The World Dragon's Heir - Chapter 496
Chapter 496: Backlash
Unaware that there was far more to this invasion than simply misguided aggression and incompetence, Dominic started immediately making plans to reinforce the area around the city, in preparation to have the new Noblemen move into their own homes.
“That wasn’t normal. We should have you checked out.” Alexis whispered as Dominic returned to town.
“I feel fine, though. More than fine, really. Almost like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. It’s not easy to explain.”
Alexis frowned. He looked fine, but she had felt the imbalance in his mana, the cursed energy flowing into his body. There had to be some sort of side effect of that which couldn’t be shrugged off with a simple “But it’s Dominic.”
Unable to cleanse it with the magic of anyone in their employment, and with no visible symptoms, Alexis simply accepted that it was an issue for later.
They weren’t short on issues to deal with of their own, and fretting over an anomaly that she couldn’t even explain, much less solve, would get her nowhere.
She was about to return to her duties as hostess when a radio message from the airships changed her plans.
[Massive thunderstorm forming northeast toward Staptontave. Airships are preparing to redeploy to avoid wind damage.]
“Repeat that message.” She demanded of the maid with the radio.
“Massive thunderstorm to the northeast, toward Staptontave. Airships are preparing to redeploy to avoid wind damage, Your Highness.” The veiled maid repeated dutifully.
“There hasn’t been a major thunderstorm over Staptontave in a decade.”
“That is correct, Highness.”
[Inland forces in Dagos are preparing for severe weather. Reports of thunderstorms, tornados, heavy rainfall with risks of flash flooding, and a budding typhoon off the coast of Chip, headed southwest toward Albroles.] The airship commander relayed.
“What in the seven hells is going on? Did the gods give up on drought, and now they’re trying to drown Dagos?” Alexis asked nobody in particular.j
“Perhaps the curse has matured. It’s only a few weeks to the thirteenth anniversary of the invasion. As I recall, that’s a significant number to the witches.” One of the Royal Guards suggested.
“You think that the drought has matured into a full-blown apocalypse?” Alexis asked.
“It’s an option.”
Alexis smiled behind her hand, then ushered the debutantes away from the portal.
“This part is just drudgery, why don’t we head back to the garden? The gents of the Natural Sons have a new story to tell, and perhaps they might need a little mending and comfort?” She suggested.
That was a wonderful idea, they thought. Unwinding after a stressful moment was the perfect time to prove themselves.
Dominic was just happy that it got them all away from the portal before they had to start digging through the battlefield looking for fallen mages of the Duskblade Sect.
Most of them had surprisingly survived the fall from the sky, though not in the most pleasant of ways.
As battle mages, trained in that sort of combat, they had prepared emergency lifesaving techniques and devices. So, when Dominic went hunting for them with Betty and a bag full of healing potions, he found most of them breathing, though heavily wounded.
They didn’t have anyone high enough in the clergy to resurrect, as far as he knew. But the potions were top grade, and as long as they were still breathing, there was a good chance for them to recover.
“You pour the potion down their throat, I will set their limbs.” Dave instructed.
“Just be careful, humans are more fragile than Trolls.”
Dave gave Dominic a double thumbs up gesture after hanging his club and shield.
“We should get more healing Larry Trolls. Mountain Trolls aren’t good at healing other things.” Dave complained.
“We can talk to the village when their goats arrive.”
“Why do they get goats?”
“For helping in the last fight. Did you know that they didn’t have any goats at all.”
Dave gave him a horrified look at the thought. Dominic had definitely done the right thing by getting them a herd. Even if that was fewer goats that would end up at the Manor.
Eventually, the whole battlefield was clear, and the final tally was done. Three Acolytes, whose families would receive benefits from the Duchy, and a lot of wounded, who would be out of action for some time.
That wasn’t as big of a deal, as they could move to the Academy side for some time, and work teaching students while they recovered from the magical injuries that they had taken.
Necromantic and Unholy Magic was tricky to recover from, but they had experience, and just needed enough time between battles.
“Have you found a cause for the strange phenomenon?” Elder Manif asked as the last of the wounded were sent back to the tower.
Dominic shook his head. “But it has to be connected to the strange weather. Which makes me think that it’s connected to the curse on Dagos. Perhaps the death of the Prince left too few members of the Royal Family and Military Command as targets for the curse?
I mean, would the curse have just applied to the whole nation? Probably not. It’s likely tied to the people who actually committed the attack.
So, as they die off, it will weaken.”
Manif shrugged. “That makes as much sense as any theory that I have come up with. There are likely even more unnatural phenomenon occurring that I haven’t heard about yet, since I am only getting the relay of the airship radios and some feed from our allies in Axbridge.”
Which meant that they weren’t getting anything from the other side of the storms, as lightning interfered with radios. However, the storm fronts were huge. Just going by what they could see, the airships could get a pretty decent idea of what was going on.
“Keep close to the radio. There might be something coming our way as well, and I want as much warning as possible if we’re going to have a major storm hitting while the Nobles are here for their dating event.”
Manif gave him a conspiratorial smile. “Not planning to have a mud wrestling pit out in the campgrounds?”
“Now that you mention it…”