Chapter 44

“Thank you for bringing my people to safety,” Mayor Bevlin said as I moved through the long hallway where we had brought in the people. It was off my throne room, behind the full defenses of my dungeon.

“We might be under siege for a while,” I said.

“That’s what worries me,” said the mayor. “While our stockpiles of grains are here, we had to leave our livestock to graze on the green in the village center. And the army will burn our fields after they harvest what’s ripe to feed themselves. We will have famine.”

“I’ll create farmlands underground,” I said. “Use the Fertile Lands ritual to make it the best farmland ever. No one will ever be able to destroy Astovin’s food supply after that.”

“Underground, my lord?” Astonishment filled his face.

“I have the rituals to shed light and to make the soil fertile.” I clapped him on the shoulders. “We’ll make it work.”

“Thank you, my lord,” he said, bowing low.

“And once it’s planted, I can use Bloom for it to grow so fast.” I hurried out of the throne room. “Come, to my Vault. You’ll have to advise me on how much farmland we’ll need.”

“Of course, my lord.”

The mayor had never been in my private quarters. He passed my companions all in discussions. Several maps of the village were spread out on tables as they were discussing battle plans and deployments. Fara held a list of all the monster girls.

It was a lot of work figuring this out. I left it to my companions while I worked on remolding the dungeon. I reached the room and grabbed the Void Crystal. The mayor gasped in awe as he stared at it. His hand trembled.

“I’ve heard of them,” he said. “The Black Souls of the Dungeon Builders.”

“Our connection to the Void.” I grabbed it. “That’s Souleen, she’s a piece of the Incarnation, the being who summons us.”

“Hi!” Souleen said. She glanced at me. “An army? Tens of thousands of soldiers.” Worry rippled through me. Could my monster girls handle that? So long as we kept them off the wall and out of the dungeon, I could refresh my forces.”

“The golems will buy us a bit more time,” I said. “I sent them towards the army. They won’t be laying siege to us until this evening. We have work to do. If this turns into a long siege, we’ll need food.”

I gripped the Void Crystal as the mayor talked me through making the farmland. I created massive farms beneath the living area. Huge fields dominated the level with support pillars and massive lights to be as bright as the sun. I used all the power I gained from Berg to fill it with good soil. I moved the seeds in the storehouse down to it.

Then I would head down myself to start enchanting it so the crops would grow fast and plentiful. \ / * Siwang sat down at his seat on the council table with his three companions. The mayor of Astovin was here along with all of Leo’s twelve companions plus Smerta. Maps were unfurled on the table, Hagane studying them. Fara and Kassie were chatting off to the side.

“I wish Halia was here,” Siwang muttered to his mother.

Xiongbu nodded, her black mist spilling down her. “Do any of Leo’s companions have any military training?”

“Not that I know of.” Siwang sighed. “Where is he?”

“Creating farmland,” said Garnet. “My big brother is making sure that we’ll have food if we get besieged. We still have an hour before the army’s here.”

“They’re fighting the golems,” Smerta said. “They won’t last long, but they’re better than nothing.”

“With the dead soldiers, Leo could animate them as skeleton warriors,” Morana said, a smile on her lips. “An army of undead to serve the Dark Lord.”

“Yes!” Garnet squealed.

“Leo would never want that,” Maya said. “You all know that. He had a hard enough time with the skeleton horses.”

“It would be a good use of the dead,” said Hagane.

“Desecrating their bodies?” gasped Lana Fulmine, her lightning wings fluttering. “No.”

“Yeah, gross,” Terra agreed.

“Pretty metal, though,” said Nina. The porn star had her feet on the table and leaned back in her chair, her red breasts quivering.

“We cannot do that,” said Mrs. Baldwin. Leo’s mother had a disapproving look on her face matched by Mrs. Lucina’s and Ms. Trueno’s. The latter had the expression only a disappointed teacher could have.

“No skeletons,” Alizee said. “That’s creepy, Morana.”

The banshee shrugged. “I know Leo wouldn’t want to do that...” She trailed off as Leo marched in, the hem of his robe dusty. “Hey, Leo.”

“Do I want to know what I wouldn’t do?” he asked as he sat down.

“Nope,” said Maya as Garnet said, “Definitely not, big bro!”

“Okay, okay, what’s the plan?” He glanced at Hagane.

Siwang leaned forward, eager to hear it. This time, he had to be involved. His monster girls might be only Level 1, but they trained with Leo’s. Sparred. Learned to fight. Practiced with his adventurers. Siwang ached to contribute.

He ached to become stronger to truly help Leo’s plan to save the world. \ / * Hagane pushed up the frames of her glasses. They had no lenses and were even a part of her body in a weird way. She felt comfortable having them. She glanced at Siwang sitting with his three companions. He watched on eagerly.

“We’ll need to use all our forces, Leo and Count Siwang,” said the animated statue. “I propose the following deployment of our monster girls.”

She tapped the map of Astovin, the four walls with their three gates drawn around the collection of buildings. She traced the north wall.

“Here we should deploy the will o’ wisps, unicorns, sphinxes, leprechauns, and the animated armors,” Hagane said. “We split up the Level 1, 2, and 3 monster girls to try and create a balance of units that we hope will compliment each other.”

“Okay,” Leo said, smiling at Hagane.

A crystalline quiver ran through her metallic body. “For the north gate, the rock elementals who already command it supplemented with Siwang’s lemures.”

“Done,” said Siwang. “I’ll let my monster girls know where to go.”

Hagane nodded. “Now for the east wall, the satyrs, basilisks, werebears, werewolves, and yetis. The east gate is guarded by the hellhounds and Siwang’s choirs.”

“Good, good,” Leo said. He stared at the map, his face hard. “South wall?”

“The wildhounds, orcs, ghosts, kelpies, and aos sithe. With the goblins and Siwang’s cockatrices guarding the south gate.”

“Who does that leave for the west wall?” asked Leo, his brow furrowing. “Damn, I have too many types of monster girls.”

“The more the merrier,” Alizee whooped.

“The arachnes, oozes, yuki-onna, salamanders, oreads, and sirens,” Hagane supplied. “Which leaves our air force: the quetzalcoatls, thunderbirds, phoenixes, harpies, hippogriffs, and vampires.”

“Okay, and what about companions?” asked Leo. “And the ones I’ve gained from other dungeon builders. No mention of them.”

“Our strategic reserves,” Hagane said. “You deploy us when and where we are needed.” She flicked her eyes to Leo then glanced down to Siwang. “I recommend that you two stay close to your Void Crystals. To maneuver monster girls. Revive those who are killed. Keep the walls manned. The rest of us will be in the city itself.”

“And me?” asked Kassie.

“Stay by Leo,” Mrs. Baldwin said. “In case he needs to join the fight. The adventurers and the aquatic monster girls will be the last line of defense for Leo.”

Hagane stared at Leo, waiting for him to object to being told to wait in his Vault.

He sighed. “Fine, fine. But how am I supposed to monitor the battle? Just listen to it? Worry?”

“The Scrying Ritual,” Hagane answered.

“Okay.” Leo stretched. “Sorry, Siwang.”

“It’s fine,” said Siwang. “I am used to waiting in one place. I should return to my dungeon.”

“Kassie,” Leo said and rose. “I’ll deploy you for the battle. It’s a good plan, Hagane.”

She smiled for only a moment. “Thank you.” \ / * I released my Void Crystal. The last of my monster girls were deployed. I had emptied the dungeon. My companions were all out in Astovin. I had Kassie and Fara with me. I added some comfortable chairs for them to sit on.

“You think this will work?” I asked. “That we’ll hold against an army of ten thousand?”

“Advantage does go to the defender,” said Fara. “I think we have good odds.”