Olimpia

Sitting back in her chair, Kanieta passively watched Derg stand up before moving to speak on the center platform. She would not interfere with his little speech.

After all, she was a mature and charitable woman. Giving a dying man one last chance in the spotlight was only fitting.

Derg wasn't physically dying, though he might have wanted to, but his political power had been cut in half. And all the signs looked like it would only decrease from here on out.

The neutral factions were no longer looking so neutral, and the concessions they decided to place on the Crescent Moon Faction will cripple their growth.

Kanieta would make sure of it.

They will be thrown onto the front lines of the fighting, and their numbers and power will dwindle further.

Peace may never come, and the People may end up fighting futilely to the very end, but it won't be because they were blinded by their own power and pride while refusing to seek help. If the Red Tail Faction had to guide the Conclave to the peace table by the nose, so be it.

With everything going her way, why would she try and stand between Derg giving one last speech?

Not that she would be picking apart his words, trying to find what he was leaving unsaid. Listening with half an ear would be a good way of describing her attention toward Derg. Most of Kanieta's focus would be on picking out the twitches under his skin and jaw as he failed to suppress his anger.

"I came to this conclave expecting this," Derg stated, his voice surprisingly calm. "Though I hoped I would be wrong. I told myself and my Elders that such thoughts were beneath us. Why would the Conclave turn against my Faction? We have always protected those standing behind us. We have always sought out what was best for the People. Did my warriors not break the Letairry Corps as they pressed the Broken Walls as we charged down the Trembling Mountain? Did I not lead the counter charge winning the Battle of The Red Pass and Claiming the head of the Marshal of the 3rd Corp? Are not my people — even now as you scheme to undermine us — holding back the hoards of the Lost and their controllers within the valleys and slopes of the Broken Peaks?"

His voice had turned accusing, and there was a not-so-subtle edge behind his words. "I, and my father before me, have led the Crescent Moon Faction to be the spear and shield of the People. We have spilled rivers of blood, our own and our enemies alike, and all we asked for was your support. We have proven time and again that we can see the way forward and are willing and able to carve a path for the People to follow." He stopped speaking, letting his words hang in the air as he slowly turned in place, looking into the darkness around him.

"And this is how you thank me! Thank us! If Jolten was breaking the law of the Conclave, a spell that is said to have the potential to make a mediocre mage into a top-tier talent, he was doing it for the sake of the People. To make our warriors stronger in a time when there is a reasonable question of whether our might will be enough to survive. We have already been driven from our ancestral homes. Our greatest cities lay in ruin, and the enemy that pushed us to the breaking point is still holding their knife to our backs. Entire clans have gone missing. Either being killed, joining the millions already dead in this war, or enslaved by the Letairry. We need an advantage. That is a given. Those who claimed we could stand alone against the endless hoards have long since died. But she," Derg spun around as he spits out the word while pointing directly at Kanieta, "would have us kneel at the feet of those who think of us as little more than animals. To beg them for help, while they should be the ones begging for our forgiveness. We have been fighting the latest chapter of a war that is as much theirs as ours, for the Letairry won't stop at just our destruction. No, I will not beg them for help. And I will not be a part of the Conclave as they seek to do so."

A smile twitched at Kanieta's lips. Is he withdrawing his faction from the Conclave? I guess he has the numbers to try and make his own territory… What's that smell?

Lowering his pointing arm, Derg clasped his hands behind his back and turned, walking to the center of the Platform. "Doing so would be the same as sitting back and watching the esteemed Faction Leaders throw away our heritage and beliefs. I offer this choice here and now. To those who believe in our right to ru—

"AMBUSH!" Screamed a voice right behind Kanieta, cutting off Derg. The moment she heard it, her head started to turn, looking for danger. Before she could even turn her head to see who shouted, something slammed into her back.

Arms wrapped around her waist as an unnatural force pushed her the thirty feet to the center platform.

Turning her head when she finally stopped, Kanieta saw, to her shock, that the entire section that she was just sitting in was a mess. A ten-foot area was completely clear, and a jumble of bodies and furniture surrounded it. Some people were quickly moving away, but others were just getting up and looking around in confusion.

Lowering her gaze to look at what had struck her, she found Green clutching at her waist, his face buried in the side of her tails. Heat entered her cheeks as she saw where his face was, and she froze in uncertainty.

Seconds passed, and her confusion turned into a simmering rage. When Scout Green finally bothered to look up at her — instead of burying his face in her tails like a deviant — his eyes were slightly glazed over. It took a few quick blinks before his eyes regained their focus.

Not bothering to move from where she lay on her side and looking down the length of her body, she stared flatly into Green's chagrined face. He slowly disentangled himself from where he was wrapped around her body and leaned back on his heels.

Bringing one of his hands behind his head, he opened his mouth. "Heh heh… Ahh, sooo~ might have been a bit wrong about the timing. My mind got slightly overwhelmed by the flood of information I was digging through. But I'm not wrong."

"What are you talk—

*Splat*

It was the sound of a ton of wet ground meat hitting the floor in a single mass after being dropped multiple stories. The floor shook slightly, and there was a sudden crack as the stone floor broke from the impact.

Kanieta's eyes widened in horror as she looked at what had fallen to the ground behind Green. The flesh mound looked a lot like an egg someone had cracked, the yolk in the center with the white around it.

Though instead, it was like someone had ripped the flesh from a hundred people and piled their muscles and fat into a mound before dropping it. The sections of meat oozed streams of blood over the flesh lumps beneath them until it all pooled on the ground.

A squelching sound like a suction cup slowly being pulled up filled the chamber. Kanieta watched it all, unable to move as the edges of the abomination rolled back to the center. As more of its mass collected, tentacles of flesh began sprouting over its form.

Then the screams started.

A dozen of Kanieta's chieftains were caught within the edges of the abomination's form. Those that had their legs or more than an arm enveloped were quickly pulled into the flesh blob without a sound.

The unlucky ones only had a small tendril attached to them, and it was their screams that filled the air.

Instead of pulling the Kin into the flesh, the tendrils sucked away the flesh of the Kin. The effect was something like their bodies were melting around the pulsing flesh appendages. Some ripped off the flesh tendrils, but all that did was make a new target as they latched into the hand holding them.

Some were smart and pulled out knives from the confines of their clothing, but cutting a single tentacle while a dozen more were already launching themselves at you mattered little.

Within seconds of the abomination landing where she was just sitting, the bones of her chieftains began clattering against the ground. There were cracks in the bones, where the marrow was ripped out, but other than that, they were unscathed.

All the creature wanted was more flesh. Bones were of little interest, apparently.

Quite literally pulled out of her shock, Kanieta was once again sliding across the ground.

Green's arm dug into her waist as he focused on something to the side. An instant after they started moving, a tendril of flesh as large as her torso slammed into the ground with a wet thwack.

Kanieta was so caught up in watching those screaming in agony that she had missed the abomination moving to attack her.

Even as the impact echoed around the room, Derg's voice thundered, "I had hoped that the Red Tails would be dealt with all at once, but few things ever go exactly as planned. To everyone else, I will give you a simple choice, swear loyalty to me and my cause by your mana, or die. I think I'll have better luck dealing with your replacements."

At some point during the distractions, Derg's lackeys had moved from their section and rushed to form a circle around him. The faint blue haze of Enhancement Magic formed around their bodies and weapons as now half of them had stone clubs in their hands.

Sliding to another stop, she looked up at Green kneeling above her. He had turned around, his focus shifting to the dangers they left rather than getting away.

His shaggy hair, which wasn't quite long enough to reach his eyebrows, was the same golden shade as a wheat field. But her gaze focused below that, on his piercing emerald eyes. It was almost like they were faintly glowing with an inner light.

"Why?" She couldn't help but ask, her irritation forgotten by the fact he had saved her life. Since she found him looking at the destroyed Healer's House, she had felt the smoldering hatred directed her way. It wasn't hard to guess someone Green cared about deeply was buried under those broken walls.

And yet, instead of letting her die horribly, he saved her.

His eyes flicked to her, and a harness in their depth surfaced as their gazes met, "Between him and you, I would rather you be in charge. Especially if that's what he does to his own people."

Kanieta looked at the abomination, a shudder running through her as she saw its lazily flailing tentacles. Then the entire shape shuddered, the portion closest to her stretched out, and the whole mass shifted closer.

Pulling on her mana on reflex, she felt the cold, slick energies of shadows start coursing through her body and mind. The cool power slowed her racing heart, and the last hints of the shock vanished as the world slowed.

She was in the most simple situation imaginable, kill or be killed.

"What is that, and how is it killed?" Green cautiously asked.

She glanced at him and noticed his hand clutching his sword's hilt. The badgers would think disarming someone a grave insult, and after he was freed, there was no real point to it and more to gain politically in a show of trust.

Sucking in a breath that only shuddered slightly in the beginning, — might not have been as calm as I thought — Kanieta started speaking while moving back to keep her distance, “That… — and I can’t believe I'm saying it — it’s a blood golem. Everyone capable of making them was thought to have been killed decades ago. Anyway, somewhere in that flesh is a red crystal about the size of several fists stacked on top of each other. Smash i—

"Look out!" someone shouted from behind.

Not thinking, Kanieta dove to the side, pushing mana into one of her focuses that caused her form to be clad in shadows as a spell activated. Instead of a leap of four feet, she blurred forward and appeared with a shadowy puff twenty-five feet away.

Motion to her side caught her attention, and she raised her right arm, her shield bracelet activating, covering her in a dome of shadows. A moment later, she felt a chunk of the mana she had pushed into her bracelet disappear and weathered the mental strain of resisting the impact with a grunt.

Dropping the shield, she took a quick look around and caught the sight of the red and sickly yellow tentacle of another abomination before she streaked away again, heading towards a gathering of familiar figures.

Quick as her glance was, Kanieta saw the forms of three more golems in the chamber. And should feel in her gut more would come.