It was nearly time for the final act, and Gareth was loving it. He had been understandably concerned when Lord Vaile had suggested that they change their tactics, but he had to give the man credit where credit was due, the change (along with the massive amount of potions) had achieved far better results than the Cult’s previous methods. Although, perhaps saying that he had been concerned would be an understatement, as he was a staunch conservative in the Cult. Hell, that had been one of the very reasons why he had been named High Confessor by Mother’s will.

As much as he held on to the ‘old ways’, he had to admit that the cult had seen a massive uptick in membership in the previous months, no doubt due to the potions. But to be fair, after the potions ran out, the number of members retained and the number of new members coming in was much higher than what had been the norm before the shift in policy. Besides, as Lord Vaile had said many times before, the potions only had a limited effect. Buffing one’s personal charisma to such heights meant next to nothing unless the user actually knew how to charm people themselves, either by magic or more conventional means.

That month in Lord Vaile’s ‘Sustainable Cult Recruitment and Behavior 101’ class had produced results, especially once Mother insisted that they take his words during that time with as much devotion as Her own would be. By all accounts, the cult now made up at least 50% of the nation’s total populace, and it was only growing larger by the day. Lord Vaile had been right; a cult can, indeed, take over a nation so long as it has the time, patience, and accessibility needed to cause it to snowball.

One branch would create two or three new highly devout members, who would, in turn, go and establish branches of their own, which would cause even more devotees to be gathered, which would… well, everyone who knows what a snowball effect is could see how a single tiny rolling mass could result in an eventual avalanche. This was like that, but with people, and as Lord Vaile had said, “People are driven more by emotion and less by logic than they think. Play to their emotions and they will abandon any sense of reason they have and flock to the banner in droves.”

Now, with the cult snowballing to even greater numbers, Gareth was forced to take a more public stance. What had once been confined to the shadows and the underground was now out in the open. Even the people who hated the cult could not openly attack it or do harm to its members in broad daylight, as even they could see that the tide had already long since turned. The fact that some of them decided to throw their lot in with the group that was obviously the winning side was proof enough to Gareth and the rest of the ‘old guard’ that their beliefs about the heathens were true, at least to some degree.

Yes, all they needed to do was to show the blind little sheeple that their way was right and they would abandon their heathen gods and serve Mother of their own volition. While some would have seen them as opportunists, Gareth, for his part, honestly believed that they could be fully brought into the fold. Whether or not that this was true remained to be seen, but Gareth and a decent number of others were convinced that it was.

With the cult as powerful as it was now, Gareth had moved the headquarters from the caves to a larger building in a major city. Yes, this meant that he was not able to meet with Mother nearly as often but given the report that he had received regarding the fog machines that had been used in the old base, he was glad that he had taken Lord Vaile’s advice to relocate everything. Besides, a new tunnel could be made once the Exterminators were dealt with.

Speaking of which, he had received intel regarding the Exterminators and their founder, Allen Yirple. Apparently, due to the cult being so massive and having so much power over the nation, the Exterminators were forced to cut ties with the government in order to act freely. This meant that they could be tried as criminals if and when they eventually lashed out against the new, rising order. Still, despite that and the attack on the old headquarters, the Exterminators had been quiet thus far.

Very quiet.

Too quiet.

And that, along with the fact that there had been some unsettling rumors about some of the faithful vanishing in the night, gave Gareth cause for concern. He had been meaning to increase security in and around the current headquarters, but this was all the reason that he needed to push it through now. He just hoped that nothing would happen in the next few weeks. After all, he had a visit from a certain national leader that he was expecting to deal with if the intel he had been handed several times over was to be believed.

When the President tried to drop by unannounced, he would, hopefully, be ready to receive him immediately, thereby ruining the element of surprise and putting the upcoming situation more in his favor. He was only really worried about two things regarding that, however.

One was the fact that the Exterminators might try something.

The other was that the current President supposedly had some kind of ancient relic that, when used, would cause those affected by it to obey the owner’s instructions, up to a point. He wasn’t sure if that last bit was true or not, but he was worried that it might be the case. If it was, he wondered how much of an influence that this ‘last recourse’ of the Republic would have. Would the relic be able to fully control the target, or would it merely act as a kind of whisper in the target’s ear?

Either way, he needed to steel himself. If the second concern was for naught, then that would be perfectly fine, but if it wasn’t… Well, he knew that nothing and no one would force him to turn on Mother, not even the whims of the man who refused to give Mother what she clearly deserved. Lord Vaile needed to stop dicking around and just give Mother what She wanted, what She needed. Although he appreciated what Lord Vaile had done up till now, the fanatic in him was still righteously pissed that he still refused to bestow a Name upon his Goddess.

Forcing the Goddess to change anything about Herself… who did he think he was?