Swarming Sovereignty

Lia took her time getting back to the royal quarters of the Glens’ palace. She wanted to let Nailah and her family have some alone time, and she had always been curious about her country’s palace, so she took the opportunity to explore it to her heart’s content.

Thanks to the modeling wax Lia always kept in her dimensional storage and the efforts of Meg and a few drones and foot soldiers Amelia had teleported in, they had managed to get every single palace servant that was currently on duty. There had been some confusion, and even a little fear, but as the Goddess of Law had promised, no one was able to fight back or flee.

Truthfully, Lia felt a little bad about it, the act of being there and watching the faces of the people as she changed them was upsetting, but she hardened her heart and kept going; it was this or a conflict where people would get injured or die, and that was unacceptable.

Lia didn’t mind resorting to violence when necessary, as no amount of persuading would make some people change their minds about being converted, but if she could avoid it at all, she would. The fact that they were working to improve the world didn’t automatically absolve her of all the wrongdoings she did in the process, and it was important to keep those as minimal as possible.

She put those thoughts aside as she continued her tour, letting herself get caught up in the moment. She had never been anywhere quite as…extravagant as this before, so the experience was novel. But the more she explored, the more she realized that she didn’t want to live like this; she would always be wary of accidentally breaking something, or scratching a fine engraving or something to that effect.

She didn’t really need any of this finery, anyway. If she wanted to see art, she could set up a museum or something, and everyone could appreciate it. There was no need to have it all in her house all the time. That being said, her house would feel barren if it didn’t have any decorations at all, so she planned to get some, just nothing more than the average person would be able to have.

Eventually, she figured that it was about time she headed back to the royal quarters. Fortunately, she had learned from her experience in Aura’s capital, and had made an effort to remember the paths she took. This was aided by the fact that this palace had a significantly more sensible layout than the one in Aura, so she was able to make relatively good time on her way back.

As she reached the doors, she knocked loudly, then sat and waited for someone to come and let her in. Nailah and her family were still inside, Lia could feel them in there if she focused, and it did appear that one of them was making her way towards the door, so Lia was patient.

After a few moments, the door opened. “My Queen?” Titania said, a puzzled expression on her face. “Why did you knock?”

“Because it would be rude to come in uninvited.” Lia replied. “This isn’t my house, I can’t just go barging in any room I want.” Well…ignoring the fact that she had been barging in any room she wanted, but she had kept out of the bedrooms and living quarters, so it was a little different.

“This is, strictly speaking, your house, my Queen.” Titania said.

“You know what I mean.” Lia said, waving a hand. “May I come in?”

“By all means.” Titania said, opening the door wider and ushering Lia inside.

“Thanks.” Lia replied, walking inside. “Did everyone settle in okay?”

“It would seem so.” Titania said, smiling as she closed the door behind Lia. “Thank you for your assistance with us, my Queen. The kids are ecstatic about their new abilities.”

“Please, call me Lia.” Lia said. “Like I told Nailah, I would like to be friends with you, and being called ‘my Queen’ all the time would get in the way of that.”

“Very well.” Titania said. “Now, forgive my rudeness, but is there anything more you needed from us? I was under the impression that you would be returning to the capital after we had finished.”

“Just one thing.” Lia replied, pausing slightly as they entered the room where the rest of Titania’s family was.

“Lia, thank you.” Nailah said. “I appreciate you putting in the effort to help me and my family be the best we can be.”

“It’s nothing.” Lia said. “I have one thing I need to ask of you before I go home again, but, before that, is there anything else you need from me while I’m here? Even something small, I’m willing to help however I can.”

Nailah nodded. “Would it be alright if I let Lucia work as regent?” She asked, motioning to a girl that must have been Leonardo before. “I wish for a small break from governing the country, and it would be excellent training for her.”

“Be my guest.” Lia replied. “How exactly you choose to manage your territory is your call. Just inform me of stuff like this or if you’re making a huge change.”

“Thank you, Lia.” Nailah said. “Now, what was it that you needed?”

“I was wondering if the Glens had any national treasure type artifacts. Alisha wants to absorb them.”

“I was wondering if the Glens had any national treasure type artifacts. Alisha wants to absorb them.” Lia said, causing a spike of confusion to run through Nailah’s mind. Surely, she didn’t mean that Alisha…right?

Seeing Nailah’s confusion, a look of understanding dawned on Lia’s face. “Oh, right, we didn’t tell you. Alisha, if you would?”

One of the rings Lia was wearing lost its form, melting into a silvery goo that pooled on the ground before expanding in size, molding itself and morphing before resolving into the form of Alisha, Queen of Aura. “You were right, Nailah.” She said, a look of reverence on her face. “I had no idea what I was getting into.”

Nailah could only watch in shock as Alisha spoke. “I attempted to make a deal, and got thoroughly duped. And then Mistress Amelia opened my eyes to the joys of serving a higher power, and I became my Queen’s loyal equipment.”

“E-equipment?” Nailah said, taken aback at not just the words Alisha was saying, but at the fervor with which she spoke them.

“Yes. Mistress Amelia converted me together with all of Aura’s treasures, turning me into a living piece of equipment. While I cannot grant more than one of their effects at a time right now, my dream is to eventually be able to serve as all of them at the same time.” Alisha explained, a faraway look in her eyes. “And I would also like to absorb any relics I can, to add to my repertoire of abilities I can gift her.”

“I-I see.” Nailah said.

Lia sighed. “Unfortunately, we’re still in the process of teaching Amelia what is and isn’t normal or acceptable. We just wanted to reduce her…traitorous instincts, and Amelia took it too far. It’s a mistake we won’t be making again.”

“You made the correct decision in surrendering.” Alisha said. “After all, Aura will be fully converted within a month and a half, and I would have immediately cut off your attempts to supply the coalition. You would have needed to go through the Spine, or go far out to sea to transport your supplies, effectively cutting you off from the rest of the world.”

“So that’s what you meant by waiting a month or two.” Lucia said. “I was meaning to ask, when we had time.”

Lia nodded. “Yup. But, back on topic, would you be willing to part with any of your treasures?”

“I…don’t see why not, but we don’t have many.” Nailah said. “We have a couple of consumable rings that reset you to your base mental state, a tower shield that draws attacks to it, and our greatest treasure, the Ruby Armory.”

Lia’s eyes widened. “I thought that was lost!” She exclaimed.

“It is one of our most closely guarded secrets.” Nailah said. “But it seems only fitting to return it to its rightful owner.”

“I’m sure Rose will be happy to have it back.” Lia said. “Sorry Alisha, but I’m going to have to ask that you don’t absorb that one.”

“I understand, my Queen.” Alisha said. “It seems the most correct course of action.”

“I’ll go pick the stuff up.” Titania said. “Do you think you will need more than one of the cleansing rings?”

“Just the one will be fine.” Alisha said.

Titania gave a nod, heading into their room to get a key to the vault. While she worked, Nailah turned back to Alisha. “What exactly happened with you?”

“It’s like this…”

Rose felled the monster with her halberd, taking a moment to make sure it was dead before looking back at her class. “And that’s it for our demonstration of proper halberd usage.” She said, mentally dismissing the magic she had used to make it. “Now, we’re going to give you each turns fighting monsters using halberds made from the wood of the World Tree, but you have to listen to instructions. If we tell you to stop or run away or anything, we expect you to do so immediately, no questions asked.

“While the monsters you will be facing are not particularly powerful, they are still monsters, and will be aiming to kill you. I know that this is exciting for many of you, but if you let your excitement get the better of you, you could be seriously injured. Are there any questions before we begin?”

“No, Mrs. Yggdrios!” The class chorused.

Rose smiled, and pulled two halberds out of her dimensional storage. It was a handy Skill to have around, one that she had obtained after being granted the power of a summoned Hero, and she could see why Lia used hers so much; it was just so…convenient.

The halberds themselves were decent weapons, but only really suitable for training. While they were as durable as steel weapons, and even held an edge almost as well, they were only a fraction of the weight, meaning that blows struck with them would be less potent than ones made with steel weapons.

They couldn’t be produced much easier than normal weapons, either; though the wood of the World Tree was abundant, it was difficult to work with. Rose was, of course, the exception to this rule, and the halberds she was handing out were personally made by her, but that wasn’t something that could be scaled up easily.

Still, they weren’t completely without application; Amelia said the wood held enchantments better than most metal, and the light weight of the weapons allowed children to more easily use them. So, the wood of the World Tree had been chosen as the material for training weapons, at least for people in the capital.

They’d have to look into getting more made for other parts of the world, but that was something to be dealt with at a later date. Right now, Rose was focused on overseeing the training of these children, and making sure none of them hurt themselves. They were in the dungeon that had formed in Rose’s roots, one which, to Rose’s delight, housed many weak monsters. It wouldn’t yield many useful materials or great treasure, but it was perfect for training up people who weren’t used to fighting, and that was something that couldn’t easily be found in the Spine.

The dungeon itself was a more “standard” cave-like dungeon, though it was made of wood instead of dirt or stone. The monsters within were giant bugs, mice, squirrels, and other creatures that made the insides of trees their homes. Taken altogether, it really gave the impression that you were traversing through the roots of a giant tree, even if the dungeon wasn’t really part of the World Tree.

Rose handed the halberds to the two children in front, Olivia and Anna, one of Ophelia’s kids. “You two work together to fight the first monster we meet.” Rose instructed. “And remember what we taught you about not getting in each other’s way with polearms.”

“I’ll do my best!” Olivia said cheerfully. “Right, Anna?”

“R-right.” Anna stuttered.

“You’ll be great.” Rose said encouragingly. “Just remember what we taught you, and you’ll have no problems.”

Anna nodded, and then Rose led the group forward, stopping them when she sensed a monster ahead. “The next monster is just a bit in front of us.” She said. “You two lead the way, and remember to be cautious.”

They did as instructed, and Rose could feel herself gain experience in one of her enemy detection Skills. It was a sensation she wasn’t sure she would get used to, being rewarded for someone else’s efforts. Since she had gained Diligence, she had made an effort to spend more time teaching, and it had paid dividends.

While her actual level hadn’t increased, she had gained a few levels in her Skills, and even gained a few new ones. As it turned out, even if she only gained one tenth of the experience from each person she trained, when she trained thirty or forty people she gained experience more rapidly than she should have been able to.

She would have felt bad were it not for the fact that the people themselves were still getting a normal amount of experience, meaning she wasn’t being a leech; it was just something extra. She supposed that was to be expected from a Sin or Virtue series Skill, though; their power was famed for a reason.

Though…now that she was thinking about it, Pride seemed significantly weaker than Diligence, which didn’t really add up. Yes, the ability to gain evolved versions of all of someone’s Skills was incredibly strong, but it seemed a short-term gain, while Mother of the World allowed Rose to grow significantly more in the long run.

Then it hit her; while Lia was unable to copy Rose’s primal magic or many of the new Skills Rose’s evolution had given her, she was able to copy the Skills that Rose received from others, then strengthen them. As long as she continued to choose Rose as the target of her Skill, she would gain more long-term benefit from Mother of the World than even Rose.

That couldn’t be a coincidence. The Skill associated with a Sin or Virtue Title was personally tailored, so Rose had a hard time believing this sort of synergy would arise by accident. Even so…the effects of the Titles themselves were dramatically different in their strength. Pride’s effect may have been much easier to consistently use, but the difference between a two times multiplier to stats and a ten times multiplier was vast. She made a note to ask Lia about it later; she had never received the full explanation of the Title, only a summary, so something had to be hidden in there that would make it better.

The monster Rose had sensed finally came into view, and Olivia and Anna leapt into action. Or…rather, Olivia leapt, and Anna just ran forward. They hacked away at the bug in front of them amateurishly, and Rose carefully studied their movements, taking note of what they could improve on.

Neither would likely use a halberd as their main weapon, but that didn’t mean they shouldn’t be taught about it; if nothing else, it would let them make a more informed decision when they decided what to devote themselves to, and knowing how a weapon was used would help them fight against it in the future.

The fight finished fairly quickly, without either Olivia or Anna taking damage. That was to be expected, as Olivia had a significant stat advantage on the bug, but it was still a relief that Rose didn’t have to step in due to some grave error on their part.

“Good work, girls.” She said, walking over to them and taking the halberds. “Next, we’re going to have –”

Rose, we need you to come back to the house. Amelia’s voice rang out in Rose’s mind. We just got something really important that we need you for.

“We’re actually going to have to cut this short, sorry.” Rose said, stowing the halberds away in her dimensional storage. “The Queen needs me, so I’m going to have one of your other instructors take over for the rest of the day. I’ll try to be back tomorrow, okay?”

Her students nodded solemnly, and Rose gave them a smile. They understood that she was a busy person, and Rose was grateful that they didn’t complain if she ever needed to suddenly leave like this. So, Rose gathered the group together, and used her primal magic to surround them in a ball of wood, which then rocketed through the dungeon back towards the entrance. The dungeon being made of wood made such a feat trivial for her, leaving her free to take groups as deep into the dungeon as she needed to, yet another convenience that its construction offered her.

Once they were out of the dungeon, she took her students through the portal to the residential area, dropped them off at the schoolhouse and explained the situation to a teacher, then headed back to her house.

Once she didn’t have to escort the children, she was able to significantly pick up the pace, and so she found herself meeting back up with her wife and girlfriend only a minute or two later. “What’s going on?” She asked curiously.

“Well, we were asking for artifacts from the Glens, so Alisha could absorb them, and…we came across the Ruby Armory.” Lia said, smiling slightly.

“The what?”

Lia blinked. “The Ruby Armory, you know, the weapon you used in your previous life.”

“Is that what they’re calling it?” Rose asked. “I never had a name for it, it was just my weapon.”

“Oh. But…yeah, point is, it’s your old weapon.” Lia held out her hands, and a sword appeared on them, one which she proffered to Rose. “We thought it would be best to return it to you.”

Rose smiled, picking up the sword. As she did, there was a strange sense of…belonging, as if the weapon knew it was where it was supposed to be. Rose gave it an experimental swing, transformed it into a spear, then back to a sword, and then handed it back to Lia. “Keep it.” She said.

“What? Don’t you want it?”

Rose shrugged. “I was never very attached to my weapon. It got the job done, and that was all that mattered. I’ve been able to replicate its function near-perfectly with my magic, and now that I’m like this, the weapons I make with my magic are stronger than it.”

Lia reluctantly took the sword. “I understand. I…guess I’ll feed it to Alisha, then.”

“That’s a bad idea.” Amelia said. “I’m not sure what it is, but there’s something different about that weapon. It’s not your everyday artifact, and I’m not sure what it’d do to Alisha if she made it part of herself. In fact…I’m pretty sure it’d affect her mental state more than even one of those monsters Ira raised would. It’s got a weight to it that I can’t quite explain.”

Rose thought on that for a moment. “What would happen if we converted Ira with it?” She asked. “We were sent back to square one in terms of getting him safely converted when we used the strong monsters we had for Ophelia, Meg, and Neph, but would this help at all?”

Amelia paused. “I…don’t know.” She admitted. “But I think I can make it work if I heavily alter the weapon.”

“Alter in what way?” Rose asked.

“I was thinking I’d key it to Lia, make it an extension of her will.” Amelia said. “If I do that, then it might sort of…stack with the mental conditioning from conversion. It would wipe out any sort of semblance of him being a person, though. He would basically become like the slime I used when converting Alisha except more attached to Lia, and I’m not sure we want that.”

What would happen if I consumed the weapon in that state? Alisha asked. Would it be safe?

“I don’t know.” Amelia said. “Maybe? We’d have to see exactly how he turns out before I’d feel comfortable making any further guesses on it.”

“If we could, it would be nice for Alisha to take those abilities.” Rose said. “But, like you said, I’m not sure this is something we should be doing. It feels like crossing a line to me.”

“Maybe…maybe I could ask for Connie’s opinion?” Lia suggested. “She was fine with us resetting his personality, so maybe if we could like…get her to extract his soul while his body was alive, we could attempt to have Alisha consume the artifact without worrying about absorbing a soul or something.”

Rose nodded. “I would feel more comfortable in that case.” She said. “We are essentially killing him no matter what we do with him, so letting his soul move on without damaging the utility his body provides would be nice.”

“I’ll ask, then.” Lia said, putting the sword back into her dimensional storage. “Be back in a few.”

Fighterman481 Fun fact: with this chapter, this series is now my longest in both word and chapter count. It was longest in chapter count a while ago, but word count is the only metric that really matters when determining the length of a story.

Also, contrary to what Rose would have you believe, the synergy between the Pride and Diligence Skills was accidental at first, but I once I saw it I couldn't help but run with it.

The Ruby Armory is a very interesting kind of item that we don't really see much. Not because of its effect, that's nothing special, but because of its significance. You can kind of think of it like Excalibur; a big deal kind of artifact that's taken a larger than life status in people's minds. People's belief is what generates Worship (hence the name), and when you have an item that significant, it tends to make it stronger somehow.  The how varies from item to item, but the point is that they are now special.

The bit with Ira at the end was unplanned, an idea I had as I was writing. I don't know where it's going to go, so I guess we'll find out together lol. And...well, we'll get into that next time, so look forward to it!

And, as always, thanks for reading!