"Princess." You say neutrally as she walks closer to you, wearing a similar uniform as when you first 'met' her, that of a Retanian general but without accolades. "Necromancer." You say, managing to keep a constant tone of voice as you turn your head to the second major threat before you. She was similarly wearing a uniform like when you saw her last, although perhaps uniform is not the correct term for her black robes. You can feel the raw power emanating from her, the lack of the undead on the field of battle must have been her saving her power for this moment.
"Las, looks like it's time for vengeance." Amethyst Reton coldly said. "I'd recognize that sword anywhere, even if it is put away. This must be him." Vengeance? Perhaps this is an opening, for the two nod at each other and take a moment to ready themselves for what seems to be inevitable combat. If they're talking about what, or precisely who you think you're talking about.
"She isn't dead, if that is what you are thinking." You quickly interject with. The fact this was a stroke of luck as opposed to deliberate intent to capture goes unsaid. This makes the two share another quick look in surprise, but they say nothing and their battle-ready stances do not change. This is acceptable, it would be impossible for one life to fully change attitudes in a case such as this, and you knew this as soon as you began speaking. All you needed to accomplish with the phrase was that pause, allowing you to speak yet further before they decided to try and strike you down. "But many will be if this persists. Your defiance is admirable, but you surely know it is futile. You cannot stop us all. Even now, the main force gets closer and closer to this position, you hear their advance even know." Indeed, the sounds of heavy weapons fire was getting closer quite rapidly.
"To continue is to condemn many of the women and men fighting for you to certain demise, Princess." You say, hoping that she is capable of rational thinking in this heated moment. In an instant, her arm is held skyward, a many-colored flare shooting up and exploding in a blinding light, the sun as if seen through a prism. All look up and take notice, as many of the humans apparently put down their arms, although you can only imagine reluctantly. In any case, the fighting stops due to that ceasefire signal. It seems like it was an impulsive and emotional decision as opposed to rational, but it works all the same.
"Uh, are we surrendering now? Because we can still pull this one off." Las asked, confusion permeating her voice. "We've come so far, are we really going to give up at this, you know, the last hurdle?"
In response the princess firmly shook her head, expression grim but determined. "No. I'm not going to surrender just yet, we still have a shot. But he's right in that the soldiers, that is my people do not. Whether or not we succeed, I'd rather they not die, and they can't help us much at this point. I know you can understand that, at least." The necromancer sighs, but clearly accepts this position.
Well, looks like partial progress. Still, you shall continue the strategy for now. You doubt you have too long before the ritual triggers, but it still may well be faster to talk them down than outright go through them, especially the necromancer with nothing to lose and a lot of power saved up. You turn to the sorcerer at your side as they finish speaking to each other. "You were saying something about important news?"
"Yes, Cham-" He begins.
"Maybe don't use that title right next to them." You quickly whisper back to the magician. They may misinterpret the title and think you were lying earlier about the Paladin's survival. It was relatively inconsequential for gaining trust, but trust is also much easier to lose than gain from what you understand.
"Yes, Dragoon Lord [Self]." He replied, the clarification he was talking to you and not your two fellow Lords standing right behind you drawing the humans' attention, as to them it was merely an unintelligible noise. "I have received information from the Molesin agents you set up earlier. It is significant." Well, better late than never. Still, it better be good, you're a bit busy right now.
"They report the constabulary of one of the Molesin cities has made a move against what seems to be a key location of the High Tower Cult, and has secured it, but they have begun a process that cannot be stopped." That is most definitely worthy of your attention, even now. You gesture for him to continue. "Apparently, the people on the inside are very confused themselves, so the information I have is even more scrambled. The police force were hunting a group of thugs with connections to the group for a while now, apparently for illegal smuggling of magical artifacts or some such crime. Well, they discovered that the hole went deeper yet, and they have been looking into the matter for a while now. It came to a head in a surprise assault on what could only be described as a temple, where a teleportation device has been activated." No doubt the device paired with the receiver over on the ritual site. "It is producing an energy shield as a by-product of its work, and will fire off in fifteen minutes." What? They were doing their full final plan now?
"Then time is short. Finish up this story quickly." You command.
"Of course. The force encountered two automatons, apparently of pure technology, that wielded weapons of contained stars, or some such artifice, reports are very inconsistent. Luckily they seemed incomplete, the superintendent on site managed to disable one by attacking its unarmored back, while the other was destroyed with weapons that fired coherent light, looted from an armory during the raid. The engineer Boris was there, having investigated as part of the directives you gave him, and was able to convince both a mage to send me a message and a prisoner to tell what they knew. As might have been hoped, they knew more about it than those you have taken so far, and their final plan has been unveiled. They wish to teleport some kind of ghost or ghosts to this place."
That is a lot of information to process all at once, so you attempt to summarize. "So what you're saying is that the Cult of the High Tower is attempting to summon and move some kind of spirit or spirits to this place at this time, and went to great effort to do so, but have been raided by Imperium law enforcement. So that means-"
"That they have to be trying to take control." Las quietly says. All three others in the conversation whirl around to look at her simultaneously. "Amethyst... I didn't tell you about this earlier, but when I went into the shrine I had a vision." Shrine? "Of Him. We did talk about Him." Him capital H? She's clearly been busy. "He talked to me about how something was coming, something that would bring us all crashing down."
"And you think that he meant the Cult? We'd confirmed its existence, but I thought..." The princess asked, unsure of the situation.
"You have all thought a lot of things." You say. You don't want to delay much longer. "But now the fact stare you in the face. There is one conclusion to make."
"I suppose you have a point. When I talked to the Academic, he did make it clear about how this wasn't some far off prophecy or wild guess, even if he didn't know the facts." The lord of the afterlife talked to her? And the one that made this ritual, no less. The shrine, hmm. It must have been a necromantic library where she got the information to do this in the first place, and perhaps heard his story from the man himself. For him to not know would mean, perhaps the Cult did not originate in this plane? But you suppose it didn't matter where they came from, only where they were going, which was out of relevance and into prison or the grave if you had a say in the matter.
The two humans naturally looked downcast. "So I guess this is it." Amethyst said. "We have to stop the ritual if this is true, and the evidence is there." Silently, she turned to walk towards the circle humming with power. Las soon followed. You prepared for the resolution to all this, one way or another, and then.
"Halt your progress humans, leaders." A rumbling voice came from behind. You admit that you had failed to mentally account for this. You yourself turned around to see the Ruination of Aeon pointing a machine-gun at you. Soon to be Victor of Gathfor. Or with this new information in mind soon to be Traitor of the High Tower, at least if you were assigning names.
"We shall be destroying it ourselves, and taking you captive." He said while advancing.
Las shook her head. "I get you're likely not trusting us right now, not that the feeling isn't mutual, but believe me when I say that won't work. They would have to have put an early trigger in that device, if you destroy the ritual it will activate early and give pretty much the same end result anyway." She scowled as she looked at the massive clockwork machine. "I should have known better when that thing showed up, we don't have luck that good. If only she was here, a Paladin of her rank would have been able to detect any sub-programs in that thing." She recoiled back from it as she made a realization along with the princess, who followed on with an exclamation.
"That's why the paladins and knights didn't show up, when they were delayed it was by the Cult to avoid that!" Amethyst Reton said in a level of shock that kept her voice almost monotone. Well at least that's explained, the mysterious divine magic of the Paladins would have messed with the Cult's plan.
The Ruination growled as more soldiers moved up beside him, machine gun teams setting up. "I am aware, but I care little. I have made clear my position on the Cult, there is no reason to interfere with them. We shall proceed as planned."
You shake your head at that. "Such a policy was put in place before we had any idea of what was going on with regards to their ultimate plan. Now the Molesin have discovered roughly what it is, something broadly corroborated by the humans, and we do now know that their goals are not benign to us."
"Is that so? The way I see it, nothing has changed. If the ritual initiates under their control, so what? What difference does it make if they take over the nations instead of us more directly?" He still believes that, and it's a position that doesn't sit right with you. Yet the army shall surely follow him, at least the majority. And you can't argue your position properly, if he simply will not accept it.
Maybe you don't have to, though.
"As it stands, I believe the superintendent would rather like to avoid this fate. And I also believe that you will find Molesin security regulations dictate that in matters of internal intrigue the police force may be considered to have a military rank, a small detail from periods of civil strife quite a long time ago now for the sake of unification. And you will find that in the treaty that solidified the alliance of our two peoples, Molesin regional leaders, and as city superintendent this Molesar does count as that, have authority "below the noble Barnin-Sin, the great Queens, but above all field units", which you likewise count as. And as this Molesar is acting against this plan of the Cult, regulations dictate we must also."
There is a silence.
You note everyone is looking at you.
"There wasn't much else to do but read on various subjects during the travel here." You can't help but sound a little defensive as they continue to stare.
The silence continues, but attention rapidly moves to the Elder Tyrant, who is in deep thought, immobile as he contemplates your words. Finally, he gives his response.
"Your logic, your reasoning, is sound, correct. I will allow you to let the humans dismantle their ritual."
The two humans with the capacity to do this continue walking forward, soon standing on either side of the teleport beacon, which you note is glowing brighter and brighter as presumably the countdown continues. The princess looks towards the army before you.
"This will be bright." The pair touch their hands on the device at the same time, and sure enough a truly blinding white light overwhelms you as it shoots out from the beacon.
When you can see again, it is to a field slightly altered.
