I was watching from the walls as the soldiers rode out on horseback, approaching the corpse of that giant beast in a wedge formation. Was I anxious? Yes. It would be a lie to say otherwise.
"I wanted to go..." rlin grumbled, standing on a box beside , but I refused to let him head out with my father. He was ready to go wherever I told him to when he arrived with the reinforcent, bringing extra clothes to cover every part of the soldiers. After coming to the walls and seeing the dead beast, he was like a hamster on coffee, squealing incoherently.
"Only when everything is confird to be safe and no sooner! You tremble like an overexcited chihuahua; calm down! It won't go anywhere. I hope."
"I don't know what that is, My Lord, but of course I am excited! Look at that monster! How cool is that?!"
"It was terrifying..."
"Ah... Y-yes..." He stopped, lowering his head, saying nothing more, beginning to rummage in his inner pockets. "Good thing we completed these..." He mumbled, trying to dial back on his excitent as he pulled out the first rudintary telescopes we built, watching as the soldiers approached the dead beast through it.
"I agree." With a nod, I also followed suit, anxiously watching my father. The plans for it were not made by this ti, but they were brought back by one of our traders who visited other regions within the Empire. The first year was rough, as we were looked down upon in most places, and nobody wanted to do business with us. But by the second year, we had finally managed to establish so proper contacts, not with nobles but with wealthy but rankless families.
It was better than I thought because we could get our hands on so rarer resources and a few blueprints without too much hassle. Of course, they were nothing that counted as cutting-edge, only simple, old technology that the Empire had already discarded and was using sothing else at a higher level. One such item was the telescopes in our hands, as I learned that the Empire's military had an even better version by now.
"I wish we had a radio..." I murmured, and rlin imdiately caught my words.
"What's that?"
"An instrunt that would let us talk via long distances. Do you rember the warning devices the rchants had on them?"
"Um. We are also using it in the mines."
"We do?" I looked at him, surprised.
"I didn't bother you with the details because it was a minor thing, but you signed it, My Lord!" He added with a chuckle, and as I thought back... I stamped a request two years ago to establish an ergency response system. Huh. "I made it so they can inform us as soon as possible if a collapse happens or sothing similar, anything that requires an ergency response. The idea ca to after the destruction of the first temple!"
"This is why you are my right hand..." I added with a smile, rubbing his head like always. "The radio, to answer your previous question, is similar. People who have it on them can communicate over long distances. You speak into it, and on the other end, they hear what you say without delay and can answer back."
"That would be so useful! It would... it would be better than the newspaper! Instant news! Knowing everything when it happens!"
"Yeah, but building sothing like that... even with the amount of knowledge we have is so far away, it hurts my head. I still only managed to print out around half of the books I flipped through in the Empress's private library; I can't focus on it at all tis and comb through that knowledge, or I would go mad from it!"
"Worry not, I read every book and morize them all!" He giggled, grinning, and I wasn't doubting him. The little hamster had a better brain than . Even though I could photograph and recall information quickly, understanding all of that was a different question altogether. He? This little bastard could learn it way faster than ! Sotis, I felt jealous... but only for a little.
While we talked, my father did reach the corpse, and we watched as they surrounded it. After making sure it was dead, they began climbing up on its body, testing the hardness of its shell. Watching them, I heard that my Mom and Sasha had also arrived, looking on with horror at the monstrosity lying there, plugging up the pass with its body. Now, I finally understand what Mikki-2 told us, and the decor of that corpse showed how a fully built army could die just like that. What else was out there if this type of thing could live and evolve on the other side? Maybe beasts lived there, ones that wouldn't even fit through this pass? I was glad that the mountains were here, or we may have been in great trouble.
When they returned, the sun was already halfway below the horizon, and we were studying the pieces of the monster they had brought back. Its shell was made out of keratin; at least, that is what I thought. It resembled how horns or antlers felt to the touch, but I could have been wrong. It was hard and heavy; simply hacking it with swords did little to no damage to it. It needed blunt force, as when hamrs hit it; after a dozen well-placed strikes, so dents and cracks finally appeared on it.
The other thing I examined that night was its foul-slling blood. It was vivid green but didn't glow in the dark. I hope this ant it wasn't radioactive. Besides being nasty and sowhat sticky, it didn't prove to be poisonous after being sared on a pig. We even fed a little to it. Still, we decided to keep a watch on the animal for the next couple of days and forbade anybody from touching it directly. I wasn't going to take it leisurely.
It was hard sleeping that night as my mind was racing, wanting to go and see the beast up close for myself. Luckily, no second wave or another giant monster tried coming through, so we could relax a little. When morning ca, and Sasha and I walked out of our room, rlin was already there, dressed, almost bouncing in place, urging us to go. He couldn't sit still at breakfast either, finishing it in two bites, going on and on about the samples that he was 'playing' with since early morning.
"I don't like this." Sasha exclaid as I climbed my horse, but it was my Mother who answered her, holding her hand.
"Accept it. If sothing happens to you, that would be the worst outco. Now, you are doing what we tell you, understand? You are no longer only responsible for your and my son's health but my future grandson! Or granddaughter! You stay here, young lady!"
"I wouldn't argue!" I shrugged, rembering my father's advice, making her smile softly as she knew there was no way any of us would let her follow .
"Relax, I'll be back in a mont's notice!" I winked at her before riding out, rlin sitting behind , almost standing on a horse to see better.
When we arrived, I ensured everyone wore their gloves, hoodies, and scarves wrapped around their mouth and nose. Not that it needed to be told twice the closer we got to it...
"I don't know what this thing was eating, but it had to be the worst thing on this earth!" I grunted, with my scarf wrapped around my mouth, hiding a scented soap within, but it wasn't helping much. I wasn't alone with the assessnt, as the other soldiers, including rlin, nodded rapidly at my words. After we stopped, our horses began complaining with loud neighs, but there was nothing they could do. I watched as my excited Pri Minister jumped off and ran in the knee-deep snow, beginning to examine the openings on the monster's back, right where our cannons hit it.
"I can see multiple organs within! Plus, it's blood is getting crystallized! Is it because of the cold, or is it because it's a demon?" He asked nobody in particular, shoveling so snow away with frozen, green blood tainting it. "Huh..." He stopped suddenly, looking around and then tilting his head left and right.
"What is it?" I asked, waiting for his assessnt, my heart rate increasing.
"I feel the presence of CC... and it has to be a big one..."
Looking at his eyes... he wasn't lying. I knew he wasn't. Holy... Shit. With a loud order, I commanded everyone to back off, get further away, and keep clear of its blood. We hurriedly set up a periter around the body, digging in and creating trenches while I sent back the word so Mom and Sasha wouldn't get a panic attack on the walls, watching us.
When the preparations were done, I told rlin to try to focus on the feeling of CC and summon a magic formation. Let us see what happens then...
"Worry not, My Lord! I am much better by now!"
At first, nothing happened when he began chanting, speaking out the nas of the runes while his hand stretched forward. It was my first ti seeing him this seriously, and he didn't even try wordless casting. It was around the twentieth rune when there was a response.
"Um... My Lord..." rlin shuddered, looking back at while we saw a red magic ring appear above the corpse.
"Tell it is you..."
"No..."
"BRACE FOR IMPACT!" I roared, rushing out and dragging the boy back as everyone ducked into the snow trench.
When no explosion ca, I peeked, and it was just the right ti to see a massive flaming column rise to the sky.
"Fuck..."
It was luckily contained around the base of the corpse, burning so hot it lted the snow all around us. Even in our trench, it felt like standing in the proximity of an open kiln where steel was being superheated. Right when it was getting dangerously bad, just as it ca, it was gone. Now drenched, muddied, and nearly cooked, we looked back up to see the smoking and smoldering carcass of the giant monster. What remained were its white bones, its shell... and a giant dodecahedron rolling out of its shell. It was still glowing as the formation disappeared and the world returned to normalcy.
"What spell did you try?" I asked rlin, feeling it hard to find my voice.
"I wanted to burn a hole into it..." He murmured, sounding guilty.
"Well... next ti, try just making it weightless, okay?"
"Hauh..."
...
....
......
"I can't believe it!" I exclaid for the hundredth ti, standing in the castle's main ground, looking at the giant, raw CC standing before us. It was the size of a small shed, and both rlin and Sasha confird that it was charged to the brim, even after that little stunt we pulled. I don't need to say, but neither my Mom nor Sasha was pleased... and my ears were still ringing just thinking about it.
Well... we were all lucky, not just us. Mainly because if this CC was that charged, all the mines would have exploded around us. Thank the Six Gods that this monstrosity strolled far enough to trigger them all.
" neither." They replied, and rlin stepped forward, giggling and raising the whole thing. "Look! I am super strong!"
"Don't break it, kiddo!" I snorted, grinning, seeing him play with the giant 'crystal.'
"What could this an...?" Sasha whispered, but I had no answer. "Such a beast, having sothing within itself..." I had no answer for her.
Were all beasts like this? Or only the big ones? How did this thing get into their bodies? Do they eat it, and it accumulates within them? Or are they born with it? Whatever the case was, it explained why so of them could use spells. They had an internal magic engine that they could tap into by instinct. I couldn't help but agree with an old quote... Nature always finds a way.
"Are we going to break it up? We could manufacture so many CCs from this!" rlin shouted, putting it down and hopping back to us while Oleg and the rest were preparing to take it back to Avalon. I already explained to them that because it is charged, they MUST avoid any and all formations, or it may activate them.
"We will, but we will also keep a big chunk of it back. Didn't we need this to begin our project?"
"Woah!" rlin shuddered, his eyes beginning to glow and sparkle like stars, "I totally forgot about it! Yes, yes! This would be perfect!"
"What I am also curious about are the bones." I added, turning my attention toward the multiple boxes of it. After examining the corpse and what remained of it, the bones within were... unique. Examining all of them, we ca to the conclusion they had runes on them. Everything pointed in that direction. How did they get on there? No idea, but we will bring all of it back and study it. This was sothing wild... wilder than the CC itself.
"What are you going to do with the rest of the corpse?" My Mom asked, walking up to us, wearing a scarf and spraying perfu in the air with a grumpy expression.
"Nature will do its course. Even if it isn't harmful and rlin here cooked it, I wouldn't eat it. No way. So, we will let it decompose and let the earth absorb it. Then, we can collect the rest of its bones-"
"I am coming with you." She interrupted at once. "I already told Kalash. I am not staying here! Not until the stench is gone!"
"Sure." I shrugged, watching her leave the mont I agreed, with Sasha elbowing .
"Bully..."
"Why?" rlin asked, looking confused before my wife began explaining.
"Leon wants her to go to Avalon so she can teach more traders and fulfill her role as a Minister. The Traders Guild is operating nicely, but we can't make already experienced caravaners stay back and instruct the newcors. We want to expand our available rchants... So she needs to be in Avalon for that to select and teach them! What Leon failed to ntion is that I am already preparing a formation for you, rlin, to burn the corpse away so we can collect the rest of its skeleton."
"I think she knows." I added, turning back towards the giant CC. "She would have co with us anyway, as she will keep an eye on you at all tis."
"Huh?" Sasha flinched, finally comprehending it.
"Yeah, get used to it, my dear. Now that you are pregnant... Mom will be your new shadow, making sure you deliver a healthy child!"
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