Kevin led the remainder of his troops through the seemingly endless forest. Wherever anyone looked, aside from the forms of their fellows in front and to their back, there was only ever fog or the twisted forms of cursed trees. The Gallows Woods was living up to its reputation of being impossible to navigate. If they had merely done what Erwin Krueger had done and carved a path through the haunted forest with axe and shovel, they might not have been in this situation.

Despite the fact that they were like a winding train whose tracks led to nowhere, the column of men and equipment moved on. They could not stop for long, nor could they attempt to simply retreat. Kevin, the ‘Leader of the Heroes’ would not allow it, and any who tried were doomed to a fate potentially worse than death.

Their incursion into the territory of Darksol itself was, to put it mildly, eventful. This was not just including the first battle they had fought, the one against the first fortress that they had come to. No, it included the other forts, towns and pitched battles that occurred before they even laid eyes on this spooky place of doom and gloom.

It had been a major pain to get even to the edge of the Gallows Woods. The very fact that they had entered this haunted woodland with mostly green troops spoke volumes about how much it had cost Kevin’s forces. Each battle had cost more and more of the Confederacy’s veterans, either due to the tactics and strategies of Alistaira Crowley, the lack of them from Kevin, or Kevin’s bursts of anger and rage whenever things didn’t go his way.

All of the seasoned soldiers were either gone or too few in number to lend much support. They had been scattered amongst the green recruits to lead them, but all this meant was that there were now a bunch of people who had different cultures trying to lead people who usually didn’t have the same culture as them. The few generals who had lasted this long were in no shape to lead, being too terrified of Kevin’s violent outbursts to do anything. They had seen a decent number of their fellows wiped from reality by a single shot from Kevin’s ‘Mega Pistol’, and none of them wanted to join the fallen.

Which leads to the situation that Kevin and company were in now. Lost, confused and running low on supplies, there seemed to be no way out. Hope was fading fast, quickly being replaced by despair and worry. Just when all seemed lost…

“Huh? I can see the sun!”

A dense portion of the Gallows Woods suddenly fell apart, almost like a miracle from Lumina had struck through the darkness to light the way forward. Hoping beyond hope, the army wound its way through the opening and beheld a metropolis. Ringed by high, medium and low walls with towers at regular intervals the end result of Kain constantly taking time off to use his Throne came into view. This was it. This was the dark city that the source of all evil ruled over with an iron fist. This was Necrograd, the source of undeath itself.

A mix of relief and newfound despair reigned over those who looked upon the mighty walls and various fortifications that protected the massive city. The capital of Darksol was beyond huge, at least by Confederacy standards. Not even the capital of Ititlis itself was so massive, even though it was a major trading hub and connected to the seat of the Pope Herself, the Vatican City.

This was going to be a very difficult fight, let alone a difficult siege. The evil empire likely had more than enough supplies to outlast the Confederacy’s onslaught. The troops under the Heroes had no way to resupply, for the Gallows Woods were impossible to naviga-.

A path through the woods opened as trees withered to dust and the fog fled. Now there was a channel through that damnable nightmare forest! The Goddess was watching over her faithful and had worked yet another miracle! Cheers erupted as preparations for a long siege began. Soon enough, Darksol’s crown jewel would fall, for the second and final time.

…

A massive figure sat on an ornate throne made of black marble. The veins of minerals running through the stone looked like spiderwebs made of blood and gold. This throne was one of two that occupied this large hall, and both of them served the same purpose. The man upon the throne watched through a screen as his foes began to organize their pathetic attempt to take his home. The fools thought that their new pipeline was the act of their deity, and in a way they were right.

The Abominable King snickered to himself as he remembered the results of the experiments undertaken by the ‘Think Tank’. There were no gods in this world. At least, there were none save for himself. All of this world, at least the parts that he had made, were his creations. The ‘Goddess’ Lumina was just a construct designed to play the role of major antagonist in his eight-grade dreams and delusions; She was just as much an extension of himself as the rest of the things he had dreamed up.

Thus, the experiment to try and replicate the ‘divine blessings’ of Lumina had only proven one thing. Their ‘goddess’ was just an altered extension of himself. And, as such, he could replicate her ‘miracles’ and her ‘influence’. Since that was now known to him, he could use that knowledge in his conquest. He could send divine messages by impersonating the fake goddess so long as he sat upon his throne. It would be a simple matter to eventually turn the Luminas Church into something that benefitted him and his nation. It may take time to fully assimilate the separated will that was Lumina, but with enough time spent with his butt in this seat, it was doable.

He had already retaken the ability to cast miracles and had cut off the separated will’s ability to give instructions. It would only take another few months until he could replace the ‘goddess’ Lumina with an altered version that he was working on. Of course, this only was applicable to Lumina and no other god or goddess. If there were other deities, Kain did not think that they could be manipulated in the same way. Lumina was, after all, just a cog in the machine that his Earth-self had created. Her power, her will and her influence was ultimately his to alter as he saw fit.

These other places, on the other hand? That remained to be seen. He was not happy about how his wife had poked fun at him after this discovery. He was not a woman, nor was he intent on playing both sides. But what she had said was all in good fun, even if it did bruise his pride as a man a bit.

Kain watched as runners were sent through the gap that he had made in the Gallows Woods. Sure, he could have let them wander around until they either died or succumbed to madness, but where would be the fun in that? They wanted a big battle, a final war against the forces of evil, and so many of Darksol’s citizenry wanted such a battle as well. Who was he to deny them what they wanted? The masses demanded a grand battle outside the city, and he would grant it to them like the magnanimous ruler he was.

Dismissing the screen, Kain got up and took a walk. He had some destinations in mind, and there was still time before the initial phase of this pathetic siege began. After reaching a building that seemed to have been added on to the castle’s structure, Kain entered after ringing a bell.

“Who is it?” asked a voice.

“I am the milk man; my milk is delicious. Who the heck do you think it is?”

“Just hold on a moment!” the voice exclaimed as it recognized Kain’s own voice.

“No need to stop what you’re doing, Mr. Jones. Just here to check and see if any of the stuff you’ve made is capable of being made by the ‘Kingdom Management Tool’. Don’t stop doing what you are doing for me, we have ‘guests’ outside the city and I am looking for something to surprise them.”

“So, Kevin and the others are here?” asked Wakanda as he popped his head out from behind a prototype tank that he and the ‘Think Tank’ had been working on.

“And a metric fuckton of soldiers, siege weapons and cavalry.” Kain said nonchalantly as he tapped a few of the things that were scattered about the workshop. He dismissed message after message from the ‘Kingdom Management Tool’ and acquired several new potential ‘buildings’ that could be made with said tool. He did stop at one in particular. The object, or rather, objects in question were a series of what looked like landmines.

“Are these seriously land mines?” Kain asked with concern.

“Yeah. Don’t worry, because they aren’t armed. Just tap each one of them to see if the system works with them. Hell, even if they were armed I doubt they would do jack all to you.”

Kain reached out cautiously and tapped one of the mines. Wakanda was right; it didn’t go off and Kain got a new ‘building’. Taping the other ones generate the same result as the first one, which caused the Abominable King’s face to twist in confusion.

“What’s up? Only one of them work?”

“No. Far from it. They all can be ‘built’. I guess variations count as different things to build.”

“Maybe it might have something to do with the fact that they each serve a different purpose. That one there had only enough power to blow off your foot, while that one is designed to pop into the air and send shrapnel in all directions. That one is useful against light vehicles while that one is powerful enough to pop a tank if it gets too close. That one has incendiaries, and that one emits a poison gas when tripped. Come back later when I am done with my current project. I may have something interesting.”

Kain smirked as he withdrew a hot meal from his ‘Hammer space’. Handing it to Wakanda, he then turned and walked towards the door, stopping before he completely left the room.

“I got a report that you haven’t eaten anything in over 20 hours. Same with sleep. Go eat and rest. I can’t have one of my best trump cards keeling over and dying on me. You would not be as fun to talk to if you are an undead. If you intend to refuse, then just consider this my direct order as the Ruler and your employer. Whatever project you are working on can wait until you are well fed and well rested. So eat, drink and then go get some shut-eye. You have more than earned it.”

“Sure thing, boss!”

Wakanda heard the door close and opened up the foil that enclosed his food.

Taking a swig of his ice water, Wakanda picked up and bit into his hamburger. As he did, he noticed a scrap of paper on the plate. He picked it up and looked it over. The note upon it read this.

“Prototype Synthetic Meat tests are successful. As thanks for joining us and helping to eventually get the annoyances to shut up about animal cruelty, the rest of the Think Tank and I present Think Tank Member Wakanda T’challa Jones with the very first Hamburger made with lab-grown artificial beef and pork. May your meal be as delectable as if it were real meat. – Alistaira Crowley”

Swallowing his food, Wakanda merely had one sentence to say.

“You magnificent bastards; We finally did it!”

Darksol was on its way to finally shutting up those who called for an end to the meat, dairy, seafood and egg industry.