5/19 Dawn
I woke up slightly before my alarm, to my mild annoyance, and decided that I wasn't going to properly get up until I had to. I checked on Varian with Mind Vision and saw that he was getting dressed. Damn. That man was made entirely out of muscles, wasn't he? His senses were also extremely keen; aware of every aspect of his surroundings. I hoped that was a "leveling up" kind of thing that would develop as I trained with him, because I felt a bit blind when I got back to my own body. Yes, even with enhanced draconic senses.
I slid out of bed and got dressed. I wore my visage's standard outfit: simple priestly vestments. I pulled out the hammer we had looted from among the Druids fighting alongside Ysondre and shifted into and out of my draconic form, confirming that it would shift with me. I was thinking I'd train with a sword and board style, and while it wasn't a sword this mace was a one handed weapon that I wouldn't need to summon from my inventory before I could swing it. It was easy enough to summon items onto my body rapidly, but it still took a second or so for each item unless they were a linked together set, like one of the suits of armor from the closet. Just having the hammer as I shifted out would let me get the shield and armor online just that little bit faster.
Armed with my new weapon of choice, I had some toasted bread with cheese and checked on Varian every few minutes while he gathered up Anduin and brought him to the armory. Once he arrived, I warped to meet them.
"Ah. Good. Anduin, this is Lord Erich Bismark, a priest who has been helping out in the town of Lakeshire. I've agreed to help train him so he's a bit more well rounded." The blonde 12 year old gave me a skeptical look. He didn't trust me; probably because I'd been seen with Katrana Prestor several times in public at this point.
The kid was smart, and absolutely knew that something was up with her and with his father. Nothing he could do about it though, especially not with that necklace on. I wasn't exactly proud of keeping a small child closely monitored and restricting access to anyone that might identify the necklace, but it would only be for a week. After that he could live normally; relatively speaking, anyway. He was in the catalog; he'd grow in power to his canon peak as one of the world's strongest priests at an alarmingly accelerated rate, long before he was 13 if Sadie and Vanessa were anything to judge by.
I didn't intend to use him in combat for a long, long time. He was absolutely still a kid, even if he was smart and resourceful. He could be yet another holy magic tutor, or an emergency triage healer I could teleport injured people to; I could also use him as an ambassador of sorts. I'm pretty sure he canonically becomes good friends with the son of the current leader of the Tauren, for example. For now though, he was about to be my sparring partner and I fully expected him to kick my ass for a few days.
I was more surprised than I should have been when a small child was unable to beat me at sparring. Anduin's technique was far better than mine since he'd been trained since the age of 5, but I was an absolutely shredded giant with a little bit of combat experience, even if it was mostly trying desperately to avoid melee.
Our sparring consisted of Anduin, who was employing the Arms style, trying to hit me with a blunt sword while I attempted to defend with a padded hammer and shield. It actually worked quite well; he needed to learn how to create openings that he could exploit, and I needed to learn how to create an impenetrable barrier of steel. Varian circled us, explaining our many inadequacies in a friendly tone, including the many times that Anduin left himself open to a counterattack from me. I'm not going to even pretend I missed my opportunities because I was reluctant to smack a small child with a padded mallet. I just wasn't very good at this yet.
It was fun, and made moreso for the clear joy Varian took in the process. He had a passion for the blade that was infectious. I improved quite a bit from the hour of sparring, and at the end Varian ducked away into the back part of the armory and came back with a shield.
"You're a priest, yes? This one was made for a knight of the Silver Hand. It's strapped to the arm so you can let go of it to cast spells when you need to."
That was surprisingly sweet of him. "Oh. Thank you. It's beautiful." It really was, a large round shield with a silver fist inlaid on the face, the mark of the Knights of the Silver Hand, the largest organization of paladins in the world. It absolutely didn't match the green glowing wooden hammer in my main hand, but practicality trumps aesthetic and they didn't clash so much as to look stupid.
When I left I went over my app and found a small fringe benefit; apparently positive interactions with 12 year olds make them more accepting of you. I'd shaved off a solid 11 hours; now he'd be captured late on 5/22 instead of early on 5/23. Probably not relevant, but still good. On my way out I magically tossed a couple of amulets to Vanessa and Onyxia. I had a full day, and was sure they could figure something out.
••••••••••
I tried a different tactic with Ysondre today. I'd only really appealed to her own safety and comfort up to now, but she was part of a tight knit organization. She'd chosen to be a healer of all things.
"Good, good. You're almost out. Once you're free you can help save the others. The lost can still be purified, you're proof of that. Once you make it out, we know we can win this war. Ysera still needs help." Help in the form of an amulet that would make her resistant to mental manipulation; side effects may include dry mouth, nausea, dizziness, and fanatical devotion to isekai protagonists.
That knocked another 2 hours off. She'd be in the retinue tomorrow morning at around 8:00. I should probably start planning out the assault. That meant I needed scouts in the area. I signed. Yeah, I couldn't invest much of my own time into Gretchen. That was such a small side hustle; I'd leave it to Tony. He could ask around for her and give her an amulet, maybe send her to the tower in Redridge if she agreed to submit to a necromancer. He'd never failed me before.
••••••••••
I teleported back to Quel'Lithien to find it substantially emptier than it once was. They seemed to want to clear it out of anything that they might want, need, or be able to sell, and teleporting absolutely all of it to Dena's manor. Kriss looked pretty exhausted; she had needed to physically lift every person and object they sent, and was sitting in the middle of a room stacked high with boxes. I fortified her and gave her a hit off of my arcane orb, which seemed to revitalize her.
For the most part the civilians were out, leaving the rangers, the two spellcasters, and a handful of volunteers to keep packing anything they could. Hawkspear himself was carefully putting a bundle of papers together when I entered the room.
"I can get that for you." I picked the papers up and sent them along to the destination Kriss had explained to me, where a shanghaied Yanca sat in Dena Kennedy's dining room, very confused about the whole process.
"Ah. Bismark. Good to see you. At our current rate, we should be able to get out of here by dusk."
"Any chance a few more people capable of teleportation would help expedite things?"
"Substantially. If you're offering to stay, we could save quite a lot of time; Kriss and Caledra are doing their best but are still a bottleneck. That, and most of our manpower must stay on duty guarding the walls."
I nodded and thought it through. "Alright. I'll gather everyone I can spare here for the next couple hours. I'll send them along."
I opened a portal to my apartment and closed it, for now. Once I was in, Lividia and I shifted the table to the side of the room and startedsummoning. Lillibeth, Tessa, Talaada, Dremuus, Darcell, Kam, Monze, and the two Defias, plus all of my demons just so I wouldn't forget about them. I thought better of bringing the demons along for move-out day, and sent them to hang out with Em instead, where they could be yeeted en masse at anyone who called for backup.
Lillibeth was a pretty bog standard 18 year old girl in excellent shape. She wouldn't be any use in a fight right now, so I cautioned her that she needed to leave immediately if she heard any sounds of panic. I turned her into a Tauren to judge the high elves' reactions and to make her a bit better at lifting heavy boxes. Being 9 feet tall with broad shoulders tended to make manual labor a bit easier. She went alongside Lividia, Tessa, Darcell, and Talaada, with orders to report to Kriss and do as she directed.
Kam got a short explanation of the situation, including that his first mission would be to see to his king's safety and work towards the freedom of his people. After helping this entirely unrelated group of elves move out of their besieged lodge. He was overwhelmed, having gone from total boredom to information overload in a very short amount of time, but willing to do his part. I didn't really know what else to do with him at the moment; he'd be put to work once Keryn got to the mountain.
The mutineers were kneeling quietly and submissively, awaiting their orders. All had been touched up in appearance, and were wearing tight black dresses with white frills. I noted that they were also armed, with the human girls carrying daggers and Monze armed with an axe that looked like it was sized for an ogre. I guess Vanessa had taken my note about not wanting useless bimbos to heart. I wasn't sure where the butler was, but decided it was best to not worry about his fate for now. He hadn't had an amulet and Vanessa had not asked for one, so I really didn't know what to expect.
I stared them down with communication talent, actively using it for once. They weren't mindless, that was for damn sure. They were actively watching and listening to what was happening. There was even a bit of anticipation from one of them, a raven haired beauty I suspected was the Vanessa edition of the broken nosed thug who had played the role of ringleader. She thought she knew what her orders were and was just a bit impatient to get them.
"You three have another job, actually. I have the ability to transform those who serve me. I wish to see how well it works in unusual cases. You three have the right combination of useful and disposable for me to try it on you first."
They responded happily, in unison.
"Of course master, it would be an honor to serve."
"As you command, chief"
"Anything for you."
They seemed eager to risk their own safety if it meant they could be helpful. Which made sense, honestly. Even normal members of my retinue seemed pretty willing to throw down at a moment's notice if they saw a threat to me. The most eager still seemed to be the black haired woman; she reminded me of Vanessa, actually. Stronger will to start with means a more devoted slave, maybe? At least when you put them through this process.
"You. What's your name?"
"Petra, Lord Bismark." None of Irma's stoicism here; there was a breathiness to her words that made it clear that she was getting off on this. Whatever works, I guess.
"Stay still, let's see how this goes." I went into Petra's character page and shifted her to a Satyr. From what Lividia had seen, satyrs had some kind of inherent illusion magic. It seemed like it could pair well with a rogue.
She collapsed onto the ground, writhing in pain. Her body changed rapidly as she became a Satyr, growing two feet and sprouting horns and claws as her feet twisted into hooves. I watched her health closely, but didn't heal her. My initial attempt had prompted an unearthly shriek and a steep drop in status. Fel and light did not mix well when one of them was unstable, it seemed. I could only guess that it was too severe a shift; It was my first time turning a mortal into a demon, or anything like it.
She was fine after about thirty seconds, though her maid outfit had been burnt away in an unholy green fire and she was clearly weakened and in pain. The other two had involuntarily shifted away so as to not get burnt. Petra was definitely a Satyr now, her black hair having shifted to a midnight blue that contrasted nicely with her newly powder blue skin. With a smirk, I disguised her as a night elf and hardly anything changed outside of the horns, fur, and hooves. This would do nicely.
I helped the out of breath "elf" to her feet. Her fingers were a bit harder than they should be, and her fingernails had rather pointed tips. I cast my lowest tier heal, followed by a tier four when I saw that she didn't recoil in pain. "Wonderful. Now, one moment." I drew a circle of runes on the floor, even simpler than the one I'd used to bind Mezzo. Once it was complete, I drew Petra close to me and bound her as my servant in a demonic pact. From the way she smiled as she accepted the bonds, you'd think I'd asked her to marry me.
Laurie, the brown haired Defias footsoldier, got a similar treatment minus the pact; I intended to hand her off to Drusilla. I can not recommend demonic minions brainwashed into true obedience enough, and Drusilla could probably use a bit more backup.
Monze was last, and was the subject of my next experiment: could I turn someone into a Man'ari Eredar? She was larger and had a more strength based style of fighting already, which I thought would pair well with the towering Man'ari. I gave it a shot and it seemed to be going the same way, but much more slowly. Then I saw that the deterioration of her health was going faster as she went, with her thrashing getting worse and her veins starting to stand out in a glowing green color as she was overloaded with fel energy. Puffy glowing green tumors started forming at around the 30% health mark and I decided to call it off, transforming her back into an orc.
It wasn't enough. She turned into a red skinned fel orc, for one thing, and one still absolutely saturated with fel energy. I had to activate her one full restore or I was certain she would have died. The effect was instant, restoring her to the state she was in right before I'd pressed the button. I suspected it had literally just restored her to a prior status, like a save state.
I racked my brain for an explanation, and my best guess was a difference of power. Man'ari were some of the mightiest soldiers in the Burning Legion on average, while satyrs were for the most part low ranked goons and infiltrators. There were exceptions, of course, Xavius was a Satyr and was doing quite well for himself as the lord of the Emerald Nightmare.
Sargeras had created the Man'ari thousands of years ago to be his generals and champions. He'd had an entire culturally advanced planet to work with, and I think they might have been the first artificial demonic race he'd ever made. It was entirely possible that they weren't actually very efficiently designed, or they were so optimized for power that the transition was absolutely brutal. Assuming that Argus had been around as populated as Earth, he could have lost 99% of recruits and still had 80 million supersoldiers, mostly the cream of the crop even before the transformation, to work with.
Satyrs, in contrast, were just furry night elves that liked violence. He'd essentially improvised the design in a day to reward a quisling. It had been an unpleasant transformation, but nothing too major. I'd need to see if turning one type of demon into another worked, but I'd done enough experimentation for today. I sent Laurie to Drusilla along with a note with instructions to bind her; so far I was having a pretty productive day.