48 Chapter 48

The message was straight to the point when the system spirit or the architect that had designed both him and his sister was destroyed the fate that bound them together was shaken. Being a goddess, she felt the tremors and quickly sent him a message. Though it hadn't gotten to him directly she gained a small tribes faith and ordered the tribe to seek out her brother, her consciousness only maintained a stable connection on their plane for a few days before she had to withdraw back to her own realm otherwise she would have been drained dry by the power needs to keep the connection from such a far distance.

In the message she explained how their birth world was destroyed from a battle between the gods and a group of dark races that had been escaping from them, a god had taken her from the wreckage as just a magic ring and sent it home, eventually, his youngest daughter took the ring as her own only to be replaced by the spirit within in similar fashion as the immortal emperor had been devoured by him.

She confided in him how the power of faith worked as well as the plane she was on. She now knew the general vicinity where he was but not the specific plane.

The power of faith, it was derived from a collective of souls giving a very small portion of their soul energy every time they pray, give praise, and preach of their lord, deity, or object they give it to. A single village may not grant godhood to an individual, but a small plane filled with a single deity would have a chance to become stronger than any mortal produced naturally by the plane itself.

Salem was curious however if he could integrate faith into his own being, technically his foundation was of the wraiths which came from the current enemy of the gods, while he used immortal techniques to refine and nourish his body and bloodline. Though to be fair he wouldn't be using the faith energy to do either of those things, he would tread lightly as he developed his own way forward. The last of the message was a little...odd to say the least, she asked him to wear her on his left hand's fourth finger and that she had left him a small surprise with the priestess.

Though the news of his sibling being alive and well was a shock at first he did believe that the message was real, he could feel a familiarity with the materials and the craftsmanship of the ring, it was only a small request and wouldn't be of any consequence so he slid the ring on without hesitation. Looking down at the ring he wondered what his little sister looked like, his sister. He smiled at the thought of having a family member that understood him, he couldn't wait to meet her.

He fingered the ring and whispered her name for the first time, "Tsura."

-Eternal Dawn Plane-

A vase flew across the room and shattered against the wall. "Those filthy creatures, how dare they attack my darling older brother!" Tsura slumped back into her chair and seethed at the thought of someone attacking her long lost brother.

As she calmed down she thought of her message, 'Hopefully, he got it by now, he was probably putting his finger inside her and playing with her body already', she thought. Letting her imagination run wild. Her face began to redden and her breathing quickened as her thoughts went to her more carnal desires, before she could entertain these ideas further a light knock came from her door before it was opened without her consent.

A tall maid walked into the room holding a tray filled to the edges with ambrosia, "Here is your meal, my goddess. Is there anything else you require?"

Tsura cleared her throat before waving the maid away, before the maid left the room Tsura called after her, "Bring me all the latest movements from the front lines, I might be inclined to go there and help the war effort, planets ruled by the Orcs and Undead have a higher priority!" the maid turned and bowed to acknowledge the order and shut the door behind her.

"Filthy little beasts", Tsura cursed before taking a bite of the ambrosia.

-Koftas-

"See them to the palace, we will continue on with our plans and push the orcs from the city, once we have secured the walls you will seal the gates. Send a rider to Idos and check up on the progress of the negotiations, we are ahead of schedule on our side, once we completely seal the city come find me at the command tent." He was given a light bow before the orc priestess and her entourage were taken away.

Returning to the command tent Salem sat in a high backed chair and watched through the eyes of his scouts, the increased strength of his soul made the splitting of his consciousness a negligible task.

The shades fearlessly dived into the ranks of the orcs, within three hours the fighting had pushed into the outer city, another four hours, and the orcs fled for their lives. For every orc that was slain a shade had risen in his place and turned his blade on his past brethren, with the shade legion swelling with new recruits the entirety of Koftas had been retaken.

Salem pulled his mind from the eyes in the sky and sat back into the chair and breathed a sigh of relief. There were reports strewn all over the desk in front of him, they listed injuries and losses as well as anything recovered from the ruins of Koftas. None of the wraiths had been killed but there were injuries abound, but nothing that couldn't be healed either with time or magic.

Though there was a report of a dwarf losing a toe from each foot, he chuckled at the thought of how that could have come about. He could feel the wraiths moving about the tents as they issued orders and oversaw the reclamation of Koftas, the orcs had kept quite a bit of loot and piled it high in their tents.

There were so many squires under his command now he could see them in his mind like tiny motes of light, their presence was comforting. He could feel a spec of light rapidly approaching, a young apprentice came into the tent and bowed before offering up a report.

Salem thanked the young apprentice before opening the report, it had come from Idos, the news was less than pleasant. Though the majority of nobles and high ranked families had been persuaded to join his cause there was a group that refused to give up their power. The city lord even ordered the city guards to arrest my ambassadors, crumpling the report Salem took a deep breath.

"Fine if you don't want the carrot, you can have the stick." He wrote down an order and sent a dozen squires to purge Idos of its idiocy. I felt a portion of our moving from Koftas, that should be enough to put down any resistance.

The rest of the day was making sure everything had been set into place, the shades were currently excavating large caverns beneath the walls, they would serve as a type of barracks for the shades all that we were waiting on was the fall of Idos.

The night arrived swiftly and another session beneath the moon came and went.

With everything settled in Koftas, it was time to check on Idos, though the plans had changed from politics to outright warfare, in the long run, it mattered little, the lands were the ancestral homes of the elves and though he had only been reborn into an elf it was his duty to reclaim and guard them regardless of his previous body.

As the sun rose the mounts waited for them outside the tent, they left a squire in charge of keeping Koftas free of orc activity and departed with thousand shades as an escort.

We made it to the gate of Void city before a messenger approached and handed the Twins a report, they read it quickly and gave me the good news.

"The insurrection was put down, it seemed that as soon as our troops came into view they surrendered. That was one hell of a bluff."

The fact they surrendered was good news, though with that being said it either meant the rulers of Idos were either disliked or their troops were so spread thin that they were only a sparse amount of guards within the city, which did not bode well for the frontlines against the undead.

I gave the twins the task of reinforcing Idos and retaking the outermost walls, with them leading the charge to push back the legions of the damned I could prepare for the upcoming show.

I returned back to my palace, with nothing to do other than reading reports, bathe in medicine, and watch the apprentices train a week slowly passed by before the twins came home triumphant, the outer walls had been secured and like the orcs, we had bolstered our troops with the undead's demise.

The human forces were being retained and resigned while the scouting teams made sure everything was in place. The night of their return I sat upon my throne and let myself fade into my seat of power, I could feel all the nodes that had been placed not only within the cities but around the entirety of the mountain.

It was a decade long plan that had been in motion ever since my accidental hibernation. I refocused on the task at hand and let the vast ocean of soul energy flow from my palace, it connected with the nodes one by one until thousands of nodes had been connected to the palace.

Once they were connected to the palace I needed to connect them to one another, I focused on the outer ring first. As the nodes were connected to the palace large trees began to grow as they were nurtured by the vast soul energy, once they had grown fifty feet they stopped growing vertically.

The trees were a glossy black with bright silver striations and silvery white leaves, the branches and roots were growing towards the other nodes and began to intertwine. They formed a thick and sturdy wall, once the nodes reached the outermost walls of the cities the trees erupted from the walls themselves and formed new ones with pieces of stone stuck deep within the new walls.

These changes occurred all over the mountain, large trees began to sprout up within the old human cities, anything that had been left by the evacuated citizens was destroyed and replaced by a vast forest of silver and black trees.

First, the outer walls fell and were regrown, next came the inner grand walls of both Koftas and Idos, several trees grew along the inner and outer walls until they grew above the massive stone behemoths.

Over time the trees would break down the stone but for now, they would use it as a brace, as the trees grew all over the mountains the energy field that dissuaded the undead expanded until the entire mountain was under the protection of his palace.

The roots of the palace itself began to stretch and grown as they replaced the old tunnels that led to the city, four roots became hollow highways that led to the palace to each cardinal direction Idos and Koftas each had their own highway for the east and west while the other to roots carve through the mountain to the north and south.

They would each lead to cities of their own once the population of Void city could sustain them, for now, they would have outposts for training squires and apprentices and priests of the Church of Night that he planned to raise.

Salem opened his eyes as he drew away from the ocean of soul energy, it had been drastically depleted though it would replenish over time he wouldn't be able to do anything on such a level for quite some time unless he could lure the undead into the territory though he was sure they would try to invade again and that was just fine. Walking little sacs of soul energy that they were probably would try and invade just to test the limits of the barrier.

Walking to the lift I rode all the way to the top of the palace, after exiting the palace I walked to the balcony that overlooked my lands. A sea of silver stretched all around the mountain, this forest was shrouded in magic, anyone who passed into these lands who harbored malice or ill will to its people would be hindered.

Undead would have the soul energy sucked from their bones, only being near the knight level would be able to walk through the lands without having their energies drained.

The Railia and the Twins joined him and were slowly followed by the rest of the original maids that had sworn into his service and family over a decade ago, they huddled together and watched the sunrise.