The Fire and The Storm - The Nexus of Kellaran #2 novel Chapter 197

Part 27

Pakdag went on to discuss and display their showing in more detail, then announced the next placing.

“In tenth place; the team led by Empress Emeroth of Verzaclon!” Pakdag declared.

His comments to her were; “As was the case with the last team, your performance largely defined the best of your race to the rest of us. Though your team was not composed of giants exclusively, and yours was not the only team with giants among their leaders, we consider your performance to exemplify the epitome of Shiganzhu leadership. You also prove the worth of meritocracy, and of deciding leadership by tournament, which you have faced on numerous occasions. As you said at the first Assembly of The Just Alliance, there are others who have placed higher, but you have proved that you could lead us to victory, and do it well.”

Much to the surprise of almost everyone there, the ninth place was taken by a team led by Most Respected Grandfather, of the Southernmost.

“Yours is a race that is still almost completely unknown to the rest of Kellaran,” Pakdag told the great, sleek, many-tentacled mollusk. “It is therefore somewhat surprising that they would follow you as fervently as they did during your test. But yours was by far the most transparent leadership in the tournament; you became known for making calm, well-reasoned decisions, and for explaining to everyone at every opportunity exactly what was going on in the war, in every way. You explained every decision to the public, and they all felt that they understood what was going on with the war, and what was being asked of them, and why, at every stage of the conflict. This led to good morale and exceptional confidence in your leadership.”

Just as surprisingly, eighth place was won by First Expeditionary Zoobweeb, (roughly translated), of the Kag. The venerable fish and his people’s somewhat spiritual concept of warfare as an art form had been very popular under his leadership, and many of the ancient martial arts of the other races from the age of religion were revived during his leadership. With him as their commander, Kellaran had waged a horrific war with the demons while largely maintaining a strangely detached serenity.

Seventh place went to Zarkog. There was little cheering as he appeared on the stage to accept his presentation, and he seemed uncharacteristically subdued.

“Zarkog, you began this tournament as a mortal, and finished it as one of us; a god, and of the new style. There is no doubt that you were the single most capable mortal on Kellaran, and now that you are a god, you are among the most capable beings of any kind. But you did not win, because as capable as you are, there were teams with more members who were collectively more capable than you.

“The fact that you did so well while making every command decision yourself is amazing, but it is many times more amazing when it is considered that your leadership produced the worst morale among both our civilians and our military of any team in the tournament. No one doubted your brilliance or the quality of your military and administrative decisions, but no one liked you except some of the Sylvan and dragons who served under you when you were Lord of Serminak. And even among them, as among everyone else, the most popular pastime during your tenure was complaining about you in humorous terms.

“You were one of the teams that were most aggressive, attacking immediately as soon as you had the authority to command it. You were one of only two teams who were successful with that strategy, though you initially over-extended in hopes of a quick victory, and had to revert to a purely defensive strategy for a time until your forces had recovered somewhat.”

When Pakdag had finished his commentary of Zarkog’s performance he indicated that the gigantic dragon should speak, though Zarkog had no team members to acknowledge.

Though he now had the speed of thought of a god, he still seemed to take a moment to choose his words carefully. Curiously, he had changed his voice to a simple and pleasant baritone. “I thought that I could command everything myself, but I found that it was beyond even me. No single mortal has the mental capacity to grasp every aspect of a war involving many billions of fighters with sufficient detail in real time. After two years of warfare I was forced to face that fact; that I was failing, and that in order to succeed without giving up sole command, I would need to increase my capabilities considerably. I used my authority to procure the Readings of those who achieved divinity on the day Prince Mark ascended, and the Reading of Povon gave me what I needed. I became a god, and I quickly discovered many things.

“In order to be cruel it is necessary to avoid empathy, and to avoid any real awareness of what those who are suffering are experiencing. I was cruel for most of my life, and even swearing to justice on Falgaroth’s stone did not erase the core of cruelty in me.