Now that the massive, red energy beam had finally dissipated, the crater it left behind was still steaming, and at its bottom, the residual energy was slowly pulsing, showing that not all of it had been spent yet, though it was at least contained within the cores again. Ignis crouched at the crater's edge, her tail curling and uncurling behind her, her claws tapping at the edge as she was thinking. The blast had come from none other than the cores she threw away, and from the monsters she collected and was experimenting on, trying to make them do exactly what she wanted. She was trying to understand how her own powers, how magic worked... But when she pushed, she pushed too hard, and she could feel their cores react, fusing together, creating a link through her domination, and then... releasing all that energy in a massive explosion.

Exactly what Merlin had luckily avoided when he experimented on how monsters absorbed the others' cores.

"Hm..." She lowered her head, sniffing the air as her nostrils flared. “Dangerous…” she murmured, almost pouting, “They are just... Too weak... No. I'm too strong!"

Noting that no more bursts of energy were about to escape from the pulsing cores, she stepped down into the crater, watching what remained of the beasts, which was nothing but their melted bones, steaming, surrounding their cores. Surprisingly, they all were now linked, fused together, a runaway meld that was interrupted at a critical moment. Touching it, she could feel them now being one weird entity, with most of their magic spent. What remained circulated through the newly formed connections, making a revolution with every pulse as she held it between her claws, turning it slowly, her eyes narrowing.

“Hmm.” She tapped it against her fang, listening to the tiny clang, before biting on it, feeling her teeth tingle, “Still firm... Just... Most of it is... spent. Why did you go boom...?" She asked, but of course, there was no answer, “Because of me... huh? Hmm...” She tilted her head, remembering what she was trying to make the beasts do before the explosion happened, “I didn't mean you to get stronger by blowing up... That's just... an instant of power. Tsk...”

After losing her first horde and her first puppets, she had collected a new batch, this time only a dozen or so, bringing them home to try to develop her skills by experimenting on them. In the end, she had reached out with all her power, trying to pull them together, linking herself with the monsters, establishing a connection between their cores, wanting to see if she could take over their magic itself, so she could use them even better. The issue was... her magic was way too strong for them to handle. The moment she put more pressure on them than they could handle, their linked cores going haywire, there was just a loud scream that had ripped through her mind, causing her to cut the connection and run back to her volcano's belly. She did it just in time as the next moment came the flash, and the explosion of pure magic, shooting far up into the sky.

"I should not do that again..." She shrugged, dropping the now massive, fused collection of cores that looked like a spiderweb with its owner's food stuck in it at random spots. Shrugging, with a simple jump and flutter of wings, she was out of the crater, stretching lazily, just like a cat would. “So…” she yawned, “I need to be more careful, they are too weak to handle me... hm, hm. It just shows how better I am than my children. Otherwise...” she shuddered, "They would have made me explode... hmph!"

Thinking about it, she began circling around her volcano, her tail swinging behind her, trying to decide what to do next. She had time now... Even if the Vasas escaped, they couldn't hide forever, and she would punish them for keeping her in a 'cage.' But, she also knew, she had to be ready...

“I can tell their minds what to do...” she mused, tracing a claw along the volcano's side, “But they can do it too... I just need to be stronger than them... I already am...” Her pupils narrowed to slits all of a sudden as she looked toward the south, towards the mountains; she could feel the power of the Gods emanating from that direction. Although it had changed a little over the past few days, completely stalling the release of refined magic, she in the end chalked it up to nothing serious. “Better to take a look at what they are doing,” she purred a little, stretching her wings, “I need more to know... of MY world.”

With a new decision made, she shot into the sky, circling around a little, a new plan coming together in her mind. Her first instinct was to go there and just dominate all of the Vasas, order them to explain everything, and force them to become her servants as they should. Just as they made her serve them for so many years. Yet... she quickly pushed that feeling down, choosing to be more... careful.

“I know, I know." She told herself, fighting the urge in her, the one that wanted to consume everything and make the world her own, "One step at a time. First, I’ll gather the beasts... I’ll make a new horde. A smart one with me leading them. And... No more exploding toys. Then…” Her wings fluttered as she flew further up, "We will see how you handle multiple minds at once..."

As she flew forward, over the massive forest, her senses spread out, searching for suitable beasts down below. As she was flying further north, she found more than just the jungle, as she stumbled upon lakes so vast she couldn't see their other shore at first, or lone mountains, like pockmarks next to massive gorges with lush valleys between some of them. And... There were... beasts... everywhere. Yet most of them were weak and small, constantly breeding and serving as food for their larger variants, causing her to shrug. There were too many small ones. They were nothing but like krills in the ocean, sometimes inhaled by a whale passing by. And she was looking for the whales... When, finally, she sensed one she felt would be perfect for her plan, it was simply her mind that brushed against theirs, breaking their will, intruding with much more subtlety and finesse than before, taking control of them.

"Much better..." She muttered to herself, "How was it that they always said...? Practice makes perfect..."

...

....

......

The warning came from the back of my mind first, even before the sirens began wailing all around the Pride, causing an uproar amongst both our troops and the Vasas. The latter was already fidgety, seeing that more and more mechs were arriving at the Pride, realizing that our strength was probably on par with theirs... That surprise, well, it made them... twitchy. They still couldn't fathom that their proud warriors and their skills were being matched by people who couldn't even cast a spell by themselves.

Luckily, Sa'Ith was sensible and, being the leading voice amongst them, kept everybody in line. If I had to guess, she would soon be named as their next Sect Elder... Leader... Master? Whatever. Shaking my head, I looked up from the console, gazing toward the horizon.

“Kustov,” I said, already standing from my chair, “Tell me that’s not another false alarm.”

We had a few in the past few days, but they were just monsters, passing by, as if frightened by something, running away, not towards us, but towards the west and east, scattering.

"I don't think so," He shook his head, his expression grim, “I have already compared our reading to the Pride's, and Seltana also agrees. We have multiple signatures, large and small, coming from the forest, wedge-shaped, heading directly towards us.”

“Do we have a proper scale?”

“Too many,” he shook his head, “Too far.”

"Then we will wait and see... Prepare the artillery!"

"Already doing so." Seltana's voice echoed in the comms.

About ten minutes later, the silhouettes of the approaching enemy finally appeared on the Imaginary projection. There were hundreds of them. Most of them were small, fast-moving beasts, making me furrow my brows as... we didn't face something like this for a long time. But of course, they were not alone, as the slower, heavier variants followed behind.

"We are spreading out." Sa'Ith's voice came next, once again, overtaking our comms without asking, probably listening in from the start. "I wonder if they will reach us... or not."

"If I can help it, then no." I snorted, sitting down, ordering the Camelot to take to the front, halting it above the Vasas' half-circle battle line before the Pride.

The small ones came into firing range first. Most of them were running on four, their shapes varying, with bony things growing out and around them, rushing forward in absolute panic. As for the big ones, we counted twelve of them, standing twenty to thirty meters tall, also of varying shapes, some walking on two, some on... six. But, they were unlike the small horde, as they looked strangely in sync, moving their limbs at the same time and visibly coralling the horde towards us. This was... not an ordinary attack, I could tell that much already. Then, just as I was about to speak, I felt a quick jolt in my mind, my eyes twitching from the feeling...

"What the...?" I grunted when I noticed it appear, way up, between the clouds, hidden from actual view.

There it was... I just knew it. So, the main player had joined the server... but... only as a spectator?

"Send a ping to these coordinates," I ordered, because apparently, only I noticed it. When it came back, Ignis probably felt our probing as the clouds parted, her wings fluttering, breaking them apart, and the beast began coming closer. "That's a damned dragon..." I muttered as we watched it appear, "A big. Fucking. Dragon."

Even though she was pretty far, I knew her size had beaten the Guardian's, even if that snake-worm thing uncoiled itself. It was closer in size, if not an outright match for my Camelot. You all raised a magnificent armageddon-machine... haaahh...

“She’s testing us,” Sa'Ith murmured, her voice coming through, feeling vexed.

“Or playing with its food,” I said grimly. “Either way, it’s a problem... Let's see how we can deal with it!"

A minute later, finally, our artillery began pounding the horde. Not only were the cannons firing, but all the extra mechs we relocated to the Pride were equipped with long-range weaponry, bombarding the enemy line, massacring the small beasts like fishing with dynamite... in a shallow pond. I don't know what Ignis was thinking, but I could feel... surprise? Then a tinge of... understanding.

"Sa'Ith, can you feel that?" I asked, furrowing my brows.

"The small ones clearly aren't being dominated; they are simply being herded by the big ones."

"No, not that..." I muttered, getting my answer anyway... they didn't catch it.

"We need to bring down the twelve," she continued, "or they can indefinitely send small ones towards us. If they do, sooner or later, we will run out of magic... or ammunition."

"Probably both," I nodded, my mind still on the faint, distant feelings I was getting. Weird... Am I receiving Ignis's thoughts? I did intercept Zah'Ratil's call to my son, too. He mentioned the thing about my soul... Is that why I am more sensitive to this mind-melding bullshit? Haah... wish I knew...

"We can move out and attack." Sa'Ith said again, "My people can deal with the beasts at the back."

"And then you will die." I grunted, "It is pretty evident that the monster you raised does know tactics. That thing is probably waiting for you, baiting you out, and then, it may swoop down, gobbling you all up."

"Death is part of the fight for our lives."

"Very touching, very good," I snorted, "I will clap for you later. But you wouldn't even reach the bastards... I am not Denethor to send you on a death ride... You will be more useful in defending the Pride when shit hits the fan."

"Who? What? I'm... not understanding..." Sa'Ith muttered, while my people were already used to me saying nonsense, here and there.

"No matter. Stay put... and watch."

"Sovereign?" Kustov looked at me while I nodded.

"Let's scare this red dragon, showing the bastard that we have our own claw. Raise altitude! And aim the main gun at that abomination! I don't know if it will do anything... but a surprise attack may just... hurt her. It is a golden chance, let's not waste it while its defenses are down!"