It did not take long at all for the cities to bulk up their defences, sandstone was being transported out of the capital at an incredible rate, the livings there having seemingly learned how to tame certain creatures and monsters of the desert to serve as beasts of burden, the sandstone was intricately and precisely carved, it was the work of experts.
Ir'Houwl was growing more and more curious of the capital, as it seemed to be the one and only city of the desert to possess a variety of resources and skills whilst all of the rest had to go by with the bare minimum, they had no access to fruits or vegetables, nourishing themselves on meat and plant only, they had no tamed beasts, they had no direct access to sandstone and other natural resources apart from sand and the remains of what they hunted.
The capital simply stood on a superior level of comfortability.
Meanwhile, towns were being deserted from the most part as people moved toward the cities, it seemed like they were expecting them to continue to attack and try to expand, which was a correct assumption, the minor lord sent her temporary soldiers as vanguard soon after taking over that city, keeping the fact that she had recruited worshippers of the first and pale blue suns a secret for now, which multiple Ersta'las from each of the three reviled faiths, she could afford to send them out more aggressively with much less risk of having them all be expanded too quickly.
The livings had been kind enough to empty countless towns without having to be asked, so she naturally sent them out to turn them into oases as well and surround the cities, evacuating the towns was certainly not an incorrect thing to do, their defences weren't as good and they had few defenders, leaving the populations there was only asking for a massacre, but even if it was the right to do, it did not mean that it was a good thing to do.
Ir'Houwl could spread the span of territory she controlled much swifter in this manner, and by having oases create pockets of darkness, no one could know from where and when an attack might come from, her troops could be hidden anywhere within them, or they might not even be around at all.
The livings had no way of knowing, so they just had to assume that enemies were lurking in the dark.
Livings were naturally afraid of darkness, but in this realm, that fright of theirs was exacerbated by the near absence of dark, there were no nights, and even with their sollock provided a canopy on their towns and cities, light peered through into their homes all the same, sunlight was everywhere, and the sources of it were worshipped like gods, so naturally, true darkness terrified them to incredible degrees.
The more time passed, the more towns she conquered, and the more members of the three reviled faiths were joining her ranks, but for now, she held back on launching true attacks on any city, at best, she ordered for her temporary troops to harass cargos of resources.
The livings certainly believed that their enemy were simply waiting for one of their Undeviginti to manifest and have an edge to launch attacks, and although that was partly true, Ir'Houwl was mostly having her soldiers hunt down dwellers of the desert to add the ranks.
Looking over a map, each city was monitored as closely as possible, the amount of arm-bearers, and the rank of the titled vapour wielders inhabiting the solar temples, many had had their ranks greatly bolstered with plenty of Ersta'las from the capital, and every city had at least one Ersta'sol as well, so taking over the cities by force would be more difficult than before.
All of her living soldiers were clear about this, an Ersta'sol could hardly be compared to an Ersta'la, these guys wielded immense power in comparison, they could channel more vapour, fast and more precisely on a whim.
Eventually, she had the giant reveal itself leading the monster to attack a convoy, purposefully allowing for survivors once again, and even though adding giants to the mix wasn't that much more different in the grand scheme of things, the people who had grown up with stories of the evil giants were naturally panicking and erratic, as every single one of their fears were coming true at once, and cooperating together.
It was like waking up with sleep paralysis and seeing both an imaginary shadow closing in on you, and an actual murderer at the same time, the common folk, and to some extent the warriors were growing tenser every time news of an attack or enemy movements reached their ears.
The Ersta'ras had to do some damage control and reassure the masses by flaunting their overwhelming power and showing the incredible progress they were making to ensure that the citizens would remain unharmed.
Khasekhemwy, Ersta'ra of Prime Undeviginti was not just the leader of the foremost faith, but also a genius architect and builder, under his direction, the walls of the capital and every city were being swiftly upgraded to deal with the new threats, no one even questioning why these changes had not been made preemptively if the methods had already been developed, they were just happy to see their defences growing tougher.
Khasekhemwy himself was capable of making great construction in very little time, although no one had seen the man at work, the results were definitely here, when he went to do something himself, it was done without fault and within a time frame so tight that it simply seemed impossible.
As for Ny-Hor, Ersta'ra of Watchful Undeviginti, he took lead of all fighters, under his direction, be they arm-bearers or mundane warriors, all felt confident, the bandaged man had seen more fights than most, and although he had never confirmed it himself, many believed that he covered his face because he had been deeply burned by a solar beast, if that was true, which pretty much everyone believed without a doubt, then the simple fight that he was still alive was a proof of incredible power.
The sort of blinding strength that some would believe to have been delivered from a higher sphere, directly from Watchful Undeviginti to Ny-Hor.
The two Ersta'ras found themselves atop the recently elevated walls of the capital, bathed in the light of Prime Undeviginti.
"They have a giant, at least one"
"They only have a single giant, I am certain"
"How can you be certain of this?"
"Obviously because I only ever lost a single one, and I know that they are infertile"
"And you never thought that it would be a good idea to inform me of a rogue giant?"
"I had not expected such a young giant to survive in the desert, and besides, this one was a failure, only possessing giant traits, Menka liked him a lot, so I kept it around, but the little bastard scampered off at the first occasion…"
"Is it obvious that it's not a pure-blooded giant?"
"No, it looked exactly like giant and behaves in the same way, as I said, it was a failure"
"If it's only a single one, then that shouldn't be a problem in the least… It is the only one, right?"
"I already said that it was! And I can guarantee that half-breeds like that one are totally infertile, they can't reproduce for the life of them, so no worries, they must have found it somewhere and thought that they could make us panic…"
"It's working, and we can't really tell the people why we know that they only have a single one, heh?"
"...That would be problematic, indeed"
"You're the one whose problematic, Khasekhemwy, and a degenerate too, but since you are my friend, I shall refrain from throwing you off the wall"