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”Master, the others are trying to reach you.” Gem informed Karna, who was currently floating in place deep underground, embedded deep into the crust of the planet.

“Is it urgent? I’m approaching a breakthrough.” She was absorbing vast amounts of earth mana in preparation for her next Awakening, which wasn’t too distant now. Unlike what she’d done with her previous Awakenings, the element of earth was more effective when taken in over time instead of attuning yourself in a single decisive burst. She sometimes managed to snatch some time to cultivate between working on the world’s defenses and wanted to make the best of the time she had.

“The enemy forces are approaching the warp storm you created. Both Hope and Tremere spotted them, and the ships are arriving from multiple directions. The design of ships is also quite varied, suggesting differing origins.” Gem gave a brief summary.

“They’re still arriving though? They haven’t yet massed in force just yet?” Karna confirmed.

"Apparently not, but they're getting there. The talisman we gave Wolfgang also activated. The enemy has started their attack on the Magocracy. I don't have any details yet, as I assume they're sending a report once they have more to tell.” Gem floated next to Karna in her faerie dragon form. For most people, the pressure down here would’ve been excruciating, but the two of them barely even noticed it.

“Things are starting to move then. Let’s hope our preparations have been sufficient.” Karna nodded to herself.

They hadn’t been idle these last nine months. The frantic buildup of defenses had produced quite a lot of results, especially with the reincarnators pulling out all the stops. The cities were all heavily protected with overlapping magical shields, sturdy qi-enhanced fortifications, and grand blessings that would support all the defenders when activated. Any attacker would need at least a 10-to-1 advantage to have hopes of breaching them. The smaller villages were all equipped with rapid transit portals that would take the inhabitants inside the fortified cities, after which the connection would be disabled to deny access to the invaders.

They had not limited themselves to just passive defenses either. Several magical weapons had been constructed within each city that would allow them to fire upon and shoot down any approaching ships, and most of the approaches towards the world were heavily trapped. The group of reincarnators, bolstered by Tsumi and the recently arrived but still empty Academy, had created all sorts of nasty surprises that even experienced reincarnators would be hard-pressed to detect until it was too late.

“Any word of the people behind the attack?” Karna asked, never stopping her absorption of the mana around her.

“We have something on that front. Mayumi was actually the one that managed to get this information. It seems she still has some connections within Wei-Jin. She didn’t manage to get detailed information, but it would appear that the attack is being engineered by another rather prominent group of reincarnators. We don’t have Names yet. We do have some reason to believe that at least some of them will be taking part in the attack. I don’t expect all of them to do so.” Gem was in charge of keeping up communications with Karna while she either worked or cultivated. The others were handling the more political and espionage-related aspects of the situation.

“And Ysendra has confirmed the lack of immortals pulling the strings?” The leader of the Crossroads was in a slightly odd situation, as it would be somewhat improper of her to interfere too much in these kinds of matters as long as no immortals were involved. That didn’t mean the crazy dragon wouldn’t of course, but nearly all of the reincarnators were proud and self-reliant by nature and wanted to handle any problems personally.

“As far as she can find out, yes. She has a bit of a force prepared to interfere if some immortals suddenly show up though. I think she sent one of the Astral Behemoths that usually guard the Crossroads, among others." Gem grinned. The spirit had always liked the whale-like beings. Apparently, they got along well.

“Alright. Let the others know that I’ll be coming up in a couple of days unless something else happens. I should be done by then.”

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“Great timing!” Envy called out as Karna teleported into their newly established command center. To ensure neutrality and to better respond to any threats to the most likely place to be attacked, the command center had been placed in the new capital of the vampires. “We just got word from back home. The attackers made their first big miscalculation.”

“What happened?” Karna asked eagerly. The command center was filled with magically provided feeds from all the important locations both on the world, and outside it. They had even managed to get observation magic near the enemy forces milling outside the warp storm. As the whole war would be led from here, information was the key to everything.

“Well, the attackers assumed that since neither Ashanti nor Arjuna were elves, the Emissary’s protection wouldn’t extend to our allies. Not a completely unreasonable assumption, albeit risky. The elves got the brunt of the assault, but their dragon princes managed to hold the enemy back long enough for the Emissary to get involved. Several members of the Host came down and smacked the attackers down hard. Perhaps harder than necessary. If I didn’t know better, I would think someone was trying to do us a favor.” Envy grinned a bit. “I wonder who they were hoping to please, huh princess?”

“Don’t get too happy just yet. While a small victory, that attack was a distraction anyway, and I expect the enemy wasn’t wiped out? I thought as much. So that means we won’t be getting reinforcements quite yet. Have the forces coming at us made any attempts at breaching the storm?” Karna was more careful about rejoicing just yet.

“They’re attempting something, but I can’t quite tell what.” Hope provided. She was in charge of observing the enemy. “I haven’t been able to get a good eye on what they’re working on. They aren’t blind enough not to notice if we make our observation too obvious.”

“How’s Valor faring with organizing our forces?” Karna quickly moved on between the important points.

Envy had to give some credit to Valor. “He’s doing very well. You were right to put him in charge of the armies, such as they are, because he’s really showing talent. His powers of course make things easier. We don’t have enough forces to defend the entire world as we expected, but we can defend the areas we occupy reasonably well. The good news is that since the enemy has to ship all their forces here while we have the benefit of having all our meager forces present, we should outnumber them for a time at least. Until they figure out a way to reliably get troops across the storm that is. Then all bets are off. The rather obvious gap in our forces is the distinct lack of airships, which means we lack mobility. We have a handful of ships belonging to my tribe and the vampires, as well as your tower, but that’s it.”

Most of the ships that had arrived at this world so far had been transport ships bringing colonists and pioneers to chart the available resources, along with merchant vessels of course. Most of those had returned back for more people, and they wouldn’t be much use in a battle anyway. They had only the necessary magical protection to shield against the dangers of the spatial forces, and almost no weapons. The fact was that most of the airships of this universe relied heavily on the power and cultivation of their crews. Even the top-of-the-line warships that had complex magical and even mechanical weaponry mostly relied on the crew members to power the weapons. The weapons themselves were just a good way to project that power against enemies. The ships themselves had magical cores, but those cores were usually focused on keeping the airship aloft and maybe providing some extra power to the defenses.

Unlike power cores that relied on science, magical cores at the hearts of airships didn't create their power internally. They gathered mana from the ambient power in the surroundings and stored it for later use. That was also one of the reasons why ships usually made several stops on the way when they traveled long distances, to allow the core to recharge. The other main reason was obviously the existence of the spatial pathways. The only real exceptions to this rule were cores that used something special, such as the hearts of legendary monsters like dragons, which allowed them to create their own magical power.

As such, the power of an airship in battle was just as much about the power of the crew. The better ships could multiply that power several times, but you still had to have enough power for that to matter. “Do we have a count on the enemy vessels so far?” Karna looked towards Hope.

“A guesstimate. We haven’t gotten an exact count, and even that’s relying on the idea that the enemy has not spotted our observation and kept a portion of their number out of sight. So far, I've counted three groups with each group consisting of between 300 and 500 battle-ready ships, with half again as many support vessels and transports." Hope replied quickly, having expected the question.

Karna tilted her head a bit. “That’s…hmm. On one hand, that’s quite a few ships, but on the other, I’ll be honest, I was expecting more.”

“Quality over quantity?” Envy suggested.

"That's already a given when you have to ferry over your troops with ships. However, you might be right. They may have gone even more heavily towards quality than we expected.” Karna nodded thoughtfully.

“Could it be because they got word of the storm?” Hope suggested. They’d done their best, but there was no chance they had managed to stop all leaks. “They likely have a plan of some sort, and that plan likely doesn’t involve throwing countless ships at the storm, hoping that some of them make it through.”

“That would be a rather shitty plan:” Envy smiled a bit. “If there’s something I’ve learned over my lives, it’s that we should never assume the enemy is an idiot. They may very well be, but it’s better not to rely on that fact. If the enemy turns out to be a moron, then it’s a positive surprise.”

“I seem to recall I was the one to teach you that lesson.” Karna teased the other Sin gently.

“I seem to recall I learned that lesson well and took my revenge in the next life.” Envy countered. They’d been frenemies for a long time before reaching a sort of tentative peace. They still competed in many things and sought out advantages where they found them, but they got along pretty well, especially when compared to the other Sins. And in this universe, that fact mattered, as it was likely they’d run into some of their old enemies. Enemies they liked a lot less than each other.

“I’m detecting something!” Hope exclaimed. “One of the enemy groups is activating some sort of large magic!”

“Just one? Any movement from the others?” Karna leaned forward eagerly.

“Just one. The others are showing no sign of reacting.” Hope confirmed. They had assumed that there was a level of coordination between the groups, but they didn’t know how unified the groups were. If only one of the groups managed to penetrate the storm, then that would be quite advantageous for the defenders, though they’d likely provide the other groups with the method if it worked.

“I can already sense what they’re doing.” Karna realized. She could feel the other end of the magic the enemy was casting on this side of the storm. They were trying to use teleportation magic to bypass the storm. A risky plan, as trying to force teleportation across such a spatially turbulent area was very dangerous even if the distance crossed wasn't all that large. There was a reason why this universe had not created a teleportation system between worlds. “Too bad for them it’s not that easy.”

The warp storm she’d created was not a natural phenomenon, even if she’d created the storm by enhancing the naturally turbulent spatial forces that already existed around the world. If the storm could be bypassed with a teleportation spell like this, then the storm would be rather pointless. She’d already considered most of the obvious plans, and even most of the less obvious plans, and made countermeasures. They all watched in fascination as fragments of airships arrived at the destination point. It was almost impossible to tell how many ships had tried to make the attempt, as the debris was such a mess, but it likely wasn’t too many. It would require the enemy to be stupid to risk a significant part of their fleet with their first attempt at breaching the storm.

“1-0 Wrath.” Envy declared smugly. “The first attempt, but likely not the last.”

“That’s probably why they don’t have more ships present yet. They don’t want to commit all their forces until they’ve figured out a way to get through. It would be problematic to keep ferrying supplies for too many people.” Valor suggested as he entered the command center.

“How close to the storm are they?” Karna suddenly asked.

“Very. Why?” Hope reported.

“Well, there’s no reason for the storm to stay the same size the entire time. I may not be able to control the storm, but I can give it a push. Let’s give the enemy another reminder about the dangers involved.” As Karna walked out, the others took a quick look at each other before eagerly following. They had to struggle a bit to keep up as a pair of colorful wings sprouted from her back and quickly brought her high above the world.

Now that she had reached the 8th rank, her ability to utilize her soul space and Domain were more easily accessed. She could borrow the power of her future immortal self for a short time, and she needed that power for what she had in mind. She would need to work magic that was beyond her current rank, and for that, she couldn't just rely on her own relatively vast stores of mana.

The others could sense as she activated her soul space. For some, the activation was immediately obvious, as they could force the power of their soul on reality, even creating a Reality Marble of sorts, a place where the rules worked a little differently. Some had entire armies hidden within their souls while others simply turned the terrain to their advantage. In this case, the change was extremely subtle. They could feel that something had changed, but they couldn’t tell what. There were no obvious visible changes, just a feeling that they were now inside a space she controlled, and the instinctive feeling that they should try to push back against her. An instinct they suppressed as they were not the intended target.

Karna drew heavily on the well of power inside her, as glowing lines of power formed around her. Each line was thicker than her arm, forming slowly as she chanted the words that gave her will form, assisting in casting a spell that should usually be reserved for someone at least at the 10th rank, a full immortal and not a weak one either. She kept drawing on the well of power, each line slotting in place in the formation, and it seemed that each time she drew from the well, it filled up immediately.

The sheer amount of mana she was using was mind-boggling for someone of her rank. “What’s going on?” Valor asked quietly as Karna was clearly using more power than she should have.

“Ah, right. You aren’t aware.” Envy gave a wry smile. “She’s considered to be the pre-eminent mage by almost the entire multiverse. And that’s not just because of her knowledge, although that’s a huge part of it. We all have our unique soul spaces and Domains. What do you think the soul space of the most pre-eminent mage would do?”

“I would imagine it would make it easier to work magic.” Valor made the obvious guess. His powers were related to using holy power and leading armies, influenced largely by his past and the Name he carried.

“Correct. And what are the factors that most limit mages?” Envy was guiding him towards the answer instead of just giving it out.

“Lack of mana and speed of casting.” Valor replied quickly. It was a textbook answer, and one taught to most warriors and holy knights when it came to combatting mages. Once a mage ran out of mana, they were borderline helpless, and even the best mages could cast only so many spells in a given time. Sometimes that time was long enough for a warrior to slip in and strike down the mage before they could change spells mid-cast. Magical fighters were of course an entirely different case, which made people like Arjuna so dangerous.

“Not the full answer but close enough. So don’t you think that the pre-eminent caster would have some way of dealing with those issues?” Envy had seen Wrath work her magic enough times to know about this facet of her rival.

“So…what? Her soul space somehow creates a reality where she doesn’t have to worry about mana?” Valor questioned, not fond of the idea at all.

“Not as simple as that, but sufficient to explain what’s going on.” Envy focused on Karna who was giving her spell the finishing touches.

As the magical formation was complete, Karna could feel the strands of power latching on to the storm. A storm like this was impossible to force to bend to your will, but you could affect it. And that's exactly what she did. She gave the storm a push at certain places, and the destructive power of the storm surged forward like a tidal wave, crashing towards the enemy ships lazily floating next to it. Her actions had not gone entirely unnoticed, and at least some parts of the enemy fleets were constantly ready to react to any dangers. That said, turning an airship around and gaining enough speed to escape the tidal wave took time. Time that many of the ships didn’t have with their proximity to the storm.

One of the three fleets reacted immediately, and the largest ship suddenly projected some sort of magical barrier around the entire fleet, causing the wave of destructive energies to surge around the fleet. The other ships in the fleet joined their barriers to support the flagship, and the barrier held long enough for the wave to pass. They were the exception though.

The second fleet was caught entirely unaware, and half of the fleet was caught in the storm before the more distant ships had managed to turn around and gained enough distance. Even then, a large portion of the fleeing ships were either damaged or destroyed, especially the support vessels that were not built to make combat maneuvers.

The third fleet had been more cautious and kept a safer distance from the storm. Apparently, they were not here to attempt to breach the storm and were just providing forces for the eventual assault. They also tried to use the fleet’s barriers to protect themselves, but they didn’t unify all their barriers into one. For some of the ships, that was enough and their barriers held long enough for them to escape. For others it wasn’t, and their ships suffered some level of damage. This fleet suffered losses, but their losses were a lot less severe than the second fleet. For them too, the most damage was done to the support vessels that were not fast enough to move.

A bone-weary exhaustion took over Karna as she released her control over her soul space and the spell. The downside of doing something like this was the rebound. She had drawn heavily from the well but casting the spell had not taken too long. As a result, she would be fine with a few days of rest. Hopefully, it had been worth it. Maybe some of the enemies might reconsider this whole affair and decide not to come back. At the very least the enemy would no longer be able to just safely work on getting through the storm. That would slow them down. Perhaps enough to force them to give up. That might be a bit too hopeful though.