They found the Black Lighthouse empty.
While Victoire had often participated in fishing trips from Cape Narc, most locals knew better than to travel too far north into the Winter Sea’s stormy waters. Most of their ships weren’t equipped to make long trips, to the point that the longship her crew used to reach the current island had to be built from scratch under Lord Wepwawet’s guidance, and even then they would have likely failed to find the spot without Karen the Kraken’s guidance.
The Black Lighthouse itself had been quite the ominous sight, a smooth, dark tower standing alone on a rocky island and reaching up into the sky. It had no fiery beacon to guide ships, though a white statue of Lady Artemis—a huntress goddess allied with Lord Wepwawet and Karen’s patron—sat atop the peak with her bow pointing at the horizon. There was little to hunt in this place besides seals and sea lions, but who was Victoire to contest a goddess’ choice of prey?
“I only saw Arty hunt a seal once,” she heard her god muse inside her head. Telepathic small talk between them had grown more common since the Titan Incursion’s conclusion. “It was the size of this island.”
“What would sothing so big even feed on?” Victoire replied as she examined the stones at the base of the lighthouse. All of them bore old carvings damaged by centuries of bad weather, but she recognized a few from her last visit to the Sacred Source’s Terraforr.
“Fishes bigger than you are, and people.”
Figures. Victoire turned to find Filou and Wintresse walking up to her. Mistouffe had already been sent ahead and through the Altar to deal with Artemis’ followers in their holand while they checked the island for any sign of danger.
“We’ve secured the periter, milady!” her squire announced proudly.
“Mostly from seals begging for our provisions,” Wintresse quipped.
“No sign of lunarian activity?” Victoire asked. The structure’s likely origins were the main reason why they had dispatched a group of Champions to help secure the site.
“No, but I am certain they designed this structure,” Wintresse confird. “Considering the use of blackstone in the construction and so of the runes inscribed at the base, I suspect it served as a psychic beacon of so sort. A long-range communication relay, if you will.”
“Can it be reactivated?” Victoire asked. They had enough problems to deal with to risk having the lunarians install an outpost in their backyard.
“Not without significant repairs,” Wintresse reassured her. “Ti has not been kind to this lighthouse.”
“Our wererat and wererabbit sappers are burrowing their way under the lighthouse’s base in case they find secret passages underneath,” Filou said.
“A wise choice,” Victoire replied. “Lord Wepwawet told that Lady Artemis could summon Champions to defend her Altar or smite any monster attacking the island in a pinch, but better safe than sorry.”
“Speaking of smiting monsters…” Wintresse glanced at the stony shores. “What are you going to do about the dragon?”
Victoire shuddered and glanced at the stony beach. A colossal red dragon lurked there among surprised seals and sea lions who didn’t know any better. He tried to hide behind so rocks, but being a sixty-foot-long crimson-scaled behemoth didn’t quite lend itself to stealth.
“Go away!” Victoire shouted in frustration. “Get lost!”
“Leave Milady alone!” Filou joined in.
“Never! The last ti Soumis let a princess out of his sight, it cost her her life!” Soumis the dragon let out a breath of smoke. “And the way Princess Victoire keeps denying Soumis any fulfillnt… makes her all the more desirable…”
Oh my god… Victoire thought. Sobody end this torture.
“I can’t help you much there,” Lord Wepwawet replied with all of his sympathy. “My usual thod of dragon containnt isn’t too effective against that one…”
Unlike a frost dragon like Insupportable, who was both comfortable in the cold and had little way of freeing himself from being trapped in a block of ice whenever he annoyed Lord Wepwawet too much, a fire dragon like Soumis produced an intense amount of heat at all tis. Lord Wepwawet’s ice barriers simply lted away within hours of contact. Besides, Soumis wasn’t a fellow Champion and thus not particularly inclined to listen to their god—who remained unwilling to recruit him either.
Victoire had no idea why that creature latched onto her rather than Princess Topaz—maybe because she was a lot more vocal about wanting nothing to do with him—but he had been stalking her for days on end at this point. While Soumis didn’t try to kidnap her like Insupportable did, he still remained an annoyance.
“Shall I throw stones at him, milady?” Filou suggested. “I-It works with cats!”
“No, I fear he’ll like it,” Victoire replied with a sigh. “Let’s just ignore him.”
“Against my better judgnt, I would advise we recruit him,” Wintresse suggested, which earned her a glare from Victoire. “What? He looks much more obedient than Insupportable. And he even listens to you.”
“Not enough to understand how to get lost,” Victoire complained. One dragon stalking her all of her adolescence had been enough to sour her on the idea of spending ti with these lizards.
“Although…” Lord Wepwawet whispered in her mind. “Mmm….”
Victoire closed her eyes. “I swear that if you make ride that thing–”
“I’m not looking forward to it, but we can’t have that dragon stalk you for the rest of your life.” The noise of snapping fingers echoed in Victoire’s mind. “Okay, I have an idea. Repeat after .”
Victoire shuddered upon hearing her god’s proposal, but with few other options, she decided to go along. “Ahem,” she said, clearing her throat. “Oh, noble and fair dragon…”
The beast’s head perked up like a dog, much to her distaste. “Did you call Soumis?”
“I am most pleased with your dedication,” Victoire lied through her teeth, forcing herself to keep a straight face. “However, I am a princess without a castle, whose old ancestral ho of Neigebleue Castle was stolen by vile usurpers!”
“How dare they?!” Soumis complained, a bright blaze coming out of his nostrils. His flas lted rock and caused seals to clap like a crowd applauding a show. “Soumis keeps telling everyone that the princess species will go extinct if global democratization is not pushed back, but none of his fellow dragons believe him!”
Did he even understand what democratization ant? Whatever the case, Victoire continued to repeat the words Lord Wepwawet whispered in her mind. “Alas, nothing would please more than spending ti with a noble dragon—” That sentence hurt her throat. “—but I cannot consider myself a princess without my gaudy throne and castle…”
“This is truly a tragedy,” Soumis nodded in agreent. The subtle insinuations flew straight over that dragon’s head. “A tragedy!”
“He doesn’t get it,” Lord Wepwawet muttered in Victoire’s head. “Maybe wink at him or so–”
“How are you even more stupid than Insupportable?!” Victoire snapped in annoyance. She was at her wit’s end.
Most dragons would have probably reacted with anger, but Soumis instead shrunk in obedience. “Soumis is sorry, mistres–”
“Don’t be sorry, be useful!” Victoire replied angrily. She simply didn’t care anymore. “If you want my attention, then retake Neigebleue Castle for or get lost!”
“Y-yes, right away, mistress Victoire!” The dragon expanded his wings, all fired up at being needed. “Soumis shall reclaim your castle at once!”
The dragon took flight without wasting any more ti—nor asking for directions—and imdiately departed for the south so fast his wings caused a booming sound to reverberate across the sky. Victoire and the others watched him vanish beyond the horizon with imnse relief.
“Interesting approach…” Lord Wepwawet comnted.
“That was…” Victoire let out a heavy breath. “Therapeutic.”
“Good riddance,” Filou said with a nod before muttering sothing under his breath. “As if anybody could serve Milady better than …”
“Good call,” Wintresse comnted. “If he fails, he’s at least out of hair; and in the best-case scenario, he will weaken that haunted castle’s defenses.”
“And if he succeeds at clearing Neigebleue Castle?” Victoire asked both her ally and her god.
“We’ll cross that burning bridge when we reach it,” Lord Wepwawet replied, while Wintresse shrugged her shoulders.
Her god had no idea what to do either, but at least the dragon would be out of sight and out of mind for now.
Lady Artemis’ Altar shone atop the lighthouse, and Mistouffe suddenly teleported at the base alongside two humanoid lizards with green and blue scales respectively. Victoire had heard of these so-called scaled cousins of werelings, but never t one before. Most of them couldn’t stand Verglane’s frigid cold for long, and the way those two imdiately started rubbing their arms illustrated that fact.
However, what surprised Victoire the most was their reaction upon seeing Wintresse. The green one raised a stone club and looked poised to strike at the first sign of hostility, while the larger blue-scaled werelizard assessed her with suspicion.
Wintresse smiled back at them without fear or care. “I assu you’ve already t my kindred.”
“You are lucky that Lady Artemis vouched for you, or you would be in the cooking pot already,” the green one replied threateningly. It surprised Victoire that he would know of the Verglanian tongue, but she guessed they enjoyed the sa Translation blessing her god often shared with his Champions.
“Let introduce you to Bigger-Than-Yours and Elder Bonebreaker,” Mistouffe said in an attempt to defuse the situation. “Chief warrior and elder of Turtle-Village!”
“You’re Bigger-Than-Yours?” Filou asked the green-scaled lizardman, who was a good head smaller than his fellow werescale. “Why are you called that way?”
“Because Bigger-Than-Yours has the biggest one!” the lizardman replied proudly.
A short silence followed, quickly broken by Mistouffe. “Tail. He’s got the biggest tail.”
“And the biggest club, too,” Bonebreaker added. He didn’t sound particularly old for an elder, but Victoire had no idea how scalekins aged. “You must be the ambassadors we were expecting. Lady Artemis gave us the gift of tongues so that you would understand us.”
“I am Victoire, and this is my squire, Filou, and my ally, Wintresse,” Victoire replied. “While Lord Wepwawet inford us that you suffered from changeling raids on your shores, I assure you that Wintresse is a trustworthy comrade of ours.”
“You make blush,” the changeling quipped. “I have no loyalty left for Shadazar and would be most happy to help you deal with those corsairs.”
“I am not sure, but the goddess knows best,” Elder Bonebreaker replied, his eyes lingering on Victoire’s spear. “She said you could provide tal weapons that cut deeper than stone.”
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Victoire nodded. “Lord Wepwawet asked us to help you build a port on this island in order to improve trade between our nations. We can barter steel weapons against other resources that we need, such as timber and food.”
“We have both aplenty, but we can discuss that at our village.” Elder Bonebreaker shuddered. “I’ll catch a cold if we stay here much longer.”
“They have this thing called coffee!” Mistouffe said with enthusiasm. “Once you try it, you’ll never want to drink water ever again!”
Victoire saw no issue with that and pressed her hand against the lighthouse. Lady Artemis’ Altar glowed and teleported her group away to another side of the world. The air ward up from chilly to near-unbearably hot in an instant, and the morning changed into sunset.
They seed to materialize atop a crude redstone fort of so kind built atop a large mound. A small, primitive village of huts and clay houses of lizardn prospered behind a fence of sharpened wood, beyond which stretched a dense forest surrounded by a moat of water. Victoire briefly thought they had arrived on a distant island of so kind… until she noticed the shore moving along the edges of her vision.
Or rather, the mound on which the village was built swam along the shore of a vast river.
Victoire squinted north until she spotted the scaled head of a colossal creature whose skull was about as big as an adult dragon peeking above the water. The beast stared at the horizon without a care in the world.
“Is this…” Filou gasped. “Is this a turtle?”
“Ho Shell is more than a turtle!” Bigger-Than-Yours said. “She’s a Champion!”
Victoire glanced at the edge of the forest surrounding the village. The trees stopped at the edge of bony ground that imdiately called to mind the edge of a turtle’s shell.
“Well…” Lord Wepwawet whispered in her mind. “At least she doesn’t have back pains.”
A great shadow passed over Victoire’s group. She looked up to see a strange, two-headed featherless bird larger than a dragon and with a tail long enough to topple towers fly above them. So great was its wingspan that it briefly cast the entire village into darkness as it roared to the cloudless sumr sky.
“Welco, visitors,” Elder Bonebreaker said as he waved his hand at a dense jungle surrounding them. “Welco to the Wyld!”
“You have Kaijus?” Wepwawet asked Artemis the mont he manifested in their realm of shared Influence. “Kaijus?!”
“Aweso, right?” Artemis boasted as Ganesha materialized in the void to join the eting. “I have only recruited two of them so far, but they’re both Rank 10 Champions! I’m gonna catch ‘em all!”
“That’s aweso!” Ganesha said, before frowning. “Wait… how did you end up with such terrible scores in demographics and military with Kaiju Champions?”
“Oh, well…” Artemis winced. “A jungle inhabited by highly territorial giant monsters isn’t too great for raising large-scale cities…”
Wepwawet assud as much. Village-Turtle was apparently the largest settlent in the Wyld region from what he gathered from Mistouffe’s discussions with its werescale traders, and it barely had a few thousand inhabitants calling it ho. Most of Artemis’ civilization was made of tribes living in the jungle, and they only t to occasionally trade or fight.
Ironically enough, the only large modern settlents popping up on her territory were changeling pirate ports raiding local resources; and those invaders enjoyed a significant technological advantage over the natives thanks to their mastery of tallurgy.
Still, Rank 10 Champions were nothing to sneeze at. Whiro only needed two monster equivalents of them to put both Verglane and Lavaland on the back foot during the Incursion.
The fourth mber of the eting appeared in a flash of light. One of Axomamma’s andvari Champions had settled in Roynimalia to serve as an ambassador, which allowed their Influence to overlap and thus establish direct communications.
“Hi!” Axomamma waved her hand at the group. “Thanks for having here today.”
“Please, Axo, the more the rrier!” Ganesha replied happily. He always welcod new friends. “How have you been?”
“So-so,” Axomamma confessed. “My civilization is doing good, but I’m sad Pele won’t be with us anymore.”
“Oh, right, the two of you are friends,” Artemis said, though she didn’t show too much sympathy. She had never gotten along with Pele, even before she and Lavaland started making a ss of themselves.
Axomamma nodded. “I’m also concerned about Lavaland now that no god is in charge there. I fear it will cause issues on my borders.”
“Don’t tell ,” Wepwawet complained. “I’m swamped with work.”
Wepwawet had given his Champions ti to reassess their priorities and think of their future plans after the montous Titan Incursion. He had also taken ti to think about his recent grades and areas he would need to improve upon.
Verglane’s key weaknesses, according to the Board of Education, were its low technology level, undeveloped agrarian economy, and its terrible population size since the country was imnse yet sparsely populated. His teachers also noted a lack of public infrastructure and political institutions to bind the realm together, and this godly eting was ant to address those issues.
Besides his civilization’s developnt, he had three other priorities to deal with.
First of all, while his crafters in Narc had successfully saved the city’s water sources from direct infection by poison left by Whiro’s Miracles and Hydrasli monsters, the garbage patch and noxious marshes he left behind continued to fester. All the rusted tal, plastic, and acid there would eventually contaminate the soil and thus had to be eliminated. Wintresse would oversee that task with Wepwawet’s crafters.
Second of all, the Neigebleue Castle Dungeon remained unclaid. Wepwawet couldn’t seize his country’s final Altar without clearing it first, and he disliked leaving a monster den in his backyard unattended. Moreover, clearing that Dungeon should let him unlock new Miracles, which might in turn finally let him raise his fallen Champions from the dead. He had already taken steps to deal with it by sending Soumis and would provide more reinforcents to ensure things went according to plan. Rapoleon would do, considering the Dungeon’s proximity to Roynimalia and the wererat’s experience with sapping.
And finally, he had to stabilize Lavaland now that both its goddess and leadership had been decimated during the Titan Incursion. While a truce had been in place since the disaster, no treaty had been signed with Verglane and tensions remained high.
Wepwawet had found a symbolic way to reconcile with the magmorians—naly, by claiming a few of Pele’s old Champions as his own—but required their new leader’s blessing. Victoire would be left in charge of that all-important project.
“Pele asked to manage Lavaland in her place,” Wepwawet inford Axomamma. “I’m not sure I will go with it yet—or if the magmorians will even agree—but would you be opposed to it?”
“Not at all. I would rather consolidate than overextend, and we have a non-aggression treaty, so I’m not too worried.” Axomamma cleared her throat. “Ish, Pona, and Sun Wukong might disagree, though.”
“Yeah…” Ganesha stroked his trunk. “Wepy is already the top student and assimilating Lavaland would further strengthen his lead. Our more competitive classmates may try to sabotage any diplomatic efforts to prevent him from accruing too many advantages.”
“Isn’t Lavaland a barren land of rocks and volcanoes?” Artemis asked. “Who would go to war to claim that kind of place?”
“Well…” Axomamma scratched her cheek. “It’s still rich in ore and strategically located between multiple countries…”
“That’s not the only issue,” Wepwawet replied. “According to Pele, Lavaland served as a diator between two major southern powers hostile to each other: the Zorash Empire and the Republic of Valentine.”
“Those are Ish and Pona’s civilizations,” Axomamma said. “I’ve heard of the treaty. Should any of these nations attack the other, Lavaland agreed to provide military support to the other until hostilities ceased. That deadlock deterred hostilities.”
“And since Lavaland’s military was decimated, they can’t play peacekeeper anymore,” Wepwawet sumd it up.
“Can’t Stalheim do it then?” Artemis asked Axomamma. “Plus, Epona and Ishtar are friends, no? I always see them giggling with you and Pele.”
“I an… it’s complicated.” Axomamma scratched the back of her head. “Ish and Pona aren’t great friends… more they’re friends of Pele and , and thus hang out by association. They wouldn’t get along without Pele smoothing things over. Their civilizations have issues, big issues, and I fear they’ll spill into the classroom soon...”
“And they’re not the only ones!” Artemis complained. “Anansi and Hel’s civilizations keep raiding my own for resources! If they can’t keep their mortals in line, I swear we’ll start filming Kaiju movies centuries ahead of schedule!”
“Have you talked to them about it?” Ganesha asked.
“I tried! But Anansi says his worshippers do whatever they want and he can’t keep them in line for shit, while Hel is never in class so I can’t find her!” Artemis crossed her arms. “I’m sure Anansi is lying though, like usual.”
“I’m not so sure,” Wepwawet replied. “I don’t trust Anansi, but he’s the god of the changelings from what I understand. If those dark elves are anything like the one in my army, they’ll probably sche even against a deity.”
“Wouldn’t surprise , my own civilization barely listens to ,” Ganesha complained.
“Would Lavaland even convert?” Axomamma asked Wepwawet. “I an, even if our class lets you take over the place, you’ll still have to convince the mortals.”
“I’m not sure,” Wepwawet admitted. The Champion bond between Pele and her chosen shattered when she was expelled from Elphion, so he would have to recruit her old followers like any other. “Pele gave pointers, but we’ll see if they take.”
“I see.” Axomamma cleared her throat. “In any case, I’m in the process of overlapping my Influences with Ish and Pona, so I should be able to arrange a roundtable eting soon.”
“How are they?” Wepwawet asked. Any information on his future neighbors would improve his chances of reaching a settlent with them.
“Ish is super passionate, whimsical, and forceful, while Pona is more stoic, controlling, and a bit prickly sotis. They clash like fire and ice.”
“Like Wepy and Pele?” Artemis joked, which caused Axomamma to chuckle nervously.
Wepwawet didn’t like this at all, but that was a problem for another day. “Enough with the tangents,” he said. “Let’s keep international tensions out of this and focus on how we can economically integrate our civs!”
“Now we’re talking,” Axomamma said with a smile as she forwarded them System ssages. “Here are the resources I can export and those I’m looking for.”
Since Wepwawet’s civilization bordered everybody else’s either through geography or Altar teleportation highways, the four of them had arranged this eting to see how they could develop trade between them. Key to that economic union would be the newly christened lighthouse island of Portlight—Artemis’ choice—which allowed rchandise to arrive in Narc, be forwarded by sea to Artemis’ Altar, and then teleported to the Wyld.
Everyone presented the resources their civilization could produce and required. Artemis’ Wyld had a very large surplus of food to export—so large that her people barely bothered with crops since they could simply fish, hunt, or harvest wild plants—alongside dicinal herbs, spice, alchemical components, wood, and ore. However, her civilization was underdeveloped and urgently needed tal weapons to defend itself against the technologically superior changelings and undead invaders from the north.
Axomamma’s Stalheim constantly demanded food and ore to fuel its underground dwarven industries, but could produce the finest talwork in all of Elphion. The andvari were highly advanced when it ca to technological innovations, as proved by their creation of golems and other alchemical wonders. They had already developed dynamite, primitive batteries, and even drills.
Ganesha’s galoria had the strongest economy—fitting for a civilization obsessed with acquiring wealth—with productive salt and ore mines, breweries, paper production centers, and even banks; making it the only nation among the four with an actual finance ecosystem. However, his people craved a constant stream of luxury goods to satisfy their appetite for prestige, and wood to build rchant ships for trading to the south.
Finally, Wepwawet’s Verglane could provide plenty of natural resources from silver ore to animal ga, timber, lumber, ivory, stone, and wool… but otherwise lacked much in terms of finished goods and actual liquid capital to develop projects with.
Everybody had sothing the others needed. The issue was transporting those resources to their destination at the cheapest price possible.
“What we need are roads,” Wepwawet said as they examined a map of the region. galoria and Stalheim already had existing trade routes, but his own country was lacking in that departnt. “We’ll build a path linking Fort Jarlack to galoria and improve the existing tunnels linking Roynimalia to Stalheim.”
“Once goods reach either, they can teleport to Narc and then be shipped to Portlight or vice-versa,” Axomamma said. “I would love to trade tal weapons for Artemis’ fresh food.”
“Now you’re speaking my language!” Artemis rejoiced.
“The issue is that Wepy doesn’t have a good navy, and we still need to ship goods between Cape Narc and Portlight through a difficult sea,” Ganesha pointed out. “I know a few of my followers who would love to invest in shipyards, but not for free…”
“I’m fine with giving giants a share of the ship profits,” Wepwawet replied, which caused Ganesha to wince. “Yes, I know how they are, but in the long-term it’ll lead to shipbuilding technology transfers to my werelings. It’ll benefit Verglane over ti.”
“Tariffs will also be an issue, considering goods may travel across multiple nations before reaching their destination,” Axomamma said. “We should build a transnational consortium in charge of managing them to ensure a smooth flow of goods.”
“That could work,” Wepwawet agreed. “Its revenues could go into maintaining public infrastructure between our nations, like roads or ports. This would ensure fair trade without disputes about funding.”
“Speaking of trade…” Ganesha cleared his throat, the way he always did before politely asking for a favor. “Wepy, would you mind trading that Skill: Treasure Hunter Revelation of yours? I’m looking for ways to drive interest in my church among my civilization, and I have the feeling that would help a lot.”
“I’ve no issue at all,” Wepwawet replied. “I still owe you for all the cards you traded with before the Incursion, and I’ve already mapped most of the precious ore deposits.”
“Sweet!” Ganesha rejoiced. “No rush though, we can trade it after you clear your Dungeon. I’ve a feeling that the Perk will help your Champions there.”
“I would be interested in that Terraforr Miracle of yours too,” Axomamma said. “My civilization’s lands aren’t naturally fertile, so a few changes in weather patterns would do us a world of good.”
Wepwawet was a bit more leery about exchanging that one since he had yet to build a Terraforr on all of his civilization’s Altars, but Artemis quickly pointed out the simple solution.
“Why don’t you just build one?” she asked.
Axomamma blinked. “Build one?”
“Didn’t it start as a mortal machine of so kind?” Artemis shrugged. “If those lunarians could create it, why not your dwarves?”
“Oh, that’s true…” Wepwawet muttered to himself. The idea of reverse-engineering the Terraforrs never ca up since his civilization was decades away from having the ans to create one themselves, but Stalheim was technologically advanced enough to create golems. “The andvari might be able to create a Terraforr of their own if they study them enough.”
Axomamma imdiately sensed the catch. “And what would that cost ?”
“Golems,” Wepwawet replied imdiately. “I need more golems.”
“Huh?” Axomamma raised an eyebrow. “Do you want to attack soone?”
“Not quite,” Wepwawet replied. “Whiro left us with a giant patch of polluted land that risks poisoning water sources. I’ve spent ti cleaning it, but the acid and fus harm the living–”
“While golems can work in hazardous conditions…” Axomamma considered his proposal for a mont before coming up with a counteroffer. “I don’t have enough golems to sell you right now, but I can lend you those that I have to help you clean Whiro’s patch in exchange for access to your Terraforrs.”
“That’s acceptable to ,” Wepwawet replied, which imdiately caused the System to provide them with a new quest.
New Quest: Robo’s Revenge
Clean-up Whiro’s poisoned marshes with the power of SCIENCE!
Reward: Artifact Miracle.
Wepwawet grinned ear to ear. “Did you get it too, Axo?”
“Oh yes.” Axomamma cracked her knuckles. “Let’s get cleaning.”
They would invent recycling before this world’s Industrial Revolution.
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