"You nearly bloody killed me, so I could take your own bloody Source!" I snarled at the door. The avian face somehow shaped the beak into a grin in response to my complaints.

"These are powerful artifacts! No Harvester is allowed just to waltz in and claim them without a struggle, boy." Aresk replied from the bird-faced door he was currently inhabiting.

"Great. So, taking Poseidon's Source gave me control of the Huskar. Velkit's is some mega-forge, placed in a really inconvenient location to supply with raw materials, and yours does what exactly?"

"Go through the door again," the bird-headed door smirked at me. With a sigh, I limped–I cast Heal until I was back to full health–I strode over and swung the door open. Instead of the labyrinthine tunnels and gloom from before, I was greeted by a short corridor, brightly lit by the magic light bulbs I'd encountered at the First Hearth, that opened out into the cavernous throne room where I'd fought the lesser avatar.

Beneath the bronze Source in the centre of the room was some kind of… It looked like a baptismal font. A broad stone dish on a narrow plinth sat beneath the roiling metallic pearl, and as I watched, a lozenge of gold, about the size of my thumb, oozed free of the Source and fell into the font.

I moved over and looked down. There were six of the things in there currently, and I scooped them up and stuffed them into a pouch. They were surprisingly dense and heavy, causing the belt pouch to hang low as if it were overfilled.

"So do I need to break them open or something?" I asked the crow-door as I made my way back to the entrance.

"Dear sweet Me, no, don't do that! They're golem cores, boy. You'll need someone with a lot of mana to activate them, assuming you don't want to do it yourself, but each of them will become one of the lesser minions you fought on your way to the Source! They're more valuable than anything else you own," I eyed the door askance.

"How are they controlled?" I asked.

"Whoever crafts the body has a link to the constructs, like the ones you've given Souls to. It will work a bit like your Shape Soulbound Servant spell. You'll get a screen with available resources and mana costs for each modification from the basic model. Even the basic one is pretty damn strong. You're welcome!" The crow finished huffily.

"Thanks, I guess. I think I'll pop north and check in on Velkit's Source before I do anything with these, or I'll buy a bunch of metal from the Shop…" I said thoughtfully.

"You can mix and match as you like, lad. Anyway, good job, kiddo! I'll hang on here until you can get some guards down to protect it. You need to protect it from other Harvesters and anyone god-marked by another deity, of course."

"Is it the same with the Vialith Source?" I asked, suddenly worried.

"Yep, and Velkits, but they're both deep in my –ah– your territory. No one's going to fuck with the Huskar, and I think you'll be impressed with what they've done in terms of security when you get back to the Pass." I heard another tinkling sound from behind the door and hurried back in so I could collect the seventh golem core.

The climb up to the surface was pitch-black, but I moved ahead with my left hand running along the rough wall until moonlight began to glow in through the entrance, providing a little illumination. I emerged to find the Fangs stretched out on rugs and cushions, passing a flask of yalk back and forth between them.

"Mond! We were getting worried!" said Kos, offering me the flask, which I took a long swig from before passing it to Mune.

"It looks like it!" I smiled at them. "How long was I down there?"

"Three days. We tried to follow you in but got hit by Aresk's aura when we got to the room with the doors," said Jandak with a shrug. "We could still feel the link to you, so we figured you were ok. Any good loot?"

"Yeah, but we need to head back to the Pass to make the most of it. Where's Kril, Fay, and what's-his-face… the high Dreamer bloke?" I asked.

"I'll go get them. I don't think I could stand another minute of these two arguing over whose wife is the prettiest," Kos offered.

"It's definitely Haylin!" Jandak snapped, and Mune bristled and opened his mouth to bark something back, but I cut him off.

"Firstly, the winner is Fay. Now we've got that settled, Kos, can you bring Pertabon as well? We'll need to station a Legion here to defend Hellath." Kos nodded to me, took a final swig, and blurred away into the darkness down the slope. From up here, it looked like a field of tiny stars laid out on the ground below us. The myriad campfires threw dancing shadows across the field of tents. I had five legions here now, plus a third of my cavalry.

It would take at least another week for the outlying units to finish their sweeps of the steppe and congregate here for the push south… My thoughts boiled as I tried to balance the movements of tens of thousands of men and Huskars against my objectives and preferred timeline. I concluded that it probably wouldn't work, but with a bit of luck, we wouldn't miss the planned marching date significantly.

Jandak and Mune argued good-naturedly about who had the second prettiest wife while we waited. I heard the approaching group before I could see them.

"This monstrosity shouldn't be allowed anywhere near this holy peak!" snapped the head priest.

"If the Legate commands, I obey," rumbled a towering shadow.

"Oh, do shut up, Hatletek. If Mond wants something, then by the war gods brass bollocks it's going to happen!" cackled Kril.

"It's against all custom-" the priest tried to argue, but a slim hand shot out from a cloak and lifted him off the ground by the scruff of his neck.

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"If my husband wants Huskar on this mound, then Huskar will be here. Understood?" Fay's voice was icy and full of anger. A strangled "eep" came from the shape dangling from her left hand, and she dropped him. The priest staggered and looked as though he was straightening his robes as he began to emerge from the darkness.

"Fay wins." Both of my Fangs said decisively to each other.

"Thanks for-" I began, but Fay rushed forward and threw herself into my arms, bowling me backwards.

"Three days!" she hissed into my ear. "You owe me for that. We had no idea what was happening!" I pulled back and rested a hand on her swollen belly, smiling at her as I did so.

"It worked out in the end?" I offered, earning a harrumph as she pulled away, but the left-hand corner of her mouth curved up into a slight smile.

"Thanks for coming. I've taken control of the focal point below-" I didn't trust the priest, so I wouldn't be going into details, "- and now we need to protect it. Pertabon, can you spare a couple of Centuries of Huskars to be stationed here permanently?"

"I won't have filthy Ur-viles defiling this holy place!" snapped Hatletek. I fixed him with my best dead-eyed glare, and he shrank in on himself.

"Two squads? That won't be a problem, but we have no way to access that tunnel without extensive mining works. Would you like me to deploy an engineering team as well?" the giant rumbled as he crouched down so he merely loomed, rather than towered, over us.

"Yes," I began, but the head of the high Dreamer came up with fire in his eyes, and I opted to try diplomacy. "But not to dig into the barrow. They can set up earthworks and fortifications around the site. Humans can serve as the immediate guards. Jandak, got any really good brawlers? The kind of guys who can fight well in narrow spaces?" I asked.

The leader of my lancers nodded slowly and took another drink from the flask before tossing it aside onto his rug.

"Aye, Mond. There are more than a few who like to fight up close. They keep getting dismounted for some reason and have to practice their knife work rather than using the lances." Jandak grinned at me, and I chuckled. Some of the nomads didn't like the all-cavalry approach I'd taken with the human elements in my army.

"Are they Soulbound?" I asked.

"Most of them. How many do you need? I can think of twenty off the top of my head who'd jump at the chance to guard something of Aresk's."

"This will be a major staging point for us. I'll get the Huskars, the workers and crafters, we left up north to build a road from the Pass to Hellath over the next few months."

"Warlord! You cannot put a road down across the steppe! It's pristine and virgin! The filthy shit-sitters build roads where we insist on good, clean dirt and grass beneath our wagon's wheels!" Hatletek interrupted.

"Things change, priest. Aresk wills this," I said, and a blast of divine aura pressed down on us all. The priest fell to his knees and began babbling prayers. "Now that is resolved-" I muttered, sending silent thanks to the brass bastard, "- I want the Fangs, Fay, and Kril to come north with me. We'll be gone for about a week. Pertabon, I'll speak to Trikilo before we go so he can coordinate the cavalry as they trickle in. I trust you can handle your kind and have this place fortified well enough to make the Roman army proud before we return?"

"Aye, Legate. That we can manage. What calls you back to the north?" rumbled the giant.

"A new boon from Mars. I need the help of the smiths to make it work, so north it is. By the time we're back, we'll be in a position to press south. How is the supply situation?" I asked.

"The herds are doing well. The mammoths don't like the warmth, but the rich forage is beneficial for them. We will be able to march south with three months of supplies in spatial storage for the full force. It will likely last longer than that as we begin to suffer casualties," he grumbled.

"We're going to do our best not to take heavy losses," I replied.

"Soldiers always die, Legate. It is our fate," The giant said sadly.

"Aye, but it's how you die that matters!" cackled Kril. "There'll be many glorious deaths before we win this war!" Pertabon glanced over at the wizened old man and nodded slowly. I loved my nomads, but they were as crazy as a box of frogs.

Having spoken briefly to Trikilo, to make him aware of our plans and that the army would hold here until we returned, we bid him farewell.

"Nice dog!" Fay said hesitantly as she approached Wislon from the side. A faint whine came from the wolf. "I meant wolf!" she added hastily as she jumped nimbly onto his back despite her being heavy with our child. She snagged her fingers into his bronze fur and reached up to pat him between the ears, which earned a happy chuff from the beast.

"Are we really running the whole way again?" complained Kos. "It took us days last time!"

"Scared an old man will show you up? You young ones think you're the best thing since salted meat, but now you face down a true master, all you do is piss and moan?" Kril snapped as he limbered up, skinny limbs covered in wrinkled skin flashing in the moonlight.

"Hardly, Kril," said Jandak. "We'll see if you're as happy on day three, eh?" he finished with a chuckle.

"We'll stop more regularly than last time," I said, carefully not looking at Fay, but I sensed an icy glare being shot into the side of my head from her.

"At least this time there aren't ten thousand undead running behind us!" said Kril cheerfully. "Shall we?"

We did. The lands just north of Hellath were filled with the herds of the nomads and the Legions. Mammoths seemed to get along well enough with aurox as long as they both maintained a certain amount of distance between them. This came down to the aurox staying clear of the much larger mastodons, and the human and Huskar herders maintained a polite distance between their camps as well.

We ran through the end of the night and throughout the next day. As the sun began to set, we built a simple camp and lay down to rest, enjoying hot food provided by my lady wife—a marked improvement over our first marathon away from the barrow.

As the sun reached its peak on the fourth day after we departed from Hellath, I checked in with Glimpse. I'd sent him to scout ahead of us as usual, and he finally caught sight of Mondit and the pass.

Mondit was now what passed for a metropolis among the nomads of the steppes. Hundreds, thousands of wagons were arranged in concentric circles, and little sub-clusters were set slightly away from the main town area. The mud tracks that were usual in Sykareskyn camps had been replaced with broad flagstones cut from the excess granite that had to be removed from the mines to the north.

A ring of tall wooden structures, most of which had ballistae installed and manned, surrounded the camps that formed the hub of my nascent empire. Glimpse flew north, and I was pleased to see the pass was now heavily fortified as well. Beyond the stone walls I'd made with Shape Earth now stood wooden palisades, and behind them were towers armed with siege weapons.

The edges of the artificial canyon had been cut back, and stairs fit for Huskar to use had been cut into them. Windmills spun along the cliff's edge, and beyond them, more walls and towers had been built to secure the area that overlooked the industrial centre.

As we came within an hour's run of Mondit, a squad of mounted archers approached and greeted us cautiously. Once they established who we were, Wilson went a long way to demonstrating we were telling the truth; they continued their patrol. This happened three more times as we got closer to the town, and I can't deny I was pleased with the change from the last time we'd come north and found sentries and patrols slacking off.

"I will go speak to my father," said Fay as she slipped off Wilson's shoulders and gave him a rub just behind his armpit. The wolf's mouth hung open, and he leaned into the petting. She kissed me quickly, then winked and strode into town, one hand supporting her belly. I watched the guards as they approached, but they promptly nodded their heads and escorted her into the camp proper.

"So, let's go see which smith is going mad and which is going to help craft our golems!" I grinned at my friends, and we sprinted around the camp to join the busy road leading from the town to the pass.

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