Revayne didn’t really need to answer my question. We had ended up near the location where the Councillor was addressing everybody. I would be getting a confirmation or otherwise for my suspicions soon enough.

  I just managed to make sure Sreketh wasn’t about to be crushed by the press of people all around us before the Councillor’s words drew all my attention.

  “Hearken well, denizens of Rings Three and Four,” he said, his voice ringing out. “This day has granted thee a noble victory ‘gainst most dreadful odds. This day has seen thee drive back the Blight Swarm, that grievous Work of a fell Ascendant. Mark well the measure of thy triumph!”

  I wasn’t going to lie, there was definitely something about the way he talked that stirred a strange fire inside me. It was hard to tell if this was the work of some kind of Aspect—and I suspected it might have been, since Escinca had mentioned the existence of the Aspect of Leadership, which surely had Affixes that allowed things like morale-boosting.

  Whatever the case, it was effective. The atmosphere around me turned almost as fiery as the flames dancing on the Councillor’s scales. It was definitely better than any speech I could have made.

  “Yet this battle is not ended,” the Councillor said. “The war is not yet concluded, nor has the peril fled. Nay, we must needs strike back ere the threat groweth mortal. Merely holding our stronghold will not suffice. We must rend asunder their very front lines, to smite our foes in earnest. Is that not right?”

  A loud, boisterous cheer of agreement went up at the question, and even my own heart thundered along with the roars of everybody else. I didn’t join my voice to the raucous chorus, but I did feel like doing so. My intentions were getting swept up with everyone else’s.

  I really did want to strike back at the Blight Swarm. I wanted to make sure they wouldn’t dare to attack Ring Four again. I wanted to end the threat they presented. For good.

  The actual logic behind the idea escaped me for the moment. I needed to think about it clearly, though I suspected someone like the Councillor already had a plan and solid reasons for the decision. But the way he was talking, it sounded like we were all going to be involved in the sudden counterattack, and I wasn’t so sure if that was actually a good thing or not.

  “To that end,” the Councillor continued, now with a note of finality in his voice. “We have need of dauntless volunteers to aid us in this great endeavour. We shall call for those stout of heart, steadfast of mind, and resolute of soul, to bear the battle unto the foul creatures that dare assail our homes! We will need the folk of Zairgon themselves to march with me, and together strike down the menace that lieth beyond!”

  A wild riot of roars answered the Councillor in the affirmative. Oh, yes. He wasn’t going to have any problems at all in getting volunteers. Not even from the people of Ring Four.

  “Can we go, Cultist Ross?” Lujean asked. I hadn’t even noticed when he had appeared next to me. In fact, all the Scarthrall cultists were around me now.

  “We’re going to show those Pits-cursed bugs what happens when you attack us,” Atholaine said with a growl.

  A strange feeling welled up inside me. It took a few moments for me to register it as a weird sense of care. Not that it should have been weird, because I did care about the Scarthralls and didn’t want anything to happen to them. But the context of them asking for my permission like I was their father or something was definitely rather odd.

  “I’m not your dad,” I said. “If that’s what you really want to do, I won’t stop you. But I’d like for you to remain as safe as possible, and to be aware of what you’re getting into before you actually get into it. And remember—we had to take care of Ring Four more or less ourselves, minus the bit where the guards finally stepped in. So… don’t overextend yourselves.”

  They all nodded back seriously.

  Turned out, what they were really seeking wasn’t permission. Not really. It had been framed as such, sure, but that wasn’t the truth of their question.

  What they wanted was a show of faith. They wanted to see if I believed in them enough to encourage them to pursue what they thought would be best.

  And my lukewarm—almost nonchalant—response wasn’t that.

  I only realized that after the fact, after everyone got busy preparing for the excursion and I had moved away to deal with the immediate fallout of the little invasion. Sure, I could argue that I had too much on my mind—what with the invasion and everything—to really pay attention to the finer points of social etiquette expected of me.

  But that didn’t mean I couldn’t recognize points where I messed up. So, after making sure people weren’t taking off with the bug meat since it would be best if we gathered it together to purify it and decide what to do about it as a group, I found the Scarthralls again.

  “Have you learned when you’re leaving?” I asked.

  Vandre’s eyes had lit up when he saw me. That just made me feel even guiltier for not being as encouraging as I should have. “Are you coming with us, Cultist Ross?”

  They really did want to go on an adventure with me, didn’t they? Sometimes, I felt like they were almost childlike in their enthusiasm about their new direction in life. “Sorry, but I can’t. Someone has to stay back and help take care of everything here.” I smiled at him. “I don’t think I need to, though. The way you guys all fought back there, you’ve got things well in hand.”

  The praise made their faces almost glow.

  Atholaine laughed in pleasure. “You should have seen Vandre, Cultist! He was trying to throw his silly blood around, trying to be all mage-like and fancy and everything.”

  Stolen novel; please report.

  Lujean, Sigrouen, and Jalais were all laughing too.

  “I wasn’t trying to be mage-like,” Vandre protested hotly, flushing a deep crimson. “I was just trying to use stuff I learned. That’s normal.”

  I snickered. “I’m on Vandre’s side. Part and parcel of being a mage is being the flashiest asshole around.”

  We all laughed some more at that. Well, most of us. Vandre just huffed and glared at my unhelpfulness.

  “I imagine you’re going to head out soon,” I said. “But let me know before you do. If there’s a little bit of time, I want to try establishing another Ritual. Something that should help more directly in our current situation than the ones we’ve got so far.”

  The Scarthralls all nodded back seriously.

  “We’ll take down the stupid bugs,” Vandre promised with a thump of his chest. The others agreed boisterously. “They won’t ever be a problem again!”

  I didn’t need to worry about my fellow cultists. They’d be fine. Especially with the team that the Councillor was creating, what with a few big shots from the military and other highly competent participants such as Revayne. I had no reason to be anxious.

  Which meant that, despite the niggling in the back of my head, I could still focus on Ring Four. And there was a lot to focus on there.

  People were hauling the dead bugs to one of the areas where the battle had destroyed a good chunk of the old, abandoned hovels. Clearing the debris left enough open space to lay out all the dead bug monsters. There were surprisingly more than I was expecting, so the space was definitely needed. I made sure to help by lightening the load with Gravity.

  I wasn’t sure what to do about the dead insects just yet. A lot of people were obviously looking forward to eating them, but there was the practical problem of purifying it and otherwise making the meat and everything else edible.

  Purification would be extremely important because, just like with the centipede monster I had killed, all the bugs were exhibiting that strange, oozing blackness. Considering how it seemed to make my mana core’s whirring stutter and jerk, I really didn’t want to see what happened to people who ate the bugs without any preparation.

  For now, I focused on overall work. There was something satisfying about everyone coming together and working towards the same goals.

  Other than dealing with the bug bodies productively, cleanup was also high on the list of things to deal with. This meant washing the streets clean of all the gore. Most were monstrous insect fluids, but there were areas daubed in the telltale red of human blood.

  While there hadn’t been any deaths, surprisingly, a handful of people had gotten pretty injured. Terribly enough that I doubted they’d be able to contribute significantly to further battles in the near future, even if they received magical treatment.

  Certain wounds, like losing a limb, nearly dying of blood loss, or a gash deep enough to see one’s own ruptured organs, had a psychological impact not everybody could overcome.

  I was remorseful for the agony the wounded were going through. A part of me was obviously thinking about it in terms of the loss of manpower against the Blight Swarm. But I didn’t want to let those thoughts dominate. I didn’t want to become so coldly unfeeling of people’s suffering by narrow-mindedly thinking of nothing but how useful they could be.

  Of course, that wasn’t going to take away the fact that I had to account for the missing people in our next battle. But I could deal with that.

  The other side of things was the social aspect. I went around and congratulated people in the neighbourhood for their victory. I exchanged relieved smiles and some conversation with everyone who was happy to have survived. I tried to give my own mini-speech of encouragement to those a little shaken by the battle and the threat presented by the Blight Swarm.

  It was nice that most people responded positively.

  “Well done on a fine showing,” Thyrethena said. The old woman’s literal tree canopy of hair swayed very gently despite the lack of a breeze. “We were rather sceptical of how successful your endeavours would be, admittedly, but you’ve more than surpassed our expectations.”

  While their local leader spoke with me, the rest of the Anymphea were busy with cleanup duty as well. Unlike most people on Ring Four however, they were using their Aspects to do so. Streams of water and gusts of wind were merrily cleaning up everything. Though, despite their efforts, the cleaning was going to take a while.

  “Well done on a fine showing indeed,” I said.

  My eyes were on the swathe of destruction the Anymphea had left in their quarter. Their actual residences were closer to Ring Three, so they hadn’t suffered much. Well, apart from the one monster that had landed there, only to be eviscerated in short order.

  The more impressive display had been at the actual kill zone we had planned for the Anymphea. They had not only successfully led nearly all the gigantic insects they had faced there, but had also proceeded to blast them with an overwhelming amount of their Aspects. A chaotic mass of twisted plants, sparking mist, and a flood of steaming hot water almost completely hid all the monstrous corpses trapped within.

  Most of that was slowly dissipating, of course. The Natural Limit of Existence was on display. But still. Impressive, was an understatement.

  “All in all, it went rather well,” I said. “You didn’t even suffer any injuries, right?”

  Thyrethena shook her head. I was a little bewitched at wondering if the tiny leaves on any of her tiny hair-branches would fall off. “We suffered no such thing. However, this was merely a probe, as you well know.”

  “Right. The worst is yet to come. Yippee!”

  She looked at me oddly, which I supposed was a fair enough reaction.

  Afterwards, I met the nearby Sea and Wind cults. Durica, the Wind Cult’s old leader, had a bloodied bandage around his head.

  “Don’t worry,” he said at our looks of concern. “‘Tis but a scratch. These old bones have dealt with worse.”

  It was hard for me to imagine old Durica wading into battle, so him suffering an injury looked strange. Still, going by the rest of his account, things were pretty much fine in his neighbourhood.

  Same with the Sea Cult. They professed that they’d had an easy time of it compared to everybody else, but it wasn’t like I was about to begrudge them that fact. Maybe next time, if we were lucky, the Sun Cult would be the one having an easier time.

  That reminded me of the way that centipede monster had seemed to target me extra hard…

  Later that evening, after everything was settled, the Scarthralls returned.

  “We’re heading out tomorrow, Cultist Ross!” Lujean announced. “I can’t wait!”

  “Do you think bug blood tastes like honey or wine or—”

  Atholaine’s question was cut off when Jalais gagged.

  “If it tastes any better than piss, then I’ll give up half my loot money,” he said.

  “Loot money?” I asked.

  “The Councillor said that any loot we get during the excursion will be ours!”

  Hopefully, that wouldn’t lead to any sort of chaos. It was why the Adventurer’s Guild stipulated that all adventurers had to submit their discoveries and treasures to the guild.

  “Sounds like we’ve got half a day or so before you’re off,” I said. “That’s good, because I want to try the new Ritual.” At that, their eyes lit up with interest, which made me smile too. “A Ritual that’ll help us in our fights, where the fight will be a part of the Ritual.”