Ash returned to the Nearl house and alongside him was the twin empresses. "So? You accepted Ioleta's proposition for the alliance's stability? You could've consulted me first you know?"
He raised a brow at them and the two nodded without any hesitation. "Kazimierz is a strong country, Ash. And it shares borders with Ursus." Soleil took out a world map.
"And Victoria is close to them. So in case of international tensions with Victoria. Kazimierz can hold the line against Ursus and we won't be flanked by them." Luna pointed out.
"I see, that does make sense. If Ursus wants to cross over to Leithanien. They'll have to go through Kazimierz first. And that's a tall order, considering that the campaigning knights are really well trained." Ash nodded and understood it, but he still rolled his eyes.
"Politics is such a pain in the ass. You know what? I don't even care anymore." He shrugged.
"Good, then we will have an easier time. Victoria doesn't have someone sitting on the throne for decades, Ash. According to our spies, there are going to be big changes in a few years." Soleil squinted her eyes.
"That bad? How do you want Paradiso to act then? Our second mobile city is already in the works and it's really fast. We can cause tons of damage to armies." Ash offered and they smiled.
"It hasn't gotten to that point yet. But there might be succession struggles in Victoria. The question is, would you be interested in putting your expertise to use?" Luna smirked at him.
"Ahhh... You girls are quite greedy huh? Do you seriously want to bring back the Gaul empire?" Ash chuckled at them.
The Gaul empire was once the center of Terra. Before it was destroyed in an all out assault by Leithanien, Ursus, and Victoria. Then the lands were partitioned.
Paving the way for Columbia, Ursus, and Victoria's state right now.
"Victoria is fractured, unlike Ursus that would definitely need a war to go down. You can take over Victoria later. The only problem is who will be the one sitting on the throne. The dracos and Aslans royalty are missing." Soleil sighed.
They discussed it a bit more, but they finally put a curtain on the difficult talks due their audience of the Nearls and his operators were looking at them weirdly.
"Sorry about that, the politics are over yeah? We shouldn't talk about it here in Margaret's home." Ash smiled at them and he introduced the twin empresses.
"Umu, well met everyone." The two nodded at everyone and Mlynar was about to complain that they should be at a hotel or something. Not understanding why the hell he brought the empresses of Leithanien to the Nearls.
But he just shut up and they bowed to them, even the unruly Lappland. The twin empresses weren't rulers for nothing. They slew the witch king on his spire. They're legendary around Terra.
"Viviana Droste, we welcome you. Would you like to meet with your parents? We have already changed your status to a legitimate child of theirs." Soleil smiled at her.
"Your majesty... Can I think about it for some time?" Viviana hesitated and she bit her lip.
"That is acceptable, send a letter to Leithanien before you decide to go. We will handle the rest." Luna nodded at her and Viviana bowed in thanks.
"I guess we're done here? How about you two roam around first and be tourists. I'll have to settle some things here before I can return to Paradiso." Ash suggested to the empresses.
Mlynar pushed Zofia and Maria to be their tourist guide and they left the house.
"That was stressful." Mlynar sighed and he squinted his eyes at Ash a bit.
"Uncle, don't look at me like that. Now, we need to make you into splendid leaders for the country." Ash smiled at them. Margaret and Mlynar groaned and they had another crash course on how to run a country.
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After a few days, Ash thought that their knowledge and decision making was enough. And it was time for them to come back to their city.
"We have been away for quite some time now. This is more difficult than I thought." He scratched his head and sighed.
Feeling quite tired mentally from all the work they had to do in order to stabilize Kazimierz.
"You went through tons of paperwork, Ash. I think we shouldn't have such a big operation for now." Shining looked at him with worry.
"Yes doctor, what a wonderful suggestion." Ash thought of advancing his control of magic and his unruly bloodline.
His research has also been halted and he couldn't just leave Adele and Gnosis to be the ones to find solutions for oripathy and catastrophes.
But he did wonder why Kjerag doesn't experience any catastrophes. The mountainous regions protect them yes, but it should still happen.
"How about we take our time in returning?" Margaret offered, she now returned her mace to the Nearl house and replaced it with their swordspear.
Opting to be a more offensive guard operator of the juggernaut subclass. Specializing in dealing with strong enemies with her strong arts.
"Would you give us a tour of your city as well Ash? It sounds delightful." Soleil smiled at him and he shrugged.
"Sure, now that I think about it. You haven't been there yet. So why not?" Ash accepted.
"Ummm, Ash. Can I go too? I already have permission from uncle Mlynar." Maria fidgeted around.
"If you got permission from him, then why not? And shouldn't you be asking your knight primus?" He pointed at Margaret who was now the Nearl knight primus.
"Uncle is my proxy, so I would leave it to him. And he has been taking care of Maria for three years now." Margaret explained and he nodded.
"All aboard then Maria, I hope you enjoy your stay at Paradiso." He patted her head and she nodded with a smile.
"Wait, I also got permission from Mlynar. I'll be Maria's guardian there." Zofia squinted her eyes and thought that she needed to protect Maria's chastity from him.
"Sure, I'd like Margaret to have the company of her family anyways. Just say goodbye to Mlynar, he's going to be the grand knight of the Adeptus. The man's gonna be busy." He nodded at them.
After saying goodbyes, they set off for Paradiso in a chopper and the twin empresses were impressed.
"Can we get one ourselves Ash?" They asked for one and he thought about who will be their pilot.
"I guess? I'll send a pilot of ours to train your personal one." He accepted and they were quite happy to have a convenient mode of transportation.
"Is it okay to leave your spire for this long though?" He asked and they waved it off.
"Gertrude is keeping watch on Leithanien. She was quite happy to be our proxy actually. And the Kurfürsten trusts her enough due to being a big help in purging the remnants of the witch king." They explained and he was happy for the Lupo.
"I guess it's like a dream come true for her. That girl is obsessed with her noble family." He sighed and remembered what she tried to do for revenge.
And while they were all talking, approaching Paradiso. The sharp eyes saw something below. "Ash, there's a bandit trying to attack a nun." Texas reported.
"A nun? Prepare for drop off, quick." He ordered and the doors of the chopper opened.
They then dropped down and saw a perro with tons of weapons hiss at a white haired nun.
"Dadadada!" The perro started throwing fiery knives at the nun who dodged it with ease. A mad grin on her face.
She then ran at brunette with what is essentially a huge buzz saw like a Bloodborne hunter.
The perro had an axe and they clashed. "Texas, I don't know about you, but that isn't exactly a normal nun." Texas blushed a bit due to embarrassment.
"That perro woman has exquisite instinctual control of her arts." Luna observed and Sonus agreed. The specialists in arts saw her blend her arts to her weapons with ease.
"Ahahaha... Cutting... Cutting things is fun. Don't you want to be cut?" The nun had a glint on her eyes and Ash raised a brow.
The brunette perro backed off and took a metal spear from her back. She then used her arts and would throw it with extreme force.
"Leave Kay alone!" She was about to throw it, but Ash raised his hands and made them freeze on the spot while they were distracted.
"That was quite dangerous. They're quite the excellent combatants." Ash drained the arts on the spear and he calculated the force it had. The thing would've been launched like a ballista if he didn't stop it.
"Grrr." The perro glared at the nun and the nun was surprised in being stopped in her tracks.
The nun tried to break out of his arts and her muscles bulged, showing her insane strength. "She's strong, really strong." He doubled down on her with his arts.
"Calm down." He put a hand on her head and made her sleep. But what he felt made him heavily frown.
"She's an infected, oh my god. The originium on her nervous system is insane." He double checked to be sure and her cerebrospinal fluid was replaced with refined originium.
It was so concentrated that one drop of it could infect thousands upon thousands of people. He wasn't even sure how the hell she was still alive.
"Quick! Put her into the chopper! Full speed ahead!" He looked at Shining and she nodded, tossing him a stim.
He injected it into her immediately and Shining already gave one to the perro woman.
They returned to Paradiso and quickly went to the hospital.
Ash quickly absorbed the energy of the nun's originium poisoning, but there was a big mystery in his head. She didn't have any signs of outward infection. It was baffling, he then thought she might be someone like him.
Can be harmed by originium's traits like heavy metal poisoning, but it doesn't cause any oripathy.
"Put the perro girl in another room, they're hostile against each other. I'll talk to her later." Ash ordered the others and they nodded.
"Now, let's work on you." He siphoned off the massive amounts of energy in the nun and scanned her nervous system.
"Wow, her body is fighting against it. It's insane, what does this lady eat?" He checked her body and the nun was having a fierce fight against the originium in her body.
It was like a super infection that should have killed her already. Her body was just built different.
"I guess she's safe..." He took a sample of her cells and would experiment on it later. Based on his superficial checks, she had strength in spades, her durability was top notch.
"I'll come back to you later I guess. But just to be sure." He took some graphene and locked her down so she won't go sicko mode on everyone when she wakes up.
Sighing, he went to the perro woman from earlier and he was quite surprised on what he saw. The girl was stuffing her face with food.
"Ash, she said she was hungry. She was growling like a wolf earlier. But when we gave her some, she got really docile." Shining reported to him.
Ash crouched in front of her and she had a beaming smile on her face as she stuffed her face.
"So, who are you?" He asked and she swallowed her food. "Ceobe! You look like a nice person, you gave me lots of food! If my name's a mouthful, call me Kay." She continued eating after her introduction. (pic)
"She's a nice girl." Shining chuckled and he was quite surprised at her. She did look like a bandit at first glance that was attacking a helpless nun. But that doesn't seem to be the case.
"Un, Kay is a good guy ya know? I can beat a hundred bad guys. Ahh, a hundred is a bit much. But I can take care of 99!" She puffed her chest and was all smiles now.
"Sure Kay. But can I ask, why were you roaming around no man's land like that?" He raised a brow and checked her oripathy. At least 4% assimilation. There's most likely a lot of particulate matter in her blood too.
"This axe. It has my name engraved on it." She showed her axe and it had her name, Kay. "So I roamed around to see where it came from!" She tilted her head.
"Okay..." He nodded and thought about what to do about her. "It's Kay ya know." She corrected him and he couldn't handle her type.
She was as dense as an orirock and Ash wasn't quite used to it. He was used to scheming bastards and intellectuals. So he doesn't know how to handle her.
Shining noticed his troubles and patted him on the back. "Kay, how about a deal? We let you stay here and give you lots of food. But in return, you beat up the bad guys for us?"
"Lots? How much?" Her tail wagged and Ash nodded at Shining for helping.
"You know this good guy? Ash?" She nodded at Shining and looked at Ash. "He can grow lots of food, you can eat how much you want everytime. It's all super tasty too." Shining baited her.
"Really? Deal! This is the bestest deal of deals ever! I beat up bad guys and get lots of food!" Ceobe beamed and Shining looked a little smug.
"Yeah, yeah, you're much better at interactions than me." He rolled his eyes and Shining chuckled. "She's a little... Special. I can morph her into one of our best battle casters. Her instincts is off the charts."
Shining remembered how she fought the nun from earlier. And when she asked her about arts, Ceobe just tilted her head. Asking if it was food or something.
"Kay, uhhh. Be good and I'll feed you lots alright?" Ash patted her head and she hummed pleasantly.
He thought that worked well at least. "I'll leave her to you Shining. Sonus will also be able to train Ceobe to the maximum with arts. She's the best caster here in Paradiso."
"Training? I'm super strong ya know?" Ceobe flexed her arm and he wasn't gonna lie, it put a smile on his face.
"So, Kay. Why do you have so many weapons anyways?" He looked at her myriad of weaponry.
"I pick them up on the way. There's tons of bad guys out there. So I need a lot of weapons." She explained.
"You can't do that anymore okay? You'll get even sicker. Ash, can you make weapons for her that are arts units? I'll say that her efficiency and the strength of her arts will skyrocket." Shining chided her and wanted to make her even stronger.
"What? Why?" Ceobe frowned and Shining smiled at her softly. "You can't get any more sickness. Or I won't be giving you food anymore."
"Ahhh! We're you lying!? You told Kay that I would get as much food as I want!" She pouted at Shining.
"Well, you can keep your axe. But we'll give you something better alright?" Shining looked at her axe and it was an arts unit.
"Okay..." She begrudgingly accepted and Ash sighed in relief that Shining was good with kids. She did act like a toddler, perhaps because of a lack of human contact.
He then got some treats and gave it to her. Making the dog girl super happy. Stuffing her face with cake and sweets.
Shining then taught her patiently in how to eat properly. "I didn't know you were so good with children, Shining." He snorted and she shrugged.
"I tend to visit the Sarkaz children that we saved." Shining smiled softly and he was glad that she's gotten more sociable.
They took a small walk and they saw tons of kids play in the park. "Can you see it Shining?" She tilted her head.
"Look at them, do you think they could have enjoyed their lives in Kazdel?" He pointed at the children and Shining squinted her eyes.
"The royal court wouldn't give a damn." Her eyes turned cold and he patted her head. "Then they'll have it here. Our second city is already on the way too. We'll slowly transition civilians there." He smiled at her and she nodded.
"Yes. Thank you for everything Ash, this... Never would I have expected this to happen. Kazdel has been embroiled in war for hundreds of years. Yet here we are, starting to make a change." She beamed at him.
"Couldn't have done it without you guys." They sat on a bench and just relaxed for a bit.
"Sir, the woman in nun's clothes woke up. She looks relaxed and clear minded." A doctor called him and he left Shining.
He rushed to the nun's hospital room and he saw that she was just chilling.
"Hello, where am I?" She didn't seem to resist and was just contemplating things.
"You're in my city, Paradiso. You had extreme originium poisoning. What's your name?" He raised a brow at her.
"Ahhh, I do remember that... As for my name, you can call me Laurentina." She introduced herself. (pic)
"What happened to you? You were in pretty bad shape. Your nervous system was basically fried. But you still lived, and now you're fine." He needed more information.
"Not for long I'm afraid... Sir, what's your name?" She started twitching and he frowned. "I'm Asmodeus, call me Ash."
"Ahhh, Ash... I'm going to the deep once again. I am thankful for your help. My brothers and sisters will find me soon. Please do not... Turn them away." She closed her eyes and she had a sudden shift.
"Hey, you okay?" He thought her mind might be healing from the extensive damage like Liz and she created another ego. But if it was just like hers, then she should be an amnesiac.
Her new persona must be influenced by something. It was so bloodthirsty, and why a nun of all things.
"Ahahaha, I am Specter. A messenger of the deep, I have roamed to find you..." She grinned at him and he was confused.
"A messenger? What's the message?" He squinted his eyes and she wiggled around.
"It is with me, alas. My bindings are strong." She stared right at him.
"Promise me you won't harm anyone then." He thought that bringing up Laurentina might damage her mind even further, so he would call her Specter if she was in her other ego.
"Very well. I shall prohibit myself from giving the people salvation..." She disappointedly sighed and he slowly peeled off her restraints.
She then fished a letter from her robes and gave it to him. "The church of the deep?" He furrowed his brows, he hasn't heard of them.
It only had a cryptic message on it. "The deep will claim everything once again after her return. Repent and be one with the oceans. And silence shall reign."
Ash didn't understand it and he was sure that it isn't for him at all. "Then, master. What will be your orders?" She smiled at him.
"Rest for now Specter. You're in bad shape, we will continue your treatment for now. Sometimes... You will be sent to give people salvation." He saw her combat prowess from earlier.
And she's twitchy as hell with a trigger as thin as a strand of hair. She might go on a rampage if she didn't go into combat.
"Ahahaha! Splendid choice master. Then I shall await further orders." She went back to bed and slowly went back to sleep.
"Wraith, I want you and your squad to keep tabs on her 24/7. She's a high risk individual, just watch. Intervene when necessary." Ash ordered his ghosts.
"I have to know more about what is this church of the deep later. We're too busy to investigate this. Maybe when Laurentina comes back? This cult gives me some bad vibes." He looked at the letter again.
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Thanks for reading everyone, ciao.