Amazon Apocalypse 7: Chapter 16

Camlaan settled down nicely as I ushered in the new administration. I'd underestimated the ambition of some people in court and had delegated a lot of my work much faster than expected. That was perfectly fine by me, since I had a new fabricator in space to play with, and it had just finished printing a giant mech suit for me. I couldn't wait to show Adrian when he got back.

But as I had the thought, a cold chill crawled its way along my spine. Something was wrong. I tapped my current project and it folded into itself, shrinking from a giant building-sized robot to something more backpack sized.

I left, spending only enough time to tell Mimiko and Reluna where I was going.

"I'm going to check on Adrian and Bridget and make sure everything's alright. I'll be back before the end of the day," I said, waving to them both.

I activated the teleportation array only to find nothing was happening. The array technician on the other end must have been ignoring me for some reason, and that only added to my anxiety.

"It's only a feeling, relax..." I muttered to myself.

I forced myself to calm down, though it wasn't helping. Ever since picking up my fate-sensitive bloodline, I'd learned to trust my gut.

I took another route and pointed myself toward Shadefall, where my enchantment company's private array technician was waiting for me.

"Thulga, I'm glad you're here. Have you heard any news? Anything out of Glacia? Or concerning the Dragon Lodge?" I asked anxiously.

"Hell yeah I have. I've been teleporting Amazonian warriors over all day," Thulga replied. She only looked at me for a moment before she glanced back at a recording crystal she was viewing. When she saw I was interested, she turned it toward me so I could see as well. It looked surprisingly like the magical equivalent of a news broadcaster in the middle of a disaster zone.

"An unprecedented void incursion has occurred on one of the planets surrounding Glacia, one of the Dragon Lodge's key worlds. The Dragon Lodge is currently asking all available lodge members to make their way to the disaster site and assist the Glacian Imperial Army in dealing with the threat," the news broadcaster said.

"How old is this?" I asked.

"Minutes old. It was delivered through one of the mail channels we array technicians sometimes use," Thulga said.

Just like that, my worst fears had been realized. The horrible feeling I had must have been because Adrian was in danger right now.

"Send me over too."

Thulga shrugged, stood, and began working. "Teleportation into Glacia is jammed up right now. I'll drop you off on a lesser-known array on one of the minor planets. This one's owned by some princess. It specializes in farming experience pearls for the Dragon Lodge, so it should be a quiet place to land."

"Do it."

Blue energy swirled around me, and soon I was off. The trip was a bit more reminiscent of my first trip under Thulga's guidance, where she worked without a teleportation array at all to pluck me off Earth and bring me to Themyscira.

When the light finally faded, the peaceful experience farming world Thulga described was nowhere to be found. I blinked and realized I was floating in space amidst a pile of debris, part of which must have been the teleportation array Thulga was targeting.

I glanced down and saw a ravaged planet beneath me. There was a great crater drilling deep down into the planet's core. Liquid stone and metal had spilled out, coating the land and turning it into a hellscape of magma and smoke. Anyone under D-Grade was probably already dead.

There was only one void creature I knew of that could deal that kind of damage, and sure enough I saw it in action nearby. A Demon Moon appeared nearby, this time only slightly smaller than the one that attacked Crownhill. But unlike that one, this thing wasn't restricted by the System and could bring its full power to bear.

Just about anywhere else such a creature appearing would be an apocalyptic threat. But Glacia was no provincial border planet populated only by C-Grades and B-Grades. My father-in-law, the God-King of Glacia, was a powerful A-Grade.

His world boasted a shield every bit as strong as the one the System had placed over Earth for the integration, and from the looks of things it had already blocked three deadly beams of death star-like attacks. Now, the Demon Moon was heavily wounded as it contended with a swarm of several thousand B-Grades from both the Dragon Lodge and the Glacian imperial army, with more of them arriving by the moment.

Emergency Quest Alert!

By order of the God-King of Glacia, all able bodies must join in the defense of Glacia. Rewards will be distributed based on battle merit.

Emergency Draftee Notice!

All available members of the Dragon Lodge are to accept at least one emergency quest, either to protect and organize civilians or to battle the void incursion. Rewards will be distributed based on battle merit.

System Regional Quest.

A large-scale void incursion has been detected in this region of System space!

Assist in defense of the Arcadia Multiverse. All monsters slain will grant greatly boosted experience points.

Multiple quests came in one after another, first from Ted, then from the Dragon Lodge, and then from the System itself. This really was an emergency. I barreled toward Glacia. Void monsters of various sizes stood in my way. Several Void City Eaters traversed the void, but I'd slain these things before.

One reared its manta ray shaped fleshy wing at me, and I overcharged a Sunlight Spear with as much mana as I could muster and threw it. It slammed into the monster and punched a hole straight through it, which I flew through on my way to Glacia. Behind me, the monster screamed and writhed from its grievous wound. Somebody else could finish it off.

I ignored it as I flew down to Glacia's surface. The shield defending the planet was a powerful thing, but I was pretty good at bypassing even the most powerful shields, and the barrier around Glacia was no different. I appeared on the planet's surface, and from there made my way to the city containing the crystal arch bridge leading to Mucaria. But when I got there I found my path blocked by a small group of armed wizards that looked like school teachers pressed into guard duty.

"I need to get through," I said, flashing my Jade medallion.

"The mystic realm is locked down to prevent any void incursions. Even you can't get through, sir," one wizard guarding the entrance said. He had an awkward air about him, and I suspected he'd been drafted by the same quest I'd received.

"My wife and child are in there. I need to see them," I insisted.

The wizard's expression softened. "I'm sorry, sir. But lots of people are in the same position, and we don't want to risk endangering anyone's loved ones by opening the mystic realm back up."

My eyes skimmed the area behind the guards. The Mucaria Mystic realm was still there, and I could probably break into it given time. Doing so would be bad for my relationship with the Dragon Lodge, but I was considering it. In the end though, the wizard on duty offered a better alternative.

"Give me your wife and child's names and descriptions. I'll ask people on the inside to check in with them and verify they're alright for you. For now, the best thing you can do for them is help make sure this system is safe enough for us to open up again." The wizard flashed me a nervous look, as though fearing things might come to blows. He was only C-Grade, and I was certain he could tell I was a B-Grade.

In the end though, I forced myself to calm once more. He was right. I wasn't the only man worried about his family right now. By joining in the fight I could protect countless millions of children and innocents, not just mine.

"Look for Bridget and Adrian. Here's an image of them." I tossed a photograph of the two of them to the guard, who bowed and accepted it. Then I rummaged around in my bag of holding and pulled out a Dragon Lodge cloak, which I threw over my usual outfit. Then I took to the skies and bypassed the shields the same way I'd entered.

Once in the void, I surveyed the battlefield. The B-Grades were slowly taking down the Demon Moon. From the energy fluctuations I sensed in the distance, Ted was engaged in another fight. Perhaps Galbatorix was there too. The pressure I felt was much like what I'd sensed while Jade and Seraphyne were fighting the mature void leviathan.

I turned my attention to a closer battlefield. A group of beleaguered C-Grades were on the verge of falling apart as their defensive line collapsed. The other B-Grades likely didn't have the experience to see what I could, but I knew a decisive moment in a battle when I saw it. If this line of C-Grades fell, the void monsters would be able to wrap around and flank several other groups of defenders, which would cause the whole line to collapse.

At the rate we were getting reinforcements, we'd probably still win regardless. But the losses would be massive unless I acted here and now. How many children like Adrian would lose their mothers and fathers unless I saved them?

I struck the horde of void monsters with all my magical might. A flash of Eldritch Blight wounded hundreds of C-Grade monsters at once. Then, I used Mana Arsenal to shape a thousand Mana Bolts into the Dragon Lodge's signature Dragon Bolt spell. The spells flew forward and smashed into a cluster of particularly ferocious void monsters, dealing critical strikes and slaughtering entire swaths of the enemy. In a few decisive moves, that flank had gone from decisively losing to decisively winning.

Our enemies were the teeming masses of voidlings, most of whom were streaming off the Demon Moon, ranging from tiny E-Grade creatures to huge B-Grade ones. Some were wriggling eels covered in chitin. Others were more like tendril-covered clumps that would wrap up and devour anyone who got too close to them. Poison and afflictions much like my corrupting marks were running rampant through allied lines.

"Praise the System! Thank you, wizard!" shouted one of the beleaguered Glacian infantrymen. Others probably would have shouted similar words of praise, but air was incredibly thin up here this far from the planet and every breath was precious for C-Grades. Most of them had to rely on regular trips to the transport ships that brought them to orbit behind them.

I repeated the feat a dozen more times, shaping each front in this three dimensional battle. As more reinforcements poured in from other worlds, we went from winning a brutal war of attrition to winning decisively. This attack had been entirely unexpected, and local forces had been caught off guard, but we had the strength to face down this army of creatures from the void.

The only real threat now was the Demon Moon and whatever A-Grade battle was keeping Ted and the Dragon Lodge's leaders away. Empowered by the stat boost of Soulchain Nexus harvesting power from several thousand weaker foes, I flew toward the center of the battlefield to help the other B-Grades in defeating the Demon Moon once and for all.

Though there were thousands of other B-Grades fighting already, few were at the very peak of B-Grade like I was. And fewer still had the number of buffs and titles to fight far beyond their level like I could.

The trouble now seemed to be a lack of anyone who could deal enough damage to take this Demon Moon out. Despite being A-Grade, its main threat was that laser-like beam it could shoot out to destroy planets. It was a terrifying foe since it could destroy entire worlds, but once you were off world and fighting it up close and personal it was much more vulnerable. The B-Grades of Glacia could certainly take this thing down eventually, even without A-Grade assistance.

But could they take it down before it broke through the planet's shields and did unspeakable damage to the planet's surface?

Not everyone had a family safely tucked away in the Mucaria mystic realm. I wouldn't allow this monster to scour a beautiful world of life.

I unleashed my spells and joined the B-Grades in fighting, but soon realized my mana bolts, Sunlight Spears, Void Cannons, and anything else I could think to hurl at the Demon Moon were nothing more than pinpricks. I needed something bigger. Luckily, I came prepared for that too.

I unhitched the bag on my back. I'd wanted to show Adrian when I came to check in on him, but this would be a fine test too.

"Doomblade Mark Two, activate!" I said, issuing the vocal command. It didn't go very far thanks to being in space, but I had a little air in me to work with. I made a note to include a non-verbal activation command in the future for any other encounters in space.

My backpack unfolded at my command, and it soon expanded to something the size of a car. I slid inside as it continued to unfold. The B-Grades around me glanced over in interest, but weren't able to spare much attention to stare with the ongoing battle.

After entering the suit, it continued to unfold and expand until it was the size of a building, then it grew larger still. Soon, it looked like an enormous version of Doomblade, complete with giant sword. I adjusted myself at the controls deep within the armored mech suit. The controls were partially mechanical, partly cognitive. Ideally anyone would be able to use this thing, but it would take a lot of practice for anyone other than me.

I went for my sword and then went on the offensive. I threw myself at the Demon Moon's central eye just as it charged another energy beam and drove myself through the fleshy white membrane like a skewer through a piece of meat. Compared to the massive monster, I was still hardly the size of a flea, but that was still many times larger than the bacterium I'd been before compared to the moon.

My sword sank to the hilt deep within the eye, and I followed it. Once seated within the bloody gash, I twisted, spun, and shredded everything around me in a spiraling twist of my sword.

All the attacks before were things the A-Grade Demon Moon could ignore while it focused on boring a hole through the shield and destroying Glacia, but my attacks in the giant mech suit were impossible to miss. With its central eye destroyed, it couldn't fire its energy beams anymore.

Bits of chalky white flesh peeled from the walls before moving like sapient piles of ooze that tried to lunge at me. The entire area liquified so my sword became useless, but I was prepared for that too. While I never considered fire magic my specialty, I knew how to turn up the temperature. This suit was powered by an ancient zero point module from the golden age of the Architects, and now I dumped that energy into the fleshy mass around me.

The white goop around me cooked like egg whites and rapidly returned to its earlier solid state. From there, my sword made quick work of it. Pretty soon, the Demon Moon was breathing its last.

Emergency Quest Completed!

Thank you for aiding in the defense of Glacia. Due to your immense contributions, you have won great battle merit that can be redeemed with the Glacian imperial forces.

Quest Draft Completed!

Thank you for aiding in the defense of the Dragon Lodge. Your immense contributions have been a great credit to the Lodge. Your battle merit can be redeemed for rewards at any Dragon Lodge obelisk.

System Regional Quest Completed!

You have successfully fended off a void incursion. You have been granted bonus experience points for every enemy slain.

Your new levels will be held in abeyance until you reach the A-Grade.

All my quests went off at once, and I was pleased to note that I'd essentially pulled triple-duty with them, since each kill counted for all three.

I burst from the dead moon that was already in the process of transforming. Several people pointed at me and raised their arms in celebration. I did the same. It was a bit eerie to watch the silent cheers in the void, but from all the people waving and pointing back toward Glacia I figured the post victory celebration was going to happen there.

Another time I might have been tempted to join them, but now that I'd done my part I hoped the Dragon Lodge had done theirs. At the very least, I wanted them to open up the pocket realm again so I could see Adrian and Bridget.

I rushed to the location and was pleased to see the wizard I'd spoken with previously standing guard and waiting for me. I went directly to him and landed.

"Find any news?" I asked anxiously.

"Yes, your wife is safe in Mucaria," the wizard said, sounding somewhat evasive.

"But? What else?" I insisted. That nervous feeling I'd gotten ever since I'd thought of Adrian intensified.

"She's still looking for your son. Apparently he was on some unauthorized field trip and was outside the Mystic realm at the time of the void invasion. His whereabouts are unknown."

My eyes went wide and my heart skipped a beat. Adrian... was missing?