Lich for Hire

Chapter 408: We'll Split Up Too

Arthur Lyon was indeed a weapon of devastating force who could inflict damage that would shake the world to its foundations. But he was a card to be held for a critical moment, not one thrown down at the opening of the game. On the contrary, playing that card too early would only give Lyon time to prepare.

A nuclear weapon, however powerful, could not destroy a nation on its own, not even a small one.

An empire of over a hundred million people, with deep reserves of capable talent at every level—as long as the Lyon name remained a rallying point, the empire possessed formidable capacity for self-correction. The other nations of the continent had quietly begun to align against Lyon, but their goal was to reclaim lost territory, not to erase Lyon from the map.

Anyone with any sense could see that Lyon was nowhere near a downfall.

Black Rose was deeply unsatisfied, but she could not deny that Ambrose was right.

Granting Lyon a new emperor was meaningless to her. What Black Rose hated was the name of Lyon itself. She wanted everything that name stood for to be reduced to ash, not to see Arthur Lyon crowned as a living Holy King once more.

Black Rose's hands clenched into fists. "Is there no way?" she said, her voice tight with emotion. "How much longer before this empire falls?"

Having touched on her own obsession, she could not remain calm. All composure had left her. She could no longer think through the problem clearly; she looked at Ambrose as though he were her last remaining hope.

"Don't worry," Ambrose said. "I've had a plan from the beginning. A city destroyed by outside forces will be rebuilt by its people; as for a tower that collapses from within, any survivors will only spit on its ruins. Lyon can only be truly destroyed if it fractures from the inside. Applying more external pressure now would do the opposite—it would drive Lyon's people to set aside their differences and close ranks."

An empire brought down by an outside enemy was a tragic glory preserved in the hearts of its survivors. On the other hand, for one that destroyed itself from within, those who lived through it would want nothing more than to forget it as quickly as possible. Forgetting was the truest form of annihilation.

What Ambrose wanted to destroy was the concept of Lyon itself. Lyon should no longer represent justice, nor represent humanity's highest aspirations, nor be the empire blessed by the Lord of Dawn. It should become something people wanted buried and gone.

Black Rose understood what he meant, but her worry remained. "Can Allen Watson really do this? He alone?"

She had never held the young paladin in particularly high regard. In her eyes, he was little more than a fool dancing on Ambrose's palm. He had built a modest reputation, but she couldn't see how he was supposed to bring down an empire.

Ambrose shook his head. "Allen Watson is but one person, but he had a good teacher. Arthur Lyon gave him the most important lesson there is: a person can be killed, but an idea cannot. Don't think of Allen as just an individual. He is a vessel carrying a way of thinking, and there are already people around him who share that thinking.

"Lady Rose, Allen is a virus that will strangle Lyon from the inside out. By the time the new ideas Allen represents displace what Lyon once stood for, Lyon will be finished."

Black Rose was quiet for a long moment. "I trust your judgment. So what do we do now?"

Ambrose smiled. "Nothing, for now. My guess is that Lyon will be an entertaining spectacle within a month. But if you truly can't stand doing nothing, perhaps you could do me a favor?"

A lich's obsession ran too deep for reason.

He knew this from his own experience. Put a mountain of gold in front of him, and he would genuinely take the bait. Even knowing full well it was a trap, he would spend every effort finding a way to claim it all anyway.

The same was true of Gareth. The moment his wife was targeted, all of Gareth's reason would evaporate. The peerless warrior on the battlefield would become hesitant and exposed, easy prey for anyone looking to land a blow.

Even the undead could not maintain their cool composure under these sorts of circumstances.

Ambrose was genuinely worried that Black Rose might do something rash and unravel the situation he had worked so carefully to build.

The best remedy was redirection. Keep Black Rose occupied with something else, keep her attention away from Lyon for a while, and there would be no surprises.

"What do you want me to do?" Black Rose asked.

"A few days ago, I had an encounter I initially wrote off as some fairly ordinary scheming," Ambrose said. He recounted the incident with Aiolos, then continued, "At first I thought the ocean pantheon had sent this fool to chip away at Thanos's following, but thinking back on it, something doesn't sit right with me. Why would the ocean pantheon use an approach this obviously likely to fail for something as serious as poaching Thanos's faithful?"

Gods competing for worshippers was nothing unusual. Shara, one of the more shameless examples, had been known to send her Night Judges to kidnap people's parents, indoctrinate children, and force entire families to switch their devotion.

But even that was more sophisticated than Aiolos, and more likely to succeed.

If a naked man of limited intelligence showed up uninvited in the Ragetide Kingdom and announced he intended to marry the crown princess, the only likely outcome was having his brains beaten in.

Even if Aiolos had some genuine ability—say, immortality—all that would accomplish was making the Ragetide Kingdom kill him again and again with increasing fury. And what would that accomplish?

Ambrose had turned the question over repeatedly, but he hadn't ever seriously considered Thanos himself to be the answer.

The reason was simple: Thanos was Ariel's own patron deity. Getting Ariel married off to him would only take a single word. Thanos could have arranged for her to wed a shark if he felt like it. He had no need for this kind of roundabout maneuvering.

Ambrose still leaned toward some other deity having designs on Thanos's position, though he doubted the ocean pantheon was moving against the Furies directly. It felt more like someone stirring the pot from the middle, looking to profit from the chaos that followed.

Aiolos was most likely a piece being moved by a third party, someone who wanted to spark a conflict between Thanos and the ocean pantheon, then sit back and benefit from the altercation.

But who might that third party be?

The Prince of Lies? Demogorgon? Or some deity in the evil alignment who was simply feeling mischievous?

Honestly, did these gods not understand the concept of peaceful commerce? What was the point of all this constant warfare? In the end, the only ones dying were mortals. If they wanted a fight, they could take it to each other's divine realms and see whether Aion struck them down for it.

Gods—cowardly and vicious, every last one of them.

After finishing this private string of entirely justified complaints, Ambrose turned back to Black Rose. "I've already sent word to the Ragetide Kingdom warning them to watch Aiolos, but I don't feel like that's enough. I'm going to be doing business with them going forward anyway, and I plan to turn their kingdom into my personal alchemy factory. I'd like you to go as my representative and handle the negotiations. And while you're there, keep an eye on Aiolos. I can't let him destabilize the Ragetide Kingdom and ruin my plans."

"Me?" Black Rose paused for a moment, then smiled. "I understand. After all, this is our shared business, isn't it?"

Ambrose nodded. "You're right, of course—you absolutely have a stake in it. Setting up the alchemical factory will need the Umbral Depths' involvement, so the share breakdown..."

He had never intended to take everything for himself.

This territory had been won with the Elegiac Society's help. Black Rose deserved a share. So did Gareth and his wife. So did Aige. The only exception was the vampire Heki Stone, who had contributed almost nothing and would receive nothing accordingly—but everyone else would get a cut.

The more powerful people aboard the same vessel, the more stable it would be.

If even the President and the Poet of the Elegiac Society wanted a share, Ambrose would be more than willing to cut them in.

Unfortunately, he had called out to them in the group chat several times with no response. The other members seemed to have no interest in any of this whatsoever.

Black Rose shook her head. "The details don't matter. You know gold means nothing to me. What I care about is you. I will give you whatever wealth you need, and you will help me destroy Lyon. Nothing else between us needs accounting for."

This time, it was Ambrose who was lost for words. She was extraordinarily generous, so much so that he almost felt embarrassed.

"Don't worry," he said, his voice resolute. "I will make sure your wish is fulfilled. Lyon will fall. That is my promise to you. Not even the Lord of Dawn will be able to save it."

Black Rose looked at him. The lich was more reliable than any god she had ever known. For seventeen centuries, one evil god after another had tried to bring Lyon down, and all they had managed was to make the empire stronger with each attempt.

Within less than a year, Ambrose had caused serious upheaval within Lyon. He was the most precious gift Aion had ever placed in her path.

"I promise you, I will not let Aiolos take the Ragetide princess."

"Thank you," Ambrose said, with genuine feeling. "Meeting you has been the greatest fortune of my life."

No one had ever been so generous to him. Black Rose was the greatest windfall his transmigration had brought him, as though fate itself had arranged her as a reward.

Hearing his words, Black Rose felt something strange stir. That mercury-filled heart of hers seemed as if it were about to beat.

Was this the feeling of love that Alabastra had once described to her?

She steadied herself, then asked, "What are your own plans after this?"

"Once the loose ends here on Coin Island are wrapped up," Ambrose said, "I'm setting out with Aige to seek out the ocean gods. If I want to build a following on the open sea, I'll need to deal with those deities directly. And while I'm at it, I can look into Aiolos. At minimum, I can confirm whether the fool was actually sent by the ocean pantheon.

"If he wasn't, then he'll become a very convenient tool."

Someone impersonating the ocean gods and giving Aiolos power over the sea... If the ocean deities didn't want to be played for fools, they'd know whom to reach out to.

In this day and age, when it came to schemes and stratagems, every road eventually led back to Ambrose.

As long as the ocean gods weren't complete fools, they would hear him out.

And once he had the chance to speak, everything else would fall into place.