It was time for a group meeting at the Council Pavilion. I had Enna, Thad, and Zira meet me there. A few of the other demons and even Volcano Hounds gathered around, but Kaila, who seemed to be the leader of the Volcano Hounds, was too busy somewhere else out of our sight.

That aside, it was time for the meeting to start since everybody was there.

“For those who don’t know, we’ve found what looks like another faction. Not a minor faction, either,” I said. “There’s a new settlement icon on the map right to the north of Mount Hound, and it’s got all the tiles around it claimed. It has a proper faction territory border and everything unlike what the Volcano Hounds had.”

“Well,” Thad said, “that sounds like another faction. Know who they are yet?”

“No. They might not even know we’re here. They claimed territory in the region directly above Mount Hood, so they might not even know that our settlement there exists if they never actually made it into that region.”

Zira leaned forward with her elbows on the table, her hands held together under her chin. “Or maybe, they decided to claim that area because they know we’re there.”

“I doubt it. The timing doesn’t line up for that to be a reaction to us unless they just so happened to have a lucky Settler unit in the area that was on their way somewhere else. But considering that they claimed all the Living Forest tiles, and that sounded like a pretty unique biome, I’m going to assume it was intentional and not just a reaction to us.”

Zira didn’t seem too surprised by what I said, but somebody else did. “I hope it’s not what I’m thinking,” Thad said.

I had a bad feeling about what he was going to answer. “What?”

“There’s one member of the Divine Pantheon who never refuses to participate in these world-bound matches, especially when they start as early in civilization’s progress as this one.”

Enna’s eyes widened, presumably because she realized where Thad was going with this.

“The Tree Father, Ull.”

“I remember that name,” I said. “Enna told me about an exploit he discovered.”

“That’s him. He always chooses leaders for his faction who will try their hardest to exploit the system as hard as they possibly can. Meanwhile, their ranks are made up of some of the most battle-loving berserkers you could find across all the realms. If it’s them—well, I don’t think even our new friends here are going to be able to equal them in melee combat. Not to mention that they have a habit of prioritizing archery, too, to back up their berserkers.”

“What makes you think it’s them?”

“A real bad gut feeling. Living Wood is a biome that’s been in other games. It’s going to be the best wood material you can find in this entire world unless a new one has been added. The first thing Ull’s leaders do in every game is search as wide as they can to find Living Wood. If they do, and they claim it… they win. They’re completely focused on early game domination. They get racial buildings and bonuses that enhance the stats from wood, making it better than practically any other material anybody else might find or make in the early game. If they start producing weapons, and ships, from the wood they’ll get there, it’s going to be almost impossible to catch up to them. And to defend against them.”

Admittedly, none of that sounded good. “So, they’re a faction that focuses on early game domination, and they’re basically better with wood than anybody else.”

“Yeah, exactly.”

“And you think they might be our neighbors because their behavior matches their usual pattern.”

Thad sighed and nodded. Considering that he was the one being extra motivated and cheerful after we got abandoned by Lucy, seeing him so worried really made me feel like we might be in trouble.

“The fact that they’re focused on domination means they’re probably not open to being friends, especially if they got the best possible material for their faction,” I said.

Thad shook his head. “They’re never willing to work with anybody else. Ull sends them to these games for honor and glory. They’re only here to dominate and fight. Anything else is a show of weakness to them.”

Our Volcano Hounds would probably enjoy fighting them in that case, but Thad was worried that the Volcano Hounds wouldn’t even be able to go toe-to-toe with their melee berserkers. Not only that, but they were backed up by ranged units which would really put the Volcano Hounds at a disadvantage.

At least, assuming that everything Thad was saying would turn out to be right.

“By the way,” I said, “where are our racial buildings and bonuses?”

It was Zira’s turn to sign, apparently. “We won’t be getting any.”

“Because we lost Lucy’s patronage?”

“Exactly. You see, if we still counted as Hell’s faction, we would get access to Hell’s unique buildings and technologies that are supposed to be available starting in the next era. Also, each faction is allowed to choose three different tiers of their people to send into the game. In exchange for having a weaker early game by having demons without any special traits or any early, unique buildings, we were going to have even stronger buildings and demons in the later eras. Even devils. They would have likely been the most powerful race to use in the mid-game even with no equipment. But, because we lost our patronage, we lost access to all of that.”

“Then we’re at a disadvantage. Other factions will still get their unique buildings and units, but we won’t.” I thought about it for a few moments and then asked, “What if we take over another faction’s settlement? Do we gain access to summoning units from their world? Do we get their unique buildings and technologies?”

“Yes to their population, but expect them to be incredibly unhappy about being forced to come and work for us. As for their buildings and technologies, only if you assign a member of their species as a research leader later.”

“Got it. Thanks to both of you,” I looked at Thad and Zira, “for explaining all of that. Now, the only question is how to approach them. We can either leave them alone where they are, where they potentially have no idea about us or Mount Hound, or we can send our Volcano Hounds over there to check them out and see who they are. Personally, I believe we should try and find out who they are. The sooner we know who they are, the sooner we can prepare a strategy against them, assuming any of you know anything about who they are and what their usual go-to strategy might be.”

“I don’t like this gut feeling,” Thad said. “If they turn out to be who I’m willing to bet they are, we want to go unnoticed by them for as long as possible.”

Zira shook her head. “The sooner we know who they are, the sooner we can prepare plans for dealing with them. If they’re hostile, we can prepare a military. If they’re friendly, we can focus on food and labor. We need to know.”

I looked at Enna and asked, “And you?”

Enna looked surprised that I asked her and made sure to push her glasses up before answering me. “A-ah… um, I… agree with—it is Zira now, yes?”

“Right.”

“Then Zira. I agree with Zira. But, if I may… I also believe we should take a Settler unit and send them as far to the west as they can go to form another settlement that will potentially be safe. But I believe we may only have three settlements right now, so that would mean not settling to the north as you wanted.”

“So, I think we have majority agreement to find out who they are, but now we have to decide whether or not we go for that science and food settlement in the north, or if we send a Settler to the west, where we have no idea what we might come across, for safety.”

The answer was obvious to me, but I still tried to be fair by considering both options equally.

“We’re staying with the north option,” I declared. “The only reason a settlement to the west would be good is if we plan on losing both New Liberty and Mount Hound. At that point, we’d be without our capital and basically starting over with land that might be shit compared to where we are now, and they would have their own capital, that Living Wood biome, and both of our current settlements in the case of actually needing a settlement to the west. It’s game over for us if it comes to that. There wouldn’t be any coming back since they would have the option to snowball against us while we’re basically stuck starting over from scratch. Instead, we’re going to rush that science and food to the north so that we can recruit a large, and more importantly, advanced military.”

Enna nodded, looking convinced, and Zira looked relieved by my declaration.

The only one who looked unsure was Thad. “I’m with you no matter how it turns out,” he said, “but you better pray to whoever’s listening that they’re not Ull’s faction.”

“As long as they’re not Vietnamese rice farmers, I’ve got confidence in us.”

“Vietna-what farmers?”

“I’ll teach you about them later.”

For the moment, it was time to send the Volcano Hounds up to that new settlement. They could travel back toward New Liberty to escort our upcoming Settler afterward.