The Grand Catastrophe

Chapter 20: Goddess and Wrath

Jircniv looked on at the twin doors in front of himself. There they stood, the gates to something much greater than himself. It was such a pretty door, he didn’t want to mar it with his fingers. He shook his head, getting his mind out of the gutter, now wasn’t the time to get distracted.

There the battle maids stood as well, they were just off to the side of the doorway. He blinked and looked everything else, his eyes catching sight of many, what looked like, demons and such along the edges of the room.

He looked off to his own side, with the old wizard Fluder, looking all about the place. He seemed extremely excited, like a child in a candy store. He had even taken to asking questions of the maids that had escorted them there.

He sighed in his mind at the recent memory. The old man was as much of a hassle when it came to magic as ever. He simply hoped that this goddess didn’t take offence. Then, the battle maids opened the twin doors, the light above their heads reflecting off the artistic surface.

Then they walked forward into the guild hall, as it was called. As he looked on ahead, his eyes caught sight of something truly gorgeous. Beauty incantate, that was what sat upon the throne in front of him and his people. That was the thought that ran in his mind as he stepped forward.

...

Momonga looked on at them as they walked through the twin doors. Idly, she wondered what she would say. She hadn’t really prepared what she was going to say, after all. Some part of her, some part that had grown in recent days, wanted to bind them to her with words, to make sure that they knew that they shouldn’t, couldn’t, hurt her family.

The majority of her though, just wanted to finish the glass of mead clasped in her fingers, and go and make love to her wife in all but name. She had a plan, roughly formed in her mind, as to what to say and do. Other than that, she was free for the most part.

She looked on from her throne, a cheeky smug smile pasted onto her face. Inside her mind, she was trying to piece together how this conversation would start. She had been watching them with the Mirror of Remote Viewing as they drove to her home.

She watched the young emperor walk up and stand there, like he was braving a storm. Some part of her smiled at this, yet another part of wanted him to kneel. She decided to go for a middle ground and smirked harder, and signaled with a ping of the message spell to Demiurge, who was in his frog shape.

He then spoke as they all stopped. His voice carried all throughout the area. She sighed in her mind, somewhat annoyed that she felt the need to do this.

“Prostrate yourselves,” Demiurge spoke, his words forcing the lot of them to kneel.

Meanwhile, Jircniv stood, his face hardening as he took the onslaught of the skill. Momonga looked on at him, smiling in her mind at the thought of what was keeping him from kneeling. A simple magic item that allowed him to resist mind altering magics.

She then raised her hand, and leaned forward in her throne. Demiurge looked on at that, and immediately knelt, turning off his skill. The other NPCs did the same. She smiled in her mind, an image of king Baldwin coming to the forefront of her mind.

Yet, she placed a frown on her face. This way, they would at least think that it was simply a servant acting out. She sighed in her mind as they all stood then, many of them looked scared or angry. Jircniv simply looked perturbed.

“I am sorry for my subordinate. Sometimes he simply acts as he wishes. Though, that is his purpose in his existence. So, I hope you forgive him,” she said, and bowed her head.

Her NPCs looked on at her now, with ashamed and startled looks on their faces. They all seemingly wanted to get up, and stopped her from doing so. She hadn’t told her subordinates about this, but she didn’t really mind. What she was annoyed by was that they were seemingly distressed at her bowing.

“It is alright. Sometimes our subordinates act in the way that they think we want to act. In fact, my own subordinate has acted in a way that has not only harmed me, but you as well,” he said, and gestured to a person in the back.

It was then that a young woman behind the emperor walked forward. She smiled a genuine smile as the small girl, who she had talked to before, stepped forward. It was Arche, the young worker. It was always nice to see people that she had seen and influenced before making an appearance.

Momonga looked at the young woman, she saw the looked on the of the emperor’s face. He was blushing. She smiled even more so now, he must have been embarrassed then. She would be too, if her NPCs did something so embarrassing, and she had to apologize to someone else.

She tilted her head to the side, lost some miner thought now. Didn't she just do what she had thought of? She blinked at it, she did. Yet, she wasn’t embarrassed by her actions. It must have been her undead nature. She looked down now, and noticed the severed head of a noble in the pot that Arche was carrying.

“My lady, this is the severed head of the foolish noble that hired the Workers to raid your home. Please take it as an apology,” she said, and Momonga gestured for Aura to grab the pot.

“It is fine,” she said as she reached down and grabbed the head by the hair from where she sat, “but we can’t have such a thing go to waste. Nor can we have the damned stave off work,” she explained as she activated a spell.

It was then that the black miasma of undeath covered the head, and formed into a death knight. As it fully grew into unlife, she directed it to join the line of undead guards off to the side. All the while the mages that had come with, including the mage Fluder, gawked at her power.

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