Strategic Moves

In secret a group of ten gathered in a poorly lit room, only the light from their halos could be seen amongst the scattered candles burning softly on the table they congregated around. Few of their features could be made out but even the darkness could not hide each's six wings of white feathers that erupted from their backs in a spectacular display.

"Our sacred order shall now begin this meeting. As always, we do so under the holy and guiding light of the creator. We humbly beg for deliverance and to be shown the true path"

"Amen" many voices spoke at once and in unison

"For the sake of those gathered here at this late hour may we ask for an explanation from the Fourth?"

"Oh course, Third. It will be my pleasure"

"Proceed…"

"I have called this meeting to confirm what many of you have probably already suspected. Roughly ten days ago there was a great surge of holy energy detected; one so supreme it was faintly felt across the globe"

"Indeed. This phenomenon was detected at our compound in Brazil"

"It was felt in the Tibetan monastery where my host gathered"

"Me and my entourage can confirm it was sensed passing the Temple Mount"

"Correct-" a paper slip coated in strange symbols was tossed onto the table, it's ink transformed from a basic black to a brilliant gold color "-Every detection seal on the entire planet was tripped; but only those facing certain directions activated fully, like this one"

"So it's possible? We might be dealing with a…"

"Halt. We cannot rush to judgement as of yet. This is only a small sign"

"Every charm tripped? Some sensing Holy energy on a scale never before seen? I'd say this is beyond a small sign!"

"Calm yourselves. Now then, is there anyway this can be a misunderstanding?"

"I am sorry, First. There is no way this could be a fluke. Our seals have passed every test since we began using them over a thousand years ago. This is real"

"It's true then… Our goal is close…"

"We must locate the source immediately! What do we know?"

"Our coverage was limited but as only the seals facing specific directions were tripped we could focus in on the source. Based on the information compiled by the Sixth and Fifth; we can narrow it down to these areas"

Alongside the seal a map of the world was tossed onto the table for inspection. It was marked with a large circle encompassing most of China and Japan along with everything in-between.

"So much space. It will take time…"

"We shall dispatch one of us to each nation and prepare a search. We cannot let this get away from us"

"But that would leave our sacred institutions bare and vulnerable to the Dark Ones!"

"A compromise. Those of the upper Five shall continue on with their duties while the lower search. When something is discovered they shall contact us for confirmation"

"Yes sir" spoke all those present at once

"Six shall go here, Seven here, Eight and Nine will work together-"

"Pardon my intrusion sir..."

"Yes, Seven?"

"A part of my entourage is already in Japan. I expected this call was coming and sent them ahead days ago. May I request to take that dispatch?"

"You expected this, sister?"

"I also have reason to believe the Dark Ones were involved in an incident there. I could not simply let them get away with such a thing"

"Your request is granted, Seven. Ten can take Korea"

"Um...Sir? It hasn't been "Korea" for some time. They split about-"

"It does not change the sacred nature of our mission where the borders of man lay! With this all decided we must act at once!"

"Agreed! If we are right, the great creator has been born again into this world!"

"The Dea...The Goddess! She has finally returned to us!"

"Yes. The highest existence of Holy energy. Soon she shall lead us to the true light of this world"

"I shudder to even imagine her glory, her purity, her endless compassion!"

"Yes. She will be the divine light of mercy and the avatar of all that is good and decent in this world. A true Paragon of virtue who stands against all forms of debauchery and sin!"

(In unison) "Amen"

Kappa Komputing, Japan

"I am the Goddess of Tits and Wine! MMWWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!"

"Agh! Get your priests out of my territory! We don't need anymore Ilias worship!" screamed Miia across the extra-species internet cafe she was currently in with all the other house-guests

In the process of teaching Ilias more about the modern world Ms. Smith had recommended sitting her down and showing her how to use a computer. The idea was that she would be able to seek out whatever information she desired with unlimited access to the internet. It was a favored method for the cultural exchange program when dealing with races from more primitive societies as it allowed them to learn at their own pace.

Of course things had gone wrong as soon as Papi had gotten bored and kept pestering them to play a game with her. Rachnera had gotten the idea to work that into Ilias's lessons and it was all downhill from there. It turned out every computer in the cafe had a lovely little game the Arachne promised would help Ilias learn more about modern Civilization and how it reached that point.

Now they were all 100 turns in to said game and Miia found Ilias was positively flooding the world with her religion. Of course this was only a mild annoyance compared to Mero hoarding luxury resources from her isolated fortress surrounded on all sides by her fleets, Centorea stomping her army in little border skirmishes over the one patch of Oranges that Mero didn't control, and the ever-present specter of Rachnera raiding her outlying cities before retreating back across Suu and Papi's border.

"Why did you two ever agree to her open borders offer!?" she questioned as the Arachne's army hightailed it out of reach after bombing Mansura for the seventh time that age

"Cha-Ching!" Suu replied as her eyes turned into gold coins and her feeler morphed into a dollar sign

"Of course...She bribed you and- Get out of my lands you scavenger!"

With her long-bowman already storming into Miia's territory Centora mocked "Prepare to meet your fate! A Centaur's aim always rings true!"

"Gah! Whatever you're dealing with can't be as bad as this giant doom fleet Mero has knocking at my door! I swear if I ever find your capital I'm burning it to the ground, Fishy!" Rachnera cursed as she knew she had no real naval forces to defend Karakorum

"You'll have to have more than a few cavalry units to raze Jakarta!" Mero cheerily taunted before clicking to launch another attack

"I require aid! The legion of the Holy Warriors press their attack on my capital! Only the Undervale Blade of Genocide can halt them!" shouted Lala in a panic

"It can't be that ba-WHAT THE HELL!?" When Miia checked in on her ally she found a literal sea of Byzantine Cataphracts drowning the Celtic empire in fire. "Why didn't you mention that sooner!?"

Lala touched her fingers together. "They all...Just kinda...Showed up…?"

"How!? She can't have that type of production or gold!"

Ilias was on no more than 4 cities and barely had any mines or production hubs according to her scouts! She couldn't have sailed off to another continent and founded some stealth cities since Mero kept blasting anything they tried to send over the ocean. It made no sense!

Centorea took pity on the two and clued them in "I scouted her territory in the early game. She took the Goddess of Festivals Perk and has over 7 wine tiles within her first two cities. She's been building faith and culture since the ancient era"

"That doesn't explain-"

"Thanks for the Tithes! There's nothing like blind faith to get people to fork over their gold!"

"-Dammit…"

Ilias was using their own population to kill them! She was getting two gold for every population that worshiped her and she was the main world religion by this point! God only knew how much Centora's over-packed cities were adding to her gold count since she rushed food production like crazy the first eighty turns!

"The Goddess of Tits and Wine huh…?" Miia sneered as Ilias (who was getting way too into this after a few sips from her wine covered in a paper bag) suddenly ordered yet another army into her territory "Wait! You had another?!"

Ilias's eyes did that creepy thing were they shrunk into pinpricks that always freaked Miia and the others out. "Poison the houses, burn the women, and rape the water! MWHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!" the goddess declared with another psychotic laugh

"I don't think that's quite right O winged one…"Centorea said while feeling grateful she was currently neutral with the angel

"Oh I don't care! I haven't had this much fun in ages! These video game things are great!" Ilias enthused as she came down from her blood-lust

Miia glared at the new arrival and her Centaur neighbor and huffed "I thought you didn't know anything about computers or technology! How are you this good?!"

"Let's just say that when it comes to playing with Civilizations and shit stomping the forces of a red-tailed snake girl across a global map, I'm a bit of an old hand" Ilias suddenly grinned with unmatched glee "Although this time around it's going much better! Here! Have more soldiers!"

"Whhaa?! Dammit!

As the holy ground forces of Ilias poured into her virtual territory all Miia could do was pray for mercy in the face of a deranged god who knew none.

At least until Darling came back to pick them all up in an hour or so...