01.47 - How to Summon an Elden Lord

The meeting with my ‘father’ was the first point on our agenda after our ship reached the military station in orbit around ‘Wieland’.

Tia and I followed Lucy and David to my fathers quarters.

Minuial Morgenstern needed no introduction.

He was a tall Elden man, with grey hair similar to mine, surrounded by three girls of either pure or maybe mixed Elden blood.

All three must have been slightly younger than my mother when I was born.

Tia was worse at hiding her disapproval than me.

Minuial sent them away as David offered his salutations and introduced me and my companion.

“If you can’t beat them, recruit them?” Minuial asked David after surveying me for a long moment.

“With all respect my Lord,” David said. “Leaving him at the officer school for another three years would have been such a waste. Especially in these trying times.”

“Do you agree with your superior officer?” Minuial asked Lucy.

Lucy just nodded in silence.

“Great,” Minuial said as he padded me on the shoulder. “At ease, son of mine.”

Son of his, huh?

First time I’ve seen his face in both of my lifetimes.

“I’ve seen the recording,” Minuial said. “The commoners say ‘The apple doesn't fall far from the tree’, but most of my blood turned out rather underwhelming.”

“Present company excepted,” he quickly added. “Must be the dilution. Maybe I should have…” he said as he glanced at Lucy. “Nevermind. You are better suited for the battlefield anyway..”

“Speaking of that,” he said. “You do have a sister, right?” he asked as his gaze shifted to me.

My gaze narrowed.

“Whatever,” he said as he studied my reaction. “The point is, I’ve learned to curb my expectations in the last few centuries.”

“Having two exceptional talents in one generation is a cause for celebration,” Minuial added as his gaze shifted back to Lucy and then returned to me. “I’d like to raise you further, and the battlefield is the best teacher there is, wouldn’t you agree?” He looked at David.

“Yes, my Lord,” David said.

—

“So?” I asked. “What’s the plan?”

“If my sources are to be believed,” David said, “our main opponent, Elden Lord Seth, will launch a new offensive within the next two to three months.”

“And your sources are?” I asked.

“Usually reliable,” David said.

“You know what I mean,” I said.

“Who are your sources?” Tia asked what I was thinking.

“Part of a potential rebellion,” David said. “I’ll give you further details once you have proven yourself and I deem it necessary.”

“So only after the next battle?” Tia asked.

“Have you thought about our suggestions?” I asked.

“Yes to both,” David said. “We’ll focus on our own units. Plus the Standard Knights of half of my elite guard. Thirteen units in total. Can you two manage that in a month or two?”

“Sure,” Tia said before I had finished my train of thought, then added “Although…”

“It depends on the amount of upgrades,” I added quickly.

“Reactive armor,” David said. “Plus that vibrating blade upgrade that sliced through Kidd’s armor during our battle. Everything else can wait.”

—

We spent the next weeks mostly within the station’s hangar, then moved to the Standard Knight section of David's main carrier.

Adding the upgrades to the respective units took longer than estimated.

Real combat units were not as mod friendly as the Standard Knights used for training and practice spars back in Lichtheim.

Tia was a big help in the modding efforts and even managed to help me improve some parts of the spell imbued into the enhanced blades.

I was a bit worried about the folk back home, but if the few messages I received from them were any indication, they and the kids were handling everything well back in Lichtheim.

As for the intel I could gather on Seth, he had won his last big war with an all out attack aiming interstellar planetary destroyers at the opposing sides main world, where their leaders had turtled up.

He couldn’t use that strategy against my father, who seemed to move from space station to space station.

Still, Seth was the prime candidate among the potential masterminds behind the attack on and destruction of ‘Neu Waldland’.

And if the gods and the system were to be believed, he was my prime enemy from day one.

Cornering him, slowly but surely, like David and Lucy must have done on Minuial’s command back in the other timeline, would likely lead to the same outcome.

And I was less than enthusiastic on spending the next two decades slowly cutting away at Seth and his allies. Or rather their army.

Killing some young recruits only out there doing their duty to protect their home planets and families didn’t leave a good taste in my mouth.

Still, there was little I could do right now, if I were to follow the chain of command.

I had some plans of my own, but those would rely on David and Lucy’s cooperation and trust.

Heck, if worst came to worst, I’d just rely on ‘Mother of Learning’ and approach this whole conflict differently on my next attempt.

—

The day of the first real battle came a week earlier than David had anticipated.

It wasn’t a complete surprise attack and we were mostly prepared, but the momentum of the battle was not on our side.

David had taken a part of the fleet to encircle the enemy, but they had in turn split and encircled us in our attempt to encircle them.

It was a mess.

Two old minefields, deployed during earlier skirmishes in the system, did not make things easier.

The tides of battle turned as one of the enemy commanders decided to take down David personally and approached our deployed and outnumbered Standard Knight platoon with a force thrice our size.

With a minefield behind us, and three times our own forces on the attack, the only way out of this mess seemed to be a forward charge.