BD - PONon-Bee 445.3 - Ene-Bee Unknown (Patreon)

Tower Lord Mutraleos sat on his throne, having moved his throne room to safety at the very top of his Tower. He frowned as he stared at the liaison kobold given him by High Councilor Stadvolous.

“To reiterate, my lord, you want me to…hold?”

The kobold spoke with its hissing, grating voice.

“The massster says that isss correct.”

Mutraleos’s expression darkened.

“You want me…to hold, on my own, while the Dragon Banner Army besieges me? While General Rippotis himself leads the assault? I have served you without question for many years, my lord, even turning my blade upon the rest of the Conclave at your command, but you are now asking me to die. If you wish this of me, I at least deserve to know what my sacrifice will achieve. From where I am standing, the best course of action for both of us would be to surrender. We would not survive, but we would at least atone in the sight of the gods before we meet them face to face. We should not continue in pointless resistance unless there is a chance of victory.”

The kobold fell silent for a moment. Mutraleos waited patiently and was eventually rewarded.

“There isss a plan, Lord Mutraleosss. High Councilor Konilasss is working his sorcery, completing solutions he has prepared for centuriesss. He just needsss time.”

Mutraleos closed his eyes, taking a moment to gather himself.

“Very well. He will have it, I will do my utmost to stall. Be advised, though, that I have no confidence of success with the forces I have available.”

“The massster says that isss enough.”

With that, Mutraleos turned his attention back to the ongoing assault. General Rippotis and the Dragon Banner Army were currently tearing through his kobolds, sent merely to buy time and burn a bit of the enemy’s mana. But every kobold he had would barely dent General Rippotis’ reserves, Mutraleos would need a lot more to stall the most powerful Tower Guards in the Conclave.

Fortunately, he had just the thing. He moved one of his contingencies into position, a special room no human could survive. A terrifying room of crushing pressure and oppressive darkness that was lethal on its own, even before accounting for traps and defenders.

He wondered if even General Rippotis could get through an Abyssal Trench. The Conclave as a whole had overcome such places, yes, but General Rippotis was a disciple of Fire. His blessing would offer no advantage so deep underwater, his flames would have to fight the very environment itself. His Tower of Fire, likewise, would offer no blessings nor monsters suitable to dealing with such a place. The majority of the Dragon Banner Army would struggle to survive there at all, General Rippotis would only be able to bring a handful of elites if he could traverse the room at all.

And, even if General Rippotis had methods of moving underwater, Mutraleos had a trump card prepared. Giant sea serpents, the kin of mighty sea dragons, the strongest monsters he had. They could not defeat a man like General Rippotis under normal circumstances…but perhaps they could in an Abyssal Trench. In the deepest depths of the seas, where the sea serpents would be perfectly at home, all while General Rippotis would struggle to breathe and resist the crushing weight of water. In such circumstances, he expected his monsters would put up a good fight, maybe even deal the general’s elites a wound or two!

So Mutraleos waited as the Dragon Banner Army approached the next room. Followers of Light cast a powerful barrier spell over the Dragon Banner Army’s scouts before they stepped into the room…which ended up saving them from the crushing pressure. The scouts retreated almost as soon as they arrived, unfortunately, so the abyss wouldn’t claim them outright…but that was fine. If they forced General Rippotis to take time to assess the situation, that was more time for his lords to finish their solution…

Mutraleos was surprised, however, to see General Rippotis walk right up to the room’s entrance without any deliberation whatsoever, alongside his famous dragon mount. The general coated himself in flame, the dragon did nothing at all. With no further preparations, the two stepped into the deep.

Once inside, the pair unleashed their fire. Dragonbreath combined with god-blessed fire and burnt the very water, forming a blazing spear that stabbed through the depths. The abyss boiled as flames burnt a line across the entire room. Mere mundane water could not resist, General Rippotis vaporized a hole through the ocean!

Worse still…the fires didn’t dissipate. General Rippotis shifted his attack into walls of fire that boiled the abyss around them…and that hollowed out a dry tunnel, straight across the ocean floor. A moment later, several of his mages crossed into the room and cast an Air spell that blew through the tunnel, filling it up with breathable air. The entire Dragon Banner Army then resumed its march without pause.

Mutraleos stared for a bit before ordering his sea serpents to attack. Maybe if they could disrupt the fire tunnel, they could claim some casualties?

But given the feats displayed, Mutraleos didn’t hold out much hope. And indeed, before the serpents even approached the tunnel, General Rippotis’ dragon growled and jumped through the fire and into the seas. That dragon was over a thousand years old, it was an ancient dragon by this point and likely the strongest living dragon in the entire world. A bit of water didn’t bother it, it’s wings propelled it through the deep as easily as the sky. The complete darkness meant nothing before its powerful senses, it angled itself straight towards the nearest sea serpent.

Their scales failed utterly before an ancient true dragon’s maw. His mighty sea serpents were dispatched without ever approaching the fire tunnel.

Mutraleos stiffened.

“Tell our master…that he should exhort High Councilor Konilias to work as quickly as possible.”

***

Stadvolous stepped into a laboratory full of glowing spellforms, a frown on his face.

“Konilias, we have a problem. Mutraleos is under assault and won’t last long. Einikos surrendered without a fight, while Leipistos has gone dark entirely.”

Konilias was standing in the center of the room with his eyes closed and his hands spread. He barely lifted an eyebrow.

“We expected as much, Mutraleos was never going to hold, while Einikos and Leipistos’ loyalty depended on success. I suspect you are not here simply for that?”

Stadvolous shook his head.

“Mutraleos reported Followers of Light among the Dragon Banner Army, while the clairvoyance wards watching Einikos caught sight of Heigiosa. Leipistos has me the most concerned, though, because I have no idea what happened. Whoever it was not only dealt with his liaison, but blinded all of the clairvoyance wards before we even caught a glimpse of them.”

Konilias lowered his hands and let the spellforms dim, opening his eyes to focus on the conversation. Stadvolous continued with a grimace.

“Konilias, something is wrong. Heigiosa slipped past your siege and managed to bring her army with you. Heigiosa and Rippotis both managed to just appear at Mutraleos and Einikos’ Towers with no warning, to say nothing of whatever happened to Leipistos. They are somehow moving entire armies right under our noses, even through our own territory.”

Konilias furrowed his brow.

“Heigiosa does have some tools for stealth, light magic has ways of diverting an enemy’s sight. Between that and external shortcuts I expected she would get some forces out. But entire armies…the clairvoyance wards should have taken that into account, we should have gotten some warning of movements on that scale. We should have at least detected the sheer amount of magic at play, unless Heigiosa’s spellcraft is somehow far more subtle and refined than my own…”

Konilias then paused.

“Stadvolous…you said General Rippotis suddenly appeared on your battlefield without warning, yes?”

Stadvolous crossed his arms.

“Yes, which you don’t seem to believe.”

Konilias began rubbing his chin.

“Before now, even you must admit that negligence seemed more plausible than Rippotis suddenly developing a level of stealth we’ve never seen before. But with all these recent events…there’s a possibility we didn’t consider. Rippotis was on a diplomatic mission.”

Stadvolous’ eyes went wide.

“You think Rippotis, of all people, allied with the fey?! Convinced the fey to ally with him?”

Konilias nodded.

“It seemed unthinkable, didn’t it? That the fey, with their long memories, would forgive the man behind the Blackwood War, a hothead with little taste for diplomatic niceties…it is certainly a surprise. But, well, Starami did already attack them with his son and might have done so again while trying to detain Rippotis. In that view, it’s possible they made an alliance of convenience, if Rippotis was able to paint us as a mutual threat.”

Konilias’ face darkened.

“Unthinkable as it is, it is clear we’re facing a master of the mystic arts on par with myself, only someone like that could evade my wards so completely. The Witch of the Woods, the Pixie Queen, the mystic masters of the Silver Court…it is likely someone on that caliber survived and is working with our enemies.”

Stadvolous held his face and took a deep breath, exhaling it very, very slowly.

“Even in depth, that imbecile haunts us. I deeply regret ever recruiting him…”

Though, a moment later, Stadvolous paused.

“Though…if Rippotis is working with the fey, then this situation isn’t all bad, is it? We could use that collaboration as the reason for our uprising, say we had proof Rippotis and even Heigiosa are under their sway…”

Konilias hummed.

“It would certainly make it easier to appeal to the neutral Tower Lords. See if you can get proof of their collaboration. While you’re at it, see if you can get any clues as to which fey we’re dealing with. I’ll need to make preparations to account for a fellow master of the mystic arts and I need to know which one we’re dealing with.”

Stadvolous nodded and left to begin. Konilias turned back to consider his spells. The situation had gotten a lot more dangerous…but that danger held an opportunity. Rippotis and Heigiosa had neglected politics for a long time. If they were foolish enough to reveal a collaboration a wicked fey, then perhaps the Conclave might see the necessity of his actions.

But if that were to matter, then Konilias needed to identify their new opponent and determine how to counter them. They couldn’t keep letting the Dragon Banner Army pop up wherever and whenever it wanted.

So, Konilias turned back to his work. A fey was a problem, but he had now spent over a thousand years studying spellcraft. He was the very first human wizard who could call himself their peer and he would soon show them why…

***

Before Stadvolous got to work, though, he gave orders to his subjects. Starami had haunted him yet once more, that mead Stadvolous had taken from him had been exceptionally good. So good, in fact, that Stadvolous couldn’t stop recalling the taste of it and craved to try it again.

Starami’s old stock was all gone, though, as was whichever beekeeper had made it. Stadvolous had thus ordered the beekeepers in his territory to redouble their mead-making efforts and produce himself something similar. They had failed thus far, but Stadvolous was too busy to punish them for now.

And now that he knew Rippotis and his allies could move unseen, there was every chance Rippotis might raid his territory. Stadvolous thus began moving all the assets he cared about inside his Tower, the apiaries included. He had no desire, though, to spend mana and room slots on mere flowers, especially with the gods freezing the growth of his Tower. So, he moved the beekeepers and their hives inside his Tower but gave them an external shortcut for the bees to leave and find flowers on their own, set only to allow mundane honeybees in or out. It wasn’t like Rippotis was going to bother spending time killing tiny bees or burning wild flowers, after all, so there was no need to provide the bees with anything inside his Tower.

Satisfied that all his assets were now untouchable, Stadvolous set off to investigate Rippotis’ new allies…

Author’s Note:

…those are some nice bees you got there, hive-burner. It would be a shame if you didn’t make them happy or, worse, burnt their hives. That would earn you even more stings than you’ve already earned, and you’ve earned plenty.

Anyways!

Will General Rippotis be delayed, at all? Can the hive-burners identify their new enemies? Can a hive-burner take care of bees, or will he just earn more stings? Tune in next time, to find out!