John breathed a sigh of relief when he saw the burning crystalline structures of Eliana’s wings close in on their location. He had sent Sylph after her, but even the speed demon of the group could not keep up with the failed goddess when she seriously ran with all her buffs intact. Elementals were, taken on the same level, generally weaker than their human counterparts. Sylph and Eliana were far from equal. That was, as the battle had shown, the case about half the time.

While Eliana returned, the now calmed Gamer inspected the body Arkeidos had left behind. Much of it had fallen apart into individual fragments, the rest stuck together by happenstance. The humanoid form was still largely evident. The weapon, however, was gone. It must have been bound to the Emperor in the same way Strimata, Rex Magnar, and Illuminare were bound to their respective wielders. Fusional weapons had a mind of their own, not just because an insane blacksmith made them. At least that was John’s theory about what had happened.

Observing the suit of armour revealed that the entirety of it was one item. Similar to how the Mandala Sphere operated, the many individual parts were bound together with an enchantment that connected them on a magical level. “Looks like Arkeidos is using something closer to Possession to control these bodies than Artificial Spirit,” John analysed, picking up one of the shards and pulling it away from the whole. The entire armour sung like metal pipes through which a constant draft was channelled. The tone rose in volume as John pulled the shard further back, resisting a stronger and stronger, supernatural pull. When he finally let go of the fragment, it flew right back to the whole. The structure wasn’t being maintained, but the armour still had a drive to remain ‘whole’.

“Any idea what material that is?” Metra asked.

“None,” the Gamer responded truthfully. The Observe window was not nice enough to give him any extensive details on that front. It was still incredibly useful, because it warned him what exactly he could expect to happen if he tried to Possess this thing. Essentially, it would come alive and attack them, until it was either destroyed or he could overpower the enchantments with several Possession casts.

He would have tried, if he had any long-term advantage from doing so. However, with loot from Kingdoms being as limited as it was, there was absolutely no way he could take this armour with him. Not that he could have done anything but Possess it anyway. It was way too large to be eligible for a Creator Puppet.

“Huh, interesting,” John remarked, when he noticed the shattered crystals inside the armour. Whatever Eliana had destroyed under her Seismic Step, it must have been considerable in size. Now it was a bunch of quartz chunks, which was interesting because it overlapped with what had happened with the other cores of the Ironborn. “So, the creation of an Ironborn is a second-degree lich ascension?” he mumbled. “Or is there something intrinsic to a natural soul that leaves quartz behind as a physical manifestation? Like how lead is the usual end-product of radioactive materials?”

“What a total fucking failure!” Eliana cussed, after she suddenly landed next to him. “I’m such a massive fucking disappointment… SHIT!” The vibrations of Bloodburn underlined her aggression.

“Take a deep breath,” John advised her.

“Quiet, human,” Eliana responded, hate echoing in her voice and her eyes. For three solid seconds, she looked down on the kneeling Gamer. Then she blinked, and her entire expression shifted. “I… fuck, not this shit again!”

“Deep - breaths,” John said, firmer and more commanding this time. He heard the failed goddess audibly inhale. She held it for a long while then pushed the air out through her mouth, practically screaming in the process. This repeated five times, then she finally undid Bloodburn. Near complete darkness befell them. Several holes in the clouds above let limited starlight shine through. Far from what was needed to let John behold the true extent of devastation the short battle had caused. It couldn’t have been more than seven minutes, a messy duel between titanic forces, and they had casually levelled most of the fortress and added over a dozen craters to the landscape.

“Ya know, I’m starting to see that maybe I should be a tad more worried about what we’re capable of,” Rave remarked. “Could ya imagine if we did this in a populated space?”

“Well, it’s nice that you’re sharing my worries for a change,” John responded drily and backed off from the armour. “Metra, smash this thing into as many tiny pieces as you can,” he ordered the First of Wrath. “Nia, once she has done that, I want you to try and dispel the Indestructible enchantment. I want this thing completely destroyed.”

Metra got her weapon ready, but did not obey immediately. “Couldn’t we hide it somewhere? Might be useful down the line.”

“Yeah, to Arkeidos,” John told her. “There’s a tracking enchantment on this thing. If we leave it unobserved, he might reclaim it. No idea how many of these bodies he has lying around.”

“Nine fucking more tincans,” Eliana growled.

“…And you know that because?” John asked.

“He said it was the work of a hundred years and this dis-fucking-topia has been around for a millennium, right?”

“Well, that implies that we take his word at face value,” John hummed, then shook his head. “Better guess than nothing, but one thing after the other. Let’s dismantle this first and then talk about what a brilliant success this was.”

“Nice fucking sarcasm there, asshole.”

Again, the Gamer’s head was going left to right, this time accompanied by a chuckle. “I’m serious. In terms of first battles, this went really well for us. Plus, we learned a few things. More on that when we’re somewhere more comfortable.” The Gamer stepped back further, as Metra got to hacking. “And after I learned all I can.”

________________________________________________________________________

“Jesus fucking Christ,” John said and dropped the shard of the successfully destroyed armour on the table. A sudden desire to walk towards one of the windows of the mostly intact tower and vomit into the courtyard rose in his soul. Sickened as his mind was, his body was not quite as afflicted. “Is there anything in this fucking world that’s not the absolute worst?”

“What? Did he forge his armour from the souls of the damned?” Rave asked. She wasn’t joking when she asked that. Neither was John when he nodded. Despite that, she could not quite believe it immediately. “Seriously?”

“Eternal Iron,” the Gamer quoted the item description at them. “This material has been created by transforming the souls of people into usable Faith energy and filling raw iron with it. The power of this material rivals that of the elemental extreme metals.” The Gamer placed his elbow on the table and rubbed his forehead while staring at that tiny shard. “A hundred years of work… that’s a way to say a hundred years’ worth of people, I suppose.”

Eliana growled wolfishly. The process described was similar to what had led to Thana’s creation. The only difference was the storage medium. “And I failed to kill him,” the failed goddess spat out. It was exceedingly easy to read whether Eliza or Thana was in control at the moment.

Which had not been the case for a while. The remaining split between them had been under the surface for the past few months. ‘Many cracks don’t show until there’s pressure,’ John thought. “You did good,” he assured her again. “Better than I expected, once the difficulties became apparent.”

“Not my fucking fault he randomly got faster!” Eliana shouted.

The people in the room looked at each other. Siena was the first to speak up, “Eliana, you must be aware that’s not what happened there.”

“It has to be that something like an unfair fucking enchantment that warps time or some fuckery!” Eliana responded. “I’m stronger than he is! I can kick his metal ass so hard that he remembers what a fucking constipation feels like!”

“Who am I talking to right now?” John cut to the heart of the matter, causing the pretty little psycho to hang her head. “Eliza,” he said gently. It had been a while since he used the name of her human side. It still felt right on his tongue. “You know what happened there. You said it yourself that this was a possibility before we went on this adventure. He didn’t get faster. Eliana became slower. Because that’s what happens when you take full control.”

“I just want to be fucking useful!” “And look how useless that makes you.” The mindsplit woman responded herself immediately, in a tone so drastically different it almost made her sound like a different person. Both sides animalistically growled at each other. Their fingers ripped into her solar plexus.

“STOP!” Undine’s crystal-clear voice washed through the room like a wrathful tide.

Eliana snapped to the surface, took control of her opposed sides and removed her fingers from her body. “Fucking fuck,” she cursed and clenched her eyes shut. “I’m… urgh! FUCK! CAN I GO FIVE WEEKS WITHOUT LOSING CONTROL OVER MYSELF?!”

“Five weeks is a substantial improve-“ John started and stopped when he realized that his words were doing nothing to improve her mood. This was something she had to digest on her own terms. Instead, he pivoted to the good news he had to discuss. “You hit him with the Touch of Humanity’s Bane, right?” he asked.

“Yes.” One word. That was the entire response she was currently capable or willing to give.

“That means he has sustained some permanent injuries,” John said. “And that he won’t risk any attacks on us with bodies he would otherwise deem as disposable. That makes him a bit more predictable. You did good.”

“He’s still alive,” Eliana snarled.

“We’ll change that, in due time,” John assured. “Although I want to give you a choice. Tactically, it might be advisable for you to go back home.”

“W-what, no, why the fuck do you want to get rid of me?” Eliana asked. “You just said I did good!”

“Yes, and Arkeidos will now have three objectives,” John explained to her. Before he continued, he tapped on his lap. After some hesitation, he gave the pretty little psycho the cuddles she so desperately needed to be soothed. “Number one, he will want to rid himself of the permanent effects. He will probably figure out that this is effectively a curse that you maintain. There is the chance here that the damage you have left on his soul isn’t enough to properly bother him, but he won’t take the chance to accrue additional damage. Number two, he will look for a way to remove you from the equation.”

“Tell me what your fucking giant brain figured out that he will do that makes it so much fucking smarter to remove me for him,” Eliana demanded.

“He will try to have Reetha influence you,” John responded. The Iron Domain had access to a powerful empath and Arkeidos had obviously worked out that Eliana’s weak spot was her unstable psyche. “Therefore, it might be advantageous if you stayed outside and maintained the curse at least until we took her out.” He combed through her hair. “The choice is yours. You are strong enough to carry through with either.”

“I want to stay,” Eliana responded quickly.

It wasn’t what John regarded as the wise decision, so he added more words of caution. “I want you to consider the full impact of that,” the Gamer warned her. “Worst case, Reetha gets to you and makes you release all curses. Including Sigmund.”

That made the blood mage freeze in his lap. It was unlikely, but it could happen and the knock-on effects could be disastrous. Sigmund was under control of the Lorylim now, his body being restored to full strength would be an immense boon to them.

“I won’t let that fucking happen to me,” Eliana stated and held on tightly to his suit. “Please let me stay.”

“It’s your choice, you don’t need to ask me for permission,” John assured her. Now that she had made it, he kissed her atop her head and continued on. Casting doubt was the last thing she needed from him. “The third objective will be to target you, Nia,” the Gamer addressed the pariah. “You’re almost as dangerous to him as Eliana here.”

The general of the special forces nodded, having obviously considered this herself already. “I am a worse target,” she stated and tilted her head. “Sorry, bad way to say that. I’m harder to target.”

“You’re certainly fucking slippery,” Eliana stated. The room breathed a bit easier, knowing that the pretty little psycho had stabilized enough that she didn’t explode at these poor word choices.

John continued the evaluation. “We gave up some information about our battle prowess to Arkeidos but, all things considered, not too much. Same could be said in return. His exact capabilities remain unknown, he was toying with us more than really fighting us. Best we can glean is that both he and his weapon seem able to switch between elements.”

“Fucking hurt that weapon, by the way,” Metra remarked.

“Softy,” Eliana laughed.

“I’m more concerned about the Hellfire,” John confessed and rubbed his chin. “He has the ability to inflict permanent scars, so we have to be careful in engaging him.” He picked up the Eternal Iron on the table and turned it around, repressing the disgust he felt at knowing he was holding the damned souls of however many people in his hands. “If nothing else, we already learned from this adventure that Nia can destroy Indestructible items.”

The pariah shook her head, to downplay the achievement. “They say Indestructible, but every enchantment can be overcome with the appropriate force.”

How true that was John would ponder further. Certainly, enchantments were magic bound to items and even magic did not eternally self-perpetuate. Whether by time, repeated damage, or other influences, there had to be a way to ‘discharge’ everything. Nia’s powers were a definitive shortcut to that.

“Uhm… so,” Gnome raised her voice, “what’s our next move?”

“We consolidate our hold on this island and then expand our sphere of influence,” John responded.

“How about we just torch the Eternal Fortress, or whatever it was called?” Salamander suggested.

“That’s the name, yeah, but it’s a terrible idea,” John responded. “He’s had a millennium to prepare. Even if he was sloppy about it, invading his home immediately will be incredibly costly. Plus, I have a hunch it may not be possible anyway.”

“Why’s that?”

“Remember the shield generator under this fortress?” The Gamer tapped his foot twice on the ground. “I almost guarantee that he has a much stronger one in the basement of his personal dwelling. No, what we should do is clean out the rest of the Kingdom. I want as many Ironborn dead as possible. Any reinforcement he could have should be eliminated. Any resources he could tap into need to be denied. Any lives he could convert into additional armour need to be protected.”

The logic found agreement with his harem and so the basis of their plan was set. John elaborated further on what he wanted.

“We’ll split into four groups, to cover more ground,” John stated. “Group one will be me, the elementals, Jane, Momo, Metra, Beatrice, and Eliana.” The Gamer looked to the passive maid. “Your task is to stick around Eliana and make sure Reetha doesn’t get to her. You are best equipped for that.”

“Affirmative, I shall serve as Eliana’s guard.” Beatrice nodded obediently.

“The second group will be Jack and Aclysia,” John continued. “The two of us will move all the way to the east and start liberating the area over there.”

“Uh, I’m stupid, so sorry if this is a stupid question,” Sylph babbled, “but why are we not splitting those more evenly?”

“Because the Kingdom is too big,” John explained to her. “I would send some of you elementals along with Jack, but you’d either move out of the 500-kilometre radius or you’d have to anchor yourself to Jack instead. That’d take away your ability to teleport back to me, which has too many drawbacks to consider it. Usually, I would send Bae along with Jack as well, but I need her against Reetha. That only leaves Aclysia.”

Sylph opened her mouth for her next question, but Momo was prepared enough to get ahead of the palavering air spirit. “I don’t have a teleport cooldown,” the support reminded her. “Same for Metra.”

“Inconvenient as that is,” John grumbled and cleared his throat, “Jack and Aclysia should still be able to take on one of the Cardinal Monarchs on our own. If there’s two of them, if the Iron Maidens show up, or if Arkeidos himself shows his face, Aclysia teleports back to safety and the Extension will be lost. Nia,” he turned to the pariah again. “You’ll be the third group on your own. I trust you to do as you deem best.”

“Thank you.” The pariah bowed her head. While the Gamer did like to keep direct control of things, it was just in his character, several past incidents had proven that Nia did her best work on her own.

“Fourth group will be my Creator Puppet,” John told everyone. “Group one will focus on taking over important positions, primarily the fortresses that have communication devices. I want Arkeidos to be blind. Optimally we take out the Cardinal Monarchs while we are at it. That would take out worrisome reinforcements. Group two will focus on sabotage and taking out lesser Ironborn. Group three will do whatever Nia does. Group four coordinates the volunteers.”

“Hard to call’em groups when half of them consist of one person,” Rave joked.