Chapter 161: 8-18 Escalation

We made good time.

That was all I could think as the sight of several many-masted sailing ships greeted me over the horizon. It had only been three days since Tlaloc departed on her assignment. Now, enhancing my eyesight precluded the need for a spotting telescope, though Benji was using one just to my right. He offered it to me, and I declined.

“No, I can see well enough through my own methods; they’re weak.”

My observation garnered a strange look from our audience; both the captain of the Jewel of Gaia’s Crown and the former First Mate of the Might of Man had been “asked” to attend the battle from the bridge of the Will of the Gods. A purely political maneuver, fully intended to inform them that I knew of their mutinous sentiments. In their place, the ranking bridge officer would hold command. Not that any of our three ships would be engaging at close range.

Captain Shepherd, formerly Commander Shepherd (no relation), of the Might of Man was my chief concern; he was the ringleader of the officers aligning themselves against me, according to Benji’s warning. Likewise, it was Captain Shepherd who was giving me the hardest look. Next was Franklin, surprisingly, followed by the captain of the Jewel of Gaia’s Crown whom I had refrained from meeting personally until now.

“Captain,” I turned, and the three men all stiffened, “...Captain Shepherd. If you have something to say, then you may do so; among other things, you were asked here to facilitate giving your input.”

At this juncture, I see no reason to beat around the bush, but I can’t just accuse him of mutiny; Lord Alriss would be duty bound to summarily execute him.

Therefore, my words “among other things” were as close to an accusation as I could give. Shepherd flinched; the meaning had not been lost on him.

That being said, he wasn’t a coward, “Forgive my impertinence, but your majesty might have forgotten; we are outnumbered. The enemy’s ships may be obsolete, but they could easily surround us.”

“A fair point; I lack experience with conventional engagement tactics. In fact, I have never participated in one, and generally prefer to eschew command to the experts. As long as the general objective can be carried out. First Captain Benji; as we discussed.” I named Benji as my first captain, reiterating his position as the head of our naval forces.

That was the signal for our operation to go into motion. Benji bowed, then laid his hand on a black outline inlaid to his command chair’s armrest. It was a magic tool, and as long as he was in contact with it, his voice would be relayed to all decks. A nearby officer engaged a pair of small crystals; these would broadcast to the other two vessels.

“All hands, this is First Captain Benji. Prepare for battle. Might of Man, follow ahead and shield Jewel of Gaia’s Crown. Let’s give these spectators a show!” Following his broadcast, Benji removed his hand from the broadcast and eyed Captain Shepherd, “Your second is intelligent; I looked over his file.”

…Well, nobody’s perfect.

What followed was a tense few moments as I waited to see if the Might of Man would follow through on her orders. To my surprise, she did. And not only that, she moved into a covering position that would properly shield Jewel of Gaia’s Crown and support my own Will of the Gods. A position that put her well inside our own firing envelope.

Benji grinned to himself and I realized I had misjudged his comment to Captain Shepherd. He hadn’t been questioning the man’s own intelligence. In his mind, his colleague was obviously an idiot. Rather, Benji had been commenting to the effect of “You’re more alone than you think you are.”

It would seem that Benji did something after our meeting; he knew in advance that the Might of Man would present her belly.

He was loyal, but he just wasn’t clever enough by my reckoning; he wouldn’t have been able to predict this. It was possible he’d made a gamble, but not likely. If my idea of his character was accurate, he wouldn’t have risked losing face like that unless he knew what was going to happen…

I subtly grasped the collar of my dress and made a motion as if to fan myself; “Look into this.” From the side of the room, Jacqueline tilted her head in affirmation.

And I’ll need to have a long chat with him when this is done… But if I’m right this time, I might have just found my new chief of naval affairs.

Captain Shepherd seemed to agree with me as well; he had blanched white and seemed to have shrunk a bit. At the very least, there was no longer an air of defiance around him.

Instead, it was Franklin who stepped up to assume the role, “...Lady Stahlia?”

I raised an eyebrow, “Of all those here, you and I are equals in the eyes of the gods; speak freely.”

It’s about time, though I wish you’d waited a bit longer, or done this earlier… Really, the worst timing!

Ever since I’d executed a man right in front of him, I had been waiting for Franklin to confront me about it. But he’d so far been holding back for reasons unknown.

“...Right. Well, this all seems like it’s working out, but the problem is the same; Captain Shepherd was right about the numbers. I don’t know a lot about magic, but it seems like your men think this is a bad idea. Just too afraid to say it…” He trailed off, but what he said made things click into place.

Ah… This hurts. This hurts a lot.

He’d confronted me when I least expected him to, while his words and tone had made one thing very clear; he was the one who was afraid. Franklin was afraid of me. It made sense; he’d only been here a few months while I’d grown up again. I was much more accustomed to this world and its values had become my own. More than that, he had come looking for George and instead found Stahlia. I was a lot colder and far more calculating than George.

A testament to the final point; despite being emotionally hurt by the realization, I didn’t show it. At least, not in a way that just anyone would notice.

“I am aware, and you are wrong about one thing; my men are not afraid of me. They know better. Franklin, I have killed people and will continue to do so, but I am not insane. I would never order someone to die without a reason, and I have sworn to myself never to forget the lives I’ve taken.”

Here I go again. I was worried that Franklin would be the bleeding heart hero character, but just listen to me. Ugh. Claire’s going to love that one.

Despite the fact that I’d remained calm the entire time, Franklin had shrunk back as I addressed him. An extremely vexing notion. Perhaps it would do to ask Lord Alriss if the difficulty of Franklin’s combat training could be increased. For now, I merely pursed my lips and addressed Benji.

“First Captain, the enemy numbers exceed our expectations; how many ships do I need to target?”

He studied a chart surrounded by some of the bridge officers, “We were expecting a small flotilla of ten to fifteen, and they have twenty-seven. If your majesty could manage seven, we will somehow deal with the rest.”

He was in commander mode now, and it was incredibly refreshing not to deal with his crude manner, “Then I shall endeavor for thirteen. Sasha, Frieda, Jacqueline, Eris, I believe I will become incapacitated; please look after me as you always do.”

With that much said, I left the bridge; there was no desire to witness anyone’s reaction. My destination was at the front of the ship; the mana amplifier. By the time I arrived out on the bow, the enemy ships had arrayed themselves in formation. If not for the circumstances, the sight of all their sails closing at full billow may have impressed me. As it was, I could feel my heart’s turmoil. As always, my emotional responses were maladjusted, and I had been set off by the slightest stimuli.

To think that just the knowledge Franklin finds me frightening would cause me to shake with rage and guilt…

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Metaphorical shaking, of course. The sailors and soldiers around me, and especially the mages who would be assisting me, they could not be allowed to see how I really felt.

If I’m not careful, I’ll mess up the calibration of the spell.

I placed a hand on the Orichalcum frame of the mana amplifier as I drew closer to it. This would be my first time using something of this scale, and there hadn’t been time to practice. Nothing out of the ordinary then; I just had to stay in control for a little longer, and then I could let myself pass out from using too much mana. That should be the final nail in the mutiny, and it would conclude my part to play in this exercise.

The mage’s commander approached me and saluted, “Your majesty, my men and I are ready to assist.”

I nodded and held out my arms for Sasha to remove my coat. Unlike Franklin, this man held no fear in his eyes. If anything, his were filled with awe.

“Do I know you, perchance…?” I asked him out of mild curiosity.

The officer’s expression lit up, “It honors me that you would think so! We have never been properly introduced, but I was there at the scorching of Zesten. It was my privilege to witness her majesty’s magic firsthand!”

Ah… That’s a bit…

Creepy. This guy was creepy. It had once occurred to me that I didn’t really know many mages other than myself and Lord Gustav, but there had never been enough time to meet more. If they were all like this though, I didn’t really want to.

Gustav was bad enough, and I’m not entirely sane either. But are all magic users this… eccentric? I thought it was just the powerful ones…

Suddenly, I felt a bit anxious over the notion of allowing myself to faint in the presence of this man. I had my guard knights and Jacqueline but…

I’ll just have to make sure to wring them out as well.

I slapped my fist into my hand, “Alright, let us proceed.”

The mage unit’s commander saluted again, biting off a sentence in the process, “Right away! Men, assume formation for ritual support!”

Including the commander there were six of them in total; one for each of the major elements. As soon as the order was given, each of them filed into position within the Orichalcum Mana Amplifier’s frame. Fire, Earth, Water, Wind, Light, and Dark. I stepped to the center of it all and began filling my own mana into the metal.

The amplifier itself took the shape of a wire-frame six-faced pyramid, with each corner playing host to a small circle of expensive metal, engraved with the rune for that element. Each circle was connected to the center by a further line of Orichalcum running along the deck, and it was at their conjunction that I positioned myself. The effect was immediately noticeable, at least for anyone capable of using Blood Magic. Eris and I stiffened as the hair on our arms stood on end as though charged with static.

Personally, I could also feel the pulse of each of the mage unit’s men. The commander’s was the most erratic, followed by each of his men. One by one, a tendril of my own mana reached out and grasped theirs. Rather than drawing it into me as Eris had done, their mana was drawn out and circulated within the amplifier itself.

Perfect.

With this much done, I began to chant while maintaining focus on controlling the roiling lump of energy. Orichalcum was not a battery. It would amplify any spell cast through it, but it could not itself store them. Without my direct control, this mass of energy would simply release onto the deck of the ship.

“O Fire, O Earth, O Water, O Wind, O Light, O Dark, This one calls you.” I screwed my eyes shut and began invoking the elements one by one. It came as no surprise; indeed, I had been expecting it, but by the time I named the sixth one, my voice began projecting as though I  was invoking my authority.

After all, Divine Element is a mixture of the other six. Or, would it be more accurate to call them a dilution of Divine itself?

“Grow together, mix, and rejoin.”

What happened next, however, did surprise me; the spell began to take shape before I finished chanting. Following my instructions, the mass of mana began to mix thoroughly; it was starting to look an awful lot like Divine Element. Outside the circle, Eris shrank back as if by instinct, and everybody’s clothes and hair where whipping around. They were also drenched with water, and steam was coalescing into mist around their bodies.

Shit!

As evidenced by the storm growing out around the amplifier, I’d not been controlling things as well as I’d thought. In fact, it seemed as though I was about to lose what little control I did have; the raw elemental mana was causing a small-scale storm of pure energy as each type manifested itself. Water was being whipped up by Wind, while both were heating and becoming steam through the influence of Fire. Earth, Light, and Dark were not immediately evident, but considering the absence of Earth in the middle of the ocean…

And both Light and Dark are more mental and spiritual… This is bad!

I had to think fast with my still-limited vocabulary, but by applying the fact that the spell was already executing, I should be able to manage something.

“Uh, calm the rampant chaos of the world!”

At my order, the mass of Divine Element began to spread out from the amplifier. The roiling mana storm abated nigh instantly, and the surroundings took on an eerily still quality. But this much wouldn’t be enough; I couldn’t just release the spell now. Not only would it fail to sink any ships, let alone thirteen, but it would leave behind a mass of Divine Element enforcing order on this region of the world. And that was… bad, I thought. Certainly, it wouldn’t be interesting.

“Draw the peaceful energy back, rise up, and crash down.”

The mana storm was consumed, and drawn into the amplifier. Several soldiers around it let out a gasp, and a few fainted; I would not learn until later how badly I’d screwed up in my hurry.

“In the name of all the gods: Thirteen Executions, [Divine Smite.]”

I finalized the spell that had already been executed. Upon granting it a name, I felt my energy wane for the second time in a week. The world seemed to quake, and thirteen pillars of light tore loose from the heavens. As I swooned, I beheld the wrath of heaven crashing down upon the waves.

 

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