The Systemic Lands

Chapter 592: Day 5,073 (2) – The Cost Of Defiance

I stood on top of the wall looking out at huge parts of the city that had been destroyed. With how much energy I had, I had just spammed my skill over and over, melting through buildings, people, and defenses. It wasn’t a total massacre, but it was incredibly brutal.

Letting out a sigh, I watched as my airship flew towards my position. I try to be nice, and this is what I got. The Crystal Vortex slowed down and I used Air Burst to leap back up to the door to the bridge. I noted the smaller airship had been hooked onto the side. Apparently, the information gathering team had completed their task quite quickly.

“I didn’t see any damage, but any issues?” I asked Captain Francis.

“Nothing serious. Michelle covered our defenses from the couple of beam attacks sent our way. Our power reserves for combat are low just so you are aware,” he replied. I gave a nod to Michelle who was sitting on the bridge. She didn’t say anything. I could tell she didn’t like this kind of purge operation, but it was needed to throw all the cities of the Empire of the Nile into chaos.

“People a bit too excitable about firing?” I asked.

“Yes. And there was a lot to take out, since we didn’t deploy anyone on the ground. There is the issue of the captured soldier,” Captain Francis brought up.

“We should have someone that speaks Egyptian, or is it Arabic?” I asked.

“Arabic, and we have people. His presence isn’t needed,” the Captain said. If this was in the past, I might have taken that soldier along. I was leaning towards getting rid of him. But he might have intelligence that would be useful about organization structures and stuff like that. We didn’t have any holding cells for a prisoner though. But he had very little stats compared to my soldiers.

“Hmm, let’s keep him as a prisoner, confined to a specific area with a constant guard. When we return to New Kochi, we can drop him off there for informational purposes, and then his fate will no longer be our problem. But for now, we will treat him politely, and have him work on the maps for us,” I said.

“I will make the arrangements. Destination?” Captain Francis asked me.

“To our next capital, Kuzimu. We can fly low and slow,” I said and just as Captain Francis was about to respond, Michelle spoke up.

“Multiple beam attacks, from the South wall, blocked,” she called out.

“We are counter firing now sir,” one of the people at the control panels said.

“Rotate, ninety degrees towards port,” Captain Francis said. That meant left. The airship began to turn. I noted monsters moving to block the beam attacks headed at us while the airship returned fire from where they had come from.

“More beam attacks from the city. I am running out of immediate summons. Are we moving or staying?” Michelle asked. Captain Francis looked at me.

“We stay, I will handle the city beam attacks,” I replied and moved for the door to leave the airship once again.

“Elevate and pull back from the wall. Angle downwards by ten degrees,” Captain Francis called out as I leapt out of the airship. Beam attacks were going back and forth. Michelle really did have good control as I watched several flying monsters move into the path of the beam attacks to intercept them. I also noted several soldiers move to the front of the Crystal Vortex and stand ready to use barrier skills.

Air Burst. I quickly flew over to a building that had a beam cannon set up on it. That was a clever trick, moving them from wherever they were placed and putting them on buildings behind the wall. But that was all it was, a clever trick. Purgatory had the same layered defenses behind the wall.

It wasn’t something that was advertised, but there were strong points throughout the city, to be used to suppress any aerial attacks and as a base for soldiers and guards to deploy from. These buildings were given additional height, and the internal layout was much sturdier with double walls, and reinforced doors to make them harder targets to damage.

Cairo, the capital city of this Empire hadn’t gone nearly as far. While they might have had some realization of the danger of flying monsters and enemies, they didn’t understand the threat a single airship could pose.

While it wasn’t my area of expertise, there were slight design modifications and signals that were given when the Crystal Vortex returned to Purgatory. Other airships had to arrive at pre-arranged times or stop at the wall if they didn’t want to be shot down.

It was one of the many things Clarissa had implemented to secure the city from a rapid aerial attack. I didn’t blame her one bit. There was the fear that someone like me would come along and attack, or some kind of super monster. She wanted to be ready.

Acid Shot x1,000. This city was nowhere as prepared. But the fact they managed to put up a parting shot was impressive. Just useless against my absolute power. That attack cost 20,000 energy, but what was unleashed, was a tidal wave of power acid. The explosions and screams from the beam cannons and the people manning them were quickly snuffed out by the vastness of my attack.

The surrounding streets and buildings were destroyed. I heard more screams and saw various energy signatures of people disappear. There was no defense against such a large attack. Air Burst. I flew back towards the airship while looking for other threats. I unleashed several beam attacks of my own, to kill the four people that I saw. Void Beam slicing through their bodies, whatever stats they had were no match for my skill.

I returned to the airship and entered the bridge. “I think that is it, from what I can see,” I replied.

“It is. Unless you want us to sweep back into the city?” Captain Francis asked me.

“No, that is fine. The point is made. Let’s leave,” I said.

“Very well. Level the airship and orient us Northwest.” He continued calling out orders while I took my seat. I leaned back in the chair as I watched us quickly leave the city and make our way to the next one.

“I am going to look at the maps and the monster types,” Michelle said and got up.

“If you see anything you like, or want to check out, let me know,” I told her. She gave me a small nod before leaving the bridge. I could tell she wasn’t happy with the situation but wouldn’t complain. That was fine. I didn’t like massacring a city, but I wasn’t about to employ half measures after they spit on my kindness and warning.

“Why are people stupid?” I asked out loud. It was a rhetorical question and I wished Doctor Katz was here. While Captain Francis and Michelle were great people, they didn’t push back on my more questionable decisions. I was already missing the good doctor.

“It is human nature. If people haven’t seen the difference in power, they have a hard time understanding that difference and what it means,” Captain Francis said. While his statement was factually true, it wasn’t what I was getting at. They should have had enough in Sense stat to see how strong I was. They should have believed their own Captain.

Instead, they were surprised when I turned up and panicked. The why was probably some complicated political situation that would make me question my sanity. Whatever way the people in charge were thinking was completely alien to me. You don’t take the warning of one of your people seriously and then kill them?

I would have taken a warning seriously, even now I would take one seriously. Thankfully Clarissa had procedures for such things, but we wouldn’t just bury our heads in the sand and ignore a possible threat. Even if they didn’t believe in my strength, I had a fleet of airships and a super large one. They could have asked any of the soldiers with the Captain.

The only reason I kept thinking about this was because it annoyed me. Like a splinter in my mind that wouldn’t go away. Was there a larger ploy at foot? Was someone like the Avatar involved? Or were people just that stupid?

Taking a deep breath and letting it out, I would just assume it was entrenched stupidity until I found out otherwise. The simple fact was that people who came to power might not have the qualifications to be in charge. The Divine Empress was the perfect example of this. The Emperor didn’t seem that strong, but he could have been a proxy or a decoy, not that it mattered.

Personal power did not equal good governance. I had been spoiled too long by Clarissa and then running into halfway smart nations. Even the Indian Sultanate had enough self-awareness to realize they couldn’t mess with me. Then Hasad who was in charge of the Leader’s Domain. Pretentious name, but he had been willing to talk with me and quite cordial.

I was annoyed. I didn’t like doing a massacre, but there was no other choice. I needed to make a statement while breaking the Empire of the Nile’s ability to hold other cities. With the destruction of their capital, they would fracture, at least that was the hope. Once I passed back through, I would take a look to ensure that was happening, so my people could push outwards.

It would be a shame to lose control over summoning, but that would take time. I was hoping these cities had come up with new ideas about skills or techniques that I could use. But it just seemed to be variations of horrible political systems. Why couldn’t there be a Ritualist out here, or a Master Fleshcrafter?

At least that was my hope for the remaining nations I would be visiting. There were three known nations left according to Hasad and the information he had shared with me. Next was The One, another pretentious name for a nation, which was allied with the Empire of the Nile. Then there was the Kingdom of Gray Stone which was fighting against The One to its Northeast and the last nation, The Holy Kingdom of God to its Northwest.

All the nations were quite insular. There was limited information, besides the general location of their cities and the number of zones under their control. The Empire of the Nile had been the most peaceful of all of them, but apparently that made them complacent. It was the perfect kind of example of why the person ultimately in charge, me, should never be satisfied with their power.

If I had been in their shoes, taking out the monster would have had a much higher priority. But I guess they never got anyone strong enough and it would avoid traps. Still, a big enough bomb or explosion, would do where other methods might fail. They didn’t have that urgency and fear that was needed to keep pushing forward.

That was why they lost. It wasn’t the smaller number of cities or my immense power. But the complacent mindset and not being able to quickly adapt to a new situation. Well, I was really hoping the stupidity would be less far West, but I wasn’t holding my breath.

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