If this idea works, I can make several improvements to the runes already on the obelisks. Changing the enchantments remotely will be fairly easy as well, this could actually work. It looks like I am going to have to cut my visit with Mercy short, I need to get back to the capital.

  I will wait and tell Mercy in the morning, that should be soon enough and I doubt she will be surprised. For now, I turn my focus back to teaching my wives and kids attacks and defenses. After a couple of hours, I send the kids off and spend some time having fun with my wives.

  After that, I end the soulscape and go to sleep, but as usual I only sleep for a couple of hours. So, for the rest of the night I continue working on the plans for the network. When Mercy wakes up in the morning we start kissing and cuddling, but we get interrupted when I get a message.

  Lin says “Ash, you need to come to the trade city right away.”

  “Why, what’s going on?”

  Lin says “Empress Atesh just arrived and says that she needs to speak with you as soon as possible.”

  “Did she say why?”

  Lin says “No, she didn’t.”

  “Alright. I guess I should find out what’s going on. I will be there shortly.”

  I quickly explain the situation to Mercy, who is not very happy about the interruption. However, she only grumbles about it a little, she understands that it is something that I have to do. After kissing her goodbye, I quickly go and wake up Kechara and explain that I have to leave.

  Kechara says “It’s alright, father. I understand.”

  “Good. Do you want to come with me?”

  Kechara says “No, thank you. I will make my own way back before I need to visit the mountain again. I am having fun here.”

  “Alright. Contact me if you need anything. Enjoy yourself.”

  After leaving Kechara to go back to sleep, I open a gate back to my castle and go through. When I enter, I find Lin, Bella, and Atesh sitting at the main table having tea and cakes. I give Lin a kiss before I sit down and looking to Atesh to find out what is going on.

  Empress Atesh says “I don’t know the specifics, but my husband received a messenger from the Magic Kingdom. As soon as he received the message, he asked me to come and invite you to visit him.”

  “The Magic Kingdom? I was hoping not to hear from them ever again. So, you don’t know what this is about, but how urgent is it? I have a lot of things I am supposed to be taking care of.”

  This story has been stolen from Royal Road. If you read it on Amazon, please report it

  Empress Atesh says “Well, we don’t have to leave right this instant, but we should leave pretty soon. My husband wouldn’t have asked me to come personally if it wasn’t something fairly important.”

  “Alright, I can put some things off, but there is one thing I need to do before I can leave. Lin, can I ask you to keep Atesh entertained while I go deal with the network?”

  Lin says “No problem. Did you figure everything out? Are we going to need to change how we enchant the obelisks?”

  “No, I’ve thought of a plan for that, we won’t need to change anything. The network will automatically update any obelisks that get added, if it works how I have planned anyway.”

  Lin says “Alright. Did you also figure out the frequencies you were talking about?”

  “Not yet. I figured out how that part of the spell will work, but I need to actually try them out to determine the frequencies.”

  Lin says “How long do you think all this is going to take?”

  “I don’t think it will take more than a couple of hours.”

  Lin says “We can find something to keep us entertained for a couple of hours. Go do what you need to do.”

  “Alright. I will try to be quick.”

  Lin gives me a look, but she doesn’t say anything as I quickly get up and leave the room. I head up to the bedroom and use the gate there to move to the capital. Then I head to the throne room, access the main hub for the network, and start making changes.

  There are a lot of changes to be made, even before I start adding the new abilities. I quickly get lost in my work and lose all sense of time passing, but that is fairly normal. Luckily, nothing goes really wrong, in fact everything goes surprisingly smoothly.

  All of my new ideas that I had and wanted to try out actually work the way I intended for them to. That’s never really happened to me before, at least not when I was making this many changes. I am basically rewriting all of the enchantments for the entire network and again almost as much again.

  Something, even something small, should have gone wrong, but nothing did and I find myself a little creeped out. Even finding and testing the frequencies goes off without a hitch, which is a little scary. The stone shaping spell also works perfectly, although it can only modify one obelisk at a time.

  That is fine though, since it will do it automatically, meaning it will modify the entire network without me. That will save me a ton of time and account for any future spread of the network. However, it does mean that I can’t start the anti-demon pulses right away.

  Part of the network needs to upgrade first to be able to handle the mana required. I can’t estimate how long that will take until I see how long it takes for each obelisk to upgrade. However, I can’t really sit around and wait to see, not with Atesh waiting for me.

  For now I leave the pulses inactive, I will activate them once the network upgrades some. Or, if I am not around, I will have Lin activate them, but that will depend on what Amn wants. I can’t make any plans until I find that out, so I use the gate to return to the castle and find the girls.

  They aren’t in the main room and Jarvis informs me that they have left the castle. I am not in the mood to try and track them down, so I simply send Lin a message that I am back. It only takes a few minutes before the girls return after I send the message.

  Lin says “All done? I was expecting it to take longer.”

  “Actually, so was I, but everything went perfectly.”

  Lin says “Really? That seems unusual.”

  “I was thinking the same thing! It was a little creepy if I’m being honest.”

  Empress Atesh says “At least it was fast. Are you ready to go?”

  “Yes, I am. Lin, I will let you know as soon as I find out what’s going on.”

  Lin says “Alright, stay safe.” and kisses me.

  Empress Atesh says “Alright, let’s head to the gate then.”

  “No need. I will simply open a gate directly to your palace.”

  Empress Atesh says “Oh, right! I forgot that you could do that! That will save us quite a bit of time!”