About one mile from Blue Hillock City, a hillock covered in a field of vibrant blue tulips rested.
During its full bloom season, the field would grow and cover the entire hillock, making for a sight so beautiful people from lands far and wide knew about it and traveled to come see it.
Despite the fact that blooming season was still a few months away, the city was still packed.
All over its roads, luxurious merchant and noble carriages weaved about and streamed through various entertainment districts and businesses in endless droves.
High up in the sky and shrouded by the cover of night, Mary thoroughly enjoyed the experience of looking down on everything from above, the city below her ignorant of the doom about to befall their plane.
Her wings flapped lightly as she trailed her blood red eyes over the various alleys and dark corners, the lack of illumination not hindering her innate Darkvision in the slightest.
As she levitated and conducted her search, strong winds blew from time to time, but they only managed to affect her curly locks and the crimson sash around her waist.
The winds made them billow wildly, but Mary herself remained locked as though space itself anchored her.
Finally, after minutes of searching, she found her targets.
Casting a few spells to remove the inhuman and eye catching elements in her appearance, she dove towards the city and transformed into a bat to avoid being spotted.
She flapped her tiny wings and flew into an alley, melding with the shadows and returning to her human form in a burst of red mist that went unseen.
Stepping out of the darkness, she approached the two thugs that had dragged a man into the alley and were in the process of beating him to a pulp.
Scrunching her nose at the mix of blood and piss in the air, she deliberately increased the intensity of her steps and drew the attention of the assailants.
The sounds of fists pounding against flesh ceased and the pained grunts and huffs died down, and the two responsible for the former turned around warily to face the person that had managed to sneak up on them.
When they laid eyes on her however, their gazes brightened and took on a loving and puppy-like fervor.
Whether it was her piercing blue eyes, brown and curly neck length hair, or her skin tight mercenary armor, all of Mary now looked worthy of worship and obedience to the thugs.
Her Charm had reduced them to eager puppies that would do any and everything to please their master, and she knew it.
Quickly, she asked them a series of questions regarding the criminal elements in the city, their various leaderships and the Witcher Knights stationed here.
After getting everything relevant to her goal, she ordered them to lead her to their boss.
That's how she ended up in Tulip Hotel, the most famous entertainment establishment in the city and one only frequented by wealthy tourists and nobles.
Inside one of the many lavish rooms, a muscular, bald-headed man tangoed with three women on a king-sized bed, the loud cries of passion from the latter and the low grunts from the former suggesting he was winning the fight.
Just as the orgasm he'd been working up to reared its head, someone barged into the room unexpectedly.
Angered beyond belief, the man yanked the blanket of the bed and wrapped it around his waist, leaving the bare bodies of his partners exposed.
Frightened by the intrusion and the sudden nakedness and attention, the three women let out sharp piercing screams. Screams that were silenced with a stare from the man and a single shout. "Shut up!"
Reminded of the kind of person they were dealing with, the three ceased their inane behavior and huddled together for a paltry sense of safety.
"Bald Eagle?" Mary asked the man, excluding him from the effects of her Charm due to the scene she witnessed even before entering the room.
"You break into my place and ask me questions. How daring of you… yes, I'm Bald Eagle. Who are you and what do you want?" the man tightened the cloth around his waist and said.
Nodding to herself, Mary turned to the girls, pointed at them and swiped her finger towards the door. "Out!"
Thanking their lucky stars, the fearful girls climbed down the bed, picked up their clothing from the floor and ran for the door, their little behinds covered in red palm prints wobbling with their frantic movements.
Once the door shut and Mary confirmed there wasn't anyone nearby, she vanished and reappeared near Bald Eagle, forcing him low and sinking her fangs into his thick and veiny neck.
A few minutes later, she exited the room with the crime boss trailing her, the latter clad in his armor and his demeanor respectful and subservient.
When she advanced to Adept, Mary gained the ability to use the Embrace, an ability vampires were famous for.
It required her to sacrifice some of her blood essence with every usage. As such, she'd refrained from embracing anyone back in Lethon, because they'd be literally useless to her.
Here in this foreign plane though, she could use it to garner loyal support, secure reliable sources of information, and plant spies within the ranks of the important figures in this place.
On day one, she took control of the city's criminal element through Bald Eagle and netted herself three Pseudo Adept level followers in the form of the man himself and his two direct subordinates.
On the night of day two, she dressed up in pretty clothes and entered the castle of the city's ruler, Count Vanlier under the guise of being gifted by his subordinate, Bald Eagle.
Astounded by the quality of woman sent over by his loyal dog, the count ushered Mary into his secret chambers, unknowingly slipping her past his elite guard.
When morning came, the vampiress had become the city's true ruler, the count added to the ranks of her loyal servants and blood slaves.
The city was ripe for the taking. She could mobilise the needed men and it would all be hers before midday. But she hadn't forgotten the plan, nor was she an idiot.
The goal was to remain hidden.
And so, using a portion of the third day, she cemented her rule by converting each and every one of the count's direct subordinates with the strength of a Pseudo Adept, leaving the rest to him and Bald Eagle to deal with.
It took a while, but a little after midday, Mary became the true owner of Blue Hillock City, managing any and all information regarding the Witcher Knight's movements—not just within it—but other cities as well, relaying the relevant bits to Greem and the base.
This is how a certain group of them came to her attention. The squad stationed in the city had left their posts seven days ago and ventured into the Greenland Forest.
They had hired some local mercenaries—presumably to help them navigate the massive forest—but none of them had returned yet. But that wasn't the reason for Mary's alarm.
Seven days ago meant the knights were already active in the forest before their invading force arrived. This was a grave issue, one that needed to be nipped in the bud immediately.
Quickly, she relayed the news to Greem and Keoghan, the former taking up the task since he was already in the forest hunting anyway.
☀☀☀
Greem had long located the witcher knight squad before Mary's alert, and he had a wind critter following them at all times.
With his foreknowledge regarding this planar war, he'd tasked the wind critters to extend their search and the processing crystals in his mask to notify him of any human presence the golems detected.
That's how he'd found and kept track of them two days ago, not once losing sight of their location.
The only reason he hadn't gone after them was due to their location being outside the radius of activity Keoghan set for the first three days and the fact that he was currently retrieving "materials" for the Adept.
Now that he'd gotten the go ahead though, he could act. But first, he had to subdue this tribe of cannibalistic ogres.
These three meter tall creatures each had Physiques and Strength rivaling Pseudo Adepts. All the males did to be precise. The females could rival Advanced Apprentices and their children Intermediates.
Yet none of these impressive attributes could protect them from the Spirit magic Sleep spell he had enchanted into his ring.
Holding his massive arm up and clenching his fist in their direction, he channeled life force into one of the many rings on his finger and underneath his glove.
This sent forth a wave of magic that rendered the creatures unconscious, massive stone and wooden clubs tumbling down as their owners joined them on the ground.
When the little tremors ceased, he sent forth his various earth golems and commanded them to drag the subdued creatures back to base where Keoghan would be no doubt happy to receive them.
Retrieving his mask from storage and slipping it on, he connected to the various wind critters out scouting and the one trailing the witcher knight squad, offloading its connection to the mask right after.
After a series of probes to the processing crystals, he found what he was looking for.
A large screen appeared in his vision, showing the knights travelling with the mercenaries on a mountain road.
Having already found them days before, he'd already examined their armor, weapons, and mounts already, hence he didn't focus on the knights or the mercenaries.
He instead focused on the thin and malnourished youth dressed in rags they were pulling along.
He'd been gagged and his limbs bound, and a single rope connecting him to the trailing knight's mount dragged him forcefully despite his feet being completely bare.
Greem distinctly recalled the youth's past and how his life ended in the book. What the boy experienced couldn't even be called life.
It was just a series of misfortunes disguised as the opposite befalling him one after the other.
The unfairness and absurdity of it all reminded Greem of something he'd almost forgotten about this reality.
There was no hope, no karma, or any overarching force making sure good people were rewarded for their deeds and that evil beings got their comeuppance.
Life here was survival of the fittest. On an absolutely grand scale spanning countless planes of existence. Might made right had never been truer.
Those who embraced ruthlessness and cruelty were the ones who overcame any obstacle in their way and made it to the top. Always.
No one who had lived for a long time and attained immense levels of power did so by being kind or exercising righteousness and morality. They did so by trampling on and snuffing out an uncountable number of lives.
This was the single absolute truth of this murky pit of an existence… and he had no choice but to embrace it.
His essences gave him some leeway, true, but that was it. He still had to engage in bloodshed and cruelty like everyone else eager to seize control of their own fates.
Watching the way the knights treated their captive and the unique mix of despair and hatred in the latter's eyes, Greem nodded subtly to himself, the slight unease at what he was about to do leaving him.
To the knights, chasing down and executing children who were born with abilities they didn't ask for was a righteous deed, a moral act that the universe would reward them for.
They were blind, unable or unwilling—he didn't know for sure—to see their actions and creed for what it really was; bullying of the highest order.
They were strong and plentiful, and the heretics were weak and few in number. That's all this was. And he saw and understood this perfectly. He couldn't see it any clearer if he tried.
Just like the knights did to the heretics, he was going to kill and exploit them. Their lives would serve as points denoting his performance in this planar war, and he'd get rewards for it.
There were no heroes and villains or good and bad guys here. Just individuals engaging in behaviors appropriate to their circumstances and beliefs.
****
Author's note:
If you want to read five chapters ahead and support, you can do so here: patreon.com/MasterReigen