[X] Push the advantage while Orcante is weakened and still reeling.
***
As you hold your now-iron wife against you, you enjoy the feel of her body against you even as you take in your current situation.
To be frank, it is not looking good. You have lost at least a few hundred Cath Wyrs to Orcante, leaving you with then less than half of your initial force, maybe even less than a quarter. You have expended no small amount of power, having completely drained your own reserves of spiritual power and having to draw on a significant amount of Dad's and Uncle Evatine's via your connection to both of them. Thankfully, both of them let you draw upon their power without restriction despite knowing nothing of your circumstances.
Still while your situation isn't a good one, it does not exist in a vacuum and given the current circumstances, you would hesitate to call your position a bad one. While your situation is highly good, Orcante and the Blawainish are in a far worst position. You still have yourself, Wyrn and a decent amount of Cath Wyrs while you have no doubts that your sister and the southern force had had much better success than you, especially if Orcante was not able to do anything to stem their advance.
Meanwhile Orcante has just lost his avatar and most of his spiritual power. While he can no doubt rebuild his reserves in time, there will take at least a few weeks and right now, he is incredible vulnerable after what you did to him.
So while your own situation is hardly good, your enemy's situation is so much worse to the point that it arguably makes your own one look good. Making your decision, you decide to press onwards as it is unlikely that you will get a chance to crush Orcante like this again.
With that issue dealt with you, you need to deal with your more immediate issue of Wyrn and just what exactly has happened to her and what she currently is.
"Can you save the others?" asks Wyrn quietly.
"No," you answer mournfully, "I was only able to save you because as a Chosen of Evatine, your humanity resisted Orcante's attempts to take it. The others are all gone, passed onto the next life, leaving only their bodies except as statues rather than corpses."
"I see," replies Wyrn, "I will make their legacies one of metal rather than earth so Orcante may not taint their remains with his own magic. You will not as you are exhausted. I know enough to tell that you are using gifted power after running out of your own."
"Wyrn," you say, "How are you?"
"What am I?" says Wyrn, giving voice to the question that you leave unspoken, "I am not sure. I am no longer human, not physically at least, and I do not feel like a mortal anymore. Spirit perhaps? I am certain that I am spirit though I am not sure how to explain it. You just sort know because I can tell that I am not a mortal anymore. Definitely not now that I am looking at things. I am certain that you used Dad's power to ascend me just he did with Morwyn."
"Will you be wanting Blawain as your village then?" you ask.
You are not entirely sure how to feel with your wife no longer being a mortal like you, but as Dad and Mum along with Seryn and Edryd, there is not any problems with a mortal and spirit loving each other.
"Probably," replies Wyrn, "It would be nice to have my own village provided that the locals are not too much trouble."
"And what about your body?" you ask, "What is it?"
"We both know that it is entirely iron," answers Wyrn, "But at the same time, I can still feel everything as normal even through I am no longer flesh and blood. Well, not quite normal. Touch feels a bit different as if I am part metal, which is sort of odd, because I would expect things to feel as if I am fully metal like I am. My emotions have not changed at all either and even as my body is no longer human, I still feel entirely human in my spirit and mind."
"Spirit of Man," you mutter, "Your connection to Uncle Evatine must have let the rest of you remain human even as your body is entirely iron and you have ascended to spirithood."
"You are so right," states Wyrn as the two of you end your tight embrace, pulling back to look at each other, but still holding onto each other at the same time, "Do you want to know my Aspects? None of them are particularly strong, but I got a decent handful of them."
"Do you know what your Aspects are?" you inquire.
"I just sort of know what they are," answers Wyrn with a shrug, "Like knowing how to breathe, which I just realised that I no longer need to do that. Anyway, I got an Aspect of Man as you guessed along with an Aspect of Metal, which makes sense given what my body is currently like. I also got a bonus to swords with my Aspect of Metal? It is hard to explain. I have not got an Aspect of the Sword like the Noble One does, but I retain some of sword-boost from when I was Chosen of the Noble One under my Aspect of Metal. Like with my Aspect of the Warrior. I have definitely retained some of Seryn's blessing under my Aspect of the Warrior.
I have another three Aspects as well. An Aspect of Loyalty like Seryn does and an Aspect of Love like Mum does. I think it should be obvious to you why I have those Aspects. My final Aspect is from Orcante. An Aspect of Ether, it boosts both my spiritual energy reserves and my generation of spiritual energy while also granting me access to Ether Magic. Oh, I still have all of my old magic plus Light Magic from the Noble One and have not lost them upon becoming a spirit. Hey Cadyl, do you want to receive my blessing?"
"I would be honoured," you tell your lover with a smile.
Wyrn makes her response not with words, but with a kiss. You initial recoil at sudden feeling of the metal against your lips, you soon relax your lover's power flows into you. Your love for Wyrn and desire for body is strengthen while you feel physically stronger and you gain access to another set of magic, one which you vaguely recognise as being what Orcante wielded against you. The others have no noticeable effect, which makes sense to you as you already have blessings with those Aspects.
"You okay?" asks Wyrn as she pulls her head back.
"Yeah," you reply, "It feel weird initially with you being metal and all, but now I have no problems with your body being entirely iron."
"I decided to use my Aspect of Love to make sure you were attracted to my body," admits Wyrn, "Sorry about that."
"It is fine," you answer, "It will probably solve some issues between us."
"Thanks," says Wyrn, "By the way, I think you should take my iron breastplate. I know it was your wedding gift to me, but I do not need it anymore and while you do not exactly need it either, it would be a lot more useful for you than I now."
"That makes sense," you agree as Wyrn takes off her breastplate and hands it to you.
"Are we going after Orcante?" asks Wyrn as you begin to put on the breastplate, "I want to make him pay for what he did."
"Yes," you answer as you begin to put on the breastplate, "We have the advantage and Orcante has never been weaker. We need to press the attack while we have the upper hand and Orcante does not have the chance to recover."
"Then shall I get to work on my task while you rally our surviving forces?" suggests Wyrn as the two of you let go of each other and Seryn's Blessing reshapes your new breastplate so it looks beautiful on you, which has the nice effect of making it fit you perfectly, "It looks good on you."
"Thanks," you say as Wyrn walks past you and then let out a squeak as she gropes your butt on her way past.
***
It went well enough with Wyrn making the statues of the fallen into metal that Orcante could not easily alter with his magic while you gathered the remaining Cath Wyrs and explained the situation to them. You informed them both of your decision to attack Blawain while Orcante was still weaken and how you were unable to save their followers with Wyrn only being saveable due to being a Chosen of the Noble One.
You were able to rally only ninety-eight Cath Wyrs with just shy of three hundred having been turned to stone by Orcante. That left just over a hundred who managed to escape and you do not have time to track them down.
Leading your surviving warriors south, you strike at Blawain itself. As you make your way through the hills, Blawainish hunters attempt to slow you down or at least thin your numbers, but they are no match for your force and they are all killed with ease.
When you reach Blawain itself, you find it under attack by Seryn and the southern force, of whom all of them are alive. Joining the assault, the battle is soon overrun as the surviving handful of Blawainish warriors and hunters are killed along with the militia that the villagers tried to form in a last ditch defence of their village.
With no avatar and having expended the last of spiritual energy in an attempt to unleash an earthquake on the southern force that got foiled by Myrlin, Orcante can offer no meaningful resistance.
The death of the Blawainish Spirit is a quiet, pitiful affair. He is your foe and he slew many of your people, but there is no fiery rage or joyous triumph. Just as a sad acknowledge of another a foe's death, one he was too weak and helpless to prevent.
With her greater skill at such deeds, it was Seryn who slew Orcante, but your sister shares the energy with Wyrn, arguing that the younger spirit requires the boost more than she does.
Once Blawain is capture, Orcante is slain and explanations have been given, all that is left is to divide up the spoils and determine what happens next.
Orcante is dead and Blawain has been captured. What do you with the village?
[] [Blawain] Let Wyrn claim the village as her own for she needs a home base now that she is a spirit.
[] [Blawain] Show no mercy to the wretched Blawainish. Kill them all, take the children to be adopted by your own people and burn the village to the ground.
[] [Blawain] Write-in.
While it will take time to reorganise your force, how shall you handle the conquest of Belarsa?
[] [Belarsa] Approach via the East River.
[] [Belarsa] Approach via the South River.
[] [Belarsa] Approach via the South Fields before crossing the South River.
[] [Belarsa] Approach via the Bydi Forest.
[] [Belarsa] Write-in. (Use this to pick a mixture of the above options)
