The Greatest Sin [Progression Fantasy][Kingdom Building]
Chapter 341 – Stone & Iron, Wood & Gold

My first shot, I missed. Allasaria was the first Divine I approached. She was strong, she was noble, she had experience in running her own kingdom. The Seekers would follow her unto the end of the world. She had led Pantheons in the past and was not new to this game. Proud and brilliant Allasaria, Goddess of Light, looked to be the perfect candidate.

Allasaria was lacking.

Maisara and Fortia, Order and Peace, have always enjoyed each other’s company. They built great and stable nations together. Their lands were always safe and orderly, with little banditry to speak of. There were only a few Divines that would enter their lands without permission. When it came to leading a war effort, then there was one candidate better than these two, and she was famously unreliable when it came to alliances.

Fortia and Maisara were lacking.

I realised what I was looking for at that point. It was not raw skill that came to management, I was not lacking in talent. I began to scoff at strength and exhale at experience. Tremendous power among Divinity was not a worthy test: Elassa, Fortia, Iniri, Maisara, Allasaria, the forces such as Zerus and Alkom? And Atis? I cast them all away. How could they be relied upon to stand against another world when they couldn’t stand alone against this one? I sought out Irinika of Darkness.

Irinika was everything I had hoped she would be.

- Excerpt from Arascus’ Private Writings, Untitled, Dated to before the Great War.

Iniri watched Kassandora look down at a map. They had come to some junction in these ancient ruined tunnels. The map said there had been the beginnings of a Hold here, or some fortification, or something along the lines. Iniri could see it. The skyscraper-tall, skyscraper-wide dwarven tunnels would have a small storeroom every mile. Most of the ones that Kassandora’s army had come across were empty. A few had beds that been used by demons. They had recovered some cleavers too, and once a letter was found. Kassandora had given it a glance. Apparently, it was a simple request for supplies, although Iniri could not read the language the demons used. Kassandora herself only knew a few hundred words, or so she said.

So now they stood as Kavaa watched Kassandora inspect the map, Neneria looked around at the fortifications that were built up here. They had either been half-constructed or half-breached, Iniri could not tell which it was. A wall and a gatehouse was built here, both with enough holes and damage that neither would be able to stand up to any serious engagement anymore. They had exposed spiral staircases, they had arrow slits, there was even a moat that had been filled in by rounded stones which looked as if they had been rolled into place. Iniri had inquisitively gazed at the structure, it was interesting, but she knew enough of dwarven history and had met with enough dwarves that she didn’t need to inspect the inside. There was that, and there was the fact that dwarves rarely accommodated Divines in their building. Humans would find the ceilings to be low, and Divines? Divines would find the ceilings terrible. Instead, Iniri watched the two Goddesses by her side as she waited for Kassandora to decide what they were going to do.

Ultimately, it was Kassandora’s army that was marching behind them, it was Kassandora’s initiative that had brought them here and it would be Kassandora’s decision on which direction they would take. The Goddess of War, as Iniri had learned, would entertain her opinion but that was all she would do. Iniri would get smart and sensible answers to every question she asked and every suggestion she made, but she had quickly realised that there was not much point in trying to make conversation with the Goddess of War. Kassandora was brilliant but it was akin to trying to talk with Elassa about Magic or with Fortia about Peace. Iniri supposed she was the same with nature, she simply knew her demesne far better than anyone else did.

“Nene!” Kassandora suddenly spoke up and Iniri jumped. Kassandora had spent a whole five minutes looking at the map, that meant she must have been considering something particularly important. Usually, Kassandora could decide in under one minute.

“What do you want?” Neneria replied. Iniri smiled at the utter rudeness of that. It reminded her of the White Pantheon. Frankly, she had almost grown to miss how terrible everyone there was to each other. She hated it back then, but there was something in her that missed the constant excitement of seeing the plots about slitting each other’s throats.

“You advance that way.” Kassandora shouted. The Goddess of War lifted one hand and pointed straight ahead, continuing along the line they had been travelling down. “If you find anything, then clear it out, you’ll come to another junction, wait there for me to catch up. Don’t advance any further than that.”

“And if I find dwarves?” Neneria asked.

“You won’t.”

“You sure?”

“This junction was lost six hundred years ago it says.” Kassandora shouted. “Anyway, you go on, we’re somewhere underneath Khmet.”

“Khmet didn’t exist back then.” Kavaa spoke up.

“But the sea did.” Kassandora said. “The tunnel starts to incline down. I assume it’s because there’s a sea above us, the distances more or less check out since we’ve been going north.” Kassandora said. “Kavaa, I want you to go with Neneria. I’ll be sending a vanguard along with you too.”

Kavaa stopped for a moment. The Goddess of Health narrowed her eyes, she blew her grey hair away from her face and at Kassandora. “Are you not coming with us?”

“I want you to keep pushing to make way for the railway layers rather than bringing them to a stop. I’ll catch up soon, don’t worry.” Iniri watched Kavaa and Kassandora look at each other for a moment. The Goddess of Nature wished she could just get those two to hold hands or kiss or do whatever they needed to do in order to get their own troubles over with. Kavaa being afraid of going alone was simply a first for the Goddess, and Kassandora comforting someone by saying she would catch up soon, or even using the phrase ‘don’t worry’ was simply… Iniri didn’t know what to say. Out of character for these types? Just because both of them were naturally cold did not need to mean that they were allergic to showing any signs of warmth.

It was so obvious it made Iniri’s stomach turn. And it must have made Neneria’s stomach turn too, because the Goddess of Death spoke in a flat tone that left utterly no room for any sort of counterargument or discussion. “Then have fun Kass.” Neneria turned those dark eyes of hers at the Goddess of Health. “And come on Kavaa. “We don’t have time to waste.”

Kavaa stepped from side to side, looking down the dwarven highway that Kassandora had initially pointed down, and then towards the Goddess of War herself. “And Iniri?” She asked. Iniri rolled her brown eyes and wished she could simply make Kavaa start moving already. The way Kavaa tried to pretend she and Kassandora were simple business associates was so pathetic, endearing, lovely and so sickeningly sweet that it made Iniri’s stomach turn.

Kassandora did not reply to Kavaa, she turned to the Goddess of Nature. “Iniri.”

“Yes?” Iniri asked.

“The hold at the end of this tunnel was lost only a hundred and fifty years after the Great War. I assume this is a major supply line for Tartarus.” Iniri watched Kassandora explain the situation to her. The Goddess of War’s red hair and red eyes both glinted in the reflection of the Torchbearer tanks a half-mile back. The Divines kept some distance ahead of the main army. It was primarily so that Neneria could intervene in case they came another Tartarian force. Two additional armies had been killed by the Goddess of Death already. “So I want you to set up a barricade here. I’m going to call in more troops to garrison this line, but they’re mortals and you’re Divine. I expect you to make sure that the tunnel doesn’t fall.”

“I’ll see what I can do.” Iniri said. Kassandora nodded to her and set off in the same direction as Kassandora and Kavaa. Sometimes, Iniri thought that Kassandora simply wanted to get rid of her for the time being. But then she knew that was stupid, between the four of them, there was only her who could quickly raise defences, and so it should be her. As interesting as it would to be follow and listen in, sometimes, Iniri knew she had duties to attend to.

So as Kassandora left, Iniri got to work. She took a deep breath, she closed her eyes, and she felt the living wood along her dress shoot off into the ground. Immediately, the branches became roots and vines. Roots and vines grew into a spiderweb of bark along the ground. Bark expanded as it twisted and strengthened into trees. Trees became walls. Stones started to be ripped up out of the ground to fill in the fortifications and to serve as a shield against Tartarian flames. Iniri felt her body rise into the air as a tree picked her up off the ground.

Iniri lost track of time as she started growing an entire fortress in this junction. The Torchbearer tanks, tanks with massive lighthouse lamps strapped onto the turrets instead of cannons, slowly trundled past her. Then the men. APCs and Tanks and marching infantry. The engineer teams, laying tracks. A whole company returned to her. Iniri overheard them talking, or rather the leaves in the trees she was growing did. The men were talking amongst themselves, most were rather pleased that they got to take a break from the endless journey forwards. Others started to explore as Iniri kept on filling in the entire tunnel. She wasn’t building a castle wall here for men to shoot from, she was building a wall that went from the floor to the ceiling with the only gaps being small slits to shoot from and openings for tanks to peak through.

Iniri got lost in her own world as she became a part of the land around her. The soldiers started to meander about. Some began to make campfires for heat. A platoon set up a heater wired to a generator. A train rolled by, slowly keeping pace with the engineers laying the tracks. The train itself was carrying more rail. And nothing came from the tunnel which Iniri was guarding against. Iniri had thought she would need to fight. It was good that she didn’t. She didn’t particularly enjoy battle, growing defences suited her more than well enough. She liked fashioning the stairs, she liked creating rooms for men to sleep in. She liked growing tables and chairs and doors. It was akin to building an entire city by herself.

And it kept on going, Iniri cared not for how long she was working here. Until a man’s shout pulled her out of her own world and back into reality. “Goddess!” Iniri heard a shout and turned as a soldier raced towards her. One of Kassandora’s men, not one of the Cleric auxiliaries that had been dragged here for support. A man in a dark, black uniform. A gun was slung across his arm, it bounced against his back with every step. He had a backpack too and the cap revealed it was some person of rank. Iniri narrowed her eyes and saw the insignia for a captain across his breast. “Goddess!” He shouted again. Iniri waved her finger and let the trees continuing working on the wall by themselves.

“Hello?” Iniri asked. She knew she had a reputation of being fairly easy-going, and she didn’t really mind it. It was one thing to be respected, but too many Divines confused respect for fear. A rock cracked as roots pulled up more stones from the ground to make the wall. A giant great oak tree was lying to make way for a platform on which a tank could fire from. It was growing branches that would serve as platforms for men to fire from, complete even with barriers to protect against any oncoming fire.

“Goddess.” The soldier ran up to her, breathing heavily as he did. “I…” He stopped, almost falling over himself. “I didn’t know what to-“ And then he cut himself off. “Apologies. Captain Asley Smith reporting for duty!” soldier ran up to Iniri as the Goddess of Nature stared at him curiously. He didn’t report to Kavaa? Or to Kassandora? Iniri knew she was in the chain of command, but she didn’t…

Well, never mind. It was nice to be appreciated. “Goddess Iniri of Nature.” Iniri formally returned the salute. The man’s head only reached up to her bosom, but that only made her rather short when it came to Divinity. “Speak Captain, what is the issue?”

“We…” The man stared fumbling at his belt. He pulled off a small bag that clinked with metal inside. “One of the men I mean. We found something. In one of the dwarven storerooms around here.” He spoke quickly, tripping over his words and unable to string a coherent sentence together. Iniri put her hand on his shoulder.

“Calm down Captain.” She said it as gently as she would when she gave children sweet fruit from trees she had grown. “I am here. Take a breath and know that you’re safe.” That did calm the man down somewhat, but he was still obviously shaken. As if to drive the point home, one of the nearby tanks started to turn. It’s treads sending a terrible screeching noise as steel fought against the stone.

“I apologize. I…” He said and shook his head. “Some of the men found something. We saw… Well, I don’t know what I was looking at, but I know it’s looking at me.”

“What is looking at you?” Iniri asked, her tone becoming serious. Maybe it was good that the man hadn’t called Kavaa. If there was some issue, then Iniri would handle it right now.

“I can’t prove it Goddess, but I’ve caught them moving.” The man fiddled that bag he pulled off his belt. He looked down at the bag as he was about to open it, and then shook his head. “Goddess, I know I sound crazy. But I am being dead serious right now. I swear that they were moving.” Iniri moved her hand from the man’s shoulder and took the bag from his hand.

Was she scared? She didn’t think so. But it was always odd to see what should be a trained and professional soldier panic so strongly. It was one thing when it was the heat of battle and men’s morale broke. It was another entirely when they were on a march and something sent a panic running through the army. This reaction. Her fingers worked it untie the string, it had been looped and tied with a dozen knots over themselves, as if the man didn’t trust himself that whatever was inside wouldn’t escape. Iniri’s brown eyes went to the man and she almost felt some…

Well, nostalgia should be something vaguely pleasant. The man’s state wasn’t nostalgic, but it did remind her of the Great War a thousand years back. Men back then would react the same way when they caught news that one of Arascus’ Daughter Goddesses was in the area, especially if it was someone such as Anassa or Neneria. Iniri looked back down at the bag as she exhaled a sigh. “You tied this well, didn’t you?” Iniri asked flatly as she touched the branches that spiralled around her uniform and arms. Living wood that hugged her limbs and stomach, it didn’t bind, and it turned and twisted around her with every movement. In these dwarven tunnels, where the very notion of what a seedling was became a concept lost in myth, such branches on her were crucial.

“I didn’t want them to escape.” The man said as one of the sticks extending from Iniri’s dress snagged the string and cut it. Iniri delicately put her fingers in, not particularly worried about what the man was saying, he was obviously panicking. Divines existed exactly for this sort of moment, when humanity itself could not handle it anymore. She felt something round, with sharp edges and ridges around the side. The Goddess of Nature brought out a coin of perfect, shining, solid gold.

She felt her heart race for a moment, her mood turn cold, her warm smile dropped, because she immediately knew exactly who it was that she was looking at. And she knew that the figure in the gold coin could see her too. It was a demon sitting on a throne, his head wide and stunty and square. His wide horns turned downwards, his cape waving even though Iniri was holding what should be unmoving solid gold in her hand.

A demon that once served as Tartarus’ spymaster during the Great War. Who would put even Helenna to shame with what he knew. It had taken the White Pantheon only a year to work out how the demon operated and it was the reason that every single nation on Arda abandoned gold for minting currencies.

The demon in the coin smiled at Iniri.