"These two are Noshtex and Renora." I stated, even as my military council studied the faces of the two entities that I had just begun to show them. One of them, Noshtex, was a potent archdemon of gluttony and death who had a rather hideous face that was both innately ugly and also covered in gruesome yet long healed scars. The other, Renora, was a mighty dragon lord of water, with a regal and stern countenance.
I used my divine technopathic powers to link to the projector again and transmit another set of files to my servants and generals. This time it was even faster than last time, and I watched the eyes of my servants begin to flit to and fro as they began to read the information they had just been presented with.
"As you can see they are... something. The strategy of the ascendant alliance thus far has been to rely on the nastiness of their combined powers to make any sort of counter-invasion be seen as not worth the casualties that even beginning it would cost. Part of that stems from the fact that both Noshtex and Renora possess incredible healing and regenerative abilities." I stated, simply.
"Noshtex is a bigger direct threat than Renora, but Renora is equally dangerous since he, and yes, that is a he, can both heal entire armies with ease and can regenerate from anything that doesn't first take away his ability to regenerate. Noshtex can heal herself, and yes, that is a her, by utilizing her powers over gluttony to devour and absorb anything that isn't her equal in power, which means that even armies that weren't disturbed and weakened by the ether could instantly fall to her, even their souls being absorbed into her." I added, revealing that Noshtex was a she-demon and that Renora was a male dragon lord with a highly effeminate, as well as draconic face.
"Our actual invasion plan hinges, in part, on those of us who are ascendants quickly finding and confronting the two of them. If Noshtex turns to the main battlefield then we run the risk of her quickly devouring a healthy portion of our forces, and if I or any other ascendants on our side can find and at least distract her then we turn our invasion into a war of attrition. And we can win a war of attrition, so long as we can make Renora stick to healing his troops." I stated, before chuckling softly.
For the first time I took a second to actually pause and wait to hear comments, questions or suggestions. For a moment I was met with silence as my companions considered what I had revealed so far. When someone spoke, it was a young cosmic djinn, a potent lord who was native to the Clearbrass Estate.
"So... We need to spread out our troops and keep them from being in any one spot for too long?" He asked, causing a chorus of groans to erupt from the other members of the council. He glared at them, an annoyed look on his face as he sighed.
"Kind of. But there's more to it than that. First of all, Noshtex and Renora are fast. And beyond that all ascendants, even the slowest of us, are capable of frightening displays of speed, crossing even interstellar distances in fractions of a second. Second of all, their powers have truly superb range, usually the range of a medium sized galaxy at minimum. Keeping them distracted, or better yet having someone like myself who can absorb powers completely, is the best way to neutralize the dangers they pose." I explained, gently. Not everyone had experience battling ascendants or commanding militaries, so it was best to be kind and show patience here.
"That said, if it's not me then having Ranthor and his daughter tackle them would be good as well. Someone who can pressure them and keep them from using their powers elsewhere." I added, aware of the real reason why I was the one who was best to distract them. A new ability of mine that I was eager to show off made me a perfect distraction, one so powerful that I could completely suppress their long-range powers and thus effectively cut them off from the rest of the invasion, so long as I was in their presence. But that, of course, hinged on me being the one to find them, or at least joining whoever did shortly after they found them.
"Two of the tactics of the ascendant alliance to discourage invasions so far have been to keep Noshtex's location a secret and to keep Renora on the move but that has second tactic has an exploit that ascendants are aware of." I stated, after waiting a moment to ensure that there were no other questions. The second I said that, an archdemon of pride named Ashmodei chuckled and began to speak.
"That tactic... Reveals his location to those with knowledge of how ascendants work, and access to scrying magic. Since ascendants can't be spotted via scrying magic, but do leave a distortion behind in place of it, when scried upon by other ascendants that let us know a rough approximation of their location instead." He informed the rest of the council, causing me to smile and nod.
"Yep! And that means that I can send a group of ascendants to the rough location of Renora to serve as a distraction, if not an overwhelming force. If we send in one of our own archdemons of gluttony we can even imprison or permanently kill Renora, so long as he doesn't escape in time." I told him and the rest of the council. The ability of archdemons of gluttony to devour even souls meant that they, like sanguinarchs, could bypass small resistances to permanent death possessed by plenty of ascendants, particularly water dragon lords and sanguinarchs, who were both known for having ways around death.
"I, of course, can devour souls, though I only rarely use that ability. That said, it does mean that I can keep Noshtex down if I can corner her, since even death wouldn't be an escape. Plus I have power over the soul domain." I added, smiling, able to use that to increase the damage I could do to creatures like ascendants who possessed a litany of frustrating abilities.
"So... Now we need to discuss the more mundane details of the invasion. The border hegemony is guarded by a force consisting of over seven trillion soldiers of various races. They have a range of armaments, more than a few of which are ether powered. At the moment we have no means to disrupt the ether that itself disrupts the power of our mundane equipment, but we actually have a secret weapon that our enemies won't be able to expect." I informed the council, before watching Rayne's eyes begin to twinkle and beginning to smile at her. She was surprisingly energetic at the moment, excited for us to finally be making our move to retake her birthplace.
"The very first grand venus to join our empire, before even many of you did, is present today. And before she was a grand venus she was a nova, and is the actual heiress to the fallen empire of Etherscape. She is but one facet of the secret weapon we possess." I explained, with a particularly radiant smile on my face.
"As you all know, I possess the power to copy powers held by those who supply me with essence. Rayne, the aforementioned grand venus has supplied me with a truly generous amount of essence in the months we've known each other and so I possess all of her nova-based abilities, therefore making me a nova myself. That said, even beyond the terrifying status of having two true novas in our military the actual secret weapon we possess is the power to transform others into novas. I can bless other beings and share my powers with them, allowing me to do what no hegemony was ever able to do." I stated, triumphantly.
"I can turn normal people, even those who lack either the ability to manipulate ether or generate it internally, into novas. When we begin to move into the fallen empire, I will be turning our soldiers into manamutants, ethermancers, and novas. We also have resources we've kept hidden from our soldiers, aside from experimental corps that have already been turned into manamutants, ethermancers, and novas, that consist of ethermechs and other ether-powered technology." I revealed, smiling proudly at my generals, advisors, and servants.
"Those same corps have been training with ether-powered tech and feeding the knowledge that they've gained to our resident goddess of knowledge, Alexandria. When the time comes she will bless the rest of the military with the knowledge she has been given, thus allowing them to instantly become experienced with the intricacies of ether-tech, something that it appears our enemies haven't yet had a chance to become." I added, confidently. This caused Fara to raise her hand, and when I turned to face her hologram I smiled and motioned for her to speak.
"Wait... How do you have so much knowledge about these forces? I've been a quasi-ascendant for a while now and I've discovered firsthand just how hard it is to spy on us." She asked, speaking truthfully. She was my dark bride of savagery and thus was right on the edge of becoming an ascendant. She had gained many ascendant traits over the last few weeks and had adjusted to them quite well, even if it was a bit of a challenge for her to not lose herself in the beginning.
"I understand your curiosity and I appreciate it. A fair number of beings here are very decidedly not ascendants and so they may not get just how... powerful we truly are. That said, ascendants have weaknesses too. And the weakness of the ascendant alliance that divvied up Etherscape is their arrogance, and their ignorance of the place they were pillaging." I explained, before Rayne cleared her throat and waited for me to turn to her. I chuckled and did so, and with a subtle gesture motioned for her to speak. She began to do so with a much more expressive smile than she usually made, now fully embracing her energy and quiet love for her place of birth.
"Well Fara, it turns out that the ascendants did not really do research on the hegemonies. One hegemony, the tel'Knox hegemony, was well-known for being a hegemony that specialized in information gathering, assassinations, and diplomacy. When the alliance struck Etherscape the tel'Knox hegemony immediately 'split in two', seemingly having fractured as various members sought to work within the alliance to reduce the harm done to average citizens of Etherscape, while other members fled and attempted to work to form a meaningful resistance from outside of Etherscape." Rayne began, her eyes sparkling with pride as she spoke, betraying the usual calm and stoic demeanor she sought to project.
"The truth was a bit more complex than that. Members of the tel'Knox family are all telepathically linked and those of them who stayed in the empire have indeed worked to mitigate the damage done to average citizens by the ascendants, but they've also been feeding their family members insider information. Some members of the ascendant alliance had the powers to realize this and slaughtered the members of the tel'Knox family in their retinues, but the alliance is a loose coalition at best. Most ascendants in the alliance do not yet know of the tel'Knox treachery." Rayne revealed, smiling at all of us.
"More than a few of them send me telepathic messages as well, seeing as I'm the... final heiress of the empire and I had always liked the tel'Knox family anyway. Because of that I can passively spy on the alliance. Most of our intel on our foes actually comes from me!" She proclaimed, proudly. It was all true, which I knew because I could actually hear and eavesdrop on the conversations she had with her little spy-network, through my own ultra-enhanced telepathy.
"That said, some of the ascendants on the alliance are simply innately more destructive than others. Noshtex for example is one of those types. She feeds pretty indiscriminately on anyone from Etherscape who makes contact with her. Fortunately for us she's primarily used as the ultimate warden of Mirella, mostly to keep her alive and thus keep her family in check. Mirella is thus actually... quite safe, but her imprisonment serves as a handy way to keep her family on a tight leash. Once she's free her family will almost immediately unleash their fury on the ascendants and their forces." Rayne told us, causing me to begin to speak again.
"So our primary goal here is simple. More than anything else we need to free Mirella, which will allow her family to turn on the alliance and reignite the remnants of the empire. Doing so will require us killing Noshtex or at least trapping her. Rayne has used her connections to go ahead and tell the tel'Noras that we exist and that we intend to reunify the empire. If we can free Mirella, we will gain their backing, and their immense military power." I explained, outlining a clear goal.
"Once the invasion begins, groups of ascendants and grand venuses will go to places where we suspect Renora is or will be to confront him. If possible I'd actually like to capture him alive, so that I can gain his powers, but I bet whichever group of ascendants finds him will just have to kill him. Right before the invasion begins I will slip into the mirrorverse, an alternative dimension that connects all mirrors, find a mirror to the capital world of the tel'Nora hegemony, and slip through it with a small, elite force." I revealed, a smile on my face as I began to reveal the actual strategy behind this invasion. My ability to enter the "Mirrorverse" was a potent, and weird, sanguinarch ability that allowed me to speedily traverse the omniverse in a stealthy way.
"I will speedily explore the hegemony's capital world and find out where Mirella is being kept prisoner. Once I do, I will confront Noshtex and take her down. Doing that will free up the tel'Knox family and allow us to take the family's leaders to a safe place outside of the remnants of the empire, where we can begin to plot our next move and to remotely incite greater rebellion and dissent against the alliance." I explained, proud of this plan.
