While Helgi was building up the strength of his part of Rurik's kingdom it quickly transpired that most of his brothers were not so lucky, the neighboring realm of Veps was being attacked by the Karelians to the north and further south the other new kingdoms seemed to be fairing ill as well. It was like a sign from Perun himself, revealing just how unworthy his Brothers were, mere children who could not handle the responsibility of men, he was the true heir to Rurik, his firstborn son and ruler of Holmgardr. If they can not defend themselves then he would have to do it for them, and recreate his father's conquests while at it.
Veps was the first challenge, for while Sumarlidi was a weak and unworthy ruler he had managed to gather up a lot of followers from the vassals granted to him by his father, and had even managed to outnumber his much more competent brother. But he did not have the true gods or their followers on his side, he was a small child while Helgi was a great warrior. His forces were crushed and his lands taken, and Helgi's attention turned to Roslav, one of the petty realms that thought that they could use the dissolution of the old kingdom to their advantage. They too would fall very quickly but there were other more pertinent threats to Rurikid dominance of the region...
Könugardr fell swiftly to the Khazars, rampaging Turkic hordes from the east. Its king now has to swear fealty to their leader, placing one of the most integral part of the Rurikid hegemony under the occupation of the barbarians who threaten all the peoples of the land, with their foreign god and bloodthirsty ways. Furthermore the kingdom of Chernigov had also been subjugated, it by one of the petty lords of Turov. Now the Khazars were too much of a threat to be dealt with immediately but this Budimir, one of the Dregovich clansmen so influential in the area, he had to pay for messing with the wrong family. The time of the Dregoviches is past, the time of the Rurikids is at hand. He was issued a singular challenge: to face Helgi like a man one to one or hide behind his armies like a coward. He chose the former option and paid for it with his Life. Chernigov now also belongs to Helgi.
The rest of the Dregoviches fared Little better, but not by Helgi's hand, another of the splinter realms from Rurik's Death, Volhynia had launched an invasion, supported by the Khazars naturally, against Turov. Against Volhynia alone it might have stood a chance but as it was it quickly fell and was incorporated into its kingdom. A challenge had been posed against Helgi for who would emerge dominant in this chaos, and he had to answer it. No rival could stand against the might of the city of Novgorod, greatest of all the Rus cities. The Severskys were another of the great clans but for their arrogance they too had to be brought down, so that Helgi may retrace the steps of his father and once more unite the people under his banner.
Volhynia might have been able to take on a divided Turov, but against Holmgardr it did not stand a chance. Dyre the Stranger, the old rival of Rurik who had gone into exile in Zaslav also made his bid at the time, Dividing Volhynia's armies at a crucial time and opening up the way for Helgi's conquest of that chiefdom as well. His realms now reached Galich and Mazovia, as well as Pruthenia. That particular realm had also started to flex its muscles, spreading further into Rus lands. This did however present an excelelnt opportunity, for at last there was a foreign enemy to unite Helgi's people against. Many of his Slavic followers had been hesitant about fighting against their own brothers but liberating their people from this Baltic menace was a cause they could all rally under. The Pruthenians were very strong, stronger than any enemy that Helgi had faced before, but now he was strong as well, the largest army that Holmgardr had ever mustered marched with him to destroy the enemy once and for all, in the great battle of Pinsk.
The Pruthenians were shattered, their might broken and their lands ripe for the taking. This was the cause that Helgi had been waiting for, this was the cause that showed that he was more than just some mere warlord, he was the leader of a people, and while many of his defeated enemies were still sore about their losses and how they now had to serve their greatest rival he showed that they were all one people, a Rus people. The Slavs had been granted a great deal of influence under the Rurikids, who had done no attempts to impose their own culture on them, and here Helgi, or Oleg, showed that more than that he was one of them. He was their leader and unifier, even more than his father, who never left the ways of his homeland, was. They were not Norse, Slavs and Finns, they were Rus. And now the Rus would prepare for the liberation of their brethren in the South as well as those in the west, Zaslav and Minsk too fell fell to Oleg, forcing Dyre to flee all the way back to the Norselands and with their defeat Oleg cemented his status of the high king of Novgorod, leader of the Rurikids and the Rus people. He was not just some small king like some of his enemies, he was a great ruler who would bring down the Khazars and bring back Kiev and Pskov to the fold. Novogorod the blossoming, Novogorod the triumphant, Novgorod the great and beautiful.