Swarming Sovereignty
Chapter 179: Expansions

Lia walked away from the noble, a sour taste in her mouth. The idea of a ruler using their people as nothing more than a distraction in much the same way a lizard would shed its tail was thoroughly distasteful, and she didn’t want to look at the disgusting man any more. “What’s the reaction to our little display?” She asked. “Also, those soldiers seem to have surrendered already, Amelia, do you have the leeway to teleport them up here? I’d like to apologize.”

Amelia held up a finger, her mouth occupied by drinking a potion. “Sorry.” She said, wiping her lips as she finished the bottle. “Depends on the situation. Septima?”

“I think we’ve dissuaded most of them.” Septima’s voice came out through a little box at the end of the hall, an odd wire mesh covering the place where the sound came from. “I can’t hear them from here, but a lot of people are exiting the castle. I haven’t seen Raphael or Raven, though.”

“They’re in a room with a few other pretty strong people.” Rose said. “At least, I think that’s what the vital signs I’m seeing indicate. It’s hard to get an accurate reading from this distance with this many people down there, but all the strongest readings are in one place.”

“In that case, I can bring them up.” Amelia said. “Uh…should I sober them up, too?”

“Let’s get somewhere comfortable first. I believe there’s a waystation a few streets away, right?” Lia asked. One thing she hadn’t been expecting when reconverting the Scourge of the Skies was the dramatic expansion it had undergone; not only was the space inside Septima somewhere in the realm of four or five times as large as the Scourge of the Skies had been before, but there were all sorts of new facilities. Lia would even go so far as to say that Septima’s ship form was more akin to a flying city than it was a warship, though Septima was, of course, still far more capable a warship than the Scourge of the Skies had been.

She just hadn’t realized how much her new race had boosted her abilities. In theory, she knew that the raw stats were doubled and that her conversion-focused Titles had received a boost somewhere in the realm of two and a half to three times what they had been before, but seeing numbers was very different from seeing results.

It had taken Connie’s help to really narrow down the options, since they all referenced things that Lia, Rose, and Amelia were completely unfamiliar with. In this case, Septima had been upgraded from an “aircraft carrier” to a “colony ship”, which apparently meant that everything needed to live could theoretically be sourced from within her if she had the staff.

 The size increase had made room for all sorts of things; they were currently inside a prison, there were workshops, houses, school buildings, recreational areas, farms, ranches, exercise yards…the list went on and on. Even more striking was the ceiling; it was a giant window, allowing for a view of the sky as it was outside.

At Connie’s suggestion, they had included parts of the World Tree in the conversion, which gave the area the same soft lighting the World Tree had if they ever needed to make that window opaque, but, more importantly, allowed for the area to reflect the weather outside. Wind, rain, temperature, in all respects it really felt like you were outside.

This massive expansion was in an extradimensional space even when Septima was in her ship form, connecting to an upgraded version of the old Scourge of the Skies via several facilities dotted around the circular subspace. Each of those facilities had doors leading to several similar facilities placed alongside the “regular” part of the ship and each other facility, allowing for relatively easy travel around the enlarged ship.

“Exit the building, head right, and it’ll be on the third street to your left.” Septima said. “I’ll let you know via the speakers if you take a wrong turn or something.”

“Thanks, Septima.” Lia said. “I’m really glad you asked me to reconvert you with this thing, it’s been a huge upgrade to have an actual person as the Scourge.”

“You flatter me. It could have been anyone, so I should be thanking you.”

“No, I’m glad it was you; we’re friends, and I’ve seen firsthand your competence, so I can be completely assured this power is in good hands.”

“Um…thank you.” Septima said, a note of embarrassment in her voice.

“Just speaking my mind.” Lia replied. “You sell yourself short.”

“You can trust her on that, she’s something of an expert on the topic.” Rose said, ribbing Lia affectionately.

“Oh, shush.” Lia replied, rolling her eyes. “Let’s get walking.”

They began to make their way towards the waystation, but just as they turned onto the street the waystation was on, Septima began to talk again. “Oh! Raphael and Raven just came out of the castle!” She said. “Looks like they have white flags!”

“Teleport them up, Amelia.” Lia said.

“On it.” Amelia replied. A moment later, a man and a woman appeared in front of Lia, looking around in confusion.

“Where…are we?” The man, an angel who must have been Raphael, asked.

“In the Scourge of the Skies.” Lia replied. “The living quarters, to be precise.”

“We’re clearly outside, though?” Raven, a centaur, pointed out. “I can feel the wind and smell the ocean, and this area is way too big to be inside the Scourge of the Skies.”

“Septima, make that window opaque, if you would.” Lia asked.

The view of the sky shifted into a dark glass, much to the astonishment of Raphael and Raven. “We’re in an extradimensional subspace.” Lia explained. “As of recently, the Scourge of the Skies has become a shipgirl, like the ones we just showed off. There’s already a full copy of the ship’s interior for people to be inside when the shipgirl is in humanoid form, this is just an extension of that. Regardless, may I assume these white flags to mean you’re surrendering?”

“They do.” Raven said, shaking off her surprise. “We’re not fools, we understand there’s no winning anymore. Especially not after seeing…this.”

“Good.” Lia replied. “We really do want to avoid conflict as much as possible. Which probably sounds weird when we’re the aggressor in this war, but…we’d inevitably end up at war with people, so we figured we might as well get it over with and better the lives of people in the process.”

Lia motioned to the area around her. “You see what we’re capable of now, this isn’t just idle talk. People will be better for us.”

“That remains to be seen.” Raphael said. “Let me make one thing clear; I won’t be fighting for you, and I won’t be training under Rose, either, I don’t want to allow you to learn Draw of the Sword. I’m doing this only because I don’t want people to be caught in the collateral damage of this fight.”

“We’ll honor that.” Lia said. “In the case that you see differently after conversion, how long should we stonewall you?”

“I won’t.” Raphael said, a touch too confidently.

Raven rolled her eyes. “Don’t kid yourself, you probably will, and you know you will. You’re not even as adamantly against the swarm as Niles was, and he’s happily fighting for them now. You’re just putting up a front.”

Raphael sighed. “You didn’t have to tell them that.”

“They knew. Did you think you could pull one over on Rose?” Raven asked.

“I suppose not. Fine, look, I’ll allow you to train me, but nothing more. Draw of the Sword isn’t that big an upgrade when you already have eleven capstone Skills.”

“Understood.” Lia said. “We’ll keep you out of combat until this plane is conquered. After that, we can revisit the arrangement.”

“This plane?” Raphael asked. “You’re going for more?”

“We’d be more than content with just this one, but the sort of idea amongst the gods is that, if we succeed here, then they’ll put us up against the next one and so on, up until the point where we’ve taken over everything.” Lia explained. “If we really can make people more powerful while improving their lives, they want us to bring it to everyone. Strange, I know, but we’re living in strange times. Whatever the case, we’re not moving on until we’re absolutely sure things are running well here.”

“I suppose if it’s the gods’ will, then there’s not much we can do about it.” Raphael grumbled. “How are going about this?”

“We’ll let everyone know you’ve surrendered, then we’ll cocoon you and we’ll discuss your conversions in detail once we’re done dealing with the rest of the army.” Lia said. “I’m sure you understand that it’s an unacceptable security risk to have you out and about on your own at this critical time.”

“We do.” Raven said.

“Perfect.” Lia said. “Let us know when you’re ready, we’re going to broadcast your words to the people.”

“We’re ready.” Raven said.

Amelia nodded. “I’m broadcasting now, the both of you.”

Raven gave a nod in return. “For those of you who are unaware, I am Raven, and this is Raphael; we are both at max level, and we have, after some deliberation, decided to surrender. Now that so much of the army here has surrendered, an already losing fight has become completely hopeless. As the gods have guaranteed that we will be treated well, we think there is no point in attempting to struggle in vain, especially when it would potentially result in your death.”

She paused, then turned to Raphael. “Do you have anything else to add?”

“The battle is lost. Don’t make things harder for yourself than they need to be.” Raphael said. “That is all.”

“Alright, broadcast stopped.” Amelia said. “I’m cocooning you two now, ‘kay?”

She didn’t wait for them to reply, swiftly dumping modeling wax on them and putting their cocoons and the excess modeling wax into her storage. “Now, I believe you wanted to talk to those guards we spooked?

Darius felt a sudden wrenching sensation, and suddenly he wasn’t on the wall, but sitting at a table in a small park. What remained of his drunkenness was blown away, and he suddenly felt completely aware. He turned to try and figure out where he was, then stopped cold; he and the rest of the people that had been in that guardhouse were sitting at that table, and a short distance away the Queen of the swarm and the two Heroes were sitting at another.

“Sorry about all this.” The Queen said, flashing them an apologetic smile. “Your guard tower was the only one that would have done for the demonstration, but I felt bad about giving you a scare like that so I figured I’d bring you up to apologize myself.”

“Where…are we?” Mina croaked.

“Inside the Scourge of the Skies.” The Queen replied. “Specifically, a subspace within it that houses a small city. The jail you saw that noble in is also in here.”

“We were never winning even if everyone fought, were we?” One of the guards asked sullenly.

“Not a chance.” Rose confirmed. “Your rulers knew this, that’s why they decided to surrender. What country are you from?”

“Ilex.” Darius said.

“Perfect.” The Queen replied. “If you’d like, we can get you sent home the moment we’re done here; Zara has already started the conversions of all the important people there, we can get you some nice living spaces in the city until we’re ready to be open about it, or if you’re from a village, we can just convert the village. Alternatively, if you want to still be in the army, we can arrange for that too.

“But, before that, let’s discuss your conversions. What would you like to be? If you’ve ever wanted to be something else, be it your species, Job, or even something more out there like wanting to be a sword, we can probably handle it. And, as my apology, I’ll convert you myself; it’ll over double your power when you’re done.”

There was a silence as the guards stared at the Queen, unsure what to say. Eventually, Darius managed to speak up. “N-now?” He asked.

The Queen shrugged. “Might as well. Or…actually, hold on a moment. Amelia, will you broadcast my voice for a moment?”

Amelia nodded. “Alright, it’s on.”

“We see most of the rest of you have decided to surrender.” The Queen said. “A wise choice. Please clear out of the main plaza, we’re going to land the Scourge of the Skies there; for you soldiers, please form up in your squads outside, we’ll be taking you inside to help oversee your conversions in a way that won’t put extra burden on the city. For those of you who are citizens here, just hold tight. At some point in the next few hours, a member of the swarm will visit your house with some common items we can use to help tailor your conversion.

“Unfortunately, there are a lot of you, so we can’t go as in-depth as we would like to in personalizing your conversions, but we’ll leave some people capable of reconverting people here so we can work on getting you something you’re completely content with. If you do opt for reconversion, bring whatever related items you can with you when you go to be reconverted, it’ll help streamline the process. If you don’t understand, that’s fine, you’ll understand after you’re converted.

“And, finally, for those of you that have chosen to keep resisting…well, you’re not going to listen to what I have to say, but a squad of max level people will soon be on their way to deal with you. If you don’t want to have to go up against them, now is the time to change your mind.”

The Queen nodded at Amelia, and, a moment later, Amelia nodded back. “You’re not broadcasting anymore.”

The Queen turned back to Darius and his companions. “Sorry about that, time was up and I needed to set things in motion. To start things off…you,” she pointed at Darius, “is there anything you’ve always wanted to be?”

“Uh…” Darius stammered. “I-I’m not sure. A better fighter? Someone who can keep the people I love safe?”

“Easily done.” The Queen replied, waving her hand. “Anything else? Have you ever harbored envy for another species or anything?”

“Um…well, I always wondered what it’d be like to fly, or to swim like a fish.” Darius admitted, the words coming out with surprising ease, almost unbidden.

“That’s also an easy thing to do.” The Queen confirmed. “Now, it will probably make you some sort of birdkin with gills, do you oppose to that on grounds other than being unsure if you’ll like it? Because I can guarantee that, whatever body you end up in, you’ll feel completely comfortable. You’ll even like it better than the one you’re in now.”

“Uh, my family’s pretty proud of our elven heritage.” Darius said. “It’d make things awkward.”

“A nonissue.” The Queen replied. “They won’t care what you are physically, though they might want to keep the culture alive? But people in the swarm don’t have those sorts of hangups about what race a person currently is, it’d be too…disruptive with how ever-changing people are now.”

“If…if you say so.” Darius said. “But that’s all, really.”

“Excellent.”  The Queen said. “When you wake up, feel free to explore, but remember the house you wake up in; we’ll come give you a visit tomorrow to help figure out your futures.”

A smooth substance began to flow over Darius’s skin, and then, all of a sudden, she woke up in a bed. “What…”

She trailed off as she heard her voice. It was high and airy, almost musical in a way. And, as she sat up, she caught sight of herself in a mirror positioned on the wall opposite her. She did indeed have birdlike wings now, and gills, and…well, she was a woman. To her surprise, she didn’t mind in the slightest; in fact, even the thought of going back to being a man was repulsive to her.

It would appear that all her worries had been for nothing; she still felt like herself in all the important ways, and more than anything she was excited to go put her new body through its paces. So, she bounded out of the bed and out of the house, taking only a moment to memorize her surroundings before taking off into the air.

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