Chapter 296

  An Armistice?

  (Mallory)

  Sometimes the outcome of certain events are inevitable. That is, you start an action, go through the motions and then get an obvious outcome.

  An example of this would be boiling an egg. You get the water, heat it, and then place the egg in and ten minutes or so later you are done with the process, simple. There are of course some possible variations that occur after the egg is boiled. After the boiling, you can dye the egg different colors, eat the boiled egg many different ways, but the initial start is the same.

  This process holds true for calling in Dr. Spiritlight to help solve a problem. You go, have a major problem, one that seems impossible to defeat given its naturally magic resistant nature, one that is also somehow supported by and of magic being used internally to externally.

  That is the problem with tier three magical elements. The materials themselves can be used and manipulated in such a way to make it so energy coming from one direction is multiplied, while magic coming from the exact opposite direction is reduced in efficacy. This means that any device made by the odd alloys can be manufactured in such a way that mages using the excessively rare and costly metals can become force multipliers. That is dangerous enough on its own.

  Added to this danger is the fact that the Legrand Empire first began its expansionistic tendencies to take over every country that had known quantities of the impressive alloys.

  Their plans were insidious, methodical, and seemingly without reproach.

  Worse, at first Mallory even found herself helping with the first few invasions, thinking the actions of the Legrand Empire were justified.

  Mallory herself had seen the initial claims made by the Legrand Empire against the now extinct Dormiese Empire, the Divine Light Empire, and even the Motherland Empire. Time after time, events and politics would happen that justified Legrand’s policing actions. Or were all but provoked into offensive operations, to defend against possible future attacks.

  Worse, Mallory had led her Guild in many of those initial endeavors.

  At first, the Midnight Hunters had been a mercenary guild, one called in to take key objectives or locations that were rich in resources, and hold those locations until Legrand forces could successfully come in and maintain the area held by her and her team.

  Those were of course the early days. The days when Mallory relished the art of war.

  The days when her bloodlust and zeal would rise to the surface in her blood, where each swing of her scythe or blast of her devastating magic would be enough to reshape the world she walked on.

  In the early days, she had been like a God amongst mortals.

  Now though, now she realized just how wrong she was.

  She was strong, nearly unstoppable.

  With Cass by her side, Mallory knew she was completely unstoppable. That or if she was stopped for any reason, then Cass would find a way to save her and let her try once more.

  Truth be told, Cass was the only reason why Mallory avoided any and all communications with Legrand. Well Cass, and her previous interactions with the leaders of the Legrand Empire.

  She had witnessed firsthand, arguments and conversations by deposed rulers and monarchs about how Legrand broke treaties, instigated events, and flat out refused to honor their own treaties.

  The reason why Mallory knew this, was due to the fact that she had personally seen original charters and treaties signed by members of the Legrand Empire with subjugated kingdoms.

  These of course were different from the altered ones shown by the Legrand Empire, which were used to showcase why treaties were being violated, all in order to present the Legrand Empire in the best possible light.

  That was why, when Legrand first tried to contact Mallory and her guild about their new location, she only held marginal meetings, and only for exportation of their rare super metals. Even then, that was only done for Cass.

  The logic was simple, in Mallory’s mind she felt that her taking away more of the invaluable resource from the Legrand Empire, while giving that to Cass, for whatever she wanted, was a double win on her part.

  In the end, all it cost her was money, which could come and go at a moment’s notice.

  Chuckling.

  At that thought, Mallory realized that it was Cass who taught her not to value cash so much. From watching the Doctor work, it was clear that money was just a means to an end, not the end itself. The only benefit money truly posed was the idea that it could help bridge the gap of time and effort. If you wanted something, then you could make it yourself, or you could spend money to bridge the gap of that need.

  Watching Cass, was like truly watching the world through the wisdom of a child.

  She was so carefree, focusing more on constantly improving not only herself, but others around her, that she never once looked at her account balance. In fact, Mallory was pretty certain that she never even thought to ask where the bank was, or how much she had in her account.

  Her account, was a line item that caused a lot of contention among her cabinet, as she was easily the highest paid member of the entire guild. This was of course due to the noted hours worked, benefit to the Guild as a whole, incentives for being a world leader in not just one but three different energy types. The tier rating of her magic and martial prowess. The fact that she was a three-time-recognized doctor by the system in fields that no one but her could seem to understand fully. All of these went to her salary. Even the World First Notifications generated extensive one-time bonus payments of half a million coins each.

  Needless to say, Cass was rich, but she never touted that wealth, or even acted like she had the money.

  Even with her buying up every ounce of tier three building material that the Legrand Empire had to sell, that was only a temporary dip in her account. One that was quickly replaced by her multiple World First Notifications that seem to never end.

  With each chime denoting a World First Achievement, Mallory couldn’t help but feel a slight pang in her gut at the sudden loss of money. Money that often came from the Guild’s surplus, or if that wasn’t enough, then the extra would come from her own personal funds.

  Stolen from its rightful place, this narrative is not meant to be on Amazon; report any sightings.

  Yes, it was hard to admit, but Cass was even richer than she was. Granted Mallory did have an entire Guild’s resources to call upon, along with their collective might, and magical prowess, which did include Cass. But from a strictly personal level, Mallory had a hard time believing that a person so new to the world of finance, and someone who still paid a thirty percent guild tax on all earnings and commissions, was still able to generate more funds than she could.

  Watching Cass work, was much like watching the U.S. debt trackers constantly rise every three seconds, often denoting thousands or even millions of dollars in accruing debt happen in the blink of an eye.

  Watching Cass work, Mallory felt like Cass was that exact way, but to her Guild’s finances, as each coin she earned, was theoretically a coin pulled from the Guild’s coffers. Yet, it wasn’t that simple, for Cass was a money-producing machine, for every coin she pulled in for herself often came with four others that went towards the guild.

  A key example of this, is all of the World First Notifications. While they cause an immediate impact to the Guild’s bottom line, the after effects of having someone who has completed a World’s First Notification are up to marketing and compliance.

  This Mallory figured was the great book policy. The idea being that there are millions of great books out there, just some never get read due to lack of marketability. Which is why the World First Notifications are worth investing in, as the fact that something is unique will invariably draw in attention and interest for that particular World’s First event.

  In fact, Mallory has a group of advertisers whose sole job it is to document what Cass did, how she did it, and offer review materials for purchase. There are even bobbles and keepsakes that are made to help commemorate the event, as an additional incentive for prospective buyers of the moment.

  Yes, marketing and selling off the history being generated by Cass has accounted for over a quarter of the Guild’s revenue for the past two quarters. This is not even accounting for the funds generated by people asking to be added to the pool of future prospective students for SVC.

  That’s right, people have invested heavily in the idea of purchasing a spot for themselves, perspective family members, and other people of importance, just to be given a chance to make the next semester’s classroom roster for SVC.

  A college that is not even accredited yet already has a waiting list of hundreds of applicants, each of which has offered up ten thousand coins each, just to be given a chance to apply for the school.

  Worse, after asking that ridiculous price, the number of applicants skyrocketed.

  A price that was put out as a way to keep people from even asking about attending was posed, and quickly accepted by hundreds of people wishing to make a lineage. Especially after stories of how hundreds of people had their chance to awaken bloodlines activate within their bodies after being exposed to Dr. Spiritlight’s activities.

  Better still, the ten-thousand-coin place holder was just an initial entry fee cost and didn’t even begin to cover the cost of admission for non-guild members.

  Even guild members who saw the benefits of the training were now enthusiastic about trying to attend. Arc Mage Belton himself was even willing to accept quarter wages for the time of his training and twice the time he spent training, in order to be guaranteed a spot.

  The idea of whether Cass could handle Belton was in no doubt in Mallory’s mind. Now, whether Belton could survive with his sanity in check, after getting on Cass’s bad side was a different question entirely. Yet, this was but one set of circumstances that had occurred recently.

  Even this war, well this battle really, for one day of fighting could hardly be considered a true war, was enough to prove the effectiveness of Dr. Spiritlight’s training methods. While unorthodox, the results were undeniable.

  Every unit that was made up of the three different student types from different classes were clear force multipliers on the battlefront. Their individual efforts were astounding, added to that was the way they were all able to work with and seemingly anticipate the efforts of other fellow class members was nothing short of a miracle.

  Added to that were the somewhat overlapping group of now bloodline awakened soldiers who themselves had shown major growth during the events.

  Pausing for a moment, Mallory watched as the number of Guild Member deaths slowly trickled down, until nothing remained.

  Yes, for one of the first times, Mallory could find herself exhaling in relief at the fact that the losses to her guild were minor.

  Even the fact that the battle allegedly happened on her grounds were minor.

  The Deolarian forces were monsters, slowly disintegrating monsters, who would fight to the death, only to then somehow be grabbed by Cass, or her Simulacrum, and Kujo, to then be Resurrected, and sent back out to fight.

  Honestly, the concept of somehow Resurrecting the spirit of a slain warrior seemed to be a bit much for Mallory, I mean, does she cast a different spell on them? Does she even realize she is Resurrecting the dead?

  These questions and more filled her mind, but were soon dismissed.

  “Commander,” Vickard called out, pulling Mallory’s attention away from her Guild lists and readouts. This was possibly the only real benefit of being the Guild leader, she could see who was still alive, who had improved in levels due to conflict, and help direct resources based on those factors alone. The fact that her Guild’s overall levels, abilities, and fighting power had only increased from this altercation was not lost on Mallory.

  “Yes?” Mallory asked.

  “We have received our first notification from the Legrand Empire,” Vickard continued.

  “Oh, so glad they finally decide to talk to us now,” Mallory quipped, as she looked around at the desert battlefield that had hundreds of dead mechanoid suits, and various other mechanical devices laying strewn around.

  “Yes, well, as expected they are willing to talk about a possible armistice,” Vickard continued.

  This was not to be unexpected, and was something that Mallory had previously seen and experienced in her past. With this, Mallory knew that the treaty written would be as worthless as the paper it was written upon, for all this would truly mean was that the Legrand Empire would retreat back long enough to lick their wounds, regroup, and then push forward with another attack.

  Then realizing this, Mallory smiled to herself, as she wondered what types of contract magics Cass could make and implement to hinder Legrand from ever attempting to break the terms of even a temporary armistice.

  With the thought of using Cass to draft and or enforce the signed document, Mallory almost felt a smile forming on her lips at the idea of using the Legrand’s own model of treachery to exact an odd kind of karmic revenge on the underhanded empire.

  “Their terms?” Mallory asked, wondering if this would even be worth looking into. Though Mallory could almost see Cass creating some mythical level contractual bureaucrat class that could legally bind people to their written words.

  Then remembering how the odd Healer quickly passed on the Mythical Tamer class, Mallory realized that the energetic pixie who can’t even sit still long enough to draft a document, would never take such a class to begin with. Though a faint smile did crest Mallory’s lips at the thought of Cass being forced to sit behind a desk and write out her own actions. Now that would be karma, Mallory thought to herself. Cass creating a mythical level class that would force her to sit down and write out in excruciating detail how much trouble she caused by doing one particular action.

  Almost immediately after that thought, Mallory remembered the group of dedicated memorabilia recorders, and realized that she might need to pick someone out from that grouping to possibly take on a Mythical Bureaucrat class, for when or if Cass ever comes up with the concept for that level of evil.

  Just thinking about someone with enough power to force world leaders to stick to their own words and promises sounded great on paper, but also struck fear in her. Not that Mallory intended to break the contract herself, but there was always the possibility that someone would inadvertently break the contract acting on her behalf, which could then cause undue harm to her or her subordinates.

  Shuddering to herself, Mallory took in a deep breath and dismissed the idea of Mythical Bureaucrats and instead focused on the terms for the potential armistice to begin.

  “They are offering the immediate ending of hostilities between themselves, their soldiers, and any mercenaries hired for their operations against the Midnight Hunters. In exchange for the complete ending of hostilities on our part,” Vickard stated, but then stopped.

  As he stopped, Mallory looked on and saw that Vickard clearly had more to say, but for whatever reason was unable to or maybe just unwilling to continue.

  “Anything else?” Mallory pressed.

  “Yes, well maybe. It seems that they are suffering from hostile forces acting within their own territory,” Vickard began again, but then stopped.

  “Go on.”

  “Well, it seems that they, that is the Legrand Leadership, would like for that contingency of hostile forces to be removed from their territory,” Vickard continued.

  Hearing this, Mallory paused for a moment, and then searched, and found that not one but two different Dr. Spiritlights were present within guild territory. Then searching, she tried to find others that might have gone rogue, but she then only found the one or two spies, liaisons, and other members that she expected to be outside the Guild territory, none of which would be instigating armed rebellion.

  “I don’t see anyone that isn’t where they are supposed to be,” Mallory pressed.

  “Yes, well, that is the other thing. Apparently they believe that Dr. Spiritlight is the instigator for these series of attacks, and part of the armistice would require her to help stop the hostilities.”

  “They are saying that Dr. Spiritlight is instigating combat?” Mallory questioned, knowing that the pacifist would never condone such measures.

  “Not exactly, instead they are saying that Dr. Spiritlight somehow released a flock of reprogrammed killer robots and set them on a path of destruction within the Legrand Empire’s territory.”

  Hearing that Mallory was at first confused, until she remembered the vague warning provided by the world not too long ago.

  At the time, she hadn’t given much thought to the claim made, but has since remembered how frightening those living mechanical robots were.

  “What exactly are they asking?”

  “It seems that they want the ‘Murder Bots,’ their words not mine, to cease their hostilities towards their forces. Only then will they sign the armistice.”

  Realizing that whatever Cass did during those thirty minutes when she left the battlefield and before she returned might have ended this war before it ever truly got started. Still, Mallory knew she couldn’t just take this at face value, for she needed this to cost the Legrand Empire, if they truly wanted Cass to stop what had to be the equivalent of a mechanoid apocalypse on their end.

  “Okay, I need you to respond with two words,” Mallory began.

  “And they are?” Vickard asked, pulling out a pad of paper to note down this likely historic response.

  “How much,” Mallory replied.

  “How much?” Vickard asked, trying to confirm he heard her correctly.

  “Yes, ask them how much they are willing to pay us to end their own mistake,” Mallory pressed.

  “Just so I am tracking, what mistake are we referring to?” Vickard asked.

  This was not a bad question, as it could be interpreted multiple different ways. Which was why Mallory was glad that Vickard felt comfortable enough to ask the clarifying question and to think ahead like the Legrand diplomats would.

  “Yes, their mistake was ticking off a pacifist so much that she joined a war.”