solid light … and used it to rapidly forge a large sheet of metal … then another, until I had replaced the ruins of the mansion with a castle made of light-infused metal.
Then moved on to forge a series of ballistas, each forged from metal, and required no ammo, working on Light Mana.
It was a devastating combination. Supplying enough mana was the only challenge … and since I was trying to convince the Eternals that Mariel was with me, it was even an advantage. The design was intricate and complicated, and if it wasn’t for my connections, which allowed both Helga and Oeyne to help me, it would have taken weeks to come up with a design.
With Helga solving the magical challenges and Oeyne dealing with the forging aspects, it took only minutes. As for the light projectiles, I didn’t even need Mariel’s help. They were rather simplistic.
But very effective.
I had been forging my independent weapons, very visibly, right on top of the forge, as I wanted to make a point about both my skills and my Divine Spark, like an arrogant Demigod drunk in his own power.
That was not accidental. I was doing everything to convince the Eternals that I was a rash, direct individual, driven by revenge despite my recent power-up.
While I had planned if they suddenly decided to attack me with their full might, I would prefer if they tried to manipulate me for a while, which would finally allow me to get an invitation.
I still didn’t dare to follow them back to their base directly, afraid of the possible magical defenses they had in place.
I might not agree with their political aspirations … or basic human decency; but there was no arguing about their incredible magical capabilities. Even with my capabilities, trying to sneak into their base directly was the last option.
Letting them bring me in was the better option. As a guest.
Or as a prisoner.
I had already finished forging all the ballistas, and was currently forging a huge leg, when I saw the first movement. A large group of mounted soldiers, rushed toward me. “Stop, in the name of the Empire. You’re under arrest —” the commander started.
Which was all he was able to say as I triggered one of the ballistas remotely, and he disappeared under a bolt of brightness.
Light mana was spectacular when it came to destructiveness.
“Attack him, before he can recharge his weapon,” one of the soldiers shouted. Not a ranking one, and more importantly, he was retreating even as he declared that. An interesting choice … one that turned even more interesting once I caught the fact that he was both too fast and too smooth to be an ordinary soldier.
I suspected that he was an Eternal spy, and decided to check … in a different way than I used. Instead of checking his soul space, I attacked him with another ballista. He dodged.
I attacked him two at the same time. He dodged one, but another hit.
He survived.
I attacked with three more. This time, already wounded, he failed to dodge any of them. And, three bolts were enough to slay him. But, his incredible performance was telling enough. With his performance, he deserved to be a bodyguard for the prince. There was no way he could be just an ordinary soldier.
A spy.
It was an excellent way to catch one.
Ironically, the fact that it took so long to kill him encouraged the other soldiers to attack me. From their perspective, I had to struggle to kill a low-level soldier, which gave them confidence for victory. Not something I intended, but also not something I was complaining about.
The large squad attacked me, confident in their victory, which only lasted until I took down their commander and the other three ranking officers. “Run, he’s too strong!” the soldiers shouted and dispersed. I let them go. I didn’t want to kill ordinary soldiers.
And, as they escaped, they would spread the news of my arrival, which also worked to my benefit. I wanted a commotion. I chuckled as I finished forging the other legs, and soon, I had a walking fortress, steadily moving closer to the capital. Enough to truly scare the princes, but it was just a side effect.
I wanted the Eternals, particularly that angel with the corrupted divine spark, to come for me, and my fortress gave me an excuse to fight against ordinary Eternal agents even if they suppressed the System once again, but it wasn’t strong enough to actually take an angelic demigod, certainly not one with two Divine Sparks.
Hopefully, that fact would be enough for him to come down.
I had a revenge to complete.
{Strength: 115 Charisma: 115
Precision: 115 Perception: 124
Agility: 115 Manipulation: 122
Speed: 115 Intelligence: 151
Endurance: 168 Wisdom: 122}
{Purified Divine Spark: 1.147,577}
{ADDITIONAL SPARKS
Twilight - Chosen 30
Nature - Chosen 10
Knowledge - Chosen 10}
{GODDESSES
Elven Goddess
Goddess of Knowledge
Twilight Archangel
Goddess of the Forge}
