The good thing about having too much territory was that he had quite a surplus of mana to draw upon.

It only took him three days after the battle for Salamandra for Wepwawet to refill his reserves, with Narc, Salamandra, and Roynimalia providing the lion's share of the contribution. His civilization now produced forty mana a day, thirty-two after subtracting ongoing doctrine costs. It was quite the change from the early days when he had to ration every ounce of mana.

Whatever the case, he was as ready as he had ever been. His army marched onto Orestown while Jasper and Topaz provided him with eyes and ears to observe the demon army on its way to Pitsfire. It didn't take long for both cities to come into view.

True to reports, Orestown was a small mining town built at the center of open quarries and ravines, providing a measure of protection. Its architecture would have reminded Wepwawet of a western frontier town if not for the elf knights patrolling the streets and archers posted on the local houses' roofs. They had begun to raise wooden fences around the town and its northern foundry as improvised defenses, but nothing solid enough to stop a determined army like Wepwawet's own. The Altar of Watatsumi, which took the form of a long-type dragon, sat atop a manor located on a hill to the south, separated from the overall settlement by a long bridge built atop a deep canyon. A crew of elves riding griffins circled the sky around it to protect their god's anchor.

It still astonished Wepwawet that Watatsumi—a water dragon god from the Shinto Pantheon—had inherited an elven civilization of all things. The two seemed mismatched, but the god's Miracles had probably evolved to fit his followers the same way Wepwawet's own grew to emulate Verglane's climate and traditions.

Meanwhile, Pitsfire looked far better defended. The city looked old, with most of its buildings being shaped from stone rather than Orestown's clay houses. Mighty walls shielded the town center from all sides, but three large, crumbling holes offered entry points for invaders anyway. Hel's Altar stood atop the ruins of an old temple in the center, her veiled, queenly statue overlooking a plain of volcanic soil.

Two details bothered Wepwawet though. First of all, the city appeared to be crawling with undead, and some skeletal soldiers had already positioned themselves beyond the walls to ambush attacks; and second, three enormous holes dug into the earth stood between Ishtar's army and the city. They were too deep and large for secret pitfall traps, but not connected to form defensive ditches either. Very strange…

Wepwawet was certain they had hidden traps across the terrain in anticipation of their visit. A B&C battle would wipe out all active effects like Doctrines at the start of the fight, but physical devices or creatures would linger.

Whatever the case, Wepwawet swiftly received an answer to his challenge.

Hel, Queen of the Dead, and Watatsumi, Ocean Dragonlord, have denied your Board & Conquest god battle challenge! New proposed conditions:

Victory Condition: The enemy Altars in Orestown and Pitsfire are destroyed.

Losing Condition: All Commanders slain.

Reward: Watatsumi's rarest, highest ranked card; Hel's rarest, highest ranked card; Orestown and Pitsfire Altars.

Loss Penalty: Loss of the Orestown and Pitsfire Altars; loss of your rarest, highest ranked card.

Do you accept these conditions?

"They have changed our proposed losing condition," Ishtar said once she and Wepwawet retreated to their realms of Influence to discuss the matter, stroking her chin. "That's odd."

"It is," Wepwawet concurred. They had previously proposed a twenty-five-turn limit as their side's losing condition—since this battle would follow the format of Titan Incursions for the sake of practice—in order to prevent a battle of attrition that would leave everyone unprepared for future conflicts. "Wiping out all our Commanders should be a more difficult task on paper, especially since they didn't put a limit on the numbers we can field in this battle."

"Either they have Miracles that specifically target Commanders, or they hope to cripple us by wiping out our leadership. Or they could simply be trying to intimidate us into backing down by threatening our mortals." Ishtar scoffed. "How foolish."

Wepwawet glared at her. "Pele didn't care either about her followers, and it cost her in the end."

"I do care about my followers, more than they care for each other… but sacrifices must be made." Ishtar raised an eyebrow. "Don't tell me you intend to back down because of such simple conditions?"

"No, I do not," Wepwawet replied. The battle conditions weren't so different from what he would expect in a normal B&C battle or Incursion. "I do worry those two will try to use large-scale destruction Miracles to fulfill their victory condition however, even at the cost of extensive collateral damage."

"I do not think Watatsumi and Hel would go so far, or else they would have thrown more forces at you in Salamandra when you were at your most vulnerable." Ishtar brushed off his worries. "Whatever, what matters is that they agreed to a B&C fight rather than a full on engagement. I guess your Divine Avatar is too tempting of a prize. Do we take the deal as it is?"

Wepwawet hesitated a moment before nodding reluctantly. "Give me a second," he said before telepathically contacting some of his troops. "Viviane, Rickart, Kale, Slimon, Renarde, split off from the main group and retreat onto the nearby hill. I will keep you in reserve for now."

"What?! I can't retreat while Princ—while our moronic forces need my guidance!" Slimon protested.

"Are you sure, Lord Wepwawet?" Rickart asked. "It will be difficult for us to quickly reinforce our allies in a pinch."

"I am certain," Wepwawet insisted. "Just wait for my signal."

His actions and troop movements took Ishtar by surprise. "You are putting some of your Champions outside the board's boundaries?"

"For their safety," Wepwawet replied. "I can always summon Champions during the B&C battle later, if needed."

"Only if you pay a mana amount equal to their rank," Ishtar reminded him. "Mana you won't be able to spend on Miracles."

"Call it intuition or instinct, but I have the gut feeling I'll be better off keeping some of my forces in reserve for now." Wepwawet assessed his remaining forces. "The forces in play should be more than enough."

Besides the joint Lavaland-Verglane troops, Wepwawet intended to field twelve Champions in total today. While Jasper and Topaz accompanied Ishtar's demon army, Alexandrite, Peridot, and Victoire led his own troops with Soumis, Rapoleon, Princess Treasure, Insupportable, Bernard, Wintresse, and Jarlack at their backs. Convincing Insupportable to join in had been much easier than expected; all Wepwawet had to do was convince him the same undead thieves who had tried to abscond with his hoard planned another thieving attempt.

He also guessed that the ice dragon felt the need to show up Soumis in the field, considering the way he complained about his fellow reptile 'demeaning himself in front of the minions and princesses.'

In any case, Wepwawet agreed to the battle conditions once his reserve troops were safely out of range. The covenant was sealed, and reality instantly reformatted in response.

A pulse of mana erupted from Watatsumi's and Hel's Altars that covered the regions around them, enveloping their challengers' armies and nearby hills. A golden barrier separated these two places from reality and brought them together, although many miles separated them. The locations merged together into a single board, with Pitsfire taking the northeast side, Orestown the southeast, and Wepwawet's and Ishtar's armies occupying the west. The final board was roughly twice as large as the one on which Pele and Wepwawet fought Whiro, so large amounts of distance still separated the armies from their targets.

The two teams manifested on each end of the board. It was Wepwawet's first time encountering Hel and Watatsumi on Elphion, and each made quite a different entrance. Watatsumi thundered his way into reality in the form of a great serpentine Long dragon with golden deer horns, a gilded mane, pearly eyes deeper than the sea, and iridescent rainbow scales. His immense, lengthy body coiled around a throne of thunderclouds smelling of salt.

"That is a big, big dragon…" Soumis immediately muttered under his breath upon seeing the god materialize in the sky.

"No fair!" Insupportable complained out of jealousy. "I could grow as fat as him if I let myself go, too! He's just obese!"

Meanwhile, Hel appeared in the form of a beautiful woman with pale gray skin, blonde hair so clear it might as well have been white, and a black dress of crow feathers. A crown of bones too big for her sat atop her pretty little head.

"Disappointing," Ishtar said immediately. "I preferred you with the goth makeup on, Hel."

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"Ah, yes, here comes the beauty pageant queen," Hel replied with a quiet voice, rolling her eyes. "Thank you for reminding us all how vapid you truly are, Ishtar."

"Says the goddess who started a completely pointless war for nothing," Wepwawet replied harshly. He was done wasting his breath on pointless diplomacy with fools who only understood strength. "The same goes for you, Watatsumi."

"Not nothing, an extra Altar, good trade deals, the support of all of our closest neighbors, and other political benefits," Hel replied with a shrug. "Plus, you're the one who started it by arming Artemis' barbarians against my people. We could totally have been friends before that."

"I was helping a friend defend her lands from your aggression!"

"Okay, I am willing to admit my people went a little overboard with their pirate phase, but they would have moved on by now if the two of you hadn't escalated things," Hel shrugged. "Anyway, we each dug our own graves and now have to lie in them."

"Omae wa mou shindeiru," Watatsumi declared with a thundering voice.

"Ugh…" Wepwawet complained. He had forgotten that annoying detail about his classmate. "Please, can't you at least speak normally for one battle?"

"Urusai, urusai!" Watatsumi replied, which Wepwawet took as a big fat no. "Konoyaro, bakayaro!"

Watatsumi, as befitting of a dragon god with the ego to match, refused to speak any other language than his native land's Japanese and intentionally interfered with the autotranslation system feature. Wepwawet had hoped he would change that habit after being put in charge of a foreign civilization, but apparently not.

At least the System should translate the effect of his Miracles so that other players could understand his actions.

"You and your boyfriend should give up already," Hel told Ishtar as their Miracles shuffled into a deck. "This isn't the classroom anymore."

Wepwawet squinted at Ishtar. "Don't tell me you stole her lunch money or something."

"Why would I have? She was never on my radar. To me, Hel was just…" Ishtar sneered with contempt. "Invisible."

"Pff, yes, as if you don't remember, you insipid airhead." Hel drew her starting hand. "It's payback time, bitch."

"Koketsu ni irazunba koji wo ezu!" Watatsumi declared, with everyone ignoring him.

Everyone else proceeded to draw their starting hand, and the battle began in earnest.

The battle would follow rules similar to those of Titan Incursions as per their agreement, with everyone getting a five minute turn before passing the baton to the next participant. Wepwawet would go first, followed by Watatsumi, then Ishtar, and finally Hel. This would allow a good back and forth.

Wepwawet was pretty confident about their odds. While Ishtar had been unwilling to show him her entire deck prior to the battle, she did reveal a few Miracles that could synergize well with his own strategy. His ally's cards focused on support and disruption, with the occasional summoning or recursion, so the burden of casting offensive Miracles would mostly fall on him. That suited him just fine.

This is a nice starting hand for once, Wepwawet thought as he examined his cards. He had drawn Reflect Force, Tomb Raider's Punishment, Oath of Winter, Ice Barrier, and Skill: Treasure Hunter. Only the last one was useless in the current circumstances. My main issue is that I can't recover mana like in a Titan Incursion, and I don't have an Altar to project Influence, so my 99 mana points are all that I have.

Moreover, Ishtar had informed him of all of his fellow players' Providences and their effects. Watatsumi's was the most straightforward and powered up all Aquatic creatures within his Influence, while Hel could revive any creature dying within her Influence as an undead entity under her control by paying a mana cost equal to their Rank. In short, her army fed on its own success.

As for Ishtar, her Babylon Queen Providence let her sacrifice followers or Champions to reduce the mana cost of casting a Miracle by their Rank. Wepwawet suspected that some of the monstrous pets her army kept caged were intended to serve as fuel for her magic.

"My turn," Wepwawet said upon drawing Oath of Spring. He decided to start cautiously for now. "I set a Rank 9 and a Rank 8 Prophecy!"

Reflect Force and Tomb Raider's Punishment would help his forces in a pinch and keep his foes on their toes. Otherwise, the various forces began to take position. Victoire led what remained of the Verglane aerial force and Jarlack's wyvern corps on Soumis' back and immediately flew towards Watatsumi's Altar on the southeast point of the map, bypassing the ravines surrounding Orestown. The rest of the ground forces, meanwhile, began to advance onto the city.

With one notable exception.

"Insupportable, follow Victoire and Jarlack," Wepwawet ordered.

"No!" the dragon replied as he continued to stick with the ground forces and Princess Treasure's side rather than join the aerial corps. "I am not leaving my precious princess!"

"What?!" Wepwawet choked in frustration. "Why?!"

"Because I know that overweight dragon's plan!" Insupportable roared back, his claw pointed at Watatsumi's immense shadow. "Look at his greedy eyes! He is waiting for an opportunity to steal my princess away from me!"

Wepwawet prepared to scold the idiot… until he actually paid attention to Watatsumi. To his utter shock and annoyance, the ancient dragon god appeared utterly transfixed by the sight of Princess Treasure riding a mimic carriage among Verglane's army.

"Hi…" Watatsumi choked as his greedy gaze turned from Princess Treasure to Victoire and Topaz. "Hime…"

Wepwawet remained silent a moment in utter disbelief, then facepalmed to the sound of Ishtar's roaring laughter.

"Y-you bastards!" Hel gritted her teeth. "Did you field so many princess Champions just so Watatsumi would pull his punches?!"

"Oh my gods…" Wepwawet grumbled in annoyance before he turned his telepathic attention to Bernard. "Please convince your spoiled master to attack the southeastern Altar."

"I will do my best, but I cannot guarantee anything," poor Bernard replied apologetically.

Wepwawet grunted and concluded his turn there after glancing at Ishtar's side of the field. It appeared that, unlike the Fire Sultan Onyx, Malvolo was crafty enough not to concentrate all his forces at one point or charge in without a plan. He sent his gargoyle flyers north and south of Pitsfire with the clear intention of surrounding the city from all sides, then had his spellcasters take position on hills alongside his trebuchets. It wouldn't take long before they began to bombard Pitsfire from afar, the same way Epona's troops besieged Salamandra.

Watatsumi's turn began, but the dragon continued to stare at the many princesses on the board rather than take action, much to Hel's dismay.

"Focus, you lizard!" she all but shouted at her teammate. "Don't let yourself be distracted!"

"W-wakatta!" Watatsumi briefly regained his composure and proceeded to dramatically draw a card. "Ore-sama no turn! Dorō kādo! Rank 7 fīrudo mahō, Great Coral Barrier! Rank 6 eizoku mahō, Ocean Stealth!"

The first Miracle had the most clear and visible effect of the two. A pulse of mana erupted from Watatsumi's Altar, manifesting reefs of red coral on every inch of the hill on which it stood, enveloping the nearby manor and part of the bridge connecting the area to Orestown. These structures formed rows upon rows of natural fortification thicker than most city walls.

The other Miracle had no effect. The System informed Wepwawet that the Ocean Stealth doctrine granted an automatic Camouflage effect to all Aquatic units fighting in water-based weather or terrain, making them more difficult to see; an exceptionally useful ability in most cases, besides this one.

"Have you lost your mind, Watatsumi?" Ishtar taunted the dragon god. "You cast an ocean-reliant Miracle in the middle of a volcanic desert!"

"Mada mada, Ishtar-san!" Watatsumi cast yet another Miracle. "Rank 5 fīrudo mahō, Rainstorm!"

Dark clouds formed above his Altar, and torrents of water poured down from the heavens.

A few uses of Wepwawet's beginner Miracle Raincloud had allowed him to flood Narc back when he first arrived on Elphion, but the sheer downpour unleashed by Watatsumi put those to shame. Colossal amounts of water fell from the sky and onto the coral barrier, forcing the elven griffin riders to retreat back to the manor.

He's using Rainstorm the same way I used Raincloud against the magmorians, Wepwawet guessed upon checking the field. The downpour falling down the coral reef in immense waterfalls was quickly beginning to flood the great canyon separating the Altar from the rest of Orestown, and would soon turn it into an artificial lake. So that's his strategy. Change the terrain to support his water-focused Miracles.

Considering Watatsumi had cast Ocean Stealth, Wepwawet guessed he intended to either summon aquatic creatures or already had a few hidden in the canyon waiting to spring into action; an intuition which Watatsumi confirmed with his next move.

"Rank 4 monsutā kādo, Phantom Kraken!" Watatsumi shouted. "Tān endo!"

A light shone near the coral reef's edge, and a great, blurry shape glided down a waterfall into the flooding canyon below. The camouflage effect provided by Ocean Stealth prevented Wepwawet from seeing it clearly or assessing its position, which made it very dangerous.

However, Watatsumi's Miracle had a downside: the sheer amount of rain had forced his griffin flyers to land back at the manor and stranded them there, so they wouldn't be able to intercept Wepwawet's flying forces on their way to the Altar until the clouds cleared. Quite the risky move.

It would take at least twenty minutes for the canyon to fill up, and the kraken creature Watatsumi summoned shouldn't be a problem until then. Victoire and Jarlack should reach the Altar before that happened.

"My turn then," Ishtar said upon drawing. She immediately shifted to playing support. "First, I call the Rank 5 Dust Storm Animism on one of my gargoyle squads and then the Rank 6 Miracle, Imp Ninja Contract."

A vast whirlwind of dust immediately materialized around one of the demon gargoyle squads moving to the north of the board, immediately obscuring their movements from sight. Meanwhile, Satine stomped the ground with her sword next to her father. A cloud of smoke erupted from the earth and solidified in the shape of three tiny imps in ninja clothing: one white, one red, and one blue.

"By offering sacrificed Valentinian war captives as down payments yesterday, I have now contracted an imp ninja mercenary and his two apprentices for the duration of the battle," Ishtar explained as the three critters swiftly vanished from sight. "Their discretion—and natural invisibility—is worth the blood money, I assure you."

Wepwawet winced. On one hand, he now regretted allowing Duke Vidé to keep some prisoners of war if that was what Ishtar had in mind for them; on the other hand, at least she didn't sacrifice her own troops.

"Finally, I cast a Rank 3 and a Rank 9 Prophecy," Ishtar decided. "That should be all for now."

That took Wepwawet aback. "You didn't trigger your Providence to reduce your mana cost?"

"I have mana to spend and can recover it easily enough," Ishtar replied calmly. "Lives are not so easily replaced."

Figures, Wepwawet thought. At least she's pragmatic.

All in all, the first few turns had mostly been about setup, and none of their troops had engaged the opposition yet. Malvolo's forces had finished setting up their trebuchets and looked poised to begin bombarding Pitsfire in a minute, while Peridot had led Wepwawet's ground forces to Orestown's gates, and Victoire's flying crew was one-third of the way to the Altar. The first clash was bound to take place in the next few minutes.

A chill traveled down Wepwawet's spine when Hel drew her card. Her glee and elation upon checking it were palpable.

"Perfect." Hel turned to her teammate. "Watatsumi, have you removed all your Rank 5 units as I requested?"

"Keikaku dōri!"

"Excellent." Hel grinned ear to ear upon playing the Miracle she just drew. "Then I play the Rank 5 Ritual Five Fingers Reaping."

A dark pulse erupted from Hel's Altar, but where most Miracles stopped at the limit of their caster's Influence, this one spread across the entire board like a ghastly wind.

"All creatures on the board with a Rank of 5, regardless of allegiance or status…" Hel chuckled darkly. "Shall immediately suffer from an Instadeath effect."

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