Pulling of the act had been both easy and extremely difficult. It turned out to be easy because the Authority ability of the proliferating forest helped him to substitute for direct contact with the people as he had decided not to make any contact with the people except he certified that none of them could pose any threat to him. The ability, [Absolute Dominion], which granted him the authority to manipulate all existence found within his domain, including all its concepts and laws, was instrumental in his creation of the construct. To add much gravitas to it all, he constructed the sphere directly from space itself constructing three rings, one from the condensation of the altering curse, the other from the physical manifestation of his will and authority and the last by trapping a part of time into a shape before weaving a majestic crown of rotating vines over the ball.
The influence which had been chasing the lady he was currently speaking to by proxy was very easy to deal with, something he did by disconnecting everything but it from the normal flow of time which caused it to seem to be frozen in time, an act which added more gravitas to the perceived power of the construct in the eyes of the lady and her people from what he could see.
That was where the difficult part began, he had to control the performance manually by constantly feeding his intent into The Heart of the Proliferating Forest, actively focusing on each and every part of the construct and the mechanisms that made it work lest it fade from existence. He did not automate it not because he could not but because he felt such an act would lead him one step closer to being taken over again – a situation that he, and every sensible, sentient person in his case would rather avoid-as even now, as he wielded the power, he felt the remnant consciousness of the proliferating forest clawing at the edges of his mind for control- because, even if he had ordered the forest to 'tone down its sales man pitch' in many different ways, for an existence as ancient and eldritch as the remnant consciousness of the Proliferating Forest, there were many exploitable loopholes in his order with which it could use to subvert it.
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Helen took in a deep breath as she made her way forward. Even if whatever this creature was had taken her recognized authority over this people, since she had taken the role of leading them, she would not back down from it. Besides, she had to carefully resolve this situation if she was to get any explanation from Evelyn concerning what she and her brother had planned out for so long.
'Sigh! This is going to be long. Even if I don't care one bit for whatever 'crossroad of fate' Evelyn talked about, for someone who could freeze the very thing that has been plaguing me so far mid-motion, I better be careful with how I speak with them.'
"Good day" she started, her back straightened as she tried to convey with both her posture, body language, manner of speech and all that despite being robbed of the supernatural aspects of her leadership, she had not been robbed of her natural leadership and leadership disposition.
"I am Helen Andy by birth of the lineage of Tyros by imperial dominion, the sitting empress of the Tyros Empire and these are my people, Tyros citizens. We were chased here against our own will by a certain anomaly which destroyed our only city. Due to this, and the fact that we were forced into your territory against our own wish, we petition that you grant us passage through your territory and hold who is responsible, responsible."
The face of space, as she had come to name it, look at her blankly for a moment as though it was stupefied….
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Mike looked on stupefied as the lady Elt before him delivered her introductory speech.
' Either this lady is part of our home world's royal or political class or whatever fragment she picked that made her a royalty in this world also granted her a skill in semantics.'
In just three sentences, she introduced herself as an imperial authority even he had denied her all her power in his domain, absorbed herself of the accusation of trespassing he had labeled on them, implored him to grant them all safe passages and deal with their enemy.
He was suddenly remembered of his life not so long ago as the first secretary of the central council of the central government where he had to treat every word the nobles he had to deal with in official capacity said or the documents he had to sign in official capacity as the word play or riddle of one of those creatures of the legends which the ancestors of the Elts-humans-believed to have existed- the Fae.
But things were not the same as before, he was no longer representing the power of an office- at least for now- he was the office and the power behind it. And if there was one lesson that he learnt in his time as the first special assistant to the central council of the central government, it was that the authority of a sufficiently powerful office well wielded, could produce the most excellent result.
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Helen watched nervously as the previously stupefied expression on the face before her began to morph into a dignified and cold one as the rings surrounding the spherical face picked up speed spinning faster and more chaotically than before as its crown decreased in spinning speed, almost to a 'crawl'.
"You are not in the position to determine right or wrong, friend or foe and those who are worthy for reward or punishment within the confines of the sphere of my influence." The sphere said, sending a jolt through her very being. She would never have thought that her word play would be seen through so clearly, being taught by the very best of the Alfred Empire back in her home world, giving that she was their princess. Looking back at it now, this eldritch horror before her must have lived far longer than the lifespan of her Alfred Empire, if not her home world, and must have seen all sorts.
That did not dissuade her though, whatever the eldritch horror was had as much say over what goes on in its domain as she had over the state, welfare and status of her people.
"I believe that they are problems in your view point." She said, drawing a gasp from her once best friend. "Your authority extends over your space and not my people. While you can decide who is innocent or guilty in your domain, your right to do so expires when it gets to my people. You said we are trespassers right? Then eject us from your territory and we won't be. Stop acting like a pretentious overlord which you are not!" she said, giving the sphere a piece of her mind before her rationality could stop her.
She made a promise to her brother to protect her people with the last of her being, and she intended to keep it even with last of her being, even if it meant clawing an eldritch horror down with her, well two actually, considering the one which had been chasing them since.
The horror smiled. The kind she had come to associate with scheming rivals when they've got a nasty trick up their sleeve.
"Fine then!" she watched as it said, pointing to the frozen cloud of pure black miasma. "You, as well as your people, are free to leave, except that you have to go through your nemesis to do so. Your authority as an empress would automatically be restored the moment you successfully do."
"YOU!" she shouted in rage pointing at the spherical face in distilled fury as the cloud of dark gas gradually regained its motion. How was she going to do this? Even with the powers and abilities her status as an empress in this world granted her, she was on the losing end of the previous battles with the creature. It was as though whatever this malevolent, eldritch horror was, was trying to send her to her untimely end. She could not even move forward as she felt the nonexistence of the space before her
"HA! HA! HA! HA! HA!" The face chortled." If you give me a good show, I might give you a few pointers, or maybe even step in! Who knows?" It said as it manifested two arms and shrugged before dispersing it.
She gritted her teeth and turned to her retinue of citizens. As she did glimpsed at the already mobile, pure black cloud of dark gas and the frenzied creatures harbored within it, which would soon be spawned out of it, the air going out of her for some few seconds before it returned to her with a wave of determination.
"Alright brave ones! We have fought and lived so far this mass of bad breath has chased us for too long for us not to return the favor with its annihilation. And courtesy of an animated, space-like, egg-shaped, eldritch horror, we have no way forward but through the enemy chasing us. We will do the impossible! We will win! And we will shatter the heart of the egg behind us!"