Chapter 57
Horpus sent word that he located the last two paladins and gave me the name of the Grubiit inn where they were staying.
Stepping out of Sanctuary with war waging in our mountain borders was not a decision many leaders in my position would make, I realized, but I wasn’t like other leaders.
I wouldn’t hide away in my castle while other people fought on my behalf, nor would I send someone else to finish a fight I started.
I chose to be an antipaladin. My actions earned the ire of paladins, and they had come after me as an individual.
This was my matter to put to rest.
Getting into their room unnoticed was easy with Silkmancer and Podni’s Silk Step. Since she could bring a passenger now, she dropped me in the room and Silk Stepped back out, returning to her duties while I waited for the world’s last two paladins to come back to their room.
I passed the time with meditation, mentally reviewing the various pieces in play in my war against Abaddon, looking at them from every angle and perspective I could imagine to be certain I hadn’t missed something important.
I had done this exercise thousands of times before, but no matter how good I felt about a plan, I could never stamp out all of my doubts.
With 7 tower cores at my disposal, I should rout Abaddon’s army handily.
Then I had to finish my work in the heavens to complete the creation of Abaddon’s Bane.
Once I delivered Abaddon’s Bane to the King of the Abyss, he would die. Mammoni would take the abyssal plane for herself, returning Stacey and Drae to my service when she did.
At the same time, I had to exit my war in the heavens in such a way that none of my new celestial enemies were motivated to pursue revenge.
Finally, I had to reestablish control of the material plane. That meant rebuilding my temples, resuscitating the Sanctuary economy, and finalizing my peace treaties with the other kingdoms.
In between those objectives, I needed to finish writing in my phylactery to activate it.
Solara was anxious for the rest of us to finish ours so she could put them somewhere secure.
I shared her sense of urgency but found it difficult to take time away from my efforts to survive the life I already had to secure a phylactery that might not even work.
If I failed in the present, I wouldn't want to resurrect at all.
I brought my mind back to the task at hand and wondered if the system would reward me for vanquishing every paladin alive. Had any other antipaladin in history completed that feat? I wished I could know, but I suspected I was the first.
The click of a key sliding into a lock broke the silence.
Now the wee hours of the morning, the room was dark, and only the faintest of lights made it into the room. As soon as the two figures were inside, Silkmancer took control of the situation, using silk I left against the wall so it was behind them when they stepped through the doorway.
I could control over 20 individual pieces of silk now, so I shut the door, blindfolded them, gagged them, and pinned their arms to their sides in an instant.
They didn't know what happened, let alone who was responsible.
Interesting. The last two paladins in the world were women.
Some people did say that women were smarter than men, and I found that to be largely true.
Their being the only ones to survive was more evidence of that fact.
Ludwig the Lawful, Paulson the Pure, those guys practically killed themselves, so the bar for what constituted an intelligent paladin was also pretty low.
One of the paladins had deeply tanned skin and dark hair, as if she had been sculpted and baked beneath a desert sun. Her form was powerful but slender, and her breasts were cute handfuls.
The other paladin was taller with fairer skin and red hair. She had the thick build of a warrior–high calves, wide thighs, abs that formed a crease where they connected to her hips, and a broad back.
Judging by how hard they could fight against my silks, I estimated their level to be in the low 20s. Slaying these two wouldn't be the slightest bit sporting. The gap between us was so large that even bothering to end them seemed petty.
But the system wanted me to kill them. No getting around that.
Well, actually, maybe I didn't have to.
I whistled to get them to stop muttering nonsense through their gags. “Listen up. You're the last two paladins in the world, and the system will reward me if I get that number to zero. I can kill you, or you can abandon your oath. Take the latter, please. Nothing is worth dying for.”
Right. I couldn’t read their expressions if their faces were wrapped in silk, so I pulled them down to see. I wasn't about to remove the gags, though.
My heart sank.
“Gods dammit. Charity, when the fuck did you become a paladin?”
I didn't recognize the redhead, but I recognized Purity’s sister immediately. She was so angry her face was red, and the veins of her forehead bulged. Raw, unrestrained rage filled her sparkling brown eyes with hate and disgust.
That didn't make me hopeful that she would forsake her oath, so was I really about to murder my sister-in-law? She deserved it, but Purity was too important to risk damaging our relationship. Or I could not tell her. That would be easy enough.
No, I was making assumptions about what Purity would want instead of just asking her.
“I don't suppose either of you will give up being paladins?
Yeah, didn't think so. Okay, new girl. Since we haven't met, I should say hello, I'm Byron of Zaglis.
Charity here is my wife's sister. I tell you this so you know she isn't making the same gamble you are in being stubborn about this.
She means something to someone I love, but you don't mean anything to anyone.”
The paladin girls had screamed themselves out, but they didn't abandon their oaths. They just glared at me and heaved growling breaths like angry dogs.
“Alright then, let's get you two back before the rest of the family stumbles into this.”
I pulled a mask over my face and put a woman on each shoulder before hopping out the window.
The other paladin girl’s name was Emma. She and Charity were tied standing upright, hands above their heads, in the new prisoner wing of the Grubiit dungeon. Every other prisoner was a celestial of some kind, from grigori to archangeli.
The prison was clean and plain. I didn't see any point in making it dark and dirty like the cells beneath an old castle if I could design it however I wanted. Each had their own room with a bed, water, food, and clean clothes.
Emma and Charity, however, were still dressed as I found them, in the light leather and chainmail armor often worn by traveling paladins.
They were still blindfolded, so while they might have heard multiple footsteps, neither paladin knew that I had brought Purity and five followers with me.
Before I spoke, I activated a ward that deafened Charity and Emma to anything I discussed with my group.
“You five are part of a new initiative. We are going to teach you how to retrain someone as a servant. In these sessions, Mistress Penny and I will demonstrate, explain our methods, and answer questions you may have. Then you'll go off and practice on our prisoners.
“The primary goal is obedience. The ultimate objective, which might not always be possible, is to get them to enjoy obedience.
To achieve that, we will simplify their world down to pain and pleasure, reward and punishment.
This won't happen in a single session. We are bending them, not breaking them. Steady pressure is the way.
“Before we get started, Mistress Penny needs to speak to one of the prisoners first. Then she'll leave us to it.”
I deactivated the ward. Penny walked up to Charity and pulled her sister's blindfold off, but left the gag in place. Charity didn't rage this time. She was too confused to be angry.
“I wanted you to hear it from my mouth that I support this,” Purity said. “Byron repeatedly showed you patience and mercy when he was more than justified in silencing you. You chose to put yourself here.”
Her sister attempted to argue, but the gag muffled it.
On her way out, Purity paused to kiss me on the cheek. “Have fun.”
To the paladins, I said, “If you do what you're told, I'll reward you. If you don't, you will be punished. Today will be mostly punishment, though. You've already defied me quite a bit, now haven't you?”
I walked between them, running my hands along their stomachs as I passed, smiling when they tried to recoil. I gave Charity an ear-splitting spank, and when she stopped screaming, I repeated the effect on Emma.
“Tell me you’ll be a good girl.”
I waited. Neither said anything, so I drew my knife and started to cut them out of their clothes and armor.
I sent a proclamation to every major guild and hired canvassers to blanket the major cities with the same message. It read:
Towers have appeared all around the world.
More challenging than any dungeon, beating a tower earns you the right to ascend, traveling to the plane of the angeli for reward and recognition.
Only the rarest among you are capable of this feat.
Should you succeed, I’ll be waiting at the top of the world to welcome another legend into the heavens.
You’ve delved into dungeons, but do you have it takes to climb a tower?
May the Silk guide you,
-Byron of Zaglis
Earning more TP was as simple as bringing new adventurers into the towers.
Expeditions for the new dick skyscrapers had already begun, but I sought to foster even more excitement for them.
Prior to my announcement, no one knew anything about the towers, what they contained, or what purpose they served.
For all they knew, the cock on the horizon was just that, a giant boner casting its veiny shadow on the world. My proclamation made it clear what awaited people inside, so we could skip the part where everyone argued about why the towers appeared and what they were for.