Chapter 232: Honest Mistake

Vincent Duncan found. Do you wish to assign a bounty to this Climber?

Yes/No

That bastard never left! Zodiac thought sourly.

They had seen the signs that the norworm had used the Key Site to move to another Floor, and for a frenzied 40 minutes of planning, Zodiac had competely forgotten to confirm it via a lockdown bounty until after he’d already sent the other Lords away.

They’d even discussed them during the meeting!

What a stupid, amateur mistake.

Now Zodiac was facing a choice: Bear the shame of calling everyone back and admitting to his own panicky oversight…or…take the risk of exterminating the norworm himself.

Even if they would be helpful…which they likely wouldn’t.

The other Lords would suffer immediate acclimation sickness if he brought them back with William’s messenger girl.

They had made their moves. Bringing them back now would be worse than useless.

Not to mention…

The set represented a great deal of political power. If he could acquire it, he could trade it to Akul for a rather large concession, and those new Lords would have another obstacle in their plan to leech off the city.

Yes, none of the other Lords are going to be available for two weeks anyway. I’ll have to deal with this myself if I don’t want this Stronghold to become a festering hive of norworms.

Zodiac went into his office and opened up his personal vault, where he kept his fighting kit. As he was removing the ring of his ‘towing’ kit, he paused a moment.

Void is nowhere in the Stronghold. I’ve already confirmed that. There’s no indication that Void’s Build would grant him advanced detection or navigation Abilities.

Can I just…evade him?

Steve the constellation acted as both a deterrent and a landmark. If you could find the continent-sized snake in the sky, eventually you could locate the stronghold as well.

Zodiac had no idea where the worm was, but the worm knew exactly where he was. It was probably mastering its new body and waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike.

Taking it on alone is stupid and gambling the fate of the entire Stronghold, but…

Zodiac took the killing kit out of his vault and stuffed the Relics in his pocket, turning on his heel and marching out onto the veranda, staring up into the sky.

Over the course of two centuries, Zodiac had navigated these black skies. There were none better than him.

The work crews I sent to clear that island is that direction. Zodiac mused. As good a direction as any. He could pick them up before the worm could get its eggs into them, and then move on from there.

There was enough food production on the island to keep them going indefinitely. It would not be pleasant, but pleasantness was not a priority.

I won’t issue the bounty right this second. That’ll probably make it stop and look at the Stronghold. As long as it’s not actively looking at us right this moment…

Telekinetic Skein

Zodiac’s threads anchored into the seven islands and dozens of boats floating around them, began moving them. Slowly at first, then faster and faster.

He formed a shield around the stronghold, preventing the wind from knocking anyone or anything off the islands as they began to blaze through the starry night.

“Milord, is something wrong? Why are we-“ Zodiac’s minister asked, wobbling in place as he tried to navigate the sudden acceleration.

“Shut the ports down. Make ready to defend the Stronghold. Get all the camouflage paint from the stores under the palace.” Zodiac said, not taking his eye off the sky rushing towards them. “We’re doing to disappear.”

“Yes, Milord.” His minister bowed and retreated back into the palace.

Zodiac thought about his counterattack, slowing down and snagging the island his workers were clearing as they passed by it. It was a particularly big and flat island that Zodiac was eager to use as a second farm island, but in this case it might work well as a shield.

Once they had the distant workers, he drastically changed their course, unwilling to be discovered because someone clever drew a straight line between the Stronghold and the worker’s last known locations.

As they flew through the endless night, Zodiac arranged the seven islands into a column, stacking the plates on top of each other as close as he could get them without causing their gravity to kick in and slam them into each other.

The extra-large island went at the bottom of the stack, facing towards Steve. Whoever was looking for them was likely going to use the giant snake as a reference point and scan the surrounding sky.

From the perspective of the area surrounding the snake, if someone used a spyglass, they might locate a single uninhabited island, never suspecting an entire Stronghold hid in It’s shadow.

Of course, there’s a possibility he’s lurking somewhere else, Zodiac mused, locking them in place over a thousand miles distant from Steve after confirming that there weren’t any other constellation within six months distance that could swallow them whole.

With that in mind, zodiac issued a flurry of orders to distribute the constellation paint along the edges of the disc-islands, breaking up their silhouette and making them nearly invisible from the sides.

This story originates from Royal Road. Ensure the author gets the support they deserve by reading it there.

In a matter of hours, the Stronghold was nearly impossible to spot from a distance.

I’ve heard the body this worm is riding was a necromancer. What kind of tactics is he going to use?

Necromancers favor attrition. The human wave. They are happy to sacrifice their own minions in order to deal damage to their enemies.

His plan is probably going to be to acquire tens or hundreds of undead constellations and launch a devastating attack on our most populated island to foment chaos, then he’ll trim down the number of minions to just the strongest to boost their individual power, then cut a path through the confusion with his elite troop, causing huge casualties while everyone’s head is still spinning.

Hmm.

I can work with that.

“What’s going on, Lord Zodiac?” William Oh’s pet monster asked as he marched through the palace. She was forced to half-trot to keep up with Zodiac’s purposeful stride.

“I’m hiding the Stronghold until we know where the normworm is,” Zodiac said with his most reassuring voice. “Just a precaution in case it comes back. Nothing to worry about.”

“Oh, alright.” Ria nodded, still hustling to keep up. “Is there anything I can do to help?”

“No, we’re quite alri-“ Zodiac paused in thought, his legs still moving.

“Forgive me if this is question is insensitive, but what happens if your bodies die?”

“They remain, although they do evaporate into miasma after some time,” Ria said.

“…and how long does it take you to starve?” He asked.

“If the primary body just ate, it takes about a week before any of the offshoots get hungry.

“And can you abandon a body at will or are you stuck?”

“I can reabsorb offshoots, or die at will. I generally don’t like to do that if I don’t have to.” Ria said. “Brianna doesn’t want us become callous towards our own lives.”

“Well, if you’re willing, I’ve got a rather impertinent request for you, young lady.” Zodiac said.

“What’s that?” Ria asked.

“Would you be willing to pretend to be every Climber in a Fake Stronghold?”

“Bait?” Ria asked.

“Yes.”

The Tangled girl seemed to consider it for a moment before nodding.

“Yes, I’m willing to do that. How many ‘me’ do you need?”

“About five hundred.”

“No problem.” Ria began dividing in front of him.