"I'm fine Matthew and tonight I'm going to be Shirley Bassey."

Landon was definitely not doing very well considering so after carefully analysing the options and following modern medical practice Kyle gave Landon a good pimp slap.

"Dad can you hear me? Come back to us dad."

Everyone was watching this with a slightly bemused expression except Susan who was feeling incredibly embarrassed and guilty. Landon had now become uncross eyed was doing a bit better but his eyes were spinning in a rather worrying way. One was spinning clockwise while the other was spinning counter clockwise.

Kyle began snapping his fingers to one side then the other and gradually one eye focused on his finger then the other did as well. It's lucky that they seemed to have entered a cartoon world or there could have been lasting damage.

"Dad are you okay now can you answer me?" Kyle asked with some lingering concern as Landon was now looking around with a confused expression on his face. Landon suddenly seemed to notice Kyle and grabbed him like a drowning man reaching for salvation.

"Kyle is that you? What happened how long have I been away?" Landon asked in one breathe with panic appearing in his eyes.

"Dad calm down you've only been out for a little while probably less than a minute."

"Impossible it's been over a year at least. YOU WOULD NOT BELIEVE THE SH*T I'VE SEEN." Landon had apparently been on a hell of a trip while he was unconscious; don't try acid kids it can go well or really, really badly.

Susan decided at this point it would be best to apologise to her prospective father in law but due to their history of her abusing him on a regular basis their power dynamic would be royally messed up.

"Um Landon I'm really...sorry for hitting you I just was really embarrassed and used more strength than I meant to."

Susan was looking down as she said this and due to her short stature and youthful looks she seemed to be a little girl who got caught with her hand in the cookie jar and now needed to make amends. Landon was confused for a moment as his mind was still funktified, but he gradually remembered what happened and also felt a bit guilty looking at Susan.

"Susan it's alright you don't need to apologise I shouldn't have made fun of you in regards to this but you will have to answer to the missus when we get back, okay?"

Landon had suddenly thought of this so to ensure his peaceful family life and make sure he didn't damage his love life he fully intended to throw Susan under the bus. Susan knew that this may happen when she agreed to be with Kyle and could only nod in agreement.

Everyone seeing the issues had been settled and that Susan finally had someone couldn't help but have gentle smiles on their faces especially Clara, Miranda and Elena who had the most contact with both Kyle and Susan and knew the 2 of them were so in tune it was ridiculous. In this Kodak moment a sweet and innocent devil voice sounded to shatter the mood.

"So will does this become a foursome or a fivesome I've always been a bit confused how you count mpphh."

Of course it was Elena who started to question what the...arrangements will be given their status until Clara put a hand over her mouth while having a glowing red face. The people in earshot were either embarrassed and looking away or seemed to be having some interesting thoughts that shall not be mentioned here.

An exception to this was Maurice who was looking around at these strange people who didn't seem to carry the arrogance of most nobles and instead appeared to be really close to their people. He had been pulled along to the meeting and was now not sure what to do.

Kyle decided to get the meeting back on track before it completely went off the rails thanks to his insane domestic situation."Okay let's get back to it from what my new hire Maurice said what the enemy will do will be to march their civilian....militia into the meat grinder first to wear us down followed with gradually stronger soldiers in order to save their strongest members does this sound about right?"

Kyle looked around to which most people nodded with Harris speaking up.

"Yes this is what is likely to happen given the layout and contents of their army, they will use a few higher level members to herd the crowd while staying clear."

Kyle nodded to this and thought for a moment while Landon spoke to Maurice.

"Can you let me know what the strength levels of the army are likely to be?"

Maurice was quiet for a moment as he thought about the banners he had seen as he had come in. He recognised a few but others didn't relate to any of the units he was familiar with.

"Of the units a recognised they are usually commanded by mid second stage soldiers how answer to the late second stage commanders and nobles, however of the banners I saw I only recognised 10 maybe 12 the others I don't recognise even from the nearby settlements."

Maurice responded with a shrug Faye followed up.

"This matches with the intelligence we've been able to gather, it looks like the units that Maurice recognises are loyalists but the others seem to be made up of thugs and criminals brought in from the surrounding units."

One also spoke up at this point.

"Yes now that you mention it some of those banners are gangs markings I didn't even think of this until you said that, but it doesn't make sense these guys aren't loyal to anyone even each other there is something else going on here."

Kyle was silent as he took this all in and put the pieces together. The civilian force is just numbers to tire them out and the loyalists will stick with the leader, but these gangs are a wild card. No leader wants an army that will turn on him at the drop of a hat and plus these gangs while stronger than a civilian are in no way prepared for a war so why are they here?

"I think we are missing something who can control the gangs and who benefits from all this chaos."

Kyle spoke to himself but everyone heard this, Landon and Harris looked at each other before Landon spoke up.

"Well for control I don't know but the people who benefit will be the royal family as if we are weaker they can seize control if they return."

When Landon said this Kyle finally put 2 and 2 together and couldn't believe it took him this long, looks like intelligence doesn't always mean you can see what's right in front of you.

"So the cults are involved, so we can expect the gangs to be stronger and abominations to appear alongside them."

When Kyle said this everyone understood the situation even Maurice was all caught up. Everyone looked to Kyle who was now the defacto leader even over Landon.magic

"Okay first we'll need to break the civilian force, I'll deal with that dealing with the second force I'll need Dad and Harris to cover as I'll likely be out of it for a while after the civilians leave. Finally we all just demolish the nobles any questions?"Kyle looked around and finally Harris asked the question.

"Um how are you going to deal with the civilians?"

Kyle had a sh*t eating grin on his face at this point.

"Well uncle I'm going with my favourite shock and awe. Faye how many steel lotuses are on site?"

Faye was slightly shaken to be suddenly asked but responded never the less.

"A little over 200 are with us to be exact we have 208 ladies all with a minimum strength of late first stage."

"Good that'll be plenty; we are going with a gestalt illusion with me as the core."

This was something they had been experimenting with, by directing their pure magic power to a single vessel which would in turn direct said magic for and effect the result was a power beyond their current level. The fault with this was that in directing this energy the level of concentration required was immense.

They had mitigated this slightly by directing power from four into a fifth person and four of these hubs would direct this power into another hub and so on. Kyle was now planning to use all 208 ladies to generate an illusion more powerful than any seen before.

Kyle was going to do this largely due to his skill in arrays as he could use this power to create illusions through arrays which would be far more stable and once established could draw ambient mana to maintain the illusion freeing up the people for the fight.

"Maurice I'm going to need you and your men to stay on the wolves and to pick up the civilians as they flee. You can use our slave stones to capture and control them until the war is over then we can clear this up."

Maurice was happy that Kyle was going out of his way to protect the civilians but couldn't help but ask a question.

"What are you going to do with the rest of the army?"

Kyle looked back at Maurice and his eyes flashed for a second with mana.

"This is total war we are going to demolish them to a man so we don't have to deal with this again. Any other business before we get moving?"

Landon had one final point.

"Yes before the battle it is customary for the leaders to meet under a truce to discuss terms, while I don't really want to I think we should maintain at least the appearance of etiquette for the others who are watching. I'll go with Harris; I think you and your fiancés should come along as well Kyle to represent the next generation."

"Okay I'll come along but don't expect me to be polite."

Harris laughed at this.

"I expect no less Kyle but that is what we need, I'll bring along your cousins as well for a learning experience and I'm sure it will at least be an experience."

Harris gave Kyle and grin which was returned in kind and Kyle couldn't help but like this new Harris before he said his let his final words drop.

"Okay people begin operation mind f*ck."