FSE

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formerly SoFurry search engine

There were no easy answers.

Finally being able to communicate with the locals wasn't the ultimate, all-encompassing solution to all our problems I once expected it to be, there were no guides to follow, no quests to fulfil, and no wisemen to consult with.

The prospect of cordial relations with the humans felt almost inconceivable with every friendly attempt to approach them met with hostility and inevitable combat. Except for this single crazy girl.

I thought it was for the best to leave Ari to deal with the villagers on my behalf.

She seemed uniquely suited for this task. Despite her humble origins and strange behaviour, she seemed to have a previously unrealized talent when it came to dealing with crowds, even if we couldn't understand what she was saying without Arke probing her mind.

Not to mention, the crazy girl was indeed at least a little bit insane, and the natives didn't particularly like her either, but it worked better than anything we attempted so far which spoke volumes of my incompetence in this matter.

Working through intermediaries was now the obviously best approach.

Apparently, Ari found a new calling in spreading my word to the local population and took to the task with even greater ferocity after we discovered that 'Fleshspeakers' could simply facilitate communication between us.

It wasn't as straightforward with others for some reason, but the strange human girl seemed unbothered by the voices inside her head.

Despite the fact that my bat girls were able to control the humans which found themselves at the wrong end of their powers, it was Ari's strange, unexplained immunity to the side effects of the monsters' power that won the day.

There still wasn't any explanation for why she had such a trait, whether it was a genetic oddity or the product of something much more mystical. It could be any of these, or even both combined. There was no way to tell.

Ari was the daughter of a local craftsmen. Disowned and driven off by her family after some transgression she wasn't able to recall anymore, supposedly after the snake inside her mind devoured her memories about the act, along with the odd information about certain events in her past. Turned homeless, and on the run, she ended up in squalor and dirt in the ditch we found her in, at which she took our appearance as a sign of divine intervention of sorts.

It was odd, but I didn't question it.

I wasn't able to dismiss the aforementioned serpent as the figment of an insane girl's imagination. It was possible, even likely that it was just a mind playing after deeply repressed trauma, but the snake was awfully specific about the memories it removed, almost as if it was determined to dislodge the girl from the trapping of her previous life for some nefarious plot.

This selectivity of missing memories made me hesitant to dismiss the 'mind snake' as mere superstition, as it wouldn't be the only metaphysical force proven genuine after our arrival into this damned world.

Whether the 'mind snake' was illusionary or not, I would not prod it further, at least for now.

When I asked my chiropteran girl to do so, it did something with the poor girl's brain, or body in general, forcing me to hold off any experimentation on mechanisms 'Fleshspeakers' followed, especially on the most valuable human we met.

It didn't seem apparent at first, but unlike the ordinary victims who could have their bones and muscles rearranged, the friendly girl suffered no ill effects at all. No empty stare, blackened veins, or anything that would give away any malicious force at work.

She didn't fear my monsters or their power, and being an outcast she cared a little for the memories she lost.

Resigned that we couldn't do anything about her health, I let her handle the talking, convincing the population to cooperate with us even if it meant blatant coercion. There were no neutral parties, it seemed, and even the local peasantry was determined to resist us, no matter how doomed the endeavour. Perhaps the local priesthood had such a strong grip on the populace that it indeed took the mad herald to approach them.

An unexpected thing happened when one of the villagers foolishly tried to argue with Ari, revealing we somehow did more to her.

It didn't even take my 'Eviscerators' to intervene, our human spokeswoman broke the man's arm herself after he took a swing at her.

She didn't seem strong before - perhaps it was the blessing she referred to, there was no telling what the new, unexplored magic could have on the person explicitly immune to the side effects which prohibited human application.

Be as it may, it worked quite well, leaving me wondering whether it was a result of Arke's attempt to prod the imaginary 'mind snake'.

I left it be and took my leave from the gathering of imprisoned humans when it was apparent they would finally comply, confident that we would be able to replicate at least a slightly forced peace as we did in the mining town back in the hills.

Aside from this though, there didn't seem to be much to learn from this particular village, or town even, considering it was larger than others.

We were almost as lost as we had been after the previous encounters.

The village priestesses who organised the fight against my girls were dead, along with anyone brave or desperate enough to fight, and who remained was either enthralled under the spell of 'Fleshspeakers' with their brains turned to mush, or too terrified to resist what was going on.

Ari, as cooperative as she was, with a dedication that rivalled my own girls, simply didn't know much herself.

While her upbringing was probably solidly middle class - her father was supposedly some lord's personal tailor - it still made her only semi-literate. Better than nothing.

She had only a partial understanding of the written text and was even aware of the basic facts about the kingdom we were technically invading and was even able to provide some geographical names I wasn't able to pronounce, but it was where her knowledge ended. Her original home was on the other side of those mountains too, assuring that there weren't any contacts her family had to call upon.

Supposedly, there was a war too, but we knew as much already, and true motives for the conflict escaped the world of the common refugees that fled the pillaged areas to save their lives.

It hardly affected our interaction with natives. At this point, we should assume they were equally hostile, from the lowest refugee, peasant, soldier, to a priestess.

"Arke. Could you please work with Ari to make this village cooperate?" I asked, thinking about the possible arrangements to be made.

"Yes, Master!" Arke retorted immediately, with an even more "Master! Master!" chant sounding as echoed around the settlement as the wave. It was highly unusual, even considering the telepathic link my girls had.

"Can one of your sisters take control of the ..." I continued, pausing briefly to look for the particular term to describe the humans affected by the magic, "...puppets made by another?"

"Yes, Master!" That was the answer, which made the organisation a little bit easier, assuming that there would be puppets and 'Fleshspeakers' assigned to every centre of the population.

I felt bad about it, but my revulsion and guilt were balanced by the same amount of desperation and resignation, dulling my overall reaction somewhat, just like the streak of violence did. Every human was more than willing to stab us, given the opportunity, at least, so far.

Absent-mindedly, I wiped my hands on my outfit's cloak.

Ari said something to the remaining humans. I didn't understand her, but I had a unique breed of cute anthropomorphic bats that could speak through their human thralls and could converse by proxy with anyone. It wasn't restricted to the unfortunate 'Alpha' who would have had to serve as a translator otherwise.

They talked, after all. Through the proxies, but talked nevertheless.

The 'Fleshspeakers' didn't show any particular revulsion of humans too, but I doubted they empathised with them. I struggled with it myself after a few days spent in this damned world.

Narita was certainly happy with the prospect - I could feel it, my empathy working better for anthropomorphic rats than for the original species. I decided rather not to think about that again.

"Then I would assign a group of your sisters to the village to manage it and..." I ordered, and once again stopped as I wasn't sure what this settlement even offered to our cause.

"Arke, just help Ari for now, and I'll check your little sisters..."

I, in fact, wasn't sure what our cause even was, aside from survival and safety.

Looking for a hint, I turned to Miwah and Tama. The 'Purifiers' were busy with the chest's contents which didn't offer any answer to what happened - from a brief glance, it could be a glorified weather report considering it rambled about the storm. Ari couldn't read that well after all, and what she could understand didn't make that much sense.

It was a dead end, and the coffer of paperwork was going to be stored for undefined future use.

"Tama? Since your kin are already rummaging through the place, could you determine what this village produced?"

"Yes, Master!" The vixen replied, and this time, she provided no commentary. Tama's eyes however shined in expectation while she adjusted her clothing, perhaps considering what she could find to replace her current outfit. Barring her from using the priestess' clothes was unfair to her.

Miwah and Narita weren't interested in whatever Tama pondered, and stuck close, while a lot of work regarding the clearing of the village was already underway. Kuma would probably be my bodyguard, probably, and Sora was strangely absent leaving her 'adjutants' within earshot instead.

Meantime, Ari opted to give the remaining villagers a speech.

Arke instead folded her wings and looked menacing.

I doubted it would promote harmony and understanding considering how hostile the natives were in general, but it would, at the very least, pacify them for the time being allowing us to focus our attention elsewhere.

Whether it was some form of the divine mandate, as the experience with the Dragon's temple made me assume, or a simple xenophobia, it was simply inevitable.

Maybe I would find more people like Ari this way though.

I sighed.

Resigned to the fact I wouldn't be loved by the natives, I turned my attention back to managing my furry menagerie, which wasn't something that came to me easily, and the fact that we now had a few villages with human subjects under our control was making my task even more difficult.

We still weren't any close to finding any common footing with the natives, and our subsequent communication was entirely an interplay of one crazy girl and the flock of the magical bats with poorly explained powers, but it could work. It simply had to.

Too many sacrifices were made to get there.

Somewhere to the north the human's fortress still held, but for now, it would have to wait, hoping that its defenders would realise they wouldn't have to fight us to the end and merely give up their priestess.

The shrine in Maiville may need some remodelling too, I was clear in my ultimatum about releasing the captives, hoping there wouldn't be any 'sealing' afterwards.

I should stop referring to Ari as crazy, before I would do anything else - she was, ironically, the most approachable human we met.

After that, I should figure out how exactly the 'Fleshspeaker' power worked. A poor understanding of their abilities made assaults an unwise strategy for now.

It took merely a minute of walking to find out.

Some of my anthropomorphic bats decided to simply position themselves on the roofs with a watchful eye, others opted to simply fly around to patrol, or merely stretch their wings, but one - one got creative with her powers.

Some were satisfied with leaving behind the shambling husks, but not all.

The 'Fleshspeaker' decided to honour the name of her breed and spent the time reshaping the body of the very unfortunate villager into the strange abomination that could carry her as some mobile perch confirming that their powers reached far beyond the simple puppeteering control. Their magic was rather similar to the 'Corruptors' with their ability to change the tissue at a whim, causing abnormal growth.

I was glad that they took the humans under their influence away from the crowd of the unaffected. It was distressing, and it was likely muted compared to the 'Alphas'.

"Master! Look! What I made!" The once-man, now abomination of bulging muscles, croaked. I wasn't even sure to call it a man - a flesh golem, perhaps.

The bat girl jumped down, taking a few hops towards me, looking at me expectedly. I started to suspect the only reason why they weren't disgusted by the humans was the fact they considered them more like the putty they could play with, rather than individual beings.

Her golem froze, likely with a mental command I couldn't hear.

I paused for a while, but still, I couldn't bring myself to be angry at my girl. My cute little flying foxy was still one of us.

"I'll name you Angela!" I decided, arbitrarily, and the system approved. Something told me I should be careful with abusing the mechanic, but it was possible that it was simply an encouragement to expand the 'officer corps'.

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Unit named! Angela, The Named Fleshspeaker.

Skill "Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde lvl.3" Gained.

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Whatever the purpose of the mechanic was, it still worked. The burst of the ruby fog gave birth to a batch of seven new anthropomorphic bats to spread terror to the living, all happily chirping my name in unison.

"Yes! Like! Master!" Angela, a freshly named bane to the laws of nature, spoke through the mouth of her creation, and I wondered whether I should refer to my beautiful girls as monsters.

They were quite adorable, after all, though what they created were more aberrations than anything else. Noticing that her kin wasn't reprimanded for the ... flesh golem, for lack of better words ... others soon decided to copy it.

I tried to ignore it.

"You are now assigned to this village, along with your other seven sisters." I decided, "Please don't turn more villages to the zombies unless it is absolutely necessary. Instead, try to find out if you can catch the farm animals and make them docile."

"For Master!" She said, now with her own voice.

"Another two of you would get names, and would be stationed in the mining town, and in the village to the north." I continued, which grabbed the attention of her kin.

"For Master! Master! Master!" They replied, apparently chattier than the 'Purifiers' were with their chants and constant giggling.

I picked the other two at random, mimicking the idea Sora had with her 'adjutant' kittens.

"You should be Irene and you... Michealla!"

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Unit named! Irene, The Named Fleshspeaker.

Unit named! Michelle, The Named Fleshspeaker.

Skill "Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde lvl.4" Gained.

Skill "Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde lvl.5" Gained.

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The effect was, once again, immediate, the overlay window didn't show any sign of being judgemental about my poor imagination and the shaky naming scheme, churning out more and more followers at the thickest of excuses given.

Still, it had results.

With the ruby fog making a brief return, a street was filled with anthropomorphic bats excitedly chanting my name, only for the other breeds to join in for some reason. It was probably the only positive affirmation I would ever get.

They would certainly swarm me for the welcoming hug, though the sheer number of it made it impossible considering their wingspan, with first-named Angela abusing the fact that she was closest already.

She was able to embrace me, along with Miwah and Narita, with a very enthusiastic "Master!" on her lip. The echo carried out through the rest of them, which as suspected was the work of their unique 'mind' affiliation that strengthened the already massive and entirely chaotic mental link all my girls shared.

"Now. Now." I said, patting the bat girl a little. Her fur was short and very soft, with twitching ears quite adorable.

"Irene and seven others have the mining town and Michelle has the northern village. Patrol the area for invaders, and spot the animals for catching or hunting, be prepared to facilitate communication when needed." I said, and added: "And don't turn more humans into zombies unless necessary."

They seem to understand, as now the considerably larger host of bats answered in perfect unison in a single breath: "For Master!"

"Now, to the skies, my pretties!" I ordered before I realised how moronic it sounded, but the swarm didn't seem to care about it in the slightest, preparing to take off in quite an organised scramble where one made space for the other.

One of the taking-off bats attempted to grab a little 'Displacer' for some reason, hampering her own flying ability, only for both to tumble down to the ground swallowed by a portal, confirming that we would have to foster greater cooperation to make some abilities work together.

I had no idea where the strange duo ended by the grace of the spatial rift, but the others 'Fleshspeakers' opted for a more conventional mode of travel.

The rustle of the leathery wings along with the occasional girlish voice filled the air as my bats took flight, further terrifying the villagers while more positively inclined Ari yelled something at them atop of her lungs giving herself to the preacher role.

There was no point in intervening.

Watching the freshly named Angela jump back to the top of her golem and directing it to move where she could better oversee the crowd convinced me I did quite enough today as far as irreversible actions went.

I hope the humans regretted their actions. I certainly still did, to a certain extent.

Still, there was no going back and I would be forced to once again plan around my previous actions, even though I didn't quite have an overarching direction to follow.

With Narita and Miwah on my side and the small group of the ever-present retinue of my other companions, I took a walk away from the village square - or perhaps it would be called a town centre since my initial impression of this place had been skewed by looking from the perspective of the local hill where the now burning shrine once resided.

The stench of burning debris reached down there, and a column of smoke churned in the air, one that had to be noticeable from a distance.

If anyone had actually seen it, it was hard to say, since we were supposedly at the village at the southernmost point of the valley, though nothing I was able to see from our current position indicated any large barrier mountains that would make the location difficult to traverse.

Although, the body of water probably took care of that - I recalled Sora saying that there weren't that many settlements on this side of the river.

It may be the last stop, but it wasn't a tiny one. The town sprawled further than other scattered hamlets I've seen, noticeably so. I would have to leave an occupation force behind, perhaps larger than I did back in the mountains, but the tendency for our population to magically double made me somewhat confused about what I had at my disposal.

"Overview..." I whispered, a subvocalization was apparently enough.

A window appeared in my field of view and though it was slightly different from the previous one, for some inconceivable reasons, the status screen still retained its monochromatic dullness.

[spoiler=Overview Screen]

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The Master

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<The Root of All Evil, level 7>

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Skills <7/7>

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<Scorched Earth lvl.30>

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<Slayer of Men lvl.30>

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<Great Devourer lvl.18>

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<Green Hell lvl. 40>

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<Slayer of Champions lvl.13>

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<Stalker on the Boundary lvl.7>

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<Messengers of the Ever-Living Horde Lvl.5>

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<Unlock in 7>

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Mates

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Miwah, The Bride of Shadows

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Tama, The Bride of Flames

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Units (Active)

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Helmy, The Purifier Alpha

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<Commands>

<1448/1728>

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27 * Named Purifiers

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1,421* Purifiers

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Brave, The Eviscerator Alpha

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<Commands>

<1576/1851>

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61* Named Eviscerators

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1,515* Eviscerators

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Narita, The Defiler Alpha

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<Commands>

<292/656>

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8* Named Defilers

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284* Defilers

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Mai, The Corruptor Alpha

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<Commands>

<1420/1,630>

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14* Named Corruptors

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1406* Corruptors

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Kuma, The First Obliterator

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<Evolved Alpha>

<Commands>

<124/523>

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5* Named Ravagers

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119* Ravagers

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Sora, The Displacer Alpha

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<Commands>

<84/525>

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4* Named Displacers

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80 * Displacers

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Arke, The Fleshspeaker Alpha

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<Commands>

<28/490>

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3* Named Fleshspeaker

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25 * Fleshspeakers

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*Auxillary *

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Ari, The Herald of Root and Serpent

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19* Flesh Drones

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Units (In queue)

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None

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None

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None

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None

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Sealed (per caster)

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15* Eviscerators, 9* Purifiers

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None

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None

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[/spoiler]

I stared at it for a few seconds, then nodded to myself. Apparently, the mysterious force behind the system arbitrarily decided to somewhat compress the data displayed, yet still managed to insist on messing up the numbers again. I was, admittedly, horrible at math, but the way the system calculated the numbers was still noticeably off, especially for the 'Eviscerator' and 'Purifiers'.

On the other hand, the maximum number of 'specialists' I could have was strangely low.

For a moment, I wasn't certain if the numbers themselves didn't shift in front of my eyes.

"Miwah, could you tell me how many sisters you have?" I asked, carefully, almost as if I didn't dare to provoke it - I would hate if the bloody fog took away my little ones to correct the accounting error.

The white werewolf paused, the gaze fixated on the horizon, fully mentally engaged in the host of voices and minds.

It was a bad idea, horrible even - I asked to do the census on the largest group in our horde, putting unnecessary strain on my Miwah.

"Either way, all the Corruptors...." I said, sentence unfinished while looking once again at the floating window. Never mind the 'Eviscerators' there were over a thousand 'Corruptors' running around.

It was a miracle there was still some original vegetation left.

"Half of the Corruptors, those from this birth batch." I corrected myself, "Will cultivate this area, providing the food for us."

The effect was immediate even without Mai nearby, and the glow of the reptilian plant-shaping magic started to creep over the land. There wouldn't be original vegetation for much longer, I thought.

"One thousand, five hundred and seventy-six, Master." Miwah breathed out. It matched.

"Thank you. I won't ask you to do it again, I hope" I said, with a gentle, graceful touch on the Miwah's clawed hand: "Leave the one hundred here, along with an equal number of Purifiers, to watch for other casters or enemies in general."

There were, originally, three of those magical women in this town, which was unusually high considering the previous encounters where the single one could be overwhelmed by the sheer numbers before her 'sealing' left a permanent scar. But, our numbers, as impressive as they were, might not hold forever.

This led me to think whether the presence of the 'casters' wasn't simply proportional to the town's ability to finance a shrine of the appropriate size.

What my confusing notifications called 'casters' were, in fact, a local clergy possessing magical powers, and every location with an intact, undamaged shrine had their presence, with the lone pagoda in the forest remaining an exception.

Our experiences so far suggested so, even before I was capable of drawing a connection between the strange dragon shrines and the group of magically gifted women in the ornate robes.

It opened another can of worms, in addition to the backlash that the newest addition to our horde would inevitably cause.

This meant the city, now somewhere up north and on the other side of the river, would have a considerably larger resource pool and with it, even more 'casters'.

I just couldn't tell how many, and even if I did, that didn't account for the numbers of 'elites' - the native superpowered fighters were able to cause quite a lot of problems and were defeated only because no one thought of collecting them in one unit so far.

Perhaps, the number of those 'elites' - or 'ninjas' or whatever I decided to call them - was only artificially lowered with the current political situation I didn't understand.

It was possible that the so-called 'casters' went to fight in the war too, explaining the priestess we found among the remnants lingering on that distant battlefield, but there was no way I could confirm my assumption was correct. The natives' supernaturally gifted fighters were, certainly, on the front.

The problem was, that I didn't know where the front was even after I confirmed the humans fought each other.

Rest was, nevertheless, a guess, a conjunction, since I was lacking in any meaningful intel. The language barrier made certain of that.

I was just as lost now as I was before the 'Fleshspeakers' when it came to practical knowledge about this world, and Ari, being our only local contact, was quite lost herself.

Was she on the list?

Never mind, I would check that later, I made a mental note to myself.

There was an easy way for me to gather all the lore, conveniently delivered to my doorstep. Assuming I knew the language, I technically did. By proxy, but still.

"I am stupid," I said in a sudden moment of realisation, holding the closest of my companions.

"We love. You. Either way, Master!" Narita replied, struggling to find the correct words, but my focus was elsewhere.

"Could you please get Sora to transport us back to the main camp?" I asked abruptly.

The 'Displacer' was on us in a moment, and we once again fell through the void where distances were offensive and physics were dethroned, filled with whispers and voices.

I paid attention neither to them nor to the dizziness that seized me when the space-bending kitten dropped me back into the physical world. Just my thought, and Narita's soft velvety fur, since it was her who was nearby. My rat girl didn't protest against it.

"Now," I said carefully, "I need something to arrange for me. First, gather Tama and Miwah, and most importantly Arke, and make yourself presentable. Then that chest with papers. "

"Yes-yes, Master." Narita replied quietly as soon Miwah joined her, also dragged through the portal by the overenthusiastic 'Displacer' kitten.

The problem was that translation was directly reliant on Ari, although there was nothing truly preventing us from trying to make things work without her, if only as an experiment how much actual knowledge was persisting in the puppeteered human.

Maybe they could be walking dictionaries, we just need to test whether we could decode language without Ari being within earshot.

While I would avoid rushing the fortress, allowing them to either surrender or us to regroup, the actual investigative work didn't have to wait for anyone anymore.

"I'll need a Fleshspeaker too, with the puppet too," I added, "We have to try to pry information out of that scribe."