After nine months the entire Jade Empire has been reduced to a wasteland as the Angra fortress creeped over it and took every living person it could find. Survivors are mostly found hiding in the shadows of the Lengdon mountain range. All of what was once Jade is now more Angra shenanigans, along with many strange horrifying monsters that were apparently monsters captured from Krovsokol’s wandering test subjects.
Eli himself flew into the storm of Angra’s Sthan Thi during the battle of the Jade Empire with Vassago and Sahar at his side to take on his own ascension as promised. Many reports indicate that it was bizarre as Eli finally expressed emotions of varying sorts during the buildup and the battle he had there. The current most popular rumor about it is that since Eli understood dark magic for so long he was aware of Angra the whole time and waiting for this conflict to happen. He isn’t a total psychopath, he was just bored of every other conflict when he knew that this one was coming. While we know that the rumor is somewhat false given that we can confirm he is mission emotions, it has proven popular among the mortals.
It is hard to say what happened when Eli fought through the fortress city because he went there to fight his own ascension, both it and himself have incredible power with illusions and in the end that makes it impossible to tell what actually happened. Judging by the fact that Eli flew out of the storm on his dragon we assume he won, but we can never be sure given the specific nature of our opponent and the powers that his ascension would have. It could be a clever trick, he could have been converted, or maybe he actually succeeded.
Whatever the truth of the matter, the result is Atlantis got a popularity boost as the first force to assault Angra at all and the only one to make any progress. Fortunately the Angra situation is happening so fast that most people in the west don’t even really comprehend what is going on in the east yet, so the few people criticizing the west remain a subtle minority among a population that doesn’t really get why anyone cares.
However, this popularity boost caught the attention of one notable group. A second alliance seems to have been created after the disappearance of Shen Rai along with all the demons, what remains of the Jakaal have joined Atlantis by necessity to fight Angra Mainyu. They seem to be having some cultural changes over time thanks to the absence of the demons, at least on the surface, and the necessities of fighting all these damned dragons and dark magic shenanigans. They have ceased to be mercenaries and instead taken up the banner of Atlantis for the time being with one purpose in mind, to kill really big things just to say they could. As Eli has very rarely been defeated and is feared by all the gods in the world so far, the Jakaal have decided to recognize him as the new king of the Jakaal unless Shen Rai should come reclaim the title from the pirate king. Shen Rai has notably not shown up for that duel.
Rumor has it that Eret ended up fighting Eli as well during the battle in the storm. Unfortunately due to the earlier mentioned problem of illusions we can’t tell exactly what happened or not.
The flying fortress city has begun to move westwards which has prompted the Divus and Akhetaten forces to deploy east, since working with Drakon had not been much of a possibility Naomi hadn’t taken action until now to deploy. The remnants of Drakon’s colonizers have taken shelter to the south east in what was once Divya Samrajya’s coastline.
While at least 80% of the altepetlan forces Angra had have been wiped out, he now has access to more striders, champions, and dragons to make up the difference. To date, no one has seen Angra actually partake in battle, he simply exists within the city as a deity everyone serves.
Atop of this, the air fleets are back, dozens of massive airships fill the sky around the fortress city to transport strike teams further distances then the city itself. Many Jinko have left Hale’a, Atlantis, and Si Da as if beckoned to return to Sima Wa’s side, bolstering Angra’s forces even further.
Despite being impossible to locate the effects of the demons are still being felt. Most notably because Saldis appears to be hard at work, the dead rise in mass everywhere Angra goes. Often contesting Angra but thousands just end up migrating in hordes that mysteriously disappear in the north.
So of course the snake guys show up now while everyone is busy. They particularly struck in what was once Thykenae all over again where the fewest of the alliance’s forces are really paying attention. With the counter snake ops being a bit busy with the counter Angra operation these assholes have taken the time to start aggressively recruiting again which is how we know they turned up.
Song Yi has been chosen to lead the alliance in its war against Angra, while it seems an odd choice as she is the youngest there she is the most powerful of the gods available. Jehovah and Brahma don’t move and so the spirit goddess is one of the only super gods available. Fortunately she’s had time over the years to become better at her gig, her sword alone rivals excalibur for destructive potential.
The problem with Song Yi being put into power is her plan is quite obvious, she’s summoning everyone in preparation to lead another crusade, but this one against Angra. Shahira is evacuating people into Hale’a Jeongsin as Angra approaches. Inevitably Angra will move towards Hale’a where Song’s spirits are strongest, and that is where she has chosen to hold the next big battle. Estimating a few months are available to come up with a better plan or make ready to do this before he gets too many other minions. Drakon is notably absent from this as they regroup to make their own plans in the south east and still don’t really associate with us any.
Shento:
While Drakon doesn’t really talk to us, there is one exception. Kiala has control over a small army of giant sized monsters that were given to her by Krovsokol. Elvira is here as well to gather data on how it all performs and report back to Drakon. After we die they will use the data of our battle to formulate their own plan to deal with this their way it seems, but Krovsokol was nice enough to let Kiala have his army of monsters for more efficient data gathering. Elvira likely will not be fighting, just observing, but it is noted that she was invited into the jungle by Kiala for tea. Many are uncomfortable with this, as now they have someone with first hand knowledge of the jungle if they should desire to invade it at a later date, but can’t really turn down army of free dragon-sized monsters.
Ryner reappeared from his northern isolation after Song Yi put out the official rallying call and is the primary envoy to Queen Naomi. To Anna’s annoyance he declared himself heir of Dracula and demanded all vampires obey him for the upcoming event, unfortunately for her Ryner is both more popular and more powerful by a very wide margin.
Ailani deployed the Mahane to the east to sneak around in the wake of all that destruction and harvest blood to bring home and empower more black mages. So thats a creepy thing thats going on. However, she has also gotten into an argument with Ryner about chain of command given that she has the title of Lord General the vampires, and Ryner, shoudl technically obey her who has been here this whole time, knows the land, knows the people (vampires included) and knows the enemies far better then the exiled hippy vampire does. She says Ryner’s only claim to authority is being the son of dracula and pure brute strength, and he’s not exactly listening to what she tells him to do as his Lord General. This causes another problem, Ryner is also the one Naomi trusts and works with despite his lackadaisical attitude and he will know what Divus is doing days before Ailani will.
The problem escalates as Ailani loses her grip over the state’s control because Ryner isn’t afraid of her nor is he easy to control. Alexandria and Anna both lean towards Ryner and if a power struggle were to go down Ailani’s formerly iron grip on the blood throne is now under serious threat. Akamu and Emilia for the most part are on the side of Ailani who also boasts the support of Hei and Aku Song since she is currently the technical Lord General. The whole situation is really happening purely because Ryner doesn’t give a shit and does whatever he wants not so much an actual mutiny but many gravitate towards him as the only figure who can contest Ailani who got her position almost by force.
Lin Sun:
Lately with the confirmed return of Eret the Aetas has been a bit uppity and constant discussion about Eret’s service to Angra pervades the territory. Some want to try and kill him others want to retrieve him and many are convinced its simply a false image of him to rile people up. It is known this discussion is also happening in Atlantis and Eret.
Recently Eret fought across the Jade Empire helping us see more of what he does now. Wielding an oversized sword to replace what was once his rapier it notably has the power of Song Fang’s unstoppable/immovable weapon even if it is shaped differently. He personally led the attack that would result in the defeat of Shenlong and defeated dozens of high ranking champions on his own and is the single most important minion Angra commands at the moment because of his ability to find ways to incapacitate rather then kill so easily and then throw them into the pits. Shenlong has disappeared along with the Jade Empire but as no death aspect killed him no one is entirely sure where he went.
Lukas ended up refusing admittance into the time chamber to Adin Va overall stating that with what her mother has done to her she needs to stabilize before trying to spend years in that place where she might just become a little bit crazy and then pop out trying to kill her mother or something.
With most of the populace living in the underworld now things are fairly stable but pretty isolated. Most focus remains on the time chamber and the training, Adin tends to train with members of the Honorbound since she isn’t being let into the actual chamber itself. She notably can already defeat Lukas and Hayate as her abilities are overwhelmingly strong to make up for any skill gaps.
Meanwhile Tena Xuequin has taken over the role of acting commander since Vris was away helping Con Lai with a project in the north at the time the alliance began to summon people. Forming into a massive crusading force, she holds command of the Aetas until Vris gets back and is working mostly on the logistics of amassing the alliance’s crusade.
Con Lai:
While Vris is able to resurrect the northern Sthan Thi for you the other pieces of the plan are not so collaborative. Naomi doesn’t want to declare a victory over the demons because it might make people lax, while Drakon and Angra are immediate concerns this isn’t the first time the demons have been defeated before bringing about the end of the world. Until Lucifer is actually confirmed dead she doesn’t want the world to think its safe from him, as right now despite his heavy losses we’re about to suffer pretty terrible losses as well and then he’ll likely be right back at it, if not already hatching a plan to get to the gates while everyone is busy with Angra. Though admittedly, whoever Lucifer’s boss is might be able to beat Angra so there’s a bright side perhaps.
The spirits also won’t move into Sthan thi, its surrounded by so much dead land that it would take years for the spirits to infiltrate that deep into it but most importantly, they still don’t accept walls. Until the walls are removed, it is considered a Vua Cai outpost not a Hale’a colony. Just as in Svarga, they remain frustratingly adamant to their demands and won’t negotiate on such a thing. It should be noted the root of the wall problem is that it stops natural traffic of the area, while they could protect an area from man-made armies to some degree their acceptable defenses would still be penetrateable with just some felling axes or the patience to walk over very inconvenient land formations its not quite as good as Sthan Thi’s original fortress walls but it would be better then just an open field, and all manner of wild life could still slip in and out that way and meet the spirit of their demand as opposed to the hard rule.
Contact with Vobrazhen turns out to be difficult because the slaves can’t leave the city they’re in, and traveling over such distances to talk to a dragon lord as a slave is basically impossible without going full blown ninja and definitely losing their spot as slaves in the city of Lesderevo. They could attempt it, but you will lose the convenience of having spies who can freely move throughout their current area to listen in on things without risking their lives.
As for some good news in the plans, Alice is actually captured by the Shinobi led by Yukari and brought to the dream realm with particular thanks to Fujin for helping out with the hiding from Eret and messing with Roc bits. She’s still asleep as no one wants to wake her up until you’re there though. Yukari suggests that she just eat Alice now and take her powers before waking her up for fear that she might keep messing with the dream realm or worse, pull something from Angra’s realm into this one.