Anastasia watched as her friend tiredly leaned on one of the large swords they all used as a weapon. Ludmira was stronger than her in a straight-up fight, but the tired warrior had always been bad at pacing herself. The red-haired warrior threw herself into every battle with reckless abandon. In most cases that was good, as she never underestimated an enemy and the fights rarely lasted long enough for endurance to become an issue. The problem in this case, was that the Crimson Path had become embroiled in a war of attrition of sorts.

The first communities had finally taken the chance to go for the spot in the first circle, and their claims had not gone uncontested. However, as soon as it became obvious that someone was contesting for the spot, and would be for a while, several of the more powerful communities had turned their sights on the biggest competition around, the Crimson Path. The Crimson Witches had enjoyed several extra days of peace as no one wanted to be the first one to be fed to the beast that was the Crimson Path, but finally three communities had joined forces to do so. After the three had been beaten back, the Crimson Witches had not been given time to recover as four more had followed the first three.

Anastasia watched at the fleeing backs of the four Night city communities that had joined hands to attack them. Their own community had shown its overwhelming strength and suffered minimal losses in the fight. However, Ludmira wasn’t the only one exhausted from the fighting. In fact, she was in the majority. Tiredness led to mistakes, and mistakes would lead to loss of life. The crimson warriors didn’t fear death, but they couldn’t afford to lose too many of their number, not if they wanted to stand victorious at the end. The fighting was taking a toll on all of them, and it seemed they were not about to get a break for the foreseeable future. They already got word of another group of Day city communities coming after the ones from Night city that just routed, and this time the attackers included some communities that were an actual threat.

“Get up Mira. You’re giving a bad impression to the other swords. If our elites let their exhaustion show, then it’s also bad for morale.” Their senior sister admonished Ludmira, though softened the words by using her nickname. The dark haired warrior didn’t even have a drop of sweat on her brow after the long battle. Just like one would expect from their strongest warriors.

“Mariya is right. Besides, you’ll get to rest fairly soon.” Anastasia commented. She too showed no sign of exhaustion, besides maybe the fact that her armor was not clean. Though considering the number of people she had killed in the last few days, it was a small wonder the armor was holding up at all. That wasn’t to say she wasn’t tired. In fact, she was exhausted.

“That sounds rather optimistic Ana.” Mira pointed out. “From what I heard, the next wave of enemies will be much stronger than the last one.”

As if to emphasize Ludmira’s words, hundreds of small portals opened on the border of the area owned by the Crimson Path. This time the enemy didn’t bother sending large armies at them. Instead, the weakest enemies on the other side seemed to be rank eight. It was actually more unusual that their previous enemies had sent large numbers of their weaker members into the battle, but that was done in order to tire the Crimson Path down. Even if a rank six warrior had no real place in a battle between immortals, it would still require at least a little bit of effort on the immortal’s part to kill the weaker ranked person. That tactic didn’t come without a prize in blood though.

There seemed to be some deals that had been made in the shadows. The enemies that had attacked earlier lost so many of their younger and weaker members just to tire them out, that it seemed unlikely they would do so without a very good reason. The reason could not have been to gain victory since it had been clear from the start that the previous enemies would not win. This next group was the first one that had any realistic chance for victory. Thus the communities that had come earlier had most likely been compensated in some other way. Rather callous of them to sacrifice so many of their own for such compensation.

“That seems like the immortals and powerful members of the communities ranked sixteen to twenty-two. They’re getting serious now.” Mariya commented, tacitly agreeing with Ludmira’s words. Anastasia’s confidence seemed a little odd considering the situation. Even though they had a good chance to win here, the next ones to attack would most likely be the strongest communities in Day city. They would not miss a chance like this.

At the same time it seemed like the lower ranked swords of the Crimson Path had been given the order to retreat, and they all fell back towards the fort along the border. They had only been brought out to deal with the number of weak enemies that had come earlier, and to gain proper battle experience. Unlike their enemies, the Crimson Path would not throw away their future just to gain a small advantage. That said, there were no true low ranked members in the Crimson Path. The weakest swords were at least rank six. That was the bottom line for becoming a member. Still, those lower ranked swords had no place in the coming battle.

On the other hand, it seemed like the strongest members of their community had all been summoned, as Anastasia noticed her master coming to the battlefield along with seven other people radiating power. All of them had identical armor and blades to those that had been here before, except for one difference. They all had a number embossed or filigreed on their shoulder. Mariya standing next to Anastasia had the number ten on her shoulder as well, and there was another person with number six that had control over the other flank of their forces.

Anastasia’s master prominently had the number one on her shoulder, and she cut a striking figure. Like Anastasia, Teresa had a long flowing golden hair that went down all the way to her waist. That alone was rather unique as most of the members of the Crimson Path kept their hairs down to the shoulders at most, as a long hair could be a weakness to be exploited in battle. That said, as their attire was always the same, and they even looked rather similar with the refined features and red eyes, the hair of a Crimson Witch was one of the few things they could use to display their femininity and individuality. Those warriors that had a very short warrior’s cut like Ludmira were few and far between, as they had almost given up on their individuality to become pure warriors. The long hair that both Teresa and Anastasia kept was almost a taunt to others, a blatant display of an obvious weakness that dared anyone to try and exploit it. Yet no one seemed to mind the slight provocation.

All of the Crimson Witches shared the trait of looking like humans on the outside due to the techniques they practiced, but nowhere was the appearance as deceiving as when it came to Teresa. Unlike the other seven people around her, Teresa didn’t give off even the slightest hint of power aside from a vague feeling of danger, yet they all knew she could most likely defeat all of the other seven behind her if she really wanted to. No one among them was stupid enough to look down on Teresa.

“If the first sword is moving personally, then either she’s bored or we’re about to send a message.” Ludmira realized. Teresa didn’t go into battle very often, partially because the battles were often resolved as soon as she entered. That took the fun out of it, and also denied the others the chance to shine and grow. Teresa liked battle personally, but only against opponents that actually could put up a fight. Those opponents were few and far between. It was rumored among the other communities that Teresa was infinitely close to becoming one of the dreaded rank thirteen existences that were rarely seen outside the first circle.

“A bit of both most likely.” Mariya commented before she seemingly realized something. She looked at Anastasia. “Your negotiations succeeded.” She stated, instead of asking a question.

“Yes, they did.” Anastasia replied a little smugly. She was rather pleased with herself for concluding the negotiations so fast. The advance warning they had received had really borne fruit.

“Oh dear. This is going to be one of the most one-sided battles I’ve ever seen, isn’t it? With Teresa taking part, I doubt most of the enemies will be leaving alive either. She’s been feeling itchy for a while now, and these Day city communities colluding with those from the Night city to attack us should have her rather pissed. I’m guessing there will be a couple of them falling out of the second circle by the time these problems get sorted out.” Mariya commented while looking at the still oblivious enemy communities moving towards them.

The enemy communities were just about to start their attack when another group of portals opened behind them. The number of portals was only a dozen, but the appearance of the ones coming through the portals struck fear into the communities that had been feeling good about their chances for attacking the Crimson Path. Some of the enemies were confused whether these newcomers had arrived to help them, or to aid the Crimson Path, but the smart ones knew better and were already preparing to retreat. They were met with failure, as a field preventing spatial magic settled over the battlefield. The trap had been sprung.

“The Revenant?” Ludmira asked incredulously. “You managed to ally us with our biggest competitor? How did you manage that small wonder?”

“What did you have to promise them exactly?” Even Mariya was a little surprised at the turn of events.

Anastasia grinned smugly. “A little-known fact, the Revenant don’t actually want to move away from their current location. They might be one of the only communities for whom the first circle holds little appeal over their current location. While they certainly wouldn’t mind the extra resources or ambient mana in the first circle, their current citadels sit at the conflux of several elemental mana sources. What they need are more rifts to the elemental planes, not necessarily more mana and other resources. Or to be more precise, they’re more than happy to allow others to provide those resources for them instead.”

The two others nodded in understanding. While the Revenant held mana in high importance, what they really needed was the elemental power from the planes to increase their number and rank. “So you handed over most our rifts in exchange for their help?” Mariya asked.

“All the rifts we don’t absolutely need for calming down our own people who go too far. We don’t really need the other rifts anymore after we get the spot in the first circle anyway. Also, we promised them a cut of the resources we gain from our new area for the next hundred years.” Anastasia explained. It was a hard bargain, but fair. Also, one of the terms stipulated was that the Revenant would get nothing if the Crimson Path did not get the spot in the first circle, so the risks were minimized.

‘Master also sent them a damn gift basket. The Revenant were not sure how to take it, and that confused their negotiators for no good reason. I’m pretty sure they took it as a threat.’ Anastasia quietly cursed in her mind.

“With the example we’re about to make and the alliance between our two communities, we should have a good chance of victory. Nice work Ana.” Mariya agreed, with an approving nod.

“Don’t celebrate just yet.” Ludmira stated. “The Spider Cult has not shown their hand yet, and neither have the vampires of the Night city. I heard rumors they were making a play as well and it would not be too surprising for them to work out an alliance of sorts as well.”

“Do you really think the vampires would want a spot in the first circle, right next to the Solarians?” Anastasia asked a little surprised. Even though vampires of high enough rank were not vulnerable to the sun anymore, they didn’t exactly enjoy the sun either and the Solarians were the embodiments of the suns orbiting Pantheon. One of the suns was almost constantly holding position over the Solarian holdings at the very center of Day city. As a result, the first circle almost never saw full darkness, despite the other communities taking some measures. You could go pretty far with high-level magic, but far enough to make the vampires happy? That seemed like a stretch.

“In exchange for a spot at the first circle? Who can say for sure. They have ways around it. I’m not sure how happy the Solarians would be though.” Ludmira replied with a small shudder. The Solarians were the undisputed number one community of Pantheon, obscuring even the number one community of the Night city. If they made a move, then everyone was in trouble. If the Solarians decided that the first circle didn’t need a new community to take Xinglong’s place, then all the others would abide by that decision.

“Ah, we’re about to start.” Anastasia commented, just as Teresa gave the signal for attack and a storm of magic hit the enemy communities from behind. It was hard to match the Revenant’s pure destructive power with magic.

----------

“The Rakshasa really need a strong leader.” Nyx pointed out. Her tail still had a bandage around it, wrapped up like a mummy.

Dee knew that some of the representatives wanted to push her into that position but staunchly refused. “Look, I see your point, but I can’t be that leader, no matter how much you wish I could.”

“Sometimes we have to do things we don’t want to do.” The Anshar representative said a little admonishingly. “When a person is called, it is their duty to answer. Sometimes that means making personal sacrifices.” The Rakshasa had received something of a shock with the Aboleth’s influence being withdrawn, especially with the realization of how easily they had been controlled. That had left the whole group in a precarious position mentally, which only added to their previous servile mentality.

“See, that’s cute and all, but I’m not refusing out of a desire to shirk my duty. Sooner or later I will leave this world, and then what happens to the Rakshasa? They just learned to rely on me and suddenly I’m gone. That would be worse than the current situation. The calling of two of the top four deities trumps your desire for an easy solution to a difficult problem, wouldn’t you say?” This time Dee was less polite with her answer. She knew the others could deal with the Rakshasa and even help one of them become a proper leader. However, that would require a lot of time and effort. Dee taking over would make things easy.

“She’s right, you know.” Kawhena stated calmly. He had not been a part of the attack on the Beholders and had instead overseen the fight with the Qiraj. He was the representative that Dee usually butts heads with, but now he stepped up to her defense. “Besides, she would not be quite as good of a fit as you seem to think, and you’d realize it if you were less enamored with your own idea.”

“How’s so?” The Anshar representative asked a little unhappily.

“As much as we’d like to think otherwise, I’m not truly one of them.” Dee pointed out the obvious problem. “Some of the things that would make me a decent leader also preclude me from it at the same time. I don’t have the same mindset as they do, which makes me unable to fully sympathize with their issues. In fact, in many ways we’re the opposites. Besides, most of the time I don’t even look like them.” She waved a finger up and down of her body, as she was currently in her new form. She had very little in common with the Rakshasa appearance-wise.

“They just threw off the shackles of one psion, so how likely would they approve of another becoming their leader when I’m only partially of the same race. Besides, even that’s a little bit is tenuous, as they are not the Rakshasa that turned to the demons for help, while the part of me that is Rakshasa did go to the demons. One could argue they are no longer the same race.” Dee continued.

The representatives argued for a while longer without coming to a proper conclusion. They knew Dee would not take the position, but they were not sure how to approach the situation now. The Rakshasa had followed them to the Four Winds, but the whole thing was a little up in the air currently. The Rakshasa were not sure if they wanted to stay, and the Four Winds were not sure they wanted them here either. Yet at the same time, the Rakshasa were thankful for being saved and the Four Winds didn’t want to abandon them.

As the others left the room to deal with the issue of the Qiraj, Nyx sat down next to Dee and plunked her tail in Dee’s lap. “More healing please!” She announced. Dee had managed to return some of the luster into Nyx’s tail, but it was a slow process. She wasn’t actually healing the tail per se and was actually just speeding up the natural growth with her own powers.

Dee gave a sigh. “You know, you could just use your own power to do this by now.”

“Yes, but for some reason the parts grown by your power become fluffier. If it wasn’t so shameful, I might even consider shaving the rest of my tail just to have all of it that fluffy.” Nyx countered.

Dee cursed in her mind. She didn’t really mind doing this; it just felt a little pointless. ‘Do something too well, and soon it becomes your designated job.’ Croestia pointed out with a chipper voice inside Dee’s head.

“Don’t worry about Smoky.” Nyx suddenly said. “He’s just feeling stressed out. For a while now we’ve considered him to be our supporting pillar and the fight with the Aboleth and the Beholders struck him hard. He has to come to terms with his own weaknesses. He is powerful but there are ways around that. You just happen to be a convenient outlet, especially since it’s mostly thanks to you that we managed to win. Smoky is feeling a little like you’re taking his place. It doesn’t help that you’re right about the Rakshasa and he’s most likely going to have to be the one to deal with it.”

“While understandable, that doesn’t make it alright for him to take it out on me.” Dee pointed out. It was more a statement of fact than a complaint.

“True. But understanding is half the battle. Smoky has rarely had to feel weak, so this is especially hard for him. Give him a bit of time and he’ll most likely apologize. In his own way. That said, it might be better if you find something less flashy to do for the next while, at least until he regains his bearings. Why have a confrontation that you can just avoid?” Nyx said calmly. She agreed with Dee but had a better grasp of Smoky’s personality. His pride had been broken, and he would need some time to re-evaluate.

“Just the same. I need to look for someone that could advise me with my holy powers anyway. Unfortunately, it would be better if I found someone serving the dark deities.” Dee gave a small sigh. The priests of the dark deities were not likely to give out information for free.

“Well, perhaps it would be better to first seek out someone from the lighter side of things. What about Razark? Doesn’t he have some high ranking friends? Isn’t he rather skilled with holy power?” Nyx suggested.

Dee grimaced. “Razark is more a holy warrior than a priest though. He was trained by the same master I was, and that old bastard had no holy ability. However, that does give me an idea.” She suddenly remembered that Razark had invited a high ranking priestess to heal her after she had fought the Crimson Witches. She had been somewhat out of it at the time, but that priestess had most likely been immortal. That would be a starting point at least.

“So are we going to talk about the Death’s blessing?” Nyx asked suddenly.

“Nnnnope.” Dee immediately countered.

“Fair enough. I can see how that would be something you’d prefer to hide. Still, it’s rather amusing how you have blessings from three of the top four deities. You’d have a full set if you managed to get one from Eternity as well.” Nyx pointed out with a chuckle.

Dee feigned a laugh as well. “Yes. Amusing.” That would not be the word she would use.

“You totally have a blessing from all four.” Nyx suddenly stated with a knowing grin. “Hah, try to hide it if you want! I’ve played enough games against you to be able to read you. Don’t worry, I’ll keep this to myself.” She suddenly jumped up and left the room. Dee could only shrug in resignation. Nyx had not even given her the chance to deny anything before coming to a conclusion.

As Dee walked towards Razark’s current abode, Croestia gave another suggestion. ‘You might want to have a word with the leader of the Zabaniya. Tell him that you held your end of the deal. Maybe he can throw in some information as a bonus. He seems like the type to give us something extra now that we went along with his wishes for once. I’m not saying you should trust him, as he’s likely to play you, but he might give us a clue at least.’

‘A fair point. And he most likely has connections with some dark priesthood. At the very least he should be able to point us in the rough direction. With all likelihood he’ll combine it with a mission. Kill a dark priest and steal his knowledge as a reward. Not my first avenue of choice, but we should keep the possibility in mind at least.’ Dee guessed.

‘That kind of mission would work to our advantage actually. A dead enemy will not be able to misdirect you, but can be a source of information.’ Croestia agreed. Neither of them was wild about going with whatever the leader of the assassins wanted, but so far he had been reliable with information and had held his end of the deals they had struck. It seemed that helping Dee was in his interests, for now at least. Still, they’d try other ways first.

‘You could always try asking the gods themselves…’ Croestia pointed out.

Dee didn’t dignify the suggestion with an answer.