Mark of the Witch

15

^^ Teleportation Circle Receiver ^^

There were dozens of upgrades I could choose, to turn every single building into its 'ultimate form', so to speak, but I focused on defensive and offensive capabilities, claiming the entire City and the surrounding land all the way north to the new town I'd made; as a Duchy, I could claim an amount of land about equal to the size of the Turnip Sea, so I quickly did, seeing the ultimate chance to complete the Peaceful Trading quests and also obtain the right to defend the Sea itself, meaning I could stop any troops from approaching three or four of my cities by water. They'd have to March on land, which would be much slower, not to mention easier to see with my (legitimately horrifying) surveillance device.

I chose not to make my castle much bigger, simply expanding it to take over the three spots it had been adjacent to, where before there'd been two level four and one level five Guild Halls, until I'd destroyed them. Now with Four Times the amount of space, I simply used all three of the lots as space for a college campus, essentially, with at least two dozen different Terrariums and a variety of other teaching facilities, surrounded by a heavy wall twice the thickness and toughness of the Outer Wall of the City, which I used up three options to enchant and empower with defensive capabilities. The exterior wall of the City received similar enchantments, alongside a spherical Magic Shield to protect from both invasion and projectiles.

The most important part, though, was the changes I made to my unintentional Super-Weapon, adding in a physical On/Off function as well as a small group of Mages hidden in a closed-off portion of the Planetarium whose job it was to identify threats in the territory and nothing else, reporting everything directly to the War Room, and another hidden in the Library whose job it was to actually fire the 'Cannons', only after receiving permission from the Military Leadership, who required confirmation and permission from Me, by way of my Communication artifact. I'd already learned the enchantment placed upon them by reading it, and placing that enchantment upon the War Room Table meant I could Govern from anywhere in the world, or beyond. Adding in that everything would be available to my Kingdom Management Tabs in my Character Screen, it became even easier, which I was thankful for. With the Speed Buff of my new 'Artifact Crafter' Title, the time was only 4 Days instead of 4 Weeks, so I went to the New Town to fetch Gregarious and see if he needed help, as well as to install a Teleportation Circle.

I didn't exactly expect to drop into a warzone, with many buildings destroyed and rubble all around, and a mob of bandits attacking a tightly fortified Temple, but my surprise quickly turned to a blazing wrath, which materialized rather easily into a ball of crackling Force Mana in my palms. Before I fired, however, I contacted Gregarious with my Artifact. 'Gregarious? Are the folks surrounding that Temple enemies? I am currently outside.'-T.B.

'Gah?!? Fuck, what?!? Who's there?!? Who's 'T.B.'?!?'-G.O.

'It's Tabitha Bambini, dear. I'm outside, and using magic to speak to you. Should I kill these bandit-looking folks?'-T.B.

'Ah... Hmm... if you could simply wound them, that would be very useful? I need to interrogate them about their motivations.'-G.O.

'Understood, I'll look for the leader and leave that one alive; none of my spells are non-lethal, dear.'-T.B.

'That is fine, and would be Ideal, actually- YOU FUCKING HEATHENS!!! HOW DARE YOU ATTACK A TEMPLE OF THE GODS?!?!? I, GREGARIOUS OCTAVIUS, WILL SEND YOUR FUCKING SOULS TO THE GODS OF PAIN AND TORMENT!!!'-G.O.