The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 335 – Better Late Than Never

 First came the words of power. Whether whispered or shouted, they spoke to the world. It wasn’t magic that forced and moved, it was speech that spoke and commanded. Then came the first writings, the original runes. The dialogues containing the tones, the stroke and their orders to carve these were lost to the depths in the first century after the Great War, yet it is these runes of clearest speech channelled energy from the core and to the under-surface suns.

On stone the first writings were done, because unbending stone was the only parchment that could keep shape without breaking. Then, onto metal both raw and forged. Yet the sealing of the World-Core left both stone and metal silent and deaf. It could not listen anymore, nor could it answer as it once did. Experiments were held, temporarily and with huge amounts of energy could the strongest materials be awoken. Yet just like the dragons of Arda, they would fall asleep immediately.

A new material had to be found. Hard enough to withstand carving, light enough to be powered simply by stagnant energies in the air and preferably one that we didn’t have to teach. One that would already remember and act according to its instincts, instead of needing training like the great golems of the past. It was an impossible order, we were searching for something that Arda could not produce, yet we found it almost immediately. It was within ourselves: Bone.

- Introduction to “A History of the Lifeline Project, eighth edition.” Written and edited by multitudes of dwarven scholars.

“Are you going to talk with them?” Kassandora rolled her eyes to Neneria’s question as her Orchestra once again played a string of notes heard only by those who were blessed by the Goddess of War. Without a word said, without an order being given, in perfect unison and order, the soldiers started to re-arrange themselves.

“No Neneria.” Kassandora replied sarcastically. “I’m just going to stand here and wait for what exactly? Of course I’m going to go talk with them.”

“I’m just asking.” Neneria said. “No need to be bitchy about it.” Kassandora blinked and turned to look at her taller sister. The Goddess of Death made a completely flat and unabashed expression as she gazed down at Kassandora.

“Excuse me?”

“You heard me.”

“What?”

“I just called you bitchy because you are.” Neneria said. “I love you Kass, but I just like to ask and be certain instead of pretending I can read thoughts.” Kassandora sighed and supposed there was no winning in this argument. She could tell Neneria what to do, her sister would follow orders and advice, but when it came to issues of character like this, there was only Arascus and maybe Irinika that Neneria would listen to. No one else. Frankly, she didn’t even feel too bad about it. Neneria was simply too tough and too old not to be annoying.

“We’re going to go talk to them, introduce ourselves and hopefully they’ll point us the way.” Kassandora made her tone lighter as she admitted defeat. With her sisters, she didn’t really mind showing weakness. It was… Well, they were annoying and all of them were stubborn, but Arascus had picked them out, and Kassandora had joined last. She knew what she was getting into back then. There was a certain freedom in it too, she could simply drop things and not have to worry about it.

And likewise, there was some guilt there too. Because it was Arascus who had done this for her, and not her herself. When she tried to speak with Kavaa, she could simply what happened and why and how, but it wasn’t sharing her thoughts, it was more as if she was reading her own biography. The notes in her orchestra started to play as Kassandora walked into the light. A soldier by Kavaa’s side turned to the Goddess of Health.

“Kavaa.” The man said confidently to the Goddess clad in a black uniform. Kavaa had a thick and long coat buttoned up to her neck. With each breath, mist. A marching bag for Divines on her back, a rifle fastened to it. A sword on her hip. A mist flared out from under her coat with each breath she took. Kassandora looked through the soldier’s eyes into Kavaa’s grey, the same colour as her hair.

Immediately, Kavaa turned and looked down at the man. “Mmh?” She asked, not taking her hands out of her pockets.

“I’ve called Iniri already.” Another soldier had just finished talking to Iniri, he too had been guided by War’s Orchestra. “But come with me and introduce yourself. They know you’re on our side since last time, but I’d rather introduce you properly and explain the situation.”

“Alright.” Kavaa replied, this is one thing Kassandora appreciated. Kavaa had that instinctive read on when it was Kass, and when it was a human speaking to her, no matter what the body actually was. She stepped out into the blinding light of the two Torchbearer tanks as Kassandora inspected Iniri using her soldiers. A man turned and saw the Goddess of Nature being carried by a series of vines that raced in the darkness of the cold tunnel.

“And you too Neneria.” Kassandora said.

“Me what?” Neneria replied in her classical voice, cold, flat and forever unimpressed.

“You’re coming with me. Be polite and say hi.”

“They’ll remember me.” Neneria didn’t say the words, she declared them instead. For a moment, Kassandora saw the real passion Neneria always had when she started using her power. And then she saw the Goddess of Death shrink once again. “But you go on first.” Kassandora shook her head, theatrically rolled her eyes again in the sheer disbelief that this child next to her had the decency to talk down to her when it came to relationships, and walked into the blinding light.

Neneria skulked along, head held high, as Kassandora started releasing the men from her Orchestra. There was no reason to keep them contained, and frankly, she trusted them not to pull anything stupid when she was talking with the dwarves. A line of those dwarven skeletons in their hulking armour formed up on either side of the grand gate as further inside, dwarves both alive and skeletal crept out, still in armour and started dragging the bodies of the slain demons away. “I am Goddess Kassandora, I’ve visited before.” Kassandora declared and the dwarf who had shouted initially nodded with excitement.

“Yes yes.” He exclaimed with excitement as he pulled off his war-helm and held it under his arm. The man had a face both thick and angular, and eyes that were as green as emeralds under greying brown hair. He must have been about one-fifty then. “You have, with Goddess Elassa! You took Goddesses Kavaa and Iniri and Malam away! I missed you back then.” The dwarf bowed to Kavaa. “And Goddess Neneria of course!” And the man bowed to Neneria too. Kassandora saw her sister wave her hand in dismissal and wanted to scoff at the woman. She was so impossibly shy that her actions looked more like the haughty dismissal of a superior, and with the title of Goddess of Death, most mortals didn’t even bat an eye at anxiety they perceived as self-aggrandizing ego. The dwarf actually smiled when he looked up at Neneria! As if he was impressed!

“You did.” Kassandora said. “Are you the Lord of this Hold?” The dwarf shook his head.

“This hold doesn’t have a Lord.” Kassandora took that as a surprise. A Lordless hold was like a castle without a king. But then wasn’t every war-time keep a castle without a lord? And if the dwarves had been reduced to such a state where they needed to use skeletons, then…

Kassandora rarely made mistakes. And rarely was it just from forgetfulness. Usually it was because she pushed on too hard and too fast. But sometimes, she did just overlook something. That happened rarely, and it was never to do with her own plans. It was simply because she wouldn’t think to ask. She should have gotten Malam to write them down a booklet explaining the situation underground. That sister was precisely the reason as to why there was even a functioning society down here, and yet Kassandora had simply dismissed Malam when she was doing her planning. “Then what do you have?” Kassandora asked.

“The local magistrate’s council.” The dwarf said and Kassandora sighed. Frankly, she did not care, nor was she here to ingratiate herself with the elite of what was effectively a dwarven village. Last time they had come here, this hold had less than a thousand living dwarves from what she remembered.

Frankly, sometimes, things just called for action rather than debate or some slow burn. Some people needed respect and guidance, but those like the dwarves respected authority. And who had more damn authority than the damn Goddess of War? She wasn’t some mortal to go and ask for permission from these people. Kassandora’s eyes flicked up. The skeletal dwarves where still cleaning and dragging the dead away, but every one of the half-men that still had skin on them had come out to form a crowd. Short and stout women, their hairs tied in braids guiding children. Windows opened as a few dozen of the dwarves looked out from above and down onto Kassandora. Did the whole hold come? Most likely.

Kassandora saw Kavaa step by her right and heard Iniri drop by next to Kavaa. Neneria, of course, stayed a step away from them as the Goddess of War took a step forwards to proclaim her dominion once again. “Then the local magistrate’s council is summoned by the Goddess of War!” Immediately, murmurs rippled through the crowd. A chain of words spread throughout the live dwarves. Fifteen minutes later, the twelve magistrates of this hold were assembled in front the four Goddesses. Each one of them had a gaze hard enough to shatter stone, and they had come in heavy armour. Some were drenched in blood, although it obviously wasn’t their own. “The council reports Goddess!”

“I have returned from above.” Kassandora said. She would get the most important information out of the way, and then someone else could actually stay inform the dwarves of the finer details. “Arascus is once again awake. The Empire is reclaimed! Epa will be in our hands by the end of the month.” That, Kassandora didn’t actually know, she simply guessed that Malam was competent enough to have captured it by then. “All of Arika will swiftly be reclaimed, the White Pantheon is shattered! Leona, Maisara and Atis are dead! Kavaa, Iniri and Helenna have seen our righteous path!”

Whereas at first the dwarves had been respectfully curious to see a Divine in the flesh, now that curiosity and respect faded away. To shock and to awe, to surprise and glee, and most importantly, to beaming hope. “Paradeisius will invade this world soon enough! We will not have a repeat of the first Great War! Weapons have been developed to fight them, we will not be taken by surprise once again! Our world will prevail!” Kassandora took a breath. “Now, I ask of you one thing and one thing only! Is the Imperial Oath upheld?! Do we still stand as one under the black, red and white?!”

The twelve magistrates dropping to their knees was answer enough. The rest of the hold followed. Every living creature did, and the undead warriors turned to stand and watch in silence. Kassandora invoked her ancient title, it wasn’t used nowadays, but it was used back then. These men would know it, something in the way they looked at Kassandora made her sure of it. “Then as Warmaster of the Empire, I call upon you to grant me passage, to assist my armies, to carry my arms and to march into victory with me!” Kassandora felt Kavaa come closer to her and didn’t move away. “The World-Core will be unsealed, I ask for your assistance in my journey to a Breaching Well.” Those were ancient tunnels carved by old runes that plunged all the way down to the centre of Arda. Some were winding, some were a straight drop, but all the Wells had the same source.

The half-men looked at Kassandora in awe, but one of the magistrates stepped forwards and raised issue. An old man, not cowardly, but obviously tired and cynical. The light in his eyes was there, but it was dull compared to all the others. “There is one issue.” He said.

“What?”

“All the Breaching Wells are in Epa.”

“Is Epa inaccessible?” Kassandora asked. She did not think of this. If they had to dig through to Epa then that would indeed but a hamper on her plans. But then Elass-

“The safe route has been cut off. A month ago, an earthquake collapsed it. We only got the news two weeks ago when runners came back and saw the rubble.” For a moment, Kassandora was amused that they used runners but she supposed the they hadn’t developed the advanced electricity of up above. And then, she put two and two together to get four. Dwarven tunnels simply didn’t collapse even under earthquakes. A continent would have to shift for them to actually fail, but then a continent did actually shift. That wasn’t the important word the dwarf used, it was right at the start. The second thing he said: Safe.

“Safe?” Kassandora asked.

“There are more, going east and then north, through the Karainan Highways, but those have long fallen. Centuries ago. Now, Tartarians pour forth from them.”

Kassandora turned to her army, to Neneria and back to the dwarves. “I am the Goddess of War. I am not here to protect you. I am here to conquer the tunnels you once held and capture the power you once wield. You may be too young to know the warmth your land once held, but I am not. I demand your support, but I demand it so that for the first time in your life, you will see the suns under the surface shine like your ancestors did every day.”

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