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Board & Conquest 16: Tutorial's End
🕑 Added 2025-01-17 09:12:15 +0000 UTC-------
With the battle over, the world soon returned to normal.
The barrier surrounding the board collapsed into nothingness and returned the Icefall area back to Elphion. A burst of mana surged from Wepwawet’s newly conquered altar, both granting him a burst of nine mana points and blanketing most of the forest in his Influence. A barrage of notifications followed.
Victoire Fleuret, Blade of Winter, Filou, Brave Heart, Viviane Coeurdelion, Lionhearted Archer; and Renarde, Cunning Courtesan can now Rank-Up!
You have claimed Boisblanc Forest’s Altar! An Altar projects your Influence in a five kilometer radius and lets you gain mana from the leyline and followers within its range, though unlike an Idol, its destruction won’t banish you from Elphion. Your Champions and followers can now teleport from your Idol to your Altar and vice-versa at will, should you allow it.
Quest: Land of the Faithful I, completed! You’ve earned the Wolf House Rank 7 Animism Miracle!
Wolf House
Rank 7 Animism
Summons a watchtower of eternal ice on a designated spot. The watchtower ignores Frost damage but takes twice as much from Fire; additionally, Beast-type creatures have their Beastslayer weakness negated while inside the watchtower.
New Quest: Land of the Faithful II
Build a total of five Altars atop mana leylines.
Reward: Animism Miracle.
Sweet, sweet victory! Not only had he claimed a new source of mana and a powerful Miracle, but the teleportation bridge between his Idol and Altar would let him project troops further east! Maybe even let him build up a new settlement!
Wepwawet projected his spirit from the Altar and swiftly observed his followers, both atop and below the cliff. Filou, Renarde, and Viviane were all glaring at the demoness Wintresse, who assessed them with cautious wariness. The tension in the air was palpable between the two sides, but neither of them appeared ready to make the first move.
Wepwawet quickly decided to intervene before another brawl could break out.
“You’ve done well, all of you!” He congratulated them with a voice that carried all the way across the Boisblanc Forest. His presence reassured Filou, Renarde, and Viviane enough for them to clap and shout in relief at their hard-won victory. The demoness Wintresse didn’t say a word and instead studied Wepwawet’s spirit with a calculating gaze. “Especially you, Victoire! You are the bravest among the brave!”
Victoire didn’t answer.
Taken aback by her silence, Wepwawet turned to face his first and greatest Champion. Her fair face was covered in burns barely treated with healing poultice and that would take a while to fully heal. Her pale, hollow eyes stared at Wepwawet with what could pass for puzzled horror and confusion.
“Victoire? Are you well?” Wepwawet cursed himself for his stupid question. Of course she wasn’t alright, he had inflicted those burns on her himself. Of course she would resent him for it! “I’m, uh, I’m sorry for the geyser stunt. I had no other way to send you atop the cliff quickly. I swear I’ll make it up to you!”
Victoire matched his gaze for a moment, her expression just as hollow as before, but she nodded slightly in assent. “This is… this is nothing, Lord Wepwawet. I am… pleased we won.”
She’s scared of me, but she’s too polite to say it. Wepwawet should find a way to apologize to her. He didn’t want Victoire to think he was one of those cruel gods who treated their followers badly. The Aztecs and Incans give us enough of a bad enough rep already!
Quickly figuring out what to do, Wepwawet traded a copy of Skill: Translation and Barricade Kit for his two newest Miracles, then cast Wolf House at the base of the cliff next to the icefall. A huge watchtower of ice immediately surged up from the lake’s shore at his command, much to his followers’ astonishment. The fortress had arrows slits on all sides, crenellated battlements topped with wolf-faces, and a single lockable door at the base as its only entrance and exit.
The fortress was a bit over twelve meters high, or forty feet, so it remained much smaller than the cliff… but it reached up high enough to connect with the upper parts of the stairway which the Shuyet puppet hadn’t damaged. His followers could continue their ascension this way.
“Climb up!” Wepwawet informed his Champions. “Victoire needs medical attention immediately! And bring me the witch’s corpse while you’re at it!”
Filou, ever the loyal squire, immediately bolted into the tower and climbed its icy stairs. Viviane and Renarde went to recover the Shuyet puppet’s remains, both pausing upon seeing the artificial parts that made it up, and then followed soon after by climbing the Wolf House and then the stairway along the cliffside. As for the demoness Wintresse, she simply teleported inside her hut without a word.
Wepwawet’s Influence let him observe her within the walls, but she only seemed to browse through shelves of potions rather than prepare any mischief. He would smite her where she stood if she tried anything.
“Milady!” Filou immediately rushed to Victoire’s side after climbing all the way to the clifftop, his nimble limbs carrying him forward at phenomenal speed. He swiftly sat next to her and opened his own supply pouch. “Hold still, I’ve got you!”
“I’m fine, Filou,” Victoire replied with a tone that implied otherwise. She looked at the watchtower at the cliff’s base and then back at Wepwawet. “Could you… do that from the start?”
“I’m, uh, I’m recovering more of my lost powers with each new Altars you claim in my name,” Wepwawet replied. It wasn’t technically a lie—the might he wielded right now paled compared to what his true divine self could command—but he could sense Victoire’s skepticism. Is she doubting me?
Viviane and Renarde reached the clifftop next and dropped the Shuyet’s remains at Wepwawet’s feet. The puppet had taken heavy damage from her own creature, but the remains should allow Wepy to figure out its origins. Victoire’s gaze turned at the corpse, her eyes widening upon seeing the gears and scrolls making up her frame.
“She was a machine?” Victoire asked in disbelief.
“That foul witch was a conduit for an evil force to manifest in this world,” Wepwawet replied. And I’ve got the feeling she’ll come back somehow. “We’ve banished it from our land, but more foes will come.”
“Your Godliness, what… what we saw…” Viviane paled and trembled at the mere memory of their battle. “That shadow, was that… was it real?”
“You have witnessed a sign of the coming darkness,” Wepwawet replied evasively. That battle had been nothing like a Titan Incursion, but he figured he should mentally prepare his followers for it. “You have seen a glimpse of the battles to come. There will be others.”
“R-really?” All of Filou’s courage deserted him. “Oh my…”
“So that was real…” Viviane shook her head, her eyes wide with disbelief. “I-I need a moment to… to process it.”
Renarde took the news better than her teammates, though Wepwawet could see the wariness in her eyes when she assessed his projection. “I assume that giant form was your true self, Lord Wepwawet? And that the figure before us is only a mirage?”
“Yes,” Wepwawet confirmed. “A god is like a hurricane. I cannot fully manifest in this land without ravaging it, hence why I stick to providing guidance and limited assistance in this form.”
“I, for one, am thankful for it.” Renarde shook her head in quiet acceptance. Wepwawet had the feeling that she respected him a lot more now. “I never imagined that I would be serving a real god.”
“Wait, what?” Wepwawet choked. “You didn’t think I was a real god before?”
“No, of course n–” Renarde cleared her throat in embarrassment. “I mean, yes, but I… I didn’t understand.”
She… she had doubted him! Renarde had doubted his divinity from the start!
Wepwawet was still reeling from that shocking revelation when the demoness at last exited her hut. She tossed a small vial full of red liquid to Victoire, who caught it in mid-flight. Viviane immediately drew her bow and Filou his sword.
“That is a healing potion I took with me from Shadazar,” the demoness said, while blatantly ignoring the weapons pointed at her; though she seemed quite amused by Filou. “It will be far more effective than your paltry poultices.”
Viviane glared at her. “You think we’ll take a demoness’ gift?”
“A demoness? Do I look like a savage monster to you?” Wintresse scoffed in amusement. “I’m a changeling, not a full-blooded fiend.”
“A changeling?” Renarde seemed to recognize the word. “One of the dark elves from the south?”
She doesn’t look like a dark elf to me, Wepwawet thought. In his experience, dark elves were usually backstabbing, shadow-skinned subterranean dwellers with very weird kinks. He always figured they’d be paler than their surface cousins from their lack of exposure to sunlight, but magic found strange ways to express itself.
“What’s a changeling?” Viviane asked, to Wepwawet’s relief; he wouldn’t have to utter that question himself and look like a fool.
“They’re elves from the Kingdom of Timberan who mated with demons to rejuvenate their waning bloodline, an act for which they were promptly banished,” Renarde explained. “They then founded the enchanted land of Shadazar to the far south, where nightmares go to die.”
Wintresse chuckled. “We’re not that bad.”
“The living statues below say otherwise,” Viviane retorted.
Wintresse put a hand on her waist and held her gaze. “If warriors broke into your home uninvited, wouldn’t you defend yourself too?”
“It’s not your home!” Viviane complained. “You stole it from its previous occupants!”
“And since they lacked the strength to protect their home, they didn’t deserve it in the first place.”
Victoire scoffed. “Then I suppose we deserve this place more than you do, since you couldn’t defend it from that witch.”
“Touché,” Wintresse replied with a small laugh, before bowing at Wepwawet. “I’m not foolish enough to pick a fight with a creature ten thousand times my size. Consider my gift a proof of my goodwill.”
Wepwawet studied the liquid within vial and quickly confirmed that it was indeed a C-Quality healing potion without any side effects. “She speaks the truth,” he informed his Champions. “This liquid is safe to drink.”
Victoire hesitated a moment, then drank the potion. Her burns disappeared the moment she finished the vial.
“See?” Wintresse asked. “I’m useful, am I not?”
“What would a dark elf be doing so far north?” Wepwawet asked with some suspicion.
“Oh, nothing too important. My fiancé cheated on me, so I killed him and put his skull on my staff. Alas, he was unfortunately one of our queen’s distant cousins. I’m laying low for a century or two until she forgets about me.” Wintresse gently caressed her staff’s skull. Wepwawet could have sworn he heard it groan in response. “I guess you can say I’m on an extended holiday.”
“Y-you murdered your own fiancé?” Filou asked, his voice shaking in horror. The woman’s casual ruthlessness unnerved everyone, even Wepwawet himself.
“After he cheated on me, my dear plushie. Do the sacred bonds of marriage mean nothing in this land? I would say I’ve shown immense restraint by not killing the woman he cheated on me with too.” Wintresse waved the matter away and matched Wepwawet’s gaze. “Since you have claimed this spot by right of conquest and are clearly in charge, I suppose you wouldn’t have a job opening for an enchantress such as I?”
Victoire scoffed at her blatant opportunism. “Your kind does not waste time.”
“I’m a practical gal. When a giant and almighty entity starts laying down the law in the land, you do not fight back; you ride that wave all the way to the summit.” Wintresse smiled at Wepwawet, her teeth pristine reminding him of a hungry shark. “So what shall it be? I can make it worth your while.”
She wasn’t lying. Wepwawet sensed the soul of a powerful Rank Four Champion within her, and more than that, she had the rare potential to become a Commander. She had plenty of skills that Wepwawet needed.
However, the question of her troublesome personality remained. Whether a mortal was good or evil had no influence on their ability to become a Champion. A vile and cruel dark lord had as much right to this honor as a brave paladin by virtue of their exceptional strength and will.
Wepwawet could tell that Wintresse was a black-hearted fiend whose personality clashed with those of his other Champions. He briefly weighed whether or not her skills would compensate for the issues she might cause, before deciding it was worth a shot.
His father Set had recruited quite a few villains into his troops because Titans threatened everyone at the end of the day; and Wepwawet was too short on troops to be picky.
“Alright,” he said after some consideration. “You’re in, with a few conditions.”
“What?” Viviane all but choked in outrage. “But Your Godliness, she turned innocents to ice!”
“Yes, hence the conditions.” Wepwawet raised two fingers for emphasis. “First of all, you’ll free the people you entombed in ice.”
“Must I?” Wintresse sighed. “Fine, fine, I will do it. It is not like they could harm me even if they tried.”
“And second, you better be a team player from now on,” Wepwawet said. He had no idea how dark elves behaved on Elphion, but if they were anything like those on other worlds then trouble always followed in their wake. “We’re all one big happy family. No team-killing, no betrayals, no schemes to raise your position, and no back-alley assassinations.”
Wintresse’s smile faded away. “I hate the lack of professional respect that this remark implies.”
“Yeah, well, either you follow through or earn yourself a one-way ticket to smite-town,” Wepwawet replied bluntly. “I’ll welcome anyone inside my pack regardless of their origins, but everyone must follow my orders in return.”
“The strong do as they wish and the weak suffer as they must,” Wintresse complained with a sigh. “As you wish. I shall try to… behave.”
Wepwawet’s Champions clearly didn’t like the idea of fighting with a half-demon, but they didn’t contest his choice either. He swiftly blessed Wintresse with his grace, both claiming her as his follower and completing another quest.
Quest: The Heavenly Pack II, completed! You’ve earned the Oath of Spring Rank 4 Ritual!
Oath of Spring
Rank 4 Ritual
Allows you to partly heal one of your Champions’ injuries and toughen their skin like bark, halving non-magical damage for five minutes but granting them a weakness to Fire until the effect ends. Every two additional points of mana spent lets you heal another Champion, to a maximum of five.
New Quest: The Heavenly Pack III
Recruit twenty Champions.
Reward: Ritual Miracle.
“I’ll be watching you,” Viviane warned Wintresse. “Count on it.”
“Watch as much as you want, my dear,” Wintresse replied without a care in the world. “Until then, perhaps you would like to rest inside my home? It has been a while since I’ve had guests.”
“Fortify this area for now,” Wepwawet told his Champions. “I’ll be right back.”
Wepwawet dissipated his projection and focused on his new Altar. The device had strengthened his connection to this world’s leylines, providing a burst of lana that strengthened his divine essence. He focused on the path that now connected this newfound fount of power to his Idol, draining the former to increase the latter’s magical glow until it shone like a beacon in the dark. He advertised his presence to the heavens, hoping for his light to reach someone out there…
Ping!
All of Wepwawet’s essence shivered with pleasure upon hearing this wonderful sound echo in his head, followed by a long-awaited message.
Your connection to the Nexus has been restored!
Yes! Yes!
The time was up, and his enemies had missed their shot!
Wepwawet immediately focused on the bond linking his Idol to the Nexus of Reality to find it partly restored. The incarnation process was finally, finally complete.
A deity’s godmind was its essence and Influence, a divine will more akin to phenomena like gravity than anything mortals could comprehend. It could generate multiple manifestations from physical avatars to divine objects or locations, and most importantly, exist in multiple places at once. The incarnation ritual tethered a deity to a planet until they harmonized with its mana, and once that ended, let them reconnect with the heavens from which they came.
In short, a true god could multitask.
Wepwawet sent his mind traveling back to the Nexus while keeping an eye on his Idol in Narc and Altar in Boisblanc Forest all at once, then tried to manifest an avatar back in Mytholo High’s classroom. He sensed his power weakening the further away he moved from Elphion, as most of his essence remained tethered to it.
This is wrong, Wepwawet thought. He would have clenched his teeth if he had a physical body. The connection is too weak!
Elphion’s system refused to let him go.
It took all of Wepwawet’s willpower to manifest an avatar back in his seat in the classroom, and even then he felt shriveled and weak. The body he inhabited lacked most of his divine spark and required all his attention to maintain.
Nonetheless, he finally managed to return to his classroom. The mental shock strained him so much that he nearly puked on arrival like a mortal after a bad plane trip, but he managed to hold on; unlike Watatsumi, whose avatar crashed on his desk hard enough to break it.
Time worked differently in the Nexus, so Wepwawet couldn’t tell how long he and the others had spent trapped on Elphion, but he clearly hadn’t been the only one encountering difficulties. He glanced around the room to see his fellow classmates struggling with their own avatars. Half of them looked sick, even that prick Horus, and the rest struggled with dizziness. Wepwawet’s heart surged with hope upon seeing Ganesha and Artemis among them.
They were all back, and most importantly, alive.
“I am so glad to see you all again,” Miss Athena said with obvious relief. Their teacher alone had lost none of her divine splendor. “It seems everyone made it back safe and sound.”
The entire class shouted and howled in relief over finally returning; or at least those in a good enough shape did. Wepwawet himself glanced at his friends with a faint smile. “It’s so good to be back.”
“Wepy!” Artemis immediately hugged her friend. “That was insane! Were you guys trapped for days too?!”
“Yes! And another god tried to break my Idol too!” Wepwawet turned to Ganesha, only to find his friend staring blankly into the void. His eyes looked devoid of life. “Ganesha?”
“They…” Ganesha let out a sob. “They tried to sell me…”
Artemis choked in outrage. “The titans?”
“My worshipers!” Ganesha covered his eyes to block out the tears. “They saw my tusks and… and they tried to sell the ivory!”
“Oh my gods…” Wepwawet said as he and Artemis immediately welcomed Ganesha into their group hug. “I’m so sorry to hear that man.”
“I was their god, and they tried to sell me,” Ganesha lamented in between sobs. “I’m surrounded by greedy savages…”
“What’s happening to me?!” All eyes turned to Ishtar, whose body flickered in and out of reality. “My avatar is fizzling out!”
“Mine too!” Sun Wukong complained, his form shifting between multiple transformations all at once. One second he was a monkey, and then a serpent the next. “I swear this never happens to me!”
Everyone shared their plight. Wepwawet himself struggled to maintain physical form, as all of his essence resisted the urge to return to Elphion. The connection remained far too fragile.
“Please calm down everyone.” Athena whistled, silencing everyone. “I understand this must have been a harrowing experience, but we need to debrief and assess the damage. Please recount to me what happened on your side.”
Once the young gods had calmed down, Miss Athena had them recount their experiences one after the other. As it turned out, everyone shared the same tale: they all successfully incarnated into their Idol only to be welcomed with an unknown System and a severed Nexus connection.
Wepwawet also learned that he wasn’t the only one whose Idol had been attacked—Artemis had to fend off a monster’s assault on her own and Sun Wukong smote a few bandits who went after his worshippers—but only his assailant outright challenged him to a B&C battle; news which greatly worried Miss Athena.
“It was a goddess from your own pantheon?” she asked with a frown. “Are you certain?”
“She set the duel’s conditions without my authorization, so she was higher-ranked than me in our hierarchy,” Wepwawet replied with a nod before pointing a finger at Horus. “I’m sure she works with this jackass!”
“What did you say?!” Horus rose from his seat in anger and pointed a finger back. “As if I need help to put down a mutt like you!”
“Then why was I the only one challenged to a B&C battle?!” Wepwawet snapped back. “Someone wanted to take me out on your behalf before I could report your violation!”
“We cannot rule out that this is a Titan plot of some kind, but the attack and the System’s abnormalities do point to internal sabotage,” Miss Athena observed with a thoughtful expression on her fair face. “An outside god interfering with a class project is a grave matter. I will investigate this thoroughly.”
“So, uhm…” Axomamma shyly raised her hand. “Is the class project canceled?”
Miss Athena shook her head with a heavy sigh. “I am afraid not. The sabotaged System holds your divine essence bound to Elphion. Besides the fact that fully pulling you back from Elphion would leave the planet at the Titans’ inexistent mercy, we have no guarantee that it will allow you to fully reform back at the Nexus. It might take you centuries to regain your power, if not longer.”
“So we’re still trapped?” Artemis complained.
Miss Athena nodded sadly and waved her hand, a system screen filled with runes materializing in front of her. “I swear to you that the Board of Education and I will do everything in our power to rectify the situation as soon as possible. Until then, I please ask all of you to limit conflicts between each other to a minimum. The attack on Wepwawet may be the mere prelude to a larger offensive.”
Wepwawet’s heart sank in his chest. Miss Athena was right. If one intruder could send a puppet to project her influence on Elphion, why not more?
The more Miss Athena read her screen, the deeper her scowl grew. “As I feared… There are twelve of you, yet my information records thirteen gods being active on Elphion. That is likely our saboteur.”
“That’s not possible,” Wepwawet replied. “I banished the intruder! I saw her expulsion with my own eyes!”
“That mystery goddess did not incarnate, Wepwawet. She would not have required a living Idol as a lynchpin to manifest her Influence otherwise…” Miss Athena scowled. “And there is only one party that would benefit from endangering all of you at once.”
Wepwawet exchanged a worried glance with his teammates. All of them could read between the lines.
A Titan infiltrator was active on Elphion.
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Comments
J S
Neat!
George R
Great chapter thanks
