Chapter 306: Two steps ahead
Vale stretched out his hand for the ring that contained the bind weapons. "Well? I need it here. Maybe I can finally catch some sleep."
The Chairman hesitated and didn’t immediately give him the ring.
Vale narrowed his eyes. "What is it?"
The Chairman swallowed. "My lord, these weapons... we have created something very marvelous. Something that’s never been done before, because frankly, who has your kind of power?
"This is one of the dreams of enchantress. The power to put a lot of power into something small without using a lot of formations. Naturally, to make something more powerful, we need to use formations to anchor and draw out massive amounts of power. This is so that we don’t destroy the material being used.
"Of course, it’s a lot more complicated than that, but that’s the core of it.
"But you have overturned that. And just directly dump power into a material without damaging the weapon. My lord, what we created here shouldn’t be possible, and that’s why I’m afraid. If word goes out and others learn of this, they would find a way to destroy you and us because you are an unfair advantage."
Vale leaned back in his seat as he finally understood what the Chairman was saying. He rubbed his face. "Why the worry then? If everyone keeps their mouth shut, then it won’t be a big deal."
Vale shook his head. "And that’s something to be worried about later. Why should we care about that when the Akatsuki are breathing down our necks?
"For now, we are going to focus on other things, like trying to survive."
The Chairman sighed and gave the ring over. "I am proud of working with you, my lord."
Vale took the ring and handed it over to Tiber. "Keep that. I’m going to sleep. Only wake me if the Akatsuki attack."
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And sleep he did. Vale slept for three days, not uninterrupted, but that was the duration he spent in bed without stepping out. He would wake to eat and then sleep back.
On the third day in the evening, Slya and Tiber finally dragged him out of bed to have his bath. And then to the dining room so he could have dinner with them.
"What are your plans now?" Tiber asked after Vale ate to his satisfaction.
Vale sighed. "I don’t know. Tell me everything I missed."
Tiber nodded and began to speak as if he was reading a report. The High Chief called a meeting of the chiefs where they had their discussion. Their three chiefs won’t be sending more forces since you took a bulk of that already.
"Only the High Chief is gathering his forces together to send to the Eastern wall. The Akatsuki has made no moves. The spies sent over didn’t find anything strange as well.
"We have seen nothing of the Elders or the Grandmaster.
"The wall is progressing nicely with Master Knight Takoda. Also, we have evacuated the villages outside the capital walls so that they won’t be caught between anything."
Vale nodded. "You’ve all done well. I’m impressed. Almost as if I can leave my Clan in safe hands and take a vacation."
Tiber’s face turned flat. "Not this time, you’re not."
"Alright, alright," Vale said with a smile. "But one of these days, I’m going to take one. Come to think of it, I have something to talk to the two of you about."
Vale stopped eating, and the two focused on him sharply with the way his voice turned serious. He met their eyes. "I have plans for the two of you.
"You know about the bind weapons. I’m going to create a Knight unit of one hundred Errant Knights, the strongest one hundred Errant Knights I can find in the Sky Division.
"And they will be my core guard. They will be responsible for me, in theory, but what I want to make of them is not just for me. Sure, I can pull them for my protection, but I want to turn them into a strike force that can go anywhere and directly perform my will."
Tiber nodded. "Eryndor is already giving assessments and choosing them as we speak."
"Yes. They should be ready and start training with the bind weapons in a week. Do you know how strong the bind weapons will be? In the whole world, even in the High Clans and Great Clans, with the weapons activated, they should immediately be the strongest one hundred Errant Knights.
"Even if the other Errant Knights in the world use artifacts, it still won’t be the same because my bind warriors have uniform power, and when they fight as one, it’s devastating!"
"The bind weapon’s power is actually close to a Chained Artifact, and if I should increase the binding when my power advances, then it would be a Chained Artifact."
Vale watched them. "Do you understand now? I’ve been thinking of what my sword to actually fight for my ambition should be, but who would ever think that it would be enchanted tools?"
Tiber, the ever-sharp, caught something in Vale’s voice. "Vale, that kind of power... it’s dangerous. Very dangerous. If they should turn... or get used by someone else..."
Vale flashed a smile, and his raised hand crawled with black lines. "I can easily remove the binding, but apart from that, the Chairman and I have put a safeguard in place. Not only for betrayal, but because if the bind warriors fall in battle, we don’t want to lose such weapons."
From the spatial ring, Vale brought out two palm-sized discs, enchanted tools that were filled in gems covered in words of power. One of the discs was black, while the other was blue.
"This is recall. It’s keyed to all the weapons made, and I can recall any weapon with this. All the weapons are numbered. The warriors will also adopt the numbers to their names. If need be, I can recall any or all the weapons."
Tiber’s eyes gleamed. "You always think two steps ahead, my lord."
Vale smiled.