Hohenwerfen

  I sat on top of a mountain, Saia and Aurora flanking me on their feet. We looked down at the valley and the river Salzach cutting through it, surrounded by hills and mountains. There were many small settlements all along the river’s banks, most abandoned, but not all. The target of my gaze was actually a castle built atop a hill on the bank of the river. The Hohenwerfen Castle was large, in great condition, with walls and towers that were all still standing.

  The town at the base of the hill atop which the castle stood, by the name of Werfen, was clearly occupied. There was smoke rising from chimneys, people walking the streets. What caught my eyes were the few cars moving about. I already knew that there were skills that could repair them, but I hadn’t expected to see so many of them. The skill that I’ve encountered had a pretty high cooldown.

  The next thing that caught my eyes was the amount of people. There had to be thousands of them. Cazimir had said that they didn’t have an exact number as groups were moving around often, but the last count had put them Werfen at near six thousand people. I didn’t think that the small town had that many before the Grand Spell arrived, and it was clear that the town was busy. They had simple wooden barricades surrounding the town, using some of the edge buildings to cut the amount of the wall they had to build. I could see watchers on top of buildings sitting in some improvised towers.

  There had been a few towns along the river that we flew over, but all of them had been abandoned. I assumed that most people came here, or more likely that some towns were wiped out completely. There weren’t enough people here for everyone to have survived.

  The Hohenwerfen Castle was my primary concern. It was almost a hundred and fifty kilometers away from Bled in a straight line. Not far at all for someone who could fly. The entire area was dropped in from Europe, from what Cazimir had said the switched around land was just around double the distance in area. Hohenwerfen was in what used to be Austria, while Bled used to be in Slovenia.

  I glanced to Aurora next to me, who was staring down with binoculars. I didn’t need them, as I was using the [Far Sight] skill I got from one of the bird beasts I killed somewhere I couldn't even remember. Aurora was also wearing a thick winter jacket. The altitude Saia and I flew at was rather cold for her, as was the mountain we stood on.

  “You see anything interesting?” I asked.

  “Not really,” she answered. “It just looks like people living life. Adjusting.”

  I hummed noncommittally. It did seem that way. There weren’t any real signs of anything that I might take issue with. But then again, there weren’t any at Bled either. People were people, trying to survive. Yes, they were forceful, they had kidnapped Aurora, but I also knew that they believed that they were helping her. They found a lone woman in an abandoned town, one strong enough to survive on her own. Of course they wanted her. And… she did kill one of their own. True, they had attacked her, and the world they lived in was a lot more violent than the one before, but still. Proximus was collecting people, Exemplars were a priority for him from what Cazimir said.

  Still, it wasn’t anything that I wouldn’t or hadn’t already done myself. I couldn’t really fault this Proximus fellow. He was doing the exact same thing I was. Which made me think about how I wanted to approach this. I had already sent back a few of the Sun Kingdom loyalists to carry a message from me to Hohenwerfen and their King.

  That was days ago though, and they arrived to the Castle yesterday. I’ve been watching, looking for any signs of the Castle and the town mobilizing, preparing for… something.

  There was none of that that I could see, but then again, it had been barely a day. They also hadn’t yet sent people carry a message back to me.

  I tapped my fingers against my knee in rapid succession, my eyes narrowed at the settlement below me, the white flags with a golden sun billowing in the wind.

  “You’re being impatient,” Aurora added, her eyes still looking through the binoculars at the town. She could hear my fingers tapping. I forced myself to stop and sighed.

  “Of course I’m impatient,” I told her. “I don’t have the time for any of this. We are maybe a week away from the next Challenge, just over three more months until the portals open and people from Kirios spill in. We are on the clock.”

  Aurora put the binoculars down and turned to look at me.

  “You don’t need to be here then, don’t need to do any of this.”

  I frowned and tilted my head.

  “I mean, that,” she waved her hand at the castle far below us. “Doesn’t matter. Your territory is far away, they have no hope reaching it in the months we have left. Not unless they can fly like you can. Even if you bring these people under you, what will it accomplish, really?”

  “I can have more people be ready for what is to come.”

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  “You can do that without conquering them though, just warn them, I doubt that this King would be any more willing to give his power away to the people from Kirios than he will be doing the same to you.”

  I thought about it. She was right, and yet… a part of me wanted more. I wanted to rule, I wanted to have people look up at me in adoration and devotion. I was strong, I could do whatever I wanted. Might was right, and I knew very well that if you weren’t on top, you were beneath someone’s boot. And I would never again be that little girl that was sold for a stack of worthless paper.

  I had people back in my town attempting to repair boats, explore along the coast of the inner sea. While the distances involved were large, travel across the sea would speed that up significantly. I didn’t know much about sailing, but I had some idea of how long it would take. Saia had calculated the distance from our town to Castle Bled at a bit over a thousand kilometers. By sea, in what was almost a straight line, that would take them a couple of days at most. Bled was a bit over a day away from the coast at a brisk walking pace. The water was the key to my plans, it opened up everything, sped up the travel significantly. Going over land would take week, months as Aurora had suggested maybe. The wild was full of danger, of rough terrain, areas that had to be avoided.

  The steppe was even closer, I could have my people make direct contact and establish relations with the Tsagaan Shonkhor tribe easily enough. Hohenwerfen was further inland, far harder for people to reach, especially with the monsters lurking in the forests in between it and Bled.

  I did hear and understand what Aurora was saying. Perhaps I could go about this a different way. Have this King swear fealty or something. I just couldn’t afford to let it drag out. I planned on going to Constantinople as soon as possible. They were the only large city that had survived the arrival of the Grand Spell intact enough, I needed them.

  For now, I could spare a couple more days. I continued to watch the Castle, looking for any changes.

  It took them another day to finally send a group out and back toward Bled. I nearly just intercepted them a bit away from their Castle, but I managed to pull myself back. They had left on foot, which meant that I had a bit over a day for them to reach my new Castle. I didn’t follow them, instead I again watched the Hohenwerfen Castle for any signs of activity. My message was an invitation for the King and me to meet at a neutral location in between our two Castles. I wondered how he was going to respond, but I didn’t see any real changes in what was happening in the valley. Sure, people came and went, but not any more than any other day.

  After a day of watching and seeing nothing, we flew back to Bled to wait for the messengers. Since we were much faster than they were, I took the time to talk with Saia for a bit. We made our way down to the lake once we left Aurora at the Castle.

  “I wanted to talk about the way we are fighting,” I started. Saia didn’t respond, and I realized that I haven’t asked a question. Sometimes I forgot that she was an artificial intelligence.

  “You were designed to serve as armor for Ke Erzi, right?”

  “Feedback: That is correct.”

  “We haven’t really tried that. You have enough mass for it now. Do you think that it could work?”

  Saia had grown to the size of a horse in the last month, one with wings. Consuming mass in the Challenge had been a big boon for her.

  “Feedback: My systems and engrams were designed for Ke Erzi shape. Our connection has given me a greater understanding of your physiology, but I am still working on a way to implement all the engrams and systems I possess into a different shape.”

  “We don’t need all of them, I don’t think. I am not Ke Erzi,” I added.

  Saia’s eyes flashed. “Input: That is true. I have not thought about it. My design choices were made with a certain vision in mind. I was working on bringing it on-line in the same form.”

  “So, can you do it.”

  “Feedback: Unlikely. Many of my systems and engrams just would not be of any use to someone like you.”

  “Meaning?”

  “Report: My [Area Sensor Matrix] would impede your natural sensory abilities, my [Spectrum Vision] would not provide much in addition to your own visual capabilities. The armored platform that is the primary form of my design is also intended to provide a mechanical augmentation to my host’s physical strength. That would not be effective for you, your physical strength exceeds what I could provide. Likewise, my biomass would not be able to handle you moving at your full capabilities as you are now.”

  I grimaced, but I understood. Saia’s biomass was strong, as strong as steel at least, but I could tear that apart easily enough. Monsters that we fought had been able to damage her drone too, tear her apart. She might be able to stop a small caliber bullet, but the blows I was taking these days would tear through any armor she could provide. Hell, my skin was probably tougher than she was. I was simply better than she was. It was the reason why I hadn’t used her in such a manner much before.

  “Any ways for us to change that?”

  “Feedback: Materials that I could absorb, replicate or integrate would be welcome. I could form a lighter form of armor around you, one that you would need to move on your own power, but that could provide some additional aid. I could implement my [Flame Breath] engram as an additional weapon platform within it.”

  I thought about it. It would be cool to shoot fire out of the palm of my hand—which was the new engram Saia had managed to get to work as she was trying to repair her [Plasma Shot]—but in the end she was more useful to me as a drone and an additional combatant right now.

  “Are there any ways for us to improve the toughness of your biomass?”

  “Feedback: My current biomass is operating at its lowest possible output, as I am powered directly by you. Usually, I would possess three [Source Weave Reactor] engram cores that would provide me with additional power. Those are no longer operable, and I am still unable to make them work. If we could find a power source that I could adapt to my use, then yes, I could strengthen my structural integrity as well as increase the power output of my other engrams.”

  I raised an eyebrow. “Can’t you draw more power from me?”

  “Feedback: I can, but that would weaken you significantly.”

  I grimaced. “So, find some kind of a power source. Something like the Source crystals we got in the Challenge?”

  “Feedback: The power contained within those is not enough for my purposes, but yes. A higher quality Source-Weave crystal of the same nature would work.”

  Well, now I just had to find one. Thankfully, there were rifts everywhere, I would get lucky eventually. And if not, the Challenge seemed to be giving them out as rewards.

  Still, she might not be able to be a useful armor for me right now, but there were still ways for us to work together. I still had some time before the messengers arrived, so the two of us threw out some ideas. I wanted to have a few aces up my sleeve for when I met with Proximus.