Chapter 96 Ultimatum
"So if I understand correctly..." Ikaris summarized a while later after listening calmly to the Dwilde's account. "This Liam is willing to surrender as long as we stage the destruction of his village by an enemy raid. In order for Oxyxcrest Pride not to be alerted we must not only spare the life of this degenerate envoy, we must also convince him that the Hellhound Pack has been entirely wiped out and that there are no survivors. Am I missing something?"
"No... That's about right." Kellam concurred with a strained look.
"Doable." The teen nodded. "But naive. If this Onyxcrest Pride is as powerful and tyrannical as this Liam claims, what's to stop them from coming to investigate with a huge army after receiving evidence from their envoy? Whether he is sincere or not, Liam can easily run away and rebuild his village far from here, but I can't. The Transportation Portal's location is fixed and moving Last Saint would be too much of an inconvenience. Besides, the only convincing way we have to wipe out the Hellhound Pack is the Tartarus Enforcer. If Plume and this Liam could recognize this fellow at a glance, it means they know its significance. No matter how stupid this envoy is, when he sees it, his superiors will immediately realize that there's a new Stele Holder on Cutthroat Island. And the one Transportation Portal having not moved from its place in millennia they will easily deduce its location."
Kellam pondered his words and had to admit that he was on to something. Sparing this emissary was more risky than it seemed, but killing or capturing him also carried risks. If the envoy did not return to Onyxcrest Pride by a certain deadline his superiors would naturally conclude that something had happened to him.
Whether it was the work of the Hellhound Pack or a monster attack on the way home, an expeditionary army would surely be sent to investigate his disappearance. With a little investigation, they could easily find Last Saint Village, which was located in the center of a vast plain, like the icing on a cake.
Killing the envoy directly was even more risky. As much as a disgrace this runt was to the lycan race, he had an Alpha. The Alpha was mentally connected to the members of its pack by a deep bond and if the envoy were to die, the pack would be informed immediately. While capturing the emissary could save them weeks to months, killing him would provoke an immediate response.
"What do you propose in this case?" Kellam finally asked, accepting the fact that this situation was beyond him.
"How far is the Oxyxcrest Pride from here?" Ikaris inquired.
"No idea."
"All the more reason not to follow Liam's plan. If that Alpha King is just a few days away, we'll only hasten our end." The boy concluded flatly. "Go back to the Hellhound Pack's lair and tell Liam that if he wants to swear allegiance to me he must meet me here alone in 20 minutes. If he refuses I will follow my original plan and then figure something out."
Kellam was surprised to find that his Lord was nowhere near panicking. The looming threat of the Oxyxcrest Pride and their King did not bode well, but that did not mean Ikaris was without solutions.
Once the Dwilde returned to the burrow to deliver his ultimatum to Liam, the teen turned to Malia and asked,
"Is it possible to brainwash a weak-minded lycan with your Vampire-Kitsune powers?"
The question took aback the young woman, but after much thought she answered uncertainly,
"I can't guarantee it, I've never tried to use my charm and Vampiric Influence to alter someone's personality so permanently."
"There's a first for everything." Ikaris patted her shoulder vigorously with a smile meant to be encouraging.
His confidence was not without reason. If Malia had proven unable to accomplish this task, he would have taken responsibility and brainwashed the envoy personally. Not only had he watched enough movies and read enough articles to know how to achieve this without resorting to any magical tricks, Magnus had also assured him that this goal could also be accomplished in many different ways.
The first was simply by becoming a Vampire himself by assimilating his very own Bloodspark. The old Archmagus would be the first delighted if Ikaris chose this option.
A second possibility was to sign a Blood Contract. While a viable solution, this method was not absolutely foolproof. For one thing, an Appraiser Sorcerer could easily know when someone was being fettered by the terms of a Blood Contract.
As an envoy, his reliability was a primary criterion and he was regularly checked. If he was close enough his Alpha could also detect the slightest anomaly in his behavior.
Other alternatives were to create a Secondary Spark that could perform such a feat. This could be done by deleting or modifying the target's memories, or by inserting new ones. This was a typical application of Knowledge Magic and a reason why skilled Knowledge Sorcerers were considered extremely dangerous.
Another way was by direct mental enslavement as in the case of possession or mind control, or indirectly as with hypnosis or persuasion.
Developing any of these spells through a Secondary Spark to a standard of effectiveness sufficient to reliably influence even a feeble-minded human would be prohibitively time-consuming, but fortunately according to Magnus there was a trick. All one had to do was create these Secondary Sparks using one's own Soul Spark as a medium.
For example, in the case of a Hypnosis spell, his own Soul Strength would become the determining factor in the success of the spell. A real boon for Ikaris for whom this had always been his strong point. When the Soul Spark reached a certain stage of evolution this kind of ability would become accessible without passing through his Divine Spark.
At the same time, Ikaris had insight into the knowledge contained in his Necromancy Spark and could foresee that necromancy could be used in the same way. He did not have to create a Death Spell from scratch, but could directly create a spell drawing on the Death Element stored in his body.
Such a Secondary Spark would be easier to develop, as it would be more specific and logical, but more importantly his stamina would hardly be consumed as long as he had enough Death Elemental Mana left.
Closing his eyes, Ikaris already had a faint inkling of how to summon his first Skeleton but it was still unclear. When he was done assimilating the Angel of Faulch's Bloodspark, he had a strong feeling that the fog preventing him from accessing this knowledge would clear.
The group waited in silence for Kellam to return, Ezrog grumbling as he paced back and forth with his axe. The ogre was almost hoping that Liam wouldn't show up so they could directly attack his lair.
Bad luck for him, the Alpha Werewolf agreed to come to them alone. Kellam came out of the burrow first with a knife pressed to his throat, followed by Liam standing behind and holding him hostage. Ikaris had anticipated such a twist, so he was not troubled. After all, this was the man who had ordered the raid on his village and captured almost all of its women.
The two men silently sized each other up for a moment, then the teenager broke the silence,
"So you came." He said with indifference.
"What? You thought I wouldn't dare?" Liam retorted, but his nervous glances at the Tartarus Enforcer betrayed his anxious mood.
Ikaris smiled, but didn't answer. Instead, he went straight to the heart of the matter,
"How far is Oxyxcrest Pride from here? And how long would it take them to send an investigative army if the emissary did not return in time?"
Liam flinched imperceptibly, but never intending to lie he answered honestly, "276 kilometers from here southwest of Cutthroat Island. Just follow the Emerald River to the sea. You can't miss it. On paper, a pack of properly trained lycan warriors can get here in one to four days. However, to get here they have to cross the Emerald Fields, the Malevolent Grasslands and the Graveyard Forest. Even going through our underground tunnel system is not totally safe. Moving a large army too quickly will inevitably attract the attention of Magical Beasts that even the King would rather avoid. Therefore, we can safely triple that time and when they are out in force they can take up to two weeks to cover that distance."
"But?" Ikaris raised an eyebrow. He could sense that the Werewolf Alpha was still hiding something from him.
Liam hesitated briefly, then confessed,
"Knowing the King, he'll send one of his royal guards to investigate first. They are all powerful Alphas or Wolf Daemons capable of taking human form. Their power can be compared to that of a Peak Body Lord Sorcerer. If they are determined, they can cover this distance in one or two hours through the galleries and this is taking into account that they must move as stealthily as possible."
In other words, killing the envoy would have sealed their fate within the day...