Unconquered Pt. 12

"There are nine Legions," she said. "Of them, three are staffed entirely with pure loyalists to the Regent – they have been given their position by him, not by the Good King Bahul. They will die before they turn against him. There are three Legions who are staffed by former members of the Good King's court – the Third, the Fifth and the Tenth. They will turn their flags the instant they are given proof that you are, in fact, the Unconquered and not a fake. The remaining two, the First and the Ninth, are the wild cards."

She pointed. A Legion figure situated on Samsara glowed. "The First is stationed in Samsara – their leader is the last mortal general, Mongoose Stone. He is a wily one, and he never lets anyone know what he is thinking. That's part of why he's still alive – but also, his wife is an Infused Knight – a flame caster named Azanari. She has the ear of someone high in the Regent's court. But this is why the First is there. The Praetorean Guard and that damned shadowy snake of the Regent, Knyfe, will be there to keep an eye on Mongoose."

"And what about the Ninth?" I asked, trying to hide the fact I had been twirling the pushy stick around in my palms.

"The Ninth is situated in the West. They're the smallest of the legions, but they have the most in the form of skyship support and transportation. This allows them to travel rapidly – however, there are rumors that their general, One Eyed Razor, is half-pirate by marriage and full-pirate by inclination. If she's really robbing caravan ships and whale barges instead of following orders from the Regent, then she'll be worse than a loyalist. She'll be a third party." Ejana shook her head. "You've picked a weighty boulder to roll up your hill, Unconquered."

I frowned, looking down at the map. I brought my finger down, aiming at the three legions that might turn their banner to me. They were situated in a broad crescent, reaching from the North East to the South East, each one situated nearly two weeks of flying apart.

"What are their duties?" I asked.

"They're guarding the boarder – just as we are," Ejana said.

Ceaith, who had been lounging in her seat with her feet planted up on the table, frowned. "How bad are the fae incursions?"

"Bad," Ejana said. "Each legion we pull off those lines is a few thousand leagues of the Land we leave entirely open to the Fae..." She looked straight at me. I could feel her weighing what I said next as if I was in a market stall and she was a merchant. But it wasn't gold and jade coins that we were trading back and forth here. It was human lives. Whole continents worth of land. I chewed my lower lip, looking down at the map, and tried to come up with a plan. Something that would work.

I pointed with the stick. "The enemy Legions – the Second, the Fourth and the Eight – are each in populated regions of the South. They are the people who are snatching up individuals, to turn them into power for Knights. With Iremire gone, they can't do that. This means that the Regent will redeploy them..." I nodded. "If we could move elements of your Legion here..." I brought the stick down, to a collection of passes that linked the South to the vast, rich territories near Mount Mahameru.

"To the Harpy Passes?" Ejana asked, frowning. "Across the entire breadth of the Land? Those Legions are being redeployed, according to my spies in the capital. But even considering the time it takes garitroops-" Seeing my expression, she expanded: "Garrison Troopers. They've been situated in place so long that each of those Legions has gotten fat and spoiled." She snorted. "Too much time nabbing dissidents and not enough time fighting people who can actually swing a sword."

I nodded.

"Still, even assuming the normal slowness of garitroops, they'll be in those passes a month before we could get there. And that still leaves our northern frontier open to the Fae-"

I held up my hand, then smiled. "I have an idea."

"Do you now..." Ejana murmured.

I cracked my knuckles. "It's time we show the world what an Unconquered can do."

***

"I mean, yes, I could," June said, slowly pacing back and forth before me. "But...it'd take an unprecedented amount of trust and-"

"I'm in!" Chirp squeaked, their arms wrapping around my back. Xora nodded as well, stepping up to put her hand on my shoulder. She squeezed and I looked back at her, then past her, at Ceaith. Ceaith was leaning against the wall, trying to look casual and disinterested. I coughed.

"Yeah, fine," she said.

June shook her head, slowly. "I have no idea how you do it, Ember," she said, her voice soft.

"Wait!" I said, holding up my hands. "Wait, where's the Rose. Rose!"

A shadow detached from the doorway leading into June's little room. The Rose of Versail stood there, holding a rose in his white gloved fingers, his mask clasped tight around his face. He was gently rolling the rose from side to side as his eyes regarded it. He chuckled, and I could tell he was smirking at me. "I am in as well, my Unconquered."

"Gods, how the hell did you get in here?" June asked, then held up her hand. "Forget I asked. You know, Agates are supposed to be the fucking normal ones, right? They're the mediating presences, the calming-" She trailed off in disgust as Rose took Xora's hand and ducked his head down, making Xora turn so dark that her cheeks were nearly purple. "-nevermind. Fine. Whatever." She shook her head, then turned to her desk. Over the weeks they had been on the Starshrike, June had filled her desk with the detritus of her craft, and she was able to simply pick up beakers and bubbling flasks. She poured them together, murmuring under her breath, then tossed in small pinches of crystal – smoke and roiling energies flowed into the air.

I watched, eyes wide, as June finished crafting the potion that I had asked her to make. She held it to me, then yanked it back before I could take it. She picked up a small calligrapher's brush from the wild chaos of her desk, then daubed it in a circle around the beaker – measuring out five spaces. "Drink down to this line, then you to this line, then you to this line," she said, pointing at me and my Lunars. "Understand?"

"Got it," I said, then took the beaker. I sipped it – and felt it burn down my throat. The burning only became more intense as my Lunars drank it down. Ceaith had to screw up her face before she could force herself to drink it down. But each Lunar that drank it made the burning grow hotter, and hotter, until the Rose lifted their mask and knocked their head back and drank the last fifth of the potion. Once it had vanished down his throat, a glowing, multihued light flared to life, wrapped around each of my Lunar's throats, driving straight into my chest. The light turned gold, then shattered, filling the room with sparks and hisses.

"There," June said. "You are now tied together into one vast pool of mana for the next twenty four hours." She pursed her lips. "I will have you know, this has only ever been tried twice in history."

I grinned. "And both times?"

June scowled at me. "And both times...everything fucking worked and the Unconquereds in question were fucking smug as shit about it."

I pumped my fist. "Nice!"

***

The Starshrike took off with a flurry of cast up snowflakes and a hissing rattle of discarded pine cones and nettles. It banked, then soared through the air, heading deeper towards the north. A whole crew of Legionnaire artillerists were onboard – they would be unloading the entire armament of the Starshrike upon the gathering Fae cohorts that were collecting in response to the Seventh Legion's movements. I had a great view, standing before the primary tower of the Seventh Legion – watching as the elements that Ejana had picked for our little escapade.

I had given her free reign, and she had cut things to a fine edge. We needed to leave enough of the Seventh around to ward off the Fae, while still having enough to successfully to defeat the loyalist Legions.

She had diverted all of her Infused Knights: Twenty ice knights, ten fire knights, and thirteen earth knights (apparently, that was a lucky number for earth knights.) Supplementing them were three teams with mobile vortex arrow launchers. Squat, ugly looking machines, they looked a tiny bit like a many tiered oven, but rather than slats, they had tubes. Each tube contained a vortex arrow, and they were fired by blasting air through the backs via a massive collection of pumps and steam-valves attached to a mobile boiler, each of whom was fueled by a captive fire demon fed a constant string of wood. Next, she had divvied off two companies of cavalry: Two hundred men and women mounted upon sleek, lizardy creatures called raptors. They had feathered crests and wickedly sharp talons and, according to Ejana, they could charge up a mountain nearly as fast as they could charge down them.

Finally, she had taken five companies of infantry: Two thousand, five hundred men and women with long spears and shields and short swords. They were a tough, no-nonsense group of people and I was sure that, with the leadership of the Black Rose, they would be more than effective. I watched the army gathering and felt a growing sense of excitement – an eagerness around me. It wasn't just the extra mana buzzing through my body. There was an essential beauty to it all – nearly three thousand men and women, all in gleaming uniforms, with pennants and standards, marching and forming up before me.

Xora and Chirp working together had picked out a uniform for me from the Starshrike's belly. I wore a white tunic and white leggings, with a golden tiara on my head, which socketed itself to the diamond soulgem I wore. Sitting on the back of my own raptor mount, feeling it shift and claw at the ground beneath me, I watched as the detachment completed its formation and stood at attention.

Waiting for me to give the order.

I gulped. My hand went to my vest pocket, where Chirp was coiled up. Waiting for their part in the battle. I caressed them gently, then lifted my chin, looking out at the legion. My raptor reared up a bit, hissing excitedly. It could practically smell the battle was coming. I felt mana flowing through me - instinctively learning how to keep the raptor calm. My hand caressed its feathered neck and I drew a breath.

Time for the speech.

"Seventh Legion!" I said. "Piss Boot Legion..." I grinned, kneeing my raptor forward. He started to trot forward, claw digging along the ground. "Today, we are going to begin the war to free the Land from the vile Regent. We are going to strike a blow that is more than just tearing down a single fortress, more than just liberating a single village. We are going to, in one battle, turn this war upon its head. Our enemies believe they are strong. They believe we are few. They believe they have right on their side."

I drew my raptor around, looking down at the men. "They are wrong. I have seen the vileness of Iremire. I have seen the crimes in Samsara. I have seen how loyal Legionaries like you have been left here to rot, and I say no more!" I swept out my hand. Gold flared along my body. My diamond flared to life. "Today is the beginning of the end of the Regency, the Regent, and the beginning of a new, glorious cycle. As of today, you are not merely the Seventh Legion. You are the first, the core, of the mailed fist of the Unconquered!"

My anima threw out sparks as I channeled the mana within – not merely into my words, but into my presence. I cast my arms wide, and the sparks flurried outwards. They danced down and landed upon the soulgem of each of the Legionaries. I felt a tug of each of their minds, their souls.

"Where the Unconquered walks, the world trembles!" I said, my voice growing higher, fiercer. "Where a man may stride a pace, we shall stride a league! Where a man man march ten miles a day, we shall march across all of the Land itself! Where a man strikes, we shall strike as a legion!" I lifted my hand, clenching it into a fist. "And we shall shake the thrones of heaven themselves!"

The Legionaries cheered – and each thrust their fist, their spear, their sword into the air.

I swung my raptor around – and he stepped forward and the Legion stepped with me. And around us, the world blurred in a wild smear of colors. We were no longer before the tower – instead, we were among the firs and the trees of the North, a wilderness more vast than anything I had ever seen before. I heard the sound of the men behind me – the rythmic pounding of their feet, the soft shhh shh of their leggings rubbing together, the clank and rattle of wheels. We took another step – and the world blurred once more.

Every step we took cut the world – compressed it and I felt the mana surging through me with every step. It flowed not merely from me, but from my Lunars as well. By the time we had marched for an hour, we had traversed an incredible distance, and we had passed by several villages – the villagers having a scant instant to marvel at the lightning swift movement of an entire detachment of Legionaries before we were gone.

When the Sun's eye closed and we camped for the night, me and my Lunars were exhausted. The Rose slunk off almost immediately, but the rest of my wives immediately tackled me into bed the instant the tent was up. I took only the time to check and make sure that the potions that June had made, to cover the rest of the journey, were safe. Then I closed my eyes and let the girls cuddle up against me.

When dawn came, I woke to the marvelous feeling of a pair of firm, eager lips wrapped around my cock. I groaned, sitting up, and noticed the warmth of Xora to my right, the snuggling presence of Ceaith behind my head, and the gentle pressure of Chirp on my chest. I nodded. That checked out. Then I jerked my head up and saw that Princess Jaquline, the daughter of King Carmisan, was sucking half of my cock deep, deep, into her mouth. Her cheeks belled inwards as she slurped noisily, her lips leaving behind a smear of spittle against my bright red cock. The pleasure was enough to nearly jolt me right back into sleep – instead, I tried to push Chirp off my chest without actually dislodging them.

The end result was that I wriggled uselessly, giving Jaquline time to draw her mouth back, smack her lips, and begin to work her hand up and down my cock. She was completely naked, her rose tattoos on full display, as she looked up at me. Her grin was impish. "Hello..." she murmured.

"Whazuabuhow?"

"I disguised myself as a Legionnaire," she purred.

"But-"

"Do you really have a negative word to say about the woman who is willing to brave battle and danger purely to get more of a demigod's cock?" Jaquline crooned, her mouth pressing against the side of my cock. She licked and nuzzled against me.

I opened my mouth. Closed it. Lowered my hand. "No," I admitted.

The tent flap opened and Ejana ducked in, frowning. "Unconquered," she said. "We are mustering to get ready – do you need to give a speech every time, or can we just march?" She didn't even glance down at Jaquline who want back to sucking on my cock – if anything, she was trying to be even louder, even more forceful, her head bobbing rapidly, her throat actually making a soft bumping noise with the eagerness of it all.

I gasped out. "Fucking yes!"

"I'll get them together again," Ejana said.

"No!" I squeaked, lifting my arm, my fingers spreading desperately.

Jaquline slipped her mouth back, her lips popping as she let my cock slip free. "You want me to stop?" she crooned.

"So they shouldn't get together?" Ejana asked.

"No!" I said. "Yes!"

Ejana pursed her lips – then she reached down and grabbed onto Jaquline's red hair, her fingers crooking as she dragged her backwards, making Jaquline squeak and mewl in irritation – but it meant her lips didn't wrap around my dick – which made it a lot easier for me to say: "No, we don't need a speech again!"

"Good," Ejana said. "Get ready in five minutes."

She let go of Jaquline, who fell back to her palms. The tent flap swept shut as Ejana turned and stalked away. Jaquline blinked at me.

"That's enough time," she whispered.

And then she was back around my cock.

It would normally take almost two millennia to march from the farthest north to the farthest south of the Land of a billion Gods, assuming someone was marching fifteen miles a day and not using roads. There were lots of very impressive roads spread throughout Creation, which did similar things as my magic – which would have cut things down to merely two years. With the power of the Unconquered and four of his Lunars surging through the army, we were able to march from the north to the Harpy Passes in a mere month – meaning that we arrived well before the elements of the Second, the Fourth and the Eight legions were timed to march through.

I would have expected that month to be difficult, for my body to get worn down by perpetually draining my reserves of mana, restoring them through a long rest, then going back to work. Instead, I felt as if channeling the mana was growing easier and easier. I was able to feel the army as if it was part of my body – and as my mana was used more slowly, I was able to gently slide the mana into the soldiers. I eased aches. I fixed tiny wounds. I filled them with a sense of confidence – and so, we marched in good order. Marching songs were sung. The camp was set up every night with a quick, efficient bustle.

In other words, the detachment hummed like the finest of magitech by the time we came to the Harpy Passes. The fact that every night, I was ridden or fucked by Xora, Chirp or Jaquline. During the day, I would always find Rose to drink the potion – and he never gave me a straight answer as to where he was during the night. Ceaith found the whole thing hilarious.

The strangest thing had been watching the landscape shift, day by day. First, snow. Then, grassland. Then scrubland. Then barrens. That was the only word for Harpy Pass. The landscape was brown and gray and yellow. The Sun shone down overhead with a harsh glare, and sweat beaded on my skin – my body grumbling, complaining at me about the fact that things had gone from cold to so very hot in a seeming blink of an eye. Ejana and I both immediately took our raptors from the base of the pass to the top and surveyed it.

There were actually four passes. Tall mountains thrust into the air like jagged fingers, with their points forging into a narrow ridges. I shook my head.

"How much of each legion is going to be passing through here?" I asked, frowning.

"If they're smart, each legion will take each pass, with outriders along the ridges. But they're not led by the cream of the crop, and they're also, not full legions. They will be moving elements. Garitroopers think infantry are piss-buckets. So, we're going to be looking at cavalry, artillery, maybe a few warstriders." She nodded slowly.

"All right," I said, licked my lips. I could already see a plan forming...it was as if the months of marching had honed my instincts. I grinned at Ejana. "Place the artillery there..." I pointed. "And get the infantry to digging out those." I pointed again.

Ejana blinked.

Then she grinned. "I like how you think, Unconquered."

***

It was the night before a battle and I couldn't sleep. I knew I needed to. Sleep would keep me focused and honed – but instead, I was laying among my Lunars, buzzing with adrenaline and nerves. What if my plan was terrible? What if...no. There was no what if about the second question. People would die in the battle that was coming. I had come to terms with that – it was better to die in a fierce battle for freedom than to quietly allow evil to happen. But...