The Systemic Lands

Chapter XXXI – Day 536 – Stand Triumphant

I let out a sigh. My tether I sent in covertly into Purgatory to attach to Michael had failed. I was combining the knowledge of the Puppet Master and the Weeping Child to try and assassinate him in his sleep. Even pumping him full of depression, didn’t do anything except disturb his sleep like he had disturbed mine.

Well time to force their use of the City Shield and end this farce. I ordered my injured and weak hybrids to pour into the city from all directions. That would force the defenders to act. As my forces approached the plaza, the City Shield kicked in.

I had already been prepared by leaving them with instructions. They would rush at the plaza, trying to kill and wound as many people as possible. It was a large sacrifice, but with this the city would be vulnerable.

I began arranging my forces for when the City Shield finally did fall. I would move forth and crush all opposition. I took this time to rest and focus on my body. My arm was weird, but it was mine. I flexed the ten puppet fingers and the eyes twitched, all at my beck and call.

I probed the City Shield, but its barrier cut off all energy transmission and flow. I had three hybrids standing partially in and out of the barrier, and it was weird. One managed to get back under the shield and the tether was cut off. I couldn’t send a tether through one of the remaining hybrids paritally in and out of the shield.

Even when the cut off one came over to one of the others partially in and out, based on previous instructions and they touched, I couldn’t do anything. That was annoying. If they exited I had control like normal. The in-between situation felt like there was a rushing waterfall and I was trying to stick my arm through it without being pushed away.

That was how trying to push a tether through the shield felt. Even with another hybrid acting as a blockade, it didn’t help. The rushing torrent kept pushing my attempts away, but flowed around the hybrid. Even touching, there was enough of a gap, that the City Shield’s flow pushed away tethers from being chained.

There might be ways around it, but it was clear that I couldn’t extend any kind of tethers into the city while the City Shield was active. There was nothing to do but wait and reorganize my forces. It was annoying I couldn’t immediately act. But I needed the City Shield to be used up. They would be unable to use it again for another day once it turned off regardless.

The first priority was to ensure my safety. I moved my box inside of the World Eater, carefully cutting away flesh from the inside and embedding my box and allowing the flesh to surround it. While it wouldn’t be practical long term, I had enough supplies to last for a few days while in the safest place possible. Inside my World Eater, my masterpiece creation. It would take a tremendous about of physical damage to punch through its scales and regeneration. Its energy repulsion was amazing.

But for a person of my skill and caliber it was simple enough to weave the tethers around its scales. The damage Champion Michael had done had provided an easy point to deploy the tethers out of. Even if the World Eater suffered damage, I would be safe inside and able to act.

Those annoying beam attacks struck from a far distance down all the wide streets the city had made to each of the gates. I scattered my forces and began returning long distance suppressive fire. I adjusted my targeting as my aerial monsters provided information.

For my main army I had to raise up World Eater to block the attacks. That was when Champion Michael acted. I focused beam attacks him, but there was no easy way to deal with him. The terrain of the city which I had used for my advantage in the past had been turned against me.

I had my monsters spread out and make sure there was no one hiding in the city. I kept up the suppressive fire as World Eater advanced. Champion Michael only had so much energy. I would deal with him after I crushed the city. One man could only do so much, no matter how great. Eventually he would either be forced to retreat or act, both would end in my victory.

Champion Michael leapt off the wall, but I had to also focus on suppressing the plaza and maneuver all my hybrids to close in on the center of the city while avoiding the main roads. The tower in the center of the city was quickly targeted and the top of it melted.

I tried to sweep their inner wall made up of buildings, but there were large gray obstructions. They had cut out portions of the buildings and got them up there to use as makeshift shelter. I moved in my flying monsters and arrows took them out.

I frowned as Champion Michael was killing my hybrids at the rear. It soon became a cat and mouse game. I grit my teeth in frustration as he made several non-sensical movement patterns to avoid traps I had set up. Or just charging past one group of monsters, completely ignoring them.

He was doing it on purpose. The random movements were meant to throw me off and frustrate me. I had to applaud him on his tenacity. Even more annoying I lost him several times as he ran into the city.

I kept bombarding the plaza, but trying to force the inner wall would mean needing to commit myself or an all out attack. Neither of which appealed to me. I was slowly blowing away the roof top defenses one by one. Eventually they would all be gone and I would have control of the skies and the elevation from the buildings.

Another Radiant Beam struck one of my hybrids that had been shooting a fire beam. The Radiant Beam skill users were a priority and I immediately focused fire on where the attack had come from, but they had already retreated.

I was slowly being worn down and I didn’t like it. I concentrated my forces into clusters to better manage. I had been trying to do too much. My new found sense of control had gone to my head. Instead of trying to micromanage my entire army, I needed to focus on my grouping tactic. The change back to my previous method of control, stopped the hemorrhaging from Champion Michael and I had the plaza surrounded.

I would have to push forward personally. I lost track of Champion Michael and kept scanning for him. My aerial control was contested across the entire city. There was another war going on in the skies. Where summons tried to drag my higher-level summons and hybrids down to the ground.

Mental attacks swept upwards, but the enemy summons were too high to target. If I didn’t go up to that height, they would dive bomb my flying monsters and drag them down before I could act. So, the aerial battle kept climbing upwards as each side kept trying to get more height, speed, and vision on the other sides forces.

Multiple aerial dogfights occurred and kept occurring as I had to devote time and energy to the aerial battle. If I lost control of the sky, then I would lose vision on large portions of the city and allow my enemies to have overwatch on my forces.

I needed to put wings on my worm. Then it would truly be unstoppable. I liked the idea, and it would be something I would look into after I won. Perhaps a bladed tail and something on the front to attack more than just its mouth. That would make it truly terrifying. Who needed a dragon when they had a flying worm?

It was time to arrange my forces in preparation for assault tomorrow while I rested. Hopefully I could break Purgatory fully once it happened. I was still weary of any last-minute moves by Champion Michael and the City Shield, but I was ready for both occurrences. This time I would win and there would be no one to dispute my victory.

I would take my time to set the stage and see if they would use the City Shield. If it activated it would require all my focus to counter it and from ruining my tethers. Being on the inside of the city and inside World Eater would allow me some unique work arounds. I would try a couple and hopefully one of them would stick. I didn’t want to be caught off guard if I could help it.