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The Greater Apotheosis of Ainz Ooal Gown
Book : Consolidating Power
Chapter 5: Fleet Expansion
Beta:
Whilst Deathwing and Cocytus were out campaigning with much of their existing space fleet, Pandora's Actor found himself back on Zeus working hard to expand the fleet. Fortunately, he was not working alone.
"Let me outline our problem to you all." The Greater Doppelgänger said to his audience consisting of Aura Bella Fiora, Mare Bello Fiore, Baragon, Merwyrm and Malwood. "It takes months, years even for our bigger ships, to construct ships in the traditional Felmidian style thanks to the slow rate of production of the various sophisticated systems like reactors, anti-gravity drives and engines. Far too slow for us to rapidly expand our fleet like we require. As such, mein fellow Guardians, with the approval of mein Vater I have decided to instead build spelljammers native to Realmspace and make them the majority of our new fleet."
"Wouldn't they be too weak?" Aura asked with a frown. "I mean, it's good to have more ships I guess but it would defeat the purpose if the new ships are just crap, wouldn't it?"
"Well observed oh goddess of beasts." Pandora's Actor said with a dramatic pose that much to his displeasure just caused the twins to cringe and even Malwood to frown. Ignoring the poor reaction to his posturing, he continued. "But we can ameliorate much of the problem by simply cladding the ships in sheets of mithril and adamantite mined from Felmid's Underdark and equip them with our mass driver and laser weapons."
"You will have all the metal you need." Baragon assured the creation of Momonga. "And the Sliver Queen has assured me that her Hive factories will work double time to provide the weapons on schedule."
"Much appreciated, Baragon. And please share my sentiments with the Sliver Queen as well."
The Lord of the Underdark nodded his agreement.
"Hey Pandora's Actor, where is Queenie anyway?" Aura asked, with a worried frown. "Shouldn't she be here too?"
"She could not be here, Lady Aura." Merwyrm explained. "She is helping Lords Cocytus and Deathwing with their campaigns in Wildspace."
"Ah. I get it." Aura said with an enthusiastic nod that showcased her youthful vibrancy.
"Ano, Pandora's Actor," Mare asked hesitantly, raising his hand to indicate he wished to speak.
"Yes, mighty god of nature."
The dark elf blushed at the praise but soldiered on. "Uh. So your new ships, they'll still mostly be made of wood?"
"Observant of you, mein young friend." Pandora's Actor said with a nod. "That is why I have called you, Merwyrm and Malwood here."
"But why not build them entirely of metal?" Malwood chimed in. "Would the ships not be sturdier that way?"
"Perhaps," the god of treasure said in agreement with the Lord of the Wood. "But it would make the cost of construction unreasonably high and limit the rate at which we can produce new ships. Compromising and making the core of the ships wood and covering their exterior in metallic armor plating allows us to build ships in numbers and at a pace that more than makes up for the loss of each ship's survivability."
"A better cost benefit ratio? I see." The Treefolk said with a nod. "I should have expected nothing less from the god of treasure."
"You honour me," the Greater Doppelgänger said with a gracious bow.
"But we're still building the old school Felmidian ships aren't we?" Aura asked. "We saw a couple under construction when we arrived."
"Of course," Pandora's Actor affirmed. "They are still the most powerful type of ships available to us. I am simply reserving our limited production capacity for such construction to the most valuable vessels of the type, dreadnoughts and battleships. They will serve as the flagships of mein Vater's navy."
Aura nodded in acceptance. "Okay, I can guess why you'd need help from Mare and Malwood. They'll be the ones providing you with the wood you'll need. But why call me up here?"
"That is because, mein fellow Guardian, I would like you to help me with something special."
"So you both know the plan?" Mare asked Merwyrm and Malwood as they convened on the banks of the Amazon river.
"I and my Treefolk are ready, my Lord." Malwood reported confidently as he gestured to the numerous treants and other Treefolk that stood waiting by the banks.
"As my minions." Merwyrm added as a dozen ghostly nymphs made out of the river water danced in the waves behind him. "We will provide all the fresh water you need."
"Alright." Mare said with a pleased nod. "Then I'll get us started. Power of Gaia!"
With the invocation of his spell, Mare conjured an entire forest's worth of trees and other flora directly out of the cleared patch of ground along the river banks. More importantly, his spell enriched the depleted Felmidian soils of the land with nutrients. As soon as the spell's effect ended, Malwood's Treefolk surged into action and began cutting the trees down and processing the wood into lumber.
"Naiads. It's your turn." Merwyrm declared five minutes later as the Treefolk with the help of their powers had almost finished processing the freshly planted forest.
"Yes, Lord Merwyrm." The nymphs said in a distorted, gurgly voice as they used their powers to direct the river water into streams that snaked across the land and rehydrated the soils.
They all waited until the last of the Treefolk finished and stepped back, before everyone looked to Malwood. For his part, the Lord of the Wood was already gathering his power. It thus took only a few minutes for the forest to restore itself to its former verdant growth. At which point, the Treefolk descended upon it once more.
"Looks like everything worked out exactly as we planned." Merwyrm said, sounding pleased. "And we can move on to scaling this method up."
Mare ignored the Lord of the Seas for a moment, instead choosing to lean down and pick up a clump of soil to examine closely by rubbing it between his fingers.
"Yeah, I think so." The dark elf said as he cleaned his hands with a thought and nodded in satisfaction. "The nutrients in the soil should last a couple hundred renewals before I'll need to refresh it again. So the plan will work."
"Very good, my Lord." Malwood said with a pleased shifting of his bark. "I will summon more of my subjects immediately and we can begin expanding the area dedicated to the tree farms."
"My minions are already awaiting your order, my Lord." Merwyrm said, shooting Malwood a look at the Lord of the Wood and earning himself a glare back in return.
"Right." Mare said, ignoring the byplay between his subordinates.
They'd sort it out between themselves. Letting them do it is much easier than getting involved myself.
"Let's scale this up." The god of nature said instead. "We need to provide Pandora's Actor as much wood as we can grow. For the glory of Ainz Ooal Gown!"
"For the glory of Ainz Ooal Gown!" Echoed every creature of Felmid within earshot.
"So you gonna tell me what I need to know now?" Aura asked the small eight-legged creature akin to a cross between a wolf spider and an eel that was being held firmly under one of Fenny's paws. "How do you lot make spelljammer helms?"
The creature looked fearfully between the pile of bodies made out of many of its kin and their Umber Hulk slaves and the giant black wolf with bright fur and crimson eyes that kept it pinned.
"I don't know!" The Neogi squealed. "I really don't!"
Why was Aura inside a Neogi settlement in the middle of nowhere in Realmspace torturing one of the xenophobic slavers and plunderers? Well, Pandora's Actor had asked her to help him acquire the secret of building spelljammer helms from either the Arcane or the Neogi. And after some consideration, she settled on targeting the Neogi. Lord Ainz would disapprove if she targeted the strictly neutral Arcane and unnecessarily earning their ire after all. So using her beasts, she'd captured a neogi spelljammer production asteroid instead.
Aura pouted at the disappointing answer from her captive.
"That's too bad." The dark elf told the liar. And she could tell it was lying too. Being a goddess came with plenty of nifty new tricks. "If you'd told me the truth, it would probably haved saved you a lot of pain. Oh well! Demiurge, I guess I'll just have to leave the rest up to you."
"Much obliged, Aura." The well dressed Devil said as he appeared out of nowhere. "You have my assurance that I'll crack the secret behind spelljammer helm production in no time at all."
"I'm sure you will." Aura said confident in her fellow god's abilities. He was, after all, one of the three greatest minds of Nazarick. "Then I'll be taking what helms I've recovered back with me first."
"Very well." Demiurge nodded, before smirking playfully. "Have a safe trip."
Rolling her eyes at her fellow Floor Guardian's idea of a joke, Aura whistled to her beasts and waited for them to gather back together before teleporting them and herself back to Zeus high up in Felmid's atmosphere.
She rematerialized in one of the massive shipyard's empty storage bays and found Pandora's Actor waiting for her.
"Good hunting, mein fellow Guardian?" The Greater Doppelgänger asked in lieu of a greeting.
"Pretty good." Aura said as she gestured to her beasts to hand over the two dozen working helms she'd managed to secure over to the mix of Goblins and Dragonspawn that made up the Zeus staff waiting to receive them. "The Neogi's chief engineer is with Demiurge right now?"
"Demiurge? Not Neuronist Painkill?"
"He'll bring her in if he needs it," Aura said with a shrug as she watched the Zeus staff scurry off with the acquired helms. "You know that Demiurge has been the one heading up our efforts to learn more about Realmspace. It just makes more sense to let him take charge of this too."
"I suppose you're right." Pandora's Actor allowed, sounding a touch disappointed.
"You're just afraid he'll upstage you." Aura accused.
"Nein. Nein." The god of intrigue denied with an overdramatic wave of his hands. "I merely worry that he is overworked. Mein Vater has expressed such concerns about us Guardians on more than one occasion."
"Lord Ainz did?" Aura asked, her eyes widening in surprise.
"Ja. Mein Vater is very concerned about our well being." Pandora's Actor told her. "He worries about us constantly."
Aura felt her heart flutter happily at the thought and she couldn't help the wide grin that spread across her lips.
"I, um, don't think you need to worry." Aura said after taking a moment to compose herself. "Demiurge can handle it."
"I am sure of that. But mein Vater will still worry, even if he knows there is no need. Such is the way of Vaters or so he tells me."
Fathers!? Lord Ainz sees us all as his children? Aura also swooned at the revelation and it took all her will just to keep standing. I need to change the subject!
"Uh, so what's gonna happen to those helms I got?"
Pandora's Actor shot her a knowing look but did not call her out on her abrupt redirection of the conversation.
"Some will be set aside for examination and experimentation." The Greater Doppelgänger said instead. "The rest will be installed on some of our completed hulls and used to test the limits of our designs."
"Sounds like you could use more."
"I would not complain if there were indeed more helms."
"Then I'll go get some more." Aura said with a decisive nod. "See you in a bit!"
Without waiting for a reply, Aura teleported herself and her beasts away to another Neogi shipyard. If Lord Ainz was gracious enough to think of them as his children then it was only right for her to do everything in her power to make sure she was worthy of such an honor.
And I'll start by beating the crap out of these no good slavers. The goddess of beasts thought as her whip lashed out and bisected a Neogi and its Umber Hulk mount at once even as her pets fell upon the shocked and confused aberrations all around her.
Done!
It's short but it did what I wanted it to so I'm not complaining. Hope you guys liked it.
The chapter is pretty self-explanatory, so this is it for me this post. Till next time abschied!
