Simple man with his overpowered army Chapter 29: First steps

Illi is making sothing in his workshop, until a woman asks him "Whatcha doing?"

Illi gots spooked by this and almost falls off of his chair so he shouts "Who- Who the fuck let you in?! Who has fucked up?! Give nas!"

The woman, who turns out to be Tokiko, says to Illi with a smile "No one fucked up silly. I just let myself in while no one was looking."

Illi shouts "How can soone not see soone of your size co in if no one hasn’t fucked up sowhere?!"

Toki pouts and says "I’ll let you know that I’m not 2 ters tall, thank you very much."

Illi asks "That’s your issue? No, why are you here anyways?"

Toki cheered up and said in a positive tone "I... ca to give you the schematics of this wonderful machine as a fellow artisan."

Toki hands Illi schematics of sothing that looks like a flathrower. Illi reads it a bit closer and then says "A fla that doesn’t hurt those with certain magic frequencies."

Toki says excitedly "Exactly! I worked hard on this baby and I’m sure it’ll prove useful to you in the future."

Illi says "Thank you, but what do you an by it?" And Toki says "I have heard a rumor spreading that so sort of bug invasion is about to happen. I ca from the higher realm and there have been several attacks on villages near the forested areas and people are working hard on solving this issue. I ca here to make sure that a top notch artisan would find ways to improve this design if the bug infestation spreads even here."

Illi says "Thanks for the offer, but I think I’ll have to refuse."

Toki is shocked by this and asks "Huh?! Why?! Why aren’t you just taking it and improving it in a way that it becos yours?"

Illi says "First of all, I don’t know what you want from us?"

Toki ponders "So it is a matter of paynt? No need to worry, I have no doubt that it’ll work out if I let you and your battalion handle the improvents of this design. It’ll help a lot of people, but if that doesn’t satisfy you then..."

Toki takes out a pocket watch and dangless it in front of Illi’s face as she says "If you take this pocket watch and throw it against a ghostly figure when you see one, then I’ll consider our business done and dusted."

Illi takes the pocket watch and inspects it for a mont. Then Illi says "I don’t see anything out of the ordinary in it, but my instincts say that there is sothing in this that you aren’t telling ."

Toki smiles and says "As expected of the top artisan of the artisan battalion in Elysium. You are right on the money."

Illi then comnts "If I can’t inspect this thing with only my eyes, then it ans that this thing has sothing big hidden in it."

Toki then comnts "I don’t care if you put it through machines to see what it hides, but as long as you carry it alongside you in case a mont arrives where you need to use it, then I’m satisfied with all of this."

Illi then says "I still don’t feel like this is a fair deal. What do YOU get from this?"

Toki pauses for a mont and looks around Illi’s workshop for a mont in silence. Then she says after a while "I expected it to be a bit ssier, you know. That is just how geniuses are in my humble opinion. Well if they aren’t obsessed with cleanliness, that is."

She continues to browse for a mont and then she says "I don’t know what will happen, but the paynt I hope to get is the survival of many people. That is the paynt I get from this."

Illi then says "So you are that kind of person, huh." And then Toki asks "Then what about you?"

Illi just spouts out "Huh?" And Toki continues "What do you get from making things and giving it to your king?"

Illi then gives a cheeky smile behind his beard and says "Happiness of our king. That is why I craft, have crafted and will craft for."

Toki smiles and says "Good answer." And the two share a mont of silence as the apprentices work on sothing in another room.

Then Illi asks "What’s your na, Kiddo?" And by then, Toki is gone from Illi’s workshop. Illi notices this and comnts "Just as fast as she appears, she disappears."

He is about to start working on the new project Toki gave him, but then he asks no one "How does she do that with a body that big? And what’s with the veil on the left eye?"

Outside, Toki comnts "One thing out of the list. The next is..."

anwhile in Lud’s office, there sits four people. Lud himself, Altair, Tiara and Algol.

Algol asks Lud "So... you are the person Mother has taken special interest in, hmmm?"

Lud answers "I wouldn’t exactly say that, but she does stay here quite a bit, so..."

Algol then raises up from his chair and shouts "You dare to flex on ?!" And Altair calms Algol down with the words "He wasn’t doing that Algol. He just confird that I stay here sotis."

Algol sits back down and says "You say sotis, but you seem to spend most of your ti here nowadays. Perhaps... what that Archon said was true."

Altair says "That’s neither here nor there. So why did you co here?"

Algol says "Yes. I have co to witness personally what kind of man Mother has gotten interested in. So far, I’m not impressed."

Altair says "And since when did I need your approval of anything?" And Algol responds with a quick "Around two thousand years ago."

Then Lud asks Altair "I’m kind of curious about it though, what do you do here Altair?"

Altair says "I send people here or there, sleep and monitor your abyssal adaptivity."

Lud asks "But doesn’t Mätuk do the last part for you?" And Altair responds with "It is more in the realm of academic curiosity."

Algol says in horror "What have they done to you Mother? You never were the first person to go and study for sothing, so this ans that they must have done sothing horrible to you."

Altair says "No Algol. Yes, I barely get interested in anything and I usually discard it when I’m bored with it, but I do study to so degree."

Algol says "I understand Mother. You are asking for help. Well fear not since your son has co to save you from the evil clutches of these abyss worshipers."

Lud comnts "Since when have we been worshiping the abyss?" And Altair says "There is no need to save from anything Algol. I consider being here to be a sort of vacation. A sumr retreat, so to speak."

Algol says "No Mother. You need not to lie any longer. All you need to do is to take a hold of my hand and I’ll teleport us away to our safe haven."

Lud comnts "This is like a soap opera on so level." And Tiara comnts back "I don’t know what soap opera is, but I hope this isn’t one of the good ones."

Lud confirms to Tiara "No. It is not one of the good ones." Then Lud asks Algol "Why do you think you need to save Altair if she can just teleport away whenever she pleases?"

Algol is taken aback by this and says "How dare you speak to and my Mother that way?! Don’t you see that she has the heart of gold so she can’t just abandon you primates to your own devices! Yes, I’ll be the devil this ti and take Mother away from you all to be the hidden good character."

Tiara comnts "So he acknowledges that he is a character of so sort."

Algol shouts "Silence human! You are a re witness to our grand escape."

Then Algol offers his hand to Altair like a prince and says to her "Co Mother. Let us get away from these abyss worshipers."

The three other people can see sparkles coming from Algol.

Altair just snaps her fingers and suddenly Algol disappears.

Then Altair asks Lud and Tiara "So where were we? The aid from Aquila to Nous?"

Tiara responds with "Yes. Since you happen to be here, we ask your aid also to solve the issue that my hubby has."

Altair mutters "The corrupted land of Cryzalin. I used to have a friend from that place. Sha she turned to a crystal structure in Babylon 6. Her and her brethren damaged all the space stations they were in during the day of permanence."

Then more assertively, Altair says to Tiara "Yes. We of the Aquila guild will help you in this endeavor and seek the aid of Ophiuchus guild. If anyone can solve the issue without resorting to the abyss, it has to be those immortality seekers, death reversers and alchemists of the serpent. I’ll also ask if the Boötes guild has anything they could share."

Tiara says gratefully "Thank you. Your assistance will be greatly appreciated not only in the Nous empire, but in all of the lower realm."

Lud asks "Is the corrupted land that big of an issue?" To which Altair says "While its current status has been passive for a long ti, there is a chance that it may turn active, which in turn could bring ruin to the whole planet of Irnlear. USEG’s stance so far has been to observe, but since Roman ca into picture, that ans that the corrupted land may be turning active."

Lud says "USEG? Is that the governnt of star elves?" To which Algol appears and says "The United Star Elf Governnt. USEG, is the primary body that most, if not all star elves embody."

Lud comnts "Oh, you ca back." And Altair says "Aaaand he’s gone." With that, Algol disappears again thanks to Altair.

Tiara comnts "Cold." And continues "Anyways, the survey teams have observed that the corruption guards have been more aggressive lately. That, or our investigation teams either have beco more brazen or there is outside interference."

Lud asks, "What kind of outside interference are we talking about?" Tiara replies, "It could co from anyone. It might be one of the nations within the empire, one of the lower realm factions that oppose the empire—and there are a few—or even soone from the higher realm, including the star elves. I don’t think anyone from the middle realm would try to hinder us, but we can’t completely rule them out either."

Lud says "Yeah. Soone might try to get back to Elysium by doing sothing in the ho realm of the humans."

Altair says "If we want to pick a race that would have a motive from the middle realm, my first pick would be dwarves. Then beastfolk. Then it would be the adventurers guild."

Tiara asks "What happened in the adventurers guild?" And Lud answers "This realm’s main head ca to Elysium and tried to get a branch open here, but since they didn’t agree to do it our way, we rejected them."

Tiara says "I see. That would be a fair motive to so capacity. But still, we can’t say for certain if it is interference from soone or that the corrupted land is about to hit a critical stage."

Then Algol cos back and says "Since Mother seems invested in this as well, I’ll add the contribution of the Perseus guild to your allies, empress of the Nous empire." Tiara says "Thanks. I appreciate it."

Algol then turns to Altair and asks "Why would you do that to twice, Mother? I’m only trying to do what is good for you."

Altair says "You need to turn your focus to sothing other than . And if I have read the reports correctly, Perseus guild has not received new mbers for quite so ti. Maybe I’d start there if you have nothing better to do."

Then Algol says quite proudly "Well, as I am your son, I am also quite the multitasker."

Altair is on her device contacting people about the corrupted land thing and ignoring Algol altogether. She just says with no energy "That’s great Algol. Go get them."

Algol feels disrespected and says to Lud "You. You! You are the one that made Mother this way! I will one day have my revenge!"

Lud replied with a simple "Ok."

Once Altair was done with contacting people, she said to Algol "And you. You better keep on your promise to get Perseus guild’s help on this matter. While I’m not 100% on this theory yet, there exists a possibility of the abyss being part of this."

Algol is astounded by this so he says "Abyss might be responsible for this? Why didn’t I ever consider this. Nay, why didn’t anyone in the Perseus guild think of this?"

Altair responds "It was your secretary who gave the theory."

Tiara and Lud look with expectation how Algol responds, and respond did Algol. He says "That wingler! How dare he not ntion this to !"

Altair says "Mirfak ntioned that she and Miram tried to tell you about it once, but you simply replied "I’ll think about it." And here you are, blaming others."

Again, Tiara and Lud look at Algol with expectation. They would be eating popcorn by now if they had so on hand.

Algol says "I... It... It’s not how it looks like Mother. I... I was busy with... busy with suppressing the abyss in other places. Yes! I was doing my job as an eradicator of the abyssal beings!"

Altair says "Sure sure. Just make sure you keep your word about working on it." And Algol responds swiftly "I will!" And disappears.

Altair then sighs, looks at Tiara and Lud and then says "So do you want to go investigate it now or later Tiara?"

Tiara asks "How is going there now going to help us?" To which Altair says "We have Faust here and we can bring along Zolotifa to confirm whether or not the abyss has anything to do with the corrupted land."

Tiara asks "How are you going to have Zolotifa help us? Would she even be willing to go?" To which Altair answers with a reassuring "Yes, she might seem a bit hesitant at first, but if Faust goes, I’m sure she’d be willing to go as well."

Tiara says "If you say so. Let’s go looking for my hubby and the abyssan."

The three locate Roman almost instantly since he told Tiara beforehand where he was planning on going. Roman seed quite intrigued about Li’s backstory. So much in fact that he felt so sense of comradery towards Li for so reason.

Then they went to ask Tifa about joining them, and her first response about it was "Oh yeah. That whole situation. Yeah, I caused it."

This caused all other three to be silent for a solid mont as they didn’t know how to respond.

Then Altair shouted "You WHAT?!"

And Tifa explained "Yeah, I was bored and I wanted to do sothing interesting, so I hijacked the Cryzalin ruler of the ti and made him make absurd choices filled with paranoia. The final result wasn’t exactly what I had in mind since I couldn’t spend too long on a single person to give them stricter instruction, so the decision just accumulated on him going nuclear at the end."

Roman inquired "But the king himself couldn’t do what you just said. He would have needed people to agree with his vision to a magnitude that would have constituted worship."

Tifa just says "I also influenced other officials and magicians to get more paranoid about the other races, so I think that jenga tower just fell one day to insanity."

Altair says "But you ruined countless people’s lives by doing so." And Tifa replied "Yes. So?"

Altair asks "You don’t feel any remorse about it? Not even a little?" To which Tifa says "How else would I have to spend 10 000 years if I didn’t go ruining few lives."

Altair then asks "What sort of ti fra would you work with if the ti in the abyss doesn’t work the sa as the rest of Lutah? Also are you a psycho or sothing?"

Tifa says "The abyss works in a different tiscale. For those outside of the abyss, the abyss’ ti seems to be in all kinds of ss, but there is a structure of so form in it. Sure, the deeper you go, the faster the ti seemingly moves in comparison to the surface and the rest of Lutah, but there is a structure of so kind in there. As much as I hate to give credit to the guy, the abyss is chaos, but thanks to Maumar, it is a controlled chaos. And yes. I do identify as a psycho."

Tiara then asks "Then does this an that abyssal powers are at play in the current state of the corrupted land?"

Tifa says "Let think..."

And a while passes as she thinks, but then she cos with the answer "I vaguely rember the magic sequence embedded in what they called the Pri Emission Abductor Crystal of the End, or PEACE. As far as I understand the magic of Lutah, it has more to do with the god realm than it does with the abyss, though I might be missing sothing."

Tiara asks "Can you show us what it looks like?" To which Tifa answers "I can simply transfer the magic sequence to your mind since you aren’t part of the protected people in Elysium. Give a sec."

Tiara asks "What does she an by not being part of the protected... oh I see the magic sequence now. Sure, it is a bit blurry, but I think I can work with this."

Lud asks "What does uncovering the magic sequence have to do with reversing the whole corrupted land thing? Can you reverse engineer it sohow or sothing?"

Tiara says "While it seems quite far fetched, there is a possibility to uncover more about what truly happened that day. As for reverse engineering it... I’ll give it my all for the sake of my hubby."

Roman says "Rember to share the magic sequence with all our allies so that we might get more perspectives on the case."

Lud says "Aren’t you worried about giving up a magic sequence that caused a huge junk of land to be corrupted and a certain group of people to turn to crystals?"

To this, Roman says "While it can be dangerous if handed to the wrong type of people, I trust that it goes to safe hands."

Tifa says "Awfully optimistic, I see." And Tiara responds quickly "And that is just the man who I love."

Roman then says jokingly "If you were the one that caused the day of permanence to happen, I suppose as a devil I could call you my mother." This shook Tiara’s concentration while she was writing the magic sequence to the paper.

Tifa also says jokingly "The abyssal monsters are basically devils created by Maumar’s will, so sure, why don’t you call your mother from henceforth."

Roman, continuing the joke, says "Then I’ll be in your care mother."

At that mont, Tiara goes to Tifa and bows down while shouting in all seriousness "Please let continue to be the wife of your son now and forever!"

This made everyone else confused a little, as it was clear that they were only joking, but Tifa, seeing that there was sothing interesting to be had, said to Tiara "Only if you continue to bring subli gifts every third anniversary of your and my son’s marriage. Then and only then will I approve of you marrying my... son."

Tiara, completely serious, says "As you wish! I’ll prepare one as soon as I can since we are on our fourth anniversary already!"

Then Roman starts laughing hard at the situation. This makes Tiara ask him "Why are you laughing?! This is a completely serious matter!"

Roman is about to correct Tiara’s misunderstanding, but then he decides that there is no harm in continuing this whole thing for a while longer.

anwhile in a seemingly normal noble house, a bug flies in from a slightly open window. Then the bug burst to fla as if the house is controlled by so sort of entity. The ashes of the bug land on the forrly clean floor of the house that is soon cleaned by a person that is wearing a tal ice hockey mask. Little did they know, the bug sets off a chain reaction that goes unnoticed by everyone but Eishi. A corruption starts to dwell inside the 13th and 99th finger of Xu. A kind of corruption that seems to dwell in the realm of envy.