211 Chapter Two Hundred and Eleven – It’s all about the Time... (1/2)

Those people outside the fourth Ring were just here to listen, as they were operating at a fraction of Sama's time and couldn't contribute effectively. They had to know what was going on to coordinate, but the decisions were being made here by among the most powerful people people in the whole Alliance effort... and a direct blow against the Hags that were behind all of this.

Members of the Brotherhood had gone into the Fifth Ring, and used Veilwalking to progress through the thousands of miles of territory to all the magical trouble spots, drawn by their Voids as none of us could equal.

There were massive Obelisk formations laid out through all the accelerated time zones, guarded by literal empires of humans and non-humans under the command of Hag servants. What these were intended to do precisely wasn't obvious, but they had obviously taken a great deal of time to get into place accurately, and the races of the inner realms were completely bent to them.

Close to the central ring, the areas were dominated by Aberrant monsters, cultists, inhabitants of Leng, and a whole lot of dark elves spun out on psycho-spores, and not a few being ridden by cerebrovores.

What was far more interesting is that there were ten zones around that central hole, and only six of them were fast time, varying between three and six hundred times normal speed. The slow time zones also varied by that ratio... in the other direction.

”Going from a fast time zone to a slow time zone at that level of temporal velocity is effectively impossible. The route that the Hags set up and that we are on is the only 'safe' way to reach the inner ring. Any other route involves detouring sideways multiple times to avoid slow zones in the way. Trying to breach a one thousand or greater temporal conflict is impossible even for me,” the Shadowknife said.

”So, this awesome master plan of theirs, putting up obelisks in a grand formation across multiple empires... isn't complete, despite having millennia to work on it... because the slow time zones aren't letting them complete it fast enough,” Hazé observed. She pointed at the slowest of the time zones. ”One six-hundredth normal time. It hasn't been even two years since Yle Tyorm fell in there. Even if they used Grand Rituals to send in monstrous amounts of people to set things up in there, the internal distances involved mean that there's no way they could be set up to the degree they truly need inside there.”

”Correct,” Brother Firesword agreed with her. ”Notice the layout of the formations, and how irregular they are once they take into account the slow time zones. Their formation is quite vulnerable at all the junction points that cross the slow time barriers. We don't need to crash them all... we only need to take out these four in the zone that we have access to.”

All attention naturally devolved on those. They were obvious conduits to and through the slow time areas to each side. I could imagine the cost in forces and materials that had been spent to run obelisks across the slow time zones over the centuries. The inner zones narrowed down some, but they were still a thousand miles across. They would have had to get those Obelisks up in the equivalent of only months, stretching across thousands of years of their own time, probably by flooding it with massive amounts of manpower to succeed. If the forces inside also suffered temporal shock, it also meant they were going to be advancing over the inevitable bones of those who died before them.

”What are we looking at there?” Sama asked briefly, and tactical maps as scouted out by the Void Brothers materialized at all four locations, there to be zoomed in on and details downloaded.

Now, there was no thought whatsoever of just hacking their way into the city. The populations of the places numbered six zeroes and higher. But that didn't mean they couldn't reach the places.

”Site one, descendants of Hagspawn and half-ogres. The primary power is a legendary Green Hag. I believe she is Verd's grandmother,” the Firesword answered calmly. ”Site two are dark elves with fungoid traits, commanded by a legendary shellycoat. Amber's grandmother, I am presuming.

”The last is Jotunbloods, trolls, ogres, and swamp giants with mire dragon blood and Hagspawns among them, definitely the toughest of the three. I believe Tusk Annie herself is defending that obelisk, with a Mire Wyrm consort.”

”Huh,” was Sama's only comment. She pointed. ”What's with the monkeys?”

”It's an ape kingdom. We expected a lot of demonic influence, as the Pits love intelligent apes, but these stayed surprisingly neutral. That led to some poking around...” Brother Firesword cleared his throat, and two locations on the map lit up.

”Oh.” Everybody mentally bent forward to look at what was brought up. ”Oh...”

”I don't know if that's good news or bad news...” Briggs commented to nobody.

”Given their nature, they won't even notice or care until something impressive happens,” Ancientaxe spoke respectfully. ”That being said... there is known to be an Elder Mu Spore down in that Hole, and if it's been taking advantage of the time dilation, it is very old, indeed.”

”I really don't think they care,” Sama pointed out, and everyone laughed softly, despite themselves. ”So, what we've got to do is punch an Interdiction route all the way to Ringzone Five, nine hundred miles, and then crack open that four hundred-fold dilation and make it their last year of existence while we race to those obelisks.” I glanced at the dragons, who were watching all this in fascination and great interest. ”You can see the reports, lots of dinosaurs, drakes, and rocs in the air. Still willing to come?”

”The cost of us not assisting you is too high,” the oldest Shield dragon demurred firmly. ”We will be there!”

”Then we crack the barrier here tomorrow, and make the run overland starting then!”

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Three days, she'd given the Brotherhood back then. Three days to get into the inner zone, and get stronger.

Over a thousand days. A time skip, a time acceleration capsule, something their opponents had been using, and they could take advantage of.

Because Sama said they were weak, and they weren't getting strong fast enough. The fastest way to get strong was slaughter, and there was a whole lot of powerful stuff in the fifth ring that had an early appointment with death. All of the Brothers could feel it, and they all went in on their 'scouting missions.'

The Fire and the Sword held up the blade of Weep, a QL 40 adamant, Zehn-Slot Weapon. The parade of recent dead carried over with the dead held by the other two Swords that had borne its name.