Chapter 83: Side Story 8 – Reaping the Harvest Sown by One’s own Hands

"I always find it stupid that people love to do things with their own hands so much. Underlings exist for a reason, and besides, it is just so much more satisfying when you can give a command and topple a nation, all without having to rise from your comfortable seat or dirty your hand." - Gallus Beragonys, Flesh Artisan Ascendant, First Candidate for a Council Position, circa 68 VA.

Grand Chapel, La Fiachna, formerly Vitalican territory, now claimed by Antemeia, second day of the first week of the fourth month, year 68 VA.

 

"We aspirants respectfully welcome Ascendant Beragonys," said two neat rows of necromancers as they bowed in unison.

 

"Hmm, not bad," said Gallus Beragonys as he walked into the former grand chapel in La Fiachna. Most of the decorations had been removed, or covered by Antemeian banners, while a chair was placed where the altar used to be, as it was the largest building in the city, and thus the most fitting to house the region's new overseer.

 

Southwestern Vitalica, the nation's oldest land, had been more weakly defended than the newer lands, the former Junoran territory, as the new council had not been fond of the still prevalent pro-Fiachna sentiments that pervaded the region as a whole.

 

As such, when the zombie hordes of Antemeia came attacking, they broke through the defenses relatively smoothly, and subjugated the region within a month, after which the new Vitalican council was all too happy to accept their offer for peace. The excuse was that they were just "reclaiming", their old lands, despite over half of the old Vitalican lands being formerly Junoran, but the new council had not debated the rhetoric.

 

Of course, it helped that agents he had planted decades ago in Vitalica had also infiltrated the militia by now, and their sudden betrayal, while relatively small in actual effect, was plenty to cause the militia to break down before the overwhelming tide of zombies they faced.

 

The loss of several officers in their chain of command tends to do that, even more so when some of those officers start relaying orders that were detrimental for their own side on top of that. The mistrust and suspicion sown from the betrayal was merely icing on the cake, as by then the main force of the region's defenses had been shattered.

 

What was planned to be a three month long expedition was instead finished within a month, and contrary to expectations, Beragonys had not removed his surviving agents now that their usefulness was at an end, but rewarded them quite richly instead. They were granted cozy positions in smaller towns, although the overseers would still be an aspirant from Antemeia.

 

The populace had been resistant at first, but after his aspirants put down the first few uprisings with extreme prejudice before he even arrived, the populace chose to cower in their homes, and thus left the region to the ministrations of its new masters.

 

One of the first acts the Antemeians did was to raise all the dead people from the short conflict into zombies to replenish their own ranks. All the surviving citizens were relabeled as serfs, and put to work rebuilding cities and villages damaged from the conflict itself, while the overseers kept a close watch over them.

 

In truth, it had taken Beragonys a while to convince the Council of Flesh Artisans that his planned invasion of Vitalica would be viable. The rebellion his planted agents orchestrated seven years ago was a means to that end, aimed to drive away the Bone Lord's "relatives" from the nation and to gauge his reaction.

 

When years passed without a reaction from the Bone Lord, the Council was emboldened and authorized the invasion, and as its architect Beragonys was granted command both over the operation as well as over the region after the conflict was over.

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With that he also finally laid his master's last regret to rest. His late master, an ascendant like he is now, used to reign over the region that was now the western side of old Vitalica, and it was the region Antemeia lost during the rebellion. To her deathbed his old masted had seethed from that one disgrace in her career, and Beragonys, an orphan whom the ascendant had discovered as a talent and adopted, had sworn by his master's deathbed that he would put things right again, and erase her disgrace from memory.

 

Now he had done just that, and then some, as his expedition has netted not only the former Antemeian lands his master lost, but also the former Junoran lands to its east. He looked forward to the end of this year's meeting, where he would ask the Council to use his achievement to wipe away his late master's disgrace from the records.

 

It was the least he could do for the closest person to a parent he ever had.

 

But now, first he would need to properly pacify these lands. That task itself might take the rest of his lifetime to achieve, but then again, the aspirants serving under him would do the brunt of the job for him, so it is not that great an obligation.

 

"How goes the pacification?" He asked to the nearest aspirant, a young human woman who recently rose to the rank - likely by spreading her legs for the favor of some ascendants, but he wouldn't look down on her for it, since one had to do what it takes to reach their goals after all - and now served as his personal secretary.

 

"The eastern region is seeing more resistance still, lord Ascendant," said the young woman. "It would appear they have more believers in the radical ideology there, and those tend to choose death over submission."

 

"Well… that's a bit of a double edged sword I'll admit," mused Beragonys with a clucking chuckle as he was the one who had helped spread said ideology in the former Junoran lands to sow discord between them and the old Vitalica region. "Good thing we don't plan to head further east. What about the rest? And how are our forces standing?"

 

"The west region had been relatively passive so far, and we have more than covered our losses in the expedition with replacements from raised locals, bolstering our numbers to an extra one in five," reported the woman. "So far no reports of any movements from Ptolodecca has been sighted. They did not seem to care about this conflict, though we had suspected that their spies had flitted around the region of late."

 

"Leave them be, do not provoke the Bone Lord. It is not worth it," Beragonys replied. "We already got what we came for anyway, and it's normal for Ptolodecca to watch over our movements."

 

"Understood, lord ascendant," replied the woman with a bow. "I will see to it that your instructions are obeyed."

 

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