NEVRAS
Having received a few good gifts for preserving food, getting salt, and fresh water, we set out but were promptly stopped by my mom and dad. Dad gave us so milk to put in the Preserver, saying, “You need strong bones to fight evil. And what would you do if you developed osteoporosis?” It was raw milk, of course. Pasteurization had been condemned for centuries, and thermalization we'd just tried to no avail. But more than that, it was cultured milk, proven to also give us so healthy bacteria (that couldn't cast spells). Mom gave
so oranges and bananas and told , “I don't want you getting scurvy either. And eat your vegetables!” Oh, honestly! “I'm going now!” I shouted as I got on the boat with Ambrosia. “And rember to change your...” but we put up sail before she could embarrass
any more.
“Where should we go?” I asked Ambrosia. She pointed with clear purpose, “That way.” That was in the direction of Opening. What could she want there? Ah, right, this was her holand. Surely they would able to help us get stronger. How clever!
AMBROSIA
Actually, I just pointed randomly and acted like I knew where we were going. But co to think of it, Yazim Jianne was over in that direction. And who knows, maybe we could find so sidequest to distract everyone. Acting on that random impulse however ant going out of our way for a few days. The wind blew hard in the opposite direction, so we couldn’t go anywhere. We parked our boat back at Phoenix, and went back to Nevras's mother, against his better judgent. “Mom, we're trapped here for awhile,” Nevras requested, “will you keep our boat here while we fly Bahamut over?”
She nodded. It seed such a sha to have all that gear and leave it behind, but I guess we had to. If only, we had sothing to bring our boat with us... But that was impossible. It was simply too big! I scrounged through my backpack. Hmmm, a bomb bag for carrying bombs. Useful, but not here. My cooking gear was likewise no use. We carried so potions and herbs that always seed to be underused since we had a dedicated healer. We had arrows for long range attacks, and I decided to put these on the ship since this is where they saw the most use. Let's see... a jar of nightcrawlers. I also put this on the ship. If we needed to do fishing, these were great. Otherwise, they would keep. After the New Earth, God made certain creatures immortal: coral, certain strains of algae, beneficial bacteria, and worms. They couldn't confer immortality on others, but they would keep until being eaten. Aside from the food on the ship, we had so rations of dried at and so remaining grain-bean buns.
Researchers found that uncooked oats and rice when compared to other grains could last 3-5 years in storage, and dried beans lasted even longer. On the other hand, fresh cooked bread only would last about a week, so they devised a dried bread. Oats and rice were mashed together with beans, a damp cloth was placed to allow cultures to grow, then the mix was gently stead, much like Chinese plain buns. When fresh, such buns were soft with an interesting salty taste. But this dough was typically fast-dried with magic. Wrapped in waterproof wrapping, these lasted for years. But they kinda sucked since they had to basically be eaten with water or tea, but they were nutritious enough for a long trip. Besides, compared to the price of other rations, they gave them away.
Anyway, I stuffed those back in, along with the bomb bag, bombs, and the cooking gear while I continued to look at the contents we'd dumped. There was a For Sale Sign, which I might want to use on those rare potions, if stuff ever got desperate. There were also Gorgon Anklets, Poison Armlets, and Echo Rings. The latter would protect those who could be silenced from such, although antimagic or Dispel would not be affected. I hadn't enough for everyone but enough for , Azrael, and Elias to have Gorgon Anklets; enough for Elias, Zoe, and Azrael to have Echo Rings; and enough for everyone but Aqorm, Lilith and Michael to get poison immunity. They didn't need it anyway. After this, most of us were immune to petrifaction, poison, and silence if it even beca a problem. We had Jump Boots, a Lantern, and our Party Tent, all of which I moved to a side compartnt of the bag so they could easily be reached. I put on the upgraded Fire Ring on my finger making a ntal note to use it more, as I rembered all the nights cooking where this would have saved so serious trouble. I found the First Flint, and shoved it back into the backpack. Then I looked at what was left.
So did Queen Victoria. “Hey,” she asked, “where did you get that? That's a Transport Coin!” I rembered that the others didn't rember I had gone back in ti, so I gave a noncommittal answer about having found it, or “it was a birthday present.” I gulped suddenly. Victoria shrugged, “Well I guess you don't want to know how you can use it to solve your problem then.” I requested a private audience, and told her the truth. After listening carefully, she nodded, then brought the rest of us in.
“This Coin,” she explained, “can be attuned to link with the ship you currently have, so that you can summon it from anywhere. My court sorcerers will do the forr, but to summon it, you will need a talented sorcerer to use the teleportation link. We cannot spare them, so you'll have to figure this out yourself.” I understood, and nodded as I said, “I know of one in Opening, where we're going. Don't worry.”
The sorcerers went to the port and did so complicated ritual which created a line of yellowish light from the Coin to the ship. We took the Transport Coin back, and then got on Bahamut. She carried us back to Opening quickly, and we dismounted and headed into town.
NEVRAS
Ambrosia had been different lately. Rather than being focused on finishing her quest quickly, she appeared instead to be goofing off. Rather than being peeved at this, however, I kinda liked it. She'd occasionally sing or recite poetry, she spent more ti cuddling, and actually started kissing
so, at least when she was sure the others weren't looking. I had a feeling she would balk at actually having sex, but for now we were closer and more intimate than we had been in months.
We ca to the town of Opening, and it was as bad as I rember. Guards were posted on the walls around the town, but unlike last ti, there were none preventing exit. They had taken Ambrosia's advice, and were now getting their money through prostitution. I saw the town guards propositioning people left and right, and then going inside the strange tal huts that Opening was known for.
We tried our hardest to ignore this, and instead explored the town. We skipped over the bank, having more money than we knew what to do with but being unable to spend it due to screwed up economy. We skipped many of the shops for the sa reason. I loved shopping, but unlike Phoenix, Opening had been fully okay with sches to make money connected to the Mark. You could be tracked whenever you spent anything. Having Big Brother (so to speak) look over your shoulder whenever you bought sothing basically killed the fun of it. Yeah, only a portion of towns actually embraced the program, but I had trouble keeping track of it, and the ones that did looked at you like a criminal. We skipped the chockablock houses in the slums area, and we skipped the weird-looking monolith near the bank. We did stop near a poster for bounty hunting wanted posters. Ah, so this is how Sera and Phim got paying gigs. It looked like they had creature hunts as well. I might try this later. But not here, definitely. They probably wouldn't pay us in real money here.
Having nothing better to do, I looked around town, until a thought occurred to . There were two places that I hadn't checked, the graveyard where I saw Sarai's gravestone and that weird mansion that seed at odds with all other houses in the town.
First, I checked the mansion. I knocked but after waiting for a few minutes, I decided nobody must be ho. So I went to visit the graveyard. We indeed found Yazim Jianne there. He was adding so Forget--Nots to his wife's grave when he turned around and freaked out by the number of us standing over him. As he was kinda a squishy wizard, he decided to teleport away.
As everyone knows, teleportation involves converting the body into light, and moving at that speed. Since opaque objects don't allow light to enter, he couldn't move into the house if the door was closed. So where did he go? I followed him back to the direction of the mansion, but he was gone. What happened to him?
YAZIM JIANNE
Glass windows are perable to anyone teleporting, unless they are tinted, frosted, or stained glass. The sa was true of tallic screens, since they are just porous enough that small particles can filter though. Although I had co to trust the one nad Ambrosia, her friends likely blad
for bringing ruin to the New Earth. I would have to defend myself.
As I wanted to bring Sarai back, I had turned to studies of the making of various types of chira. I'm sure you've heard of homunculi from various legends. But as far as I know, such legends are nonsense. Artificial creatures are categorized in three major categories: undead, chira, and golems. What people call homunculi are actually one of two things, flesh golems or true chira. There is no such thing as a fire chira, sorry.
But there are fire elentals. In fact, I have a water elental to draw baths for , and a fire elental to heat my oven, an air elental to dry my hair, and an earth elental for my flowers indoors. They're alive and they need paynt. When I'm gone out for a bit, they just scrounge around, but I gave them nice chunks of wood or fish or whatever as rewards for their services. They were cute little buggers, and damned handy.
Undead are reanimated by magic, and it is possible to make creepy composite undead. Like, one guy chopped up dead people and made a Death Sausage, adding teeth at one end. Golems are nonliving, although the sa energy that animates the golem can also cause all organic material to live. A golem made from leaves and wood and grass blurs the line of life and death, but ultimately golems are considered animated matter not life.
Lastly there are chira, which must be made from living bodies. Many of the patched-together ones wound up dying on the operating table. Without their juicy vital goodness, they just wobbled around half-heartedly. Zombie chira are just no good, the nerves are already stiff from rigor mortis, and then the added challenge of rging bodies makes them worthless. That's why modern chira typically are made by alchemy or lifeweaving magic to splice together living bodies seamlessly. Genes are rged too.
Of course, any decent student of genetic theory started with oozes. They were complex splice of bacteria and fungi. They ranged from droplets (slis), to jellyfish-like critters with whip-like flagella (jellies), to those with a firm shape like a diamond or cube (pudding). They were squishy but couldn't be killed without destroying their core. They were a ss though, everywhere they went the left a sort of mold that I had to clean with bleach. These would be my front-line troops. Surely they would stop them. I set a Sliborn nad Dewdrop to lead them, picked more for her aptitude in bed than her courage or leadership ability. I trusted she would run away fairly quickly, but while she was there, she would give the oozes morale. As though most oozes had enough sentience to really have so a thing.
If not, I had beast chira, hybrid chira, and true chira. My hybrid chira were fishn and batn, the forr I ard with crossbows and the latter due to their high agility I gave bladed weapons like swords, knives, and spears. These were my foot soldiers throughout the house. The beast chira were more like tanks, they were big and sturdy, and so had breath weapons. One type was a creature with the head of a snow leopard, the front hooves and torso of an ibex, and the back end of a snake. It could wrap itself around trees and it could do a peculiar hop-crawl that would be cute and funny, except for their ability to breathe frost. There were also those who had a head of a pig, midsection and wings of a hawk, and rear of a zebra. Due to their ability to fly around and their acid bite, they were dangerous enemies as well. Oh yes, and a three-headed cat that behaved as strategist for the other chira.
And you may ask, what is a true chira? Well, human beings are a composite of many genetic species, as scientists in the 20th century discovered when mapping them. There are a host of ideas from certain races, as many as 145 genes from 40 different animal species, which are then part of the makeup of humans along with their unique genes. A true chira has no human genes at all, but enough animal genes to cobble together a being that can think, talk, and act as a human but had many of the advantages of the animals they were made from. I had only one of these, a woman I nad Surrogate Lover # 2 (#1 was a being that I planned to give an artificial soul to, but the plan sorta kinda fell through when a demon betrayed ). She could sprout wings or claws or fangs, she could breathe water or air, and she had prehensile feet. But to a casual observer, she was a regular girl. She was a lover, but she was sterile like all artificial crossbreeds. Unlike a natural crossbreed, the chromoso number is unequal, so they cannot reproduce, even with another chira of the sa type. Not that they would manage to et her. She was not for defense except as a last result. She was for my... entertainnt, while the others took care of intruders. She was very entertaining...
NEVRAS
Ambrosia seed to trust this sorcerer but I didn't even know him. But I trusted her, even when it seed like she was trying to trick , because the outco was usually good. I supposed it might be possible that all of this training was just a waste of ti, but even if that were the case, the fact is she did it to spend ti with . So since her intentions were good, I decided to ignore this possibility entirely and believe that she legit wanted us to train. This didn't an, however, that I had my guard down. I fully expected traps within this mansion. What I didn't expect was to be attacked by creatures right as soon as I entered.
As soon as the door opened, oozes of all sorts rushed out. I hated jellies. In the past, when I tried to attack them, so of them had a powerful digestive system strong enough to corrode steel. I wasn't sure how my sword would hold up, but I decided to give it a try. I lunged at one of the jellies, slashing it towards its core. To my surprise the weapon was untouched. I looked at how the weapon got slid though, and realized I would have to be careful with that heart-shaped pudding that wobbled slowly towards us, because it was substantially thicker. I had just enough ti to think about this when I had to dodge a whip from the side. I looked around and noticed I had about thirty of these suckers to fight, all by myself. The others had their own critters to deal with.
Behind all of those, there was a Slimbeborn cheering them on, but she took one look at , blushed, and puddled herself into a storm drain. We didn't pursue. Sliborns could have all manner of emotions, including shyness, but the truth was that she was more dangerous than the others. There was no sense cornering her.
Ambrosia and Aqorm were working together against the slis. There were a few of them, sowhere above a hundred or two. Lilith looked around for a bit, then decided to join them. Ambrosia, decided to turn her Conception tool into a big mallet, figuring that a good splatter would deal with them. She wasn't wrong, but well, you couldn't effectively swing such a thing like a sword, you pretty much had to swing it overhead like that, making her attacks slow but brutal. Luckily, the slis didn't have anything caustic. They just attacked by bouncing at people, knocking them over and sliming them. The problem was, these things were unpredictable since they could do stuff like jump and stick to the ground to suddenly change direction, so she couldn't use her dodge technique. Aqorm wasn't much good against the slis themselves but managed to keep Ambrosia from being body-slamd to a large extent. Lilith was the real star in this battle though, as her savage style of fighting involved slashing one sli to bits, stabbing another with her tail, and grabbing her pet rock Christina to splatter a bunch of densely packed ones. Unfortunately, when the population got down to less than half, they started reproducing by fission. I looked at my own jellies, which I was making progress against by knocking them back with my shield, and dispensing each with sword techniques. They too were trying to reproduce! There was no end to this!
Michael, Zoe, and Azrael were working together against the pudding ooze. It was tough, because its thick body tended to protect its core from harm, and the three were having trouble agreeing what thod would work the best against its body. I'd help out if I wasn't busy fending off my own critters.
Elias was alternating between healing and using alchemy. He had his brewing pot out and starting throwing sothing in water, then quickly shut the lid, and put it to “vibrate” mode. It rattled and shook, mixing whatever it was correctly. While he healed our acid burns, and the bruises we got from whips and body slams, the pot contained to rattle. Yet I had no idea what he was cooking.
ELIAS
As everyone knows, isopropyl alcohol kills both mold and bacteria, so it was very effective to sothing that is basically both. Essentially, unlike many living things which have a layer of skin covering them, oozes have only fat and water cell mbranes so alcohol is able to bond to them. This exposes their cores, causing them to lose structure and dissolve. But I wasn't making isopropyl alcohol. I was brewing rum. The run had quickly fernted and distilled, and I decided to release the excess moisture by removing the stopper. A thick mist filled the air, and the pudding, jellies, and slis all popped like large bubbles. I put the stopper back on, and after so ti passed, I slowly eased off the pressure and bottled this elixir. We might have so of this later, but for right now, we had work to do. Alchemy was originally for this purpose, but it would wait.
The mansion was built of mostly wood and marble, but its owner didn't care for a lot of frills. The house was grand in size, but there was no Greek revival architecture, no chandeliers, no decorations to speak of except for a sky roof above our heads. It was like a log cabin had been turned into a mansion, plain to the point of oddity. There were two staircases leading upstairs, and three rooms and an open kitchen on the first floor. The floor in the lobby was cobblestone, great for pitfalls or traps. Lilith wandered over toward the kitchen, as I warned, “Hey watch where you...” she stepped on a pressure plate which released a giant boulder from above. “...step,” I finished. She absently raised her arm as if to rub her eyes, and the boulder shattered into pebbles. Lilith didn't even notice. She grabbed so chicken from the storage and cooked it in her hand, before tearing at it with her teeth. Seeing everyone shocked, she looked around and noticed the boulder fragnts. “How did that get there?” she asked.
Carefully, we checked each room. The lower right room, an all-wood room, was the mansion's dining room. It had an long table with slats that could be removed and so lights that looked like modifications of the Glow Orb design. A cabinet held dishes of all sorts, and Ambrosia insisted that Lilith sit down to eat. She didn't really say how though. The won scrunched her feet and behind into the chair in a squat position, letting her tail wag behind her. The wooden shaker chair had slots where her tail could slip through, and we saw her munching away contentedly without a care in the world. A three-headed calico cat walked by, and demanded petting. These critters could sotis behave as leaders for other chira, but this one seed harmless. Its heads each seed to have a personality. The left head looked hungry all the ti, knowing cats this head would probably only eat food that appeared fresh. The right head looked sleepy, and probably kept the rest of its body well-rested. This middle head was obviously the main head, it was friendly to family and to people who looked like they might like pets, but scared of strangers. It was grumpy if left alone, but also randomly nudged people with its head. We gave it a pet, rubbing near the ears and neck. It started leaning towards us with another head. Lilith petted the other head at the sa ti, and the third head owed for attention. After this, the cat rolled over on her belly, and we rubbed that too.
The rest of us explored more of the house. I walked carefully, just in case anyone needed healing. Aqorm used her sharp eyes to spot traps. She pointed one on the floor that was kinda cross-shaped, and then pressed down on it with her fingertips, pressing slightly on the left side. The trap apparently fired a volley of arrows from left to right at the space around the pressure plate. After it finished, she decided to test out whether there was any ammo left or whether the trap was completely sprung. She pressed this ti on the right side of the switch. This ti, arrows ca from the opposite direction. “Everyone duck!” Aqorm said. She pressed the center, and the arrows flew from all directions. Searching around, Aqorm found four other rock panels that seed able to be pressed, two long ones and two were round. She pressed the pressure plate up, up, down, down, left, right, left, and right. Then she hit two of the round stones and tried the long stone on the right. The raised stones sunk and we were able to pass the trapped area to our right. We could move freely again!
“Wait, how'd you know to do that exact pattern?” I asked. Aqorm explained, “Oh that? That's the secret code to the universe.” We headed to the upper right room, which turned out to be a library. Most of his books appeared to be about ti-space theory, strange rituals, or thods of making artificial life through golems and chira. In one corner of the room was a diary. It seed to be about his experints. After his wife died, he started working on making lifeforms, and talking in depth about his deal with Belial and his motives for the deal. It was all very dry and scientific, and I read it as such. But when I looked up, there was not a dry eye, even Lilith who had just walked in after finishing her food. What’s wrong? It was just a notebook with science formulas, why were they getting so emotional?
Leaving that area, we decided to check through the last room on the first floor, the one which had stone walls and a mithril door. I opened the door and was surprised to notice that the inside of both the door and the wall had bars reinforcing them. I looked around the room and saw test tubes, flickering lights, giant vats, beakers, and several tools like a bunsen burner, droppers, funnels, and the biggest forceps I'd ever seen. And then I saw a few chira, but not friendly like the cat. I suddenly understood why this door had bars on it. These beasts were a blend of leopard/ibex/snake or pig/hawk/zebra. The flying pigs started flapping their wings to dive-bomb while the others hopped forward. Thinking quickly, I slamd the door shut, and I was about to lock it, when Michael said, “Wait. I'll fight them off.” Confused, I said, “But... why? The room is well-barricaded, even if they rush the doors. It was obviously designed to keep these beasts in.” Michael drew his sword, “Those things are abominations. They were created not by God but by man through twisted experints.”
And he was about to destroy them, when we were interrupted again. Spare them, my servant Michael, said God, for I have ordained that even such beings shall have a soul. Mankind will be co-Creators with , even those these things appear deford. Just like that, he sheathed his sword, and walked away from the area, without so much as a grunt of complaint.
We headed toward the stairs, but just as we ca to a section between them, so sort of circle glowed with runes, and an alarm sounded. “Huh?!?” Ambrosia said, “I thought you said that you could detect traps!” Aqorm shook her head, as did I. I explained, “That's a magical circle made from sensing runes. When we stepped here, it sent an alarm whoever is hiding up here.” And so, more chira crawled out of the woodwork. These appeared to be a hybrid of fish and humans, or bats and humans. And they all had weapons. We were done for.
NEVRAS
The others have a difficult ti with battles like this, fighting against long-ranged and quick fighters. Ambrosia and Elias largely stayed out of the way, Lilith got another snack, and Michael said sothing along the lines of not wanting it to be too easy for the group to win and went to the library to find so reading material. anwhile, Aqorm took out her knives and chucked them at a few of the fishn, downing seven of them. The others started cocking their crossbows, and fired on us!
While only myself, Azrael, and Zoe were actively fighting beyond Aqorm's lucky throw, they didn't seem to care. Ambrosia got grazed by a shot, the arrow flying just past her shoulder. Elias moved to heal her, but then Elias got an arrow to the knee. And the hip, and he got shot in the arm. Uh oh, this wasn't supposed to happen. If our healer died, we'd be in trouble! Besides which, Elias was a decent guy and didn't deserve this.
I knew my weapons from being in the military. The arrows would rain down slowly because unlike the average longbow, a crossbow was not designed to hold multiple arrows and took longer to set up. The advantage to a crossbow is higher draw-weight, and the bolts are usually tal, and it takes less strength and training on the part of the person using. But a mini-crossbow like they were using fires only small bolts, and doesn't have enough power to pierce decent armor. In a test of firing speed against a crossbow, a longbow could fire powerful shots every 5-6 seconds (about 10-11 tis a minute), while either crossbow had a lot of setup and thus was closer to 6-7 tis a minute. All of us got hit, but it didn't do much harm to
or Azrael since we wore armor and these were only mini-crossbows. Despite taking several arrows, Elias would be alright as long as he was treated properly.
We were in real danger, as the chira creatures continued firing, and Azrael needed to heal multiple people at once. She could use Recover to heal everyone, but there were logistical issues, since she had to remove these bolts one by one while healing. If she made a barrier, she might not have enough mystic power to spare for healing everyone. Fortunately, seeming dumb luck saved everyone. When Elias got knocked back, sohow he landed right on a pressure plate. Unlike the rest of the traps, this one seed to be designed in case projectiles were fired in this particular area. What a coincidence! Because of this “trap” we were able to avoid getting skewered by arrows, and Elias was able to stay inside this barrier to rest and recover.
In any case, a big do of energy covered the area around us and screened out the other arrows. She looked around. Aqorm had no injuries, since as a half-elf, she was trained from birth to reflexively dodge arrows. And Lamarck was right, generations of doing sothing altered your genetics. Zoe, however had two arrows in her body, in her elbow and near her waist. Lilith and Michael were unhurt. I had blocked their attacks with my shield, and my armor would have lightened damage from attacks anyway. Azrael started to heal everyone. Before Azrael could do any healing though, she would have to heal herself, as she had a bolt in her stomach. If she were to lose consciousness, the barrier would fail, and most of us would die. Carefully but swiftly, she yanked the bolt out of her flesh, and healed herself before continuing. She needed to take a breather from the strain, but she managed to stay conscious during this ti. She was very lucky, since where the area hit was near many internal organs, and just a bit closer and it wouldn't have mattered how fast she healed, she would be dead of blood poisoning before she started. Picking herself up, she started work on those that she could quickly heal, skipping , Aqorm, Lilith, and Michael. Ambrosia only required a minor heal, and then she moved on to Zoe. She pulled out her arrows a lot more carefully than her own, and healed these one at a ti. Elias, on the other hand, despite being last to be healed and having three distinct arrow wounds, she just pulled these out in rapid succession and gave him a generalized healing. Elias stayed to do so healing on himself, since he didn't trust this rushed treatnt. Being largely done with healing, Azrael drank a mana potion after all of that and sat down.
Zoe had a longbow, but rarely used it in favor of her scythe. She pulled it out now though. She had to step outside the barrier, as did Aqorm, since arrows and techniques seed to get screened from both directions. Aqorm managed to take three down in rapid succession with her knives, before dodging out of the way of a stray crossbow shot. I stayed inside, since my techniques would probably destroy the place, and since I was mainly a short-ranged fighter otherwise. I needed to conserve my strength for other fights. The two of them were unprotected from ranged attacks, but it didn't seem to matter. Zoe fired with enough speed that she drilled a hole through one of them, hitting the wall behind upstairs, before she was even fired on. She plucked another arrow from her quiver, and hit another one, also killing it instantly. She did this three more tis. While all of this was happening, Aqorm pulled out her Golden Bow that we had gotten as a result of helping that lady out. The crossbow was designed to string itself using a bar of which pulled the string back when the crossbow cocked, and a sort of hook to keep it in place. She placed the arrow just ahead of the string, folded the bow to pull the string back, pressed forward a small tab that acted as a safety, fitted the bolt all the way back where the string was, and pulled the trigger. Aqorm didn't have bolts as big or as powerful as Zoe's and they had a standard bodkin head, rather than the compound head of Zoe's arrows. They were also shorter and lighter, because it was a mini-crossbow. That is not to say that her weapon was anything like theirs. This is called the Golden Bow because of its color, not because it was made of gold. Actually, it was made of adamant, a material of golden color that was known for its extre durability and the ability of weapons made from it to pierce hard substances. The strings of the bow themselves were made from adamant, as was the body, as were the bolts, and it was able to take much more pressure, allowing it to penetrate even stone golems as though they were made of cotton. The bolt, though small, drilled right through on of these fishn from mouth to tail, killing it instantly, and hit sothing on the other side of the wall upstairs. We heard a high-pitched scream from another room, then rustling like soone or sothing was leaving the room. Zoe finished off the others, but so angry critters flew at us. These ones were hard to hit with a bow and arrow, so I figured it was my turn.
Azrael stayed inside the barrier as she had basically spent a ton of mystic power healing everyone, and didn't want to be injured again. Aqorm and Zoe went inside briefly to switch out their weapons to their regular ones, and rushed outside Zoe was managed to catch quite a few in a combo of Water and Lightning magic, but she spread out a wide net because they had dodged seven or eight single-targeting magic attacks, and to make it effective took more mystic power than she anticipated. She had also used a fair amount of unsuccessful attacks against that pudding earlier. She was magically exhausted, and Azrael looked like she was that way too. The two of them slept, backs to each other, while those recovering guarded them. It was just Aqorm and
left fighting. Aqorm was fast enough to keep up with these bat creatures herself, as long as the odds were close to even, but I was having trouble. My swings were fast, but it wasn't a solid hit even when I managed to hit these creatures. When I tried to use techniques, they heard
calling out my attack, and quickly dodged or took to the air. I needed sothing fast, which I could do without calling it out. I needed an answer like Silent Spells for casters, so technique that was designed just as simple very fast strike. Fortunately for , the nature of techniques is that they are adaptable, so I simplified the concept Speed Slash into one even faster attack that I could use without saying it aloud, and decided this would be known as Swift Strike. A bat leaped towards , and I surprised it by suddenly raising the speed of my swing, fast enough that it was cut. I cut it again with an uppercut swing, also at much higher speed. I dealt with another which was flying over
preparing to swoop down and stab
with his knife by jumping in the air and delivering a slash, cutting this one in half. Aqorm used geomancy, using the wood from the area she was standing to create a mass of vines that impeded these bat things. After this, we made short work of these creatures.
With my sword, I cleared away these vines and we put them in the kitchen chimney to be burned later. We all walked upstairs. The second floor had two rooms, the one those bats ca from, and a second one on the right. Most of the group walked into the bigger room on the left, except for Lilith and Michael, who weren't team players. The room had so bureaus and shelves that we could search, but we were worried about so other critter coming in, so we closed the door.
So of the book shelves taught us more about what Yazim Jianne had been researching, how he had managed to summon Belial, and there were even notes about what he had in the last few days. Hoping to find out more, I opened a desk, and heard a strange clicking sound. No matter, I found so more useful things in this desk, like an architectural layout for the mansion. I realized the room right next to this one had a staircase to the third floor, and that there was a master bedroom up there. I also found a key. Odd, when I reached toward the desk to close it, I had to stand back a bit, almost like the furniture was closer than a few second ago. But that was impossible, the desk was bolted to the floor! In fact, even the book shelves were. Nothing was moving at all, unless the room itself did, floor and all. I looked at the house schematics, and it noted so of the traps we had encountered earlier in a sort of shorthand that was only understandable later. This room for instance, had a symbol x near the table I had just touched in the room, ntioning sothing about opening it a certain way. It also had strange arrows extending from the walls on the map. I looked behind
briefly and the bookcase opposite
also seed closer. Probably, it was just my imagination. The others seed scared about sothing. The room was kind of cramped, but I didn't see any imdiate danger.
YAZIM JIANNE
As you might have guessed, this room slowly compacts up to about 6 feet or so high using a false ceiling. It has comparatively high ceilings so my bat people can rest on the ceiling, but the walls continue to close until crushing others within the room. And no, there aren't any spikes, nor is it so tight as to crush those within to pulp. Instead, when the trap is triggered, the door locked, and the room remained tight for about an hour or two before unlocking, rending them unconscious from lack of air. I wasn't cruel enough to suck out all the air in the room, which would make them dead in a matter of minutes. A silent alarm notified
that soone was caught in the trap, and I typically either used them in my experints or fed them to my chira. But no more of that now, I had been trying to turn over a new leaf lately. It's just that people were threatening
by invading my ho. I had a right to do with them what I wanted, after all. They were trying to attack .
If sohow people climbed over the wall, they had enough air for at least six hours or so and could technically survive until the trap reset. But this too was a trap. There was a motion sensor just above the wall line, and if it noticed anyone, it would send out a supersonic frequency that woke up my bat people. There's no way they would escape this room. Even if they did, my house had so many traps, even I couldn’t rember them.
Also, that barrier switch they activated was no coincidence. I had discovered another
setting it up one day. This Yazim Jianne was from the future. He said that he was a ti traveler from later this year. Apparently, after the group was drilled through with holes, Belial had decided to go ahead and rge the New Earth with the Realm of Void. This Yazim Jianne ca back to sabotage my carefully laid traps. Worse, that her changed the tiline ant he didn't even exist anymore so I couldn't even punish myself for disobedience later. I hate Future . I an, I knew that they needed to succeed in order to stop Belial. But still, I had built this house to be safe from the outside world. What were they thinking, coming in here when I was still mourning and ddling?
NEVRAS
It may surprise you know that I have mild claustrophobia, which is why I was in denial of what was happening to the room for so long. But then, who really wants to be in a cramped tiny space anyway?
The walls grew closer, then closer, and even closer. Furniture moved with the floor since was bolted to it, yet sohow the books stayed on the shelf. We tried to stay away from taller furniture as that would completely trap us, instead getting on top of low tables. More troubling, a solid platform just above the bookcases on either side was pulling out. Even if we sohow managed not to be crushed, we would probably suffocate if the top was closed on us. Aqorm, being a half-elf, managed to climb over the bookcase and on the platform. “Grab hold,” she said as she pulled
and Ambrosia up, one at a ti. She was stronger than she looked, I guess. Once the two of us were up there, we helped Elias, Zoe, and Azrael up. Only, sohow or other, Azrael stumbled and fell below. The false ceiling closed around her.
ZOE
I was not about to let Azrael suffocate to death. The rule of three said, “You can survive three minutes of severe bleeding, without breathable air , or in icy water; you can survive three hours in a harsh environnt (extre heat or cold); you can survive three days without drinkable water; or you can survive three weeks without edible food.” The room had so air still in it, but it wouldn't last for more than a few hours. I had little ti to save her, so I was tense as anything. And yet, I decided to calm myself. This was when my Sage trance was most effective, even though I hadn't fully mastered it yet. My eyes closed, and suddenly they opened fully, and I was completely transford. My eyes filled with the color of gold. My hair turned an intense color of silver, and I stepped hard on a section of ceiling, unexpectedly breaking a large section around my feet. I knocked down so of the extended wall sections on the way down, crumbling them to rubble. Azrael, free from being pinned, stepped forward and caught . I was losing consciousness, since I hadn't really recovered from all the exertion earlier.
This shouldn’t happen. My Sage abilities don’t use mystic power, and my body heals itself by absorbing the natural energy known as senju. There is usually a ti limit, but as long as I am outside, I can recover from exhaustion and even fairly bad wounds by going into my Sage trance. And of course, beefing up my physical ability and being able to see and touch runes easily is nothing to scoff at easier. But all of this assus that I have access to natural energy. I looked around at the carved stone, the manmade tal and glass, and the artificial wood of this furniture. I had made a mistake.
I would definitely pass out here. But it looked liked I wouldn't suffocate down here. I woke to find myself safe, and Azrael was with . What had happened?
AZRAEL
While Zoe slept, I saw a fishing line co down from above the false ceiling. I was strongly reminded of a Buddhist parable, in which a violent criminal steps aside for one small spider before becoming caught and executed. In the Afterlife, the Buddha sent a strand of spider's web to pull this wicked man up, but seeing others try to co with him, he struggled against them and the thread broke leaving him down there. This story was a reminder that while the Christ offered Grace to humans in regard to the Afterlife, how you ought to try to treat other creatures as you would want to be treated. In other versions of the story, the evil person gave a beggar an onion, so strands of that... anyway, basically the sa story. So I imagine anything would do, not just a spider. I wasn't going to make the mistake of the criminal. I sent Zoe up first, wrapping her body in fishing line. Then, wrapped it around myself, as the others helped Ambrosia pull
up.
We were stuck here for awhile, so we called Lilith and Michael for help, and I heard, “Oh, all right,” coming from outside the door. Without effort, she casually tore the locked door off its hinges, and shattered all the extended wall portions. “Okay everyone,” she said, “co on out!” Carefully, we climbed back down to the tables and such below. I made it outside while carrying her. She was fine now.
Zoe awoke, and was safe in my arms. She was too cute while she was sleeping to simply wake up, so I told her to rest in my arms. We stopped in the hallway to rest while the others continued toward Yazim Jianne’s stronghold. While the others were gone we curled around each other like two leopard slugs, exploring each other blindly, slling each other, and tasting each other. Thankfully, they returned much later, not when we were naked and holding each other closely. It wasn’t sexual. We just needed to be close.
YAZIM JIANNE
This cannot be! Curses! Foiled again! And other villainous cliche sayings! Scrying the whole event in my crystal ball, I looked around and noticed that they had also taken care of my fishn, my batn, and my various breeds of gelatinous creatures. And all they had to do was storm upstairs, and they would kill
as well.
Surrogate Lover # 2 sensed my fear and anxiety, and told , “Co to bed dear, there's no sense fighting people who want to see you.” You know, she had a point, if these people were decent, they would listen to reason. If not, I may as well die like I wanted, killed while having the best sex ever. And so, I set about tearing off Surrogate Lover # 2's clothing. As she was an experint, I hadn't given her fine clothes, just a n's shirt, short skirt, and long lab jacket. She didn't even had undergarnts, as I wasn't going to give her Sarai's stuff.
As a chira, she was appealing, in a slightly odd way. She had long healthy-yet-unkempt chestnut hair that extended to her ankles, yellow eyes like a cat, and her ears were very soft. I nibbled on them while I pulled off her shirt and jacket, exposing her perky breasts to
while I also sucked on those. She was obviously aroused, because she groaned softly, and scratched my back. The claws ca out. I would need a healer later. I pulled off her skirt, and the lab shoes that I had given her as my research assistant, and then I led her to my bed.
She was an animal. We lay with each other, having so rough sex, as every now and then she'd forget that I was her master, and animal impulses would take over. I got bitten, scratched, and kicked rather frequently, and sohow made it out alive. I had rougher sex anyway, when I was with Sarai.
The mark of a villain with regard to sex is that they have pleasure themselves but deny it for their lover, stopping them from coming. But I wasn't about to do that with a wild girl who could tear my head off if she got upset. I settled for the other mark of a villainous lover, to completely ignore anyone trying to interrupt their sex. And so, when Ambrosia's little group ca along, I just kept on until I climaxed. Then I kept on until she orgasd. Four tis.
Finally, I looked up, and I addressed them. “So? Are you here to kill ?” I asked. Aqorm answered, “We weren't gonna, but you kinda made us impatient, so maybe?” Ambrosia hushed her, then shook her head, “We need your help, actually. You can use sorcery, and besides which we got this Transport Coin and wanted to have it altered.” She showed it to , and I knew. She had in fact returned to the right tiline. This was the Ambrosia I t in the Eternal Town.
I took a closer look at the Transport Coin. The original design allowed living and nonliving items to be called from other dinsions temporarily. It was a simple summoning spell that had virtually no accuracy when calling from the sa dinsion. I don't rember making it for her, but obviously so point in the near future this will happen in her past. That ans, I would send so female follower of mine back to the original tiline, according to Ambrosia. Now that we were all together, however, I had a chance to properly look at this.
It appeared so sorcerers had attuned this Transport Coin to sync better with the ship and the dragon. This was obviously a hack job though, so I worked through the process of resetting the enchantnt. When most wonder-workers enchant things, it locks up their mystic power, but sorcery works differently. The ritual did need a source of power, but I had a chart of ley lines, and the nearest one was inches from my doorstep. Since ley lines could gradually renew energy, I had no need to worry.
Our group made the trip to a nearby canyon, where an exact location contained all the energy I needed. The Transport Coin was a blank slate, able to attune to two objects of my choosing and to summon them correctly this ti, drawing them to the location of the Coin. Ordinarily, after using the ritual, I would then need to locate their dragon Bahamut and the exact ship, and attune to them to complete the ritual. However, I already had rough outlines based on their ddling, so recopied all information into one notebook shortly before the ritual. All the words from the notebook started flowing out of the pages and rged into a single custom rune. I did the ritual using ley lines as planned, and linked them up without ever having seen either the dragon or the ship.. Moving to a beach, I used the Transport Coin and I was suddenly staring at a giant ship. We were done. I would be traveling with this group soon.
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