High above the surface, a massive construct began to come ever closer to the northern coast of Arcfira. This metal and stone ‘cloud’ was no mere airship similar to the ones that had been used during the war against the former Arbiana Sultanate, but instead something far more ancient and far more powerful. The former hub of the Luminas Faith had a new master, and that master now commanded it to bring doom and despair to his enemies.

Though small by the standards of some fictional settings’ warships, it was still a mostly circular mobile battle station that was big enough to be at least the length of two exact copies of Manhattan Island, plus a few extra city blocks on top of that. And, as you would expect from something of its size and power, it had a few weapons powerful enough and dangerous enough to easily be classified as ‘Weapons of Mass Destruction’.

Between the magical and nonmagical armaments of all sizes all over it and the thousands of small, VTOL drones that acted as a first line of defense/ attack, it was practically impossible for anyone to even attempt to take it down. Plus, this was not the exact same construct that it had been when Kain had first taken it over, either. It wasn’t just the utterly insane former priests of Luminas or the countless traps that one had to worry about when storming this thing, as it now boasted a sizable complement of truly powerful undead.

Given that this was now a mobile epicenter of Kain’s power, the undead within could not be kept down for long. Destroying them would only be a temporary measure, lasting at most a few seconds before the undead pieced themselves, their armor, and their weapons back together again. Plus, there were guns inside the mobile battle station as well as there being ones on the outside.

This station was moving towards a destination that only it knew about, as while Kain had ordered it to move out, he had not told it where to go or what to do. And so it moved along, slowly floating towards the place that was, for some reason, calling to it. It had increased its elevation over the surface over the course of its journey, with it now being so high into the sky that it could just barely scrape the highest clouds with its underside.

Since it was so high up, nobody down below could see it, let alone know that it was anywhere at all, and that was partially the idea behind its movement. Besides, it needed to be at a higher point when it reached its destination, otherwise it would either be spotted, or it would be too low to deliver its intended addition to the war. After another month of travel, it reached the position that it needed to be at and powered down all non-essential systems, diverting that power to the massive magical weapon that was directly under its center point.

The charge began to build as the bottom portion began to open up, revealing a weapon that one would expect to be in a science fiction story rather than a fantasy story. Anyone from Earth who saw the power gathering around the weapon would have asked if they had just stepped into a fantasy version of the movie ‘Independence Day’, or at least they would if they knew what that movie was and what the weapon seemed to be in reference to.

Just like the alien weapons in that movie, the charge eventually reached 100% and the weapon fired, unleashing a beam of magical energy down towards the surface, punching a massive cylindrical hole straight through the clouds beneath the battle station. By the time anyone on the ground felt the force of the blast coming close, it was already far too late to even attempt to put up a ward to protect against it.

The wave of energy slammed into its target, and moments later, a new force entered the war for Arcfira.

…

Things had not been going well for the Great Tree. For some unknown reason, the mongrels from Darksol were doing what should have been utterly impossible. To make such headway into HIS lands, and to do such damage to HIS servants was completely unbelievable! How could any true servant of the literal embodiment of Nature Itself ever suffer defeat in so many ways?

No… that was it, wasn’t it? They weren’t true servants of His will! His fears had been proven to be true after all; everyone who claimed to serve Him was using their limited freedom to go against His wishes! They were the ones leading Arcfira and Nature Itself to ruin, not Him! They were rebels despite being chained to His beneficent will, and for that, they needed to pay dearly.

It would be a simple matter to expand his control over their minds and bodies, though their souls would no doubt scream out in anguish. In fact, if His control over them ever fractured after this, even for the slightest moment, then it would likely result in them being forever unbound to His will. But such a thing would not happen, not once in a billion years. After all, He was Nature’s Will made manifest, He was perfect, flawless, and utterly without compare!

Never mind the fact that the good-for-nothing Elves and tree-kin had failed to live up to His desires and were almost certainly rebelling against Him in their own way; this time there would only be His will, ad all others would be nothing more than puppets at best. He began to spread His will over all of the beings in Arcfira that He could reach, gradually turning every sentient being that had served Him up to that point into nothing more than marionettes that existed only to dance according to His will.

They would be trapped in their own bodies, and while they would likely hate Him for it, it was the only way to keep them under His control. At least the animals and less intelligent plants were more willing to do whatever He wanted. They, at least, earned a reprieve, for now.

Yes, everything would turn out fi-.

KABOOM!