Chapter 522 - Changing of the Guard III (Patreon)

The ringing symphony of steel on steel greeted me when I returned home, a pair of Valkyries sparring in full gear. I poked my head into the salle, watching a display of skill and magic, seeing once again how an utterly alien style of fighting worked. A longsword and kite shield wielded by a pachysaurus type saurian against a bearkin wielding a greatsword almost as tall as she was - and she towered over Iona by a full head.

On one hand, combat was combat. Trying to kill someone was trying to kill someone. On the other, gear and tradition informed optimal movements. Remus and Exterreri favored ‘lighter’ armor - relative to what Valkyries used - strong tower shield, spears and short swords. There was a fundamental assumption underpinning our drills and tactics that we’d have someone on either side of us, covering us as we fought in tandem.

The Valkyries didn’t. They had much heavier armor, and the fundamental assumption that they were alone.

Of course I’d seen Iona sparring thousands of times, but it was different as an ‘outsider’, and it was rare to get two heavies clashing against each other.

There was one odd thing I was noticing though… I wasn’t familiar enough with the style to be certain, and the last few years had helped me grow socially a bit.

Just a little. Better than I was before.

I was aware that I was the [Lady] of the house. The owner, the person with the purse strings who made it all happen. It gave me a somewhat uncomfortable position over the Valkyries. They thought, in the back of their mind, that if they annoyed me too much that they’d wear out their welcome. That they’d be evicted once again.

On one hand, absolutely not. I wouldn’t do that to my wife.

On the other, if they were absolutely terrible guests and constantly trashed the place or casually demolished walls - neither Iona or I had the classic [Fortification] skill, a popular skill for reinforcing buildings housing powerful Classers - then yeah, they’d probably wear on my patience and temper enough that Iona would be the one caught in the awkward position between us, and would probably make the Valkyries find alternative arrangements.

The bearkin smashed down with her greatblade, the saurian being forced down to one knee as she blocked. A swift kick from the bear took out her support, and the saurian tried to roll. The greatsword came down with more than enough reach to trap her before she could finish her roll, and the two paused their duel, the winner obvious.

“You’re favoring your right leg a bit. Everything alright?” I asked the longsword-weidling Valkyrie. The bearkin offered her hand, the other Valkyrie taking the assist to get pulled back up.

“Well, if you’re noticing it, there’s no way Brute didn’t.” She said. “No offense.”

The bearkin - Brute, obviously - snorted.

“Like I couldn’t see that bait a thousand fathoms away. Come on, make it more subtle. Last round, loser buys drinks?” She offered.

With a flick of her sword, the saurian got back into position.

“Beer tastes sweetest when bought by the loser.” She agreed.

I left the two of them to it. I’d tried to help - turns out I was only seeing a trap being laid out. It was better to ask, than assume.

While there was no need to get changed into my ceremonial Sentinel gear in a particular place, it was my ceremonial gear. I felt like some pomp and ceremony was required gearing up.

I went into my [Vault] - By the goddesses - errr, Goddess? Ciriel was cool, maybe I should start swearing by her - I don’t know what I’d been thinking when I nearly didn’t take the skill. Easy logistics was so cool.

Oh by Ciriel, I was getting old. I was geeking out over storage! Next thing I knew I’d be happy we had good trash!

… oh no, I was old, I was excited about how easy our trash was.

Putting that aside, I ‘swam’ through my [Vault of Ages], mentally making a note that whatever Spatial class I took, I had to make sure I kept the skill.

Then again, there was a strong argument that I should empty the [Vault] out before classing up. If I got an irresistible offering, I wouldn’t want to lose everything contained in my storage. I’d need like… two months of effort to slowly clear everything out. That classup wasn’t going to be an impulse one. Needed to talk with Night’s friend first.

The location of my ceremonial gear was interesting. Storage! I didn’t want it in my armory and taking up space - everything in there was ‘fight for my life’ equipment- but I also wanted it close to my armory in case I was out of all other gear, and had to use it. My black armor, along with the other ceremonial trimmings, got an entire room to themselves, letting it have the weight and gravitas required for the moments I needed it. I briefly debated putting it on manually, but in the end - nah. Who had time for that?

Full scale, tastefully trimmed with red. Enchanted to always catch the light just right and shine - even when ashes clouded the sky. Gauntlets, enchanted to help me hold my grip on things and stay on my body. The enchantment was neat, I could hold things upside down for a brief moment before gravity took over. Greaves, enchanted to ring a little louder when I stomped down with them.

My cape. Red, of course.

My sigils were emblazoned onto my chest. The right was my personal sigil, the golden eagle of Remus bright gold against the black scale, and the ‘fangs and wings’ sigil of the current day Sentinels on the other side.

A few quick cantrips - I didn’t do a full practice for them, not for something this serious - made sure everything was spiffy. I went through my vault, making it to walk-in closet #3 - the Jurcor shopping dress one.

Look, making sure I had a nice collection of clothes and dresses wasn’t purely due to Auri’s vanity. They were nice! A good remembrance from our mangomoon!

It had a full-room mirror in it, and I spent some time admiring how I looked, fiddling with a few clasps and tucking them in.

With a nod and grin to myself, I left the [Vault], almost landing on top of Iona.

“Hey! Fancy meeting you here!” I said. “Need a hand with your armor?”

“Please.” Iona asked. The fancy outfit I’d gotten for our wedding wasn’t like her mallium, which she could equip with a thought, nor did she have a fancy teleporting skill. She could get it all on herself with [Telekinesis], but a second pair of hands made it much faster.

We got everything on, and without asking, to my delight, Iona grabbed the tabard with my personal Sentinel sigil on it, clearly indicating her affiliation.

I looked her over with a critical eye, smoothing out a practically invisible wrinkle while Iona looked on with an amused grin, her helmet under one arm.

“Got it all?” She asked. “We’re going to be late at this rate.”

“Alright, let’s go. Is Fenrir coming?” I asked.

“He’s off on some investigation.” Iona said. “Plus, I don’t think he’s super comfortable at these sorts of events. His size, even with the shrinking runes…”

I hadn’t heard any storms rumbling in, but maybe the ashen clouds counted? Or it really was a coincidence that a storm whipped up every time Fenrir had a ‘case’.

The two of us set off, Iona greeting a few of her fellow Valkyries on the way out but not stopping to chat. We made our way to Sanguino, whipping up a breeze behind us as we ‘lightly jogged’ over to the meeting point.

The meeting point was fun! There was a subtle beacon letting me know where it was, a small pull on my Sentinel sigil leading the way. One moment, nothing but an overgrown field and a few people resting by the road near it, the next, we were through an illusion, nearly every Sentinel getting ready for the parade.

Just one of those little things adding to our mystique. Having the entire procession appear out of thin air.

Naturally, we didn’t have all the Sentinels. Arachne was eternally paranoid, even in the seat of her power, and a good number of Sentinels - mostly ones off-rotation, but I knew Calamity was also part of the list - had been tapped to not attend the event.

We didn’t want a single decapitation strike to take us all out.

It was fascinating to see so many different Sentinels and teams all in one spot. A few were loners, animatedly talking with each other and trading notes. The typical team was between three and seven members, and I had to imagine many Sentinels being lifted up from the Rangers and the size of their team was a contributing factor. A full forty people were wearing the same Sentinel sigil, and my eyebrows went up as I tried to imagine the finances of supporting so many Classers.

I hadn’t met all the Sentinels before. A number had rotated out since I’d joined, and an equal number had rotated in.

One group I couldn’t quite make heads or tails of. All eight of them were wearing the same sigil, but were all dressed in Sentinel gear. I spotted Queen with her support team, and Iona and I made our way through the crowd.

“Heya Queen!” I waved to her.

“Dawn! Welcome! This is your first event, yeah?” She asked. I nodded.

“Yup! I was wondering, what’s going on with that group?” I gestured to the eight Sentinels in question. Queen laughed.

“Oh, Sentinel Ranger!” She said. “Funny story. They-”

“Sentinels! Form up!” Tyrannus roared. “We’re going in two minutes!”

Everyone started bustling around, and Queen cut a clearly long story very, very short.

“They were a Ranger team together, and operated so well as a team that the leader got promoted to Sentinel. But it wasn’t the leader’s performance that made them so good, it was a group effort. Then they all got promoted as a group.”

A little blinking light appeared in my vision, someone’s clever Mirage pointing me to exactly where I needed to go. I grabbed Iona’s hand, and she let me pull her through the milling Sentinels until we arrived at the right spot. I didn’t recognize the Sentinels ahead or behind me, but I did see Devour three ahead, one of the other Sentinels that had a non-standard cape. Given how they were literally a large part of his abilities, it made sense. A number of banners made an appearance, a mix of the Sentinel symbol, and a number of personal ones mixed in. Tyrannus assembled one of his bone monstrosities, a gigantic bat that had no business flying, and took a seat on its back.

“Sentinels of Exterreri!” He called out. “For glory! Forward! March!” He ordered, and the parade was on.

We quickly passed through the gates of Sanguino to the thunderous applause of the crowds. Iona was in her element, blowing kisses left and right, while I marched with a silly grin. Flowers rained down on us, and skills of all sorts were blasted into the sky.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [Parade Marching]. Would you-]

Yeah, yeah, just another random general skill offered. They were a dime a dozen, only worth noting when I was actively trying to get something new.

When a level 1500 Sentinel wanted to show off a big skill, they could show off some really big skills. Devour went from shape to shape, eventually catching my eye with a wink, turned into a phoenix, and fired a jet of flame into the sky to an admiring ‘Ooooooh!’ from the crowd.

I kept my effect subtle but powerful.

Everyone within a kilometer of my location was brought back to perfect health. Every disease, from a cut finger to deadly cancer, from the sniffles to the plague, was entirely eradicated. Given the population of Sanguino, the city density, and the long parade path we were going down, I was basically putting half the healers out of a job for the next few weeks, barring the occasional emergency.

It wasn’t something I wanted to do all the time, namely because I was screwing over the entire next generation of medics, but now and then as a flex? Yeah.

It was also nice to see exactly how much mana I was burning doing this. It gave me a solid baseline to work off of - if I ever needed to actually go ‘nobody in Sanguino dies’, it was nice to know ‘normally it costs X mana, but now it’s costing X + Y mana, so the saving cost Y.’

I caught a thrown lily, and turned to Iona, walking backwards as we continued down.

“Here!” I said, tucking it behind her ear. Her blossoming smile was all the reward I needed.

“Love you.” She said, and I knew exactly what would make her day. I kissed her, in full view of everyone, my ears burning as the cheering redoubled in volume.

Drums beating in slow time greeted us at the stadium, and Iona broke away from me, joining a number of Ranger teams and the other team members in the stands. As public as the parade had been, the ceremony itself was for Rangers, Sentinels, and their support only. The [Emperor] might be able to get in if he wanted, but that was about it.

The eight members of Ranger Command were on top of a dias, elevated above Arachne sitting on a throne in the middle. A clear reminder that, while Arachne was commander, she still reported to a higher authority, the Senate itself. We were no rogue operation, we were no law unto ourselves. We had responsibility and accountability.

Unlike advent- I cut the thought off. It was intrusive, biased, and unproductive… if a little true.

I filed into my spot, appreciating that someone’s skill was keeping the stadium cool and pleasant. With a final flourish, the drums fell silent. Arachne got up to speak.

“Rangers, Sentinels, Command, and most importantly, all those who work in the shadows to make everything possible. Welcome! You have trusted me these last few years to lead and guide you, and today, as mandated by the Senate and my own burning desire for a vacation, I am stepping down as leader of the Sentinels. I will not give an extended farewell, as we all know it is likely I will be back in this position in a few years.”

Arachne kept it short and sweet, and ceremonially took off her Sentinel badge and cape of office, and handed it back to Command. She kept her spider-like personal sigil on, stepped off the stage, and cheerfully strolled out of the room.

[The World Around Me] let me see the thousands of threads Arachne had everywhere, and I got to watch all of them getting ‘raveled in’ as she stopped her unending surveillance of Sanguino.

It was her turn to rest. She’d earned it.

Command got up and started their speech, and while I was a fan of accountability and the like, that didn’t mean my affection extended to the actual [Politicians] and [Senators] holding the role.

I swear, most of them had to have their own long-winded speech, like they were in front of a crowd. Only two kept it extremely short and sweet, and their [Ranger] and [Warrior] tag implied they’d served in the army or even as a Ranger before eventually turning to a political life. Bless those two.

Long story short - Night was taking charge. Oh, sure, they put it in a thousand flowery terms, but it was nothing more than a simple changing of the guard.

Then the drums rolled, and Night himself came in, armed to the teeth. Four of his teammates followed him in, three I’d already seen before and a medusa. A slow chanted started, one I quickly joined.

“Night. Night. Night. Night.”

His simple presence was enough to whip centuries-old vampires into a frenzy. He reached the stage, turned around, and held his hands out. We quieted down. Two of the Commanders put the cape of office on Night, and sat back down. He began his speech, putting every ounce of his powerful oration to work.

“Friends, Rangers, Sentinels all, I am pleased to once again be in your presence, that you have chosen to once again trust me to lead you all through these times.”

I was ready for a boring speech. I wanted a boring speech.

My wish was not granted.

“We are at war.” Night spoke, and the entire stadium, already quiet for the charismatic leader’s speech, went absolutely still.

“We are at war!” Night said a second time, louder. “Our enemies circle the border, testing us in a dozen different ways. Urwa attempts to flood our streets with opium. An unknown actor, believed at this time to be the Golden Courts, are interfering with our weather patterns, causing drought in an attempt to create a famine. Protectionism is on the rise! Those fantastical materials belonging to the Crucible and Sylvan element are hoarded, vanishing into smithies and armories. Elven hunts are becoming bolder, freely crossing into our territories. Jurcor attempts to extend their reach into our nation under the guise of laws and contracts, trying to shackle and cripple us with debt. A second unknown actor is trying to drive a firm wedge in human-vampire relations, attempting to divide us and trigger a civil war.”

Someone snickered. Night got Radiance-focused on him.

“Make no mistake!” Night shouted. “These events, while seeming small, herald the end of an era of peace and prosperity. They signal that the greed of our neighbors is boundless, that they wish to devour our territory and people! All this has happened before, and all this will happen again! This is not the time to be complacent. This is the time for vigilance!”

A thought suddenly struck me.

If everyone was trying to throw various wrenches into our country… weren’t we also likely trying to throw wrenches into theirs? A lot of the attacks had various degrees of plausible deniability, and even Arachne couldn’t properly trace who was trying various bullshit. It would be naive to assume that Exterreri was the global punching bag, and we weren’t doing our own nonsense. Nobody would ever admit to it of course, but it made too much sense for me to ignore.

“A simple word of warning is far from enough for the events occurring.” Night’s tone had calmed down, but we were still hanging onto his every word. “Starting tomorrow, I am reinstituting daily stand-up meetings. I predict before this Immortal Era heats up into a deadly war conflagrating the world, that we will see a number of assassination attempts. Our enemies will try to silently pick us off one at a time. They seek to weaken us, from our foundations to our top, searching for any crack in the pillar of support that enables us all. Vigilance is key!”

Night went on in that vein for a bit, but the end was a surprise to me.

“One final note. While there is a bill passing its way through the Senate at this time to similar effect, as leader of the Sentinels I am able to make additional proclamations and rules. The latest enemy to have thrown her hat into the ring is both one we can not afford to fight, and yet, one that is easy to battle at the same time. The Moon Cult is hereby outlawed. No member of the Rangers, no Sentinel, no member of any team or group connected in any way to us can participate. They seek to usurp control of the entirety of Exterreri, and we can only thank our lucky stars that our opponent lacks either proper subtlety, or vastly underestimates elvenoids.”

A few of us shuddered as we understood the implication, and a few more went pale. In the audience stands, someone was getting up with a red face, looking like he was about to start yelling at Night. A very embarrassed-looking Sentinel darted out of the crowd, up into the stands, and grabbed their teammate’s arm, gently guiding them out of the stadium.

I couldn’t help but eavesdrop on them. Super hearing sucked at times, but at others it was so nice.

“... embarrassed me in front of everyone!” The Sentinel hissed. “When Sentinel Night, the fucking progenitor, is declaring war on a cult, that is not the time or the place to be kicking up a fuss! No! When Night is saying that your good friends are plotting the overthrow of the government, you have to seriously consider what direction to go in!”

“But-”

“No buts! Give yourself a week to get over it, but break it off.”

Gossip was best when it didn’t interfere with me at all.

At the same time, this was a Night I hadn’t seen before. I’d seen Night, the calm leader of the Sentinels. Night, my friend, my mentor. Night, the ruthless killer who did what needed to be done.

I wasn’t sure if this was a new facet to him, or if this was his way of impressing upon us the very real challenges we were going to be facing. I had to wonder why Arachne hadn’t brought all this up.

Maybe it was the slowly growing intensity level? An opium war wasn’t exactly worth an all-hands-on-deck alert, nor were mean contracts or slow changes in export law worth noting. However, once all of them were put together, it started to paint a different picture. ‘Saving’ them for a change in tenure and with it, a change in tone, made sense.

[*ding!* You’ve unlocked the General Skill [The Ten Thousand Rules of Society]. Would you like to replace a skill with it? Y/N].

The Ten Thousand Rules of Society: With painful observation, by stepping in every mistake possible, you’ve slowly learned the rules of social etiquette and interaction, and have started to see how other’s words, motivations, thoughts, and actions are all linked. With The Ten Thousand Rules of Society, you will always have the current rule and interaction for every situation at the front of your mind, no matter the situation.

I skimmed over yet another general skill notification. Everyone got them all the time - the big difference was how big the name was. It implied it was significant, and my eyes opened wide.

This… this was a genuine, at-long-last, social skill. I liked my general skills as they were, but it seemed like I’d finally broken the curse.

I was almost happy declining the skill. I’d spent so long working and categorizing the rules myself, I didn’t need the help anymore. Plus, I liked my general skills, and I had a book in my [Astral Archives] dedicated to social rules already.

“We face challenging times! But, we are Exterreri! When have we not faced challenging times? From the very moment White Dove cursed vampires, we were doomed to struggle! From ancient Remus, we have fought for our survival! This conflict is in our blood and bones, and we shall prevail. Exterreri Eternal! Nihil Sine Sanguine!” Night raised his fists over his head as he shouted the last words.

“Nihil Sine Sanguine!” The crowd roared back.